[Written on August 28th]
Not that two days in Zürich makes me knowledgeable in any way – but Switzerland sure feels like a surprisingly coherent mixture of being in the center of Europe, and being other, apart. In Zürich, where German is spoken, I’m not surprised to recognize so much from southern Germany and Austria – but also, not. Maybe it’s mainly not being part of the European union that makes it feel a bit stubborn, unbending, proud. Highly international, but without going bland.
There is no point in me going into the politics, because I simply don’t know enough to judge. But my spontaneous feeling about Zürich as a city is: LOVELY. I arrived in the end of a long warm summer, and the streets were full of happy, sunburned, good-looking people enjoying the picturesque alleys in the old town or the turquoise waters of the lake and river. With the mountains giving everything a feeling of being contained, protected, in our own little world of beauty. I can really see how my old friend Maija has fallen in love with the place.
And that’s really the best way to sight-see in a city: In the company of someone who really loves the place. I think she infected me with her new-love-butterflies. That, and all the cheese we ate (the Swiss really love melted cheese!), and Maija’s love-bomb dog-teddy bear Pomeranian Nala.
A visit to the mountains, the weekend energy injection I so craved!
Katja Malmborg 