“Travels to a Different Time ” : 12August1975: Zurich, Switzerland: Arrogant Not So Good-Looking French Girls

Birthday today as no longer a teenager. Was up in the farmhouse at 06:30 for fresh bread and homemade jam. My host gave me some Swiss coins. When the rain subsided off to the road and 4 lifts later in Zurich. Got a room near the train station for $8 but at least lots of hot water. After a hot shower into town for a big gut busting meal. The river running through Zurich is so clean. Found a disco and I met two French girls who were not so very good looking but so very arrogant. Good riddance snobs. Had a cold coke at the hotel bar and crashed to the pouring rain outside. I am feeling numbed out and exhausted. Four months of tramping around in less-than-ideal weather being bitten by swarms of bugs and a total lack of any meaningful female companionship. No I am not going to say I should have been in Greece or Yugoslavia as I had a mission to travel a less travelled road but there has been a price. This year it seems to be a fact-finding mission than a hedonistic blow out. Wine women and song abandoned to communist hardship and deprivation not to mention atrocious weather. I do not regret it. My fifth birthday in Europe!