Of Gelato and Espresso

Took a 4 hour train on wednesday night after work to Milano...it was a terrible, terrible idea to bring cheese and meat and bread for dinner on the train...terrible. Got into Milan around 11 at night, stumbled around for an hour before we found the hostel. Got up the next morning and had my first real cappuccino, and it certaintly did not disappoint. Perhaps, there is not a better breakfast than a cappuccino and a warm chocolate pastry. The main goal for the day was to see the duomo or cathedral of milan, just huge and intricate and layered with stone spires. The walk through the city though, was enjoyable - italy is definitely not as clean as switzerland is though, there cars parked everywhere, it's loud and bustling, especially in milan. the cathedral was very impressive, also climbed to the top as well, and the view was certainly one to remember. of course, milan is the famous for the shopping and the fashion, so some window shopping was in order. if i had the money, i would surely have picked up some italian leather shoes, but alas, another time. the main shopping street, via buenos aires, was full of all those typical stores, all the dolce and gabbana and the like. also, there was soooo much fake stuff being sold on the streets, with the putting of the sunglasses on the cloth so that when the police come they pick up the whole thing and run. i think milan is one of those cities that sure, you'd like to visit sometime, but probably don't need more than a day there.

that evening we took the train to torino, about an hour and a half or so away for milan. supposedly the olympics were there in 2006, but in three days there in the middle of the city i found no evidence at all of them ever being there, which is weird since calgary still plays it up all the time. the train there was almost unbearable - i think i forgot to mention, every day i was in italy it was at least +30 C and incredibly humid, pretty much just too hot and i was sweating like crazy, although i guess that isn't too much to complain about. so the train ride was definitely one of the more uncomfortable sitations i've been in for a while, but nonetheless part of the experience. torino is much much more relaxed and laid back than milan, and probably more like what i had thought italy would be like. the buildings were amazing, the streets beautiful, it seemed like around every corner there was something new to look at. from the train station it was about a 2o minute walk down a main street to the hostel, which was incredibly situated on the top floor of a building on piazza san carlo, one of the bigger plazas in torino. that was definitely a good find on the internet. for dinner that night, we went out to a fairly nice restaurant and got some pizza, and it was absolutely delicious. i personally went for the buffalo mozzarella and tomato and was not disappointed. pretty hard to put into words, but i think it will be difficult to find anything similar to that outside of italy. the wine with dinner was also very good, and pretty cheap for something of similar quality at home. i could get used to this kind of dinner all the time. after dinner was a walk around torino, which at one time was the capital for the house of savoy, and so there is a massive palace there. then of course, came time for the gelato. i'm pretty sure between coffee and gelato i could survive for weeks.

the next morning was a trip to the cathedral of torino, where there is a museum that shows how the church had been originally three churches, a crypt, a graveyard, old roman houses - it's incredible to see and touch things that have been there for thousands of years. there was a very nice lady there who gave us a guided tour as well, which was appreciated. this particular church is important, because it is where the shroud of turin is kept, although you don't actually get to see it, there is a replica and such and you get to see the box that it's in. basically the king of savoy managed to acquire it through a series of events involving the crusades etc, and now it is in torino. walking on the streets after the church, there was a pretty big open air market with all sorts of great stalls, especially for someone like me who love food; olives, sun-dried tomatoes, bread, cheese, vegetables, it was just incredible. those are the kinds of places that i wish i could buy food in. for lunch we picked up some bread, cheese, proscuitto, wine and strawberries - it may have been one of the best lunches i've ever had. pretty cheap too, compared to switzerland anyways.

torino is on the Po river, so luke and i ventured down and had a beer by the river - on a +30 day, it was more appreciated than usual. later in the night there are a bunch of tents along the river that turn into bars/clubs and the whole place gets loud and busy. the rest of the time in torino, there was a really cool egyptian museum with a bunch of stuff, that again the royal family had collected and is now a museum. there were a lot of displays, and almost overwhelming because it's so hard to wrap your head around even just a few thousand years of history. also had the best kebab ever, with fresh made bread and actual doner meat.

the people are all always very well dressed, men in suits and shoes even in +30 weather, the women get dressed up and ride their bikes everywhere, i think it's true that they just love life and love living it, eating and drinking, staying out late, going for walks, cruising on motorbikes, i think that's what i remember the most of anyways. i am looking forward to travelling much more in italy, every day i was there i had coffee and gelato, and i think i miss it already. one last thing, torino is famous for something called gianduia, which is hazelnuts and chocolate.....so essentially this is the birthplace of nutella - so of course the gianduia gelato, with fresh hazelnuts in it was the greatest thing ever.

canyoning and such

canyoning was really fun, i going to find something like that to do when i get home in the rockies. essentially they put you in a wetsuit and you walk down a river, jumping off waterfalls, slide down ropes etc. good times
i also loved interlaken, it's a swiss mountain village kinda like jasper or canmore or something like that, where the swiss alps are. the eiger is right there as well, i'm definitely going back there to do some hiking or camping or something like that. there were also lots of paragliders and skydiving and things of that nature to do there as well.

not too much else has been happening, just lots of walks around town, taking more pictures, which will be up soon hopefully. went out to the schwimmbad again today for some swimming and laying in the sun and volleyball - got really sunburned though, my face hurts and it kinda hurts to lift my arms...i will be using sunscreen from now on.

it's a national holiday on thursday this week, so i'm taking friday off and planning some sort of trip for the weekend, we'll see where i end up going...

next few days

i'm kind of settling in a bit more now, i'll have been here for a week in the morning. just went out to get groceries, it was pretty good across the border in germany, 25 euros/35 swiss francs/40 cad for a full backpacking bag of food, a lot better than it is here in baden anyways. work is going well, i think i'll enjoy working on the project, it will definitely be a bit challenging but i'm up for some work. they have these 1.5 L water bottles at work instead of a water cooler, so i have been polishing those off like no tomorrow. it's pretty casual, you can where what you want, there lots of young people working there, it's like the U.N. - people from all over the world. all day i hear italian, french, german, english, russian, pretty much anything you can think of. but the work is just to pay the bills, what i'm really looking forward to is canyoning this weekend at interlaken. i've never gone before, but from my understanding canyoning is basically using any means necessary to get down a canyon i.e. rappelling, swimming, jumping off waterfalls, climbing. i'm a bit nervous but excited for sure. i'll try to keep updating more often but it seems like there's something to do after work everyday! time also seems to be short when you have a place to take care of, i.e. worrying about food, cleaning, garbage and recycling, etc.

anyhow i'm feeling much better now, need to get some more rest!

First Few Days

Arriving here on thursday morning slept for a bit and then went out to buy groceries - they're pretty expensive but not completely unreasonable, though i am looking forward to going to germany for food. friday, i went out and wandered around baden for essentially the whole day, did all my paperwork and opened a swiss bank account. that night we all went out to zurich, but getting home was just a mess. luke and i didn't have the right train tickets, then went and tried to get some from the machine, then missed the train by 10 seconds, then had to wait for another hour until 2 in the morning. at which point, when we got on the train, they checked our tickets and it turned out that we still didn't have the right ticket, but the lady let us off easy, probably cause we looked so sad and tired.

saturday, we all went out to the schwimmbad, which is a super cool park/pool place a 15 minute walk from the house. there are some big fields for lounging/playing sports, volleyball courts, a wave pool, a swimming pool and diving towers, and the best part, a metal waterslide. let's just say that there may or may not have been one or more waterslide accidents. after the swimming we played ultimate for awhile which got kinda intense.

after the schwimmbad we walked home, i decided to go through the forest - there's an awesome running trail that has stations every 500 meters or so where there is exercise equipment set up - i.e. chin up bars, box jumps etc. which i'm going to try in the next little while here. there are also so really cool old war bunkers hidden in the hills that are literally invisible from the air. on the way home though, it started raining pretty hard. the route that we took led to my friends' apartments, so i ended up walking for ten minutes home in just pouring rain...it was really nice though, i was soaked but it was nice and warm.

the next morning we took a train to kandersteg, past interlaken by the swiss alps, rented bikes and went for a bike ride. it was incredible, going through the mountain valleys, full of meadows and flowers, cows with big bells around their necks. villages where the bike path was the road, people hanging out having a sunday picnic...life should be like that. one thing that i have found so amazing, is that there are fountains everywhere, and the water you can drink. basically just a bunch of cool water fountains that you can fill up your water bottle in, it's such a simple idea but it's so incredible, there is nothing like that ever in canada.

after the bike ride we took the train back to berne, where we grabbed some food at the local coop in the train station. another thing, the train stations are pretty much the greatest things that exist, they're big and open, there's everything you could ever need in them - restaurants, cafes, shops, grocery stores on and on. had the typical backpacker dinner, bread, cheese and sketchy meat - but sitting on the corner of an old swiss street and eating that is better than any five star meal i think. walking around berne was really cool because that's the capital city, and the parliament building was just incredible. you can't help but think about how long that has been there. wandering around the city, we ended up by the river, and then on top of a big hill that had an incredible view of the city, as well as a very large chess set, which of course we had to play with. on the way home we missed our train transfer and ended up in basel, and then had to take the extra little while to get home. it was a really good day.

first day of work was quite good, all the people there are really helpful and everything, the job itself seems pretty neat actually, thermo and fluids and heat transfer stuff mostly which i think i'm pretty good at and i like. i am getting sick though, which sucks but was probably a byproduct of having such a good time on the weekend. i'm working in the power tower, whcih is just such a sweet name for a building. it's good times i'm working with bianca and luke, which is interesting because i've gone to school with them but work is such a different environment - the meetings are sure gonna be a good time! anyhow, i've gotta get some rest, i'm sick and tired, just made myself some delicious chicken soup and i'm feeling a bit better. i'm glad i can make myself things like that.

I'm Here!!!

Just arrived here, the flight was terrible, running around 2 airports was tiring. I was also inordinately hungry for some reason. Also, probably never going to take an american airline again, they are just not good. One good thing though, managed to catch the sunrise over the atlantic, which was pretty awesome, sucks that i didn't get a window seat to snag a couple pictures.

my first impression here is that there are a lot of trains.