Swiss Alps

I traveled to Zurich this weekend to meet up with a few European friends before they headed to Munich for Oktoberfest and Laura, a Nebraskan friend, was able to add Switzerland to her Euro travel plans and meet up with us too. I saw her as soon as I stepped off the train and immediately started laughing as I was so happy to see a familiar face from home. I had the weird feeling that we couldn't possibly be in Switzerland and we were just walking around Omaha. The German signs snapped me back to reality though :) We took another train to get to Patrick's city and despite the fact that I literally led us to the wrong side of the tracks once we arrived, Laura and I were eventually able to reunite with Lena, Patrick and Jermaine.  

We woke up Saturday morning and got ready for our day in the mountains. The Alps you guys... words can't really describe them so I'll try to let my pictures do the talking this post :) 

This is one of the first pictures I took (and later cropped due to the rearview mirror and car dash that took up most of it) from the back seat of the car as we were driving to Klausenpass Saturday morning. I couldn't contain my excitement and captured a lot of color blurs and reflections of myself but also managed to get some decent photos. 

We drove up to this lake and I was absolutely speechless. So extremely beautiful and the water was so clear! 

The water reflections absolutely blew me away. They also unfortunately give away that I can't hold still long enough to take a picture as the tilt on the above photo proves... 

Me giving the Alps a huge smile and my seal of approval.

Patrick, Lena and Jermaine laughing candidly with a casually beautiful backdrop

Laura and I being pals- I think the filter on this picture just screams ~fall~

Needless to say, I fell in love with this spot. We took a mountain pass over to another area and it was just as beautiful. We stopped at a restaurant area and I had to feed my caffeine addiction so I got an espresso. I thought I was adding a little milk to my coffee but joke was on me and the machine started dispensing an entire cup of steamed milk. So, I had a hot chocolate of sorts in addition to my coffee. 

Looking down into the valley

Waterfall flowing into this little town- too perfect not to capture

We stopped at this restaurant for some sandwiches for lunch on our way down the mountain. We could hear the cowbells the whole time and it added to an already perfect day taking in the Alps. 

Speaking of the cows, they were everywhere! They all have bells around their necks and I couldn't help but think how happy Bruce Dickinson would have been with all the cowbells... More about the cows next week though as I'm going to a Swiss Cow Festival this Saturday!

I have a bit more to share from the weekend but think I'll stop here for now. Here are two of my favorite pictures from the Alps. 

This is without a doubt, the best picture I have ever taken

Jermaine, Lena, me, Patrick and Laura

Thanks again for following along everyone!!

Month one in the books!

I celebrated one full month in Switzerland with one of the greatest cheese spreads I've ever had the pleasure of consuming. Pictured below are a brie, Gruyere, goat cheese with herbs, truffle based cheese and one that I think was buffalo cheese (but I could have mixed up a translation somewhere along the way...). The truffle was my favorite and if I was so bold to draw a comparison (which I absolutely am) I would liken it to the mushroom pizza from Pitch. Condense that delicious pizza into cheese form and you can get an idea where I'm coming from... you're hungry right?

The way to my heart.

I have many days when I can't believe that I've already been here for a month. It's been such a positive experience so far and I feel incredibly lucky that I still have so much time left. 

I had my first visitor this weekend! My friend Emily is traveling around Europe before going to teach English in Morocco for a few months. We had a laid-back day exploring Geneva on Saturday and despite my failed attempt to find the Central Perk recreation, we had a great time. [In fact, we did find the coffee shop but I kid you not, it had just closed down. The walls were still painted the recognizable colors but there were no tables and the bar had been removed i.e. it was empty.] We did find a gorgeous park though that had grass couches outside the entrance and life-size chess boards inside! I will be coming back to this spot to enjoy both again soon.

Emily and I lounging

Closest I will (regrettably) get to a Wizard's Chess game

After lunch we walked through a market on our way back to the lake. There were a lot of interesting stalls and a few ~interesting~ stalls if you catch my drift. I found a few Faberge eggs that were really beautiful but upon opening one, I was horrified to find what was definitely human hair. I was much less willing to touch any of the items I was looking at after that experience... 

Emily was a perfect first visitor- she was content to wander the city with me and we got to explore a few of the districts away from the lake. This was outside a museum looking back towards the lake. 

Lac Léman in the distance

Couldn't think of a better way to end an afternoon of exploring than coffee and tea by the lake! It's so easy to fall in love with this place. I'm not saying I'll never leave (don't worry Mom!) but living in such a beautiful place has been a dream. The fact that I get to practice French makes it that much better too. 

More soon!

Tennis

I come from a modest tennis background consisting of a few freshman year gym classes in which I was at one point asked to sit out a couple of serving practice rounds due to my general lack of racket and ball control... I did not let this dissuade me though from coming here, to this tennis loving county, for the year. 

As luck would have it, Geneva is hosting the Davis Cup qualifier this weekend between the Swiss and Italian National teams. Yesterday was an open practice so I went with my family to watch Federer and Wawrinka train. Even with my limited tennis knowledge, I had heard of Roger Federer. Stan Wawrinka is a recent up and comer who lives in the same area as me so he is a favorite of the family and a lot of Swiss fans I think. 

Stan and Roger being pals on the court (I did not take this photo...)

Roger and Stan after winning gold in Beijing in 2008 (I did not take this photo either)

Yesterday's training was at the PaleoExpo which is a massive event center near the airport in Geneva. The event hall for the tennis matches holds 11,000 and a sizable crowd of around 3,000 came to watch the training according to this tweet from Federer afterwards.

It was extremely impressive watching them play. Even considering my limited abilities on the court, it's easy to recognize how talented they are. When you watch tennis on tv it's hard to tell how fast the ball is really moving but to see the speed in person is incredible. They were only practicing so it was much more laid back than a match but I preferred that. 

Wawrinka (left) serving to Federer (right)

After the two finished their practice, Roger stayed and did some doubles training with a few other members of the Swiss team including Mario Chiudinelli. It was his birthday and the crowd sang to him- in English! (Special shoutout to my mom who shares a birthday with him!!) The whole team did autographs afterwards and hit a few balls into the crowd. Speaking of which, I noticed that while the Swiss fans made a lot of noise (i.e. stomping their feet on the bleachers and clapping) no one was yelling or cheering. I don't know if this is a tennis thing or a Swiss thing... I want to say it's Swiss though. They were very efficient in making enough noise to be heard but not straining their voices or appearing uncontrolled. Very different from the loud cheers and screams at sporting events in the US... I fondly remember losing my voice at many a Creighton basketball game.  

After practice, I went to the main train station in Geneva to buy the Voie 7. It's a pass that let's you ride the train for free from 7pm-5am. So I waited until 7:03 and caught the ~free~ train back to my village. I had a nice walk back to my house and saw these clouds.  (Don't worry, more info and pics to come later about the clouds here.)

As I walked, I debated whether I should give tennis another chance or just leave it to the pros... I'll keep you all posted. 

The United Nations and IRCRC Museum

When I decided to move to Switzerland, I was so excited that I would be minutes from Geneva. It is a truly global city that is home to the highest number of international organizations in the world. (It also ranks in the top 10 for financial competitiveness and holds a solid number 5 position for most expensive cities in the world. This means I will probably lose my life savings this year buying $5 bottles of Coke but ~c'est la vie~.)

Last Saturday, I hopped on a train to Geneva with a fellow au pair hoping to take a look at the city and see the United Nations and the Red Cross Museum. I had luckily taken directions for how to get to the United Nations so my first time using the buses wasn't too stressful. The hardest part about public transport here is that it functions based upon the honor system- no one consistently checks your ticket when you enter the station or when you get on the train/bus. (There are random checks on the trains though and if you don't have a ticket it's at least a $100 fine.) There's actually nothing too hard to understand about this unless you happen to be as forgetful as I am and have a hard time remembering to buy a ticket... 

Anyway! We arrived at the United Nations and I realized I have some studying up to do on other countries flags... 

193 nations strong

This was pretty amazing to see. It's so easy to get caught up in our little corners of the world but this was an impressive perspective. The front plaza of the Palace of Nations also features the Broken Chair sculpture which was created to symbolize opposition to land mines and cluster bombs. 

This perspective doesn't quite do it justice but the Broken Chair stands 39 feet tall. Facing the Palace of Nations, it serves as a constant reminder to politicians and visitors of the victims of landmines.

After taking a few pictures, we made our way back to the visitor's entrance for our tour. A security guard from North Carolina checked our passports and gave us visitor's badges. (I tried to make small talk about North Carolina but he was extremely disinterested.) Naturally, the tour started and finished at the UN gift shop. I wanted to buy everything but my favorite item was a canvas duffle bag/sack that featured the UN logo... I had to remind myself that I already overpacked with smaller bags (Dad, you were right about that too) and that as cool as it would be to advertise for the United Nations on all future excursions it wasn't a logical purchase.  

From there, we made our way to the Human Rights Council room. 

Facing the front of the council room

Close up of the ceiling sculpture 

Impressive right? The ceiling was created by Spanish artist Miquel Barcelo and contains multi-colored stalactites that were modeled after the ocean floor. Michael Damiano described it saying "too big to be grasped in its entirety by the human eye, [the ceiling] serves as a metaphor for the world. The spectator can only appreciate the work as a whole by focusing on one section at a time and synthesizing the resulting impressions." Even though your perspective changes as you move around the room, there are many similarities from any angle in which you stand. In the same way, although the people of the world differ in color and perspective, we share some universal values. 

From here, we toured a few other rooms and halls. The campus is quite large and our guide kept reminding us to stay with the group because if we were separated, security would escort us out immediately. One extremely fun fact (brace yourselves) about the campus is that there are peacocks that live there! When Gustave de Revilliod de la Rive bequeathed the land to the City of Geneva in the late 1800s he did so with three conditions: that the park always remain accessible to the public, that he be buried in the park, and that his peacocks could freely roam its grounds. That was pretty cool to see. 

The Council Chamber. Has hosted important meetings including the negations to end the Gulf War in 1991 and the ongoing meetings for the Conference on Disarmament. The gold and sepia murals were painted by artist José Maria Sert to depict the progress of humankind through health, technology, freedom and peace.  

Original symbol of the League of Nations. It contains the 'L' and 'N' for League of Nations and (read backwards) the 'S' and 'N' stand for Société des Nations.

I could go on for awhile about how amazing our tour was but I'm afraid I've already turned this into too much of a history lesson. I would recommend it to anyone though and if you're ever bored, do some research on the League of Nations and it's transformation into the United Nations that we know today. It's really interesting and worth refreshing what you learned in high school... 

After our tour finished we walked across the street to the International Red Cross Red Crescent Museum. The Red Cross was originally founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering. The main museum is split into three major challenges that the world faces today: Defending Human Dignity, Restoring Family Links, and Reducing Natural Risks. All three were tied together by the Chamber of Witnesses which provided an interactive component in which you would stand in front of or sit with a hologram of one of the witnesses and hear their story. 

Entrance to the Museum

Multiple aspects of the work the Red Cross does were displayed in the three exhibits. It was amazing to see how far their influence extends. My favorite portion of the Museum was the Restoring Family Links exhibit. You walked through rows of cabinets filled with binders and boxes of index cards. The cards included names and information of soldiers and civilians alike that were missing or taken prisoner during wartime. 

Red Cross records

Researching my roots 

The scope of the records they've kept is almost unimaginable. The Red Cross Red Crescent continues to connect missing persons with their families in conflicts that occur today. Also, if you didn't know, the Red Crescent is synonymous with the Red Cross and was included as an official logo when it appeared that the Red Cross might not appeal to non-Christian societies. This organization is another that deserves more research and information than I'm giving it. Again, please do so if you're so inclined :) Also, I promise I'm not getting paid to endorse researching these organizations!

So that concludes the report on my museum visits... All joking aside, I loved the tour and museum visit and was very impressed with both. I had a preference for the United Nations but to each her own :) After leaving the IRCRC Museum, we headed back into Geneva and walked around a bit before grabbing some pizza. 

Jet d'eau in the lake center. One of Geneva's well known symbols that throws 132 gallons of water per second into the air. 

If so inclined, you can walk around the Jet d'eau. Posted signs warn of rapidly changing winds that could send you into the water though. This is as close as we ventured- mostly because it was kind of chilly and we didn't want to finish our evening with wet clothes.

We finished the night with a coffee by the lake. This is a great time to mention that I've become hopelessly addicted to espresso. No one serves drip coffee here and my need for caffeine has forced me to explore the local ways. I have no regrets though, the coffee really is amazing. There are a bunch of small cafes near the lake and we grabbed a free table at one and ordered cappuccinos. Our waiter was trying to be flirty and below is a sample of our exchange:

Waiter: "I like your accent."

Me: "Oh, haha, thanks."

Waiter: "I'm worried about you here, you're too beautiful."

Me: "I'm worried you're trying to steal my money."

Needless to say, I'm making a lot of local friends...

Fancy hotel looking fab at night

Fountain trying to give Italy a run for its money!

We headed back to the train station after a very full day of exploring. I can't wait to get back to Geneva and check out some of the other museums and shops! 

Thanks everyone for reading (hi Mom)!