A Magical Land Called Switzerland

Zurich, Switzerland!

church with stained glass by Marc Chagall

boats on the lake


Heidiland!!

The town of Rapperswil

being silly at the castle in Rapperswil

view from the top of the castle

the Alps!

Posing in front of the train station

Extremely blonde Europeans...I found them amusing


I’m back in warm and sunny Salamanca, basking in the beautiful weather we’re having after weeks of cold winter rain. The Plaza Mayor is packed every day with people enjoying the spring weather, which will hopefully stick around. The other day I was sitting in my poetry class and the sound of someone playing a guitar outside wafted through the open windows—I felt like I was back at Georgetown, listening to people out on the lawn playing music and talking to their friends. Switzerland, on the other hand, was a winter wonderland the entire time I was there this weekend, and I loved it! I haven’t seen snow like that since I went skiing in Colorado four years ago, and I had forgotten how much I love it (when I don’t have to shovel it or drive in it, of course). Unlike in Georgia, where “snow” is one or two inches of slushy white rain that sticks to the ground in the early morning hours and melts almost completely by noon, but is still reason enough to call off school (which I’m never opposed to), the Swiss snow was several inches of soft, fluffy, powdery snow that coated the trees and stuck to the streets, and I couldn’t help but smile every time I stepped outside. I know now why people love to go skiing in the Alps!

Kristen and I left Salamanca for Zurich, Switzerland on Thursday evening. We got in late Thursday night and checked into our hostel. It was my first real hostel experience, and I actually really enjoyed it. Friday morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hostel with our Australian roommate. Then we hopped on the tram and headed to the tourism office in the train station downtown. We had seen in a guidebook that we picked up at the hostel that there was a “Heidiland Great Countryside Tour” excursion that went through the Alps and all the little villages that were allegedly the inspiration for the novel Heidi. Kristen and I were REALLY excited for this tour (especially since the adorable Heidi look-alike in our brochure made it look like there was no place in the world better than Heidiland), so we were delighted to find that there were tickets available. As a side note, Kristen and I are kind of obsessed with adorable European children, especially the really fashionable ones. We have a running joke that we’re going to take one home to Georgetown as a pet. Anyway, we didn’t need to worry about tickets for our tour, because there were only 6 people on the bus, including us. Our tour guide, Peter, was this middle-aged Swiss guy with a heavy German accent and a very blunt way of speaking, and he was absolutely hilarious. We started our tour by driving through the city of Zurich, and we had a chance to get off the bus and look around. Then we headed out to the countryside. As we drove through the neighborhoods surrounding Zurich, Peter told us all of their names: the “Gold Coast” was where the very very very rich people lived, the “Silver Coast” was where the just plain rich people lived, the “Copper Coast” was where the poor people lived, and the “Diamond Coast” was where the chicky-mickey people lived—the showy rich people who wanted to see and be seen. Peter really loved the phrase chicky-mickey. After driving for a while we stopped in the town of Rapperswil where we toured a medieval castle that was once inhabited by the Hapsburgs or one of their many royal relatives, and we had traditional Swiss cheese pie for lunch. Then we drove on to Heidiland—there is actually a real Heidiland. The scenery on the way was breathtaking: huge snow-covered mountains, snowy farmland, little villages nestled next to lakes in the foothills of the mountains. When we got to Heidiland we saw the Heidi Fountain, but not Heidi’s village, which is only open in the summer. That was too bad, because I really wanted to see the little Heidi girl, and the goats. Peter told us about the organic wine that is grown in the area and how organically grown animals in Switzerland are called “happy”: happy pigs, happy chickens, happy cows. And I thought happy cows came from California! Ha ha.

After Heidiland we drove to the independent Principality of Liechtenstein. It was a cute little town, but I definitely wouldn’t want to live there—they pretty much survive on tourism and the wealth of their prince/king. In Lichtenstein we bought some souvenirs, had hot chocolate, and roamed around. Then we took the bus back through the Alps to Zurich. As we drove back into Zurich, Peter pointed out the “chicky-mickey” night club in town, but said that nice conservative girls like us would be happier checking out the top-of-the-line sewing machine store across the street. Like I said, he was kind of ridiculous, but in a good way.

For dinner that night we went to a fondue restaurant that Peter suggested. We were originally going to make a reservation for the next night, but since that was Valentine’s Day, there of course weren’t any openings, so we decided to just go ahead and have dinner. We had pear and brandy cheese fondue and a bottle of white wine—which ended up being 40 francs, or a little less than $40. Oops. Not a good price for two college girls on a budget. That will teach us to check the price before we order from now on! But it was all delicious, so in the end it was worth it. After roaming around town a little bit more we headed back to our hostel for the night.

Saturday morning we spent wandering through Zurich. It was snowing when we woke up, and it continued to snow all day. In the morning we went to the Swiss National Museum, which was pretty cool. It was in what I think used to be a palace, and Kristen and I felt like we were in Harry Potter’s Hogwarts as we looked out the windows at the snow. As we were walking around town, I took a picture of this toothbrush ad that I had seen all over the place and found quite hilarious: it’s a guy and a girl, both extremely blonde and blue-eyed and with perfect white teeth. I thought it was funny how very stereotypically northern European they looked. It was actually nice looking like everyone else for a change; in Spain, my blonde hair makes me easily identifiable as a foreigner. Although people almost always speak to me in Spanish, they can tell before I open my mouth that I’m not a native speaker. In Switzerland, however, people would automatically speak to me in German, even though most people there know English as well as a couple other languages. I didn’t realize how out of place I felt in Spain until I went somewhere where I actually looked like I fit in.

We had lunch that day at a restaurant near the university called the Crazy Cow where we had some yummy Swiss macaroni and cheese. In our wanderings that afternoon, we also hit a Starbucks, a Swiss chocolate shop, and a popular Swiss bakery called Sprüngli. Basically, we stuffed ourselves with food all day. Apparently Starbucks and McDonald’s, both of which are all over the place in Switzerland, are big competitors there, which I found amusing since no one would consider them competitors at home. Just from peaking in the window, I could tell that the Swiss McDonald’s is way more sophisticated than the ones in the States. We really wanted to watch them make chocolate at the chocolate shop, but unfortunately we missed it. But we got some cute Valentine’s pastries at the bakery. On the way back to the hostel that afternoon, I got roasted chestnuts (marroni) from a street vendor. They were delicious, and with all the snow falling around me, I felt like I was living a Christmas carol.

That night we had dinner at an Italian restaurant where we had managed to get a reservation—we didn’t know what would be available on Valentine’s Day, so we were glad to find an opening. As soon as we walked in the door, we realized that it was not the place for two single college girls: it was a moderately upscale place, and practically every party there was a middle-aged couple. The food was good, but the service was slow; we think our waiter was punishing us for only ordering soup and salad rather than one of the very pricy entrées. We did get some incredible tiramisu for dessert, but I really missed my mom’s traditional Valentine’s “cherry berries in a cloud” dessert! Afterwards we went in search of the Zurich nightlife and bumped into our two new Australian roommates at a bar. After a round of margaritas, the four of us tried to find a club that was in our guidebook. Our map was not very helpful, and there were no crowds of partiers in the streets that we could follow (another way Switzerland is very different from Spain—Kristen and I were shocked at the lack of people in the streets on Friday and Saturday night). We concluded that Zurich either didn’t have much night life or it was just incredibly difficult to find, so we went home.

We headed back to Salamanca on Sunday morning. I rode a European train for the first time for all of five minutes to get to the airport. I was sad to leave; Switzerland is an amazing country. It’s so clean and beautiful and peaceful, and being there made me want to learn German just so I can live there someday. But the trip home was not pleasant. After our 2 hour flight, we had to take the 3 hour bus ride from Madrid to Salamanca. I’ve now made that bus ride 3 times, and every time it’s been miserable. It’s so difficult to travel to the rest of Europe from Spain, and from Salamanca specifically, because it’s so far away from everything! But I was happy to be back, and my host parents seemed happy to see me when they greeted me with the standard air kisses on each cheek. Also when I came home, my new roommates had just arrived—they’re from Georgia of all places! Like the French girls that were here last week, these girls are only here for a week. As nice as it was to get out of Salamanca for a change, I did miss it, and I felt so at home when I walked through the Plaza Mayor on my way to class on Monday. Still, I wish I could not take classes and just travel this entire semester. My classes are slowly getting easier, but it would be so much more fun if I could just trek around Europe for 5 months!