Trip 14: Lyon, France

Trip date: December 10-11, 2011

My best friend Tom did a year of study in Lyon. My first visit here was during the town's Fête des Lumières which is a celebration of Mary, mother of Jesus, where the streets are fully congested with people at night who wander around central Lyon to get blinded by all the light displays.

All in Attendance: Eric and Kristen (and Gordon and Vien)

On Friday, we gleis7 down to Geneva. Vien has relatives in Geneva and they were kind enough to let us stay overnight so we could travel to Lyon in the morning. So on Saturday morning, we rose up early and took the tram to the Geneva station and were off to Lyon.

Upon arriving, Gordon and Vien separated from Eric and I. I was meeting up with one of Tom's friend Adrien whom he met while living in Lyon. Adrien visited Calgary in the summer during the Stampede He met us at the station and I got the chance to meet him and show him around Calgary before I left for Switzerland. So now it's the other way around and it's his turn to show me his city.
The first stop: we took a crowded bus to a really fancy indoor food market. Plenty of interesting looking cheeses, pastries, desserts, meats, seafood, poultry, etc etc etc! Adrien got us these fancy sweet desserts sold in shot glasses that we got to keep and I even had my very first raw oyster that was opened for me right there in front of the booth. nom nom nom nom

Adrien lives right in the core of Lyon were you take a very tiny (and thus cozy) elevator up to his flat. It was a blissful hot day for December (17°C !). So after dropping off our things, we went sightseeing around Lyon. We saw the Lyon Cathedral that was packed with people eager to see the astronomical clock which is about as exciting as a common place cuckoo clock. Very similar in exhilaration to the one i saw in Munich. We walked past a puppet theater - Lyon is famous for these particular wooden puppets (you can even make one in your likeness for 1500 euros) and then we scaled ever upwards, past the Théâtres Romains de Fourvièree to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière which is a cathedral that overlooks central Lyon from a tall hill similar to how the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur overlooks Paris.

The view was really beautiful. The buildings in Lyon had red predominately red rooftops which really unified the style together. The buildings along the river were beautiful. You could also see these giant colourful balloons in the distance which were there for the celebration of Fête des Lumières. Inside the Basilica was extreme grand. Highly detailed, highly extravagant, very over the top and all that spare-no-cost glamour that I now associate with most cathedrals.

Afterwards we got some delicious sandwiches. We walked around Vieux Lyon and walked along the River. We went into the Musée des beaux-arts and later on saw a mural showcasing many important people in Lyon's history. Key notable people include Frères Lumière and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

A visit to another friend, a stop at a grocery store and it was already nightfall and time to brave the over crowded streets for the light display while sipping on vin chaud.

That night Adrien had people over so I could meet more of Tom's friends. From Adrien's flat, you could hear all the people outside until very early in the morning. The next day, Eric and I rewarded ourselves with a late snooze in.

On Sunday, Eric and I went to the Parc de la Tête d'Or which is a very beautiful and very large park near central Lyon. We shared a pear by the lake and watched un-human-fearing ducks parade about. There even a free outdoor zoo in the park... in the middle of winter! I have no idea how they upkeep habitats for elephants and lions outside (or if these are even healthy for the animals) but being able to just happen upon all these animals was pretty special. The pelicans there are also un-human-fearing and get right up close to the gate. Keep your fingers and tiny children away because they nibble.

For dinner we ate at croque-monsieur in a very cute restaurant called the Croque'n'Roll near the Oprah house. Before we knew it, the weekend was over and it was time for a very long train ride home.

Things I learned:

• My casual-conversation-with-people-my-own-age French isn't as good as I would like for it to be
• Paté is delicious but ...
• yum yum oysters
• Antoin de Saint Exupery - Author of Le Petit Prince - is from Lyon

Things to do next time:

• See a puppet show

The peaks of being Swiss

Wind chill to -49°C? I don't even understand what that means anymore.

Swiss Office Politics

Have you heard of the holiday Epiphany?

Like how Easter to some families is more about chocolate eggs than Jesus rising from the dead, let me explain to you first hand what it's all about in my experience. On January 6th, people in French and German (and others?) speaking part of Europe make a cake with one or two little figurines inside. If your piece of the cake has a little figurine inside - congratulations! You are now King for a day.

Results: my supervisor parading around the office in a paper crown.

Trip 13: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Trip date: December 2-4, 2011

Amsterdam, the land of decriminalized soft drugs and a place where you can go window shopping for prostitutes at all hours of the day. Also, it's the land of close-together sloping homes and more canals and bridges than Venice

All in Attendence: Thomas, Pat, Gordon, Cesar, Mike, Mila, Mike H., and Kristen!

This was my first easy jet flight, believe it or not. It's also my first flight out of Basel Airport. On Friday, we creeped out of work early and took the train from Baden to Basel and took our flight (which was 1 hour late), arriving just shortly before 22:00.

The Amsterdam Schipol airport is directly connected to the city's trainlines. This is a European norm but impresses me to great lengths as a shitty-Calgary-transit native. The official language in Amsterdam is Dutch. From what I gathered throughout my weekend, Dutch is very similar to German. And it was with my own arrogance in my limited knowledge of the German language that I neglected to learn basic key traveling phrases unlike how I usually do. I was diligent in Poland, Bulgaria and Italy but I came to the Netherlands armed with only my "dank u wel".

"Everybody speaks English," that's the typical North American ignorance attitude, right?

Anyways, we took a tram to the far end of the city center and stayed at the Stayokay Amsterdam Vondelpark. It's a HI Hostel so it's a bit pricey to what I usually stay in but I made up the difference in stolen hard boiled eggs. There were idiot proof signs to show the way to the hostel (along with idiot proof directions from the hostel site). It's my third "stay okay" hostel (Venice and Paris being the other two). After dropping off our things, we set off to explore the city and (of course) hunt for the red light district.

We got some french fries and wandered around the cobblestone roads. The Christmas lights are up which adds to the overall spirit and atmosphere. I can't help thinking that Christmas and -30°C with wind chill go hand in hand so it's hard to believe the holidays are within a month when everywhere I travel has temperatures steadily above the the zero line. We got a few drinks in a bar and found the red light district for some window shopping.

Photos are prohibited there because the girls want to up hold anonymity. A standard rate of 50 euros buys you 15 minutes with these girls. The prices go up though, (for instance, if you want to take off her underwear, it's an additional 10 euros) but that's just how the goods-and-service business is sometimes. The biggest surprise for me was that these girl were top quality in the looks department. I don't know why I expected otherwise but these were seriously good looking girls. They pay "rent" on their window space and adjacent room so they're really just like any other entrepreneurs running their own small business.

It should also be noted that we walked by the "Occupy Amsterdam" camp. This is the second Occupy encampment I've seen on my travels (the other one being in Dublin).

The next day, I woke up earlier than everyone else. Why? Because after 19 months of brutal handling, my camera finally gave out. As I've said before, a broken camera is very comparable to a broken limb (in terms of emotional loss, not pain). So I set out at the mercy of Amsterdam's cute stores and boutiques in search of a camera store.

Two hours of wandering and three broken umbrellas later and I finally found one by the train station. I paid way too much for a new Canon but that's how it is sometimes. Afterwards, I went over to the New Europe Amsterdam tour meeting spot and did a walking tour around Amsterdam. Highlights include:

• The Dutch use to have to pay tax according to the width of their homes. That's why all the buildings are so narrow.
• Furniture is brought to the higher floors through a pulley system on the front of the buildings. Some buildings are slanted forward to give a wider berth to swinging furniture so it doesn't smash through the windows.
• Poor foundation and slanted buildings = high market for people who sell crooked windows
• There's an 84 year old lady working the red light district. She's in high demand and doesn't need to stand in a window anymore - you have to book her in advance.

Oh and to debauch a rumor that coffee shops will only cater to Dutch citizens in the nearby future - this is something that probably won't ever come to pass. I mean, so much of their tourism comes from their relaxed laws. So you're probably safe going. The mayor of Amsterdam himself ridicules the very idea of it.

After the tour, some of us went to Grey Area and then wandered around Amsterdam. Cue: poor in nutrition food (all you can eat spare ribs !?), more glühwein, hurting my foot on the cobblestone, stroopwafels and haze.

A word on Amsterdam drug laws: Just in case you didn't know, magic mushrooms and marijuana are still illegal in Amsterdam. It's illegal to sell it and consume it. How does that work? Well soft drugs are only decriminalized in the country. It's also fuels the tourist industry.

The next hazy day, I went to the Van Gogh Museum. It was a staggering 14 euros but it was nice to walk through a museum dedicated to one artist uniquely. It was really interesting because, in a sense, you could really see the progression of his work, aka him learning how to paint. My favorites were the Flowering Orchard series. On a side note, Starry Night Over the Rhone; Van Gogh's Chair; and Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers were not in this museum. They are found in the Museum of Modern Art (New York) and National Gallery (London).

After that, it was more wandering around the quaint cobblestone roads until the return flight to Basel.

Things I loved:

• Insane number of bikes
• Relaxed laws
• Stroopwafels
• French Fries + Mayo
• How Dutch looks like misspelled German
  (Or does German look like misspelled Dutch?)

Things to do when I come back:

• Take a trip out of the city to see Tulips
• See windmills
• Maybe see Anne Frank's house (which I heard is over crowded, over branded and over priced)

Sinterklaas

Have you heard of Sinterklaas?

No it's not Santa's European cousin. Instead of riding reindeer and eating your cookies, this holiday man expects you to shine your shoes on the night of December 5th. After a quick inspection of the shoes you leave outside your door (this man doesn't do a breaking-and-entering like his North American counterpart), he will leave small treats inside your shoes. Perhaps even a chocolate version of himself.

And if you thought elves were weird, the photo is of his sidekick in some German speaking parts of Europe (Belgium, Netherlands). In Switzerland however, St. Nick's companion is called "Schmutzli" and is not a black face jester but instead looks like an ominous monk.

See: Companions of St. Nicholas