Sunday, June 21, 2009

Last weekend alone in Zurich

This weekend was pretty laid-back after a busy one last week.  On Friday, my professor had a group from the lab over to his flat for dinner.  It's always entertaining to hear people from other countries poke fun at their usual targets.  For the Swiss, it's the Austrians.  For the French, the Belgians.  Kind of like Texas for us.  

Yesterday, I went to the Oerlikon farmer's market for a nice wander and some fresh bread and yummy little red berries.  After that, I had a little wander around Zurich city and rode on a lot of different kinds of transit (train, tram, bus, boat) over the course of the day.  

Today, I spent a lot of time at home writing this paper I'm helping with, which was good.  I also spent a bit of time with fellowship application essays, which are actually surprisingly fun to write.  Though less so to edit.  It was forcasted to rain all day, but as usual it didn't.  So I went out for a 30 km bike ride around the Greifensee, which is really close and has a lot of cute towns and farms around it.  It was nice to get outside.  I realized that I really hadn't biked anywhere other than work and the grocery store before.

Jamie and her brother Andrew arrive this Thursday for the start of their sister-brother Europe excursion.  I'll spend 3-4 days hanging out with them and showing them the sights before they head down to Rome.  And after that I only have 4 more days left.  

I did buy a map of Paris yesterday from a wonderful travel books shop in town, and have been marking down famous markets, boulangeries, patisseries, and specialty food shops.  Let me know if you have any recommendations!

1 comment:

Louis said...

HI Ali, here are my recommendations for Paris;
try to go to a marionette show at the Luxembourg gardens, look in Pariscope for the times and dates it is by the big kid playground ??SW corner, and also go to Angelina for hot chocolate. Have a wonderful week!!!!! Love, Lorriane