But anyways, here's a very condensed version of what's been going on in my life since the last time I've written. I've been able to travel to different cities every few weeks, thanks to my lack of responsibilities on the weekends. The first stop in this post is Milano, Italy. Why Milano of all the places? Well, it's close...and it's cheap. I'm trying to go to all of the places I can easily go by train before I make longer journeys via Easyjet. As for Milano, I just called up my friend from U of I, DK, on a Wednesday, asked if he wanted to go to Italy, he said yes, and 2 days later, we were meeting up at the central station of Milano! It's that easy. The main purpose of this trip was to have a good time, more so than sight-seeing. Aside from the Duomo (which is incredible), there's not much to see, except for the painting of The Last Supper, which you needed to book ahead a few weeks in advance. Of all of the Europeans cities that I had been at that point, I might've enjoyed Italy the most, mainly because of the apertivo (sp?), the cheap pizza/pasta, and the wine. So for two days and nights, my friend and I wandered around the streets of Milano, drank wine on the streets, ate huge, delicious pizzas, and danced around clubs. In my books, that's a FANTASTIC weekend.
And then another week goes by in lab...
A few weeks later, I went to Interlaken, probably the most touristy city in Switzerland, and I don't blame all of the Chinese photo-shooting wanderers - the area is absolutely gorgeous...though my friend and I didn't really get to experience it. That's mostly because we spent the Friday night in Zurich with DK, and we went HARD. So much so that we didn't catch the train until the afternoon and missed the prime hiking hours in Interlaken. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a nice train ride, and we met up with our friends in Interlaken for some nice Thai food. Then we went to a club that was in the basement of our hostel, and again, questioned the purpose of this trip. To make the journey worthwhile, we all decided to go "hiking" around the lake even though it was gloomy and freezing. But the sandwiches that we had in the lobby of a random hotel in the middle of nowhere was one of the best meals I had ever tasted! So I guess it's all good that ends well.
Before I go on further about my travels, I feel like I should talk about Lausanne so far. I'll start by saying... it's been a BLAST! My people in lab are great, my research project is interesting, I could get published as long as I get positive results, and the city itself is so international and student-oriented that none of us has a difficult time finding a party on a given night. I've been hanging out with mostly Germans and Spanish people, though I feel like I know somebody from every country in Western Europe. I generally go to a dormitory called Falaise before going out though I sometimes wish that my dorm was as open and fun. But since my girlfriend lives there, it's basically my second home. Unlike most other big cities in Switzerland, there are loads of free-entry clubs in Lausanne, some favorites like Darling, Buzz, Jagger's...I'm gonna miss this place when June rolls around. Every Wednesday is a pubnight for the Erasmus students, every Thursday is reserved for departmental parties (which I don't really go to...because I don't take classes), and the weekends are...well, they're weekends. Play hard, work hard.
We've also celebrated Halloween and Thanksgiving with class.
The last weekends, I've gone to Innsbruck in Austria, and Strasbourg in France. They were both very beautiful cities with rivers transversing the city, and again, wandering was the main objective of these trips. Innsbruck was made famous perhaps by the Winter Olympics while Strasbourg lures 3 million people during each December with its Christmas Markets and the illuminations. Enjoyed some schnitzels in Austria, Flammenkuchen in Strasbourg.
Last weekend, I went skiing in the Swiss Alps at Les Diablerets, and WOW. I would have to rank this experience among my favorites so far...in life. The idea of skiing in the Swiss Alps alone is just incredible, and add the fact that it was a beautiful day with stunning views, among all of my friends (about 25 of us signed up for the same weekend), and having an apres-ski wine in a chalet was unbeatable. It's hard to justify my feelings with words so here are some pictures to make you jealous :)
But now that it's getting cold, it's time to go more south, towards Spain, Greece, Italy. It's almost Christmas, and unfortunately for me, I'll be stuck in Lausanne at lab while all of my friends are going home to their family :( Eh, whatever. For New Year's Eve, I'm going to Munich with some of the guys I met in Cambodia, who are English and making a trip to Germany to party the year away. And after a week, I'm going backpacking to Spain and Morocco for 2 and a half weeks, so I can't really complain. The next time, I'll write will probably be in 2011. What a year it's been!!
