running and sleeping in the sun

so ran this 11k run in Davos, wanted to get under an hour so i rocked 59 minutes - got beat by numerous children, but you know what, it felt great. they were also handing out coke at the water stations - no, i don't want coke, give me water, was what was going through my head. also handing out alcohol free beer at the end, you know, with all the b vitamins and carbs to rehydrate yourself better. only in switzerland.

after that it was a pretty chill weekend, needed a good relaxing one anyways - basically just fell asleep for hours in the sun at schwimmbad, i'm still continuing the streak of sleeping in parks, 6 weeks and counting.

gurtenfestival

last weekend was this gurtenfestival, in berne, about an hour from here.

the link:
http://www.gurtenfestival.ch/program/program_en.aspx

it was such a good time, i wish they had some music festivals like this at home - but alas, no one would be happy with music till 5 am in canada. some really great shows, franz ferdinand was awesome, got right up to the front. some cool ska bands, danced barefoot in the mud - oh yea, it pretty much thunderstormed for two nights, essentially rained inside the tent. it was so great though, definitely the mud and dirt and rain just made it better, just classic. just the atmosphere was amazing, just lots of people having a good time together. this was a terrible job of explaining, but honestly, the experience was one of the best i've ever had. came home with a bag of wet clothes, covered in dirt, tired from dancing, but completely worth it.

in other news, i really like kebabs. been running a lot lately. work is alright, just hangin out mostly. hair's getting long but i'm gonna leave it.

coming up: 11k run this weekend, and bungee jumping 220 m the weekend after that, i'm terrified.

surenenpass hike

went on this hike in the alps, started in a town called altdorf and hiked to engelberg. it was like 28k with 1800m elevation, pretty much just another typical hike. it was quite nice though, came up over this surenenpass, it was raining a bit, which made for some nice clouds and fog. after going on a few of these hikes, i think that i have a bit of perspective on the mountains here - and i think that i still like the ones at home...it's just different i guess, but i'm the kind of guy that goes trekking because it's a chance to challenge yourself and to push it to the limits, to go where no one has gone before, to get away from everything - and here it's more like, there are cable cars and furniculars to take you up to trailheads, warm and comfy mountain huts to sleep overnight in, cows, sheep and farms everywhere. it's not the same looking down into a valley and seeing a town instead of just trees and rivers. that being said, of course it's still very pretty and there are tons of alpine meadows filled with flowers, once you get high enough there are all those little blue forget me nots just like at home.

for this particular hike, we started up under this cable car path to the trailhead, and then proceeded to do a bit of up and down through a more or less flat section, through to a bit of a ridge walk that led to a some snow covered paths. essentially walked up a glacier, up to this surenenpass. it was quite foggy and rainy that day, made for some great photos though. after going over this pass, it was a short walk down to an alpine hut. this was actually quite nice, there was a room just for the 10 of us that were there, dinner and breakfast included. pretty much just ate a ton of pasta and cheese for dinner, and loaded up on bread and milk for breakfast, definitely from the cows that were all over the trail. of course, walking through the typical swiss valley, one can hear just a ton of cowbells at once. the next day was a walk down to the town of engelberg - a nice mountain town might i add, seemed like it would be a great ski base in the winter. lounged around until 7 again, for the free train, played some dutch blitz - i have slept in a park for 5 weeks in a row now - and then took the train through lucerne, back home.

definitely gonna hit up a couple more hikes in august, gonna try and find a bit of a tougher one, and try to get higher to see what 3500 or 4000 m feels like.

also i think it was this week that i had, in consecutive days, lunch at work: 1. all you can eat thai restaurant 2. the most massive doner kebab in history. patrick meunier, you will be the death of me if you keep convincing me to eat as much as i can.

amsterdam

went to amsterdam last weekend. basically, friday night was a party in the football stadium with 40000 people dressed in white, for sensation white. pretty much one of the most ridiculous events i have attended, didn't stop till 6 in the morning, at which point i took the train back to central station and slept in a park for several hours. oh yea, the black eyed peas decided to show up to this event at about 2 in the morning - almost forgot that happened. after sleeping in the park i had a herring sandwich, with onions and pickles. i thought i was good, but it gives you terribly bad breath. hit up the albert cuyp market, which is a big street market that had some cool stuff in it. went to the heineken brewery, that was alright - pretty touristy, but you get free beer - in retrospect, i had to pay 15 euro to get in so that point is invalid. kinda had to do it though i guess. ate some pretty good noodles and curry - i thought there was a fairly large asian population there actually, judging from the size of chinatown. wandering around the canals, chinatown, dam square and all the bridges was pretty cool. other amsterdam activities as well obviously.

went on a bike tour in the morning, saw a windmill, ate dutch gouda cheese. saw some dutch cows. took photos of wooden shoes. went through these big parks that were neat. went to the rijksmuseum which i thought was really cool, loved the paintings. rembrandt was kind of a big deal, i have to admit. it's also kinda neat, when you put your face really close to the painting and see the detail...just careful of the security. continued on, to drink some heinekens, naturally, and continue our wanderings. ate fries with mayo, delicious waffles with ice cream.

finally, went on a walking tour in the morning, got an explanation of everything, which was good - turns out that we had already wandered around most of the city already. after that, i got fast food out of a vending machine wall simply for the novelty of it, it was terrible. then took the train about 30 minutes west, to zandvoort aan zee, on the north sea coast. went to the beach, it was actually very nice - nobody there though, it was late afternoon on a monday though. the water was pretty warm, and the sand was definitely there. the sun was out for a bit, but it got somewhat windy and sand got everywhere, particularly on the cheese i had purchased for sandwich making, it added great texture. i quite liked this small town, nice to get away from the crowded streets of amsterdam. sat down and had a delicious dutch pannekoek, a pancake thicker than a crepe but thinner than a pancake, i think, with apples and cinammon. it was great. stayed for the sunset over the north sea, i thought it was pretty cool cause the sun sets in the west and all. tried to take some photos, they might work out, i'm not sure.

i think i could have done without so much time there - it was definitely pretty cool and all that, but being there for too long was a bit overwhelming just with it being packed with tourists and the crowded big city atmosphere.

Eating and Rafting

this past week on wednesday we went out to zurich to this restaurant called The Blind Cow. it was really cool cause you ate in complete darkness, definitely an awesome experience and i think that everyone should do something like that sometime.

also went to the beer gardens here in baden for the first time this week, it's a cool place where basically drink beer outside, it's cool to see old people in suits and young people hanging out in the same place and having a good time.

last weekend i went to interlaken with a bunch of people from iaeste which is the organization that kind of puts together these internships, so met a few people from around the world which was good. went rafting in this river close to interlaken, in a valley beneath the eiger and such. the rafting itself was pretty fun, definitely gonna do some more when i get home. one time i fell out cause the guides smashed the rafts together on purpose which was great, i kinda wish i could do that, just travel around the world and be a guide for outdoor stuff. the river ended in the lake of brienz, which was actually warm enough to swim in. pretty much just wandered around interlaken that night, found a playground, it was good. saw a guy wearing a CFL t-shirt which i thought was hilarious.

the next day we took a hike up this mountain a little ways away from spiez, where there is a canadian bar, where i think i will return one day. the hike was good, a few sections with some fixed ropes, probably more for safety than for necessity but still good. got up to the top there and had a good view of the valleys and mountains and lakes. hiking so far in these mountains reminds me a lot of home, and what it's like to trek around those. in particular, the town of interlaken reminds me a lot of banff and how touristy it is. after the hike we went down to the lake of thun in which i swam, then proceeded to lay in the sun for awhile before going home, after 7 pm of course so i can ride the trains for free.

first hike

went hiking over the weekend, in the berner oberland about 1.5-2 hours away from here - that's where the eiger etc. is. started in kandersteg, climbed up over gemmipass and stayed at a mountain hut on the top there. it was a solid hike, about 1000 m or so elevation gain in maybe 10 k or so? the mountain hut was really good actually, more like a good hostel. lucky that the weather stayed nice until we got there, about an hour later the snow just came down. the hike there was really nice, passed through some alpine meadows and old glacier paths, a couple of lakes as well. the next morning we walked down the opposite side of the pass down into a small village called leukerbad, which is in the canton valais, the valley on the other side of these mountains. so i guess i crossed the alps on foot. the way down was quite steep, passed by some sheep that were apparently also crossing these mountains presumably in search of greener pastures.

since i have the train pass that lets me go on trains after 7 pm for free, i waited around from noon in this small town leuk. where i slept in a park like a vagrant. and then went to another town brig for a bit before taking the train home. it was quite a tiring weekend, but tremendously fun as well.

last two weekends- one close to home, one on the beach

can't believe that it's been ten days since i last put something up, this is gonna be a bit long i think.

last weekend we had a get-together on friday night, it was nice to have all the interns for this year in one place at one time. saturday was probably one of the strangest days of my life, it started with going to the europride parade in zurich in the afternoon, you know, just your typical saturday in zurich, complete with floats blasting music and all that. walked around zurich a bit as well, there's a lot of cool stuff in the city that's literally 15 minutes away but i haven't really explored yet. had some chocolate, it rained, but it was the nice warm rain that they have here, so i got soaked by the time i got home but it was great. that night, we continued back to zurich to find this particular dance club which in itself was a ridiculous process, ran for the train in baden, loitered in the train station in zurich, took the wrong train to wherever we were going. when we finally made it there, we promptly got "depeche mode-d"...so weird, everyone dressed in black, listening to some pretty depressing music, candles everywhere - so we took over the dance floor, just a really really strange situation. the way home was equivalently eventful, working out at the train station, on the train, took the train a few times before finally managing to get home. words don't do it justice right now, you'll just have to believe that it was one of the weirdest nights of my life. sunday was a schwimmbad day again, soccer, swimming, waterslide, volleyball, laying in the sun - just good times in general.

so thursday last week was a holiday from work, so of course i took wednesday and friday off and headed off to sardinia, an italian island in the mediterranean. the airport that has most of the cheap flights actually flies out of basel, which is about an hour train from here, meaning that somehow i woke up at 5 in the morning on wednesday. when we got to cagliari, we picked up the car rental that luke had set up, it was a very compact little fiat 500, but actually pretty spacious enough for 4 people and their stuff. every day that we were in sardinia it was at least +30 out and incredibly sunny - stores aren't open in the afternoon because people are taking a nap. the first thing to do was to get food and sunscreen, and get out of the city of cagliari where the airport was. found a grocery store and a park, enjoyed some bread and cheese and tomatoes, which is essentially the same meal that i would go on to have over the next few days as well, but delicious nonetheless. also, somewhat enjoyed the 90 eurocent carbonated one litre of wine that was in the grocery store as well - but not really because it was terrible. driving through the countryside, we made it to alghero on the west coast of the island where we were staying that night, but on the way hitting a couple beaches, just generally relaxing as much as possible. the drive there along the coast was incredible, just some beautiful scenery and also going through some of the small towns was neat as well.

the next day we spent the morning on a beach in alghero, pretty busy but we got there early and it was still very nice, there's not too much to complain about when there's sun, surf and sand aplenty. we then proceeded to make our way over the to east coast of the island, towards olbia, and to a small town where our hostel was on top of a hill, overlooking the beach and the sea. took awhile to find, so we just hung out on the beach again awhile - this one was particularly nice, white sand and blue water. spent the night watching the sun go down over the mountains next to the beach below, while listening to some of the great tunes of the 90s. the next morning we drove down the coast to a small coast town, cala gonone, probably one of the most beautiful places i have ever been to. we went snorkelling in a sea cave, but the boat ride out to the cave was worth the money in itself. no pictures to show it, but the cliffs on the sea were just incredible, the colour of the water was like nothing i've ever seen, the sun was shining, the sea was warm. the snorkelling itself was good, actually the first time i'd ever done it, caught on in 15 minutes or so, as soon as i stopped breathing out through my nose, just a habit that i had from swimming. there were lots of fish, starfish, anemones, cool stalactites and just in general a really awesome experience. the guides were really casual, basically ended up ditching the snorkelling gear after awhile and just jumping off the boat and swimming and laying in the sun. i love the smell of salt in the air, especially when you're on a small boat flying through the water. i'm pretty sure i'm going to try to get in to scuba diving now, another terribly expensive hobby i guess, but it would be a really cool thing to get started in i think. after the snorkelling, it was time for gelato, and an espresso for me as well. i love the coffee and the ice cream especially when it's +30 out. the roads in sardinia are all on the sides of mountains somehow, and would be a fun drive at some point in time. what i was really amazed by is how diverse the land is for being just an island - it looks like there are beaches, cliffs, mountains, forests, deserts, grassland - just incredible. the rest of the day, like most of the trip, was beach time, with pizza and beer for dinner. the sardinian beer was actually pretty good, but i'm pretty sure that it'll be impossible to ever find it again. last day, the main goal was to get back to the airport in cagliari in the south, but at the same time hitting every beach on the east coast on the way down. at one beach there was an ice cream truck, but in this case selling homemade gelato instead - definitely the best ice cream i've ever gotten out of a truck. getting back to cagliari, it was a bit of a mess trying to find the airport and to return the car again, but things worked out in the end. the flight back to basel was at 6:30 in the morning, so we decided to sleep at/around the airport to save the money on a hostel, which actually was a great decision. loitered around outside on the grass until about midnight, when it was still very warm, and then i basically slept on the floor of the airport which was perfectly comfortable as well. got home this morning, went home and had a shower to wash off all the sunscreen and salt everywhere, and then promptly went down to the river in baden to go lay in the sun and swim again. now, i am fairly tired, but i don't need to complain that i have relaxed too much in the past week.