by The Other Half.

Weather: 7 deg C. 

I am writing from an apartment in Zürich, Switzerland.

It has been a week since I ‘moved’ here to where my ‘One Half’ is. He is here on work and yes, we thought of making this into the best opportunity to travel the beautiful, vintage and unlimited, Europe.

Place and Weather. 

Zürich is a beautiful place. The current weather makes is even better. England was home for a year for me, and November just reminded how dark it used to get even at 1pm. But so far, Switzerland hasn’t been that harsh. It is cold wind with sun, which makes it pretty ideal.

Food. 

I have realised it takes about a week to settle down to start planning to cook something for us. Until then there was Burger King (Vegi Burger). But two meals of those and I have a motivation to cook at home! We can easily get good vegetables and fruits at Migros (reasonable) or Coop (A little pricey). An Indian food shop is pretty close to where we stay. It is called Art of Food. The owners are a friendly Indian couple. Last two grocery shopping outings, I got frozen Phulkas (wheat rotis) for about 2.90chf and even Methi Theplas for about 3.00 chf.

Talking and local food. I have not tried much. The regular Panini and breads are of course a saviour for us vegetarians. I loved the hot glühwein (Mulled wine) with the cinnamon in the air. Just gives you a reason to love Europe in Christmas! I hope to try some more in the coming days!

City Travel.

The public travel is smooth and easy. Even though the primary language here is Swiss German, there are english boards in most of the public transport places. If you are here for at least a month, you should buy the Zürich Pass, which allows you to travel on trains, buses and trams. I have got the Zurich Pass (After 9am) which allows you to travel anywhere in the city of Zurich after 9am. You will get these at any station offices that says- SBB.

 

Just remember to take your passport and a couple of passport size photograph. They have a very systematic way of going about attending to a customer. Just like your Vodafone stores in India, where you can take a paper token and wait for your turn. But only a bit more efficient and quick. So, you cannot push yourself into the line/ queue. Just wait patiently for your turn and they will attend to you and your queries.

This is also the place where you can get your Swiss pass, your easy passport to travel the entire of Switzerland. I will have a separate post that talks only about the ease of public train and bus travel in Switzerland.

Language. 

Do you need to know German? No. Would it be good to know basic German? Yes. Is the language just like German you learn in Germany? No, a little different. I picked up a few phrases that could be useful when greeting someone at a common place, like any shop or train station office.

Hello: Grüezi

Thank you: Merci (yes some french influence)

Bye: Tschüss/ Widerluege

Some more, maybe in my next post. Meanwhile, I am also learning basic German words on Duolingo, that helps a little bit!

Home is where our heart is, and I think our heart lies is exploring and doing fascinating things and travelling and learning more about the culture is definitely more like it.

I am looking forward to exploring this beautiful part of the world!

Until the next post, Tschüss!