Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Bye, bye Switzerland ... for now

Well the 7-month journey is over.

Zurichsee; from Munsterbrucke (just outside where I lived)
tourist's view; uploaded by Dreamer7112.


I will miss:
  • church bells on Saturday / Sunday; quite loud, mildly annoying (when hung over), and bizarrely, cheerful (or, at the very least ironically pleasing)
  • cycling for 5 minutes and being outside Zurich and in the hills / alps of Switzerland; want a thrill? - ride 70km/hour down a Swiss mountain - big fun!
  • smell of farms; my Mum was brought up on a Swiss farm - and when I visited Switzerland when I was a child I often visited both my grandparents and eldest Aunt's farms
  • travelling; especially on trains to most of Europe!
  • Swiss chocolate (stereotype - I know; but it really is good)
  • the friends I have made here; in particular Josh, Ivan, Adrian, Nabs (from work); Yan Yan (my only Aussie mate); Jo, Dan (poms from Zurich); and Sibs, Martijn (my housemates!)
  • the Swiss family; in particular Aunty Hedy and my cousin Marco; while I am a single child - Marco is the closest thing to a brother I have - the favour will be repaid if they ever make it to Australia!

I will not miss:
  • ambiguity of pedestrian crossings; typical behaviour is for vehicles to accelerate whenever pedestrian is seen; this 'playing chicken' I prefer not to face when I am ambulating through Switzerland's cities
  • UBS, Opfikon cafeteria food; while not awful - there were definitely some 'lowlights'; very similar to college food at University of Melbourne, except now you had to pay for it (and it is not cheap)
  • all beef being ridiculously expensive and in general, Swiss food is pretty average (when compared to Australia)

And the question will I ever live OS again? definitely!

1 comment:

Jem said...

Top marks for mentioning ambulation!