A Long Journey Ahead
Well day one has come and gone fairly quickly. What I thought would resemble somewhat of a Zombie apocalypse movie starring myself dragging my feet, with eyes half open through Zurich was the exact opposite...ok fine, I turned into a Zombie about 5 hours in.
While on any other occasion I would have whined about my two hour delay on the runway at JFK last night...I was grateful! I would arrive to Zurich two hours later...cutting down my layover time! (Plus, I was in business class - how whiny could I get?)
After falling asleep to "Hyde Park on the Hudson" (really, FDR?!) I awoke in sunny Zurich ready for my 12 hour layover. My first idea was to walk towards Lake Zurich and wander around...that's when I saw the boats! Why walk when I can be escorted on the high seas (eh, lakes) of Switzerland for a few hours?
Zurich, especially in this beautiful weather, confuses me as a city. The lake is beautiful and crystal clear and everyone...I mean EVERYONE is laying out soaking up rays and going on lunch cruises. I swear, grown men dressed to the nines jump on boat cruises for lunch in the middle of the work day. How long are these lunch breaks in this country? Don't people eat at their desk like every other working New Yorker I know? Anyway...the warm weather and sail boats on the lake seem to have everyone ready for summer. But the snow on the alps in the background always gets me! I understand they are at a higher altitude, but it still shocks me that I could be swimming in the lake, while Suzy Q is up skiing in the mountains 20 minutes from me.
(Side note: Bratwurst for lunch? Yes, please)
Back to the boat cruise - which I obviously took advantage of (I had to see what all these functioning members of Swiss society were doing with their lunch hours...hourS) it was great! If I had the luxury of jumping out of work and cruising around a beautiful lake with nothing by the Alps as my backdrop, I'd take two hour long lunches too! These people are living the dream!
Other than the disconcerting competition of seasons, Zurich is your average city but cleaner. Picture NYC if Walt Disney came in, cleaned the streets, added monorails, and decorated the buildings to be in some new princess/fairy tale movie. Oh also, you can actually feel the sunshine here, whereas in NYC it resides in Central Park. And everyone rides bikes, not just the delivery guy. Ok, so Zurich is in no way like NYC but I dig it.
(No idea what this was about...but I was impressed)
As I sit in Starbuck's (like you didn't see that coming) I'm slowing fading into the early stages of jetlag. I'd really like it if my bedtime was at 5:30pm. I'll be heading back to the airport soon to hopefully catch a flight to Bangkok! Let's hope its not too overbooked!
Widerluege!
