Bratislava-Vienna-Zurich
I can't remember the last blog I wrote, but I think it was just after I got to Bratislava... The next morning Sam took me on a bit of a tour of Bratislava, which I actually found far more pleasant than Prague: Prague is a beautiful city, but its nice old parts are just way too full of tourists - Bratislava, on the other hand, is a bit smaller than Prague, and had less tourists and more charm.
Vienna's only an hour west of Bratislava, so after lunch we headed over there on the train and spent the afternoon looking around town. Sam's spent quite a lot of time in Vienna, so he was able to show me the sights which was good. Vienna came across as a very clean and well preserved city; it was the heart of the Hapsburg Empire, and the excesses of the ruling elites of the time are everywhere to be seen in the city's enormous palaces and intricately detailed building facades. Sam took me a typical Viennese beer garden where we had a beer and a schnitzel, then Zuzka met us so we could get the overnight train to Zurich.
The train got to Zurich early on Saturday morning, and since I had few hours to wait until my next train I had a bit of time to check out the city. The whole place seemed very organised and clean (although according to Zuzka the Swiss aren't really any cleaner than other people, they're just better at cleaning up after themselves), and because it was very early on a Saturday morning there was no one else on the streets, so it was like walking around a ghost town. Nevertheless, Zurich struck me as a nice city; the early morning sun on the big lake was a nice sight, but I couldn't see myself living in a place like that, it just looked a little bit too nice and well looked after to be real.
It was great catching up with Sam: it was nice to be able to talk to someone about my time in Colombia who had actually been a part of the experience. Even though it's now over a year since I was working with Alcance, it felt like it could have been yesterday, and when we went and had a few drinks in Bratislava's one Latin-themed bar I could almost imagine that I was back in Bogota...
Vienna's only an hour west of Bratislava, so after lunch we headed over there on the train and spent the afternoon looking around town. Sam's spent quite a lot of time in Vienna, so he was able to show me the sights which was good. Vienna came across as a very clean and well preserved city; it was the heart of the Hapsburg Empire, and the excesses of the ruling elites of the time are everywhere to be seen in the city's enormous palaces and intricately detailed building facades. Sam took me a typical Viennese beer garden where we had a beer and a schnitzel, then Zuzka met us so we could get the overnight train to Zurich.
The train got to Zurich early on Saturday morning, and since I had few hours to wait until my next train I had a bit of time to check out the city. The whole place seemed very organised and clean (although according to Zuzka the Swiss aren't really any cleaner than other people, they're just better at cleaning up after themselves), and because it was very early on a Saturday morning there was no one else on the streets, so it was like walking around a ghost town. Nevertheless, Zurich struck me as a nice city; the early morning sun on the big lake was a nice sight, but I couldn't see myself living in a place like that, it just looked a little bit too nice and well looked after to be real.
It was great catching up with Sam: it was nice to be able to talk to someone about my time in Colombia who had actually been a part of the experience. Even though it's now over a year since I was working with Alcance, it felt like it could have been yesterday, and when we went and had a few drinks in Bratislava's one Latin-themed bar I could almost imagine that I was back in Bogota...
posted by Steve Phillips at 4:26 am
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