Underwhelmed by Zurich

Another weekend came around and we decided to venture to the German part of Switzerland: to Zurich and Lucerne. Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and one of the largest banking districts. So I was expecting something similar to Wall Street in New York. Man was I wrong, I only have one word to describe Zurich..... Underwhelming.

We arrived in Zurich in the late afternoon and had to walk directly to our hostel. Unlike America, street signs do not exist in Europe so maps become useless when trying to find your way. We walked for what seemed like an eternity (45 mins) to get to our hostel and almost got run over by a cable car bus. When we finally arrived to the street where our hostel was supposed to be, we realized we could possibly be in the worst part of town. I started to see a perfect scene for Taken 3. Everywhere I looked there were strip clubs, exotic shops, sex shops, bars, clubs and street walkers. I'm sure you're thinking "Wow this a perfect place for 3 American girls to end up." We found out later that the street we were staying on was notorious as Zurich's red light district, with a soaring crime rates, drug dealing, and brothels. I was waiting for Liam Neeson to barge in and save us. 

We arrived at our hostel where the "lobby" was a bar and the check in guy was the bartender. He gave us a key and told us we get free drinks after 9 and there is a band playing tonight. We look on the board to see the band playing this evening was "Penis Blowjoplin" (totally serious) We couldn't even believe what we were seeing at this point that we just started laughing. We got up to our room to see we were in a 12 person mixed dorm. So 3 girls and 9 random people who all were sleeping when we got there (it was 4pm) We left all of our stuff locked up in the lockers and went to see what Zurich had to offer.

Zurich really didn't have much to offer, all of the "touristy"things to see were outside or buildings so we finished seeing most of it within 2 hours. We still had to kill time to get our free beer and go to bed. So we went to the only place we felt safe, the train station and had dinner in one of the resturants. For anyone who hasn't been to Europe, the train stations are basically malls: full of shops and restaurants. 

 After that, we went back to the bar for our drink and sat right outside the bar. That was far enough and every direction were scummy guys, drunks, and young slutty girls. We did meet one local woman who was getting creeped out by this guy so came and talked to us. We realized no matter where you are or what language you speak, girls always stick together against the creepy dude at the bar. After we finished our drinks we headed to bed. Or should I say attempted to... Langstrasse
(our region) does not sleep until 6am. So we heard music and screaming all night long. 

We woke up early the next morning to catch a bus to Lucerne. Zurich's one positive attribute is they have tons of Starbucks. Being an addict of Starbucks, I was happy to have a carmel macchiato once again. After we sipped our coffees we were off to Lucerne! 

XOXO RIVA DIVA