Here goes nothing...

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”
-Lao Tzu


I'm in Zurich, Switzerland, and it's 20C, or 68F.

I left NC two days ago. I have to check the date to tell you that... the days are running together. I'm sure that will fix itself eventually. I left NC with a horrible headache from crying too much, and people at the gate probably thought I must have a horrible life to use so many tissues. I cried myself to sleep last night, which might have been a good thing, since I couldn't sleep. All this crying to wake up and go to breakfast and realize I am in Switzerland, and people wish their whole lives they go travel and never get the chance. I am in Europe for four months. Don't be such a baby, Aubrey.

I guess I have a few fun stories now...

On the plane from Raleigh to London, I had three seats in the center to myself, and a man kept getting up to ask me to switch with him so he could sleep. He wanted to trade his one aisle seat with me for my three seats. Hey, I might have traded for a window seat, in fact I would have. I feel kinda bad now, but I wanted to sleep to! I offered to let him have one and a half of the seats. What were we gonna do, spoon? I don't think so dude. Go back to your aisle seat, you make me uncomfortable.

Last night (or yesterday morning?? I don't know...) I arrived in Zurich, Switzerland where I will be until tomorrow. When I was planning my trip, this sounded like a really fun place to spend a couple of days and explore. I somehow imagined every city in Europe to be like New York City. Not the case, there is nothing here to look at, that I can find. The airport was huge! There is pretty much a mall in it. I walked around for an hour trying to figure out where the tram picked up to take to my hotel. When I finally asked directions, I found out it was right around the corner.
Then I had to figure out how to pay for the tram... :/ A lady helped me, and by helped I mean she helped me find the wrong ticket and spend too much. But I would probably still be standing in front of the machine if she hadn't helped me. So thank you Swiss lady.
When I got to my stop, I drug my two giant suitcases off the tram and stood looking around and pacing back and for for about 15 minutes. (This is all on about three collective hours of sleep, by the way, so I think I'm doing pretty well.) I knew my hotel was supposed to be right around the corner from the train station, and I was at the train station. I had google directions, which were useless since there don't seem to be street signs in Switzerland. I walked up and down a few streets, and around the block for about an hour. Finally, WHEN I ASKED FOR DIRECTIONS from the man at the train station, he said it was just down the street and to the left, right across from some kind of kiosk I didn't understand, I walked around the block one more time, then went back and walked down the street and saw something that looked like a hot dog stand, and amazingly, right across from that was the hotel.

What I have learned from that is that I know best and shouldn't ask for directions for at least  an hour... or not. I keep thinking people are going to think I'm a dumb american if I ask for directions, so I try to ask in broken German, so they probably think I am even more dumb, cause in their head their like "Uh we speak perfect English, and you stink at German, can we speed things up a little?"

Anyway, Now I am at the hotel. When I got here, I found out I had made my reservation for the day before, because thats when I was leaving Wilmington, and of course I forgot I was traveling overnight. Aubrey, stop being so dumb, please? And since I work at a hotel and know what happens when people don't come on the right day, I panicked. The girl seemed to think I was silly to panic so much. She had a room for me, duh. My room is on the second floor, which is actually the third, and there is no elevator. If you remember from earlier, I have two pretty big suitcases. Well, one regular big one, packed to the TSA limits, and a carry-on, packed past TSA limits, cause they don't check (got 'em). Anyway, I got them up the stairs eventually. I was already sweating from the stress of walking around the block eight times to find the hotel, now I'm carrying 75 pounds of luggage up three flights of stairs. Guys, I am going to be so fit and buff when I come home.
So, I'm settled in, I took a shower in a strange Swiss bathroom, figured out how to flush a Swiss toilet (jk, I still don't know what I'm doing with that, I just pretend), and watched some Joyce Myers in German on the cute little TV in my room.

Oh, by the way, I know I mentioned this hotel is right by the train stations, so I am sure you assumed I hear trains all night. If you didn't assume that, I will tell you now: I hear trains all night. And they are loud. I also heard some drunk people yelling in German in the middle of the night. This is an exciting place.

This morning, I ate breakfast downstairs. My reservation included continental breakfast, which I assumed would go from 7-10, because they sounds pretty normal to me. I keep forgetting, I am a foreigner here, and things are not going to be what I assume. I went down stairs at 9:05, and had missed breakfast. The lady sat me down anyway and served me a plate of bread, cheese, some kind of sliced meat, mystery jam, and coffee and mystery juice. It was wonderful. I wanted to know what the juice and jam were, but I didn't want her to think I was a dumb American for not knowing already what it was. The coffee was scary, but I figured it out. Halfway through eating the cheese, I realized it was swiss cheese and I was in Switzerland. I was eating swiss cheese in Switzerland! Do you think they do that so Americans will me like "Oh my gosh! It's swiss cheese, how cute!" or do you think they just eat swiss cheese? Anyway, it was good. Also, is tipping customary here? I know its not in Germany, so I didn't know what to do. I thought about it for a long time, and then decided I would look it up online, and if it is, I will leave twice as much tomorrow. I didn't want the lady to be like, "Geez, dumb American left her francs on the table."

Well, this is three days worth of information, so I will finish up now. I'm going to force myself to explore today. I'm going to buy a nine hour pass for the tram and ride around until I see something interesting.