Bern: A visit to a relative of a friend from high school, also fondue

Note: These photos are not in order as I would have intended. but moving them is too much of a hassle right now. In the future, I think I will set up a Flickr account to handle all of my photos from now on.

Way back when in spring of 2007, when we first conceived the idea of traveling to europe the plan was simple enough.

1. Go to Germany and win gold at the olympics(did that)

2. Have lots of beer and relax(still doing that)

3. Find work in Switzerland and work for a year, learning from the best. (Ah, not so much)

As it turned out, Switzerland is a hard country to get work visa's from. If you dont already have work lined up, you're out of luck. On top of that, you have to apply for the visa in your home country, which makes finding good work that much harder. We did try however, in spite of all this, and who better to call than a member of the Canadian embassy? A good friend of mine happend to have an aunt stationed in Bern, the swiss capital, so we gave it a shot. It didn't pan out.

But we did manage to find a new friend in Switzerland, so at least it was not completely fruitless. She was also kind enough to let us stay with her while we were there, which we were very grateful for. The town of Bern was actually quite nice. We managed to go to the market and have some awesome mexican food, as well as taking in all the local produce. It never ceases to amaze me the quality of all the markets here. They make the local Edmonton markets look silly.

One of the local attractions in Bern is their town mascot: the bear. To celebrate their town animal, they decided to have a bear pit, where tourists could come and feed the bears rolls and essentiall anything they wanted to throw in the pit. It's really sad when you think about it and even more depressing when you see it. Essentially, people hover over the rails hoping the bear will walk below them and eat whatever they toss in. Even more sad is the fact that there used to be more than just one bear in that cramped pit, but the rest of them died. Shitty.

After a couple of days of mountains and walking through town, we decided that it was time to give something back to our hosts. Being chefs, the natural thing to do was simple: cook dinner. An afternoon of shopping and cooking resulted in the following menu:

Tomato and Buffalo Mozzarella Salad

Arugala and Bresaola

Balsamic vinaigrette

Roasted Cauliflower soup

Mustard seed and Herb Crust Veal Loin

Roasted Potatoes and Mixed Peppers

Braised Leeks and Fennel

Mushroom, Herb and Cream Sauce

Before leaving Switzerland all together, we were determined to have some authentic fondue. There are mixed stories on where fondue was invented so we chose the town that was closest: Fribourg. I think a good way to describe how good the fondue is would be to say that I will most likely not have real fondue for the rest of my life. Now that doesnt sound so great but don't get me wrong. It was very tasty. But it was also intense which, when you think about it, makes sense. It's cheese and bread. Thats it. Never again. Glad we did it, but never again. The next morning we packed and we soon said our good-byes and were on our way to our next destination: Dijon.

A day in Luzern

Having had enough of walking around the same expensive stores in zurich, we were in desperate need of something else to do. Luckily enough for us, we found some friends who wanted to come along. We met ariella and abby on our 3rd day in Zurich, over what has now become a mainstay of killing time: a game of cards. The intent was to get a view of the mountains, at least at some vantage point while in switzerland, and luzerneemed to offer that as well as a nice enough town. Unfirtunately, the weather did not agree. As it happened, it snowed the night before, and the roads to the observation area were closed because of the roads. Bummer.

So instead, we spent some time in the town, checking out some of the historical sites including a Lion hewn into a natural rock face. It was very nice exept for the slush and water all over the place. We did end up getting a bit of sunshine but by then we were already very cold so we eventually took the train back to Zurich for a home cooked dinner: Poached fish and clams in a White Wine Cream sauce with arugula and parmesan. A good way to end a busy day of walking and sightseeing. It really is amazing what can be done with very little equipment and a little bit of creativity. Suffice it to say, I think it was the best dinner that we had in Zurich, and one of the cheapest too. After dinner we went for coffee and played a little more jenga. We said our good-byes that evening to our new friends and we made our way to bern the next morning.

Zurich: Part 2

The first couple days in Zurich were unfortunately, uneventful. They did produce some interesting highlights though, including the learning of a new card game called shithead from some australians and several rounds of intense jenga action. Probably the most signifigant revelation however, involved the food. We had already decided that we would be cooking instead of eating out, making use of the limited kitchen facilities. To that end, from time to time I will begin to write installments of what I would like to call "The Hostel Cookbook: A gourmet's guide to eating in places that will bleed you dry if you try to go out for food." I may edit that later on, but it has a nice ring to it for now. We've cooked some interesting meals so far and they have garnered a bit of attention from other hostellers. I'll try to provide some recipes on the stuff we've made, but I wont make any promises as to their accuracy. I've never been one to write down what I'm cooking as I'm doing it so it's purely based on memory. In any case, I'll leave that for another post, as well as a some info on the chocolate we've been eating. Next up on the list however: Luzern!