Wake Board Switzerland

Today Adrian took us out on Lake Zurich on his father’s wakeboarding boat. This was so much fun! The weather was perfect and his boat is epic-everything you would ever need on a wakeboarding boat, the tower, the music, the ballast…the works. There were many boats on the lake so it was really choppy so we just wake surfed all afternoon. Then it began to glass off before dinner so I wakeboarded and had a blast. Nothing beats waterskiing with a castle and the alps in background on Lake Zurich with your buddies.

Swiss Fraternity

After my flight and Joe flights were horribly delayed coming to Zurich, Gavin Lightner’s flight was of course delayed as well…you can never rely on American airlines. My friend Gavin got in August 19^th and after getting some dinner we planned our evening around Zurich nightlife again. That night, we were invited to an old Swiss fraternity. We didn’t know what to expect, all we knew was they were interested in meeting some American fraternity guys, so naturally we were curious. We walked down a few old cobble streets in Zurich until we arrived at an Italian restaurant. We then walked through the back of the restaurant, up a flight of stairs. Once at the top of the stairs, and Swiss fraternity guy came out of a room and told us a few rules of the fraternity. We then were welcomed into a gorgeous wooden and decorated room where around 50 guys of all ages sat at a long table with mugs of beer. It seemed pretty classic. Immediately we were challenged to a welcoming drinking game and then were showed all the decorations in the room. There were many pictures, small items, and then of course strange ornaments like a stuffed Alligator, a climbing axe from the first European to climb Mount Everest, and a mummy that was stolen from a Egypt a hundred years ago. The fraternity has been around since the early 1800’s and has some of the brightest individuals in Zurich as alumni. The fraternity prides itself on its choir and its fencing team. That night they sang us songs, put on some traditional fencing clothes, and treated us to drinks. We ended up going to a club later that night, but meeting those guys and seeing their fraternity was by far the highlight of the evening.

More Ticino

Ticino!

Today Mr. Joe Long arrived in Zurich and after his flight was delayed we finally picked him up and headed straight for Ticine, the Italian speaking Kanton of Switzerland. We arrived in Ticine very late but it was eerie and beautiful driving through winding cobble streets up to Adrian’s grandparents house. We passed several old rock churches and the environment is very humid there so the hillsides are actually covered in a chaparral like jungle. Adrian’s stepfamily’s house was on the top of the hill and it was a tall stone building over looking the entire valley. Even though it was dark, I could tell it had a gorgeous view. After a little bit of food and wine, we went to sleep and woke up to loud birds early in the morning. It was really nice sitting on the balcony outside reading and watching the sunrise over this very Italian looking setting. That day we headed towards the mountains weaving along cliff edges following a river. On each side of the road at times were steep hillsides, yet also small clusters of houses, vineyards and churches that composed towns. It seemed straight out of a movie because everything seemed so original like it hadn’t been touched for 600 years. We found a spot along the river to have lunch where we could swim, play cards and backgammon, and jump off of cliffs. The water was sooo clear and blue and cold. Joe, Adrian, and I climbed up a really tall waterfall too which was fun to check out the view and play in some of the pools. After hanging at the river most of the day, we traveled back down the river a little bit to a 400 year old bridge that had an awesome arch design. We decided to jump off it even though no one was doing it, and below was a beach where tons of German tourists were swimming. They all started cheering for us as we jumped off the 70-foot bridge. We survived, good thing it was deep. Then we checked out an old church before we followed the winding road back to a huge Dam, the same Dam that James Bond jumped off of in one of his movies.

Time in Zurich

We spent some time today touring the city some more. We went through the old part of the city today, visited a church that was built in 1100 AD, and went to some museums. Then for dinner we went to Adrian’s stepfamily’s house outside of Zurich and I got to meet all of his step family.

Mountains & Rivers

One day, Adrian and I went to check out a large mountain outside of Lucern, a neighboring lake and city to Zurich. We took a tram up to the top of the mountain. Even though it was covered in fog we could still make out the beautiful view of both lakes from roughly 6,000 ft. After having lunch on the top of the mountain, Adrian and I went back to Zurich to swim at the local swimming area on the Lemot River. The weather was awesome and it was great to take some time to enjoy the water and sun. That night, I got to go out to dinner with Adrian and his dad as well as a few of his friends and enjoy some great Swiss food at a nice restaurant. The Swiss definitely know their American politics and like to make fun of some of our stupid politicians lol.

Street Parade Adventure

On August 13^th my other friend C.K. arrived in Zurich in preparation for Street Parade, the largest outdoor music festival in Europe. It was absolutely insane, over 1 million people from all parts of the world but mostly Europe, arrived in Zurich to enjoy electric, techno, and house music. One thing I have realized is that while this music is quite unpopular with older individuals in America, it is popular with older people in Europe. We saw many unusual costumes, beautiful floats, and creative costumes. It wasn’t just one block or even several, the entire city of Zurich was packed with people, stages for music, and food tents. We spent about 3 hours roaming the streets but we did not want to exhaust ourselves since we would be going out later that night to see Avicci live in concert. After enjoying the music and the people watching on the streets of Zurich, we went back to Adrian’s house to prepare for the BBQ he was hosting for his friends. We bought our food, went for a swim, and began prepping for 40 people. We had traditional Swiss food for dinner that night including Brot worst sausages, gyros, and pasta salad. We spent the night eating and drinking with Adrian’s friends and finally ended up going out to the concert quite late but we had a great time checking out the Zurich night life.