Magic Maggia and Winterhur - 9.4.06 - 9.7.06

So i landed in Zurich, Switzerland after stops in Atlanta and Dusseldorf and immediately took a train, then a tram and walked up a hill to Nadine's house who was going to drive me 3 hours to Tichino, switzerland where the magic maggia tournament was to be held. Turns out she lives in a bright pink house so i immediately felt at home. I finally stopped traveling at 7 friday night after being on the road for 30 odd hours. The welcome party was alot of fun and being jet lagged i couldn't sleep until 3am. Finally i set up my tent and crashed. It was a hat tournament so our teams were a "random" group of people. I was happy that Flo was on my team. We named ourselves Brandy Cinque. All in all the tournament was alot of fun.

Flo the magician

A little note on swiss camp sites. They are Effing luxurious. Cleanest bathrooms ever, Hot showers 24 hours 7 days a week, tasty restaurant with an endless supply of beer and internet connection should you want it.

After the tournament Flo gave me ride back to his place in Saarnen. We caravanned with a bevy of belgium's who were chilling out in Saarnen on their way to a tourney in Grenoble. We drove St. Gotthard Pass which is spectacular but then again all of switzerland is one picturesque scene after another. On the top of the pass we had a picnic and did a jumpy picture. This is something that i learned from Chela (kahla)...its a great way to take a group shot.

View from St. Gotthard pass

Jump

Jump 2

Once we got to Saarnen i immediately got on a train to Winterthur with stops and changes in Lucerne and Zurich to visit Sili. Sili wasn't going to be able to pick me until 10pm so i decided to stop in zurich to grab dinner. I also decided to have a few beers. This as it turns out was a very bad idea. I got to the station and the track i was supposed to catch the train on was closed. The track next to it had a train which had a sign which said Winterthur so i jumped on. As it turns out i got on the train before they changed the sign and the sign basically ended up saying "Not winterthur but somewhere else". At this point my phone died which was basically my only form of communication with sili. A long story short i finally got in contact with Sili after arriving 2 hours late and some WIFI stealing (this involved walking around looking for an unprotected wireless connection). This doesn't bode well for the rest of the trip though. If i get lost on the super efficient on time swiss trains, god knows what might happen to me in bulgaria.

Sili

I spent the next couple of days in Winterthur working and figuring out my trip. All i knew was that i had to be in Viareggio on the 21st. After chatting with several people and some research and some consulting of football schedules i choose Turkey. An easyjet website browse later i had a one way ticket to Istanbul from Basel. Oh and as Sili can testify too i'm the unluckiest poker player in the world ;)