Eccentric Zürchers…

…they exist!  i need to have my camera with me more often,  but i have caught a few characters.  note the resemblance of the lady on the bus to Amada Lepore of NY tranny fame.  and yes, the old lady in the fur is drinking out of a golden chalice on the street.

golden cougar

the swiss amanda lepore

to compare, the real amanda lapore

Bike Rides

I recently took some videos while riding my bike around zurich and put them up on youtube.  they’re not super exciting but, well it was kind of an experiment and one is able to see some of the city at least.  and also to see rico’s house at the end of the first one.

Matterhorn

A few weekends ago we took a train ride to the town of Zermatt, to see the famous Matterhorn.  We went up to 4,000 meters via several ski lifts….shit was cold up there!  Fun fact — the Matterhorn is what is said to have inspired the shape of the (also swiss) Toberlone Bar.

ski lift up

somewhere in there is italy. somewhere else, france.

jesus popsicle

the matterhorn, from zermatt

Fall has Fallen

Coming from the Bay Area I haven’t have big experiences with this thing called Autumn.  But it certainly has come to Zurich and I have to admit it’s pretty nice.  Not to mention it must offer plenty of jobs to those wanting to rake all day.  We rented a car one day and drove to the Rhine on the border of Germany, through some apple orchids and around the countryside.  Here are some pics of that, plus some of me in Zurich on a nice fall Sunday. 

vineyard changing color

the Rhine

apple farm with fresh juice

 back in Zurich:

rico and the leaves

in needle park in Zurich. there arent any needles anymore

snow capped Alps in background....view from the lake

just posing on the terrace

Jesse and Rico go to Morocco

 

For Rico’s Fall break we decided to head south to sunnier weather and explore Morocco.  Starting in Fez we moved down the coast to Casablanca, Essaouira and finished in Marrakesh where we spend five nights.  We stayed mostly in Riads which are a very popular and easy option.  They usually have between 4 and 8 rooms, facing inward to an open-air courtyard with lemon or orange trees.  They almost always have gardens, and a rooftop terrace and sometimes a pool.   We stayed in two in Fez, both were the best ones all trip and made Fes a great introduction to Morocco.

breakfast in Fez

 

Jean-Claudes riad

 

Riad Mabrouka

Mabrouka windows

 

Bedroom doors

 Oh right, we did leave the Riad’s at some point and explore the city.  We stayed in the Medina, or old town, which is like an ancient maze of market after market after butcher after market after hash seller after hammam after chicken coop, etc, etc.  There’s no way to convey the craziness of walking through these areas with pictures.  

a stroll through the medina

cute donkeys were everywhere

butcher

sausage smoke

Fez is (apparently) known for it’s leather.  They dye it in the tanneries which have big pools of ….ah, stuff and the whole process is terribly toxic and smells so bad they give everyone mint to hold under their noses.  Considering the rest of the smells that assault you everywhere else, that means the tannery smell must be pretty bad.  

Some more random Fez shots:

me at one of the gates

royal palace

 Casablanca didn’t do much for me.  It’s a huge city with not much for the tourist to do unless you want to go to someplace called Rick’s that needless to say is NOT the same as in the film

The only sight they have is a mosque (eh), which is the third biggest in the world, has a light that shines from the minaret toward mecca, and is built across the street from thousands of families who can’t afford to feed their children.  Oh, but at least they have a place to pray!  Forgive me, i’ve overdone it on the religion thing this trip…

a really big mosque. finally, just what morocco needs!

 After Casablanca we headed down the coast by bus to Essaouira, a small town on the beach that was just what we needed.  Spend two days there relaxing in a great little B&B type thing on the water.  And we got hit on by two British girls who were looking for some vacation fun after their days in the desert with only camels as company, ha. 

 

from the roof

 We finally saw our first camels here, on the beach!  They were, of course, for tourists to ride, which I really wanted to but after five men ran up to me trying to get me to, i was too put off.  They were really cute though…

 

camels on the beach

 Some more random pics from the town:

spice pyramids

 

man waiting after prayers

 It rained on the day we were leaving and africa isn’t quite build to handle heavy rain.  Everything seemed to flood in a matter of hours.  Off to Marrakesh!

 

river / road

Our riad in Marrakesh wasn’t as nice as the one in Fez, but was still very cute.  It was again in the Medina which was much bigger than the one in Fez, which meant more peddlers, hash sellers and all around craziness.  The main square, jamaa el fna, is something that has to be seen to be believed.  It’s the scene of an open air market/theater type entertainment venue that happens every night and i’ve never seen anything quite like it.  The monkeys are very cute, but alas, rico wouldn’t let me pose with one on my head, so i settled for a boring snake.

sundown at Jamaa el Fna

fruit vendors at sundown

future lamps for starbucks

dyed wool

mint bushels

i HATE olives

snake party

Cats are everywhere in Morocco.  They eat all the leftovers from the butchers and fish sellers and everything else that ends up being thrown in the streets, which i guess is plenty.  Lots of them are very cute, like this little fella who looked like he was blind in one eye. 

kitten

 Most buildings in Morocco are simple and very plain.  But the ones they choose to spend time on and still maintain are really amazing.  We toured some old buildings, mostly religious schools, but also a couple of palaces.  It makes you wish they could put so much attention and detail into more places…

inside an old school for islam

palace

a hazy sun with mosque

monkeys!

 saw some more camels on one of our famous hop on/hop off bus tours:

rico got in the mood and dressed up, hahahaha

 We took hundreds more photos but there’s too much to show here, so that was just a quick summary.  It was quite a place, much more stimuli than i was expecting.  Quite an adventure and I recommend it to everyone who can get there…..

tschuss morocco!

Food!

So I’ve been taking some pictures to try to show what I’ve been eating and cooking at home mostly.  It’s been a bit of a fusion between American easy cooking and Swiss traditional food.  With cheese of course being the common and most essential theme.  I swear the pictures do not do justice to how good everything tastes…

scraping raclette cheese over potatoes and bacon

Raclette is a traditional Swiss food, very much like fondue in that it’s a bunch of delicious cheese that you melt in this little cooker in the middle of the table.  You get your own little dish to do it in, one slice, or brick, at a time, then scrape the melted cheese off only potatoes, onions or whatever else you’ve cooked on the grill.  It’s delicious. 

raclette...cheese on the bottom

 Another couple of delicious swiss dishes, spätzle and cervelat, a very swiss sausage that we made into a stew…

 

rico's morning muesli

 sometimes i have to fend for myself and get a little lazy:

mac 'n cheese and project runway

 sometimes i try crazy things, like baking blueberry muffins.  it didn’t turn out the prettiest, hence the long shot of them.  But this way i can show more of the apartment as well.  They were a little heavy and took longer to clean up than they took to make. 

only the top four muffins made it to the next round

 And don’t think that i’ve let being far away from mexico stop me…

my guacamole is legendary in Switzerland

it was another burrito night

and i made chocolate cake/muffin things for dessert. thanks for the package mom!

And finally one more night of spatzli, but this time we made it from scratch, using what looks like a cheese grater to form the little doughy drops, it looks a little bit like tiny gnocchi.

A bike, Basel, and Bern

I finally got a new bike!  It’s a quick little road bike, a Peugeot all the way from neighboring France.  It was a great deal and I’ve been having run riding around the city with it.  I think today I will finally go on a long ride, along the river since it’s a nice day.  Here is me and the newest part of the family posing in one of zurich’s tourist look-outs:

speedy and i

The only drawback of having a road bike in Zurich is that there are actually more tram tracks throughout the city than there are in SF, so having tires that fit perfectly within the tracks can make it somewhat nerve racking.  But i’ve learned well from muni tracks and so far so good. And I’m already good at texting while riding on this one, so that’s a good sign

water fountains and rico

 

Me and Rico went to visit some friends of his in Basel which is only about an hour away by train (as everything in Switzerland is) and their new baby.  A very cute, quiet town (it was a sunday in all fairness) with some nice museums and the Rhine separating it from Germany.

 

 

the mighty Rhine

The next weekend we made our way to Switzerland’s capital, Bern, also one hour away by train, to meet Rico’s parents, sister, brother and nephews to see the film Young At Heart and have dinner for his parent’s birthdays.  It was my first time being back in Bern since I spent one night there about 10 years ago.  I recognized a lot of what I saw since it’s a small city, but this time I had a much nicer time.  And i got to see their one bear on display…

not the happiest bear in the world...i wonder why?

the streets of Bern