114/356: Brookyln Lager

Excuse my absence from posting. I was away for an amazing weekend and I promise to tell you more about this in a little bit but let me get things done in the right order.

After an exhausting week and having to prepare for my little weekend trip, I decided to try new beer on friday. Since I have had good experiences with american beer as of late, I decided to go for another one from over there. This time around I chose "Brooklyn Lager". Again, I was not disappointed. Brooklyn Lager is another tasty beer that I would have again. It has a slightly sweet taste to it which is not entirely unpleasant.

To be honest, I am really surprised how many of the american beers are really good. Just a short while ago, when I thought of american beers the only thing that came to mind was Budweiser and such. Consider me educated. I am eager to try more! Any recommendations?

The hour is late and this blogger is tired... more bloggings tomorrow. Stay tuned.

113/356: Geocaching

Geocaching was what I did for the first time yesterday. It was awesome!

So what is geocaching? I'll just repost what it says on the homepage:
"Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location."

I am not too sure if this is actually harder that it sounds but from four caches that we looked for, we only found one. Even the one that was supposed to be the easiest, we didn't find. I can only guess that, once you have done it a few times, you get a feeling for where to look. 

Not all caches are just straight forward; go to coordinates and find it. For some you have to solve riddles that give you an idea where to look for the cache. One that we did (or tried), asked us to solve questions about bears and the answers were supposed to supply us with the right coordinates. We failed.

I am just really glad that we actually managed to find one and I don't have to admit total defeat to you all. Also sorry for the lack of pictures but I didn't want to give any cache locations away and because I didn't want to get interrupted by muggles, aka the uninitiated we went quite late.

You are supposed to be not to obvious about it because the caches might get destroyed or stolen by curious/bored teens and such. That little bit of secrecy makes it even cooler. Try finding a cache in the middle of busy Bern without being obvious about it...

This was not the last time that I will have done this!

112/356: Weekly Couchsurfing Meeting Bern

I participated in my first weekly CS meeting here in Bern. And to be honest, I only did it because the surfer I currently have with me, asked me about it. I am not too sure why I never went because back when I lived in Zurich, I used to be a regular. Anyhow, this way I was able to do it for my project.

Instead of holding the meeting at a bar or such, it was at a couchsurfers apartment. I don't know if that had any influence but it was a really nice evening. I met known and new faces and generally had a good time. Considering my surfer didn't stand alone by himself for even a fraction of a second, my guess is, he had a good time too.

I will probably attend this weekly meetings more often now.. well as often as I can considering my busy schedule.

111/356: Singapore

Yesterday marked the day that I welcomed a couchsurfer from Singapore in my home. Now I had surfers from every country in the world, well close, well not really close.. not remotely close to be honest.. but hey I am working on it! Maybe this could be my next project?

No picture today because he might have thought it a bit weird that I post his picture on my blog after knowing him for 3 hours or so.

Today, ah I had such grand plans today. BUT work caught up with me. I might still be able to make it but it will take some planning. Stay tuned!

110/356: Arabian Chickpea Soup

Something interesting that I have learned over the course of the last 110 days is, how much food there is out there that I have never had before. Now I am not even talking about all the foreign dishes but food that is widely available here in Bern. Some of that has been there for a long time but what I have noticed is, how much new stuff there is all the time.

I think I would have no trouble at all to change my project to a pure drink/food tasting focus and not have one day where I have to do something twice. Kind of raises the question if we really need that many new products. I for one have never been at a supermarket and then proceeded to complain that they were missing something.

Ah you can probably guess where I am going with this. Last night I had an Arabian chickpea soup with a nutty focaccia and an iced green tea with ginger and some other stuff in the mix. All three I have never had before and I didn't really have to go out of my way to find these three new items.

All of it tasted really good.. even though the soup was not that appealing to look at..
I have plans for the next two days that don't involve food so you can look forward to those (if you don't enjoy the food part of the project that is). Also a big one coming up this Sunday!

Stay tuned. 

109/356: Shobdo: A Bengali Movie

As promised I went for something else tonight.

Inspired by an idea from a couchsurfing user I posted a status on facebook, that I would watch the first movie getting suggested. There were two conditions; that I have to be able to watch it at home and that I have not seen it yet. 

I was not able to find the first two movies, so I moved on to the third one on the list and that lucky winner was a Bengali movie called "Shobdo".

I am glad that I watched that movie. Here is the a short description:
"The film revolves around the life of Tarak, a foley artist of Bengali film. Tarak's job is to create ambient sounds for films, but, he gradually gets trapped in his own world, a world full of sound"

It is a really good movie that I recommend to anyone. Beside the interesting storyline I was fascinated that they mixed Bengali with English. A sentence would often consist of some some Bengali and English. I am not quite sure why this was.. if anybody knows, I am very interested!
It also gave a nice insight into the structures and divides of the Indian society.  

I am glad that somebody told me to watch this movie. I think without the input and this project I would have never done so.

107 + 108/356: Still Sick

It always gets worse before it gets better. That's the motto of the last two days. With Saturday being the worst day of them all. I spent all day in bed feeling really sorry for myself. Even more than the day before. I don't think being sick was the bad thing but with my busy schedule, I had to postpone things I had planned with my friends and that always sucks.

So because of that fact I had to resort to food again (which I was barely able to eat). Boring but at least I was able to do something new. I don't feel like they deserve a post each so I am going to combine it with another first. First time that I will post about two different firsts in the same posts.. 

I didn't feel like eating for most of Saturday so late in the afternoon I got up and made myself a bowl of ramen. Nothing special, nothing cooked up by myself, just out of the package and done. So I am pretty sure I never had this brand before. 

On Friday I already I felt a little better but had no energy to cook myself so I made this wholegrain lasagna. I am sure I never had this before because there is a "new" sticker on the package. 

Today I want to do something else than just food so let's see if that works out. I hope so!

106/356: Coffee

Still sick, still sitting at home, still no motivation or energy to do anything at all.
Since I had to go out and get some groceries anyway, I just grabbed a ready to drink coffee from the shop and was done with it. I hope I get my energy back soon, I hate doing something cheap like this.

My opinion? Too much sugar, too much packaging and not enough coffee. This is something that I am sure I won't have again.

Now excuse me while I go sit in the corner and feel sorry for myself.

105/356: Autodesk Maya 3D Modelling

So I have been ill for these last two days and therefore bound to my apartment. I should be in bed but it's so boring there so whenever I could, I got up to do a little work on my next new thing.

After countless hours I finally completed my first, from scratch created 3D model. Behold the mighty sword:

Yes I realize the skin I used doesn't fit the model 100% but that's not really a matter of skill but patience and it wasn't important to me on my very first model. I just wanted to get done.

I used a tutorial by this guy. His video is about 1h long. I took around nine times as long to complete it but I am actually quite happy with the result. I am not sure if this will be just something I did to have something I have never done before or if I will actually stick around and get into it a bit more. I have started many things and given them up over time. I guess I will see.

For today, well, I feel worse than yesterday so I am not to sure what I can do today. Probably just some food or drink. Being ill is no excuse to skip a day though! There is some commitment for you!

Stay healthy.

104/356: Georgian Radio Ardaidardo

I just spent the last two hours with listening to the Georgian radio station Ardaidardo. It has been a really interesting experience. No song they played was know to me. I am not sure if this radio station exclusively plays Georgian music or if they just don't listen to stuff that I would hear on the radio in Switzerland. I have to ask somebody about that! Oh also, I have no idea if that music was all in Georgian or if some other languages were in the mix but I didn't understand anything for sure.

The language has a really nice ring to it. Makes me want to visit the country. I hope I get around to it somewhere in the future.

Now I really need to change to something that my ears are used to.

103/356: Folding T-shirts

Today I learned how to fold t-shirts in under 5 seconds.

A few days ago I got handed the idea to learn something from a YouTube tutorial. As it turns out, about 95% of all tutorials are about makeup or how to do your hair. Since I am interested in neither, I decided to go for teaching myself to fold t shirts. It was about time I learned it anyhow, being 30 years of age and all.

What better than to go for this way:


I can't say I have mastered it yet but I have the technique down pretty good. It's fun to learn new things! Now I can't wait for the washing machine to be done.

102/356: Promontogno

I visited Promontogno just yesterday.

The whole family went there because we weren't quite ready to go home after celebrating the grandparents 60th wedding anniversary the day before.

To be specific, we went to see the Hotel Bregaglia or rather it's insides because there was an art exhibition there. The exhibition was rather boring but the hotel itself was worth visiting because it was built 1875 and is still in use today. It was really interesting to see how the rich folks from past days used to enjoy their holidays.It heralds from a time when tourists first started to discover Switzerland as  a holiday destination.

I was disrupted in my picture taking by a phone call and by the time the phone call was over, everyone was ready to leave, so I didn't get around to take many pictures. I hope you can forgive me for that.

101/356: Celebrating 60 Years

Imagine being married for sixty years. What a feat! So of course this is a reason to celebrate.

We celebrated my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary during the course of this weekend. We took the whole family and went to a place called "Alp Flix". What a great place! Awesome view, great little restaurant and hotel. I loved it all around. It was great having the family together to celebrate this event.

There were many firsts during Saturday but of course you only get to celebrate 60 years of marriage once so this had to be the this posts topic.

The stars of this weekend.. all three of them. My grandparents and my nephew who got most of the attention over the last 48 hours.

On to many more years!

100/356: Leaving A Review

Day 100. 

Time for a little review I think. Some days it was hard to find something new, some days it was not so exciting. Other days it really challenged my comfort zone any yet other times it got me to do really exciting stuff. 

All in all I am really happy how my project is turning out. I think I have done many things that I would not have done or not for quite some time, if not for this. I feel like I am more open to new things in general. Since I got into the groove of choosing new things, I pick different things at the supermarket all the time. It might seem like a little change but before I usually stuck with the things I knew. 

Also when I get asked to go on a little adventure or go somewhere, I am now more open to it. One hundred days ago I would always find a reason to tell myself to do not something or to go somewhere just because I didn't feel like it. Now I am looking for those actively opportunities. Of course I still have moments where I fall into my old patterns but on the one hand I still have over two thirds of a year to go and on the other, just falling deep into your comfort zone isn't all that wrong all the time. 

So to keep with the review theme, that's exactly what I did yesterday. 

I have been a regular costumer on Amazon for a few years but never bothered to leave a review for any of the books I bought. As a matter of fact, I have never left a review for anyhting, anywhere. Yesterday when looking for something to do that did not involve food or drink, I decided to leave a review for the book that I use most often. Of course it is an eBook with Japanese recipes. There, now I got food involved again. 

It is my most used source for Japanese recipes. I also use the internet a lot but I keep coming back to this little gem. The recipes are easy to make, well described and authentic. The last point is probably the most important to me. I loved the food over in Japan but had a really hard time finding authentic food at a fair price in Europe. So of course making it myself was the next logical step. This eBook really helped me. 

Leaving the review in itself wasn't a big deal. It was easy and fast to do. I still think it's pretty significant that it took me so long to do. I have bought some pretty awesome books over the years. I doubt that it will become a regular thing though. We will see.

On to the next 100 days. 

99/356: Pasta, Salsa and Chips

Wow 99 days already! How time flies.

Again a day filled with hard work so I didn't have the state of mind to think of anything exciting. I got a type of pasta I have never had, a brand of tomato salsa I never had and a new brand / taste of chips. They were all very good but I still feel cheap to do something like this. It just feels a little to easy.

Since I have had a hard time coming up with my own ideas for things to do during the week, I have asked around... well I asked on the couch surfing forums and I got some great input. I am going to do a few of the suggested things for sure in the coming days.  

So tell me this. If I try something new and I fail at it.. does it still count?

98/356: Beertastings: Vanilla Porter

Vanilla Beer! I kid you not. I had vanilla beer last night. And it's not just vanilla flavoured, it is brewed with real vanilla beans. At least that's what it said on the label.

I have to admit, it is a really tasty beer. I liked it a lot. It might even be my favourite beer since I started this project and the tons of beer tasting I have done.

Oh I also got to use that cool glass for the first time. It was in the second fancy box I got. I think it looks really cool but I do admit that it probably goes better with Whiskey.

Now let me get back to work.

97/356: Tantanmen Ramen

I love my Ramen.

I also love to make my own Ramen and I am not talking about heating a 99 cent package of noodles but the real deal. Thinking about what to make for dinner tonight, I noticed that it has been far too long since I have made myself a bowl and so it was decided. To also do something new for today,I went for a kind of Ramen that I haven't prepared before. These Ramen are called Tantanmen and are the Chinese version of the classic Japanese Ramen.

As was to be expected, the Ramen turned out to be very delicious. I couldn't make them 100% true to recipe though. On such short notice, I wasn't able to find pak choi. So instead I just added some spring onions.

Now let me enjoy my after meal, full stomach bliss *burp*

96/356: Karma; Vegetarian Convenience Food

There is a new line of vegetarian convenience food at the supermarket I usually buy my lunch at. I saw it for the first time late last week and today I decided to give it a try.

They were both quite good but I prefer the Pasta to the Bulgur. The Bulgur (what ever that is) had some dried fruits in it and I prefer my food to be either salty or sweet. If I have both, I get confused. I am not sure if I will get either again because I try to avoid food like this but I might sneak in some of the pasta at some point or other.

95/356: FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO D'ITALIA

Onward to the reason why I visited Italy for two days. I went there to attend the Formula 1 race in Monza.

I really enjoy watching the races on a lazy Sunday afternoon and have thought about visiting a race for a while now but never had something that pushed me to do it. With this ongoing project of mine I finally got around to do it.

There is one simple reason why I picked Monza as the place where I would attend a race. It was the last race to be held in Europe this season. So it was either Monza or wait for next year. Monza has a great and long tradition so we decided to attend this one. 'We' because I went with a long time friend of mine.

We got to the circuit early on Sunday morning and then watched the GP3, GP2 and Porsche Supercup races, or parts of them. But of course the highlight of the day was the F1 race that started at two pm.

Two of the things that really stuck out to me were the sound of the cars and how international the crowd was. I could identify at least four or five languages and there were many more which I wasn't able to place. And the sound the F1 cars make, oh my, it gave me goosebumps. Seeing it on TV is nowhere close as intense as it is live. I am not a giant petrol head but I really enjoyed that roaring.

The race itself was interesting because the Sauber team (Swiss owned) had a car start in third place which was then able to finish in fifth place. This is by far the best result they had this year. Nico Hülkenberg, the driver, had a Mercedes just behind him during the whole race so it stayed interesting. Ferrari getting a car on the podium and one in fourth place really helped as well. That, as you can imagine, made the Italians really happy.

F1 is a sport which is best when watched on TV because they can instantly switch to the place on the track where the action is. When you are actually there, you only see a little part of the track and the big screens are usually not that close to you. I enjoyed the whole experience but it was probably a one time thing. The tickets were also pretty pricey so that doesn't help.

sorry for the sub par pictures. As you can imagine, my phone is not really equipped to take photos of speeding race cars. 

 The train station we got off at already had a very famous name.

 The GP2 race. The cars a little weaker than F1 but still plenty fast.

 Warm up rounds of the F1 race

 The owner of this little blog.

 The cars approaching the 'Variante del Rettifilo'

 The tribune where we were sitting

A Ferrari Fan cheering on his team.


Race on!

94/356: Milano

A short visit to Italy was just what I needed to round of my holidays.

I know that I have been to Milan before but from what I can remember I have only seen the train station so far and even then I didn't have time to look around. I was used to Swiss punctuality when it comes to trains and got caught off guard when my trains were late and I had to catch the next one.

This past weekend marked the first time on which I actually got to see a little of the city itself. It wasn't much though. A friend and I arrived around 6pm on Saturday evening and would be leaving again early next morning. The reason for this short visit will be in Post 95/356.

We walked from our hotel to the Duomo, had dinner and walked back again. That's about the extend of my visit to Milan. Still, there were plenty of firsts in those few hours. It was especially interesting to compare the Duomo to the Dom in Cologne. They are similar in size and took about the same amount time to build but the similarities end there. Where the Dom in Cologne is dark, brooding and rather depressing, the one in Milan is playful, bright and generally more cheerful.

Sadly I didn't get to experience the best part about Milan, the shopping. Next time I go I have to bring the time and money to shop till I drop. It is one of the fashion capitals of the world after all.

 The Duomo on the walk back from the restaurant.

 Frontal view of the Duomo.

 No idea but it looked cool.
 

 The plaza in front of the Duomo.

 

 

In Milan they tend to build very big buildings.

A little teaser for post 95/356.

93/356: Doggie Style (Beer Tasting)

Huzzah, more beer tasting. My decision today was based solely on the label. Well I also thought the name of beer would make for an interesting header for the post. 

The beer was good but I couldn't really enjoy it because the football (soccer) match I was watching while drinking it went from bad to horrific. Switzerland just (only) played 4:4 against Iceland after leading 4:1 shortly after the break... 

.. at least I have a great weekend ahead. Much more exciting stuff to come than beer tasting. I promise! Stay tuned...

92/356: First Day Of School

You read that right.. had my first day of school today.

First day of my master of studies that is. Yeah I know it is a bit silly to go back to school at the age of 30 (not really) but it has been at least three years since I have been to school and I started missing it again.. actually I am lying. I just felt like I needed to get some more education under my belt to compete with all these young folks. Oh I will still be working but I reduced to 90%.. huzzah!

It was also my first day of school in Basel. It's one of the larger cities in Switzerland and to be honest I have only been there about two or three times in my life. I am looking forward to see more of it, now that I will be there more often.

I will be back to school for the next two years. The master consists of three modules each lasting about three months. Oh I forget the thesis I have two write after those three modules. I started with the module CAS (certificate of advanced studies) business requirements engineering. It was just a general introduction today but it was a really interesting start.

Getting educated is fun!

scuse me for trying to be funny, I didn't sleep much last night and therefore I am really tired..

91/356: Clube-Mate Ice Tea

After I tasted the Club-Mate Coke a few weeks ago, I decided to go for the ice tea this time around.

Not my cup off tea I have to admit. I just didn't really enjoy the taste that much.

90/356: Trans Swiss Trail Stage 16: Sörenberg - Giswil

Today's hike took my from Sörenberg to Giswil. I started the hike with a bus full of old people and ended it with a sprint to the train station. 

Yesterday I overheard the bus driver say that there would be some kind of senior citizen day in the valley where I would start walking today. I didn't give it a second thought. I got reminded this morning when I arrived at the train station where I was going to change to the bus. Normally there is one bus, when I arrived there, there was the normal bus plus three extra. All of them looked like the picture below... and just to stop you right there, I did offer my seat but nobody would take it.

The hike today was great. Awesome weather, again, and some really really nice scenery. The ascend was just 500+ meters so no problem there but the descend was 1200+ meters. I can tell you, it is now past 8pm, I arrived home over two hours ago and my knees still hurt. Walking up might be more exhausting but it sure is comfortable than walking down. 

When I got close to Giswil I decided I didn't want to sit around an hour waiting for the next train, as the train ride home was two hours. So yeah, after walking for 5 hours, I had to run the last bit to make the train. Made it! 

I had planned to go hiking again tomorrow but since it is the last day of my holiday that I have nothing planned, I might just sit it out and enjoy the nice weather here in Bern. Let's see....

I always see lots of old people when hiking, might it be because up in the mountains Switzerland is still the country they know? Might it be an escape from a fast moving world that they don't fully understand? Btw. just in case you ever go hiking in Switzerland, hikers ALWAYS great each other. 

Loved the scenery today.

 Switzerland in one picture. Cows and mountains.. that's about right.

 I present to you the wanderer.

Once the way markers that mark the routes go from yellow to white-red-white you know shit is about to get real. Yellow is for a normal hiking path, red-white-red for a more challenging mountain hike path.

 Just a small chapel for the mountain farmers.

My view when I had lunch. I love it when you come around a corner and suddenly you have this view. 

See the snow capped mountains all the way in the back? I have been waiting to see them ever since I started hiking. Today I finally got a glimpse. Hope to see more of them soon. 

have a great day. 

89/356: Trans Swiss Trail Stage 15: Schangnau - Sörenberg

It was another stunning late summer day so I had no choice but to continue my hike across Switzerland. 

I have now finally reached the next Canton (State) after hiking across Bern for all the previous stages. To be fair though, Bern is one of the biggest Cantons of Switzerland. Not only did I leave Bern behind but I also felt like I crossed into a whole new landscape. The scenery up to this point was dominated by soft rolling hills and valleys. Now I seem to have reached a rougher area. The mountains are not overgrown anymore but the rock is exposed. 

The guide said that the hike would take about six hours. I did it in five, and that includes a 30 minute lunch break. I don't know why but I always get a big satisfaction about being faster than the guidebook expects. It was another 800 meter ascend but spread over a much wider area so it wasn't bad at all. 

The hike started off a little rocky, I thought that I had missed a connecting bus to Schangnau because my train was a few minutes late. After being annoyed for a little (there is only one bus an hour), I realized that I had looked at the schedule of Saturday.... yeah I got on the bus 10 minutes later. 

Right now I am really tired but my feet and legs feel surprisingly well, might it be that I am adjusting to all this walking? Let's hope so, I want to go again tomorrow! I want to make the best of my stay at home holidays. 

 The view close to Sörenberg, today's destination. I will probably cross one of those ridges tomorrow.

 The start of the hike.. keep that mountain in the distance in mind.

 beautiful scenery today.

 ...oh got a little closer to that mountain from two pics above.

 Sometimes you have to turn around and see where you came from to appreciate what you have achieved and where you are going... this is true in hiking as in life in general... ohhhh so deep!

 Yeah, that mountain from the second picture? I was now on the other side of it...

After nearly 19km in 5h I think this beer was well deserved!

keep walking.