Chocolate, Cheese, and Watches

These are the things I think of when I hear about Switzerland. I suppose you could throw in banking and swiss army knives too, but it was pretty cool to see it all in person. I woke up at 6:10am and nearly missed my train due to the heavy traffic in München. Fortunately, Roland´s Dad is an experienced Bavarian driver and we made it to my train with 3 minutes to spare!

One of the first stops on the way there was a place called Lindau which has a big beautiful lake.



When I first got on the train, I accidentally sat in 1st class, so the conductor made me move. It didn´t look much like 1st class to me and the other people near me had made the same mistake. Other than that, the ride was pretty uneventful. When we crossed the Swiss border, the police came on to check our passports. The police here always come in pairs of male and female. Strange.

Once I got to Zurich, I quickly found my hotel (Zic-Zac) and checked in. This hostel/hotel is a little strange and not that nice, but it did have a TV, which turned out to be great. I was put in the "Jimmy Hendrix" room, which was a little disappointing as I was hoping for the Beatles or Elvis room, not that it mattered. After dropping off my stuff, I headed out to find food. I ate a quick meal of rice and some sort of eggplant casserole. Not bad and not too expensive, which is unique in Zurich since it is by far the most expensive city I have been to. Speaking of expensive, what is the deal with the price of Coke here in Europe?!?!?! It is often above $3 a can even at fast food places. I just don´t understand why.

Anyway, after eating I spent the afternoon exploring the city and walked down to the harbor. It´s very pretty to see the mountains in the background and the city is nice too. My biggest complaint though is that it seems like EVERYONE smokes here. It´s even worse than Italy! The EU has an anti-smoking campaign going, but that hasn´t reached Switzerland. Speaking of the EU, the Swiss still have their own currency, so I had to take out some of their money from an ATM. I took out 100 sf (about $80) which I managed to make last for both days I was there. Not an easy feat when a coke is $4 and a cappucino is $6.

That night I watched the coverage of the Michael Jackson trial. Very cool that I had a TV to be able to watch it live. Of course he was acquitted, which anyone who followed the trial could have easily predicted. What a terrible waste of resources for the town of Santa Maria. The people there should be outraged and Tom Sneddon for bringing such an utterly absurd case to trial.

The next day it was quite rainy, but I walked around some more and spent a few hours on the internet ($8/hr!!!). I also managed to book my train ticket and some other hotels for Stuttgart, Frankfurt, and Berlin. I broke down and had a nice Big Mac lunch at McDonalds (only $8 for the combo). Later on, I stopped and had a cappuccino, which was awful! I had two while I was here and both times they sprinkled some strong tasting chocolate powder on top that overpowered the very weak espresso (if it even was espresso). It´s no wonder that there are several Starbucks here. They should do very well as the local coffee is really terrible.

For dinner, I decided to splurge a bit and ate at an authentic Swiss restaurant where I had gazpacho and traditional fondue. All was good. Since it was still raining, I headed back to the hotel for an early night.