Zurich: Getting High in Switzerland

Zurich: Getting HIGH in Switzerland

My departure from Munich marked the end of the first third of my one-month EURail adventure. I refer to these first eleven days as the “COUCHSURFING” portion because I stayed (for FREE) exclusively with members of couchsurfing.com, the traveler’s network in which I’ve been an active member, host and guest. However, I had yet to sleep on one true couch. A few spare mattresses, a train or two, a QUEEN size bed, but no couches, until I got to Zurich, where I was taken in by a fellow FOX CHAPEL Area High School alumni by the name of Nikhil.

The seasoned EX-PATRIOTS that I’ve met in my European travels have been very welcoming, well traveled and eager to help anyone who sympathizes with their curiosity and thirst for adventure. The same is true for the newest generation of abroadsmen. After meeting in the central station Nik and I discussed our travels and visitors, The STEELERS and obscure hometown references over Thai food. I felt right at home on Nikhil’s sofa and shared with him some of the stories and purchases I’d made along the way before passing out in the clutches of his couch.

Zurich’s a picturesque Swiss city filled with hard working businessmen and fashionable FEMALES on streetcars winding in and out of spotless lakeside boulevards. I passed the day just relaxing alongside the lake, reading, writing and peoplewatching, all popular activities in the TRANQUIL plazas that border Lake Zurich.

Later on, Nik, working in a major multinational corporation, explained to me how the Swiss Franc, the national currency, managed to raise both the cost and quality of life in autonomous Switzerland over a steaming FONDUE and raclette dinner. “Make more money, buy more happiness, live in paradise” seemed like the operating equation. I explained my “low maintenance, high adventure, live everywhere” formula and we agreed on it’s inverse validity. We toasted and concurred that we were both very pleased with the outcomes of our international ventures; unexpected opportunities presented during these PRIME years of our lives in places that we’d never fathomed in our high school days.

The pristinely aged Swiss clock towers tolled in each hour and before I knew it, it was time to head southward to meet COLLEGE roommate and Pi Kappa Alpha brother, Jim “Jimmy” Butler, in search of Italian family roots and a change of pace from work in Northern Virginia. Nikhil got his morning coffee to get charged up for work and I took mine to awaken my imagination as I wound through the mountains on a speedy Swiss train towards Italy.


* For a comical and musical look into what a visit to Switzerland might be like, I recommend seeking out the music video “FONDUE FRIENDS IN SWITZERLAND” by The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players (an ULTRA AVANT GARDE family trio, featuring a PRE-TEEN drummer, that compiles slideshows from yard, garage and estate sales and performs the soundtrack in concert as they exhibit the stranger’s slides for befuddled audiences). [http://www.slideshowplayers.com/]

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