Zurich, Switzerland: Above a Winter Wonderland

After a full night sleep, I woke to find a big spread of breads, cured meats, and cheese waiting for me on the kitchen table. So I may have completely pigged out on that. Did I mention how amazing my Zurich hosts were?

Andrea then even offered to do some laundry for me, which if you’ve been paying close attention will notice I never did laundry this trip until now, the very last day). Upon learning of my lack of gloves and hat (sorry Doug), Andrea insist we go up to her dad’s house (also her childhood home) to get some warmer stuff for me. It was cool to be in a true suburb of a European city. Definitely felt like a US suburb, except for the perfectly white snow covering everything, which I’m not used to in the Bay Area.

The swimming pool (or was it a pond?) in the backyard had frozen over to the point where I could walk around on it! How fun! Then, we drove back to the flat and then prepared to visit the city. Andrea’s flat is in a suburb about 15 minutes from the city itself, so it was a short train ride into town.

After arriving, we surveyed downtown for a Swiss-style lunch place. I have to have one crazy-expensive-regular-meal in Switzerland, right?

We decided on one and it was crazy busy for the lunch hour. We did, however, find a place to sit. After debating between lots of meat dishes, I ended up deciding on a meat-free dish – pasta with cheese, potatoes and grilled onions. Needed more onions, but it was a carbo-loading sure to keep me full for awhile. I also had another Swiss beer, although the name escapes me at the moment. I probably have a picture of it somewhere.

We next went to [chocolate place]. We’re talking the real deal fancy schamncy chocolate. Andrea’s advice was to go for the macaroons, and that’s exactly what we did. Champagne, caramel, raspberry, oh the list goes on. Here’s our catch:

We decided to save the macaroons for the mountain.

We had one more stop: Uetliberg. Uetliberg isn’t really much of a village, but rather just a mini-mountain near the city limits – in fact, it’s only accessible by the metro, as one of the line termini.

A quick note that the subway stations in Zurich are amazingly colorful!

Once arriving at the top of the hill, I saw easily my best view of the trip. A snow covered paradise, with small villages spread out below. The Alps stood proud in the background many miles beyond. I could’ve sat and stared for hours, but then I found out we weren’t actually at the top of the hill!

So we kept going up, and then the view got seriously panoramic. Now I could see the same view as before, plus the entire city of Zurich spread out before me, and miles of lakeside villages. I had access to what I’d estimate was a 225 degree view.

It brought me back to visiting the mountain in Hong Kong the year before, on the final day of my fall 2011 trip to SE Asia. Both experiences took place from small mountains near the city, yet both views completely different. One, a futuristic metropolis – the other, a winter wonderland. Maybe this whole “nice view on the last day” thing will become a tradition. Always gives me time to reflect.

Turned out we were a bit late for our dinner plans, but we just barely missed the train, so we had 30 minutes to kill. Enter: MACAROONS!

These were little bites of heaven. The flavors were all clear, and nothing was overpowering.

We took the train back into town, and met with Andrea’s mom for dinner. What’s for dinner? Well, actually, we were cooking dinner for the less fortunate! The menu…two types of risotto? Andrea are you crazy, or just an insanely badass chef to make two risottos from scratch? (I’ll give you a hint – she is a badass cook).

So I in fact got to learn how to make real risotto while in Zurich. You never really know what experiences you’re going to have when you CouchSurf in other countries. You really don’t.

One of the guys in for a meal helped cut onions. Dude could cut onions like a pro.

The old lady who helps with the coffee and tea, a crazy old well-meaning Swiss lady was as quirky as Andrea made her out to be, but was very complimentary of my pronunciation when I said thanks in German. Hey, I’ll take what I can get.

We served a good 40 portions of risotto each, and by the end of the evening I was feeling very good and very accomplished. Everyone who wanted seconds received seconds, and it was nothing short of a healthy, cooked-from-scratch delightful duo of risottos. Which reminds me, I need to practice making it again before I completely forget what to do – my dad likes risotto, and it’d be awesome to make him the real stuff, rather than the instant stuff he has!

Shockingly, I was still full from lunch (OK, I had a few tastes of the risotto, and a couple random dessert things), so Andrea and her mom took me to see some nice city views before heading home for the evening. There was not much of an opportunity for me to do much that evening due to my extremely early flight. I wanted to have some kind of rest…

The anticipation of heading home kept me up late, but I snuck in a few hours of sleep before waking up at 5AM to head to the airport. Andrea was so kind to bring me at this crack-of-dawn hour, and it really made all the difference for a smooth flight home. One stop (again in Duesseldorf), and to my luck, an older lady had sat in my aisle seat. But she was on the far left, with a lady sitting next to her, and her seat was in a completely empty row. Wanting the free space, and observing that she seemed nice and settled in (and seemed hesitant to move when I noticed she was in my seat), I offered to take the seat in the free row, and ended up having three seats to myself. Score!

All in all, an uneventful flight home. Except now I had 15 bars of chocolate with me!

OK, I’ll write a summary entry, in case anyone is actually reading these entries.

Bern + Luzern + First Night in Zurich: Too Much for one day.

I packed and took the tram to the train station, and got on a morning train to the Swiss capital of Bern. I had a one day transportation pass in Switzerland, for only $50 US, so I planned to make good use of it.

The view of Lake Geneva was stunning. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures because I was on the other side of the train (oops), and was pretty awestruck just staring at it on my own. Simply breathtaking.

My plan for Bern was to walk around the old town and then find a specific place that served rosti. I walked through a bit of old town, then tried to follow the signs to the bear garden, which was right next to the restaurant, but the signs pointed me in both directions. Finally I chose what I thought was the right direction, and had a pleasant stroll next to the Aare, and then found myself 35 minutes from the place, according to the sign. Frustrated, I crossed the river, and walked back. Unfortunately, this side was all iced over, and I had to walk slowly.

Walkway down the Aare:

Once I made it back to the starting point, I was concerned that there was lots of construction on the trail, and eventually just gave up. Instead,  I walked by the clock tower, and saw more of the old town. Frustrated, I decided to take the next train to Luzern, which I’d wanted to see more anyway, but not before I got a BrezelKoenig pretzel with raclette on it. It cured my annoyed mood, yum!

When I stepped out of the train in Luzern, all I could think was, “fuuuuuuck it is sooooooo cold.”

Luzern is a picturebook town on a namesake lake south of Zurich, I walked to the old town, and just had to sit on various benches and just enjoy the splendid scenery. There wasn’t really anything else I could do that would make me happier, so I figured, hey why not. It also meant sitting in the below-freezing cold, which was NOT helping. I eventually figured I’d be getting sick, so I walked inside for a bit, then over the covered bridges.

Lake Luzern:

Covered Bridge: 

But the wind chill signaling the impending evening was becoming too strong, and it was getting dark, so I decided it was time to head to Zurich. I'd love to come back to Luzern one day, maybe when I'm a bit older and just want somewhere to totally chill.

I hadn’t realized how close the two cities were, so the train had commuters, and it was just packed. I slept, mostly.

Upon reaching Zurich Hauptbahnhof, I found WiFi, and communicated my location to my CS host. Her name is Andrea, a psychology student who likes cooking. We finally found each other, and decided to cook dinner at home. We opted for rosti and pizza. I was Andrea’s first surfer, so I was in a sense, a test run (she lives with her super-cool mom).

Once I arrived home, we began cooking. Andrea is an awesome chef (wait for the next entry!), She helped me make rosti (think a gigantic potato pancake – crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside). I cooked it correctly, and it was super nommy. Then we made pizza with tomato sauce, tons of fresh buffalo mozzarella, eggplant, and fresh basil. I had some Swiss beer, as well as some really good sparkling apple juice. Then I was surprised with poached pears and ice cream for dessert, as well as a slice of traditional northern Swiss cake. I wasn’t sure what to think when I learned it had prunes in it, but like some American BBQ sauces that use prunes taste great, this pruned cake was actually pretty good! I also had homemade grappa with it, much better than the neon blue crap we found in the Piedmont house I live in now (don’t ask).

Pizza: 

Had a good talk with Andrea and her mom about different things. They are both totally, totally cool, and were absolutely perfect hostesses.

Andrea and I with some post dinner grappa:

Extremely tired, and with only one day left in Europe, I headed to bed (I got my own room + pull out bed and everything!) so I could make the most of it.

Lying in bed, I reflected on this crazy long day. Prior to meeting up with Andrea, this day was pretty frustrating for me, and I think I learned a fair bit about what I [don’t] enjoy about traveling. I definitely had a great time traveling on my own, without having friends with me the whole time; that said, I found throughout the trip that when I did stuff by myself, it wasn’t much fun. Suffice to say that I won’t take on so much in one day ever again when I travel – just didn’t get enough out of it, and not enough time to enjoy the places.

But just the same, I was exhausted, and had one day left to do as much as I could, so, zzzzzzzzzz...

Geneva, Switzerland: Why I spent $10 on a Hot Chocolate at Starbucks

The last three entries wont be too long because they were all a day each.

Once I finally woke up, I went to the Swiss market, Migros, and bought 15 bars of chocolate for various people back home. Switzerland is insanely expensive, but the Migros brand of chocolate, which is much-loved by Swiss people, is extremely cheap – 15 bars set me back all of 35$ US!

After finding out that the Palais de Nations was closed until January, my plan was to visit Saint Peter’s Cathedral, and go up the towers for a few of the lake, then go to the Patek Phillippe watch museum. I found the cathedral, and in fact went up in both towers, and had a fantastic view of the lake!

But it was sooooooooooo cold. Even colder than usual, it felt, which I later realized was wind chill - everywhere else on the trip had very little wind! I decided to buy the three-in-one ticket to see the archeological site underneath the church (!), as well as the Reformation museum.

Ther archeological site was totally cool. They literally have a whole area underneath the cathedral where’ they’ve unearthed earlier incarnations of the church, all the way back to Roman times, including a 2 millenia old skeleton that perhaps inspired the building of the very first Roman church on the site(!) 

I spent way too much time here, and went through the reformation museum very quickly. To be honest, I didn’t really want another museum, and I’d more wanted to do the other two stops.

Then I hiked down out of the old town to find the watch museum. I had little time to spare, since everything in Geneva closes early, and of course I made a wrong turn. I never did get back on track, and frustrated, I walked around in random directions trying to find the place. I eventually realized I was getting unhealthily cold, and made the ridiculous decision to go to Starbucks, because I knew it’d have free WiFi. And yes, my venti caramel hot chocolate cost 10$ US. FML. It was an experience, though.

I got in touch with Felix via the free WiFi, and he recommended the Manor department store for a place to warm up nearby the train station, where we’d be meeting to go for FONDUE! It was a nice, albeit body-freezing walk through the city across the river, but I got to see the city lit up, and it was pretty. It had been a clear day, so there was no fog in the evening either, which made all the sites appear crystal clear.

Looking across the water: 

I hung out at the department store for a bit, fawned over 800$ bottles of wine and cured meats, then met up with Felix at the train station.

Fondue was my favorite meal of the trip. No doubt about it. This meal was everything I’d dreamed of since I was a little kid eating at Fondue Fred’s in Berkeley, and vowing I’d one day eat fondue in Switzerland. The food + drink:

Swiss white wine (very dry):

Cured beef (that's a medium size!!!):

FONDUE(!!!!!!!!!!!!!):

Kirsch:

Meringues with cream:

In fact, this is the traditional way to have a fondue dinner. This was a top 20 meal of my life, and not to be boastful, but I eat so many good meals, so this is pretty high praise.

Despite the temperature, we opted to walk home and burn a few calories. Felix had to wake up to teach the next morning, and I had my training-day ahead, so sleep was much needed. Besides, everything in Geneva closes early anyway.

Berlin, Germany: Brrlin or Beerlin?

We had two things on our mind as we got to Berlin. BEER and FOOD. But this was temporarily forgotten, as we stepped into our huge 15^th floor suite, complete with two rooms and a deck. I was shocked that it was only 60 euro a night, but sure enough it was. Not a bad view of what I presume is the Mercedes building:

Felix was in Berlin last year, and there was a restaurant he’d wanted to try that served Berliner food, so we went there. How could a place with a menu like this possibly be bad?

We shared schnitzel and beef roulade, along with plenty of beer. The schnitzel was sooooooo delicious (but you know I like my salty food). I also had apple strudel for dessert. 

You know you want some!:

You’d think we’d go out and see the Berlin nightlife on a Saturday night, but we decided to be lame and get an early night sleep so that we’d have full rest for an “early” tour of the Parliament building the next morning (and by early, I mean it began at 10:30). And I got to take a nice warm shower, which was SO nice.

The Parliament building was quite something. It was fascinating because the border of East/West Berlin ran through the Parliament building. I learned that parliamentary elections don’t make any sense to me, as well as some good history about 20^th century Germany, which made much more sense. The dome was neat, as well, but we couldn’t walk up it, which was lame. And the tour was free – thanks to Felix for booking this in advance.

We walked through the Brandenburg Gate, and had lunch at a place right next to the entrance. Was it ever cold outside, as I hope this picture illustrates:

The food was mostly average, except for very good braised ox cheek. The beer was one of my favorites for the trip, which is surprising because it tasted of bananas, and I don’t actually like bananas (unless they are deep fried):

Next I wanted to see the Berlin Wall. I was pretty disappointed, actually – I think I built it up in my head too much (I was born while the wall was coming down). Don’t get me wrong, the East Side Gallery is a cool concept, but I really just wanted to see a blank wall. I guess that’s completely unfeasible, though, as it looks like they have to paint over the graffiti every year.

Well here's one picture I liked: 

Felix sensed my disappointment though, and researched a museum where we could learn more. We in fact went to that museum. The guy standing outside freaked out at me for no apparent reason, and spoke not a word of English. Entertaining.

We watched a Koyannisqatsi-esque helicopter flyover movie of the Berlin Wall taken during, I assume, the 1980s. It was actually quite informative. At the subway station, there was an exhibit all about the ghost stations that showed up during the division of the city (look it up!) so we actually stayed at the subway stop for awhile, before heading to a big Christmas market for “snacks”.

I immediately got my standard pommes frites. If that wasn’t enough potato, Felix spotted potato pancakes (we got them with bacon in them!) Then I had some sort of beef stew, while Felix had potato stew (more spuds!) Of course this is all outside, so we were cold. Obvious solution is lots of gluhwein! The station was even better because there was a crazy good fiddle player giving a performance.

Random delicious beef stew:

So since snacks turned into dinner, we didn’t really need to eat much else. So we went back to the hotel in order to research a bar to go to. And another hot shower…simply heaven.

We found an area that appeared to have some good bars. We passed by one that looked good, so we went in. It was pretty much a San Francisco hipster bar, but it had a great vibe. We had beers, then I had a G&T. A guy from LA started talked to us, and we discussed subculture and North Korea (random). Then people started smoking, and it was getting pretty late, so we headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we had brunch at a place called Noah’s (Felix liked it last year, and well the name and all). I had the “Farmer’s Breakfast” which was some conglomeration of potatoes and bacon and eggs, and looked like something Noah would dream up. It was strange, but surprisingly tasty: 

There was a huge department store across the street, and we made this silly mistake of going to the crazy food/drink floor, that was out of this world. If I hadn’t just eaten, I’d have dropped 50-100 euro here.

Felix wanted to check out two museums – the museum with all the ancient stuff (I forget the name), as well as the DDR museum (no not that DDR). The ancient museum was cool because they had the gates of Istar that you could walk through. There was much very old stuff. Some of it was cool, but it began to blur together after awhile.

Gates of Istar:

Random ancient bird dude thing: 

The DDR museum was rushed, as we were running out of time. It is not a computerized dance museum, but rather, an interactive history of the GDR, and was pretty cool, to say the least. But we were running late, and then I made the fatal mistake of wanting to stop at a market for currywurst and frites…

I wish we had more time at the DDR museum longer - here's a Trabi (GDR car)!:

…And yeah you can read all about the shit that happened on my way out of Berlin…

Angry, used, and exhausted, my head hit the pillow in Felix’s flat in Geneva, and I was out…

A great time in Germany – I’ll return to Berlin one day for sure, as well as some other cities in the country of much beerage.