So, I have been back in Ireland for about three weeks now, and I must say, besides the weather, the public transport, the security, the nice buildings, the weather, the ridiculously small amount of hours spent actually doing something approaching hard work, the fun evenings, the view out my window, the train journeys through some of the most spectacular scenery in Europe or possibly the world, the nights out, the laughs, the lack of any real responsibility for possibly the longest time since I was a child, oh yeah - the weather, the company, the shops, the god-damn hard-to-describe-but-undeniable intelligent nature of of the whole place, the clean streets and lastly, the weather, I must say - it's good to be back!
To be fair, even though I may have sounded sardonic/bitter/twisted/like I was trying desperately to pad out a blog post when I have very little to write about (delete where applicable), it is actually reasonably satisfying to be back on home ground at last. It was an incredible experience, but it came to an end at the right time, and while I'll fondly remember my time there, I don't feel as if I have any inclination to go back to the place voluntarily (Geneva that is - Switzerland still holds plenty more wonder in my eyes)
So au revoir, Geneva. You were a brief love affair, to be looked back on fondly but without regret - and both glad to have moved on with life...
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Snow is falling...all around us...
Well, it's been over a month since my last post... Two weeks of that were spent at home, enjoying Christmas, and well, since I have come back over here I haven't done much; the seemingly inconvenient and unimportant fact that I was actually meant to be over here to study finally dawned on me. Writing essays has become a somewhat haphazard and quite frankly terrifying experience - it has been well over a year now since I've last had to put virtual pen to virtual paper.
Enough of 'shop talk' however; the most important thing that has happened in Geneva is that it finally started snowing!
Geneva looks good in the snow - you have the feeling that is donning a white cloak that it inevitably wears as some point every year, and has learned to wear it with style. The vast amount of trees, invisible for the rest of the winter thanks to their lack of leaves, suddenly stand out proudly, wearing their snowy attire with pride. In Limerick, snow turns the city into a giddy but awkward child - unsure of itself. Geneva wraps its new-found clothes around itself, shrugs confidently, and keeps on walking.
The snow came slowly at first, barely noticeable specks in the increasingly frigid air. Then, gradually, a flurry! Large, thick snowflakes, that could be grasped in the hand without instantly melting. The air was heavy and visibility receded, and within a matter of hours Geneva was covered in a foot-deep blanket of the stuff. It didn't last long, but was apparently enough.
The city and its citizens are well prepared for this kind of weather - nothing stops functioning, although cars, buses and people alike move that bit slower and more carefully - unsure on their feet as the snow is trampled into ice, especially on more travelled routes. But besides the buses being slightly slower and busier than usual, life goes on as normal.
Sad as it is, when the snow started falling in earnest, as could feel myself getting giddy and my heart beat a little bit faster for a moment. Coming from Ireland, where snow, even the tiniest amounts, is these days, and since I can remember really, a once a year event - if even that. I had to resist the urge to rise from my desk, where I was desperately trying to get essays written, and dashing downstairs to trample around in the snow with an excited smile on my face.
I apparently wasn't the only one excited; after all, the building has people from all over the world - many from places (perhaps even the majority) that don't even get a short glimpse of snow every year like in Ireland. At about midnight on the night of the major snowfall, we met downstairs outside the building for a hastily arranged snowball fight - the most important event for anybody excited by snow. Maybe it's a way to vent all our violent tendencies! Two hours later, the valiant but outnumbered Irish beat a hasty retreat, defeated by the experienced Germans, who had vast superiority in numbers (that's how I remembered it, anyway...) Elated but soaked, we lived to fight another day. My right arm is still stiff!
It's just a pity it took so long for the snow to arrive, and it may go as quickly as it came - if the forecast is to be believed. I have never really payed much attention to the issue of global warming, but on a very personal level, I think that the dissapearence of snow - which is probably going to happen in Ireland and maybe even eventually in Switzerland - would make life just that little bit less enjoyable. Long live snowy winters.
Enough of 'shop talk' however; the most important thing that has happened in Geneva is that it finally started snowing!
Geneva looks good in the snow - you have the feeling that is donning a white cloak that it inevitably wears as some point every year, and has learned to wear it with style. The vast amount of trees, invisible for the rest of the winter thanks to their lack of leaves, suddenly stand out proudly, wearing their snowy attire with pride. In Limerick, snow turns the city into a giddy but awkward child - unsure of itself. Geneva wraps its new-found clothes around itself, shrugs confidently, and keeps on walking.
The snow came slowly at first, barely noticeable specks in the increasingly frigid air. Then, gradually, a flurry! Large, thick snowflakes, that could be grasped in the hand without instantly melting. The air was heavy and visibility receded, and within a matter of hours Geneva was covered in a foot-deep blanket of the stuff. It didn't last long, but was apparently enough.
The city and its citizens are well prepared for this kind of weather - nothing stops functioning, although cars, buses and people alike move that bit slower and more carefully - unsure on their feet as the snow is trampled into ice, especially on more travelled routes. But besides the buses being slightly slower and busier than usual, life goes on as normal.
Sad as it is, when the snow started falling in earnest, as could feel myself getting giddy and my heart beat a little bit faster for a moment. Coming from Ireland, where snow, even the tiniest amounts, is these days, and since I can remember really, a once a year event - if even that. I had to resist the urge to rise from my desk, where I was desperately trying to get essays written, and dashing downstairs to trample around in the snow with an excited smile on my face.
I apparently wasn't the only one excited; after all, the building has people from all over the world - many from places (perhaps even the majority) that don't even get a short glimpse of snow every year like in Ireland. At about midnight on the night of the major snowfall, we met downstairs outside the building for a hastily arranged snowball fight - the most important event for anybody excited by snow. Maybe it's a way to vent all our violent tendencies! Two hours later, the valiant but outnumbered Irish beat a hasty retreat, defeated by the experienced Germans, who had vast superiority in numbers (that's how I remembered it, anyway...) Elated but soaked, we lived to fight another day. My right arm is still stiff!
It's just a pity it took so long for the snow to arrive, and it may go as quickly as it came - if the forecast is to be believed. I have never really payed much attention to the issue of global warming, but on a very personal level, I think that the dissapearence of snow - which is probably going to happen in Ireland and maybe even eventually in Switzerland - would make life just that little bit less enjoyable. Long live snowy winters.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
The Great Hyperlink Project
I've decided for some reason that it would be a good idea to go back over my posts and put some hyperlinks into places, things and people I've mentioned. I've done about half so far, and although I've tried to mainly link to websites that I've actually used while researching places I want to go, some for them are just from Google or Wikipedia searches. I might also link back to my own posts if I mention something that I've blogged about before. That'd be like what those proper blogger people do! I'll try to continue adding links as soon as possible!
Zermatt
Well, it's happened again: Too much has happened in the time between my last post and now; I can't even begin to remember everything. I suppose the main event that I haven't posted about (although it actually happened before my last post, but in the interests of continuity I decided to post about stuff in chronological order, foolishly believing that I'd get around to posting again in a day or so!) Oh well. Zermatt was excellent, Toni and I were so glad to get out of the sometimes depressing confines of this little room I've been living in for the last few months. And Zermatt, with its incredible views of the Matterhorn, and the vast, hard-to-fathom vistas on offer at the top of Gornergrat, was the perfect antidote to the slight cabin fever that can build up when you're living in a small room, with no private living area.
I suppose the original idea was to stay in the cheapest place available; a hostel or something similar. But, when we started looking up places to stay, "the cheapest available" got progressively more luxurious - the conversation went something this:
"Well, for a few more francs, we can get our own room"
"Actually, if we're going to do that, we might as well get the room with the balcony and the view of the Matterhorn"
"And it would be nice to go somewhere with a spa, you know, when we're tired after a long day's walking..."
So we ended up in a fairly nice (although is has to be said, it still was definitely at the cheap end) hotel. The room was nice and big and it did a decent breakfast, although the Jacuzzi etc was a bit of a let down.
Zermatt exists solely due to tourism thanks to the Matterhorn; you might think this is a terrible thing, but in reality it's quite pleasing to be able to get any kind of food, and anything you need, in a place where everyone speaks English and isn't bitter doing so. We were there in the off season, although some of the ski slopes had begun to open. It was fairly busy, although in a month or two it probably would have been much worse. I didn't really take many pictures of Zermatt itself, but here's one or two:
Zermatt is all about the Matterhorn; there's not really any other point to the place. But when you see it, you see why.
I suppose the original idea was to stay in the cheapest place available; a hostel or something similar. But, when we started looking up places to stay, "the cheapest available" got progressively more luxurious - the conversation went something this:
"Well, for a few more francs, we can get our own room"
"Actually, if we're going to do that, we might as well get the room with the balcony and the view of the Matterhorn"
"And it would be nice to go somewhere with a spa, you know, when we're tired after a long day's walking..."
So we ended up in a fairly nice (although is has to be said, it still was definitely at the cheap end) hotel. The room was nice and big and it did a decent breakfast, although the Jacuzzi etc was a bit of a let down.
Zermatt exists solely due to tourism thanks to the Matterhorn; you might think this is a terrible thing, but in reality it's quite pleasing to be able to get any kind of food, and anything you need, in a place where everyone speaks English and isn't bitter doing so. We were there in the off season, although some of the ski slopes had begun to open. It was fairly busy, although in a month or two it probably would have been much worse. I didn't really take many pictures of Zermatt itself, but here's one or two:
Zermatt is all about the Matterhorn; there's not really any other point to the place. But when you see it, you see why.
These horses were in the employment of some fancy hotel - Zermatt is car-free, so horses or electric vehicles are the only sources of transportation. Sadly, most have take the less interesting option.
We didn't really do much the first day - we went for a short walk but unfortunately the evenings close in fast at this time of year. We were going to have to have a few early mornings if we wanted to get the most out of the trip!
The next morning we got the Gornergrat Railway to...Gornergrat, suprisingly. This was included in the price of our tickets, as there was a special offer on at the time. It normally costs about 80 francs! The Gornergrat railway is a steep railway track, that goes up to a high point of about 3200 metres - that's pretty impressive. It takes 1/2 hour or so, and the view from the top was...
Well it was..
Ok, here goes. The view from the top of Gornergrat was...
Feck it, just see for yourself:
The next morning we got the Gornergrat Railway to...Gornergrat, suprisingly. This was included in the price of our tickets, as there was a special offer on at the time. It normally costs about 80 francs! The Gornergrat railway is a steep railway track, that goes up to a high point of about 3200 metres - that's pretty impressive. It takes 1/2 hour or so, and the view from the top was...
Well it was..
Ok, here goes. The view from the top of Gornergrat was...
Feck it, just see for yourself:
There. I hope that gives you some idea of what it was like.
The highlight of the day (and probably of the whole trip) was walking from the top station, down to the one below. It's actually a snow shoe trail, and it was completely, absolutely deserted. The snow was not too thick, but thick enough to cover nearly everything, and it was a lot of fun to walk through. It was perfect.
Toni grew a lot while we were there. Must be all that mountain air...
The highlight of the day (and probably of the whole trip) was walking from the top station, down to the one below. It's actually a snow shoe trail, and it was completely, absolutely deserted. The snow was not too thick, but thick enough to cover nearly everything, and it was a lot of fun to walk through. It was perfect.
Toni grew a lot while we were there. Must be all that mountain air...
After this trip, we were exhausted, as you can imagine. Tired, but definitely happy.
The second day, we went for a big long walk around the woods surrounding Zermatt. Unfortunately a lot of the trails are closed for the winter (for good reason, we were to find out. We walked up one trail until it was too dangerous to go any further - it was covered in extremely slippy ice, and on one side of the narrow path, there was a sheer drop of a couple of hundred feet down to a gorge!) The mountains were very peaceful, we even managed to see a bit of Switzerland's shy and very elusive wildlife.
I don't really have the energy to write any more (or the memory, really!) It was an incredible trip, though.
The second day, we went for a big long walk around the woods surrounding Zermatt. Unfortunately a lot of the trails are closed for the winter (for good reason, we were to find out. We walked up one trail until it was too dangerous to go any further - it was covered in extremely slippy ice, and on one side of the narrow path, there was a sheer drop of a couple of hundred feet down to a gorge!) The mountains were very peaceful, we even managed to see a bit of Switzerland's shy and very elusive wildlife.
I don't really have the energy to write any more (or the memory, really!) It was an incredible trip, though.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Zurich Zoo
This was aeons ago at this stage, but just before Toni came over, I went to Zurich Zoo with some of the others. I don't really have much to say about it; it was an enjoyable but uneventful day - and at this stage my memory of it has faded anyway. So it's going to be another picture-heavy post. Probably for the best anyway! Anyway, I'll throw up some pictures, and then a quick comment at the end. Have fun!
Actually, although it was good fun taking pictures, I did feel a but bad at the Zoo. The animals are so far removed from their natual habitats - they mostly seem to just lounge around all day looking depressed. It's nice to be able to see all these different animals, but I can't help thinking that some of them - the larger ones at least - are really, really not suited to being in a zoo.
I don't really have mcuh to say about Zurich itself, we pretty much went straight from the station to the zoo and spent most of the day there. At first glance however, it didn't seem like the most interesting city.
I don't really have mcuh to say about Zurich itself, we pretty much went straight from the station to the zoo and spent most of the day there. At first glance however, it didn't seem like the most interesting city.
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