Hike last weekend

Just a short entry about last weekend. On Saturday I went on a hike with Demi to Lac de St. André where I already went alone a couple of weeks ago. It appeared not as long this time and was more than pleasant to have a companion. May I proudly introduce to you Mr. Raupy!!! We found him and a couple of his buddies on our way.

Mr. Raupy =)

 On Sunday I felt like I needed a little time on my own and therefore climbed up to La Croix du Nivolet. It was very impressive that my tires slipped on the already frozen ground close to the parking lot. Well still summer tires and indeed there is already some snow when you are at about 1500m height. When we went to the cross the first time we were with a big group and almost needed two and a half hours back and forth. This time it only took me 1:45hr. And again I was not disappointed by the wonderful view. One can definitely notice the temperature difference to the valley tho :) Great weekend!!

Torino

Time for a new blog entry after this exciting weekend. Off we start with Friday night. I really regret living at a busy street, because you hear everything. So come to say that at 3 am I hear a bunch of guys on the street and it turns out they are firefighters, who have to extinguish a trash container lit on fire by some crazy people... No more sleep that night and with sunrise I am on my way to Torino, an Italian city located about 220 km East of Chambéry.

Spritz, just a sip for the driver

The ride was rather interesting. Accompanied by 3 friends (Belium, Dutch and Italian) we experienced drastical weather changes from sunny 16 degrees to rainy 8 degrees within a couple of minutes of driving and a tunnel in between. Added is the fact that my window suffered major diseases when someone broke into my car; meaning the electric window opener does not work at all any more and the window is opened a crack, which widens during driving. The road fees (also called péage) are outragious in France and in Italy. We ended up paying over 70 euros for the use of a tunnel and highways!!!
Finally in Torino we meet the friends of one of my companions. The sky cleared up, the temperature rose and the day began with a Spritz, a typical Italian drink, in a cafe.

Difficult to read, but creative idea

In Italy one still gets little snacks with the order, so we ended up having about 5 plates with little bread pieces and coldcut, LIKE! :) From the cafe we went back and forth through the city at least three times to see the Royal Palace of Turin, other different plazas and buildings. It was absolutely not a tourist tour but really living the city, which is what I love most about visiting a city! In the center one can find sayings, which I guess light up at night, through a whole street. I found it very orignal and would have liked to see it at night.

View onto Mole Antonelliana

My 3 ERASMUS companions Demi, Riccardo and Simon

For lunch we stopped for pizza in the afternoon and enjoyed the sun and the people. Because all of us wanted to have a nice view on the city, we wanted to climb up "Mole Antonelliana", but the line would have taken over an hour. Therefore we quickly decided to grab a six pack and sit on top of a hill to get an even better view.

Thx for that terrific day! =)

After a little nap on top of the wall and almost one and a half hours later we took a little detour through a parc to go back to the car. It really was a perfect day and I am really grateful to Riccardo and his friends to show us around.

All in all it is to say that Torino looks a little bit like Lyon especially the view from the bridge (see pic). However I could definitely tell it was a French city!

After Torino I was invited to a French party on Saturday night, where I was able to speak French for more than 4 hours and one will not believe it, but with every sip of wine it got a little bit easier. Therefore, my weekend ended today with a very relaxed day with a 13km run and home made apple sauce. =)
To another great adventurous weekend!

Cheers

Grenoble, mais il peuvait!

Yesterday we went to see Grenoble (a city 50km south of Chambéry). One has to know that in France almost all highways charge a toll fee for the road, so you simply pay 5,60 Euro for going to Grenoble (I emphasize: EACH WAY). We parked my adorable little Twingo on a free park&ride parking lot, but could not find the tram. Therefore we took the bus, after we had not so yummi ice-cream at "Quick" (the French McDonalds).

Bastille on top, didn't make it all the way

Unfortunately it pretty much rained the whole day and as everybody knows that totally ruins an impression of a town. The attempt to climb up to the Bastille failed, because we took a way that was cut off by a gate. Nevertheless, and again illiminating the rain, the view was in general satisfying :)

Blandine, an French student, showed us around and we saw two great museums. The first one included 4 exhibitions in total about Arifica, Les gens des Alpes (People living in the Alpes), Hanniball (and no not Hannibal Lecter like I first thought ;)) and Le grand monde du ski (the world of skiing).

Demi, Linda and I on an old sledge!

Blandine et moi :)

The second museum was about the history of Grenoble with an audio guide it was easy to follow.

So basically even though it rained we had a good day!

Keke, me, Antoine, Blandine et Cecile

Oh yeah this picture I wanted to add last time, but forgot it's shot about 1 week ago before we were going out ;)

One more thing before I say good night. On our way back from Grenoble we saw the first snow, we first could not believe it, but today when I went jogging I saw the mountains have way covered in snow, so beautiful. Technically insane tho, because just a couple of days ago we still had like mid twenties.

Bonne nuit!

Oktoberfest

Alright, alright I admit it took a day longer until you are all able to read this post, but now here it is. The past weekend I flew to Munich in order to participate in an evaluation seminar held by the governmental organization I went to Italy with in the summer. More or less the journey (inlcuding the two delays in Zuerich and in Munich)and the beer consumption took up most of the time there. After arriving at almost 1 am on Saturday morning, we went to Oktoberfest around 9 am, which one can imagine was quite a drag after having consumed a rather nice amount of prosecco. Well, well people had to celebrate a reunion. ;)

Oktoberfest was impressively... CROWDED. Way too crowded if you ask me. Honestly we tried to get in a tent, but there was just no chance, basically they shut down almost all tents at 11.30, so nobody could enter without reservations. We took the opportunity and walked to the, so called, "Augustiner Biergarten" meaning exactly in the opposite direction of all the crazy folks still heading to "Theresienwiesn". Big advantage the "Mass" was just 6,40 Euro instead of 10, the food was a lot cheaper as well, we were able to sit outside (which would have been a shame in a tent, because we had sunny 25 degrees) and big plus the bathroom was neither dirty nor was there a huge line in front of it. 

3 ppl who do not know when to cross

View over the Alps! I wish I could fly...

All in all I can say that it was my second year at Oktoberfest without me getting actually INTO a tent, but again it was a great time I spent with the greatest people. I cannot wait for next year, who is in? ;) CHEERS

30 km in 5 hours

Lac du Claire

Time for two new entries. This one is just going to be very quick. Because my past couple of weeks have been quite turbulent I spontanously decided to go on little hike on Thursday. Since I was off of school I had the whole day and really didn't feel like doing Uni work. The weather here is still gorgeous and about 24 degrees.

On the way

I ended up hiking to "Lac de Saint André" - well actually not quite as I discovered afterwards it was only "Lac du Claire" a small lake before the bigger one. It felt wonderful to walk along the mountains and I think the next hike will definitely to the top of this mountain. 

I wish you could see this! =)

Next entry will follow 2mrw sorry too tired now ;)

What a view!

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