Zurich, Switzerland

It had been due to my adventure and her misadventure in Italy that had allowed me to meet up with Megan. I found myself having a diffucult time letting go of my experiences in Italy and even more difficulty trying to choose another country to visit. While Megan on the other hand simply didn't have things go her way in Italy and wanted to get out of Italy as soon as possible and hoped a flight to Geneva. We had been trying to coordinate a country to meet in for the past month and then without any effort at all we were both in the same place. Without any hesitation I had asked where she was off to and bought myself a train ticket, destination: Zurich, Switzerland.

The train ride to Zurich had turned out to be the train ride that I had imagined when I thought about travelling the rail system around Europe. There were rolling hills, the pastures were green, the houses that looked as though they were build into the hills, and there was a beautiful view out on to the water with snow covered mountains in the background. The rail seemed to be on the edge of the hills and at moments, and it was frightening to look out of the window for fear of rolling down one of those oh so pretty hills. Switzerland is certainly a country of beauty, but a strange one, nonetheless.

When we arrived in Zurich we booked ourselves in for 2 nights and were eager to see what this, the biggest "city" in Switzerland had to offer. The lonely planet had boasted of this city having an "electricity" in the air that was unmatched by all of Switerland so, we were off. Once we hit the cobblestone it seemed as though they must have been going through some huge power outage because not only did we not feel any of the "electricity" but the streets were dead.

Seeing the "sights" in Zurich had taken us a hefty 2 hours or so and that's when I began to wonder. I turned to Megan and asked if we had made a mistake by booking 2 nights, to which she replied in a consoling manner -- it's okay it really only like having one day because we arrived so late. Somehow that made me feel slightly better. There was however the rumour of a Lindt Chocolate Factory being in town so it left us with some hope for the city yet.

In the meantime we wandered the streets in search of dinner and a pub and found some eerie yet somehow playfully eccentric qualities of this strange little town. There was the skinned cat hanging on the wall over the fireplace of a coffee shop and of course the guy who walked up and down the street with a red shoe balanced on his head -- for no apparent reason (though, what would an appropriate reason be??) And there was of course the life size gnome that I had befrieneded.

The wide range of our discoveries in Zurich had also included some surreal signage and some rather disturbing graffiti. The first encounter of the very strange signage occured at the train station, I found myself bewildered when I had laid my eyes upon it not because I was wondering what product it was trying to sell but exactly what the King was doing to the Queen back there. It turned out to be selling... cigarettes, go figure. I guess even the King needs a smoke after getting randy with the Queen.

By the end of our first day... which was a long one. We had eaten dinner in a mexican restaurant and made a temporary home at the bar in an Irish Pub called Oliver Twist. We had come away from the pub ever so slightly twisted, curtosy of this cute little blonde bartender who after only 5 days on the job decided that didn't get paid enough to care. We hadn't paid a cent.

The next day was a painful one but with the lure of a world famous chocolate factory in the city we managed to eagerly haul ourselves out of bed at the crack of 1 pm. Megan and I had shared the idea that nothing was beyond walking distance had taken on more than we were willing to chew that morning. It seemed as though we were walking out into the middle of now where. We'd walked so far I think we had even left the city of Zurich. Finally after almost 2 hours of walking there it was, this huge Lindt gold chocolate bunny's head peering at us from around a building, and even more on the front lawn...oh what a sight.

As we sized up the building the scent of chocolate had filled the air, it was so intense it was as though you could taste it. After some careful navigation we spotted a tour bus with loads of old people and we tried to blend in and make our way to the sweet place we had sought after all morning, uh, I mean afternoon.

When we climbed the stairs to this chocolate heaven we saw people walking out with shopping bags full of chocolate, yes, bags plural. I didn't think it was possible to do this, but when we go into the entrance it became apparent to us, this was a chocolate grocery store -- it even had shopping carts! I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm not sure how long we were in there, but I'm sure it could have been much longer. It was surreal to find myself inside a Lindt Chocolate Factory in Switzerland...I had managed to limit myself to buying a few gifts and was outta there. My purpose for being in Zurich had been achieved.

In my mind our experience in Zurich was synonymous to that of Pinocchio's when he had run away to the Circus. In the end, Zurich had turned out to be a city of indulgences but one that could turn bad if you stayed there too long, so before we could grow donkey ears and tails we were outta there. Feeling a little fatter, a little hungover, and a lot happier to have moved on.