Weekend to Zurich & Luzern - Part 1

Okay, right off the bat, I'm gonna apologize to all you loyal blog subscribers for being lazy in the last 3 days of non-posting.

After the trip to Zurich and Luzern (Cern) I've been crazy busy editing pictures and trying to keep up with work in the meantime. But you can all rest assured that the postings are back, with a vengence! Nah, pretty much that means that you will be treated to a picture smorgasbord from my trip. I took over 300 pictures...and managed to wittle that down to an amazing 60 or so, that I hope will allow you to join me in a photo journey of my weekend...


1. The train station...empty...but not for long!


2. One of many large farming fields as we left the station. Interesting thing that I learned was that those large gray blemishes in middle of the horizon was actually rain that was falling! I know I'm a nerd, but that was just so cool!


3. After arriving in the Zurich train station, all sweaty and disgusting, Deb and I made our way to the hostel.


4. Oh Hostel sweet Hostel.


5. As cramped as it may appear, this is exactly what I was expecting. 3 bunks, a small closet, a handful of lockers, and a sink. Good ol' Lonely Planet.

Now here's where the trip got interesting.

Okay, so I've watched the travel shows and read the travel books and listened to people's accounts of what it's like to stay at a hostel. But really, nothing could've prepared me for what I was to encounter in my first stay at a hostel. Because the weather kicked it up a notch and started to rain like all the angels in heaven decided to all take a piss at once, Deb and I opted to call it an early evening as neither of us had any rain gear or umbrellas, or warm clothes for that matter. Now it was still hot as hell in the hostel, so that didn't make it easy to fall asleep, but the thing that made it possibly the worst hostel stay, was the guy in the bed below me.

Now this guy stumbles into the room, reeking of beer, cigarettes, and fried food. Okay so he makes some noise getting himself together into the bed. But what really made this guy special was the fact that he could snore up a symphony. This guy must've been really used to hostels or a sucker for beer, (I'm betting on the latter) but as soon as this guy's head hit the pillow he was snoring up an opera. Alright, I know you're already thinking, "Oh c'mon! It's a hostel! You're gonna have to expect at least one or two people to snore!"

But to be perfectly honest, it really wasn't the snoring of this guy that was getting to me. The fact that he snores means that he breathes through his mouth. And the fact that he smokes means that his mouth reeks. And it just so happens that his unique stench so coincidentally begins to waft up to my bunk.

Have you ever seen the Seinfeld joke about the cabbies and the B.O. and how it's coming through the glass in the taxi? Well just picture me doing that exact grimace, but laying in a bunkbed. Believe me, this was not pleasant.

And I'm not even done with this guy yet. Furthermore, this guy doesn't turn off his cellphone and opts to take calls for 10-15 minutes at a time in the room. Now, wait a minute. Isn't this a cellphone? Last I recall, the biggest novelty about cellphones was that they were portable and could be used in OTHER PLACES!!! Instead of leaving the room to talk, this guy decides to chat it up right in the room, at regular speaking volume! What a jerkstore!

But that isn't the end of it, the next guy to come into the room (who was actually pretty nice and was respectful to keep extremely quiet and go straight to bed) also was a snorer.

And finally at sometime around 5am, the final hostel roomie, decides to join the rest of us. And you guessed it, he too, was a snorer.

Wow. Look at that. We've got a triumvirate of snorers. They could almost be like the 3 Tenors! Except they snore! So there you have it, or at least I did. The 3 Snorers. I truly say this with no exaggeration, whenever one guy stopped snoring, at least one other guy picked up right after and continued the tune. It was a concert I tells ya!

And by far, the guy below me was none other than big ol' Lucianno Pavarotti. If this guy had a consistent snore; a snore that would stay at the same pitch and reverb for most of the night, I probably wouldn't have minded and would've eventually fallen asleep to it. But this guy, was a virtuoso of the snore. This guy was talented. He had every snore humanly possible in his lungs. Pitch, octaves, rhythm and syncopation. He even had the cartoon type snore, where it's like a low and loud snore followed by a little whistle at the end. I swear, what I wouldn't have done to have a small white feather to place above his lips.

And to add insult to injury, Lucciano farts! Holy crap! There isn't a silver lining in this to be found! At first I was trying to be optimistic that it was just the smell of food from the restaurants below and the smell was wafting through the open window. But the more and more I smelled of it, it was either really really bad eggs, or the guy below had a piece of old cheese crawl up into his butt and die.

By the time that 6am rolled around, the trams had already begun their trek around the city, and the church bells of 3 humungous churches had already making their early morning cries. Couple that with 2 guys rippin' up the room with their melodic concerto, I pretty much had enough of it. So I decided to get the hell out of there. After making quick plans with Deb to go exploring for a bit while she went for a morning run, here's what I shot:



Essentially the rest of the day was a walking exploration of downtown Zurich. We did however attempt to visit the Zurich Museum of Fine Art, which turned out to be a pretty eerie experience. All the doors opened automatically with no visible sensor, and coincidentally when we said "I wonder if it's open". On top of that, when we walked in, there was virtually no one to be found.


It wasn't until we began to walk through this massive lobby that we finally noticed someone by the front desk, which, by the way, resembled a gigantic block of granite. Unfortunately, as the admission fee was 11 CHF and their main collection space was closed for revonation, we didn't stay for long.

From there, the rest of Zurich just became one enormous 6 hour walking exploration. As Deb and I split off, I made my best attempt to find what the Switzerland guidebook referred to as the Zurich Toy Museum. But despite my best attempts to navigate the crazy labirynth of streets, there was no Toy Museum to be found. In any case, the rest of my walk took me practically all around the downtown core, to the outskirts of some of the highway ramps, and back to the train station.


During my walk I found/did the following:


There is heavy drug use if you continue to wander further down one of the rivers/streams in downtown Zurich. And it just so happens that this was the secluded area that I had chosen to take a quick 10 minute break to eat my croissant and enjoy the water. Peachy ain't it? I saw 2 guys fashioning makeshift bongs from discarded plastic pop bottles, and 1 woman shooting a fix of heroin into her arm. VERY needless to say, I was freaked out of my mind and finished up as quickly as I could and got the hell out of there.


Went to the Swiss National Museum. Pretty interesting, but once again, this museum was ALSO partially closed due to renovations. What is it with these Swiss museums?!? But the price was only 5 CHF so I pretty much just shut my mouth and paid the admission cuz I didn't know what else to see.


World Wildlife Fund has their own store. What could they possibly sell? Panda throw-rugs?


So that's how they do it! Yep, supermodels pose right in the middle of the alley. No canvas backdrop for these superstars. Okay well, that girl probably isn't a supermodel. But she might be well on her way!


Very confusing streets in the older commericial district of Zurich. Even small 1.5m corridors that you would just consider a gap between two houses are considered streets. And the streets criss-cross and run in every direction you can think of. And don't even get me started on the streets that go 20-30 degrees uphill. It's practically impossible to retrace your steps unless you're leaving a trail of jellybeans behind you. But I will say this about Zurich and old towns such as this, is that I love the culmination of new commerce and old architecture.

Okay since this entry is getting a bit on the long side, I'll tell the second part tomorrow. But in the meantime, I'll leave you with another amazing panoramic!


Stay tuned tomorrow for Luzern!