Leaving Switzerland… It’s a little bit bittersweet for me. Bitter because I have wanted to go to Switzerland for so many years now, but sweet because it is the most expensive place I have ever been and two more days in Switzerland would have ended my journey through Europe right then and there…. When you go into McDonalds for a hamburger and find that the least expensive thing on the menu (Americas version of ‘the dollar menu’) is 3 Franks and the average meal is 12 Franks (more or less 10 dollars I think), you know that something isn’t right. Either the Swiss missed the memo and somehow think that McDonalds
is some of the highest quality gourmet food that you can find, or things are just ridiculously overpriced. I had a burger that wasn’t all that great, so I can attest to the second theory. Switzerland was, however, one of the most stunning, gorgeous places that I have ever gone. I feel like I need to come back sometime during the summer months to better take advantage of the natural beauty that it has to offer. As for seeing the Matterhorn, I woke up at 6:45 that morning to go see for myself the ‘most photographed mountain in the world’. 6:45 was at least 2 hours too early being that it didn’t even get light enough to see more than 15 feet ahead until about 9 am. I was on a mission though, so a little bit of darkness wasn’t about to stop me. I had a train to catch at 11:30 so I walked until about 9:30 to no avail. The clouds in front of the Matterhorn were so thick that by that point I was 60% positive that the mountain didn’t even exist, but was some Swiss lie that in one way or another allowed them to increase their McDonalds prices. I walked back down, got all my stuff together and when I was about 10 minutes from the train station the clouds cleared up just enough to let me see the lower half of the mountain. It wasn’t a lot, but it was all I needed to feel like the journey wasn’t a complete waste. It really did look beautiful though, and fortunately there are plenty of pictures that already exist and a ride in Disney Land, so I had a pretty good imagination of what the upper half of the mountain looked like as I stood peering up at it.
is some of the highest quality gourmet food that you can find, or things are just ridiculously overpriced. I had a burger that wasn’t all that great, so I can attest to the second theory. Switzerland was, however, one of the most stunning, gorgeous places that I have ever gone. I feel like I need to come back sometime during the summer months to better take advantage of the natural beauty that it has to offer. As for seeing the Matterhorn, I woke up at 6:45 that morning to go see for myself the ‘most photographed mountain in the world’. 6:45 was at least 2 hours too early being that it didn’t even get light enough to see more than 15 feet ahead until about 9 am. I was on a mission though, so a little bit of darkness wasn’t about to stop me. I had a train to catch at 11:30 so I walked until about 9:30 to no avail. The clouds in front of the Matterhorn were so thick that by that point I was 60% positive that the mountain didn’t even exist, but was some Swiss lie that in one way or another allowed them to increase their McDonalds prices. I walked back down, got all my stuff together and when I was about 10 minutes from the train station the clouds cleared up just enough to let me see the lower half of the mountain. It wasn’t a lot, but it was all I needed to feel like the journey wasn’t a complete waste. It really did look beautiful though, and fortunately there are plenty of pictures that already exist and a ride in Disney Land, so I had a pretty good imagination of what the upper half of the mountain looked like as I stood peering up at it. 
Yesterday I went from Zurmatt to Zürich where I only stayed for one night. This morning I did the one thing that I had to do in Zürich, Switzerland – go to the FIFA headquarters. It is located a good distance outside of the city, but the public transit system is easy to navigate and my two weeks of travel experience made for a relatively easy find. Being there in Zürich, standing outside of those headquarters, not knowing when I would see them again, I knew that I would need to take full advantage of the opportunity. So I walked in, went to the front desk, and asked for a job. I told them that I didn’t care what I would be doing, I would polish the floor, clean the toilets, anything. I told them that I have been a football (soccer) fan all of my life, that I still play regularly and that I am an expert in FIFA. Unfortunately, none of my skills were needed at the moment but they told me to send in a fax or email and they would see what they could do. After that I saw the World Cup replica trophy so I knew that I needed a picture with it. I asked the front desk lady to take a picture of me and, not knowing when I would be with the world cup replica trophy again, I knew that I needed to do something special, so before she could say anything I kissed it. And now I have a sweet picture of me kissing the World Cup trophy. USA all the way baby!! 
Anyways as of this very moment I am on a train headed for Salzburg, Austria. From there I have a 10 minute layover – so I really hope that this efficient, on time Swiss travel system lives up to its billing – and then a two hour train ride to a small ski town called Kitzbuhel (I should be there by 11 tonight). I will be in Kitzbuhel for 3 nights so hopefully that translates into 2 full days of skiing. After that I am going to Budapest, Hungary for 3 days where I will meet up with one of my friends from Sevilla. That is all for now! Lets go train!
No comments:
Post a Comment