ERASMUS TIMES: Zurich

I couple of weeks ago I was in Zurich and I have since neglected to write about it. Despite having flown into Zurich when coming here first, I had never visited the city proper. A couple of Sundays ago the opportunity presented itself, so off I went.

I got the day off to a flying start, by sleeping in and consequently having to run for my bus. Fortunately I caught it and avoided being left at the bus stop sobbing with my companions, who I had also caused to be late. Zurich was only an hour-long coach trip away, which makes it ever the more surprising that it took me 3 months to pay it a proper visit.

Having chosen to visit the fair city of Zurich on a Sunday, most businesses and shops were closed with only a few exceptions. Aware of this, our first stop was the Christmas market at the Bahnhof. If I'm honest, it was a little disappointing, but one fairly awe-worthy element was a Swarovski Christmas tree in the middle of the market.

Leaving the slightly anti-climactic Christmas market behind, we headed onto Bahnhofstraße, which happens to be the second most expensive shopping street in Europe, only being surpassed by the Avenue des Champs Elysées in Paris. Being the classy bunch that we are, our only port of call was McDonalds.

After the life-giving sustenance of McDonalds we were ready to go on a little city tour. We started at the University, which is unfortunately at the top of a seemingly never-ending series of steps. Once we reached the top, we were met with an amazing panoramic view of the city, charmingly paired with coronary failure. At this point my camera battery spontaneously died, which is exactly what you want when wandering the streets of one of Europe's most beautiful cities.

We then went into the older part of the city, which was absolutely stunning. While making our way around this area, I spied the Kunsthalle in the distance, which would warrant another visit to the city. Then we made our way down to the area of the lake, where we spent a solid ten minutes staring at a woman who appeared to be spraying the swans with one of those little misters for watering plants. If my camera hadn't forsaken me I would have certainly made some photographic record of this.

We then went to have a look at some of the festive events around the city. A bandstand had been fashioned into a Christmas tree form, with a choir nestled therein. We marvelled at this trippy sight for a while before heading to get some coffee.

It was growing dark at this point and the Christmas lights of Bahnhofstraße caught our attention. We marvelled not only the lights, but at the windows of shops like Louis Vuitton and Chanel, the contents of which were as intangible as the twinkling Christmas lights above us.

As I said already, I'd like to pay the city another visit, to give the Kunsthalle a go as well as trying to seek out Joyce's grave. It certainly is a beautiful, albeit expensive city.