Swiss Travel Log

Day 1.

I've finally arrived in Switzerland.  The best part?  Land.  The flight out of Brussels was an unusually harrowing experience.  Not only were we the last flight to leave the airport that night, but there were only twelve of us on the plane, plus the crew.  As night flights go, this one was particularly turbulent.  All in all, I couldn't sleep, I barely ate, and I spent the entire flight wondering whether when we crashed, my body would be found burned up, mangled or not at all.  And how the headlines might read - Swiss Air crashes in the mountains.  Thankfully, only 16 dead - but no survivors.

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Quick, quick, must catch the train!  My thoughts after calming down at Basel Euroairport. This place has exits into three countries (Switzerland, France, Germany).  Not sure how they pull that off, but the bus awaits!

Fun with google maps

Here's a breakdown of the main stops for the current long trip I'm on.  I'lll be on the road from the 15th of November to the 8th of December.


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Swiss cheesy road trip

Here's a breakdown of next week's stages of my switzerland trip.  We'll be spending a LOT of time in the mini-bus.  Whoo (not so much).
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How to stalk me

Lesson 1:

Get access to google calendar, and ask me to make my calendar visible to you.  Then any time you go to my blog, you'll be able to see where I am in the snazzy calendar gadget to the right of the screen.

On the road again

I was all too grateful for the past week's breather at home, in my own bed.  Which is probably why I did my level best to stay in it as much as possible.  That, and the fact I have no chair in my room.

Now, I've once again hit the road, as the prospect of financial incentives (aka, money, cash, gimme-gimme-gimme) is hard to resist.  Next stop, Brussels.  Then Switzerland (4-5 cities in all, plus daily road-trips).  Then Budapest.  Followed, in theory for now, by Prague.  Then Paris for about 2 days, tops.  Then Brussels again.  And then, maybe, a bit of time off.  None too soon.

There was even the possibility I might fly off to Tunis again, instead of Prague.  This way I score fewer airmiles, which I do so love (yes, I see the George Clooney analogies too) but get to travel in a slightly more coherent way.  Slightly.

Signing off for now!  Oh, and free wifi in first class on the train is lovely.  As is the onboard meal.

A month (or two) in retrospect

You might be wondering what mischief I've been up to these last few months, mischief that's kept me from posting more detail-rich entries about my wanderings.

Well, wandering (mostly fincancially remunerated wandering) really sums it up.  I've been on the road for what seems like more than half of the last two months.

In September, I came back to Paris from Toronto.  Then later, I spent a few days in Brussels, a week and a half in Luxembourg, and about a week in Budapest.  That was all in September.

In October, I came back to Paris from Budapest, then spent about a week in Tunisia, a week in Paris which included a 13-hour interpreter-insomnia marathon at the television station, then a few days in Brussels, followed by a few days in Marseille.  Then I went off to Budapest again.  For a trip that was supposed to last a week.

Only come November, after spending a week-end in Budapest (to which I got by way of Bratislava, silly me), I get called back to Tunisia (by way of Paris, naturally).  I spent this entire week in Paris (hurray!), but next week I'm off to Brussels, from where I'll then be flying on to Basel, and road-tripping around switzerland (again, thankfully, in a professional capacity).  I'll be with the Swiss for about a week and a half.  Then it's off to Budapest for a long-weekend.  I'll be back in Paris at the very, very end of the month.  In all, I'll have spent one week here.  Kinda makes the rent I pay seem a bit less worthwhile, but at least I get to come back home every so often.

So that's the rapid-fire road report.  Tune in next time (whenever that ends up being) for more in-depth coverage of the different segments of my tongue-tripping! (bad pun based on the fact that I travel thanks to my linguistic skills).

Glee!

Watch the series.  It's incredible.  Loving it.

Expression of the day

Talk is cheap, but so am I.

A tale of two cities

Yesterday Budapest, today Tunis.  The life of an international man of mystery, indeed.

Must make a point of writing my blog entries even when no internet connection is available, as otherwise it gets difficult finding the time.