A weekend in the mountains

Last weekend I took another break away from Lausanne, probably the last one before the classes start and time reserved for 'life' gets inevitably devoured by 'work'. Marius invited us to his family chalet in Gitschenen, above Isenthal, in the canton of Uri (read: Central Switzerland), so the 10 of us (Marius, Jasper, Pete, Jenny, Pierre-Jean, Maria, Davor, Nino (aka 'the Godfather), Florence, and I (aka 'me')), created a pact and set of Friday afternoon to this little piece of paradise.

I shall not try to describe this picture perfect/postcard area (soon I hope to have the pics on my flickr account (probisvet) - in the meantime check out infogrind), this you have to see for your own eyes. The best part was a combination of everything: good company, nice house, amazing views, no internet/tv/cellphone reception, simple, cheap food in large quantities, and the amazing feeling of being in peace with everything. I really hope to go there again (Marius, if you are reading this, you know what to do :-)). Kidding aside, the best proof of how good it was for everyone was the coffee break we took on the way back, just outside of Bern, where, all of us sitting in a half-circle around the bar, you could see nothing but smiling faces of good friends.



The rare reader will pardon an old fool for his sentimentality (talking to my grandchildren always makes me melancholic). After all, I am just a dreamer, trying to wake up so I can start my work day....

The city of love

This weekend I went to Paris again. It is always an exciting experience: you could probably live in Paris all your life without actually finding enough time to find out all the great things about the city. Predictably, it was my time to find out one of the bad sides: the thieves of Champs Elysee. The victim was my recently bought mobile, which I had placed conveniently on the table in a restau. A beginner's mistake that I am (hopefully) not likely to make again. Apart from the material damage (near 350 euros), I have come out of the experience shaken up, but in a good way. It was, in a way, sobering. For one thing, my jadedness for nice portable phones/toys has given way to resolve that a mobile is after all just a phone, and should be used to communicate, and not much more. Hence, an era of using my flatmate's old Nokia is on the way. And it feels kind of cool.