Zürich

Zurich is the financial capital of Switzerland, and also it's largest city with a y2k pop of ~350,000 ppl. All those famous Swiss banks are based in Zurich.

Like other Swiss cities, most Zurich residents are multilingual. Many speak English, French and Swiss German, and most also read and write High German (hochdeutsche). Swiss German is related to, but even harder to understand than Bavarian German. It's almost as hard to understand as Dutch is to and English-speaker.

The area around Zurich is not as mountainous as much of the rest of Switzerland. Lake Zurich (Zurichsee) is a beautiful green colour and is totally drinkable. It flows into rivers which remain clear and pure as they pass through the old city.

Unlike many other European cities, Zurich wasn't much affected by WWII. Consequently, in Zurich, you will see some of the highest concentration of old buildings in the world. This is also partly due to the determination of the Swiss to keep cars out of city.

Zurich girls have complexion like Swiss chocolate. They're well-educated, good fun, and very freindly.

Zurich is a very rich and expensive city. Consequently there aren't many tourists or as many middle-eastern/asian immigrants as other Swiss cities. It also means that of the few cars you see, half are ferraris or porsches.

I like Zurich, so I'm going to go live there for a while. I'll let you know how I get on :)

For its size (~350'000 people), Zurich has an incredible offering of entertainment, enlightment and leisure opportunities. Those Swiss don't seem to be THAT narrow-minded after all, at least the city-dwelleing ones.

Nightlife in Zurich rivals that of much larger cities, there's uncountable bars, clubs, hangouts, whatever you want to call them; vibrant, multicultural and ever changing. Zurich, together with London and Berlin, is one of the places where the electronic music revolution of the nineties happened and caught its incredible momentum. The street parade is an increasingly popular dance-enjoy-musiclistening-event that happens every summer in the streets, on the bridges... everywhere.

There are about 50 movie theatres in Zurich (compare that to the average 350'000 people city elsewhere). And... for those not interested in techno, movies, partying and such, there's a whole bunch of classical theatres (those with actors, not movie projectors), an opera, concert hall, museums...

And the best part of it is: It cann all be reached by foot or public transport. No fear of getting caught driving drunk. Public transport gets you home safely until late in the morning. They better should: Most clubs are open until 4AM or later. And, of course, 18 year olds can get in, have some beers or drinks, no ID-check or other harassment necessary.

This sounds great. Yes it is. And, just for the record, I am NOT being paid to write this, I just used to live there before I moved to the US and sometimes, I'm homesick. And, if you happen to be in Europe, just find out for yourself.