lisbon

After training in Madrid, I flew to Lisbon Friday evening. I'd never been to Portugal before, so was excited to visit this city I'd heard so many great things about. I arrived Friday evening, had a nice dinner at a random family-owned place close to my hotel, and then called it an early night. I was immediately impressed with the mosaic tile sidewalks throughout the entire city. They are really cool, but definitely slippery when not wearing proper footwear (i.e. my flip-flops)!

 

 

 

 

The next day I woke up early and started my city sightseeing because I had a lot to see and not a lot of time. First I took a ride on one of the iconic old trams of the city. It was a great way to see the city and was a fun ride.

 

 

 

 

After my tram ride, I walked around for awhile trying to make my way to the Castelo de Sao Jorge. I finally found the castle, but was at an entrance where you couldn't get in. The security guard explained to me and some other tourists the confusing path to take to get to the right entrance. After getting lost some more on these tiny little streets, my fellow tourists from Norway with a more detailed map took pity on me and together, we found the castle entrance.

 

  

 

Beautiful views from the castle:

 

The cathedral: 

 

Elevador de Santa Justa: 

 

One of the neatest things I saw was the Palacio Nacional de Sintra. The palace is in the little town of Sintra, just outside of Lisbon and a short train ride away.

 

Back in the city I walked around a bit more and did some souvenir shopping.

 

Praca do Comercio:  

 

My flight back to Zurich was Sunday morning, and after a long week away (3 countries in 5 days), I was glad to be home!

 

 

 

 

 

 

madrid

My annual training this year was in Madrid, Spain, so of course I took advantage and arrived a little early (from my French Riviera trip) and toured the city and did some shopping. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and it was a very nice city.

One of the girls I work with is from Madrid, so she recommended some great places to eat, shop, and things to see. On my one free day, I did a LOT of walking and by the end was carrying a LOT of shopping bags, so it was quite a tiring day!

 

On Thursday night after training and dinner a group of us went out in the city to check out the "Fashion Night Out" (Madrid's fashion week condensed into one day).

french riveria

September and October have been such busy months, which is why I'm so far behind on blogging. The French Riviera was amazing. It was a long weekend filled with great food and great views.

First stop: Monaco

 

Monte Carlo Casino

 

The Grand-Prix goes through this tunnel

 

 Ridiculously huge yachts in the harbor

 

 Quick stop in Eze

 

 Next Stop: Nice

 

 

 

Next Stop: Cannes

 

 

 

Next Stop: Ile de Porquerolles

 

This was by far my most favorite stop. Not only was the island amazingly beautiful, riding bikes around and getting completely lost made for some wonderful memories!

 

 

The first view of the lighthouse we biked to still off in the distance: 

The little "downtown" are was too cute and had delicious icees after a long bike ride!

 

Last stop: Toulon for an overnight stay before flying out of Lyon the next morning!

 

The French Riviera has been on my list of places to go for a long time now. I am glad I was able to see so many places in a short amount of time. It was probably even more beautiful and enjoyable than I had pictured it in my mind!

 



 



aare rafting

My friends Ondrej and Stephany came to visit for a long weekend while they were in Europe visiting Ondrej's Family. We had a great weekend, it was a lot of fun having them here. On Saturday, we drove to Bern and met up with some of my friends for a day of river rafting. We took the train to Thun where we got our rafts and started down the Aare river. The whole trip took almost 4 hours and we ended in Bern. We lucked out with great weather.

 

This is the first time I've seen this (although I hear its popular in Switzerland), so I had to take a picture of "Women's parking":

 

 

Adrian, Matt, Jelena, Claudia, Ondrej & Stephany:

 

Enjoying some beers and beautiful scenery:

 

 

At the end of our trip we met up with Daniela for a cookout in Bern:

 

 

 

After the cookout, Daniela took Ondrej and Stephany (and the rest of us) on a short tour of Bern:

 

Of course Ondrej couldn't resist running through the fountain:

 

They can't stay away from this place!!

 

Thanks for visiting Ondrej and Steph!

swiss watch

I finally bought a nice "souvenir" for my Swiss experience - a Swiss watch. This was a "happy birthday/merry Christmas/congratulations on your promotion last year" present to myself :)

 

full moon paddle boarding

About a month ago, I did something that I've been wanting to do for over a year now - paddle boarding (or stand up paddling). Jelena and Daniela went with me and we took a 2 hour course on Lake Zurich. It was really fun. It was one of the hottest days of the year and so falling off our boards into the water was actually a relief.

Our instructor told us that the school was doing a full moon paddle in August from 9pm-11pm. Daniela and I decided to go and it was AWESOME! The water was so calm that late in the evening. It was so peaceful and we had a great view of the city of Zurich all lit up by the absolutely beautiful full moon.

Our instructor took a few pictures of the Group during the paddle. We didn't get back to the school until 11:45pm. The lack of sleep on a weeknight was well worth it though. I would definitely do this again!

speeding ticket

One thing that I have to warn all my visitors about is the speed and red light cameras in Switzerland. They are everywhere and so you really can't speed. When my parents were here, my mom designated herself as the "Speed Nazi" and would yell at dad if he was over the speed limit. Well, on Lainey and Josh's last full day here, we were on the way back from Jungfrau and mom took a nap and Josh following behind us saw the camera flash. Sure enough, this week, I received the speeding ticket in the mail (addressed to my dad). Luckily it was only CHF 20! My local friends even said that was cheap :)

 

Update: Dad's speeding ticket #2 received this week. This one for CHF 60. I hope this trend doesn't continue!