I feel like I'm saying that every single city I go to is just beautiful. Because that's because they always bloody are. It doesn't matter how many places I see I am always amazed by the variety of beautiful and interesting places. And what's even more exciting is that I haven't even scratched the surface of the world yet - I haven't even set foot in a number of continents including the Middle East, Africa and South America. I definitely have a lot to look forward to in life!

So I'm sure you know what I'm going to say - yes, Zurich was beautiful. But not in an old town Prague and Budapest way, or a Gdansk seaside way, or ancient building Rome way. It was nice, fresh smelling, mountainy landscape over a shimmering lake beautiful way. It was the closest to New Zealand I've seen so far and it made me even more excited to come home.

Admittedly I wasn't too fussed about visiting anywhere in Switzerland. For me, this who euro trip was supposed to be about me getting a feel of what communist Europe was like, and getting closer to illegal immigration and organised crime issues along the EU border (hence studying in Poland). However I'm not going to deny that visiting somewhere as western as Switzerland was a delightful pleasure.

In fact I was really surprised at what I saw. To me, Switzerland appears to be a super modern version of New Zealand. Seriously - imagine seeing somewhere like Queenstown that has a super efficient transport system with lots of trams, and that is pretty much how Zurich looked like to me.

Matt and I had a really great day. We didn't actually have any plans in mind about what we would do in Zurich - we decided we would just fly in and see how it goes. We visited the airport information desk and were helped out by an amazing useful lady, who we paid about 26francs in total for both Matt and I to have return train tickets to the city as well as an unlimited travel ticket around Zurich. It works out to be about NZ$15 each which is really nothing at all.

We pretty much spent the whole day wondering around. I wish I could give you all the super interesting details of what we saw but to be honest I have no idea - the main goal was just to soak in the atmosphere and enjoy the pretty sights. Zurich is full of little pretty cobbled streets everywhere and very old buildings. There's also a nice river through the middle with a huge lake within walking distance of the centre.

We were very lucky that a Swiss friend of mine made a 1.5 hour journey from another city to come and visit us. Fran did a high school exchange to where I studied in New Zealand when I was 16 and 17. She met us around late lunch time, and again we just continued going for a nice stroll and catching up on all the Bayfield gossip. Some of the other things we did include a delicious trip to a very fancy chocolate cafe on one of the most expensive streets either in Switzerland or the world called Bahnhofstrasse. We ordered hot chocolates and caramel latte, as well as a huge variety of macaroons - Fran's treat :)

After Fran left, Matt and I headed to get some dinner and were boring and got pasta and gnocchi. A downside of Zurich is that it is reeeeeally expensive! By this point it was also dark so me and Matt took our food to the river side and ate it over a good chat.

One thing I have noticed about travelling is that the places I've enjoyed the most have been cities where I have a friend who is a local. The difference it can make to a trip is priceless seriously. I'm so lucky to have so many friends in such a variety of countries around the world.

Right now I'm on a plane heading to Athens. I'm not going to lie, I'm really nervous. I wasn't particularly fond of Rome and Paris, primarily because of the pickpocketing, harassment by gypsies, and just generally feeling unsafe. I know I probably sound like a douchebag, but this blog is all about honest thoughts!

Looking forward to enjoying the warm weather though. It's crazy how much Matt and I got used to the freezing weather in Poland - experiencing -1c in Prague, and 3c in Zurich today, honestly feels bizarrely toasty. HOWEVER I do have one huge issue with Europe. Buying flip flops is the biggest challenge ever here. It's so stupid because if you walk around a house bare foot or in socks people look at you like you're a total weirdo. But both mine and Matt's flip flops broke ages ago and we haven't been able to replace them! Fingers crossed we finally find some in Greece because I refuse to arrive in Dubai wearing winter boots!

Remember I love comments. See you all soon xxx just 21 days now until I'm in Dunedin!

P.s. Thank you again Fran for such a wonderful day xx it wouldn't have been the same without you!
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