Oktoberfest

Well last weekend we were in Munich for Oktoberfest…for opening day of Oktoberfest in fact.  Now I was expecting there to be lots of people but man, it was a mad house!  According to a news article there were 300K people there on Saturday alone.  The first keg was tapped at noon so we figured if we got there later in the afternoon we could possibly have a chance at getting into a tent as the first wave of people filed out.  We were meeting up with our new friends Stacey and Alex who weren’t arriving until later in the afternoon anyways so it should all work out perfectly.  No such luck.  We arrived at Oktoberfest and while there were definitely people exiting (not all on their own two feet) there was no way we were getting in.  We were fortunate though (after some patience and walking around) to get in to one of the biergartens.  Now it wasn’t the same as being inside the tent but it was still a fun atmosphere and better then not getting in anywhere at all.  We got our Maß (translation: liter) biers and enjoyed a few of those before the downpour happened.  Once we decided that it wasn’t going to let up, our time at Oktoberfest was over and it was off to a bar where we finished out the night. 

Now don’t get me wrong, it was crowded but not total craziness everywhere.  Nate and I had an enjoyable Saturday morning/afternoon.  We walked around a bit and found a little farmer’s market where we grabbed some lunch.  After a bit more wandering around we came across Augustiner in a little side alley not far from Marienplatz and enjoyed a few beers sitting outside on their patio.  We met another new friend, Mike from Chicago, and had a nice time chatting with him.  It was a pleasant little afternoon….and quite different than our time at Oktoberfest.

Overall we had a great time and it was definitely worth the trip.  We were at Oktoberfest in 2007 during the middle of the week and I’m going to say that’s the way to do it.  In 2007 it was crowded but we were at least able to get into a tent.  This trip we had the pleasure of seeing a drunk guy literally thrown out of a biergarten as we were trying to get in, numerous people practically passed out on the ground and plenty of people being carried out by their friends.  So if we do end up ever going again, I’m going to say it’s worth it to just take a day or two off of work and not deal with the craziness.

It's a Small World

It’s been yet another good week here in Zurich.  After our long weekend in London we had a weekend at home.  The weather cooperated with us on Saturday and after we both went running (so necessary with all of the chocolate and heavy food I’ve been eating) we decided to go up Uetliberg mountain.  There were great views of Zurich from the top and when we got there, we climbed an observation tower to get an even better view.  The views were amazing (all of Zurich and Lake Zurich) eventhough it was a somewhat hazy day.  It’s just a short train ride up on the s-bahn and within 30 minutes door to door, we were there.  The train ride was beautiful as you went a little outside of Zurich and into the trees and greenery.  You have the option of hiking up there (or down I suppose as well) which we opted out of this time.  But that could be a fun activity for another day. 

We then had a lovely date night that night, which I guess most of our nights are these days.  We went to this great outdoor place for pizza (since the weather was so nice).  Had a few beers, some yummy thin crust pizza and sat on their huge patio.  Then the rain started coming down and it was our cue to head out to a pub nearby that Nate had found.  It turned out to be a pretty fun place, playing good music and it even showed some college football. 

The next day we were invited to a Labor Day BBQ in Basel.  We were set up with this couple by a friend of ours that is friends with a friend of theirs (did you follow that?).  We took the hour train ride over to Basel where we were greeted with pouring rain.  Our umbrellas are sure getting good use over here.  The only parts of Basel we really saw were whatever we passed as we walked from the main train station to their apartment, which was right on the river Rhine.  It looked like a quaint little European city. 

We enjoyed a good ol’ American BBQ with hamburgers (complete with Best Foods mayonnaise!...I’m telling you the mayo here is definitely different although Nate says he can’t tell.  It has a lemon flavor in my opinion.), sausages, watermelon and beer.  We met some really nice people….a lot of them expats themselves.  Here’s where the small world part comes in.  It turns out that the wife of the couple that invited us over went to the same high school as me and graduated with my sister.  Small world indeed! 

Oh and we did go to a church in our neighborhood and listened to a whole mass in German.  I think we were the youngest in there by about 30-40 years as well.  It was a beautiful church, as most of them are here in Europe.

It’s definitely starting to feel like normal with regards to work.  Nate’s traveling again (Frankfurt for a night this week, Stockholm for two nights next week).  I’m excited that tomorrow is Friday and that we have yet another weekend ahead of us.  The days do go by quickly and I’m enjoying what I’m doing.  I’m still learning lots about Google Maps and the transit feature in particular.  It’s amazing how much goes into making all of that just work.  It’s definitely fun and interesting to be learning about a completely different part of the business.

We have a weekend at home again and then it’s marathon traveling for a few weeks after that.  We’re looking forward to all of it though as it will be busy but extremely fun getting to enjoy some good beer at Oktoberfest, seeing close friends at a wedding and exploring Madrid!!

  

It’s so hot….and other random references to Europe

It’s not you it’s me. I’m the one who has been latent to the blog but I’m back tickling the keyboard and ready for an update. And a busy few weeks it has been.

Last we spoke I was heading back to SF. Went there. Had a great time. Had a moustache. Happy anniversary Cleaver, Kliewer’s, and Horzen’s, great party! Came back….Home? Yeah, home to Zurich. Kind of weird to say but definitely starting to feel settled here especially upon our return which was finally in our permanent apartment with all of the stuff we shipped from San Francisco and after what felt like months, we’re no longer living in transient mode which is nice.

Now that we’re here full time what have we been up to? Well simmer and let me tell you.

The first week, well almost two, the weather here was exact opposite as before. We went from mild and rainy to oh, I don’t know, Florida. Which was especially awesome since there is no A/C anywhere, especially in our home at night? So needless to say when it’s 35 Celsius and quite humid (that’s 95 to you back home) it’s a tad uncomfortable but did feel a whole lot like summer should which we never get in SF, so shouldn’t complain. In this humidity as soon as we got home one of my closest friends Chad had a work trip that brought him here and he spent a few nights with us which was great. Our second guest and first in our new place!

After two nights with Chad, travel, work, and jet lag, we slept. Then came the weekend which we spent in town and did all the normal things people do when moving in. Went to “Coop City” – think Target but without the million crazies on a Saturday and bought a fan. It was hot, best 20 CHF spent thus far. And bought one of those night stand alarm clocks that in this case – would also be sufficient as a car headlight ‘cause the thing is so bright it lights up the room in the dark. On Sunday we then went to the lake and spent a few hours swimming and sitting in the sun. Did I mention it was hot? Was fun with lots of people out doing the same thing. It’s really pretty here when sunny. But in case I didn’t mention earlier, it was hot. And humid. And no A/C.

Back to work that Monday, boring. Tuesday, boring. Wednesday – Off to London! One of the great things in corporate America (or corporate Europe I guess) is what we call “working the system”. Cleaver had a work trip, I kicked down for my flight, work from the London office on Thursday & Friday and voila – trip to London. Where it was much cooler. And had A/C. Awesome.

London for those who don’t know is in England…or the U.K….or some conglomerate of independent countries ruled by a Queen who doesn’t do much far as I can tell….Or. Or. - Something that William Wallace didn’t want to be a part of. (Google that kids…great movie) We both worked from our respective offices in London on Thursday and Friday and on both days I woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. Found my way downstairs and drank a cup, and looking up I noticed I was late. (Not really….again, Google it. Great album by England’s finest.) We went out both nights to different neighborhoods for dinner and of course stayed through the weekend for some sightseeing. London is a great, huge city with endless places to see, “pints” to drink, and places to go. Saw most of the sights – like Big Ben. Parliament. I can’t get over! London tower, London Bridge, and generally just went around the city all day on Saturday. We did find out that there are four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire. And though the holes were rather small, they had to count them all. Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert hall. (www.google.com)

Back home to Zurich Sunday night, still weird to say, and ready for Monday morning. Home for a few weekends then the travel for work and fun get started again in mid September. So I’ll leave you with this final thought. This coming Saturday is a special day. Well, here it will technically be Sunday morning. 1:00 am to be exact and I’ll be in front of my computer instead of the normal TV.

But come 1:00 am Sunday morning – GO DUCKS!

Home Sweet Home

Well we are now finally settled into our home here. It’s been a busy couple of weeks to say the least. I moved us in to our permanent place 2 weeks ago, worked out a few kinks (some spoiled food from a non-working refrigerator, a couple of cold showers) and now things seem to all be in working order. Our stuff was shipped successfully with everything accounted for and while I had my doubts about fitting everything in here (Nate assured me that if it fit in a one bedroom in SF that it would surely fit in a two bedroom here) we now have everything in its place. It’s nice to finally have a home!

I met Nate in California last weekend for my parents’ and Aunt and Uncle’s 40th anniversary party. It was a super quick trip but definitely worth it. We landed back in Zurich on Monday and of all places for our friend Chad’s work to take him, he ended up here. So we’ve enjoyed spending the last few nights with him….our second visitor!

Now it's been another week of work and I feel like I'm actually starting to know what's going on. It's nice to be busier and feel like I am contributing. The weather has been amazing and will continue through the weekend so I look forward to being outside and enjoying the sun. Then it's off to London later next week!

Swiss National Day

August 1 is Swiss National Day which means no work for us today! According to Wikipedia, it has been an official national holiday since 1994, although the day had been suggested for the celebration of the foundation of the Swiss Confederacy as early as 1889….just in case you wanted some more background on that.

We moved into our hotel yesterday and have just one more night here. Nate actually left early this morning to go back to the States so it’s been just me all day. I had a lovely lunch down by the lake and then continued walking further down the lake stopping to read my book and get some delicious ice cream (it's so hard for me to resist the Swiss Movenpick ice cream). The day has been beautiful here too with mostly sunny skies and temperatures around 75 degrees (sorry, haven’t made the switch to Celsius yet). The most important thing is that it wasn’t raining!!! I’m off to dinner soon and I hear there will be fireworks as well so hopefully I’ll catch some of those.  Then tomorrow is moving day!!

My Lunch

And My View During Lunch

Nobody puts Natey in the corner

Ok - now my turn to be a part of the information superhighway and share my part of the Ross European adventure on this here free blog that will no doubt make me an Internet sensation landing me an appearance on Ellen someday. After a week+ of being here, a couple of impressions thus far. It's a different place than SF for sure (which i guess could be said for pretty much anywhere compared to SF!) when it comes to language, size, weather, cost, transportation and uh, lots of other stuff I don't know about yet.

Allow me to expand starting with public transportation. After being abused like an unwanted dog by our good friends at SF Muni for the past 8 years, including the 37 destroying the side of my parked car and forcing me to somehow justify how it's OK for a bus system to have no bus arrive for 15 minutes at 7:00 in the morning only to then see 3 bus' arrive literally bumper to bumper as if they are hitched together like a train. (What - gets lonely out there bus? Seriously) So here, they post actual time tables at every stop. It tells you that at 6:38 a bus will arrive. And when my watch says 6:38, a bus shows up. Amazing.

• Language - actually quite a few people speak English, still a little tough at times but really not a big deal.
• Weather - I'm told it isn't normal, but the rain here makes Portland seem like the desert.
• Size - still a big city, but easy and quick to get around
• Cost - $6.15 for a cup of Starbucks coffee, and I mean just regular black coffee.

Beyond that done some pretty cool things so far, went to London for a few days of work, no time for sightseeing but will go back at some point for sure. We went to Luzern this past Saturday which was a 45 minute train ride away for a music festival called the Blue Balls festival (just a clever name people, relax) and saw some bands play and ate some good fair food. Didn't start serving beer though until 5:00 pm which I thought was weird. We also as a bonus on Saturday night found a place here in Zurich that had Baseball on! Very good find.

This coming weekend, we move out of this temporary apartment, hit the hotel for two nights, I head back to San Francisco for two weeks while Cleaver moves into our permanent place, all before joining me in the US for a few days of fun in San Miguel. Once we return in mid August we'll be much more settled and looking forward to more exploring!

 Bridge at Lake Lucerne

              

Getting Settled...Well Closer

Tuesday we headed to the immigration office to finish the process for getting our resident card. It was actually not too painful of a process as we got there early and no one was in line. Now we just need to get our cards in the mail and we’ll be good to go as far as traveling in and out of Switzerland.

We also got to do a walk-through of our new apartment. Nate hadn’t seen it yet and I had only seen it my very first morning in Switzerland and couldn’t remember a lot of the details of it. I actually think after viewing it this second time around that it’s going to suit us really well. The kitchen is bigger then what I remembered and the bonus is that it has a washer and dryer in the unit. Now why both the home search consultant and the agency person did not tell me about this key benefit the first time I looked at the place is beyond me. Don’t think that they didn’t make sure to show me the washer and dryer in the basement though (which feels like a dungeon). Perhaps having your own washer and dryer is not a big selling point here? In any case though, we both really like the place and are excited to move in. Moving date, August 2!

After seeing our new place we were off to the bank to open up a Swiss bank account. Apparently we have to close it as soon as we move out of Switzerland though. We also learned that there is an active politician in the US with the same name as Nate which almost prevented us from being able to open an account with the bank. After 30 minutes of waiting while the girl made multiple phone calls to find someone to approve, they thankfully allowed us to open an account. So yeah, we are now one of those people that have a Swiss bank account.