I made it to Zurich, Switzerland in record time today. I don't meet up with Yazmeen, my 40th host, until 20:00 so I decided to save a little money and spend the day hitching here from Freiburg, Germany. I left at around 11:00 this morning and made it in about 2.5 hours. The TRAIN even takes longer than that to get here. AND it took me three seperate rides to do it! Usually it's the downtime in between good rides that takes the longest part of the trip. Today I don't know if I ever waited more than 10 minutes. Well, maybe 15 :)

My first ride taking me from Freiburg across the border to Basel, Switzerland was a german theater actress. She definitely had a booming voice that belonged on the stage. She was a lot of fun and I was sorry she was only going to Basel (not even 40 miles away). Next up was Harry. He was also from Freiburg and was driving a huge truck of car parts for a friend to somewhere on the way to Bern. He dropped me off at a gas station where a swiss family picked me up almost immediately. They were on their way to Austria to visit grandma for a week. Only the mother spoke english and we had a lot of fun on the ride into Zurich. She had learned english by bumming through Australia for three years. Three years! How fun! I was amazed to hear that she not only spoke german and english but also french and italian. Wow! The fact that most people back at home I know (including myself) only speak one language is one of the big things that makes me feel like an ignorant American. It's amazing to get this kind of perspective.

So I'm off to meet up with Yazmeen. I've been lugging my pack around this beautiful city all day today and it'll be great to sit it down in someone's home. And hopefully she can help me find a way to eat a bite in this expensive city without having to take out a bank loan. I heard Switzerland was expensive but I was a bit unprepared for what I've found. Still, it's beautiful!!

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Posted October 4, 2004 12:24 PM @ (GMT - 6)