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Giant inflatable dog poo wreaks havoc in Switzerland

valtrain — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:21:37 +0000

A GIANT inflatable dog turd by American artist Paul McCarthy blew away from an exhibition in the garden of a Swiss museum, bringing down a power line and breaking a window before it landed again.

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Zurich

valtrain — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 04:23:08 +0000

Weekend in Zurich visiting a friend. Awesome city, lots of fun. Relatively brief summary since the parents might be reading…

Bern

valtrain — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 02:37:26 +0000

Over the weekend I took a trip up to Bern, which is the capital of switzerland, to look around. Bern’s a pretty cool place because it didn’t get bombed back to the stone age in WW2, so it’s still got an old look to it. Here’s some random photos I took while I was there walking around.

The picture of a poster is a campaign they’re running here. Those ads are everywhere but I don’t really understand what they’re trying to say. I’ve been learning a bit of German while I’ve been here, and I’m pretty sure those signs say “I eat butter” and “I don’t”. Who would advertise that? Man, I sure am hungry, I’m going to get a tasty stick of butter!

The Munster (if the u had 2 dots over it, it’d be german for cathedral) that they have there is the tallest one in Switzerland, although it was only about 100m high they said. The clock tower, which is right down the street from Albert Einstein’s old apartment, supposedly helped him come up with the theory of relativity because he thought if he was taking the train at the speed of light then the clock tower would still be counting time at the same speed even thought it was moving faster for him. Or something. I’m no physicist.

The symbol of Bern is the bear, so they have a bear pit in the middle of town
Also of interest in Bern, I walked past a McDonald’s (but resisted the urge to eat anything) and I saw on the menu that have a sandwich called Mythic Chicken. I have no idea what this is, but now I’ve got a reason to go back to Bern to investigate. I might even wear my Mythic Pants.

Not only have I not found the sushi or crazy seafood buffet here, but I think I’ve also managed to lose about 10 pounds because the portions of food here are so small. It’ll be nice to get back stateside for christmas and get a monstrous 10 pound texas barbeque burger.

Country Night: Gstaad?

valtrain — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 02:35:02 +0000

Most of the country music fans that I’ve met were confined to 2 or 3 states in the south, so you can imagine my surprise when I got to Gstaad and discovered that their country music festival is one of the big events of the year. All the big country music acts come from around the world to play here, they fire up the BBQ grills and make some good old fashioned american food, and everyone in the entire town dresses up. I don’t think I’ve never seen so many people walking around wearing cowboy outfits in one place, even in Texas! It was just like being back home again, until they started singing in German..

Culture shock at the ATM

valtrain — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:34:38 +0000

I had a minor amount of culture shock when I went to an ATM in Switzerland today. In the US, if you go to an ATM the default amounts to withdraw are $20, $40, etc up to $200 or so. When I went to the ATM here, the default amounts to withdraw in CHF were 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, or 1000.

You know, I need some walking around money, I guess I’ll get a thousand bucks out of the atm?

Arrival in Gstaad

valtrain — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:01:26 +0000

As most of you have probably heard a million times by now, I moved to switzerland! I just got to Gstaad today, which is where I know a few people. I’m going to spend a month or two here while I scout out some other places, and eventually I’m planning to end up in Zurich.

Gstaad is a ski resort town up in the alps, along the same lines as Aspen. I found a sweet apartment to stay in, which is part of the teacher’s dormitory of an old school that isn’t in use. It’s about twice as big as my apartment in San Diego was, it’s got a nice outside balcony, and it’s in the middle of the alps! This picture is the view if you’re standing on the balcony of the apartment. Best of all? It only costs about $400 US per month!

If you’ve never heard of Gstaad, I’ve got some other pictures up from my last trip here a few months back: http://www.valtrain.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=12085

I’m pretty exhausted from the trip over, so I’m heading to bed but that picture was so awesome I felt compelled to send it out immediately. In summary, come visit!