Swiss Charity Shopping

On Tuesday afternoon Chelsea and I went to a massive second hand, charity shop, thrift store not far from my house.  It was good fun finding a few gems amongst the thousands of items there, so I thought I would share it with you.  We picked out furniture and plates we wanted for our own imaginary homes, tried on some glorious dresses and raided the books in the English section of the warehouse.

This is just part of the top floor.......

I am tempted to go back for this beaut......

Rocking the 70's look.............

My love for mustard made me try this on and the buying it too......

Gorgeous books...if only they went German......

A rug for my imaginary home.....

After our little bit of shopping, because yes we both bought some cloths and books, we chilled out at mine.  Watching 'Pretty in Pink' and eating cake was a nice way to end our afternoon!

Scoffing it all in one...............

It's the simple things that are the best!

Feeling The Beat

The summer is here (when the rain decides it isn't going to pour every other week and with that brings the music festival season.  The festivals may not be the amazing ones that are produced in England, but there is still live MUSIC!!!

Caroline and Manu (my host parent's) got themselves tickets for the Carabana music festival in Nyon, held by the lake.  They have been going to it for a couple of years running now and really enjoy it.  This year though they didn't just get tickets for themselves, but me and friend too!  How amazing is that!?  They even paid for a babysitter to look after the boys while we were all out!  So last week on Thursday Caroline, Manu, Chelsea and I bundled into a car together excited for a night of live music.  It was evidently going to be a wet night with the rain that was tipping it down on us as we got into the car to drive to Nyon.

I love live music, going to gigs and feeling the music pump right through you.  There were a few different people playing from various country's.  We saw a French band called 'Revolver', they had a bit of a country feel to them, Chelsea and I were rather liking them.  'Kasabian' were great live and we got right up front.  The rain did continually pour harder and harder through the whole set, but it was all good even if though I was so wet that despite wearing a raincoat my underwear was soaked!  We watched a bit of 'Marina and the Diamonds', but the music was a bit of a drag after been so pumped from Kasabian.  We decided that our stomachs needs were more importunate and got some food.  Last of all as midnight was round the corner we got up front in the crowd again to see 'Gorillaz Sound System'.  They completely blew me away, I didn't have any expectations for their set, but it was mine and Chelsea's favorite part of the night!  They were just amazing beating away at their drums and getting the crowd spirits high.  Loved it!!

Before the rain poured.........

Welcome to the fest..............

Revlover, the French band...........

Kasabian...............................

Soaked through....................

Taking a break for waffles........

If there was no mud at a music festival it wouldn't feel right......

Gorrilaz Sound System.......

The lights were that bright..........

Saying goodbye just as Gorillaz does their own rendition of ABC....

It was a flipping great night, I was on a high for ages after that!  A big THANK YOU has to be said to Caroline and Manu!!!

One Of The Family

A couple of weekends ago I spent time with my host family rather then visiting various places across Switzerland.  It was nice to actually spend time with them as one of the family, just joining in with whatever they did.

Raphael had a rugby tournament an hour away from here in France on the Saturday.  We all drove through the beautiful Jura mountain landscape to the open field full of children sweating in the over 30 degree sun!  I was flipping HOT!!!  Despite the heat we had a good time cheering Raph on in his matches while we had a little picnic.  His team came second!  Whoop whoop!

Raph running with the ball........

Tackle.....................................

The day ended with a big BBQ by Manu (because he has been knighted the BBQ king) with a couple of the other parents and their kids who were at the Rugby tournament.  It was delious!!!


The weekend ended with a chilled out Sunday eating more glorious food...this house hold LOVES food!  Manu's parents came round for the afternoon, so I got to meet them too.

All in all I nice relaxed weekend!

Hiking in the Swiss Mountains

About three weeks ago I got a last minute place on a 'Link Au Pair' weekend trip to a Switzerland national park called Interlaken, with Chelsea and Alison too!  Alison and I slept over at Chelsea's on the Friday night so we could have the early morning 30 minute drive together, to join the 50 or so other Au Pairs at our meeting point in Nyon.  Everyone got in their places on the coach ready for a 2 hour drive of reading, sleeping and non-stop excited talking as the sun burned bright in the sky.  The plan for the next 2 days was rather relaxed.  Saturday was for us to do with what we wished.  You could do any number of adventures sports, explore the town, get some extra hiking in or anything else that you could think of.  On Sunday Becky and Paul (who are the wonderful organisers of all our 'Link' trips) had planned a hike for us in the mountains of Oberland, going through a village called Gimmelwald on the mountainside.  After our hike on Sunday we would all gather up again on the coach to be driven back to Nyon, where we could find our own ways home again.

Everyone gathered in the hostel..........

It has to be said that this is the poshest hostel I have seen (complete with Swiss St.Bernard dog that we named Master B...Bates....the name just kept evolving).......

Chelsea, Alison and myself decided to explore the town of Interlaken, and find the lake while we take in the sun as.  We did want to try and find some cannoning or kayaking to do, but we never found somewhere to sign up for it the end.  That didn't matter though as we had a really nice afternoon walking and chatting in the sun.  I even got burnt, through my top!  Silly English Skin!  We ended the day with pizza in the gardens of the hostel and winding down in our room listen to music and just being a bit weird!

Chelsea, Alison wounder into the heart of the town......

The field of landing paraglider's.........

The girls have to have their coffee stop.........

Someplace a little pretty...............

 Chelsea getting a breeze from the river............

Walk by the river to find the lake............

The lake.......................

Shout out to the amazing Maester Chester Miester Ferrari backpack......

 

Dinner on the deck.........

Sunday morning we all got ready for our hike in the mountains.  About 20 people went on a extreme caving trip for the day, while the rest of us gathered in the coach which would take us further into the base of the mountain area.  We did cheat the hike a bit by first taking a cable car up the mountain to give ourselves a head start on the big up hill part, hahaha!  We walked up and down paths that wound around the edge of the mountain we were on.  We walked through a couple of villages, that by law have been kept the exactly the same for the last 200 years.  Our route took us in a U shape around from one mountain face to another as we started to descend into the valley below us, which we walked through back into the town at the end of valley that had our couch waiting for us at the end of the day.  This is possibly one of the best days that I have spent in Switzerland.  It was great to be in the beautiful outdoors, walking amongst these huge gorgeous mountains topped in snow, with waterfalls running down their sides.

Welcome to the beauty of of our hike.......

 

Little wooden houses on the mountainside...............

The best view from a hostel?  I think so.....

Our picnic lunch stop........

A couple of the many cows we passed..........

Mooooooooooooooooo...........

Flowers, wooden houses and waterfalls.........

 Fast flowing rivers...................

The valley below.......................

I can't get enough of the views here........

A paddock of cows....................

I now have a book full of Swiss wild flowers.........

 The mountain map...........

The valley..............................

I wanted to take these wildflower meadows home.......

Waterfalls................................

Group photo at the end of the day with Paul and Becky up front......

The silent journey home of the exhausted........

My favorite part of the hike was walking through this huge valley full of the most gorgeous Swiss wild flower meadows, with little huts dotted here and there in the middle of them.  The sounds of the valley were amazing to hear!  A breeze coming off the mountains whistled past you as waterfalls splashed against the rocky surface of the mountains that surrounded the valley, while bells tied around herds of cows necks rang throughout.  If there is one place to witness in Switzerland, this has to be it!

Lebewohl

A Change of Mind

I know that I have a couple of over due writings about my little adventures to document on here, but I have to officially document something else first!

I am staying in Switzerland for almost another whole year!

When I originally came to France/Switzerland last August I had a ticket to go back home 10 months later in June, which happens to be in a week from now.  It also happens that I am actually going back to good old England this time next week anyway, but only for a few days for the beautiful Natalie Hawkins wedding!  When I moved when to my 'new' family in November last year they asked if I would stay till August, because they needed some help still through the summer.  I was happy to stay a bit longer, making my stay here come to a nice round year.  My family (all 12 of them) have also planned to come pick me up at the end of my time in August, which is a good excuse to rent a chalet in France and have a little holiday together!  I would have then been home for good to finally face making a real decision about what I would do for the next year.  I had already planned to find a job, volunteer with the National Trust and find a university course that I could start in September 2013.  However my host family had said a few times that I was welcome to stay longer with them working as their Au Pair, but I felt I would be ready to go home in August.

Well a few weeks ago Caroline, Manu and I were sat down at dinner finalising a few details about my Swiss work permit, because I now get paid a little more, whoop whoop! Yes, 8 months later the permit still hasn't been finished and sent out yet.  I thought the Swiss were supposed to be swish at this kind of stuff!?  At the same time Caroline and Manu wanted to give me an 'official' offer to stay longer.  They made it clear that they didn't want to put any pressure on me at all to make a decision, and completely support me in what ever plans I want to make for the future, but they would like me to stay longer if I was up for it.  They really like me and love me being here (I'm not trying to big myself up, promise!  Their words, so I have to go with them, right?!  Haha!).  They like how I am with the boys, and that the boys like me.  We all fit together as a family, which is really nice and rather rare when it comes to Au Pairs and their host family's here.  I feel comfortable being in their home, which feels like my home too, and they are comfortable with having a 22 year old haunt their basement and look after their boys!  So really it feels that it is a great situation all round!

They want to give me the same deal I have now with my own bedroom and bathroom, plus all food paid for and access to a car.  I still get a prepaid phone, weekends and evenings off and all the usual holidays that I have been able to have in the last year.  They are going to pay for a flight to England and back at Christmas again.  I will have practically a whole month off in the summer to go home and get my fill of my beloved England.  They will very generously pay for another round of French lessons, or another class that I might like to take that would benefit my future studies, painting, drawing etc.  On top of all that though they are going to give me a 30% pay increase!  Bonus!!!  It's an offer I can't refuse, clearly!

It wasn't that easy to decide to take them up on the offer though.  I had a good think about what my options were for the next year and decided that if I were to stay for a few extra months it would all fit into my original plan very well!  So rather then go home in the middle of the summer, with no job prospects and volunteering opportunities at the National Trust starting to wined down for that season, it would more prudent for me to stay here where I do have a job (with opportunities to save) and work through the autumn and winter.  I can visit university's when I am home in the holidays and apply for courses from over sea's.  My host family will be very flexible when it come to any interviews I may have to go home for.  When I do go home for good around April/Easter time the new volunteer season with the National Trust will be up and running, so I can work with them until I go to University (or any other plan that may have cropped up if that isn't the path for me to take).  Everything fit's in rather nicely!

Obviously I would absolutely love to go home for good in August, I do love my home and miss all my family and friends!  Staying longer will just make it so much better when I do eventually go home, right?!

This is the new plan, by the end of my travels out here I will have been here for over a year and a half!

Good luck to me!!!   Hahaha!

Das ist gut!

A couple of weekends ago I had an extra looooong weekend to fill with some little adventures!!  Whoop Whoop!  Chelsea, Allison and Myself had a lot of ideas of where to go, but in the end it was decided to go the place where the least amount of rain was expected...the beautiful city of Luzern.

My first extra day off, on Thursday, was spent partly doing some extra babysitting.  The evening was better though as I hung out with Chelsea.  We ate spag bowl and watched a weird German film, in German.  When the ending of the German film was played out we realised we had been way off the plot!  It was hilarious for us and provided great laughs for the whole weekend!  Haha...you'll have to ask me if you want to know more about that one!  Chelsea was staying at mine that night so with time to kill we went to the cinema to see 'Moonrise Kingdom'.  It is amazingly kookie...Ralph, watch it!

"Jiminy Cricket! (We) flew the coop (Friday morning to get Allison)!", sorry I couldn't help myself!  Once the three on us (and bags, food and tent) were surprisingly comfortably in Chelsea's little blue Twingo we hit the road.  Our stop on route to Luzern was in Bern, the Capital of Switzerland.

The beautiful blue river..................

We needed food first for some energy to get around the city.  Trying to find something to eat amongst the self-serve restaurant of a Swiss/German speaking COOP was a little hard....appetite not quite satisfied after all!  Chelsea finally fulfilling here craving for something chocolatey was left disappointed too, so we thought of other chocolate cakes she could be eating.  We had more than enough fun coming up with this.......

Beautiful Barley Burnt Baked Brown Bubbly Bitter Bruised Brulee Banana Blueberry Bern Burly Buff Barking Bashful Beastly Baby Bear Bunt Birthday Cake Named Bob.

No judging please!

Mushy chocolate cake.................

We walked around the city a little heading for the bears of Bern (which I missed last time that I was there because they were already tucked up in bed).  We then continued exploring the city as we headed back in the direction of our parked car so we would be in Luzern to get into a campsite.

Rooftops of Bern..............

We found our way to the bear sanctuary and were very happy to see that the bears were out in the open for us to see!

A (very bored looking, but REAL) Bern bear.......

Cubs avec moi, just to prove to Ashley that I wasn't lying........

Chelsea and Alison.....................

Refuge from the rain in the cathedral..........

National pride.........................

My favorite star Swiss clock...............

A little stop at Lush (check it out Izzy!)...........

Back on the road to Luzern...........

We arrived at our campsite in the early hours of the evening, which was right on the edge of the city.  The campsite was close enough for us to be able to take a nice walk around the edge of the lake into the city each day.

For our first evening in Luzern we ventured into the city center to do a little exploring and find some food!  First of all our lake side walk into the city is stunning!  With a view of the surrounding mountains on one side of the lake (which is covered in sailing boats) and the old historic city on the other side it is the most beautiful city in Switzerland. Once we found food though we settled on a bench that looked onto the lake with the setting sun to eat our supermarket spoils.  To top that though there was a brass band playing in a near by pavilion giving us some evening entertainment.  We did sit with the gathering crowd by the pavilion after we ate to watch the brass band for a while.  There was also this little old man dancing back and forth to the brass band on one side of us, and a load of people playing a balls game on the other side.  It was a lovely picturesque, chilled out evening meandering around the edge of the most beautiful part of the city.  We even saw a wedding (not the last one of the weekend) on our way back to the campsite setting off lanterns (Tangled style) into the night sky.

Setting up camp................

Walking through a park, around the lake.............

The lake in Luzern..............

One on the many art works around the lake.......

A gorgeous evening..................

The walkway of trees...........

 Park side dinner............

Luzern's own brass band.........

Cool blues...................

Lanterns....................................

All snug as bugs for the night.......

Welcome to day two of the trip...........

After waking up the next day with a bit of a stiff back we got ready for a full day of exploring the city on foot.  We visited the Picasso museum, which had a collection of his work put on display by two of his close friends, amongst other exhibits from other very interesting artists.  My rather most exciting discovery of the day was walking through the (now named by myself) 'Harry Potter Bridge'.  I swear this bridge must have been used as inspiration for the old crooked bridge in the Harry Potter films.  The one that gets blown up by Neville at the end?  I hope that I am not the only one who sees this!  We also walked along the city wall fortress and up one of the towers to get a good view.  We needed our day watching the sun set in the park.  Yu have to see everything through photos now though!

First stop...coffee for the girls.........

Searching, searching................

The Sammlung Rosengart (Picasso) Museum.....

Lunch in a quite corner..............

The Harry Potter Bridge...........

Bridge views.................

You have to have proof that you have been there........

Story's on the rooftops.............

Clear river's...........................

The wall..................................

Luzern............................

The blue man had to be documented........

Loving the sail boats.............

Taking in the sun.........

Watching the sun set.........

Our duck friends Sam and Suzy............

Chelsea, moi and Alison............

Killing time with cards..........

Glad to put the tent away, but sad to know that our last day was upon us we walked back into the city one last time to see what we could do.  With the sun shinning we bought some food for a little picnic which we hoped to enjoy on the water.  We had made it our mission to find some pedalos, which we eventually did hiding behind some big boat.

First time in a pedalo boat........

Alison cruising in the back.......

Chelsea up front....................

Out on the lake.................

With our glorious boat trip at an end we headed back to the car and said farewell to Luzern as we got back on the road to find our way home again.  We decided to break up our journey by stopping in a little village that has produced the famous holey cheese of Switzerland...Emmentaler...or just Elemental cheese to us!  Or course I had to have some cheese!!!  It was very strong stuff, but the ice cream made by the same Emmentaler cows was much nicer!  I have to say that driving through this area of Switzerland was lovely.  We were surrounded by rolling green hills and fields or cows with farms scattered here and there.

The Swiss countryside............

Willkommen..................

Say CHEESE.................

Emmentaler Ice cream and cheese.......

The music box man serenading us as we ate.........

 The beautiful Emmentaler countryside.......

Walking off the beaten tourist track.........

Taking in the view lady's...........

After our stop in Emmentaler we drove up and down through the green back roads of the countryside till we got to the main road again.  Still not wanting to end our little trip yet though, we ended up going to Lousaine for dinner at Valentine's (Chelsea's friend).  We had a really nice time with V's family, practicing French again after our long weekend of Swiss German.  the time came when we really did have to come back to reality and go to our various homes (and bed's that would feel absolutely delightful that night!).

I had a great weekend with Chelsea and Alison seeing the bears in Bern and exploring the most beautiful Swiss city of Luzern.  I did however especially and enjoy seeing the Swiss countryside!

Das really ist gut!