zurich, day 4

aaaahhhhh, hello blog,

i'm back on the internet, and i have some stories for u. where to begin? so much stuff to say. i guess the beginning is traditional.

let's finish up with barcelona's 6th night. i can't ever forget this night, as chris performed an unthinkable feat. my boy chris ate a TUB of paella made for a family of 4 (i'm not kidding, this thing could have fed 3-4 full grown adults or a family of 6 with 4 small children). i have posted one pic of his feat here, but if you'd like to see the entire thing with progress reports along the way, click on the photo link to the right of this blog.

there is a crap load of Pizza Hut restaurants in barcelona and they are PACKED. in america you won't find one person in a pizza hut as they deliver (not to mention their food isn't anything you need to wait around for), but in barcelona it's like a restaurant...seating area, nice tables/chairs, everything.

anyway, after chris ate himself into a coma, we left for home (hotel).

next day we had 2 flights to make, it was an entire day of flying. we got on out first flight from barcelona to london (it landed in gatwick, not heathrow), which is a VERY nice airport. then we waited 3 hours to get on a plane from gatwick to zurich. here's an invaluable tip to travelers: ALWAYS (i repeat, ALWAYS) book your airline seats in the exit rows. you can stretch out your legs fully and it is WAY more comfortable than all the other coach seeats. take a look at the pics.

we got to zurich at around 10pm (many people coming in from Israel to switzerland). we found our hotel without a hitch and also found out that this place is the most expensive place EVER. i think the gov't charges you for the air you breathed while here when you want to leave the country. i believe the going rate for AIR in switzerland is now around CHF 2.50/breath (that's around $2 give or take). this is when i disappointedly found out that internet access costs buttloads. for 30min of internet, it's CHF 5, which is around $4 give or take (for future reference, any time i quote a CHF price, just take 80% of it and the result will be in USD). so i paid for this once, as i had to check something on my credit card's website (it felt like throwing money into the trash), because 1 hour of internet access then climbs to CHF 25, and the price here for 24 hours of access equals MORE than what we pay in america for a full month's access. ok, let's not get started on this...

we woke up to find out there is construction going on RIGHT BELOW us. they are building a lounge or nightclub or something next door to the hotel and it turns out we're part of the lucky crowd that gets the best of it. there's really nothing like the heart-pounding, brain-thumping bellows of a jackhammer and the startling crashes of 1-ton stones hitting the ground from 2 stories up TO WAKE YOU UP AT 6 FREAKIN' AM IN THE FREAKIN' MORNING. now let's ask ourselves a question: is Roni going to MAKE SURE he gets what he paid for? answer: DAMN STRAIGHT HE IS!!! (mama didn't raise no fool).

i told the director of the hotelwhat we were expecting from the hotel for the price, as it claims to be one of the nicer hotels in Zurich. they had my name and the dates of my stay and never told me anything about construction. long story short, i was able to hook us up with a 50% discount on the bill AND get free internet. HELL YA BABY! by the way, this is the mark of a good manager. he really was able to keep a customer happy, and i will only say good things about this hotel.

so, if u asked yourself whether i actually paid those ridiculous fees to be writing this post right now, you now have your answer.

on our second day in zurich, i decided to visit my university here. it's only a 25min drive to get to st. gallen from zurich, and the university really is in a charming city. the air is so clean, and it's at one of the highest points of the city, atop a hill, where the view is just beautiful (take a look at the pics).

we've been told the clubs are good here, but it's like CHF 30 to get in, and it's nothing like barcelona. the bars here close at 12am and the clubs go until about 2. in switzerland it's all about the countryside. i've been to other parts of europe (italy, germany, netherlands, denmark, belgium) and i have to say, from personal experience, none of the countrysides i have seen to this date are even close to the beauty of the swiss country. take a look for yourself at some of the pics...it's just SO green and CLEAN (dublin was green too, but the air here is something else). you know that feeling you get when you look at the ocean on a beautiful day when it just looks SO refreshing you want to be able to jump into it? it's like that here, you want to just jump into the grass and roll around (i know, i laughed myself when i just reread that).

yesterday (zurich, 3) we made a visit to Munich, Germany. took about 4 hours to get there (we make day trips out of these long-drive excursions to other countries and far away cities; so "American" of us). we went to the city center and found a place that's almost exactly like Universal Studios' City Walk. it was PACKED with people and shops, and the street was very wide and almost never ending, just like City Walk. we walked around, took pics, went into some of the shops and even had dinner in Munich's city center (i don't know the name of this area we were in that reminds me of City Walk). we left munich at 7:45 for zurich. the trip back took us 3 hours (god bless the autobahn). by the way, speaking of the autobahn, i ALWAYS miss my car and wish i had it with me when i'm on the German Autobahn. we were going about 170km/h (105mph) in our little piece of crap rental (our little carriage started shaking at 180km/h, which i could only even get to once, because the thing just wouldn't go, and i didn't want to cut our vacation short so i slowed down) while BMWs and Audis (these two manufacturers probably made up 75% of the cars on the autobahn) were passing us like we were 97 year-old geezers in a triathlon. i really love speeding without having to worry about the police, it's such an experience of freedom. i'd say on average we were at 155 kph (approx. 96mph).

today (day 4) was restful as i barely slept last night (maybe 3 hrs at most) and didn't want to drive anywhere. we walked around a little, chris did a little shopping and i ran some errands to get ready for my life in st. gallen. i found out that i can drop the rental car off in st. gallen, which has just made everything perfect. i will drop chris off at the airport on aug.21, and then drive myself to st. gallen, go to the university where i will see the housing manager in charge of ISP housing to get the key to my temporary home for 10-11 days, then go to that temp. home and drop off ALL my stuff (again, i have lots of baggage here), and then finally take the car to the drop off point in st. gallen and take a cab back to my apt. without having to carry all my baggage with me. sounds like a great plan.

will update soon.