Zurich! And other updates

Real Swiss fondue!

Grossmunster, one of the important churches in Zurich

A night shot that I love!

Marissa and I and the view from Lindenhof (a park)

Beautiful Alps on the train ride back to Italia

Introduction: I wrote this blog while offline, finished it yesterday (Wednesday) but found I didn't have internet when I got home last night. Now it's Thursday morning, and I am at the library to use internet before leaving for London later today. Wow! London! So here is the post:

This past (long) weekend I was lucky enough to head to Zurich, Switzerland with my friend Marissa from Georgetown, who is spending this semester in Milan. We’d seen each other briefly when I returned from Spain, but it was a very short time spent together and we agreed it would be fun to travel together. After some research, we found some train deals from Milan to Zurich (which basically reward planning ahead) and purchased tickets at a steep discount! I had also been harboring a desire to go to Switzerland at least during the beginning of the year, after hearing about so many wonderful trips others had taken there, most of all Kristen!

I only have class Monday through Wednesday, which made it easy to leave pretty early, on Thursday morning to be exact. To save money, I took a slower train to Milan, which left around 11:30 am and arrived around 3:00 pm. Luckily, I allowed plenty of time to get from my house to the station. I had to go to Firenze Rifredi, a different station than usual, and I’d never been there before. I ended up getting off the bus too early and having to walk quite a ways, and ask for directions. And my feet got wet. But it’s okay, because I made it on time and everything was lovely. Except that my feet stayed wet.

I also had to be patient during a 4 hour “layover” in Milan, as our train to Zurich didn’t leave until 7:10 pm. Again, this was a consequence of my need to save money. I actually managed to pass the time okay, but I was so glad when Marissa arrived around 6:30! Oddly enough, it was sort of hard to find a place to sit, and almost the entire station was connected to the outside and therefore cold, but I made the best of things. In fact, President Obama helped me pass the time – I’d bought a paperback copy of his “Audacity of Hope” recently, so I started reading that and it helped me occupy myself. I also bought an odd assortment of items at the grocery store in the station: extra batteries, a chocolate bar, water, and a box of sushi. Not great, but it wasn’t very expensive and at least it didn’t seem spoiled! I also went to the bathroom and changed my socks, which was key!

So right, Marissa got to the station, and we spent some time catching up and talking about things. She also was excited to see my ring, and of course I was happy to let her admire and listen to her lovely compliments! It’s definitely been fun to be able to show it off a bit since I got it back – and I always make sure to let Dave know how many people compliment his taste!

Soon enough it was time to get on our train. Though we were assigned aisle seats, I managed to switch with another man (after a bit of confusion) so he could be closer to his wife and I could be next to Marissa. We settled in for the ride. We were sad it was dark because we couldn’t see the beautiful Switzerland scenery, but we knew we could look forward to a daytime trip on Sunday when we returned. Mostly we talked during the ride, and toward the end we dozed a bit. Sooner than we thought, we were in Zurich (even though the train was late). Since we got in after 10 pm on Thursday, we couldn’t stay in the cheapest lodging option available, a hostel in the old part of town, so we had arranged to stay at a budget hotel the first night. We found it without too much trouble, checked in, and went up to our room to find out that it had its own bathroom… which was a problem because we’d had to correct their original confirmation giving us a room with a bathroom – we wanted a room with a shared bathroom, and a much lower rate to match. After briefly considering it a bit, we went back down to reception to talk to the man who’d checked us in. He said that all the other rooms were full, but when we explained the situation, he saw the paper trail of e-mails and acknowledged that we were right. He assured us he would talk to/leave a note for the person who’d check us out in the morning, and that is how we managed to get the room with a bathroom for a cheaper rate… through no “fault” of our own! It was really nice and we slept very very well. Breakfast was also good and included – I enjoyed some toast, orange juice, cereal, and coffee. Sadly, we had to check out there and head over to our hostel for the next two nights – as it was better for our wallets. The rate situation worked out well enough, and the hotel did keep to their promise to charge us the lower room rate.

After we checked out, we headed just a short way down the street to our hostel, which turned out to be up many steps and past some sort of kitchen, that seemed to be for a restaurant. All weekend Marissa and I smelled their food and wondered who they were cooking for! We made it up to reception and checked in – we could even put our stuff in the room since the beds were free. We were in a 6-bed room for all females, made up of three bunkbeds. This was my first true European hostel experience, in part because I have always found cheap-enough singles when I’ve traveled, and in part because I have often traveled alone. With Marissa I was not worried at all about the hostel situation – I’ve also heard that Switzerland is generally a less “sketchy” country, I kept all valuables with me, and it was relatively secure being in a room with only 4 other women at the most. We both had to take top bunks, which wasn’t optimal but it was fine. After dropping our stuff off, we were finally ready to go out and explore Zurich!

We started out by walking around by the river, which was beautiful. In a marked contrast with Firenze’s river, the Arno, the Limmat was incredibly clear and filled with swans, ducks, and other water birds. It was so refreshing to see! We also found ourselves fascinated with the architecture and peaceful, fresh atmosphere. Our first destination was a church called Grossmunster – one of the most important in Zurich. It was founded by Charlemagne over the tomb of the city’s patron saints, and is important for its historical role in the Swiss-German Reformation. It was really neat to see a church that was so different from Italian ones, yet beautiful in its own way. At the front there were beautiful stained glass windows in which the dominant color was red – it had a very striking and beautiful effect. After Grossmunster, we crossed the river and visited Fraumunster, another important church. Sadly, we couldn’t take photos inside. Both of us would have loved to capture the incredible stained glass windows by Marc Chagall. Unexpectedly, these windows were done in 1970 – remarkably contemporary! Marissa and I spent a while just contemplating and admiring them. The juxtaposition of such a modern aesthetic in a centuries-old church was unlike anything I’d ever seen, and I really enjoyed it. I’m sure there are photos of the windows on the internet… I highly recommend trying to track some down!

After Fraumunster, we found Bahnhofstrasse, the main thoroughfare of Zurich and a world famous street for its shopping. We were immediately attracted to Sprungli, a “confiserie” full of delicious chocolates and other treats. Not only was the smell wonderful, but the vast majority of their wares were also beautiful to look at, and I made sure to take photos! Neither of us was ready to commit to buying anything yet, but we did a nice survey and agreed we had to come back. The most intriguing thing there was something called “Luxemburgerli.” Just by appearances, they sort of look like miniature hamburgers, and I definitely wanted to know what they tasted like. They also came in all sorts of colors and flavors and were generally fascinating. More on them later!

After Sprungli, Marissa and I found a store she’d read about with a really neat, large, cosmological clock. The store is locked as a matter of procedure, and the women working there had to let us in. It felt odd to go in and obviously just want to look at the clock, but it seemed like the norm for the store. On our way out, one of the women gave Marissa some information packets on the clock in English, further confirming our suspicion that they were used to this sort of occurrence.

Afterward we continued to stroll along Bahnhofstrasse. I saw a restaurant where I was thinking we could eat, and pointed it out to Marissa. We also headed over to St. Peter’s Church, which apparently has the largest clock face in Europe. Inside it was relatively simple, yet beautifully decorated, and it was just another on our resume of Zurich churches for the day! That visit also took us into some of the quieter quaint neighborhoods just off Bahnhofstrasse. Marissa and I were both struck by the relatively quiet, pedestrian friendly nature of the city. Except for the main highways along the outside and the trams running through the streets, there was very little traffic and many people out walking. It made getting around in the city very pleasant and enjoyable. Over and over during the weekend, I reminded myself that I was in the largest city in Switzerland – it was hard to believe!

After St. Peter’s, it was time to head to lunch. Luckily Marissa was game to try a place I’d heard of as recommended for fondue, both on the internet and by Kristen. We went in and got seated in a cute little nook in what seemed to us a typically Alpine decorated restaurant. So cozy! We decided to get one order of fondue and another plate – pasta with vegetables, and share both, though nominally I got fondue and Marissa got the other dish. She also got a beet soup to start with her meal, and I enjoyed my tastes of it more than I thought I would (I don’t really like beets themselves, at least in the forms I’ve tried). Then, the fondue arrived, and it was wonderful. I had the fork, the pieces of bread for dipping, and of course the bubbling, hot, slightly boozy cheese. It was delicious and so fun! And my tastes of Marissa’s pasta were also good. The only negative aspect of our lunch experience was that toward the end of the meal, while we were waiting to order espresso and coffee, our waiter effectively ignored us in favor of rushing out the orders of a large group that had come in. Eventually we tried to track him down and make eye contact, only to realize that his shift was ending! Even so, he changed into normal clothes, sat down at a table, had a cigarette, and signaled that another waiter would take care of us. Our impression was that Marissa would have an after lunch drink included, so she got an espresso and I got a cappuccino (when we finally ordered). The only thing was when our bill came, the waiter said the espresso wasn’t included… yet all the other things listed as included, had been. Confusing. Anyway we figuratively shrugged our shoulders, paid, and left for our next stop – the Kunsthaus museum. After walking around a bit to find the actual entrance, we got our tickets. Then I was told my purse was too big and Marissa was told she had to carry her purse on her arm… to avoid setting off alarms, apparently. So I had to get a locker – but first exchange two 1 franc pieces for a 2 franc piece to make the lock work.* It was all a bit of seemingly unnecessary trouble, but hey, their museum, their rules.

*If you are puzzled by the fact that I said “francs,” here is the explanation: Switzerland isn’t in the European Union! It might surprise some to hear, but it’s true. I suppose their unwavering neutrality keeps them out of the group that all their neighbors and most of their continent belong to. They are part of the Schengen agreement, which reduces border controls, but not the EU, and thus they still have their pre-Euro currency, the Swiss franc (CHF). You can also spend Euros and get francs back in change, but I ended up using mostly ATM Swiss franc withdrawals during the trip. Okay, end of explanation.

Because Kunsthaus was closing about an hour after our arrival, Marissa and I decided to target our visit to what we were most interested in – namely the impressionism exhibits and others nearby, along with the Dadaist art. (Dadaism originated in Zurich!) I always enjoy the chance to visit art museums, especially when there is art I know something about, namely French (thanks senior year French class!). So we admired some Van Gogh, Degas, Cezanne, Monet, Rodin, and others, and then explored a bit more of the modern art section.

We left the museum a bit before closing, to find that it was still raining outside, much to our chagrin. That was when it got to be a bit more unpleasant. Since we knew we wanted to take a boat ride on the lake the next day, we went down to the departure point to double check the schedule and scope things out. On our way, Marissa’s umbrella broke and the material of mine came a bit undone. Here begins the Saga of the Umbrellas, for which you need some background.

Marissa’s situation was simple enough – she’d had her umbrella for a while but she knew it was wearing out. I, on the other hand, was on umbrella #4 of my time in Italy/Europe. The first one (from Target) disappeared while I was shopping in September. The second, my friend Cindy gave me because she’d found it somewhere – a few months later, it broke. The third, I bought for two euros near the post office and it had lasted a while, but the band that velcroes around it had always been messed up, and while I was in Spain the material detached from the end of one of the spokes. So the day before I left for Zurich, I’d bought another for 3 euros at a Firenze store. I had high hopes for it, but alas, as the wind blew us around down by the lake, the material came unfastened on it too. That wasn’t so bad, but then Marissa pointed out that it wasn’t open all the way, and I went to fix it, and the entire bottom part of the umbrella came detached from the top. Great. Marissa’s umbrella just kept getting turned inside out in the wind and she decided to buy a new one. The early evening of Friday might have been our low point. It consisted of me feeling my feet get ever wetter and colder, and us dealing with our umbrella issues. We did a little bit of shopping, where I bought socks and we both bought new umbrellas. And while I was trying on possible new shoes (didn’t find any good ones) I changed socks! We both got slightly nicer umbrellas in an attempt to avoid getting more bad quality ones. I kept lamenting the quick demise of umbrella #4, but it was legitimately broken. And what’s more, the little part where you hold it totally fell off the rest of the umbrella later that night! Photo evidence is online…

So now I own umbrella #5. It is a lovely green color and I hope it lasts a while… maybe? Marissa on the other hand, bought a black umbrella, and we had high hopes for both. Yet, what do you know, later than night while on a goose chase for café’s from our guidebook, her NEW umbrella broke. Not even kidding. Basically, we have really bad umbrella karma. Either that or I brought my bad umbrella karma with me and transferred some of it to her. Either way, I won’t dwell on that part of our trip too much, because it was annoying but it did not overshadow everything else!

Eventually we found a café from my book (after discovering that the first one was closed, at least for renovations) and had some much deserved hot chocolates. Then we had to search for a place to feed us at 9:00 pm – we hadn’t been hungry earlier. Being in Zurich, where they eat on a northern European or American-like schedule, made me realize exactly how conditioned I am to Italian eating schedules… at 6-7 pm I wasn’t even hungry yet! The idea that restaurants would close early, possibly, was strange to me. I guess that’s what happens after this long. Anyway, after a bit of trial and error we found a decent looking place. The other difficult thing was that everything, food included, in Switzerland, is expensive. Even when one figured in the exchange rate, which accounted in part for higher prices, the “real” price of the food was still quite often more than we wanted to pay. Anyway, we both got one entrée and ended up doing some sharing and tasting. I ordered “rosti” done with eggs, since I’d heard rosti where a local specialty. They are sort of like hash brown potatoes, as it turns out. So as Marissa said, I basically had breakfast for dinner (hash brown potatoes with eggs). But it was very good! Marissa got macaroni with meat and apple puree (sort of intense apple sauce, basically), and that was also really good. Since we were sharing, we each ate at least a portion of the other person’s dish. We hung out at the restaurant for a while after we finished eating, just talking and enjoying each other’s company. I got a beer which our waiter said was typical for the area, but even I could tell that it wasn’t *that* great (and I am no beer connoisseur). We got our bill brought to us around 11:45 and were told they were closing in 15 minutes, so about 10 minutes later we started to head out. It was a bit odd sort of getting kicked out, but we didn’t feel extremely guilty, because at least two tables full of people were still sitting, drinking, and laughing as we left – with the waiters starting to wave and say “good night!” at them.

So anyway, we headed back to the hostel and eventually hit the hay. The next morning, we were incredibly glad to see the sun shining, and cautiously thought that maybe there would be no need for umbrellas or the pesky problems they caused that day. We ate a little bit of food in the hostel, and then Marissa graciously waited for me while I went to Starbucks to get coffee. Yup! Starbucks! I hadn’t been there since my last month in the US, last August, and it was kind of fun to go back. Italy doesn’t have Starbucks, which isn’t really surprising, because espresso and caffe macchiato at the bar don’t really fit with the whole Starbucks culture. Italians actually think it’s pretty amusing that Americans put their coffee in cardboard cups and walk around with it. Anyway, I enjoyed the “novelty” of the experience and got a latte to go. Marissa and I planned on talking a funicular called the Polybahn up to a viewpoint I’d read about. The ticket machine was a little bit confusing, but eventually we figured it out and hopped on board. The ride was really short but brought us to a viewing platform that had a great panorama of the city. With the sun shining, latte in hand, and a beautiful view of the city to look at, I was a happy camper. We took some photos and then made our way back down. We planned to get a very small lunch that day, for money reasons and in order to make ourselves hungry for an earlier dinner, so we headed to a pretzel stand we had seen on Bahnhofstrasse the day before. Marissa had a bit of language confusion, but we did get our pretzels and enjoyed eating them on a nearby bench, surrounded by the Saturday ambience and people strolling around. Then we went further down the street and stopped in at Sprungli to make our purchases. I got some Luxembergerli along with some other small chocolates with nuts inside. I got a little pamphlet on Luxembergerli – they’re basically made of meringue which is the “bun” part of the hamburger structure, and the inside is cream. As I said before, there are tons of flavors! I tasted some later on in the day and they were very good, and unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before.

After Sprungli, we went down to the boat dock to await our departure. We opted for a shorter cruise instead of a longer one, and I’m glad we did. The boat stopped in different lakeside towns, and so it was an interesting mix between public transportation and just a pleasure ride. We wanted to sit outside in order to enjoy the air and the scenery, but that meant we were thoroughly chilled by the time we got back. Regardless, we both were glad we got a chance to see Zurich from the lake and enjoy the surrounding scenery a bit.

When we got off the boat, both of us were eager to find some sort of indoor place to warm our numb toes, so we got hot chocolate. Again. No regrets! After that, we took a nice lakeside stroll toward the botanical gardens of the university. It was nice to enjoy the “promenade” area along the lake, and heading toward the gardens we saw the most residential and “normal” part of Zurich we had been to. Surprisingly, some of the houses reminded me a bit of architecture in certain parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts, sort of the nice/historical kind. We found the botanical garden, and while many of the plants outside were obviously sort of dead or in hibernation, we got to go in three different climate controlled domes to see a large variety of plants. One was tropical, another desert-like, and another subtropical. It was quite a contrast with the outside temperature, and we noticed our camera lenses fogging up from the humidity in the tropical dome! We enjoyed looking at all the different plants and then headed back into downtown Zurich by way of the same lakeside promenade.

We went back to the hostel at that point, just to freshen up a bit and drop off our extra weight (namely, chocolate purchases). Then we went to a beer hall I’d found online for some atmospheric (if slightly touristy) Swiss/German food. It was called Zeughauskeller and was situated in an old armory just off of Bahnhofstrasse. It was a very large place (larger than I’d ever see in Italy) and was bustling around 6 pm, when we arrived. At first we worried if we’d get seats, but they said as long as we could finish by 8 pm, we could sit at a table (it was reserved for 8 pm). That wasn’t a problem, but I found myself thinking “this would never happen in Italy.” We both got soups to start, for me onion soup. While it wasn’t really cheesy like the kind you get in the US, it was still good – the actual onion broth part had more depth of flavor than the US version, where the cheese and the bread are definitely the stars of the show. For my main course, I got bratwurst and their special potato salad. The bratwurst was milder than I expected, but good, and the potato salad was really good. I also got a German beer that was described as “amber” and I definitely found it more interesting than the beer from the previous night. I felt slightly sick by the end of the meal, whether from the food or congestion or something else, so that wasn’t incredibly fun, but I did feel better once we got back outside and away from the hordes of people (by 8 pm thank you very much). After dinner we stopped by a café/bar we had seen, called Café Duda. It was particularly notable because it was situated either in the same building or the same physical location as Cabaret Voltaire, where Dadaism was born in the early 1900s. Though the options for drinks were a bit different, we both got drinks we ended up enjoying and spent a bit more time chatting. We were both quite tired though, so we headed back to the hostel before too long.

The next day, it was already the day of our departure. Our train wasn’t until 1 pm though, so we checked out by 10 like we were supposed to, then walked around a little bit more before coming to pick up our stuff by noon and head to the train station. As we walked around, we stopped at a sort of elevated park called Lindenhof, which afforded us yet another neat view of the city and the chance to admire the scenery. Then we tried to go see one of the Catholic churches in town, but it was closed. A lady from the church saw us and we had sort of an awkward interaction, but we basically got the idea that we couldn’t go in right then. We did get invited to have some coffee with people from the church, but we went along on our way.

As we headed to the train station after picking up our bags, we had the perfect amount of time to make our way there, find something to eat, and spend most of our Swiss francs, without too much rush but without too much waiting time. It all felt so well timed! Then we boarded the train, and sure enough, got amazing vistas of the Swiss Alps for the majority of our ride back… it was really neat. Soon enough we arrived in Milan and Marissa and I parted ways. Happily though, my train (set to leave about 45 minutes after we arrived) was already on the track, so I just went directly to it and settled in for the ride. That ride did seem a bit long, but I had my book to read and music to listen to, and it passed. I got back to the house around 9:30 pm, and my Italian family was still awake, and had graciously saved some food for me. I shared my chocolate purchases with them (as I’d intended them as a gift for us all to share) and got great feedback and gratitude – especially from Lisa!

Language sidenote, if you are wondering: Well, compared to how much Spanish I spoke in Spain, I spoke very little German in Zurich. I had Eva teach me a few phrases before I left, but mostly I used “Sprechen zie English?” (Do you speak English?) And most people did. I did notice some things about the language and enjoy hearing it, and wished I spoke more, but it was a lot easier to “fake it” and pick things up in Spanish than in German. Ah well.

Since these three class days (Monday, Tuesday, and today) have been smack dab in the middle of two trips, I’ve felt much busier than I usually do here, since just as I settle back in from one trip I am gearing up for another – my trip to London which starts tomorrow! It’s all a bit surreal that I get these two opportunities so close together, but this is how it worked out. I realized last semester that I really wanted to visit London, and I chose this weekend because my friend Alexandra is currently there for Georgetown’s spring break. We only get one full day in the city together (Friday) but I know it will be great to spend a little bit of time with her, and I can’t wait to experience London! I feel like it is such a cultural reference point in various movies, in history, in literature, and in general, so I’m really excited. The biggest downer at this point is that I am trying to get rid of a cold (mostly congestion, though now a bit of a cough) so I hope that doesn’t negatively influence my trip too much. Either way, I will have this next great trip, and then be hanging around Firenze without any major trips in the near future, which is probably good for now, to take a bit of a breather. There will be a bit more excitement when I get back from London though, because my fiance’s grandmother will be visiting Florence with a friend of hers. That’s right, my (future) grandmother-in-law is coming to visit! It’s only for a few days, and I have class, but I hope to be able to spend some time with her and I hope she enjoys her time in Firenze.

Classes are going pretty well. I still have to determine my third one, which I’ll be taking second half of the semester. I just chose my topic of concentration for History of the Risorgimento, for the paper I’ll have to write. I am going to do it on Giuseppe Garibaldi, the charismatic military/man of action hero of Italian unification. It seems like a good topic for me because it’s pretty basic, but it will be good for me (being foreign) to study one of the key figures in so much depth. I also still have lessons in History of the Church, but haven’t officially chosen my presentation topic yet. I do find the course interesting though, in that I have studied Islam and Islamic politics at Georgetown, but this is my first academic encounter with the Catholic Church, really. Yet my perspective is different because I was raised, and am, Catholic. So I have sort of a vague understanding of the history of the church, but for once I am learning the history in a more analytical, historical sense, and going beyond the type of church history one learns in normal history classes. I certainly don’t have any overarching epiphanies yet, but it’s interesting.

So far the main thing I have for classes is a lot of background reading. Since both are classes meant to deepen understanding, and not general survey courses, the professors seem willing to have me (and other foreigners) in their classes, but recommend we read some general histories to provide ourselves with some background, which seems fair. So basically I have many packets and lots of material to read, which I’m trying to get going on, but there’s still a long ways to go. I suppose my work pace will have to pick up over the next weeks, but for now it still isn’t as demanding as Georgetown (which is good because I keep leaving the country on the weekends!). Regardless, even though I’ve been a little tired being sick lately, it feels good to have a semblance of a schedule again, and have specific intellectual tasks to complete (in contrast to my long vacation period!).

I have gotten even closer to my new German friend, Eva. Since we have both of our two classes together, we see each other a lot and we eat lunch together basically every class day. It’s both fun and interesting to talk to her about anything and everything. Today we got into a really interesting conversation about culture/politics/history from our differing viewpoints, just as a byproduct of being German and American. She talked a bit about how Germany as a nation has struggled to deal with its WWII past, and the ways in which that period in the country’s history still influences them today. Just one example is that she feels like patriotism as such isn’t really admissible in Germany, and that now their military is much smaller and instead they’ve taken pride in things such as science, economy, and culture. Our conversation expanded beyond that but it’s too much to type here!

Alright, I think that is going to be it for now. You can bet I will be posting after my trip to London, and then hopefully reasonably often after that!