If I hear another bird sing "cuckoo"

Lacey and I planned a little weekend away to Triberg, Germany for the past weekend. Triberg home of the cuckoo clock and Germany's highest waterfall is only 2 hours by train from Zurich main station and we got a really good deal through the SBB.

So we were looking forward to it and planning what we would do whilst on the trip when we discovered that entrance to the waterfall is shut during the winter months. Oh no! We were worried the trip was going to be a disaster if we couldnt see the towns main attraction but thankfully Europe hasnt even had a winter this year and we had beautiful weather the whole time we were there, the waterfall was open and was as pretty as ever without a pile of snow in sight!

I got the chance to make a new friend called Cindy from Michigan who Lacey met through her au-pair group and had a really relaxing weekend with all the girls who besides Lacey, Cindy and I were my german class buddies Manda and Svetlana!
Our hotel was warm and friendly and we got the chance to see the worlds largest cuckoo clock, then the worlds second largest just around the corner, many more cuckoo clocks for sale and we went to the Pilgrimage church (one of the oldest buildings in Triberg). We also went hiking! Lacey and I have decided to become true swiss and enjoy greenery so we went on a nature trail to the water fall whcih was great! It was fresh and green in the forest and it was a nice temperature so we werEn't drenched in sweat by the time we reached it!

As always I took lots of photos and drank lots of sparkling wine with my friends and all in all had a great weekend.

Im trying to think of more little weekend trips I can do while I am here and really want to see more of Switzerland but internal travel is ser teuer (very expensive) so little trips to Germany and perhaps Austria might end up cheaper....

One chance then your out....

i knew february 4th that i got flashed by a speed camera.

today my boss asked me what i was doing that day and i knew that it was me! so heres' the deal though. in switzerland they dont hvae a points system. they just have major fines. and they're harsh! i was doing 68km in a 50 zone. so i got a 250franc fine. if i was doing one more kilometre over they would have snapped up my license for 1 month.

thennnnn if i get caught again, i could be looking at jail time!!! me - innocent me, in jail!! hahahaha so if you thought i had been here for a long time, then it could get longer.

i am now going to have to drive like those 70 year old grandmas so i can never get caught speeding.

then the other dilemma is that catherine (my boss) said she would pay the fine!! mmm no i would feel bad so i took the money out of the atm tonight but it was so tempting to say "thanks for that" and be 250 francs richer..... or at least not poorer.

but a question..... i was in the SMART!! have any of you people driven a trolley like that.... its like ... unheard of ... that you could get a speeding fine in a smart. hahaha but i did!!

Walmart... or shall we say Valmart?

i am not american so i have no idea why i was so excited to go to the american chain store walmart! laceys boss decided to cross the border on saturday and go to singen germany and invited sara and i along! so we of course came along for the ride and had a ball!!

well after a 1 hour trip AND getting our passports stamped we arrived at walmart.... think k-mart but better! oh my god they had everything and it was all so cheap! i myself went nuts as i do in any shopping centre. everything in switzerland is so expensive and thats assuming they have the brands you want so when i saw things like my hair gel, pantene, schwarzkopf, etc i had to buy it all!! i also invested in some good german chocolate and .... embarrassing i know but some pants too! i never thought i would be such a tight arse but when your earning 200 francs a week, you learn to budget and buy things that are cheap!! so now i have some summer pants and lacey and i also got matching tops for night time!! twins!!

so after our fun adventure we all slept at laceys house on saturday night after a few to many glasses of prosecco and a really good dinner that we all cooked of spatzli and chicken and creamy sauce. i must say sara is a good chef. sometimes i have trouble boiling pasta! lacey also made us american oatmeal cookies so i really did feel like a US citizen on saturday!

that night also we witnessed a lunar eclipse! wow! i have never seen this type of thing before so it was amazing for me to watch the moon slowly be covered by redness. luckily the sky was clear that night but although it went for about 6 hours we just watched the last bit of it because it is still bloody freezing here in zurich!

sunday was also a good day as we finalised our plans for triberg (a little town in germany) so i will be going there next weekend to eat lots of black forest cake!!

all in all a fun weekend and it was so good to spend it with my friends. weekends are still probably the hardest for me becuase that WAS the time that i spent with my family and also when i caught up with all my friends so it is nice to have friends here and see them on the weekend too! lacey and i are a little concerned too about when all our friends go home so we will start some networking soon hopefully!

bis spater (see you later)
megz xox