Blogs from Switzerland, Europe - page 255

Life is zooming by for me at the moment. I don't have any crazy cultural tales to share. This is the country where trains run on time, the grass is always short, there are unlimited supplies of chocolate & cheese & you can hear cow bells tinkling in the distance. The contrast to India is astonishing, but I love both places. I've started working in "proper service" every second weekend now & have consequently mastered the art of folding cloth napkins. Ha. There is a knack to it you know. But then again there is often a right & a "wrong" way to do everything in Switzerland, especially in the hospitality industry. Sometimes I wonder what on earth I'm doing here! I don't make a habit of being covered in beer foam or deep frying lettuces, ... read more

Well a busy and distinctly expensive month but has been a lot of fun. Will post more shortly but am gonna attempt to get some photos up that tell the tale! Ok... so due to breaking my camera (ok ok i dropped it down the loo!) I can't load pix on atm as my memory card does not appear to want to work right now. Shame but if you're on facebook, the photos are on there tagged by others. Moral of the story, do not let me near anything expensive. Tally of losses and breakages now is my wallet, my phone which i dropped on the floor and now my camera. Hoping it'll be like when i washed my phone in the washing machine and after a dry out it worked again after a week. So ... read more

Words are truly going to fail me miserably I think as I try to describe what an awesome introduction I had to Switzerland at the completely random event of the annual Couchsurfing Paella Party started by one very zany Swiss guy from Gossau. Firstly, within couchsurfing anybody can start a meeting/party/gathering - all you do is list it under the meeting page with the details and people can sign up to attend. The first year Vince (the paella party organiser) did it about six people were there...last year about 30 turned up...this year a whopping 140 showed up - including me!! It had that familiar festival spirit...he had managed to convince his neighbour to let us camp in his field (for the right price of course - this is Switzerland - nothing is even cheap here ... read more

Dear all, Welcome to my long-promised TravelBlog! This entry, my first, will cover my Geneva trip from 1-13 July 2007. This will only put me 2 weeks behind (I’m already playing catch-up), so stay tuned for further entries covering Lyon, the Netherlands (Nijmegen, Amsterdam, The Hague and Leiden), Berlin and Prague. Unfortunately, I've been having some problems organising my photos on internet cafe computers, so this first entry will have to be photoless for the time being :( A note of warning to those on my Geneva trip who I have added to my subscriber list: don't bother reading this entry - you will find nothing new here! For those of you who don’t know (and are therefore probably wondering why on Earth I would waste two weeks travel time in Geneva), the purpose for my ... read more

Around the world in 716 days Not nearly as determined and swift as Phileas Fogg but still 366 days faster than Fernando Magellan's expedition we have completed our journey around the world. And as it happens to be if you follow a circle you end up at the point where you once started. So we are back in a world of busy people, easy meals and useless tv-series. We have the feeling that - apart from private things (including some real tragedies) - not much has changed. People's routines and everyday life are still very much the same which makes it relatively easy to come back. It is also a world where we meet good friends and great opportunities. Which furthermore facilitates our re-entry into our new old life. We really can consider ourselves lucky. What ... read more