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ramblings

Pinspiration: places I’ve never been

by Elisa on January 19, 2012

in ramblings,Switzerland,travel

If you know me personally or if you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you no doubt know how much I love traveling.

Source: etsy.com via Elisa on Pinterest

Do you remember what it felt like to meet a cute boy or develop a new crush as a teenager? The excitement, the nervousness, feeling giddy, like you have so many emotions building up and fighting to get out that you are not sure if you are going to explode in a fit of giggles or start crying from the sheer emotion overload? Thinking that he was absolute perfection, often simply because he was so uniquely him? Wanting to sometimes just stare and take it all in?

That is how I feel when I visit a new place.

The excitement starts mounting up when I book the trip, and keeps on building while I wait for the time of departure to come, while I do research, look at photos, plan possible itineraries, imagine getting lost in little streets and interacting with locals in the most mundane, normally unexciting ways.

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Packing for the trip might occasionally get my mind off things for a brief moment, because I am a tad neurotic about packing just right. But by the time I board the plane/train or get in the car, the excitement usually prevents me from taking a nap or focus on a movie or book (with the exception of guide books, of course.)

By the time we actually get there, the excitement has reached stratospheric proportions and I can barely handle it. When our destination finally appears into view I often have to fight back tears, in part from sheer relief that we actually made it there, despite all the organizing and budgeting and suspended flights and such, and part because OMG!! We are there!!

Because of money and time constraints, this year I probably won’t travel a whole lot.

My trip back to New York, the one I have been planning for months? Not going to happen.
I am crossing my fingers that I’ll manage to sneak a weekend in Berlin in the fall and perhaps a few days somewhere pretty during the Easter weekend, but really, it’s all up in the air and aside from my trip home to Sardinia in May, I could easily be stuck in The Great Land of Cheese and Chocolate for the whole year.

Just saying that aloud (or typing it) makes me feel… not unlike a beached whale.

To fight those feelings (frustration, disappointment, beached-whale-ness) I decided to go on Pinterest and take a few virtual trips by looking at some of the gorgeous photos of places I haven’t yet visited or places I have already traveled to and would love to visit again (and again, and again!)

but frankly I was just getting more wistful and my mood showed no improvement.

So I decided to focus on something that’s much easier to accomplish: lovely places within Switzerland, or at least at driving distance from Zurich. Why feel all travel-deprived when I have some gorgeous places fairly close to home?

Here’s the list I came up with:

a view from the Kapellbrücke

40 minutes away: Lucerne
Sure, I have been there before, but there’s so much more to see! For starters, I haven’t even peeked at the old town, nor walked along the Rathausquai; I haven’t seen the sleeping lion nor taken a boat trip on the lake. Plus I know Krystal wants to show me some cute boutiques.

Source: google.com via Emily on Pinterest

1 1/2 hours away: Bern
Aside from arriving at the Bern station a couple of times when I went to visit M. and a walk through the old town when we went to get our Visas before moving to NY, I haven’t seen Bern – I mean properly visited it, the kind of visit that a capital city or any city so rich in culture, history and beautiful  architecture actually deserves. Must change that.
Before the year is out, I plan on visiting Bern properly and spending time exploring, photographing and enjoying the best this beautiful city has to offer.

1 hour and 40 minutes: Lindau
My husband suggested a trip to the Bodensee a few times, but frankly, with all the lakes we have in Switzerland I have a hard time keeping them straight. Now, the Bodensee is actually Lake Constance for those of us not of the German-speaking persuasion, part of which is in Switzerland, and part in Germany. Lindau is a lovely island on the German side of the Bodensee – excuse me, of Lake Constance. And based on a few photos I have seen, the place warrants a visit. Or two.

2 1/2 hours away: Lugano
Lugano is in the only Italian-speaking canton in Switzerland, Ticino (or Tessin, if you prefer Deutch). To get there you cross one of the longest tunnels in the world, the Gotthard tunnel, which is roughly 17 kilometers long. While that is no fun if you have even a hint of claustrophobia, you are rewarded on the other side by a taste of Italy, literally: not only because of the language, but the climate is very different, much milder and more often sunny – the picture is complete when you see palm trees, something you don’t spot very often in the German part of Switzerland.
Though we briefly visited Tessin (Locarno) on our way to the Lago di Garda a couple of years ago, I haven’t been to Lugano since I was pregnant with Sarah. Which is, like, forever ago.

Como - Duomo, from the 4th floor 3 hours away: Como, Italy
We passed by Como on our way back from Lake Garda, but it was a very cold day and we wanted to make sure we wouldn’t get home too late, so we only spent a few hours there. However I really loved Como, and I have been meaning to go back since. And I promise it’s not because of the nearby designer outlet – though bonus points if we pass by there and I score something good.

Now, that should keep me busy planning and not make me feel too travel deprived, right?

In fact, I will pitch the idea of an Easter trip to Como to my husband tonight. Wish me luck. Or the patience to persevere until I’ve convinced him.

 

{ 21 comments }

Pinspiration for the New Year

by Elisa on January 1, 2012

in my dazzling personality,New Year,ramblings

Source: printpattern.blogspot.com via Jeanne on Pinterest

Ah, here it is, the new year.

Welcome, 2012! Looking good.

And so, true to form, I have been working on my New Year Resolutions. 2011 was a pretty good year; tough in some respects, but it left me with a new clarity. A clarity that brings me to actually believe the old adages and words of wisdom and inspiring pins that encourage us to focus less on the material, the superficial, the smoke and mirrors in life, and focus more on what really makes us happy, the stuff that cannot be counted… and yet it counts the most.

So this year I begin, like years before, wanting to be better. But it comes from a different place.

Wanting to be better now doesn’t come from believing that where I am and who I am now isn’t good enough.
It doesn’t come from seeking acceptance.
It doesn’t come from an almost constant “sink or swim” feeling.

And so forget the S.M.A.R.T. goals, the measurable ones, the ones that make me obsessive and even more neurotic. I have found that the best way to get going is to get inspired. So please welcome my assistant Pinterest, ladies and gentleman, who will help me illustrate this concept. In other words, welcome to Pinspiration for the New Year!

 

Something I blamed my unhappiness on in the past was the fact that I lived in Switzerland. I was always ready to admit that Switzerland is beautiful, but I found it cold, both in climate and in character, and I didn’t like the language; I missed my favorite shops and hated that they didn’t exist here, I hated how hard everything seemed to be.

And yet once I stopped resisting it and let it all wash over me, the language, the sometimes less-than-friendly attitude, the local shopping choices, the food, everything…. I found it didn’t bother me nearly as much. It stopped being a fight and it just started feeling normal. I wasn’t resisting it anymore, so it didn’t feel like an imposition.

And if living in the moment means stopping and wishing you were elsewhere and enjoying being exactly where you are now, then Switzerland, Zurich, is exactly where I am meant to be.

Bellevue

So this year I am going to do just that: live in the moment and enjoy being here. I am going to make a life here. And if sometimes I wish I could be somewhere else, so be it. That’s more than natural, and I’ll just have to focus on quenching my inborn wanderlust by visiting one (or more) of these amazing places:

Prague

Berlin

Rome

Paris

Another thing I often blamed my unhappiness on in the past was my weight. So I spent years dieting and punishing myself, and wishing I didn’t enjoy cooking and eating delicious food quite as much as I do. And I only made myself more miserable.

But… surprise! I didn’t lose any weight this year, in fact I may have even gained some, and yet I am happier and more serene than I ever remember being.

So my New Year resolution isn’t to swear off all delicious food and workout obsessively. It’s to take care of myself. It’s to be kind to ME. And if that means an Easter brunch with the family, so be it. But if food turns into a drug, something not enjoyed but grabbed out of stress or boredom, something you use to drawn your sorrows or not face that upset… that’s not being kind to myself, it’s not living in the moment. It’s a reaction to fear and uncertainty. And the best way to handle that isn’t to stuff my mouth with pastry, it’s to face things head-on.

Source: Uploaded by user via Elisa on Pinterest

Luckily I figured out that the best way to snap out of a funk is to be creative. I always thought that writing was the only way I could do that, because of my craft-impairment – but another awesome creative outlet I have found is photography. My dad, who has always been a passionate photographer, couldn’t be more excited. He told me he thinks this is perfectly fitting, since photography is simply writing with light.

It does have a kind of poetry, doesn’t it? All I know is that I love it, and this year I want to do more of it. In fact, I am thinking of joining one of the Project 52 or Project 365 (366 this year!) challenges, like the one on MCP Actions or on Lasso The Moon.

I also plan on going out for “photo walks” in and around Zurich on a regular basis, so if you are a local and you want to join me, just get in touch! I’d love some company.

Other than that, I am easy. I won’t do the whole “I am going to keep a tight and regimented schedule on the whole year so things don’t spiral out of control and I actually reach my goals” because frankly, I’m over it. It never works, because life happens to be unpredictable and s**t happens. And then I get all flustered and stressed out and… whatever. Not doing that. So you know what?

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