Remember Zurich? | October 2025 #Shorts

We didn't plan on getting nostalgic this week, but that's exactly what happened when we scrolled back through our October 2025 footage and put together this little #Shorts throwback: Remember Zurich?

If you've been following us for a while, you know we're suckers for European cobblestones and canals (looking at you, Paris). But Zurich hit different. It wasn't the trip we hyped up the most beforehand — honestly, it almost felt like an afterthought tacked onto a longer Europe itinerary — and yet it's the one we keep coming back to in our camera roll.

Why Zurich Snuck Up On Us

Switzerland has a reputation for being expensive, orderly, and a little reserved — and okay, all of that is true. But what the reputation doesn't tell you is how genuinely beautiful the city is in a way that photos barely capture. Lake Zurich in the golden hour, the Limmat River cutting straight through the old town, the trams gliding by so quietly you'd swear the whole city was on mute. We remember standing on one of the bridges near Bahnhofstrasse, coffee in hand, just watching swans paddle by like it was the most normal thing in the world (it is, apparently — Zurich has swans everywhere).

Samantha's favorite part was wandering through Niederdorf, the old town's narrow, winding alleys packed with tiny shops and even tinier chocolate counters. Amir's favorite part was, predictably, the food — specifically a very unglamorous but unforgettable bratwurst from a street stand that we still talk about months later.

Travel Tips If You're Zurich-Bound

A few things we learned the hard way that we'll pass along:

1. Get a Swiss Travel Pass if you're moving around the country. Trains in Switzerland are famously punctual and famously not cheap, so a pass pays for itself fast if Zurich is one stop on a bigger trip.
2. Tap water is some of the best in the world — bring a bottle. Zurich has public fountains all over the city with clean, drinkable water. We saved a surprising amount just by refilling instead of buying bottled water everywhere.
3. Budget for it, but don't skip it. Yes, meals and hotels cost more than in a lot of European cities. We found that treating Zurich like a 2-3 day stop rather than a full week kept the trip feeling special instead of stressful on the wallet.
4. Walk everything you can. The city is compact and walkable, and honestly some of our best footage came from just wandering with no real destination in mind.

The Bigger Picture

What we love about doing these #Shorts throwbacks is that they force us to sit with a trip again, months later, and notice what actually stuck. It's never the "big ticket" landmark moment we remember most — it's the small stuff. The swans. The bratwurst. Amir mangling German pronunciation at a bakery counter while Samantha tried not to laugh.

It's a similar feeling to when we look back at our early Europe trips together, like our honest take on where Paris surprised us or even the mistakes we made the first time we visited France in our Paris mistakes post. Every city teaches you something, and every trip as an interracial couple comes with its own little cultural moments too — something we've written about more broadly in Traveling as an Interracial Couple — What We've Learned. Zurich wasn't dramatic in that way, but it did remind us how much we enjoy just existing in a new place together — no big agenda, just two people and a camera figuring it out.

If you missed the original trip content or just want the full nostalgia hit, the Short is up now — give it a watch and let us know in the comments if Zurich is on your list.

📺 Watch "Remember Zurich? | October 2025 #Shorts" on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSv_ACE1e7o

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Thanks for traveling with us — see you in the next post! 💛