Night Walking

I attended a lecture by photographer Todd Hido when I was a student at Sonoma State. His work is beautiful and his attitudes about photography are regularly on my mind. He was my inspiration these last few weeks as I walked the streets, freezing my California butt off.

Reunion in Luzern: Susan and Oliver!

 I met Susan one summer though a Swiss family that lived kitty-corner to our house. Now, ten years later she has a darling, bilingual 4 year-old son and has moved back to Switzerland. We got in contact through our mutual friend and Suky and Ollie agreed to be my tour guides for the weekend. We spent our afternoons strolling through old towns, browsing art museums, watching movies, drinking cappuccino and eating delicious Swiss chocolate. It was perfect. Im so blessed to call them my friends :)

 
      A baby burrito and a baby snow angel.

 Ollies favorite snack is Heisse Maroni, which is simply chestnuts, roasted on an open fire :)

Kunsthaus Zürich

Suky and I left the babe with Grandma today (at the Gold Coast oooooh) and headed down to the Kunsthaus Zürich. The collection is extensive (Suky and I only covered a third of the museum in half a day) and houses many beautiful works including various gems by Cuno Amiet, Frank Buscher, Odilon Redon and of course, Van Gogh. My favorites were the large-scale paintings done by Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler.

Afterwards Suky and I walked down to her favorite restaurant in Zürich, Tidbits. We ate vegetarian lasagna and fried tofu with garbanzo bean salad and I sipped on some Sav Blanc. Wunderbar!!!

Happy Birthday Mama!!

Alles Gute to my beautiful, world-traveling, SUPER Mom. I wish I were home with you to celebrate with a lil glass our our favorite bubbly, Sophia. Cheers! I love you!

A case of the "Mondays"

I woke up this morning feeling a little melancholy. My mood matched the day: cold, pale and hazy from the intermittent snowfall. I decided to snuggle up on the couch, look up flights to Paris and catch up on my "Gray's Anatomy". But after a few cups of coffee and a handful of likor-filled chocolates, I had a new zest for the day. Carpe diem! So I bundled up and took a walk.

Sketchbook: January 17-25, 2012

 I drew this hipster on the train home from Basel one night. Two days later, I recognized him smoking a cig with his friends on a street corner in Claraplatz because he was wearing the same outfit.

Zum Geburstat Schnubble

Karlheinz Weinberger

Today I went to the Museum Fur Gegenwartskunst Basel to see a special exhibition by Swiss photographer,  Karlheinz Weinberger. In the 1950's and early 60's, a small group rebelled against the post-war Swiss ideal by emulating tough-guys from American culture like Elvis, James Dean and Brando. The youth, called "Halbstark" created their own studded and embellished outfits using jeans, chains, leather, fringe, horseshoes, bullets, studs and whatever else they could find. Tough. Cool. They had attitude. They had style, even if most of them looked like gay cowboys. Most of them weren't violent. They weren't criminals, they just wanted to rebel against their parents ideals of conservatism, make out with their sweethearts and ride around on motorcycles...
I loved this show. Afterwards, I tromped down to Marktplatz, drank a beer and looked for a cute, tough dude on a bike to whisk me away...but I rode the train home instead ;)

Babes and Brews

 This beer has banana juice in it and tastes like baby food.

Albbruck

Alles Gute, Mama Cornelia!! (Shes the cute blonde in the blue blouse ;) A beautiful birthday champagne brunch was in order today followed promptly by a nap. (Still jet-lagged?) Dani woke me up 4 hours later to go back for the birthday dinner. Cool! I love this German family... After some bunnies, a bloody nose and an underdog football triumph, we called it a night. Tomorrow? Surprise, another party!!

Guten Morgen, Eiken!

My new home :) Plan for today? Take a run, explore the village, study my german books and have dinner ready for the roomies with out burning the place down.