Day 14: 25/04/06 Zurich/Innsbruck

The Golden Dachl

Pizzas and Pasta: some things which we ate quite often

Maria Theresien Strasse with the Nordkette in the background

We would be leaving Switzerland for Austria this afternoon. Since we did not have anything else to do (or rather, did not know what to do) in Bern we woke up late and as soon as we were ready to go we took a train to Zurich. In order to get to Innsbruck, our next destination, we had to wait in Zurich for quite a while. Hence we decided to leave the station and take a walk around the city to get a feel of it.

As we were still in Switzerland we were still bearing the consequences of Yj's negligence. We had no map and no guide; and as a result, we did not dare to venture far. We tried to remember the map at the station and walked in the general direction of the river. We walked through a stretch of shops and went into a Co-op supermarket where we bought a box of instant cappucino and mushroom soup which we consumed only 2 weeks later. (However, it was good to note that Tk's orange juice which he bought in Bern the day before was gone very quickly.)

Zurich was more like Geneva than the other 2 Swiss cities we went to. We were unable to know the place better as we had no information and we had too little time. However, I did remember that we passed by a sex shop which had 4 levels, and there was even a level specially dedicated to the homosexuals. That certainly tells something.

We stayed in MacDonald's for quite some time waiting for time to pass. That MacDonald's did not have Internet services so Yj was still unable to contact his grand-junior after his unsuccessful attempt in Bern the day before. (By the way, he wanted to use the Internet in Bern and the hostel guy told him that he could use it in MacDonald's. So we went with him, and after putting coins into the machine Yj found out that the Internet didn't work. He was quite upset about that.)

Before boarding the train Tk and Yj, desperate to get rid of all their francs coins, went to a vending machine to buy snacks. Tk's Kit-Kat and Snicker's bar was being kept all the way until the 2nd last day of the trip before it was eaten.

The train ride to Innsbruck was long and uneventful; we passed by Liechtenstein, a small principality sandwiched between Austria and Switzerland. We reached Innsbruck in the late afternoon. We were smarter this time round: as I projected a long walk to the hostel, the first thing we did when we arrived was to take out all that we need for one day and store the rest of our luggage in the train station.

Finally we were out of the pathetic mapless/guideless state; Austria and Hungary were planned by me and I had a file with all the information I needed. However, there was still one problem: I left out information for restaurants and cafes for certain cities in my set of notes! As food was very important (I underestimated the importance of food) we had quite a bit of problem finding a good restaurant sometimes. Next time I know what to do :)

The hostel was on the other side of the city centre (again) and we had to pass through the whole of the city centre to get to it. The hostel was not exactly very good: the shower room had 2 shower heads (which only one worked) together without partition, and worse still, as Tk and me were showering, the warm water turned cold and you can imagine how freaking cold that could be. We were lucky that we did not go in winter.

In the evening we went to the city centre to look for dinner. I did not bring out the travel notes, however, we knew what was what based on the map. We passed by a lot of attractions, which I would elaborate in the journal for the next day as we would revisit all of them. Tk saw an interesting cow soft toy in one of the shops which were closed; we would be looking for it all over Innsbruck the next day also.

Shopping was one big element of the trip; Tk was obliged to go into every souvenir shop possible to fulfill the orders given to him (he has really tonnes of orders). Initially I still went into the shops with them, however, from Vienna onwards most of the time I stayed outside the shop to wait for them. It got really boring for me sometimes especially when they were looking for something specific and every single souvenir shop looked almost the same. Luckily, at Innsbruck, every souvenir shop seemed to sell this map of the Alps which I could stare into for even longer than Tk and Yj could stay in the shop.

We were happy that we were back in the Eurozone; compared to Switzerland everything suddenly seemed so cheap. We ate pizza and pasta in this little roadside restaurant; rather good and budget as the total cost for one person was lower than the cost of a mango there (8 euros!). We went to Maria-Theresien Strasse afterwards; it was famous for its view of the Nordkette behind the city and we intended to compare the night view with the day's. I got Yj to pose in front of the camera in order to cover an ugly roadsign; only he was big enough for the job. On our way back we had ice-cream at a roadside stall near Hofkirche; it was more expensive than Heidelberg's and not as good.

In our hostel room we met this middle-age Singaporean who was travelling with a female friend staying in another room. He was in Innsbruck because he missed a train on his way back to Germany. I couldn't remember the full story but apparently he was going back to Germany specially on his friend's request to visit a castle (which we suspect was Neuschwanstein) that they missed. They were really going to have a long journey ahead of them.