Kara and Nate Buchanan document their first day in Switzerland (their 92nd country) after a 10-hour train from Italy, timed to coincide with Swiss National Day. They attend a Zurich parade and fair, try Swiss specialties (raclette, a Swiss milk soda, 80% dark chocolate, cheese and chocolate fondue), observe local bathing and picnic culture around the lake, note the city’s high prices and watch shops, and visit a vegetarian restaurant that they say holds a Guinness World Record for oldest continuously operating vegetarian restaurant.
Questions this video answers
10 hours.
Their 92nd country.
Since 1891.
The formation of a protective alliance between three cantons in the 13th century.
$9.
Chapters
If you're new around here, I'm Kara, and this is my husband Nate. Our goal is to visit a hundred countries by the end of the year. So yesterday we boarded a train and rode 10 hours from Italy to our 92nd country of Switzerland.
And it also happens to be Swiss National Day. We've heard that most of the Swiss actually go into the countryside to celebrate. But since we don't have any Swiss friends to invite us, we are here in Zurich, and we are heading to a parade.
The Swiss have been celebrating their National Day since 1891. The holiday commemorates the formation of a protective alliance between three cantons back in the 13th century. This alliance was the start of the unification that eventually became Switzerland.
On a normal day in Zurich, there aren't people walking around in traditional clothes. There aren't people blowing big horns. But I feel like, as a tourist, this is how you've always pictured Switzerland in your head, and this is exactly what you want to see.
It's amazing.
Apparently, at Swiss parades, instead of throwing out candy, they give you cookies.
Parade has ended in this little park area, and it's kind of like a fair. Like, there's all these tents with lots of food. Everybody's eating and drinking, and it's not even lunchtime yet. We have no plans the rest of the day. We have no idea what to expect, but I have a feeling it's going to be fun. Cheesy potatoes. Was that all cheese? Is that all melted cheese? Swiss cheese.
Nate told me, you're not ready for this, so I thought it was going to be something really gross. And then he pulled out the most giant, beautiful slab of melty cheese and poured it on top of potatoes.
Okay, so I know this sounds ridiculous, but one of the reasons I was so excited to come to Switzerland was for the cheese. Look at this. We're having our first Swiss cheese experience. It's called ratlette. And then we top it off with pepper and paprika, and it comes with a little side of pickles and onions.
This plate was $9. I am so sad that that's over.
So we're washing down our cheese with a traditional Swiss drink. We've seen this everywhere to the point that I had to start researching it. And it a Swiss soda made with milk. I'm picturing, like, the juice that's left over after making cheese.
It doesn't smell milky.
There's people watching me.
I think it's really good. It doesn't taste like milk at all.
I wanted it to be bad, but it's really not. I kind of like it. Like a tangy ginger.
Al.
We spent the next hour or so just wandering around the lakeshore.
We learned there's a big bathing culture here in Zurich, so all the locals were taking advantage of the perfect summer weather. Hanging out by the water, enjoying the sunshine.
Oh, gosh. Do we go together?
I think I'm gonna need to go with you. I think you need to hold my hand.
One.
There.
Six.
Oh, this is really nice.
I really don't like jumping off of things.
Apparently, the thing to do in Zurich in the summer is jump in the river and just float down.
There are so many people.
We brought a dry bag with some holes in it.
Not very dry bag.
I guess this is what do when you live in a landlocked country.
It is insane how many people are here, and they're all, like, local people just hanging out. Then we made our way into the old town, where the architecture made it feel like we were walking through a medieval movie set.
We've only been here for a day, but we are loving Switzerland and feel like we really missed out by waiting so long to travel here.
If you look at a map of all of the countries that we've been to, Switzerland pretty much sits as an island inside of Europe, surrounded by a bunch of other countries that we've already marked off our list. And that was kind of intentional because we've always viewed this as a place that would be too expensive for us.
To enjoy, especially back in 2016 when our budget was $75 per day and our hotel alone is double that per night.
Let's just say it's a good thing we waited until now. This street that we're walking down now is actually one of the most expensive retail streets in the entire.
16,900. That one says 21,025.
One of the things that's been really fun about walking around today is there's a ton of these shops that have fancy watches in them, and most of them have price tags, so you can tell that you're standing face to face with a $50,000 watch.
So we have officially been inspired Switzerland for almost exactly 24 hours now, and we have made a tragic mistake. We have not had Swiss chocolate yet, so we're on the hunt. Let's go. Hello, Cara from the future here. Every chocolate shop that we tried to go in yesterday was closed, but today they're open again, so we are finally going to try our first Swiss chocolate.
Did I cannot believe this. The chocolate shop that we really, really wanted to go to Today just closed.
But the lady in there was so nice. She literally just closed the register. So she had no way of taking our money. So she just gave us two pieces.
Of chocolate because I was so upset.
I think it was Kara's face.
It was so sweet of her. So this isn't the only chocolate shop in Zurich, but it's extra special. We really wanted to try this one. So I love all chocolate. I really don't discriminate, but I really love dark chocolate, which is why I was so excited to try this place because they have this special patented cold extraction method that's supposed to make the dark chocolate less bitter. Kind of like a cold brew coffee. That's less bitter than a regular coffee. Okay, this is it. My first Swiss dark chocolate.
Wow.
Okay, that's crazy. This is 80% dark chocolate. Not bitter at all. Super smooth, like milk chocolate. That's 80%. Okay, now back to real life.
So it seems like almost everything in the city is closed at this point. There really hasn't been much going on since the parade this morning. We've actually heard from a couple locals that the majority of people who live in the city use this day to leave the city. So we're going to take a cue.
From the locals and get picnic supplies and go eat it by the lake at sunset. And apparently everyone else in Zurich decided that was a good idea too because there are like a million people here. Some of the shelves are empty. This is Haley.
I think we figured out where everybody was.
So many people.
This is awesome. A continuous mile long picnic party. We have picnic parties?
Yeah. If there ever was one. We are at a picnic party.
Our picnic consists of Stevie croissants, some cold meat, Swiss cheese, Swiss Riesling, and this bun called a August Wiggin.
I think it's August Wheatley.
August weekly. It's Swiss thing and it has a Swiss flag and it's national Day, so.
It's amazing. Bees like it too.
We actually ended up spending a couple more days in Zurich creating content for a new hotel that just opened up. It was a super busy couple of days, but of course we made time to try a few foods that Switzerland is famous for. Starting with the much anticipated cheese fondue.
One would have been pudding. The guy was like, yeah, for sure, for sure. Try to.
They literally give you a basket of bread to dip into your own. This is the dinner of my drink.
The next day, we went in search for a slightly healthier option.
The restaurant that we were about to go eat at holds the Guinness Book of World records for the oldest continuously operating vegetarian restaurant in the world. A lot of qualifiers, but we've heard the food's supposed to be very good.
This Sunday is huge. There's way too many. So the dangerous thing about this place is they charge you based on how much your plate weighs. And with that many beautiful vegetarian options, you could really get yourself in trouble. Thankfully, we made a couple rounds. First, we made a plan. We kept it under a kilo each, but that does include the plate. I basically got half a plate of all green, beautiful fresh vegetables and the other half fried stuff.
A big plate of greens is much needed after last night's two pots of fondue. This is like, the perfect meal for after that. Either that or an entire plate of prunes. Tmi.
I actually ate cheese for breakfast this morning. We ended our time in Zurich the best way we could think of. Chocolate fondue.
It's hard to imagine how life can.
Get any better right now.
Ready?
No, hold my hand.
I can't hold your hand. I have to hold the camera.
Okay, good.
Don't hold my arm. Don't hold my arm.
Don't hit. No, stay close.
It's like 10ft.
Okay.
No, I hope I have this tight one. Oh, I really need, like, a wrist strap or something for this.
