What better place to have a mini-Boston reunion other than Zurich. Obviously it didn’t take much on Jay’s part to convince me to go to Zurich for a weekend … other than an invite from Jose. :o) Though I almost didn’t make it thanks to les grèves (strikes) and la météo (the weather).
At the time I planned my trip to Zurich I did not have any of my winter coats … two certain people were suppose to come and visit me and bring them in October but I won’t mention any names but they will be finally visiting me in the middle of March – so they say! I only mention this because by the time the weekend came along, the forecast was SNOW. I was a little freaked out to say the least, I didn’t expect my little leather jacket to be much help as I had already been freezing to death each morning for the past few weeks. But luckily my coats arrived the night before my trip via mail. (Thank you Carlos!!!!! You’re the Best!!!)
For some reason every time I travel I have some kind of metro (actually trains as well) difficulty or delays … I think it’s just to add a little stress to my life. I arrived at Gare de l’est with less than ten minutes before the train departed. I went to the little kiosk to print my boarding pass and I received a message that no such ticket existed under my name. Okay, don’t freak out (yeah right)… try another kiosk, same thing, only this time I had a lady yelling at me in French to hurry up because she didn’t want to miss the train (along with some not so nice French words). Like I care about her ticket. I need to be on the train for Zurich! With two minutes to go, I decided … screw it! I’m getting on the train and when they come along asking for my ticket I will flash my famous American smile and use my lovely charm to explain that the kiosk wasn’t working but I have an email confirmation to prove that I’m not some foreigner trying to scam a free train ride to Zurich. Oh, and please don’t arrest me! :o) I actually made it to Zurich without ever having my ticket checked … maybe next time I should try to scam a free ride, just kidding. I thought I was home free, I figured that I could just get my return ticket in Zurich. Umm, I was wrong … and in Switzerland where the citizens are super law abiding they weren’t as keen with me not having a ticket. I was told I would have to buy another ticket and they were sold out! Yeah right! I took my chance again and got on the train for Paris. This time they did come along asking for tickets, and I turned on that lovely American charm and I was told no problem with les grèves lots of tickets were screwed up … oh, and as a bonus I was told that my French was good. :o)
As for my trip, it was short but beautiful! On Saturday Jose took us on a hike (we skipped the hike thru the ice & snow). We walked pass a dairy farm and had lunch on the top of the mountain with a gorgeous view of the City. Unfortunately, the weather was not the best so you couldn’t see the snow covered Alps. And the absolutely best part of Zurich was Saturday night walking around the City bar hopping we found a store named ANOUK! Sadly, the store was closed and as everything in Europe is closed on Sunday I didn’t get to do any shopping but I guess that means I'm just going to have to go to Zurich again. :o)
Here are some pictures from my trip. Hope you enjoy!
