Swiss Bliss

Conferences. Gotta love them! They are the highlight of my work because, one, I get to present, and two, I get to travel! This time, I was invited to do an oral presentation at the XIVth International Workshop on Bioencapsulation in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Business-wise, the conference was fantastic! I made wonderful new contacts, embarked on a super-exciting international project, and got invited to write a book chapter (in French!) about cell encapsulation. Non-business-wise, my stay was just as fabulous if not better! I had a joyous reunion with my boys from the Groningen lab, Bart and Paul, who did some snazzy presentations themselves (congrats, guys!). And just hours after the conference ended, I started a whole new adventure with my dear friend Andi (I lived across the hall from him in Groningen - recognize him in the pic?).


A first taste of the alps (Wednesday AM)

Here is my first view of the Swiss alps, which was granted the moment I landed at the Geneva airport. It took my breath away. Airplanes were literally landing in the middle of a picture perfect scene that looked just like the movies. Those Swiss really know how to make a first impression!


La La Lausanne (Wednesday AFT to Monday PM)

Some fascinating tidbits that I learnt either about Lausanne or while in Lausanne:

* Everybody speaks French first in Lausanne. This made me feel right at home, despite the noticeable absence of dirty Québecois slang. Most people speak English as well.

* Strangely enough, it seemed that 9 out of 10 restaurants in Lausanne were pizza restaurants. This must be tied to the fact that Italy is a bordering country. We hit one remarkable pizza place where they encourage customers to write on the walls and ceilings.

* You need to be a billy goat to live there. The inclines are insanely steep. Funny enough, bikes and scooters (for kids) are particularly popular there. I guess the downhill rides must be worth hauling up your vehicle to higher altitudes.

* The public transportation system is simply impressive. Each bus stop is clearly marked by name, and inside the buses are electronic signs that constantly remind you what route you are on, the direction you are going, and what stop is coming up next. For the first time, I totally lost my phobia of public buses. The metro system is just as efficient. In fact, I took the bus and metro to the conference in the mornings and I felt like a regular old Swiss commuter.

* Ding dong ding!... go the bells of the many, many churches about every half an hour. A fascinating sound that we noticed while hanging around this lookout point, which provides an awesome view of the rooftops typically scattered at all altitudes along the mountainside.

* Lausanne is the home of the International Olympic Committee headquarters. That's about all I know on this subject since I didn't actually go see the Olympic museum.

* It's all about the huge, picturesque lake. Lausanne borders lac Léman (a.k.a. Lake Geneva) which, according to Wikipedia, is the second largest freshwater lake in Central Europe at 582 km2. It's no lake Ontario (which is allegedly 18 960 km2), but it seemed massive nonetheless. It must be the mountain thing warping my sense of size.

Talking about the lake reminds me of a funny story. The conference committee organized a social night at the "château". We had to pile onto buses and drive 40 minutes out of the city, along the lake, and into the cutest little town seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Luckily we were driving along the lake during sunset so I could take this photo (from a moving bus window) to share with you. By the way, it turned out that we didn't dine in the "château" - We ate in a barn-like structure across the road from the castle. I think they tried to trick us by getting us drunk with a wine-tasting that took place in front of the castle before herding us into the barn.

* Switzerland loves Canada. I felt so proud to see various signs of our country in the most random places all around the city! As you can see in the pics, we saw them on foreign Molson Canadian beer bottles (so nifty looking yet so yucky tasting - seems to me we ship the crappy batches to the outsiders), on flags hanging anywhere from the downtown pubs to the souvenir shops, within graffiti comments littering the tourist hotspots, and on bouncy balls being sold from coin machines.

* Speaking of souvenir shops, the Swiss apparently really are coo-coo about clock parafanalia, at least when it comes to pushing it to tourists! Just check out all the tickin' crazy stuff in this store window!

* The Swiss really do make the best chocolates. A free sample from the chocolaterie absolutely convinced me of this.


A zany 24 hours in Zurich (Monday PM to Tuesday PM)

Andi and I fled Lausanne by train to spend an action-packed 24 hours in Zurich, just like they do on that travel television program.

As soon as I laid eyes on the largest city in Switzerland, I fell in love. Lausanne just seemed small and simple next to the exciting hustle and bustle of Zurich. The view of the train station alone had me hooked (seen on the left). What also had me fascinated were the trams. On the way from the train station to our youth hostel, we spotted a fancy looking tram that appeared to cruise around town while, inside the car, couples eat intimate fondue dinners as they enjoy the surrounding low-lit lamps, red velvet, and other gawdy decor.

Our youth hostel was located on top of a restaurant called the "Spaghetti FACTORY", located in the heart of the lively bar and restaurant strip. To get to the reception desk, we literally had to climb up four flights of stairs, past the restaurant kitchen wafting with the smell of tons of boiling pasta. Crazy.

Here's some of the fun things we managed to do in 24 hours :

* We ate fondue for dinner. Now we can finally say, "I ate cheese fondue in the Swiss alps". Amusingly, we evidently weren't the only tourists with the same idea. It was the busiest restaurant on the strip.

* We played Jenga back at the youth hostel. I had always wanted to play Jenga ever since I was a little kid! The fun part is, each piece has a hand written message from someone who has passed through the hostel - little pieces of travel advice, life mottos, drunken quotes, etc.

* We had breakfast on a park bench in the center, taking in a beautiful view of the water on one side and watching the morning rush hour traffic at a busy intersection on the other side.

Click on play above to see a nifty video I shot of the trams zooming by (in front of a Lindt chocolate sign!).

* We checked out the university campus. Gorgeous buildings. I felt like a queen going through there.

* We took a ride up the funicular to a super high point in the city where the wealthy enjoy their huge homes and forested areas and fancy smancy restaurants with a killer view of the city.

* We ventured to Technorama, Switzerland's only science center. It's not really located in Zurich, but rather in the next town over called Winterthur. This is a fact that we discovered the hard way. It was a long trek out there, but it was well worth it! Go science!