Amusing Things About Switzerland: Part III

Part III in my recurring series has taken a while to accumulate. That might mean I'm becoming a bit more adjusted and not automatically reacting to things in a WTF manner. Probably a good thing. Still, some funny obervations:

1. Food is not orange

I'm not sure what the hell I have been comsuming for the last 25 years, but around these parts, there is no orange cheese, the French dressing is white and KD is unknown. I've adjusted nicely to the first two, I mean how does the cheese become orange anyway? But I do love KD and my parents and Emily have been kind enough to supply me with some boxes and I try and have a box monthly.

A nice piece of Gruyere (left) and Emmental (right). No orange dye in sight...

2. Paprika Chips

Salt and vinagar? Nope. Ketchup? Are you crazy. Dill Pickle? On a chip. I'm sure if I looked hard enough I might find a couple of these flavours that of course everyone in Canada think are ubiquitous. But here in Switzerland there seem to be two falvours. Nature and Paprika. Not quite the same as BBQ, but not too bad.

3. Birthday Tradition

I've been to a couple of birthday celebrations and I might hold my own in Canada because here, you have to buy the drinks. Or bake your own cake and then share it. It took me aback at first, but when I think about it, it actually makes some sense.

4. Money

50, 100 and 200 CHF bills that are used with regularity at any and all stores.

All over the place in Canada you can't do anything with $50 and $100 dollar bills. I guess there is way too much counterfitting that takes place. Good luck if you want to try and spend one of those in the grocery store. In Switzerland, they wouldn't even look twice (such as at the cafeteria at work, paying for a 9 CHF lunch with a 100 CHF bill). In fact I would say that the 100 CHF note is the most common one. Maybe it's the money culture (especially in Zürich), but it's very different and interesting.

Last Night's Gig: The Hives at Alte Börse in Zürich

Finally had a chance to take in a band I've been wanting to see live for about 6 years.

I first heard the Hives on their breakout Vini Vidi Vicious album (which I bought at one of those great HMV 2 for $20 sales) and since then I have been a fan. They are from Sweden but on the back of some great garage rock sounds and a great live show they are pretty popular across Europe and North America. Although they have toured in Canada before it has always been one night stops in Vancouver and Toronto, both a bit out of the way for me. So when I saw they were playing Zürich, I bought a ticket right away. It was a bit pricey (59 CHF) but when I considered what it would have cost to go to Toronto to see them play, it wasn't that bad.

The concert was interestingly scheduled to begin at 7:30 PM and I made the mistake of thinking they would be late starting. Never assume the Swiss will be anything but punctual. So when I rolled in at 8:30 PM, the bar was packed and about 5 minutes after I arrived the Hives took the stage. So I missed the opener, but thankfully didn't miss any of the Hives set.

If you know the Hives, then you know most of their songs aren't much longer than three and a half minutes, so the just under two hour set was pretty good. The band all dresses up in the same suit type black and white clothing which looked very cool. They played all their big hits (satrting with Here We Go Again) and the lead singer Howlin' Pelle Almqvist has stage presence to spare. He really interacted well with the crowd and had everyone yelling and screaming and clapping their hands. They finished with Tick Tick Boom in their encore and the place was going nuts...wish I could have been closer to the stage, but my late arrival prevented that.

The only complaints I had about the concert were due to the venue. The concert was at about 10 PM (way too early) because the place becomes a club afterwards. As well, the smoking inside is terrible. Once again, I came out smelling like an ashtray and at leats a year off my life expectancy because of second-hand smoke inhalation.

Great show though and if you get a chance to see them live, go for it. You won't be disappointed.

6 Months in the New Land of Red and White

It's been 6 months since I left Canada for Switzerland. I can't believe the time has passed so quickly. Simply amazing.

Last weekend I decided to take advantage of my new (as of August 13th) GA (General Abondement). The GA is an annual pass available to Swiss residents that allows you to take any bus, train or boat at any time, in the entire country. Pretty sweet and definitely worth it for someone who plans to get to know his new surroundings well. My first free weekend I decided to take advantage of it and head to Thun to take in some of the World Kayaking Freestyle Championships. I managed to make it down for a couple of runs in the junior men's and women's semi-finals (toting along my big ol' Canadian flag for waving) as well as catching the Big Air qualification event. Overall a pretty sweet event and it was a nice to see Canadian Nick Troutman (from the Ottawa Valley) come out on top in the K1 competition. Here are a few of my best photos:

An overview of the site. They had shut the dam on the Aare and created a nice standing wave that the athletes had 45 seconds to perform their best tricks. The stands actual extend over the water which was cool.

My best photo of the day by far. Junior girl coming up after her flip move.


Slacklining exhibition by Stefan Siegrist. It was pretty cool, because that water was a) moving pretty quick, thus preventing focusing and b) was damn cold (see next pic)


Lost balance = cold shower


Yes, that is a C1 whitewater upside down. The coolest event of the day was the Big Air qualification. 8 m jump over the river with lots of acrobatics...


Some not ending so well. Ouch..