Mittwoch, 20. Oktober 2010

Fall in Stockholm (14.10 - 19.10)



Hello my dear readers. As promised, I'm back to write about my trip to Stockholm.

So i started my vacation on October 14 with a nice little breakfast with my mom. After packing she drove me to the train. My plane left at 16.35 and I arrived in Stockholm at about 19.00, where Jane picked me up. As we were driving towards Bålsta, the headlights suddenly went off. And not just one. Both of them. So it was pitch black. One hell of a vacation start I thought =). Luckily (we thought), there was a gas station. However, we were in sweden so they couldn't really help us so we switched some fuses and closed the hood and suddenly the lights worked again so we were able to drive all the way home =).

As I wanted to goshopping, that's pretty much the first thing Tiina and I did on Friday (after sleeping in and having breakfast of course). But, when we arrived in the city it was time for a swedish "fika." And since I never had been to the "östermalmshallen", we had our coffee there. After that though, we went on a shoppin
g spree =).

Saturday didn't start much different. Only that besides me and Tiina, Jane and Douglas came with us to the city. I wanted to go to the "rådhuset" to enjoy the view over Stockholm city. We soon found out that I ment the "stadshuset" and that it was closed for the season. So we went to the "Gallerian" and a little, old fashioned and cozy cafe called "sture katten".

I don't think I have to tell you that on sunday, too we did sleep in. As we didn't have many plans we just drove to the "Lasse Åbergs museum" to get some of his glasses. I got 2 very nice ones from Tiina (thank you again) which now have found their place next to myother ones. We had an early (17.00) dinner, because Tiina and I were going to visit Alex in Uppsala. He was going to show ussomething called "nationen". I'd describe it as a "place-where-all-the-students-go". It was fun and since they had lots of beer I'm gonna let you imagine what happened ;-) (hint, really thirsty).

Monday morning started with some kind of breakfast. At least for me. I wasn't exactly hungry, but I managed to eat a little and thanks to "Berocca" I didn't have a headache. The shower helped too of course. I'm still wondering though, why we never got our coffee that morning (it was almost ready...strange things happen...;-)). On our way to Stockholm, we wanted to pick something up at LUSH. Shouldn't have been that hard, one thought. It's only that the store was closed, even though it should've been open for more than 2 hrs. Luckily Tiina had brought her work keys so she opened the store and 5 minutes later the co-worker came by to take over so we were able to go to Stockholm.
My moms cousin works at the Clarion hotel in Stockholm so we got a private tour. Wooooow, a really nice hotel. And the pool (34° C) on the roof really invited to go swimming.... I should've brought my bathing suit. Oh, and as we were in the city, I bought some more clothes. You never know.
Monday evening was our swiss night. We had cheese fondue with Baselbieter kirsch. The whole family was gathered and it was a lot of fun.

After having breakfast and talking for a while, Tiina sadly had to go to work. We drove to the bus and said our good byes. It was kinda strange to be guest in a house with no one else there. Luckily I had packing and other stuff to do. I picked up Mats and Douglas from the train and then Mats drove me to the airport. I safely arrived home at about 00.15 on Wednesday.

That was my trip to Stockholm and I guess it's been my last trip to a foreign country for this year. I don't know what my next blog will be about. I really hope I have some news about my studies in Amsterdam. And if I have no news, I will just tell you how I'm feeling in November. Read you then.

PS: If you wonder about the weather. Sunny but cold like all the time ;-)

Montag, 13. September 2010

Weekend in Inden/Lekerbad (11.&12.9.2010)

I thought to myself: Eddi, you need to blog a little more again. So thats what I'm doing. Luckily I got tons to write about :-).
After my USA trip last summer, I've been working at the FKD (Financial dept.) in Liestal.
It's been a great year with a perfect topping. I passed my vocational diploma (Berufsmatura) last week, which I've been working for, for one year. Right now I'm my boss' deputy for the next 4 weeks, which is a nice acknowledgment. Sadly, I can only stay until the end of October. After that I'll have to find another job which hasn't been easy so far. Well, I'm sure someone will hire me ;-)

What I really wanted to blog about, was my trip to Inden/Leukerbad with my friend Annina.
We Left Liestal on Saturday 11.9 at 7.49 and arrived in Inden at about 11.00. We took the bus to Leukerbad at 12.00 and set off for our hiking trip. Even though I'm in very good shape at the moment, I felt the thin air on 2000m. The hike took us about 5 hours with breaks of course ;-). It was such a beautiful and warm day that we were able to hike in shorts and t-shirt. We got back to our apartment at around 19.00. As we were so tired, we had almost trouble cooking dinner =). Don't get nervous, we managed to eat. However, that was about it for that day.

On Sunday, we wanted to go hiking a little longer. Sadly, Annina wasn't well so I set off alone to Leukerbad. It took me 1 hour and I enjoyed the time alone to think. After a short wait at the Bus station, Annina arrived and we set of for an easy hike. We actually wanted to take the gondola up to the Torrenthorn, however, they had a lunch break (insane) so we had to think of something new. Afterwards I have to say I'm really happy we didn't wait, as we took a foot bath in an ice cold lake and walked through a awesome canyon.We came back to Leukerbad at 15.00 and were able to go to the Wellness center for three hours. It was just the perfect ending of a beautiful weekend.
There was just one little incident, which I have to laugh about now. As we were on our way down by bus to the train station we suddenly drove a lot slower. The reasons were sheep on the main road (there is actually only one) so we missed our follow up train and got home 1 hour later than planned. But as I said, now I think its funny. It's just another world up there.

I hope you enjoyed the reading and I will try to write a little more. My next blog should be online at around the end of October when I'm back from my trip to Stockholm which I'm really looking forward to.