Zürich

This past weekend, I traveled to Zürich, Switzerland with my two friends, Alli and Elana. The three of us became friends in 2008, when we participated in the Diller Teen Fellowship together and spent about three weeks together in Israel. We have remained close friends and when we realized that we were all studying abroad in Europe this quarter, we knew a weekend meet-up was absolutely necessary. Due to its prime location, and the fact that none of us had ever been there before, we decided on Switzerland and got our tickets to Zürich.

For your viewing pleasure, here are some highlights of the weekend as expressed through my photos. Alli has informed me that I need to blog more often in order to shorten the length of my posts, so I will try to keep this concise... If you would like supplemental information, or are interested in cross-referencing events, please check her blog: http://allileso.blogspot.com :) *insert shameless plug for Alli's blog here*

Alli and I both had class on Friday, so we arrived rather late. We basically met up with Elana at the hostel and made our way to the city center for some dessert and late-night explorations. Upon returning to our hostel, we had made friends with various buses on the night schedule and a few phone booths.

Saturday morning, we decided to take the train to Lucerne (Luzern in German) to see some of the reknowned countryside and check out those mountain views that people are always talking about. Lucerne looked like this...

The city is superbly picturesque and all day we were in complete denial that we were actually walking around such a place and were not in front of a green-screen. We went on a self-guided tour of the city and walked over bridges that were built in the 1300s, climbed clock towers used by the Hugenots, and stumbled upon some amazing Farmers' Markets that were about as beautiful as anything I've ever seen. Average food is Zürich is so much better than average food in Berlin - it's crazy. Here are some epicurian highlights:

Some local honey from a man named Johann

Some gorgeous Swiss produce...

Pumpkin Ravioli with Walnut Sauce... mmm :)

After a wonderful day in Lucerne, we headed back to Zürich for a lovely evening. The next morning started with some struggles (what up, Daylight Savings!), but we had a terrific day exploring Zürich! We went to two museums, the Landesmuseum (Swiss National History Museum) and the Kunsthaus (the art museum) and did a lot of walking and wandering along the way.

At some point during the day, it dawned on me that we did this. Yes, we chose a place we wanted to visit and we actually went, but more importantly, we valued each other enough to make that effort to see each other. I guess that's what makes me smile the most. I have this fear that one day after college, all my friends will scatter to various ends of the earth and I will write them letters and never receive any back. Of course this is mostly unfounded and I felt similarly after high school without those results, but still, I feel like this point in my life is about being transitive. It's about shifting priorities and changing interests, and it's about discovering what, who, and why things make us feel a certain way. I think that's why I so appreciated and I am so grateful to have had this weekend.

Alli, Elana, and I are very much leading our own lives in new places. We are speaking different languages, making new friends, exploring new cultures, and discovering new facets of ourselves. I think it is very much beacuse of those things that we were able to come together, in a place that was new to all of us, and marvel in each other's transformations; however, I believe that made me appreciate all the more everything that has not changed. We can now compare the educational systems of Germany, England, and Italy, but we (surprisingly?) still laugh at our ridiculously bad jokes, circa 2008. We can share stories of, shall we say, interesting nights in our various cities, and we can't help but smile when, somehow, the conversation turns back to our first Shabbat in Israel together. While I cannot predict where I will be in 5, 10, or 15 years (truth be told, I cannot predict where I will be in 1.5 years), nor can I imagine all the fantastic adventures upon which my amazing friends will embark, it made me incredibly happy to have spent this weekend with them and to know that, for now, our separate lives only increase the joy of our shared lives :)