Rock climbing in Strasbourg

This past weekend I went rock climbing for the first time in France. My friend Scott and I checked out a gym in Strasbourg and it was huge. Apparently it is the largest one in France and the facility was really well equipped. 

Later in the night we checked out the Christmas markets. To be honest they have lost their appeal since I have seen so many already and they kind of have all the same stuff. Plus there was too many people. 

But I think I will make rock climbing a priority during winter vacation as they have pretty cheap 10 passes for 85Euros including equipment. 

Scott

Belaying Scott

Peace from Guebwiller.

I'm on the U of T website

My friend Jeta found this on the U of T website. This is pretty cool, we did some photoshoot with the school for promotion and stuff like 3 years ago - I guess they finally decided to use it :D

http://news.utoronto.ca/recruiters-rank-u-t-grads-first-employability-canada-13th-world?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=News&utm_campaign=Generic

Peace from Guebwiller.

Thanksgiving dinner & Fete de Lumieres

This past few weeks I had a Thanksgiving dinner at my house and invited a few of our close friends. This was my first time celebrating Thanksgiving on the American date.

Last weekend I checked out Fetes de Lumieres in Lyon once again. The whole city was lit up for this festival and it is one of the biggest festivals in France. The displays were spectacular and there was a sea of people but overall it was really worth it. I kind of wish I picked Lyon now as my city as everytime I go back I never want to leave!


Peace from Guebwiller.

Trip to Lyon

I made my first trip to Lyon last week. I did not have work on Monday and |Tuesday was rememberance day so I took full advantage and went to Lyon to meet up with my friend Brian.

Brian is a software developer and he is doing a solo backpacking trip across Europe right now. I haven't seen him since University when we did FLC together. Now he is taking a much needed break and traveling across Europe for 2 month on his banked vacation times from the past three years.

I met up with Brian and his new friend Breana who is a nurse on a backpacking trip herself. It was really interesting to hear her story. Beanna is a nurse from Saskatoon who saw her whole life changed because of an accident. The details of which resemble something out of a movie like 127 hours. She was driving to work when her car hit an icy patch and slammed into the frozen river. She kicked her broken windshield out and swum in freezing waters and shore and safety. In the process breaking her collar bone and changing her life view. That was just last year in September and now she is traveling the world because she realizes how fast things can change. Anyways I really liked her attitude and invited her to crash at my place if she ever comes to Alsace. Here is the story from CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/breanna-pegg-feared-she-d-die-after-car-plunged-into-river-1.2488905

While in Lyon I also went to a couchsurfing meetup where I met some really cool people including a French chef working for the most famous chef in France, a Japanese German dude who bicycled all the way from France to Japan in one year. And of course my couchsurfer Fred who took us all over the city and opened his home to me and cooked me wonderful breakfast everyday.

Roman amphitheater still intact and they hold concerts here!

Brian and I 

Found a stop sign, carried it around for 2 days. I was going to bring it back to my house but in the end it was confiscated in the museum and we almost got arrested lols! This thing weights a ton, really sad I didn't get to keep it!

I really like Lyon as a city, it is very organized with lots of bicycle path and many things to do and see. But unlike Paris it is not so big that it gets confusing or congested. It kind of feels like the Busan of Seoul. And of course if you know me you know how much I loved Busan!

I have plans to come back to Lyon for the fetes de Lumier in December with my friends and check out the biggest festival in France.


Peace from Lyon.

House Party!

So I organized my first house party in France this weekend. We sent out the invitation to our closest friends in Mulhouse and Strasbourg and were fully not expecting anyone to come on account of the distance and difficulty in getting here. But in the end it was a big success and Scott and Liz came out!

So Scott is an English assistant from Mulhouse who broke his leg before school started. So he has been in a cast this whole time. But luckily over the break the cast came off and so he wanted to use his new found legs. He was lucky and was dropped off by one of his teachers who lived in Soultz the town next over. Liz is an American assistant from Strasbourg who is super fancy. In fact the first day of training I pointed out how fancy she was and we started to sing Iggy's fancy and dance spontaneously. What I am trying to say is she is pretty cool :D

We cooked dinner together and the conversation kept flowing. I was thinking of doing some drinking games prior to the party to get people to talk but there was really no need as everyone geled. Also we spoke most of the time in French because my roommate Loic is French and can't speak English!

Because Liz and Scott couldnt catch a train to get back home since we live in Guebwiller they stayed for the night sleeping in my room. And on Saturday we all went for a hike in the surrounding vinyards and had some more of Anna's cookies.

All in all a very successful and fun house party! Going to try to organize more of this.

Candid shot

I believe I said: "Quick - look like you guys are having fun"

Soultz

Scott the coat monster since he didn't bring any sleeping bag I used my coats to cover him haha. 

Peace from Guebwiller.

Quick trip to Germany Fribourg

My friend Aimee visited me from Bordeaux after I came back from Geneva. I met Aimee at the Canadian embassy when we were both doing our visa paperwork and we also took the same plane over.

We had originally planned to go to a couple of places. However, the lack of transportation in Guebwiller and the expensive trains prevented that. So in the end we decided to only visit Fribourg in Germany. Fribourg is about a 1 hour train ride away from where I live.

We were lucky and found a couchsurfer Steffen who took us in for the night. Steffen is a social worker (I seem to always stay with social workers haha) and his roommate is in a band called the Maladroits and is pretty famous. Steffen gave us some tips of food to try out and we did just that in the morning when we parted ways.

Add caption

Kazlespatle - cheese pasta

Peace from Fribourg.

Finally home!

I arrived in Geneva about 11am after climbing some 500meters with my bike. It was definitely a tiring ride, and I am so glad I didn't use my fixie for this trip.

I quickly went to the train office to buy my tickets, but it turns out there is a bunch of extra charges for the trains in Switzerland including a special fee to bring bikes on board and a special fee to cross borders. All in all I paid 70 Euros to get back. When the price for going to Grenoble was double the distance and only 32 Euros. I guess its true what they say everything is more expensive in Geneva.

I should have checked out more sights in Geneva but I was so tired and eager to go home to sleep on my own bed for the time being that I left Geneva at 12:45 and finally now I am writing this post from the comfort of my own home :D

The total distance I traveled with my bike is about 159km according to google maps. But with all the detours and getting lost I estimate it to be about 200km.

Total money spent is about 220 Euros including the train tickets which were 100 Euros. For a total of 4 nights and 5 days of traveling :D Couchsurfing and staying with friends and airbnb definitely cuts down on the cost.

Peace from Guebwiller

ANNECY hike and doge!

Today the weather was perfect for hiking.  Jeremy and Arrien invited their friend Cynthia and her dog which is a hyperactive husky.

We drove over to the mountain just off the lake of Annecy and started our climb.  The mountain went through the color spectrum as we ascended. The green of the foliage turned to yellow and brown as we got towards the middle and finally back to grey and green again as we arrived at the peak and saw the surrounding regions. 

We arrived at the top and had a picnic in typical French fashion with baguettes and cheese :-)

We are finally now back at home after our exhausting 4 hour hike.  Jeremy is cooking some tasty chicken as I write this blog and prepare for my bike ride tomorrow. 

Around 10pm two new couchsurfers arrived for the night. They are from England and are traveling musicians on a world tour right now. It was really interesting hearing about their stories of buskering on the streets and various places they have been to. 

We turn in pretty early for the night as Ariane and Jeremy had work in the morning. 

Crapu the most hyper dog I have ever met in my life. But he was a big help in climbing as he literally pulled you up the mountain haha. And he is so fluffy!!!

Ariane, Cynthia and Jeremy enjoying the view

Peace from Annecy.

ANNECY and Jeromy and Ariane

I arrived in Annecy pretty early in the day.  My couchsurfers Arianne and Jerome were out for the day on their hike so I took the time to try to bike around the lake and explore their historical old Town. 

I arrived just in time for the Saturday market where vendors were hocking their various knick knacks.  To be honest it all looked like stuff you wouldn't want anyways (and at exuberant prices) but I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure. 

The old town is very similar to Colmar with a river cutting through the middle. I wandered around aimlessly and checked out some of the ice cream and crêperies. 

After I took a leisurely bike around the lake but failed to finish because it's quite a big Lake.  Finally at night time I met up with my couchsurfers Arianne and Jeromy who were so nice and I cooked some Chinese stir-fry for them.  By now I have perfected the recipe so it turned out much better than last time.  They invited me to their friends going away party where I met a bunch more people and schmoozed some more.  Finally we headed back on our biked after a long day.

Originally I had planned on staying for just one day but Arianne and Jeromy convinced me to stay for an extra day and we have plans to go hiking today with their friend from out of town. 

The central tower used to be a prison

Peace from Annecy. 

Funicular and Aix les Bains

I said goodbye to Cassandre bright and early today to start my bike trip.  My final stop for the night is Aix les Bain where I booked an airbnb host for $22 a night. 

The road towards Aix les Bains was relatively nice with some small sections covered in gravel. I mostly dismounted on these roads to prevent my tires from popping. 

About 1 hour into my trip I came across the funicular to the alps. This is the largest funicular for these mountains and the steepest in the world with the incline almost going vertical at some points.  The ride up is about 20 minutes and I was able to bring my bike (even though I didn't use it up there). 

The view from the top is spectacular.  But also quite chilly even with the sunshine we are having.  There is a famous event called Icarus every year where people paraglide from the top of this mountain in costumes and wacky outfits.  Unfortunately I missed it by a month.  But the nice weather did bring good out a dozen paraglide who took to the skies.  And I got first row seats watching them take off.  In fact there was a family who was my cable car and they were all doing it together! At first I thought their big backpacks were for hiking,  but it turns out they were carrying parachutes!

Anyways the paragliders lined them out on the launching area which is this big field sloping down towards a mountain with no safety barriers.  They had to wait for the right conditions and then quickly took sail by fanning their chutes.  It seems there is a lot of skill involved in take off as you don't want your chute going before you as you are running towards the cliff.  I saw some paragliders bail at the very last minute and I was holding my breath for them as there was no barriers. One person almost fell off the cliff when he bailed. 

By the time I finished watching and took the cable car down it was already 1:30 and so I got back on my bike and continued on.  I passed my Chambéry and quickly grabbed some food and recharge my cellular before heading out. 

I finally arrived in Aix les Bains around 6pm and quickly found my airbnb host's place.  After a quick meal I recharged for the night and prepared for the next day. 

The launch pad - stitched together a couple of photos for this

Peace from Aix les Bains