Switzerland

During the last weekend in November, which of course was Thanksgiving in the States, my friend Melanie and I went to Switzerland. We wanted to go somewhere because we had a long weekend, and after doing some research we found that Geneva was the cheapest destination to fly to. Of course, we had heard many times about how exorbitantly expensive Switzerland was, but we figured that through a combination of Couch Surfing, cooking and snacking, we could work our way around the economic difficulties.

The Fribourg Cathedral

We also knew that, aside from the expenses, the weather would be less than ideal. I had braced myself for arctic cold, for wrapping up in lots of layers and needing frequent coffee and mulled wine breaks; but I had not thought about the possibility that the best thing in Switzerland - the incredible mountains - would be completely covered by clouds and fog. It was a shame, because the whole time we were there we only got to see the country's iconic snow-capped peaks once from a train. It was absolutely breathtaking, because the train track was elevated and we could see the city of Luasanne stretching down the hill towards Lake Geneva, with several snow-capped peaks in the distance, all under a dramatic pink and orange sunset sky! Unfortunately, it was impossible to capture on my camera, but here's a picture from Google that approximates what we saw.

View similar to the one we saw in the train

In spite of these difficulties and misfortunes, we still saw a lot, met some incredible people and had an amazing trip! So, without further ado, let's begin.

Geneva

We flew into Geneva, as I mentioned before, because it was the cheapest airport to reach from Madrid. I had not heard great things about Geneva, so we had decided not to stay for long. We were arriving late at night, and had initially planned to try and catch the last train to another town, where we had a Couch Surfing host already lined up, but realized that our flight was going to be too late. When we were unable to find anyone to host us in Geneva, we started to panic, because there were no hostels and all of the hotels were expensive.

Some random buildings around Geneva

In the end, we wound up having to fork out the money for a hotel room at the last minute, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise - as I never stay in hotels, I felt like I was living in the lap of luxury, the continental breakfast was fantastic (we called it our "Thanksgiving meal," as we arrived in Geneva late on Thanksgiving day), and they even gave us a day pass for the city's public transit, which we later found out was extremely expensive to buy on your own. So, it all turned out for the best, even if we had to pay more than we wanted!

Geneva Cathedral

Inside the Geneva Cathedral

Geneva was pretty and had a few nice things to see, but in general I agreed with the majority of people who had told me that it's nothing to write home about. However, we did get to see the United Nations building, which was pretty cool!

The United Nations building

We also found a park with some beautiful fall leaves, something we had been missing in Madrid, so that was another pleasant surprise.

Beautiful fall colors

Fribourg

After leaving Geneva, we headed to Fribourg, a small town about an hour and a half from Geneva by train. Chances are you've never heard of Fribourg, and neither had I until we decided to go there. The story of how we wound up choosing to spend part of our trip here is interesting. 

The beautiful streets and buildings of Fribourg

When I was looking for Couch Surfing hosts in Geneva, I found a girl who sounded really awesome and who I really wanted to stay with. However, as I read her profile more carefully, I realized that she did not in fact live in Geneva but in Fribourg; she explained that due to some glitch in the Couch Surfing website, it said on her profile Geneva even though she did not live there. Anyway, she sounded so cool, that I decided to Google Fribourg, and when I saw how lovely it was in the pictures, I decided to message her and, if she would host us, we would go there. We didn't really have any specific plans of what places to visit in Switzerland, so it was a way of helping organize our trip.

The Medieval walls and a giant stone bridge in Fribourg

While the town was just as beautiful as it had appeared on Google, it was unfortunately very cold and very foggy, which made sightseeing a bit difficult. The fog was so strong that even the tops of buildings were indistinguishable. However, as you can see in the pictures above, the streets were full of picturesque old buildings, many dating back to the 1400's and some to the city's foundation in the late 12th century. There was also a very cool swinging bridge that crossed the River Sarine, giving stunning views of the cliffs on top of which the city is built.

The beautiful swinging bridge in Fribourg

Bern

Our last stop in Switzerland was in the capital, Bern. In Fribourg and Geneva, the dominant language had been French: that was what everyone was speaking in the streets, all the signs in shops and public spaces were in French, etc. However, even though it's only about a twenty-minute train ride from Fribourg to Bern, once we got off the train there we felt like we had crossed over into a completely different country; absolutely everything was in German!

German signs in the Bern main station

In spite of being such a small country, Switzerland has four main languages - mostly thanks to its location between Germany, France and Italy. The first three languages therefore come from these other countries - German, French and Italian - and the fourth language, called Romansh, is a strange mix of all three. It was interesting to see firsthand how different this makes each part of the country feel. Imagine driving twenty minutes to the next town over and finding that nobody speaks your language!

A sign from Google showing the four Swiss languages

Anyway, aside from everything being in German, Bern was a very beautiful and interesting place. Unfortunately, as had been the case in Fribourg, the fog was so heavy that it was sometimes difficult to see the tops of buildings, and completely impossible to see the distant Alps, but it actually made for a mysterious and mystical experience at night when the street lights and Christmas decorations were illuminated. It felt like walking in a dream-city to me.

The charming streets of Bern

We also found a creepy but fascinating New-Age bookshop in a dungeon-like space underneath one of the main streets. There were plenty of other bars, shops and restaurants housed in these cellar-like areas, but this shop was certainly the most interesting. We had to walk around with candles because there was no electric lighting in some of the rooms. It added to the magical and unreal feeling of the city.

The creepy bookshop

One of the main reasons I had wanted to go to Bern - and Switzerland in general - was to experience Christmas markets. While Germany is really the country which is best known for Christmas markets, I did read about a few throughout Switzerland, and the one in Bern was quaint and charming, even if it was quite small. We enjoyed warming up with some glühwein - hot mulled wine - which was actually necessary because it was too cold to stay outside for long periods of time!

Some pictures in the Christmas market

Oh, the People You'll Meet

While the crappy weather may have put a damper on most of our trip, what made up for this and really made the whole ting special were the amazing people we met along the way! In Fribourg and Bern we stayed with people through Couch Surfing, and on the way back to the Geneva airport we hitchhiked (very briefly) with one of the coolest guys I've ever met.

Our lovely host in Fribourg, Sophie

In Fribourg, we were hosted by Sophie, a girl who we instantly connected with. She had some amazing stories about her travels through Asia and Africa, and taught us a lot about Swiss politics and economics. She also helped me have the only "authentic" fondue experience I could afford (it was so expensive, even at the grocery store!) and gave us excellent advice for touring Fribourg.

Adrian, our host in Bern

In Bern, we stayed with Adrian, a German guy living and studying in Switzerland. The first night we arrived, he had prepared a delicious vegetarian meal (we returned the favor the next night) and then took us out to one of the coolest parties I've ever been to. It was in an artists' squat in the middle of town, and the atmosphere was just really chill and awesome. Everyone seemed so accepting and friendly, and it was one of the few times I've gone out where I didn't feel judged at all!

The awesome party Adrian took me to

Finally, although I don't have a picture of him, we met Gabriel when he saved our frozen thumbs and picked us up on the side of the road in Bern. We had been told by all of our new friends that hitchhiking was really easy and safe in Switzerland, and very common thanks to the exorbitant prices of the trains (which we had already experienced firsthand). With Adrian's help, we made signs and waited in Bern to try and find someone who could give us a lift back to Geneva. We gave ourselves plenty of time and knew we could catch the train if it didn't work, but after 20 frigid minutes waiting with our thumbs out, which by that point were quite literally stinging with pain, a guy stopped and offered to give us a lift.

Melanie with our hitchhiking sign

He could only take us to the next town over, but we figured anything would help and were thrilled someone would stop. During the unfortunately short ride, we got to talk to him about his life - which I don't have time to go into now, as this post is already extremely long - and ended up exchanging Facebook information in case our paths should cross again someday. It was a wonderful ending to an already great trip!

November

Aside from my trip to Cologne, November was quite an eventful month. We went on a school field trip to a really amazing underground cave, some of Jenny's Dutch friends came and visited for a weekend, and we went to an incredible concert here in Madrid - amid other highlights!

La Cueva de los Enebralejos

In what was perhaps the coolest field trip I've ever been on, we took the niños to an amazing underground cave about an hour from Madrid. There was an interpretive center built on top of the cave access where the kids learned to make arrows - they had been learning about prehistory and hunter-gatherers in class.

Some of the kids making arrows - and trying to kill us with them!!

The cave itself was absolutely amazing - I realized I had never been into a cave before. One of the reasons we went to this particular cave is because it houses a few prehistoric cave paintings! They were hard to see and we weren't allowed to take pictures, but still pretty cool to see something left behind by our ancestors thousands of years ago!

A picture from Google of the inside of the cave

The fields and mountains outside the cave were also quite nice!

Eva & Rosa

I also got the chance to meet two of Jenny's friends from the Netherlands, Eva and Rosa, whom she met when they each studied abroad at her university in Sydney. They were really awesome people and we had a lot of interesting conversations. They also taught us a card game called Kaverjasse, which was super fun and sort of like an incredibly complicated Dutch version of Spades! Jenny and I are now trying to plan a trip to Amsterdam to visit them in May.

Jenny with Eva and Rosa

Toledo

Along with Eva, Rosa and Jenny, I went on a day trip to Toledo, one of the most touristed cities in all of Spain and one of my least favorite places. I had been there the first time I was in Madrid in 2012 and was underwhelmed - and that feeling was only reaffirmed this time.

Some pictures of Toledo

For a long time, it was the capital of Spain and a city where Muslims, Jews and Christians cohabited in peace; an intellectual, political and cultural center. Given all this, you'd think I would love it, but I really don't. I think it's a pretty enough city, but there's not THAT much to see, it's way too expensive, and I just don't get what all the hype is about. However, the highlight of the trip was getting to buy marzipan, a sweet which the city is known for, and which you can find in several monasteries around town. That's right - more nun treats!

A sign for the monastery which allegedly was the first to ever sell marzipan in Toledo

A School Get-Together

One night, Macu, the music teacher at our school, whose daughter I also give private lessons to, invited all of us over to her house for coffee and snacks. She just recently moved into a new apartment and had been meaning to throw a house-warming party for a while. 

Macu's party

We had a really lovely evening - or should I say night! We started with coffee, tea, cake and cookies at 5:30pm and ended with beer and empanadas at midnight - on a school night! The funniest part was that it wasn't just me and the other young teachers who stayed so late; in fact, the last ones to leave were the secretary and principal, who are the oldest out of all of us! There's no denying that Spanish people have a zest for life unmatched in any country I've ever seen!

Playing the piano at Macu's

At Macu's request, I also played a few songs on the piano, and everyone was very complementary. It was nice to play for them, because it's been a very long time since anyone has heard me play. The whole night was lovely - there's such a great sense of community amongst the teachers and administration at our school, and I feel really lucky to have such great coworkers!

Olöf Arnalds & tUnE-yArDs

In November we also had the great fortune to see two of our favorite singers perform in Madrid. The concert was in a really lovely theater called Teatro Lara, which was quite small and cozy, giving us the chance to see them performing fairly close.

A picture from Google of the Teatro Lara

Olöf Arnalds, a fairly obscure Icelandic singer, has been one of my favorite artists since I randomly discovered her on a blog in high school. It has always been my dream to see her in concert, but she never passed anywhere near to North Carolina the whole time I was at UNC. Tune Yards is someone I had recently started getting into and wanted to see because some other friends had said she was amazing in concert.

Neither of them disappointed, although they were very different acts. While Ólöf's songs were only accompanied by two guitars and derived their great emotive power from her enchanting voice, Tune Yards was backed up by various people playing different instruments and singing. She and all her backup singers were wackily dressed and dancing enthusiastically, which made for a truly entertaining show. In the middle of the concert, she invited us all - in her broken Spanish - to get up and dance in the aisles. It was one of the best concerts I've ever been to!

Us being excited before the concert

Other Random Things

On November 24th we had a Teachers' Appreciation Day. The kitchen staff prepared an incredible spread of traditional Spanish tapas and dishes for us to enjoy after work. It was all delicious and at the end there was so much left that I was surreptitiously packing things into Ziploc bags to save for later. I've never felt more appreciated in my life!

Teachers' Appreciation Day

One day I saw a rainbow on my way to one of my lessons.

Another day, a friend and I stumbled upon a bar where they were having a craft beer festival - apparently it was "beer week" in Madrid - and so we went inside to check it out. Brewers from companies around Spain had all come to Madrid with a selection of their finest beers. We had a delicious beer from the north of Spain that was made with chestnuts and another one that was brewed by a company called SAGRA in a small town very close to Madrid. After talking for a bit with the SAGRA guy, he told us that they gave guided tours of the brewery followed by tastings and gave us some vouchers to go for free!

Molly and I at the beer festival

You'll be able to read about our trip to the brewery and more in my December blog post. Until then, ¡hasta luego!

Cologne

As per usual, I'm seeeeeriously behind on my blogging. I'm going to try and blitz through the old posts so that I can hopefully catch up and write about our most recent trip - to Morocco - while it's still fresh in my mind! Our first stop is Germany.

Cologne

I bought a ticket to Cologne, in the Western part of Germany, soon after I arrived in Madrid because it was extremely cheap. All I knew about the city was that it is home to one of the most famous cathedrals in Europe, and I assumed that this probably meant there were lots of other old, charming Medieval things to see there. Unfortunately, I was wrong - almost everything "old" and "historical" in Cologne was destroyed by bombs during WWII, and only the cathedral was miraculously preserved. The rest of the city, therefore, offers very little in the way of sightseeing interest.

The front of the cathedral

However, the cathedral did not disappoint - with its soaring symmetrical spires, it dominates the city and is a truly impressive building. Construction began in the 1200's but was halted in 1473 and never fully completed until the late 1800's. Nevertheless, it was for many years the tallest cathedral in Europe (it is still the tallest cathedral in Northern Europe) and an important pilgrimage site, as it allegedly houses some relics of the Three Wise Men.

Some views of the cathedral interior

I was also familiar with the cathedral thanks to my Medieval art history class, as it houses the Gero Crucifix, the largest and most famous cross sculpture north of the Alps.

The Gero Crucifix

Aachen

After discovering on my first day that there was very little to see in Cologne, I decided to take a day trip the second day to Aachen, a small town with a very, very old history. In French it's known as Aix-la-Chapelle, and it was the location which Charlemagne selected as his capital when he was crowned the first ever Holy Roman Emperor in 800 CE.

Aachen Cathedral

Thanks to Charlemagne's decision, Aachen is now home to the oldest cathedral in Northern Europe. Although sombre and imposing from the outside, once inside every inch of the walls and ceilings is covered with gilded mosaics and lavish marble. The central chapel is in the shape of an octagon (you can see this in the upper-righthand picture below), which gives the cathedral a quite unique feeling. It is believed to still house the remains of Charlemagne to this day.

Attached to the cathedral was the real gem of Aachen - the cathedral treasury. As with the Gero Crucifix, I was freaking out in this museum as I saw relics, paintings and illuminated manuscripts which we had discussed in length in my Medieval art course. One of the coolest was an arm reliquary of Charlemagne which was actually in the shape of a hand (see picture below).

Some of the treasures of the Aachen treasury

There was one more thing which made this day trip even more special - I was in Germany in November, just before the beginning of Christmas Market season, and while none of the markets had opened yet, they had already put up plenty of decorations throughout Aachen. As the sun set quite early, I was able to stay and see the town lit up at night, which satisfied all the desires for cozy and quaint which I had failed to find in modernized Cologne. You can see the magic in the pictures below.

Aachen Christmas Decorations

The Aachen Cathedral and Town Hall lit up at night

Couch Surfing

Aside from this day trip to Aachen, what truly made my trip special and worthwhile was my Couch Surfing host, Anna. She was extremely friendly and welcoming, and invited me out for drinks and dinner with her and her friends both nights, which really meant a lot as I was traveling alone. In addition to meeting some really cool new people, I got to see another side of Cologne and try out some places I probably wouldn't have found on my own!

La Rioja

Although I'm two months late, I still wanted to write a blog post about our "fall" trip to La Rioja, the wine country of Spain. Ever since I saw the beautiful fall colors of the grape leaves on a friend's blog last year, I've had a burning desire to return to this part of Spain for its autumnal charm. So this year, a group of four of us got together, rented a car, and headed up to La Rioja for the weekend!

Just a taste of all the beautiful landscapes we saw!

Aside from its beautiful landscapes, the largest draw of this region is obviously its wineries - bodegas in Spanish. Most wineries offer cheap guided tours that include a sampling at the end. We were ambitious and booked two wine tours for the same day, neither of which did we actually end up doing - we arrived too late for the first one and I got mixed up about the location of the second. However, we were still able to do a tasting at the first and buy some reasonably-priced bottles at the second, so it all worked out in the end!

Sampling wine inside the Bodega Baigorri

The winery where we were able to do a small sampling was called Bodegas Baigorri and was housed in a really cool, sleek, modern building. The surrounding vineyards and neighboring medieval town made for a breathtaking backdrop to the delicious wine.

The quirky, modern Bodega Baigorri, with its beautiful surroundings

After sampling wine in the bodega, we headed to a small town called Laguardia (like the airport) where I thought we were supposed to have our next tour. It turned out we had reservations at a different branch of the winery in another town, but we visited the gift shop and the lady gave us some helpful advice on where to park the car when we headed into the tiny medieval village of Laguardia. We really enjoyed this quaint, medieval town, with picturesque, narrow alley-like streets and beautiful old churches.

Exploring (and being silly in) Laguardia

There was also a park that ran all the way around the outside of the town where we played with the fall leaves and generally acted silly. As the town is located on top of a hill, there were also some amazing views out onto the surrounding countryside, although it was difficult to adequately capture on our phones.

Playing in the park in Laguardia

The countryside surrounding Laguardia

After leaving Laguardia, we headed to the place we were staying to get the keys and drop off our stuff. We had booked a room in a Casa Rural, or Rural House, which turned out to be something like a mix between a lodge and a bed and breakfast. The lady who owns it was incredibly friendly and helpful, and gave us lots of helpful advice. The house was really lovely and cozy and, like everywhere else we went, surrounded by natural beauty.

The Casa Rural

View from in front of the Casa Rural

That night, we headed into Logroño, the capital and largest city of La Rioja. It's famous for its cheap wine and tapas, so instead of having a proper dinner we went around to several bars and tried their tapas. The best was a place known for its mushrooms, which were grilled in a garlic-butter sauce; we all agreed they were probably the best mushrooms we'd ever had in our lives!

The famous mushrooms of Logroño

The next day, we got up early and drove to a small town called San Millán de la Cogolla. This somewhat obscure village is the home of two very important monasteries, where the first words in the Spanish language were ever written down. The original and oldest monastery, called the Monasterio de Suso, is up on top of one of the mountains which surround the city on three sides. Down in the town is the somewhat newer Monasterio de Yuso.

Monasterio de Yuso

Beautiful artwork inside the monastery

We got to do a guided tour of both of the monasteries, which was really interesting. I had wanted to visit this town ever since I learned about it last year; having studied Spanish literature, I was obviously really eager to see the "birthplace" of the Spanish language, so to speak. The old monastery on the hill was also interesting because it is built into the hill and makes use of a system of caves within the hillside. It was a bit creepy, but it was really interesting to think how passionate and determined the monks must have been who decided to live in such primitive conditions.

Monasterio de Suso

So, as you can see, although it was a quick trip, we managed to squeeze A LOT in. Plus, the best part was simply hanging out and spending time together; we had a great group, which obviously makes all the difference!