Zürich!

Let me start of this blog by saying that until the past week, Jenny and I were the oldest people in the lab. So we've been attempting to prove that we're not old and lame for a while now. Mostly this endeavor has taken the form of staying out all night (in Jena or, as mentioned two blogs ago, in Erfurt). But over coffee one day Kristina looked up and asked "Do you want to go to Zürich this weekend?" She had planned to go with her boyfriend, but since he couldn't she was trying to unload the tickets. And since we're still young and fun, Jenny and I agreed to go.

For the most part, Zürich was a lot of fun. Here's a picture tour of the things we did. First, we visited the Grossmünster and Fraumünster churches.

We went up in the tower in the Grossmünster. Here's the view:

We took a boat ride around the lake. Here's the back of the boat, and a Swiss flag (as an aside - the Swiss are at least as proud of their flag as the Americans).

We hopped off the boat to go buy some Lindt chocolate. The factory is in Zürich but the don't give tours anymore. Here are some pictures from the walk to the chocolate, when Jenny was forcing me to take 90 bazillion pictures because she forgot her camera.

Here are some pictures that sort of prove that we saw the Lindt factory. They're hard to make out, I know. But look on the top of the building.

The next day we went to the botanical garden, the museum of skin diseases, and the coffee museum. It turns out that while skin diseases may sound fascinating, they're really quite disgusting. Especially when they've been recreated in detail on wax models. Just a tip: Syphilis should really be avoided if at all possible. In the coffee museum we tasted substitute coffees. You know, for times when coffee was rationed or too expensive for the common man. Here's a second tip: avoid substitute coffees. They taste like dirt, and they don't have caffeine. So really, what's the point? We couldn't take pictures in the museum, but here's me with a fly on my head in the botanical gardens.

I should point out that I woke up that morning feeling like death, and pretty much unable to speak above a whisper. But I bought some magical Swiss cold medicine, which didn't restore my voice, but did enable me to function for the rest of the day. That evening Sven (formerly of this lab) met up with us. I tried to stay out and not be old and lame, but I was sick. And, after an hour in a smoky bar, could no longer speak at all. I was mouthing the words for Jenny to translate to Sven (because English lip-reading was hard for him). This isn't as much fun as you might think, unless you thought it was no fun. It's hard for me to be quiet for an evening. So I decided to go back to the hostel and sleep. Negative fun points for Emily. But when I heard Jenny come in at 4 a.m., I was incredibly grateful for my warm bed.

The next day was nature day. We went on a hike outside of the city. It looked like this.

I think if you look in the background you can see an Alp. But it was pretty overcast the whole day, so they're hard to make out.

Also, Jenny likes to touch any animal that will hold still (she pet a hedgehog - I'm pretty sure this will end in rabies someday). So, here's when she was licked by a cow.

We finally got to a big tower that overlooks Zürich. Here it is! And here's a picture of some people on the tower so I can prove that I climbed 178 steps to get to the top, even though I was deathly ill. Jenny refused to go.

I'm going to wrap this up.... Zürich is a lovely city. The pictures don't do it justice. Shortly after the hike (and a trip by Starbucks - I'm sorry okay. I just wanted it) we boarded the train back to Jena.