Good Morning..

When I'm waking up in the morning, this is what I see...it makes me kind of excited to get up and look at it. It also makes me think I should find an apartment with an amazing view if I'm going to keep needing to be up so early for work, right? (kidding, M, we're not moving again for FOREVER).

Paris Photos (finally) and a ramble

I finallllllly sorted through Paree pics...

Paris was alright! I liked taking pictures. And riding bikes. And shopping. And drinking wine at the Louvre, and eating crepes. And spending time with my friendos. and Marko. I don't have the parisophilia but I like it well enough!
Mark also made me buy new glasses because he said he hated my old ones because they were too big. Whatever, I got a new pair of sunglasses. Now I wear both!

ok...so enjoy the pics! next on the agenda is Venice pics. Venizia. But tomorrow I'm on the way to a random trip to Hannover (de) for work - in my first week. I have to be up in 3 hrs and 45 minutes. This was not the most well planned day! But it was a great one.

Hi! I'm still here. I keep thinking I'm going to end but I"m chatty.  Today I met my blog friend Nina who is from South Africa and she is in Switzerland visiting. She doesn't have a blog but we've emailed back and forth. Her dog and my dog are penpals. (just let that be). Anyway, we planned to meet at the train station in Zurich but I was late and we must have both realized we Never said what we'd be wearing or anything - BUT...GET THIS...I was wearing a triangle necklace and she totally recognized it!!!!!!! YEAH TRIANGLES YOU SAVED MY LIFE! maybe i'm exaggerating, but now you guys can't make fun of me as they can save really important situations. We had a blast talking over Prosecco and dinner.

And did I tell you that last week I got to meet Jamie from Lyrical Journey? We only had a quick hour (also in the zurich trainstation) for breakfast before her flight but it was soooo fun. On these both occasions I felt like I was meeting old friends.

It's meet a blogger month. Have you met one? I'm making that up of course.

Clearly I should go to bed.

<3

Rome

Hey, is posting photos like this an ok idea? Is it obnoxious? Or do you prefer larger pictures? I can't decide and I had too many photos that I was excited to show.  Do you remember when we had to develop film and then go pick it up and then plan a time with our friends to flip through the actual photos to show stuff like this? Those were the days!

You can watch my photo blog for better displays in the future. Currently there are photos posted of walls. Because I walked around Rome and Florence taking pictures of them. Seriously. I wish I were a passerby seeing me while I was doing that!

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Fasnacht in Switzerland

Our costumes at a Saturday night party (I'm the black swan!)

Before I moved to Switzerland, I had never heard of "Fasnacht" and I didn't really pay attention to Carnival in Europe - but oh. my. goodness. Fasnacht in Luzern has to be one of Europe's best kept secrets - it is a RIOT. Quite literally, actually. For 1 week this normally sedate, courteous, rule following and clean country goes insane. All of that recklessness held in the rest of the year? Unleashed. While celebrations are held throughout Switzerland, Luzern is known for hosting one of the craziest weeks.

(The above pictures were taken during a day parade by my friend Audrey!)

While celebrations can start as early as the January/February, It all officially starts at 5 am (oopsy, edited from 5:30 - you know I wasn't up!) on the morning of Dirty Thursday where Schwanenplatz in Luzern is packed with people in costume, gluhwine and beer is flowing, band music is playing...and it basically doesn't stop until Fat Tuesday. People call off of work for this week solely to spend the time drinking in costume. It's bizarre. I didn't attend the early morning kick off but I did hear the marching band going down the street even in my little village! There's basically two ways to experience Fasnacht - you either leave on vacation to avoid marching band music for a week straight OR if you can't beat them, join them =)

Pictures from my villages celebration

Even the surrounding villages have celebrations, including mine =) I love my town's celebration because it's a little more low-key - you don't have to wait in line forever to get food and drinks and everyone seems to know everybody so there's a laidback coming together vibe.

Anyway, it is totally mental, but if you're up for it - it would be an amazing time to visit Luzern! Last year M and I casually observed the madness but this year we jumped in! Sink or swim! (or get confetti thrown on  you if you're not in costume) =)

Gadaffi Protest in Zurich

If you are following the going ons in Libya than these photos might be interesting to you.  We happened to pass this protest in Zurich (Switzerland) on Saturday afternoon and I managed to take some iPhone pics of it - it was really neat to see on many levels.

P.S. Apparently he wants to abolish Switzerland as a country. Good luck with that!

Giveaway: Your choice of item at a lovely, little shop - enter here!

Lugano, Switzerland

Wow, I don't even know where to begin with this whole trip! The first day was Awful. There was traffic and a whiny dog and not finding our campsite and waiting for a bus in hot hot sun and dehydration and being cranky with eachother and finding out there's no return bus to our site and almost being late for dinner reservations and the heat and it rained on our tent when we didn't have the rain thing on AND a Harley Davidson festival in town! (so our quiet relaxing dinner along the water was a noisy one). I'm not sure we were actually talking by the end of the night because we were so worn out and cranky.
So needless to say the first evening wasn't as romantical as I had planned...
And mark definitely didn't get to see the "relaxing lakeside town" that I had described...
but it did turn around the next day when we decided to skip hiking (the heat, omg, the heat) and laze around town enjoying breakfast, thrifty finds, gelato and street food vendors. 

=)

P.S. The Lucky 7..

Links

{I'm enjoying my new shoes here!}

The weekend is here again - I feel like this summer is going by so fast and it hurts my heart! Mark, my little dog and I are road tripping to the Italian part of Switzerland where we plan to visit Lugano, have pizza, fit all 3 of us in a 2 person tent and then hike (save me now!) in the morning before heading home. What are you up to, friends? Whatever it is - do it to the fullest! (not sure where my cheesiness has come from, but I mean it!)

~~~

• Check out Indie Ink and my picture that was posted there today - It's "a non-profit independent literary and art collective and community of writers and artists who may not have been seen otherwise". I've got mad love for this website!
• Killer kool camera straps 
• Camp Comfort highlighted my dream backpack...I keep seeing them everywhere, it's basically meant to be
• DIY: Design some plates using simple white IKEA dishes...genius!
• I'm very jealous of HoboVogue's old navy green raincoat...how can I get one?! Maybe in black? Can ON just like, custom make it for me, just this one time please?
• I have to spotlight Tayebug's post about why we need to love our bodies - so true!.

P.S. Thanks Jess (Cheap but Chic/Jess's Clothing Picks of the Week) for the fun award! (Diddy!)

Mumford & Sons/Montreux Jazz Fest

Seeing Mumford & Sons last night was just as amazing as it was 2 months ago. They are, hands down, the only band right now that I would brave crowds of smelly drunk people for (and that we did)! I've decided that I would love to see them somewhere in the US now - I feel like crowds here in Switzerland aren't as wild and obnoxious as they would be at home - maybe it's that Swiss reserve I keep hearing about - or maybe us Americans really are just as loud and crazy as people here say we are =)

And...Montreux is gorgeous!! It was the 2nd time I've been there and I just keep loving it - from the city stacked on the hill side, a couple of castle looking buildings in view, the unpretentious downtown area to the cute clothing/food booths set up along the river walk - there is so much to see and so many cafe's to try! My favorite is the churro stand - last time, don't judge me, but I ate 5 churros to myself! This time I contained myself and just had a crepe for dessert.

So, I wasn't so hot in the picture taking department...because...as Nikki would say, "I had more than 2 drinks". But I tried...just had to wade through eleventythousand pictures of random things. Enjoy!

My hot date.

Let me introduce my favorite thing about Switzerland - the lakes and how everyone is always swimming in them. If there is a lakeside - you can jump in - no silly rules and fences and danger signs! You will find people, businessmen, jumping in during their lunch breaks.

Crepes...le sigh...

Look who I ran in to, my DREAM bike!!!!

A moment of silence please, for how amazing Cevapcici is...

Bar seating areas set up along the lake

Some what I wore action
{H&M sequin vest, Zara basic white tee, H&M boy shorts, Gap flats}

Sorry for the picture overload!
Have a good day...or else!
P.S. And you guys, here's my Twitter {@okVillage}

I want a re-play

Our dear friends visited us in Switzerland the past few days, friends that we don't get to see very often, and they left this morning. I am sad sad sad - I might have even cried when they left, I wonder if I am home sick?
We had such a blast and I took SO many pictures that it is unreal. We had a few cook outs at the lake, went to the Zurich Fest, climbed a mountain, ate wild strawberries, visited Pilatus mountain, went on midnight swims in the lake, ate pizza at a pizzeria on the water, talk and talked...and so much more =) And, it was good to spend the 4th with our favorite Navy guy!
~
I'll work on some other pictures, but these were taken around Zurich during the festival =)

Luzern Reception

Last Saturday, my favorite lady and her husband threw a wedding reception for their family here - and since I have this shiny new camera I was supposed to take a lot of pictures!

The reception took place on an old steam boat docked in Luzern on the day of the Luzerner Fest - which meant it was ca-razy in Luzern but we could watch it all from comfortable distance of the boat =)  We started off with an apero on the top of the ship then moved downstairs for an amazing multiple course meal followed by a front row view of the Luzerner Fests fireworks. Later at night we moved to the rooftop of a bar for some dancing but my picture taking didn't extend past a certain number of glasses of wine =) (sorry Jen!)
The night was romantic, magical, warm, breezy - the food was delicious and our glasses were never empty (no, really)...But most of all my beautiful lady and her handsome husband were marvelous looking and spending time with them was the best part of all =)

Village Photo Challenge - 20 Days

I've been spending a lot of time with my camera lately...
(that's a picture of my dog running through a field of grass - look at his ears!)
and
I am hereby officially doing this photo challenge that I stumbled upon. But...I made some changes here and there because I don't think that you really want to see a picture of my mp3 player OR what I had for lunch. Actually I made a lot of changes and it is almost completely different (and a lot shorter)  =)

I'll be starting tomorrow!
If you would like to do one also - post the link in comments under each days post and I'll collect them. I think at the end it would be fun to do a roundup of everyone's pictures (if I get enough!) collage style to see all of the different ones for each day in one place.

The (Revised) Photo Challenge

Day 01 - A picture of yourself
Day 02 - A beach picture that you have taken
Day 03 - A picture of your street
Day 04 - A picture of where you went today
Day 05 - A picture from your morning
Day 06 - A picture that inspires you
Day 07 - Post a picture from a recent vacation
Day 08 - Post a picture from your commute
Day 09 - Take a picture today that showcases motion
Day 10 - A picture that you took at one time that you love
Day 11 - Post one of the oldest pictures you have in your Picture folders
Day 12 - A black and white photo
Day 13 - A picture from last summer
Day 14 - A picture taken with your cell phone
Day 15 - A picture that you edited
Day 16 - A picture of you more than 10 years ago
Day 17 - A picture of what you wore today
Day 18 - A picture of you and a best friend
Day 19 - A favorite picture of yours
Day 20 - Any picture that you want!