Switzerland - Day 2 (Zurich)

Saturday, 10 September 2011

In the morning, we rushed from Zurich station to the biggest clock in Europe to meet Sarah's friend Jide.  Sarah had gotten the meeting place confused with something else she read, so after rushing to St Petersbourg and having a hunch that it was not the meeting place, Sarah found an internet cafe to access Facebook to get Jide's number, and then ran to a shop to get change to use a payphone.  We found the people in Switzerland to be generally quite helpful and friendly, and on this day, a friendly butcher let Sarah call Jide to let her know we would be rushing back to the station to meet her under the "big clock" (as opposed to the biggest clock in Europe).

It worked out in the end because by the time we got there, Jide had not been waiting long as she was also running late.  Jason met Jide for the first time, and we both met her two boys, Alex and Julian.

We had great weather the whole time in Europe, with the exception of Iceland.  It was a hot day, so we strolled down Zurichs famous Banhoffstrausse past the best designer outlets and famous landmarks of Zurich towards the lake.

In Switzerland, there were "watering holes" in public areas.  They could be mistaken for fountains, except that the water coming out is fresh and people drink from them.  We saw one in the park by the lake where Jason filled up his water bottle.

Another interesting thing about Switzerland is that we kept smelling marijuana in public places.  Train stations, parks, roads, around police officers, and even at this park by the lake.

By Australian standards, that smell seemed out of place around people who were wholesome looking, well-to-do, law abiding, family day out kind of people.  It was Neutral Bay meets Nimbin.  We started talking about it and Jide advised us that in Switzerland, people are allowed to grow three plants for personal use.

We chatted away whilst enjoying the playful company of Alex and Julian, and Sarah and Jide did some catching up.  We then walked to the edge of the lake and had icecreams.

We wandered back to the station together and took some more photos to capture the landmarks of Zurich.

We had found people in Switzerland quite friendly, and on our train trip back to "the basement", Sarah was serenaded with alcohol breath by a gentleman with a ukulele.

We enjoyed another spectacular Swiss sunset before heading back to the basement.