Zurich

Before this trip I visited Switzerland only once, but that was when I was a little boy. At that time we visited Geneva and actually I don't remember a lot, but it made huge impression on my parents. My dad always wanted to get back, probably because of beautiful nature all over the place and dreams of a much better life than in Poland, that was around 1992. After all, we didn't go back, so when I left to London he started gently pushing me to go and live there, if there's possibility like that, to fulfill his idea. I'm not planning to do so in near future, but I thought that at least it's a great idea to do a round trip around Switzerland and visit my old friends living in Zurich, refresh my eye contact with mountains and just look around! Off I went.

It was my first flight with Easy Jet airlines and I have to admit, it was really good. Everything went smooth, the hand baggage allowance is very reasonable, quite important bit. Different people may have had different experience, I'm just saying my was very pleasant. Now, there's time for a small digression, during the flight I read an awesome article in Easy Jet's "Traveller" magazine about surfing and yoga courses in Spain. Literally it was about becoming a surf guru with help of yoga, sounds quite awesome. If you're interested you can get information about the article and offered courses here. Maybe next year!

It felt good to see my old friends from Poland and have a pint... well not a pint unfortunately, but there are plans to meet in London as well. So, Zurich, personally I was expecting a super clean city with super nicely dressed rich people all over the place, no drunk people on the train station, no trash on the streets etc., these were the stories I've heard about Switzerland, but we all know that these are only fairy tales, still, it was good! Anyway, my first impression of Zurich was much better than that I had when I first came to London with regards to cleanliness and general order. Our first stop was the old town which resides on both sides of the Limmat river. The amount of Swiss flags around the area proved that Swiss people are really proud of their country and their identity.

After that we went to take a bath in lake Zurich! That's really an awesome thing, It's a pity we don't have access to a lake somewhere in the center of London in which on hot days you could just swim a bit, I already forgot how pleasant experience that is, I think I did that last time many years ago probably somewhere in Poland. In other words +1 for Zurich for that!

I tried Swiss beers, but frankly, after coming to England I became a true fan of ales, so I'm kind of not the best person to say something about quality of Swiss lagers, but these were ok. Since we were close to ETH, we naturally felt like students again, so we bought few beers in the shop and went to sit on a bench to see the sunset on a close by terrace ;)

Since my friend works at Google in Zurich (I hope that's not a secret by itself) I was lucky enough to see their office. We went there by bikes and we were accompanied by Tyrion! No, no, not the little man from Game of Thrones, but by their dog, lovely creature I need to admit! Anyway, there is dozen of words I could use to describe the Google office in Zurich and amongst them are awesome, cool, stunning, wonderful, inspiring etc. I hope you know what I mean. The area around the office was quite nice too.

The same day we've climbed a small mountain called Üetliberg with a stunning view on Zurich and its areas, including the lake obviously, from the top.

Up there I had a chance to try for the first time some traditionl Swiss food and that was Rösti mit Bratwurst und Zwiebelsauce. Simple as hell, but very good indeed!

Huh, Zurich, in two words, beautiful city! Next part of the trip was a lonesome, mostly supported by CouchSurfing, 4 day trip starting in Bern, through Lausanne, Montreux, then Luzern, finally Lugano and back to Zurich to catch a flight to Poland, but that's material for the next post! See you!