We only have two more weeks of school left, but right now things are really piling up: I’ve got papers and projects left and right. In addition, it’s spring, otherwise affectionately known as allergy season. Gotta break out the Claritin again. Looking forward to vacation…
…even though I just came back from one. But I would hardly call it a “vacation.” My itinerary looked something like this:
Friday: 6 hour train ride from Lugano to Lausanne
Saturday: 3 hour train ride from Lausanne to Lyon via Geneva
Sunday: 6 hour train ride from Lyon to Wil via Geneva
Monday: 4 hour train ride from Wil to Lugano
It was fun, but as you can see, there was no relaxing. Nevertheless, I don’t regret making the trip: Lyon is a beautiful place and my pictures don’t do it justice. The streets in Vieux-Lyon were especially charming. I don’t think it will be the last time I visit this place. In fact, I could picture myself living in the city for a while, and that says a lot.
Of course, I didn’t leave without taking some souvenirs along: I bought a Gorillaz album and some Lyonnaise honey for René. And for myself, an assortment of vegetable oil soap (it’s apparently my thing), the newest opus from Christophe Maé, and Nolwenn Leroy’s Bretonne. Speaking of which, I think my taste in music has really aged in the past year or so. I remember listening to this album the first time and thinking it was…well, crap. But after listening to some of the tracks again a couple of weeks ago, I now love it. (Bretonne, by the way, is a CD featuring music of the French region of Brittany and surrounding Celtic lands. Some of the songs are traditional, while some of the songs are more contemporary and composed solely for the album. A couple of them are also sung in the Breton language.) I especially love the track Je ne serais jamais ta Parisienne. It’s sung from the perspective of a woman from Brittany who is currently in Paris. She sings to her love interest that she can never be his Parisian because she craves the ocean and the landscape of Brittany. I’ve heard this song first about a year ago, when it first came out, but only this time around did it strike a chord. Don’t be too surprised, I guess, if you don’t like it on the first go. But it’s really a treasure.
The Thursday before I left for vacation, I spent an amazing day with Leah: we spent some time snapping some shots in her room, before going out to “chill” in the meadows by Lago di Muzzano. In the evening, we ate at Zelal’s, the restaurant located on the first floor of our studentbolig. It was warm enough to sit on the terrace, and we had some fun people-watching: you never realize how many people walk up and down Via Sorengo everyday! We must’ve seen at least 15 familiar faces in the two-hours we sat there.
