Hello, Switzerland

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I arrived in Zurich in the early morning on Saturday (6/7).  Seth met me at the airport and we took the tram back to his apartment.  He had warned me about the Swiss food prices, but the visit to the grocery store was still shocking after traveling in India for a month.  I consumed a multitude of foods that I had barely seen for a month—milk, muesli, white bread, ham, hard cheese, mustard, and lettuce.  The food is really good and “normal,” but it remains to be seen if Swiss food can top Indian food.  In the afternoon, Seth, his friend Michael and I carried a framed double mattress from Michael’s place to Seth’s place.  This included a walk down a big hill to the station, a ride on the train, the tram, then a short walk to Seth’s apartment.  It was an adventure, and now I have a mattress.  For dinner (after a nap), we went to the Zurichsse, the lake in downtown Zurich for a swim and some bratwurst.

On Sunday (6/8), Seth and I hiked in Appenzell.  Joining us were a British friend of Seth’s named Nick and an Indian friend of Nick’s named Ashish.  Having just come from India, I had a great time talking to Ashish about his home country and his home city of Bangalore, the second city I visited in the country.  We got some kebabs on the way back, but they were budget priced (7 Francs) and we were not impressed.  We vowed to try again another day.

Seth and I took it easy on Monday (6/9), tired from the previous day’s hike.  In the evening we met Ola’s friends at a barbecue in the park by Seth’s apartment.  Ola is Seth’s roommate from Nigeria who just moved into this complex two weeks ago.  We tossed a disc around a while then returned to the Zurichsse to swim with Seth’s friends.

On Tuesday (6/10) Seth and I again had a lazy morning of sleeping in and catching up on emails/booking our flights to Rome.  In the afternoon we took the train to Bern, the capital of Switzerland.  Instead of doing tourist activities and visiting museums, we floated down the Aare river with the locals.  The water was 18 degrees Celsius.  If you walk for fifteen minutes up the river then jump in, it only takes five minutes to float in the strong current back to your starting location.  We took turns floating and drying off in the sun until it was time to return to Zurich.  We split a giant pretzel before hopping on the train.  I had my first good kebab in the Zurich train station; it was a large portion and really good.


I will post (probably) twice more before I leave for Munich on the 17th.

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