Wednesday, August 19, 2009
School's Back for the School year (sung to the School's Out tune)
A fun last day of summer in 37C (98.6˚) weather! Fun being silly with the girls one last time before school starts! And for 5 and 7 year olds working the video camera, it isn't so bad! LOVE water proof video cameras!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
July: Whew!
In 31 days 14 were spent utilizing my sleeping bag! I kicked off with the celebration of Le Toree in la Chaux-du-Fonds, Switzerland. I'm not really sure what it celebrates but it is a well known weekend of fun in the Couch Surfing community, with scavenger hunt, bar-b-que, camping, swimming in Lake Neuchatel and meeting people from all over the world. There were 42 people camping that evening from 12 different countries! Alpin horn players showed up, MJ tributes were danced to, and many new friends were made! It was SO SO much fun. I also made a great new friend, Renee from French Canada.
Renee and I spent the following weekend at the Montreux Jazz Festival. We didn't actually hear any jazz, but lots of great music, beautiful lake views, the Alps and the Chateu, and lots of fun dancing and eating! Unfortunately we weren't able to find accommodation that weekend; all the couches were taken and there was no space at the hostels, but we went anyway and improvised. We danced all night long and then slept in a field where there had been shows the prior day! It was quite the site when we woke up at 8 and they had cleaned the entire field, raking around us! Most of the great music you had to pay for (Prince, Dave Matthews, BB King) but there was a few good free shows and a really good group of local guys that wheeled a piano to the sidewalk by the lake and chilled on a couch with a guitar, drum and plenty of beer, jamming out all day!
The following weekend I flew to Helsinki! Helsinki has won me over! It is my favorite city in Europe; I can't explain exactly what it is about the city that made me love it so much, but I just felt so comfortable there. Tons of young people wearing hemp neclaces and Birkenstocks, lots of groups jamming out in parks and there was great live music at numerous bars everynight of the week! When I arrived, my host lead me to a concert with 3 Mexicans, 2 half Finn/American, a Dane, a Dutch and a bunch of life size puppets! It was quite a show and man we danced! I cruised the city, seeing the incredibly different churches (some were so Russian!), took boat throught the islands, and a little bit of shopping. My host and I, and some of his friends, took a ferry to a really small island where we BBQed, played frisbee and walked all the way around it.
After 5 days in Helsinki I took a ship to Stockholm. The ship was quite the experience for me, considering the largest boat I had been on was for snorkeling! While on the ship I had great views of all of Helsinki (and Stockholm when I arrived there). At night, from the north side of the boat, it never got completely dark; from the south side the only thing you could see was a bunch of lights from other ships. Taking these ships is a very common weekend vacation for Finns and Swedes. The ship was huge (I thought) with many restaurants, a few bars, a casino, huge duty-free shop, and tons and tons of rooms, but when I saw it docked next to other ships, I realized it is the smallest (and cheapest) boat that does that route! I didn't get a cabin on board (it was much cheaper) so I stayed up, hanging out in a lounge with some live music and a new friend from Finland, and then I discovered the "sleep in" room, an unused conference room for people without cabins to sleep on the floor.
When I awoke the ship was squeezing between the islands of the Swedish archipelagos. The islands nearest the city have beautiful houses/palaces that have been preserved...which I ended up taking a bike to and riding around later in the day. Stockholm is the most beautiful city that I have been to in Europe! Every building is beautiful and there is the water which adds an enchanting feel and beautiful reflections. I spend 2 days with my host in the city. While he worked I went on bike rides, took a boat through the archipelago, and admired the beauty of the city. I learned to cool a real Swedish dinner-herring stuffed with "Swedish caviar" (caviar mixed with mayo and tomato in a metal tube!) and baked with a bit of butter, salt and rosemary. It seemed a bit odd but I gave it a try and it was delicious! The second 2 days in Sweden we went backpacking along a lake where there were Viking ruins! It was so cool! The best one was a "burial" ground, although they don't bury their dead, they burn them. They built a "ship" out of boulders (a circle the same shape and size of a ship) and in the middle they bury the ashes of the recently deceased. The ship then carries them down the River of Death. I thought it was pretty cool! There were also caves and sites of Viking towns. We also went to a Viking museum at the end of the hike. We hikes 49km (30.4mi.) in 2 days and when the hike was over I went directly to the airport to fly back to Basel! We had a great camp site on a cliff overlooking the lake. It was a great, quick, Swedish experience. The only thing that I didn't like was that it didn't get dark till about 11:30pm and was only dark until abut 4am. I didn't get much sleep at all!
The day after I returned we celebrated Käte's birthday with a trip to EuropaPark, the huge theme amusement park in Germany. Each area of the park is a different European country with that nation's famous sights, food and music. Eg, France has an Eiffel Tower ride, Italy has gondolas to ride in, Portugal has beaches and wave pools, Greece has Pegasus roller coaster, Scandinavia has seafood restaurants... It was a fun and exhausting day, but I'm sure Käte enjoyed herself! We also went the following day to the Van Gogh exhibit at the Basel Art Museum; it was fantastic! It was an exhibit of his landscape artwork throughout his life.
And as if this wasn't a great enough month, it departed with the Swiss National Day Eve events. One more thing that the Swiss do well is they give the 1st of August off for the holiday, so all of the night events are on the 31st so that you can recover on the 1st!! I did a Basel Couch Surfing event with swimming the Rhine, BBQ and watching the fireworks from one of the bridges. Myself and a few friends continued to enjoy ourselves all night at our favorite summer bar at the old train yard!
With all that said, I'm not sure I'll have the energy to do anything in August! HAHA! Just Kidding!!! There are plans for August but plans change so I'll just see where the wind blows! The weather is warm, sun is shining, drinks are toasting and with every night there is another day for adventure!
Renee and I spent the following weekend at the Montreux Jazz Festival. We didn't actually hear any jazz, but lots of great music, beautiful lake views, the Alps and the Chateu, and lots of fun dancing and eating! Unfortunately we weren't able to find accommodation that weekend; all the couches were taken and there was no space at the hostels, but we went anyway and improvised. We danced all night long and then slept in a field where there had been shows the prior day! It was quite the site when we woke up at 8 and they had cleaned the entire field, raking around us! Most of the great music you had to pay for (Prince, Dave Matthews, BB King) but there was a few good free shows and a really good group of local guys that wheeled a piano to the sidewalk by the lake and chilled on a couch with a guitar, drum and plenty of beer, jamming out all day!
The following weekend I flew to Helsinki! Helsinki has won me over! It is my favorite city in Europe; I can't explain exactly what it is about the city that made me love it so much, but I just felt so comfortable there. Tons of young people wearing hemp neclaces and Birkenstocks, lots of groups jamming out in parks and there was great live music at numerous bars everynight of the week! When I arrived, my host lead me to a concert with 3 Mexicans, 2 half Finn/American, a Dane, a Dutch and a bunch of life size puppets! It was quite a show and man we danced! I cruised the city, seeing the incredibly different churches (some were so Russian!), took boat throught the islands, and a little bit of shopping. My host and I, and some of his friends, took a ferry to a really small island where we BBQed, played frisbee and walked all the way around it.
After 5 days in Helsinki I took a ship to Stockholm. The ship was quite the experience for me, considering the largest boat I had been on was for snorkeling! While on the ship I had great views of all of Helsinki (and Stockholm when I arrived there). At night, from the north side of the boat, it never got completely dark; from the south side the only thing you could see was a bunch of lights from other ships. Taking these ships is a very common weekend vacation for Finns and Swedes. The ship was huge (I thought) with many restaurants, a few bars, a casino, huge duty-free shop, and tons and tons of rooms, but when I saw it docked next to other ships, I realized it is the smallest (and cheapest) boat that does that route! I didn't get a cabin on board (it was much cheaper) so I stayed up, hanging out in a lounge with some live music and a new friend from Finland, and then I discovered the "sleep in" room, an unused conference room for people without cabins to sleep on the floor.
When I awoke the ship was squeezing between the islands of the Swedish archipelagos. The islands nearest the city have beautiful houses/palaces that have been preserved...which I ended up taking a bike to and riding around later in the day. Stockholm is the most beautiful city that I have been to in Europe! Every building is beautiful and there is the water which adds an enchanting feel and beautiful reflections. I spend 2 days with my host in the city. While he worked I went on bike rides, took a boat through the archipelago, and admired the beauty of the city. I learned to cool a real Swedish dinner-herring stuffed with "Swedish caviar" (caviar mixed with mayo and tomato in a metal tube!) and baked with a bit of butter, salt and rosemary. It seemed a bit odd but I gave it a try and it was delicious! The second 2 days in Sweden we went backpacking along a lake where there were Viking ruins! It was so cool! The best one was a "burial" ground, although they don't bury their dead, they burn them. They built a "ship" out of boulders (a circle the same shape and size of a ship) and in the middle they bury the ashes of the recently deceased. The ship then carries them down the River of Death. I thought it was pretty cool! There were also caves and sites of Viking towns. We also went to a Viking museum at the end of the hike. We hikes 49km (30.4mi.) in 2 days and when the hike was over I went directly to the airport to fly back to Basel! We had a great camp site on a cliff overlooking the lake. It was a great, quick, Swedish experience. The only thing that I didn't like was that it didn't get dark till about 11:30pm and was only dark until abut 4am. I didn't get much sleep at all!
The day after I returned we celebrated Käte's birthday with a trip to EuropaPark, the huge theme amusement park in Germany. Each area of the park is a different European country with that nation's famous sights, food and music. Eg, France has an Eiffel Tower ride, Italy has gondolas to ride in, Portugal has beaches and wave pools, Greece has Pegasus roller coaster, Scandinavia has seafood restaurants... It was a fun and exhausting day, but I'm sure Käte enjoyed herself! We also went the following day to the Van Gogh exhibit at the Basel Art Museum; it was fantastic! It was an exhibit of his landscape artwork throughout his life.
And as if this wasn't a great enough month, it departed with the Swiss National Day Eve events. One more thing that the Swiss do well is they give the 1st of August off for the holiday, so all of the night events are on the 31st so that you can recover on the 1st!! I did a Basel Couch Surfing event with swimming the Rhine, BBQ and watching the fireworks from one of the bridges. Myself and a few friends continued to enjoy ourselves all night at our favorite summer bar at the old train yard!
With all that said, I'm not sure I'll have the energy to do anything in August! HAHA! Just Kidding!!! There are plans for August but plans change so I'll just see where the wind blows! The weather is warm, sun is shining, drinks are toasting and with every night there is another day for adventure!
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