So, I know it’s been awhile since the last update, but with very good reason. Megan came to visit me from the 27th of December and stayed until the 4th of January. But you must embrace yourselves, because here I am including the nine day adventures of Megan and Dina in Europe.
First, let me start out by saying I hope that everyone had a wonderful New Year’s celebration, and may it bring you all health, wealth, and happiness. Ok, good…that’s out of the way. I think the easiest way to let you in on our adventures will be a day by day play by play. I’m a frickin’ poet.
Day 1: Megan Arrives
This was just the let’s reunite and catch up day. Megan and I went downtown to have some lunch and then we pretty much just layed low for the rest of the day and night. It was really great, because although we hadn’t seen each other in months, we were able to just pick up where we left off…just in France. We watched Bridget Jones that night, too, and for the first time ever, I ordered pizza for delivery. It was supbar, but still exciting nevertheless.
Day 2: Leave for Zurich
I don’t really recall if much was accomplished before we left for Zurich on Thursday afternoon. The trip started off on the wrong foot though because the bus driver at the stop didn’t want to stop for us because we were too slow walking to the bus (we had a big ass suitcase and there was an old lady with a cane…how fast could he expect us to run?). But I hit the bus with my hand to tell him to stop (an aggressive move, yes, but deemed necessary in the situation). But then I got on the bus and he starts yelling at me. And then I started yelling at him. So I got in my first French verbal battle. It was quite marvelous and I had the old lady on my side. And Megan was giving me English verbal encouragement.
Anyway, we arrive to the hotel in Zurich at around 8:30, after only a 50 minute flight. (We were the row behind Business class on the plane, and it was quite sad cause I went to use the bathroom in the front of the plane, and I got kicked out and sent to the back of the plane…My ass wasn’t good enough for business class’s toilet seat). So back to the hotel, we got there and we decided to head out on a night on the town. The people in the hotel led us to Old Zurich, which was in walking distance, and offered many restaurants and bars and all that jazz. So as we were looking at a map in the middle of the street, this guy stops and asks if we need help. So we tell him we are looking for a bar or club or something to do, and then he tells us we should join him at a bar towards which he was headed.
So we go to the first bar, and get a couple drinks and make our friend, Oliver, teach us some German. We also got to meet some pretty awesome other people, namely an awesome bartender from Maine who moved there to be with her boyfriend. In my buzzed state though, I think I offended her because I think I implied how silly it was to move somewhere for a man. I’m not very tactful when I have wine. But she held no grudge after the nice tip I left her.
After that bar shut down we went to the one place that was open, which turned out to be a piano bar. And that’s where the alcohol began to flow freely. We made friends with the bartender there, as well, and he kept making sure that our wine glasses were never empty. And you can’t turn down free wine in super expensive Zurich. So Megan and I kept on the wine, and then some guy (who looked like Frasier) was digging our new friend Oliver, so he bought us all shots of tequila. So Megan and I were dancing around the piano while the piano player (who happened to be from NY and happened to tell me he loves pisces women) dedicated Bon Jovi songs to us. It was a great time…we stayed and danced until the place closed .
Day 3: Lazy in Zurich
Megan and I were reallllly beat from our previous night out, so we made it a lazy day. I opted to be the one to get the food, so I walked back to Old Zurich and got us some McDonald’s. In Zurich, it costs about 15 francs for 2 Happy Meals. It’s expensive. Anyway, I gather my food and make the trek back, seeing Zurich a total of 45 minutes in the daytime. Megan and I ate and then stayed in bed another good 5 hours. We were quite hungry at that point, so we gathered all our strength and courage and went back downtown to a restaurant called the “Spaghetti Factory”. It was really delicious, but that was all the strength we could muster for that day, so we made it back to the hotel and just rested the rest of the evening.
Day 4: Zoo in Zurich
We were committed to making it outside today. We both decided to go to the Zoo, so we took a bus and headed towards the animals. The weather started out being really nice, but got progressively colder. But that didn’t stop us from checking out some of the awesome animals. We got there kind of late though, so I was sorely disappointed when the goats were taken out of the petting zoo area to get fed. It ruined my zoo experience a little, cause that’s what I most look forward to. Yes, I like playing with the goats. We did get to see camels, elephants, elk, llamas, all sorts of fish, bats, lizards, and I am sure more that I can’t think of right now. Oh yeah…Penguins! I like penguins.
So anyway, as the zoo closed we headed back downtown and opted to get some Fondue that night. We found this really nice little restaurant where we had amazing cheese fondue. We ate it as if we hadn’t eaten in years. I think we surprised the waitress with our rapid eating pace, because there were people that sat down before us who weren’t even close to being finished, and yet there we were asking for our check. It was so delicious though.
After that, Megan and I decided to go out again, but this time sans alcohol. We found this place with a dance floor. Of course we were the only ones on the dance floor, but had a really great time just being sober idiots instead of drunk ones. Then we began to head home when, sure enough, we ran into our friend Oliver. It was good to see him, and together we recapped the events of the previous night. We then walked the rest of the way back with him and parted with our Swiss friend. Bye-bye Swiss friend! And that was that.
Day 5: New Year’s Eve
We headed to the airport to fly back to Nice with the intention of going to Monaco that night. After the flight and the walk back home, however, we realized that going to Monaco wasn’t necessarily the best idea seeing as to how tired we were. So instead, we made our way downtown, and went to Wayne’s where we danced a little, and then these French guys shared their bottle of wine with us, and Megan practiced her Spanish with the guy, which was quite impressive seeing as to how she was a) buzzed and b) hadn’t taken Spanish since her third year of high school.
We toasted at midnight, and decided, like every year before, that New Year’s sort of sucks and is a big disappointment, so we took our disappointed bums and went home and to bed. We were probably the only ones in bed by 1:30.
Day 6: New Year’s Day
Today we headed downtown to get some unique type lunch, but all the restaurants were closed or not appealing, so we ended up getting some good old Chinese food. And by good, I mean subpar, but it did the trick nevertheless.
After Chinese we went to the fair they had downtown for the holidays. There wasn’t much to do there but we got some amazing churros and we rode the big ferris wheel, which is a big deal for me, since I am scared of ferris wheels. It lended us an amazing view of the city though, and it was a really awesome day out, too, which made it even better. After our ferris wheel ride, we headed home and just took it easy for the rest of the night.
Day 7: Our busy day
This was a good and proactive day for us. We headed downtown but stopped along the way to go shopping. We got some cute outfits and then we decided to stop at the mall to look for more clothes, but then ate lunch there instead. After lunch we continued to venture downtown where we went and got my nose repierced. It was the quickest thing in the world. I was in and out in like 5 minutes.
We then headed home and bought some groceries to make what would be the best tacos ever. They were delicious. Some new learned advice…ground beef that is meant to use to make a Bolognese sauce works really well in tacos. And so does the French salsa. And crème fraiche.
After tacos, Megan and I headed downtown and went to the Casino Ruhl, which I had never been to, but Megan and I have a slight gambling problem, so what better way to handle it then to share the experience together. It was so underwhelming though. From the outside it looks huge, but on the inside it’s sort of a small with not many machines or tables. We both lost very quickly, so we left soon after and headed to the bars downtown to show Megan my usual hangout spots . We met up with Sapna and just got our dance on everywhere and every which way.
We then made it home and got some well-deserved sleep.
Day 8: Hibachi Heaven
This was another semi-decent day for us. Well, the night was productive, at least. During the day we just chilled and watched movies and what not, but then that night we decided that we would get dressed up and head downtown for a nice fancy dinner. After making it downtown we wandered all around looking for something different and delicious, but nothing really struck us as such. We then decided we could really go for some Thai food, but nothing. So I went into one of the bars I usually go to and asked one of the bartenders if he knew of any Thai places and he steered us to this place called “Samurai” which was a Hibachi restaurant.
Somehow we managed to find it and we were seated across from a mini birthday party for some teenage guy, with his parents sitting next to us. It was like a four course meal, and was really delicious, but Megan and I began to wreak havoc when the main meal came with rice, and we couldn’t quite figure out how to eat the rice with our chopsticks. This struck me as insanely funny, because our effort and dedication was mind boggling. We were even sharing techniques at one point. So I started laughing hysterically, and since we were in close quarters with the other family, it was a little awkward because they were giving us disapproving looks. But those disapproving looks soon turned to laughter, too, because you can’t not laugh when two girls are cracking up with rice all over everything.
After the delicious meal, we made our way to one of the bars to get our dance on. We were dancing Megan and Dina style (aka like crazy idiots) and since nobody else was dancing, we got all sorts of attention. The DJ who normally never says boo to me offered to buy us drinks (but was more than pleased when we said we weren’t gonna drink that night…cheap bastard), and he also took pictures of us dancing for the bar newsletter. It was quite fun, and a really great night to end her trip.
Day 9: Farewell, My Love
This day we woke up early and headed to the airport. Not much to say except this was a pooey day. I was grumpy and miserable for the rest of the day…and got super homesick. It’s bittersweet having someone visit, I suppose. It was definitely great to see her, but her leaving made me realize how much I miss from home. But I guess I only have 6 more months to go, and the first 3 seemed to fly by.
Anyway, now I am back to work and getting back into the swing of things. I’m also already thinking to another trip I can take somewhere, so if any wants to meet me anywhere (wink, wink), I’m game .
Happy New Year, All! I hope it’s starting out well for everyone.
Miss you very much!
XOXOX
Dina
P.S. Megger’s has all the photos from the trip, but as soon as I get my hands on them, I will be sure to send some your way
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