Day in Zurich

Before coming to Zurich, I did some research: what to do in Zurich. My idea of switzerland are men wearing nice watches, controlling the global economy in private banking while eating fine chocolates. The banks were numerous, everywhere sold watches (in fact, I picked up a guide to Zurich and for the shopping section, it only listed watches) and the chocolate is very good.

That aside, the city was rather uninspiring. I spent almost nine hours trekking across it and up and down it, and found nothing that got me at all excited. There was a nice church with some chagall stained glass windows, and I went up on top of a cathedral type place to see the city (which is large). I saw a sailboat running up a spinnaker which was pretty sweet.

The highlight of the day was actually when I stopped to see about a linen shirt (I decided in the end it was a little bit over the top violet for me). There was a gentleman there looking at some jeans, I asked his opinion on the shirt, and we started chatting. We walked out talking, and continued for about fifteen minutes meandering down the street. At the end when he was heading off in a different direction, he was nice enough to give me his card, and asked me to email him about New York. He has a few friends that also run hedge funds, and said maybe he could help me find something. The man has lived everywhere, I was impressed with his knowledge of many places all over the world.

Had Bibimbop for dinner. It was pretty terrible. I miss good ethnic food.

Train to Munich, hopefully I will meet up with Natalie tomorrow night.

Follow thy heart

I have decided to spend this month traveling as my heart desires, following whatever impulsive instinct I have. I purchased a europass that allows me unlimiited train travel during a short period of time. I planned this afternoon to go to Munich. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my bags to the station, instead leaving them at the hotel. I wasn't able to make the last train (I thought there was another, but I was explained what the little numbers mean, and apparently the "last" train only runs during the summer months, not including now.

I thought I would get my bags, return to Hamburg and go from there to Munich on all the night train. Then I realized, it doesn't matter, I am free. My costs are the same for the couchette, the ticket already paid for - just food when I get there, which will be comparable, why not make it interesting. Thus, I find myself writing this from my bed on the night train to Zurich. Geneva wasn't an option from Berlin direct, so I will have to hit it on the way back east. Also, been enjoying using my German and French speaking Geneva will be similar to being back in Israel. Mont Blanc is going to be very cool though, I can't wait to hopefully do some hiking around it.

Got in touch with an old friend that lives in Germany now, who is traveling to the states soon. I am hoping to send some additional things back with her (I haven't mentioned this to her yet, but I don't foresee a problem with this). I realized that I am carrying around way to many things that I have no intention of using here or in Kong Kong. Someday I will travel the way I really want to, with just a toothbrush (maybe not even, hotel's provide them anyway - at least in the states if you forget yours), and have my clothes cleaned each night and delivered in the morning. Imagine how liberating it would be to have no baggage?

I don't really know what there is to do in Zurich, but in the morning I will ask around. Conductor said he would come by about 45 minutes before arriving to wake me up.

Dumped some stuff at the Hotel before leaving, a towel that I realized was unnecessary, some free flip flops I won at the international beer festival that I was planning to use for showers and unnecessary papers I have been carrying around. I also poured out some of the laundry detergent - there was enough for maybe 25 full loads, I just want to hand wash a few things in the sink each night.

Also have a place to stay with another friend in Brussels next week. I guess I will do a little western europe - more to see friends than see western europe, which I have already traveled in extensively. It's also great to have someone to crash with.

Have I mentioned that Xan and I were doing a 100 push up challenge? I have to see where I am with it. If I time it right, I could do another day of the challenge in a different city. I started in the middle east, worked up my stamina in europe and hopefully I can finish in Asia - far east. Could be cool, different definitely.

We're not in Kansas anymore

So what happened?

The plan was always to leave Israel, check out Jordan, and then head to Egypt for some touring. I would then silently switch to my new israeli-stamp-lacking passport, and catch a flight into Damascus. See Syria, and then go into Turkey via train.

One small glitch is that I was misinformed regarding visa's for Syria and I didn't do my homework and double check.

Oh, but there is a loophole - you can go into Lebanon, and then cross the border into Turkey getting a visa at the border. It works most of the time. No more.

Oh, but there was a loophole.

On June 9th, the U.S. Embassy issued a statement warning U.S. citizens that they could no longer enter Syria without a prior issued visa - multiple individuals were stuck in Beirut.

As romantic as that sounds, I decided maybe it's not the right time, perhaps the universe is trying to tell me that the middle east will wait a little bit longer.

I went to Rachel's boyfriend (Adam's) birthday and army send off night, which was at an all you can drink wine night. Combine that with a few other factors, and I woke up after a night out with Yael with no voice, and a very sore throat.

A few hours in bed was all I needed to realize that I had mentally already left Israel. I knew there were a few more goodbyes, but I decided better to let the guilt settle in and get me to come back sooner.

I booked my flight to Berlin in the evening over the phone as I headed into Tel Aviv with a few last minute things for Dashiell for dinner. Goodbye to Katie and Xan, and I headed back to Ramla.

Less than 6 hours after, I headed to the airport, only my orange backpack and a small daypack for carrying a camera with me. By the time my friends were awake, I was back in Berlin.

It's amazing how fast the German came back. I still throw in hebrew words and phrases because they have become so ingrained (I use Rega and Beseder all the time!) but when an issue arose with paying for the hotel using a credit card, my german came forth like nothing before. When I tried to convince them (unsuccessfully) at the train station that I was living in the european union (hey, israel was a british colony not so long ago) the woman thought I was german and it was all going ok until she saw my german passport. She told me in German, that my german was excellent, she was fluent in english, but we continued the purchase auf Deutsch.

Yesterday I did a free walking tour of Berlin. I found it all rather elementary, and the people rather dull. The guide was a little over the top in theatrics, and I soon tired of his pompous nature, and left the group at the end. The only interesting story was the fall of the Berlin wall, which I had heard before, but I never really understood the extent to which the press secretary set the stage for the fall - it's one of my earliest memories, that and the gulf war in '91 (I remember my father watching the news on television in the middle room in our Dennistoun Drive house on the second floor and not being allowed to come in the room to watch as well).

Then I met up with Ruthie, a friend of both Louis and Brandon. Ruthie has been living in Berlin doing work for the Jewish Community. We had tea / coffee, and then dinner and walked. Stopped to watch some dancers doing salsa, tango, and a few other traditional dances by the pier near the museum. It was quite beautiful to watch them gracefully float in circles, nearly all the dancers were quite knowledgeable in their form.

I turned in early, and slept most of the evening - waking up once in the middle of the night. I am still getting up at very early hours, 5 or 6 in the morning, which is odd since the time difference is only one hour from Israel.

life

life is an endless tragedy or comedy... it all depends on your perspective. The tragedy is that it is not endless... then again, maybe that's the (comic) relief.

Frustration

It's pretty hard to understand the idea of giving a busy person something you need done. I set up this whole academic year with a single goal in mind, to have the time to pursue my intellectual pursuits. Not much of that happening. Mostly I just get little bits of work done to show progress, and walk around campus. I spend a lot of time thinking, which is good. I can't take much credit for thinking over the past three and half years or things would be rather different I suppose. I might, say, have a job at this point in my life, and not have spent the first 4 weeks fruitlessly applying to investment banking positions at institutions that wouldn't bother to take the time to hold the door for me, or return my calls on a more relevant matter. Frustrating just about sums it all up. Apparently, I need to switch gears and start thinking about doing other things now. Yep, I was wasting my time watching the days go by, staying up late working on my applications, and all for nothing. I plan to spend the next period of my life buckling down and working. I need to graduate, and that is the most important thing to me. I wish I had applied to graduate school - then I could deal with other things now instead of trying to fight my way out of the hole I find myself in. I feel like puckers could be good for me, then again, it might just be another hole that I find myself in, maybe deeper.