European Rambling: Zurich 12/16-18

I set aside a day and a half in Metz to apply for a few internships and, really, to clean my single apartment. The floor hadn't seen light for a few months, and the clutter and dirt on the hardwood was a daunting mess. I started to clean halfheartedly Wednesday evening. Thursday morning, I began again in earnest. If I didn't complete the task in one go, it might never get done and certainly wouldn't be done right. By 6PM, the room was clean, my stuff was packed, and I hurried out the door before I could saying goodbye to my neighbor, Sarah, who was kind enough to store some of my stuff for the next week and a half.

I just made it aboard the last train toward Zurich, stopping first in Strasbourg. There I realized I had no idea where I was going once I got to Zurich, having forgot to write down hotel information that my parents had emailed. My connecting train was an hour late though, so I sought the comfort er, wifi of the McDonald's across the street. My ipod was truly paying off, as I downloaded Zurich hotel directions, maps, bus routes, the New York Times, and even NBC Nightly News.

Back in the train station an outgoing elderly woman began chatting with me out of the blue. Throughout our conversation she spoke very quietly, but standing over my bags, I could only lean closer rather than move closer as she seemed to beckon me away from the center of the station. She instructed me several times to speak quieter, which I thought was odd because it was a bustling train station, and we weren't disturbing anyone. My train-station paranoia seeped in, and some sort of trap involving a charming old lady crossed my mind, but either she was unsuccessful at stealing my bags, or more likely just a nice, soft-spoken old lady. Austria is a great place to be at Christmas time, she explained, but complained about how expensive Switzerland is.

The next train was a comfortable and direct TGV ride, although I would have been happy to avoid the 8 euro TGV "international" booking fee. In Zurich, I rode the tram for free, with no Swiss coinage to pay the fare, but karma sent me in the wrong direction. At around midnight, I found the correct stop for the hotel, and heard a familiar voice calling out from behind me. My dad, in no hurry to get to sleep because of his previous-day time-zone hop, was waiting for me.

Andy Bachman in Zurich

It was great to see my parents again, and after some early tension in Zurich, we and my brother got along better than expected the rest of the trip.

In the morning I slept off my cleaning exhaustion and met my parents at Zurich's renowned museum the Kunsthaus, a few blocks from the hotel. The art was incredible - likely the best assembly I saw in Europe - warranting its hefty entry price. My heart soared when I saw a Seurat exhibition sign. He was my favorite artist when I was younger, his seemingly ingenious magical dots were a fantastic optical illusion. The exhibition was a bit disappointing, containing mostly small studies, and featuring Le Cirque, which is not my favorite Seurat piece. The permanent collection was a best-of of the art world from 1850 on. Artists like Hodler, Bocklin, Segantini, Munch distinguished themselves, along with modern artists Magritte, Mondrian, and Lichtenstein. Torben Gielher's intersecting colored plane geometrization of the Matterhorn Alp was particularly memorable.