SuisseCland

Arrived at SBB train at Zürich Hauptbahnhof HB Main station by around 2PM. The first thing I thought was, wow! Such a big train station, Zurich HB Main's probably the biggest and busiest station I have ever been. When I have collected myself, and paid attention to my grumbling tummy, I remembered I needed some cash. I queued to exchange some USD to Swiss Francs, but it's also possible to use Euro's when in Switzerland. I'm glad that one of my Chinese colleague - Jacky whom I have met in Jakarta is en route to Zurich today, so I'll be glad to see the city with someone to take my photo but..I have to deal with the luggage first!

welcome to the land of many C's, clocks, cheese and chocolates!

Accuweather seemed accurate. 

Look Lockers

My prayers was heard in a instant when I went up , in fact the entire floor was full of lockers for rent! Superrrr! I made a quick detour to the restroom and paid CHF1.00, that's Php50 ha (for every restroom needs). Back in Manila donation lang pwede na talking to myself. Is there such thing as free here?? I rented the large lockbox to fit my quite big luggage for CHF 9, so finally! For price reference:

Lockbox small (W25/H40/D75) CHF 6 /24 h 

Lockbox large (W50/H60/D90) CHF 9 /24 h 

See you later luggage!

CH ( Like IKR )

It's quite easy to remember Switzerland's flag. After all, I see this very often in Swiss brands like Wenger,Swatch, Victorinox, Rolex, Tissot, Sultzer etc.  Imagine a red square with white flag. Don't mistake it over the Red cross logo and why not - Red Cross founder Jean Henri Dunant's birthplace is Switzerland! Here's what I found from Expatica.

Swiss Canton

Switzerland has 26 cantons which are the federal states of the Swiss confederation. Canton (and not pancit canton, sorry can't help it) is a French word for "political territory" which translates corner, edge..IKR, exactly what our "kanto" meant. The canton of Geneva comprises just one city; the canton of Uri is entirely mountains and valleys; the population of the Zurich canton is over one million, and Zurich itself is just over 300,000. Switzerland is also known as Confederatio Helvetica – which explains its abbreviation CH. 

World's Happiest! 

CH is one of the world's best places to be born, live and be happy. It was ranked the world's happiest country in 2015, and came second in 2016 (after Denmark) out of 156 countries. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) latest Where to be Born Index (2013), Switzerland was the best country to be born. I also read that Coca-Cola's logo is "by accident" Swiss-inspired with its red cross overlapping forming like that of the Swiss-flag and so thus the tagline - Open happiness. 

Oh Sundays be like

It is very interesting to know that Sundays in Switzerland are protected by a long list of social laws – making it illegal to undertake activities such as mowing, hanging out laundry, washing your car or recycling bottles to ensure peace and beauty is maintained. Oh. A peaceful night's sleep is also guaranteed by the Building Laws prohibiting noisy actions after 10pm including peeing standing up, slamming a car door, flushing a toilet or emptying a bath. Ridiculous eh? I remembered also driving Nik when he was in Manila and he was quite surprised that despite all those traffic and crazy drivers, he rarely heard one car honked to another. He thinks Filipino drivers were courteous in a way (uh.uh.) Back in Switzerland, if ever the need to change lane despite putting your signal on you'd get all cars around honking at you and those dirty looks.  

First wave: The birthplace of instant coffee

Switzerland was the origin of instant coffee. Nescafe was created by Nestlé in 1938. The Nestlé Company, started by Swiss businessman Henri Nestlé in 1867, buys almost 10 percent of the world’s coffee and cacao bean crops annually. Switzerland is also widely recognised as an international research center, with the private and public sector strongly promoting science and technology.

Le tsokolat 

The Swiss eat more chocolate than any other nation in the world! Now that explains why they're happy. Chocolate is a major Swiss export; with 18 Swiss chocolate companies, Switzerland exported almost 115,500 tonnes of chocolate in 2015. They have also invented techniques like conching and tempering to perfect the art of chocolate making. 

By 3PM finally saw Jacky after our garbled conversation on the phone "I can't find BK" which translates as where-the-hell-is-it. He was his usual happy- quiet self. We found out later that Burger King is in every corner of the station! Ok, now we know. We confirmed that next avail trip to Uzwil is 630PM. Good. we still have time to relax a bit, and enjoy Zurich. 

So shall we? 

itsmelory (^.^)

Toast to clocks, cheese and chocolates

Finally arrived at the hotel, my colleague Craig too eager to pack up and run since he has a flight to catch early morning,  so he need to make it to the train's last trip and spend the night at the airport. My golly whooah! I spent the entire week in Germany. For one- I've never eaten that much meat my entire life!  and moving forward to my next destination at our HQ in the fancy country named Switzerland.
So after the brief farewell is said ala Swiss style - right cheek, left cheek, right cheek. I'm a bit surprised during the first time with the third kiss, but not so long I learned.I went to my room (slightly sad, yeah I'm always like that when having to say bye to friends,  or even just an acquaintance). Packed my stuff too, drank hot cocoa and retired for the night.

Auf Wiedersehen DE

I'm up before my alarm at 6AM, still undecided if I should take a shower or not..major decision right? my OC self won over. Still shaking and regretted having dripping hair, I managed to go up for breakfast, helped myself for some coffee plus bread, some apples and banana. By 630 I'm all ready to go. I bade our receptionist goodbye, remembered to return the charger she lent me, gave her a friendly hug (it's an Asian thing), and off the walk to the train station. Expecting a lot of walking today I decided to use my spare comfy black boots but it got me no more further than 20m from the hotel door because I found out that its sole coming off. Good morning Lory, it's going to be a good day. Imagine me rummaging through my red luggage for my brown boots-right in the side of the highway. I'm sure not a pretty sight! 

The ICE, ice baby

Thanks to my photographic memory (self proclaimed, because I'm usually good with directions) I have no trouble getting around after S2. Pretty soon I walked to ICE, the Intercity Express to bring me to HB Zurich. Not a bit surprised that the lift is not operational to the platform area (does it even work at all???) so I'm on dragging luggage mode again. I probably passed out if not for the gentleman who volunteered to carry it until the platform area (He was with the wife, and the kid btw- please nothing romantic). I said a clear, almost high pitch thank you to him and he gestured back no problem, sorry my voice was partly shaking of cold- yes cold. Oh Europe, you make me believe in your people. You know that weird feeling creeps when traveling alone but the same time it kind of liberates you. I'm so happy to find my spot when the train finally arrived, tucked my luggage below my seat and getting comfortable. Ok Lory, it will be a long way from here and I shout a silent I'm comin' for ya Switzee! 

Swiss Time starts now

Maybe, my old-shoddy boots was telling me something after all.  Over the radio they announced that all passengers need to get off at Singen Station. I checked my ticket, how could've missed it? A bus will pick us up at Singen Station to the SBB at Scaffhausen  all because  some repairs were being done in one of the railway station. Huwaat?  of all days! I look at my luggage who seems to look back at me with that mocking smile- Well, hello eto na, magkaka-muscles ka na lalala..
Don't panic, it's organic. So I got off as calm as possible, saw that B27 Bus was waiting for us. I pretty managed a good seat beside the window.  I cheered myself to think that this is a free tour at the same time! By 1030 Swiss time, we were on the road again.
It could have been a quiet moment for me to enjoy the view and a time to relax my arms if not for my seatmate who was too curious enough to start a conversation. So I found out he's from Audi, and that he recently transferred to Bosch. Wow, close na kami. I found in fact that he's also traveling to Switzerland. You see, I'm always the lucky girl. Who would've thought I'd enjoy this ride? My guardian angel just loves me. So the entire bus ride, we talked about Asia - China, Indonesia. We parted ways at Schaffhausen and I'm feeling a lot better. My ticket says I need to take 1200 train, so I'm just  right on time, you know I'm here in Switzerland and to quote Paulo Coelho-  the clocks never lie it's Swiss time.

Platform 3, check. By 12nn, I'm onboard SBB to Zurich. I relaxed on my seat, and said a thank you prayer.  Ordered some hot coffee and a croissant, plus the banana I managed to snatched from the hotel. (ha-ha). I will make sure to have chocolates and cheese when I get there, but for the meantime, I will enjoy the long and windy ride to Zurich, and snapped some proper selfie  for the day!

To CH,

itsmelory (^.^)