Switzerland and Evian photoblogging

It's been a loooong week, one largely without internet access, and now that I have it, I'm gorging. Saturday night I fly home, Sunday run errands and see my boyfriend and enjoy being able to understand the people around me. It's true - I speak maybe 3 words of French but haven't had any problems, especially with my mom to translate for me. I even bought a cupcake book in French!

More later about the trip, but for now, some photos:




taken in honor of my friend Twanna

Taken at the Musee Olympique, which we visited today mostly because we thought there'd be this sand exhibit. Turns out the sand started to be assembled today...in the rain. Will be up through mid-September, when the public (I think) can partake in destroying the sculpture. Interesting museum, learned lots of Olympic factoids. I loved that they had this whole section on doping, including this:




I snapped this camera porn photo for my favorite photographer (and friend, and fellow cupcake blogger) Stacie Joy

We stayed at a nice hotel in Lausanne for two nights, and ate crepes and went to the design museum Mudac and saw a fabulous exhibit on packaging (everything from potato chips to designer perfume bottles to water bottles) and one on funerary urns (one was for pets and one was a dual one, part for ashes and part for a disc holding all your life's info that someone could then put in their computer and watch/read).

I also ogled this very expensive (I think around $1,500) Jil Sander dress:



I was very much a tourist.



I even went to Starbucks, which horrified my mom, but the sight and taste of Tazo tea made me feel...warm, literally, and, I don't know, just something that was worth the 5 SF. And I was also scoping out potential cupcakes. There was a nougat muffin there that came the closest, but we ate plenty of ice cream, chocolate, pastry, and meringue the rest of the trip, so I didn't really miss eating cupcakes, but I did miss my blog. It's weird, to miss a blog, to miss the internet, in general, but I did. I post pretty much every day there, and to not be able to made me feel very out of the loop, like important cupcake happenings were taking place and I had no idea. Was probably healthy for me to separate from the computer for a bit. I did a lot of "thinking writing," as I call it, meaning mapping out stories or articles in my head. I soaked in baths and finished books; that was a luxury I rarely get.



We took the chocolate train, which went to Gruyeres (raclette and fondue food porn TK - my battery died so those are on my mom's camera) and to a chocolate factory in Broc. Was fun, and great views from train window, also met cool woman from Moscow (who thought I was 27, which made me smile).


Macarons in Evian - didn't try them, but too pretty not to photograph

We spent 2 nights in Evian, visited a flower garden, poked around in shops. I wound up having all of 5 minutes to spend in the casino. I was excited to see new and, you know, French slot machines, but I walked in and saw "All That Glitters" and "Egypt" and "Chinatown." Of course, the instructions were in French, which meant I couldn't figure out how to cash out. I wound up losing just 4 Euro before heading back out to the boat.




Water garden/wetlands preservation center near Evian


I don't know the technical name for this, but I call it "pretty garlic."

Today was the toughest day. I think the fatigue, togetherness, and just challenge of the mother/daughter relationship, or at least, mine, got to us. It wound up, though, with a delightful chat with my friends The Jacksons and then dinner somewhere we'd never have discovered as mere tourists. We ate Eritrean food in a restaurant that's in a former apartment. It was absolutely delicious, tangy and hot and delightful. A delicious and fun way to spend the last night of my trip.