Today I went to Zürich with Anthony to make my own pocketknife at the Landesmuseum, but when we got there they told us they were totally booked up for the whole day, so we couldn’t :( So we walked around the city in the rain for a bit, but nothing too exciting. There really isn’t too much to see in Zürich in comparison to some of the other places around. And especially when it’s raining.

I went to the Australian Outback Bar in Zürich tonight for the IAESTE weekly Meeting. It was both cool and disappointing. Cool in that they didn’t just have Fosters, they had Bundy Rum, VB and Coopers. Not cool that it was like 8sFr for a VB and 15sFr for a Rum and Coke. Also their menu had prawns listed as shrimp … There was XXXX signs as well, but they didn’t sell it, which is false advertising I reckon.

Last night we went to Germany for some drinks for Steven’s birthday and also because some people are going home soon. The bar in Waldshut that Steven and I found is even better than we first thought. Not only are beers only 2€, but if you start singing happy birthday then the bartender will come over with some free Jägermeister shots. Oh and rather than stealing the beer glass, Steven ASKED if he could keep it, and they even got him a clean one to take home.

The hiking weekend began with the steepest bus ride in Europe. It really was quite steep in places, made the bus ride up to the Remarkables in New Zealand tame in comparison. Because it was only one lane the bus driver was constantly hitting the horn to let cars know we were coming round the corner. The swiss post buses have a REALLY loud and long horn tune. And then began the hiking.

I have been very busy lately with assignments, German lessons and traveling, so haven’t had time to update this in a while. On the weekend before last, I went to the Jura region, which is in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. First up, we went to the underground mills in Le Locle. They were used in the 1800s to make flour, and used the water that flowed through the cave to turn the mill.

Was kind of like a custard slice, but cheese. Quarkkuchen I think it was called At the shops in Germany…. Drinking a Czech beer at the Rhein 13 Euro for 24 bottles = $18.58 AUD And they are usually 5% alcohol or more Meat for the grill… This was a Czech beer that Petr had brought, was quite nice.

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to Basel for the day and met up with some IAESTE buddies, and we explored the city. First up was the Rathaus, which was a beautiful building with lots of murals and statues. Next up, we went to the Basel Münster, where there was a church organ performance. We only got to hear the last song but it sounded really good. The church was very nice, although not as nice as the one in Bern.

Saturday I got the train to Visp to begin the IAESTE Zermatt Weekend, which very unusally for a swiss train arrived about 5 mins late. From Visp we went on a cog train up to Zermatt, which was a lovely town at the foot of the Matterhorn. We got a cable car up to the top of the Klein Matterhorn which must be an epic ski resort in winter because they had runs open in the middle of Summer and there was a fair few people up there skiing.

This weekend I went on an IAESTE trip to Lichtenstein. It was a hard decision this weekend whether or not to go to Lichtenstein or stay and go the the street parade in Zurich on Saturday night. In the end I’m glad I went away for the weekend, although the street parade would still have been a sight to see, but I had a great time in Lichtenstein. As we waited for the train to Sargans on Saturday morning, we even saw a few people that were in dressed in costumes for that night.

On Monday afternoon I did the 007 Bungee Jump off the Verzasca Dam. We caught a train to Tenero then hiked up towards the Dam. When I first saw it way in the background I thought - that is huge. But once we got close the nerves dissapeared and I was just excited mostly. We had to wait for a fair while before we could do our jump because there was a film crew filming for a German travel show.