Zurich, Switzerland 2/4/07

42.195 kilometers done in 3 hours and 53 minutes. The marathon that has taken up many of my thoughts for the last month is finally done! I have mixed emotions about it. On one side I’m again disappointed that I did not improve. I actually got worse. More specifically, I’m disappointed that I lacked the focus and discipline to improve. However there is nothing in the last few months, and especially in the last 10 days, that I would change so I should probably try to learn something from just that.

On the other side, knowing what condition I had left myself in for this race, I am very happy with my performance. I started to worry last Thursday night about how bad I felt and it lasted right up to race day on Sunday. I knew there was a 5 hour cut off. I’ve never walked a marathon before and I don’t know if you can walk it in under 5 hours. Frankly I wasn’t even sure I could walk 42 kilometers. That’s a new feeling compared to the previous 6 marathons that I have done, including even the first. I always knew I could finish. This time I didn't know. I just didn’t know what my body was going to feel like after a mile, let alone 15, or 20, or so on.

I’m fond of telling people that anyone can run a marathon. “It’s mind over body.” I say. “You just keep putting one foot in front of the other and eventually you’re there.” I think I proved this theory, to myself at least, yesterday when I completed the run.

My legs hurt the entire way, most specifically my left hip and what I call my Skiing Souvenir. If I had been on a training run I would have stopped after a mile and rested for a week but it was race time. No more time to rest. So I bit my lip and put one foot in front of the other.

The event itself was a great experience. There was about 5,000 runners, including 33 other Americans though I didn’t meet any. The course was great! It was very fluid with not many right angle turns. Narrow, cobble streets grew and curved into wide riverside drives and went through several of the small towns on the outskirts of Zurich. There were great crowds in each town, some with traditional Swiss bands and large cowbells, others with modern DJ’s or bands. I laughed for a kilometer at the Swiss cover band playing “Highway to Hell”.

All the fans, and homemade signs, used the phrase “Hopp, Hopp”. I think it means run or something like it. It was very catchy and I soon found more strength when people would see my name printed on my bib number and yell “Mathew. Hopp Hopp, Hopp, Hopp!” When I started the race I kept saying “Slow and steady, slow and steady” in an attempt to remind myself that the tortoise wins the race. I’m not sure at which kilometer it changed but by the end of the race my mind just kept saying “Hopp, hopp, hopp, hopp….”

Now that is enough time, energy, and ink dedicated to this one obsession. The legs and body are sore but I will recover and there will be new marathons. The medal will go in the pack and eventually in the trunk. It’s done and I’m glad but I am more pleased for having accomplished it. The reward always seems to be in the journey for me.

OK, confession time: I’m sitting in a Starbucks. I know, I know, I’m a bad traveler. There are plenty of cafes and coffee shops around that aren’t American cookie cutter franchises but to defend myself, or justify to myself I suppose because not many people would really care, the area coffee shops and cafes don’t have what I need.

Today I needed:
- A LARGE, hot, espresso drink: The traditional café portions are just not enough. I needed a gluttonous American size portion!
- A “comfy” chair, couch, footstool, etc.: The traditional straight back wood or metal chairs you find in the cafes don’t make for a good 2 to 3 hour sit, even with rested legs.
- “Atmosphere”: A factor that’s hard to define and varies a little depending on my mood but today two factors jump to mind; smoke free and good music. The trusty iPod is always handy to help any café but when I walked into this Starbucks and Ray Charles was already cranked up I just smiled. I wouldn’t need the iPod today.

My time in Zurich has been nice and I do like this City; a good mix between old and new; traditional with modern conveniences. I still have more wandering of it to do today but when I leave here tomorrow, after 5 days, and with the help of the 42.195 km that the race covered, it will be safe to say I saw most of the City.

I did some shopping with the rest of the locals, and tourists, on their popular Bahnhof Strasse, in the middle class section of course. My search for a watch, one other than my running watch that I‘ve noticed really smells, stopped when shops started putting Rolexes in the windows and the store names changed to Cartier. I thought I was on a colder version of Worth Avenue.

The Pare de Platz, which the Rough Guide said was a great plaza for people watching, was just so so. I enjoyed the waterfront more for sitting on a bench and people watching. I am staying in the area called the West End. A former industrial area turned trendy, Yuppie hangout. How many times have I seen that now? As usual it was kind of cool how they didn’t change much of the structures; just stuck some restaurants in an old factory but left some of the assembly line machines. It’s different I guess but not really my style and also very expensive.

Oh, I just remembered I need to document a couple things from my last 24 hours in Interlaken last week. Wow, how could I forget?! I chuckle just thinking about these experiences.

The first was another great cultural experience. Like I said in my last entry the place I was staying also gave me a free pass to the local gym. It was a big complex divided into Health, Wellness, & Fitness. I had been to the Fitness section a couple times which consisted of your typical exercise equipment, weights, and aerobic studios.

On my last day though I was feeling beat up, and was starting to fight the cold that I am still fighting, so I thought I would try out the Wellness section. The pictures in the brochure showed a whirl pool, sauna, and other things I couldn’t translate, but all together looked like a good way to help the muscles and body start feeling better.

Much like going to a foreign grocery store I find that going to foreign gyms is also a cultural experience. Probably any place that most tourists don’t go is a cultural experience I suppose. I like to think of myself as a traveler, not a tourist, though, and I have some experience to back that title. Even with that confidence I still get nervous, or timid, and that’s how I felt entering this new “Wellness” section but plowing straight ahead none the less.

I left the locker room with my running shorts on to act as a bathing suit I also kept a T-Shirt on, not knowing what to expect when I opened the door to the Wellness area. At first I just found the pool, a large pool that is; 3 lap lanes, diving well, separate kiddy pool. It was a big room and for a minute I thought this was what the Wellness section consisted of. I probably looked a little strange with T-Shirt, shorts, and towel walking around an indoor pool a few times but that‘s what I did.

The lady at the front desk had given me an electronic key to use to get into the Wellness area and I still had not had to use it so I figured there must be something more. Eventually I found a door on the far side of the pool area with a place to use the key but still no sign clearly showing that I was heading into the Wellness area. I put the key against the censor and it beeped. I opened the door and stepped through the looking glass.

It was a smaller section; very quiet, nobody in sight, all signs in Swiss. I saw some hooks and shelves with some towels and clothes on them so I took the cue. Now just in my shorts I headed to the huge whirl pool that took up a corner of the room. The water wasn’t as hot as I would have liked it but it was surrounded by glass and with the sun shining through it felt great. I quickly found a button that turned on the bubbles and they went to work on my sore back,

I was feeling better within minutes and was smiling at how nice this place was. I couldn’t believe I was getting this from a $20 a night hostel. “This is better than any hotel I have ever stayed.” I thought. From my comfy seat in the bubbling water and sunshine I started to look around the Wellness area to see what else it offered and that’s when the cultural experience slapped me in the face. A buck naked woman walked by! No towel! No nothing! Not going in a door or something. Just walking around!

I looked away immediately like I didn’t see anything and in my mind I waited for the scream. My mind was racing...“I must be in the wrong section or something! Oh my God you idiot you are in the Women’s locker room! No the key the lady game me opened this door! Why would she give me a key to the women’s side if I wasn’t supposed to be here?” A thousand thoughts and scenarios like this raced through my mind in a matter of seconds. In my head there was commotion. Outside I was sitting dead calm, eyes closed, in the corner of a bubbling pool of water hoping the entire world never noticed me.

The scream never came though and the idea that woman just hadn’t noticed me was pretty much ruled out no matter how much I wished it was the case. She had looked right at me. So still from my comfort zone in the whirl pool I started to look around again. This time a naked dude walked by! Again I looked away immediately but, very secure in my heterosexuality, I will admit to never being happier at seeing a naked man in my life! At least I knew I was in the right area and not about to be arrested for trespassing in a women’s spa.

Eventually my bubbles stopped and I knew it was time to leave the comfy water and see what the rest of the room had to offer my development. Kind of like evolution I suppose. As I walked to the towel area, my new confident, yet still very glancing, survey of the room determined that there were probably just 3 or 4of us there, unless someone else was hiding in the sauna or behind one of the other sauna like doors with names above them that I could not translate. Now I felt a little odd having my shorts on still but they were already wet. “I leave this town tomorrow. What do I care what they think of me?” I thought to myself.

The one sign that needed no translation though was on the sauna door and it clearly showed stick figures of a man and woman with bathing suits on and “X” s clearly showing that the clothing was not allowed in the sauna. OK, here we go! I was naked in public in Japan. Time to kick it up a notch in Switzerland and go co-ed! Off came the shorts!

Being naked in that situation normally would have made me more relaxed. After all I now blended in with everyone else. Plus I didn’t know any of them. “I leave this town tomorrow. What does it matter?” I still thought to myself. However now I was embarrassed for a different reason. My “Skiing Souvenir”!

My Skiing Souvenir is a HUGE, blue, black, purple, yellow, sometimes green bruise that goes from mid way down the side and back of my left thigh and up to my waist and gets wider, and more purple, through the obvious fleshy part in the middle. In a room of naked people it would still be the first thing you noticed. I would not blend in.

I hid my bruise as best I could with my towel as I walked around form one Wellness feature to the next. However lying naked in a sauna, except for a strategically placed hand towel of course, I did catch two ladies pointing at it and grimacing a little like it actually hurt them too. “Oh well,” I thought, “I leave this town tomorrow…..”

I really enjoyed my 2 hours of naked time in the Interlaken town Wellness Center. I hit the sauna and whirlpool a couple times. A spent a little time in the vapor room which I think helped keep my cold from getting worse, and lots of time just sitting in a chez lounge in a glass enclosed sun deck, with a towel on of course. I felt better physically, spiritually, and culturally for the experience. A true traveler experience!

- Pause -

It was time to stretch the legs some and my coffee was long gone so off I wandered. A couple trams later I am now in the Old Town Section of Zurich. I’m sitting at a sunny table outside of Café Bar Annabelle, not far from the iconic Gross Munster church. Wow, what a gorgeous day!

The weather has me feeling good and so does my lunch. When you order food, never fully understanding what each word in the description means, when it arrives there is always a surprise. This time I was 80% sure I was getting a turkey bagel sandwich. I was pleasantly surprised to find a slice of pineapple on it. Very nice! That must be what “ananas” means. It’s either that or eisbergsalat”. I’m not sure what that means either but all the bagel sandwich options had it so I’m guessing it’s a spread of some sort.

This is how almost every meal goes for me. Figuring out the words I know, comparing the rest, making an educated guess, and hoping for the best. I know I could ask. Almost everyone speaks some English here in Europe but that wouldn’t be near as fun. Besides how would I learn anything? Plus I unknowingly try new things this way too. For example, I need to put pineapple on more sandwiches! Yum!

OK, back to Interlaken and time to wrap up this entry. The morning I was checking out of the great Backpackers Villa I was just getting dressed when there was a knock at the door; an odd thing when you are sharing the room with several people, in this instance with 4 South Koreans. People just walk in and out. You don’t know who is “supposed” to be there or not so you don't knock. So I was curious as I opened the door but down right surprised when I found a 3 man camera crew standing outside.

A Swiss guy that I had seen around the place a couple times, and was probably part of the staff, was there and said “Hi, we are filming a commercial for the Villa would you mind if we come in and shoot your room?”

Feeling like I had little ownership of the room, and if I did I still wouldn’t have cared, I said sure, thinking he meant “the room”. Then he says, “Great! We’ll close the door and knock again. You open it and welcome us in.”
I started laughing. “Oh, you want me in it.”
“Yes, is OK? “Ya. No problem.” I chuckled. “Just let me put on a shirt.”

“Knock, knock” on the door and my Swiss TV commercial was off and running. I felt like I was on a reality show. “Just do what you were doing,” they said. So they filmed me gathering things up to leave and packing my backpack. They loved me brushing my teeth and I gave them a little “rabid dog snarl” which is always a must when brushing your teeth on camera. They loved it so I’m sure it’s set to make the final cut.

After that I went to breakfast and then they called me back to do a staged check in and check out. It was hilarious! The film crew didn’t speak English so all their requests, or directions I should say, went through the Villa’s staff who kept apologizing when they would want me to do something a second or third time.

Of course it didn’t bother me. I’m used to it and the whole thing took about an hour on a morning when I had plenty of time to catch my train. In the end they were very appreciative and offered me a free T-Shirt and hat for my services. I don’t need to carry another T just yet so I accepted the Victorinox baseball cap and went through with my actual check out. The real payment will come when someone that knows me is randomly watching TV in Europe and sees me brushing my teeth!

I also gave the crew and staff some CD’s of The Nadas. After hanging with Jason and the guys back in February he sent me a case of CD’s to seed Europe for their eventual tour. I put as many as I could in the pack and have been handing them out to various roomies as I travel. (So far it’s mostly South Koreans so if The Nadas suddenly take off there you’ll know why.)

My lunch is done now and it’s time to move on again. One more night in Zurich and then down to a town on the Italian border called Lugano….and just when my Swiss was getting better. How do you say pineapple in Italian?
MJF