Polish borscht, Czech beer, Turkish coffee, and Swiss hot chocolate

As I sit on my great Aunt Lisie’s balcony in Zürich the chirping birds and delicately warm sunshine reassures me that spring is here to stay. After two weeks of traveling and unpacking and cleaning and packing again and traveling some more, I can pretty confidently say that my body is exhausted. My mind, however, is refreshed and inspired. I look forward to the moment when I can slowly process all of the pictures – from the sand-castle train station in Breslau to the vastness of the Prague castle to the majestic mosques in Istanbul. I want to filter through the random receipts now overflowing from my wallet, for better or for worse (it just may reveal the actual sum of the money I have spent already this month). Of course the ultimate goal is to do some writing: recording the places I’ve seen, the food that I have eaten, and the new things I noticed along the way. I love that traveling can also reinforce old connections, rather than focusing on making new ones in new places: it’s been three months since I saw Jess Weaver at New Years and much has happened to both of us since then, so catching up was a must. And now I am here in Zürich with similar goals. Lisie is never at a loss for words, whether in Swiss German, Schwäbish German, or “Hochdeutsch”, the only dialect I can fully understand. But she just likes to have someone around to listen.

On another note, I have no internet here in Zürich. Perhaps I could try to find an internet café, but the 10 franc price tag for 15 minutes of wi-fi sort of turns me off. So for the moment I am enjoying the sunshine and Lisie’s lovely company. We are leaving in a couple of minutes for a lunch in a small town not far away with her dear “Geliebter” Otti, hence mentioning the Swiss hot chocolate… I have many more warm and cold beverages alike to comment on soon ☺