Weekends of 9/19 (Oktoberfest) and 9/26 (Vienna)

Weekend of 9/19 - Oktoberfest - I went o Oktoberfest in Munich for a second time (last time in 2011 with Gergen) with friends from the area.  We stayed within a block of the festival grounds with the sacrifice that 5 of us were crammed into a single room with one bed, one couch, and a love seat.  Arrived late Friday and spent all of Saturday at the Hofbrau tent.  Fun time although definitely paid for it in the days after.  While at the tents I managed to run into my duplex-mate from home and randomly ran into an Aussie friend from Weerona (dorms at study abroad) that I was not expecting.  I spent my Sunday shopping for some Lederhosen so I'm ready for next year.

Weekend of 9/26 - After working the later end of the week in Brno, Czech Rep. I spent the remainder of the weekend in Vienna.  It was interesting crossing the border as the police checked every car due to the Syrian refugee crisis even when I was crossing at 12:30 AM!  I was also planning ahead this time and purchased a driving vignette after getting a ticket in July.  Day one in Vienna I spent doing a run, doing a walking tour, seeing Stephen's cathedral and the Halsburg palace.  I also went to the state opera and saw a rendition of Cinderella by getting some last minute stand room only tickets that were great.  Experienced the coffee house culture at lunch and grabbed some goulash for dinner.  If looking through my full set of pictures on Flickr, you'll notice a handful of my pictures are black and white; for the next 5 weeks you'll notice many of my pictures will be black and white as I'll be working on my photography class homework on the weekends.

Vienna Day 2 - I spent the day at the Schonbrunn, which is the Hapburg's summer cottage/hunting lodge.  Massive mansion with great decor and a huge garden that is bigger than the White House.  Very fun city and love that they have free bikes.

Morocco - Sept. 9 - 14

Given there's a Swiss holiday on the 10th, I decided to grab a last minute flight to Morocco; the flight was at 6:30am, I got up at 4:15am to catch the first bus at 5am.

Day 1 in Marrakech Morocco - I spent most of the time wandering the streets of the Medina in search of a desert scarf, which I'm told is a necessity for the camel ride in the desert tour.  This place is a bit like Tijuana with people trying to barter only on a much larger scale.  I was excited to see tourists when I thought I was lost since not much is labelled on google maps.  At Djemaa el-Fna, I saw some snake charmers and had a snake draped on me at one point so that was a bit interesting.  I also visited the Koutoubia Mosque, Marrakech Museum, and areas near Ali Ben Youssef Medersa, Saadian Tombs, and the Palais el-Badi and Palais de la Bahia.  I had dinner with some Geneva friends randomly also in Marrakech at a rooftop restaurant (highlight was Moroccan Date cake with salted caramel sauce) and heard the broadcast of the Muslim call to worship before calling it a night.

Desert Tour - Mostly in a bus, but stopped at a few sites and gorges along the way to do small tours that were probably quite similar to that of Arizona (Ait Benhaddou, which is a set of ruins that had several movies filmed there (Gladiator, Game of Thrones); gorges in Vallee du Dades).  Highlight of tour was going to Merzouga to do a camel ride through a small portion of the Western Sahara and then camping that night in the dunes under the stars.  Riding a camel is a little painful so I was definitely glad this wasn't multiple hours.  Waking up after camping, we had a 10 hour drive back to Marrakech!

Marrakech after Desert Tour - Definitely much more manageable with the correct expectation.  After arriving in the city I grabbed dinner with friends and went to bed early after the big drive.  The last full day I had, I spent relaxing in a Hammam (Moroccan Spa) and doing some light bartering with some luck!  Definitely a much more enjoyable experience the 2nd time around.

Morocco was a fun time and generally really cheap when able to avoid the super touristy areas (small bag of chips was 1 penny).  It is a much larger country than I expected as it was a 10 hour drive to the desert near the Algeria border; cell phones generally worked everywhere except data service was no where.

Wine Tasting - Sierre - Sept. 5th

This week I started work and went to Zurich for new hire training; there were 5 expats and about 100 new hires.  Went well although I found it humorous that in the U.S. I would be teaching this training; it was still a good opportunity to network with others.  Zurich is a very different city from Geneva; I took a run on my first day to get my bearings.  The city is quite a bit larger and seems like you're traveling to a different country crossing from the French to the German regions of Switzerland.

For the weekend, I caught the 1st qtr. of the MSU game at 2am on Saturday AM and went to a wine tasting in the Sierre area of Geneva.  The area had 30+ wineries offering unlimited free tastings for $30.

Interlaken - Grindelwald Hikes

Given I don't start work for another week and many people are on holiday since it seems no one works in August in Europe, I decided to head to Interlaken on Friday morning after dinner with the Baleskys on Thursday.

Friday mid-morning, I took my first boat in Geneva across the mouth of Lake Geneva from the Eaux Vives to the Paquis bank and got on a train around noon for the 3 hours until arriving at Interlaken.

I booked a hostel from my train and upon arriving in Interlaken I checked and and booked a spot to go hang gliding in the last spot for the day.  Definitely glad I tried as it was not quite as violent as skydiving and relatively peaceful without the extreme speeds of skiing or mountain biking.  The takeoff was relatively easy given you're tandem and only have to run and keep up with the leader and then eventually the glider 'lifts' you.  Landing was interesting as you essentially glide into a field on your stomache and hope it is flat with no debris.  I'm glad I tried it as I haven't see it available in very many locations and I felt relatively safe as well.  Interlaken is an interesting city as the city centre is a large field where people hang glide and para glide on to all day and its pretty well organized for these type of sports.  It reminds me of Hood River given the array of extreme sports offered in the city.

Next morning I woke up relatively early to take a train to Grindelwald (like Harry Potter), which was essentially a ski town where many of the hikes of the Jungfrau region begin.  The hostel receptionist recommended a 4 hour trek; however, I decided to evaluate how I felt as there was a 6 hour loop that I was interested in and was advised not to try given the heat.  I did the 6 hour loop in 5 hours!  Very pretty hike through the mountains and by a mountain lake with some snow and good views of the  snowy Jungfrau range and the Interlaken between the two lakes (Hike Title/Direction - First - Bachalpsee - Faulhorn - Mannedlenen - Laucherhorn - Oberberghorn - Panoramaweg - Schynige Platte - 11.5 Miles).  

All in all a great first trip in Switzerland!  If I make it to Interlaken again, I would like to try the Klettersteig or Eigergletscher hikes that are shorter and more difficult and also Canyoning.