Spring: a time of change

A beautiful tree in blossom near work

At last the cold miserable weather has departed and longer, sunnier days are literally on the horizon. I personally believe that "spring is a time of change" and in springs true typical fashion things have certainly changed for me. After my previous post about the miseries of job hunting it seems that my luck has changed and I have currently got a job for the next two months.

Otherwise what to report on the cycling front.....? well part of my ongoing struggle to love Zurich as much as I love Paris and Dublin is dealing with the hills. Hills and mountains; Switzerland is famous for those Heidi-esque Alps but if I'm not busy admiring the views I'm usually busy working up a sweat climbing a hill in Zurich to some small godforsaken little area where the rents are cheap and the inhabitants are fellow forigners.

Another down side to my route to work is that I don't seem to be able to figure out a "safe" and short way to get there. The bus lanes here are good but very sporadic and on the way to work I often feel like I'm about to go onto a motor way and therefore cycle a lot on the footpath, which is a thing I hate doing, as that is how I previously broke my arm. But paths seem to be the fastest way and after the misery of the up hill cycle to Milchbuch I tend to take the most direct route as I feel I deserve it.
The small incline up O'Connell street now seems like down hill free wheeling.

Also a point to mention is that it has been officially over a year since I have had this blog, as my first post (which no body read, as it was terrible) was on the 22nd of March. Originally inspired by a former colleague to start keeping one as a writing portfolio I have certainly been enjoying the regular creativity and satisfaction that writing brings, and I have even gathered my journalistic escapades on my new portfolio website.

Frozen Fountains of Zurich

In case you are unaware, things have have been very cold here; not just better put on a pair of gloves cold, but toes falling off ears stinging cold and that is with every possible bodily surface covered at least twice (well bar my eyes as I still need to see). Things are starting to thaw out though.
But just to prove this point I've decided to do a little photo post of some frozen fountains.

Fountain 1 at the Hauptbahnhof- frozen solid

Fountain 1, the water seemed to have literally stopped mid flow

Fountain 2, still running but the frozen splash had made a bell shape

Fountain 2 "bell" close up

Fountain 3, like a macaron of solid ice

Fountain 3; I tried smashing it with my elbow. No luck

Fountain 4, frozen solid and smashed before I could do it

Fountain 4, smashed close up

Fountain 5, solid with no water flowing

Fountain 6, interesting sculpture with interesting ice

You may have been thinking that many of my recent posts are weather related, well you are right. Well you know what I don't really care because when the temperatures drop into the minus double digits I currently sympathise with Badgers and hedgehogs and have gone into hibernation!

Woeful Winter Weather

Ahh yes the complete 180, I certainly am feeling like God must  have read my previous post and sent freezing cold temperatures to spite me.

So after just reporting the lovely weather I had been enjoying, now it is very much different.
The freezing snow has arrived, and en force.

While I do still suffer slightly from the "aww cool snow" aspect of coming from a country with only rain, these pictures clearly demonstrate the difference between perceived winter cycling and the actual experience

a snowy winter wonderland (photo without flash)

VS
snow being whipped into your face while you try and find the route with the least dangerous snow coating

 White hell (with flash)

Beautiful Winter Weather

I haven't got a photo of the route but  this Zurich lake photo is pretty

For those of you that are unaware I have been hiding out in Zurich for the last few months. Now winter in Zurich can be a largely grey affair and apparently as soon as you leave the city region there is apparently a sudden burst of beautiful weather. However the weather of late has also been impressing be, impressing me to the point that there are times before I step outside the warm confines of my apartment that I think that I might only need to wear my lighter jacket. Nice try sunshine.

Despite the beaming sun rays a jacket is an absolute must and to be honest I nearly lost all the fingers on my right hand while trying to top up my phone and send a text message yesterday.

Again part of the nice things about my apartment (apart from having my own room and the apartment  being clean and warm) is the route that I take into town. This route along the limmat river is indeed a gem in Zurich and is much frequented by joggers and just generally people looking to take a relaxing walk. On sunny days this route is one of my favourite things about living in Zurich, or more so it was; as I recently experienced the vexation of an older lady telling me cycling along the route is forbidden. I suppose I should have copped on earlier as I very rarely meet other cyclists along the path.

I'm not sure if I'll heed her message or just keep playing the foreign ignorance card and avoiding the path at busier times.

Taxi in Zurich? - some warnings

After previously praising Zurich's treatment of traffic and cyclists, it is with unfortunate irony that on this same day I received some rather rude treatment on my bike in Zurich, and got beeped at twice by Taxi drivers.

From what I have personally experienced and been advised taxi drivers here are:

Cycling in Zurich

While cycling in most other large cities is usually a mixture of teeth gritting and bell ringing frustration, Zurich seems to be a much more calm counterpoint to the usual fist shaking and shouting.

Politeness seems to be the key factor involved in getting around the City, whether that is by public transport, car, bicycle or foot.
I am consistently surprised at how polite car drivers are in Zurich, for example; very few pedestrian crossings actually have pedestrian lights. So how does it work then? Well the method is surprisingly simple, the pedestrian had automatic priority and all cars stop at zebra crossings at the slightest hint that someone might intend crossing. The result is that people crossing the road only hesitate a quick glance at oncoming traffic before marching straight out  in front of politely waiting cars.

While you would think this system would be the bane of most car drivers in Zurich it is not, the result is surprisingly stress free flowing traffic, probably because the cars don't spend their time waiting in front of red lights at pedestrian crossings where no one is crossing.

Indeed even the cars don't need lights at Zurich's most busy junction - central and use this polite waiting system to alternate between who has priority. Only at peak traffic times will you see a semi-formal traffic stopping system in place and this literally takes the form of a human Traffic Warden being stationed in what looks like an over-sized bin right in the centre of the junction.

This traffic version of an orange Oscar the Grouch is an efficient version of traffic lights as they are more accurately able to judge the needs of the waiting traffic, and appropriately assign priority.

My Swiss bike

Okay so following my current up routel to a non EU country, I have once again found myself slogging along paths like a common pedestrian, now while this might be acceptable for some temporary getting around, me feeling at home necessitates certain amenities that might be defined as a bicycle.

Swimming in the Limmat

Okay so while this article doesn't have anything to do with bicycles or Paris, its an article I recently submitted for a website called zurichexpats.com, the article has been published and kind of summarises the extent of my knowledge of Zurich so far. Still though it's quite cool to have an article published on another (hopefully more frequented) website than my own, even if its unpaid.

Here is the article:

One months holidays and counting

So following what has can technically be described as over a months absence from my previous job, I am happy to announce that it does not end here. So far I have spent 2 weeks in Cadiz in the south of eeeSpain with 400 architects, one week in Munich in Bavaria in Germany with over 5000 jugglers, and now its been just over one week in Zurich with 1 boyfriend.

What's in store next? Easy answer Ireland.

Keeping in mind that this will be covered in future posts lets go through some of the highlights of my previous month.