RTW - VIII - San Francisco - Feb 11th to 16th

I am determined to finish this series, if only so that I have archives come any trip down memory lane

Just back from Las Vegas, it was time to finally chill in San Francisco...

Good times were had by all as I stayed four days at Julien's and three at Adgenie's (I guess Adrien & Eugenie are Adgenie, just like Tomkat and Bradgelina, no?). Under the same logic, I'd like someone to explain how to combine Julien and Julie... Thx!

Some highlights need to be shared though:

The gigantic pillow fight on Valentine's Day

btw, if you like flashmobs, you'll just love that

So I had a couple considerations from the nightlife, given that Julien took me out quite a bit:
- I finally had an occasion of showing off my knowledge of the capital city of Honduras (Tegucigalpa) as I met a couple girls from Honduras at “French Tuesdays”. Yep... Go figure...

- It's official: in North America, girls and guys learn how to dance in hip hop music videos. Funnily enough, the lower the class, the more like it...

- Kindergarten teacher's assistant is a job that exists. And some find me attractive...

- Young girls don't understand me when I negligently say this line after a nerdy joke
“Well, you see darling, in Rain Man, I'm more Dustin Hoffman than Tom Cruise”
“In what? Is that a movie?”
“Pff... A tray... Lord Darth Vader? … Oh Forget it!”
leaves

Well, the pictures album on fb is there...

Cheers,
P

PS: Mysterious Valentine's day girl, you'll be remembered! What a mystery...

RTW VII - Las Vegas - Feb 7th to 10th

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas...

So do the ca. 250$ I've lost at the Texas Hold'em tables... Considering the ca. 7% rake the bank takes I didn't really give money to other players at all, rather the contrary!

I finally healed the itching I had to become a pro poker player. I'm sure I could do it, if I gave it time, but I'd probably die of boredom...

This is still exciting though

And the nights in Vegas, you say?

I haven't narrated anything about going out, so I'm not starting now obviously...

I just think a note is needed about a BFBD, who would repeatedly throw stashes of one $ bills... A better investment than some money wasted in Vegas ;-)

Here's the mandatory FB album, I guess, for the ones not on FB

Cheers,
P

RTW VI - Sydney - February 3rd to 6th

I love Sydney!!

Wow... So I fly to Sydney via Christchurch AND via Auckland... Thank you Mademoiselle, who booked my trip at Zurich airport!

At least I get to shop a bit: Hendrick's for Thomas v/o Fari and an All Blacks shirt for me (after being the equivalent of a big black dude in Japan, I felt entitled to that)

So I arrive in Sydney and, first thing, the customs guy calls me Daniel Vettori, apparently I'm a doppelganger of the Captain of the Kiwi cricket team... OK OK... I'll take it as a compliment!

Thomas picks me up and drives me straight to a Bavarian joint for a so-called Riesenschnitzel... I had had a lot of food in the lounge in Auckland, since my flight had been delayed, but I manage this tiny piece of veal like a German moustache wielding weight-lifting champ... Why do I add this? Because I can...

There follow three days of general happiness with a couple highlights:

I am positively in love with the Opera House :
here my facebook album about it

David Jones – the local Globus, very high-end supermarket... I love it a go shop for a pic-nic and also end up drinking a tomato, roquette, ginger & carrot juice – Fan-freaking-tastic!

Bondi Beach – I think I saw another HSG alum, but didn't have the balls to go and talk to her... Turns out it wasn't her ;-)

Bondi Burger – Oporto is a local fast food chain with grilled chicken, yum yum! Try the Bondi Burger...

Krispy Kreme – my first experience with those donuts, that are apparently so good... Chris Rock thinks so!



Top Gun – this really never gets old... Fari, Kerry & I doing a pic-nic in the park for an open-air movie. Couldn't have been a better movie... To think Fari hadn't seen it... Pfff...

And above all: Congrats Fari & Kerry, I'm so happy for you both!!!!!!

Here the album of my tourism in Sydney

Cheers Mate!
P

RTW V - Tokyo - January 31st to February 2nd

Tokyo was really really fun! Thank you Mio for taking me around...

Eight little considerations about Japan

On business cards, the titles come before the names. In the West, the other way round

On elevators, Japanese people walk on the right side and stand on the left...

They love schoolgirls, and they have bars dedicated to them... The local Hooters I guess!

Manners they tend to bow & clap at lot... and sleep on subways!

Food is fantastic:
- Bean based dessert are surprising but really really good “Age man ju” for example
- Sushi in small sushi places costs ridiculous 120 Yens for two standard pieces on sushi (the price of a cheeseburger)
- On the other hand alcohol is really expensive as they get drunk on three drinks. Hehe...

The beckoning cat is a cultural symbol... And I think it's an origination of the popular brand “Hello Kitty”

The Japanese alphabet is an alphabet of syllables, like Lo Cha Ti... Those are all just a letter. That explains why Japanese brands have such odd names like DoCoMo... In Japan, it's just a three letters acronym!

In Japan, foreigners are called gaijins. And we do inspire a bit of shock & awe... Here are some a prioris that Japanese people have about us (often rightfully so)
- We are rude. Tact, Japan style, goes way beyond our normal politeness
- We don't know how to eat with sticks (my style was adjusted)
- We are tall, blond and curly... Oh yeah, I abused that one too...
- We inspire some fantasies for some Japanese ladies...

Here are my pictures with impressions of Tokyo

Voilà, cheers,
P

RTW IV - Shanghai - January 27th to 30th

Oh God!

I arrived in Shanghai and met Aline in my hotel (I had booked a free SPG night)...

Shanghai is closed seven days a year: Chinese new year... And that's exactly when I was there!

So we ended up eating at my hotel... Hmm... Lasagna...

After this odd start, I "moved in" at the girls: Nice apartment!!!

And right then and there started about three days of nice life in Shanghai:

Museum of Urbanism
Museum of Posters of Communist Propaganda
Element Fresh
Massage parlor
Szechuanese restaurant
Xintandi quarter
Bar Rouge


I was babysitted like a real baby! And got to learn:

Straight ahead, to the left, to the right
Very good
Hello
Thank you
Cold water...

So when I left, all I could say in my approximative mandarin was:

Xie Xie Aline, you're a Bing Shuei guide...

Thank you Aline, you're a cold water guide!!!

Hehe...

Make sure to check out the facebook album

Still thanks! I'll be back in 2010 for the world expo in Shanghai!


P

RTW III - HK - January 24th to 27th

Aaaaaaahhhh, a week-end in Hong-Kong with Lam!

Splendid...

After a plane ride to Beijing and two first taste of chinese behaviour
i) In Moscow at Shermentievo: pushing and shoving and disrespecting queues...
ii) In Beijing, where an airport employee clearly just doing his job went on a rant that I needed to pay him "ten dollars" (about as much english as he knew) for his services, i.e. cabbing me around for 300m as I was the last passenger the flight was waiting for! Oh unfortunately for him, I had no money so I gave him 8 roubles in coins...

These two themes ended up being recurrent so I won't really go into it any deeper. I'll just state that you always have to fight, bargain, push, claim, ask twice or more, and and and... Pfff!

Then again, Hong Kong was fantastic with a couple highlights:
- The flight attendant coming to tell me I'm "golden" and she'll take care of me [read: I have an airline gold status and she's responsible for my satisfaction with this flight]... Then coming back a couple minutes later and asking me with a shy smile "have I seen you on television?"

- Very good nightlife in Kowloon and in Lan Kwai Fong

- Shopping and visiting HK with Lam: Where we ended up being little "Victoria Beckham"s (thank you Vince for the nickname) "Lam? Maybe a pullover?"


- The food was fantastic, especially the Thai with Brad, an american golfpro met in aforementionned Lon Kwai Fong (and also especially after Moscow - Wink to Nico)


- Chinese New Year on Sunday was impressive...


- I loooooooooooooooooooove asian kids, they are the cutest... At some point, i had to stop taking pictures, because I thought I might come off a little politically uncorrect**!


If I was a bit let down by the attitude of some chinese people and really liked the one of native HK people, the attitude I come to disrespect most nowadays is the expat attitude, but that will be the topic of another article. And don't mistake me: It's not expats per se, it's people behaving like archetypical expats/colonialists that make me nauseous...

As ever, for more and spicy comments, enjoy the facebook album

Cheers,
P

** or to quote the movie "In Bruges" (quite good actually):
"What two things is Belgium know for?"
"..."
"Well, chocolates and child abuse... And they only invented chocolate to give to the kids..."

RTW II - Moscow - January 16th to 23rd

Postponed too many times, here's my recounting of the Moscow tales, only the ones you haven't seen on facebook though...

I guess the Moscow Metro must be my first topic...
- After some time I was quite familiar, how do you think I re-learnt cyrillic the hard way?
- after some time I even figured out how to find the nearest exit... It's basically only all about looking for the wet trail of incoming passenger. Clearly visible on the ground. Only later would I learn that 'Gorod' means street! Hehe...

Two little anecdotes about specific Moscow sights: Melnikov's House & the Gorki Park

Melnikov's House used to be one of the only privately owned houses in 'CCCP'. It is a little architecture jewel... But it is nigh impossible to find in the Smolenskaya quarter. I promptly lost myself and found myself in front of the Romanov theatre, surrounded by surveillance cameras, armed tall musculous guards, fancily dressed people, Bentleys and men carrying suitcases... Hmmm... Suspicious? No! I'm just a tourist looking for sight number 27 on the plan on page 248. Any potential picture of the guard looking at my plan and trying to make sense of my person would be priceless... Unfortunately, they don't exist... (all other mentionned items you'll find on my facebook album

Gorki Park is a recreational park, but what I ignored is the fact that the youngsters come here in winter to do some ice skating while drinking beer. That was an eye-opening moment...


On a side note about the architecture, there is a diktat of pre-communist conventions and everything is decorated with the same old same old columns and frontons... This made me think of Howard Roark, I instantly understood what the book constantly refers to as overdecorated heavy and useless parts architecture...
*** Wink to Ayn Rand fans across the world!***

Of course, as in the rest of my tales, the nightlife remains a secret, but I can narrate a juicy anecdote of Nicolas and I in the Real McCoy, a meat market for expats and russian girls...
So Nicolas and I queue for the washrooms, that are common to men and women, when I note, in french of course:
P: "You know, Nicolas, when we were at Etag, a girl and a guy came out of the washrooms and the girl behind me assured me it was a common occurence..."
N: "That's true! At the Real McCoy, it's even almost a tradition... Most have done it..."
P: "Ok, even the girl in front of me?"
N: "Yeah, sure..."
P: "Ok, so if I asked her, maybe she'd agree?"
N: "Well... Maybe..."

And at that point, the girl in front of me flashes us her wonderful smile and retorts without an ounce of bitterness:
"I understand everything..."

awkward silence by N and I...

NICE... We chuckled on the way home...

The albums of the Moscow escapade are online:
Here for the cyrillic cultural sights
and
here for the tourist part

Cheers,
P



PS: Stay tuned I intend to release HK, Shanghai and Tokyo quite soon...

RTW I - Athens - Jan 12-15th

*** Pardon my temporary departure from this theorical opinions blog, but this here is my forum for sharing the new of my travels around the world. Enjoy! ***



I had a great time in Athens, but most of the people who know me will know I am fond of antique history and tales... Hence a lover of old stones too!

What is it about Athens that no one knows?

Well there's three things, that I'd like to share:

i) Athens is closed on Tuesdays... The entire city: Museums, Parks, Monuments...

ii) You should go and drink fresh orange juice, wherever you can. There are oranges everywhere, so juices they know about. I had a fresh orange, carrot & apple juice and it did start my craze. I think it'll hold my entire trip... So far it did!

iii) Athens is very slippery when wet. Being build and restaured with a lot of marmor surfaces that were polished by feet over the centuries, Athens becomes a true ice ring whenever it is graced by rain. Yours truly still hurts from encountering these surface with parts of his anatomy not meant for that kind of contact...

The picture album is on Facebook, but you can view it through this link (even if you're not on facebook!)

Cheers,
P

Seehüsli... Yeah baby yeah...

For more, try this slideshow... (click the cross at the bottom right to access the actual album!

P

PS: While uploading this Picasa-generated mosaic of Picasa-enhanced pictures on Blogger* and creating a Picasa** Webalbum, I also found the time to upload a video for my cousin Vincent on Youtube***

Oh, and I was listening to RadioBlogClub on my iGoogle page too :-)

Thank you Mr Schmidt for taking care of my life! And oh my god, you are so goooooood (this guy is structure, charisma, smartness and... and... and... "You said Microsoft?")

PPS: Here the video...



* A Google Inc. Company
** A Google Inc. Company
*** A Google Inc. Company

Jon's B-day Party - a pretty short album...

Jon's birthday

My batteries betrayed my midway through the evening!
Cheers,
P

Seehüsli in Style...

 

 

And of course the picasa album...

0703 Seehüsli Revolutions

Have a nice day!
P

Morgins - les photos

WE à Morgins, anni de Daph et départ de Vince, 26-28 janvier 2007

Voilà...
P

Photos - Verbier et Noël...

Voilà donc les liens convoités des photos de la fête de nouvel an...

FYCB - New Year's Eve 07 - Hardbrücke & Valzer Bar

... et de Verbier!

Noël à Verbier

Bonne nuit!
P

Mes premières photos de noël...

... sont online! Et c'est déjà presque un backlog du 23 et du 24 décembre!

Noël à Lausanne 2006

Bonne journée,
P

Pics pics vids

La première partie des photos de mon week-end londonien... Samedi soir manque!

London, December 8th-10th

Et les photos de l'escrime cet après-midi avec les collègues du projet - trop cool!

Case Team Event - Fencing 18.12.2006

Le "Bernois détendu" Philippe versus "la petite Allemande toute chou" Anne-Kathrin



Voilà,
P

Backlog - Zermatt pictures part II

Les deux meilleures photos de Zermatt selon moi sont là, mais sur 205 photos j'en ai envoyé 181 en version thumbnails aux participants du week-end... Il y a donc bien de quoi faire une anthologie des meilleures pour mettre online (Picasa Album)!!!

Zermatt 2006

Et pour l'avoir directement en diashow

Voilà, et on se revoit au Pentathlon SAS 2007* les 23-25 mars...
P

* google this! ;-)

PS: Merci aux chasseurs de logs qui ont trouvé l'inspiration profonde de trouver mon blog avec "petits culs zürichois" et "SAS opening Zermatt"... mais aussi les très intéressants "pub motivationnelle", "photo nadal en train de manger de boire", "safran restaurant almaty" et surtout "the girl and the banana"...