Chocalate Festival at Versoix!!

It's the annual Chocalate Festival at Versoix, Geneva again and this year marks the 5th anniversary!

The festival was located in Versoix, a town that's in the canton of Geneva (yes, Geneva is the name of BOTH the canton AND the cantonal capital city) and is about 1 hour train ride from Lausanne. That town has several famous chocolatier, one of them being Cartier

I had been looking forward to it this whole week! Must have my fill of chocolates today!!

It was a less than enthusiastic start for the festival. It was raining for most of the day. Not those howling storms like back in Singapore, but still it was much colder and wetter than what I would have liked. I was enough to make me open my difficult-to-open umbrella and damage my friend's not so sturdy one. However, the day got increasingly better.

Well, first of all, a lovely helper lady told us that there was a free "choco train" ride to take us to the destinations in the town. That saved us the misery of trudging through the town like a couple of wet dogs... Next, There was a string of chocolate tasting at a chocolate factory that gave out fondue sticks as door gifts. Now I have a bunch of fondue sticks to add to those at home. Then, just when we were unimpressed with the size of the fair, we stumbled upon the place where all the main action was taking place.

Yeah, bring on the chocolates, man!!



It was really great!! Not to mention packed with people. The festival showcased several chocolatiers, mainly from Switzerland and France, with free flow of clhocolate and fondue to taste. Too bad the chocolate pieces were so small.

There were one or two that tasted weird but overall, the chocolates were great!! It was delicious, marvelous, any other adjectives that one could use to describe that piece of cocoa heaven that melts in your mouth!! There were a couple of samples that were really able to send one to heaven. Sigh, unfortunately, I only have that much money to spend and a piece of heaven, no matter how small, still has a hefty price tag attached to it. Sorry guys, I can't bring back a piece of heaven for you, but no worries, I did manage to get chocolates. Hopefully it's enough for all of you...

Anyway, after the main attraction, there was not much left to see in the town, so we decided to stop by Geneva on our way back to do a little exploration. So off to Geneva we went.

We didn't really visit many places in Geneva, just a couple of destinations, the Patek Philippe Museum and the Jet d'Eau.

I loved the museum!! Or rather the pocket watches that were on display. Really, I'm not that into Patek Philippe's watches but their pocket watches are some of the most intricate and detailed master pieces I have ever seen. The details on the cover, the size of the watches, it all makes one marvel at their ability to craft such pieces! Imagine! being able to craft a pocket watch smaller than the size of a pea, in the 19th century (1800++)! It was most impressive! I've never spent so much time in a museum and not get totally bored at the end. Definitely worth a trip down for those who like such stuff!

Jet d'Eau, literally means water jet, is the most famous landmark of Geneva (or so wiki states, but honestly, I've never really heard of it... :-P But I think I remember seeing it on a brochure somewhere, so I guess it's pretty famous) What can I say about a water jet?.... It's nice, yes, but that's all. If you ask me it would be a huge waste of money to spend all that electricity to pump water that high for asthetic value. But well, thats just the pragmatist in me speaking. No offence to any one out there.








And look what I saw in the tourism office? Its the return of the Blue Cow!!

Additional pictures from the Olympus camera...

Hey! I finally bought some batteries for my camera!
You have no idea how much these cost here!! I only got them because they were for sale.
A pack of 16 AA for 14.90 instead of probably 20 plus francs. Its still way more expensive than what I would spend, but at least now I can use my camera instead of leaving it in the dorm when I go on excursions. I did buy rechargable batteries, but I think those got so litttle power that Olympus refuses to even start with them. Sigh, if I had known, I wouldn't have been a cheapskate and bought those expensive rechargables before I came...

Anyway, with batteries, I can finally upload the pictures that were in it. (Some stupid design that need batteries even when its plugged into the computer...)

There isn't many places covered, since I mainly shoot with my camera. Thus, only a couple of pictures from the school and the rest is from the Gruyeres trip where I borrowed batteries from my friend.

Pictures of my school campus. Taken on my first trip to school (2nd day of arrival)















Mural depicting a scene of a wall in Gruyeres castle (left)
Scene as seen from the castle (right)








The small town of Gruyeres (which is located ALL the way at the top of a hill...)























Clockwise from top left: The garden within the castle walls, one of the rooms in the castle, another room in the castle.

Its not that Olympus is a bad camera, it's just that it sucks away a lot of battery, I cannot use my rechargable batteries on it, and my shaky hands produce sucky results.
I honestly need a camera with anti shake detection capabilities...

To prove my point, I've deleted close to 30MB worth of pictures on my camera just because it's too blur to look at.

Yes, I'm a terrible photographer...

But oh!! Let me share with you my favourite picture from Gruyeres...




Nice huh?
Its a stained glass window of one of the rooms in the castle. It turned out great!!
It will be the desktop picture for my new ubuntu OS that I installed!!

Now I have 2 OS to play with, whoopie...

An exchange student's subsistence

Remember that I had mentioned there were 2 hypermarts here in Switzerland? One is Coop and the other is Migros?

They are my source of subsistence. Migros for its budget items and Coop for the variety.
But really, once you take a look into my food cupboard and fridge,you will know which hypermart I frequent...




See the big M behind the budget labels? It stands for Migros.
Migros' budget house brands are big and/or cheap and mostly for stuff that could be kept for some time.
Its not the tastiest (like the yougurt, mayo and mustard) but its cheap! and it fills my stomach on an exchange student's budget in an expensive country.

I went grocery shopping today and realised that all the stuff that I had bought were Migros' budget stuff... (except fot the pasta sauce, cos Migros doesn't have a budget for that)

Even my chewing gum is a huge pack that cost only 3 Fr. Not the best tasting ones, but at least I've got something to get rid of my dinner breath.

Now I'm waiting for the Migros budget pack on fresh meat. That might never happen though...

Oh yea, the Easter holidays are coming soon in about 2 weeks. I'll be going to France with some other singaporen friends!! Paris, Nice, Cannes, Marseille and Lyon on a 9 day whirlwind trip.
Expected to spend a bomb on it...

After some calculations on my expected expenditure, I might need to survive on just Migros' budget stuff for the remaining of my months...

Thin walls

Have I mentioned that the walls of my room is really thin?
I can hear what the people in the kitchen (2 rooms away) are doing if the raise their voices a little.
Right now, they are singing at the top of their lungs some italian song. Seems like they are having a smashing time. Oh yea, most of the people living here are italians, don't ask me why, but they are a nice bunch of people. They just like to have fun till a little too late into the night.

Oh yea, I just realised how thin the walls of my room are when my neighbour (who is an italian) sang along with the bunch outside while he was in the room.

I was suddenly very aware of the times where I crowed along to my ipod or whistled in my room... How they must be laughing in their jeans if they had heard me. I'll try not to die of embarassment the next time I meet them...

Ohmygawd math...

Today, I was having graph theory classes.

It was boring and confusing, as usual.

Suddenly, I heard "... ohmygod G is the number of connected components in G."

Ohmygod? Whats ohmygod G?

I looked up at the board (I was writing something) but I still couldn't find anything to suggest that the teacher was suddenly feeling pious.

Several moments later, it became clear...

"... so, k = ω(G)...."

its omega...

To borrow something from colloquial language, LOL!
I must be staring too hard into my notes...
Note to self: Pay attention to what the teacher is saying from time to time to avoid embarassing yourself by bursting out laughing at him...

Sigh, its stuff like that that makes my day. :-D

The medieval town of Gruyeres

Today's trip to Gruyeres was every bit worth the money and time I spent on the train, as well as the steep hill that I had to climb to get there. If I had said that I liked Bern, I loved Gruyeres.

Gruyeres (pronounced gRu-yeaRhr, yea its tricky...) is a town located in Fribourgh, a city just a stop away by train from Lausanne. A medieval town that dates back to the early 12th century, perhaps even earlier, it is probably best known for its pride, the cheese, Gruyere.

Besides the cheese, Gruyeres is also known for a tourist spot, mainly due to the Chateau de Gruyeres and the HR Giger Museum there. Most die-hard sci-fi fans would probably squeal at the mention of HR Giger, the noted creator of Alien. Alas, I''m not much of a sci-fi fan but more of a fantasy fan, so the Chateau was just to my liking. No wonder I love that place! A castle on top of the hill, surrounded by the huge mountains (a skiing destination) and the picturesque backdrop of unmelted snow, its a scene straight out of those Goodkind or Eddings books.

Let me gush on a little about the chateau... The castle is now a museum (like most of them are) but it also has exhibits of modern contempory art pieces (pictures that look straight out of some whimsical fantasy story. Again, I like...) and a photo exhibit of the nature arount Fribourgh. But, thats not all! Because it was once owned by a very rich man with some extremely talented artist friends, there are several rooms in the castle that are richly decorated and painted. In these rooms, colourful murals cover entire walls from ceiling to floor. It was simply breathtaking and I won't waste my breath describing something thatI can't show...
















I've actually got more pictures on the olympus camera (I borrowed batts from my friend) but because I don't have batteries now (I returned them), I can't show you more. But, this is not the only rooms with full-room murals. There are also rooms with elaborate tapestries and other stuff. Other than that, there are other things that I liked... Luckily, I took the photos on my phone, so here you go...













































After the tour of the castle, it was easily lunchtime. We are in Switzerland, the land of Heidi, expensive watches and delicious chocolates. But besides that, what else is Switzerland famous for, or more specifically, Gruyeres?? CHEESE!

Yes sires! And what is the most famous cheese dish in Switzerland? FONDUE!! But, besides that, we also have... RACLETTE!!!

Raclette is a way of eating cheese by melting it. It is not unlike a cheese fondue but the difference is you get a slab of cheese and place it under a heat source, scraping the hot and melted cheese off the slab and eating it straight on a piece of bread or potatoes.

One of the first things I had noticed when I stepped into Gruyeres was the signboard of restaurants for fondue and raclette. I was like telling my friend, "we SO have to try raclette". But then this raclette doesn't come cheap. Its 26 Fr.- a person. We can't share. So yea, I would have to eat homemade sandwiches for the next couple of weeks... But we are at Gruyeres, and its the first time I've seen raclette in Switzerland. Of course I had to try!

Like the fondue, it was an entire meal of cheese. We were just served a sizable chunk of cheese, some potatoes and a side dish of pickled cucumber and onions. I think 26Fr a person is not too bad, considering that a chunk of cheese that big can be pretty expensive.




























It was divine... A little plain, but it was very good. It was a little scary seeing the little puddle of oil there. Its not everyday that I eat such stuff anyway, so yea. You can see how much we've eaten! Just compare the before (second picture) and the after one (last picture)!

After the cheese, we went to the cheese factory to see how they made the cheese. Like a faithful tourist, I even bought a small slab of cheese that wasn't too expensive and took a picture with their resident cow that's standing infront of the toilets.















Oh yea, I bought meringue there too! It was reasonable and had that little gold stamp on it that said Swiss Bakery Trophy. Unable to resist, I bought and tried it. It was really good! None of the eggy smell that most meringues that I've tried have. Very crunchy and crumbly and yet it all melts in your mouth. Excellent stuff!

There were more things to check out in the neighbouring villages but by the time we were done with our stuff in Gruyeres, we had missed the previous train and the next would be in 30 mins. No choice but to wait then, since this place is so far from the city and the village that we wanted to go, Bulle, is a few kilometres away. But then, there wasn't much stuff there... It was Sunday and all the shops were closed. The museum that was supposed to be open there was strangely closed with no visible entrance. This meant an early ride home for me to write this blog after putting away my stuff and having dinner.

It had been a fun weekend, but its back to the books now... The next break that I have seem so far away... Sigh...

Bearish Bern

Bern, Bern. While it doesn't sound as nice as New York, New York, the place sure looks every inch as nice sounding as its name.

Today's Bern trip was mainly centred around the Old Town, which is the cultural and commercial heat of Switzerland's capital. It's very nice! I love the architecture there. The entire city looked like it was still in the 18th century but with a modern 21st century spin.

Most of the entire Old Town consist of short buildings, not more than 6 storeys. My buddy once told me the reason for the short buildings in general, but I kind of forgot... Anyway, the tallest building is the Chapter House (which unfortunately I did not visit). The building itself isn't tall, but a medium sized building among short ones make it seem like a giant. I've only seen it from afar, but it did look pretty impressive.

We started off at the train station, then, following the map, we found ourselves at a Flea Market outside the City Hall. The flea market had more stuff than the one at Riponne, I think. There were the usual cheese, meat, vegetable and bread stalls but the proportion of the variety sold were more equal than at Riponne. One would think that Riponne specialises in meat and vegetables or something... In Bern, the flea market sold cute stuff, stuffed animals, herbs, mixes, clothes that looked decent and expensive (hoo boy, are they expensive!)...
A stall selling cute stuffed animals...
A stall selling a HUGE variety of herbs and spices

Some of his wares...
Seriously, when I was at this stall, I thought something was decaying... Turns out that it was just the cheese... And they said durian stunk...

Anyway, I came across some stalls selling pickled stuff and those specialty german bread (did I mention tht Bern is in the german part of Switzerland?). I tried one of those german bread and they were pretty good. little not used to the taste of their spices but not altogether unpleasant. Pity that at 12 Fr a loaf, I didn't have the heart to buy one. Maybe a smaller and cheaper one next time...

However, I did buy some pickled olives! It's those type that are stuffed with things and marinated in oil. It wasn't cheap (at least for me)... I bought a small packet of about 100g and it cost me 3.60 Fr. Just to try anyway. I think it would go well with the ham and bread that I bought. haha....

Bern has many fountains. Each fountain has a statue of sorts on it. There is one ogre one, one musketeer one, one of a lady, one of the bible's Samson and, my favourite one of all, that of the justice, the blindfolded lady with a sword and a pair of scales.

Ok, pictures speak better than me, so I'll just give you a picture tour of what I had seen...
The City Hall, seat of power of the Swiss government.














Seriously, the reminders for easter are just everywhere! The choc Bunnies and eggs are just so elaborate!















The Swiss really REALLY like their meat and bread... MANY shops specialising on only bread or meat...










































Fountain with a knight (the musketeer I think) and that with justice.



This is the clock tower, a close and far shot of the clock tower...
A visit to Einstein's house. Do you know that Einstein came up with his Theory of Relativity when he was only 26!! No one would doubt that he is true blue physicist. The outline of his house was drawn with greek letters to represent rooms.... Look closer and you can see that lamda is for nothing (the middle)... I don't think german has these letters right...

I went to several other places and took more photos. But I really lament the fact that the stupid Olympus sucks soo much battery and that the phone camera sometimes give shitty results. Sigh, I can't stand blury pictures so there's no point keeping them. These are about most of my well-taken pictures...

I'm so gonna buy proper batteries for the olympus tomorrow. Batteries are relly expensive here, about 12Fr for a pack of 6, about 2.5 times more ex than that in Singapore... Should have brought a whole 12 pack here when I came...

Next up: Gruyeres.
My friend and I decided that it might not be the best season to see Interlaken (and its expensive to go there...) so we settled on a place that's closer to Lausanne, which is Gruyeres.

I'll tell you more about it when I get back tomorrow, IF I'm not too tired to give you such a lengthy account...