I am hot, sticky, sweaty, exhausted, hungry, parched, and listening to Holiday Road by Lindsey Buckingham. For those not in the loop, that’s the theme song to the National Lampoon series, including National Lampoon’s European Vacation, which I was watching yesterday in the airport on my computer.
So let me bring you up to speed.
I made my flight from JFK to Zurich. Business class had a bidding war going on (several passengers were getting heated) and so I ended up in economy. Lovely. The ticket agent issued me a boarding pass for an aisle bulkhead seat. Wonderful! Before I even had a chance to sit down, a flight attendant asked me if I was assigned that seat. I showed her my boarding pass and she told me not to get comfortable, I was moving. Damn. A few minutes later they relocated me to another aisle seat, and no one was next to me. OK, not as good, but still cool. A few minutes later, the passenger whose seat I was in showed up. I was up again, only this time they simply moved me across the aisle, still an aisle seat, but now I have a neighbor. That was probably the most short-lived of my moves. Moments later they found another aisle seat with no one in the middle and I was off again. This time I just left my carry on items. This was getting old and I figured I’d find them later! Just when I was getting comfortable (I even put my seat belt on this time), the flight attendant came up and knelt beside me. I must have had a pretty worried expression on my face, because she immediately assured me this was a “good thing”. She apologized for making me move so much, thanked me for my patience, and told me drinks were on the house. Lovely! All was immediately forgiven.
When the drink cart came by, I ordered a screwdriver, she told me $5, I reminded her I was getting free drinks and she made it a double. I love these people. Two (mini) bottles of vodka and two (mini) bottles of wine later, I was feeling good and sleeping soundly. I must have dozed off for a couple hours because I missed the damn movie again. It was The Hours. I’ll have to rent it.
We landed in Zurich ahead of schedule, about 7:15 AM local time, and the flight attendants gave me a bottle of champagne to take with me (full size). I also had a lovely chat with one of them during the flight and she took down the web address of the camp so she can see if they have a campus in France for her kids to attend. I think Pam must have called the flight crew ahead of time and told them I was coming—prepare the liquor cabinet.
Customs was a breeze. I told them I was on holiday after graduating college. I bought a SIM card for my phone and we are now activated. Cellular service here is much better than in the U.S. I am using my Siemens phone from the U.S. with a prepaid Swisscom SIM card. Incoming calls for me are always free (although I forgot to confirm that with her), even when I run out of credit. When I do run out of airtime (from making calls), I can recharge my card by buying the equivalent of a phone card at any newsstand. So that means you all can reach me anytime. I don’t know yet about voicemail, my instruction manual is in German. I have to get it translated, so you may or may not be able to leave me messages.
OK, so after I got the SIM card, I got a train ticket to Lugano and checked my luggage. Oh, word to the wise: when traveling, go to the restroom BEFORE you collect your baggage. It’s much easier than carting all your luggage with you into the bathroom.
This train thing is complicated. I’ve had to change trains twice and it took me about 30 minutes at the airport to figure out which one to get on. I kept asking people and the ones that spoke English didn’t have a clue where I needed to go. BART I can deal with, nice big color-coded maps, destinations listed in English, it’s very easy. This is ridiculous. None of the maps had Lugano on it. In fact, I couldn’t find Lugano on any of the routing sheets (I didn’t know I needed to transfer to the main Zurich train station). Anyway, I’ll spare you the details. Just know that it was kind of confusing and stressful and everything here EXCEPT the train schedule is printed in three languages.
I called the camp and told them I’m on my way. Now I’m on the train and it’s beautiful. I’ve taken a couple of pictures but it’s hard to get good ones from the train. Right now we are traveling through a valley between two very large snow-capped green mountains. There are cute little houses spread out along the tracks. I don’t know how to describe them so I just took a picture instead. If I remember I’ll attach it to the email, otherwise check the web site.
Speaking of the web site, if you are receiving this message it means I have Internet access, so web site updates (including pictures) should not be far behind. I should be at camp within the hour. That brings you up to speed for now; I think I’ll resume watching National Lampoon’s European Vacation. Expect some pictures in a few days. I'm in my 30th hour of traveling, so I could really use a shower and shave--and a nap.
Have your people call my people and we’ll chat.