Mulhouse, or an unexpected day in Alsace.

We said goodbye to Zurich on a Saturday morning, eager to arrive in Lyon, France and see our friends that afternoon.

Little did we know that there was a strike.  Of course.  France, why you gotta be so stereotypical?

The nice man at the information booth told me that the next train for Lyon wasn't until 5:00 that night (instead of the noon train we were supposed to take).  I laughed, and asked him for details, all the while Carl was standing next to me looking supremely confused.  He doesn't speak French.  Anyway...

So began our day in Mulhouse.

It is a very pretty city in the Alsace region of France.  The old city center looked like it came out of a story book.

When Carl and I decided we drank too many coffees, we sat on the steps of this awesome old church, ate sandwiches, and goofed around.

The church had writing on it in German.  This region of France went back and forth between France and Germany for a long time.  There's your history lesson for today.

The SNCF (French railway) was on strike the whole time we were in France, actually.  Luckily this was the only train it ever disturbed.  

I wasn't too upset about it- free day trip!

 

Vive la France!

Zurich, part 3

Zurich was such a pretty city.

I would definitely go back... Especially if I had more money.  The Swiss Franc is pretty close to the dollar, closer than the Euro even.  However, that makes it even more heartbreaking to order, shall we say, a 38 Franc pizza.  We didn't order it- our Air BnB hosts did.  They were sad.  We were told the pizza was delicious, though perhaps not $40 pizza delicious.

Yes, I will go back to Switzerland when I have more money.  I'd like to go to Geneva next time too.

Zurich, part 2

Carl and I often go to the Minnesota Zoo at home (we have a membership) and the last couple places we have gone we've made it a point to check other zoos out.

Zurich was no exception.

The zoo was huge, and the outdoor habitats for the animals were impressive.

The red panda was the cutest, as it slept up in a tree with its little arms hanging down over the branch. D'aww.

They also had an indoor area that is a replication of a Madagascan rain forest.  Amazing.  The temperature and humidity inside were very intense.

There was a 10 degree Celsius difference between on the forest floor and up in the tree-top observatory.  I think it was something like 26 on the ground and 36 at the top?  Plus 80% humidity.

The animals in the forest are free to roam as they like.  That means that you can walk right up to them and see them up close.  That also means you have to be looking very hard to see them.  I was starting to get very discouraged when we were about to leave...

But then suddenly and finally we saw 2 lemurs!  It made all the sweat worth it (gross. But true).

I was so happy.

You should definitely go to the zoo if you're in Zurich.

Zurich, part 1

In spite of the many (MANY) delays, Carl and I were finally en route to Zurich.

After bad coffee and actually surprisingly good Indian food (for an airplane) we arrived, 5 hours late (groan), in Switzerland.  Our airB&B, we discovered, is really nice and right in the city.  We dumped our stuff off, changed, and headed out into the city.

I had no idea what to expect of Zurich.  I literally did no research (except that there is a zoo- more on that later)...  So I have been so pleasantly surprised!

The city is very green- lots of trees and grass.  This is something I am not used to, since I have spent the majority of my European travels in France (aka The Land of No Grass, or, The Land of Grass But Keep Off It Because We're Trying to Keep It Nice).

We strolled through a park and down to the river.  The weather is hot right now, and summer has definitely arrived here.  People were out at the river swimmig and sun bathing.  We saw a guy give his dog a piggyback ride in the water. (Amazing, by the way)

We eventually settled in at a Bierhalle in the old part of town.  It was a nice way to end our first afternoon in Switzerland.  Plus, I got to hear Carl try out his rusty German (I LOVED IT).

More later!

One month abroad

Very soon, Carl and I will leave Minneapolis behind and head for Europe.  We'll be in Switzerland and France for ten days, then he'll head home and I'll head to Sweden.

I'll be learning Swedish in Stockholm for a couple weeks before traveling down to Copenhagen and then going back home.

It sounds really silly to be inspired by a little card that came with your nail polish, but when I saw this a couple of months ago it really inspired me to go for it and go to Sweden (by myself- ahhh!) this summer.

I'm just about ready to leave for my adventure this week.

I've got an awesome set up for blogging abroad all ready, and am ready to take a lot of pictures.  After an especially stressful school year I'm ready to relax and just "get away from it all."  The students have all gone home, on Monday I pack up my classroom, and then I'm free until the end of August.

It's (FINALLY) summer!

Chicago

The girls and I decided to drive down to Chicago a couple of weekends ago.

The weather was perfect, the city was beautiful, and we had a great time on our mini-break.

New Orleans

My boyfriend, Carl, and I recently took a trip to New Orleans for a friend's wedding.
It was my first time in New Orleans and my first visit to "the South."

We stayed in an grand, old mansion (a B&B) located between Uptown and the Garden District.  It was an amazing location, about half way from anything we wanted to do while we were in the city.

We tried walking down Bourbon Street just to see what all the fuss is about, but really only made it a block or two before I was sufficiently hollered at by a drunk dude to make even Carl uncomfortable and we avoided it after that.  It seemed like a frat boy's home away from home.  Not our scene.

Overall New Orleans was great.  We ate SO MUCH delicious food, everyone we met was incredibly nice and welcoming, the weather was great, and the homes and architecture beautiful.  I hardly took any photos at all, I was so busy just being there.  Which I suppose is just fine.  Good, even.  I have heard people say that often you can get too wrapped up in taking pictures to actually be present and enjoy the moment you're in.  

The aforementioned wedding was amazing: 1930s themed, live brass band, outdoors at an historic plantation in Edgard, Louisiana.  I will also say that the wedding was straight up magical.  Everyone dressed with the theme and the music fit in perfectly.  I was also so busy dancing to this awesome live music that I didn't even take a single picture.  
Carl did take a couple shots of me in my dress before we headed out to the plantation though.

Laissez les bons temps roulez, y'all.

ps- I did use my new suitcase, which is awesome by the way, and I did a pretty ok job of packing too.