swiss thief

it is back to reality here in birmingham. the european adventure is over, but it was amazing.
i met dad in zermatt switzerland, i was supposed to meet him at the train station to help carry all the bags...but i fell asleep. i felt pretty bad about not meeting him at the station after he travelled a grand total of 26 hours to get there, but on the other hand, i was extremely well rested.
the next day we hit the slopes, zermatt is amazing. it is a total ski town, but not in the north american intrawest style. all the hotels were small and privately owned. there was no need to make the houses look authentic like the condos at tremblant try to do, because this place was the real thing. the skiing was unbeatable. bluebird skies both days, no lineups, hardpack in the morning then the snow became alot softer getting into the afternoon. we skied 2 days (i rented some armada ar6's for any skiers out there) and really worked our legs. 2 days of heavy skiing in the alps for 2 guys who haven't been on snow this year was damn impressive, well, we were impressed with ourselves anyways.
before i go on about the rest of switzerland, let me say that the swiss have pretty much got it figured out. they chose not to join the european union, they kept the swiss franc instead of kneeling down to the euro, cities are spotless, people often speak 3-4 languages fluently. everything from cars, stores, neighbourhoods, trains, food to the incredible landscape seemed perfect and thoroughly planned. basically, the swiss know whats up.
from zermatt we used our train passes to get to lucern, which is located pretty centrally and took approx 2 hours to get to (actually you could get almost anywhere in 2 hours, the entire country is about the same size as wales or west virginia) the little town of meiringen was where we stayed for one night, if you read sherlock holmes you'll have read the last book where he an moriarty fight next to a waterfall and then fall off to their deaths, this waterfall is a real place and we trekked up the side of a mountain to bask in sir arthur conan doyle's glory. next came the tourist haven of interlaken which we stayed in for a total of 2 hours, souveniers weren't the reason we came to switzerland. bern was up next and was a near favorite for me, the old city was built around 1200 give or take a hundred years, and the street plan hasn't changed, everything is incredibly old. we stayed down the street from where our good friend albert einstein lived for a few years and visited his museum. apperently he was a smart guy, although i wouldn't have minded going head to head with him.
geneva was my favorite swiss city, bigger, faster paced, home of the UN, home of the olympic commitee, parks, awsome waterfront, a mix of old and new...it was wicked. you could almost feel the money entering your lungs when took a breath in this city...rich rich rich. ferrari, bentley, mercedes, bmw, you name the car and this city had more than you could imagine. the UN HQ was a great place, situated right on the lake, huge botanical gardens, and a massive square full of fountains. i saw kofi, we talked politics for the afternoon, great guy all around.
so, after many weeks of trains, backpacks, and hotels it was time to get back birmingham. i was ready to sit down, relax and have my feet massaged.
however, on my second or third day back, my laptop was stolen from my room as i was sleeping. it was 3am and i had put the computer on a chair next to my bed. i woke up to the sight of a dark figure in my window with my laptop in his hands. i started shouting, but he was on his way out of my window by the time i woke up. i ran outside, but the guy was long gone. i imagine that if i wasn't so incredibly angry i might have seen the humour in my situation, running around half asleep and half naked in the middle of the night. so, i got to talk to the police about 10 minutes later (super fast response time), and was told that my neighbourhood is the second most dangerous in england after some scumhole in london. great.
i figured i was safe enough to sleep with my window open, but apperently not.
anyways, ill post some pics soon, i only took a few thousand. they may take a while to sift through.