Vevey Pt 3: Enough About the Swans Already

I know, I know, please stop it with the swans, but just humor me a little longer, okay? Living in Chicago, the only birds I really ever saw were the inbred, disease infested pigeon community. The amount of times I had encountered swans in my life until moving here resides somewhere slightly above zero. And now? They are all OVER the damn place. So I have been going overboard a bit, but I'll calm down eventually.

Swans are such bizarre creatures. Part beauty, part battleship and 1000%* narcissistic, they just command attention. And also? They appear to be kind of...well...assholes. Take a look at the action going on in the lower left hand corner of the above photo. Belligerence!

At some point during my photographing, they became aware that they were In the Public Eye and began some synchronized floating. Not unlike when the girls on America's Next Top Model holding hands on elimination day even though they are kind of hating each other.

Aaaand, then the short-lived civility wore off and we were back to swan-on-swan abuse. There are at least 2.5 example of nastiness going on in the above photograph.

So that is pretty much my current mindset towards swans at the moment. I think I've gotten it out of my system (for now) so I'll try and aim my camera lens at something else for awhile (maybe).

Happy Monday!

*Principles of mathematics disregarded for dramatic effect.

Serenity rightNOW

Internet, this week has whacked me over the head and carted me off to I don't know where. The last thing I remember was Monday morning...trying to figure out where the other four days went. I still have a couple photos to share from Vevey, but do not currently have the brain capacity available to format a post. Let's consider this an intermission shall we?

In the interim, I leave you with some serene photos from our walk last week.

Above: the requisite weekly swan photo.

Happy Friday!

Vevey Pt. 2: The Town

While the market in Vevey is spectacular, the rest of the town is pretty lovely as well. We spent a few hours wandering the cobblestone streets and uncovered all manner of surprising things. (The giant fork in the lake for starters.)

I approached this fountain from too close a range to see the towering mural of a woman's face painted on the wall behind it. But then I stepped back and found myself at a loss for words.

This accordian player was fantastic.

The mountains were pulling a Lion King what with all the streaming sunlight and epic mist. Showing off really.

Tomorrow we'll go up close and personal with some of the political candidates whose posters you can see in the lower left hand corner of this photo.

Cheers!

Vevey Pt. 1: The Market

After a busy week at work, we decided that the focus of the weekend needed to be on relaxing

(and eating...but we'll get to that in a moment).

Vevey is about a fifteen minute train journey from Lausanne and with a similar oldness-to quaintness ratio as that of Montreaux.

After departing the train, we followed the crowds to an incredible open air market. 

Even though I had just eaten breakfast, I began immediately counting down the minutes until lunch. I mean, cheese, bread, meat, chocolate, vegetables, cheese...the stalls were endless.

Cured meats: my New Favorite Thing in the Entire Universe. I never thought I would get excited about tubes o' meat but well, apparently people can change.

The man we bought this cheese from had eyebrows that were reminiscent of wild, hairy butterflies trying to free themselves from his forehead. 

What he lacked in facial hair restraint he made up for in spades with his wheels of magnificent dairy goodness. I have a chunk of that yellow beast above sitting in the fridge right now and had to stuff my face with chocolate to stop thinking about it.

As we hunted and gathered our way through the stalls, I decided that we needed to pay a silly amount of money for the two morsels pictured above. It was worth it though. SO worth it. I should probably learn to make them though so I don't go broke from an addiction to pretentious (and oh-so-tasty) desserts.

When we had achieved success in the four most important European food groups, we found a bench near the lake and delved into our spoils. Anthony got us some wine from a nearby restaurant and we enjoyed one of the best lunches I have ever had in my life. 

Tomorrow: photos from the town.

Warning: gratuitous photos of scenery

Sunday we woke up, did the chore thing, loaded the squeaky raccoons into the washing machine and then looked at each other and said. "Now what?" It was 11 AM, so we had an early lunch and then since it was heavenly outside, we decided to take our favorite walk to Lutry and poke around a bit. 

On the way, I met a swan and we sized each other up. We then decided that a mutual disdain from afar would be appropriate. Friendships are complicated and you can't force things. Plus the bastard was the size of a three-year-old and after seeing the evil glow in its eye I had no intention of coming any closer.

Our destination in the distance.

Once in the town, we began poking about some of the mysterious little streets. One of them led us to the scene above: an archway straight out of Middle Earth. Or, you know, Medieval Switzerland.

I die.

Because we did not feel as though we had walked enough, we saw a nearly vertical hill and were all like. Yeah, let's see what's on top of that. Here I am awaiting a coronary.

Castle turned vineyard

Seriously. This is real.

I KNOW

. I don't believe it either.

On our way home, we stopped and had some coffee at a sidewalk cafe. I am rapidly developing an appreciation for the art of foamed milk atop coffee. It really takes away that nasty, bitter, oh what is it...right...

coffee

flavor. The sugar helps too.