Ibiza

Alright, this post is pretty late but it's because I was waiting until I got pictures from Travis, Kevin and Devon. I still don't have Devon's pics, but I'll add them when I do. Pretty much the only pictures I have from the weekend is from when we went to watch the sunset, since I didn't bring my camera to the clubs or beach, and that is basically all we did.

Anyways, on Sept 16-19 a bunch of us went on a trip to Ibiza! For those of you that don't know, Ibiza is an island off the east coast of Spain that is famous for dance clubs, tourists, and awesome beaches. Most people arrived on Thursday evening (Devon, Tommy, Travis, Nate, Kevin, Warren) and then Lindsey and I arrived on Friday evening. The goals for the trip were to party in some of the worlds biggest clubs, and spend the days relaxing on the beach. Unfortunately, the weather while we were there was cloudy/rainy, which limited the beach time. But we made the most of it and still had a really fun trip. Most of us pre-bought tickets for all the clubs we wanted to go to, which turned out to be semi-unnecessary, but oh well.

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Lindsey and I arrived in Ibiza around 11pm, after a journey from Zurich, to Barcelona, and then to the island. We took a cab (to save time) to theFlorida Center Apartments where we were staying and found out which rooms the guys were in. We were staying in the town of San Antonio, which is on the northwest side of the island, on the opposite side from Ibiza town. Our apartments were nice, we had 2 rooms, each with its own kitchen area. Because Lindsey booked her plane tickets late, we were one bed short for the 8 of us, which was solved in various ways. On the first night Lindsey and I shared one of the single beds. On the second night we pushed 2 single beds together, but ended up with 4 people in it (long story, involving Devon pouring water on Tommy in his bed, haha). The last night me, Lindsey and Travis shared 2 pushed together single beds, and it was easily the most comfortable sleep.





View from our apartment. The weird egg thing is a monument for Columbus or something.











Nate, Kevin and Warren's room (ours was pretty similar)













View of San Antonio in from our apartment in the evening.









I'll take this time to fill you in on what we missed on Thursday night. The guys went to Amnesia and saw Paul Van Dyke, which was apparently an awesome show. On Friday they went to the beach (Friday was the only sunny day, grrr) and watched the sunset in the evening. In retrospect it would have been sweet to go on Thursday night, but oh well.



Warren drinking juice on the beach. If only it was this sunny every day...















Sunset on friday night








Anyways, back to Friday night. Lindsey and I arrived at the apartments around 11:30pm to find everyone napping. We had obviously not adjusted to Spain sleep schedule yet, so were all ready to party while they were all having their evening siesta. No worries, we bought some liquor and started pre-drinking. Eventually everyone woke up and joined us, and then we headed to Es Paradis around 1:30am. Everything went smoothly with our ticket reservations, and we walked in to a really cool looking club that was decked out with a tropical theme. It was still early though, so the place wasn't too busy yet. We decided to go back to apartment and enjoy cheaper-than-club drinks and return to the club later.




Me, Tommy and Warren all dressed up for the club (nice shades Warren)














Kevin, Warren and Nate ready to go out













Travis and Lindsey partying on the balcony









Es Paradis was a really cool club. The inside was decorated all tropical and there was a pretty good crowd there later in the night. We danced, bought a couple 11euro drinks (ow, my bank account) and met some people. Something you should know about Ibiza, about 80% of the people you see there are from England, it's insane. Anyways, we stayed out pretty late, and Lindsey and I even went for a late night swim in the ocean on our way home, haha. When we were leaving the club, Devon decided that it would be more fun to get kicked out so he got somebody to boost him up to the platform where the hired dancers dance. His plan succeeded, and he got kicked out, haha.




Es Paradis, the club we went to on friday night. It's in San Antonio, really close to where we were staying.









The inside of Es Paradis was really sweet, I liked the layout and atmosphere.













Devon dancing on the private dancing platform. Notice the ladder lowing from the ceiling on the left so the bouncers can come and kick him out.









The next day we got off to a pretty late start and spent a lot of time lazing around in our rooms. We went for breakfast at a nearby restaurant: 3euro full english breakfast, can't go wrong with that (we actually had the same thing for breakfast the next two days too, haha).

After browsing around in some stores for beachware, we took the bus to a remote beach on the west coast of the island. It was really nice, though it would have been better if it was sunny. We chillaxed there for awhile, and Travis managed to get stung by a jellyfish in the water. He refused offers from a few people to pee on him, and managed to not die from the sting.



Nate and Kevin trying on some hats. Nate looks particularly enthusiastic about his.












Kevin and Warren sporting the mullet look. Just give'r!

















Tommy in his beach bun look, trying to soak up the rare ray of sunlight.













Travis's medusa sting










We went back to the apartments to relax and change, and then went to find a nice place for dinner. After a bit of searching, we chose a place along the beach, and embarked on the complicated task of deciding who should sit where. Basically, it was very overcomplicated, because people were sharing appetizers with some people, and wine with others, and apparently you need to sit directly next to everyone you are sharing something with, haha. Eventually we were all sorted out, and ordered. Lindsey and I shared some muscles, and then I had seafood paella with for my main dish (almost all of us did). It was delicious, I particularly enjoyed the crab legs, though they were tricky to eat.

We were all stuffed, and returned to the apartments for an evening siesta. About midnight we changed and pre-drank for the night, and then made it to Eden around 3. Unfortunately it still wasn't busy, apparently Eden was not the place to be that night. We stayed for awhile and danced on the mostly empty dance floor, and then left to check out some other clubs. It was pouring rain at that point, so we semi-ran to a club called Soul City that was the first and only hip-hop music club that I went to in Ibiza, it was pretty busy though, and decent. Me, Tommy, Nate and Travis were ahead of the others, and walked right into the club. We were wondering where the others were, and eventually Lindsey appeared saying that everybody else got asked to pay 10euro at the door and didn't want to. She got in by saying she wanted to "check to see if here friends were here", haha, nice move Lindsey. The five of us stayed there for awhile (we didn't see the other guys again that night until way later at the apartment) and then tried out a few other clubs on the street. Nothing was really busy, some places were reeeally dead, we were the only people in one club, just partying on the dance floor by ourselves, haha. Eventually we decided to call it a night, and walked back through the rain (the streets were like rivers!) to the apartment, where we saw Devon, Kevin and Warren. They had had an interesting night, finishing with Devon pushing Kevin into a fountain. Warren avenged this by pushing Devon in, and both were soaking we since the fountain was deceivingly deep. It was only then that both guys realized that they had their cameras in their pockets...oops. They dried them out overnight, and luckily they both worked the next day.




Eden: not the most popular club on the island













The deep fountain that Kevin and Devon were in. Note the danger of electrocution signs, wtf.











The next day we had our standard English Breakfast and then mostly lazed around in the apartments since it was bad weather. During a brief moment of sun a few of us attempted to go to the beach, but it started raining when we got there...booerns. Luckily, by evening the sky had cleared, just in time for the sunset. After a snack of waffles (so sweet....yum/eck) we went and sat on the shore near Cafe del Mar and waited for the sunset. It was really pretty, and we all took a bajillion pictures. After it was over a few people clapped, which was weird.




The crowd waiting for sunset.














Cool wave picture from Travis














Sunsetty goodness












Me and the Ibiza sunset.














Nate, Kevin, Warren and Devon watching the sunset







After the sunset we got cleaned up for dinner and found a nice seafood place. I got sea bass, which the waitress recommended, and it was really good. I'm not the biggest seafood fan, but I figured I should take advantage of being somewhere with fresh seafood. Lindsey and I shared muscles again, and I tried some clams too. Mmm, yummy meal.





Nice Spanish seafood dinner.
left to right: Tommy, Lindsey, me, Travis, Nate, Warren, Devon, Kevin








We changed and then got on the bus(aka, squished on, the bus was super crowded) to Privilege, which is allegedly the biggest club in the world. It's located inbetween San Antonio and Ibiza town, which is why we had to take the bus there. Warren decided to stay home that night, because he was feeling sick (too much rain I guess) and Kevin was too lazy to hurry to the bus, so he didn't show up until later.

Privilege was really cool. It has a big swimming pool in the middle (you can't swim in it though) and the dj sits on a platform over the water. The music they played that night was really good, lots of progressive trance which I love. Devon, Nate and Kevin decided to check out Amnesia, which was nearby and was having a foam party that night. I saw pictures after, and it looked really sweet, would have been cool to go to that. I had a good time at Privilege though, danced a lot and stayed till the place closed at 6am. The low point of the evening was paying 8 euros for a bottle of water. It was highway robbery, but I was so incredibly thirsty that it was worth it. Tommy and I (the only ones left at Privilege) walked down the road to the bus stop and somehow met up with the foam party crowd. They were soaked (apparently foam is not the only thing sprayed, they also got a firehose and champagne) and freezing...I was suddenly happy about my choice to stay at Privilege. Devon almost got Tommy to give him his shirt because he was so cold, haha, oh Tommy...




Lindsey, upside-down Tommy, me and Devon on the bus to Privilege












Privilege, the biggest club in the world












Inside Privilege...you can sort or make out the swimming pool and dj booth through the blurryness...I guess this just give you the impression of what it looks like when you're really drunk, haha












The foam party at Amnesia (I wasn't there, but it looked sweet)














Kevin and Nate in the aftermath of the foam party...









The next day was sunny, but we only had time to go to the airport, boo. On the plane back home we played the Swiss air chocolate game. For those who don't know, on Swiss air they always come around with a basket of chocolate for the passengers, and usually everybody takes one. Though in my opinion, if they are passing around the basket, it's basically saying "help yourself". Anyways, the game is that you have to take at least one more chocolate than the person before you (or twice as many, for advanced players). The stewdess wasn't too happy though, we got some mean glares. Oh well, chocolate is yummy.



Sticker on a baggage cart at the Madrid airport! Go Alberta!










Ibiza was a fun trip, though it would have been a lot better if it was a) sunnier and b) more crowded in the clubs. If I ever go again, I would go in August, which it the peak tourist time. Though, I probably don't need to go back. There's nothing really special there, but it's something to check off my list of places I want to visit someday.

Bern

Last Saturday I went to Bern with Adrienn, Shane and Shiraz. Bern is the capital of Switzerland, which I didn't know until I came over here. If you had asked me before I probably would have answered Geneva or Zurich (did YOU know that Bern was the capital?). The weather was rainy, so we bundled up with our sweaters and umbrellas and got on the train. Bern is only an hour away, so we just went for the afternoon (hooray for sleeping in!).

The first thing we say was the Einstein Museum. It was a bit hard to find due to stupid street numbering, but we eventually made it to this tiny museum located in Einstein's old apartment. He was living in Bern, working at the patent office, while doing work that eventually won him the Nobel Prize. It was really interesting reading about Einstein's life, it was cool to find out that he was a student and professor at the ETH in Zurich where I work.

Next we checked out Bern's astrological clock, that was reminiscent of the one we saw in Prague (but not as cool). Just like in Prague, every hour there is a little show as the clock strikes the hour (once again, not as cool as the one in Prague, but we weren't expecting it to be). It was weird because the clock show actually starts at 4 minutes to the hour with a rooster crowing, then you wait and there is a jester ringing a bell, then you wait, etc. I think it would have been a lot better is everything happened at once. Hmm, I should go into the business of clock design... (speaking of which, that reminds me of something we were discussing on the way home on the train, about how the world should evolve to a metric time system. It just makes sense, everything else is metric! Hmm, enough geekyness and back to the trip description...). Something that is cool about Bern is that many of the main sidewalks are covered by arcades, which is like walking in an outdoor hallway. Perfect for a rainy day.




Adrienn and Shane waiting for the clock show.










Contender for the coolest fountain in Switzerland: an ogre eating babies, haha, why is that on a fountain? Shane and Adrienn do a reenactment.









The city of Bern is named after the German word for bear (bär), which was the first animal hunted in the area by some dude during the construction of the city (nice story eh?). Anyways, to celebrate this, Bern's canton flag has a bear on it, and they also have bear pits in the city. Yup, bear pits..it's as if you were at the zoo and were at a below-ground-level bear enclosure, cept instead you are just walking in the city. Unfortunatelyy, due to the bad weather we didn't see any bears (they must have been hiding inside), but at least we tried. I haven't decided yet whether I approve of having bears in a pit in a city (it is a nice pit, and apparently they are very well cared for).





Shane and I beside the bear-less bear pit














Next we headed over to the parliament building. Since it was late afternoon by then, we had missed all the tours (man, what's the deal with us and missing parliament tours? See Budapest). The coolest part about the parliament building was a wicked fountain they had out front (cooler than the ogrer fountain, but not as humorous). It had 26 jets of water, one for each of the Swiss Cantons, and they were constantly changing and doing different patterns. The fountain was basically luring you to try and run through without getting randomly sprayed when one of the jets went off. They boys ran through the fountain (Shiraz got wet, haha), but were shown up by some crazy Italian girls that were playing Russian roulette by standing on the jets and seeing who got soaked first (keep in mind it was a chilly rainy day). Eventually they were just running around in the water, it was very entertaining.





The parliament building















Shiraz, Shane and me by the canton fountain.











One of the crazy Italian girls that were getting soaked in the fountain.












Nice view of the city from behind the parliament building. Too bad it's so foggy, but it kinda creates a cool effect.

Thanksgiving Dinner in Baden

Last night the praktikants celebrated Thanksgiving (a week early, to not conflict with trips) at Ziegelhau (Adrienn, Shane and Evan's apartment). It was Evan's idea for a potluck style dinner, so everyone brought a side dish or dessert and Evan, Shane, Adreinn and I cooked chicken and stuffing. We obviously wanted to have turkey, but couldn't find it anywhere to buy so settled on 6 chickens for 15 people.

Adrienn came over around 1 to start preparing the stuffing with me. We semi-followed a recipe and made lots. After questioning Henry (Kehl's resident chef) about how to prepare the chicken we set about removing the innards and figuring out what was what. Eventually we managed to get the chickens stuffed, sealed and seasoned, and put them in the oven to cook. Next we went about making our side dishes: Adrienn was bringing mashed potatoes and I was making carrots. I helped her get about 7kg of potatoes boiling (since Shane had convinced her that 4kg was not enough) and then we peeled and cut up carrots with help from Aisling (Henry's friend that was visiting). I tried 2 different carrot recipes: standard butter and herbs, and one batch with brown sugar, honey and ginger. The second was a bit of an experimentation, but it turned out alright, though not amazing. By then it was about 5 and Adrienn had to go home to help the boys with final preparations. Henry, Ashling and I went over shortly after.




Adrienn and I preparing the chicken.















The chickens are spooning! Haha (well, we thought it was funny).
















Everybody had arrived by about 5:30, bringing with them lottttts of food. We had greek salad, corn, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, carrots, cranberry sauce, curried lamb, sticky rice, chicken, 3 kinds of stuffing, garlic bread, wine, pumpkin pie, cake and ice cream. Adrienn's room had been transformed into a dining room to seat 15 people (they borrowed a table from some other praktikants) and we laid out all the food. It might as well have been buffet style though, because everybody was so eager to eat (after a few civilized photos) that they just stood up and helped themselves, haha. The one thing missing from the menu was gravy... Shane had attempted to create it out of chicken sauce and cornstarch (no flour so Evan could have some, he's allergic to wheat) but sometihng went horrible wrong and it ended up as a crunchy crumbled mess. Oh well, the meal was still awesome without it.







Good gravy that's bad gravy! Seriously, it looked like ground beef.















Waiting for dinner. Henry, Pawel (Polish praktikant), Lucas (Polish praktikant).












Socialzing before dinner. Lucas, Javier (praktikant from Peru), Anthony (praktikant from Windsor, ON), Devon, Henry.











Horence the Thanksgiving Turkey Centerpiece (made by Shane).











Everybody (minus the near end of the table) ready to eat!
Shiraz (praktikant from India), Olivier, Henry, Aisling, Travis, me, Adrienn, Lucas, ___ (praktikant from Poland), Shane, George, Anthony, Javier








The other end of the table. George, Anthony, Javier, Evan, Devon, Shiraz, Olivier, Henry and Aisling.












Time to eat! Look at all the awesome food.















The aftermath. Lots of leftover, mmmmm.














Everyone ate lots and lots, but we still managed to have lots of leftovers. Richard and Bernard came over later (they were in Amsterdam for the weekend) and ate some food, and so did Mike and Nate from Ziegel D (the ones who lent the table, they were at Oktoberfest this weekend). Even after that there was still food left, so we packed it up an I got to take some home (yay!). We tied up the dishes, and after a bit of a break had dessert. Travis's homemade pumpkin pies were awesome, he made them completely from scratch. We demolished dessert, and then chilled out playing some guitar and talking.

Thanks to Ziegelhau for hosting such a wicked dinner. It was nice to have a Thanksgiving dinner even though we aren't at home, and awesome that everybody are such great cooks!

Dinner at Antonio's

Last night we were invited to a farewell pasta dinner for Charles (he's going back to Luxembourg, and then to Lausanne for university) at Antonio's new apartment. Antonio and Holgar cooked us some delicious pasta, we all had some drinks and it was a really fun evening. Here are some pictures from the night:





Me and the chefs (Antonio and Holger). Check out Holgar's stylin' apron.













Lindsey and George enjoying the pasta.









Group pic (don't you love timers on cameras?)
front row: Al (Anthony's cousin that is visiting), me, Adrienn, Antonio, Charles
middle row: Anthony, Javier, George, Elisabetta
back row: Lindsey, Holger









Cue the top gun music.


















Lindsey, Antonio, Adrienn and me squished inside Antonio's new Ikea closet.

















Charles, Antonio and me.