Swiss Made Adventure

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” ~Lao Tzu

April 17, 2013 (Continued)I followed signs through the airport towards the train station. The plan that we’d emailed about was for me to catch the train to their suburb and they would pick me up there. Mary had texted me back saying, “There is a train at 16:51 platform 3. It is the S2 direction Zieglebruke. We will be the Xth stop. Should arrive around XX:XX.”

I replied and went down to the station to wait for the train. I had about 30 minutes until the train came. There wasn’t Wi-Fi down on the platform so I figured I would go back upstairs incase Mary texted me again. I also needed to find an ATM to get some Swiss Francs. I walked around the terminal a bit—which like Amsterdam was twice the size of a shopping mall—before finding an ATM. The exchange rate between the Franc and the USD was almost 1:1 (like 1:.98 with the Franc being barely stronger than the dollar) so I took out about 200 Francs to cover the five days I’d be there.

The money that came out was some of the most beautiful paper I’ve ever seen. It was a vibrant royal blue with intricate details and Technicolor designs streaked across it. It felt sinful to crease the money, but I folded the bills and put them in my passport keeper.

As I headed back towards the station, I saw a ticket office for the train. Just for my own confidence I stepped inside to ask for help. I showed the man behind the counter my Zurichcard print out and told him the name of the town I was travelling to.

“This ticket is good for Zurich, but does not cover your destination,” he said. “You need to pay 6 Francs for different ticket.”

Glad I asked. I later learned that fines for travelling without a ticket were heavy in Switzerland, especially for tourists. I also later learned that tickets were almost never checked on Swiss trains so maybe it wouldn’t have mattered. Either way, now I was covered.

I went back down to the train station. The walls of the station were very colorful and decorated in mosaic tiles. As I sat on a bench, an announcement was made in German about my train (I recognized the word “Zieglebruke.”) I didn’t understand a word they said.

This is too much fun! I thought to myself, letting out a little laugh. How could I ever go home from this? Different city every weekend; suspense of getting to where I want to go; always wondering if I’m lost or what will happen next. Every second is exciting. What will life be like when I leave this to go back to reality?

A train pulled into the station. The sign read S2 and the final destination was Zieglebrucke. Not knowing if it was right or not, I climbed on board.

Taking a seat on one of the leather chairs, I held my bag on my lap and stared out the window. My first impression of Zurich as we pulled out of the airport was that it was very industrialized. There was a lot of constructions in each of the neighborhoods we went through. I also noticed that the houses were quite beautiful and simple. They looked a lot like the canal houses of Amsterdam but without the canals.

At one stop, a woman got on the train and sat across from me. Just as we pulled out of the station, she started twitching and talking to herself.

I always wind up sitting next to the crazy ones, I thought to myself.

Riding along, the views were breathtaking. Every town we went through looked like it had been plucked from a postcard. Lake Zurich was so massive and crystal clear, while the rolling green hills on the other side were like something out of a postcard.

After about 40 minutes, I started to worry that I had missed the stop. I’d lost count of how many stations we’d been to. All of the names were in German so the pronunciation through me off a bit too. Suddenly, the conductor made another announcement. I recognized the stop as mine, and realized I was still ok.

Getting up and moving to the door, there was a decent crowd getting off here. That was when it dawned on me…I had no idea what Mary looked like.

The train came to a stop and we all piled off. The platform had a few well groomed trees, and the view across the lake (which was super close to the train station) was amazing. As the crowd dissipated, I realized, I was the only one left on the platform.

This is fun! I thought to myself again, and I meant it. It was definitely an adventure!

I walked in the direction that the crowd had gone, figuring I’d at least find a parking lot. The sidewalk ended at a staircase which led to a little tunnel under the tracks. On the other side was a restaurant and a few vending machines. I looked around a little, but didn’t see anyone.

There was another staircase over in the courtyard of this restaurant that led up to street level. As I walked up it, I saw a young boy looking down at me. As soon as we made eye contact, he bolted away.

At the top of the stairs, I saw him talking to a woman with long dark hair. She had a German shepherd with her and was wearing dark sunglasses. She talked to the boy and then looked at me. We stared at each other for a few seconds, both pretending that we weren’t.

“Mary?” I finally said.

“Zach?” she said.

“Yes,” I said.

“Hi! Good! You made it!” she said, reaching out her hand. “Yes, I’m Mary. This is Will.”

We walked to their car. I’d told Mary that I liked Orange soda and she had brought some for me. As piled in and she asked about my trip and train ride into town.

“Oh, I’m so glad it worked,” she kept saying.

As we drove up the hill towards their home, she explained to me how traffic laws in Switzerland work. Police officers do not drive around to enforce traffic laws. Instead, radar and cameras are set up around town that capture people as they drive by. Tickets and fines are mailed to whomever the car is registered to. The fine can be anywhere from a couple hundred Francs up to 1/3 of your annual salary. Violations like going more than 10km over the speed limit, having multiple violations, being in residential/urban areas, or having kids in the car makes it more likely to receive the maximum fine.

When we arrived, Mary showed me my room and gave me a tour of the house.  “Just pretend I’m your mom and eat all the food you want,” Mary said.

I also met the two other kids, Cole and Gabrielle, and we all sat around talking while Mary started dinner. Gabrielle helped her, while I shared stories about my travels around Europe, and they shared with me about the different places they’d lived (which included all across the US, parts of the Caribbean, and now Switzerland.)

“Mom,” Cole said, “did you introduce Zach to Freddy?”

“Who’s Freddy?” Mary asked.

“The cactus,” Cole said, pointing to a small potted cactus about three inches tall on the kitchen counter.

“Oh,” Mary said. “I guess they named him Freddy. I call it Karma.” She explained her reason behind her name choice, and it kept me laughing all weekend.

While we were laughing and sharing stories, Mary’s husband Dale came out and we got introduced. He had to work for a bit, Gabrielle had to study, and the food needed to sit, so Mary suggested she and I go for a short hike up into the mountains before dinner.

The route we walked was beautiful. Mary told me that there were wild hedgehogs in Switzerland, although we did not see any on our walk. We did see goats and sheep from the various farms in the hills around their house. The views continued to be amazing! The blue sky was unreal, the green hills were like something out of a coloring book, and the entire panorama seemed to extend on forever. It was peaceful and tranquil and absolutely the definition of beautiful.

As we walked, I shared some of my stories about Amsterdam with Mary.

“Isn’t it funny,” she said as we talked. “In America, we listen to this hip-hop music that sings about sex. We make jokes about sex. We glorify these sexualized models and actors and actors. Yet when it comes down to actual sexuality, or even nudity, we want nothing to do with it. We clam up and leave it in the bedroom.

“In the Caribbean women were always topless on the beaches. I always thought it was really weird and I could never do it, but across Europe so many beaches and athletic clubs are naked to. Nudity doesn’t always have the sexualized connotation that we put with it in America.”

“America is pretty prudish and puritanical,” I pointed out.

“It really is,” she said.

We also talked about the different history across Europe. The thing that has struck me as I’ve travelled is the revelation that “countries” are a fairly new idea in the world. Most of Europe was just a network of kingdoms and tribes until the relatively recent history (heck! The Czech Republic is only six months older than I am.) Mary said the same thing surprised her, especially with countries like Germany and France, whose borders had really only been set in the last 75 years or so.

When we got back to the house, Mary finished making dinner and encouraged me to rest a bit and get situated. I went down to my room and connected to the Wi-Fi. Just as I posted a quick Facebook status, Will and Cole came to tell me it was time for dinner.

We all sat around the table and continued to swap stories as we enjoyed tacos. Home cooked food tasted amazing, and I couldn’t thank Mary and Dale enough for taking me in. As we talked, Dale filled me in on some Swiss history.

The government of Switzerland is laid out at the municipal level (called Cantons…sort of like “states” in the US, smaller…the size of cities.) Each canton elects a leader, and it is truly representative, because the cantons are small enough for everyone to know everyone. All legal jurisdiction is held at the canton level, with each establishing its own court system. Among the canton leaders, they elect one of them to be the “president.” There is no national Presidential election, but the role is more like the president of a board of directions (elected from within.)

Europe has three important “networks” that I think are misunderstood by the rest of the world. There is the EU which governs trade and contracts between countries. There is the Eurozone, which is the network of companies who have linked their currency in the Euro. There is also the Schengen area, which is the travel network that citizens can travel between without a passport.

Switzerland is not in the EU, they negotiate all of their trade contracts with other countries individually. They also are not in the Euro zone because they still use the Franc.

The Swiss economy has remained stable due to their trend line economics. This is pretty much high school econ class put into action. The government sets a budget based on historical data. If the economy exceeds that budget, the country will carry a surplus. If they fall short, the country will carry a debt. When the surplus occurs, they don’t that money, they save it. They don’t spend more than what they budgeted, and if they fall short of their budget, they have the funds saved to cover the shortfall. Since US money is now essentially fiat money, the gold standard is basically irrelevant. If, however, we went back to the gold standard from 1900, the Swiss Franc has improved in value 200x the gold standard. Most other currency has changed less than 50x.

ax rates in Switzerland are interesting. Until recently, people negotiated their tax rate individually with the government of their canton. More recently, cantons are adapting a flat tax, but non-citizens are still able to negotiate their tax rate.

The long legacy of neutrality is really based on a sense of community within Switzerland. They have always approached problems for the stand point of confronting the problem and creating a solution. As A result, they are self-reliant for basic things like food and dairy products. When the rest of Europe has gone to war, they have had no reason to because (1) they are not tied to anyone economically (2) they are not reliant on anyone for imports.

After dinner, Will and Cole went downstairs to watch a re-run of the Amazing Race.

“It’s the episode from Zurich,” Mary said. “Maybe it will give you ideas of some stuff to do.”

Initially, I grabbed my laptop to blog while watching it, but I quickly found myself drawn into the episode. As the teams tried to navigate the train system, I laughed with empathy at having now done the same thing across Europe. At one point, they picked up Saint Bernard dogs, but Mary said she is yet to see one in Switzerland.

A highlight of the episode was when the teams had to climb a hill and then sled down it with 50 pound wheels of cheese.

“That’s what all Swiss people do in the winter, right?” I joked.

“All winter, it’s all we saw,” Mary laughed.

When the episode ended, we all headed to bed. I spent some time journaling and texting with Bryan. The final note I got from him said, “You need to go to bed. My aunt is definitely a morning person.”