London to Zurich

I had lofty goals for my last day in London: I wanted to return to the Tate Modern, maybe check out a church or wander around Westminster Abbey. But what did I do? I frolicked around the city, got some good coffee, and ended up nowhere in particular. See, this is how I travel — I don’t rush around and cram in all the touristy stuff. I chill, I explore, and live more like a local. And that makes me happy

Melvin was at work all day, so I didn’t get to see him after he left in the morning. I was dreading having to lug my 70lbs of luggage on various trains and buses en route to the airport. It definitely was not fun, but I managed.

My 5:35 flight to Zurich from London Luton was delayed about an hour (of course). So we landed around 9pm and it took almost no time at all to get through immigration/customs/baggage claim. Unlike in London, the guy at passport control didn’t even say a word to me. In fact, I don’t even think he stamped my passport! (wtf!) So weird.

But as soon as I walked out with my suitcases, I saw Emi waiting for me. He and I met at work in late 2007, working on the same team and chatting a lot online, though we’d never met in person before. He left the company about a month after we started talking, but we’ve kept in touch since then. And then this trip sort of just fell into place alongside my visit to London, so we finally got to meet!

Surprisingly I recognized him right away. He did that silly European *kiss on both cheeks* thing as we hugged, and even pulled out a sign with my name on it for kicks (though we didn’t even need it). Hahaha.

He pretty much whisked me away through the airport and we hopped on a train to the city, which only took like 10mins. He lives on the western side of Zurich (the industrial area I guess), so from the train station we took the tram down to his neighborhood. Yes, a tram… too cute!

And HOLY CRAP his apartment complex is like a palace! It’s new and has a fountain and archways and just looks so modern. And his apartment is MASSIVE, good lord! It’s pretty much the equivalent of a NYC penthouse. I’m not even kidding when I say that the kitchen is bigger than the entire shared space in our Brooklyn apartment. The bedrooms are huge too. It’s a 4-bedroom/2-bathroom apt with a balcony. Ridiculous.

So basically that night was spent packing for our upcoming camping trip in Ticino (the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland), meeting his 3 flatmates and the Danish girl who’d be coming with us. They were all already drinking and goofing around when we got home. And I got to watch South Park in German!! (oh man it’s SO WEIRD hearing Cartman with a different voice), and then we watched some stupid funny movie (Hot Fuzz? Fuss? hmm).