My Life - So Far

"Unbounded ambition makes an obscure existence simply impossible for me"
Lucien de Rubempré

Saturday, August 29, 2009

New York I

Now I've really been in New York. Been. Because right now I'm sitting on my bed in the Hotel Westin in Montreal in Canada. But maybe I should explain that chronologically: On Thursday Kai, Thomas, Sandra and me took the 10AM train to the airport in Zurich. We were pretty early, so we had plenty of time to have a coffee at Starbucks, eat something and stroll around the shops in the shopping mall. The flight with Delta was quite okay, I mean it took almost 9 hours from Zurich to JFK in New York. During the flight we had stunning views on greenland, revealing its snowy mountains and deep valleys. Having arrived, we got our rental car and then waited for Laura, a girl studying with Kai at HSG. She was in Berkeley during summertime and now joins us for the trip to Canada. When we finally had our car, we headed for Boston, but as it was already late, we needed a hotel for the night. So we stopped at Sturbridge in Massachusetts where we found the Hampton Inn. There, the desk clerc asked us where we were heading to. As he heard that we were on the way to Boston he told us that the city would be crowded with people because Ted Kennedy's funeral would take place there. We already heard that in the news, but didn't know that even President Obama would come to the funeral in Boston. So we had to change plans and instead headed north to the canadian border. On the way to Montreal we passed by the skyline of Albany, NY which is actually the capital of the state New York and came across Lake Placid, where the bobsleight runs take place in winter.

As I already said, we stay in the Westin here in Montreal. The rooms are just great! We even have Starbucks coffee in the rooms and a radio with iPod connection. All in all perfect. For dinner we dressed in shirt and went to Steak Frites (405, Rue St-Antoine Ouest). I enjoyed a perfect filet de saumon and duck rilettes as appetizer. For desert I tasted the crème brulée, which was good, but that one I had in Paris last year was, I'm sorry, better. But the restaurant as well as the clientele were superb! But funny enough, some restaurants do not have a licence to sell alcohol, so you see a sign in front of the building that says: Bring your own wine. Thus, many guests walk in with bottles of wine in their hands. Before we walked back to the hotel, we had a drink at Suite 701 (701, Côte de la Place d'Armes), a nice lounge in an old majestic building. But we were so tired, that soon after we went back to our rooms and had a long and deep sleep.

Monday, August 24, 2009

In Between II

A few hours after the last post I went to drink something with the girls from Unilever at the terrace of the Surstoffbar. Actually, only Ulli and Renate worked or better still work at Unilever, Nathalie is just a friend of Renate and lives in Zurich. It was pretty funny and I guess we consumed rather much but paid rather less. The evening was even more special because they spontanously asked me to join them for a hike up in the mountains. Not in a weeks time, but 10 hours later! Naturally, I could not turn down that offer, so the next morning we met at the old busstation in Schaffhausen and drove up to the mountains by car. In between we stoped for gas and had to fill our bags with something to eat and drink. Anyway, our hiking tour was perfect, the weather beuatiful and we had a bath in the Seealpsee, which was so refreshing in the heat of the day.

In the evening I had to watch the 100m final at the world athletics championships in Berlin. It was insane. Usain Bolt set another fable world record with 9.58. Unbelievable. And actually I still remember Donovan Baileys 9.84 in Atlanta or Leroy Burrells 9.85 in Lausanne. Then an improvement of 1/100 was considered as huge, compared now to the 11/100 improvement by Bolt, this seems to be as little as nothing.

One evening I was at a concert of Big Zis at Kaufleuten in Zurich. Thomas won two tickets for the evening, so we just had to go. First, I went to the gym, took the bus to get to Thomas' place, left my belongings there and soon after we left for the Kaufleuten. But before we got our free entrance tickets, we went to eat a Tiger Prawn Salad at an irish pub and restaurant at Sihlstrasse. Funny enough, as everybody was talking english, the waitress also talked english with us. Okey, the concert was fun but over pretty soon. All the same, I was happy that I could sleep in Zurich and didn't had to worry about trains and buses.

The day before I intended to join some friends for BBQ at Flurlingen, but as a thunderstorm came up shortly before, we changeed the location and went to the tallest building in Schaffhausen. There you can overview the whole town and we saw fascinating flashlights far away. The terrace on the 15th floor had a roof, so we had a great evening up there! Actually I was the only local, all other were either from Germany, Austria or any other country.

On Wednesday I met Michael for ice cream as the therometer hit the 30 degree mark. We then met some friends at Güterhof and talked about anything but nothing. On Thursday I intended to go for a swim with Jonathan, unfortunately I had to work longer, so we had to cancel this. Besides, the train ride back home was sometimes pretty displeasing, as it was extremely hot inside the trains, as only the ICE has a good air-conditioner. It was much hotter inside the trains than the oustide and we had outdoor temperatures of more than 33°C. That day I watched the 200m final with the astonishing 19.19 world record set by Usain Bolt and then I went running at 9PM, when it was already getting dark outside. However, the temperature was still very high... Anyway, it was just great running at dusk with Bolt's dream run in my mind!

Yesterday I went to an openair concert for the first time in my life. It was the Bodensee Hegau OpenAir located in the little village of Aach in Germany. It's actually not far away from Schaffhausen, by car it takes you a bit more than half an hour to get there. The acts playing were not less famous than Reamonn, Sunrise Avenue, Milow and Maria Mena. The weather was just perfect and the location out in the nature too. We had much fun there and all in all that was a great evening!

Last, a little bit about New York:
We just changed our swiss francs into US Dollars and as Kai is working for a swiss bank, he could change them at a rather good exchange rate! Well done, Kai! Besides, I checked out my Lonely Planet and found some good spots, for example rooftop bars or lounges, where you have fabulous views on New York! If that's not enough, we will climb the Empire State Building at night and make some stunning pictures of NY by night!

This is the last post before I leave for New York. I will update you as soon as I've made some pictures! See you soon!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

In Between I

I'm not yet in New York but all arrangements are up to speed. We already booked the hotel in NYC, actually we had to book two, as it's, even a few weeks in advance, pretty difficult to find a good one. When we first sat together we were thinking of the Royalton (44 West 44th Street), which has been designed by Philippe Starck. However, the rooms, which combine a funky mix of modernd and classic styles, were just a bit too expensive for some of us. Anyway, we will check out the Bar 44 in the Royalton which is a inviting mecca for conversation and cusinie as stated on the website. Now to our hotels: The first one we booked is the Kitano (66 Park Avenue at East 38th Street), rated by Lonely Planet as a Deluxe Indie Inn. Just have a look at the web if you're intrested. More of that as soon as we'll have checked in. The second hotel is the Roger Williams (131 Madison Avenue) that blends vibrant color, bold architecture and a hip and homey feeling in the fashionable Murray area of midtwon Manhattan. Okey, that's it with NYC for now. More in the next post.

The days after I returned from Vienna were, again, just great! First, a photo that I took in Asakusa in Tokyo was published in the newspaper and I now could win a MacBook or an iPod touch. But actually I don't care about the prizes, it's cool enough to have it published. Then I went swimming in the Rhine with Sophie on a beautiful evening. We met just after working in Zurich and took the ICE to Schaffhausen together. Then we walked to the Rhine, which was not that warm on this day, and had a long swim. As swimming made us hungry we went to Güterhof and had a drink and grilled fish with a delicious salad. After that I went to see Gran Torino on top of the castle Munot as the Munot Openair Cinema took place up there. That, once again, was just marvellous. The atmosphere was just great, the weather fine and it was fullmoon, which made it even more special. Two days later I stayed in Zurich and met Livia after a workout in the gym. We bought some ingredients for a delicious salad with citron and blood orange dressing. We made some pasta with red pesto and opened a bottle of wine. We sat on the balcony and enjoyed the menu as well as the superb view on Zurich. Besides, the next day I bought Jamie Oliver's book Happy Days With The Naked Chef. I'm looking forward to some more cooking sessions! Then on Saturday I went again to the Güterhof with Kai and Tobias, who is currently doing an internship as investment banker in Frankfurt/GER. So we talked quite a lot and enjoyed the evening further on at Oberhof and Orient. It was a really great evening and a foretaste of New York!

This past week I was out with Kai and Thomas on Thursday, as we met at Güterhof for grilled fish! I love these summer evenings where you can sit out until it gets dark! And unfortunately it's getting dark earlier and earlier each day... Anyway, on Wednesday I met a friend in Zurich and first had coffee at Starbucks and then enjoyed the sun at the Limmat. I left soon after as I joined Thomas for the train back to Schaffhausen, where we talked a lot about architecture. And today we went to Stein am Rhein in the morning and drove down in the rubber boat! We listened to chillout sound, had a stop now and then for ice cream and just enjoyed the ride back down! Pure life!

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Vienna Again III

We started our last day with shopping. We first went to the Energy store right across the street. I considered buying a jacket, but then found that there must be something better. What I bought afterwards was not a jacket but a Puma bag, that I found in the Puma store on Mariahilferstrasse. As we got up without breakfast, we were pretty hungry and decided to immediately have lunch somewhere. And again, we went to the NENI at Naschmarkt were I had a very tasty caesar salad with grilled chicken breast. It was surely over 30°C and sitting there was pure beach feeling, so we decided to go to the Danube river in the evening. But before we went seeing the Rathaus and the nearby Votivkriche. In Vienna you need to drink Café as much as you can, because it's really delicious, comparable with Paris, even slightly better. So we went to the Café Central (Herrengasse 14), that was founded in 1868 and where Trotzky used to play chess and Loos designed his works.

Loaded with caffein, we took the metro to the Vienna International Centre, which lies just north of the river Danube. In the evening sun, the high-rise buildings looked pretty majestic. Anyway, we took the bus and after a short ride, we were at the Vienna City Beach! It was great relaxing in the evening sun on the sunloungers with chillout music playing in the background, right at the shores of the Danube. I felt far away, felt the summer, and was happy!

For dinner a friend recommended the restaurant Oswald&Kalb (Bäckerstrasse 14) with modern viennese cuisine. However, we didn't know where it was and so we were lucky that I had my PowerBook with me. So we just went to Starbucks for a coffee and used the WiFi hotspot and google maps to get the location. The self made chanterelle ravioli and the pecorino cheese on green salad were again superb. We thought about going to the nearby Buddha Bar for a drink, but decided to go home first and take a shower to get ready for the nightlife. At that time the Impulstanz Festival Lounge was located at Novomatic Forum at Karlsplatz. The whole bohemian socity of Vienna seemed to be there! It was pretty cool and we even knew the DJ that was performing at today's Deep Down and Discofied. However, we soon left and checked out the Fluc and the Volksgarten, but we were not quite satisfied. So we eventually ended again in the Passage.

And that was our trip to Vienna. The next morning we had to get up quite early to get the train back to Zurich...

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Vienna Again II

The next day we slept a bit longer than usual, as we did not have much sleep in the train and the previous evening was over pretty late. First we went to the Café Sperl (Gumpendorferstrasse 9) where we had coffee, read some newspapers and later decided to have lunch. So I ordered a Erdäpfel-Vogerl salad with roasted duck stripes. We then continued our sightseeing tour for Schloss Schönbrunn. In April I visited the interior of the Hofburg, this time it was the interior of Schönbrunn. However, the audioguide did not reveal much more than it had at Hofburg. The next stop was the Hundertwasserhaus and the KunstHaus, both designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The first one I’ve already seen, this time we had coffee in the Café on the terrace. The KunstHaus was rather unspectacular, so we just had a short rest there.

For dinner we were pretty late, and some restaurants already ran out of menus, but eventually we found a restaurant that had still open. Then we walked to the museumsquartier that was pretty crowded. They have some cozy seats called Enzi, and you barely found a place to sit. We had a drink at the outdoor bar before a girl group celebrating a wedding-eve party came along. They were pretty funny, and they were not expecting to find two swiss guys there. After relaxing at the MQ in the warmth of this lovely summer evening, we decided to go clubbing. We went to the Passage that hosted the Club Fusion that night with techhouse. The crowd was rather snoby with men almost only wearing dress shirts and beautiful long leged girls with high-heels that all seemed to be overdressed slightly. Anyway, the party was great and we danced all night long!