Switching to Swiss: Weekend

Showing posts with label Weekend. Show all posts

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Course de L'Escalade

After finishing a 5K back in May, I've been itching to do another one. Last month, P signed me up for the Course de l'Escalade. Once I had the proof of registration in my hands, I knew it would be a bad idea. But I had to suck it up and do it, and now that it's over, I'm so happy I did.

As much as I 'd like to say that I trained for the event, my "training"really only involved me running with a dog that likes to stop every two minutes to smell something. Not really that effective.

The course. I ran the dark blue one, which is twice around.

If I'm lucky enough to still be in Geneva next year, I will definitely do the run again. And hopefully I'll get to run it with some of my friends!

Me after my run with my goodie bag!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

My Weekend: Oktoberfest

This past weekend, I met up with my Canadian friend K (yes, the same K I went to Interlaken with) in Munich. She has been touring around Italy since we last saw each other, and unfortunately, this weekend was the last time I'll see her in Europe. She heads home mid-October after almost 4 months in Europe. I will miss my travel buddy terribly, but will see her again at Christmas!

Anyway, back to the story. Back when I first arrived in Switzerland, K mentioned the idea of Oktoberfest. Since it is an incredibly popular festival and a frequent item on peoples' bucket lists, we decided to book ASAP. Good thing we did. The hostel had very few rooms left. After booking the hostel, I booked my flights and we were all set!

Friday night, I got a ride from P to the airport after he generously offered to take E to football practice and me to catch my flight. From the start I knew my journey to Germany would be less than worry free. It all started with the check-in desk attendant questioning the size of my carry on luggage. She was trying to convince me to check it, but I managed to prove to her that it would fit in the compartment by shoving it into the little measuring doo-hickey they had. It took some effort, but in the end I got a nod from the attendant. And I walked away with my head held high. Until I check my first flight. It ended up being delayed half an hour. I managed to catch my connecting flight in Zurich in time thanks to the wonderful Swiss Air on-board staff.

Despite the cost of flying with Swiss Air, the services are worth your money. Once we had been delayed, they were quick to send me an SMS letting me know (although I was already at the airport, but that's beside the point). Then they presented us with amazing Swiss chocolate and a complimentary beverage. After that, they ensured we all knew where to go for our connecting flights. I know a lot of other airlines do the same, but the fact that it all came with chocolate just made my night.

My connecting flight was with Lufthansa and as I boarded, I was greeted with a Toblerone. Yes! I love Switzerland. The flight was quick, and soon I was landing in Munich. Unfortunately, the Munich airport is not as centrally located as the Genevan airport, so I had to take a 40 minute train ride. And that 40 minute train ride turned into a 50 minute train ride because of some German issue (the announcements were in German, so I had no idea what was wrong. But it sounded like a very German problem).

At 11:30pm, I finally met up with K at the train station Starbucks. It was so great to see her again!

Now for those who have never been to Oktoberfest, I feel like you must be warned. Don't expect people in lederhosen to just be hanging around the fair grounds. No, they're everywhere. The train station, the grocery store, and the local mall. They're also passed out everywhere. No matter what time of the day, expect there to be someone out stone cold on the sidewalk with a half-empty bottle of beer still in his or her hand. Oh, Germany.

Anyway...

Our hostel (Euro Youth Hostel) was just around the corner from the station, and was (for lack of another word) popping. We quickly checked in and decided to spend the night in at the hostel bar. We met some cool people from Ottawa, Jersey and California, and some very strange people as well. But it's Oktoberfest right?

We called it a night around 2am since we planned on an early morning to get a spot in a beer tent. In hindsight, it probably would've been a good idea to set an alarm. So we got up around 10:30am and slowly got ready. We stopped at the local supermarket and got ourselves breakfast for €2,50 (altogether!). Those of you who live in/near Switzerland, you know that this is so much less than what we would've paid in Geneva. I was blown away.

By the time we finished our breakfast and made our way to the Oktoberfest grounds, it was just past noon. We figured it was still early enough that we could wander the grounds then get a spot in a tent. Boy were we wrong!

Here's how Oktoberfest beer tents work:

If you check the Oktoberfest website, it says no reservations can be made. But when you get to the tents, they're all reserved.
You're told that you can sit in the beer gardens surrounding the tents. They're full.
To get a spot in the beer gardens, you are told to go to one of the many entrances, but when you get to it, you're told it's an exit only, so you have to go to *that* one. And when you get to *that* one? It's exit only.
So now you need to stand in a hoard of people and wait for a server to come and pick you. And what do these servers want? Big groups of guys who can drink a lot. What was I? One of a pair of girls. Didn't go well.

After standing in the hoard for 90 minutes, K and I decided to give up. We purchased our souvenirs then decided to walk around Munich and find another beer garden. Thankfully we did. The trip got infinitely better the second we left the festival grounds. I got my stein(s) of beer and we met some really cool people.

Munich is a great city and I can't wait to go back when there aren't thousands of drunk tourists falling all over the place. I am happy to say I *ticked* Oktoberfest off my bucket list, but I don't plan on going back. Great experience, but definitely not one that I can't find somewhere else. You live, you learn.

How was your weekend???

The first stein!

All done!

Some more? Why not?

Loving life

Main brewery's beer hall

Government buildings at night

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Week During Which I Had a Horseshoe Stuck Up My ...

Geneva has been a dream. Since I arrived here just over 3 weeks ago, everything has been surreal. The scenery, the people, the weather, and the opportunities. I have found it: the place I was meant to be!

Then this past week brought upon me a series of fortunate events which has cemented my belief that Switzerland is the place for me. So let's go back in time to Saturday, August 27th, when the story begins to unfold.

Saturday morning we got up early to drive to Leysin, a beautiful (and very Swiss) town up on a mountain close to Montreux, to pick up E from his football camp. We left Geneva around 8:30am, and after searching through the very steep, narrow, and winding streets, we found E around 10:30am playing a game with his team. To give you an idea of how beautiful it was, even with the rain, here are some picture of our drive up (and back down).

Leysin

That's P on his bike riding back home (4-5 hour bike ride...in the rain!)

Once we got home, it was time for me to pack my things and head over to my new friend Lu's hotel. We had some dinner, watched French MTV and got ready to go out. We didn't have much of a plan, so we dressed casual dressy. We decided to first to go a bar in the main square of the Vieille Ville called La Clemence. It was very busy, but luckily we got the last patio table. We each had a drink, and then decided to go visit another expat that worked nearby at Spring Brothers Irish Pub. Were we ever glad we went there.

The night became a blur of free drinks, good music, and a group of guys that wanted to take us to a discotheque. We decided to go with them and were suddenly crossing the river and going onto the right bank (aka, where all the posh hotels and clubs are). We walked along the bank of Lake Geneva and suddenly stopped outside the Grand Hotel Kempinski then headed down the stairs. We found at the entrance of the very exclusive club, Java Club. Lu and I look at each other with our eyes bulging and our jaws to the floor.

How are we ever going to get in? We're dressed so casual and there are girls that look like supermodels prancing about.

But somehow we did.

And what a club it was. The walls were lined with Dom Perignon and all the VIP areas (like the one we went to) had giant bottles of Belvedere (which we learned cost roughly 4000 SFr). Gobsmacked was what I was that night. We danced and partied until about 4:30am when we decided to call it a night. We power walked through downtown Geneva and were just about the only ones around.

This is the big shopping street which is normally crowded. A very strange sight to see.

Unfortunately, our luck didn't last the remainder of the night. When we arrived back at Lu's hotel, the manager picked us out right away and said that there'd be an extra fee if I stayed since the room was only booked for only one person. This totally ruined our plans. So I reassured him that I was just waiting for a bus, and would collect my things and be gone by 7am. He was fine with that.

Lu and I went upstairs where we immediately fell asleep. Luckily I woke up around 6:30am, packed up my things and began my trip back home. An hour and a half later, I made it home and fell into my bed, and slept until 1pm. I was a little off on my sleep for the next few days, but it was well worth.

The next few days were back to normal. Then on Wednesday, my Canadian friend K came to town! We met up in Plainpalais that night with all the other au pair/nanny friends I've made. We had a low key night, and made plans for the weekend. K and I would be going to Interlaken Saturday morning, but that wouldn't stop us from going out on Friday evening!

On Friday, K joined me for some of my daily au pair tasks. We had lunch, walked the dog, and went to pick up E from school. From there, we drove to his football practice (I apologize again, K; my nerves got the best of me, haha). Once home, we grabbed my stuff and ran out the door. We got to Lu's new apartment for around 8pm, where Lo, another au pair friend, joined us. We all had amazing fajitas that Lu made and then got dressed up to go out.

We headed back to our stomping ground at Spring Brothers Irish Pub for another night of free drinks. We then met some bankers who told us that Java club was nothing...where we had to go was Gold & Platinum and they'd take us there. So once again, we found ourselves at an exclusive club. We went in a separate entrance from the "regular" folks where two bottles of Belvedere and Red Bull were waiting for us at our private table. The VIP section that we were in, was behind the Dj's booth, so we got to look out onto the dance floor. To give you an idea of the club, here are some of the pictures I took:

Our area in the VIP section

Our view of the club

Around 4:30am, we decided we'd had enough, so we headed back to Lu's apartment. We stumbled in and crashed on the sofa bed. A few hours later, it was time for K and me to get up and catch a train. We fumbled for our stuff and headed over to K's hostel she she could check out. We then caught the 10am train to Interlaken. It was not my best train ride. After a night of partying, my stomach wasn't too pleased with the bumping and the stopping and going. But we made it.

Getting off in Interlaken Ost at 1pm, we followed the directions from Funny Farm's website to their hostel. What they neglected to include in the instructions was that if you were hungover and carrying heavy bags, just take a cab. Fifteen long minutes later, we arrived at the hostel and collapsed at the front desk, hoping to check in and take a nap. Turns out that wasn't going to happen. We couldn't check in until 3pm. Our jaws, and our spirits, dropped.

Needing to kill some time before we could nap, we headed over to the adventure desk to book our paragliding for the following day. However, they informed us that they were expecting poor weather for Sunday and they recommended we go that day. We asked what the latest time could be, and unfortunately, it was 3pm. Hmmm...nap, or jump off a mountain? What do you think we picked?

I'm not hanging in front of a screen. This is legit!

We picked paragliding. And what an amazing choice that was! Our "pilots" were former Swiss National Team skiiers and they were hilarious. My pilot was Lukas "Luki" Karlen, and he spent most of the time trying to crash into the trees to scare me. At the end of the flight, he asked if I wanted to do a "rollercoaster". Being the "ride warrior" that I am, I immediately said yes, not at all considering the state of my stomach. So off we went on a whirlwind of ups and downs and twists and turns. The entire time my stomach said "STOP!", but the rest of me said "GO GO GO!" I managed to keep a smile on my face the entire time since he was videotaping it, so enjoy the video. And see if you can see me cringe a couple times.

From paragliding, we power walked back to the hostel for some well deserved sleep. However, these carefully laid plans were quickly interrupted. A couple Dutch guys who were staying in our rooms decided to come in and talk as loudly as possible while stomping around for about an hour. Then when we thought they had finally stopped, they started again. However, K and I finally did get a couple hours nap and then woke up to explore the hostel. We went down to the lobby and realized that we couldn't even consider the possibility of ordering a drink from the Lounge or the Club downstairs, so we spent the rest of the night emailing, facebooking and planning the next day.

What we learned while paragliding was that Unspunnenfest was happening that weekend. This festival happens just once every five years in Interlaken, and features Switzerland's best rock throwers, wrestlers and yodellers. Can you believe our luck? We couldn't actually get into the stadium where the events were happening, so we picked an entrance and watch from there. Now remember the whole "horseshoe" theory? Well we happened to pick the entrance through which all the wrestlers left, the bell parade entered, and so did the Head of Federal Department of Justice and Police. On a horse-drawn carriage entered Simonetta Sommaruga with her family. Want some proof?

Simonetta Sommaruga

For the remainder of the day, K and I wandered about the festival, enjoyed Bratwurst, Raclette (in Swiss German it's called something else that I can't remember) and of course beer. But the day would not be complete without a cow race down the main street of Interlaken. Enjoy the pictures of everything we stumbled upon. It was quite a show.

And now I am safe at home after a whirlwind of a week. With another night out tomorrow night (since Thursday is Jeune Genevois, a holiday) and then another weekend following shortly after, who knows where une jeune fille au pair might find herself.