Quiet Days in Zurich

Our trip took us into the city of Zurich after a day of train rides with a stop in Milan.

Before I start on Zurich, I have a rant.

What's with the Milan train station and its horrible signs on where the washrooms are?! I literally ran around for 20 minutes (NOT exaggerating) trying to find the washroom. Finally when I found it, of course, I didn't have my wallet with me so I couldn't go in! Why do we have to pay for public washrooms?!?! I understand it does keep the homeless out, but seriously?! UGH!!!!

Anyway.

We arrived in Zurich late at night. Without hesitation, we took a cab to our hotel. This by far is the nicest place we have stayed at so far on this crazy trip! We were able to get a room at the new Renaissance Hotel in Zurich for $110 CAD/night! The king sized bed, the pillows! AHHH.. the big HD TV... I honestly want to take this hotel room to every city for the next four months!

Our first night was spent unpacking, and yes, having a meal that cost us $100 CAD because who knew that Zurich was THIS expensive!! A regular Fish & Chips was 25 Swiss Francs. With the exchange rate at $1 = 1.14 Swiss Franc, you work it out! This was not just because it was at the hotel, we soon find out over the course of the next three days, it was the regular price for a plate of food that did not come with a toy and a golden arch box!

After three weeks of travelling, we have sort of gotten into a grove.

Our first day at each city usually involved a lot of walking around, seeing the sights and just exploring what the city has to offer.

Zurich is beautiful. It feels like a small town with its charm and quietness, but has all the amenities of a big city!

We walked around Old Town Zurich, which had a few nice sights. They really love their clock towers here! Everywhere you turn, there's a clock. The Swiss and their time!

The city sits on the north end of Lake Zurich, with a couple of rivers that run north to south, emptying its fresh water into the busy lake. The old buildings sitting along the banks of the streams were beautiful. The swans floating around just makes it that much more serene.

Now I have never been to a city like Zurich where are able to sit by a stream in the heart of the financial district to soak your feet and take a break from the hot summer sun! This is exactly what we did. We were just exploring the city, and saw a bunch of locals sitting on a board walk along the stream soaking their feet, so we joined in. It was amazing! Fish, not small, at least a foot long, swam by my ankles as the cold water cools my over heating body.

The second night ended with us watching the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in the hotel. The ceremony itself was, I thought, well done. However, I am still biased towards the Vancouver ceremony. This seemed too busy! Also, just felt like it was a bunch of random things thrown together. Matt was right. The ceremony made the 2012 Games seem like it was the best thing that has ever happened to London and to the UK when in fact, it actually is not all that significant when compared to its rich and influential history.

Our second day, we decided to take it easy. So, we went and played tennis. Now this usually is quite normal at home, but this time, we played on RED CLAY! That's right, I have officially played on the European Red Clay. It was everything I thought it would be. I loved the sliding, the high kicks. The slowness of the court, and of course, the sliding! The court cost 20 Francs per hour, but well worth it. After each play session, one must clean up the court to swipe away all the foot and ball prints. Truly amazing. This will definitely be one of my top highlights of the trip!

At night, we met up with my high school friend Regina who is working in Wintour, 20 minutes outside of Zurich as a radiologist for the last year. She leaves for home mid August.

I was glad we met up. We went for dinner at a Chinese restaurant which has by far the best and most authentic tasting Chinese food so far in Europe. The name was, I think, Shui Long? Sounds about right.

After that, we went to have some dessert and this is when we went a bit crazy. Nine pieces of cake, all of different ingredients, and with a few different syrup, cream and jelly to add to them! For the three of us, it really did us in! After dessert, we met up with two of her friends and went to a Garden Bar. THis bar was in the middle of an industrial park, with tents, lighting, and a lot of people! The atmosphere was amazing.

It was definitely nice to chat with her. We laughed about all the good old times back in high school, caught up on some new gossip, as well, chatted about what her plans were when going back home after a year.

We ended the night on a full stomach after a full day!

Our next day took us to the Zurich Zoo. It was like your typical zoo, but we found it much more intimate. The layout of the place was great. Highlights were definitely the rhinos, tiger, wolves, and some animals that I have never seen before, but they were cute!

Now of course, there was drama on our way to the zoo. Matt had left our joint VISA at the restaurant we had lunch at back in Old Town. We only realize this when we got to the zoo and could not pay for our tickets. Well, it was another 20 minute tram ride down to the city, and back up again. We were committed to see the animals.

Our night took us back into town and met up with Regina for a traditional Swiss fondue and wurst! It was delicious!

Regina had been a great host, and Zurich was definitely a nice get away from the big cities!

Now, bring on the Belgium Waffles!!

Hiking the Cinque Terre Part II

Today we decided to make our way west, to the town of Monterossa.

From Vernazza, you can see Monterossa sitting by the water at night. The town has a larger beach area, and we intend on treating ourselves to some relaxation and work on the tan.

The hike today was much easier. After the initial climb with stairs, it eventually levelled off. Along the way were a couple of neat corners with bridge paths over tiny streams.

Today along that path we met even more Canadians! A couple from Toronto with the guy wearing a Hockey Canada shirts, another older guy from Edmonton who's son is a fireman in dt Vancouver, a lady who informed us that she's Canadian but warned us that there are a lot of Americans posing to be Canadians to be better received here in Europe (talking about her husband who's from Boston).

When we got to Monterossa, the beach was already filled with vacationers! This town is by far the biggest of the five! The beach was sectioned off, one you can pay 27 Euros for two people with charis and an umbrella, and the other you just simply lay your towel down and tan. Being on a budget, we decided to go free today!

While working on my tan for about three hours, the beach became twice as busy! Families that arrived earlier during the day to claim the front row seats were eventually chased away by the high tides that came in. This was actually very entertaining to watch as the waves came out of no where!

Today since we had only one hike, we decided that we should hike back to get some workout. The hike back included about 500 initial steps uphill! The way home took us a bit over an hour as we rushed through those first steps knowing just how tough they were.

The night we had a nice dinner by the marina in Vernazza.

There are things we took for granted so far on this trip, the abundance of wireless internet available.

In Vernazza, there was one internet cafe which charged you 5 Euros for an hour. There were constantly people with laptops, iPhones, iPads sitting outside the cafe trying to keep in touch with the rest of the world!

As we sat there, an Aussie girl was also there reading. Eventually she turned to us and asked about the hike around the area because her friends were suppose to have met with her an hour ago but has yet to show up. We got to chatting and then three other American girls from North Carolina joined us as well. This random meeting turned into, for me at least, a much needed gossip session about celebrities and realty tv shows. I knew we all would click when I asked "Jen or Angelina?!"

What I love about Europe is the ability to buy a bottle of chilled white wine, they open it for you, and provide you with cups. So the six of us sat on the steps outside the internet cafe on the main street of Vernazza and finished a bottle of Cinque Terre white for the next three hours! Her friends finally came back at 11 at night, and both Matt and I thought they were lying about why they were late..

One funny bit was when a German guy came over and tried to hit on one of teh girls, but was kind of awkward. THe girl was so oblivious until we informed her that she had just turned the boy down. Few hundred yards away, you see the German guy a bit defeated as he judo kicked the empty pizza box in his hand. How weird! LOL

This was such an amazing way tot cap off the trip to the Cinque Terre.

We are going to be making our way north to Zurich, Switzerland through Milan by train in the morning. We will be meeting up with my high school friend Regina who is there working for a year. Can't wait!!

Hiking the Cinque Terre Part I

We arrived at Cinque Terre on the north coast of Italy. This region was beautiful. There are five villages that are located along the coast, and to get from one to the next, one must hike, ferry, or train.

Wanting to experience the most of the region has to offer, we decided to hike our way around.

If you count from the east, we are staying in the fourth town, Vernazza. The village has one main street that runs from the top of the hill, where the train station is, and meanders through closely built three to four story buildings with colourful exteriors, eventually widens into a square that sits in a cove. 

This village was recently devastated by a mud slide that ruined most of the town, especially down the main stripe! But, somehow, the village persevered and restored most of the buildings. Although, here and there, you can still see the destruction caused by mother nature. 

We decided that hiking east on the first day would be best as we started making our way to Corniglia. The path are quite steep and varies in width from anywhere between a foot to 3-4 feet. You'd think the path would ease you into the steepness but then again starting out in a cove, the path just climbs. 

The paths are 5 Euros to hike for the day. I can imagine this brings in quite the revenue for the area considering the amount of tourists that visit on a daily basis! 

The views were amazing along the way. Definitely worth the hike. If you train, you'd miss out on a lot of the scenery and photo opportunities that you could not get by taking the train. 

Since we started our hike early, the sun was still bearable. The first hike took approximately an hour and a half when we arrived in Corniglia. 

The town sits on top of a mountain, the steep slope down are tiered with vineyards, producing local wine. The most popular, the Sciacchetra.

We got into town, walked around for a bit. Definitely wanted to check out the marina area down the steep slope, but when met with a billions stairs going down, we decided we were going to move onto the next village! LOL. What I did notice about this town was the colourful doors that each home had.

Our next hike was approximately two and a half hours, which took us inland. By now the sun was starting to burn a bit. The hike, like the first, was steep. This hike though had much more narrow steps and pathways. At one point it was one foot across with no barrier between myself and the free fall down hundreds of feet. To add to the stress, there were also constantly people hiking from the opposite direction. 

What's great though about hiking and the people on the hikes is that you end up chatting with people about their trip, experience, and journey. We met a couple of young girls from Edmonton who were hiking through the five villages. They had told us that the hike shouldn't be too bad, but boy were they wrong!

Our second hike of the day really took a lot our of us, and our knees. When arriving the Manarola from Corniglia, we had lunch and checked out the amazing swimming area. This marina looked like a natural water park!

After spending nearly four to five hours of hiking, we decided to train back to our base. 

THe later afternoon was perfect for a nap and to cap the day off, we had pizza at a local restaurant. 

More hiking tomorrow!!!

Ching in Cinque Terre

So the morning rush to the train station was eased by a free ride on the tram through Nice. Since we did not know how to pay and the tram arrived very quickly when we got to the station, we decided to just jump on without paying.. meh.

This train is the first of many that we will be on for the next few months. Having said that, it was our first and we are a bit anxious as we did not want to miss a train or even worst, get on a wrong train!

The train station was insane! People waiting to run at any second to the platform when it gets assigned to a train.

When Platform F showed up beside our train, we booked it! Thinking that we would have some advantage of arriving at the platform first, we were wrong! The train just stops, without markings on the platform where the doors were going to be, so it was a bit of a gong show. This is the only leg I think in the next couple months where we had to fight for seats in second class as the rest are booked on first. Luckily the large bag on my back worked to my advantage when walking through crowds. =)

On the train was the first time I felt like I was a third wheel on this trip! Matt continues to have Hawkster in his hand ready to take a picture of him for any point of interest. I think he took about 20 pictures of him and the ocean..... its just water gathered... hmm

We sat close to a few Americans that were chatting about everything and anything. Although nothing too exciting happened for the remainder of the first leg, I did manage to over hear who won the Bachlorette! The American girl was chatting with three other guys and when she informed them who had won (not that any of them cared) I made a face.

She then called me out on it! Saying "do you watch The Bachlorette?! Because I just saw that face you made!" I replied "I can't believe she chose him!" She agreed and smiled "I'm glad we just had that moment!"

We are now in Italy, with an exchange at Ventimiglia which sits on the southwest border of France meeting with the northwest coast of Italy.

The Money in Monte Carlo

Since we were in the south, we decided a day trip to Monaco was imperative to our stay in Nice.

Just a short, pungent train ride costing 7 Euros per person got us to Monaco for the day. Yes, the people on the train were NOT smelling fresh at 11 am in the morning! For a country famous for their perfume and cologne, you would think people would wear them more? No? Too much to ask? Anyway...

Monaco. We arrived to a train station that was marble covered. Walking down a long corridor, you exit, and the city that you see in James Bond and other movies alike stands in front of you, towering over the cliffs and down to the yacht filled harbour.

The famous Monte Carlo Casino sits on top of the hill. Parked outside were cars that I would never in a million years be able to afford. Well, with the exception of a Mazda Miata that was parked. =)

This place smelled as well, but it was the smell of money! Everywhere you go and everywhere you turn, money, money, and money.

The views were also worth a few billion dollars!

Once you hike up the cliff to his Majesty, Prince Andrew's residence, the view was breathtaking. The giant cruise ship docked in the port among with some of the largest yachts I have seen.

The Palais Princier de Monaco was and is the residence of the ruling family. The Grimaldi family has ruled Monaco since 1297.

We visited the palace with an electronic audio tour and the history behind this State is very interesting, especially given how it has kept its independence.

The country today is the most densely populated country and is the world's second smallest country after the Vatican. The country is also without income taxes, which is pretty awesome, but I suppose that makes a bigger difference on people making millions and not so much for us common folks.

What I would have done differently for this trip out to Monaco was bringing along my swim trunk! At the base of the cliff just before you arrive at the dock with the yachts is a nice sized swimming pool! The views are spectacular and seems like it is less exclusive than the Casino up on the hill. =)

We returned back to Nice, and spent the night watching Big Brother 14 as we are definitely missing the couch at home and our TV.

Next stop Cinque Terre, Italy where we are without WiFi for a few days.

Nice is Nice

Our arrival in Nice was a relieve!

After a long journey which started two days ago from Paris, it finally came to an end. No more driving on narrow mountain passes and no more listening to the GPS British lady yap away. We are finally at a destination that will allow us to kick back and enjoy.

Like many European cities where you have an old part of town and then you have the newer developed area. In Nice, we struck gold! After being in the burbs in both London and Paris, we rented a very modern apartment in the heart of Old Town Nice, AKA Vieux Nice.

The apartment building was down a very narrow street, with lots of character, a boulangerie, a Fenocchio (popular ice cream/sorbet shop), and a few local restaurants. Literally 30 seconds walk away is the market that sets up every morning for local produce, then in late afternoon it turns into a market for random items. Throughout the day, locals and tourists eat here as the restaurants line either side of the market, patios just filled with people enjoying the sun, wine and some amazing Italian and French cuisine.

Nice treated us with sun, nothing but sun.

Another great thing about where our rental apartment was located was that it was a 2 minute walk from the beach. The beaches here are rocky, but once you settle in, can be quite comfortable! What I definitely do enjoy about the beaches here is that once in the water, getting out to walk to your towel your feet are not covered in sand!

There were beach volleyball courts (guess they ship in the sand), bocci courts (is that what they are called?), bike lanes, side walk wide enough for runners and walkers, and of course, miles and miles of beach for you to enjoy!

I was very happy to see that there was the option of playing some beach volleyball as I am missing that very much from my weekly routine. There were two courts set up and I gathered enough courage by myself to approach the people to join in. There were some awesome players, some good players, and also just the few travellers jumping on for kicks! Great mix!

What was annoying were the "pros" that played there. I think they totally ripped me off too! When I approached one of the courts and asked to join in, one dude came and informed that it costs money to play. I paid the guy the 2 Euros he has requested and proceeded to join the game. We went for about 30 minutes of hit and miss volleyball. Afterwards, a Swedish guy and I were challenged by the "pros", a lady and a guy. Now I'm always up for a good challenge, but the guy that I was playing with could not set the ball if his life depended on it. Sooo long story short, we got killed 15-5.

The match was quite the workout and I would not recommend playing beach volleyball after chugging a beer, and playing against high calibre players! I was seriously going to barf.

Old Nice had countless small lanes and alleys lined with shops and restaurants. Every night, we ate out and had some great Italian cuisine. I thoroughly enjoy having dinner late and in a busy trafficless square. There's definitely a buzz, a nice feeling.

Tanning, without a doubt was definitely my goal for this stop. The surprising thing on our second day here was how comfortable it was to tan in 28 degrees. There was a consistent breeze from the east that kept me cool, but the sun was definitely still doing its thang!

Ahh, I think Nice might be worth a second visit on this adventure in November when we plan on making our way from Italy to Spain through the south coast of France.

Short Stop in Cannes

After a tense drive down, through some amazing views and some scary routes, we arrived in Cannes to spend the night. The bridge that we drove on was quite the sight! But for some reason, the GPS stopped working right after the bridge as we kept driving. We ended up being lost for a bit, but eventually for whatever reason GPS came back on, saved! I have to say, by this time, after spending more than 10 hours listening to her, I was about to tell her where to go.... ARGH!

The city is quite nice, and was very busy with a concert at the beach.

We had just enough time and energy to have dinner in the centre town area before crashing to set for a short drive in the morning into Nice.

The beach was super nice and very busy even at 9 at night!

I cannot wait for the beaches in Nice and to stay somewhere for more than a night!

Dordogne by Canoe

Paris came to an end, and we are now headed for the South Coast of France, Nice. Before Nice however, we have also planned a canoe trip down the Dordogne River to take in the views of the valley where the river runs including the caves along the river banks and the large mansions that sit on the cliffs hanging over the river.

Now I must explain, we are travelling by rental vehicle for this leg of the trip. We initially figured this would give us flexibility and also be a nice way to explore France while making our way down to the south.

So the morning before leaving Paris turned into a nightmare! Not only did we have to go and buy our Eurail Global Pass, we also had to check out, and pick up our rental all before 11am.

Now for those who are planning to travel to Europe, it might be best to buy your train pass here in Europe. The reason for that is the web seems to have too much information and can be misleading. It will tell you on one page you must buy your pass before you leave for Europe, and another page, you could print the pass online. Well, when we arrived at the train station, the lady there was extremely helpful and informed us that she constantly deals with pass holders from abroad showing up to the station only to be turned away because they failed to realize that a reservation is required on the train to travel anywhere!

Long story short, we had her book all our train tickets for the next month with reserved seats, and this saved up $400 from what it would have been on the website!

Our trains are booked from Nice - Cinque Terre - Zurich - Brussels - Amsterdam - Berlin - Copenhagen.

After buying the train tickets, we proceeded to check out, then picked up our rental vehicle from the airport and started the drive. The vehicle we got was the Peugeot 306, not a heck of a lot of power, but it was relatively cheap to rent. There of course was some drama in setting the car, as the rep tried to upsell a GPS at 75 Euros a day, but turns out, when we got to the car, a navigation system came with the car... sneaky!

The drive was long, and tense. What made it worse was the toll booths along the highway. I have never been through something so complicated! Or was it just me?? We were stuck at every booth, could not get pass. Always had to press the assistance button which in hind sight saved us maybe 20-30 Euros as people just let us through since we were holding up the traffic.. =)

Our drive ended in a town called Brive la Gaillarde. Quiet town but with very delicious French cuisine! I had the Escargot and a poisson dish, c'est tres bien!

The reason for this trip to the Dordogne region was because Matt and I had seen a PBS special on the region with Rick Steves.

We signed up for the 18km canoe trip which starts upstream and ended in a town called Souillac.

The canoe trip was amazing!

The river was very calm for most parts and the banks were lined with hanging cliffs which at the base had caves carved out by the river long ago! Matt was insistent on taking the back of the canoe cause he had taken courses on how to steer, only for me to find out later it was because he could kick back while I paddled the 18km downstream!

If you are thinking of doing this trip be sure to prepare some food and beverages so you can have along the way. There are places to stop and admire the view. We found a pile of rocks sitting in the middle where a small stream feeds into the Dordogne River. The picture below is a 360 view of the valley.

After sitting back in the middle of the river, we proceeded to explore this cave. The cave itself was carved out in a perfectly round shape, with a stream coming out of it. The water was extremely cold as I had to jump out of the canoe to drag it into the cave. The picture below is of me inside the cave with a 360 view (love this iPad app!).

This was then followed by a lot of paddling and laying back to work on a tan. Eventually we floated past a few bridges, a couple of mansions on top of the hills, and a herd of cows drinking water along the banks.

This was truly a great escape from the busy city.

The night ended with us heading into an old medieval town called Sarlat. This place was amazing. You feel like you're at Disneyland, as everything seems very surreal and fairy tale like. But if you want to visit this place, maybe during the day would be best. The drive up to the town is very windy and can be quite difficult to navigate in the dark! The drive home, was stressful, to say the least.

Now off to Nice through Cannes.

There is Paris, and there is Ghetto Paris

The last day we wanted to try out and see what the local markets were like, so we went to one of the largest markets in Paris, at the station Porte de Cligancourt. Upon arrival, you get the sense that this market was going to be similar to that of Night Markets in Asia. Lots of stands selling clothes, cell phone cases, shoes, and just a whole sort of random things!

This sounds all fine and dandy, until you walk down further. You start to realize, somewhere some dude who is supplying all the stands is making a fortune, cause he or she is selling the same products to hundreds of vendors, and have them competing with one another.

Here I was, hoping to get some funky tee or random souvenirs, but instead, all I saw were oversized tees, ugly jeans, and Nike high tops. As if the bad fashion stands were not enough, there were also guys holding shoes, watches, and bags. They shove things in your face and block your way, definitely NOT how Alan likes to shop!

IT GETS WORSE!

Walking further into the market, not sure why I did, you find the most ghetto garage sale EVER! Wait, it was more like a I-stole-this-from-someone-now-put-it-on-a-dirty-towel sale. Witnessing a guy get caught stealing from a stand. Guys listening to very loud and horrible rap music, sigh.

The only thing that I enjoyed out of this experience was the surprisingly nice antique stores in the middle of the market! Found a bunch of old Tin Tin story books and comics from way back which was pretty neat.

After this experience, I needed Paris to redeem itself! We sat on patio in district 2 (by the Notre Dame). Then rented city bikes, very convenient, and rode them across town.

I rode the bike into the Louvre.

Then rode along the Seine after dark and arrived at the lit Eiffel Tower.

C'etait une bonne nuit!

Celebrity Sightings at Notre Dame and the Louvre

The Latin Quarter in Paris left quite the impression last night so we decided to go back for lunch! Well, mainly Matt was eyeing the baguette sandwiches since before dinner last night so we decided to fill his urge!

The sandwiches, you can find them all over Paris, were delicious! I ordered the Parisian Hot Dog!

This was then followed by an endless walk towards Notre Dame. The reason for it being endless was because I was completely disoriented by all the alleys and side streets!!

The Notre Dame was quite the sight! The only thing that was missing was seeing Quasimodo swinging on the bells!

Crossing the bridge to head towards the front entrance of the church someone caught my eyes. From the back I noticed the guy in front of me with really white hair under his cap. When he spoke, to two Spanish ladies, he said "sorry I am already running late" I realized I was standing next to Mr CNN! 


Long behold, Mr Anderson Cooper in the flesh standing in front of me! He turned towards me and before I could say a word he walked across the street to meet up with his important people.

It was really too bad that the flirty Spanish ladies annoyed him or else I would have totally said something to him! Ugh clearly these ladies are not up to date with their current events! GAY!

Anyhow, I managed to somehow pull myself together after that little run in with Andy, we proceeded to line up to enter the church.

Notre Dame from the outside is quite impressive, but the inside, even more amazing!

The stained windows, the columns, the history! It was something else to be inside this monument. Of course, taking some time, I light a candle to honour my grandma, for being the strong woman she was, and to remind her that I still think about her.

Now the frustrating thing about Paris is that the metro is tough to find!! Once we exited the church the rain came down on us! It took us 30 minutes to find a station even though there were probably 4 nearby! Don't ask, was one of those days!

The next day we were met with better weather and also, Bastille Day! The plan was to visit the Louvre and when we got there we learned that it was free admission!

The museum definitely lived up to its reputation! All the artwork that tells stories of the past. For those people that complained about how small the Mona Lisa is, I was definitely surprised and how much bigger it was. I guess this was a classic under promised and over delivered situation!

Now even thought the painting was bigger than expected, I was however not expecting the amount of people crowding to take a picture with this picture! Having been brought up in Asia, I was able to push my way through hundreds of people, and this is the result: me and the most famous Drag Queen Leonardo.

What I don't understand about crowds is that if you make your way to the front, you had to fight through a few people. And on your way back out from the front, you're surprised there are people pushing you?!?!?! Seriously?!? Ugh!

The other highlight from the museum was the remake of Napoleon's Apartment. Now I can't imagine it being anything like Versailles, but the extravagance of the model left me in awe!

Oh, left out another run in! Ivanca Trump with her husband, child and of course nanny! I was walking along and saw a nicely dressed woman and thought she's really pretty, and then thought .. Wait I know her! She was very stunning in person!

The day ended after walking for a good 8 hours.

If I don't loose weight on this trip I swear I'm gonna .....