I have the wanders

Lets back track a bit...

After Bern etc., I traveled a quick hour to Zurich, aka, one of the bank capitols of the world. My hostel was a million miles away, so after a lengthy tram ride I got off too early and ended up walking much longer than I would like to admit. Along the way I asked directions from a random elderly gentleman. He did not speak English, but spoke, French, German and Spanish, we settled on Spanish to communicate. After my long walk, I was finally able to toss my bag, and go see the city. I was feeling averse to my map as usual, and got off the tram willy nilly. I walked along the canal, saw a neat church so I went in, lucky me, I picked the one with a tower. I climbed up to the top and got a wonderful view of the city, the mountains, and the lake, Zurichsee. I spent a while up there, just enjoying the sun, the air and the view. When I finally climbed down, I found a nice neighborhood and some shops to play around in. I wrapped back around to the main train station and walked down shopping mile as they call it. While I was walking around, I noticed the excess of people with a "Freitag" bag, a bag I have always wanted. I thought there must be a store around, and set out to find it, to no avail. But I did get to the lake, and walk around. I ended up walking all along the beautiful lake back to the hostel. Quite the haul. I ended up going through some hotel grounds, and another park to get back on track, but no one seemed to mind me traipsing through their yards. It was the perfect time to be at the lake for taking pictures. The sailboats were all reflecting perfectly and you could just see the snow capped mountains through the  haze. It was a nice relaxing afternoon.





The following day, after I asked where it was, I went to the Freitag shop. Freitag bags are created from all recycled materials, old truck tarps, bike inner tubes and seat belts. The shop I went to is their original store, not that there are that many, but it was the most unique store I have ever been in. It was a tower of giant crates, the metal kind, that you see on tankers and trains, they were two side by side and then a tower of about seven, high into the sky. There were stairs inside and you could climb to the top and get another view of Zurich. Very different.

This is the shop, bags on each floor.

First floor of the shop.

My new bag!

From Zurich I got on the train to Darmstadt, Germany where my aunt lives. I have been here for two days and tonight will be the third night. I feel rested, rejuvenated and well fed. The bags under my eyes have finally started to recede. It was a much needed stop. It is great to see family. Aida, my cousin has just started university as well, so I got to see some school grounds and walk her to some classes. From here I am off to Berlin and have been planning out the rest of my travels. I haven't even hit a month yet, but it seems like I have so little time left. Egypt is right around the corner!