room

So this is the result of around 10 days of looking for an appartment in Zurich:


Well, don't laugh, besides a pink toilet the deal includes a very calm room facing to a very calm backyard.



Indeed, it's a really cool place, newly renovated, in the heart of the city (Niederdorf), 2min. from the main railways station - and a bit more than 5min. by tram to my working place.

holiday plans

The GR20 on Corse will probably take too long for now, also several people indicated that it'll be pretty tough with all the snow on it - probably. So I figure I won't take the chance as I'll be hiking on my own.

So I decided to maybe go for Mallorca - ..... - Mallorca?


No, not exactly. My plans are more along the lines of flying into Palma for cheap and then escape anything that sounds or looks German in a second.



As Marc told me, the GR221 which runs over the isle is really beautiful and also not as high (max. 1400 meters), so there won't be snow I guess and climate should be nice. But I'm still open for other ideas if you have suggestions...

Roomsearch part V

Oh well, my life is not very exciting at the moment. standard procedure: admin stuff in the morning, roomsearch in the afternoon, pack bike into car, drive to Zurich around 4pm, arrive at 5pm, visit appartments for rent till 8pm, return to Basel.

My backup plan now is to keep searching till Friday, then simply go for a temporary room for 2-3month and search when I've started working in Zurich. Might be easier with working permit and everything in place. But hopefully something nice works out this week already.

Yesterday my all-time favorite apt was due to be inspected, it's very central, calm, own balcony, sunny, rooftop terrasse, new kitchen & bath, wooden floor, what have you. Figure people would kill for this apt. Anyways, the way it actually will go is this: one of the 50 applicatints will be a native swiss female cleric with a salary of 15`000 CHF per month, no animals, not playing an instrument. She will be the future tenant, I figure.

So long.

Roomsearch part IV (relaxed!)

Sometimes I am reminded that you can do the exactly same thing in different ways: creatively or letting yourself be pushed around.

I already felt slightly stressed when only thinking about finding an appartment in Zurich, so I decided I had to find an approach that would add some positive vibes to it. So I put together the list of all appartments with inspection dates next week and packed my bike in the back of my car.

And indeed, compared to the hectic of driving around in Zurich with a car, pedaling along with a bike is pure pleasure. You don't have to follow insanely constructed one-way streets that lead you anywhere but not where you want, nobody honks at you because you're looking for an adress, no problems with parking in front of the houses ...

Anyway, my first house - the only where a inspection was due yesterday - was in a side street of Langestrasse. First I was deligthed: quite, wooden floor, right in the centre. Then some minus points appeared: only two rooms, kitchen very old, no dishwasher, direct neighbourhood with around 3 sexshops ... - but in summary it'S a lively quarter with "normal" restaurants around, not dodgy.

So I'm really thinking about applying, it's only 5 min per tram from where I work. Also the real estate agent managed to work out a semi-smile when I mentioned that I work for a bank and do not plan to establish a community living in the apt, so my chance among the 30 applicants might be pretty good.

Now for the nice part: cycling around I found a really cool neighbourhood restaurant "Bei Babette" in Bertastr., on the right hand side shortly after coming off Badenerstr.


They have really good custom-beer and it's just a very nice place to waste your saturday afternoon reading, chatting or just thinking about the world in general...

Roomsearch Part III

So, cancelled going to Ticino this weekend because I figure all those lazy competitors for appartments might take the weekend off and maybe chances are better to conquer a target this way. Based on my language you might infer that looking for a room in Zurich is not fun, indeed it's war disguised with a smile.

So here's one of my No1 objects currently, it'S around 55 square meters and very central and based on the street it should also be calm, wish me luck ...



And of course, if you have any ideas on finding a flat in Zurich, LET ME KNOW!!!

Room in Zurich / Rote Fabrik / Trois Pommes Factory outlet

Yesterday I had my first go checking out rooms in Zurich. I figure it's gonna be tough. Not that the appartments were bad, but out of the three there wasn't really one that I totally liked - plus in each there were around 5 other visitors that checked it out only in the 5 minutes when Eva and I were there...

But from my first impression I gonna primarily focus on Wollishofen, it's pretty green there, close to the lake, and still pretty close to the city.

After we checked out a room there we went to the "Rote Fabrik" to get some dinner. It's a old production site with studios, exhibition areas, concert space etc., but also with a really nice bar / restaurant, directly at the lake. As we had seats right at the window we had a faboulous lake view in the evening and food was really good and not pricey at all. Also it's a really lively location, people discussing, laughing, reading, working, playing, everything... - cool atmosphere. Also they have a big outer area right at the lake, should be really good in summertime.

If you go there don't forget to check out the Trois-Pommes factory outlet which is almost in the direct neighbourhood just some blocks away if you follow the road down the lake southwards, also on the left-hand side like the "rote Fabrik. But be warned: as the have Gucci and Prada and the like, even the checkout is not exactly cheap, but there might be a good deal if you're lucky.

pasta siciliana

Yesterday we had one of the best pastas I had for month -- surprisingly, it doesn't even take as long as the spaghetti need to become al dente to prepare the sauce!

Here's the receipt (4 persons): 500g spagehtti or whatever noodles you like (take deCecco, thei're the best), 350g really fresh and tasty tomatos, some fresh basil (basilikum), 3 (or as much as you can handle..) garlics (Knoblauch), 80g almonds (Mandeln) without shell, some of the best olive oil you can get (2 big spoons) plus black pepper.

Heat up water and start preparing the sauce: cut tomatos small, (keep some aside to add later), put garlic and almonds in a mixer, mix, then add tomtatos and basil and oil and pepper and mix some more. for my part I would leave some almonds and tomatos aside, cut them only with a knive, and afterwards add it again to the mixed part, so that you have some bigger chunks in the sauce as well. so much for the sauce - wait for the noodles to be ready and then mix it with the sauce and serve. delicious.

more receipts in :

room in zurich

Finding an appartment in Zurich is quite a task I guess. At least that's the impression I got after one day of scrambling through different homepages, mailingslists and writing various mails to friends and business contacts.

My favorite is 3 Minutes by foot from my working place, right in the city centre, still with a quite reasonable price for Zurich standards. The inspection date is next week on Wednesday. As the lady on the phone already told me that there will be quite a crowd around I figure it will be more an inspection of aspirants than of the flat itself. Maybe I should bring along some roses and champagne to cheer up the broker? We'll see.

Anyways, if anybody has ideas or even some place to rent out in Zurich I'll be more than happy to be contacted via a comment below this post. Basically I am looking for 2-3 rooms, close to Paradplatz, which in my terms means not further away than 15min with public transport.

But now for my real-favorite housing object on Zurich lake:


only three minor problems with this appartment
- it's not in Zurich but in Meilen
- it's already taken
- it would probably cost me the equivalent of 15 years of future wage, if everything goes smoothly, that is.

jobsearch & breaks

I'm in the middle or rather at the end of looking for a job, which went pretty good except that now is the time to chose which is rather hard. I'll post results as soon as I made my mind up. Anyways, chances are that I will start working beginning of June in Zurich, hurray!

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If you also need to procrastinate, check out the site of the breakin convention, I highly reccommend to launch the streaming player (banner on the lower right hand side of the page) and check out some performances, e.g. "Frank II Louise". Or check out this guy here, Frank Ejara...

big hike holidays - GR20 Corse

If everything goes well, what I expect, I'm going to start working in June, which leaves some time to relax in May.

I'm not quite sure where to go and what to do, but one idea I like a lot is the plan to go on a big hike in mid may. So I was reminded that Marius, a friend of mine, told me about the GR20 (Grand Randonnée 20) some time ago. It's a trail circling the isle of Korsika in around 15 days, and I'm confident that there's some room for speeding up that time from what I read.


Here's some ressources I checked on the net:
- Abenteuer Korsika
- GR20 Tagebuch

What I'm not quite positive about is whether the season is already right for doing it, my main concern is snow as a lot of the track is around 2000 meters, and some parts even above, with the highest peak on the island being at 2700 meters. Experiencing snow in the Ticino last year in May/June I can tell that it's partly funny but also very exhausting if longer stretches are covered with deep snow, and north faces can be covered in snow pretty long.Also probably a lot of food will have to be carried, as some huts might only be open in the main season for the trail starting in June.

Thus I would appreciate any hints on how weather, snow and everything is like in Korsika/Corse currently. Maybe you know somebody who lives there or something, that would be cool.



On the other hand, maybe you have different cool ideas for a short two week break somewhere else in the world???

UPDATE: STephan on the Globetrotter board told me that the GR20 is completely free of snow currently. Only the hut wardens won't be there yet, so it sounds like a lot of stuff to carry around, incl. gas (this makes for few boxer-shorts... - but hey, it doesnt look like anybody is up to joining me anyways.. ; )

Baselworld

Baselworld, the international jewlery and watch show is coming to an end today. From what I've heard, it was pretty impressive. For my part I was kind of reluctant to spend 45CHF entry fee to check out stuff I cannot afford (yet...).

The main afterparty spot was the area around the Acqua, remodelled as "Baselworld Village". I finally made it there yesterday evening, which was also the last chance as it was the last day. I can only say that Simon Lutz really has it. After pulling of Acqua and Baracca Zermatt, this is taking it to the next level. Regarding Basel nightlife I would say they're well ahead 2 or 3 years compared to the other locations in terms of concept and execution.



The village was using the whole area around Kuppel and Acqua, with lot's of possibilities to chill and very nice details like flowers, a huge fireplace etc. Some impressions below.

But the best part was the VIP lounge, where luckily the colleague of mine I went with had an entry card. This meant beer for free the whole evening and a stunning live performance of a very nice brasilian singer. Way to go...- looking forward to next year.


Check out the gallery for more pics of the village.

weekend & cool knowledge

Wow, not much time for an update. I'm all in the midde of my application process after I finished the last bit of my MSc studies. Also I'm struggling with my allergy against pollen , think you call it hay fewer in english. so that's the reason i'll escape to the mountains tomorrow (well, there are other reasons as well.. )

Anyways, here's some feeding for your browser, somewhat grouped around the topic "cool knowledge":

dropping knowledge - cool project
howstuffworks - anything you never knew about the world..
covers project - knocking on heavens door is originally from ? right, Bob Dylan. and it was covered by? Grateful death, Leningrad cowboys...
international movie database - okay, I mentioned it some posts ago, but it just belongs in this list

have a nice weekend...

happy easter!

how can you tell that it's easter? rabbits get long ears.. ; )


so let's play a easter game -- the first person who can tell me where this rabbit was spotted gets a chocolate rabbit ...

Finally update again..

Wow, I don't feel too good about not posting for 10 days or so.

Well, gonna try to catch up with what happend from then to now. First things first I went skiing on Sunday and monday (25./26. March) in Engelberg. It was incredible. Sweet pow-pow at its best. Make sure to check out the new GALLERY. yes, HERE !!!




Then some more skiing on Wednesday at Schilthorn, but it was kind of disappointing compared to the glorious two days at the beginning of the week. So Tobi and I spend most of the time eating and drinking in the sunshine, but still checked out one new line which sure will come in niceley when there's better snow (well, next season..)

Then, from Friday to Monday I was in Prague with Eva. So that's a bigger thing. I'll put up a gallery and some text and some tourist tipps a.s.a.p. ...

birthday

Mh, somehow it's a shame to work on birthdays, but well, weather looks better starting from tomorrow, so I figured working today and having some more time next week for alle the powder on the mountains makes sense...

Anyways, gonna be off for the next days till probably mid of next week, so do not expect much news on this blog up to end of next week..

In case you're hungry for input why not check out those pages here:
Velowunder ; Dilbert blog ; chuchichaeschtli

And here's a really amazing page which I discovered some time ago. For me, it's the best visualization of time i've ever seen:
family history in pictures

2nd wintertime

Wow, wintertime is gaining ground massively. Finally some heavy snow again, up to 1 meter of fresh, in some places probably more than the rest of wintertime alltogether. Looking forward to a long freeriding & skitouring season up to beginning of May...

Forest in Inzlingen, nicely powdered

Bern & Thun

First thing I saw when coming out of the Trainerzonesports in Bern after getting my skiing boots yesterday was Batman and Obelix..


Afterwards I took the chance to meet Werner, a study college of mine, who lives in Thun. I was really surprised, what a nice city Thun is. They not only have castles, the lake ...


.. and stunning views on the surrounding mountains including Eiger, Mönch and Jungrau..


but also a really nice inner part of the city with old buildings and stuff. Really worth a visit. In addtion, they also have heaps of restaurants, e.g. the italian Primavera, where I had really good homemade pasta (Torfie Caruso.. mh..). Afterwards we went to the Schmiedstube, really cosy place to get some tea or beers..


So definitley worth a visit.

masterthesis: done

My master thesis if finally out. the magical moment was on monday 29. january, I guess I will remember this day for quite a while.

Now I'm looking forward to a nice break including skiing and some travelling before I start working sometime in April. So right now I'm in the process of wrapping up my stuff at university and checking where to apply for a cool job.