Lausanne and Geneva weekend

Finally the time has come to visit Geneva! I was getting worried that I would run out of weekends before I made it to one of Switzerland's most famous cities. Since one really only needs one day in Geneva, we decided to spend saturday in Lausanne. I'd already been there, but I wanted to see the Olympics Museum, and we made plans to meet up with Charles (old praktikant from Luxembourg), who goes to uni there!

The group was me, Adrienn, Lindsey, Richard, Travis, Evan, and Evan's friend Travis (it was a double Travis trip!!!) Darren joined in at the last minute, which was cool. I only realized that he was coming when we all got off the train in Lausanne, haha.



Group pic in Lausanne
back: Darren, (Baden) Travis, Richard, Evan, (visiting) Travis
front: Lindsey, me, Adrienn









We arrived in Lausanne mid-afternoon. The trip had gotten off to a late start, since most of us were out late in Zurich the night before. Evan, Travis (non-Baden Travis) and I had attended the Thrice concert, it was awesome! The venue was pretty small but there was still a decent crowd getting pretty into the music. Afterwards a whole bunch more praktikants showed up at the club, and we had a bit of a mosh pit going to the rock-style music that was playing. It was lots of fun, and we caught the morning train back to Baden to catch a few zzz's before Lausanne.

After checking into our (awesome) hostel and buying food, we walked down to the lake and the Olympics Museum. There they had exhibits about all the various sports and cities involved in both the summer and winter games. We watched a couple films, and there was a weird artsy section devoted to the good and bad aspects associated with competition. It was a really cool museum, very much worth going to.




Sometimes you have to just stop and smell the flowers














Adrienn and Lake Geneva














Olympic record high jump....Linds, me and Adrienn can't even touch it!
















Weird brain synapsesque room with headphones and randomness.











Fencing stuff! This is for you Alex :)
















TV's on the roof, suuuure














After a nice cooked hostel dinner we went to a bar to meet Charles. He brought lots of his friends, and it was awesome partying with them and catching up with Charles. After the bar we went to a "nearby" club. It was a fun place and we stayed there dancing awhile before returning to the hostel.







Adrienn and I at the club









The only picture that Charles made it in to that night. Captures the party atmosphere I guess, haha.










The next morning was pretty uneventful (unless you count showering), and we slowly got ready and headed to Geneva. It was a beautiful sunny day (yay for weather predictions being wrong!) so we had a nice walk through the park to the Red Cross Museum. On the way we passed the United Nations buildings, but decided not to go inside. The museum calmed our silly moods with some intense stories about the history of the Red Cross.



Travis, Linds, Richard, me and Darren being excited about the park













Flags of all participating countries in front of the UN building... do you see Canada?












Red Cross and Crecent flags

















By then we were ready for some relaxing in the sun, so we picking a nice spot by the lake in a park and chilled out. I slept and did some drawing, it was a nice way to spend an afternoon. We had time to take a walk along the lake and see the fountain and cathedral before catching the train back to Baden.




Relaxing in the sun














Travis soaking up some rays by Lake Geneva













Other Travis checking out the Geneva fountain













Adrienn, me and Richard walking through the streets of Geneva

New Praktikants and Beer Gardens

New Calgarian praktikants are already starting to arrive!!! 3 new Kehl guys arrived on the weekend: Paul, Dieter and Brandon. They are already into the Baden lifestyle, and things at Kehl are working out well, though a bit crowded (Henry and Bernard are back in Calgary already...so at least it's not SUPER crowded....bye guys!!!).

In addition to the new praktikants, Olivier (old praktikant from Montreal) is visiting Baden for the week! It was great to see him again, and last night we got together for a jam session...Evan and Olivier played some awesome stuff as usual, while Pat and I tried to keep up.

Also visiting are 2 of Adrienn's friends from Calgary: Neil and Matt, so we had a huge crowd of people partying that night!

Last Wednesday after an awesome soccer game we all went out to the beer gardens for the first time this year! The weather was great, and everybody showed up. After last call we moved the party over to Pickwicks (which included some fountaining), and then to the Berg for the afterparty. I'd say it was a sucessful night of showing the new praktikants how to party in Baden :) Here's some pics, courtesy of me, Vance, Adrienn and Neil:



Party time!














Warren, Lindsey, Victor (and others) at the beer gardens













Richard and new praktikats: Pat, Darren, Brandon, and Paul












Travis welcomes Olivier back to Baden












Antonio and Adrienn













Andre, Torsten, Holgar, Alain and Jenny at the beer gardens














Adrienn's friends, Neil and Matt....aren't the darling?












Richard, Dieter (new Kehl praktikant), Dan, Nick, Kevin and Tommy having some beer.












Tommy, Rich, Naveen and Vance... not sure who took this one (wasn't me!), but I wonder if they ordered the 5-litre beer?











Neil pulls out the guns... Adrienn is amused












Evan and Travis jousting with some random poles on the way to Pickwicks, haha













Victor goes into the fountain!
Sometime around now Vance's glasses get mangled... he made his choice










Olivier get's his long-overdue fountain toss (we resisted the urge to throw him in when he left in December)

















Neil also went in, for somer reason, haha. Pulls a Devon/Kevin camera move though... I'm pretty sure it still works (freshwater Linds, get it right next time!)















Afterparty at the Berg












Nicholas, Travis and Dan, either excited or scared, lol













Matt, Adrienn, Dieter and Darren














Krispin, Richard, Paul, me, Vance and Pat packed into the tiny Berg hallway












Apples are fun!












Brandon with Matt, who has already learned how to be Swiss!!!

Belguim road trip

For the May 1 long weekend, Adrienn, Lindsey and I decided to do a girls road trip to Luxembourg and Belguim. Our goals were war memorials, museums and churches. Haha, ya right...or goals were Belgiun beer, waffles, chocolate, and mussels.

The trip started out semi-smoothly with getting lost leaving Zurich and a few other places on the way to Luxembourg. Luckily, we had a road atlas and two sets of printed directions, so we were able to get back on track every time. None of us was in a rush to get anywhere, so it worked out well and the driving wasn't very stressful.

We hadn't booked anything for friday night, so we looked for a place to renegade camp near Luxembourg. After a sketchy graveyard encounter, we finally found a forested area off a side road that was pretty out of the way. It was an alright sleep, though we had all forgotten how far north Luxembourg was from Switzerland and were all cold. Also, the tent was on a slant, so we kept sliding to the bottom of the tent, haha. Oh well, at least it was free :)





Our renegade camp spot










We drove into Luxembourg City and walked around looking at sights. It is a very beautiful place, with a big wall surrounding a nice little valley. We walked along the top of the valley and in the passages within the walls.





Luxembourg City













Adrienn and Lindsey in the passages


















Lindsey and I walking along the top of the valley













Me, Adrienn and Lindsey in Luxembourg















Dramatic sky over the city of Luxembourg










Next Adrienn took the wheel and we drove to Bruges, a pretty little city in Belguim, without much incident. We found our hostel with ease (no renegade camping this night, haha), which was nice despite the sketchy balcony and/or fire escape and penitentiary-like showers.

It was a very lonely planetesque night: first we ate at a nice resturant reccomended by the book, and then went to t Brugs Beertje, a beer house with a wide selection of Belguin beer. It had a similar vibe to Bottlescrew Bill's, including an extensive menu showing which region each beer was from. We each tried a few kinds, and then moved on to another bar reccomended by the Lonely Planet. It was alright, though, too loud for talking so we just had one drink and headed home.





Road trippin!
















Adreinn balanced precariously on our balcony
















Nice snset in Bruges













Me and Linds by the canal












Me and Linds trying out some yummy Belguin beer at dinner













Adreinn, shortly before she accidentally inhaled cajan pepper from her dinner








On sunday we walked around Bruges, which is a nice little town. We saw all the standard sights and churches, and spent a good amout of time looking for the ideal place to get Belguin waffles! It was totally worth the search, they were amazing....mmmm.......

We saw windmills on our map, and wanted to check them out so we did a drive-by sighting on the way out of town (yay for cars!). Hooray, i have seen a real windmill now! They were cool.





Lindsey and Adrienn in Bruges













The city of Bruges













Adreinn checking out the city












Me and Adreinn getting our D&D on













Watching a woman make lace













Adreinn, me and Linds in Bruges












Really cool pic from Bruges













Eating Belgiun Waffles!













Belguin waffles.... mmm.....














Drive-by sighting of a windmill











We decided to stop by the town of Gent on our way to Brussles. It was a good idea, we were able to drive right into town (yay again for cars!), check out a few things and head out within a couple hours. Gent is a nice little town (I guess like most smaller cities in Belgium, lol)...not much else to say about it :)




The city of Gent

















Me and Linds posing in front of the mobil-waffle truck. Oh, and a church or something














Linds and Adrienn doing a silly pose














Belguin beer!












We drove to Brussles next, and decided to find a hostel to stay at since we didn't want to camp in the cold. The first place we tried was full, but they directed us to another hostel that was really nice.

Sunday night we went out in Brussels to have mussels and other seafood. I ordered a seafood casserole, which ended up being a plate full of sea creatures in sauce. It took all my bravery, and Adreinn's coaching (and wine) to get through my meal, it was really yummy though. We got to know our waiter pretty well, and he ended up inviting us out with his cowokers to party that night. Oh the joy of an all girls trip, haha. We went out to a cool little bar where I tried a cherry beer and we all danced, it was really fun.

The next day we saw a couple sights in Brussels (that we had seen the night before we realized) and then started the journey home. On the way out of the city we did another drive-by sighting of the Atomium that was much cooler than I expected.




The Atomium in Brussels














"Pose for a picture Jacqui"
"But I'm driving!"









The drive home went well, though at one point we were taking a construction detour and ended up going through all sorts of small towns and back roads... not really ideal. It was a good road trip overall, nice and relazed. Belguim is a beautiful country and it was nice to see some of the scenery, and enjoy the quality eating and drinking!





The drive home