Blogs from North-East, Switzerland, Europe - page 50

Hey all, Well what a weeks its been, full of learning and adventure. I’ve hit that point this week where everything’s coming together a bit more and I feel like the season is well and truly underway, my riding fakie is coming on, Nick and I are getting a lot more adventurous in our attempts to find powder and we’ve started on the rails and kickers! Fisrt I should say that their has been no snow since we arrived back in Davos, however the area is big enough to still have fresh powder even after a few weeks of no snow, it just means its harder to find. On the advise of our instructor housemates we brought and learnt how to use avalanche transceivers. But don’t worry, its like asking “do you know CRP?” I bet ... read more

Liani and I left London on New Years Eve and flew to Zurich Switzerland. Coming in over Zurich all you could see were fields blanketed in snow. Zurich airport is extremely modern, from the airport you catch a train into Zurich main train station. From there we walked through the snowy streets and found our hotel for the night. It was new years eve, so we found where we were going to view the fireworks for the night. Considering some of the new years eve celebrations I have been in, Zurich was extremely civilised and controlled. The Swiss are very polite and efficient, and their NYE party was no exception to this. We enjoyed the fireworks out over the river. The next moring we were up early and on our way to Vals thermal Baths in ... read more

Hey everyone, Ok so Bika got here fine and no major disasters befell us but there were a few interesting moments in each of our travels. For me; I purchased my tickets last week for what i thought was going to be a charter bus service to and from the air port. when i got to the bus stop however there sat a small 10 person van filled to the brim with worried and late travelers arguing in three different languages. The bus driver took the 10 of us that fit,and picked up the bus he was supposed to have used in the first place. Let me tell you, Mr. Toads Wild Ride cant hold a candle to a late Italian bus driver. From there it was pretty smooth sailing just a little traffic to put ... read more

Well, I'm still not back home, so you get another entry! So, I was just sitting in my hotel room wondering how the bathroom fan turns itself on and off. Even after some ten days here, I don’t know. Is it on a timer, based on when you turn the light on/off? Have the Swiss perfected a stench detector? Perhaps there’s a humidistat? Regardless, I feel less than comfortable not being in complete control of this device. On the topic of comfortable, I had a conversation with my friend Mats the other night. He has recently moved back to Zürich after spending a few years in the US. We got to talking about how it’d be great if you could pick the best parts of a place/culture to create the ideal place for you. So, this ... read more

First, a few interesting tidbits of current events, culled from the English language supplement of El Pais, part of the International Herald Tribune that I picked up this morning in Madrid at the airport. Did you know that Diego Maradona recently interviewed Fidel Castro for a broadcast on Argentine TV, and that this former soccer star (apparently recovering nicely from stomach stapling surgery) plans to lead an anti-Bush demonstration in Argentina during the upcoming summit? Apparently he's organizing a protest train from Buenos Aires to the sight of the summit. We live in a crazy world. The Spanish royal family has a new member, Leonor, daughter of Felipe and Leitzia. Felipe is the prince and current heir. There have been calls for him to move to change Spains rule of succession, which apparently favors a male ... read more