Switzerland, the Beginning of the Big Trip

The day we left Budapest I strapped on my backpack and hopped on an airplane to Zurich. We started our backpacking trip there because my friend Katy was going there before she started her job in Switzerland for the summer. Me and Eline stayed with our friend Martin that we met this semester in Budapest. He lived with two other roommates in this really cute house in a city outside Zurich called Winterthur. I got there the night before Eline, she took a 12 hour overnight train ride.
Martin was nice enough to invite a bunch of his friends over for a barbecue.

These are some of Martin's friends who came over the first night for the Barbecue. He had the best barbecue, it took forever but it was this big brick or concrete barbecue and he lite up wood instead of charcoal.

The next day Eline arrived at 7 and we took the train into Zurich.
These huge soccer players were in the train station. Each of these players is a replica of a famous player from the teams playing in the tournament. (some of their faces looked really scary) It was for the European Cup which was held in Zurich half the time, it was only in Austria the days we were in Switzerland.


We just walked about, sat by the lake and ate lunch and had a coffee.

Walking around there are a lot of booths of food and bars because of the EuroCup. Here is me in front of one of the best foods in the world. At last we are reunited!!

After that we went to this church that had windows made by Mark Chagall. They were beautiful.
Then we went to the top of the tower in the cathedral that Zurch and the lake.

This is a picture of the cathedral tower we climbed.

This is me and Eline at the top of the tower looking over Zurich and the lake.

This is the view across the river from the tower.
After our sightseeing, Eline and I met Katy and walked around for awhile and ate dinner.

The next day we met Katy in Zurich and went up a hill near the lake to go on a hike. We took a "chair lift" up the hill and hiked up to this tv tower. Then we walked all the way up the tv tower. It was really hot out the whole time and by the time we got to the tower we were wondering why we decided to voluntarily hike.
This is Katy and I on the top of the tv tower overlooking the lake.
Afterwards we had a nice picnic with a view and great Swiss cheese!!! (don't tell the French but I like the Swiss cheese better)
We took the train back down to Zurich and when we were waiting for the train we saw this really cool rollie slide thingy.

Here I am riding it.
After that Katy had to go but me and Eline took a boat ride on the lake to a beach and we went swimming.
This is me on the boat on the way to the beach. I was so hot, I could not wait to jump in that fresh lake water!! It was so clean. I couldn't believe it, especially because the lake is right on one of the biggest cities in Switzerland.


This is me in the lake. Just have to prove I went in!
We went back to Winterthur and at Kebab at this Turkish fast food place. We ate it outside where they had a big screen tv for the Turkey vs Germany soccer game. The family who owned the restaurant were in front of the tv every minute. They were so cute!! I was upset that Turkey lost the game just because I felt so bad for the Turkish family!
This is just a picture of where we watched the game. I don't think I realized how much I missed watching sports this semester until I watched this game. I got so into it.

The next morning we took a train to see the Rhine Falls. It is the biggest waterfall in Europe. Frankly, it was not anywhere near the size of Niagara Falls but they were really cool.
This is a picture of the Rhine Falls.
Me and Eline in front of the Rhine Falls.
After that we went into Zurich and explored a little more. I got my Swiss Army knife with my name engraved in it.
Then we went back to Martin's place to have Raclette with him and Renato. Renato is another Swiss guy that studied in Budapest, he goes to the same school as Martin and lived with Martin in Budapest.
This is Martin, Renato, and me getting ready to dig into the Raclette. Raclette is this amazing Swiss cheese that the Swiss heat up and pour over potatoes, bacon, vegetables, and basically anything else you can think of that would be good with melted cheese.
This is the grill thing that they use to make the Raclette. The cheese is on the bottom and all the vegetables and bacon are grilled on top.
After we were stuffed we went into Zurich to watch the Spain vs Russia game. We met a girl we knew in Budapest from India who just happened to be in Zurich too visiting Renato and some other friends.
This is Martin, me, Megha, and Renato watching the game, the River is right behind us. I was disappointed that Spain won. I thought it would have been cooler if Turkey and Russia were in the final instead of Spain and Germany.
The next day me and Eline went to explore Winterthur. Martin told us about this amazing view from the top of the hill, but we couldn't find the spot he was talking about. Instead we eneded up just taking a hike through the woods to try and find it and then walking into town.
This is me at the closest thing we could find to the view Martin was talking about.
That night Katy came into Winterthur and Martin, Eline, me and Katy went into Winterthur for Albanifest. Before we went to the festival, Martin showed us where the view we were looking for all day was.
This is the actual view of Winterthur that Martin wanted us to see. It was so beautiful with the sun going down.
Katy and I enjoying the view.


When we went to Albanifest, we hung out at the YMCA tent. Martin belonged to the YMCA and his roommate made all this Spatzli for that tent. It was so good, like this noodle type dumpling thing with a really good creamy cheese sauce.
We ate so much, fried apples with a really good vanilla sauce, spatzli, curry, garlic bread, chocolate covered fruit on a stick!! It was all so good! I met an American on the plane on Monday that was working in Zurich the whole week and we met him at the festival.

After we went to all the food booths and stuffed our faces, we went back to the YMCA tent. They had this watering can filled with beer to conveniently pour it. This is Martin's roommate pouring Martin a beer.
We stayed out pretty late and me and Eline had decided to go on the 7:30 AM train to France. That was probably a stupid idea because we were exhausted the next day, but I really had fun in Winterthur!