Officially my first day in the new role was April 1st, which was also a Friday so there were really solid April Fools vibes going into this whole adventure but I can confirm that after I arrived on Mar 29th and spent a few days getting registered with the local Canton, getting access to the apartment and finding transportation I arrived at the office on the 1st and was given a computer, a badge and a welcome by new team I felt reassured that I was in fact supposed to be here.
The first few days were very hectic. My flight departed on the 28th and I arrived in Zurich around 9 AM on the 29th after a brief layover in London. My flight to London was brilliant by the way. Someone, managed to get me into Business class unannounced so when I got to the row indicated on my ticket and found that I was in business class rather than coach I was incredibly surprised! Like I said, the woman is amazing!
Upon landing in Zurich we had decided that it would make more sense for me to take the train rather than attempt to drive in a foreign country on no sleep (I don’t sleep on trains). I managed to purchase a flex ticket for the route I wanted to take and made my way down to the platform. Of course this was made more difficult as I was hauling a backpack, rolling carry-on and two rolling checked bags each weighing just under the 50lbs limit. For what it’s worth I’m pretty sure the checked luggage was actually lighter than each of my carry-on items. By the time I made it down to the platform with my roughly 200 lbs of luggage the doors to my train had closed and it was slowly creeping away from the platform.
Now normally people with a flex pass wouldn’t be too stressed about this and just check for when the next train was scheduled to department. But I, my friends, am anything but normal. Particularly when it comes to travel. You see when I purchased the ticket, I wasn’t able to find an English translation on the ticket machine and since I had no internet access on my phone (we’ll get into this a bit later) I didn’t know I had purchased said flex ticket. So, after issuing my very best forlorn stare at the departing train I dragged my luggage back to the escalator and made my way back to the main floor to see if I could find a human that could help. This activity took around 35 minutes until I finally found a manned ticket office tucked away in the corner of the station. Gratefully the attendant spoke English and explained that I had managed, by considerable luck, to purchase a flex pass for the route I wanted and that if I made my way back to the platform I had just left another train was scheduled to depart in 15 minutes for Zurich central station where I could transfer to the train that would take me to Buchs and hopefully a way to contact the co-worker I had pre-arranged to pick me up from the station later in the day.
Following the instructions I’d been given, I managed to make the next train and disembark at Zurich central to make my transition. The timing for this exchange was however a relatively tight 12 minutes and there wasn’t another train heading to Buchs for another hour if I missed this option. So me and 400lbs of luggage briskly moved down the platform towards my next train. Zurich central however is a large station by most American standards with multiple levels of tracks and it just so happened that my next train was up 3 flights of stairs! I’m sure there were escalators or an elevator that could have assisted me on the journey up, but the walk had already taken me 5 minutes and I wasn’t sure how much further from the stairs my train would be when I got to the top so instead of risking not finding a more efficient option I chose to carry my 700lbs of luggage up the three flights of stairs. Upon arriving at the top of the stairs I was relieved to see the train was directly in front of me, so I hustled down the platform and arrived at the first open door for the train.
This train however was constructed differently than the one I rode from the airport. Where the first train was a stepless transition from train to platform, this train had 3 steps just inside the door that one had to traverse in order to get to the seating level. After catching my breadth and just as the departure bell was starting to sound, I took hold of my 900lbs of luggage and heaved myself onto the train and directly into….1st class. Needless to say, it was immediately apparent to everyone on board that one of the passengers was not where they belonged, gulp.
Quickly gathering myself and doing my very best to absorb the perturbed yet polite stairs I awkwardly rolled my 1,200lbs of luggage through the first-class cabin, lounge car and a completely full second-class cabin until I finally found an open section of four seats where I could sit alongside my 1,900lbs of luggage for the duration of my trip to Buchs.
Once you’re on a train in Switzerland though the journey can be quite lovely. Mountain scenes abound along the entire route and the cabins are comfortable, clean and quiet which made for a very nice portion of the trip.
When I finally arrived in Buch’s it was 3:30 in the afternoon and I now had to find a way to contact my colleague who had agreed to pick me up whenever I arrived. So back to the internet quandary from earlier. I did bring a phone with me, but my service didn’t include international calls or data. I could use it with wifi but in Switzerland if you want to use free Wi-Fi the organization providing it is required to send you an access code either by text or email. But without access to data the access code never makes it to your phone which ultimately prevents someone like me without data access from using the free wifi. Ultimately, I found my way around this by asking the attendant at the ticket counter if they could provide me with an access code rather than having it sent to me. She kindly agreed and I was able to reach my colleague and get picked up around 4:30, retrieve my rental car and make it to the hotel that I would be staying at for the first few days by 5:30.
After dropping my 2,100lbs of luggage at the hotel I went with my colleague for a quick bite to eat at a local Kebab shop and then back to the hotel by 7:30 to phone home, clean up and get to bed by 9. All told I had been awake from 6:00 AM Mar 28th Dallas time (1:00 PM Liechtenstein) to 9:00 PM local time on Mar 29th. During which time my luggage hit a max weight of 17,000 lbs, I road in 3 cars, 2 trains and 2 planes and completely butchered one foreign/local language. Sleep never came so quickly, and the next few days would hold even more adventures that you will be sure to hear about in the weeks to come.
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