Well this one is super after-the-fact, but better late than never and I don’t want to make the first day of our Switzerland adventure sad by not giving it any recognition.

  • 3:30am: Alarm goes off. Once again, Mazie must get up even as everything wants to drag her back into bed. Throw the last items into my backpack.
  • 3:50: Out the door
  • 3:53: Catch the night bus to Plaza Espanya.
  • 4:15: Catch the A17 bus to Airport Terminal 1.
  • 5:00: Arrive at airport.
  • 5:30: Through security, meet Mya and McDonald’s and wait for Gracie. Eat breakfast (whether that’s McDonald’s or the random snacks in your backpack)
  • 6:15: We realize that we should probably head to our gate because the plane is boarding.
  • 6:40: Make it to the gate just in time!
  • 6:55: Flight leaves.
  • 8:55: Arrive in Zurich
  • 9:15: Linger at the airport while we figure out a plan. Decide to buy the Zurich card which allows us free public transportation, free or discounted access to many museums around the city, and discounts at select restaurants.
  • 10:00: Catch a train into the city center.
  • 10:30: Visit the National Museum which was conventionality located right outside the train station and was such a cool museum! I’m really glad we went. The design was very Swiss- simple but effective, hands-on but clean, and they had some really niche exhibits like fans and accessories, a whole bunch of crazy rings from different places around the world (that one was a group favorite), and exhibits covering the historical and current political and environmental landscape in Switzerland.
  • 11:30: Walk over to the old town. Walk along the main street in search of a coffee shop. Natalie, Mya, and Gracie got iced lattes at this one place where we (sort of) made a new friend, and then we went to a second coffee shop where Mya, Gracie, and I got a feta and spinach quiche kinda thing for lunch. Of course we forgot to use the discount from the Zurich card- oh well.
  • 1:30: Mya left for a tour at the Lindt House of Chocolate (I was tempted but tickets were quite expensive and I have already had the privilege of sticking my spoon under their chocolate fountains). The rest of us continued walking around the old city and shopping.
  • 2:30: 30 minute trek by train to our hostel. Free access to public transportation was great, but no one ever checked our tickets anyways :)
  • 3:00: Check in to hostel. The room took a little adjusting to as there was nowhere to lock anything up and no curtains. I guess Switzerland is just a very secure place.
  • 3:45: Bus to the Museum Reitberg. Free access again thanks to the Zurich card! Was cool to walk around and see art and sculptures from all over the world, and we got to make our own Japanese postcards!
  • 4:50: Walk over to the FIFA Museum. Mya rejoined us :) The National Museum was really cool, but the FIFA quickly stole the prize for my favorite museum of the day. Their exhibits were beautiful, really cool, and highly interactive. I set a new high score for this soccer dancing battle thing, and the last room (which we very sadly only had like 10 mins to play around in) was basically a human-sized soccer arcade! They had mini games like soccer pinball, shoot out, dribbling, hit the target, and once you created a player you could go around to the different stations and try your hand at the games. There was a line for everything so I didn’t get to try all the games, but it was a lovely set up and I could’ve spent much longer in there.
  • 6:00: FIFA museum closes and we head to the big park overlooking the city. I remember catching our fondue ride here last time (I think)! We watched the water and these adorable ducks as it started to get dark.
  • 7:00: Wandered back into the city towards the Pandora store so Natalie could take a look at the charms.
  • 7:30: Randomly stumbled across this pretzel sandwich street vendor on the way which ended up being the perfect dinner, and for a much cheaper price than we were going to find anywhere else! I got a lettuce-mozarella-tomato sandwich and it was genuinely so good and inspired me to look into pretzel sandwiches in the future.
  • 8:00: Natalie ends up buying a cute box of chocolates charm!
  • 8:15: We end up in a Swatch store which makes me remember my old Swatch and marvel at the really fun, chunky ones on display in the store. Gracie caves and buys a pretty green swatch!
  • 9:00: After some more aimless wandering, we decide to grab a bottle of wine (consumed by all but yours truly) and head back to the park for some deep conversation.
  • 9:30: Although it was really dark and really cold (especially sitting next to the water), the deep conversation we had on the park bench was one of my favorite parts of the trip and was a great bonding moment.
  • 10:30: Caught a bus back to the hostel because we (mainly Gracie and I) were freezing and extremely tired.
  • 11:00: Back at the hostel, got water (sooo thirsty), and got to bed as quickly as possible. We got to listen to the dad who was also sharing our room talk to his kids on face time which was really cute.
  • 11:45: Legit go to bed (destined for a night of about 4 hours of sleep, but that was at least an improvement from the night before!)