spain

went to spain, flew to madrid then valencia. early wednesday morning, like 6, took a train to bunol, for the tomato fight. had a beer and a sangria and a sandwich for breakfast. they grease up this 30 foot pole and hang a ham on top of it, and get people to climb up and get the ham before the tomato fight starts, i don't even know. meanwhile, people were getting antsy and began throwing wet balled up t shirts at each other. i'm pretty sure i got hit with one in the chest. the streets were filthy to begin with. then the tomatoes started, these big trucks rolling through, people tossing them off. i got behind one of these trucks, and then it dumped all the tomatoes out. i was quite literally drowning in tomatoes. there were people with massive water hoses spraying the fight, which was so necessary and appreciated. an hour later, everyone is just disgusting. taking the train back to valencia was fun. after one of the greatest showers of my life, we went into town, and to the beach, just chillin out in the mediterranean, no big deal. then ate paella for dinner. then went to sleep, so tired. also a legitimate "hostel" which was actually a hotel room in a best western, for 20 euro a night. also it is hot in spain.

there are these sweet buildings in valencia, the city of arts and sciences, with an aquarium, science center, etc. so the next day we went there. saw dolphins, walruses, sea lions, sharks, other awesome stuff. i realize now, that i had never seen those animals before i'm pretty sure - at the time i didn't really think about it. took the bus, 4 hours to madrid in the afternoon, got there and went about the town late at night, got a kebab, still +30 at midnight, it was good. some beers and some sangria. spanish beer is not very good i've concluded.

next day went to the royal palace, i guess i've never been in a palace before so that was alright. so ridiculous, i wonder what it'd be like to be the king of spain. went to this park, slept in the grass as per usual. ate a spanish omelette sandwich. went to the reina sofia museum, some sick art, i really liked a couple of the exhibits, and then there's a bunch of dali and picasso stuff. went out for tapas, ate a big plate o' octopus. went to see a flamenco dance show, that was cool. got some churros and chocolate. bought a wine bag for like 5 euro.

got up early to try and catch a running of the bulls, but got there just a little too late, but got tickets to the bullfight that night. returned to the city, ate a calamari sandwich. went shopping a bit. stuff is cheap. found a sweet market. it was awesome, seafood, fresh bread and fruit. also spanish people love ham. just ham everywhere, just big ham legs everywhere. found a park to sleep in for the afternoon again. went to this bullfight. it was alright. quite gory, lots of blood. at this point, i was prepared to spend the next 12 hours in transit. so took the madrid metro an hour to the bus station. actually, on the way i passed a stop called santiago bernabeu, and i recognized the name. and then about a million people crammed on the metro and i realized that it was real madrid's season opener. it was cool actually, found out that they beat deportivo 3-2. also ads with cristiano ronaldo were everywhere. missed the 10:30 pm bus by 15 minutes, got a ticket for the 1:00 am one. slept in the bus station - on the floor of course, for a bit. slept on the bus. quite cramped, the AC was blasted too. arrive in valencia at 5:30 am, take a taxi to the airport, get on the 6:30 am flight back to madrid - stupid eh? probably, i would say don't fly with iberia, they're terrible. slept there for a bit, caught the flight back to zurich. took the train back to baden. yep, used pretty much every form of transport possible there.

just chilled on sunday. some pics of spain up now, some old ones i found of the eiger, jungfrau and monch too - somehow there were some of those just hangin out on my computer. back to work now, not too much is goin on. gonna learn to ride a unicycle now, should be fun. should train for the half marathon i've signed up for, septemeber19th - it's like 2 weeks, i'm terrified. going to zermatt this weekend, gonna see the matterhorn! i love mountains.

creux du van hike and a chill weekend

did this hike a couple weekends ago, supposed to be 23k, close to neuchatel which is like 2 hours away from here, in the french part of switzerland. got a little ways in, then there was a detour, which in the end ended up taking two hours, and probably like 6k longer. got some ice cream on the way. by the time we got to this creux du van, this massive canyon/gorge thing that's like 200 m cliffs, it was getting dark. ended up hiking down in the dark with headlamps, it was alright though. supposed to camp in neuchatel overnight, but just terribly exhausted, took the train back home to sleep off the ridiculous hike.

just chilled on sunday, rested the feet, went for a swim, ate ice cream for dinner, it's all good.

liechtenstein

took the train a couple hours to liechtenstein, a small country between austria and switzerland. it was their national day so there was lots of festival stuff going on. the buses were free all day, so we took a bus, the sweatiest bus ride in history, up to the austrian border, then proceeded to run the 12 k back to the swiss border, it was really great actually. me riley and chris made it through the +30 C sun across the rhine which is the border. proceeded to jump in a fountain that probably was not meant to be jumped in, and then went ahead and ate some of the greasy food at this festival. ice cream, pretzels, beer, all spoils of the victory. we were camping for the night in a place a ways down from the city of vaduz, so had to return there to pick up some stuff before heading back into town for the night's festivities. after getting off the bus, immediately joined the dance party that was going down in front of one of the stages set up, rockin out to some cover band that was pretty good. continued on until the night, when there were some great fireworks, some coming off of the prince's castle as well. continued dancing until the morning, then went back to camp.

the next day was a long walk in the sun back to sargans in switzerland, and then the train home. came across some corn on the way, which i will be putting into the massive salad that i will be eating tonight.

street parade and a hike

zurich street parade is a party they have every year the second saturday of august. there was a lot of music. there are trucks that go around the lake playing music with people dancing on them, and obviously there was some dancing that i participated it. good times, it rained, but it made it better, the streets were dirty though, something that never happens in zurich. so basically just a day full of dancing - i don't know if there has been a weekend without dancing to tell you the truth.

sunday was a nice little hike, like 16 k or something from baden to dielsdorf - from across the river here it goes up a little ridge and then following it, it takes you up over to a couple close towns. lots of fruit trees on the way, can't wait till september when all the blackberries, pears and apples are ripe.

potentially the greatest weekend ever

took a trip down to ticino in the south of switzerland, the italian part. went for a bike ride completely downhill, no handlebars for the majority of it, the hands were used for dancing while riding, from airolo to biasca. stopped a few times, in this beautiful valley. just burning hot too. vineyards everywhere. stopped for lunch in this restaurant in the middle of nowhere, but just to use the grill.

checked in to this hostel in lugano, then proceeded to invade and dismantle the swimming pool that was there. cleaned up and went to take this furnicular up mt. san salvatore, got a great view of lake lugano and the area, very nice. after the furnicular, we walked along lake lugano to the middle of town where there was a parade, music, and fireworks for swiss national day, august 1. stopped for dinner in this pizzeria, which was some delicious pizza. smoked salmon and capers and some other stuff on mine, it was great. and apparently free wine too. the big fireworks started shortly after dinner, and they were incredible, probably one of the best shows i've ever seen. took a bunch of photos, hope the work out. continued to essentially start a dance party on a dock on the lake, just happened to find this area where there were dj's playing music. definitely one of the better dance parties i have ever started, that's for sure. set off some fireworks that i had bought the day before. great night.

the next day, woke up to a good breakfast, and a train to tenero, then a short hike to the verzasca dam, apparently the 25th highest dam in the world. then, proceeded to bungee jump off of it, i had the pleasure of going first, and it was great, the best feeling ever, the greatest rush ever. i can't describe the feeling, but everyone should do it. you have to. ate ice cream, took a bus to lavertezzo, it was raining on the way there - 10 minutes later it was bright blue sky and hot sun again. just a beautiful river with smoothed out rocks all in it, and a 12 meter bridge, which we consequently jumped off of into the river. also a great time. i don't get that feeling of the stomach dropping anymore...it's great, i would like to test it out on roller coasters or jumping off more stuff now. also climbed up and down all these rocks along the river, found a big one, and proceeded to sleep on it in the sun. also amazing. the streak of 7 weeks in a row sleeping outside is still alive. i think that on a rock in the middle of a river counts. bus and train back to bellinzona, which had 3 castles in the town. it was awesome, legitimate castles. found this kebab place, where they had them in a wrap but also toasted it on a panini press, soo good, one of the better ones i've had for sure. when you're in ticino it feels like italy, the red and yellow buildings, the hot sun, people speaking italian all around you, just that laid back atmosphere - a few late trains. like a completely different country. palm trees everywhere too. great weekend. just incredible.

i also have started to really hate shoes. far too constricting, hence i walked around barefoot for probably 50% of this weekend. actually i lost one of my flip flops in the mud at gurtenfest so i haven't had flip flops for awhile, i need to go buy some new ones. replacement havianas cause they are awesome.