Swiss MS.

A few of us are turning 40 this year – thank God not me first but Dominic instead. His girlfriend Katharina organized a super surprise party for him at Looshaus, a mountain cottage about an hour outside Vienna designed by the architect Adolf Loos. I was pretty excited about being invited and taking my first long range train trip since arriving.

I headed out on the 8 hour train ride a day in advance, so that I could wander the city and check out museums on Saturday. I took a snapshot of Mozart for my mom, and headed into the Albertina, which I had missed last time I was here.

The Albertina’s collection is neither small nor big, and spans the years I like the most in painting: from impressionism to modern day. The best painting in the museum IMO is View to Infinity by the Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler.

The Albertina also features a bunch of period rooms where you can imagine how the Hapsburgs used to receive people. As an Austrian, it’s cool to know that Vienna was the seat of all things culture for hundreds of years, before the first world war changed everything. Here I am in the turquoise room with my ancestors.

After a few hours there, and with a big shiny sun in the sky, it was time to buy beer, bread and cheese, and go chill on the banks of the Donau.

That night I met up with my hostess Annamaria, a good friend of the birthday boy and his GF, and we talked about male body image over dinner and cocktails at Frida’s, a little restaurant close to her house. The next morning another friend Eli and her boyfriend came to pick me up so we could hit the Loos.

All the guests met up at Looshaus at noon on Sunday. It was a great group of people and we had a blast celebrating all day and night.

Lunch at Looshaus

Sunday Walk

Sunday night UNO – we got into a discussion about breaking the rules and going out while stacking, so we tweeted at UNO to ask for clarification. UNO eventually got back to us the next week.

There was also a Fastnacht or Fasching monster on display in the dining room. Costumes and masks are worn during the German Carnaval and like all carnavals, the idea is to throw everything upside-down on its head, a reversal of the normal order.

That night, a really big storm blew in and rattled the windows of the great room just like in a horror movie. That created a great atmosphere for drinking gin to our 80s playlist. It had started quietly but kept gearing up and up, until it knocked down a bunch of trees in the forest. Monday we took another walk to check out the ravages.

Then it was time to say goodbye, and we vowed to stay in contact, because we had all had such a great time together.

Heading back into Wien, we stopped into an organic farm where Annamaria had ordered over €300 of pork. It was cool to see what life on the farm in the Viennese mountains is like. These farm kids were handling chickens like nobody’s business, and wearing Fasching make-up.

That night, I took the ÖBB Nightjet back to Zürich – 10 glorious hours in a compartment with one slightly weird guy from Bregenz. We each stretched out on three seats and settled in for a good night’s sleep. When I woke up, he was gone and the Alps were glowing in the sunrise.

All that seemed good and well, until the morning of Wednesday the 26, when I woke up covered in bed bug bites, quite likely from the Nightjet. At first it looks like nothing…just wait until it starts to itch.

Having put my suitcase and things in my room the day before, it was time to enter into Fight the BedBugs mode to defend all the nice furniture and clothes that Tanja owns. That includes washing everything in very hot water, putting the suitcase outside, disinfecting my wounds each day with rubbing alcohol, and visiting the city of Zürich’s pest control office to inquire about next steps.

The Swiss have a wonderful way of managing things efficiently but with a personal touch. I was able to enter this office directly and without appointment, where I spoke to Marcus Schmidt, an expert in insects, about my woes. His office was helpful and kind, and I learned a new word that day: Bettwanzenspürhunde – which means bed-bug-finding-dog. I made an appointment with such a hound, and on March 5, our Zürich apartment was officially declared to be free of bedbugs by a handsome German shepherd.

My second snowboard trip was a day outing to Andermatt with my cousin Sandra.

I stayed at her place in Luzern (which is nicer than a deco mag) the night before so we could get an early start.

On the first trip to Zermatt, I had some bad luck and lost parts of a binding that made it hard to finish the second day. Unfortunately, I brought that pech (bad luck) with me to Andermatt and gave it to Sandra.

Looks like a beautiful piste, does it not? This is a photo of where we needed to look for Sandra’s lost snowboard, which was violently ripped out of our cable car by insane winds and tossed like a pebble into over a metre of fresh snow. It took us about two hours to find it…

The night before, I had pushed Ambrose’s full length album Fog on Blue live on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, iTunes, and streaming services to what I knew would be a very quiet reception, six years after our debut EP. These lost songs were made with my ex JB,  and like me, just emerged now from the fog. I am happy for each listen, for anyone who appreciates the music, and proud of us for finishing, so that new things can be started again.

 

 

After several weeks of pissing off the mail service by not having inscribed my name on the mailbox outside, I finally received my Swisspass – the most important card in my wallet. It lets me take most trains for half price. So now the train only costs a small fortune, instead of a large one.

Another important red acquisition I made in the first few weeks was a new soundcard so that I can make night music. Her name is Scarlett 6i6 and with her, I made my first Züri sounds, calling my experiment Scarlett Test Drive.

Speaking of music, here we are at an 80s party in a private space.

After the trip to Zermatt, it was time to start settling in in Zürich. Note: the Z on a German keyboard is placed prominently because so many words start with Z.

The first order of business is naturally Swiss trains. I love them. This is the trainyard at Zürich HB, view from Hardbrücke, looking away from the city.

And still on Hardbrücke, looking the other way toward the city.

With climate change, there is no snow, but frequent storms and strong winds. This is our balcony. The only plant that’s still alive got beaten up a little bit.

Tanja has a dog named Bosco – he’s a beautiful and rather apathetic greyhound. Sometimes we go walking up on Käferberg, the little mountain behind our house. Our selfie efforts were largely stymied by his uncooperative nature.

When you come down from Käferberg, you have a great view of most of Zürich, with the Zürichsee and the Alps in the background. The waitlist to have a little Swiss garden up on the hillside is about 20 years. Notice the sound of church bells.

Another great side effect of climate change: flowers in February. This is a hidden, romantic picnic spot behind the hospital garden house. Yes, the hospital has its own garden house. I’m planning to move in and write the sequel to Lady Chatterly’s Lover.

This is Letten. In the summer it’s packed with people swimming, reading, drinking, making out, listening to techno, and generally bumming around. Right now it’s too cold to swim, and pretty quiet.

This is a typical Zürich alley. The Swiss are more practical than ornate.

One of the most beautiful places in Zürich is Bellevue am See. This is the main square with the Opernhaus in the background.

Eden au Lac, it says on this building. I come swimming here in the summer, at Seebad Utoquai, behind me.

You can stroll in the park along the water on Zürichsee. You might pass Le Corbusier house, nice restaurants, classical sculptures, an outdoor floating cinema called Seebühne, or the China garden. Can’t go wrong here really.

But this is not just a holiday, so it can’t just be a walk in the park….job search must begin, to my chagrin.

The first thing you should do when you arrive in Switzerland is take a snowboard trip to the iconic Zermatt, home of the Matterhorn.

This is me with my cousin and roommate Tanja. She is the best and a big part of why I decided to come live in Zürich this year. We took the train to Zermatt – no cars allowed in this town.

This was the first day. We took a group shot with Tanja, Bea, me, Markus, and Phili. Our photographer is my cousin Sandra, Tanja’s big sister.

Tanja, Sonia, Sandra…it can get pretty confusing 🙂

Here we are on the Italian side, called Cervinia. An important part of skiing in Europe is taking 2 hours for lunch at a restaurant on the slopes, eating fine food, and drinking delicious wine in the sun. I think we could import this to Canada pretty easily.

By the third day I couldn’t handle the altitude for snowboarding anymore so I took a crazy train called Gornergrat Bahn to the top of one of the mountains. There is pretty much nowhere in the country that is not serviced by a train of some kind.

This is what it looks like from the top of Gornergrat.

And now the glory shots with Mr. Matterhorn – super purple Tanja!

And me. I discovered that everyone is better than me at snowboarding here! Which is fine because it means I have the best tour guides who can help pull me when the going gets slow (merci Markus and Phili!!!)

There I was, sitting at my desk end of January 2020, the last few days before the adventure began.

My work colleagues are probably the most generous and kind people in the world. They spoiled me with all kinds of parting gifts.

From Margaret McKay – Switzerland Adventure Map. This way I can find wine on most mountain hikes without the internet.

From the Communications Branch at the NRC – Box of goodies, photos, card.

• The first group at the top is the main comms team in Ottawa. Look at them all jazzed up in their XMAS jammies!
• The group on the left is from Halifax. They button up their shirts and roll up their sleeves each morning to represent east coast science. Big shout out to Cathryn, Christine and Billy!!
• The two photos on the bottom right are my Montreal team – Before (six years ago when we started working together) and After (with me gone on sabbatical). If I survived the harder days, it’s because of these three golden folks: Carole, Line, and Richard.

In the box, there were so many awesome things. I’ll spare you the details but the best part was this aqua journal and owl pencil case. My boss Danielle in Ottawa, who was the mastermind behind the box, knew that writing would be important during this year.

As I read the card with everyone’s well wishes, and contemplated how lucky I am to be taking this crazy trip, two words came to mind: Gratitude and Humility.

So I wrote them down right away on the inside cover of the journal, and just like that, my year had found its theme.

 

People at work weren’t the only ones who had thought of me. My parents had come to visit for Christmas and my mother gave me this card, both symbolic and practical, because she believes life should always be balanced. She included a handsome amount of cash in Swiss francs and Euros for my trip to Zermatt, money that came from my Oma and Opa, to celebrate the return to my roots and to family. Danke Mutti.

And probably the most heartbreaking gifts came from my nephews. Leaving behind my partner of close to ten years was already hard, and our two nephews were determined that I wouldn’t forget them while I was gone. They each gave me a portrait of themselves. Voici Renaud et Xavier.

They also included a music box each. One of them plays Happy Birthday and the other, Eine kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart. That’s a nice coincidence because I’ll be turning 40 this year, I love the night and more than anything I love music . I’m hoping to make some night music here in Zürich.

All of these things found their way into my luggage. Here are the five pieces that made the journey:

• three suitcases of clothes and shoes, so I can be clothed and find a job here
• snowboard gear, for Zermatt and other adventures
• Roland Juno 106, so I can make a little night music

Swiss Air counter guy at the Montreal airport: I love you. You were so kind and generous in not weighing things too closely.

But before I took off, we had a little party at my place, which was a funny mix of people from my German class and my regular friends. Some of us got way too drunk on tequila and went to bed at 7:30.

And with that, I was ready to say Aufwiedersehen – Au revoir, exit Canada and enter Switzerland.