In which Swiss money is beautiful, and I fangirl about the Alps

 So I didn't end up creating a Swiss Bank account, but I did get the chance to explore the city a bit more. And, as promised, I have some pictures of Swiss currency that I hope are legal to post on the internet... Either way, get ready for a boatload of pictures!


Here's what Swiss Francs look like: [disclaimer about money and fraud and stuff? idk]

No idea whose faces these are but they look so intense!

Details from the 20CHF bill - isn't that just so pretty?!

Sorry, I just can't get over this. I think all American money should be this colorful. It'd keep me from spending so much ^^ Also the 5Rp (raupen = cents) coins - not pictured here - are tiny and a really shiny gold color...so the coins definitely look a bit medieval. It makes me want to carry them around in little brown bags so I can jingle them to give off an impression of great wealth, though I am but a meagre broke college student.

Today, thanks to the lingering effects of jetlag, I woke up too late to be of use anywhere. And I was trying to do more official stuff, but my computer was misbehaving, so I decided to do something useful with my day and go to the Apple store to get it fixed.

The sun was shining again during the day, and when I left the store it was just beginning to set, so I decided to get on a tram and ride it almost to the end of the line, following the river. And, as you're about to see, it was just gorgeous.

Here's a few crappy iPhone pictures I took out the window:

I swear I'm going to end up with a million of these river pictures...

The Zurich Opera House!

And then I got off and walked around a bit, across a bridge and through a shopping district? I'm not quite sure where I was, but I ended up making it full circle and coming right back to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), so it all worked out well in the end...

Here's the bridge I crossed

I have no idea what these buildings are but they're so pretty!

Again, I have NO idea what this is but
GUYSSSS ARCHITECTURE

crossing the bridge and

...wait are those the Alps in the background??

HOLY MOUNTAINS they are!

Yes, this is the name of the bridge.

Can you imagine living at the end of a street and looking out your
window and seeing THE ALPS just sitting there at the end of the
road, just waiting for you to notice them?!

Okay, so I might possibly be just a bit overexcited about this... but this is the first time in my memory that I've actually seen the Alps, so I'm still trying to get my head around the fact that a lucky subset of the population gets to wake up to them every single morning.

Phew. Okay I'm done.

After that it was a bit too dar, so none of my pictures turned out quite the way I wanted them to. Also it was mostly shops and stereotypical European streets, and while every way I turned my head made me want to take a picture of exactly what I was seeing, it's not quite so easy to capture the real essence of everything in only 16 megapixels of still footage. So instead I'll just let you imagine it, and be jealous.

Be very, very jealous. ;)