Settling into Geneva

A short update for today.  I took the train from Zermatt to Geneva and arrived mid-afternoon to check in at my residence.  My studio is cozy and has lots of room for my few belongings.  I haven't met anyone else yet, but there are 27 other women living in the building.

Sleeping area.

Almost immediately after checking in, I went to meet Natacha (Kate's friend and former exchange partner) for a drink and pizza with her friends.  They were very friendly and humoured me in my attempts to speak French.  I didn't do too badly for my first time in 10 years, but I still have lots of room to improve.  One on one is OK, but trying to understand group conversations is challenging.

Cooking area and bathroom on the right.

Tomorrow I am going to try and catch up with a local running club for a run in the morning, then go and get some groceries.  Natacha offered to show me around the city in the afternoon.  It is great to have a connection here in the city!

Zermatt

Last night after I wrote my posting, I went out for raclette with a woman I met on the train.  Raclette is supposed to be a Valaisian speciality, and I wasn't sure what to expect.   It consisted of a pile of cheese, two little potatoes, two pickles and two pickled onions.  It wasn't bad, but I wish there were some more vegetables!

This morning, it was cloudy in Zermatt, but you could just barely see the Mattherhorn. 

Matterhorn in the clouds.

I decided to go for a hike today, instead of paying the 95 CHF for the Matterhorn Gondola.  I hiked for about 4 hours, up to the mid-point of the gondola and then back down the other side.  I didn't really bring proper hiking shoes with me, so I was slipping all over the place and my feet were soaked when I got back.  Luckily it was pretty warm today, I didn't even need a jacket!

Hiking up to the gondola.

In the afternoon, I explored around the town of Zermatt.  I went on a free tour of the oldest hotel in town, and learnt a bit about the history of the area.  The tour took a long time, since the guide repeated everything in German, English and French.  There is also a big curling bonspeil going on in town starting today.  The rink is in a great location, in the open air and there are about 16 games going on at once.

Open air bonspiel in town.

Tomorrow, I take the train to Geneva and finally get to settle into where I'll be living for the next 12 weeks.  I am looking forward to being able to cook for myself and having a home base.

Glacier Express

Today I took the Glacier Express train from St. Moritz to Zermatt.  It was a very beautiful journey, and I was able to get some school work and letter writing done. I took a lot of pictures out the window, but most have pretty bad reflections in the glass.

The train crossing one of many bridges.

According to the brochure, the train passes over 291 bridges and 91 tunnels.  The train uses a rack and pinion system to pull itself up some of the steepest gradients.  One of the cheesy souvenirs they were selling was a crooked wine glass.

View inside the train.

The train is a "panoramic train" with windows on the roof so that you can see the mountains.  There was also some narrated information about the towns and mountains as we passed, so I learnt a bit about the history of the area.

Glacier just past the Oberlap pass.

Tonight I am staying at a hostel in Zermatt.  I am feeling a bit overwhelmed right now, trying to make sure my deposit went through correctly to reserve my accommodation in Geneva and trying to work out some practicum details with the University of Waterloo.  Luckily, even though he is 6500km away, Pat is helping me in dealing with the bank at home.  It's our regular pattern, Kristin freaks out, Pat works things out.

Skiing in St. Mortiz part 2

The conditions for skiing today could not have been more different than yesteday.  I woke up to blizzard-like conditions outside my window, but I had already paid for my lift ticket and my ski rental, so off I went.  When I was the only one on the 50 person gondola at 8:30am, I started to get worried.  Turns out no one skis here on a Tuesday morning, especially in a snow storm. 

The view from the top of the mountain. Where did the Alps go?

 When I got off the lift at the top, I couldn't even tell where the run started.  After a few minutes of trying to figure out which way to go using my trail map, I once again heard some people speaking English, this time Australians.  I one again asked if I could tag along for the run, and ended up spending most of the day with them.  They were a dad and daughter and two friends of the family who travel to St. Mortiz every year to ski.  So, despite being Australian, they were great skiiers and knew the mountain very well.  I was very greatful for the company, and for not ending up lost in the snow!  They even insisted on buying me lunch, when I pulled out my cheese sandwich picnic.

Chairlift to nowhere...

The powder was incredible to ski on, but by 3:00 my legs were toast, so I called it a day.   I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening wandering around St. Moritz Dorf, the ritzy part of the town.  The streets are lined with Chanel and Maserati shops and apparently the Prince of Thailand is currently staying in one of the hotels.

 As I was walking around, it stopped snowing and the skies cleared.  I'm very happy that the weather cleared, since tomorrow I am taking the Glacier Express to Zermatt.  It is supposed to be one of the best train journeys in the world, but today the view would have been the same as the view out our living room window last Tuesday.

Church in St Moritz Bad at night.

Skiing in St. Moritz

Today, I hit the slopes in St. Mortiz.  I was trying to go to Corviglia, the closest hill to my hostel, but I got lost on the bus and ended up one town over at Corvatsch.  I was worried, since I didn't know the trails and I was by myself. 

On the way up on the gondola, I heard some people speaking English (pretty rare here), so I asked if I could tag along with them for the first run.  It turned out, they are researchers from SickKids here for a conference.  They had already been skiing for 3 days, so they showed me the best runs and helped me get my bearings.  In one of the glade runs, I got lucky and found a 100 Euro bill on top of the snow! 

Top of Corvatsch ski area, 3303m altitude.

After lunch, I headed back out on my own, did a few more runs ant Corvatsch and ended my day back at Corviglia. 

Selfie with the Alps in the backgound.

I went to the local co-op grocery store to grab dinner.  Luckily, grocery prices aren't as high as restauraunt prices here.  There are some foods (cheese, nutella, yogurt) that seem to be cheaper here than at home.  Whenever we travel, Pat always likes to check out the alcohol prices.  Beer seems to be somewhat cheaper here than home, with the cheapest one I saw 24 500mL cans of "Ankor" for 12 Francs (about $14.50 CDN).  Imports like Corona seemed pricey, at 15.50 Francs for 6 bottles of Corona.

Zurich to St. Moritz

After spending hours trying to figure out all of the Swiss rail passes, I hopped on a train from Zurich to Chur and then Chur to St. Moritz.  I wasn't able to take great photos through the train windows, but the views were pretty spectacular.

My hostel is a bit out of the way of the main town, but you sure can't beat the view. There was a world cup of bobsleigh here in St. Mortiz over the weekend and I am rooming with 3 of the Romanian women's bob team.  I don't speak German and they don't speak English or French, but they seem friendly.

I have ski passes for the next two days (only 25 francs per day through the hostel- significant savings!) so my next task is to read about the different ski hills online.  All of the maps and pamphlets are in German and I don't want to accidentally get stuck on a double black diamond or end up skiing back to the wrong town.

Day 1 in Zurich

After 24 hours of travel and a short stop in Istanbul, I have arrived in Zurich!

I spent today exploring the city and planning my trip down to St. Moritz.  The weather is quite warm here, it was about 10 degrees during the day. This morning I went for a run along the lake- it was quite pleasant to be able to run without bundling up.  I think I will be much fitter when I return home from this trip, both from the good weather for running and the high cost of food!  A cheese sandwich at our hostel is 7 Francs (about $8.50 Canadian), quite the difference from the 25 cent Cambodian chesse sandwiches!

In the afternoon, I wandered around and caught a free walking tour of the city.  The volunteer guide was excellent.  Here is a picture of the morning fog clearning over the Limmat river, because no one reads blogs without pictures (not that I'm expecting huge readership).

I'm going to have to get used to being by myself, at least for the next week until I move into more permanant living arrangements and start working.  I've never actually travelled alone before, so this will be a good experience for me.  I'm also still wrapping my head around the fact that I won't be back home for 3 1/2 months!