November 2(-3) Blog

This is the final real blog. This weekend I'll be posting a final entry that has some "last thoughts" if you will.
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I have no idea what time it is because I have no idea where I am: On the plane back. Holy hell 12 hours is a long flight. I've watched 2 movies and an episode of mad men and it's not even half over. I barely got any sleep last night and gave up shortly after 5am. Finished everything packing-wise and caught a taxi from the stand in Piazza della Repubblica. Got to the airport just after 7am, and luckily a café was open so I got a chocolate muffin and my final Italian cappuccino :(




Went through check-in with no problem - except that my suitcase weight literally doubled from when I left. I guess a kilo of pasta and more than 2 liters of olive oil will do that! I Really hope everything arrives safe and sound.

Flight to Zurich took off right on time with no problems. Funnily enough, we had to take a bus from the gate to the plane. Only thing is that the plane was right outside the door, so all the bus did was swing us around to the other side of the plane to where the boarding doors and stairs were. I actually laughed out loud - I think we were on the bus for 15 seconds. They served the butter pretzel again - and I maintain that anything containing 13% butter must be good. Landed in Zurich jus before 11am Europe time and it was pouring and cold there.

Made the transfer to the intercontinental terminal and had to go through passport control again. So now I have two Zurich stamps in my passport, and none from Italy :( Had to go through security again and they questioned whether my souvenir bottle of limoncino for Priscilla was 100ml. I got a bit of a chuckle when they unwrapped it and it was indeed so!

Chicken for lunch, then I watched Julie and Julia and the Ugly Truth - both quite enjoyable. Uneventful flight, except that they've turned off all the cabin lights as if it's an overnight flight. Plus, they've already handed out the customs forms. What a total pain in the ass. The questions are unclear even for me - a US Citizen and lawyer - I can't imagine what some of these poor people who don't understand English or US customs rules do. So one of the questions is whether you're bringing back plant items, meat products, "food" or insects. Well I'm bringing back food, of course. So I guess I have to declare my lovely vacuum-packed cheese? I don't want to have the same problem I did last time with the accidental bringing in of sealed salame. I actually do have some salame and ham left over from when Renee and I made sandwiches, so I will obviously have to ditch that before customs. Only the US, only the US.

12 flight, good freaking god. And because I know you're wondering, it's -51 Celsius degrees wherever we are. Oh, the map just popped up - it appears to be somewhere in the Isle de Baffin - perhaps between greenland and iceland? Oh, that was French. The air info cycles between English, French, and German. Baffin Bay it is. We're going 820 km/hr, because again, I know you were curious. LA has a bulls-eye on it. The forecast last night said it was going to be like 85 F today. I. cannot. Freaking. Wait. First thing I'm doing? Cutting my toenails and putting on a PAIR OF FLIP FLOPS. Because again, I *know* you were curious. At least the movie selection heading this way was significantly better than my outbound flight. AHA, it just said local time at present position is 1:51pm. Crossed 5 time zones, 4 to go.

Tuesday 11/3, 1am Pacific Daylight Time: I'm considering all this in one day. Sitting at my computer in the dark so exhausted but so unable to sleep. Flight landed about 20 minutes early, just before 4:30pm local time. The rest of the flight was basically uneventful. I tried many times to nap and failed. Finally watched The Proposal. The most exciting moment was when they came to hand out sandwiches and drinks at some point, the flight attendant loaded the cart up badly and it tipped over right next to me. No one was hurt, but little ice creams, open water bottles, and sandwiches went flying. Poor guy looked so embarrassed. Landing was no fun, my right ear was so blocked that it was painful. And my nose kept running the whole entire flight. I felt badly for the Swiss guy sitting next to me.

So anyway, landed and went through passport control, where the guy asked about my trip and seemed genuinely nice and curious but I couldn't help but think he was trying to catch me in a lie or something. Anyway, that was no problem, so I just went to get my bag, which took a little while but finally came. Then out of nowhere a dog sniffing my stuff came up and sniffed at my bag full of souvenirs. The lady asked if I had any fruit (I didn't). I said I had a banana in it much earlier in the day but I ate it when I wasn't even in the US anymore (ate it in Zurich more than 13 hours before). So she let me go. Amazing what the dogs can pick up. Right after it left me, it started sniffing much more violently at someone's suitcase. Then I handed the stamped customs form to someone, who asked if I had any food, I said I had vacuum packed cheese and he let me go. So that was much easier than arriving in Boston 2 years ago.

Weather in LA was annoyingly humid and cool. The lady at the shuttle stop said it had been warm and dry all day. And landing actually looked weird, we came in over Palm Springs and Riverside and it was bright and sunny, then we get near LAX and it socks in with humid fog - it actually looked like LAX was on fire the way it cleared. Anyway, got the shuttle back and of course at 5:30pm traffic was awful. Shared the van with a really creepy guy who I couldn't even really hear because of the bumpy 405 and the fact that my ear was still totally blocked up. Finally made it home around 6:30 and was so tired I could barely function. Started the car, unpacked a few souvenirs, put away the stuff requiring refrigeration, put together my wallet with American money and whatnot, and that's about it. I think the runny nose, which I thought was allergies all day long, may actually be a cold. Hope it doesn't turn into anything too bad.

Drifted off to sleep around 9 and woke up 3 hours later and still unable to fall back asleep. It's that feeling of being so tired that every fiber of you wants to sleep but your body and mind just won't let you drift off. I have kind of an empty feeling. I can't believe it's over, I can't believe I have to attempt to get up and go to work tomorrow, move on almost like this never happened and it was a dream and I have to rely on my memories and these blogs and my pictures to even remember it all happened. It feels weird to be in my apartment and back to my boring monotonous uneventful life. I guess that's the point of vacation - that it's a temporary break that refuels and refreshes you for the daily grind, but I just can't help but feel like this has ended and now I just have to go back to the way thing was before - but without the anticipation of an awesome trip to Italy.

I'll probably write one more entry with some reflections from the trip, observations I may have forgotten, etc. I also have videos from various days I never even attempted to upload so I'll try to get those up too.