The next morning was an early one, and by 10 we were on our way to Zurich. It was a fairly long train ride, and many of us used the opportunity to get some sleep. After a few hours and a train switch, we pulled into one of several train stops at Zurich. This city was more industrialized than the ones we went to in Germany, but once again there was the unique mixture of medieval church and guild house architecture side by side with simplistic modern buildings. The station was huge and contained several works of art such as a voluptuous, colorful angel sculpture hanging from the ceiling, and a gigantic cube of lights that acted as a 3-D television. The next thing we noticed about Switzerland was that all of the fountains provided potable drinking water, which was a blessing for us. The fountains provided to be extra valuable once we started buying drinks in one of the most expensive cities in Europe and the world.

Zurich is a beautiful and clean city; we had a better chance to admire as we grabbed some pretzel sandwiches and enjoyed them beside Lake Zurich, which was full of sailboats. We soon met the daughter of Joe and Beth, Jackie, and her boyfriend, Thomas (Who is Swiss). When we finished our meal, we split up into groups and went on a photo scavenger hunt of the most famous sites in Zurich for a few hours. It was a blast to be able to run around the city, see the sites, hang out in a small group, and have some artistic competition involved. Traversing the city was easy because our entire luggage was already in the hostel we were staying in for the next few days. When the competition was over (signaled by a thunderstorm that quickly blew through the city), we all had the honor of going on a tour of the University of Zurich (Where Einstein and Marie Curie did research) by Jackie and Thomas.

When the tour was over, Jackie invited us to cook out at her house on the outskirts of Zurich. She and Thomas live in a large flat on the top floor of a very old building. It was a beautiful home with extremely brilliant architecture, but the best part was their access to the building rooftop, which is where we held the cookout. The view from their 6 story roof was breathtaking, as we could see over all of Zurich and the surrounding valley, as well as the distant Swiss Alps. The food was fantastic (I now like Bratwursts!), the view was awesome, and the company mad the evening even better. After a dessert of grilled bananas filled with Swiss chocolate, and the presentation of the photo scavenger hunt, we headed back to the hostel. We tried to check out the nightlife, but it was a holiday weekend and everything was ridiculously expensive or closed, so instead I had a great talk with Connor until I fell asleep.