Auf Wiedersehen Switzerland

It's hard to believe that my time in Switzerland has come to an end.  Eight days is by no means a short time and I've seen a lot, but part of me feels like I just got here.  I have to say that my visit here was even better than I expected.  Every single place I went was beautiful, and there is just a peacefulness here that I haven't ever experienced in places that aren't remote and cut off from the world.

Yesterday I rode the Glacier Express train from Zermatt to St. Moritz, a trip that took almost eight hours.  I've run out of synonyms for beautiful at this point, but suffice it to say that the views the entire way were stunning.  Not a bad backdrop for lunch either.

St. Moritz was very different than any of the other Swiss cities I visited.  For starters, with very few exceptions the buildings are very new, dating from the 1980s at the latest, in stark contrast to the centuries-old buildings in most other cities.  St. Moritz is a resort town near the Italian border that has made a name for itself as a winter sports mecca for the rich.  The town itself doesn't provide much in terms of entertainment or sightseeing, but rather serves essentially as a beautiful launching point and spa center for the rich and famous who come to the area to ski and enjoy other winter sports.  The town is, however, set around a beautiful lake, which was as smooth as glass when I walked around it, making for endless photo opportunities.

So, if you're rich and like to ski and maybe want to run into celebrities, St. Moritz is your place.

I spent my final night in Switzerland back in Zurich where I started.  Tonight had a few of those randomly bizarre moments that happen on every trip that make traveling really worthwhile.  On my way to dinner I stumbled on some kind of parade involving a large number of men, each in a different traditional Swiss costume and holding a different flag.  These men then greeted a marching band which had been parading through the streets, also in traditional garb.  I have no idea why any of this was happening.  After the band finished playing, they all gathered in a square while a man addressed the crowd in German, to much cheering.  There was even a guy dressed as a knight.

While I watched the events cluelessly, I was approached by two very drunk Swiss college freshmen who informed me that this is the weekend that everyone in Switzerland goes back to school and wanted to invite me to a party.  After a week I've developed an ability to sometimes understand what people are saying to me in German, even though I can't respond at all.  These boys wanted to know whether I was Swiss or Austrian, narrowing down for me which nationalities I apparently resemble.  I told them that I was American, and they proceeded to speak to me in English, telling me that if I wanted to get on a train and then on a bus, I could go to a great party where there would be at least 5,000 students.  I don't know which made me more proud -- the fact that I'm still not standing out as an American tourist (even though I had a souvenir bag with a Swiss flag on it in one hand and a big camera in the other, basically screaming "I'm a tourist!") or the fact that someone thinks I look young enough to be at a freshman college party.  Thank you, Switzerland.

I've hit the point in my trip where I have no idea what day of the week it is anymore, because frankly it doesn't really matter.  I was convinced all day that it was Saturday, despite reminding myself repeatedly that it was Thursday.  Tomorrow I leave Switzerland and head to Germany.  I'm really excited for some Oktoberfest fun and even more excited to spend some time with friends.  Hallo Munich!




lost sense of days

The Matterhorn

Today ranks high on the list of the greatest travel experiences I've had anywhere in the world.  I left Bern this morning and headed south to Zermatt, a small alpine town at the base of the Matterhorn.  From there I took a mountain railway up to Gornergrat, an area more than 10,000 feet about sea level which provides amazing views of the Matterhorn and the other mountains and glaciers nearby. 

I'm not sure I've ever seen a more impressive view in my life.  The snow and mountains and clouds seemed to go on forever, and I'm afraid to count how many pictures I took.  I met an American couple who had been in the area for 4 days, and they told me that this was the first day since they'd been here that they could see the mountain.  I cannot imagine coming all this way and leaving without taking in this amazing sight.  Any rain I've had on this trip so far was a worthwhile trade off for the weather I got today.

The town of Zermatt is equally amazing.  Aside from the Matterhorn views, the town is beautiful everywhere you look, full of traditional Swiss chalet-style buildings.  To top it all off, there are no motorized vehicles in Zermatt, and people can only get here by train.  This all makes for one of the most peaceful places I've ever been.

My hotel room here is hands down the cheapest of any room I have booked on this trip, yet it's the nicest I've had so far.  The decor is fantastic, the staff is beyond friendly and the room is both spacious and really nice.  The complementary robe and slippers are really the icing on the cake.  And the robe will come in handy as the temperature has dropped below freezing here tonight (the high today was 42 degrees).  Better still, I was starting to develop a nagging cough and the reception desk conveniently offered a big bowl of Ricola - I'm now a convert, because they really do work.

I have enjoyed every day of my trip so far, but there is something about this place that makes me especially sad to leave it behind.  Over the years, a small handful of places have stuck with me as places that I really connect with and could see myself living.  It's hard to imagine a place more different from New York than this place, but there is a small part of me that is fantasizing about leaving the frenzied city life behind and completely disconnnecting and disappearing to a place like this.  I want to be like Heidi, living in the Alps - only a modern-day Heidi, with internet so I can still talk to people.  But enough deep life thoughts for today.

Tomorrow I am spending the day on "the slowest express train in the world."  My aching legs and feet are thanking me already.  Untill then, there's a robe and slippers calling my name.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on...bears?

I know I won't be doing the Sound of Music tour for over a week (and I'm so excited for it!) and the movie isn't set in Switzerland, but the songs have been popping into my head everywhere I go.   Today I was in Bern.  I have to admit that, for whatever reason, I did not expect Bern to be anything special.  I was so very wrong.

This town is far older than most places I've ever been, with most of the buildings in the old town sector dating back to the early 1400s.  And one thing is for sure - Bern is obsessed with bears.  The bear pits I read about do exist, but there are bears everywhere in Bern.  The flag and coat of arms feature a bear, there are bear statues everywhere, and I even spotted a bear incorporated into the paintings on the ceiling of the gothic cathedral.  Apparently the duke who founded Bern named it the German word for bear, after the first animal he killed here.  And there have been bears in the pits ever since the early 1500s.  The presence of bears in the town multiplied exponentially with the invention of the modern souvenir shop.

Above the bear pits, up a steep hill, was a beautiful rose garden, which also provided incredible views of old town Bern.

Just a note on steep hills and steps - I have climbed up and down so many in the last few days that my legs already feel like jello.  I'm hoping this compensates for all the delicious Swiss cheeses that keep finding me everywhere I turn.

My hotel is a tiny, no-frills place in the heart of the old town.  The reception desk doubles as the back side of a bar, but the room is fantastic for the price and has a great view, not to mention being really close to the bears.

And although you can't see it in this photo, there is, of course, a giant flag with a bear on it just outside my window.

Into the Mountains

Today's weather was a drastic improvement over yesterday's rain.  After exploring Luzern for a while, I decided to take an excursion to Pilatus, a mountain southwest of Luzern, with a height of 7,000 feet.  The trip started with an hour and forty-five minute boat ride across Lake Luzern to the foot of the mountain.  We then took a cog railway (the steepest in the world) straight up the mountain for half an hour.  The incline was unbelievable.  So was the view.

We passed through the clouds, which combined with the snow caused near whiteout conditions.  We were allowed to wander around the viewing platform, but the additional 10-minute climb to the top was closed off due to the two feet of snow that had accumulated.  The experience was beautiful and surreal, and very cold.  The outside air tempurature was 0 degrees celsius and snow was falling.  I, unfortunately, was not even wearing my heaviest jacket.

The ride back down the mountain was nearly as impressive, via a series of different sized cable cars.  We again passed through the clouds, trading the snow and cold for green hillsides full of grazing cows and traditional Swiss houses.

I'm now thawed out and back in Luzern, ready to move on to another town.  Tomorrow I head to Bern, the capital of Switzerland.  I've read that there is a pit of bears close to my hotel and I can't wait to see what the next adventure brings.
 

Finding My Roots

After the ordeal of getting here, my trip took an immediate turn for the better once I arrived in Zurich.  Stepping out of the main train station felt like stepping into a fairytale.  I was not expecting Zurich to be so beautiful.  The city is very easy to navigate, and I spent the afternoon and evening just exploring on foot.  My hotel was in an excellent location, and the staff was extremely friendly and helpful.  Each of the rooms had a theme, and I, of course, was assigned the "Pop" room, complete with Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe paintings on the wall.  It proved to be the perfect home base for my first two days.

On my second day, I ventured to the two towns outside Zurich where my paternal ancestors lived prior to immigrating to the States, Weinfelden and Winterthur.  Weinfelden is a quaint, small town about an hour northeast of Zurich, toward the German border.  I wandered down the street where my ancestors lived, feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the sense of history.  I found a store selling orthopedic shoes that bore our family name, but I had no way to confirm if it was indeed run by distant relatives.  Next I took the train to Winterthur, which is about half way between Weinfelden and Zurich.  Winterthur is a much larger industrial town, and I focused my time on the old town sector.  Unlike with Weinfelden, I didn't have any specific streets to seek out.  In both cases, it was difficult to picture how things would have looked in the early 1900s, because although all of the old buildings are still there, the ground floor of nearly every one of them now houses a shiny, modern store or restaurant.  Still, reconnecting with my family roots was a unique experience, and I'm now convinced that my travels must take me to Poland, the home of my maternal ancestors.

I returned to Zurich for the night and decided to check out the Zurich Film Festival, which coincidentally started the day I arrived.  Rather than seeing an American film that I could see in New York, I opted for a German language film with English subtitles called Snowman's Land.  It is in the running for best German language film at the festival.  The festival itself is a big deal red carpet affair, complete with VIP tents and lots of important Swiss people I didn't know.

The movie was good, and I have to say that the theater, much like everything else I've seen in Switzerland so far, was immaculately clean yet still comfortable.  The director and four of the five main actors were in attendance (little did I know one was sitting right in front of me).  After the movie there was a question and answer session, which I'm sure would have been great if I could have understood a word they were saying.

Today I left Zurich and headed to Luzern, a picturesque town in central Switzerland.  The day was a bit dampered by incessant, heavy rain, and I went through two changes of clothing, which are currently strewn all about my hotel room to dry.  The town is very old and quite beautiful.  But what has struck me more than anything else is how friendly the people are.  From the Irish bar that I ducked into to escape the rain to the traditional Swiss restaurant that I went to for dinner, people were eager to talk to me about everything from American politics to books I should read to advice on which Luzern grocery stores have the best prices.  An old man from Belfast bought me a beer and I was surprisingly given a free salad with dinner (both of which I appreciate greatly, as this country is uber expensive).  Perhaps it was karma making up for all the rain.  Here's hoping for drier days ahead.

One final note - the one thing about Switzerland that I was completely not expecting is that everyone speaks German to me.  Apparently I can easily pass for a local, and everyone just assumes I speak German.  Random people will just come up to me on the street and start talking to me, and then laugh when they see the blank look on my face.  This is in stark contrast to all of my previous travels - I have always been pegged as an American from a mile away.  It is quite a refreshing change.  Now if only I could actually speak German...



Bad Luck Goes Global (a/k/a I test out the new Passengers' Bill of Rights so you don't have to)

Those of you who have known me for a while (I'm looking at you, college friends) are quite familiar with my terrible travel luck.  The saving grace of the situation was that it seemed to be limited to domestic travel, while my international travels survived largely unscathed.  All of that changed yesterday.

I headed to Newark airport for a 6:35pm departure with beating down sun and blue skies.  Everything went according to schedule and we pulled away from the gate exactly on time.  Little did we know that the President was approaching the city for the UN conference.  This single fact would turn out to be the first in a line of dominoes that would result in one of my most ridiculous travel debacles to date.

Despite our "on-time departure," we were in a line of planes about 40 deep.  For over an hour we didn't move an inch.  The pilot couldn't even give us an estimate of how long it would be.  They turned off one engine to conserve fuel - "We have plenty, but why not have more, right?" - and we continued to wait.  Unbeknownst to us, the entire traffic pattern in the area was shut down due to the President's arrival.

About an hour and a half later we were allowed to move, only to be stopped again after a few minutes, this time on account of weather.  Now we turned off both engines (no quippy comments from the pilot about fuel this time) and sat quietly as a severe thunderstorm rolled through.  I sat looking out the window of our tin can as lightning bolts struck the ground all around us.  The crew was kind enough to give us water and pretzels and let us watch movies.  The universe had conspired to create the only combination of circumstances under which I would watch the new Karate Kid movie, witnessing the destruction of one of my childhood favorites.

And then things started to go really crazy.  Due to the newly enacted Passengers' Bill of Rights, all of the planes that were waiting out the storm were forced to return to gates after 2.5 hours on the tarmac.  We were given the option of getting off the plane or staying on, with the understanding that as soon as everyone got back on we could go back out and sit for another 2.5 hours.  Our charming pilot was still fixated on fuel – “The good news is, at the gate we can put on more fuel.  We have plenty, but you never know.”  Most people chose to get off the plane.  I did not, not wanting to deal with the inevitable bedlam that would be the reboarding process. 

What was supposed to be a quick stop at the gate lasted about an hour.  After I had finished the crossword puzzle, from which the prior passenger had conveniently ripped out the first few clues (and after young Jaden had realized that taking his jacket off and on about 1000 times had taught him actual kung fu), the crew came on the intercom to tell us that everyone now had to get off the plane.  Why?  Because they had no way of knowing who had gotten off and who hadn't and their only solution was to entirely redo the boarding process.

The terminal was largely empty, with only a few "final re-boarding calls" echoing through the corridors.  About 45 minutes later we were all re-boarded and ready to go (in case you were curious, elite miles members also get to re-board first).  Murphy's Law being what it is, this is logically when a mechanical problem surfaced.  Apparently some sort of battery or charger or whatever needed to be replaced, and I am going to assume for the sake of my own sanity that they could not have discovered this sooner.  And to fix the problem they had to turn off the AC.  At this point, everyone on the plane had to laugh at the pure absurdity of it all.

The laughter quickly faded as the plane became a sauna and more than half an hour elapsed in sweltering heat.  Finally all was fixed and we were set to be on our way.  Our pilot, ever the comedian, tried to console us - "We have a plan.  It will be a same-day arrival.  We were supposed to get there on Thursday and we’ll get there on Thursday."  This time nobody was laughing.

We pulled away from the gate for a second time, 5 hours after our first departure.  And now we were finally able to...sit and wait.  Even though we had been delayed by politics, weather and mechanics at this point, we were still 20th in line for takeoff.  Nearly every plane still at the airport, including 2 UPS planes and 4 FedEx planes, were allowed to take off before we did.  At long last, after midnight, I had 2 red wines, some nasty turbulence and Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too to see me off to sleep.

So now I am finally in Zurich, half a day late and a little worse for the wear.  But at least I was so late that I was able to check into my room.  And hey, who gets to nab a picture of the sign declaring that the flight that they're on has departed?

Moral of the story:  If you try to fly out when the President is coming to your city, you might lose a day of vacation.  Oh, and if you want to watch The Karate Kid, stick with the original.

A New Start

Just shy of a month ago, I walked away from an 8-year legal career.  I had come to the realization that, although being a lawyer could bring me much success and wealth in my life, it would never bring me happiness.  I was unhappy at some point during every single day of my life - sometimes only for 5 minutes, oftentimes for 17 hours - so I decided that I owed it to myself to at least try to find a way to be happy.  I also knew that being happy would never involve accounting for all of my daily activities in six-minute increments, much less having my value determined by how many of those six-minute increments I had managed to amass.

So, I've decided to pursue my two biggest passions, photography and travel.  I would like to make one thing clear:  I am not Eat Pray Love.  I have heard that comparison more times than I can count in the last month, and I would be quite happy if I never heard it again.  No one has given me a book advance to fund a year of traveling.  I have thankfully not experienced any recent tragedies in my personal life.  I am just a girl who saved up her money and decided to make an unconventional decision.  People have told me I'm brave.  People have told me I'm crazy.  The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.  But I'm excited to see where my new life takes me.

My first adventure begins tomorrow - a three-week trip through Switzerland, Germany and Austria.  I am very excited, but feeling not entirely prepared (which is odd given that I've had more time to prepare for this vacation than perhaps any other I've ever taken).  Mostly, though, I am ready for a fresh start.

I started this blog at the urging of several friends.  Blogging has never been my thing and I'm normally a private person, but in the spirit of starting over and trying new things, I'm giving it a go.  I will do my best to add posts and pictures on a regular basis.  I'm thankful for the support and encouragement I've received as I've made this (very long and belabored) decision to change my life.

And I'm very happy that I have no idea how many tenths of an hour it took me to write this post.  The next time I post will be from Europe.  Until then, Auf Wiedersehen.

Steph