A Real-Life Yoshi!

This past Saturday Becky, Kenan and I caught an 8am bus/train to Nyon, an adorable town on Lac Leman (aka Lake Geneva). We got off the train and, like always, began to wonder. We came across this cute patisserie and decided it was time for some cappuccinos. While we were sitting there we noticed these 7 middle aged men at the other side of the cafe...6 of them were dressed like mushrooms and the last was in a green cartoon dinosaur costume. We thought it was a little strange, but the perfect cappuccinos (and I mean perfect--they were sprinkled with cocoa on top and each person had a unique mug, like at Koffee!) took priority.

Seriously. These cappuccinos were incredible.

We then made our way to the center of town, where we ran into a giant market! It had specialty food, cheese, veggies, baguettes, baked goods...everything you (or at least I) could want and more! Needless to say, I was ecstatic. There was a few stands with at least 10 different varieties of wild mushrooms...I got myself some orange funky looking ones. Fingers crossed they taste good, too. Well, while we were perusing the market, we ran into none other than Dino and his friends!! They started talking to us and it ends up dino was actually dressed as Yoshi from Super Mario and his friends were the mushrooms. Yoshi is engaged to be married this coming weekend, so as such, apparently it is tradition here for friends to make you dress up and do random tasks. When we saw him at the market he was giving out candy and his friends were filming all of his (ever so slightly) awkward interactions with everyone. We enjoyed it.

Becky and Yoshi!

Kenan, me, and Becky in front of Lake Geneva

Local charcuterrie at the market

We made our way towards the lake and found ourselves on this gorgeous elevated park overlooking the lake. The view also overlooked the entire city of Nyon--a city characterized by castles, gardens, and sailboats adorning the lake. After seeing the lake from afar, it was time to get closer; we went down to the lake and picnicked on the boulders surrounding it. Our friends David and Mark arrived at that point from St. Genis, so we wrapped up our scenic picnic and made our way to go meet up with them. However, before we could reach them, we ran into none other than our new-found friend and his mushroom companions. Apparently, Yoshi's next task was to buy someone coffee, so he did. Lucky us.

Picnic on the lake!

Becky and Kenan in front of Lake Geneva

The view overlooking the lake, gardens, and sailboats.

 We met up with David and Mark and decided it was time to check out the town's museums. We saw the museum inside the castle of Nyon, which had some interesting portraits, films, tupperware, and a prison from the 1700s. We then saw the Roman museum, which consisted of artifacts from when the Celtics--Nyon is the only known town in Switzerland to have been inhabited by the Celtics. After one more walk around the lake and a quick gelato stop, our tour of Nyon came to an end. I could not have been happier with this choice of a day trip. Thank you, Yoshi, for a wonderful introduction to this beautiful and quaint city on a lake.

Mark, me, Kenan, Becky and David on the lake!

Switzerland's version of barbies.

Good gelato makes everyone a little crazy: Kenan, Mark and David.

The castle of Nyon

We made our way back to Geneva via train and caught night 2 of Fete de la Musique. In case you are curious, we did not get lost this time.

Note: Coconut Grove (in Miami) also had a Fete de la Musique this past weekend.