Zurich in my heart !

In February I spent 4 days at my cousin’s place in Zurich, Switzerland. 

I went there by night train and even though the trip takes me 10 hours I was really lucky because there was no need to change train. What I like about this train is that I arrive at 9:20 a.m. in Zurich so I don’t lose one day of exploring this new city. 

My cousin, Kira, picked me up at the train station. I was so happy because I don’t get the chance to see her very often; the last time was 2 years ago.
Kira lives in Embrach which is a very small town 20 minutes away from Zurich. Her mother offered me to take my suitcase to her office and in the evening she brought it to Kira’s place. So we had the chance to spend the whole day in Zurich doing some sightseeing. 

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t on my side. It was freezing cold and snowing the whole time. Personally I have to say that a city loses a lot of its beauty if the weather is bad. But Zurich was still extremely beautiful und after 2 hours of walking in the cold I got used to it. 

One of my favorite sights is the Zurich Lake. I’m sure in spring and summer it must be amazing sitting next to it and enjoying the sun. Kira told me that it’s possible to go swimming in the summer months. I decided that I would have to come back this summer (:
We went for a walk at the shore of Lake Zurich. You can walk there for hours I guess. It’s really big! We even had the chance to get a glimpse of the sun! If I would live in Zurich you can be sure that I would spend my days next to this beautiful lake. 

With a small cable railway we drove up a hill to reach the ETH. Maybe some of you know what the ETH is. It’s the technical University in Zurich and has a savoury reputation. Especially the program mechanical engineering is said to be one of the bests in the world.
Up there the view over the city is breath-taking!
Next to the ETH, 50 years after its foundation, was built the University of Zurich which has now more than 30.000 students. 

A beautiful church is called “Fraumünster”. The church includes a nunnery and a long time ago the women of the European higher nobility lived there. 

A legend says that Charlemagne discovered the tombs of Felix and Regula, who are the two saints of the city and founded the first church as chapter of canons there. This church is called “Großmünster”. It’s the landmark of Zurich.

 

My favorite church is called “Kirche Enge”. It’s located on top of a small hill and right in front of it you have a stunning view over the lake and the city. The church is built in a Italian early Renaissance style.

 

I also loved the Swiss state museum which is located directly behind the train station. It’s a huge old building and next to it is a lovely park. 

The big negative aspect of Zurich though is that this city is expensive! Gosh!! I had to spend so much money for food you can’t imagine. One glass of “Weißer Spritzer” in the evening coast nearly 10 euros. I was shocked. I knew Switzerland is an expensive state but it was more expensive than I had expected it to be. Of course people living there earn more money than we do but if you guys ever plan to visit this country keep in mind that you will need a lot of money!

But I can tell you there are a lot of great places to go out in the evenings. I only went out once with Kira and her best friend. We had a lot of fun! There are great places where you can dance or enjoy a glass of wine together and just chat about random things.

I already mentioned that Kira lives in a small town called Embrach. One day we were very lucky and there was sunshine but only in this town. In Zurich the weather still was bad. So we decided to go out for a walk next to her place. One of the best decisions ever. The landscape is incredible beautiful. The snow sparkled in the sunshine and it was quiet and relaxing. Here are some pictures to show you about what I’m talking.

I really enjoyed these 4 days away from home in a beautiful city together with Kira!

Friends make Everything more Beautiful (:

The worst place I have ever been to is Lignano, a small Italian seaside resort on the northern Adriatic coast. The instant I get out of the car I know why so many German tourists prefer the place as their cheap holiday destination. It has got nothing of the southern Italian charm people associate with the country. I find myself in a duplicated typical desolated German city. Countless run-down apartments and hotels string together along the dirty promenade. While trying hard to dodge all the crazy cyclists and the ruthless skaters, I jostle with crowds of people to get at least a small place where I can lie down and relax in the sun. Thousands of children buzz around me screaming and squealing. I have to cough because I choked on grains of coarse sand. Before I have sunstroke I make my way through would-be sportsman walking along the beach trying not to get in touch with their stinking sweat. If the sun did not burn down like in the desert, I would never set a foot in the brown soup of water which people call the refreshing sea. In the evenings I stroll along the hectic city watching a bunch of teenagers desperately trying to get drunk. The smell of oil, fat and old fish makes me want to vomit. So I hurry home to sink into my bed. Not even the scabious sheets prevent me from sleeping so that this horrible trip is finally over. 

Okay that would have been the version if I had to write about the worst place I have ever been to for our English class (;

So here’s the more personal side of this story.

I’ve been to Lignano with my closest friends in summer 2010. It was our first holiday together and we didn’t want to spend that much money but wanted to relax and have a great time. And we did (:

In the apartment we had fun cooking together and creating special dishes I wouldn’t dare to eat once again (; our fridge had hardly any food in it but lots of good drinks. We discovered that making a “vodka-melon” isn’t what we should do and that guys should never be left alone while cleaning the dishes.

It turned out that we are able to entertain the whole beach with “sexy” dance performances and that only one inflatable matrass can become the funniest toy in the world! (;

When it comes down to going out in the evenings we have more fun singing and dancing in the streets without a glass of alcohol than sitting around in some kind of “unforgettable-best-night-of-your-life-club” sipping from disgusting drinks.

The only thing that really matters is being with people you love from the bottom of your heart! Then even the worse place ever can become an absolutely amazing memory you wouldn’t exchange for anything else in this world! (:

Giving you some impressions of what a “not very nice” place can look like if you stage it properly:

Dune du Pyla

One of the most impressive creations of Mother Nature I’ve ever been do is the Great Dune of Pyla.
It’s the tallest dune in Europe and located in La Teste-de-Buch in the Arcachon Bay area, France. It has a volume of about 60,000,000 m³, measuring around 500 m wide from east to west and 2.7 km in length from north to south. Its height is 108 meters above sea level. The dune is a famous tourist destination with more than one million visitors per year.

I visited the Dune during a school exchange in 2007. We had to walk along a short trail for approximately 10 minutes to reach the Dune. If you want to climb it you have to go up some stairs. From the top you have a fantastic view over the Atlantic Ocean as the dune is directly next to it. The weather was amazing, the sun was shining and the sky was clear and blue.

 I love the feeling of warm sand under your toes, how you sink into it up to your ankles and the movement of swirling it up in the air.  On top of the dune we had a pick nick with delicious French food. We were relaxing in the sun and enjoying the sound of seagulls flying over our heads.

After some time we decided to go down to the coast. We started to run down all together and we were screaming of joy and happiness! That was that once in a life time moment I could share with my amazing classmates! :)
 
One of my crazy friends even decided to go for a swim in the ocean. He was shouting like a girl because it was that cold ;) 

As I am totally into the ocean, sand and everything that goes along with it, I really loved this place!

an eyesore that enlarges a city (at least that's my opinion) (;

My French class of today inspired me to write the following post. I would like to introduce you to a very famous sight of Paris, France – the Pompidou Center.
 It is a com plex in the Beaubourg area of the 4^th arrondissement of Paris, so it’s situated on the right bank of the Seine. Due to its location it is also known locally as “Beaubourg”.

We have to thank one of the former French presidents for this building - George Pompidou. He hold presidency from 1969 to 1974 in France and is considered to be one of the two builders of Paris during the Fifth Republic (th e other one is Francois Mitterrand – another former president – by the way).
He wanted to create a cultural building that is completely dedicated to a modern and contemporary style. 

The Pompidou Center was opened only three years after his death, in 1977. The time required for construction amounted up to 6 years.

It houses the Bibliothèque publique d'information, a vast public library, the Musée National d'Art Moderne where you can find one of the three largest modern art collections of the whole world, and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research.

But what is really special about this building is its architecture.
It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the Italian architects Renzo Piano and Gianfranco Franchini and the British architect Richard Rogers. The whole project was awarded to this team in an architectural design competition whose results were announced in 1971. In fact, it was the first time in France that international architects were allowed to participate.
In general the building consists of 7 floors of which 2 are under the ground.
What’s really extraordinary is that all tubes for mechanical systems are installed on the outside of the building. So you can see different colored tubes on the outside.

• green pipes are plumbing
• blue ducts are for climate control
• electrical wires are encased in yellow
• and circulation elements and devices for safety are red

The aim was to create the opportunity to be able to place the inner walls wherever they wanted them to be. I really love this idea. Although the building might not be beautiful on the outside, it is a sign of cleverness for me. The architects were trying to create something different and modern. I consider them ambitious and I really enjoy the final result. All in all it’s clearly a well-thought concept.

In front of the museum there is the Place Georges Pompidou which is famous for the presence of street performers like mimes, jugglers and fire-eaters. It’s a lively place but not hectic at all. When I was standing right in front of the building I got the impression that all these street performers were representing the energetic and progressive atmosphere of the Pompidou Center. It became one of my favorite places in Paris and maybe in the world.

French paradise - Côte d'Azur

Today my aim is to get you guys a little jealous. ;) And of course tell you something about one of my favorite places in Europe – the Côte d’Azur.

Well, I am so in love with France – the language, the people and the country itself! So in September 2011 I visited this part of France with one of my best friends Michi.
I’m so sure that you all know something about the Côte d’Azur but to begin with I want to give you some basic geographic information.

The Côte d’Azur is the Mediterranean coastline all the way from the French-Italian border down to St. Tropez and Toulon. In English it is also known as French Riviera.
In our French class we were talking about the different regions of France. So, the Côte d’Azur is located in the region called “Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. The capital of this region is Marseille and this city is in fact one of the two cultural capitals of Europe this year.

We flew from Vienna to Nice, where we stayed at a hotel for 9 days. Nice was our starting point from which we travelled to a lot of amazing cities all situated on this coastline.

What can I say about Nice? It is an outstanding city! I really loved it. The sea is crystal blue and I remember thinking to myself “This is paradise!”.
When we finally found our hotel we were surprised of its great location. Just 5 minutes away from the main square called “Place Masséna”. The Place Masséna is a two-minute walk from the Promenade des Anglais, old town, and town center.  
The Promenade des Anglais is always bustling with humanity. There are tourists relaxing in the royal blue chairs lining the shore. There are local people roller blading, biking or jogging along it. Vendors sell crepes and drinks on it.
The port is also stunning, especially in the evening. We went for a walk on our first evening and the light was so beautiful. I took quite a lot of pictures. But it is never that beautiful on a photo than it is in that one particular moment. You can’t capture it with a camera I think.

On the next day, we went by bus (1 € per direction) to Monaco. Incredible city! I am sure all of you know the famous casino at the rotary. We insisted on sitting in a café directly next to the casino (we wanted to feel rich for just one second haha). I drank the most expensive coca cola and I ate the most expensive ice cream of my life there!! While we were sitting in the very first row and watched all these luxurious cars passing, two men walked up to us and wanted to take a picture with us. Guess they thought we must have been VIPs :P

The next days we visited Antibes and Cannes.
Antibes is a lovely small town next to Cannes. You walk through narrow alleys and discover the charm of this old city. There are many bathing beaches with lots of people but still it is beautiful.
Personally, I have to say that Cannes was the city I didn’t like that much. I can’t really explain why, I just didn’t come under its spell. It is a busy tourist destination and known as being host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. There is the famous festival theater named “Palais des Festivals et des Congres.  Then there is the promenade called “La Croisette” where you can find lots of expensive boutiques. Guess what? Haven’t bought anything there ;)

On another day we went all the way down south to St. Tropez. It is not that impressive as you might think it is. In fact it is a small very old town and if I didn’t know that there party the most famous people of the world, I wouldn’t believe it. The port is of course beautiful and you get to see many impressive yachts – like everywhere else ;)

The last city we have been to was Grasse. I wanted to go there because I had that special picture in my mind of it being small, charming and beautiful. And the city fulfilled my expectations completely. Perfume is sprayed in the alleys and it smells just so good! 

Those were my impressions of the Côte d’Azur. It is totally worth a visit!:)