Summer Break II

20 minutes ago, I was lying on my towel at the Rhine because it's bloody hot out there... But let's begin with something else: Today I bought a new digital camera: Sony Cybershot T30! It was quite expencive as I also had to buy a new 2GB Memory Stick at MediaMarkt in Winterthur. I guess I'm not the only one who was interested in the black T30: Most of the internet shops were out of stock.

Since I came back from the Netherlands it was always more than 30°C and it never rained here. Some trees already lose their leaves or the leaves are getting red or yellow as in early fall. It's almost too hot... If you sit in the bus or old trains you can't stand it longer than a few minutes. I usually go running or cycling in the morning to escape from the heat.

But soon enough I will be in Sweden, Danmark and Norway. On monday I met my friend for a short briefing. We decided also to go to Kobenhavn/DEN and then back to Helsingborg/SWE. Besides we got tickets for the European Athletics Championships in Göteborg. Hope we will find a hostel there. In Stockholm we already booked one for the first two nights, the City Lodge!
This afternoon I changed my swiss francs to swedish, dansk and norwegian krones. I'm ready for Scandinavia!

Summer Break I

I went to Glarus on Monday for dinner! All four "Netherland"-friends came together and we recapitulated all stories and everything that happend to us during these days. Moreover we exchanged our pictures and enjoyed this warm summer evening.

Now I have to learn for my exams in September... I don't really want to, but that's not the question. I try to do some sports to get a change from learning.

Netherlands IV

On saturday morning we again had so much luck! We wanted to go back to Leiden to take the train to go to Den Haag. But as we paid for the hotel we got the advice to take a direct bus from Noordwijk. This is what we did. We were almost the only four people travelling to Den Haag. Then again, we had to find a hotel. At a tourist information center they recommended us the Stayokay YHA hostel. It was quite cheap but for the first time we had only dorms with six beds.



We were all hungry so we bought a meal at a Yam Yam to go and after another shopping tour we took the tram to go to Scheveningen where the most frequented beach in the Netherlands is located.

In the evening we went to eat Pizza in an Italian Restaurant before having a drink in a very chilly lounge near the water.

Netherlands III

After our shopping tour we decided to go to the North Sea to relaxt at the beach. The first step was a phone call to a hostel in Noordwijk. They offered two double rooms with breakfast included for 24 Euros per person and night. No wonder we accepted! Step two was to get the train and bus tickets to Noordwijk. The woman at the ticket office at Amsterdam Centraal Station was very friendly and explained that we had to go to Leiden by train and then change to a bus. Arrived in Leiden, we organised the bustickets and soon after we were sitting in the bus to Noordwijk.



The next problem was: Where to go out? We didn't know where the hostel was so we remained in the bus until we noticed that we were already driving out of town. Then the busdriver suddenly stopped and asked where we wanted to go... We told him the name of the hotel and he just said: "No problem, just walk along this street for 7 min and you will be there". And indeed, after a 7 min walk we spotted the hostel.



We then went to the beach to have a picknick with food we bought back in Amsterdam. There was a beautiful sunset at 10:30pm and the sky was full of different colors. We almost couldn't believe how the sky could change its color!



The water was quite warm, so we decided to stay another night at the hotel so that we could spend a day at the beach!

Netherlands II

I guess it's now time to introduce my friends. As you may have noticed I don't usually use names but now I'll change my mind. Here they are:


Urs is from Glarus/GL and decided to quit studying at university. He now tries to get a job at a bank. Hope he will soon find one. Besides he's a pretty good curling player.

Livia was born near Zurich but then moved to Kehrsatz/BE. She now lives in Meilen/ZH in a big house where she can hold awesome parties! ;-)

Larissa is from Herisau/AR but now lives in Zurich in an apartment. She loves to play piano and is full of ideas, which is always very helpful.

All pictures were made during our trip in the Netherlands...

Netherlands I

Wow, this trip was once again a full success! We had soooo much fun together! But let's start at the very beginning. On wednesday we boarded the airplane in Basel and about one hour later we landed in Schiphol where the airport of Amsterdam is located. We took the train to Amsterdam Centraal Station and what we needed then was a cheap hostel were we could leave our luggage.



We then found the * Hotel de Koopermoolen not far away from the redlight district. After a short rest we went to eat indonesian which no one of us had ever tried before.

The next day we made a shopping tour in Amsterdams most famous shopping lane, the Kalverstraat. We all four bought some new shoes, I found a pair of yellow Adicolor Shoes! Had to buy them immediately!

Early Summer V

Today I need to take a train to Basel to get to the airport. Me and three friends from uni spontaneously booked a flight to Amsterdam/NED. We don't even have an accommodation nor a detailed idea what exactly we want to do there. I don't worry about that, I'm quite sure this will be great fun.



I finally made it to post a picture of the Rhine Falls. See here.

Early Summer IV

Perrine called me on thursday and said she wanted to show me something. I was curious and immediately took the bike to get to her. It was already dark outside, so I had no idea what it could be. But then I realised that it had to be dark: We saw hundreds of glow worms! They were hovering over a small ditch near her garden. I was impressed! I didn't even know that there are some glow worms in Schaffhausen... I only saw them in New Zealand before.

On saturday I invited some friends from uni to a BBQ. I prepared everything from salad to meat and from drinks to dessert (the pictures shows how we made ice cubes). Some of them slept here and the next morning we went to see the Rhine Falls before taking a swim somewhere below the falls.

Can't believe it: The second semester at uni is already over and now I have to learn for the exams in September and October. The detailed plan we got last week: There will be 9 exams in 4 weeks.