wroclaw round #2

Piotr invited me to go back to Poland with him again for his birthday weekend. Poland was really one of my favorite countries I visited in Europe, partially because of the wonderful hospitality I had from Piotr and his friends and family the first time I went.

 

For Piotr's birthday, he and his friends went to play paintball. I'd never done it before and so they let me tag along. It was really fun.

 

 

After paintball, Piotr, "Frederico" and I went grocery shopping for the birthday party at Piotr's mom's house. Only in Poland does a small birthday party require 4 bottles of vodka, 2 bottles of other alcohol, and beer!

 

Thanks for the great trip and wonderful hospitality Piotr & family! Despite language barriers, you all made me feel at home.

 

girls weekend in the alps

Daniela, Lise, Jelena, Claudia and Laura all got me the best birthday present ever - a weekend at a cabin in the alps. The first weekend that we were all free after my birthday just happened to be the middle of September. It was such a great weekend. We drove up late Friday night to Toggenburg (don't ask me how to say that, I could never get it right). When we arrived, it was pitch black and we had to walk up the hill to the house carrying all of our groceries and belongings for the weekend. It was a little scary with just the light of our phones and at first we thought a barn was the cabin...after finding the right spot and the key, we settled in, started a fire, and immediately making raclette. By about midnight, we had drank enough wine and eaten enough raclette to be super full and ready for bed. Rather than spread out in the 5-6+ bedrooms (the cabin slept over 20 people, 3 stories high), we all crammed into one room on the top floor that was just a room of mattresses on the floor and all slept together. When we woke up the next morning, we looked out the window and saw the most amazing views. It was wonderful.

 

Jelena, our fashionista, always with an outfit for every occasion:

 

Claudia on the swing in the game room

 

Yumm....raclette!

 

The view from the cabin's front yard

 

On Saturday morning, we prepared a feast of a brunch and then went for a hike. The plan was to make it to the top of Toggenburg, where we would have views of Santis. The weather was great - the perfect fall day.

 

 

After about an hour or so of walking, we decided to stop for some wine. This turned into, this is a beautiful spot, let's just lay down here and take a nap and forget about making it to the top!

 

For our Saturday night dinner, we had pasta. Jelena and Claudia turned it into a pasta competition, which was great for me and the others, because we got two great types of pasta!

 

Thanks girls for a truly amazing weekend and I wasn't lying when I said the best birthday present ever!

 

athens & santorini

My annual training this year took place in Athens, Greece. Mom & Dad came along and spent the days sightseeing. We went to dinners in the evening and we even found a bar, Brettos, my girlfriends and I went to in 2007 and drank some of their homemade liquor!

 

 

We left Athens EARLY Wednesday morning for the quick flight to Santorini. We arrived at our hotel well before check-in, so we laid out at the pool and watched the sun rise. Mom & I even fell asleep a for a little while. It was nice, but would have been nicer if it hadn't been cold! Once the sun came up though, it was gorgeous. We walked into the town of Oia and walked around taking pictures of all the beautiful views.

 

 

 

 Our hotel was really nice. We had our own little "villa".

We were pretty tired on Wednesday evening, so we went for an early dinner at the restaurant right next door to our hotel. The food was great. Dad enjoyed interrogating the waitress about the island life. And we had a lovely view of the sunset over Oia.

 

The next day, we had rented four-wheelers for the day. This was sooooooo much fun! We decided to rent two four-wheelers since mom didn't want to drive. So she rode with me. After a quick tutorial, we were off to go find a gas station on the main road. There were buses and other cars on this main, windy, hilly road and so we pulled over a few times to let them pass. Mom was a little nervous. After fueling up, we wanted to take the road along the sea, but we had to get down there somehow. Well....we did. We found the road down which was a STEEP switchback road. When we made it to the bottom, the breaks were warm to say the least! My arms were even tired from pumping the breaks the whole way! But we were having fun. We drove around through the farms and enjoyed the scenery.

 

After lunch, we made our way to the black sand beach - made from the volcano lava. Mom really wanted to put her feet in, but dad and I decided it wasn't worth wet, sandy feet going back into our tennis shoes.

 

 

After the black sand beach, we made our way back up on top of the hill and got lost, but it was great that we did because we managed to find Santo Wines. A beautiful winery overlooking the canyon.

 

 

 

After our wine tasting, we found our way to Red Sand Beach.

 

Our last stop of the day was at the very tip of the island at a lighthouse. The road there was quite narrow and had a very steep cliff off to the one side. Mom was a little nervous, but ensured me it had nothing to do with my driving!

 

We enjoyed a few Mythos beers on our balcony in the evenings.

 

 

On our last evening, we took our four wheelers into the town of Oia (our hotel was just outside the town) and watched the beautiful sunset over the water and then had dinner.

 

Our flight back to Athens was Friday evening, so we spent the day Friday walking around Fira.

 

 

Santorini was even more beautiful than I had expected it to be. We had so much fun in our days there.

 

 

mom & dad visit again

After a little bit of convincing, Dad agreed to come back to Switzerland (Mom of course needed no convincing). I am so glad they did. We had a wonderful two weeks - about one week spent in Switzerland and one week in Greece (Greece post to come after). It was nice being the "only child" for once! They were busy while they were here, but since they'd seen all the "must-sees" last year, we were more free to do what we wanted when we wanted.

 

I picked them up at the airport on Wednesday morning and dropped them (and their heavy luggage) off at my apartment before heading into work for the day. Dad was so tired, he was almost asleep before I left the apartment. I let them rest all day while I worked and then picked them up for dinner. We ended up going to my favorite Irish pub - Paddy's.

 

The next morning we were up early to go to Steinach. We didn't rent a car this time, but instead I got them train passes for various days. Steinach is the small town at Bodensee (or Lake Constance) where one of my clients is located. I dropped Mom & Dad off in Arbon (small town next door) to explore and hang out at the lake. They had strict instructions how and when to get on the train to meet me for lunch. It worked out perfectly and I picked them up at the Steinach train station and we went to my favorite italian restaurant in Steinach for lunch. Since I've spent a fair amount of time at this client over the past 2.5 years and the options for lunch are very limited, the waitress at this restaurant knows me. As soon as she saw me with my parents she said "oh these are your parents!".

 

 

We had a lovely lunch and then I sent them back to Arbon on the train for more exploration/relaxation along the lake. I met them in Arbon for dinner at Frohsin Brewery, probably my favorite restaurant in Arbon. Since Steinach/Arbon is about 2 hours away, we didn't get home until late Thursday night and then I had to be up even earlier Friday to go to a client in Basel. I let mom & dad sleep in this time and so they spent the day in Zurich, did some grocery shopping, and then prepared to have some of my friends over for dinner, which was really nice. We sat up on the roof and laughed so much.

 

On Saturday, we took the train to Luzern and then on to Stans, a cute little town. We had lunch there then took this old train part of the way up the mountain:

 

The main attraction in Stans is the open-air double decker gondola. It is the first and only in the world. My mother (who is really afraid of heights), was a little nervous, but it was great. We had beautiful views.

 

Mom: "white knuckling it" but still managing to get a picture of the views:

 

We walked around the top of the mountain and up a little bit the the actual peak.

 

We watched these crazy guys taking off and flying around too:

 

On Sunday evening we left for Athens, Greece, and arrived back on Saturday morning.

 

Saturday night my friends Daniela and Jelena came over for dinner. Mom & dad had met them both last year and mom had made them these USA quilts as a present.

We also drank the wine that my french host father had given to me to give my parents:

 



 

On Sunday, we decided to go to the "Swiss Canyon", close to Films/Laax. I had never been here before, but knew it wasn't too long of a train ride away. After having a little lunch in this small town, we got back on the train and took it one stop to start our "hike".

 

 

 

 

We hiked along the river and railroad tracks from one train station to the other. The views were beautiful and mom & dad were troopers.

 The treat at the end of our hike - beer, chocolate cake and our favorite - Paprika chips!

 

 

Monday was a half-day public holiday in Zurich, so I took the morning off and took mom & dad to Flumserberg, the place I usually go skiing in the winter because of the proximity to Zurich. So, besides seeing where I ski, the main attraction was the "summer sledding". Dad really wanted to do this after hearing about my friends Katie & Tracey doing it when they were here visiting.

 

The gondola ride up almost put mom over the edge. I never realized before that it was so scary, but I think the snow on the ground makes you think your fall would be cushioned.

 

 

The adventure/adrenaline day continued for us all with the summer sledding. It was really fun. Dad was a happy camper!

 

Monday night we went to Zeughauskeller, the Swiss german beer garden for sausages and beer. Mom & Dad then re-packed and were ready to leave the next morning after their SECOND Swiss adventure.

 

Thanks again for visiting mom & dad. You are truly the best parents ever!