AMSTERDAM and more!

A child’s daycare and Christian youth hostel right in the middle of the Red Light District, mothers with three children on their bikes, second hand shops and a real China Town = Only in Amsterdam!

This past weekend I went to Amsterdam with two of my friends from exchange, Rob and Lauren, and holy it was an amazing weekend! Although it started off a little (well a lot) rough it ended up being the best travel weekend so far!

Our plane left at 6am on Friday morning from Geneva. As we live an hour away from Geneva we decided to take the last train the night before in order to get there in time. Our great plan was to arrive at the airport around 1am and sleep/relax in the warm airport. The first glitch in the plan was that the last train (the train that we were on) did not go all the way to the airport, just to the train station. The new plan was to wait at the train station, in the warming hut, until the first train (5am). Unfortunately, after returning from our washroom break at the McDonalds we discovered that the train station had closed. Shooooot… 2am in Geneva and no place to go… So we decided to wait in the underground passageway to the train station. It was extremely sketchy to say the least. Then at 3:30am four police officers came and told us that we cannot be down there (probably for the best...). After asking what time the train station opened and where we should wait we ended up on the streets of downtown Geneva. While waiting outside in the cold/damp Rob had the brilliant idea to take a cab to the airport... Man, we for sure should of thought of that one earlier! At that point things were looking better even with the whole no sleeping factor I could tell the situation could only improve!

We arrived in Amsterdam at 7:30am and grabbed some breakfast and then headed to a café to meet Rob’s friend Noortje (Nora). Nora was our heroine of the trip. She was Rob’s roommate when she was on exchange in Australia but is actually from Amsterdam. She had just moved into a new apartment and was selling her old one but still had it so she said that we could stay there. When we got to the apartment we found out that not only was it furnished but it was pretty much a penthouse right in downtown Amsterdam. It also had the most comfortable bed that I have slept on in months. Rob took one for the team and gave the girls the queen-sized bed with a real quilt and everything!

Nora also gave us some pointers about where the locals go, which was amazing! On Saturday night we went to one of the bars that she told us about which was so great! It was a very hipster café that turned into a club later on. There were people of all ages that were dancing like crazy. Lauren was in her heaven! We also got to meet some of Nora’s friends and family. Her sister lives in a houseboat on one of the canals so we went to go visit her and see her place… New goal=live in a houseboat!!! As well as visiting her friend’s Amélie style apartment in the middle of the Red Light District and saying hi to her “heshe” neighbour, Nora also set up a boat ride for us on the canals. He brother just so happens to drive boats on the canals so he took us for our own personal tour on Sunday! On Monday Nora told us about a flea market that happens once a week so we decided to check it out. It was so intense. About 10 long blocks of shoulder to shoulder people. Definitely an experience!

Lauren, Rob and I also did some exploring of our own. On Saturday we rented bikes and just rode around the whole day. Amsterdam is the most bike friendly city ever! While biking around we saw the biggest pillow fight I have ever seen! So random! It was in the centre of the city and it happened because it was International Pillow Fight Day on April 2^nd. We also hit up a few museums, the Heineken Experience, the Sex Museum and the Anne Frank House. We really saw it all. haha. The Heineken Experience was actually an experience, we got to “be the beer”and learn the history as well as have a couple drinks that came with our ticket. For a 4 Euro entrance fee, the Sex Museum was worthwhile. When in Rome, right?! The Anne Frank House was amazing. The museum is actually in the house where she was in hiding; it was way bigger than I had expected. There were copies of her actual journal as well as many other artifacts. I also found it super interesting learning about the rest of her family.

As well as city exploring, we did some food exploring. Since in Switzerland it is 1) too expensive to ever eat out and 2) not very abundant in multicultural food, I was sooo stoked to see every possible ethnic restaurant! And a China Town! We had some amazing Thai food, the best falafel ever, Mexican food as well as some Dutch pancakes. We also took full advantage of the Stroopwaffles. So good. 

 Overall it was just a great weekend! We made it home safe and sound! Just in time for some amazing weather! Today is the first day in 4 that it hasn’t been sunny and hot (therefore why this blog is actually getting updated!)

P.S. Time flies! It’s almost been 3 months already!

Other little adventures/updates:

-Snowboarding and snowshoeing in Courchevel and Meribel, France (11 trains/buses/metros in 36 hours…)

-Picnics by the lake (the whole city comes out of hiding when the sun shines!)

-Day trip to Gruyeres (the cheese town!)

-A new ride! (I have a bike!)

Next Adventure= Easter break: Belgium, Ireland, Scotland and England!

LOVE TO EVERYONE!

xoxoxo

MalPal

French skiing, Swiss carnivals and Italian adventuring!

I honestly cannot believe that it has already been 2 months! Saying that, it also feels like I’ve been here forever! The craziest part is that it’s just like my life was picked up and moved ½ way across the world… with the addition of some new excitement!

Everyday updates:

I am now a Swiss resident (resident card and all)

I’m a full time student (with a 4-day weekend!)

And, I’m even babysitting for a Swiss family

However, my everyday life,‘vie quotidienne’, has been spiced up since moving to the centre of Europe! Since my last post I’ve been busy and getting the most out of “going global”! Here are some of the highlights:

Weekend in Interlaken:

Interlaken was so great, we had gorgeous weather and the place that we stayed at was so cute (a little german style chalet). Interlaken is right in Swiss-german area of Switzerland, between 2 lakes (inter-laken), and it takes about 2.5 hrs to get there. The first day we were there we took a train up to “The Top of Europe”, the top of Jungfrau which is ~3000m high. However, the name is deceiving as really it’s only the 4^th highest mountain in Europe. At the very top, the majority of the people visiting were Asian business men and the best part was that given my blonde hair they all wanted a picture with me hahaha.. Quite entertaining! The next day my friend and I hiked up to the top of a mountain right in the city. During the summer there’s a cable car that can take you up, but in the winter you can only do the hike. The hike incredible and the view from the top was even better… not to mention the t-shirt weather!

Weekend in Chamonix:

After experiencing 17degree weather the last time I went riding here, I had ZERO expectation of getting any nice snow and I was convinced that my snowboard was going to get way more use as my night side table… but I was wrong!!! I left for Chamonix with 4 guys from my french course and it was the first time on snow for two of them! When we got there we rode the afternoon at a smaller mountain in the Chamonix/Mont Blanc valley. The snow was coming down hard for the whole afternoon and evening. That night we went to a Canadian bar, run by a Vancouverite, with probably the best chicken burger I’ve ever had… Chicken burger with Brie cheese=amazing! My only complaint was that there are no caesars in Europe and I had high hopes for this bar... didn’t happen though haha. The hostel we stayed in had a huge attic with tons on bunk beds, pretty sweet atmosphere! The next day we got ready for a sunny day of skiing with fresh powder (…and I lost my contact on the communal bathroom floor, then stepped on it and then had to put it in my eye..yuuuuuum! Luckily no eye infection!) The mountain that we rode was great, and it even had a French Peak-to-Peak! Another amazing part was that the hills don’t close until 5pm, crazy! On the way home we topped off the weekend with a true French dinner on the train consisting of bread, cheese, wine and chocolate…so classy! What an awesome weekend. Ps there were definitely some face shots happening!

Swiss Carnivals!

The past two weekends I have experience something that I cannot compare to anything else that I have ever seen/been to: Swiss Carnivals. Every year the catholic towns of Switzerland celebrate “Carnival” and in each of the towns the celebration has its own unique touch. One thing that they all have in common is the mass amounts of confetti on the streets!

The first one that I went to was in Monthey, in Vallais, the one that Guillaume (Swiss friend in Van) suggested. Although it was the smallest of the carnivals that I went to it was still amazing. Everyone (young and old) was dressed up in costumes of all sorts…it was super common for families to all be dressed up in matching costumes! Even the buildings had decorations on them! The best part of all the festivities was the marching bands. There were more than a dozen bands there all dressed up in matching costumes with amazing face paint jobs! They played everything from cover songs to unknown French songs. Some of the bands even had choreographed dances!

The next carnival was in Luzerne, in the German part of Switzerland. This one was HUGE! We got there in time for the afternoon parade, which consisted of huge floats and people with homemade, extravagant masks. The floats threw candy and oranges as well as chocolate euros! This carnival was so big and eventful that pictures don’t even give it justice!... but you can still check them out on facebook!

The final carnival, Basler Fasnacht, was in Basel and started at 4am! I vote this one as the most unique as well as being the biggest adventure!  It all started with a Milan and Swiss-Italian trip last weekend. We left Lausanne on Friday morning at 5am, spent 2 days in Milan, went to the Italian area of Switzerland and then took a trip Sunday night from one side of the country to the other… sounds far, but was really only 3 hours! Our great plan was that we would sleep 3 hours on the train and then sleep in a warming hut in the Basel train station until 4am when the carnival started. But.. our plan backfired. We weren’t able to sleep on the train, first time EVER, and the “warming” hut was SO far from warm it wasn’t even funny… So at 1:30am, with no sleep, we started our adventure by paying 50centimes to use a self-cleaning washroom in the train station haha. From there everything was uphill! There were once again people of ALL ages… even though it was a crazy hour of the morning. Everyone was lined up along the streets in preparation for the carnival. Then suddenly at 4am on the dot all of the streetlights turned off and a glowing bands/floats came from all directions of the city. Truly an amazing experience! All of the bands had lights on their heads or on the top of their masks and each group had a float that was glowing with light. A once in a lifetime experience for sure!

Milan, Lugano, Lacarno and Bellinzona:

Italy is amazing. I must go back. The food was great, the people were great and the whole atmosphere in the country was awesome. In Milan we had sunny weather that made touring the city so much fun! We went to the cathedral, which is the biggest gothic cathedral in the world. Quite a sight. We also went to see the Last Supper painting; it’s incredible how different it is in person. Other than sight seeing we also did some shopping and a lot of eating: market goodies and fruit, pasta, pizza and gelato! After Milan we headed north to Lugano, Switzerland. It was a Sunday and rainy so not very much was open…. I imagine it’s gorgeous in the summer! Bellinzzona was super interesting though. The town’s main attraction is its castles. There are three castles in this tiny town. We visited the two big ones and they were very impressive!

Well those are my travels since the last update and other than that, my ‘vie quotidienne’ has been filled with school, learning the language and culture, and meeting new people! My roommates are great; super friendly, I really couldn’t have asked for better ones! One of them (Bambi) continues to amaze me with his cooking skills! I still see Peggy and Malcom about once a week. Tonight I’m making sushi with one of my friends and Peggy, which will be fuun! …I’m becoming a pro at making sushi! Final piece of news=although today it’s raining, yesterday I went for a run, was stretching on a pier by the lake, fell asleep, and today I noticed that I had a sports bra tan line! SO stoked for springtime!

Well team, that’s it for now! LOVE to all and I apologize for the length of this one! New goal=more frequent shorter updates!

xoxoxMalPal

Lausanne: February Edition!

Well so far so good (even great)!!! I’ve now been in Lausanne for almost two weeks holy time flies!

When I arrived in Lausanne Peggy, my mom’s friend’s cousin, met me at the airport and we took the train into Lausanne (with all of my stuff!). For the next few days I stayed with her and her husband Malcom who were SO great to me! Malcom helped me get all the practical stuff I needed: alarm clock, cell phone etc… He also showed me around Lausanne and even took me to a bar for some European beer. My first few days consisted of wandering around the city and just exploring. On the weekend Peggy and I went to the market in Lausanne where I bought some raspberry/apple/rhubarb jam, which is just fabulous! We also ventured on the train to a town called Chateau-d’Oex where the Swiss hot air balloon festival was taking place. Was that ever a sight to see! It’s one thing to see hot air balloons on tv or in pictures, but to see them in person is a whole other experience! I also learned a lot about hot air balloons… did you know that a Swiss man went around the world in a hot air balloon in 19 days?! Or that hot air balloons were used in wars (not the most efficient method if you ask me)?! Sunday night I had my last dinner with Peggy and Malcom and then headed for my new home in the student housing Triaudes.

My room is now set up with my snowboard as a bedside table and magazine clippings as art on the walls. I have two roommates, Valerie who is Swiss and Paul who is French. They both seem really great! Paul is a chef and even made Swiss chocolate cake one night. However, as it’s the university holidays right now neither of them has been around very much.

I am now in my second week of French classes which have overall been really good! The format of the Cours des Vacances (holiday courses) is really similar to the Explore program that I worked for last summer… minus the ‘CA’ position (planned events/sports/trips)… That being said, my classes went together after class last week to a chocolate factory and we got to MAKE Swiss chocolate. It was so much fun! Tonight we decided to have another class outing so we’re going for fondue!

Over the past week other highlights have been going to Geveva, Montreaux (where the song “Smoke on the Water” was written!) and even skiing in the Swiss Alps. Riding the Alps was probably one of the weirdest experiences I have ever had. When I picture the Alps in February I picture tons of snow and cold weather... Neither of those was there. At ~3000m it was ice, then as you went down it turned into dirt and then slush in the wettest sense of the word. Oh and it was 17 degrees! Even though it was not the best conditions it was still a fabulous day filled with sunshine and fun! I also spoke French the whole day as I went with a German guy from my class… Since no one in my class is a native French speaker it’s easy to not speak French, which is not so great…

I’m really feeling settled in (Swiss bank account and all) and am starting to truly get to know the city. I have met tons of new people and already feel like my French is improving! This weekend I’m heading to Interlaken with some people from my courses so that will be my first overnight trip of many!

LOVE TO ALL!!

MalPal

Ps. The translation for “Potluck” is “Repas Canadien”!

Week 1: Paris

Hooooly I don't even know where to start! I was only in Paris for 5 days but managed to do A LOT!... Even though in typical Mal travel style I got sick for a whole day, I had experiences that I never even imagined having in my entire life! To start, I'm sitting here in the Paris Lufthansa business lounge starting my blog, crazy! I'm going to go get more food, then I'll explain the week I had in Paris!....

Well I'm back and I feel completely out of place here, but it's great! When I checked in with my snowboard bag and travel backpack they were like "vous etes buisiness class.....?" "Oui!".

So we (Diane and I) left Vancouver Wednesday morning and flew to Montreal where we met two of Diane's colleagues/friends. We then got on the plane and I had my first first class experience... I had a bed! For those of you who have traveled with me.. or even been with me on a bus, or in a car, I bet that you would have never thought that I could sleep any more easily. Well it's possible! I had a dinner (a great one), passed out (completely) and then woke up to the lights being turned on a breakfast being served!

When we arrived in Paris we went straight to our hotel, which was just around the corner from the Ritz, holy! We checked in and went straight to shopping (well I just looked!). The stores around our hotel were so fancy it was intense, Hermes, Dior, Gucci, Channel, Prada..... etc. After shopping we had some lunch at a cafe and a nap back at the hotel. We all woke up in time for dinner, drinks at the Ritz (nicest bathroom ever!!!!) and a late night Moulin Rouge show! I had no idea what to expect for the show, but it was great. Amazing costumes, music, dancing and singing. 

After a late night I slept in the next day and then went for a little walk to the gardens around the Louvre (again, just around the corner from the hotel). When I returned we went to the department store Galeries Lafayette. It is probably the most amazing store ever. Even though we only had an hour there we managed to scope out all the lingerie brands that we were going to see at the show as well as find a blazer/skirt that Diane got me (so generous!). After shopping we changed hotels to one that was right across the street from the show and we went for dinner nearby.

Day 3 consisted of my first ever lingerie fashion show! I again had no idea what to expect, but it was not what you'd imagine for a fashion show. It was in a large show room area and each brand had a booth. However by "booth" I don't mean a little hole in the wall. Each booth was decorated to the max; some had waterfalls, others had little catwalks, some even had real trees. To get into each booth you either needed to have a pre-scheduled appointment or you needed to be  VIP (which Diane is with many of the companies). Once you got into the booth for your appointment they would show you the collection and ask for your opinions (haha people even wanted my opinion!). They would also offer you champagne and a food specific to their country (baked goods or chocolate!). For lunch at the show we went into the VIP lounge (I sort of snuck in with Diane and her colleagues) and had some more champagne. Since they didn't have very much food in there we went to get some sushi, which was 14E for a role! And, the role wasn't even made with seaweed... weird! After a full day at the show we went back to the hotel and got changed into fancy clothes for the evening event. The event for the night was the 125th anniversary party for Anita Lingerie. We started the night by accompanying the two owners of anita in a Limo to the Champs d'Elysee where the Lido (our evening destination) is located. When we got out of the Limo there was even someone taking pictures of us "red carpet style". When we got into the Lido there was a private cocktail party for about 70 people from all of the world who were Anita customers. We had champagne and even escargot (which initially I was SO excited about I even took a picture!). But... then comes my typical stomach issues.. We went to sit for dinner and I was beside one owner, across from the other and our table was front and centre to the stage. HOLY! However, after the appetizer I had to make a run for the washroom and threw-up in the Lido, typical. Not fun. (I'm good now though, so family don't worry!). So as you can imagine dinner wasn't very enjoyable but the entertainment was great and I was also sitting beside the swiss clients who were so kind to me it was amazing! The after dinner show at the Lido was similar to the Moulin Rouge with amazing costumes and performances! 

The next day I had big plans to go to Versailles.... Unfortunately I slept until 6pm. Although a very lame way to spend the day in Paris it was probably very needed. Luckily at 6pm I woke up and felt well enough to have dinner IN THE EIFFEL TOWER! The terrible part about this evening was that while we were waiting for the taxi the sickness came over Diane and she had to go back to the room. So it was me, one customer and five people from the Empreinte lingerie company (oh man I am lucky!!!). What more can I say about this night, it was a once in a lifetime experience and it was absolutely amazing. We each had five glasses at our place setting and then one more was brought later for dessert wine. I wasn't feeling 100% so I couldn't fully enjoy the food and drink but the whole experience was phenomenal. We were even in the Eiffel Tower for 2 of the hourly light shows and in the elevator for another. Amazing.

My last day in Paris I took the Metro to the Louvre. I spent 4 hours just walking around and admiring the art. At this point I was missing home and then something great happened. I saw a mom with two kids walking around speaking english and thought that they were from Canada, but wasn't sure. Then I saw that she was wearing Lululemon, so it was a sign and I started a conversation! They were from Edmonton and had been traveling for 6 months! In the Louvre I even found 1 piece of BC art, a First Nations mask! After the Louvre I went to a little cafe for lunch and started to write in my Journal. I asked for water with my food and when the bill came it was 5E (~$9) for a bottle of water!!!! And gross chlorine water! Anyways I had my crepe and soup then took the metro back to the hotel. For the evening I went with one of the Empreinte employees who was younger and wanted to see the city (she's originally from Lyon and living in Montreal). So we took the Metro again to the Champs d'Elysee and walked and ate. It was a really pleasant evening. 

And that brings me to today, in the airport on my way to Switzerland. After reading that you won't believe me when I say that I miss home (especially since I hardly ever get homesick), but something is missing (other than the tap water and sushi)! I miss my friends and family a lot, but hopefully once I get my own place on February 1st I'll start to miss you all less! LOVE TO ALL! XOXOXOXOX (but actually.)

LOVE MalPal

Stay tuned for the next update and I would LOVE to hear from you too!

PS I am now in the Frankfurt lounge and it may be one of the funniest experiences of my life. I am wearing my lulus, a cowichan sweater and I have my backpack with my maple leaf sewn on. There are are 3 women out of about 100 businessmen in sight. Everyone has a suit on, a blackberry and a briefcase. Oh and there's a hotdog stand. And toilets that clean themselves. haha, life is good, I’m just sitting here having a beer in Frankfurt.

Thanks Diane for a great 5 days!!!