As most of you know, I just moved to Zurich, Switzerland. This is a pretty huge move. I've now been here for a week. In that week I've learned my way around my neighborhood, figured out some idiosyncrasies about the local supermarkets, started my apartment search, and even done a little bit of sight-seeing.
As one would expect, things are different here. That's part of the appeal. I'm getting used to different food options, different shopping experiences, etc., and I'm really enjoying it. Of course, there are a few things I miss already. And in no particular order, they would be: creamy peanut butter (crunchy is the common form around here), grape jelly (they have 9 million kinds of jelly - even cherry - but the locals are shocked by even the thought of grape jelly), American and cheddar cheese, and Mtn. Dew. However, I didn't come here expecting life to be the same - what would be the fun?
There are still some things I need figure out: laundry detergent, how to order water, how to unlock a shopping cart, but so far so good.
What follows are some pictures and stories from my first week here.
The bathroom and kitchen, as you can see are very modern. Most of the things in the flat are very new and all-in-all it's a pretty nice place to spend a month. Another interesting thing about this place is the very peculiar key. The key is a small metal disk, about the size and shape of a watch battery. This is glued to a small piece of plastic. That's the key. You push this disk into a cylindrical slot in the door which activates an electronic actuator of some kind that actually engages the lock handle allowing you to lock or unlock the door. See the pictures below.
Odd, eh? I did some research. These keys and locks are part of a Saltos Virtual Network made by Salto Systems. They also make the locks and keys used in Heathrow Airport. It's an interesting little system. If you're technical watch their short presentation. It's kind of counter-intuitive in the way it works, but employs a bit of a hack to allow your locks to be stand alone. The keys are encrypted, and I see their security model, but it seems very exploitable to me. The locks can't actually check access in real time, and rely on other cards to be updated from hotspots and transfer that data to the standalone locks. Which means if a door isn't used very often, it won't have the latest data very often. Which means that an invalid or lost key may work on it. They're very vague on the details, so I'm sure there's more to it, but either way, it's an interesting little system.
Enough about the lock. Here's the view out of my window...
The building I'm in is small and there are only three places per floor. Two flats are at the front of the building and the back has the third as a staircase. I'm in a flat at the back. Here's a picture of the front of the building - it has another floor above what you can see here.
Tuesday I spent the day with Sabine, my moving coordinator, doing my orientation and tour of the area. Then, Tuesday night, I decided to walk up to my office since I was meeting some people there on Wednesday afternoon, to make sure I knew how to get there. Walking past my office, there's a street with some pubs and such in it, and this is facing back towards the office. It gives you a good idea of the old-world feel of the area.
Here we have the pedestrian bridge the crosses the rail lines and the river, and a picture of the office from the bridge. As you can see, Ernst & Young share a lot with us as well.
Wednesday was a brief stop at the office to pick up some things, some email, and nothing else particularly interesting. Then on Thursday I decided to talk a walk around and take some pictures. I headed up to Langstrasse, the part of town with all of the clubs, pubs, smoke shops, etc. Here are a few pictures of the walk. The first picture shows the train tracks that are in the road all over the place and make up just one small part of the public transportations system. Also note the tiny gas station in the last picture.
Here is a few pictures of the heavy metal club on Langstrasse, called Altemetzg:
Notice their awesome choice of logo inspiration!
This is a picture looking down Langstrasse (long street) itself:
And finally, here's a cyber cafe. Hmm, they have skype, color prints, webcams. Sounds awesome. And of course, they have... woah, ice cold beer! Well, shit, we have to go there! Drunk people with the internet and webcams. Hmmm, maybe I'll stick to the metal club!
I had planned to heading down to Bahnhofstrasse - a famous street of shops and restaurants - on Saturday and walking around, but it was raining and miserable, so I went on Sunday. It's amazing to me that all the shops are closed on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. When they say shops aren't open on the weekends in Zurich, they really mean it! A few cafes were open as well as a Starbucks.
Throughout Bahnhofstrasse, and indeed much of the city, there is a lot of green. You will often see patches of grass with people laying down, sleeping, sunbathing, reading a book, or whatever. It's very peaceful.
Continuing down Bahnhofstrasse, I saw a neat piece of art/architecture that I was quite fascinated with.
Some part of the soccer (err, I should say football now, I suppose) championships are here this month. There's tons of soccer stuff everywhere. Even Rolex's store is footballed up!
There are some amazingly beautiful buildings tucked away in allies and everywhere else. Here's one.
The south end of Bahnhofstrasse ends at the north tip of the lake. I decided to walk around the east side of the lake. I saw so many amazing and beautiful things, it was hard to stop taking pictures.
This struck me as very odd: they had built what looked like a stage of sorts out in the water, probably about 10 feet from the edge of the lake.
Also, boats don't get tied to docs the way they do in the states. They're strung along and tied to buoys... and people seem to take a paddle boat to get to their boat. It's very strange.
There were lots of swans around, and they were beautiful.
It's funny to see people smoking water bongs and hookahs and such.
Everywhere I walked, there was a distinct feeling of calm and serenity. People treat the lake a lot like Californians treat the beach. And it's not like the beach is... un-calm... but there's something different and serene about the atmosphere here at the lake. It's amazing.
After a while I decided to lay down on a patch of grass and relax for a bit. I just laid down and absorbed. I relaxed and just let everything wash over me. After a while, I opened my eyes and saw the tree above me and the sun shining through it. I loved the look of it.
More buildings...
More people lounging...
Then we come across a small pond with walking stones across it. The first pictures is from one side of it. The second picture is from the middle of the pond looking back. If you follow the stones all the way up and to the right, that's where the first picture was taken.
Can you imagine living above a Porsche dealership?
Walking around the lake, I passed a... machine. It appears to be an old land-worker. It looks like it plowed, seeded, watered, etc. This thing was actually running when these pictures were taking. I gathered from the sign, it runs from 11:00am - 11:15am and 5:00pm - 5:15pm.
More awesome Zurich-ness...
I got down to the train station at Tiefenbrunnen, about 3 miles from where I started, and then headed back. I got back to Bahnhofstrasse and took a tram to Staufacher, walked around there a bit, and then walked home (about another mile).
I love this place. I'm thrilled to be living in a new city in a new country! This is the start of a hopefully amazing new chapter in my life. Stay tuned for what I hope to be many more Swiss and otherwise European adventures!