belgium

flying swiss air is awesome. so comfy, food and wine and beer and chocolate up for grabs on the flight. brussels airport is ridiculous, from the gate to the train track took like 20 minutes of walking up and down through the entire place it seemed. train to brussels north station, kinda got lost in the sketchy part of town, found the hostel, with ineffective ladders to the top bunks. went to eat mussels in brussels. with fries, and beer. awesome mussels, just a big bowl of them. walked around and found a street with many kebab shops. and then i ate a kebab. saw some guy sprint down the sidewalk in full running gear. kinda did a convenience store pub crawl to try a bunch of belgian beer. some good stuff - the standard beer, jupiler, is quite good. kriek is a cherry flavored one, which is actually really delicious and almost shouldn't be allowed cause it is. leffe is pretty strong, 8.4%, an interesting one, definitely couldn't drink a lot of it though. stumbled onto some sort of party in a church square for a bit. ate some frites. wandered around trying to find waffles. chris and i picked up the scent and found some. it was not the first time that has happened. somehow it was quite late already, but i guess we did only get there at 8 or so. back to the hostel to sleep.

woke up to catch breakfast and to the train station, taking the train to ghent. 3o minute train ride or so, and we're there. hit up a botanical garden with big lily pads and carnivorous plants. a contemporary art museum, then a fine art museum. there was an awesome sculpture in the contemporary one. and now i think my favorite paintings are impressionist landscapes, very very cool. walked through a park to find allegedly the greatest place for fries in ghent - and potentially in belgium - and potentially the world. in any case, these fries were awesome, and the sauces just made them better. pretty much, can't go wrong with dipping deep fried potatoes in anything invoving mayo. pat and celia proceeded to eat deep fried burgers as well. also so cheap, 2 euro for a massive box of fries. and beer was cheap too.

wandered toward the city center, went through some vintage stores, a bit of cool stuff but didn't pick anything up. the graffiti in the city was just awesome too. also a really beautiful city, lots of old buildings. it seemed like around every corner there would be another awesome thing to see. really suggest going to ghent, friendly people, lots of stuff to see. got a chocolate pastry and essentially just inhaled it. found this cafe for a really good cappucino and a real belgian waffle, which was so good. saw a parade of geese with a one man band. found some market thing in a cool square, was tempted to eat a burger. bought a bunch of chocolate from a grocery store, and more beer. went to a candy store for some belgian candies. chilled out by a canal to have more cherry beer, and also of course a stella and a hoegaarden, in belgium after all. found an old castle, took a bunch of pictures in the nice lighting when the sun was going down a bit. ate dinner, some italian restaurant that was actually really good, some spinach lasagna, gotta get veggies in there somewhere. and a trappist beer too, called westmalle - these beers have a cool story behind them too. and it was pretty tasty. walked around and by this time it was night, and kinda chilly actually, didn't bring a sweater which was a bit of an oversight. in the city center along the canal, there were people packed in cause there was a stage set up. so somehow we got essentially front row seats to see the brussels philharmonic play a free show. it was so awesome. and some guy shredding a guitar on a balcony on top of a building. and cool lights shining on all the buildings along the canal. and fireworks. had to power walk back to the train station to catch the last train back to brussels. the train was very late, definitely not swiss standards.

tried to get up to take sunrise photos, that didn't work at all. so ended up sleeping in. got breakfast at some cafe, another good coffee, and a piece of cheesecake for breakfast. yes, that happened. then got more fries. and another trappist beer, chimay - which was also delicious. there was another orchestra playing in the main square, with some old army jeeps and stuff there too. really cool. bought more chocolate. wandered through some street market thing. went to the royal palace, walked through it - maybe not as impressive as the one in madrid but cool nonetheless. there is a room that has these jewel beetle casings on the walls, it is really awesome. and there was a random science center in the palace too. walked back to the city center, got some more chocolate, more fries, more beer. and then a deep fried burger. and then there were some really good buskers. this old guy just singing his heart out and playing some good guitar. probably one of the best buskers i've ever seen actually. to the train station, airport, and then home. they also sell beer out of vending machines. i now have a pile of chocolate in my room.

will be running a lot this week to get ready for the race on saturday. and also to recover from the two days of food eating.

salad, zermatt, and fantoche

last week there was a Big Salad party, where we all brought large bowls of salad to eat. there we are, 15 young people, eating salad in a park. it was great.

on the weekend, i went on an iaeste trip to zermatt, the village where the matterhorn is. zermatt is the swiss version of canmore, exactly. it was weird, i got off the train and everyone is wearing hiking boots and there was a north face and peak performance store, seriously, exactly canmore. took a few ski lifts up to this glacier on a mountain, where people do some summer skiing. it just made me think of how fun it's gonna be this winter. got a good view of the matterhorn, it was just a little bit chilly - like +5 - still t-shirt weather, all good, probably what it is in calgary right now. it was like 3500 m and some people were struggling with that and with the "cold". hiked down back to the hostel, ate some good dinner, went out and tore up a dance floor, went back and slept. woke up, good breakfast, train to some other gondolas, scrambled 200m up a peak, pretty sketchy but pretty fun. hiked along a glacier, the glacier was pretty big, easy hike, a couple decent photos. walked through a tunnel through a mountain, ate some ice cream, took the cable car down, train home. the train was 40 minutes late, just an absolute catastrophe for the swiss train system really.

went for a couple great runs earlier this week, feeling pretty good for this half now, excited about the pasta party the night before too. it honestly is one of the greatest highs, i love the adrenaline and the feeling after a good workout. there's this animation film festival in baden this week, so we went to see the swiss premiere of "up" which i thought was pretty good, not my favorite pixar movie, but still good. then last night was a short film competition which i thought was really cool too.

also i don't even think i like pastries, but for some reason they are so good. chocolate filled croissants will be the end of me. also chocolate too. but i am still maintaining a fairly health position until now. it has been 4 months already!

going to belgium for a short trip this weekend, it will be an attempt to eat as much as possible. chocolate, frites with mayo, belgian beer.

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.