So, I would say that we just got to Switzerland, but that would be a lie. We have now been here for thirteen days, and have just been having too much fun to put together a coherent post (though, after reading this, you may say that we still haven’t). This post will likely be longer than most, since a lot has happened in the last thirteen days.
For those who don’t know, we are currently in the Zürich Canton of Switzerland while Christine is on an exchange through her work. I will be here for about nine weeks and Christine will come home about a month later. For at least the first four weeks we are living in a town called Bülach about 30 minutes north of Zürich by train.
Not to be undone by jet lag, we spent much of our first day familiarizing ourselves with our surroundings, walking around the town of Bülach. This started with me trying to get a SIM card for my phone and realizing two things. One, my understanding of German at full speed is roughly 0.1%. Two, that they don’t really speak German here – they speak Schwiizertüütsch – and even the Germans can’t understand them. There is a theory that it is the Swiss way of getting back at the Germans, I have to agree. After a rather difficult conversation about rate plans, I decided to go the free WiFi route, so if you try to call or text me, I won’t get anything until I get home (iMessage works though!).
The rest of our afternoon walk yielded far better results. There is a nice path along a creek that runs from our apartment about a mile towards the center of town. From there you get to walk through the old town, which looks like it was first inhabited long before the US was a country… oh wait, it was! Bülach traces it roots back to the 800’s! That said, it appears that most of the oldest existing buildings are from the late sixteenth century. To the north of the old town, we found the train station, which would be helpful later.
The countryside surrounding Bülach has given us some great views, and excellent exercise. We have both walked more in the last week and a half than in the months preceding our arrival in Switzerland. It’s been great! We really like the hills to the east of town, and have taken a few photos on our many walks there. When it is really clear, you can see the Alps from the top of the hill – they are pretty amazing! We will be getting a closer look soon. To the west of our apartment, across the freeway, there is a heavily forested area with lots of walking/running paths.
The First of August is the Swiss national holiday. The festivities in Bülach took place in a park on top of a hill (in the middle of town). We got to hear a performance by the Bülach Yodeling Club which was pretty great! The end of the night was marked by an enormous bonfire, that is maintained by the fire department, and what seemed like everyone in town setting off fireworks. And we are talking REAL, go-to-Washington-and-buy-them-because-they-are-illegal-in-Oregon fireworks. It was an amazing show around the entire area.
We have now been to Zürich three times, and everytime we find something awesome. It is a fairly short train ride from Bülach to Zürich. Once you have ponied up the money to get the train pass for the day, it covers all of the other public transportation in the area. There are so many options! Big trains, little trains, trams, street cars, buses, and a funny little inclined railway, called the Polybahn.
They have a geological museum with an excellent collection of really sparkly minerals. I want all of them (as long as I don’t have to dust them…)! We went to the Zoological museum and saw their impressive fossil exhibits and neat, yet morbid, collection of taxidermied animals from all over the world. The small mountain overlooking Zürich presents a challenging hike with an amazing view at the top, and last night, watching a nearly full moon come up over the opera house from across the lake, was pretty epic.
