Yearly Archives: 2011

I want to live in Amsterdam

by

Post by Lauren

You know how there are some cities where ten minutes after arriving, you exclaim, “I could live here!”. I said this in Amsterdam even before our cab arrived to the hotel. And after spending a great weekend there, I decided I must live there…someday!

Here’s are just ten reasons why:

One: Bike-friendly, not lots of cars. Not that I am good at biking (I had a near death experience with a tram in Amsterdam) but I do appreciate how everyone bikes everywhere. There are 700,000 residents in Amsterdam and 700,000 bikes!

Two: Romantic canals, perfect for strolling or biking leisurely. The canals in Amsterdam were just as beautiful as Venice, just in a different way. It feels magical when you are there.

Three: Cozy bakeries & cafes. Quaint adorable restaurants. A highlight for us was an Indonesian rice table on our first night, captured in the second photo, taken by A. Note that our “good food” measuring stick is off since everything in Geneva is so bad. But the cuisine of this city would have wowed us pre-Geneva as well.

Four: Plentiful open-air markets, including gorgeous flower markets. They are known for their flowers. 40% of the world’s flowers come from The Netherlands. I bought a hand-painted coffee mug of a street scene as my souvenir from a local artisan.

 

Five: Peaceful parks. Wide bike paths, spaces for BBQing, music, and tons of people enjoying the weather.

Six: Intriguing museums, history & culture. We hit the Anne Frank House & Van Gogh museum. Note, I am on a Van Gogh pilgrimage and have now hit 2 of his main residences 🙂 There are also 45 other museums in Amsterdam.

Seven: Sweet “brown bars” and windmill bars. The ones we visited were Van Zuylen and Bouwerij ‘tiJ. Sepia photo by A.

Eight: A unique architecture. I love skinny buildings. I would even be okay with uneven floors as I am sure all these buildings have. Note Gabe standing straight up next to one of the older buildings to show the angle of curvature.

Nine: Delicious beer all over the city and at Heineken. Again, not used to good beer in Geneva.

Ten: The presence of Life. Sometimes I am not sure Geneva has a pulse, so the lively feel of Amsterdam on a weekend was a really much-needed change of pace. Day or night, people are walking, biking, conversing, and enjoying life. They seemed to be all smiling and friendly.

Since A & A, our travel buddies, were staying with a local, we had the added benefit of attending a real Amsterdam party Saturday night for, on a rooftop along one of the canals. It was organized to gather prior to “Museum Night” which we all attended. The great folks we met verified how fun-loving the residents are and we were a little sad when we thought of what Geneva lacks on the fun-scale.

A bonus #11 is that while it is not the national language (Dutch is), everyone spoke beautiful English. It was a great relief to step into English-speaking territory for a weekend. Sometimes it just feels good for one’s self esteem to not sound like a four year old.

The only downside to amazing Amsterdam for me was the RLD. It totally wasn’t what I had envisioned but still seedy and couldn’t wait to get back to the other parts of Amsterdam I had become enamored with.

 

Gratitude Friday: A taste of Thanksgiving

by

Post by Lauren

This Friday, I am grateful for the chance to have a little taste of Thanksgiving in Geneva. The cooking group that I am in organized a potluck at A.L.’s beautiful home.

It was lovely to share a Thanksgiving meal with women of many different cultures, including Holland, Canada, Switzerland, Rwanda, Germany, Qatar, Japan, Australia and the US.

Our gracious host brought back Thanksgiving plates, napkins and other goodies from her last trip to the US, so everyone could appropriately experience the typical decoration.

We had such a beautiful assortment of everyone’s favorite treats to share with the group, both savory and sweet.

 

 

Since there are many reasons why Thanksgiving is difficult here in Geneva, I was just so grateful for a nice day spent sharing our American tradition with wonderful women.

Top Reasons why celebrating Thanksgiving is more difficult in Switzerland:
1-They don’t celebrate the holiday at all here, making it impossible to get supplies. At least for Halloween, some factions of the French participate in this holiday, so they do sell limited costumes at a few stores for the ex-pats and French
2-It is nearly impossible to find a whole turkey. They do sell “dinde” here (turkey in French), but it is only in parts….a tenderloin, legs, little chops. So, you have to find a place to custom order it. And if you find one:
3- It’s guaranteed he’ll already be without skin, making it difficult to seal in the flavor
4-You will pay at least $180-200 USD for a small turkey. He is guaranteed to be free- range, organic, etc. since the other types of birds don’t exist here, but a big ouch to the wallet!
5-A whole turkey will likely not fit in your oven. Remember, all Swiss appliances are tiny. It’s like living in a dollhouse. Luckily, our host measured and determined that the whole one wouldn’t fit in her oven, so she just got an assortment of tenderloins and legs to cook so we could have a taste of turkey.
6-On the same note of our oven being the size of a US microwave, so you have a hard time getting side dishes cooked and re-heated at once.
7-No power settings or defrost settings on a microwave. So my typical way of softening butter is out the window!
8-No shortcuts like boxed stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc. And no fried onions in a can for green bean casserole. Everything must be from absolute scratch.
9-You can find canned pumpkin here at the American store, but its 8 dollars a can. Whoa!
10-Luckily our host had a beautiful spacious apartment. But this is atypical here, so a US sized Thanksgiving might have a difficult time fitting into a traditional Geneva flat.

Bon weekend, everyone!

Our little yellow boats: the mouettes

by

Post by Lauren

I just adore Geneva’s transport system. The TPG (public transportation) has a really handy site where you can map your trips. I use this site or the app 3-4 times a day to check up on schedules and waiting times. Frequently, if I need to make a short trip to the other side of the lake, it will suggest one of the water boats. They can be the quickest way to get across the lake due to heavy Mont Blanc bridge traffic. And they are so adorable.

While they are the most affordable way to get out on the water in Geneva, don’t be fooled – the mouettes are all business. They’ll zip you along under the bridges and across the other side in 5 minutes flat. You may need to go back and forth a few times to get the true lake experience!

But, no fear, you can ride them unlimited amount in an hour for 3 francs, or 2 francs for one way. If you have a TPG pass for the day, month or year, they are free!

If you visit, I promise we can go on a ride!

Swiss movie-going

by

Post by Lauren

Sunday was a low key day for us after the big Halloween shindig. In the afternoon, our big event was going to see the Ides of March.

We usually go to the Pathé brand of theaters here in Geneva, but this time, I had spotted that the cinema super close-by actually had the film in version original with subtitles. Usually their films are always French so we hadn’t had an opportunity to go.

We took the short walk down to the theatre and bought our tickets. They were only 33 francs, $40 USD, a steal for Geneva movie-going. We were pleased. However, our love affair with this theatre quickly wore off when Gabe realized that the teeny snack stand only sold candy bars and coke. No popcorn. He’d been looking forward to it all afternoon.

To make matters worse, the traditional ads they have at the theatre continued to play with the big sodas and popping corn, taunting us.

While the movie was excellent, the temptation was rather cruel.

Girls just wanna have fun

by

Post by Lauren

I was gleeful when I ran into a group of singing French girls on my way home from the gym Saturday morning. They carried a huge basket of candy. I immediately associated it with Halloween and trick-or-treating.

But, alas, no. They were a bachelorette party making their way through the streets of Geneva. They approached all men for cash and would give them a piece of candy in return. Not sure if the cash was for the bachelorette festivities or the wedding fun.

Anyhow it brought a smile to my face as the boarded the pink tram (decorated for Breast Cancer Awareness month).

Notice the person in the foreground looking aghast at the horror of it all.

Halloween in Geneva

by

Post by Lauren

In Europe, Halloween isn’t such a big holiday. Gabe & I had a few friends over so that we could properly celebrate.

First, he carved a pumpkin, which is a necessity for Halloween. By the way, large pumpkins are sold sparingly at the big grocery store, labeled Gros Halloween, or Fat Halloween.

Then, I made a few “scary” dishes:

Then, a few friends joined us for the fun. Note, most of them came on public transport and got lots of odd looks. Including people who were taking photos of them. Again, Halloween is very strange here, especially to dress like characters (see yesterday’s post).

You are probably wondering who won the pumpkin? Well, the big prize goes to The Girl in the Dragon Tattoo.

Congrats and Happy Halloween!

The American

by

Post by Lauren

Since Gabe’s company has headquarters in the US, they encouraged all the employees to dress up Friday. Here is Gabe dressed as Magnum PI. It was relatively easy to pull off since he had a Hawaiian shirt and cap and S & S had given us a bunch of mustaches (you’ll see why for tomorrow’s post). Anyhow, comparing the two, I think he did quite well for a costume pulled together in ten minutes, morning of.

Since only about 5% of his office is from the US, he knew that people may not know Magnum PI. However, he figured he would get equal education in their characters….maybe some politicians, movie stars, etc. However, people only dressed up like witches and goblins.

We now know the European definition of Halloween is to dress up like a scary thing, not characters, historical references, or pop culture icons like we do in the US.

Lesson learned.

At the end of the day, they circulated an email featuring everyone who participated. People had subtitles of Goblin, Witch under their photos.

Gabe’s simply said, “The American”.

Gratitude Friday: Autumn in Switzerland

by

Post by Lauren

This Friday, I just wanted to express my gratitude for Autumn in Switzerland. Since our house hunting fell in Winter and our move in Spring, Fall is the last season that I have yet to see. It was worth the wait…..

 

Bon weekend, everyone!

 

I’ve got wheels.

by

Post by Lauren

No…I haven’t learned how to drive our car, Sven, yet. But I have my own set of wheels. I finally got a grocery caddy. If you ever told me that I would get excited about owning a grocery caddy I would have laughed at you. But after 5 months of living in a city without the ability to use a car, the day has come.

The cool thing about it is that it folds up. My French teacher was quick to point out it wasn’t very good for heavy loads since there wasn’t a structured base. I agree. But nevertheless, I like it because if grocery shopping is 3-4 errands into the day, I don’t want to have to drag a full grocery caddy platform around.

Pulling this guy up our steep hill still gives a workout but its a lot easier than carrying four bags of heavy groceries on my shoulders.