Berge, Käse und Schokolade

Guten tag from France! Although I am back at my psuedo-home here in Europe, I am still getting acclimated to seeing everything in a language I semi-understand again. Apart from the title of this post (which means mountains, cheese and chocolate in German) and my greeting at the beginning, I do not speak a lick of German. And here begins the tale of this past weekend in Zurich.

I awoke early on Friday morning to take a bus from Apt to the Avignon TGV station. From there I caught a 4.5 hour train ride to a city named Mulhouse, which is right on the border of France and Switzerland. During this train ride, I slept, eat, listened to music and continued to read Harry Potter. I opened up my book and realized I was on the chapter where Harry goes on the Hogwarts express for the first time - quelle chance!

Avignon TGV. Note that this is the first cloudy day I've experienced thus far in Provence.

Platform 9 3/4!

Then I arrived in Mulhouse and had an hour layover, so I killed the time by going and buying a 12-25 carte de reduction. Through SNCF (the French train company), you can buy these cards for 50 euro and they guarantee at least 25% reduction on all train tickets bought but can get you up to 60% off. Pretty great deal, especially for how much train travel I am going to be doing! From there found my platform and got set to take the train to Zurich. As the train pulled in, I noticed on the door of the train it said that it was going from Paris to Geneva, which really confused me. I might have had a minor freak-out*... but I found out that I truly was on the correct train heading to Zurich. During the hour and a half train ride, I tried to call and text my brother letting him know I would be on time. Soon after, I found out that my phone was not working, as I had crossed over into Switzerland. Although I remember mentioning meeting me at the train station, I realized we had never really agreed on it so I had no idea if he was going to be there. And to make matters worse, I had no address for the hotel either. Commence second freakout on the same train.

Once I arrived, I instantly felt the craziness that is the Zurich train station. The only other European stations I have been to have had, at most, 6 tracks. Zurich's has over 50. The swarm of people I saw when I got off the train was like a swarm of bees around a beehive. How was I supposed to find my brother in this, if he was coming for me at all? And all of a sudden, just like in a movie, the crowds parted and I saw my brother with his typical Dan-face peeking out from behind a group of Swiss business men. I don't think I have ever been more happy to see him. We soon met up with Brenna (who I was very happy to see as well) and we were off into Zurich! We couldn't really find much to eat near the train station and settled for a self-service type of meal, which none of us really understood what we were eating because all the signs were in German. While we were eating someone came up to us and told us we had to leave, the store was closing. Only half comprehending, he hovered over our table until we put our trays away. And that was the first lesson I learned in Zurich: Everything closes at 8, even on a Friday night. And when they close, they mean GET OUT. We spent the rest of the night catching up at the hotel and planning out what we would do the next two days.

First meal in Switzerland!

Bitter lemon Schweppes! Kind of like carbonated lemonade, but not sweet

Saturday morning we set out early, as we had made a big list of things to do and see. We were up and out of the hotel by 9am, on our way to get a quick breakfast. As we were walking through the city, it was completely empty. I was shocked. No one walking around, no shops or restaurants open. After much searching, we ended up finding Motta, a cafe type place that serves special coffees and pastries as well as sandwiches and alcohol. Come to think of it, everywhere we went to eat, no matter how out of place it was, served alcohol. Definitely different. Anyway, had a splendid little breakfast there.

Our breakfast! Brenna and I had a cioccolata al'italiana, which was basically hot chocolate pudding - DELICIOUS!

Then we were off to see the Grossmünster, or the Great Church, which is a cathedral that dates back to the 12th century. It is the principal parish church of Zurich and if you climb the tower to the top, you are rewarded with a stunning panoramic view of the city of Zurich. That is, if you aren't claustrophobic - the first spiral staircase that you climb is only big enough for one person who is maybe 5'5", and there is only one for the combined trip of up and down. Needless to say, got pretty close to some tourists really quickly...

Up close view of the Great Church

View from across the river

Dan and I in front of the incredibly ornate doors

Fear-stricken expression while climbing the tower

Zurich from the top of Grosmunster

History lesson (if you don't care, skip down): this molding depicts Felix and Regula, which are the two city and cathedral patrons. They were said to have fled to Zurich at the end of the 3rd century from religious persecution and were executed. Legend says they picked up their decapitated heads and moved to where they wished to be buried. Pretty gruesome.

Now this guy, Charlemagne, is said to have stumbled upon the graves of the two during a hunting expedition. And at this place, he founded Grossmunster. So basically, a church for two decapitated heads. Awesome.

Snuck this picture of the beautiful stain glassed windows by Augusto Giacometti

After that, we wandered around Old Town a bit, which is the pedestrian portion of Zurich. Cars don't drive much there in general, as the tram public transportation take up a good portion of most streets. Then we headed to Kunsthaus, which is the large art museum. It had everything from Andy Warhol to Augusto Giacometti to Monet. I actually might have almost cried at seeing one of Monet's water lily paintings, I just love them!

Beautiful mural in old town

Old Town

Kunsthaus, art museum

Once we were art-ed out, we decided to get some food. One thing that I had not expected about Zurich was how expensive it is. It might be the most expensive city I have ever been to. After much searching for a reasonably priced meal, we decided to split a pizza and pasta at a chain called Vapiano.

Garlic and olive oil pasta

Spinach, tomato and pesto pizza

Then we went to the other great cathedral in town, the Fraumunster (the church of our lady). This one is known for its amazing stain glass windows, done by Chagall. Although I got no pictures while inside the church (wasn't allowed), I can tell you they were absolutely breathtaking.

Fraumunster

Doorway inside

Around the corner from this church is Town Hall, or Stadhaus. Not much to say with this one, but still a pretty cool building.

With all of the big monuments that we wanted to see were done, we did some walking and exploring. And then decided to get some chocolate. Walking into Sprüngli was like walking into any store in the U.S. on Black Friday, absolutely chaotic. The amazing smell of chocolate wafting through the door instantly made my mouth water. I had to get some of these delicious concoctions. We decided to split a dozen mini chocolates of all different flavors.

This picture doesn't capture how packed it was, I got budged while taking this picture!

The only purchase I made on Bahnoffstrasse (Zurich's champs d'elysées) was at this store.Totally worth it.

The plan was to eat them later on in the night, but having some time waiting for our next tram, we indulged a little early.

Chocolate heaven.

The tram we took brought us to Uetliberg, a big hill that is the highest point in Zurich. Many people hike up to it, which we considered doing as well but we were too tired. This spot boasts the best views of Zurich. However, once we got up there, the valley below was densely covered with fog, so we couldn't see anything. And it was extremely cold. Wish I could have seen the amazing view, but was happy to have said that we braved Uetliberg.

If you climb up to the top of that tower, you reach the highest point in Zurich

The view. Yeah, I was disappointed too.

Our sad faces about fog at Uetliberg.

Once we made it back down the hill, it was almost 8, and you all know what happens at 8. So we decided to go to the mall near my brother's hotel and grab sandwiches and snacks to eat for later on that night. And of course, we had to get some gelato too.

There's always time for gelato!

We spent the rest of the evening talking, snacking and playing card games in the hotel room. I know this sounds a little weird, we were in a foreign city, we should go explore at night right? But really, this might have been my favorite part of the trip: I was so happy to see these two and I hadn't felt more comfortable here in Europe as when I was with them. I love how with family, no matter where you may be, once you're together, it's like home. Plus we had been out and walking all day, spending copious amounts of money, we needed a night in.

Sunday we slept in and went to Sunday brunch at the hotel. Then we were off to visit the Swiss national museum, or Landesmuseum. In knowing that the entrance fee was 10 francs, I already started getting my money out at the ticket booth. I was then greeted with the best surprise of the weekend: the museum was free that day! Spent several hours exploring the museum and the history of Switzerland, feel like I learned so much!

Landesmuseum, the Swiss national museum

Origin of the swiss flag

The patches soon turned into banners, and now are the national symbol.

After that, we got some (less the subpar) Chinese food at the train station mall. Since it was Sunday, there was not a lot open and I wanted to be able to check to see where I would be going for my train the following day so we braved the station again. Just like on Friday when I arrived, there is a big Oktoberfest carnival and celebration taking up about half of the station. Beers and brats everywhere!

They sure love Oktoberfest here!

Then we wanted to go see a movie at the Zurich film festival, which happened to be going on while we were there AND was about 10 steps away from the hotel. After consulting prices and weighing options, we decided it wasn't really worth it. However, when we returned to the hotel Sunday evening (and may I remind you, it's a Sunday in Europe, so generally everything is closed and noone is out), the whole area was swarmed with people. You would have thought it was Saturday night! Even the restaurant at the hotel was holding some type of after party for a film premiere, there was someone that I didn't recognize giving autographs. Part of me just wanted to ask for one and then figure out who it was later on... **

Because of this hustle and bustle, there were still restaurants open. So that brings us to our second visit to Vapiano of the weekend. We loved that place, and it was easy for us to split meals and costs.

That night, I packed and we skyped Mom and Dad back home, first family skype from across countries. The following morning, after a tearful goodbye, I was off to the train station by myself. Thankfully, we had reviewed where I needed to go a million times so I found my train with ease and managed to get myself an awesome cheese danish.

Excited because, for a brief portion of time, I had the car to myself

Empty car

Yummy cheese danish!

And around 8 hours later, I arrived at the Avignon TGV station where Amy was waiting for me. We took the bus back to Apt together and caught up on the weekend. It is so nice to have a roommate here and that we both have a lot in common! Also, so interesting to tell each other about life in our home countries and all the cultural differences. I feel like I am starting to really feel at home here - it's weird how a weekend trip can make someone feel that way. But coming back to the rolling hills and bountiful sunshine of Provence makes me realize - this is home.

*When I say I freaked out, I ran on to the train while it was pulling out quickly opened up the first cabin I saw and screamed "parlez-vous anglais?!" with everyone staring at me. Kind of embarrasing. Once they responded and I confirmed that the train was going to Zurich, I took my seat and got greeted with stares for the rest of the trip.
**By the way, Hugh Jackman was at the festival Saturday night. It took everything inside of me not to find him and scream "Wolverine!"