Big Pimpin' Spendin' Cheese
The best part of living in Zürich is not being in Zürich: nowhere else can you effortlessly reach so much of Europe. The past few weekends, in particular, have been ridiculous.
We started with a last-minute trip to Oslo for Tonje's birthday, and ended up escorting a gaggle of twentysomething girls out for a night of clubbing. Afterwards, our expensive hotel wasn't amused with the idea of us bringing them all upstairs for late-night drinks. The hotel's night staff foolishly engaged Alex in a debate, citing undocumented Norwegian fire safety rules and refusing to give us their names. In the end, they earned official reprimands; we earned a huge discount. And the undying admiration of our female companions, of course.
Next up, a weekend with my family in Rovinj, a beautiful Croatian town on the Istrian peninsula. We ate and drank lavishly, including a visit to Zigante, home of the world's largest white truffle. Meanwhile, we cruised the harbour each afternoon to watch the ACI Cup (a sailing event on the World Match Racing Circuit) and slept in our host's "spare" apartment building, each of us taking our own floor.
Three days later, Alex and I decided to escape the awful Zürich weather and spend a weekend in Istanbul. We didn't have any local contacts planned, but thanks to our seemingly infinite luck, discovered a Turkish colleague who was taking the same flight. We ended up staying out with him until 6:00am both nights, driving up and down the Bosphorous to visit tea shops, university parties, open-air dance clubs, and soup parlors. Apparently the Turks believe that eating tripe soup at sunrise does wonders for hangovers.
Our colleague's sister managed to get us a reservation at the über-trendy restaurant 360, which apparently doesn't even publish a phone number. Meanwhile, tasty grilled lamb kebabs could be found on every corner for a dollar or two... not to mention a few thousand years of Byzantine and Ottoman history.
And if that all wasn't enough, we spent the following weekend in Amsterdam with our Dutch/Norwegian friends. As VIPs at a glitzy club called Jimmy Woo's, we found DJ Tiësto in a room with thousands of light bulbs on the ceiling. Sleepless and weary, we later hopped across the border to Gelsenkirchen to watch Jesusland get thrashed by the Czech Republic in the opening round of the World Cup. Alex's contacts at UBS gave us 16th row tickets and hosted us for the evening at an old German castle, Schloss Bensberg. Ridiculous.
We started with a last-minute trip to Oslo for Tonje's birthday, and ended up escorting a gaggle of twentysomething girls out for a night of clubbing. Afterwards, our expensive hotel wasn't amused with the idea of us bringing them all upstairs for late-night drinks. The hotel's night staff foolishly engaged Alex in a debate, citing undocumented Norwegian fire safety rules and refusing to give us their names. In the end, they earned official reprimands; we earned a huge discount. And the undying admiration of our female companions, of course.Next up, a weekend with my family in Rovinj, a beautiful Croatian town on the Istrian peninsula. We ate and drank lavishly, including a visit to Zigante, home of the world's largest white truffle. Meanwhile, we cruised the harbour each afternoon to watch the ACI Cup (a sailing event on the World Match Racing Circuit) and slept in our host's "spare" apartment building, each of us taking our own floor.Three days later, Alex and I decided to escape the awful Zürich weather and spend a weekend in Istanbul. We didn't have any local contacts planned, but thanks to our seemingly infinite luck, discovered a Turkish colleague who was taking the same flight. We ended up staying out with him until 6:00am both nights, driving up and down the Bosphorous to visit tea shops, university parties, open-air dance clubs, and soup parlors. Apparently the Turks believe that eating tripe soup at sunrise does wonders for hangovers.Our colleague's sister managed to get us a reservation at the über-trendy restaurant 360, which apparently doesn't even publish a phone number. Meanwhile, tasty grilled lamb kebabs could be found on every corner for a dollar or two... not to mention a few thousand years of Byzantine and Ottoman history.And if that all wasn't enough, we spent the following weekend in Amsterdam with our Dutch/Norwegian friends. As VIPs at a glitzy club called Jimmy Woo's, we found DJ Tiësto in a room with thousands of light bulbs on the ceiling. Sleepless and weary, we later hopped across the border to Gelsenkirchen to watch Jesusland get thrashed by the Czech Republic in the opening round of the World Cup. Alex's contacts at UBS gave us 16th row tickets and hosted us for the evening at an old German castle, Schloss Bensberg. Ridiculous.