Friday, December 19, 2008

Bells and Lights


The Chrismas decorations, in my little town, Liestal, are all hung up and ready for the upcoming holiday. I really enjoy walking through here in the evening. It's just beautiful and there's such a warm glow amidst the bitterly cold weather we've been having lately.

















I can hardly believe that Christmas is next week!

A European Winter

Sometimes I forget that I'm in Europe. Yeah, I know...utterly ridiculous. But when things get busy and the days start to blur, sometimes you just forget where you are. The town I live in is fairly small and has a quaint European feel to it but the newness of it has worn off a little. Now that the summer days are over and life has settled a bit, my travel has been less frequent.
Due to immigration processes in conjunction with a certain possible upcoming event on the horizon (*wink*), I had to take the train, on Wednesday, to go to the Canadian consulate in the city of Bern, Switzerland (which, incidentally, is the country's capital).
I have to say that some of my favorite moments in Europe have been the times where I've been able to just wander around, take in whichever sights and discover new places along the way. There were a couple extra hours before my consulate appointment and afterwards to go explore and I was extremely happy that I was smart enough to bring my camera to capture the beauty of winter here in Switzerland.


Welcome to Bern.


















I enjoyed the city of Bern very much so, but it was the quieter places that moved me the most.
Warning: I'm going to inundate you with pictures of winter serenity.





























Needless to say, it's snowed a lot the last couple of days.










As I was walking underneath the bridge, there were some punk teenagers throwing snowballs at me from up above. Luckily, I'm quick like a ninja and dodged them all. :)












After walking around, the cold starts to get to you. I noticed this cozy looking cafe and decided a hot chocolate was in order. It most certainly hit the spot.





I had no idea, until I took this picture, that Albert Einstein lived here in Bern for 7 years. It was here that he wrote some of his most significant papers on scientific topics like the Special Theory of Relativity and the Light Quantum Hypothesis. My curiosity was piqued and I wanted to go inside and get a glance of his life, but for some reason, it was closed!







When I saw this place, I laughed out loud and then had to take a picture.








Bern is a wonderful place to visit and the winter season just made it all the more magical. There was that moment of renewed excitement where, once again, I pinched myself and said "I'm in Europe."
And Europe is where I'll be.

Monday, December 8, 2008

What's in your yard?

As many of you know, I live in a really big house with 6 other people. One of them decided a couple weeks ago that they were going to throw a snow party in our yard. After a little bit of planning, the big day came. When the Swiss party....they party!
We haven't had a ton of snow yet over here, so they decided to go get some from the local ice arena. 12 truck loads later, we had a yard full of snow. A steep ramp was built along with a couple of jumps and rails. The party soon began and we had snowboarders and skiers coming out to partake in the fun. When you put that together with great food, beer, wine and an afterparty inside with duel karaoke...it amounts to a very entertaining evening. And no, I did not do any snowboard or ski jumping.......that's just a disaster waiting to happen...a little too hazardous to my health, perhaps.

Here are some pics:



A view of the ramp

















A view from the ramp













A view from the rail














A view of the jumps





As usual, I took a couple short videos to give you an idea