After arriving in Zurich quite late and Andrew and I caught a train to Zurch's main train station, we had to try and find a place to stay. We has such a nice time in Tokyo, that we didn't think to book accommodation in Zurich till it was too late.
We walked from the train station to town and it soon dawned on s that is was Friday night and the people of Zurich were in full party mode before Christmas. After trying 3 places to stay (one:fully booked, two:extremely expensive, three:no double rooms) we settled on "Hotel Splendor" We had to enter via the smoky bar on the ground floor. That was the first warning. Then Andrew had to go and find a receptionist who turned out be be a girl of about our age, but so surly and grumpy you would have sworn we had offend her family. This was the second warning sign of trouble. But CHF (Swiss francs)110 later we a room with a wash basin and a double bed. The room itself felt like it was on a 45 degree angle and during the course of the night I felt like all the blood was rushing to my brain. Andrew was so tired and jet lagged, because we didn't sleep on the plane, he fell asleep almost immediately. I on the other hand had to use my i-pod to block out the noisy could next door, because the walls were made of paper and I could hear the music and noise from the bar 4 floors up. Apart from that I felt like I was chain smoking cigarettes all night long.
At 6 am I gave up trying to sleep and went for a shower. I felt dizzy and nauseous from all the smoke inhalation and even with my head right out the window it was hard to get fresh air in my lungs. By the time Andrew came back from his shower, I was blow-drying my hair. He was horrified at the idea that I might have woken up our neighbors, but by this stage I felt that since they didn't seem to care that they were keeping me up half the night, I didn't see why I should care that I was waking them up at 6:15 on a Saturday morning...revenge is a dish best served cold!
Needless to say, we were out of there by 7:30 and went in search of food. , internet, trains and accommodation. And also to get hold of Cloè. But the internet place didn't open till 8 am, so off to find food. We walked back to the train station to get food which consisted of a shared paninni, a croissant and 2 coffees. After breakfast we saw a fruit market stall near the café and thought it would be a good idea to buy some fruit to carry with us, as it would be cheaper that having to buy snacks all the time. As we walked up to the stall, I said to Andy: "This looks expensive, maybe we should leave it. It looks like a delicatessen..." Anyway, Andrew knows best and said we'd only get some apples. The fruit vendor laughed and helped us and sold us the most expensive apples I have ever had the misfortune of buying. Three floury apples for NZD7! The next time I hear another European tourist complain about how expensive fruit and veges are in NZ, I'm going to smack them!
We then went back to the internet cafe, which was now open. I still can't get used to the fact the people just casually light up in cafes here. Anyway, we decided to go to Lucerne and found a backpackers there for really cheap and Cloe had sent us her cell phone number. SAVED! So back to the train station and off to Lucern for the day. Cloe had indicated that we should come on Sunday, as that is when shell be ready for us.
We cruzed through the Christmas markets
Our train to Lucern departed at 10.04 am and we were on it with good time. Again I got a bad feeling. "Andrew, I think we need to keep walking. I don't think we are in the right carriage..."Would he listen? Oh no, not he! "No baby, I'm sure this is fine. " Anyway, so after the stop at Tawl the train conductor comes past. I get our tickets and give them to him. He very promptly informs us that we are in the 1st class carriage and the only have 2nd class tickets. and without further ado he makes us pay an extra CHF30 each to upgrade our tickets! Andrew was still trying to explain that we are tourists from NZ and didn't know about the class systems on the train, but to no avail. The conductor was already printing out the slip for Andrew to swipe our VISA and sign. After that, we decided that I'll be in charge of where we sit on trains and that I have a bad feeling, we trust my instincts. This has left us with a bad impression of European hospitality. To compare with Tokyo, Europe has to pick up its game! But Andrew and I decided to make the best of the situation and get our money's worth by admiring the beautiful snow covered countryside.
After arriving in Lucern we did the first smart thing as tourists so far and went to the tourist information center. We founded out everything that we needed to know, including that the backpackers that we found on line was only open in summer, but tourist information center was very helpful and found us a cheap hostel, got us directions and gave us a tourist map of cool things to see and do in Lucern.
Man! Lucern is a beautiful little city. The old town especially in just like a post card. Snow every where (granted a bit old) but snow none the less. We walked accross the Medieval bride to our Hosten which was situated right next to the river, and our room had a beautiful view. Chris (the one eyed receptionist...man) was very helpful to look up what was happening in town and told us of the lighting of hundreds of Christamas lights by the Cathedral of the town. He even marked it on our map. He made sure that we got a quiet room (with breakfast) for CHF20 cheaper than our smoky room in Zurch. Things were looking up for us!for the rest of Lucern, jsut look at the pictures! we had a grand old time walking around and looking at all the old buildings. After a good night's sleep and thanked Chris (the one eyed receptionis...man) for giving us a whole floor to ourselves. We ate a heary breakfast. And checked out. We walked with our packs to the old town walls and admired the old towers and then on to the Lucern Lion. We think it is a monument to fallen soldiers, because all the info was in either Latin or Swiss-German. It was cool none the less!
Next stop, Cloe in Lausanne!
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