Munich beach

Not only does Munich have surfing, but there's also a beach here. Well, not so much a beach as an outdoor bar with some dirty sand and a couple beach chairs, but hey, what do you expect? The nearest sea is a couple countries away.

We went to check out the Strand Bar last night. Located in the middle of the Corneliusbrücke spanning the Isar River (near the Deutsches Museum), the bar serves up a very limited selection of drinks, including mojitos (very good) and Weissweinschorle in a bottle (absolutely undrinkable). The atmosphere and location were enjoyable, and we would have loved to stay longer if it wasn't for these menacing clouds in the distance (see photo below). We grabbed our mojitos and made a run for it, getting to the next bar just as the deluge started. Good times.

Bozeman, Montana: me likey

Still in Montana, having a fabulous time. We spent a day in Bozeman, which I found to be an absolutely charming little town. Not to outdo the NYT guy, but we covered quite a lot of ground during our short visit:

• Lunch at Pickle Barrel, a famous Montana chain of sandwich shops. I kind of liked the lack of options offered - only one kind of bread, no design-your-own million options, just "do you want everything on that or not?" My cheese and veggie sandwich was delightful.
  
  
• Wandering Main Street, browsing some stores and art galleries, and admiring the octopus-like Christmas decorations. While tempted by the delightful assortment of guns and hunting supplies on offer, we managed to resist making any purchases.
  
  
• Coffee at The Leaf and Bean. Comfy little espresso bar with an extensive tea selection, fresh juices, and cute gifts.
  
  
• The Museum of the Rockies, a short, snowy car ride from Main Street. Dinosaurs, bats, Native Americans, and Ansel Adams photographs. Lots of fun.
  
  
• Drinks at Montana Ale Works, a great bar, restaurant, and pool hall on Main Street. Loved the extensive beer menu. And since it was happy hour, pints of yummy local ales were $2.50. Which is about, what, a euro these days?
  
  
• Dinner and more drinks at Plonk. My friend Peter (who lives in Bozeman) described this place as the hippest spot in Montana, and I believe he could be right. My fresh basil ginger martini-like thing (I forget the name of the drink) was awesome. The food was fabulous, too.
  

Doing Dublin

We spent a little time in Dublin at the beginning and end of our trip to Ireland, split up that way so we could take advantage of the direct flights between Dublin and Zurich on Aer Lingus. It was one of my first experiences with European discount airlines (since most don’t fly out of Zurich), and overall I have to say they seemed to have their act together. Everything costs extra: from checked luggage, to advance seat assignments, to beverages and snacks on board the plane. But I found myself not really minding all that, especially since the plane was new and clean and more or less on time. Direct flights make me happy.

Shortly after we arrived we met up with Beth for dinner in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. Temple Bar is the main touristy nightlife district, and was hopping even on a Monday evening. It was great to meet Beth in person, and a fabulous start to our trip. After dinner, I wandered off to find a pint of Guinness, since, well, that’s what you’re supposed to do on your first trip to Ireland, right?

Since we only had one full day for sightseeing in Dublin (and since we hadn’t bothered to figure out what we wanted to see ahead of time), we opted for the hop on – hop off tourist bus. This is the kind of thing we usually avoid, but it turned out to serve our purposes quite well. The drivers provided cheerful, kitschy live commentary (and how can you not love those accents?). We “hopped off” to visit Dublinia, an interactive exhibit about life in medieval Dublin, where we learned fun facts such as that Vikings never actually wore horned helmets (although that didn’t stop them from being sold by the boatload in the gift shop).

After a greasy pub lunch accompanied by some delicious ale, we hopped back on the bus until it reached the Guinness Storehouse, a gigantic, multi-media exhibit dedicated to the glory of Arthur Guinness and the black liquid he brewed. Although we’ve established that I’m not a fan of the drink, the exhibit was extremely well done, and a fun way to pass a couple rainy hours. We cashed in our tokens for free pints at the Gravity bar and enjoyed the panoramic view (and a rainbow) before heading back to the bus to see some more Dublin sites from the top deck. A yummy Thai dinner was followed by a couple pints of tasty microbrew at The Porter House.

Dublin wasn’t as… what’s the word I’m looking for? It wasn’t as cute as I expected it to be. Perhaps too much time living in a pristine city like Zurich led me to notice Dublin’s rough edges more than I normally would have. But I did enjoy it, and it had a good city vibe. Plus, Ireland had several other towns that more than made up for Dublin’s lack of cuteness.

A snack with a view

Back in Zurich, more guests to entertain. This time we opted for a trip up the Zürichberg, the mountain which borders Zurich on the east (take tram 6 from the main station). Although less celebrated than the Uetliberg to the west, the Zürichberg can be entertaining, too. The zoo is up there, as are several hiking trails, not to mention some gigantic houses with incredible views of the city and the lake.

A short uphill walk from the tram stop and you're at the Hotel Zürichberg, a swank place with a snooty restaurant and stylish bar. Both the bar and the restaurant have terraces that boast the lovely lake view. On a clear day you can see all the way to the snow-capped Alps.

We snagged front-row seats on the bar's terrace and ordered from the extensive ice cream menu. I went with the pear sorbet in williamine, a strong, clear, pear-flavored liquor similar to kirsch. Given how liberal they were with the williamine, the price was actually pretty reasonable, too. Or maybe I've just lived in Zurich too long and have lost all perspective on reasonable pricing. At any rate, it was a lovely way to spend an hour on a pleasant Saturday afternoon.

Times Square from above and below

The steaming cup o' soup is gone, but otherwise Times Square looks pretty much the same as it did the last time I was here.



One of those cheesy touristy things I love to do in New York is have a drink at The View, a revolving bar and restaurant on the 48th floor of the Marriott Marquis at Times Square (not to be confused with the Rosie O'Donnell talk show of the same name). The view at The View is fabulous day or night, and even the elevator ride up and down is fun.





Sure the drinks are pricey, but not outrageous by New York standards. A beer costs around $6-7 (plus tip). Sip it slowly to ensure you get to make the full circle - a revolution takes one hour. Early evening seems to be the best time to go, and I've luckily never had to wait to be seated. There's a cover charge for the lounge after 9PM. I've never been tempted to try the food at the lounge or the restaurant... there are just too many other delicious places to eat in NYC.

Seefeld doesn't suck

I'm getting a little better about going out and enjoying this "beautiful" weather we're having. If I just pretend it's summer I can usually stand to leave the house without bitching and moaning to everyone I see about how much I love snow and WHERE DID WINTER GO? I have to admit it is fun to be out and about in Zurich on a sunny, clear day.

The other day I spent the afternoon wandering around Seefeld, a neighborhood along the lake which contains a mix of beautiful buildings, interesting shops, and hip bars and restaurants (well, hip for Zurich, anyway). I started with a little walk in the park by the lake, near Zürichhorn (a horn-shaped piece of land which juts out into the lake), soaking up the beautiful surroundings that I take for granted much too often.

I met a friend for lunch at Ginger, a relatively new sushi bar which is non-smoking. Most Zurich restaurants are so smoky you can't taste your food, so the non-smoking thing is very big (although disappointingly rare). As if that weren't enough to make me love the place, it has one of those mini conveyor belts running around the bar that the little plates of sushi travel on. Who came up with this method of sushi presentation? And why does it delight me so? Moving sushi - does life get any better?

Later in the afternoon I met a couple more friends to try out a new wine bar, D-Vino, which has popped up in Seefeld (next to Yooji's, yet another moving-sushi restaurant - can you believe there are two?). We learned from one of the bartenders that this was a sort of trial prototype wine bar, brought to you by Denner, a low-end supermarket chain which sells lots of wine (it balances out the Swiss retail universe, since another supermarket chain, Migros, refuses to sell wine at all). At least the same people who design Denner stores didn't design this wine bar, since the interior was actually quite nice. And more than half of the bar was non-smoking. So at least I've found a good place to go drown my sorrows about the lack of winter.

A little Tuesday afternoon entertainment

Now that I've finally figured out how to post videos, I feel obliged to keep my promise and share a clip of the greatest entertainer of all time (or at least the greatest entertainer in all of Zermatt on a particular Saturday night in May).



Marco sings Crocodile Rock, or something like it on Vimeo

Can you believe I actually had to DRAG my friend Alison into the bar to see this guy perform? (By the way, she's the one singing 'la la la' the loudest on the tape.)

From Badi to Wurst

(Alternate title: more hot, sweaty summer in Zurich, with guests)



The visitor parade is almost over, and none too soon. Don’t get me wrong – I have adored the chance to spend time with each and every one of the dear friends who have come to see us this summer, but I am the worst warm-weather tour guide ever. When the temperatures soar, all I want to do is hide from the sun. Not easy to do when you’re out walking around the city all day.

Kesha compared me to some creature on a sci-fi show that can’t go in the light and just slinks along from shadow to shadow; this basically sums up how I move around in the summer, if I have to move around at all.

Even so, we’ve managed to have a little bit of fun here and there. Boat rides across Lake Zurich are cool and breezy, as long as you are on a big boat and not one of those small, stuffy glass-topped things. The Kunsthaus café is cool and relaxing, even if the top floors of the museum could use some air-conditioning. And if you go to dinner late enough, and sit outside, you might just be able to enjoy a nice meal without having the seat stick to the back of your legs.

Even better than riding a boat across the lake is actually swimming in the lake. While Badi abound on Zurich’s lake and rivers (which charge around CHF 6 admission and provide useful facilities like changing rooms), my new favorite spot to swim is in the park at Zürichhorn, which can be reached by boat, bus, or tram. The grassy areas are packed full of sunbathers in the afternoon, but there’s always room in the water.



The restaurants that have been the biggest hits with our guests (who were almost all disappointed to learn that summer is not exactly fondue season) are listed below. All offer outdoor seating and menus in English (although the daily specials are only listed in German. I am getting good at translating food, even though I still don’t have a clue what most of the meats are).



Zeughauskeller is awfully proud of its extensive Wurst menu (see picture), but also offers a couple options for us vegetarians, as well as plenty of meats of the non-encased variety.

Linde Oberstrass offers big salads and Fladenbrot (sort of like a thin-crust pizza, but swissified), which make good summer foods, along with pastas and a bunch of typical Swiss meat-and-potatoes dishes.

Crazy Cow has traditional Swiss food that tends to be on the heavy side, so save this one for a really cool evening, or better yet, the winter.

Hiltl combines two of my favorite things: a huge variety of delicious vegetarian food, and air-conditioning that you can actually feel. The special summer ginger shandy I had there was pretty yummy, too.

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To all our summertime visitors: please do come back to see us in winter. You will find me a changed person. I love winter, and winter in Switzerland is hard to beat. Snow-covered Alps, Christmas markets, skiing, Glühwein, sledding, fondue, raclette… I will be so freakin’ enthusiastic you won’t even recognize me.

Why do all the teams I like suck at penalty shots?

So we watched the last Swiss World Cup game at El Lokal along with a couple hundred other hopeful Swiss fans. Despite Ali's and my enthusiastic American-style face painting, things did not go well for Schwiiz. They lost to Ukraine in penalty kicks. We were all sad, especially because it meant there would not be another riot in Zurich.



I guess it's back to rooting for Italy for me.

Summer in zee City

Remember how June started with below-freezing temperatures in Zurich? I miss that. I really do. As far as I am concerned, we could skip the rest of summer and go straight to ski season right now. But, alas, I don’t control the seasons (at least not yet), so I continue to suffer along in heat that makes me wish I were sitting in the middle of an over-air-conditioned American theater sucking icy cold ice water through a straw. Our teeny-tiny European freezer doesn’t hold enough ice to get me through the day, and of course our apartment is un-air-conditioned. This is about as close as I get to homesick.

As tempted as I am to just go into hibernation until the temperature drops, life keeps pulling me out of bed, luring me with riverside beer gardens, weekend trips to snowy mountains, and non-stop soccer on TV.

I am thoroughly grateful for the entertainment provided by the World Cup this month. We entered lotteries for tickets to a couple matches, but I have recently found myself thinking that it’s much more pleasant to watch them from my couch (with an icy cold drink) than it would be to sit in the sunny, hot stands drinking lukewarm beer. Needless to say, I won’t be too disappointed if we don’t actually get any tickets.

Despite my whining, I am actually trying to make the best of this heat wave. In addition to watching several World Cup matches in various fan-packed bars are restaurants around town, I have been busy sampling other aspects of Zurich’s summertime offerings. One of my favorite activities (if sitting and drinking counts as an ‘activity’) has become gathering up a couple friends and spending the afternoon at one of Zurich’s many waterfront drinking establishments. A favorite is the cool and convenient Bauschänzli, a large beer garden in the middle of the Limmat River in downtown Zurich. With shade provided by giant trees, and a cool breeze off the water, this is a lovely place to escape the heat.

Swimming is another fun pastime for when the temperatures soar. Even on the hottest days, the water in the Limmat and Lake Zurich is cool and invigorating. One can go to one of the various public baths around the city, or just hop in at the many less formal swimming areas. The Frauenbad is right next to the Bauschänzli and offers a pool as well as an enclosed area for swimming in the river itself surrounded by a deck for sunbathing. As its name implies, the Frauenbad is only for women, but there is also a Männerbad in the city, as well as a couple co-ed baths.

Another good swimming area is right next to the Wollishofen boat stop on the lake. The boat to get here is part of the city’s public transportation network, and is free for holders of day, month, or year passes. A short walk down the shore is the Rote Fabrik, a graffiti-covered converted brick factory that contains a restaurant, exhibition space, and a night club, among other things.

While I won’t be turning into a sun-worshipper anytime soon, I am starting to look at the positives. At the very least, Zurich is a whole lot better place to spend summer than Milan (our previous home) was. Not only is Milan a whole lot hotter and muggier, but it has no body of water to speak of (half-dried-up canals don’t count). Hooray for the lake.

A Day in Basel

To further my goal of getting to know every corner of Switzerland, I recently rounded up a few friends and took a day trip to Basel, which is about an hour away from Zurich by train (as I’ve said before – one of the big benefits of living in Zurich is all of the cool day trips that are around).

From the train station in Basel, we walked towards the old town. We immediately noticed that, like Bern, Basel was less meticulously clean and orderly than Zurich. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Our first stop was to admire the Tinguely Fountain, a busy arrangement of water-spewing figures that entertained us for at least a good 10 minutes. It also solidified our decision to make the Tinguely Museum part of our day.


Next we stopped for a quick coffee at the trendy café fumare non fumare (Gerbergasse 30). My double espresso was horrible, but the spinach-filled Italian rice ball was delicious.

We ploughed onward through the old town and searched the river bank for the king who was sticking out his tongue at the peasants on the other shore. All our guidebooks mentioned him, but we weren’t having any luck, so we decided to get a little tongue-sticking-out in ourselves. Damn peasants! We really showed them.


Anyway, we finally found the king, and stood mesmerized by his mechanical tongue motions and eye rolls for a couple seconds before crossing to the other side of the river in search of the Tinguely Museum. The walk along the river to get there was longer than we expected, but enjoyable given the beautiful views and charming neighborhoods (not so bad given it was the peasant side of the river).

The Tinguely Museum was tons of fun. I usually enjoy museums, but the squiggly, squeaky, twirly, interactive sculptures that filled this one made it good for visitors with even the shortest attention spans. To set each motorized sculpture in motion, the viewer has to step on a big red button on the floor. The buttons didn’t always work, however, so we always felt special when our step was the one that made things go.


The exhibit left us famished, so we had a quick lunch in the museum’s restaurant and headed out again. We took a tram back towards the center and wandered up to the Münster, which was back on the tongue king’s side of the river. This big Gothic cathedral has a beautiful countyard and a back terrace that offers more gorgeous views across the river.

We then headed down some steep stairs to the river bank for a quick ride across on this little boat attached to a wire which we had seen crisscrossing the swiftly-moving river all day. That brought us conveniently back to a group of riverside restaurants we had passed earlier in the day, so we decided to stop for a beer and to enjoy the view.


Then it was back to the old town again, to explore more little streets and to see the Spalentor, a Gothic gate that dates to 1370. It used to be part of the defensive wall that encircled the city. We were also delighted to come across this guy, who appears to be the beer super hero of Basel.


One of our guidebooks recommended a bar that was sort of nearby, so we headed there for an aperitif. Cargo Bar (St. Johanns Rheinweg 46) was a small, hip, student-hang-out-y kind of place, with a friendly bartender who apologized profusely for his inability to make a proper dry martini (my fault for expecting a dry martini to be, well, not sweet).

Finally it was time for a late dinner at a delicious tapas bar, Spalenburg (Schnabelgasse 2), that we found in the old town. Somehow we managed to eat everything we ordered (which had to have been close to one of each thing on the menu). A mad dash to the train station, and we were on our way home to Zurich. I can’t believe we managed to do all of that in one day. And, we still have to go back to see the many other interesting museums, and to sample some of the yummy-looking (but closed for the holiday) restaurants we saw.

[note: apologies for the formatting. Blogger is being a pain in the ass and not uploading pictures correctly.]

Zurich’s more colorful side

For anyone who’s a bit bored with Zurich’s uniform cleanliness, peace, and order, a stroll down Langstrasse could be just what you need. Although still uncharacteristically clean for a street half-filled with head shops, dollar stores, and strip clubs, this neighborhood feels completely different from the city center, so much so that you may forget which country you’re in.

I’m pretty sure this is the only place in Zurich where I have seen illegal street vendors (apparently a whole lot of bedroom linen sets recently fell off a truck somewhere), but they don’t seem to appear in large numbers (at least, nothing like the quantities found in Italian cities). Even the flea market at Helvetia Platz (on Saturdays) seemed to be well-regulated, making me wonder how some of those vendors could possibly be making money out there, given the piles of useless junk they had to offer. 1980s-era car phone, anyone? A snarl of random cables?

One of the first things you’ll notice about Langstrasse is how multicultural the area feels. The eateries range from Middle-Eastern to Chinese to Caribbean, as do the people you see walking down the street (the rest of Zurich looks lily-white in comparison). One restaurant I can recommend, Lily’s, offers a mishmash of Asian dishes (including Thai, Vietnamese, and Indian) either to take away or enjoy in a casual, modern dining area.

The kebab stands and kitsch shops are sandwiched in between bars and pubs which cover the spectrum from sleazy to swank. On a nice day, outdoor seating at any number of locales offers excellent people-watching opportunities. At night, Langstrasse takes on a lively and somewhat seedy feel (which is not altogether different from how it feels during the day). One of my favorite bars in this area is Cafe Memphis, which offers live music several nights a week.

Langstrasse stretches from Limmat Platz, which is a little northwest of the main train station, to Badenerstrasse, which offers its own charm, though more stereotypically Zurich. It is easily reachable by several tram lines, and Bus 32 takes you down the entire street.

Dresden (the 3rd and final part of my recent Germany trip)

After a few hours in Halle I jumped on a train to Dresden to meet up with my friend Natale, who was eager to see a piece of the GDR after reading Stasiland, an excellent book about an Aussie who explores the East after the wall fell. I warned her in advance that we may be hard-pressed to find authentic East-German experiences 17 years after the fact, but that I’d do my best to dig something up for her. I was thrilled to have someone to talk to about my east(ern) German experience who was actually interested in hearing it.

Despite being pummeled by the Allies and then neglected by the communists, Dresden is a gorgeous city. Certain landmarks, such as the Frauenkirche and the Zwinger, have only recently emerged from extensive renovations (or in the case of the Frauenkirche, being completely rebuilt). The Altstadt is full of large, regal, beautiful buildings, and the Neustadt (which is luckily nothing like Halle’s Neustadt) is full of hip cafes and restaurants.



The one semi-authentic piece of 'Ostalgie' (nostalgia for the GDR) we managed to find (in addition to the occasional Trabbi) was a bar called Knast. True to its name, this place gives you a little look into what it was like to be in an East German prison (well, except no one tortures you, and you get to drink beer). But I’m pretty convinced it was almost as depressing as being in the hands of the Stasi.

What was meant to be a couple days of exploring this adorable city unfortunately turned into a couple days in bed sick for me (while Nat shopped, explored, and made trips to the pharmacy). At least we were in a nice hotel that was close to a 24-hour clinic. The doctors and nurses were exceedingly friendly and warm, and they succeeded in making me nostalgic (or rather, Ostalgic) for my time living in this culture, despite my raging fever. It was nice to be an appreciated novelty (American who spoke German and had lived in eastern Germany) instead of a common nuisance (non-Swiss-German-speaking resident foreigner) again, too.

Luckily the antibiotics kicked in soon enough for me to make my scheduled flight home without feeling like complete ass. At the airport gift shop I picked up a couple of bottles of Rotkäppchen and a Dresden shot glass to add to my collection. I boarded the plane convinced that I needed to move back to the former GDR. Now how to persuade the husband of this?

Dresden is probably the most beautiful European city I’ve been to that hasn’t been overrun by tourists yet. As opposed to its neighbor Prague, Dresden just doesn’t seem to make it onto many people’s travel itineraries, probably because you already have plenty of other German destinations on there. For what it’s worth, I really, really recommend it (but not to people who freak out if not everyone they encounter speaks English). I’m looking forward to returning soon.

I love love love Berlin

We spent Easter weekend in Berlin with Kesha and her giant husband (who, by the way, looked quite reasonably-sized among the Germans). I lived in Berlin for the summer of 1997, and hadn’t been back to the city since 1999, so I was eager to revisit my favorite parts and see how the place had changed in the past seven years. Here are some of the highlights from the trip.

Biennial. This large-scale art show was installed in a variety of buildings along Auguststraße in Berlin-Mitte, including private apartments, a ballroom, and a former Jewish girls’ school that has been abandoned for 10 years (and was re-opened just for this exhibit). It was the kind of exhibit that gets into your brain and makes you think, but doesn’t necessarily give you anything intelligent to say. For days afterwards, I went around critiquing almost everything I saw as art.

At the very start of Auguststraße, where it intersects with Oranienburgerstraße, I had the chance to briefly re-visit Tacheles. Back in 1997 it was a mostly gutted and bombed-out shell of a building that had been turned into a couple bars and a cinema by squatters. We used to go there often to see undubbed movies in English, and to drink cheap beer while watching the crazy variety of people around. Today the building has been renovated and glassed-in, but the remnants of the bombed-out part were left there (although cleaned up a bit).

Walking, drinking, more walking. We spent the better part of Saturday wandering through the heart of East Berlin. We started with some shopping and lunch in the hip neighborhood around Hackescher Markt, and then meandered towards Museum Insel, an island in the Spree River which is home to several museums and the magnificent Berliner Dom, an imposing, gorgeous neo-renaissance cathedral.

On our way to Alexanderplatz, the center of East Berlin and the home of the Fernsehturm, we visited the Ampelmann store, which was full of kitschy souvenirs featuring the adorable little guys from the East-German walk/don’t walk signs.

Next we headed to the Nikolaiviertel, an adorable little medival-style area that was created by East-German architects in the 1980s. There we found a nice outdoor café and I forced Kesha to try Berliner Weisse, a bizarre drink that is technically beer, but thanks to the sweet syrup flavoring (you can have “red” or “green”) it tastes more like something that should contain an umbrella. She actually liked it enough to order it again that night.

Afterwards we walked back towards Museum Insel and continued on along Unter den Linden, the showcase of East Berlin. This street, which leads to the former border crossing near Brandenburger Tor, was über-maintained by the GDR to show just how wonderful things were behind the iron curtain. Along the way we stopped to see the memorial at Bebelplatz and the fancy Peugeot design showroom (this is the boys’ fault), and also wandered through a couple random souvenir shops.


Reichstag Dome. When I lived in Berlin, the Reichstag was still under construction (and the federal government had not yet moved from Bonn), so it was fun to see the finished product. We had to wait in line for about an hour to get in, go through the metal detector, and hop in the elevator that whisked us up to the roof. The dome was actually a really nice piece of architecture, and we could look down upon the eagle that dominates the German parliament, which I had last seen in Bonn when the government was still there.

Film Museum. This brand-new museum presented the surprisingly interesting history of German cinema from before Metropolis to after Lola Rennt (Run, Lola, Run). The stories of the many German actors and directors who fled to Hollywood to escape the Nazis were fascinating. Plus, Marlene Dietrich is a babe.

Stasi Museum. On Sunday we sent our friends off to see the museum at Checkpoint Charlie (a must-see on your first trip to Berlin) and ran off to the Stasi Museum. Situated in the former headquarters of the East German secret police, deep in the heart of East Berlin, this museum is a fascinating reminder of the not-too-distant past. The exhibit is almost exclusively in German, so if you don’t speak the language, make sure you bring along someone who does. Some parts are understandable even without translation, such as the rooms full of various objects designed to hide spy cameras and guns, such as watering cans and briefcases.

Another remarkable thing about this museum is how old the actual Stasi offices seem, even though they were in full operation through 1989. There are no computers, no electric typwriters, and only the old manual-style telephone switchboards (not to mention 60s-era décor), mainly because the last head of the Stasi was an extremely paranoid man, who was convinced that if he used an electric typewriter, someone could find out what he was typing through the power lines.

You can also pick up an application to receive your Stasi file here; all East Germans are allowed to request their Stasi file and find out which of their neighbors were spying on them back in the day.

I was delighted to find that the café in the museum served Rotkäppchen Sekt, an East-German brand of sparkling wine which I remember fondly from my days in Halle. After drinking a bottle ourselves and grabbing another to bring back to Kesha the birthday girl, we headed back out into the cinderblock suburbs of East Berlin and took a subway back to Potsdamer Platz.

Potsdamer Platz. The whole area was just a giant Baustelle (construction site) when I lived in Berlin in 1997, so I was excited to see what it looked like now. It looks like the cross between a newly-built city business district and a newly-built American-style mall. But for some reason I liked it.

OK, the part I liked best was the martini bar in the lobby of the Marriot hotel at Potsdamer Platz. Not only were they beautifully presented, but they were delicious, too. My girl-drink-drunk husband thoroughly enjoyed his appletini (served with little marinated apples) and his cosmo (served with dried cranberries). I was ecstatic to learn of the existence of another kind of dry martini that was almost as yummy as a dirty martini – called a ‘salt and pepper’, it was made with Absolut Peppar and served with a salted rim (and blue-cheese-stuffed olives). Yum.
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On Monday morning, Scott flew back to Zurich and I hopped on a train to Halle, a city deep in the heart of East Germany that had been my home for three years.

In search of a decent margarita

Ah, the age of globalization. It means you can get peanut butter in Berlin, Dunkin Donuts in Prague, and fresh mozzarella in Chattanooga, Tennessee. So you’d think it wouldn’t be asking too much to expect to be able to enjoy a decent margarita in the extremely international city of Zurich. I know there are Mexicans here – I saw some in the children’s parade last Sunday, so I know they didn’t all leave the city in protest of their being banned from public transport.

Despite our optimistic thinking, we have only been able to find marginally good Mexican food in this town (the Swiss seem to be adverse to anything spicier than a carrot), and nothing that remotely qualifies as an acceptable margarita. Our teeny-tiny European freezer can only handle about 3 ice cubes at a time (and don’t even bother trying to buy ice on this continent), so having a margarita night at home is all but impossible.

There’s a Mexican restaurant on Niederdorfstrasse that sometimes brags about its margaritas on placards outside its door, and we have made the mistake of trying them TWICE. I think the first time they were so bad that we blocked the entire experience from our memories (that, or our brains failed to file the memory of the drink under the category “margarita,” given its lack of resemblance to what one would expect). The slightly alcoholic, luke-warm mixture they serve resembles instant lemonade with a couple forelorn pieces of crushed ice floating around. Yucky. Our margarita dreams crushed, we went back to drowning our sorrows in weissbier.

So when someone on an expats-in-Zurich site posted about a restaurant that supposedly had the BEST MARGARITAS IN ZURICH, I couldn’t wait to check it out. Last night we headed out to Casa Loca (Seestrasse 30, Kilchberg), a Mexican/Carribean restaurant which served decent fajitas and… average margaritas. They weren’t awful, but definitely too sweet for my tastes. At least we got a little amusement out of the menu, which listed plain margaritas as “natur” flavor. Ah, margaritas the way Mother Nature intended them to be.

We actually had better margaritas downstairs at the Coyote Bar, where they offered about 10 different flavors. We liked both the plain and the strawberry basil.

OK, so we managed to find decent margaritas. But the best in Zurich? Only time (and extensive research) will tell. I’m on the case.

Worst idea for a bar ever. (Or so I thought.)

Are you one of the millions of people who fly just for the privilege of squishing your body into a tiny and inappropriate space for hours on end? And have you often wondered where you could get that seatback-in-the-upright-and-locked-position feeling without having to actually leave your hometown? Me, too! That’s why I dragged a friend to the bar Wings this week.

I was actually disappointed (and pleasantly surprised) with how nice of a bar it turned out to be. Except for the old airplane seats in the middle of the room, the décor was actually quite hip. Only the porthole-window-shaped wall cutouts and the waitress’s pilot uniform (and those stupid chairs) remind you of the bar’s theme. Until you use the restroom, where there is a model airplane embedded in the toilet seat…

What really won me over was the inspirational (sob) story inside the menu that recounts how the bar got started:

The idea for WINGS was born out of the turmoil caused by the instability of the Swiss aviation industry in the autumn of 2001. After the grounding and the collapse of their company, the former Swissair employees faced an unforeseeable future.
A small group of pilots and flight attendants reached out to save the very essence that, to many employees, had made Swissair truly unique: the solidarity, the "Swissair spirit", the identification with the company's philosophy.

How can you dislike the place after reading that? It helps, too, that it’s in a prime location right along the Limmat River, which will be even better once the construction on Limmatquai is completed later this year. The outdoor seating is currently underneath the cool stone portico, which is perfect for people like me who love sitting outside but fear the sun (I’m still sunburned from our ski trip last week). And there aren’t any airplane seats out there.

Oh, and yes, they served us peanuts.