Switzerland is Expensive
Wow. I thought things were expensive in Denmark and Finland, but they have nothing on Switzerland.
A small bag of potato chips from the machine at the hostel was 1,70 CHF (about $1.60), and since it’s New Year’s Day, there are no stores open for potentially cheaper alternatives. I’m eating them veeerrrryy slowly. We went to a Starbucks for coffee and muffins and it was 21 CHF. So much for a cheap lunch. Thank goodness the hostel fee includes breakfast. Too bad they don’t also have a self-catering kitchen. We can’t even make our own tea. It’s ten cents in the machine for a mini-cup of hot water.
Happy New Year!
New Year’s Eve dinner? Of course all the restaurants have their “Fête” menus up, so naturally all the prices are nearly doubled. We had dinner in a nice Italian restaurant near all the action. We had salad, a 15” pizza, desserts, coffee, soda, and 2 dl of wine. It came up to 86 CHF not including tip (a standard tip is about 10% here). Fortunately for the budget, the lodging cost for the hostel is only slightly higher than everywhere else, and they give us a free bus pass so we don’t have to pay for transportation around town. We didn’t end up going to a bar for dancing, and instead went to the pier to watch the fireworks (nothing like free entertainment!). Crowds of people meandered and strolled around the edge of the bay. The ones who had imbibed the most wished us “Bonne Année” and “Happy New Year” as they stumbled past. We laughed and wished them the same back.
Free wifi
Amazingly enough, there is free wifi at the Starbucks. This is the first Starbucks I’ve ever been to (including in Seattle) where a credit card was not required to connect. Since there were two of us buying food, we each received a card good for 30 minutes of free wifi. The park nearby also had free wifi-fine if you have good weather (Jan 1, yes; Dec 31, no) a full charge on the laptop (no).
Liechtenstein
Tomorrow we depart for Liechtenstein. We certainly hope that we are able to find free wifi at the hotel or at least nearby, as this is a working stop on our trip. The Vaduz hostel is closed for the winter, but we found a hotel that’s only slightly more expensive than a hostel-the only difference is that we have our own room instead of a 4-20-person dormitory. The shower and toilet are still in the hallway. Why are we going to Liechtenstein? It’s one of the few countries left in central Europe that is not part of the Schengen agreement region, and we are scheduled to be in Germany on January 6th. Switzerland joined the Schengen zone on December 12th. Lucky us. This limits us to the UK, Bulgaria, Romania and conflict-ridden countries such as Israel (technically part of Asia), Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, etc. for time out of the Schengen region. Remember, we can only be in the Schengen area for 90 days in a 6-month time period, and we have a pre-paid plane ticket home for February 26th.
A small bag of potato chips from the machine at the hostel was 1,70 CHF (about $1.60), and since it’s New Year’s Day, there are no stores open for potentially cheaper alternatives. I’m eating them veeerrrryy slowly. We went to a Starbucks for coffee and muffins and it was 21 CHF. So much for a cheap lunch. Thank goodness the hostel fee includes breakfast. Too bad they don’t also have a self-catering kitchen. We can’t even make our own tea. It’s ten cents in the machine for a mini-cup of hot water.
Happy New Year!
New Year’s Eve dinner? Of course all the restaurants have their “Fête” menus up, so naturally all the prices are nearly doubled. We had dinner in a nice Italian restaurant near all the action. We had salad, a 15” pizza, desserts, coffee, soda, and 2 dl of wine. It came up to 86 CHF not including tip (a standard tip is about 10% here). Fortunately for the budget, the lodging cost for the hostel is only slightly higher than everywhere else, and they give us a free bus pass so we don’t have to pay for transportation around town. We didn’t end up going to a bar for dancing, and instead went to the pier to watch the fireworks (nothing like free entertainment!). Crowds of people meandered and strolled around the edge of the bay. The ones who had imbibed the most wished us “Bonne Année” and “Happy New Year” as they stumbled past. We laughed and wished them the same back.
Free wifi
Amazingly enough, there is free wifi at the Starbucks. This is the first Starbucks I’ve ever been to (including in Seattle) where a credit card was not required to connect. Since there were two of us buying food, we each received a card good for 30 minutes of free wifi. The park nearby also had free wifi-fine if you have good weather (Jan 1, yes; Dec 31, no) a full charge on the laptop (no).
Liechtenstein
Tomorrow we depart for Liechtenstein. We certainly hope that we are able to find free wifi at the hotel or at least nearby, as this is a working stop on our trip. The Vaduz hostel is closed for the winter, but we found a hotel that’s only slightly more expensive than a hostel-the only difference is that we have our own room instead of a 4-20-person dormitory. The shower and toilet are still in the hallway. Why are we going to Liechtenstein? It’s one of the few countries left in central Europe that is not part of the Schengen agreement region, and we are scheduled to be in Germany on January 6th. Switzerland joined the Schengen zone on December 12th. Lucky us. This limits us to the UK, Bulgaria, Romania and conflict-ridden countries such as Israel (technically part of Asia), Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, etc. for time out of the Schengen region. Remember, we can only be in the Schengen area for 90 days in a 6-month time period, and we have a pre-paid plane ticket home for February 26th.