Solothurn 16.02

As part of orientation week for exchange students we had a day trip to Solothurn. Only a 30-40 minute train ride from the Bern Hauptbahnhof will get you to this small and quaint town. So far, I have to say that this is my favourite town in Switzerland, of course I have yet to discover more but what I really liked was its size, the colourful buildings and windows, small shops and the fresh farmers markets. Everything seemed so magical. I think I'm also starting to become more familiar with my 20mm 2.8 Lens.

We actually had loads of free time, around 3 hours? But we were so tired that we actually had a nap session in the dining area. It must've been a funny sight - a bunch of exchange students sitting in sofas in a circle napping. I wish I could've explored the city in more detail but truly my energy levels weren't up for it. I will definitely visit again and go wild at the markets :)

There are many department stores in Switzerland which have a buffet style dining area at the top level. The variety of food is absolutely amazing and the way everything is set up is really beautiful! Prices are decent for Swiss standards but still hurts the student's wallet (particularly if you pile up). I ended up just getting this small plate of roasted potatoes, vegetables, white asparagus, semolina balls I think? and some absolutely amazing garlicky tomato beans thing. It ended up being 8.50 CHF, small but I suppose it was a hearty meal.

Brunch 19.02

Yoghurt was never really friendly to my stomach, when I became vegan I wasn't so much a fan of soy yoghurt either. Here in Switzerland, thankfully I have found soymilk but not only that - they also have soy yoghurt here too! So I gave it a shot and my my, it is amazing. I have the option of 3 flavours, plain, fruit & muesli and mango. I've only tried the latter two but it's delicious and makes a good snack - especially when I'm feeling a little lazy. There's a tutti frutti kind of taste to it but I like it.

 

I also have a habit of premaking some food to eat over the next days. It's common that I make a lentil/bean ratatouille type thing. I had a bunch of leftover vegetables that needed to be cooked so this was perfect. It's easy to make, warm it up and put it on toast. Voila you have breakfast... well more like brunch. 

   

Recently discovered these 'breakfast' bars that are chocolate covered. I don't usually eat these in Sydney but they are really nice here! So chewy but probably not so healthy. They're not vegan because of the milk powder in the chocolate but it's really tough avoiding the milk in the chocolate here.

Bern I

A walk through the city and beyond

Day 2

Treated myself to hearty meals on my first morning & arvo in my new home. Truly enjoying the freedom to cook pretty much whenever & whatever, and making use of that oven :)

Roasted Tomatoes, Kidney beans, Sauteed Mushrooms and Toast

Roasted Potatoes, Salad with croutons, Oranges

Some interesting chemical reaction happened with the garlic, lemon and baking tin

Plane Food 01.02

Food on board with Emirates :) with the veg options of course.

Vegetarian: Chickpeas, mash, peas, salad, & brownie.

Vegan Breakfast/Lunch (can't remember) sandwich bread with this really nice lentil/mushroom/capsicum thing, mysterious white thing (which I later find at the Swiss supermarket) and Fruit Salad.

Vegan: Curry with rice noodles, bean salad, & crumble thing.

This was Christine's lunch option which was pretty much veg! Lebanese style breakfast.

Schwarzenburg Guggisberg

Again another day I forgot to bring my camera. We went on a class trip to Schwarzenburg/Guggisberg to visit a museum on Vreneli from Guggisberg. My lack of German unfortunately couldn't quite clarify whether the story was a Swiss folk tale or based on a true story - it was definitely a classic folk song though. In any case the museum had a set up of her room, the kitchen and bunch of historical facts. It was truly cold I could feel my feet freezing up. The views were absolutely amazing in this small village and we were all given some apple tart and a hot drink :) I have also discovered that there is a lack of 'Mocha' here; it is either hot chocolate or coffee, never both together. Hot chocolate was actually just a cup of foamed up milk and a sachet of chocolate powder, but I can't complain since the apple cake was delightful (and we didn't even have to pay a cent!). I can also confirm that I really can't drink milk - I could only get through half of the cup before I started feeling a little queasy.

Photo by Lena Kilchitskaya 

Highlight of the day would probably be the snowball fight we had there after initiated by of course the playful Setareh who smooshed a whole bunch of snow all over me. Of course we decided on a truce then formed an alliance to attack the others. Can't remember what went on here but it certainly looked really suss. It was hilarious and without fail Saki went on her laugh attacks. The snow was also being difficult and fluffy, as you can see my snow ball is failing here. Also, dear Bambi I may have lost one glove :( but just know that they got to touch Swiss snow ;) and with evidence.

The space in between

awake & sleep / making sense & nonsense

On the plane to Dubai 5:37 am 01 February 2013
My mind wanders in dream state contemplating a universal language, something about pictures, something about colours, perhaps with a little structure and a question of how do I make meaning. And then sometimes, my mind creates some strange poetry as I enter dream state:

"What colours must I rearrange in order to create a constellation"

Gurten

On the third day of our German Integration intensive course, after class we took a small trip to Gurten - I would call it a mountain but according to Swiss standards it's only a hill. Whatever it is, we took a tram ride then a cable car ride up to the top of the hill (all covered by the libero-bern billette: ticket for unlimited travel on all forms of transport in Bern which costs 57 CHF for a month). Silly me didn't bring my camera... or gloves... not bringing the camera was fine since I got to immerse myself into the atmosphere and played around with snow but the no gloves was truly awful... my hands were so cold and frozen, thank goodness my friend let me borrow her gloves :') (Thanks Setareh!!!) without those babies I think my hands would've fallen off climbing up the tower! After battling the long winding never ending spiral staircase against the wind, snow and icy hand rails we managed to reach the top and even though I felt like collapsing it was truly worth it!

From the top we had 360 degree view of the whole city. Only thing was that it was a really snowy day so we could only see fog. Photos above for our achievement :)

Hamlet makes a mark on the tower!

I also discovered that I reeeeaaaaally suck at snowball fights and that I throw like a girl. My buddies were really patient though and put up with my amateur-ness & excitement for snow :P As you can see I was really happy and made my first snow angel :3 (Thanks Setareh for taking the photos!!)

Snowflakes

As a kid I had this blue snowflake stamp pen. It's seems so obvious and logical but I came to a revelation the other day that snowflakes are real and really do exist. I always thought they were rare and only exist in extremely special conditions but stamping loads of snow flake falling was no exaggerated imagination. Every speck of white that falls from the sky is a snow flake! It only happens to be that when they land, they either shatter into pieces of ice or melt away. They are tiny but that day when it snowed my coat managed to catch so many! It was all over me and on my hair. For me it was truly a special moment and was like something out of a romantic movie - only minus the romance. It might have been a temporal moment but I think I have come to appreciate the fact that it is these temporary things that makes them have their worth.