A Day in Zurich

On Thursday there was no school for a Catholic holiday of some sort, so I was going to go to Interlaken with Katie, but she ended up having to go to some first communion with her host family and I ended up going to Zurich and exploring. The weather was supposed to be nice, and apparently in Fribourg it was, but in Zurich it rained all day! Luckily, I had not forgotten my umbrella.

Here we have the classic photo of the Zurich Bahnhof, so that's where I was. Sorry if this is going to disappoint you tourist types, but I have already been to Zurich and taken photos of the churches and the river and such, so if you want to see those you'll have to go elsewhere.

My first goal in Zurich was to make a pilgrimage to the flagship store of Freitag, a company that makes messenger bags and other products out of used materials. They are ecologically friendly, well-designed, very popular among the Swiss, and, unfortunately, a bit expensive. I am thinking about getting one before I leave, but I'll probably go back later when I'm sure I'll have the money. So I eventually found the place. This is what it looks like:

The umbrella you see at the top is a person up on the observation deck, which I also climbed up to. The view wasn't terribly exciting. It's in a rather industrial part of the city.

Freitag wallets - a nice burst of color on a rainy day.

After that adventure, I went back to the train station and from there walked through the old town. On one of the streets I encountered a Steinway showroom, so of course I went inside and played one of the pianos. I was the only one there besides the owner. It was really nice to get the chance to play on such a high-quality instrument after all the electric keyboards I've had to content myself with throughout the year. Not to say that I haven't played on any nice instruments at all, because I do during my lessons. There is also a grand piano at my school but it's often not available because there is something else going on in the auditorium.

Shiny, shiny, shiny!

More shiny.

Afterwards, I realized that I was hungry from all of that walking around and sat down on this (dry) bench to eat my sandwiches. I would have preferred to sit by the river, but none of those benches were covered, so I people-watched instead. The person writing on a clipboard in the middle of the bench was accosting people for Green Cross, and he came up and gave me his spiel in Zürideutsch, which I didn't understand very well. But I waited until the end of the spiel to tell him in high German that I had only understood half of what he said. He was going to repeat the spiel in high German, but then he thought to ask whether I was 18 yet (the age of majority which would legally allow you to make donations) and I replied, as I usually do if I don't want to be pressed into making a donation, that I would turn 18 next year but that I would have left Switzerland by then. Then I threw away my sandwich wrappers and continued my adventure.

A little bit of shopping and walking around later, I got back on the train to Fribourg in order to catch the last non-night-bus home. During the voyage, I sat across from an American couple from Washington State who were visiting Switzerland for a month. Apparently the husband had done an exchange when he was younger and they had both been to Switzerland several times before. It was weird to speak English.

Upon my return home, I was hungry so I looked in the refrigerator but there were no fruit yogurts left. My host family, and almost every Swiss person I know, is enamored with mocha yogurt, which I have been repulsed by ever since I tried my first one back in August. Since then I have periodically tried it again but every time I just can't eat the whole thing. Strangely enough, I went for it again and this time it wasn't terrible! Mocha yogurt will never replace, hazelnut, forest berries, or strawberry / coconut, but I didn't mind it. Perhaps my taste has changed. Or maybe I was just really hungry.

Sorry about the flash. It was starting to get dark so I didn't have much natural light to work with.