Weekend in Geneva

Hi friends!  Happy weekend!  It is Sunday evening in Geneva, and it's been a great weekend for me.  More on that below, but first, let me show you some gorgeous pictures of the lovely (weekday) weather we've been having!

Lakeside run after work

 

Lunch on the patio

Still sunny at nearly 7pm.  I love the longer days!

Apparently, this is what Geneva is like in spring and summer.  Masses of people just hanging out on any grassy space, soaking up sunshine.

We saw a swan and her babies!

I've discovered an awesome salad place near my apartment.

Friday lunch in the sunshine!  Lamb kebab with pita and yogurt sauce served with couscous and romanesco cauliflower.  Berry tart for dessert!  Seriously, this is the best work cafeteria ever.

Our yoga teacher didn't show up on Friday night, so we went for rose instead.

As noted in the picture above, I had planned to go to yoga on Friday night with some girlfriends, but I guess there was a mix-up with the schedule, so nobody showed up to teach!  Lauren and I happily spent a few hours soaking up the sunshine before heading out to dinner.  

Saturday I was up early, sipping Nuun and eating peanut butter toast as I got ready for my last long run before the Geneva Half Marathon!  I did a (solo!) TEN mile run through the Geneva countryside!!  In addition to the beautiful scenery, it was a great confidence boost, as I did the whole run feeling strong and happy :)

Such a nice change from my typical lakeside runs

Mountains in the background

 

It was such a peaceful area

Vineyards - I can imagine it's gorgeous to come through here when there are leaves on the vines!

Hello!!!

The end of the route led me back through some roads into town

And then I could see the lake below!

This was the longest run I've ever done that wasn't an organised event.  I feel like I'm really hitting my stride with running (thanks to the encouragement of friends!), and I hope that I keep this up.  I was really pleased with the way my run went, and I'm looking forward to next weekend's race!  Saturday afternoon was spent running errands (while wearing my compression socks), and then on Saturday night, a group of us went out for Korean BBQ!!!

Seafood pancake is my jam

Bibimbap!

The banchan was less than impressive, but the meats were pretty good!

Funny story - we had all planned to meet up before dinner for a little cocktail hour.  I suggested we meet at Barbershop, a bar that is always packed, because it's pretty easy for everyone to get to, and it was right next to a tram stop that would take us straight to dinner.  We had planned to meet at 6:30pm since our dinner reservations were at 8.  Around 6:25, I got a text from one of my friends saying that they were at a different bar because Barbershop wasn't open yet!  Total fail on my part, but honestly, who would think that you need to check to see if a bar is open at 6:30pm on a Saturday night?!  Only in Geneva haha.

Anyway, today has been pretty low-key, as all my Sundays are :)  Some brunch, some market wandering, some hanging out on the water, some ice cream, and some coffee.  Perfection!  Have a great week my friends!

Yum!

Spring!

Hi friends!  How are you?  Geneva has been gorgeous lately (but not so much on the weekends), and I'm enjoying the sunshine and warmer temperatures!  Luckily, it stays light outside until well past 8pm, so even though the weekends have been grey and rainy, I've managed to bask in some of the nice weather!

One of the things that I missed the most when living in Singapore was a lack of seasons, and this time of year is really refreshing for me!  The crisp air, the longer days, the fresh produce!  After having eaten many of my meals at work or on the road during the past few months, I have really enjoyed being home and being able to cook!

Remember how I couldn't afford berries in Singapore?

I made this salad three times in three days.  It's that good.

I got a juicer!!!!!!!!

Other glorious things about spring include more running!  I did nine miles on Saturday with my pal Courtney, and although it was a grey day, I have to think that the spring temperatures are what helped push me through!  (It certainly wasn't the three course meal and the red wine from Friday night!)  The Geneva half marathon is only two weeks away, and I'm feeling (pretty much) ready.  Woo!

Other spring happenings lately include some spring cleaning of my apartment and attempting to grow some herbs in my windowsill.  Stay tuned haha.

Parsley and chives

Basil

Budget friendly

I ran across this Huffington Post article the other day detailing out the five cheapest places to go in Europe right now.  Lucky me, I have been to or am going to all five of these places!

So this counts as saving money, right?

Post-Easter holiday in Amsterdam

Hello friends!  Happy Tuesday.  This week is another four day work week for me because I was still on holiday yesterday!  Since I knew that I wouldn't be able to travel anywhere for Easter (I wasn't 100% certain that I would wrap up my project at work in time!), a few months ago, I planned to take a long weekend in Amsterdam!  Amsterdam is one of the cities on my Swiss Bucket List, so I was very excited to explore!

Friday was pretty low key since we got in late.  We had originally planned to go see the tulips on Saturday, but the forecast was pretty crappy, so we thought we would try the museums instead.  We were disappointed when the lines for the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh museum, and the Anne Frank house were all crazy long!  I guess everyone else had the same idea as us.  Luckily, the weather turned out to be (mostly) alright, so we spent most of the day wandering the city.

Rijksmuseum - beautiful building, but there was no way I was going to wait in the enormous line!

Strolled through this lovely park

Waiting out a storm over some gin & tonics

Finally the sun came out for just a minute!

I had heard that Amsterdam actually had quite a lot of international cuisine (probably because Dutch food is not really a thing), and since the international dining scene in Geneva is a little bit lackluster, I was excited to get some good Asian cuisine!

Of course, we went for Vietnamese!!  My friend Lauren and I had just been talking earlier in the week about how she had never had Vietnamese cuisine, so I figured this was the perfect time to try!

Sunday morning, we woke up to sunshine!!

The canals are so much prettier with blue skies.

Ramen for lunch!

We stopped into this really cool tea shop in the afternoon.

Sunday night, we also had an (unpictured) Tibetan meal.  I had never had Tibetan before, and while it was good, I wasn't overly impressed.  On Monday, it was time to go see the tulips!  The journey out to Keukenhof was longer than I had expected (about an hour each way), and a lot of the gardens weren't in full bloom yet, but it was still a lovely morning!

Back in Amsterdam, I chose to have ice cream for lunch.  There was (finally) no line at the Magnum shop, so I happily paid 4 Euros to design my own bar!

Tons of toppings

I went with dark chocolate, topped with pistachio, coconut, and caramel!

More wandering

I saw these old ladies hanging out on the sidewalk outside a bar.  They seem awesome :)

A late afternoon snack and some people watching with this cutie

My flight back to Geneva wasn't until 9pm last night, so it was great that I got to spend the whole day in Amsterdam, but I am exhausted today!  I'm hoping to get a restful night of sleep, but I'm happy that tomorrow is already Wednesday.  Hope you are all having a great week!

Happy days

Hello friends!  This week has been flying by, thanks to that long weekend.  After several months of lots of work, I am finally in a week where things are much more calm.  My work days are busy, but not long, and the sun has been shining - hooray!!

They are changing the clock!

Easter weekend

Hello friends!  We have a public holiday here in Geneva for Easter Monday, so I am very happy to have the day off today!  The four day Easter weekend has been exactly what I needed.  I've spent a lot of time just relaxing and catching up on life.  It has been perfect!

Thursday, as I was trying to hammer away at some last minute things at work, my friend Katie texted me to ask if I wanted to ski the next day.  I had planned to just use Friday as a total veg day, but the thought of squeezing in one last trip to the slopes was too tempting!  I had three other days to relax, right?  So Friday morning, we got on the train and headed up to Villars!

Beautiful blue skies in the morning

Katie is also a beginner skier, so it was perfect that it was just the two of us.  We cruised around the blue runs, enjoying the sunshine, until it was time for lunch!

It was warm though - we were both sweating from all our layers!

After lunch, we checked the train schedule and decided on a departure time.  As we were heading down, the weather really started to set in, and the fog was SO bad.  There were some parts where I could barely see in front of me!!

We tried to stay close behind some other skiers

But honestly, you could hardly see a thing!

At one point, I was really nervous about falling off a ledge or something because the visibility was so poor.  Luckily, I looked over the edge and saw a field of green grass about one foot down.  It is definitely becoming spring!

As we walked back through town, we both commented on how everything in town looked like springtime - we actually felt a bit silly in our ski clothes!

Me in my ski clothes standing next to a bubbling brook - no sign of snow anywhere in town!

We made our way back to Geneva, and Katie served me some delicious Thai chicken soup!

Saturday, the forecast called for rain, but I saw sunshine outside and a gap in the radar, so I headed out for a run!  I wanted to cover 8 miles, but my legs were really sore from skiing the day before, so I only ended up managing to do six.

Lakeside flowers

Lovely Geneva!

If only it would warm up just a bit more!

I spent Saturday running all of the errands I have been ignoring in the past month.  The rain did finally come, and I took that as a sign to just stay home and relax for the night!

Easter Sunday involved a lovely meal and a trip to the theater!  Colin and Katie invited me over for a late lunch of pork chops with apples and onions, roasted asparagus, and baked sweet potato.  I brought a salad with a fresh strawberry dressing that I found on Pinterest - it was all delicious!

They are on Whole30 - can you tell?

In the evening, we went to something called OperaMania.  It was a combination of opera performances and ballet performances.  Colin and Katie are big music buffs, and I obviously love the ballet, so I thought it was a good choice for us!  It was a decent set of performances - something different, for sure!

That's all for now friends.  I am hoping to have an easy week ahead.  Lots of catching up to do at work, but hopefully nothing too stressful.  Hope you all have a great Monday!

Seen on my run today - the beach (Baby Plage) with snow-capped mountains in the background

Today

Today I am tired.

Work has been pretty intense this past week.

Today at lunch, the pizza du jour was "Hawaii". Imagine my surprise when it came out with pineapple, corn, and chicken on top!

Four day weekend!!!!!!!!!!