Day 2.1: Zurich

The Zurich airport is interesting -- it has this little waiting section with chairs and glass looking into the baggage claim area. You can see and greet (or stalk) your loved ones even before they come out to the exit! There were also several people with dogs in the airport... neither of us remember seeing that many pets within other airports.

We left the airport, taking the train into the city (G is not in city center). The G office was a 15-minute walk from the station. We picked up K's keys and then it was another 20-minute walk to the apartment. K's materials warned us about the walk and the fact that the apartment was on the "top" floor. This turned out to mean five flights of stairs, no elevator. Traveling is great for improving your fitness ^o^

The apartment is shared, with three rooms, 2.5 baths. Upon entering, we discovered that one of the rooms is an extra flight of stairs up, but we were in one of the other two rooms. The extra-stairs room also has the washer/dryer and its own bathroom, and stairs to the "roof". The room has someone who'd been there for six months already but this coming week was his last week.

Here, we also found covers for the blankets instead of sheets! I'm too easily pleased ^-^

Since it's Sunday, all the shops, including supermarkets, are closed. Flatmate Brian tells us that they'll probably also be closed tomorrow because it's Easter Monday. His advice on where to eat more cheaply is Niederdorf (though not cheap -- everything in Zurich is supposedly expensive).

After a while, we head out for food. We ask Brian about the transit fares. It's 4 CHF (Swiss francs) per ride per person, but 8 CHF for a 24-hour pass. Yes, if you're going to ride a train/tram/etc at least twice, you might as well get the 24-hour pass.

We walk to the nearest station, Geshubell, and try to figure out the machine (only German) but can't seem to get anywhere with it. We ask this nearby couple of girls if they're able to help. After some pressing of buttons and talk between themselves, they tell us that we need to use a different machine. This one does not have the 24-hour pass option that we want! We need to go to the next station, which is a tram stop (rather than train) and look for a green button.

One of the girls says she'll walk with us for a bit and says goodbye to her friend, who's apparently waiting for the next train. She puts us in the right direction and then says it's another two blocks straight. Her apartment is at the block she left us at, but we still feel bad... they had ended their conversation for us... oops!

So, here we are, at a machine with a green button, Zone 10 tageskarte. But, the machine only takes coins and we don't have 16 swiss francs in coins on us. We walk around for a while, looking for a place to get (and asking passerbyers for) change. It would be easier if everything wasn't closed.

At this point, we don't even know how to say "excuse me". The only German we know (and not even the local Swiss German) is "do you speak English" and "thank you". Surprisingly for Zurich, we encounter some who don't know English. We eventually come across a Burger King where K asks for change.

Tram 13 into the center.

Niederdorf does indeed have a lot of places to eat... we scope out the whole street before picking out a place. Like Ireland, there's a couple of doner kebab places, too. Odd.

We reason that since Switzerland is so expensive and the main foods seem to be cheesy, we probably won't eat out much... and since we're forced to eat out tonight, we might as well try fondue. Still, 25 CHF (~$22) for some bread and melted cheese just feels wrong.

I order one fondue and K orders a raclette rosti, essentially lots of melted cheese on what we know as hashed potatoes (which apparently originated in Switzerland). K plays it safe by eating two Lactaid pills. (The fondue cheese probably has alcohol in it, but it takes K until the second bite to pick it out.)

I hope my one Lactaid pill is doing its job right. This is probably the most cheese I've ever had in any one meal, maybe even any one day! But still, we (I) finished less than half the cheese in the pot. We can't believe others ordering a pot *per* person *and* finishing it all, as we see at the other tables!

While eating, we read that fondue is actually Swiss, not French, as K mistakenly thought since the world is of French origin. It's supposedly a home "comfort" food, but the Swiss cheese industry went on a massive marketing campaign because quite a lot of cheese could be eaten in one sitting, and hence, it's popularized "classy" status now (reminds us of De Beers). Of course, after reading all this (thanks to some brief use of unsecured wifi bandwidth), we feel even more the injustice of paying a fair amount for just bread and cheese. It's tasty-ish, but to a point. Oh well. Also, we discovered that even a carafe of water is not free here (vs France). It's supposedly not free in Germany either.

Speaking of wifi and CHF's, it seems there's wifi hotspots everywhere in Zurich, but all for a fee.

Zurich is pretty at night ^o^


Back to the apartment.