andy and clio in swiss part I

So, as I was cleaning out my wallet the other day I came across, in order, all the trian tickets I purchased for little trips around french-speaking switzerland while andy was here. I'm going to slowly recount each adventure...

Andy arrived the monday, the 21st of december in the morning. I had meticulously layed out a plan for him to take the train from lausanne to geneva and then find his way to my apartment without any cell phone contact. In the end, I decided I was too excited to see him and went to pick him up. He came off the plane lugging a suitcase full of presents and american food (tortillas, canned pumpkin, ramen, cornmeal, salmon mmmm). He introduced me to his seatmate, and enthusiastic Christian who seemed very friendly.

We made it home to Lausanne and hit the grocery store for some breakfast food, my kitchen being relatively empty after stores closing for sunday. Andy made sure to buy paté (not something I have ever been tempted to eat here).

With short days, afternoon quickly and we hurried onto a train for Fribourg, where I spent the summer learning french, to go to a friend's + andy's birthday party. I made twin carrot cakes, one decorated David and one Andy in orange peel. After a walking tour in the fading sunlight, we headed to David's abode (the residence hall that I lived in last summer as well) to prepare party food. There was quite a large mixed crowd of people. Andy enjoyed the gamut of greetings and birthday traditions from the three cheek 'nice to meet you' or goodbye to 23 ear pulls from my Russian friend Natasha. Andy lasted pretty well until the 11:30 train and finally! got to go to sleep after two days of voyaging and his first day in Switzerland.

The 22nd, Andy's birthday, was a special day. We really packed it in: train to Montreux, a town 25 minutes down the coast of lake Geneva, to see the Christmas market, then a walk to the Château de Chillon, then train back, swim at the municipal pool, concert of jazz/swiss alphorn music, then birthday dinner + skype dates. We took some cool pictures of the chateau and the dents du midi, a series of peaks (or literally, peaks) to the southeast of Lake Geneva.

The Christmas market was pretty kitsch, but it was fun to go to the cookie stand and buy two of all the cookies that looked interesting. My favorite was maybe the marzipan filled with chocolate hazelnut cream. We looked at all the bizarre pointless things for sale-mushrooms with faces carved out of wood, a whole booth of silicon cooking tools, a booth mostly selling fluorescent colored nougat, etc. We bought chestnuts and munched along the way.

On the way to Château de Chillon I managed to fall in the lake (only up to knees) the complete story can be found on the gross club.blogspot. Because it's kind of gross.

I think Andy had a good birthday, if in a somewhat jet lagged state, fueled by several cups of coffee. The concert was a bit much and he was out pretty much immediately. I got a big kick out of hearing an alphorn concerto, though. Almost as good as yodeling.