Day 30: Zurich and Interlaken

Now that I was back in Europe, it was time to get the morning jogs going again. I spent the morning taking a long jog through Zurich, and then went back to the hotel to do some planning. The first part of my trip through Lilongwe had been heavily planned, but I had left more flexibility for the few weeks after. I figured with all of my hereto gained travel and life skills, I might have a better idea of what was working and what was not working. After laying out the next few days in Switzerland, I headed to the very busy central train station, where I had to wait for a while to make my needed train reservations.

After taking care of business, I headed towards the old part of the city, which was beautiful but packed full of tourists. Most of the old buildings are now very expensive retail stores, but wandering through the city and along the river was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. About 5pm, I headed back to the train station to make my way towards Interlaken, a city in a valley of the Alps. The 2-hour train ride was beautiful with castle-spotting, but when I arrivediIn Interlaken I was greeted by a vigorous thunderstorm. After ducking into a grocery store to grab a sandwich, I waited out the worst of the rain before heading to the hostel on foot. The hostel is quite the place, and is registered as one of Europe's "Most Famous Hostels". What it lacks in having enough WCs and showers, it makes up for with the occasional announcements via large cowbells.

I spent the evening planning out the following day of touring the Alps and chatting with other travelers in the hostel beer garden, before heading to my bunkbed, which was fine. Back to the basics.

The weather in the Alps looks wonderful today, so I'm hoping for some incredible scenery! Pictures from yesterday:

Old City area of Zurich

One of the very friendly swans of Zurich

Yes, I tried it...and it was a bit disappointing.

My hostel is the building on the left.


P.S. One fun fact about Switzerland: the y and z on keyboards are switched. I mean, when the capital of your country starts with a Z, and your county's name includes a z, why not have the letter z top and center? Nice, Switzerland. Way to be different.