Samstag, 29. März 2008

april 8th is the magic day ;)

since everyone keeps asking me, when i'll be back, i thought i might also write it down here :) so if the canadians are kind and won't make more trouble, i'll be back on the 8th of april, 9.20 am :) feel free to welcome me at the airport ;D

toronto and ottawa

they say you either like toronto or vancouver. i definitely opt for toronto. maybe it was because half of vancouver was either a car park or a construction site (they're getting ready for winter olympics 2010)? i don't know, but toronto seemed so much more fun to me :)
i went up the cn tower, looked around the city and also went to the world famous niagara falls :)

now i'm stuck in ottawa, the capital with beautiful buildings but not much to do. since i'm sick, it doesn't really matter ;) i'm enjoying my stay at the jail, sleep and try to get well again ;)
oh btw. i think they know very well that there's not much to do here: ususally you pay 3 dollars for one hour of internet access, whereas here you get 24 hours for the same price! ;D

Mittwoch, 26. März 2008

snowboarding in banff

whooohoooo - i really went snowboarding in banff! james took me to sunshine and it was just awesome! and it's true, the snow is really different over here. it's almost like wakeboarding and you pick up speed soo much faster!

unfortunately the image upload doesn't really work, but as soon as i get a chance i'll show you the picture :) (although i have to warn you: the photographer wasn't a genius at all!! ;))

Dienstag, 18. März 2008

entering canada

well, i thought the usa is hard to get in - but only until i had to enter canada... maybe it's because the whole flight didn't start off very well. when i checked in at san diego airport i totally forgot that my plane was to land in las vegas before heading to vancouver. then i asked for my miles to put on my swiss-milage-card (instead of us airways) and finally i wanted a window seat. this was obviously too much, because the guy at the check-in printed four fat "SSSS" on my boarding pass. when i entered the security check, they explained to me that the airline wanted me to be checked additionally. so this lady groped me all over and checked my shoes and my bag for traces of explosives (haha).

then, on the stopover in las vegas the flight attendant told me i can leave everything where it is, but when i came back, my healthy and rather expensive salad (as well as my cookies) were gone ("oh, that must have been the cleaners"). so i was starving the whole flight and when i got off in vancouver i just wanted to get through passport control and buy some food.

but it wasn't that easy. since the us immigration didn't want to see my e-ticket back home i didn't think of packing it this time in my on-board luggage. suspicious? check. then the lady saw the "SSSS" on my boarding pass. suspicious? check. and finally i really looked tired and annoyed (i was sooo hungry)... suspicious? check.
so i had to answer all these stupid questions, like "wouldn't you have to be at uni right now?" -"how can you afford to travel when you're a student?" - "so you studied and worked at the same time?" - "what kind of work did you do?" - "for how long did you work there?" - "how much cash do you have with you?" - "how do you know you will be able to get cash from the atm?" goooooooooooooossssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh. i almost asked her what reason i would have to sneak in canada since i'm from a rich country (SWITZERLAND) and i'm well educated (yes, i really did my MASTER). but i managed to stay calm...
finally she told me she wouldn't send me to immigration this time (haha) but it was crucial that i bring my flight ticket with me whenever i wasn't travelling in switzerland (haha).

at least the bus drivers were very friendly... they didn't charge me for the ride into the city, 'cause i didn't have any coins yet and they gave me good tips what to do in vancouver :) so i guess canada deserves a second chance ;)

l.a. and san diego

l.a. is just huge and it takes you forever to cross the city - no matter whether you're travelling by bus or by car. although traveling by car gives you the advantage not having to stop every other corner, 'cause someone wants to get on or off the bus...
i think we saw quite a few parts of the city, we've been to the touristy places like hollywood boulevard (walk of fame), the kodak theatre and melrose avenue - but we've also seen the beaches of santa monica and venice beach. and we even did a tour on blades on the beach, that was really cool :)

the last two days we spent in san diego. it's much smaller than l.a. but it also seems way cozier and laid-back. we went to tijuana (we even crossed the boarder by car, although this wasn't the plan. but after "just" 45 minutes of queuing up we were allowed to go back to the usa.) the last evening we had dinner at jrdn (you have to check out the pictures!) a really awesome place and worthy of celebrating our last evening (together).

Donnerstag, 13. März 2008

hello from santa monica

just a quick hello, telling you that we now arrived at santa monica :) the weather is beautiful and i already dipped my toes in the sea :) we're going to stay in l.a. for the next two days and then make our way down to san diego (from where i'll fly to vancouver on monday). it is really awesome here, and i'm not really looking forward to going into the cold again ;)

Freitag, 7. März 2008

Mittwoch, 5. März 2008

hello san francisco

here i finally am :) i'm really happy to be here, to see rahel again and to enjoy the groove of the city (which is so totaly different to ny ;))
we got plenty to talk and see and do, but now she's at school so i took up the change to excessively use the internet to answer my emails and to write some stuff for you on my blog :)

i'll update later on and i hope to show you some pictures soon :) hf :)

some concluding remarks on new york ;)

first things first: i didn't fall in love with the city...
it's true, there are millions of things to do and see and explore, but you get that in almost every big city. times square was shrill and fancy, but to me it looked like a cheap copy of some random corner in tokyo. statue of liberty was cool to see, but since 9/11 you're not allowed to go up there any more, which sucked! there are heaps of people, but to be honest they weren't very friendly.

seems like i only see the negative aspects, but i think the real problem is that i automatically compared the city to my true love, sydney ;)

also i couldn't meet up with my personal guide (*gg*) chantal, cause her plain couldn't take off in zurich because of the strong winds (what's going on there? i heard there was quite some snow too?) - so i was rather disappointed :(
at least i had a huge list from grace, with all the things i had so see :) thank you so much grace! (i was too lazy to send you a postcard from over there, but i'll send you one from san francisco - promise!)

the one thing i found really awesome though was a show on broadway! i went to see grease and i really loved it!

i took quite a lot of pictures (also the "grand central station reloaded" for michi ;)) and as soon i get to download them i'll show you some :)

Sonntag, 2. März 2008

how to cross the street in new york

first, check whether the traffic light shows "go" or signals to hurry up. if so, walk (and be carefull of not being run over by cars turning - don't worry it hardly ever happens ;))

if the traffic light is "red" (which it isn't cause it shows a hand which signals to stop) walk as far out into the street as possible (usually there is a parking lane blocking your sight) - check from which side the cars are coming (most of the time it's one way only) - wait untill there is a gap between two cars - walk! :)

rather easy isn't it? :) if you wanna make sure people think your a newyorker, just walk and if you really have to turn around and let the cars pass :)

stop over in toronto

on my way to new york i had a short stop over in toronto. it was quite a disturbing experience... not only was the view from above weird (all the houses looked exactly (!) the same) but also did the crew show the emergency exits once again shortly before the landing :/

obviously everything went well (otherwise you wouldn't read this blog entry now ;)) and the only hurdle left was the immigration to the u.s. i had some understanding for them to ask me whether i was a terrorist, a spy or a nazi (well...) but the last question was really hard to answer: "are you seeking entry to engage in immoral actions?" well... i don't think so, but since there wasn't a list what the holy americans consider immoral, it was really hard to tell. to be on the safe side i just answered "no" and after leaving my fingerprints and picture i was allowed to immigrate. whoohooo!

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