Tuesday, March 20, 2012

we got a cheap flight to the most expensive city in the world

I just got back from Zurich. What a weekend.

Our flight was short (and cheap), but what we didn't know is that Zurich is one of the most expensive cities in the world. While Paris is high up on the list as well, the difference became apparent with food options. Admittedly, Paris is very expensive: food, drinks, real estate, transportation, you name it. The difference comes in food options: Paris has a variety of street food options, hole in the wall Greek and Turkish sandwich shops, and bakeries with sandwiches, quiche, bread and pastries for less than €5; Zurich, on the other hand, has none of this. Food is expensive everywhere, cheap food options don't exist, anywhere. This was frustrating for a group of college girls looking for cheap, authentic eats. We had to sacrifice a few extra dollars for some good grub, instead, but it was worth it! Between the real bratwurst and potato salad, and the incredible pesto spaghetti at Europe's oldest vegetarian restaurant, we made sure we got a lot of bang for all of our bucks.

The people we stayed with were a lot of fun, as was our Saturday night adventures for St. Patrick's Day. While some stories stay just between us girls, I can say this much: we got some good laughs about some rather coincidental situations a few times. I visited the city with two of my roommates and another friend from the program, and they were great travel companions: not in too much of a rush, ready to try new food, and always willing to stop when taking a photo. the people of Zurich were extremely nice too. On our last afternoon, at the top of a large hill overlooking the city, my camera died! I was pretty distraught about it (if you know me well enough, you know that my camera is my baby and I'm lost without it), but by a stroke of luck (and one of those coincidences I mentioned before) a man had the same camera as me, and allowed me to borrow his battery for a few minutes. "I don't want you to miss out on these pictures," he told me with a smile as he handed it over. I couldn't be more thankful, and now I have fabulous photos from the top of Zurich! Well, despite the grey, foggy weather.

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