The Chris Cardé Experience

A few weeks ago was my friend Will’s “semi-surprise” 30th birthday party in Genève, Switzerland. In keeping with my travel-as-much-as-possible mantra, I decided to make a weekend of it and see Zürich at the same time.

Let me cut straight to the chase: when real, live, Europeans – who are paid in real, live high-value Euros – start telling you that a given city is expensive, one should pay attention. I, who am paid in Monopoly moneyDollars, didn’t and my finances suffer to this day. ;)

I enthusiastically entered Zürich’s Friday night hostel room market – at 11am on Friday from my desk. Score one for last-minute planning! Let’s just say that early October seems to be an incredibly popular times for Zürich’s hostel scene... Needless to say, I didn’t get a hostel room in Europe’s most expensive city and rather ended up in a one-star hotel that was STILL $110/night – and that was a steal of a deal.

I failed to mention that, as this entire trip – completely dependent, I might add, on trains – was coming together, the Deutsche Bahn train driver’s union was preparing to strike. Friday ended up being the first day of the strike – a near total work stoppage from 8-11am – and, being the first major train strike in Germany in 15 years, this was major news. Evidently DB brought in enough foreign and non-union train drivers to maintain a skeleton level of service – prioritizing long-distance and international trains. Upon my arrival at Stuttgart’s hauptbahnhof for my 6pm train, chaos reigned. The work stoppage had ceased 7 hours prior, but the system was in logistical hell. As you can see from the photo below, my train was one of the few that wasn’t delayed, canceled, or otherwise impacted. Whoo-hoo! Dodged a bullet there!

My train was one of just a few that wasn’t screwed! In other news, I was almost mowed down by a luggage train while trying to take this photo.

Zürich turned out to be a beautiful city… My hotel was perfectly located in the middle of all the nightlife, and – in a stroke of luck that I don’t usually experience – the coolest bar in the area actually was the hotel bar. I wish I had some pictures of Zürich, but it seems that I spent the majority of my time their wincing in pain at the high prices and consequently the camera never came out – maybe at a subconscious level I just didn’t want to remember! Beers were CHf8 or CHf9 apiece (that’s about $8), and let’s not even re-open the emotional wounds inflicted by paying CHf 16 for a latte and an undersized foccacia sandwich at Starbucks. Yes, my friends, that’s $14.50. Un-freakin’-believable.

The evening was fun, though… I ended up partying with a guy named (conveniently enough given my capability for names) Christoff, his friend, and two girls who introduced themselves by putting ice down peoples’ shirts. Classy. And effective at starting conversations. I should mention that one of the girls was very proud (and admittedly this was, in its own perverse way, impressive) that she had an 8 week old baby but was already back out and partying.

While the folks who live in and visit Genève might gasp to hear this, I was ever-so-relieved – financially speaking – to arrive there. Unlike Zürich, I managed to score a private room at a hostel at half the price of the previous night’s hotel. Not only that, but it included Wifi and free use of Genève’s public transit system which was key as Will’s apartment is on the outskirts of the city.

Will’s party – the raison d’?tre for the entire trip – was great! As an added bonus, I saw a number of people – family friends and whatnot – who I hadn’t seen in many years, and it reminded me just how interconnected this entire group of friends is. Photos of the evening below:

Simon preparing dessert – of course this is the most important picture ;)

French guests + French rugby on TV = enthralled guests

French guests + French rugby on TV + major French comeback victory = big party in front of the projector!

Somebody gave will an A380 (not life-size) for his birthday. Genius!

I was there – I swear! This flattering shot depicts my adding an entry to the guestbook for the night.

Some closing thoughts:

• If you have a German Bahncard, buy your tickets BEFORE leaving Germany as the ticket offices in Switzerland don’t recognize it! I paid more for the train trip from Zürich to Genève than I would have to travel from Stuttgart to Genève VIA Zürich simply because I bought the tickets in Switzerland.
• Dollars can be used for kindling, play money, note-paper, greeting cards, but one thing they definitely are not is an reasonably-valued form of legal tender for purchasing items of any value in Europe.
• Maybe, just MAYBE those seven years of honors French classes -- years ago! -- had some effect. Even after not speaking French for years, I found myself able to let the basic sounds roll off my tongue with relatively little effort. Contrast this with my efforts in German where I slaughter even the simplest words. I will admit to having spoken a few phrases of Germench (or is that Freusch?), such as “un café und un pain au chocolat, bitte.” It turns out that languages aren’t my strong point.
• Speaking of languages, don’t try to learn a new programming language on a train. Instant sleep. On the other hand, if you’re running a sleep deficit and find yourself on a train, I heartily recommend grabbing a programming reference manual.

If you’re still with me down here, one more thing. UC Davis people are EVERYWHERE! You’d think that we’d have some sort of secret society by now…. I met yet another UCD grad at this party – she’s in the photo below, and is living in France at the moment. I couldn’t tell if she was into the rugby or not. ;)

By the way.... everyone in this picture is enthralled by Facebook on the laptop. ;)