Skiing

Last week-end we finally went skiing in the Swiss Alps. So... Saturday morning at 7.30 we left home for Gstaad and before nine we were buying ski passes for 2 days...big mistake ..because after 8 hours of ski with only half our break for lunch we were completely dead. First day we spend it in Saanenmoser (one of the 6 sectors of the ski area). The weather was very good and we enjoyed it a lot although towards the end of the day was a little bit boring....all the tracks were looking the same more or less. Therefore on Sunday we went to a different area (Glacier) ...at 3000 m was snowing, fog and really cold...Cris got scared because we couldn't see anything (no goggles)and I felt a couple of times.... on an almost flat part. However after descending a little we entered on a arrow valley were there was not so bad so we went without problems to a hut at 1900 m (Oldenegg) were we met one of my flatmates who was drinking wine at 11.00 AM to recover after a party the night before. So we joined them for a cup of wine and we remained for lunch (at 12.00 in Switzerland). With the weather forecast from bad to worse we decided to ski in another part in the afternoon (Eggli-Rougemont). It was quite nice with long tracks and almost nobody around. Below there are some pictures taken the first day.


P.S. I bought a polarization filter and the photos look a little strange... I have to make more test with this bullshit.

Weekend at home

We had great plans for this weekend... we were going to try the Swiss ski tracks for the first time!!! we would rent the material on Friday and on Saturday we would go to the snow...

However sickness destroyed our plans. I caught a cold during last week and on Friday I was still feeling very bad.. so Mihai was magnanimous (imagine he had bought new boots and skis and was willing to try them!!!) but still decided to postpone the skiing for next weekend.


On one hand, I am grateful he didn't mind staying at home so I could get over my cold, on the other I know he will always remember me that because I GOT SICK, we lost one of our skiing weekends.

Murren

Our first trip to the Alps. This week end we only went to check the ski conditions ....next trips will be for skiing.

Arriving to Switzerland

After two days of trip we finally arrived to Switzerland, where we will be living -and working- the next three months. In our way we stopped in Nîmes, where we visited "Les arenes" an old Roman amphitheatre that is nowadays used for bullfighting.

Our friend Rita has hosted us in her house in Zurich until we move to our places on Monday. Today Sunday, we took the car and went to spot my future working place, the WSL institute. It´s going to be great to work in such a nice place. I just hope I won´t freeze!!

Revelion in Romania

"Revelion" that´s how they call New Year´s Eve in Romania, where we went to spend our Christmas holiday this year.

From Bucharest we took a train to Suceava, in the north of the country, and after we went to "Cîmpulung" were we met some of Mihai´s University collages. They had arranged to spend three days in one of the Forest District Hut in the mountains. What a wonderful surprise was to discover that the hut was not a kind of cold woody refugee but a nice house with central heating and hidro-massage bathtubs!

We ate all kind of Romanian typical food that was incredible good. If you ever go there don´t miss the "Sarmale", "Chorba" soup, smoked trout, "mãmãliga" mmmmmmm so good! And what to say about the "Afinata", a home made blueberry liquor. It is so good I brought one liter with me back to Spain.

For the Revelion he started partying at 6 in the afternoon, at midnight we had champaign at -15º and later we enjoyed a karaoke-fire. Next day we went around in the village on a horse sledge, with the snow, jingle bells... so nice!

So, just to make you envious, here you have some pictures: