Episode 17: September 2006
This will be the last episode we write from Europe – but we sure did fit a lot into our last month!
September highlights include:
• Annual crayfish party
• Mel and Matt’s visit to Pilatus
• Bodyflying
• Carol’s trip to Switzerland
• Our day hike to Quinten
• Deb’s visit to Lisbon
• Daphne’s birthday
• A weekend in Budapest
• Farewell events
September was a crazy month. There is no other way to describe it. The month began with the annual crayfish party hosted by our friends, Ces and Steve. You may not have read about this tradition last year, as we could not make it. This is a tradition brought to us by the Finnish friends in our crew. Typically, the summer months in Finland bring crayfish to the lakes, which is enough of an excuse for the Finnish to party. They do this by drinking vodka, singing, and eating crayfish…in that order. In Switzerland, we have taken things a step further. On the afternoon of party day, the boys go from house to house and collect the hard rubbish from everyone’s apartments and take it all to the local incinerator. This was a great opportunity for us to get rid of things we did not want to take to the U.S.
Once the rubbish has been collected and deposited, it is time for the evening crayfish party. In addition to the regular crew, Johanna and Jaarko made a trip from Finland for the weekend to join us. You may remember the names Johanna and Jaarko – they used to live in Switzerland but moved back to Finland a few months ago. One of the main ideas of the evening is to sing. Every year, we collect a list of new songs and ones from previous years and printed them into a binder so that everyone can follow along. Songs are suggested from each country represented. The hit song from a couple of years ago was Neal’s contribution: the “Doh Re Me Beer” song by Homer J. Simpson. The evening carries on with all of us sitting around the dining table, preparing our crayfish (peeling it then piling it on toast with sour cream, caviar, dill and mayonnaise), singing a song from the book, following the song with a sip (or in the case of the Finnish, a gulp) of vodka, eating the crayfish, and starting all over again.
While Neal and I were well within our senses, we cannot say the same for some of our friends who, after six hours of vodka drinking, did not fare too well. The party was great fun – it is a great tradition, a fantastic reason to get together, and something we will miss when we leave Switzerland.
The following morning we met up with Melanie and Matt, friends of Neal’s who now live in Dallas Fort-Worth, Texas. They were on the beginning of their tour of a few European countries. Our job was to help them beat the jet lag and keep them busy on the first day of their adventure. We met them at the main train station and headed off for a day trip to Mt Pilatus in Luzern – a place that Neal and I had not yet seen either.
We had perfect weather during the trip. After arriving in Luzern – a beautiful city which always impresses visitors – we took an hour-long ferry trip across the picturesque lake to the base of the mountain. From there, we took the cog train up to the top of Mt. Pilatus, which provides a stunning view of the surrounding mountains and valleys. We spent some time at the summit having lunch and taking in the sights at the top. To come back down, we skipped the cog train and opted for the gondola. At the gondola stop, we then took a bus back to the Luzern train station. Basically, we used every kind of public transport available to us, and true to Swiss form, none of it let us down. After a fantastic day, we parted with a very tired Matt and Mel.
The following Friday, Neal organized a birthday gift for our friend, Peter Paul. He arranged a whiskey tasting event at a local whiskey store to allow a few friends to learn about whiskey and taste different kinds. Whiskey is something particularly close to Peter Paul’s heart, as he is an avid whiskey enthusiast. After the tasting, a few of us not interested in the tasting met up with the whiskey tasters for dinner. They were sure to tell us all about the production process, ingredients, as well as what they determined was their favorite type of whiskey.
The following Sunday, we cashed in the birthday gift we got from our friends in June: bodyflying at Europe’s only indoor bodyflying facility, which is conveniently located on the outskirts of Zurich. There was enough interest in the experience that we managed to convince a few of our adventurous friends to join us for a “flight”. The experience promises the feeling of freefalling, something like what a skydiver would experience without the gut-wrenching drop out of a plane. They do this using a massive fan that shoots a tunnel of wind up into the air. Bodyfliers wear special suits that are designed to act as sails to catch the wind and allow the flyer to hover in the wind. Experienced fliers can hover 20 feet above the fan, though rookies are only allowed 7-10 feet up in the air and then only with an instructor holding onto them. Neal and I were joined by Ulrika, Peter Paul, and Chris (the husband of one of our friends). Safety was the top priority at this place. We first had to watch a safety video and then practice the correct flying posture and how to safely fall when we come out of the airstream. Next, we dressed in our body suits, complete with earmuffs, helmet, and goggles. Looking fabulous, we were then ushered into the flying area – an open top circle that is padded around the outside, and has a grill in the middle, under which the fan is propelling the airstream upward. Individually, our instructor called us to the center, help us stay afloat, and then take us with him up to the top roof of the enclosure – a scary (at first) but very fun experience. After we each had a turn with the instructor, it was time to break for a few minutes before being called in again. The second time the instructor tried to get us to stay afloat on our own, a much harder thing to do that did not allow us to go up quite so high. Nevertheless, it was a great adventure!
From there, we went straight to the airport to pick up my sister, Carol, and her friend, Viv, who were coming to Switzerland to spend a week with us. The two of them were on a five-week European adventure and came to us after a two-week adventure in Greece, keen to spend some quality time with us and rest a little before the remainder of their trip. As we relaxed at home that night, we were surprised by our friends who turned up at our apartment to feed us a surprise farewell dinner. It was a fabulous surprise – great food, great company, and a lovely parting gift for us to remember them and our time in Switzerland.
While Carol was in town, I went to the U.S. embassy in Bern to get my U.S. visa. This was quite an experience. The embassy is located in a beautiful old building on a gated street, with ominous-looking guards at each corner. After waiting in line for an hour and a half (outside, no less), I was asked to leave all my belongings outside and wait inside to be called. After another hour of waiting my name was finally called. I spent all of two minutes with the lady at the counter who told me that my application was completed and that all I needed to do was pay $500 and then have my fingerprints taken. After another hour of waiting, I was brought up for my fingerprints and was finally out of there. Whew!
For the remainder of Carol and Viv’s time with us, we took every opportunity to catch up over dinner, as we worked during most of their stay. Our visitors filled their days with visits to Pilatus, Rapperswil, and Zurich. I took a day off and ventured with them to the tiny country of Lichtenstein. It is a pretty little country governed by a prince. We spent the afternoon there visiting the vineyards, shopping, and taking in a lovely lunch. From there, we headed off to Bregenz, Austria for a look around. We amused the border control guard by stopping when he was waving us through, so that we could ask him for the all-important stamp in our passports! All told, we did eight hours of driving and visited three countries, all in one day. We were back in Zurich in time to cook dinner and catch up with my friend, Jen, who had come over for a visit.
The following Saturday, we bid Carol and Viv farewell as they continued their European adventure, this time into Italy. The following week we did several things related to our U.S. move. We deregistered from the local community, visited our tax agent, and hosted the removalists who spent two days packing up our apartment and loading the boxes onto a sea-going container. To our surprise, everything went very smoothly!
The following weekend, we decided to take a day hike that we had heard about but never done. We drove to the town of Walensee, about 40 kilometers south of Zurich. Walensee is a lovely little town that is alongside one of the most beautiful lakes we have seen in Switzerland. We hiked around the lake, taking in the beautiful scenery of the mountains, lake, waterfalls, and flora, stopping to take several photos along the way. The hike reminded us (or me at least) of the Cinque Terra in Italy – only greener. Three hours later, we approached the town of Quinten. Set among vineyards, the town was big enough to house a restaurant, a handful of shops, and a ferry stop. We sampled the local wines over a lunch of lake fish and then took the ferry back to our car in Walensee.
The day after our hike, we arranged to meet our friends for a picnic in a town called Au that is very close to where we work in Horgen. We found a relatively private picnic area next to the lake with lots of grass for us to sit on and for the kids to play. It was a very nice, relaxing afternoon.
The next morning I left to meet my sister and Viv in Lisbon, Portugal for a few days. Lisbon is a beautiful city – much nicer than I had imagined it to be. The three of us navigated our way thru the city on public transportation, seeing as much as we could in two days. We visited downtown, the Baixa and Alfama – crowned by the magnificent St George’s Castle, and on day two we traveled up the amazing coastline by train as far around as the famed city of Cascais. After returning from a day a the beach, it was time to say a sad goodbye at the Lisbon airport as I headed back to Switzerland and they finished off their trip in Madrid before heading back to Melbourne.
That Friday morning, Neal and I headed off for a two-day trip to Budapest, Hungary. This was the last European city we saw before heading to the U.S. – and one which we have always wanted to visit. Upon arriving, we dumped our bags at the hotel and set off to explore. Budapest is a city divided by the river Danube; on one side of the river is Buda and on the side is Pest. Our hotel, and most of the action, was on the Pest side. Our first stop was the beautiful old town and its market hall. This hall primarily operates as a food market with loads of butcher and deli stores and shops specializing in paprika as well as general foodstuffs. We braved the language barrier and had lunch in the food hall – a goulash soup, cabbage rolls, and Hungarian style potatoes loaded with paprika.
Feeling full and overwhelmed by all the things we saw, we walked along the Danube river to the Chain Bridge which allowed us to cross over to the Buda side of the city. The Buda side houses many of the city’s oldest monuments, including majestic buildings, churches, and castles. We headed up to the Royal Palace, sitting on a hill overlooking the Pest side, where we took a look around and stopped for a coffee before continuing the adventure. We walked to the Fisherman’s Bastion and took in a panorama of the entire Pest side. On our way back to our hotel, we came across a square lined with several police. Budapest was on alert that weekend as the Prime Minister elections were to be held on Sunday. The Prime Minister was in hot water at that time as he had been caught telling a lie to the Hungarian people – why they were grumpy about a lying politician was beyond us! The protests, however, were quite benign and we never saw any signs of rowdiness.
The following day we ventured to the majestic St Stephens’ cathedral. After a brief tour of the church, we went to Parliament Square to see one of the most beautiful parliament buildings in Europe. We then took a walk to the other side of town to see Hero’s Square – a spectacular square situated at the entrance of the city park. We spent the afternoon strolling around the park, visiting one of the city’s famous baths, and laying down in the park for a short nap!
As the busy month of September ended, the move to the U.S. is now a reality. While we are definitely excited about the new adventure that awaits, we are sad to be leaving behind such wonderful friends and family in Switzerland. We are hoping that just because we are moving to the U.S. that does not mean that the adventures will not continue. We will make sure of it!
