143/356: Couchsurfing Meeting Soho, London

Early on Saturday morning I headed towards London for the fourth and final (?) time this year.

Saturday was full of new things. A new soft drink, a new shop and a new hotel are the things that come right to mind but there were plenty more. But the most noteworthy was the fact that I went to my first couchsurfing meeting on the British Isles.

I went to London by myself to watch another NFL game (more on that in the next post) and decided I didn't want to spend the whole Saturday evening by myself. At Piccadilly Circus I met up with around 20 like minded people and we then headed out to a pub in china town.

It was a really friendly crowd and I had some interesting conversations. After about two hours we decided to go on to a club and since I didn't feel like that, I ended the night there. It was a good moment to do so. I had some drinks, had a good time and that was exactly what I had looked for that evening. I think I can call this a successful first couchsurfing experience in England.

142/356: Excellence Yogurt

The days pass me by and before I know what happened, I have gone four days without posting. I am not sure why but at the moment I am incredibly busy. I hope I can get back to posting on a more regular basis soon.

On Friday I went for trying a yogurt. A friend brought it with her when I had her over for dinner a few days ago. It was quite a pleasant experience. I liked the combination of orange and chocolate.

141/356: Bul Go Gi at Japigo

Another long day at work was the reason I decided to try a restaurant on my way home.

I had walked past the Japanese restaurant Japigo on many occasions. The other day I saw that they serve Udon so I decided to give it a go. What I did not see was, that all of their Japanese food involves seafood and most of it raw. I didn't feel much like that, so I ordered something from the menu which is probably for people that don't understand what the restaurant is about.

Those dishes are on a small leaflet not included on the official menu. Like an afterthought.
Most of the dishes on the leaflet seemed to have Korean names and after confirming that suspicion on the internet today, I can say that I have also eaten Korean food in Switzerland for the first time.

I went for Bul Go Gi and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't presented in a Korean way and didn't included all the small side dishes one might expect and there was no Kimchi *gasp*. Still it tasted nice and I did not regret my decision.

I think I will be back here some day.

140/356: Haggle

Thursday's new thing was more or lass spontaneous.
I have had an eye on a new cellphone for a while now but so far I can't get over the high price and have therefore refrained from buying it.

I went to the sunrise (a Swiss carrier) shop to have a look at the cell up and personal and on the walk there I decided that I could have a go at a haggle. I tried my best! I swear! But still I failed at getting the cellphone any cheaper than listed.  I though that I could get a small reduction for being a long time customer (over 10 years) and that they would be able to give my a Shop discount or something. Well either I was wrong or I suck at haggling. Since this was my first serious attempt ever, it is well possible that I just suck at it.

I will try again some other day with something different!

139/356: Bio Energy Drink

I tried this beauty. I am not sure what is bio about the drink, probably the packaging.
I am also not quite sure what "botanic energy" should be. Essentially it could be anything right?
A fast new that I consumed before getting ready to welcome a friend over for dinner. It was just as sweet as all the other energy drinks. I couldn't really identify anything special about it.This will go down as an unspectacular first.

cheers

138/356: Potato Pancakes

After another exciting weekend I settled for an easier first on Monday. I went on to cook something new and this time something supposedly really easy. I made some potato pancakes.

They were a little disappointing. they looked alright and tasted good enough but I just wasn't quite happy with them. I think the problem was that I didn't make fresh mashed potatoes but used some "only add water" stuff. Only got myself to blame for that but I learned my lesson. Don't take the easy way when cooking, the effort always pays off. Also I was missing the green onions, which I just couldn't find any at the supermarket I went shopping for ingredients. That's what you get for working late.

Anyhow, another first done and done. Bring on the next!

137/356: BS Sightseeing Tour

I organized a sightseeing tour but not just any sightseeing tour but a bullshit tour. What is a bs sightseeing tour you ask? Let me explain.

Essentially such a tour is like a normal sightseeing tour except for the fact that the stories you tell about the landmarks are utter bs. I put a little twist on it and made one of the stories a true story and let the participants guess at the end which story it was.

I wanted to let a few volunteers prepare some of the stories because I didn't feel like I would be able to come up with something myself for all the places we would visit. I ended up doing four by myself while two were prepared by others. Let me say it right now, the other stories where better.

All in all it was a very cool thing to do. I think everybody had a good time despite the rainy weather. The only thing that bummed me, was that I was expecting about 20 people and of those about six showed up. Of the one's that didn't come, not one let me know. I can understand that the weather was sucky but still, let me know if you are not coming. Lesson learned; if organizing an event over couchsurfing, expect about half the people that said they would come.

Thanks to Nele for letting me use her picture. No more pictures because I was too lazy to take any.

Stay dry.

136/356: Trans Swiss Trail Stage 9: Bern - Laupen

After a long break for various reasons, but mostly for overdoing it on the last stage (knee) and not having enough time, I have been able to do another stage on the Trans Swiss Trail.

This time around I didn't head south to continue where I left off but headed north out of Bern. I mostly went for this Stage (NR.9) because it was a very spontaneous decision and I wanted to get going straight away instead of spending two hours on the train to get where I left off .

Before I went, I did look at some info of the stage, like that there would be 300m elevation change and that it would be around 5.5 hours long. Didn't seem to hard. Now, what I missed, was the fact that the stage was 21.5 km long. The longest stage so far. That I got lost right when I started off and did a good km or two more didn't help. I have to admit I was hurting in the last hour. But there was no way I would stop before I got the whole stage under the belt.

The Stage itself was a nice walk but not really exciting. Scenery wise it was probably the most boring so far. Maybe I feel that way because it was mostly flat and therefore I didn't have any spectacular views. I guess not every stage can be a new highlight.

I am happy that I was able to do one more stage before the years end. Maybe, if I am lucky, I can do one or two more. I would love to do so.

 Things going on are a bit different in autumn.

 Best view of the day.

A traditional farm house.

An emo sheep?

Probably the high point of the day, the cute little village of Laupen.

135/356: Going For The Recommendation

A suggestion I got from somebody a few weeks back, was to go to a restaurant and just ask them to bring me what they recommend without knowing what it was. That is what I did last friday.

I went to Baden with my mom and sister to celebrate my sisters 19th birthday. There were two firsts there already, I think I never went to a restaurant in Baden and I for sure never went to that Indian restaurant we visited.

The menue was huge and I was tired from work so I decided to just let them bring what they thought was the best. I was not dissapointed. I can't tell you the dishes name and I don't know in detail what was in it but I can tell you that it was the right thing to do. The dish tasted really nice and sure looked better than my mam's and my sisters. I saw the jealousy in their eyes!

Just look at that glory!

I think I might do this again. First of all it is nice to get a little surprise when your food comes and you might eat something that you usually wouldn't. I had shrimps in my dish for instance. I like shrimps but I usually avoid eating seafood (over fishing of the seas etc.).

Good one! Have you done something like this?

134/356: Swiss Beer Tasting

Last Thursday I had a couchsurfer over for the night so I decided to go for an easy first. I grabbed two beers, grabbed the surfer and up we went to Rosengarten to enjoy the last sun rays.

This beer was from Solothurn, a city in Switzerland and I can honestly say that I have never had a beer that was made in Solothurn. It was a good experience. The taste was nice and it went down fast. Though I am not sure if that was influenced by the beautiful weather.

This is a Swiss beer I could recommend.

133/356: Buskers

Sorry for the delay in posts! I was too lazy to post but of course not too lazy to do something.

So for NR. 133 I did something for charity.
My commute takes me through the main shopping and tourist area of Bern. So naturally you meet many people busking and asking for money. On my third try I was finally able to do what I had planned for a while. I walked home from the train station and gave some change to anyone that would ask me. Why did the first two tries fail? Because there were no beggars and no buskers on those days, and that two days in a row.

Last Wednesday I succeed but there were less people asking than I anticipated. I ended up giving money to two people, one busker and one beggar.

more in a minute..

132/356: Crowd Funding: Roamalot

There has been a lot of buzz about crowd funding in the last few years but nothing ever compelled me to actually fund anything. Yesterday when thinking about what I could try next, I decided to help a friends project.

I think it's a cool idea that they had so I decided to support it. I am eager to see where this will go.
I thought about explaining what it is all about but why don't I let them do it themselves?

Maybe you think it is cool as well and help them a little? I am sure they would be very grateful.

keep sharing. 

131/356: Beerings "Coopers Original Pale Ale"

For this round of beer tasting I went for an Australian beer. The Coopers Brewery Original Pale Ale to be exact. It wasn't really a big revelation and behind some of the beers I tried in the last few weeks but still better than your "normal" big brand beer. It tries the micro brewery taste but doesn't go all the way.

Maybe somebody can recommend a good Australian beer?

130/356: Fleetwood Mac Live

In the last few weeks I feel like one highlight is followed by the next only to lead to the one after that. This last Sunday I met up with my dad for the Fleetwood Mac concert at Hallenstadion in Zurich. What an excellent gig that was!!

Besides seeing Fleetwood Mac live for the first time, it also happened to be the first concert that only had seats. There were was no "standing area". I was quite surprised by this as I have never seen it like this. Still, this did nothing to make the experience less epic. It was one of those concerts that was not about a big show but about the music. The band now exists for 37 years and you could really hear that they know what they are doing. I had quite high expectations because I just heard a live album a few weeks ago. They still blew me away!

It was also very impressing that they played for over two and a half hours. I never expected this. These guys are in their sixties! They rocked very hard and the time just blew past. If I ever get the chance, I will go see them again and I can recommend them to anyone that is into rock music.

Now follow a few shitty pictures (by me) and a few OK ones (not by me).

129/356: Onigri And White Wine

I ended my vegetarian week on Saturday. Actually it was more like a vegetarian work week. I only made it from Monday to Friday. I had guests on Saturday and I just didn't know what to make for them without using meat. It was interesting to not eat any meat or fish for a whole week. I never felt like I missed the meat but I did have to think about what I would cook for myself. Now if I was to do a vegan week, well that would be a whole different level.. but let's not go there.. yet.

I ended the week with an Onigri from Coop. I guess not the best choice. It wasn't anything special. I just wanted to see what the Onigri would be like and I can happily report that I never need to have it again. I don't know what I expected from a supermarket Onigri.

During the dinner I drank a bottle of wine of a manufacturer I never had before. That went a whole lot better. My landlord is a nice elderly man that gets wine delivered on a regular basis. He get 24 or more bottles every time and because we only have stairs I help to carry them up. He always gives me a bottle for helping and since I don't drink wine just by myself, the started to pile up. I can report that the wine tastes good and that I now only have one bottle left to drink.. that one will probably go next Saturday.

cheers

128/356: Alo Allure

What a weird soft drink. If you are even able to call it that. It is a sweet drink made from Mangostan, Mango and Aloe Vera. The thing that compelled me to try it was the slogan they had to on the bottle. It literally says "the drink you can chew". Well that sounded awesome, I always wanted to chew my liquids.

All in all it was quite a pleasant experience. It tasted nice and the chewy part was not as weird as it sounds. It was a little like bubble tea with smaller pieces. Still, the novelty wore of quite fast and I don't think this is something I will get again.

127/356: Coffee And A Reflection.

I know food posts are not exciting to read and believe me, they are not exciting to write but in the end, the whole point is changing my habits. Therefore however small that change in my daily behaviour is, is still a change. Something that I am doing different on purpose. Not because I have to,  or because the same old same old isn't available, but because I want to try something new.

I think a good analogy is my behaviour when I was travelling around the world. Especially in the countries that I didn't know the local language I had a hard time to have something to eat. What if I don't understand the menu? What if the waiter doesn't understand what I want to order? What if the food is not to my taste or the hygienic conditions in the restaurant are bad? I went hungry for far longer than need be and on many more occasions that I would like to admit.

After I finally settled for a restaurant, it would often be the case that I went back to that restaurant on a few occasions. Why? Because I know it, because it felt comfortable, because it was easy.

I think I have that impulse even while living Switzerland and on many different levels. So even picking a place for a coffee to go instead of my daily routine of having a coffee at work is a way to break away from the known. A way to challenge myself.

I can honestly say that I have changed my behaviour but it is not always as easy as you would think. Especially when I am thinking about getting take away for dinner or going to a restaurant to have something to eat, I still have the impulse to go to one that I know. But this is silly, I have never regretted to try a new place.

So having said all that, today I had a coffee on the go while on my way to work. That was new!

Cheers and thanks for reading.

126/356: Unser Bier

No buskers AGAIN.. I swear this is a conspiracy against me. And this after I have been saving coins all week. Oh well, back to beer it is then...

This time around it is a Swiss beer. It's from Basel to be exact. The name "Unser Bier" means "Our Beer". I am guessing this is from a micro brewery but I am not sure. It tasted like it was from a micro brewery. It had quite a pleasant taste actually.

125/356: Food.... Again...

I tried to do something special today but I failed because there were no buskers at all in Bern. How does that even happen? So instead I had to use my backup first which, I regret, I didn't take any pictures of.

I just had some new vegetarian convenience food.

124/356: Vegetarian Week

On Monday I decided to go for a whole week without fish or meat. This certainly is a first for me. So far it is going good and the craving for meat/fish has not been that bad. Let's see if I can do a whole week.

Two days down, five to go.

123/356: Ginger Root Beer Soda

Hideous is all that I have to say to this. I think I never had something that called itself soda and tasted as bad as this. Of course this is just my opinion and you are entitled to your own.
I am very sure that this was the only time that I will have this in my life. Thanks but no thanks, move on, nothing to see here.

122/356: Lego Heaven

I stumbled into Lego heaven on my trip to Berlin.

I have seen these magical places before but never been in one. These places that seem to come straight from myth are Lego shops. Yes you read that right, shops that sell nothing else but Lego. Anybody who, like me and my brothers, used to own giant boxes filled with Lego will understand how excited I was to just to have a look around. We didn't own consoles, we weren't allowed to watch tv but we sunk endless hours building, tearing down and rebuilding our worlds. 

Much has changed since I last bought a set. Generic castles and city sets have made space for movie tie ins and stuff for more mature people (like the architecture series). I thought about actually getting something but then I couldn't come up with a place where I could display it in my apartment so I had to leave without anything.

*sigh* to be nine again....

 look at that.. you need a stone for your own project, just buy em like that.. so awesome!

121/356: Train Bistro

Hotels without working internet make a bloggers life hard. I was in Berlin this last weekend and the hotel didn't get the WIFI up and running all weekend. This made me sad and you with a post to read.

Anyhow, on my way to Berlin I made the journey from Bern to Zurich in the train's bistro wagon. It is hard to believe but I am quite sure this is the first time that I ever sat and consumed (a beer of course) something in the bistro wagon. Nothing big to say about doing that, just kinda surprised that it took me 30 years to get to this point.

I might repeat this. Having a chat with a beer in hand seems to be a good way to spend an hour. Also I noticed that contrary to the other wagons, people talk with each other here. 

120/356: Surprise

Surprise! It's not what you thought.
Surprise is a "street magazine" that is sold by homeless people. It's actually quite a good thing because they get 50% of the earnings. I have walked past someone selling these many many times. Yesterday when I got to the train station in Bern I saw someone selling it again and decided to buy one. Can't tell you anything about what they write about, because I didn't read anything yet. I plan to do just that when I am on the plane to Berlin later this evening.

119/356: Shnit International Short Film Festival: SLAM Movie Night

What is a "Slam Movie Night"? Believe it or not, before it started I didn't know myself.

Last week I saw a sign right at my local bus stop about the "Shnit" short film festival that would happen in Bern this week. I have never been to a short film festival so it instantly got my attention. A day later I looked it up and got a ticket for a random event. They have around three different events each day for a week or so, so it wasn't that easy to choose one.

As you already know, I chose the "Slam Movie Night". It sounded like fun even though I wasn't too sure how this was going to play out. Let me say this right now, I picked an awesome event.

Essentially it worked like this; they would start showing a film and depending if you liked it or not you could boo it or clap or make any other negative/positive noise. If the positive was louder the film would continue of the negative took over, they would stop the film and move on to the next. 
The fact that they were serving beer and had a part where guessing the right movie would get you a free shot made the whole thing even merrier. I was pretty merry myself...

Oh it was so much fun! Most films weren't that good but one or two were really interesting/fun. I really enjoyed the whole event. I wish stuff like this would happen more often!

118/356: Hospital

On Tuesday I had an unplanned visit to the hospital for the first time in my life.

I have been to a hospital a few times in my life but it was always planned in some way. Two days ago, I went there because I have had strong stomach pains for a few days and was worried that it might be an inflamed appendicitis. You don't mess around with that. 

I don't remember when I went to see a doctor the last time so going to the hospital just like that was actually quite a big thing for me. Gladly it was not an inflamed appendicitis. What it was, nobody knows. Since this morning I am back to normal, which I am quite glad about. My life is too busy to waste a few days lying around in the hospital. 

So yeah, that was an involuntary first but a first nonetheless. I hope these kind of firsts won't come around often. 
 

117/356: Gelterkinden

I am a bit late for my posts right now. Let me try to catch up the last few days..

So on Monday I was in Gelterkinden. A little place near Basel.
I went there because I was going to meet with a guy from school to work on our group project. Besides being there for the first time, I also got to try a microwave dish that won't be in the shops until early next year. His company makes them and they had a few samples left. It was quite cool to try something that nobody else gets to taste until in a few months.

I didn't take any pictures or can't tell you what it was cause I am not sure if I am actually allowed to.
Anyway, not the most exciting day in my project but still managed to get two firsts in there.

116/356: Vikings vs Steelers at Wembley, London

Make no mistake, I have seen and done many great things in my life and since I started this project but being one of 86'000 at the Wembley stadium was a moment that gave me goosebumps and something that I will remember forever.

The whole reason I was in London this weekend, was to watch the NFL regular season game Minnesota Vikings vs Pittsburgh Steelers. As a Steelers fan, I have been looking forward to this moment a long time. Considering I was expecting a lot, it says a lot that my expectations were exceeded.

The whole experience was fantastic. Starting with the walk up to the stadium with all the fans, waiting for the game to beginn, watching the pre-game show or the actual game itself. Those Americans really know how to puit on a show and get you hyped.

The game was a close affair that was only decided when the Steelers QB fumbled the ball 6 yards from the the vikings end zone with just a few seconds in the game. So if I have to have a downside, I guess it would be that the "wrong" team won the game. Still I wouldn't have wanted to miss it. It was the seventh game that has been played in London and from what we heard, it was the best so far.

But to be honest, the thing that was nearly the most fascinating, was how they managed to get 85'000+ fans away from the venue within a very short period. As you can imagine, many many people were waiting to get on the tube and we were prepared to wait for a long long time. But I was mistaking. Within 20 min we were on the tube and on our way back to Paddington. I am really impressed how they managed to do that. When you see the pictures below, you will understand where I am coming from.

Right now I am SO glad that I witnessed this great event and can't wait to be back at Wembley to see the Jaguars play the 49ers at the end of October.

Leading up to the venue.

Standing just outside the stadium, still not quite able to believe how big this thing is.

The Wembley is the second biggest stadium in Europe and oh.my.god what an atmosphere in there!

Kickoff

Panorama shot of the stadium. Just take in those dimensions. I think the biggest stadium I have ever been to had just about half of the seats of this place.

For many fans it didn't really matter which teams played the game. It was all about watching an awesome NFL game "close" to home.

See those masses wanting to get to the tube...

...maybe now you can see why I was suprised how fast we got home.

To finish this post I would like to give you a little glimpse of the action. Thanks for the person who made this video! (it wasn't me)