Make Time: Mountain Money and Good Fellas

Snoozed nice and late yesterday. Got up and took a long soak in Gaston's parents bathtub - huge and beautiful. Then got ready and Gaston came back from his apartment, where he slept. We jumped in his car and headed to Mount Pilatus, which is about 7,000 ft up - enough to get up above the cloud line and hopefully into the sunshine (which we couldn't see yet). So we drove about 20 minutes and then into this cute little town, right near Lucerne, and up a gondola to the top of Pilatus. Oh - guess what it costs to take the gondola up and down? Yeah - $80 each. Insane. There's nothing at the top of this mountain!! No skiing. No bars, etc. Too funny. And pathetic. So we get up near the top, where we needed to get into a new gondola which was much bigger than our first ride. There are a bunch of tourists in there, from all over the place, but a funny group from South Korea which had us laughing. There was a guy who looked like Psy from Gangnam Style. So we finally get up above the cloud line and it is SPECTACULAR!! So clear and crisp. The clouds below were like the most fluffy bed you've ever imagined, and the Alps all around provided some of the most dramatic views I've ever seen. I hope you like the pics below. After the mountain we grabbed some currywurst-type food and headed back to Gaston's parents place to watch Roger Federer again, this time in the semi-final match of this tournament in Monaco. I don't watch tennis, as I mentioned before, but it was fun to see it with Gaston who was so excited. Took a nap after lunch, and after Federer won! and then up and ready to head into Zurich. Gaston has a friend from college who knows another guy who just opened a restaurant in Zurich and it's apparently doing GREAT. We take the train about 30 minutes into Zurich and walk to the restaurant, which is called The Bite, and it's really cool inside. The owner is from a smaller town in Switzerland, but he's lived in Italy and Canada, and ended up marrying a girl from Canada. The restaurant has cool interior - could be in SF or LA. Rustic yet modern and cool. Loved it. There were a few people eating when we got there but they left and then it was just us, the owner, and a few other people - like the chef and one of the servers. We got to the restaurant around 10pm and probably walked out of there at around 4:30am. CLASSIC. It was like a scene from Good Fellas, when all the guys are sitting around the tables in the back of the restaurant - smoking cigarettes obsessively and just talking all night. I didn't smoke, but I swear the other guys probably went through 2-3 packs just that night. Hilarious. I got some great ideas for my time in Italy, and I'm just glad I got to have an insider point of view of Zurich. Sure, I didn't see more than one place, but I really got to speak to the owner and chef and see what life was like. Very cool for me. We walk out of the bar and get kebab from across the street and then jump in a cab to get home. Pass out around 5:30am and couldn't have been happier. I didn't get as drunk as Gaston so I was ok in the morning today :) I definitely took another bath and then we grabbed some…kebabs…and then watched Federer lose in the final match against his countryman Wawrinka. A good ending to the tennis saga! It's absolutely beautiful out today, for Easter, and so I hung on the deck for a while and then we cleaned our things up and headed over to Gaston's apartment, where I will stay tonight and tomorrow. Gaston's dad gets back today so he will want his house to himself. I know I said it before, but I really felt lucky being able to stay in such a wonderfully beautiful home, enjoying the comforts of being in a world class city - as a local.

I hope everyone has a great Easter, and remember to be ever so thankful for everything and everyone you have in your lives. They mean everything. I'm thinking of my family right now and I miss you all.