Gaufres and Frites!

My most recent adventure: to the “Europe’s Capital,” that being Brussels. I didn’t know this but apparently it is in fact the capital of Europe, since it is home to most of the EU headquarters and such. Anyway, I only did a short 2 day trip to Belgium so this shall be a short one.

We arrived on Friday night and of course headed out to see the town. The life night of Brussels was very lively, the streets full of people partying (and quite a few drunken teenagers, even though it was only about 10pm). We found a nice little bar ourselves, and enjoyed a couple beers. We had quite the interesting chat with a Belgian man, who spent about 30 minutes describing the different beers of Belgium to us. He then proceeded to have a just as lengthy conversation about sex, where he then dragged his girlfriend off to somewhere to do I don’t want to know what.

First thing in the morning I headed to the train station to pick up my friend LINDA! She had done an exchange in Calgary last year, and now was studying in the Netherlands so I thought, why not!? It was a little random and spontaneous that both our schedules ended up working out to meet up in Brussels, but I was happy we were able to. =)

Once the group was all together, we were on a mission.

Mission: find WAFFLES!!
Steps taken: Two streets down and one left turn
Status: Mission complete!
Lessons learned: Belgian waffles are even better than expected! Steaming buttery batter, coated in some sugary goodness topped with melting creamy delight. Melt in your mouth deliciousness. This would not be the first for us to have throughout the weekend.

Delicious breakfast waffles with Linda. :)

Although Belgium is known for its cloudy skies we were lucky to have blue overhead for most of the day. We took it easy, walking around seeing the main sites, picking up waffles and fries along the way. In the afternoon, the rest of the group went to a brewery tour, while Linda and I headed to the Atomium! It was really neat. An atom magnified 168 billion times. We were able to walk from one sphere to another through escalators and stairs. Appealed nicely to my nerdy side =P

Atomium in Brussels

On Sunday we decided to experience a smaller Belgian town, so we took a train to the beautiful town of Gent. It was based more on the Flemish ancestry of Belgium… Belgium is bilingual; there is a Flemish (Dutch) area and then a Latin (French) area. Gent was a very beautiful little town to spend the day walking around and enjoying the buildings and cobblestone streets. We of course had some more waffles and fries throughout the day, never getting any less delicious.

Waffle display. Mmmmmmmm. Mouth watering-ly delicious.

After the quick, but pleasing trip to Belgium, we headed home late Sunday night. Arriving home at 1:30am was a bit torturous, because after having sent home the Chinese licensees last week, I had to be into work at 6am Monday morning to assist with a meeting with the Japanese licensees currently in town. With all these Asians to babysit, I’ve been working quite a few 11+ hour days recently. Keeps my job interesting though. =)

Snow, Sand, Bagels, Bones and more SNOW!

(Again... sorry for the annoying fonts and formatting! My computer hates me...)

So what started out as a weekly blog has now become more of a monthly thing. Which is unfortunate because I am traveling somewhere almost every weekend. Well, I guess I will have to update you on my last 4 weeks of travel. And since I haven’t even posted any of these photos yet, it will be new to everyone!

Engelberg

A bunch of my friends were going skiing in the Swiss Alps near a town called Engelberg. Even though I am from Calgary I am not a skier myself, and for fear of being left alone on the mountain top I decided to go hiking instead.

The view from the top was definitely worth it. Although quite foggy with low visibility in the town of Engelberg, as we approached the peak of Titlis (yes, all you immature people are giggling at the name…) we went above the clouds and got to enjoy the amazing view of the Swiss Alps poking out over a sea of clouds. I spent my entire morning hiking around the top of Titlis, enjoying the views and exploring one of the ice caves (more a very touristy thing, but still cool).

AMAZING views from on top of Titlis!

Ice Caves!! :)

I had taken it easy in the morning, so come afternoon I wanted to do a real hike. I headed back down a little bit, unfortunately entering into the clouds in order to find a hiking train. If you read my prior blogs you know that in the summer they have yellow signs to mark the paths. Well in the winter they have PURPLE signs! :) They also have poles that line the side of the path. I soon learned what these poles were for.

As I followed the hiking path, distancing myself from the crowds of skiers and snowboarders, I began to feel more and more like I was in the middle of nowhere. I could no longer hear rumbling of the chair lift of the joyous voices of people coming down the hill. I could hear nothing. But worst of all, I could see nothing. The fog was so dense that I could not see anything around me. The poles which lined my path were a life savior, however sometimes as I reached one pole I had to take a few steps into the whiteness before I could see the next pole. It was quite a terrifying experience.

The fact that the snow covered land around me blended in with the clouds was not any help at all. I tried to see what was beside me, however I could rarely distinguish whether it was a wall of snow, or a steep drop on the edge of the mountain. Terrified, I stayed to the middle of the path as best as possible. Although easier said than done, considering I could only see the path about 2-3 meters in front of me to begin with.

Lost in the wilderness - surrounded by nothing but pure whiteness!

The shining light (though I couldn't see this for most of the hike)

Eventually I reached my destination, a chair lift! I met two snowshoe-ers here, although unfortunately they didn’t speak English. After taking the chairlift down though I was glad to have these two in front of me to follow. It at least allowed me to have two figures in the distance to know that I wasn’t about to walk off the mountain.

Although a little terrifying, and perhaps silly to have gone hiking alone, it still made for a great day. Which was finished off by a great night of enjoying some Après-Ski Glügg and playing Settler’s of Catan with some friends.

Alicante, Spain

I booked the trip to Spain because there was a seat sale and the return plane tickets cost me only 15 EUR return to Spain. Unfortunately none of my friends were interested, so it would be a solo trip. But I thought it would be a great time to go during the winter, to get some sun and enjoy the beach a little.

I had a lot on my mind going into this weekend, so it was honestly just good to have three days to myself to lie on the beach and enjoy some sun. Cause in Switzerland we don’t get sun. And I don’t mean it’s cold all the time, I mean we literally don’t get sun. There are ALWAYS clouds. So the Vitamin D intake was highly needed.

So, Spain was definitely one of my most relaxing weekends. I literally did nothing but sit on the beach and read a book. I also walked up to the castle a couple times and found a nice place to read up there. The weather was beautiful, I spent most of the weekend in shorts and a T-shirt… though most of the locals had their toques and mittens out in the 20 degree weather :P.

A nice spot to read on the ledge of the castle, overlooking the sea. :)

I got a few funny looks for this outfit. Ah well.

And I wonder why I get funny looks... especially since my camera was sitting on a ledge for this for. So random passerbys didn't even realize a photo was being taken..

Watching the sunset while doing some German homework up at the castle.

Prague and Kutna Hora

The following weekend I took my first trip towards Eastern Europe, to Prague, Czech Republic. I was excited for this trip because I felt the culture would be the most different from everything I had experienced so far. I went with my friend Nadia, and it was my first time flying on a non-discount airline. I had forgotten that they actually offer you drinks and food on normal airplanes!! Crazy!! And it was with “Swiss” so after the last garbage pickup they even came around and gave us some chocolate.

Our arrival into Czech was uneventful, other than the ambitious bus drive that forced us to hold on with two hands at all times. A friend I had met in Finland, Anna, had returned from her exchange to Prague so Nadia and I would be staying with her for the weekend. We quickly headed up to her place to drop off our stuff and then we hit the town, immediately awed by the beauty of Prague. The first time we saw the city was at night and we both agreed that Prague was had given us the best first impression. Anna took us up to a fortress that had a nice viewpoint of the entire city. She told us a story that many years ago, the “Princess” (she didn’t know the proper translation) of the area stood where we were standing and she had a vision. She had a vision of the beautiful city of Prague in front of her. And this is how the city was built, based on the Princess’s vision.

Beautiful view of Prague at night with me and Nadia.

View from where the Princess stood as she envisioned Prague.

The next day, Nadia and I headed to town by ourselves to do a free walking tour. It’s a great way to see a city because it allows you to learn as you walk around enjoying the beauty that surrounds you. Although the tour was wonderful, it was INCREDIBLY cold!! We didn’t understand how us Canadians had become such wimps in the cold! Apparently Switzerland has broken down our defenses. Luckily there was a break midway through at a place called Bohemian Bagel. Now, when you go abroad it is surprising what you miss about home. And one of the things both Nadia and I had been missing was BAGELS! They are not available in Switzerland, so we just about died as we took our order of 4 bagels each.

Mmmmmmmmm...... BAGELS!!

That evening we had bought tickets to a black light show, which although a very touristy event was quite incredible!! The performers wore suits that had only partial areas which lit up from the black light and the rest was dark. It allowed for some incredible optical illusions to be created. And the show was great because it even added an audience participation aspect: we got rained on, got to play with large balloons and got attacked by a herd of spiders!! It was quite a spectacular show, that definitely left us saying, “WOW.”

On Sunday, we decided to take a day trip outside of Prague to experience a small Czech city. We went to a town called Kutna Hora. The main attraction of this city was a church full of human bones. Literally. Difficult to describe so here are some photos to give you an idea.

Worn down Kutna Hora sign. Very Czech-like. :)

Bones, bones and more bones! A little creepy, but little cool.

All made from bones. Crazy.

After enjoying that unique experience we walked around the town a little. It was a Sunday so the streets were fairly deserted (and still very cold), but we enjoyed the deserted feeling of the town. It seemed so… Czech. :) We stopped by a restaurant and were dazzled by the food! Mainly because since meat is so expensive in Switzerland, our diets have been quite lacking in protein. In Czech, it seemed that 50% of the plate was full of meat! Sooo sooo good!

SO MUCH MEAT!!!!

We couldn’t miss the Prague castle while there, so after picking up a dozen bagels each (yup, we did that) we headed up to the castle. And just like the rest of Prague, we were awed. Completely awed by the beauty. A great way to finish a great trip. :)

At the beautiful St. Vitus cathedral in the Prague Castle.

THEY LOCKED US IN!! =P

Interlaken

Last one I promise! My first time SKIING! Well, I went last year once with friends but I wasn’t confident enough to tackle the Alps by myself so I did a skiing lesson in Interlaken. Last year when Amin was teaching me, he took me down the bunny hill about 3 times and then said I was ready so he took me to the top. This time I stayed on the bunny hill (and a larger hill-type-mountain) for the entire day. It was really good to learn, and I am glad I took the lesson, however it was definitely way too easy for me. Either I am a really good skier (doubtful) or all the others in my group, mostly Americans, were not so good skiers (the more probable =P). However, now I have skied, so I am ready for a bigger challenge: time to hit the real ALPS! Hopefully next weekend I’ll get to go somewhere fantastic… I just hope I don’t ski right off the edge :S:S.

Look at me! I can ski!

Beautiful lake!!

So I am off to Brussels this weekend. Shall be great times.

Tchüss!!!

ps. I bet if you read my first blog post and then my more recent ones you will notice a decrease in language proficiency. That’s what happens when you’re around people who speak English as a second language 24/7.

6 months down, 6 to go

So I am officially halfway done my internship in Europe. Hopefully this post is interesting for people to read, but I am going to go over what I have learned over the last 6 months and what I hope to accomplish in the upcoming 6 months.

The last 6 months... achievements and lessons learned

1) Family is important. I recently went to Bury St. Edmunds in the UK to spend Christmas with some of my distant family members. Beforehand, I didn't know anyone, however all 16 of them welcomed me with open arms. It was touching to see the kindness that comes with family, no matter how distantly related they are. At the same time, spending time with this family over Christmas made me realize how truly homesick I am. I miss knowing the people I spend time with, I miss being able to reminisce about good times shared together. Most of all though of course, I miss my puppy. Although I can barely call Tessa mine nowadays, I still do. And I miss her sooo much.

2) Friend are important. Both the old and the new. Old friends are important because they have been there to share memories with you. Whether you shared hard times together, or whether you shared laughs together it is important to keep in touch with your old friends. They are almost like family. You don't necessarily talk often, but when you do talk it's like you never left each other.

But the lesson that I have really learned this year is that new friends are important. Not just acquaintances at work, or passing friends, but friends that you can spend time with, that you can open up to. Friends that you aren't afraid to call up when you need a hug, or just when you need someone to relieve your boredom. I also learned how difficult it is to make friends in the real world. At school you are thrown into a situation where you are with a group of people your age with similar interests, and the likelihood you'll get along with the person sitting next to you is high. In the work world you have to make an effort. I came to Switzerland, moved to a city where I knew no one and I didn't speak the language. And it was hard. It is still hard. But I have learned a lot about myself through the process of adjusting. And I am thankful that I got to experience it.

3) Work. I have learned so much from my job. I lucked out and got a job that was perfect for me. I get to assist on such a wide variety of projects. From manufacturing engineering tasks, to administrative duties, to project management. Sure you might say, "it's an engineering internship, why are you doing admin and project management work?!" And maybe I shouldn't be, but at the same time those are two job paths that I had always considered doing so I am very happy that I am getting a small dose of them. I could ramble on and on as to what I have learned from work, but I am just going to sum it up with this: I have learned A LOT.

4) Canadians aren't that nice. I don't mean to bash my own country, but having grown up in Canada and not traveled around much I grew up under the impression that "Canadians are the nicest people on the planet" because that is what everyone told me. I agree, Canadians are nice, but in no way do I think we are the nicest people on the planet. While standing on the sidewalk attempting to read a map to figure out where I am, people have stopped to help me. While struggling to speak German with a cashier, the lady next to me in line has helped act as a translator. All around Europe I have experienced great kindness. And most of all, through couch surfing I have been invited into the home of perfect strangers and they have hosted me for multiple days, shown me the city, and welcomed me as if I were an old friend.

Couch surfing has been such a fantastic experience. It has really shown me how kind and trusting the majority of the world is. Don't worry mom and dad, I am cautious, but at the same time we live in a society where we are protected from every possible thing that might possibly go wrong. Don't talk to strangers, don't pick up hitchhikers, don't walk in the dark by yourself. Don't, don't, don't. Why are we so untrusting of others? It is just as likely to be kidnapped in the dark at night as it would be to get in a car accident. So what, don't drive your car will be the next thing they are telling us? I guess couch surfing has just opened my eyes to the fact that the majority of people are kind and trustworthy people.

5) Perspectives on travel. Over the last 6 months I have traveled to 11 countries on many different trips and I have learned that traveling can be done in many ways. Mainly it can be summed up by the tourist traveler and the culture traveler. The first is where you go somewhere just to see the famous sites, without really interacting with the culture beyond trying the local cuisine. And then the latter is where you go somewhere and immerse yourself in the culture, really get to know the local traditions from local people. Most of my traveling has been the tourist traveler, but I would say that through couch surfing, especially my experience in Finland, I experienced a little bit of the culture traveler.

Although each have their advantages, I think in the long run I prefer the culture travel method. Sometimes, as a tourist traveler, when I go to see the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or Buckingham Palace, I feel like the only reason I am really going there is so that I can say "I've been to see the Queen"!! Yes it's cool, but at the same time, is it cool for me personally or is it just cool for me to brag about to others? I guess that's part of the difference. As a tourist traveler you are mainly traveling for others, to take the pictures as proof and do it for the "novelty" aspect. Whereas, when you are a culture traveler you are really doing that for yourself. It's about socializing and meeting others. As a tourist traveler your friends will be impressed by the pictures you've taken. As a culture traveler your friends will get bored to death while you share stories about your great memories and adventures. But it doesn't matter if they find it boring, because YOU were there and YOU had a great time.

I had a little mini rant there... but hopefully anyone who reads this blog understands what I am getting at. (I think there is a third type of traveling as well that I haven't experience much of and that is the group travel. Where in a way you are all there for the tourist traveler aspect, but the part you enjoy most is just being together with friends and having fun.)

The upcoming 6 months... goals and expectations

1) Keep in touch with family and friends more. I guess this comes from point 1 and 2 above. It's important to keep in touch with loved ones cause they are the ones that are always there for you.

2) Travel more. Hopefully make it to 20 countries this year (mainly just for the novelty aspect =P)

3) Continue learning lots at work. Be more motivated and independent.

4) Get involved more in Winterthur.

5) Be honest with myself, and change the things I am not happy about.

I guess that is all I have to say this time! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and Happy New Year to all!!

Oh, and I already have 9 trips booked over the next 6 months (with as least a couple more to be added)... so here are my upcoming plans:

Jan 16-19: Alicante, Spain
Jan 22-25: Prague, Czech
Feb 6-7: Brussels, Belgium
Feb 18-20: Warsaw, Poland
March 6-7: Porto, Portugal
March 11-18: Ireland! (St. Patty's day)
April 16-19: Krakow and Auschwitz, Poland
April 29-May 2: Amsterdam, Netherlands
May 8-10: Nice and Monacco
July - travel Europe more with Ali!! (mostly France and Italy)

And lastly, as a reward for reading the entire post, here are some photos from my British experience! To sum it up: wet and cold. Rain sucks. Cold rain sucks even more. And cold, windy rain is just plain miserable. But I still had great time. :-)

Me and my Great Uncle John at the Abbey Ruins in Bury St. Edmunds

Lara, my cutest little cousin (twice removed or something, I dunno the official terms)

Fries and mayonnaise in front of the Tower of London

Cold and windy day at Stonehenge, but worth it!

Enjoying a Roman Bath in Bath :)

A very wet and muddy walk in the English countryside

Fantastic Finland

So I just spent 14 days in Finland and it was EXCELLENT. My company, Wärtsilä, is based in Vaasa, Finland and we had our global team meeting last week. There was a manufacturing training course the week before, thus my boss let me come for 2 weeks. December is not necessarily the best month to visit Finland, since it is very dark and very cold. But I made the best of my time here and greatly enjoyed it - it reminded me a lot of back home in Canada!

The first week was the manufacturing training course. More than anything this course reminded me how much I don't miss sitting in lectures all day! But it was a very educational and useful course. They even took us out for dinner one night and I decided to try Reindeer! It was quite delicious.... but it tasted a lot like beef with a stronger flavour.

(Trying a traditional Finnish dish - Reindeer!! Hopefully it wasn't Rudolph)

On Friday night, my local Vaasa team was having their Christmas dinner so they invited me to come along with them. Although a little awkward because most people spoke Finnish all evening, it was still lots of fun. I attempted to Waltz with one of my coworkers (I only know latin dances, so I think I made a fairly large fool of myself) and ate a traditional Christmas dinner (ham... good, but not as delicious as turkey I must say). There were also LOTS of different types of fish and such, which makes sense considering Vaasa is on the coast. :)

Over the weekend I was actually able to enjoy the minimal hours of daylight that Vaasa gets! I went for a four hour walk along the coastline on Saturday. It was really pretty and helped me work off all the company bought food I had been eating! Afterwards, I got together with some couch surfing friends that I had contacted asking if they wanted to show me around over the weekend. One of the girls, Malin, took me to an Asian buffet, she introduced me to some traditional Xmas desserts and took me to the Xmas Market. At the Christmas market, we tried the rice porridge. At Christmas time it traditional to eat this rice porridge and hide an almond in it. The person who finds the almond is said to have good luck! Unfortnately I didn't find any almond though. :(

(Eating traditional Finnish Xmas porridge)

I went to visit another couch surfing friend at her residence at the University. We had some Glüggi and Gingerbread cookies. Glüggi is a very traditional Scandinavian winter drink. It is similar to Switzerland's and Germany's Gluwein (warmed red wine) but it doesn't have as much of a wine taste to it. It's more of a spiced red punch, warmed and then they put almonds and raisins in it. SOOO good! While at her place, we also went to the sauna! Sauna's are very famous in Finland, and apparently they have more sauna's than they do cars. I was quite happy I got to experience it. :)

After a great weekend, I had to go back to work for the week. I was excited though because I finally was going to get to meet my team. Our Design to Cost Team is about 15 people situated in Vaasa (Finland), Trieste (Italy), Drunnen (Netherlands) and Winterthur with me. So twice a year, we have a global team meeting. I had been talking to lots of these people over email, so it was great to finally meet them. It was also really neat to see what everyone else is up to in the different areas of Design to Cost.

(Outside my company office in Finland!!)

On the last day of the meeting, I had to do a presentation and training of my own. I was absolutely terrifed. I had to make a 30 minute presentation and then train everyone on the program for the next 2 hours. Luckily, the presentation went fairly well. I think anyway. I was told afterwards that I looked very confident considering it was my first big presentation. I guess it's all about the image, cause I definitely didn't feel confident. As my dad says, "Once you can fake you, you've made it!"

So that ends the work part of my Finland adventure. I then I took a 3 day vacation in Northern Finland!! Rovaniemi is a famous town as it sits right on the arctic circle. It is also said to be the home of Santa Claus, or as they call him, Joulupukkia! So they have made the "Santa Claus Village" 10 km from the city. Although mainly an overdone tourist attraction, it was still a must see. So, on my first day I took "Santa's Express" up to see Santa Claus!

There were of course lots of other things happening at village, and though a lot of the activities were quite pricey. The one thing that I did fork up the money to pay for was a visit into the Husky Park. I couldn't resist... it was worth the 6 EUR to spend some time with the dogs. :) And the guy gave me a tour around, telling me about the dogs and about sled racing. It was really neat. And I of course couldn't get enough of the dogs. Made me very happy. :):)

(Me with one of the husky puppies, Hugo)

Then it was time to go see the famous Santa Claus! His house was ... very different than I was expecting. As you walked up to him, it felt more like you were walking through a haunted house. It was very dark, and there was this eerie music playing in the background. Serisouly, if I visited that when I was a kid I think I would have been terrified. But finally I did make it to Santa, got my picture taken with him but was unwilling to pay the 30 EUR for it. So it will just have to be a memory. A great story to tell my kids one day I guess. :P

(Proof that I was at the arctic circle!!)

(The hallway leading up to Santa Claus!)

The next 2 days that I spent in northern Finland I went to another couch surfer's house, but she lived about 50km out of the city. Rovaniemi itself didn't have much snow, but rather was really icy. However, as I left the city I entered a beautiful winter wonderland. Taina, my host for the next 2 days, is definitely one of the most amazing ladies I have ever met. She is a mother of 10 children. She also particpiates in a community program taking care of a few kids on the weekend who live in some sort of disfunctional family. On top of all that, she does couch surfing and she never says no to anyone. There are almost always couch surfers around, and her record is 11 couch surfers on one night (though I was the only surfer over the 2 days I was there). All of these people live in a small one floor, 4 bedroom house, with a kitchen that fits only 8 people. It was amazing to see the efficiency of her household. Dinner was made in mass quantities, and then it was served in rotation, usually the younger ones eating first. They didn't have a dishwasher, so next came the dishes, which happened surprisingly fast. The most amazing thing about Taina's house was the fact that is was not chaotic. Sure there was always chatter and activities happening, but it was such a loving and warm atmosphere.

The next thing to note about Rovaniemi is the sun. Since it lies on the arctic circle, during the month of December there is very minimal sunlight. Only about 4-5 hours in the middle of the day. However, the progression of the sun was quite amazing to watch. Since the sun barely pokes above the horizon each step lasts much longer than usual. There is the so called "blue moment" as the sunlight beings to spread lasting about half an hour. And then the sun rises, with beautiful orange colours lasting over an hour. There was probably about 1-2 hours of pure sunlight and then the sunset lasted an hour and the "blue" again for another half hour.

(The "blue moment" after the sun had set at the arctic circle)

I went for a couple walks in the forest around Taina's house during the daylight hours. I was so happy... I was surrounded by a true winter wonderland, right at the arctic circle!! As I was walking down the path, I saw a reindeer up ahead, though it quickly ran into the forest. As I approached the area, I looked to my left and I noticed it was in fact an entire field of reindeer! There must have been at least 20 of them! Must have been Santa's training grounds. :P

(Lost in a winter wonderland!!! =D)

I slept on the couch in the living room, and in the morning the young boys would wake up, go to the kitchen and play cards while waiting for me to wake up. I usually heard them right away, but enjoyed the warmth of my bed a little longer before getting up. It was funny though, because the second I got up, they would abandon the cards and run to the living room to watch TV. I guess they have been trained well.

The youngest boy must have been about 3 years old really enjoyed played with me. He would drag me off into his room to play Lego, or play with pillows in the living room. It took him a little while to figure out that I didn't understand Finnish, but once he figured it out he started signing to me instead. It was really cute. :D

So that was my Finnish adventure. It was different than most of my other trips because it wasn't about touring around a city and seeing the famous sites. It spent a lot of time with locals, really getting to know the culture and I learned a lot about the holiday traditions. It is by far my favourite adventure thus far, and I could honestly see myself living there one day. Or perhaps at least doing another work term there. It would be nice to go back during the summer to experience the 24 hours of daylight instead of darkness :P

(Btw, I only got a small glimpse of the Northern Lights on my last morning there. It was cloudy so I couldn't see much, but a small area of the clouds was lit up. Still counts I guess!)

Up next: I am heading over to the UK for Christmas! I will be visiting with some family that I have in Cambridge! I am there for 9 days, so I think I will spend about 5 days with family, a couple days in London and a couple days in Bath/Stonehenge area. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all!
Frohe Weihnachten! (how the Swiss German say it)
Hyvää Joulua! (how the Finnish say it)

(Enjoying Glüggi in the cold of Rovaniemi)

Scotland Roadtrip

So at first I was hoping to update my blog on a weekly, or at least bi-weekly basis. It has now been more than a month. Whoops. Well, I am just going to skip right over October (even though it was full of adventures - Paris, Luxembourg and Berlin) and talk about the first week of November which I spent in SCOTLAND!!

So Monika and I found cheap deals which flew from Switzerland to London and then London to Glasgow. It cost us 90 CHF (about equal to CND$) for 4 plane tickets, so it was definitely worth while. On Tuesday we arrived in London in the afternoon and our flight to Glasgow didn't leave until the next morning. So we thought why not hit the town! We bought tickets to a Chicago theatrical production which was EXCELLENT. After the production though we were hoping to buy a CD or something so we were taking our time. Apparently too much time, as we were quickly hussled out of the building, the doors literally closing and locking right at our heals. I have never seen a theater empty so quickly! After the show, we wandered around the town until 3am. Although it was neat to see some of the main sights (London Bridge, London Tower, London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Picadilly Square) by the end of it Monika and I were so exhausted. It was an hour bus ride back to the airport, where we took a nice nap, and then found a comfy spot on the floor of the airport for some more napping.

How we saw London - in the dead of night.

We arrived at the Glasgow Prestwick airport only to find that the Prestwick airport was in fact about 75 miles south of the Glasgow airport. Whoops. Big whoops. The biggest issue was that the car I had rented was waiting for us at the Glasgow airport. Luckily, the rental company also had a booth in Prestwick and they were kind to us and sorted out my mistake. Won't let that one happen again!

So off we went... in our car... down the left side of the road! It surprisingly wasn't too difficult to get used to. Having the gear shift on my left side was probably the weirdest thing. And only once when I turned left did I go on the wrong side of the road. Luckily Monika was there to correct me quickly.

We drove for most of the first day... saw a lot of the Scottish Highlands, went past a few Lochs on windy roads and stopped at the Harry Potter bridge! Although not as fantastic as seen in the film, it was still neat to see. We finished in a small town of Mallaig, where we would be catching a ferry in the morning. We found a nice spot to park our car, where we could also sleep, and then went to find some food. Being a TINY little town in Scotland there wasn't much choice and we stuck out as tourists like a sore thumb. We found a spot, made a fool of ourselves, and ordered some delicious fish, made our way back to the car for a cold night sleep. Though the car we were given this time was definitely much more comfortable than the one we slept in in Sardinia.

Cozied up for the night in the car.

Come morning we went directly to the ferry in hopes of catching the first one across to Isle of Skye. As we were paying for our ticket the lady says, "Okay just line up. Make sure you park backwards as you will be backing onto the ferry." And I think in my mind, BACKING ONTO THE FERRY!?!?! I am terrible at backing up in a car, and I knew this was just a disaster waiting to happen. But we had no choice, so backed onto the ferry we did. I failed miserably. By the end of it the guy directing me started wheeling his hands in the direction I was supposed to be turning the steering wheel cause he could tell I had no idea what I was doing. :S

One the ferry heading to Isle of Skye

Finally we made it onto the island though and we headed up North to the tip of the island. The further up we got the smaller the road got, and eventually it became a one-lane two-way road that went through unfenced farmlands. Fun to drive on? Yeah actually it was. Plus, although Scotland is known for its rain, we were lucky and had a beautifully shining sun. We stopped a few times to look at the funny sheep and cows and the beautiful ocean views. We were doing a hike and our instructions of the starting point said "turn at the phone box near Kilmaluag." Now considering we were in the middle of nowhere on a one-lane road with animals blocking our path we weren't exactly sure what type of phone box we were looking for. And then we turned the corner, and standing there in the middle of nowhere was a classic UK Red Phone Booth. Amused us greatly. =)

A classic red phone booth, in the middle of nowhere on Isle of Skye.

We didn't read the hike beforehand, rather we just looked at the pictures and decided it would be pretty. The first instruction "Start the walk by crossing the cattle grid and then turning immediately left on a boggy path." Now "boggy" in Scottish terms means really really boggy. And all we had were running shoes. At the beginning we tried leaping around the mud and puddles, but by the end of it we had given up and accepted the fact we were going to get filthy. The hike was beautiful though - along the rolling hills to the top of the vertical plunging cliffs of the coastline. We then climbed down those cliffs to the water, and walked along it spotting a few otters (we looked for whales and dolphins as well, but no luck there). Finally making it back to the car, our shoes were full of mud, animal poop and water. Not only were they not wearable but they smelt, they smelt bad. Luckily I had brought flip flops, so I could take off my shoes and still drive.

Beautiful cliffs by the ocean side :)

The result of walking unprepared on a "boggy" path...

We then headed up to Inverness, enjoying more beautiful views of the highland along the way. We arrived when it was dark and went to our couchsurfing house. Oh, I guess I haven't talked about couch surfing yet as the first weekend I did it was in Paris. Couchsurfing is a online community of people who offer up their couch to travelers, and then when they travel the favour is returned to them by them also crashing on people's couches. Monika and I have been couchsurfing for quite a few weeks now. Although initially we looked into it due to the cost savings, it has actually been quite an interesting experience. It amazing to see how trusting people are to complete strangers, allowing them to sleep in their house, and even give a key to the guests sometimes. Anyway, so we had arranged to couchsurf with someone in Inverness (Northern Scotland). Unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time with him, but we had some interesting conversations and enjoyed spending some time with his kid.

The next morning we headed back down South from Inverness, along Loch NESS!! It was an absolutely gorgeous road following Loch Ness with beautiful fall colours (again only one lane), and we kept our eye open to attempt to spot Nessie!! We stopped in Foyers and went for a hike down to the lake to explore around. I had planned on maybe going swimming but it was much too cold, so I instead just dipped my feet in. Oh, and Monika and I gave Nessie some nutrition for the winter months by relieving ourselves on the mountain side by the lake. ;) That's what happens when you don't pay for accommodation... when you gotta go you gotta go. I must say we have become quite adept at peeing anywhere. :P

Dipping my feet in Loch Ness.

We got on the road again, and although we hadn't had any bad experiences yet, we were in for a wake up call. We were driving on a 2-way highway again, with no divider in the middle. I was on the correct side of the road, driving the speed limit at 60 miles/hr. And then I come around a bend and there, directly in front of me, on MY side of the road is another car. It had also been raining, so the road was slippery and this could have gone VERY badly. Luckily, as I saw this car and I saw that they weren't going to get out of my way I swerved, missed the car and got back into my lane. My nerves just about shot at this point, both Monika and I are trying to catch our breath knowing that we were lucky in so many ways for having avoided an accident.

Finally making it to our last destination: Edinburgh. Which for all you folk who have no idea how to pronounce that city (I didn't know either) it is pronounced "Edinbro." I had looked into parking spots ahead of time (yay for Google Street View!) and found a nice spot at the North of the city so we didn't have to do much city driving (other cars on the wrong side of the road terrify me). I also made sure there was a night bus which accessed this spot because we were going on a PUB CRAWL!! We had been on a pub crawl by the same company in Berlin and had a blast so we thought we would try it out again. The guide leading the crawl was a Canadian... from Edmonton in fact! So we had fun chatting about Canada, and overall it was a fairly tame but fun night.

Jaegerbomb train - like dominoes the shots were knocked into the glasses!

After another comfortable night in the car, we went to the city of Edinburgh for a free walking tour. It was an excellent 4.5 hours history lesson of the city. Not only did we learn about history from thousands of years ago and the rock of destiny, but we also learned about the spot where JK Rowling wrote the first 2 Harry Potter books and the buildings of the town which gave her motivation for Hogwarts.

Finishing up our adventure we headed back to Prestwick (not Glasgow...haha) for another night sleep in the airport. This was the first time we got lost, trying to get out of Edinburgh. I had printed off maps of the area, but it wasn't much help because in Scotland they don't label ANYTHING!! So we headed in the generally right direction, and eventually made it somewhere. I think we probably did a good extra 40 miles of driving, but it was funny and we eventually made it!

We had completely run out of pounds at this point, and all we had left for food was cashews and bread. So we had delicious (not) cashew sandwiches for dinner, and then set ourselves up for a good night sleep. Overall, Scotland roadtrip was a success. :):)

Our bed for the night in the airport.

What's coming up next?
This weekend I will be going caving in Switzerland with the IAESTE program.
Next weekend I am going down to see Pisa and Venice.
The following weekend I will be going up to Kiel (Northern Germany) to visit my friend Holly who is working there.
AND THEN I AM GOING ON A TWO WEEK PAID TRIP TO FINLAND!! My company is mainly based in Finland and we have our team meeting coming up, so my boss is sending me a week early to attend a Manufacturing Technology Training course. And then I extended my trip by 4 days in order to have some time in Finland for actual traveling. I haven't quite figured out what I am doing yet, but be sure to watch for updates!

I am missing all of you and I promise I will try to update my blog more often! Perhaps if I get a chance before Italy I will share some adventures from Paris, Luxembourg and Berlin. :)