Thanksgiving and Ski Trips

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is always an interesting time in Geneva as the city is full of Americans and expats from all over the world; however, Wednesday is not a bar night, it's difficult to find Turkey, and there isn't a general expectation that very little work will be getting finalized the entire week.

As one of the more memorable American holidays; many of us are eager to find others to celebrate with.  During the prior year, I hosted fellow coworkers at my apartment and in the current year, I celebrated a US partner's apartment in Lausanne.  There were 38 of us in total so quite a large group of people for dinner.

Everyone brought a dish or two to pass and there was no shortage of food; I think we had 7 kinds of stuffing!  It's always fun to try to make an American recipe while in Europe as not all ingredients are available; for example, I made green bean casserole and the following ingredients don't exist here:

1) French cut canned beans - Replaced with fresh beans

2) French style fried onions - Replaced with actual fried onions

3) Sour Cream - Replaced with Creme acidulee

4) Cheddar cheese - Exists, but hard to find and definitely grated!

Casserole turned out great and it's fun cooking as I enjoy the small challenges that are my grocery store scavenger hunts.

All of the food was delicious and definitely a fun night!

Verbier - Wkd Nov. 26

I spent the the weekend skiing in Verbier and renting a Chalet with friends.  Always a fun city that I've been to several times the past ski seasons.  Slopes were great for this early in the season and kept the Swiss tradition by getting the first raclette of the season.

CAT Team Cook Off - December 1st

Beginning with 2015, our team started the an annual tradition of having a team potluck where each person must make a food from their home country.  I feel a bit disadvantaged as an American with few options outside of grilling and tailgate options while competing with the French, Italians, Swiss, English, and Canadians.  Only rules were you must make the recipe and we were assigned a category to avoid all desserts; the menu:

Starters

Foie Gras*

Salmon Tartar with Avocado

Mushroom Soup

Entrees

4 Cheese Pasta

Sloppy Joes*

Desserts

Macaroons*

Cheesecake

Chocolate Mousse Cake

I made the sloppy joes with a Swiss twist of adding Gruyere cheese and brown sugar imported from the US (also doesn't exist in Europe).  Everyone voted for their favorite within each category, which I've noted with the *s above.  Always a fun event with the team and looking forward to next year's!

Zermatt - Wkd of December 3rd.

As my last trip of the year and to kick off the formal SCIG (local ski club) ski season, I spent the weekend in Zermatt.  I did the same trip during the prior year as well.

Skiing was great although I purchased new boots that were a bit too tight and could barely walk the following day so I was only able to ski for 1 day.  I did go to the Dr. and luckily no break, but pretty sure I'll have no nail in about a week.

In addition to skiing in view of the iconic Matterhorn, this is also a fun weekend as it falls close to my birthday so I was able to spend the weekend and Saturday night out with friends.

Last update of 2016; let's see what 2017 brings!

Lausanne Half Marathon and Budapest

Lausanne Half Marathon - October 30th

While still in running shape, but losing my marathon form I ran the Lausanne half marathon on October 30th.  I've ran this race in the prior year and it's is likely one of the prettiest races that I've ever run; PwC also sponsors any employee in the canton that would like to run so the registration is free so why not run!

After running two marathons in 2016, I've really relaxed my weekly running routine so I took this race as an opportunity to sightsee and appreciate the scenery; even stopping for pictures where I was asked if anything was wrong.

The course runs along Lake Geneva with mountains in the background and through the Lavaeux vineyards, it was quite a scenic run!

Following the run, the PwC runners grabbed dinner and drinks before I made my way back to Geneva on the train.

Budapest - November 5th

With work requiring me to be in Brno, Czech Republic the following week, I took advantage of the flight in the region and spent the weekend in Budapest.

I arrived late on Friday and spent Saturday on a walking tour to see the cities' sites.  Budapest fest very similar to visiting Prague although I did not anticipate how cold it would be while there and was quite underdressed.  

After shivering through the walking tour, I grabbed lunch with someone from the walking tour.  Fun fact from lunch would be Hungarian goulash is more so a soup rather than stew; although apparently American goulash is thought to have originated from Hungary (only similarities are there's meat, paprika, and red sauce).

To warm up from being outside in the elements, I went to a Hungarian bath house.  There are several throughout the city as the entire country has many thermal springs.  The baths are Turkish baths with large pools and hot tubs.

After warming up, I grabbed drinks at a local wine bar with some fellow Americans in town for a medical conference, grabbed dinner, and went to a ruin bar (szimpla).  The ruin bars are a theme of Budapest of buildings from the communist regime that were vacant following the fall of communism and are now very popular bars within the city.

The following day, I relaxed and did a wine tasting in the city and prepared for the upcoming work week.  Hungarian famous wines are Bull's Blood, which is a blend of reds and also sweet white wines (similar to mead).  It was all quite good, and a good contrast compared to my visits to Bordeaux and Burgundy the prior summer.

Very fun trip and would love to get back again soon to tour outside of the city.

Jordan - Nov. 19

This weekend I planned a 4 day trip to Jordan as I've always wanted to see Petra after seeing Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Friday

I worked while traveling and didn't realize until midway through flights that it's roughly a 5 hour flight from London; luckily, I planned to spend a few days here to take advantage.  

Upon arriving at the airport, getting my visa, and then through customs, I encountered my first challenge.  Given the language barrier and I was staying at a smaller hotel, I had to call the hotel and then hand my phone to the taxi manager so that they could discuss where to drive me.  Needless to say I made it, but then learned that someone had smoked earlier that day in the hotel and triggered all of the sprinklers so all reservations for the night were cancelled.  Luckily, the affiliate I was transferred was across the street (note this was all taking place at midnight to 1am).

Saturday

My driver picked me up at 7am to drive to 2.5 hours to Petra.  Within Petra, I had a guide for the first 2 hours who described each of the sights and walked me through the Siq and main walking path.  After the tour, I hiked to the Monastery (1 hour), grabbed lunch (30 minutes), and then did a looped hike to the sacrificial obelisk on top of the mountain (2.5 hours).  Hiking was very pretty with the ancient carvings and temples from 200BC-200AD with the colorful rocks from the varying minerals adding to the effect.

Treasury

Monastery

View from inside a tomb

Hiking path

At the end of the day, I started a hike that appeared to reconnect to the main path leading to the gate from looking at a map; however, it ended with an elevated view of the Treasury, thus at a dead end >100 meters above the path that I needed.  It's also important to note that I had started this hike at dusk planning to reach the end at sunset.  Luckily, there was a group of us and by the time I had retraced the path and reached the entry gate, it was dark.  

Dead end of my hike

The hotel that night was great!  Probably one of the nicer hotels I've stayed while traveling outside of work.

Sunday

My driver picked me at 10am and we drove 1.5 hours to Wadi Rum to meet my guide for the day.  We toured Wadi Run for 5 hours by jeep, touring different rock formations, having tea with the Bedouins, and doing small hikes.  The tea here is probably the best I've had while traveling; black, mint, sweet tea with cardamom.  Wadi Rum is the Jordanian Grand Canyon.

Following the tour, my guide dropped me off at the Bedouin camp for the night for dinner and camping with a larger group.  It was myself, 2 Aussies taking a year of travel, the cook, and a German that was volunteering at camp for the month while also taking a year of travel.  The Bedouin food is traditionally cooked in an underground over of coals buried with the food in the sand.  We had essentially chicken with vegetables and a variety of sides; it was all quite good!  Our campsites were less campsites and more so small huts with beds and power.  This was a stark contrast from my last camping trip at Kilimanjaro!

Lounging at the campsite

Monday

We awoke and had breakfast at our camp before heading to town for each tourist group to depart ways for the next leg of their journey.  My original driver picked me up and we drove to the Dead Sea.  The Dead Sea is the lowest point in earth and is 8x saltier than the ocean; so salty that you float with no effort.  The muds are famous for their healing/spa qualities so I partook and had someone coat me for 3 JD (4 USD), let it dry, and then went in the water.  Washing my face was 'interesting' as the water was so salty it burned your nose and I had to run to the beach to my chair to rinse my face with a bottle of water so that I could then open my eyes.  After the Dead Sea, I returned to Amman for the evening to fly out the following morning.  Note that this was my original hotel that I was supposed to stay at on my first night in Amman, but no issues this time.

Vantage point along the road trip

Dead Sea

Mudded Up!

Jordan was a blast and I would highly recommend going!  The country is quite safe; the tour experience is very interesting as everyone knows each other and it's quite a network.  See below for an example:

Day 1

I had a single driver take me from Amman to Petra, to a separate guide, to then another driver (friend of my original driver) who led me to my Petra hotel.

Day 2

My original driver drove me from Petra to Wadi Rum with directions that someone will pick me up the following morning at the same location at 8:30am (note I'm in the desert with no reception), to a separate jeep guide, to a then separate campsite.

Day 3

Rode from the camp with another group's jeep driver to town and arrived at the location.  That driver then called someone to pick me up and it was my original driver.

Kicking off the Ski Season - Oct. 22

As the summer has come to a close and the weather has cooled, leaves are beginning to change, and football season has begun, it is time to look forward to ski season!  

Although absurdly early, I went to Saas Fee for the weekend to ski with friends (I have never skied in November yet alone October!).  Saas Fee is the center of Switzerland and the skiing is on a glacier so it's possible to ski most of the year although it did take 3 lifts to reach the top of the mountain as there was no snow in the village.

Coverage wasn't bad for what was open, although not a lot of ski terrain was open.  Most of the area was dominated by ski teams (private club, high school, and national teams throughout Europe); it was likely that 10 pct. of the skiers were recreational.

In order to get skiers to the area early in the season, the resort was featuring a promotion to demo skis (essentially free with the lift ticket and hotel from now through the end of November). I managed to try 6 pairs of skis in a day and a half of skiing and many things I would not buy such as slalom and long GS racing skis.  I did manage to push the GS ski to the limit, get some air and then proceed with a GS style fall skidding down the hill to a stop and breaking the ski; I was perfectly fine so no worries.

All-in-all a great way to kick off the ski season; the only negative being there are limited restaurant choices this early in the season as not much has opened.  We laughed early in the day that a reservation would be needed and then struggled to find a restaurant with an available table for dinner and had to sit at the bar.

Berlin Marathon and Ocktoberfest - Wkd Sept. 24 and Oct. 1

Long before I had moved to Europe and once I began getting interested in running marathons, I had learned that the Berlin marathon was at the end of September during the Oktoberfest festival in Munich, which convenient would allow for a great post race party.  Last summer, we organized a group of 6 runners and 3 spectators for this race (which was Sept. 25, 2016); ranging from my sister (Melissa), to college friends (Lisa and Alicia), and then friends of friends (Dan, Chris, Kris, Plum, Josh).  The races fills up quite quickly so we were lucky to all obtain racing bibs through lottery registration that allowed runners to apply in groups of 3 where all runners were either accepted or denied.

Melissa arrived in Geneva on Thursday and did some sightseeing and relaxing to adjust from jetlag before flying to Berlin the following day.  Per usual, we went to Chez Ma for dinner; every American visitor to Geneva has now been here, but we did forego fondue and raclette as neither are the best pre-race meals in a week leading up to a marathon.  We arrived late on Friday in Berlin after needing to make some emergency flight changes requiring a ticket to be purchased at the Geneva airport ticket desk.  When arriving in Berlin, we then had an "interesting " 30 minute taxi ride listening to German hip hop on full blast sung by the driver's cousin; during the drive, the driver also sung along and was texting during the entire process so we felt quite safe!  In retrospect, if you're ever asked if you'd like to listen to some German hip hop I would suggest politely replying no.  After the longest 30 mutes of my life, we reached the apartment where we were staying; our entire group stayed in an apartment that slept 9 people all in beds and was incredibly convenient when traveling with a group that size.

On Saturday morning, we participated in the Breakfast run, which is a 6km run that finishes in the Olympic stadium with coffee, bananas, and pastries are available afterwards.  Arriving at the Olympic stadium to run one final lap was quite an amazing experience with great views.  The remainder of the day was spent trying to stay off our feet as much as possible with the race the following day.

Start of the Breakfast Run

Outside the Olympic Stadium

View when entering from the tunnel

Snacking post run

Judgment day

The marathon started at 9:15 and we didn't have to leave our apartment until 7:30, which was quite a nice alternative from other races I've done where it has been necessary to wake up at 5 or before.  Race day weather was gorgeous as it was sunny and about 50F at the start with the last hour getting a little hot (70F).  I ran well for the first 21 miles and then made the mental decision that I didn't have the energy for a BQ push so I slowed my pace to appreciate the experience and scenery.  It was likely the best I have felt after a marathon other than in Philly when I was very well trained as I'm typically used to my whole body seizing up post race.  The course had plenty of spectators and the course followed many of the famous sites in the city; at the finish, the runners ran beneath the Brandenburg Gate so that was quite special.  The end even had showers so was able to be clean and sun bath in the grass in front of the Reichstag while waiting for the other runners.  Most of our group finished within a relatively similar time span so we all waited and cheered for one another before going back to the apartment.  

Marathon morning - Prerace

Post marathon at the Reichstag

After all of the runners arrived, we then cleaned up and relaxed at the apartment before going to the Prater Biergarten for some victory beers and brats; this biergarten is apparently the oldest in Berlin.  While at the biergarten, we were joined by my friend Meghan (from Australia study abroad) and her husband as they saw that we were in town so that was fun to catch up with some old friends.  Following the biergarten, we capped off the night at the horror bar near our apartment; very odd bar, but it was very near our apartment.

The following day we did a hop on hop off bus tour to see the remainder of the city that we missed on the marathon (or went by too fast to see).  We saw Checkpoint Charlie, had dinner at a Pirate Bar near the East Side gallery and then prepared for the following day as we had the train for Munich.

We had a 5 hour train ride to Munich and arrived mid afternoon; the trains are great in Germany (Per Dan)! Beyond the speed and efficiency, the escalators in the stations change direction depending on if there is no one on the escalator and you approach the oncoming direction; this created a fun game over the course of our trip.  After arriving in Munich, we kicked off being in a new city by grabbing a few masses of beer at Hofbrauhaus and then all split to different directions of the city for sightseeing and shopping; I helped Plum find some leiderhosen.  That night, we grabbed dinner and went to the Paulaner tent to kickoff being in the city for Oktoberfest.

The following day (Wednesday) we did the New Europe walking tour; note that this is my 3rd time doing the tour so I'm quite sure that I could give the tour by now, but I still really enjoy it!  We had lunch at the Schneider Brauhaus and then the group separated.  I went to the BMW museum with Melissa and Chris while the rest of the group went went shopping (primarily to find leiderhosen and dirndl for the Oktoberfest tents).  For dinner, we went to Alten Kreus!  Alten Kreus was a restaurant near the hotel I stayed at my first time to Munich (and Europe) in 2011 and I've eaten at the restaurant on every trip back since as the food and people are great; the whole group really enjoyed the restaurant.  Following dinner, we had some drinks at Paulaner Nockerberg before heading home; this brewery was where I also came in 2013 when in Munich for Starkbierfest on my first ski trip to Europe.

BMW car badges from the beginning to now

Wiener schnitzel at Alten Kreus

Thursday was Oktoberfest all day!  We started the day getting breakfast at Marienplatz before going to the tents for our reservation at 11:30.  Being a weekday, we were able to walk in and get a table quite easily; we had one drink at our reserved table before moving to the open area as we would otherwise had a harder time finding a table at the end of our reservation (4:30).  The Hofbrau Tent, as usual, was a blast!  I'm not sure if it was the fact that we started at noon or had just ran a marathon a few days prior and had not been drinking during training, but we were all in bed by 10.  I actually got 8+ hours of sleep during the night!

Most of the group; this is the beginning of the day before entering the tents!

Yours truly; and of course my shirt is green and white and I'm sporting socks from Kyle's wedding!

The following morning, I walked Melissa to the airport at 7am!  Any complex thinking was not possible so I did some relaxing and we spent the remainder of the day wandering the city and checked out a few of the tents to see the insides of others as we had only been in 2 before then.  The decorations are quite impressive given the tents are built for a 2 week festival and then torn down until the following year.

That evening, we embarked on the next leg of the journey and flew to Milan late that night.  At this point, it is only Lisa and Plum, Alicia and Kris, and me on the trip.  The following day, Plum and I got breakfast for the group at Twins and went and rented a car.  Lisa, Plum, and me spent the day going to sparking white wine wineries in Franciacorta and then dinner on Lake Como while Kris and Alicia shopped.  The weather was very wet (it downpoured), but we had fun in Como riding the funicular to the top of the city and then having an amazing pizza dinner before heading home for the night.  The following day, I returned the car, ran, and did lunch with the group before boarding a train back to Geneva.

This was a GREAT trip with fun people; everyone was very easy going and I would travel with any of them again.  The train ride home was a quite sad given we had spent so much time planning this trip and the anticipation that led up to it; we had a lot of fun with no issues and now it was coming to a close.  For me, it also was my last big trip that I had planned for the summer and now must return to real life and back to work.  I'm not sure if you've been reading my blog posts, but I feel like I've been traveling on vacation since the end of July (and maybe even June) and now must finally return to reality.

Greece - Wkd Sept. 10

Arrival in the Islands
After working the week in Geneva and with the McLaufer/Interliggi trip drawing to an end, I had another US visitor (Aimee Schauer) in town and we decided to do some traveling to Greece.  Note that typically this would be a short week within the US due to Labor Day, but Switzerland does not celebrate this holiday; however, Thursday was a holiday within Geneva as it was Jeune Genevois so we had a long weekend.

On Wednesday, I flew to Athens and arrived at the hotel at 2 am and Aimee arrived earlier in the day to relax after the long haul flight from the US. The following day we had a ferry planned for Paros leaving at 7:15am so we tried to stay close to the port; I think i slept 3 hours max. that night, but we made the ferry.

On Thursday, we arrived at Paros at 10am and hit the ground running after checking into the hotel.  We rented a dune buggy for the day and this was by far one of the best ideas we had as we were able to visit several of the beaches the first day (Santa Maria, Monastiri, Piso Livadi, Contaratos, Pounda, and Chrisi Atki).  At Chrisi Atki, I took a wind surfing lesson and fell a few times, but was otherwise quite successful having sailed a few times in the US and knew the basic techniques and concepts.  Definitely a fun experience that I was happy to try!  That evening we dune buggied back to Piso Livadi for dinner on the water.

  

The following day, we did an all-day boat cruise to see Anti Paros, the neighboring island, with a few different snorkeling points along the boat ride.  We snorkeled near the coves, rocks, and small caves along the island where we saw some fish in the cool blue water.  Fun day trip and then we did dinner in Naoussa that night on the water and then followed the beaches back to our hotel.

On Saturday, we rented another dune buggy after having such a great time the first day.  We went scuba diving and I did an intro course while Aimee did an advanced course to see the remnants of a small shipwreck, many fish, crabs, and sand dollars.  Fun fact was we were one of the only groups ever to recognize that the instructor has a Nittany Lion tattooed on his back shoulder as he did his master's degree there.  For dinner, we dune buggied to Lefke; this proved to be a fun experience as it was in the center of the island in the mountains, all of the roads were poorly lit with no guard rails, and we were using a dune buggy with no speedometer, gas gauge, and a terrible turning radius; we managed to make it home though.

On our final day (Sunday), most of the time was spent doing a 12 mile run as part of my training and then we headed back to Parikkos to take the ferry back to Athens.  The visit to the islands was great as it was warm, sunny and the food was amazing as there was fresh seafood everywhere.  I tried Octopus for the 2nd time (first time in San Sebastien on the France road trip) and it is easily one of my favorite island foods going forward.

Athens
We had two days in Athens and on our first day we did a 3 day island tour to Hydra, Poros, and Aegina: 

The following day in Athens, we did a walking tour to see the Acropolis and Forum:

All-in-all, Greece was a great time and I would love to go back, the food was amazing and there is so much to see on each of the islands and in Athens.

Gruyeres - Wkd Sept. 3

During the month of August, I spent all of my time in the US other than one week when I returned to Switzerland.  The first two weeks were spent with a day in Detroit followed by Ludington for a week and a half for Kyle's bachelor party and with Melissa's family, and then Kyle's wedding in South Bend followed by a few days of work in Peoria before returning to Peoria.  This was quite an eventful time period, but always fun coming home.

After in Geneva for less that a week, I then flew to Detroit area to run the CRIM, make a celebrity appearance on my old soccer team, and go to Disney world for a work training.

I returned to Geneva on Sept. 2nd and had visitors the next day as the McLaufers and Interliggis were beginning a two week European vacation.  I ran my last 20 mile training run for marathon training and then I met them at the airport as my bag as delayed from the prior day and helped them reach their AirBnB.  After leaving them for some time to relax, we went to Yvoire for filet du perch on Lac Leman.  Very fun first day, but the jet lag was catching up to all of of us well.

The following day, we went to Gruyeres Switzerland, home of Cailler Chocolate and Gruyere cheese.  We did a tour of each; both were fun, but at the end of the chocolate tour there they provided endless tastings of their entire chocolate line so that tour wins of the two.

Gruyeres is a gorgeous city perched within the mountains; the castle is located on the top of the the mountain along with the entire old town.  In the city, we did a fondue before heading into the castle for some sightseeing and back to Geneva.

The group had a Chamonix visit planned the following day (Monday) so we did one last dinner at Chez Moi (likely the 5th time in a month) and then they continued their Eurotrip on to Zurich!