Day 12: Flirting with Disaster
10:18pm Zurich
Behold! A great fool stands before you!
As I write to you I sit on the curb outside the "hostel" I booked for my stay in Zurich Switzerland. It is very different from the hostel I stayed with in Galway, and very far from what I expected. That does fall to me for booking the place.
It is rather far from the city, which is not ideal. I don't remember what I was thinking when I booked it. Maybe it was the closest I could get anyway.
After finding out walking from the train station would take just over an hour, I decided to find other ways to get to this hostel. The public trains seemed like a great idea. But after some effort, I couldn't figure out how to get a ticket. It seems that most of Europe has given up on sliding cards and has instead moved on to other methods that confuse me and make me feel old.
It was after some frustration that I realized I needed to eat dinner. It was already close to 9pm by this point, and as I had been in a train all day, I hadn't had much to eat besides snacks. I didn't think I would find much to eat at this hostel, so I made the executive decision of eating dinner before going out to it.
After eating I found a taxi. When I gave what I thought was the address for the hostel, the driver needed to consult with several others to figure out where to take me. It took some time, but eventually they figured it out and we were on our way.
When I finally arrived at around 10pm, no one answered the door. Check in times were posted on the door as 3pm to 9pm. I decided to call the number left there as well. Someone answered but told me I was so late that the system considered me a "no show." I should have called or emailed so I cannot blame them for this. It really is my fault.
He told me to wait to see if anyone shows up with a key. He will let me sleep there tonight and we can figure things out in the morning.
I don't know what I'm doing now. I've thought about just finding somewhere else to stay but I am in the middle of nowhere. This is basically the suburbs.
I am tired, stressed, embarrassed, lost, and confused.
What would I even say to someone if I saw them? Hey, please let me in. I promise I won't kill you.
I suppose I could wander the streets for the next ten and a half hours until they show up in the morning at 9am.
I remember being on the train from Rome to Milan earlier today. There was a half hour layover from when my train stopped in Milan to when the next train left for Zurich. And my train was running 20 minutes late. I was completely stressed that I would miss my train. But I talked to my dad about it, and realized that worst case scenario, I have to get the next train. I stopped worrying and felt a lot better. And it turns out I didn't even need to worry in the first place. I got onto my next train with time to spare. I thought getting on that train was me overcoming today's biggest obstacle.
I was wrong.
10:58pm
Someone has come by and let me in. Thank goodness.
Now however I have no key to get into the room I was assigned over the phone.
And as I was typing this, someone exited the door. And before I could fully explain myself they understood. "You're Matt right?"
Thanks to my roommate Dave for saving the day.
So now I have a bed for the night. We will see what happens tomorrow.
Never have I been so happy to have a crappy little bed.
****
In other news; the train from Milan to Zurich was spectacular. I wanted to stop at every town. I could have sat with a view of those mountains and lakes for hours. Here's a phew of the photos I took:
Ignore the window reflection. I worked with what I had.
It's a shame that I only had a few passing moments to see them as the train zoomed by. At least I have Zurich, which I am excited to explore tomorrow.
So once again, thanks for reading and I'll see you tomorrow.
