The Kotas: "Switzerland"

This post came out reaaaally late! I will write about our trip to Switzerland!

So D had a conference to attend in Davos, Switzerland. However, in Davos there is no airport - at least not one with public access - so we had to disembark in Zurich and from there take a train to Davos. Which was good so we could visit Zurich as well. Since D's lab was paying for the trip but not for any kind of extras expenses like any regarding mine or Rebecca's so we were trying to save on everything we could. Including my plane ticket which was "bought" with miles saved with American Airlines and for Rebecca's ticket we only paid 10% of an adult air fare, so everything was "cheap" considering it was a trip to Europe!

Ok, our plans were: get to know Zurich on the day we arrive there, get the last train to Davos at the end of the day, stay in Davos all the days of the conference, and on the day before our departure we would go to Zurich and stay one more day there and spend a night at some hotel before catching a flight on the following early morning. And our plans came out almost as we've planned. I'll explain it!

So, our trip began with a driving to DFW airport - about a 2:30h driving - then we caught a flight to NY and from there, another flight to Zurich. Which means our day started pretty early and the first flight was a reasonable flight of almost 4h. Then we waited our connecting hours and the last flight took us about 8h to get to an end! Well I guess it is common sense to say that one can't sleep well on a plane and we are not excluded from this. But besides that, try to imagine adding a little baby to your trip. Conclusion: we slept little on the day before and then we slept NOTHING at the plane!

So arrived in Zurich with a 6h difference of our local time zone (ahead), ie, it was already morning so the day was juuuust beginning.... Well, but we went ahead with our plans: walk around Zurich! Bad idea!! I was literally dizzy!! The floor was moving under my feet and it wasn't an earthquake! D was trying to convince me I was still felling the flight sensation, but NO! I was really dizzy!! I was like a zombie walking! Buuut, we went ahead with our plans!

Besides that, we had to find some way to make everything works in a place that the main language is the german!! Owa!! It was an interesting experience but a very crazy one too!! It is sooo different to us!! But I was impressed with the human capability to get what you want even not speaking the language of a place! We got our train tickets from a german speaking machine but I have no idea how we made it!! And some signs in Zurich still have something written in english but not in the most part of them!

Well, but if we talk to someone in english they will understand it, huh? #not! And the situation was even worse in Davos that is a small city (even though it is - annually - the home of the biggest international conference in the world). In Zurich many people could speak french or italian besides the german but in Davos people speak only the german! Well, some people in charge of giving information for tourists indeed speak english. And some people at the restaurants too, but, these ones, really not much! Maybe the germans can speak english but the swiss people don't.

Well, now I have forgotten every word I'd learned and even imitate the accent of the automatic voices on the buses and trains was getting kinda easy there, but now everything is gone!! But I was happy we could make it!! It was a very unique experience in my life! But back to Zurich. I was dying! We got a train to the main station and from there we started walking through the historic downtown streets. Oh, I didn't tell you before but we got with us the big stroller along with the car seat - the system travel - so Rebecca could sleep while we walked! Poor baby, she was soo tired from the trip.

I thought downtown was pretty neat almost like I was expecting it to be! But besides our sleepiness we were also hungry. So we started looking for a place to have lunch. And everything was expensive! Since I was aware of that I didn't fall down. But we ended up finding a reasonable place to eat, that it was more like an italian cafe full of students. They serve pastas, soups, fruits and juices. It's funny that none of the pasta sauces had meat on it. I've heard that Zurich was a good place for vegetarians. Was it good? Well, it was, kinda...

But as we were seated eating our lunch we were almost sleeping over our plates. So we decided we should take the next train to Davos so we could rest at our hotel. So that's how we changed our plans. Well the train take 2h and you have to change trains in the middle of the way, but we made it even though we were almost sleeping and Rebecca was now pretty awake! But I was glad we couldn't sleep on the train because we would miss some gorgeous views!!!

So we arrived in Davos at its main station for buses and trains. We could made ourselves understood so we knew which bus to take to get at our hotel. We checked in, we gave Rebecca a shower, we also took a shower and all of us laid on bed to sleep - Rebecca had a crib (with a toy) for her! I had put our alarm to wake us up before everything was closed so we could go out to have dinner. So D and I woke up but we had no conditions to go out and eat. But D had an amazing strength, stood up, and went out to buy something at some local market. So he found one, bought some breads, deli and some soup and that was our dinner!

The good thing was that besides having a 6h time zone difference, all of us slept all night like it was our local time because we were sooo tired! So on the next day D had his conference to attend and there he went! This conference had a lunch break of about 4h so people who would like to ski could do that! Davos has many places to ski and from its streets we could see little points rolling down the slopes!! But since we were taking care of Rebecca we didn't ski and instead of that we went out to the streets to get to know a little of Davos and find a restaurant to have lunch.

Now making it short, all the restaurants were waaay too expensive and the food was not that great. It was pretty normal or way too german for our taste. Ok, we could find italian places but they weren't quite good either. But it was nice to know the culture, the place and the food even though it was only to say it's not between our top ten favorites. And about snow, we were there at the end of winter/beginning of spring so it wasn't snowing but there was still a lot of snow accumulated on the ground. (In Zurich everything was already gone).

And just to mention it, on Saturday night we attended mass in one of the three catholic churches in Davos and we didn't understand anything! Some things looked different but I can't be sure because I wasn't understating a thing there. It wasn't my first experience like this, though, because before in Las Vegas we ended up attending a vietnamese mass.

Oooh, one more interesting thing! One of the days I watched tv at our hotel room! I always turned it on so Rebecca could watch some cartoons but one of these day I tried to watch something myself. And surprisingly I could understand - I think - a movie with french audio and french subtitles and also Disaster Date!! This american tv show is sooo funny!! I could understand it because it had german audio OVER the english audio so I could get some key words in english! For those living in the US, you can watch it online at the mtv's website.

So going to our last day in Zurich! We bought the city transportation pass so we could use all the transportation we needed. So arriving at the main station we went to our hotel, left our bags there, and had lunch at some Mc Donalds we had seen on the way. lol Yes, Mc Donalds. But, there is a pro point for it! We could taste the english fries! They look like tangerine buds! It is nice but I still prefer the traditional french fries!

Well, back to what I was saying! We got to know more of Zurich, we thought about visiting a museum (ticket included on that city pass we've bought), but then we gave it up, had coffee at some nice place over the river e then we got an electric bus to go to Luxemburgerli - the famous sweet-shop which invented the also famous "macarron". See picture below. It is nice! The "cookie part" reminded me meringue and the filling is very soft! Everything is very light (talking about the weight itself). Now I know you can find these macarrons kinda easily worldwide from different confectioneries. Ok, then, guess where we ended up having dinner? At Mc Donald's again, haha! What??? I like it!!!

And finishing, just to tell ya that we ended up getting the wrong train on our way back to the hotel and besides this we walked with him a looong distance ahead!! But it was somehow cool! We could see a different and very unique part of Zurich! I don't even know how to explain it! And we also saw a vine yard, but dry! But it was cool too even though was already getting dark! But we were in good mood so we just took another train back to the main station and took the right one to our hotel!

And that is it! This was our trip!! And now just a few more considerations I wrote so I wouldn't forget:

- In Zurich there are lots of drinking fountains spread all over the city!
- In Zurich there are many watches - clocks? - spread all over the city!

- The functionality of our hotel in Davos impressed me and I'm posting some pics of it!
- The swiss people look at you too much!! It is not like americans that feel it is forbidden to look at someone you don't know, and they manage to be worse than brazilians. I felt very uncomfortable with this!

- I thought the swiss people were not very polite... really! In this aspect, americans are still on the top of list of the most polite people.
- Pc's keyboard is different! And btw, bring your adaptor coming to europe because they didn't have any for the american's plugs.
- The standard tip is only 8% before the 10% in Brazil and 12% or 15% (?) in the US.

- Extreme punctuality! And to achieve it: they don't wait anyone on the buses' stops, for example, not even that person who is literally running out of breath to get it! =/
- And for last, just to make a comment that when our english wasn't being enough to communicate there, our portuguese helped! You can try your spanish if you have it too!! People who speak french and italian can understand some portuguese and better it, some spanish!

And that's it!! Oh my... this post came out gigantic! I got tired if it!!