Guests from the East...

One great thing about exchange years is that you get to know a lot of people from all over the world. Greater still if you can keep in touch. Some weeks ago I received a mail from Mei Kee. We had met at NTU because of her German course, and now she wrote me that she got into a summer study program in Stuttgart, Germany! From there it’s only a short distance to Zürich, so I had the honour to show this part of Switzerland to her and her friends…

I have to admit that I actually don’t know Zürich that well (My home is about 100km west of Zürich), but Wikitravel gave me some good hints, and my guests also had some places in mind that they wanted to see. We started by walking down the famous Bahnhofstrasse with it’s many jewelleries and boutiques. At Paradeplatz, I tried what was probably the most expensive chocolate of my life (100g > 10 Swiss francs), the truffes du jour at Confiserie Sprüngli. They are excellent, really ;-)

Later we visited the Grossmünster and enjoyed the nice view from the tower over the city. Here’s a picture of our group just in front of the Münster:

Hungry, we continued through the Zürcher Unterdorf in search of a restaurant. We tried to find a place offering Züri Gschnätzlets, but had to give up because even the cheapest price we found was enough to survive three days in Singapore :-( Instead, we ate at Spaghetti factory. Some Swissness we found even there, in the form of a stylish tool to grate cheese.

The day ended with a stroll through the fan zones: It was the opening day of Euro 08, and Zurich stood in the sign of soccer. Most people were dressed in red, swiss flags painted on their cheeks. The streets were lined with stalls selling hot dogs, hamburgers and a strange beverage which claimed to be part of the game… Half way through the second half, we had to leave the screens for my guests to head back to Stuttgard. I took a train home as well, while it was still 0-0 and the world was all right ;-) It had been a nice day. Thanks guys for visiting me!