Vending Machine (good times in Zurich)

In Switzerland they see drug abuse as more of a medical concern than a criminal act. Thats why they have these nifty little vending machines in big cities. Its important that drug users have clean needles, because the risk of spreading HIV and other stuff would be a bigger concern to us than the actual abuse of the drugs in itself. For 2 bucks a user gets a couple of clean needles, some alcohol swabs, saline, and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) which is used to help dissolve the junk into a solution that can be used. I picked up a box, since for 2 bucks it was the cheapest souvenir I was going to find in Zurich...

Milan

We had gone to Milan for a few days a little while back. Milan is considered the fashion capital of the world, which does not really impress two humble Ohions... but for us it was all about visiting a big city (8 million peeps in the metropolitan area) and listening to Italians scream at each other. Heres what went down:

Our room, 10 mins from the main station and cheap as always:



The big cathedral. Super awesome to see in person. Our trip to Milan involved spending a lot of time in this square, exploring the cathedral, and just hanging out here eating gelato!



A close up of some of the detail. Apparently the cathedral has the worlds larges collection of marble statues, and it is covered with them, inside and out.







Archway in the same square as the cathedral. An important landmark of the city, the covered street it invites you to is a high end fashion area.

The covered street, home of the $7000 purse :

Milan Duomo (continued)

We paid the 8 bucks to climb around on the roof of the cathedral.








See the golden Statue at the top?

CORN?!?!?!

The golden Madonna at the very top is a symbol of the city:



Shelly is... sick.

AWWWW dont do that!

Pear boobs.



And then the inside! (have you had enough of this thing yet?)

Milan Duomo inside

Castello Sforzesco

Sforza Castle is a 14th-15th century castle in Milan, and today houses a big museum collection. We got lost one day and found ourselves here. We probably would have ended up here anyways but I lost the guidebook, so this was by chance! :)

Halloween

3 things in this picture:
1. Shelly is working on Roo’s costume
2. Roo has fallen asleep while being fitted for her costume
3. Im working on a pumpkin!

Here is my Jack-O-Lantern. Bernese Flag!


Roo was a Dürüm Kebap, and I was a Turkish kebap guy.

Shelly + Halloween

Shelly was a witch, and the witch group in town assembled for a sort of modern tradition. That is, they went around on Halloween to people they knew and demanded beers and shots, before meeting up with everyone at the party at Opposition!
Here they are taking advantage of Christoph’s hospitality!:



In other silly news, there was a beer tasting at the Opposition, and representing the U.S. was Sierra Nevada!!! They just began exporting it a couple of months ago, and beerwise it was for Shelly and me one of the greatest sacrifices coming here! :) Of course we were in pretty bad shape the next day.



Shelly has been participating in a theatre group in Bern. First dates will be mid November!

Cheesecake and apple pie Shell made me for my birthday!: