Little town ... what a quiet village...

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The one of the many pieces of advice I was given before leaving for my trip, was to always take advantage of the flying. So, this weekend, I did just that by going on a spontaneous trip to Switzerland to visit my old work buddy Jo, who's getting his Executive MBA at the University of Lausanne (UNIL).

Food, Wine, and Merriment
Leaving for an 8am flight from Gatwick on a Saturday morning from my hotel near St Paul's Cathedral meant first walking 15 min to the nearest operating tube (Mansion House), riding 10 min to the transfer station, then taking a half-hour-long train ride to Gatwick (Gatwick Express). This, in turn, meant I left my hotel at 5:30am to make sure I had enough buffer time. Since my hotel is located in the heart of London's financial district, Saturday mornings are not very busy with people -- esp at 5am. I've never been really afraid of walking alone in London, but as I walked down to the Mansion House station platform, my heart was pounding as I realized I was the only one in the entire station. But once the train came, my fears allayed when I realized everyone else was also headed to the airport.

The rest of the trip went smoothly and as we started descent into Geneva, I could see the enormous lake from my window - it was so large that it swallowed up most of my view! From there, I took a train to Lausanne, the town that hosts the University.

Since Jo was in the mountains during the day for a Unil retreat, I had the whole afternoon to myself to explore the city of Lausanne. My first reaction was that it's such a quaint little town -- almost reminding me of the opening scene in Beauty & the Beast, except of course, no one burst into song. My second reaction was that everything was in French and I didn't speak French, except some survival phrases. This was when it really felt like a different country.

The great thing about Lausanne was the streets - winding and curving with small alleyways that could take days to navigate. The terrain is also especially hilly with cobblestone paving everywhere maintaining many car-free zones. There were so many pockets of shopping areas ranging from the high end stores and commercial shops to small boutiques and patisseries.

A highlight on Saturdays is their farmer's markets. Every time I rounded a corner, I discovered another set of farmer's markets. The largest of these markets was the one at Riponne Plaza, right outside the Riponne Metro station. This one had more fresh and cooked food, but adjacent to it was a flea market that sold vintage clothes and dated trinkets. The biggest difference between farmer's markets and the ones in the US is the local product: cheese. There were so many cheese vendors from all over Switzerland selling their delicious products that I was in Cheese Heaven!

As I made my way to Jo's flat, walking up the steep slopes, I noticed how expensive meals were. Restaurants on average cost 30 CHF per meal, where the CHF was almost equivalent to the US dollar. For a city of students, that price seemed unmanageable!

I arrived at Jo's flat and rang the doorbell per his direction. The door buzzed open and a wonderful young man came out to greet me. He introduced himself as FX (short for Francois Xavier) and was Jo's flatmate and a fantastic host. Luckily for me, he was very well-spoken and worldly after having studied at UCSB as an exchange student. After chatting shortly, I left the flat again to explore the rest of Lausanne: I climbed the Cathedral de Notre Dame tower to one of the highest points of the city and fawned over the wonderful views. From there, I walked about 6 miles down to the Ouchy district for the lakeshore and wandered the sculpture garden of the Olympic Museum, a complement to the IOC headquarters based in Lausanne. I also practiced my French at the Creperie d'Ouchy by ordering a chestnut creme crepe. After a few exchanges, the waitress, who probably grew tired of my bad pronunciation, switched to English.

All too soon, I was headed back up the hills to Jo's flat for our mini reunion. In order to complete my Swiss experience, FX and Jo had prepared wine and cheese pairings and of course, fondue! FX had perfected his fondue recipe - simply gruyere, vacherin, and a bit of white wine. Paired with French bread, it was just delectable! How can you not get fat with all this yummy food here?

At this point, FX had invited his friends from Unil to pre-party and I felt like I was sitting amongst the crowd at the UN (though heavily European): French, Russian, American, Italian, Mexican, Portuguese. This is going to sound cheesy, but it was just so amazing to see all these nations come together using English as a common language. In a way, college students are all very similar - prepartying before heading out to a club. Even in a different country with people of different nationalities, at least that formula remains constant. Makes me miss college life!

After shooting the breeze for an hour, we all headed out to Punk Bar, a hip spot in the clubbing district. Contrary to the name, it was just like being in a normal club in the States - even with the same pop music. Just goes to show how much the US influences pop culture. Not long after, we left due to over-inhaling the smokey and sweaty club air and waited for tomorrow to come.

Unil & the Flyback
Sunday started lazily as Jo and I wandered the empty streets of Lausanne looking for a breakfast place - a very rare sight indeed. In the end, we went to the local supermarket chain, Coop, to pick up some pastries. It seems as if the entire town sleeps for a day once Saturday ends.

I'm taken on a tour of Unil, the campus buildings only few minutes' walk from the lakeshore. The weather was very cooperative -- almost too cooperative for me in my rainboots and winter coat. The views were so gorgeous that I envied the students here who see this everyday. The campus itself doesn't have that large university feel. The few buildings I saw were spread across farms and lavender fields. As we walked along the street towards EPFL, one of the top Engineering & CS unis in the world, we passed a small house with a few cows munching on grass, looking as content as ever. Happy cows don't come from California - they come from Switzerland! No wonder the cheese is so good.

We finally came to the Rolex Learning Center, a shining beacon amongst all the depressingly dour Engineering buildings on campus. The building was designed by two Japanese architects who won a design competition in 2004. At first, I wondered why the structure had so many open holes in it until I was told that it looked like a slice of Swiss cheese from above. How cute!

If only I had more time to explore the interior, but alas, I needed to head back to Geneva to catch my plane. Jo accompanied me back on the train to Geneva, while we enjoyed the mass vineyards and farmland from our window. Geneva has much more of a busy city vibe than Lausanne and definitely felt less foreign as there were so many English speakers - mostly American and Canadian. Could be the various international organizations here, including the UN.

After a nice long meal of Flammenkuche, a German pizza-like dish, we said our goodbyes and I was on my way back home. The trip back was slightly less smooth - I actually got grilled by the UK customs officer about my reasons for coming into the UK, to which he responded with "Your story seems a little weak, please provide your departure details next time". I guess this is evidence of UK's push to capping the number of foreign workers entering their borders. If I worked there semi-permanently and required multi-entry, I could have registered for the iris recognition scanner. Makes life so much easier!

From what little I've seen of Lausanne, this is a place I could see myself living for a short while:
Pros:
- Beautiful views (natural + city)
- Delicious food (cheese, fondue, chocolate)
- High salary (even cashiers earn CHF 4000 a month!)
- Great place to learn French
- Close to the Alps for skiing

Cons:
- Not used to the smoking culture, especially since I'm from CA
- No company-sponsored health insurance (purchase of private insurance is required)
- Food is expensive, especially meat
- Limited choices of restaurants

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Photos

Farmer's Market at Riponne Plaza
The entire plaza is filled with vendors, ranging from cheeses to vintage clothes to flea market trinkets

Lakeshore at sunset
Alps in the background

Chestnut Crepe
Creperie d'Ouchy