In the homeland of the Milka cow: Travelogue for Zurich, Switzerland
We organized our trip to Switzerland to visit a friend who recently lives in Zurich. We traveled in November and bought the plane tickets in September from the airline's website.
How to get to Switzerland?
The best TWO ways to get to Zurich were the following:
- A direct flight from Sofia to Zurich Airport with Bulgaria Air or Swiss Air; round-trip tickets cost about 300 BGN per person on both airlines
- Direct flight from Sofia to EuroAirport (Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg) with the low-cost airline Wizz Air; return tickets cost around 70 BGN per person.
Where are 300 leva, where are 70 leva? Of course, we chose the second option 🙂
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Now we just had to figure out how to get from EuroAirport to Zurich. This airport mainly serves low-cost airlines and is relatively small. Interestingly, even though we were traveling to Switzerland, we actually landed on French territory…! The airport itself is located in France, just a few kilometers from the borders with Switzerland and Germany. Since Switzerland is not part of the EU, the entire airport is divided in half—one section for flights arriving from and departing to Switzerland, and another for flights arriving from and departing to Germany and France. There should have been some passport checks when moving from one part of the airport to the other, but in practice, there was no one there to check.
From EuropaAirport to Zurich
There are two options for getting from EuropaAirport to Zurich:
- BY TRAIN. This is the most used and widespread way of getting around all of Switzerland. The railway system in Switzerland is of an exceptionally high standard, and you can reach almost every populated place in the country by train. However, getting from the airport to Zurich by train would cost us about 60 BGN/person each way, which, when calculated for both directions plus the plane ticket there, would come out to almost as much as if we had flown with a regular airline directly to Zurich.
- BY BUS with Flixbus. Buses in Switzerland are not very popular and are almost nonexistent. Flixbus, on the other hand, is one of the largest bus companies with routes all over Europe, and fortunately they have a line that serves the exact EuroAirport – Zurich route. The one-way return ticket cost 12.50 euros. The only drawback with Flixbus was that the travel times were quite inconvenient compared to flights from Bulgaria – for example, Wizz Air's flight from Sofia lands at the airport at around 9 AM, and the bus to Zurich was hours later, so we had to wait around at the airport for a while. On the way back, however, the times were ideal for the early flight back to Sofia
This way, our entire trip from Bulgaria to Zurich came out to 120 leva per person!
So far, so good! We’d already arranged for inexpensive transportation from Bulgaria to Zurich. But when we arrived, we were in for a total PRICE SHOCK. How can the price of the exact same thing be one thing in one place in the world, yet cost so many times more in another?
The exchange rate of the Swiss Franc is approaching that of the US Dollar against the Bulgarian Lev: 1 CHF = 1.66 BGN
PRICES IN SWITZERLAND IN CHF:
In the supermarkets: In the restaurants:
Bread – 2.70 CHF Water – 3.30
Eggs ( 12 pcs. ) – 6.20 Coca Cola, Pepsi – 4.40
Cigarettes – 8.00 Beer – 7.00
Water ( 1.5 l ) – 1.10 McDonald's meal – 14
Potatoes ( 1 kg. ) – 2.80 French fries – 4.30
Lettuce – 2.50 Budget restaurant for 1 person – 23.00
Tomatoes ( 1 kg. ) – 4.40 Mid-range restaurant for 2 people – 113.00
Bananas ( 1 kg. ) – 3.10
Feta cheese ( 1 kg. ) – 25.00
Red meat ( 1 kg. ) – 58.00
OTHER PRICES:
Movie ticket – 18.00
Taxi: 6.30 BGN (3.80 CHF) for every kilometer in Switzerland, plus starting fare: 10 BGN (6.30 CHF). For 1 hour of waiting time, the taxi driver will charge a fee: 111 BGN (67 CHF)
Our friend from Switzerland told us that just as people in Bulgaria like to buy items on sale, in Switzerland, if you buy something on sale, people look at you askance and find it really strange. The Swiss buy exactly what they want—that is, they don’t check the price tag first to see if they can afford it, because in most cases, they CAN afford it.
Due to its high standard of living, in Switzerland there are no immigrants from the Middle East – they simply cannot afford it.
In Switzerland, we had a total of three full days, spending the first two in Zurich and the surrounding area. Zurich is considered the economic and financial center of the country and in November it didn't impress us with absolutely anything. A very gray city, with a gray atmosphere and gloomy weather. Most likely, in the summer it is much more pleasant for walks and exploring. Along Lake Zurich is Zurichhorn – a huge park, which in the summer must be very pleasant, lively, with designated spots for swimming, fishing, picnics, and many venues and cafes around. A traditional pastime for the citizens of Zurich is floating down the lake on large inflatable rings or boats. In November, however, it was quite deserted and gloomy everywhere.
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Something that caught our attention was that the roofs of most buildings have been turned into beautiful terraces, where during warm summer evenings people from the building can go upstairs and have dinner or drink their coffee in the morning. The city also has many shops specifically for chocolate and chocolate products. After all, we are in the homeland of the purple Milka cow 😊
In Zurich, the public transportation system struck me as extremely confusing. It was the first place where, even with a map in hand, I couldn’t figure out which way to go… The entire transit network consists of a huge number of tram lines and buses that run through all the neighborhoods, as well as trains, boats, and elevators. Some public transit runs at night, too. The ticket price depends on the zone you’re traveling to; if you’re traveling within the same zone, the ticket costs 3.20 CHF. The ticket is valid for all modes of transportation. I recommend that you install the Zurich public transit app, which will help you easily figure out how to get to a specific location and will automatically show you which mode of transportation to take.
An interesting fact about Switzerland is that a few years ago, Swiss citizens rejected the introduction of the highest rate of 22 francs per hour. Nearly 3/4 of voters were against its introduction. However, the measure to introduce a minimum wage of 22 CHF per hour is now a fact, despite the opposition of local employers and economic organizations. For comparison, in France it is 9.70 EUR/hour.
For a standard 40-hour workweek, you’ll earn a salary of about 3,480 Swiss francs, or just over 3,000 euros. Unfortunately, with that salary in Switzerland, life is very difficult without social assistance. Rent is very high. As an example, I’ll mention some acquaintances of ours who live in Zurich and pay 1,500 francs every month for a studio apartment (a room with a kitchenette), with this price including all utility costs such as electricity, water, and heating. So rest assured that with a salary of 3,500 francs, at least half will go toward rent alone, plus a significant portion for social security contributions and an equal amount for health insurance.
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SIGHTS IN ZURICH:
The main landmark of the city is the Grossmünster church. It is believed to be one of the four main churches in Zurich. Founded by Charlemagne in the 12th century. The twin towers of this church are often considered the most recognizable landmark in Zurich.
If you have enough time, you can also walk to Lindenhof Square, the Kunsthaus museum, or attend a show at the opera house. Also, don't miss the Swiss National Museum, which houses a historical collection of Swiss coins dating back to the Middle Ages. Although small, the Old Town of Zurich attracts tourists with its medieval and gothic architecture, as well as old city fortifications and narrow streets.
In the summer, as I mentioned a little earlier, one of the most visited places is Lake Zurich. There, boat lovers will find a large number of companies offering boat rides on the lake and you can also rent ferries to some of the other cities on the shore.
Bahnhofstrasse is home to some of the most expensive real estate in all of Europe, and from Zurich Central Station begins the Main Street, dotted with the most famous and expensive clothing, footwear, tech brands, chocolate shops, and so on.
Also, another super popular thing you can do while in Zurich is to take the cable car to the University of Zurich campus, which offers a view of the entire city and surroundings.
TO THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY OF LINDT in Zurich
The next day we had decided to go to the Lindt chocolate factory. It is located a few kilometers from Zurich on the shores of the lake between the towns of Kilchberg and Rüschlikon. We were quite disappointed to find out that external visitors are not allowed inside the factory itself and the only thing we could do was to shop from their company store located right next to the factory. In the store there was a huge variety of all kinds of chocolates, truffles, other chocolate products, as well as a model of the production process of harvesting and chocolate production.
After that, we walked back from the factory to Zurich. Along the way, we saw many quaint little houses with beautiful green front yards and neat streets, and we definitely liked this part of Zurich much more than the city center. Apparently, this was where the Swiss lived; Zurich was where they worked.
On the third and final day of our stay in Switzerland, we decided it was finally time to see the famous Swiss Alps. We couldn’t come all the way to Switzerland without seeing the mountains up close. Zurich is located relatively far from the Alps, so we had to take a train there. We only had one day to make the round trip.
