There was music in the streets (of Lutry, near Lausanne)

Happy autumn! The mountains behind me are turning a soft yellow now and there's definitely a chill in the air. My teeth were chattering a bit on Friday night at Oktoberfest night here in Geneva. Unlike Munich's many beer gardens, Oktoberfest here was held in a bar called Lady Godiva. Some revelers came dressed in their Bavarian dresses and lederhosen. R and I went there to meet a new friend I met last weekend - despite the crowds and not having each other's mobile #s, we found one another and had a great time.

Saturday night we went to Lutry, near Lausanne, for the Lutry Fete des Vendages. It was fun - there were carnival rides, food stands, and music. In the same night, we had great German sausages and the best pad thai and chicken and shrimp satay. The Thai stall was run by 10 Thai women who run a catering service in the greater Lausanne area.

Besides food, there were tents with musical acts - and outside, there was Guggenmusik, a German term used to describe Carnival marching bands who dress up in crazy weird costumes. I think these are the Fasnacht bands which play during Carnival/Fasnacht in Switzerland and Germany. One of the bands, Guggenmusik 3 Canards from Fribourg was spectacular. A small circle of people had encircled them when they were sort of setting up but as soon as the brass section started playing, all of us started to back away by 2 or 3 feet. Were they ever loud! But I absolutely LOVED the music - it got everyone dancing and singing along in the streets.

Sunday we drove a few towns away to check out a mushroom exposition. I have a growing passion to learn more about mushrooms - so for me, it was mushroom heaven because I could pick them up, look at them, smell them and read if they were edible or not. The mushroom club members had picked over 300 kinds of mushrooms (over a 3 day period) which they arranged by family - it was an impressive collection. There was a mushroom that smelled like jasmine, another one like coconut, and another one like anise. And there were pink, purple, red, brown, yellow, black, orange, even green mushrooms! There were mushroom experts to answer questions and lead us through how to identify which family mushrooms came from. The coolest part - we got invited to a mushroom walk in the forest this upcoming Friday with the club and their mushroom expert! I can't wait!!!