Oh Vienna (25th-27th Sept)

On Friday I set off on my trip to see my coursemates who are working in Wiener Neustadt in Vienna. Having got on a mini airplane (there were about 20 rows), I managed to successfully navigate my way to Vienna Sudbahnhof, where I meet Tom and Andy. My first impression of Vienna is that it has a much more Eastern European feel, some of the stations I passed through on the way into town looked much like they would have in clips from the 80s. The boys were very knowledgable tour guides, and we spent Friday afternoon, dodging Mozart dressed ticket touts along the way, exploring the centre of the city, past Palace Belledevere, we visited St. Leonard's church and climbed up to the top of the Dome to see all the wonderful frescos. We then walked to the State Parliament, a very grand building, past the Rathaus, and the Opera, more on that later, and to the main square of the city, where the Cathedral is, which we also visited. We had an early dinner, schnitzel and potato salad, very traditional, and then drinks at a nearby bar, which had quirky toilets, and also sold the furniture in it. Then we headed back on the train to Wiener Neustadt, to the boys apartment in a student block. I was very jealous of their two minute walk to work.
Nex morning, after a lesiurely breakfast, we headed to the Prater in Vienna, which has a ferris wheel, made in Victorian times, by a Liverpool native, fine British craftmanship, which still works today. We had a ride and had terrific views of the whole of Vienna. There were some special booths on the wheel were groups were having lunch and drinks receptions. Lunch was a relaxed affair by the banks of the Donau, a leafy suburban area. We spent the afternoon going round the Hofburg, it had a large, a bit too large, silver exhibition, and an interesting exhibition on Empress Elizabeth, known as Sisi, who seemed to be the Princess Di of her time, and I'd never heard of her so found it really informative. The Imperial apartments were rather grand as expected, had to rush through them a bit to get to the Opera. We had a relatively short queue for tickets, which cost 3 euros, and had standing places in the balcony with a reasonably good view, could see all the orchestra as well, and treated ourselves to interval drinks, but felt a little shabby in our tourist clothes compared to some of the well dressed audience. It was the Pique Dame, by Tchaikovsky, which translates as the Queen of Spades. Happily there was a translation bar, and although I didn't have huge sympathy for the main characters, I really enjoyed myself, and was glad the Opera wasn't too highbrow for an Essex girl. There was a great moral about the dangers of gambling and a gruesome end. The building interior itself was very grand and orchestra sounded amazing. The Opera is partly state funded, bring it in in England, I say.
I spent Sunday visiting the Schonnbrunn Palace, just time for the grounds, due to length of Sunday morning lie in, being knackered from standing at Opera for full 3 hours. It is magnificient though, and managed to do the deceptively tricky maze quite successfully. Then grabbed my traditional Austrian coffee and strudel before buying tourist postcards and Mozart chocs for my lab. Writing up my adventures at the airport before I forgot what I'd done passed time at the airport and I got back around 12 to my accommodation in Basel, so am not too knackered tonight typing this up.
Pretty exciting weekend really and loved Vienna, I'd definitely go again as didn't manage to see all of it.
Until next week,

Swizzy x x x

Visit from Friends: 19-21st Sept

So I was just about to get up to date with my blog when I was invited to play bowling with other members of my corridors. So postponing my packing for my trip to Vienna tomorrow, here's what I got up to last weekend. I picked up my mates Dom and Tim from the airport at about 9pm on Friday night, and we went for some food and a drink in the centre of Basel before heading back to Muttenz. It was really great to see them and had an amazing time, I hope they enjoyed themselves (if you're reading this blog let me know!).

So after a lovely lie in on Saturday morning we headed to Langenbruck, in the Baselbiet, where they have a Solarbob. The train journey was quite long, although it wasn't far outside of Basel. It was really great fun, we had several goes, and I got progressively bravier each time, going faster and breaking less. The way up on the Solarbob allowed views of the countryside and many alpine cows. We then headed back to Basel and cooked together in my apartment kitchen (which Dom seemed pretty impressed by) before heading to a restaurant in Muttenz for some drinks. We spent Sunday wandering around Basel, visiting the Tinguely fountain, climbing up the Munster towers, which gave an amazing view of Basel city. The way up was very narrow, and passed by the bells, which rang whilst we were up there. We also went to the Natural History Museum, which was cool, we're all quite sciency, and enjoyed it. Being the leading lights of the University Catholic Society, I had to take them to the English speaking mass in Bruderholz, going via a different tram than usual, so it took a little longer than normal.
I dropped them off Monday evening at the airport, and was sad to see them go. It was really nice to see them and we had a really good catch up.

So off to pack belatedly for my Vienna trip, tune in next week for the write up of that adventure, a trip to the opera might be on the cards,

Love,

Swizzy x x x

Jungfrau- Top Of Europe!

I am starting to put the dates on these blogs, of when the trips I'm writing about occurred otherwise things are going to get confused as I get more and more behind with whats been going on! So this is the 12th and 13th of September folks, here goes.

Just before the weekend started, I was able to go to a Swiss brewery and enjoy the local beer. It was very interesting, although the guided tour was a bit boring for me, as I couldn't understand the detailed german explanations of the hops used and brewing methods. A lab colleague translated bits for me to keep me more in the loop. We had a BBQ and free beer was on offer. I naturally tried a few, the "better than Guiness" beer, the owner recommended really didn't have a patch on Guiness though.

That weekend we went to Jungfrau, in the Bernese Oberland and it was incredible. A train to Grindelwald, which was like a postcard Christmas village, where we stayed Friday night, was the first step on the way to "the top of Europe". Then in the morning we got the train, completely packed at 9am, up to Kleine Scheidegg, which is the departure point for the steep cable car up to Jungfraujoch. We had a good ride up, with ear popping, and were given a few stopping points to look out at the view. At the top it was incredible-it was more than a blanket covering of snow, as far as the eye could see there was an entire landscape of snow, that glittered like crystals. After a few rides on the snow disks and a very short husky ride (it was literally a minute, but we got to pet the huskies after, who were soo cute and reminded me of Australian dingoes), so short all you could hear were American tourists complaining about it, we walked through the snow, with incredible diificulty, due to lack of fitness, to a station about 45minutes away to eat lunch. It was so cool to just be walking past huge snow covered mountains supplying an amazing background.

After lunch, the now downhill walk to the Sphinx observation platform at the top of Jungfrau, was much more manageable, although the sun had became to melt the top layers of the snow, so it was more slippery, we pulled ourselves away from the huskies, and visited the Ice Palace. It was full of ice sculptures, and is kept cool, believe it or not, by use of renewable solar power. After buying a few tacky souvenirs at the gift shop it was off back down the mountain, and a well deserved rest. We noticed at this point we'd all got a little bit sunburnt from the strength of the ice reflection of the sun!

The next day I visited Schynige Platte, which is a beautiful old fashioned railway up to a Mountain station, with beautiful views, unfortunately these were obscured by the fog when I got up there, hey ho, never mind. Did manage to visit the alpine botanical garden, and glimpse some Edelweiss before it disappeared for the winter period. There was also a little teddy bear exhibit near the hotel, which perches on the mountain, which was sweet, but not solely worth the journey up the mountain for!

So that's it for another instalment of Swizzy's adventure, special birthday wishes for Smell on the 25th for her 25th (sorry I can't be there).
Loads of love,

Swizzy x x x

Night at the Museum!

So, what has been happening in Swizzy land over the past week.

First on Thursday we had a corridor meal at the halls of residence where I'm staying, which was really cool. Our resident Italian, Nicola cooked us spaghetti, he went a bit overboard on quantities and was pushing third helping on everyone, but it tasted amazing. Then we had some awesome chocolate fondant cake, which was prepared by one of the French girls on the floor. I am really jealous of her cooking skills! We chatted, and then managed a couple of rounds of bowling in the halls' very own bowling alley (that would be gloating except it is really old, and more like skittels than bowling)!
Then on Friday night I headed to St. Gallen, which is to the East of Switzerland, and near the Bodensee, which is also known as Lake Constance. The hostel I stayed in was comfy and relaxing. I got to the hostel around 7.30pm and after checking in and dumping my stuff, headed to a local restaurant, and had a nice meal and afterwards a chat with one of the waitresses, who gave me tips of where to go on the Bodensee. The next day I headed off to the German city of Constance, and then hopped on a boat to the picturesque town of Meersburg, which has its lovely cobbled streets and a beautiful castle dating from the Middle Ages. When I arrived back in St.Gallen I was wandering around the streets and reached the old Monastery complex, which has become an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was hosting a Museum Night, and I paid 20 francs, which got me entry into all the museums throughout the night. The cathedral at the heart of the complex was very impressive, and is according to my guidebook at least, a terrific example of classic Swiss baroque architecture. I was most impressed by the Stiftsbibliothek, which is the library of the monastery, which was amazing. I had to wear some very large slippers to go in, as it's all wooden and they need to protect the floorboards. There were so many books and it seems really fitting all these incredibly old and invaluable manuscripts were housed in such a magnificent place (I am definitely turning into my dad)! You couldn't take photographs but I didn't think I'd have been able to do it justice, so was quite happy to settle for buying a postcard as a momento.
From the Stiftbibliothek I headed to St. Leonards' Kirche (that's a church) and was able to climb the bell tower to get a good view of St. Gallen before the sunset. I managed to get up and down in time to avoid the hourly striking of the bells of the tower. Looking out from the tower it seemed to me St. Gallen is a city full of churches and they each have their own bell towers which seem to dominate the skyline. I suppose that's hardly surprising considering that the city was founded by an Irish monk called Gallus in the Middle Ages.
I then headed to the textile museum, which for some strange reason had a fencing (sword play not garden fencing) exhibition taking place outside it, which was good fun to watch. There were also food stands outside all the museums, and by the cathedral I had a Bratwurst and a banana and nutella crepe at the textile museum, which tasted awesome. Headed back to the hostel and then returned to Basel on Sunday morning, as museum night had allowed me to visit all the places I'd meant to save for Sunday. Then it was back to the grindstone as usual Monday morning.

Keep in touch, thinking of all of you,

Love,

Swizzy x x x

The Baselbiet.

So, I'm back from this weekend away only to realise I haven't even updated my blog about last weekend. Time seems to be flying by, last Sunday was the 2 month anniversary of my arrival in Basel. Can't believe we've reached September already!
Anyway, if I can stretch my memory back to last weekend, here's what I got up to....
Friday night had a nice relax, a beer by the Rhine, and a meal at Lily's, a East Asian restaurant (sort of a Swiss slightly posher version of Waggamamma's, with the same sort of benches). I had a lovely, if not a bit too spicy for me, curry and then an awesome bannana fritter. After this we headed to see "My Sister's Keeper". I had read the book, and not to spoil the film for anyone who wants to see it, was a bit disappointed that they'd changed the ending. It was still very moving and touching, and made me think of my big sister back at home (miss you loads skin!).
The next morning, we headed to Reigoldswil, which was about 45mins away on the bus from Basel, and in Baselbiet, the countryside which surrounds the city. We got the standard, ever present Cablecar up to Wasserfallen, I will call it a hill (but I think it is a mountain, just a very small one for Switzerland). We walked around and saw some lovely countryside views and flora and fuana. We had our pack lunch at the peak, and then grabbed "scooters" (they were scooters except you stood on them with both feet) to journey back down. It was a bit surreal, you felt like you wanted to sit down on them, and the incline was so steep you had to always have the break on a little bit. For any parents reading, yes I did have a helmet on. It was really fun though, and ironically I managed to fall over on foot on gravel before getting on the scooter, scrapping my hand up, not on the dangerous part of the day. After that, had a drink at a local swiss restaurant and then headed back on the bus to Basel.
Sunday was a bit of a lazy morning and then we headed to Colmar, described as the Little Venice of France around lunch. On the train it's just under an hour, and the countryside you pass through, is surprisingly, much drier than Basel's countryside. The reason for the trip was to visit FLUNCH, a French version of MacDonalds, as Abi remembers having Steak Hassiche there as a kid and wanted a bit of a nostasglia trip. From our Steak Hassiche, we headed to the main square of Colmar, which was very picturesque, and we passed lots of quaint tourist shops and even a Sorbetiere Isabelle. (my new ambition is now to open my own!) We then enjoyed coffee and cake outside in the main square, by the church. The canals of the Little Venice, were very shallow, but quite pretty.
Then I think we might have been incredibly sad and watched The X Factor online, but you gotta keep up with the gossip back home! (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).

Will update about this weekend soon, and try not leave it as late as usual.

Have a good week,

Swizzy x x x

Madagascar Remembered

Hey Everyone! Hope your all well.
Not too much to report this week. I spent the weekend chillaxing in Basel, had many coffees and ice teas in the local coffee bars and of course grabbed a bit of the Ashes action! The weather was really lovely and on Saturday I spent a bit of the afternoon in the "GartenBad" in St.Jakob (a suburb of Basel very near to Muttenz), it is a garden with 3 different swimming pools, one with more slides for children, and another one for more serious swimmers. I was able to blend in and pretend that I belonged in this pool. Then I headed for English mass in Bruderholz, and enjoyed listening to the enthusiastic American music leader.
Catching up on the news at the weekend, I was shocked and saddened to see that the situation in Madagascar is rapidly disintergrating. I've included the link to the article that triggered this post. It was mostly upsetting, as I had such a get time in Madagscar, and learnt so much there, and the all the people I meet there were incredible. It was poignant to think that as I am enjoying another adventure in my life, my first big adventure destination is going through such a terrible time. Please return the situation in your prayers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8210000/8210355.stm

Have a good week,
Loads of love,

Swizzy x x x

Geneva, Geneve, Genf

It's pretty confusing living in a country where they speak 4 languages. Everyone calls places by different names. I spent the whole week telling people I was going to Geneva, which they didn't seem to get, and then got told it was called Genf by the German speaking Swiss. The places can sound really similar in different languages and I'm pretty impressed that with my sense of navigation I haven't as yet ended up stranded in the wrong city!

This Saturday, me and Abi, and her friend Flick whose staying for a couple of days, headed off to Geneva, and the train was fun, with really nice views of lakes and mountains. Again, arriving in Geneva, it had a totally different feel, quite obviously French, but I have to painfully admit, probably one of the nicest cities I've visited (not sure if it bets Luzern or not at the moment). However I couldn't live there (too many Frenchies)! We headed to the International City, which is north of the lake, and strolled along by Lac Leman, which is I think (but I could be wrong), the biggest in Europe (at least one of the biggest). There is a fountain, which Geneva, is very proud of, definitely the largest in the world, which spurts water straight out of the lake high into the air. On Sunday we managed to stand near it for some good photos, but weren't crazy enough to jump underneath and get soaked, which thrilled all the kids that did so.

Back to the International City though. We approached via the Botanical Gardens and an ice cream stop (it was boiling and needed a cool down from the trek up). We passed the UNICEF building and then approached the UN headquarters, which had it's very own protest (only a small family protesting-not very coherently though, apparently we should interfere in Iran, but leave Iraq and Afghanistan immediately!) I had my picture taken outside the UN sign and flags, possibly one of the proudest moments of my life and then we walked around the fountain, and saw a modern statue of a huge chair with a broken leg, I like to think it is a statement that there is always space for negotiation, but that it's not comfy, but you'd have to ask the artist what they meant.

A stroll past the Gandhi statue, lead to the Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum. This had really poignant statues of covered chained people, symbolising the loss of humanity of refugees and prisoners. I was really impressed by the whole exhibits, and the founding philosophy of Henry Dunant, that love and respect outdo violence and hate. Maybe it was hitting a particular cord with my Christian values. However seeing exhibited pictures of orphaned Rwandan children, did strike a terrible cord, as I'd just seem hotel Rwanda, and the exhibition about the Holocaust. I didn't realise though, that Red Cross agents, went in at the end of the war to try to prevent more killing, before the liberation of the camps had been accompolished, agreeing with German authorities they wouldn't leave at all.

After that we went and check in to our Youth Hostel, which was pretty good, had good security and the next morning the continental breakfast wasn't too awful! I filled up on bread and my favourite blackcurrant jam! In the evening we went to a local restuarant, where I had roast beef and chips (it wasn't what I'd expected when I'd ordered, it was cold slices but still tasty) and then walked along the lake front before heading back for to the hostel for bed.

The next morning we walked around the old streets of Geneva, which were very pretty, and covered in the Swiss and Geneva canton flags. By one we'd really exhausted Geneva, so headed back to Basel. I got back in time for mass in Muttenz, full of Marian hymns for the Assumption, and then we headed into Basel for dinner, at a very authentic Swiss restuarant in Barfusserplatz, so authentic it had swiss drunks singing traditional songs by the time I was finishing my pudding of apple fritters.

So that's about all for this week guys,

Keep safe and enjoying your summer, we got a mega heat wave here, it is very hot on the trams commuting to work.
I am getting behind with photos but they will be added some time next week,


Swizzy x x x