Meersburg and Friedrichshafen

So the department I work in organises an annual excursion in order for its employees to hang out in an informal setting far away from the work place. I was really looking forward to it and being still new, this was a great opportunity to get to know some of my fellow employees better.

We met up at the company premises at 7.45 am and drove by mini-van to Konstanz which is right across the Swiss-German border and along Bodensee (also known as Lake Constance in English). Bodensee is surrounded by three countries namely Switzerland, Germany and Austria and is one of the largest lakes in europe. There we caught a ferry which crossed over to the other side of the lake to the village of Meersburg, Germany. The ferry itself is able to carry vehicles on it (similar to the Gozo ferry back home) which is great if you are travelling by car obviously. The weather was perfect and  after stopping at a cafe to have a quick drink we went for a short hike through some vineyards and back down to the old town. Meersburg is your typical small, picturesque village with many colourful houses and small shops. We then had lunch close to the lake (it was all paid for, what more could you wish for!) before moving on to the nearby town of Friedrichshafen where we visited the Dornier museum.

Lake Constance with a Zeppelin in the distance

Nice name for a boat

Some of the vineyards we passed through (with a very badass looking watch tower in the distance)

Seagulls!

Meersburg Old Town

Claude Dornier (Google Images)

The Dornier museum is an aerospace museum showcasing the development of aircraft and air travel throughout the years and is named after the entrepreneur Claude Dornier (1884-1969) who was a pioneer in aircraft design. He was also the founder of Dornier GmbH which was a leading aircraft manufacturer at the time, particularly during the first and second world wars and the years that followed soon after that. Many of the aircraft designed by Dornier were among the first to be made almost entirely out of metal and the company is now owned by another aerospace company, EADS. We had a guided tour which was in German unfortunately (practically all my colleagues are Swiss so I wasn't surprised), but luckily I could still follow by reading the plaques close to the exhibits which were displayed in English. We even went inside one of the big war planes on display outside! It was baking hot though and there was no ventilation so we were all really glad when the guide finally stopped talking and ushered us out of the plane.

I had never really sat down to consider just how much the development of aircraft has had an impact of our lives and how it has shaped modern society before today. The world wars also had a major influence on the rapid development of aircraft, and the transition from humble flying boats and aircraft which were only used for reconnaissance in WWI, to bomber planes with machine guns in WWII, to jet planes and commercial, affordable air travel was really striking during the visit. I definitely recommend that you visit this museum if you happen to be in the area. More information can be obtained from their website: http://goo.gl/BQO713

Some of the exhibits at the Dornier Museum

After that it was finally time to drive back home. All in all I really enjoyed myself and the excursion was a perfect balance of outdoor activity, sightseeing and educational value.

Until next time!

Parents Coming to Visit

Time to clean my room then.

On the bright side...Kinnie and Cisk!

Meet Brenda

Today was a good day. I managed to borrow a bike for my entire stay in Switzerland from a colleague at work who wasn't using it anymore. It's a mountain bike and has 21 gears and is still in very good condition and I am so happy! I was initially planning on buying one at a second-hand bike market (http://goo.gl/G4o0h5) which usually sells abandoned bikes which have been picked up by police. Anyone can also go there to sell their bikes, however through a casual chat during coffee break and an announcement on the company's internal RSS feed, I was lucky enough to avoid the hassle and only had to pay the train ticket for transporting the bike from my colleague's home. No more long walks to the train station or Migros! 

She has already served me well - I was almost certainly going to miss the train to go to Winterthur today and I managed to catch it with a minute to spare!

Dance For Freedom - Street Parade!

Haven't had so much fun in a while! The Zurich Street parade is a massive annual event celebrating the best of techno and house music all throughout the afternoon and into the early hours of the night - and best of all it's free of charge! It takes place on the second Saturday of August and is one of the biggest techno parades in Europe following the end of the Berlin Love Parade in 2010, with around a million visitors year in, year out (which is no joke considering the population of Zurich is less than half that figure). Although I had already been warned that this was the craziest day in Zurich's calendar, I still wasn't prepared enough for what I was about to experience.

I first went to have lunch at a friend's place and throughout my journey I could already see a horde of half-naked people dressed in outrageous brightly coloured costumes making their way and stocking up on alcohol. I suddenly wished I had some costume or at least brightly coloured costume of my own. Following lunch we slowly made our way towards Stadelhofen where the love mobiles where already parading through the streets. Everyone was having so much fun dancing and being drunk and it strongly reminded me of the Nadur Carnival back home, only with more alcohol and scantily-clad people and much better music. I somehow managed to get back home at around midnight all exhausted after 9 hours of non-stop partying. And let's not talk about the massive hangover which followed the next day...

Laters!

PS. Spot the Maltese 'hamallu' @ 2.05 in the video of Telezueri 'Freakish Pure Nightlife' mag: http://goo.gl/P72gsF

Photo taken by my friend Karen

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

Well I wasn't really desperate (yet!) but today my friend Bartek was going shopping across the border in Germany and I wanted to try it out at least once because it is very popular with students and trainees on a shoestring budget who happen to live close to the German-Swiss border. As everyone knows, prices in Switzerland are very exorbitant so it is no surprise that so many young people living in villages such as Baden, St. Gallen and Villigen are tempted to do their shopping on the other side.

I met up with Bartek in Baden and we made our way to a small village called Waldshut. This place seems to have been founded precisely for the reason we went there. As soon as we got off at the station, mega supermarket chains LIDL, REWE and Kaufland together with a Burger King place greeted us. We enjoyed what Bartek told me was a traditional Burger King Meal which cost 3.99 EUR (around 3 times less than the same meal in Zurich!) before we moved on to Kaufland.

In total I spent just over 56 euros and bought enough food to last me a month, including a bottle of Żubrówka (yey!), a six-pack of beer, 8 pieces of meat, tons of canned and frozen food and some tupperware and toiletries which God knows what a fortune they would cost in Switzerland.

A word of advice about the Swiss Customs. Unfortunately, people crossing the border may be subject to random spot checks and any items which exceed a certain allowed limit will be subject to paying customs. Such restrictions are mainly on alcohol (1 L of spirits and 2 L of wine or beer) and fresh meat (0.5 kg fresh meat per person). It's good to keep in mind these restrictions and the additional charges when trying to purchase items outside of Switzerland. More information about the Swiss customs can be found here: http://goo.gl/iK7mit

Thanks to my Gleis7 (an extension of the Halbtax card) the train journey to and from Waldshut (approx. 1.5 hours one way) was free of charge because we traveled after 7 pm. If you want to know more about the benefits of the Halbtax card (which allows you to buy public transport tickets at half-price all across Switzerland) and Gleis7 (which allows young people to travel on trains for free after 7 pm all throughout Switzerland) visit the SBB website on http://goo.gl/qwWiX and http://goo.gl/7CPGDN respectively. If you are going to be living in Switzerland for at least 3 months I definitely recommend you to get these cards (which are valid for 1-5 years) because public transport in Switzerland is very expensive and you will get your money's worth in no time. Together both cards cost a total of 304 CHF or just 175 CHF for the Half-fare card.

It took me 5.5 hours to finally get back home with a shopping bag that was going to burst at the seams which means it won't be something I will be doing often. I guess I will just have to see how it goes and how long it will take me to run out of food and then weigh up my options.

Biking Weekend

Our bikes lined up. Photo taken by my friend Somil

So last weekend I went biking with some other trainees around Lake Neuchâtel which is located in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. I was really excited for this weekend because cycling through beautiful scenery is not something which I can experience back home on a daily basis. My Maltese friend was also visiting and I was looking forward to meeting up with him for this trip.

Beautiful Swiss country side, photo taken by my friend Somil

We caught the train early in the morning to Murten, our meeting point, where we had our bikes waiting for us at the train station. Cycling towards the lake we paused to see the old ruins of a large Roman settlement called Avenches along the way before finally reaching the lake and stopping for some swimming. It was a really hot day and we were all sweating like crazy. There were also some really steep hills along the way which didn't really make our lives easier!



There were loads of people trying out wakeboarding at the place we stopped to swim but we ended up not managing to have a go because we soon had to move on and get to our hostel, which was further up along the lake in a village known as Yverdon-les-bain. I was dying by the time we reached the hostel and my bum was really sore from sitting on the seat all day, plus I was quite sun burnt too! There we helped cook dinner which was a variety of couscous, pasta salad, sausages and mashed potato and finally set down to relax.

Photo taken by my friend Somil

The next day we off again right after breakfast to conclude our journey to Neuchâtel where we would then catch the train back home to Zurich. Sitting down on the bicycle seat again was tough and rather painful but in general the cycling was much less intense than the day before. We passed some beautiful vineyards and wheat fields along the way, stopping occasionally to swim and have water breaks.

Photo taken by my friend Somil

As soon as we arrived at the station it suddenly got cloudy and started raining heavily, which was the cue for us to leave. We cycled a total of 100 km over two days which was definitely challenging for me personally, after almost 7 years of not riding a bike, but all in all it was a fantastic time. My friend Bartek managed to take this lovely video with his GoPro camera which sums up our trip beautifully.

The Swiss country side has many well defined cycling routes and its definitely worth checking out this website which offers more detailed routes to choose from based on your location http://goo.gl/YJIke8.

I also managed to outline roughly our cycling route using Google maps which you can see below.

À bientôt!

Only he who swims against the current, reaches the source

Went to the bank today to run an errand and noticed they had free fortune cookies to commemorate a Terracotta warrior exhibition being held in the vicinity.

Although I'm not a fan of these things, being the first fortune cookie I ever tasted I guess should  make this episode all the more special, so I thought I'd share this very relevant message that was inside it (it was in German so I had to Google Translate).

Getting to where you want to in life is never going to be easy, and if you find yourself wandering aimlessly, rather than sitting there hoping things will get better, snap out of it, grab the bull by the horns and see how you can change it!

Packing...Ready. Set. Go!

So the day I would set off to Zurich, Switzerland was finally approaching and I was suddenly faced with the burning question - "How on Earth does one pack for a year?!" The longest I had ever lived away from home was for three months and I remember I had found packing to be quite a challenge, so this was going to be hard.

On one hand, I needed to have adequate clothing for both summer and winter (and a very cold winter indeed) and on the other hand my luggage allowance was only a large suitcase and a hand luggage, so some big compromises had to be made. 

Initially, the vast majority of things I wanted to take didn't fit into my luggage and I'm pretty sure anyone who has gone abroad for an extended period of time or is planning on doing so has already, or will experience a similar dilemma. In the end I settled on the following items:

Clothing:

• 10 t-shirts (many of them neutral so as to be able to wear them under other clothing)
• 1 polo shirt
• 2 pairs of jeans for every day use
• 1 nice pair of jeans for evenings
• 1 pair of hiking pants
• 2 pairs of shorts (one for every day wear)
• 1 swimsuit
• 2 belts
• 1 pair of pajamas 

• 5 shirts
• 6 long-sleeved tops
• 2 cardigans
• 3 hoodies
• 4 pullovers
• 2 scarves
• 2 beanies (inc. my Amsterdam beanie!)
• 1 good pair of gloves

• 2 pairs of shoes one for every day use and evening 
• 1 pair of flip flops
• 1 pair of hiking boots
• 1 wind-resistant jacket
• 1 thick jacket

• An adequate amount of underwear including 2 thermal vests and 3 pairs of thick socks

Toiletries:

• Assorted medicinal items (panadols, strepsils, hydrating salts, bandages)
• Deodorant and perfume
• Face wash
• Soap and shampoo
• Toothbrush
• Thermometer
• Tissues

Electronics:

• Camera
• Mobile phone
• Headphones
• MP3 player
• 2 external hard disk drives
• Torch
• LAN cable
• USB cables
• Laptop
• Respective chargers
• Beard trimmer

Other:

• Sleeping bag and pillow
• Identity card
• Passport 
• European Health Insurance Card
• Swiss Francs and Euros
• Credit card
• European Youth Card
• Swiss Knife
• Pocket cutlery
• Backpack
• Watch
• Maltese flag (you never know when it might come in handy!)

Main luggage (max allowance) with Air Malta: 20 kg
Hand luggage (max allowance) with Air Malta: 10 kg

Every individual will naturally have his or her own priorities and preferences but I have chosen to list the things I took with me in case you are also planning to live abroad for quite some time and are at a loss as to what to take with you. Switzerland is also famous for its great hiking trails and I intend to take full advantage during my stay here (as you can probably tell from some of the items I took). I also intend to buy a good rucksack during my stay here as it was not possible for me to carry up my 80 Ltr rucksack from home. Luckily towels were going to be provided at the guest house I will be staying in so I didn't have to worry about getting those too. 

Alternatively you can choose to take up even less than this and buy many common items from the place you are going to be staying at, however I chose not to do so primarily because things are much more expensive in Switzerland. 

Hope this helps!