Zurich, Switzerland

Zurich was not one of my favorite places. Not sure if it was the city or other factors. The weather was so dreary the whole time. Also, my host wanted to leave the house every day at 8am and wouldn’t be back until 9pm. So it was exhausting. The door to his place locked from the outside, I could not have left later because he did not have a spare key. So, I spent a good bit of time in Starbucks to relax a little because I was so tired and to use the wifi (since I would fall asleep at night and get nothing done).

I arrived in Zurich on Wednesday, April 11^th, around 7pm and hung out in the train station until I could meet my house at 9ish. Didn’t want to spend much money on dinner at a restaurant, so I went to a Burger King because I wanted a place to sit and put my luggage down. That was my first indication of how expensive Switzerland really was, a whopper was 15 franks. Like what?! I ended up getting the cheapest thing on the menu and relaxed. Took a bus 20 minutes to my hosts place, and he met me at the bus stop. My host in Zurich was David. He was pretty nice, besides making me feel stupid for having a cycling accident. -.- Once I settled in a little, we played Mario Kart! I tried my best to not let my ugly competitive side come out.  

On Thursday, I got up super early (7am) to leave the flat with David. Since I am worthless until about 10am, I brought my laptop and took advantage of Starbuck’s free wifi before I explored the town. – I have to say that I have spent more time at Starbucks and Mcdonalds in Europe than in America by far, I only go there for the free wifi if/when I need it. Feel a little lame but there is no European place that offers free wifi.- Anyways, it was so rainy and dreary out for most of the day. But it did manage to clear up a bit. Went on a two hour walking tour of Zurich, but it was probably the worst tour I have done. It was done in German and English, but the tour guide was so uncharismatic. I didn’t really learn anything that I couldn’t have read on a pamphlet. At night, there was a couch surfing meeting/gathering that I could have gone to- but I did not feel like meeting anyone when I had a black eye. It was almost cleared up and did not look that bad. But after a full day of crooked looks, I wasn’t in the mood to meet people. Couldn’t go back to David’s flat until 9pm. So I fell asleep pretty early.

Had to get up early again on Friday. I had purchased the ‘Zurich Card’ a ticket where you pay 20 or 25 francs for and you get a full day of getting into the museums (cause none are free) and transport in the city. I did my best to get my money’s worth of the card. But many of the ‘museums’ that were included in the card were made out to be grander than they really were. The Landsome museum was probably the best one. The other places I visited were not even worth mentioning. At one point I took a boat on the lake to the Botanical Gardens, which was really nice because the sun was shining and the Alps were a bit visible. The Botanical Gardens were pretty, but they were marketed that there were a couple greenhouses that you could visit. But they were under construction, I think, there was no signage. Later on it did get rainy and dreary again, so I got the cheapest food I could find at a grocery store and went on a boat ride for an hour and a half. The boat ride was nice even though it was raining. I was planning on going to a salsa club with my host but by the time I was able to go back to his flat, I was too tired. When I said I didn’t want to go he decided not to go too, which I thought was odd.

Then on Friday, April 13^th, I headed to Lucerne- after waking up bright and early again. Sounds like I didn’t have that great of a time, but I just don’t do well without much sleep. Zurich and my host were not impressionable. Regardless, I still had a decent time.