Day 98: Zurich => Belfast

This morning... booked our rooms for tonight and tomorrow night ^-^;;

4:10pm flight to Dublin. Our plane was almost 2 hrs late >_<

I forgot to buy any souvenirs! This says how 'used to' everything I've gotten. We don't usually buy any non-consumable souvenirs, well, K likes to buy *something*, but I always convince him there's no point. I do like to buy some sort of consumable for friends (and for myself ^_~), but it was after I got to the airport that I realized I've gotten so used to moving around from one location to the next that I 'forgot' this is basically the end! Oops. K did observe that anything I could get in Switzerland I could probably get in the States!

We're going to have a full day at the end in Ireland? Can we squeeze in a trip to Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland for that day? Hmmm...

... which is how we ended up on a 2.5-hour bus ride up to Belfast after we got off our flight in Dublin. The buses between Dublin airport and Belfast are actually quite convenient; they run every hour between 7am and 9pm.

With our flight being late, it was already after 11pm by the time we got to the hostel, and we still had to do some more research for the train and bus times to get to Giant's Causeway tomorrow. Also, we had a very filling, yummy late-night dinner. Yes, there are actually places open late in Belfast ^-^ Unfortunately, we couldn't take the leftovers to go because we had nowhere to store them; I hate wasting food like that >_<

Day 97: Zurich, Murten & Bern day-trip

Since I missed breakfast on my Tuesday visit, I started today with a nice breakfast at the G-office ^o^


We also visited the aquatic lounge since it was closed during my visit the other day. It was definitely a very conducive-to-napping/resting-looking lounge! ^-^

I took the noon train out to Murten, which required a switch at Bern. I got on the right train at the switch, but I think maybe the wrong car of the train. I ended up in Neuchatel! It was basically a loss of an hour. I finally arrived in Murten a little past 3pm (and not in Bern again until 5pm). For the little bit that I was there, Murten was cute. Tiny with nice ramparts. Houses with window plants and pretty lawns.


I've never seen so many tram lines all crisscrossing each other as I saw in Bern!

I was surprised by all the people out by the community pool at 5:30pm on a weekday! But after traveling these months, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. Unlike the work-work-work attitude of many Americans, Europeans have a much more balanced outlook on enjoying life's pleasures. In the U.S., it's almost as if people take pride in and compete on not having enough time. It feels the opposite here.


Einstein lived in Bern? I didn't know that. Apparently his couple of years in Bern was when he wrote his greatest papers, one of which won him the Nobel Prize. The house was closed at the time I was walking by, but I felt a teeny tiny bit of extra enlightenment just from being there ^_~


The apartments in Bern struck me as being more uniform than I've seen in many other cities.


Rather than seeing bears at the bear pits, I was met by this >_< Their last bear died just a couple of months ago, on April 30th, and they're not getting new bears until October.


I debated going up to the rose garden, but I did and I wasn't disappointed. There were more people just hanging out (even a group doing taichi), and I saw a beautiful view of Bern on my way up.

I didn't make it back home until nearly 10pm ^-^;;

Day 96: Zurich

The day started out raining, so I decided to postpone my day-trip to Bern until tomorrow.

Instead, I visited the weekly Wednesday market in the train station. Compared to other markets we've seen, Zurich is quite orderly and also quite varied. There's very little overlap between the stalls and quite a few prepared food stalls. I went around lunch time, so all the many tables laid out in the middle of the market were filled with locals eating the market food.


It was my first time seeing bell-pepper-shaped eggplants.

I also went to visit one of the Asian groceries in the city. The size was just a bit smaller than the one we have "near" (30 minutes drive) my parents' house in Jersey. I couldn't help myself -- I bought tofu. After eating tofu yesterday at lunch, I just had a craving for even more tofu, silken, drizzled with soy sauce and dashi, topped with bonito flakes. I bought the silken tofu and I'll just have to make do with only soy sauce, but it's better than nothing. It was 300g for 2.75 CHF, more than twice what I'd pay in the States O_o

K reflects that it was good we didn't end up moving to Zurich. We both knew the cold weather would do him in, though it's been quite *hot* these last few days. But also, everything here is expensive! I think I could survive and get used to the prices. And there are things I like (it's pretty clean compared to other cities and it has a good transportation system), but I wouldn't want K complaining every day. Then again, he doesn't do grocery shopping, so he wouldn't see the more expensive grocery prices. I'm not sure at what point we'd be able to stomach the prices for eating out Chinese here though. Also, D says I'm bored of Europe. I think 'bored' is a bit extreme, just ready for other types of adventures ^_~

Day 95: Zurich

G visit day! I love visiting the various G offices. Ok, we've only visited one other one, Tokyo, which had a similar feeling to G-MtnView, but with some Japanese flavor (free drinks within vending machines, yummy Japanese snacks, etc). When we saw P in Berlin, he told us that G-Zurich actually has a tour that the host (K) can print and use.

We got to the office just missing breakfast. Oops.

Some highlights...


Sometimes, I'm just too easily amused. I loved their elevator signs!


Each floor is themed and usually has some small phone conference rooms according to its theme. Some of these rooms seem perfect for napping, too ^-^;;


A slide into the cafeteria!


Fire pole connecting some of the floors!


Of course, I ate lunch with K. Fois gras with apples on brioche, fish with yummy sauce (K says they *always* do fish really well here), coq au vin, tofu schnitzel, fried jalapeno, some veges, a choco banana strawberry crepe, and some really yummy French nugget candies ^o^

Day 94: Zurich

After getting back so late last night, I decided today would be veg day ^o^

Somehow I got to reading a Morocco travel journal of RS's daughter Jackie today. She spent a month in Morocco in '07, staying with a local Muslim family for most of it. The family was well-to-do by Moroccan standards but impoverished by U.S. standards. My heart really went out to her as she reflected on her daily experiences and culture shock.

Despite being really touched by her stories, I was put off a little by her end to her experience. She starts with: "But with my decision to go on this trip I am hoping to free myself from at least some of the bonds of materialism. I don't want to be dependent on a Starbucks latte, a nice car, and oversized food portions for comfort. I want to immerse myself in poverty in such a way that I can't come home and bring myself to spend $200 on designer jeans like I have before." The fact of someone spending $200 on a pair of jeans as a teenager (or even an adult) makes me sad. But I know people do. Why all this materialism?? She ends with: "This trip has made me slightly less materialistic. I would feel disgust if I followed such a month long trip with a shopping spree. I just don't need that. I've also grown to appreciate being in a more natural state (i.e. no makeup, less time spent grooming and natural unprocessed foods)." I guess with all the insights she realized during her stay, her end left me thinking "surely you take away more than that!". But that's the trouble with words; after such an experience as hers, I'm sure she *did* take away more. I hope so.

The cleaning lady must have been surprised to see me again. She comes twice a week and we saw her when we got in last Thursday. She's really nice. Cleaning up a house for six people is a lot of work! She looked pooped when she left.

There's a rooster somewhere in the neighborhood that seems a bit confused. It was cock-a-doodle-doo-ing at three in the afternoon!

Even though this apartment is quite out of center (~40 minutes to get to the city-center train station), there are some advantages. There's a really nice park right nearby and when I get off the tram, I pass by the fresh floral scents of the local florist shop ^-^

Day 93: Bernese Alps => Golden Pass rail journey

When we got to Murren yesterday, we asked the cable car ticket counter if going up to Schilthorn would be at all possible during our short stay here. He said go up first thing this morning and that the clouds usually start setting in around 9am!

We took the 2nd train out of Interlaken at 7:05am. (Actually, we were intending on taking the first one at 6:35am, but as we neared the station, we realized we left our day tickets back at the hostel ^-^''); this had me up on Schilthorn at 8:27am. Only me. Being that Schilthorn is above 10k feet, we decided it wasn't prudent to risk K's proneness to altitude sickness. K waited for me at Murren.

The view of the big three was indeed excellent! And K later told me that a ticket person told him that usually the mornings are clearest but this is much better than usual ^o^


(While I was up at Schilthorn, K took the cable car guy's advice and went up to a much smaller peak, Allmendhubel, which is a pretty decent view itself.)

After I got back down from Schilthorn we traveled to the other side, Wengen, took the cable car up, and then a short hike up to the peak and back. Gorgeous. We originally intended to do the 2.5-mile hike, but having added Schilthorn to today, it was impossible to do both. Rain droplets started as we came back down.

13:11 train out of Interlaken.

Switzerland has a bunch of beautiful rail journeys, the Golden Pass supposedly being the best of them. It starts in Lucerne, then Interlaken, then Zweisimmen, and ends in Montreux. The rail path is actually a separate, prettier path from the usual faster paths between those cities.

I once thought Austria had one of the prettiest train views, with hilly countrysides, lots of lakes, and snow-capped peaks. Myrdal to Flam in Norway certainly was up there as well. The Golden Pass had some varied nice views throughout and also a special 'panoramic' train. When we booked, we had supposedly reserved a 'normal' seat in a non-panoramic car of the train (the windows in the 'normal' seats can be opened), but when we got on the train at Interlaken, we noticed all the train cars were panoramic train cars, which might have been a fairly recent change. A seat in a panoramic car meant larger windows, but they couldn't be opened.

After our various train rides now, K says train journeys are overrated; he's not the 'sit and just watch' type of person. Plus, you can't just stop whenever you want and explore an area more.

On the train, we chatted with a guy originally from the States but who's been living in Geneva for the past nine years or so (married someone from there ^_~). Having now been immersed in both environments, he had some interesting thoughts to share. On why there are laws for store hours, that is, why they close early on Saturdays and are closed all day on Sundays, even the grocery stores, he said that it's because Sundays in Switzerland are considered family days. Besides, after living there for a bit, you quickly get used to planning out your shopping week accordingly. He also told us about how his house mortgage in Switzerland is essentially a mortgage for life; he's not expected to be able to pay if off within his lifetime. It's the first time we've ever heard of that, so I don't know how true that is for other residents.

K also chatted with a French-speaking, nice, old Swiss lady before she had to get off the train. Or perhaps I should say tried chatting? The last time he used any of his high school French was during our trip two years ago, so the conversation was definitely stilted. But the lady seemed to enjoy whatever they were able to get across to each other. I don't speak French =/

Montreaux's waterfront was crowded! It turns out today is a day in several of the Jazz festival. Festive.

We took the boat out to Chateau de Chillon. Big castle with lots of interesting little rooms! And latrines that used to empty down down down thru the castle and eventually into the lake O_o


We hit an unexpected roadblock on our way back to our Zurich apartment tonight. The good thing about trams having continually-updating displays showing the next few stops (or even all the way to the end of the line) is that you know ahead of time if things aren't quite right. We were on the right tram, but that tram was not going where it was supposed to go! Talking to the driver didn't help (language), but thankfully, a fellow passenger overheard us and told us we should get off at the next stop, walk several blocks following some new construction (just started yesterday!), and the new temporary tram spot should be obvious. Apparently, it's a temporary tram set up just because of the construction and the line to our apartment is the only one affected. Poor K will have to go through this same tram transfer every day this week as part of his commute.

Day 92: Bernese Alps

We discovered that our tram line, #11, doesn't seem to run on Saturdays. Instead we had to take the S13 train (which stopped at all the tram #11 stops up to a point) and then switch S-trains at a later stop. It ended up ok; we just barely made the 9:32am train out of Zurich.

After getting into Interlaken and checking into our hostel, we headed to the Interlaken Ost station, discovering that we had just missed the 1:05pm train up to the mountains. And, the trains that usually come every half-hour only come every hour after that train until 5pm. So, we had to wait nearly a whole hour for the next train >_<

But actually, maybe that was a good thing in a way? When asking whether we could use our round-trip train ticket to travel in the opposite direction (we bought Lauterbrunnen => Gimmelwald => Murren => Schilthorn => Getshalp => Lauterbrunnen... but we now wanted Schilthorn before Murren), the ticket person directed our attention to the live feed of the Schilthorn view. It was foggy!! She said it probably wouldn't clear up today >_< We kept our tickets.

The rest of the hour was well-spent in the adjacent huge Co-op supermarket. This is probably the largest supermarket we've seen in Switzerland thus far. Lots of selection, but I think the prices are a bit higher than those we saw in Zurich. This *is* a touristy area after all.


There's a lot of parasailors above Interlaken.

Trummelbach Falls. It's not even in our Switzerland cut-out from the RS book. Did I get the info from his Switzerland book, or was it on the web? Anyways, it was definitely *the* best part of the day. The waterfall runs through the mountain and the crazy Swiss have blown through the sections of the mountain adjacent the falls such that you can walk into and up the mountain to various viewpoints of the falls. That's seeing the falls from *within* the mountain!! They also built a crazy elevator inside the mountain so that you don't even have to walk up the first half! Of course, we opted to take the elevator up and then walk down; we didn't want to miss the lower half of the falls. All the water from the big three peaks (Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau) flow down through Trummelbach!


Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau... meaning the Ogre, Monk, and Lady. The monk is protecting the lady from the ogre. They even have yummy choco bread with the three peaks ^-^

RS walk through cute, little Gimmelwald and then Murren. Gimmelwald only has ~100 residents but they're actual residents who are serious about the town. They even got it declared as an avalanche zone to keep out modernizing for a tourist economy. Seeing local animals (cows, chickens, and goats here) is always an M-pleaser.

Murren was more built up, but it still had it's cute points in some parts. Maybe it was better than we expected because we didn't see all the tourists we expected to see.

All the traveling around actually took quite a while; we didn't get back down to Interlaken until after eight. All the supermarkets had already closed but our hostel desk directed us to a Co-op pronto mini market that stays open until 10:30pm *everyday*, unique for Switzerland. Too bad we already bought a noodle dish from some Asian place (that served Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Korean (!), and they even told you which dishes were of what nationality). But we picked up a bit more and also bought food for lunch and breakfast tomorrow ^-^

Day 91: Lucerne day-trip

Our train out to Lucerne had most of the 1st-class trains marked as 2nd-class with a little sign taped over the '1' inside the train. Being forced by our rail pass, first class is how we traveled during our previous Europe trip two years ago. This trip, having decided the rail pass wouldn't be a savings, we bought tickets as we went along and traveled 2nd-class. Aside from the 1st-class seats being wider and having more availability, 1st-class and 2nd-class were pretty much the same for us. We've come across pretty full 2nd-class cars, but we've been lucky to always have a seat ^-^ Oh, and sometimes they serve you a free drink in 1st-class (Italy).

We already rode a 'luge' ride at Lake Bled, but apparently Switzerland's longest luge ride (1-mile long) is on the way up to Mount Pilatus from Lucerne. After seeing that it was actually a luge and not just a track like the one in Bled, we both decided to give it a go. Unfortunately for K, he got the larger, and as it turns out, slower, seat, for people 170cm or taller. He's just at the cut-off at 169.6cm. (I hardly ever think of myself in metric, but I am 161cm.)

The view from Mount Pilatus is mmm mmm spectacular! What's even more amazing is watching the clouds move right in front of you. One moment the lake and valley are shielded and the next second it's entirely different.


Post Mt Pilatus --
- train down (during which we saw smelly cows crossing a bridge!)
- boat back to Lucerne town
- short-ish RS walk through town

By the time we got back to Zurich, it was already past 9pm.

Day 90: Helsinki => Zurich

I read on the 'sleeping in airports' site that Helsinki Airport was a good airport to sleep in. We saw a bunch of people in Athens airport with sleeping bags and such, but here at Helsinki, you don't even need a sleeping bag. The seats are perfect for sleeping on -- well-cushioned and no armrests or gaps between connecting seats. Not only that, but they turn out the lights in the check-in area, so there's little ambient light to disturb your quality of sleep (and no middle-of-the-night announcements either). By the time we arrived (nearly 2am), the check-in area was pretty much full, but I did manage to find probably the last set of three connecting seats. Using K's fluffy jacket as a pillow and bundled up in my own jacket, I slept for a few hours until the lights turned on and the airport 'woke up'. Our check-in counter was still unmanned, so I joined K at the cafe.

Helsinki to a connection in Dusseldorf to Zurich. Air Berlin served drinks and a sandwich on both legs of the flight ^-^ Everything balances out... our suitcase was the 2nd one of the shoot at Zurich at the start of our trip months ago; this time, it was the 2nd to *last* one out of the shoot ^-^''

Rather than playing the standard "ding" to indicate a stop has been reached, the shuttle line that runs between the different terminals in the Zurich airport plays "mooo". Also, you can "watch" the various Swiss mountains "passing by" as you look out the shuttle "windows" ^-^

Our apartment is a 6-bed, 3-bath, much further out of the center this time. K's commute is going to be half an hour or so on the tram. The nearest grocery that I could find is a few tram stops away and it closes at 7pm. By the time we got to the apartment, ate a late lunch, and settled in, I was tired again. K napped and I fell in right after him, not waking up until after 7pm. Remembering the Migros in the train station was open during a holiday day last time when all the other groceries were closed, and knowing that shops in train stations don't have to follow the 'shops must close by 8pm' law, I took the tram all the way to the train station. Migros is open until 9pm ^-^

Day 7: Hallstatt => Zurich

I wondered if the nice old landlady understood when I said I'd be leaving early, and I half doubted when she said she'd be up at that time. I paid her yesterday, just in case. She was indeed up though and bid me farewell.

7:08am train. On time, but my other two connections to get back to Zurich were late, though not as late as Salzburg to Hallstatt. Today's were only five and then ten minutes late.

K gave me his cell for my little side-trip so we could stay in touch just in case. So, I used it to text messages to twitter to keep him somewhat informed of my progress ^_~ I guess twitter's useful for something like this. The sms max character limit was 160, and I thought twitter's would be the same. Unfortunately, it turns out it was only 140, so one my messages got a bit cut off...
"M: On my way back to Zurich. Fog makes the day dark, damp, and cold, but watching it layer over the Austrian countryside from the warmth of a train -- magical."
...I was happy to actually be awake this time (vs my train ride out).

Once I was back in Switzerland, the on-board train announcements were in English as well as German (only German in Austria). On my last train, which turned out to be from Salzburg (and very cold in Salzburg, totally opposite of yesterday), I ended up sitting in a compartment with a father and his daughter. A little into the ride, the father starts looking out the windows on both sides of the train and so does his daughter. I ask if he's looking for something in particular or just enjoying the view. It turns out he'd visited a castle a few times as a child (40 years ago!), not a very well-known castle, but he was hoping to take his family to it if he could locate it.

After more than nine hours of travel, I'm back in the Zurich apartment. Traveling by yourself is fun in some ways, but I think it's better to have someone to share all the experiences with. K and I "start" our trip to Munich tomorrow. Actually, if we really thought about it, it might have been better for me to just travel directly to Munich tomorrow from Hallstatt/Salzburg and just meet K there rather than coming back to Zurich. Salzburg-Munich is only 2.5 hours by train.

Coming back to Zurich does have its advantages though. We get to travel to Munich together. And, I can do laundry in the apartment before we leave. Too bad I start the laundry a bit late though. I decide to take a nap after my shower so that I can wake up right after the laundry finishes.

Day 5: Salzburg

After going to sleep at nearly 3am last night, I wondered if I'd really wake up to my 5:50am alarm this morning (7:40am train). But all worries for naught ^-^ I woke up just fine. It was barely light out, but the sun rises quickly, and we had plenty of light by the time we got out.

"We" because sweetie K insisted on going with me to the hauptbahnhof (train station). Because he came with me though, we had to walk to the further Sihlcity Nord station to be able to buy a 24-hr transit pass for him; I only needed a one-use ticket.

Thankfully, my arm is much better today, with just a brief stab of pain when I move it in certain ways. Box of cereal, yogurt, banana, and a coffee stirrer (spoon substitute) in hand, I boarded my train at gate 3 to Salzburg and waved "bye" to K from the window.

The train ride out was an Alp wonderland! At my first sight of them, I was reminded of SB's "it's an Alp!" comment. She cracks me up. I knew the tiredness would get to me at some point, and it did -- I slept for most of the ride, despite pretty Alp after pretty Alp.

I was a bit nervous going off on my own. It sounds silly coming from the girl who booked accommodations and borrowed books from the library to plan all the rides and sights for her family's trip to Disneyworld in sixth grade. My nervousness was not for lack of planning. I had my chopped up RS Salzburg info, I had my lodging (booked over the phone yesterday), and I had a brain. Maybe it's in part due to K being nervous, which rubs off on me. He's nervous because he's afraid I'll get lost, and I assured him that inevitably I would. Not be "lost" though. "Lost" is when you don't know where you are and can't find your way. No, I'd just somehow get to some place other than the one intended. But, I'd manage to eventually find my way to my intended destination.

So, it *did* take me a bit longer than expected to find the TI, and after I left the TI, it *did* take me a while to find my way to the hostel. It would have helped if I didn't think my starting location on the map was somewhere other than where it really was ^-^'

Train arrived in Salzburg at 13:30. I left my dorm, ready to start exploring, at 14:40. Incidentally, the TI-provided map of Salzburg is quite good.

My original itinerary for the day --
- go to Makartsteg (bridge) and start RS' new town walk, visiting Mozart's Residence along the way
- do RS' old town walk, visiting the fortress at the end if there's a concert that day, thus leaving the funicular open until later, otherwise, take the elevator up to the other great viewpoint

It almost worked out that way. I dropped into a sandwich place along the way and picked up something to go. Still on the way, I saw a pretty garden with benches, so I decided to sit on a shaded bench and eat my sandwich first. Eating, taking pictures, and people watching... well, I sat for a while.

At some point, this nice, old German lady joins me on the bench. How I wished I'd decided to learn German before starting our trip! She'd say something to me every now and then, but it was right at this moment when I needed to know most that I blanked on how to say "I don't understand"... all I could muster was "speak German, no/not", which gave her a laugh. She seemed to indicate she understood me but then continued to talk to me again later. (Telling K about it later, I realized that I had said "you speak German, no/not" (!) Hmmm.) Nope, she didn't speak English. I tried that. If only I could even say something like "it's gorgeous out" or "this is so pretty, isn't it" and understand her a bit. Even a level like my cursory knowledge of Korean would be great >_<

I finished half my sandwich and eventually left the garden, making it to the start of my RS new town walk. It's very warm today, even warmer than it was in Zurich, low 70s I think. I actually packed for colder weather; rolling up the sleeves of my long sleeve worked fine though.

The RS new town walk actually took me *back* to the gardens I had just been at not too long ago, so I spent even more time at the garden ^o^

I spent so much time there that I didn't make it to Mozart's Residence in time. RS said it closes at 6pm, but when I got there at 5pm, it turns out closing time is really 5:30pm. I guess I'll have to go back tomorrow morning.

Old town walk. I like RS walks. He gives you little interesting details about the history of what you're seeing and takes you to both the touristy spots and the backroads of no tourists. Sometimes his tone is a little too... arrogant? But I can deal with that.

The cathedral here is crazily ornamented! Baroque? I forget the style name. Not quite rivaling the Spanish (e.g. the one in Toledo), but sometimes, you'd almost think you were in a palace, not a place of worship. The ceiling...


Getridegasse has modern stores and is quite touristy, but I liked the old-style iron signs. Even the Chinese restaurant and McDonalds had them...


I ate the other half of my sandwich while watching these guys play chess on a big board (D -- something you'll have to do next time you're in Europe!)


I don't really know much about chess aside from how the pieces move, but the spot looked good for sitting, eating, and watching. It was at this point that I noticed my sandwich had strawberries! (matched with prosciutto)

18:30. Perfect time for the fortress. When I asked the TI, they told me there would be a concert tonight. So, after fortress closing time (18:00) until 30 minutes after the start of the concert (21:30), you only have to pay the funicular fare (and not the extra 10 euros for admission to the fortress grounds and museum). RS is good for telling you these types of things.

Watching the sun set from atop the fortress was ^o^


Since I had only finished my sandwich not long ago, I wasn't really that hungry. I stopped by a place to eat, only to find it closed (since 6pm for today!). I ended up just picking up a weisswurst at a sausage stand to be the rest of my "dinner".

When I got back to the dorm, it was not even 10pm yet, but one of the girls was already asleep! Actually, 'girl' is probably the wrong word... she looked like she was in her late 30s / early 40s.

Day 4: Zurich

K's working early and late today. Early, just because I'm probably still sleeping, and late, so he can match Cali-time a bit. He comes back in late late afternoon and we make a trip to the COOP supermarket across the street.

They close at 6:30pm! We're not used to seeing supermarkets (maybe small groceries, but not supermarkets) close so early. I saw a whole aisle of choco yesterday at Migros... today, I bought some and decided to go with COOP brand. It says something about Swiss chocolates when even the supermarket brand is yummy. I picked a 60% cocoa with almond creme that even K could enjoy.

After seeing all the locals carrying their own reusable bags or buying and reusing one of the semi-well-constructed paper COOP bags, I felt compelled to also pay 30 cent euros for one, and I did.

K stayed home until after dinner. He rested (keeping some jetlag alive) while I researched Salzburg and Hallstatt more, trips I would be making on my own this week. Actually, I was going to leave for Salzburg today, but decided to postpone for a day because I started getting tons of pain in my upper left arm late last night. By pushing the trip out a day, I also pushed my black forest day trip to July.

Originally, Salzburg and Hallstatt were on our itinerary, but K said he wasn't all that interested in Salzburg, and we thought it would be close enough for me to travel to/from Zurich by myself. Turns out it's a bit further than we thought. Oops!

Others who know how I am (myself included) might be quite surprised that, no, I didn't already have lodging booked for tomorrow night. On reflection, it's not entirely out of character. It's Salzburg, not Paris, and it's April, so decent places to sleep should be ok to find. Plus, I'm traveling by myself, for only a short period of time, which means slightly lower standards. All in all, I also have maximum flexibility. Anyways, I called the place I planned on staying at and booked a bed in a 4-bed female dorm... 19 euros a night. There still is a possibility I might not do Salzburg & Hallstatt this week, but I figured it's better to make the reservation first anyways and cancel in a bit if I have to.

I looked up train times and noted details (train #'s, transfers, gate #'s, etc) for -
- Zurich to Salzburg
- Salzburg to Hallstatt
- Hallstatt to Zurich

K worked late into the night and then I got the laptop again. Sometimes, I think it would have been nice to buy something lightweight prior to the trip like a Netbook so that we wouldn't need to share one laptop, but oh well.

Somehow I didn't get to sleep until almost 3am.

Day 3: Zurich

It's a bright, sunny Easter Monday. We'd expected Zurich to be quite cold, so we packed accordingly. After all, it was snowing during this same time last year. But here we are, with warmer weather than when we left Cali.

We decided to do our nice little RS Zurich walk today and then K would work late into the night.

For a city, Zurich is quite clean. I'm not sure I would equate it to my memory of Singapore, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were the cleanest European city. We even saw seemingly professionally-done graffiti during our train from the airport yesterday, which K surmises was commissioned to cover up the bad graffiti.

A few random observations...

• the adjacent faces of joined buildings are painted different colors. So you can always tell where one building starts and another ends (they're the same height).


• cars stop for pedestrians crossing the street! This caught us quite pleasantly surprised for a while. We'd wait for the cars to pass, the car would [unexpectedly] stop, and we'd cross. Eventually we got out of our extra careful mentality from every other place we've been/visited -- we started remembering to just immediately cross without waiting.


• signs and labels on food are frequently in three languages: German, French, and Italian.

The COOP supermarkets (one near our apartment) are closed, as well as all the other shops, just like Brian said. But we're quite happy to find that the Migros supermarket (the other big chain here) in the city center is open. It's very busy though, probably because none of the competition is open. We buy some food for lunch there.

We'd been delighted with various yogurt flavors during our previous trip to Europe in '07... pineapple, coconut, etc. It was very hard to find such flavors on our return to the States. S found some coconut at a place near his house, but aside from that, the closest I've come is Yoplait's pina colada... hopefully not to be retired anytime soon like their guava flavor!



So, quite the happy surprise to see both plain coconut yogurt AND chocolate coconut! Of course, I have to go for the choco coco, which turns out to be pieces of flaked choco in coco yogurt... yummy!


Outside the supermarket, there's sort of a food-court-type area. I know the Big Mac is a measure that many use as a relative comparison of how much a place costs to eat/live... but Chinese in the food court was enough of a comparison for us... 15 CHF (~$13) per dish, for example, Kung Pao Chicken. That's at least a third more than how much one would pay in the U.S. A single spring roll? 5 CHF.

We ate our sandwichy lunch at some standing tables near the area.

Our RS walk took 3x's longer than RS probably estimated, but we (I) like to linger.

A picture for D (not just one, but three games going at once!)...


Afterwards, we picked up dinner at Migros, too. Since we have a kitchen, I figured some healthier but simple-and-quick-to-make food was probably good.

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.

Day 2: Dublin => Zurich

With our noon flight to Zurich, getting to the airport a couple of hours early, taking the bus there, walking to the bus stop, grabbing some breakfast at the nearby supermarket, and checking out of the hostel, there wasn't really much more time for exploring in the morning. Upon checking out, I almost forgot my scarf! As we were walking out the front door, I realized I didn't have it -- accidentally threw it in the basket with our linens -- oops! Phew!

The check-in at the airport took a while. Apparently Switzerland is very strict with entries... they want proof that you'll leave. We were going to leave by train but didn't buy our tickets yet. We did, however, have lodging reservations for our next destination, Munich, and also, a return flight from Zurich to Dublin for the end of our trip. With all the questioning about our travel plans, the rep didn't ask to weight our carry-ons. She was going to charge us for the check-in, but I mentioned coming from the U.S. the previous day (also on Aer Lingus)... she looked into it and we were ok.

We then finished our breakfast before going through security. It was during this that we noticed the couple of weighing stations for you to weight your luggage (carry-ons and/or check-in) and re-distribute as necessary. From what we've seen, most European airlines now have weight restrictions for carry-ons as well as check-ins.

Out of curiosity, I weighed my carry-on... 7.6 kg. K's fell under 6. We'll have to make sure to fix my carry-on weight for our next flight.

We had seats on the middle & window for the 2+ hour flight. I would never pick them that way, but I opted to not pay the extra fee to select our seats in advance on-line. We were lucky again at baggage claim -- only a minute wait for our luggage ^o^