Zurich

I spent this past weekend Couchsurfing in Zurich. I wanted to see the city, but mostly because Iwanted to see a woman I met while here in Geneva that lives there and was throwing a birthday party for herself. I felt obligated to help celebrate.

So, I left Friday afternoon on the train from Geneva to Neuchatel to meet up with two other couchsurfers who were driving to Zurich for the CS meeting that night. Tookie (who is from Madagascar and I have no idea what his real name is) is one of the Neuchatel couchsurfers and is one of those people who knows everyone. He is an extremely engergetic person. I first met him in Paris actually because he organized the bicycle treasure hunt. I keep meeting up with him at events in Switzerland and of course again for this meeting. Anyway, so we all drove to Zurich Friday night and I went to Tanja’s house first and met up with them later on at the bar for the couchsurfing meeting. What exactly is a couchsurfing meeting you ask? Well, they are usually held at a meeting space like a bar or restaurant and people from the area as well as people visiting the town or who live just outside come to meet other people. Why do they do it? I dunno actually. I do it because I like to meet different types of people and drink beer. I have to say, it’s tough to meet people at bars and I have decided not to participate in those types of things any more unless I know more of the people. I get really tired of telling my story and find that I don’t really care what other people are doing either. Also some people who come are very insincere and I don’t enjoy that. I do enjoy connecting with people about different topics, whether it’s traveling, eating/cooking, books, philosophic concepts about the universe…whatever. I find people are in different moods at bars and I just have a really hard time connecting (though drinking a few helps with that).

Saturday night was different thought. It was Tanja’s birthday party and we mostly just stayed at her apartment drinking beer, listening to music and hanging out. There were probably about 25 people and I had a really great time. In fact, I didn’t go to sleep until 7am! This was partly because I was sleeping in the living room and people didn’t leave til really late, but also because it’s easy for me to stay up. In fact it’s easier now than when I was in college. However…it is much harder for me to recover the next day and actually takes quite a while for me to really feel like myself again.

I have to say I really dug Tanja’s apartment because it was right in the middle of the city, though I definitely didn’t care for the church or it’s f!@#ing bells every hour and especially at 7am. Also 15 minutes before the hour just to make sure you are ready for the hour. Oh and Saturday night they play for 15 minutes beginning at 7pm in order to welcome in the Sunday at a decibel level so loud you can’t have a conversation if your window is open (or if you’re walking by the church). Absurd really especially in a land where people propose and vote on laws every couple of weeks (really, I’m not kidding). Anyway, it was a good time and I hope to see both Tanja and Zurich again.