The Wacky World of a Lazy Pig (AKA Simon)

Eurotrip Day 11 - On our way to Switzerland. Pulled a Simon again?!?!?!

We almost didn't make our train to Zurich becuase I put the wrong time on the alarm clock and Roger didn't wake up from his Alarm. Luckily, our other roomate (not Steve) woke us up. You should have seen the craziness to in the room. Suddenly, all of us jumped out of our beds and just starting stuffing things in our bags and quickly washed up. I think we were all out of the room within 10 minutes, normally it would take us around 40 minutes for all of us to get ready. Luckily, we were early for the Train. The whole train ride had some great scenery that we took pictures of. The mountains and little towns by rivers and lakes were the most beautiful. However, the scenery was never the highlight of THIS train trip. The best part came when the Swizterland custom officers came to check on each person's passports. When they came to us, they asked for our passports. I gave mine and within 15 seconds, I got mine back. Steve didn't have a problem as well. Roger on the other hand took the longest. The officer asked a lot of questions and was asked to open his bags to check on things that he had in his bag.

They were looking for merchandise to claim for taxes possibly. But during their search, they ran in to a bag with a hard container in it. Curious to see what it was, they asked Roger to take it out of the bag. Roger knew it was washing detergent powder (white in colour) so he took it out. The second he took it out, the office snatched it out of his hands, and instantly I had a slight scare and laugh in me. I was scared that he misunderstood what the substance was but I was laughing because he would have thought that it was cocaine or anthrax. He shook the box a bit so that the powder would slosh around. I don't they he knew exactly what it was. He asked Roger to open the container while he got some backup. The office took it from Roger's hands after he opened it. Fron the little open space between the officer and the backup, I could see a smile on Roger's face. Even Roger knew that this was ridiculous.

With the box if detergent open, the officer and backup gave the substance a slight sniff and then they did something even more funny, they stuck their pinkies in the detergent and stirred it around, I guess to feel the texture and consistency. I almost burst our laughing because I thought that after they stirred their fingers in the detergent, they were going to put some of it in their mouths to taste it. It of course would have been dangerous for the officers, but it would have been funny that they took it so far to think that it was some dangerous substance or drug. They didn't actually put it in their mouths. Roger explained that they were for washing clothes. Luckily, even with their limited english, the officers understood Roger and left.

This was all true and is a great example of discrimination. Of the 3 people that they had to check they had to check Roger most likely because he was brown. If I were Roger, I would have been quite pissed and little bitter. But then again, one should learn to be understanding because those men were just trying to protect the passengers and citizens of Switzerland. Roger didn't seem to be too disturbed, he was instead laughing a bit because of the entire exprience.

From what I had learned in school, I knew that the Swiss spoke French, but not all of them. I thought Zurich's official language was French, and turns out to be German (CRAP). Why is this bad? Well, none of us know any German. The person that knew even a little was Roger, and still he knew maybe like 3-4 phrases. Most of the words that I learned were from video games. When we got off the train at Zurich, we had no idea where to go. We even had some problems finding some tourist information booth. We were fortunate to find a service agent that spoke very good English (with a German accent). Turns out the hostel was even closer to the station that we had thought.

As we stepped out the terminal station, we saw Zurich, a really warm city that is separated by a huge river and lake and surrounded by the alps. The city was really really at first glance. As we walked to the hostel, a random Swiss person volunteered to show us the way to the hostel. I was right away convinced that the Swiss people in Zurich were really nice and great people. The city roads attract a lot of people and nice cars. The area in which our hostel is in was in a very lively area of town with a lot of restaurants, bars and shops. But one thins if for sure, Zurich is an EXPENSIVE city!!!! The value of the swiss franc is around the same as a Canadian Dollar only very slightly weaker. This made calculation of cost easier. But as we walked through the city, we noticed that a meal at McDonalds was around $12. A dinner would range from $18-$35 for a regular dinner. So the good thing was that we were only going to spend 2 days here so we don't go poor.

Our hostel was called the City Backpacker and had really nice facilities. The only weird thing was that we had to share washrooms and showers with Girls. Then again, we don't use them at exactly the same time if that is what you are thinking. None of the girls on our floor were good looking anyway. The beds were really comfortable and they provided good pillows and sheets for the beds which they clean daily. Also, the hostel carried the cheapest Swiss knives in the city. Sweet!!

We didn't plan anything for Zurich and wanted to enjoy as much as possible based on other people's recommendations at the hostel or just tourist information. The city of Zurich is tiny in size but there are so many things to see in terms of history and just shopping. The city itself, from my opinion, is split up into 2 areas, the north bank and the south bank. The north bank is more of the older part of the city where the roads themselves are older and are paved with stone at times. There are many streets of stores that cars almost never go on. Everybody also hangs out on the north side at night time, so the nightlife is pretty good, the only drawback once again is the expensive booze and food.

Before we had left the train station, we each picked up several pamphlets to read through to see what is interesting. Zurich is first and foremost a nature and outdoor type of country. We were looking for any type of excursions or tours that related to this. Through one of the pamphlets, we learned about a city tour as well as a top of the Zurich climb. It was around $37 CAD equivalent so we said it would be alright. We headed back to the Train Station's Tourist information booth to book this tour package. They were excited to help us and also recommended us to a type of Switzerland cuisine specialty which is a type of Veal sliced very thin and then cooked with some nice sauce served with mushrooms and potato. The Swiss-German name is __________ (to be filled in later).

Steve and Roger wanted to try it out and I too was excited but was expecting the worst in terms of cost for the meal. The specific restaurant we were looking for, called Alda's, had the dish for $35 CAD. Roger was immediately turned off. I was okay with the price, knowing that it was expensive but was expensive because it was a specialty. Steve is always gungho about this so he didn't mind. Roger suggested that we look around to see if anyone else was serving that dish and turns out, just a few restaurants down the road, another restaurant had it for $22 CAD. We didn't want to wait any longer so we just headed in and each ordered the same dish. The food was amazing, very very very good. It was the best meal so far in Europe in terms of quality and taste. When our food came, I immediately wanted to take a picture so I reached for my pants to get my camera. Hmm. didn't seem to be there, ok, maybe in the camera bag. Nope. Ok, maybe another pocket? Nope. I knew it wasn't in my backpack because I hadn't opened it for anything. Weird, then it occurred to me, I left it at the Tourist Information office at the Train Station (10 minutes walk). The likelihood that I had left it in the on the counter.

A sudden rush of horror rushed into my head. 2 things were at stake here, the most important were the pictures in the Camera. At that time, there had been around 200 pictures in the camera of the Chateau de Versailles and Eiffel Tower. The second was the camera itself, that would have been very very expensive. Obviously, I freaked out. I told Steve and Roger that I had forgotten something very important. Steve kept asking, was it your keys? wallet? glasses? sunglasses? credit card? passport? But he wasn't even close.

As soon as dinner was done, I rushed to the Train station. Steve came along with me to help me out if anything happened. As we got to the Tourist Information desk and I looked endlessly around the counter and the ground to see if the camera was there. I didn't see anything. The people at the desk told me that they hadn't received any lost cameras. As soon as I heard that, I was devastated. My worst fears had come true, not only is my camera gone, my memories too. With the worst possible feeling flowing through my body, I sat down on the side at the tourist information office and thought about what had happened and thinking where else it could be. I knew for sure that it was left in the tourist information desk. Unable to accept the truth, I went to the desk and asked again. Of course it wasn't there. I was dead. I just wanted to go home.

Steve felt my pain and followed me back to the hostel. Roger was at the room waiting for us to see if I had gotten it. I sat on my bed with my head hanging down believing all was over. Without a camera, my previous pictures would have gone down the drain. Then the most amazing, crazy and enraging thing happend, Steve smiled at me and pulled my camera from his pocket. What an ASS and SAVIOR!! Steve had the camera ever since we booked the tours. I had left it on the coutner and Steve had picked it up before we left. Thanks to him, I didn't lose my camera. I gave Steve a big Hug for looking out for my stuff. All my stuff was saved thanks to Steve. HOWEVER, this also means that Steve had my camera all along and was just hiding it from me, even while we were at the restaurant. Roger also knew that Steve had it but never told me. Steve told me that he wanted to see if I would learn and also see my suffer from depression to the point that I would give up. So, there is a good and bad part to Steve's action. The good thing of course was to look out for my stuff because I am the world's biggest headed shrimp. The bad thing was that Steve had the guts to put me through so much grief and depression.

I was not mad at all even though Steve had done this to me because the camera and pictures were more important. We forgot about the instance and decided to go strolling about in the town at night time to see what was outside and explore the area. We went around the north bank looking at the stores and restaurants that were there. It was weird walking around town and not knowing exactly what each thing meant as they were written in Swiss German. We walked until the sun had set and the sky was dark. The night lights of Zurich are quite nice as they reflected on the river. We went to several locations to take some nice shots and then went home to get ready for the next day. It was some what hard to sleep at first because even at night time, the north bank city is still quite busy with a lot of people eating, drinking and chatting.

Labels: eurotrip

posted by lazypig @ 11:33 AM