The Capital of Europe: Zürich

Days 77 thru 81 – November 13th thru 16th – Thursday thru Sunday
I woke up today bright and early and headed over to the ISA office to print off my itinerary. I was so early, in fact, that they weren't yet open. I had about twenty minutes, so I went and had a coffee and then went back. I corrected my essay for Spanish class, which I got a nine on, and printed everything I needed. Then I headed back to my house, got my lunch and went off to catch the bus. I made it to the airport with plenty of time and then got to Zürich without any problems. Ian was waiting for me at the airport and we took the train into town. Zürich is a small, Swiss town. After being there for three days, I felt like I could find my way around. Ian's friend Tylan, also a Buckeye, was visiting as well. We went out to dinner, where I learned right away just how expensive Zürich is. They call it the capital of Europe because its where all the money is and they arn't lying. I saw a few Mazzeratti's, thousands of BMWs, a couple Bently's and a Rolls Royce. The next day, we walked around for a while while Ian was in class. Three of Tylan's friends had also come to visit, so we had a little crew. We walked down the Bahnhofstrasse, which is the main shopping street in Zürich. With stores like Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuittan, I've never seen such expensive things in my life. Many places had prices in the window, so we knew whether or not to bother going in. Of course, everything is in Swiss Francs (Switzerland is not on the Euro, nor technically in the European Union), but its about $0.90 to every franc, so its easy to tell that the alligator gloves in the Prada window that say 2390.00 franc, are ridiculously expensive. One store we went into to look at scarfs. They were 450 franc. Some prices looked more like bar code numbers than prices. It was quite outrageous. At the end of this street is Lake Zürich. We eventually got there without spending all our money. It was a very pretty lake and we could see off into the Alps in the background. Very picturesque, though it was a little hazy. We met up with Ian after he got out of class and we did a little more shopping, this time at more affordable stores. That night, we met some other people studying at Ian's school and went to a bar that they knew of. I liked the bar because they had some retro bikes for sale there, though they were also kind of overpriced. There was also a Tour de France poster of Lance Armstrong on the wall. We stayed there the rest of the night and then took a taxi home. Even that wasn't cheap. In the morning, Tylan and his crew came over to Ian's house from their hotel and we made omelets. They were delicious. Also, I had my first Dr. Pepper in Europe. It was delicious as well. More walking through the little town followed. There were a lot of nice little shops that were only slightly expensive. For dinner, we went to a sushi place, which was quite delicious. I had my first taste of fish eggs, which I suppose you really should call “caviar.” Nothing special. After that, half of the group stayed out while we went back to Ian's house to watch the Ohio State football game through Skype video. How cool is that? After the game, in which Ohio State beat Illinois, we headed out and met back up with the rest of our crew. We went to the same place as Ian, Tylan, and I had gone to to eat my first night in town. The downstairs turns into a bar at night. We hung out there for a while, but went home fairly early. We were all a little tired, and I had to get up early to travel the next day. I woke up at nine and headed to the train station. It is definitely a pretty nice station and the trains are in extremely good shape and a smooth ride. I made it to the airport with still almost two hours before my flight. Here, you don't really have to get to the airport early. I felt like I should've tried to cut it a lot closer because the only thing worse than waiting for a plane, is waiting in the doctor's office. By this point, I think I'm pretty good at traveling and I think I could make it to almost any gate in any airport in under a half hour. I had a great flight home on Swiss airlines. They're by far the best company I've flown with. Their flight was fairly inexpensive and they still gave me snacks and a piece of chocolate and a free drink, even if I want a beer or wine. I made it home in time for lunch in Barcelona and then took a great two hour nap. After that, I headed over to school to upload pictures and update my blog. I went home in time for dinner and then went over my school work before heading to bed. It was a great trip, and my second to last. When I told Fernando that it was my last, he said, no, no it wasn't. The last trip, you always go feet first, laying down.