appenzell

I'd read in one of my books about Switzerland about "landsgemeinde" which is the oldest form of direct democracy. Eligible citzens of the canton of Appenzell still meet in the town square on a certain day of the year to vote on laws by raising their hand. This would only happen in Switzerland, and ever since reading about it I wanted to see it. I made the trip to Appenzell on the last Sunday of April. I arrived in time to see the end of the parade and watch all the eligible citzens enter into the square. They were all dressed up and most of the men carried swords which traditionally were passed down from generation to generation and proved that you were eligible to vote. There were so many people that it was hard to see the actual voting. I also couldn't understand any of the speeches that were taking place. I spent some time walking around the cute little town of Appenzell and visited the Appenzeller bier brewery.

sechseläuten

Sechseläuten is a festival in Zurich to celebrate the end of winter. I was happy to have a half day off work and on one of the most beautiful days of the year. After working from home all morning, Jelena came over and we laid out on the roof drinking wine.

We then walked to Bellevue to watch the culmination of Sechseläuten which is the burning of a snowman (called the "böögg"). The snowman is filled with fireworks and at the top of a big teepee of wood. If the snowman blows up within 10 minutes of starting the fire, then they say it will be a great summer. Unfortunately for us, it took about 35 minutes to blow up this year. I am choosing to not believe in this "legend" for the current year since I expect a nice, hot, long summer.

The lake and lakeside was absolutely packed with people. I've never seen Zurich like this before:

Jelena and I:

The böögg: 

We met up with Daniela and Mariana for more drinks after:



milano

I was ready for a change in scenery and more importantly for some shopping, so Alayna and I took the train to Milan on Saturday morning. The train only takes about 4 hours, so its hard to believe this was my first time in Italy since moving to Switzerland. We didn't have much of a plan, but on the train ride down we did some research online and managed to hit up all the highlights in our quick day trip. Our favorite points of the day were:

Eating lunch at MiPi - we stumbled upon this little gem in the Navigli area. The pizzas were so yummy and the nutella bon bons (think funnel cake bites covered in nutella) were amazing! Don't ask about the canal in Navigli, it was under construction, and not very pretty :(

We then headed to the Duomo square.

The weather could not have been more perfect. This was seriously the only cloud in the sky:

Tradition is that you spin on the "bull's balls" in this mall for good luck. Here is Alayna spinning away:

The entire day we went in and out of shops wherever our heart desired. After trying on almost 100 pair of sunglasses, I finally found a pair I liked! We also went to the park to sit out and enjoy the beautiful weather (and saw some papparazi with a famous actress).

For those that travelled with me in Italy before, you know that a day in Italy is not complete without gelato!

Scala Theatre



my birthday

So I guess I'm getting closer and closer to the year(s) when I really dread my birthday. But in the meantime I will use it as an excuse to get friends together and have a few drinks. I have never been more overwhelmed with the love from family and friends. My mailbox was flooded all week with cards and packages, so THANK YOU!

On Friday night, I had some friends over for dinner. Both Jelena and Alayna each made me amazingly delicious cakes!

We then headed to a couple bars. Here is a picture of the group before we headed home:

Also, Jelena and Daniela made me the sweetest card with pictures of us and a very special poem. You can ignore the "30" sticker on the front. They are trying to give me a hard time, but that's still a couple years off. My favorite line of the poem: "During the day she is a Good Samaritan, but at night she gets all American!". 

Thanks again for all the birthday wishes!



vienna

For our long Easter weekend (Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays), Daniela, Jelena, and I headed to Vienna or "Wien".

We arrived Friday evening and had an amazing dinner at Restaurant "ü". Whatever it was called in German translated to "cheesy dumplings with fried onions". It was yummy!

Saturday morning we set off on a walking tour of the city. We saw the oldest church in Vienna where they were having choir practice for Easter service, so we stopped and listened to the choir for a little while.

Old town 

Where Mozart lived: 

Horse and carriages everywhere: 

Stephansdom:

We passed a hotel with a huge crowd outside. It turns out that Justin Bieber was supposedly staying there before his concert Saturday night and was expected to come out. These two girls got Bieber fever but we didn't see him: 

Albertina 

Pinocchio 

The Spanish Riding School: 

We stopped at a cafe for tea and lunch: 

Parliament 

Hundertwasserhaus: 

Dinner at Specht: 

Wiener Schnitzel:

We made friends with the bartender who made us these delicious drinks called pipelines: 

The next morning was Easter. The breakfast at the hotel included colored hard boiled eggs for the occasion: 

Another cafe stop included "feel good" and "good mood" tea: 

Then we went to church at St. Stephen's cathedral. It was a beautiful mass: 

Next stop was Schönbrunn palace: 

It was so cold and raining/snowing we had to get gluwein at the Easter Market to keep us warm:

Easter market included lots of pretty hand painted eggs:

The three of us in front of the palace:

The rest of the day we toured the inside of the palace. The inside and outside gardens reminded me so much of Versailles in Paris. Then we had dinner and called it an early night so we could wake up at 4am for our early morning flight back to Zurich.

Happy Easter!