Hop Schweiz

Aside from the trains, buses, and low cost flights, another increasingly popular way to get around Europe is by rideshares or carpooling.  There are a number of different websites where people post the details of their planned routes and how much they want and with just a text or a phone call, your transportation is set.  I first heard about this system and the most popular Slovenian website when I hitch hiked to Budapest in the fall as everyone that picked us up informed us that this new system has pretty well put an end to the era of thumbing it.  I had thought about trying it out on various occasions since then but finally got around to it last week and caught a ride to Zurich, Switzerland to take advantage of Patrick's invitation to hang out with him and Marcel for the weekend.

The Zurich river front

When I thought about taking a rideshare the only scenario that I could think of was that I'd end up in the back of a 1970's Volkswagen van with some kind of travelling hippy band but, thankfully, this was not the case.  Instead, I would be going with a very normal middle aged woman on her way to visit her daughter in Bern in addition to her friend who we would drop off in Salzburg and a couple other girls who were also just taking a rideshare.  In the end everything worked out well.  We met very early in the morning and thanks to our detour through Salzburg I got to see a little more than I would have by bus or train, even if only fleetingly.   Of course, travelling in this manner is a little more unpredictable than other ways; I joke that between Salzburg and Zurich we drove Slovenian style, which means we stopped for coffee every hour.  The trip may have taken a little longer than I had anticipated but I was still in Zurich by mid afternoon and had met some interesting people in the process.

By the time I got to Zurich Patrick and Marcel were waiting for me at the train station and we headed out to check out the city.  Patrick lives and works in the nearby city of Baden so he was our host and tour guide for the weekend.  We spent the afternoon walking through the Old Town before stopping to have a beer down by lake, the name of which I still cannot properly pronounce (Zürichsee).  Zurich, and probably most of Switzerland, is a playground for the world's rich and famous.  The lake's marinas are full of expensive boats, high end cars cruise down the waterfront, and the famous Swiss watch companies have stores with prices nothing short of ridiculous.  I was going to buy a souvenir Tag Heuer but I was short by about 10,000 dollars.  But while you do feel under dressed just walking around, as I have found in almost every European city its still not hard to find people lounging in a park, enjoying a coffee at a sidewalk cafe and just generally taking things a little slower.

As the World Cup is in full swing we even took in a "Public Viewing" while in Zurich.  No, not a funeral but rather a broadcast of the games on a large TV screen in the city centre.  We watched the Germany-Ghana game and I got in the World Cup spirit and helped Patrick and Marcel cheer on their national team.  Being in a country that actually cares about soccer during the World Cup is a pretty interesting experience.  The whole city feels alive and the atmosphere is almost as if you're at a live sporting event, and as Switzerland is such an international place there were fans cheering for all sides.

Lucerne's famous bridge.

We also took a day trip to the famous mountain city of Lucerne.  Nestled amongst the snow capped peaks of the Alps and lying at the foot of a glacial lake of the same name, Lucerne is pretty much the Switzerland of everyone's imagination.  The medieval alleyways of the old town are hemmed in by the towers and turrets of the hilltop wall which marks the start of the rolling green hills surrounding the city.  Unfortunately we didn't come across any yodellers in our wanderings but I guess it'd be unrealistic to hit ALL of the stereotypes.  Still, Lucerne's backdrop looked remarkably similar to that Price is Right game.

Lucerne and area

In the end the weekend went by way too fast as has been the case with so much this past year.  It was great to catch up with Marcel and Patrick one last time before we go our separate ways until who knows when.  Patrick will continue his stay in Switzerland, while Marcel heads off to visit our friend Florentia in Mykonos, Greece before leaving to start his internship in Namibia at the end of July.  I of course still have much to look forward to; as always there remains many places to go and much to see.

We also rented a peddle boat and spent most of the time trying to see how fast we could go.