Trip to Zurich, Schwyz and surrounding areas (updated)

After Interlaken, I went on a trip to see my good old Swiss friend Alain in the Zurich area of Switzerland. From Interlaken, I took the train to Berne and then changed from there to Zurich and took another commuted train and got off in the medieval town of Baden. I wasn't already feeling fine at that time, with tremendously sore throat coupled with running nose and 150 km/h sneezes which annoyed me every 5 minutes or so...


There was actually a miscommunication that happened on where I needed to wait for my friend to pick me up. Being first time in that station, I was instructed to go to a bus terminal somewhere outside. However, it turned out that there were two bus terminals on the station one facing the facade of the terminal and the other on the far end, which was the one directly facing the exit. I, being as naive as I could be waited on the wrong bus terminal and ended up staying there loosing contact with my friend who was going to pick me up. After several phone calls and navigation, I was finally able to be picked up.

On that evening, we went into an Irish bar named Mr. Pickwicks. I was surprised that they do have Mr. Pickwicks in this part of Switzerland as well and came to the realization that it is a bar chain. We went there with 5 other guys, all Swiss-Germans and was treated to a great evening of Swiss-German company, hospitality and conversation!

At this point, I would like to talk about the dominant language of Switzerland. If English is the language of the majority in Canada, then Swiss German is its counterpart in this country where more than 60 % of the population use it as their primary mode of communication. At least in Canada, you would not see the language divide that easily because of the tremendous size of the country and provinces but here in Switzerland, just drive a minimum of 1 1/2 hours from Geneva then you will see the traffic signs change and go inside a McDonalds and you would here no French at all. So in other words, if I am helpless in Geneva with my limited French, then I am more helpless here in the German speaking part with my 0 German. But on a positive note, I noticed that anglophones can do better off in German Switzerland as I observed that in general, German-speaking Swiss are more functional in English than their French-speaking counterparts.

What's funny is that if you learn German overseas, say in Canada, then chances are you would not be able to experience the benefits of your knowledge of the language 100 %. You see, Swiss people communicate with their variety of German unique to them. And this variety actually changes from valley-to-valley or from one mountain to another as the mountains have as they say, acted as a natural barrier isolating villages apart prompting the development of unique
Swiss-German dialects.

What I mean by the statement that you would not be able to utilize 100% of the German as a second you learned overseas is that the German spoken in Switzerland is not the same variety as the standard German mainly spoken in Germany. Even Germans have difficulty understanding the German of Swiss variety. For the Swiss, shifting to speak to the 'German of the Germans' is tantamount to speaking a 'more formal and quaint language' or some would have even said that 'it feels weird that it is like speaking a foreign language.' Now I understand several of my German and Swiss friends back in Canada why they would prefer to communicate in English rather than in German. It just feels a little bit awkward for them.

If you may want to hear the sounds of this language (which for me basically translates to another crazy linguistic hurdle I need to hurdle for the meanwhile) click here.

And to hear actual Swiss-German people conversing, watch the video:

The next day wasn't really good for me as I have started loosing my voice and could really feel the malaise brought by my upcoming flu. Since I was in this part of Switzerland to travel and not to stay indoors, I decided to head out outdoors. Alain and his friend Rhaeto and I went for a drive to the Swiss canton of Schwyz which according to my LonelyPlanet guide was the canton that gave Switzerland its present name.

The drive was awesome and I was treated to a diversity of traditional Swiss countryside landscape, ranging from picturesque lakes:




to impressive mountains:




It was a somewhat scary ascent to these mountains by car as the roads that lead to them are very steep and very narrow indeed. There was one occasion where our car navigated with another car approaching the opposite direction and with a deep barrier-less ravine on your side, it can definitely make your hair stand up while the other car is trying to manage the limited space it has on the road.

And heres one of the scenes of our drive to Schwyz:

We stopped by the lake and me being crazy took some videos while annoying somebody :)


I might be crazy but whose even crazier??? Hahaha!:)

On the evening, we were feted by Alain's parents to a traditional, haut cuisine gastronomic treat that truly is impressive. Properly dining in Switzerland, you get the sense that Swiss in particular and Europeans in general take their gastronomic exercise with utter seriousness and immense attention to detail... very impressive indeed! Compared to eastern dining habits, its on a very different style stereotypically fit for royalty and/or aristocracy. Too bad my photos were not of that good quality to be blog post-worthy.

To sum my trip, I was sent off to Zurich hauptbanhof to catch my train back to snobbish , unfriendly and expensive Geneva. I was really tired with a high fever and I started developing chills. I kinda predict that the next day or so would not be good for me as I know that this will be a prelude to a flu nightmare that I am forecasting.



Goodnight from Geneva.

NB: For some reasons, I cannot post videos directly on the blog so I have them as links temporarily. Someone of higher authority (I suspect the person on the video) must be doing something.... tsk tsk... hope this makes you even more curious to click on the video... HAHAHAHAH!