Pre-Easter Zurich

Easter.........
Planning travels in Europe is getting to be pretty easy, almost too easy. I knew that I wanted to keep traveling Europe to see more of its vast beautiful cities, however Easter is also about the church, Christ, and family. At first we debating taking a trip to Ireland, which ones my number one place to go, however as we delayed like good college students the price kept increasing. Due to this we decided to try a blind booking, where you can pick from places to travel to for a cheaper price, but you are gambling on your destination. The three choices that we narrowed down to were Zurich, Dublin, and London all of course are very pretty. Well we ended up getting Zurich, least wanted of the three, very expensive, but would be okay because we could go with some friends that were going there as well. Of course after booking this trip, a dilemma arose. My host family started telling me about all the fun things they do for Easter, parties with the church, celebrations, my host sisters birthday, and a big Easter fire on the Rhine. If one thing were to ever change my mind about doing something it is getting to enjoy time with great friends and an even more great host family on the Rhine, around a fire. Therefore, me being the man of little things that I am, I booked an early flight home from Zurich so that I could be home for my host sisters birthday and this nice Easter fire.....best decision I have made.

Being that Switzerland is such an expensive place, and learning from our previous ways of "cheap" traveling, I bought a bunch of snacks to load into my carry-on that we could so that we wouldn't have to buy the overly priced food there. With our flight leaving at 6:55 am Friday morning, it was debated whether we should just stay up all night to make the 4am shuttle, or take the little sleep we can get. things went smooth getting to the airport besides having to wake one person up while the rest of us where on the shuttle. Security at the airport was a little heightened because of the Brussels attack, but it wasn't to ordinary. However for all of you curious people out there, you are not allowed to take peanut butter in a carry-on suitcase...I guess its a liquid. Other then that, security was a breeze and once past the checkpoint we bought a few more drinks to take with us which ended up being 3x more for the same thing in Switzerland.

Arriving to Zurich was beautiful, we got in early morning and it was a semi nice day, but would turn into a very foggy and rainy one. We managed to make our way to the hotel, settle in, and then see the city. The first day we went to a very tall mountain where you would normally be able to view the city but with the conditions the way they were, you couldn't see anything. The landscape was still very beautiful, and everything else was very expensive. I concluded the night by using a promotion our hotel had at the associated restaurant in our hotel and buying the cheapest and most delicious burger I have had since in Europe.
Day two would turn out to be much more scenic and experience-full. The next morning I enjoyed the Musli I had bought from Bonn, and then we started our travel full day by going to the Rhine Falls. The Rhine Falls is a mini Niagara Falls, but was still very amazing. We couldn't have asked for any better weather on that day either, it was in the 60's with no clouds and blue skies. the day started with the decision of one guy to drink from a bottle that was sitting opened in a city fountain. After the many photos at the Rhine Falls, we went back to Zurich and took an amazing short journey (4 hour) trip around Lake Zurich. Being born pretty much boating every summer weekend, Lake Zurich was a masterpiece. One way you get to see the beautiful cities of Switzerland climbing the many mountains, and then the other direction  is the Alps. Being on the water was a huge stress relief to say the least and we ever made two friends. Enjoying the lake so much, after the tour 5 of us rented a paddle boat and paddle around the lake for an hour. Night two was very different from night one. After another amazing 10 Frank burger, we all decided to have a little fun at the hotel, playing apps on our phone and just talking. After deciding that it was time, we proceeded to see what Zurich night life had to offer. Not going into too many details, we enjoyed walking into a few bars, meeting some locals on the street, and staying out to almost sunrise. Here is where the Zurich trip ends and my Easter begins. All in all I believe that we managed to make Zurich very inexpensive compared to what we could have spent, and it is a very beautiful city with a nice small town, city shops feeling.