Switzerland - after two weeks

Two weeks had passed since I came to Switzerland and I am still impressed with the country. During weekdays I am quite busy, studying at the library of the Olympic Studies Centre. I generally rush home in the evenings - the library closed at 5pm - to catch my evening call with my parents, get something to eat, maybe read a bit more and talk to Lars. 

Most of the days, with few exceptions (when it rains), I wish I would stay outside more since the views are great and weather exceptional. For example, there were 25-26 Celsius degrees today, sunny, with no trace of a cloud on the sky. In such days panorama of Lake Geneva is breathtaking. 

From SW, Lausanne & Montreux with Lars

From SW, Lausanne

From SW, Lausanne

It is the weekends when I travel most and the last two weekends were just like that. I've been to Zurich, and from there to Zug and Luzern two weeks ago. I have met with Carmen, my aunt whom I haven't seen in ages, and it was a proper holiday with lots of walking, museums, great breaks for tasty treats and a bit of (window) shopping. Last weekend Lars was here so besides rediscovering Lausanne we went to Montreux to see the Chateau de Chillon, a beautiful, and somehow similar castle to Bran Castle (you might know it as Dracula Castle) from Romania. We were lucky enough to be there for the Museum's Night which meant not only visiting the museum for free but also getting a chance to hear some medieval stories, listen to medieval music and roast our own sausages on sticks on the big "medieval" fire. 

I have only one word that could describe both these weekend and that is "awesome".

I have also noticed, during the many hours of sunny Swiss days and long walks, that the Swiss are crazy about: 

• water fountains (only the Olympic Museum in Lausanne has o less than three and in Zurich every back seems to have its own)
• sport (I've never seen so many people jogging, biking, skating, skate-boarding and what-not than here; some even use their lunch breaks to do sports which to me is completely surprising and unheard of)
• clocks (well, ahem, not only for sale but in every city there are numerous buildings with sun clocks or mechanic clocks AND flower clocks - Lausanne and Geneva have one each)  
  
• chocolate 
• eating healthy (the lunch and dinner portions I've seen that people either bring from home or buy for lunch are very well balanced not to mention that most of them seem to favor salads!)
• expensive cars 
• jewelry (of all sorts but Swarowski here is at home; the sequence of shops is Geneva follows a pattern almost with jewelry and watch stores in the close vicinity of a bank!)

From SW, Lausanne

From SW, Geneva

For more photos, as usual, check my Flickr... and if you have other ideas and observations about the Swiss to share, leave a comment here.

Thoughts from Lausanne

May is the month of the year I've been excitedly waiting for since December. It is the month that not only takes me to a place I have never seen before (not even the airport or train station!) but brings me a step closer to my PhD. 

After having my worst night sleep from Thursday (April 30) to Friday (May 1) and one of the seamless travels, I have finally arrived to Lausanne, home of the International Olympic Committee and city of beautiful sceneries. 

Both yesterday when I set foot in Geneva and today when gazing over the Lausanne quai I felt my eyes getting all blurry and watery at the thought that I have never dreamed to see this place and most of all, that I have never expected it to be so beautiful. I considered myself blessed, lucky, fortunate - choose your word - to have been given such opportunity. Needless to say, I called my parents and my significant other and shared with them my thoughts. And while talking with them I realized that: 

I noticed in passing that although I was expecting to see cows with big bells attached to their necks, the first animals I saw were donkeys. I also realized that the places I've seen are amazingly clean and that the airport boasted of commercials for Rolex and its competing brands as well as of luxury jewelry. 

Just after a quick review of the nearest grocery store, I reached the conclusion that Switzerland's famous products are flooding the Swiss shelves and not only the mind of the foreigners. It took me a long time to decide which cheese I wanted and even more to fight the urge to grab a chocolate. ;) To make up for giving that up, I had a coconut filled with some alcoholic drink last night when I discovered the noisy, busy, crazy Lausanne Carnival taking over the city centre. It was around that same time that I figured how steep the city is and the diversity of its population. 

After just a day in Lausanne I think I've seen quite a good part of the city; my feet are more than aching! However, I am looking forward to discover more of it as well as to start studying at the Olympic Studies Centre on Monday. 

P.S You can see the photos on Flickr. The Internet connection in the flat is absolutely horrible. 

Easter delight

Easter delight
Originally uploaded by anaadi+

This is mom's Easter cake. It was an finger-licking combination of whipped cream, creme brule, chocolate and some sponge cake. D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S.....

Just so that you know where I got my cooking skills. :)

Romanian Easter

Romanian Easter tradition
Originally uploaded by anaadi+

Just came back from Romania. I woke up at 1am and travelled all day. My soul is full.

This Romanian Easter, my first at home with my family in 4 years, was a real blessing. Not only was I surrounded by my dear ones but I could live and share the beautiful traditions I grew up with - the going to the Orthodox Mass at midnight, the elaborate Easter meal, the coloring of the eggs - at the same time.

For me it was a time of celebration but also a time when I remembered the Easters I have spent abroad. I realized how lucky I was to have friends to join me in the celebration and make me feel at home even if thousands of miles away.

Easter in Scotland

I think this is my fourth Easter away from home and my family, and my first in Scotland. I have beautiful memories from my Easter parties in the US so I have decided to do something similar here. I have invited a couple of friends for the Easter dinner - I cooked lamb again and baked a chocolate cake (a premiere) - and went out of my way to find Easter egg colors. After going from shop to shop just to be told that the tradition of painting eggs for Easter died in long time ago, in a lucky strike and totally by accident I managed to find some color in a greeting cards shop!

Anyways, I am excited and looking forward to receive my guests. You can get the scoop though and see how my cake came out and how i decorated the table. 

Happy Easter! 

Memories

Traditional costume
Originally uploaded by MyMissourian.com

I was searching Flickr for some photos from a conference I recently attended in Liverpool. I came across to this picture instead and it brought back plenty of memories. It was taken in Oct 2005, shortly after I have arrived in the US for my Fulbright Scholarship. I cannot stop wondering how young and slim I looked (not that I am much bigger these days) and what a short hair I had... oh, those sunny days... :)

ski lesson - the first

Just yesterday evening I've had my first ever ski lesson. After an unlucky and unhappy attempt last week due to the lack of proper organization and slow rhythm of the ski slope equipment renting team, I decided to skip the first step and go straight to the second. I figured that what I saw - people going down a hill in a snow plough - wasn't that a big deal and everyone can do it. And besides I wanted to be in the same class with my friends thinking that learning something new is always better when having good company. 

The lesson went really well, or at least that's what I thought, even if I seemed to be the one falling the most. I quite enjoyed it and I found it easier than balancing on the skis so I must have done it a bit more often than I should have. I found the whole process more complicated than it looked from afar and that is because the boots were quite heavy and the skis, unlike the skates that I am used to handle (someone told me that if you can skate, you can ski!) the skis seem to have a life of their own! 

Anyways, I've enjoyed it and want to go back. I have been introduced to the notion of turning on skis yesterday as well but I am still puzzled by the whole idea of wanting to turn right, thinking you're turning right and realizing you are actually going left. I am also amused by all the rapid thoughts that crossed my mind at that point and the difficult decision when choices were: 

a) scream 

b) fall

c) panic

d) stay calm and 

e) steer the other ski. 

At the end of the day I managed to leave the slope with slightly wet trousers, 1 blister (the boots and the socks I was wearing didn't quite like each other), some other pressure points made by the very heavy ski boots and 1 bruise which i've made prior to starting the lesson (I think). Quite good! 

gent

I am in Belgium again, and as with my previous visits I have hardly any time to walk and enjoy the city. However, I managed to take some snapshots with my iPhone so that you can see what a beautiful city Gent is...and they have this great chocolate places (like every other Belgian city...). Delicious!