I live in Norway, and paying through the nose should, it would seem, be my habit. But I really must ask the Swiss: where do you get ideas for your prices? If you want to go shopping in Zurich, let me give you some directions: when you get to Zurich, cut your credit card in half and forget about the whole idea. We did not go there to shop and managed to have great and surprisingly relaxing time. Being the financial center and all that, Zurich possesses a charming and quiet center, good for feeding birds, watching people and window shopping (provided you followed my instructions regarding the credit card).
The town is full of elegantly dressed people and it is tempting and easy to imagine the lives they have: full of sense, academia and noble hobbies, like writing essays on Etruscan art or something to that accord (while I need four attempts to write “essay” correctly). Some of them are dressed in velvet, sport unthinkable haircuts and move around on singlespeed bicycles while humming music to themselves: the ultimate hipster destination, that is what this city is, at least on a Saturday morning, when we had the honor to let its dust settle on our shoes.
Villages around Zurich bear cheerful names, that sound to me like something from science fiction novels from the 70s: Zufikon, Zimilkon, Bellikon and Dietikon. By the way, Dietikon and Dietlikon are two completely different places and, what makes it even more exciting, they are on the same train line. We were trying to get to one of them, you may try and guess, which.