In The Beginning

Standing up can be a bit painful after being in a chair for 8 hours. My knee was still somewhat twisted from the way I had been sleeping, but I was finally here in Zurich and ready to start a new adventure.

My first thought while heading up the walkway from the plane was that this airport really didn’t look any different than the one in Toronto I’d departed from the previous evening. That didn’t really surprise me. As I got in to the terminal proper, my second thought was the same, and that did surprise me! I could read all the signs. English was always present if it wasn’t first. Verbal announcements are first in Swiss-German and then in English. I still need to pick up some of the local language for politeness sake, but it seems getting around may be easier than expected.

For all it’s bureaucracy and paperwork (or so I’m told — first hand experience will come soon, I’m sure), getting in to the country was remarkably easy. I showed my passport with visa to the customs officer and she waved me inside with only two questions of why I was here and how long I would be staying. There wasn’t even a check of my luggage. This fit with my experience arriving in London on my adventure to Africa so I didn’t worry about it much.

Getting in to Zurich proper was the next task. Since this is an adventure and I would soon be living here, I decided to do things the hard way. (Please don’t choke on something in your surprise at me doing something the hard way.) Since Zurich is supposed to have one of the best, if not the best, transit systems in the world, I figured I’d take the train.

I knew I needed to get to Hauptbahnhof, the main train station but simply couldn’t find it on any map. A quick talk with some helpful police officers and I find out that everyone calls it “HB”, including maps. Five minutes later I’m sitting on the train and fifteen minutes after that, the train departed right on time.

Zurich may have a great transit system, but they seem to assume that everyone already knows how to use it. I gave up trying to find a route map somewhere and went to the tourism office to ask. With a brief explanation, I was able to get on a tram (street-car) to my little apartment.

For two weeks, Google is putting me up in this “flat”. It’s basically one room with a small kitchenette and a balcony shared with two other rooms. There is also a small bathroom that includes shower. All told, it’s about the size of my master bedroom back in Ottawa. Notably missing is a telephone and ethernet jack. There appears to be wireless access but, alas, my ThinkPad is too old to have that. I’m hoping to be able to plug an ethernet cable in to the access point out in the hallway, but if not then this post will be a few days behind. (I wasn’t.)

Since I couldn’t call my contact here in Zurich to let them know I had arrived safely, I decided to walk over to the office and tell them personally. Zurich isn’t that large of a place, but the streets run at funny angles and can make it difficult to keep track of which direction your travelling. After a few wrong turns, I found the office and stopped in to say “hello”. Apparently there are 40 new hires starting on Monday! Not all will stay at this office, but it’s going to be an interesting experience. It’s been years since I worked in a company with 40+ employees and come Monday there will be that many of us starting. Oh yes… A grand adventure!

Time to head back to my place, write this, and take a nap. Grocery shopping was next; my-oh-my, they weren’t kidding that things are expensive. It cast me about CHF40 (a little under CDN$40) for a few days’ breakfast and some shampoo! I’d guess this to be about double what I would have paid back in Ottawa.

I spent the night walking around the city with my camera, trying to learn my way around and get some good photos at the same time. Here are a couple quick samples, but watch my main landscape photography gallery for better versions after I have a chance to go through them in a few weeks.

My first impressions of Zurich are that it’s very clean, very safe, and very expensive. Whether it will be better or worse than life in Ottawa, I can’t yet say; I just know that it’s going to be different.