EU diaries - day 0 and 1

Yes. I am in Zurich in a hotel typing out this post. However, as my alarm says every damn morning - lets start at the very beginning, shall we?

The dude had some official stuff to do in Zurich and he said why dont you come along, we will make it a Europe trip. That was it, that was the starting of the madness. I sqeeed and sqeeeeed, mostly because that would mean my passport would finally have a stamp! And then we got about planning the whole thing. Plans, i tell you, they suck all the joy out of things. Where to go, how long, what to see, transport, stay, food (vegetarian for two) - madness. If he didnt have to go for the office thing anyway, i swear we would have given up the whole thing. We started off with very ambitious plans involving lots of visas and three very excited friends who were very excited to see us and whom we were very excited to see. That didnt work out, so we decided to stick to Switzerland, Italy and France. My very excited friends have vowed to forever hate me for ditching them, for which i am grateful. On the other hand, France has some very excited friends too :)


Day 0

Packing done?
Nope.
Supplies?
Nope.
Money?
Nope.
All of that and much much more, is day 0. After running around (on a Sunday, mind you) in search of banks that will give us a travel card, we finally decide to get Euros at the airport. Bangalore Airport guy says he'll give us a Euro for 75 rupees. We turn our nose up at and decide to get some at Mumbai, where we have stopover.

Mumbai airport, domestic terminal. 77 rupees for one Euro, he agrees to come down to 76. Wth! Mumbai should have more demand and more competition and so better rates no? Evidently, no. We decide to get it at the international terminal.
Mulmai airport, international terminal. 77 rupees for one Euro. We decide to get inside the airport.
Mulmai airport, international terminal, inside. 77 rupees for one Euro, take it for leave it. We take it.

Mumbai airport, immigration line. I am scared, i feel like i am standing outside the principal's office, waiting to be called. I get called. He studies my papers, and asks me - first time? I nod with an excited grin. Going to open a swiss bank account, eh - he says. I laugh, half because that is what one does when the principal makes a joke, half because i think it is funny. Then i abruptly stop and ask him nervously - did i pass? He nods and hands over my passport. I am in!

Mumbai international airport, loo. There are few things in this world that make me feel as inadequate as those automatic hand sensing taps do. Why dont you open? It is my hands? Are they not at the right spot? Are they too... transparent? What? What? What?


Swiss air flight. Freshly minted Monday morning. I should be excited about crossing the borders, but i am completely distracted by all the movies i can watch! I CANT PICK! I settle down to a documentary about FaceBook. Somewhere in there, we cross the border. When the dude points out a map on some screen on the plane, we are flying over Pakistan. Halfway through the documentary, i fall asleep.


Day 1

Zurich. Chilly, but nice. The dude leaves for work, i am mostly left to my own device. I hang around the room, eat my breakfast for lunch. The time difference confuses me all day. My stomach decides to deal with the confusion by feeling hungry at both the time zones. I keep eating all day. I glance out of the window and see the sun has come out and the road is sparkling! I get out for a walk. Cause major confusion and cursing at a zebra crossing by waiting for the cars to pass through. By the time i realize that i, as the pedestrian, have the right of passage, around 10 cars have stopped, all waiting for me to cross. I run away from the zebra crossing.

Its the best kind of weather - chilly and sunny. On a circular bench near the hotel, this girl lies down on the bench, her head resting on her violin case, soaking up the sun. I look at her and a big smile is upon my face. I have always wanted to be unselfconscious enough to be able to do that. She sees me seeing her and moves her purse to a safer location!

Evening. We go hunting for dinner. The dude has heard that the city centre has good places to eat. Armed with a map, we go looking for the city centre. It is not to be found. We walk back, it is lateish but the sun is still around. The streets are almost empty, giving the city an eerie look. We spot a McDonalds on the way. Their veggi burger saves our life.

The dude tries trawling though the TV for stuff to watch. I give in to sleep.

A year

or thereabouts, since i introduced the dude on this blog (right, that is how she defines the event, not that she got married or moved cities or changed homes or got into a new family). I figured doing something on what kind of a year it has been is a good to break the silence.
(oh, and after this, stay tuned for breaking news!)
Its been... ordinary. Dont get me wrong, ordinary is good. Especially for two people who spent 5 years in different cities convincing the world and very often each other, that the sky would not fall if this happened - ordinary (conditions, of course, very much apply) is good. The sky has not fallen, world wars have not been waged and almost everyone involved has adapted and moved on remarkably well. Makes me wonder if sometimes we feed our fears more that we should.
On the other hand (there is always the other hand, isnt there), ordinary also means we havent done any life altering things we dreamed we would, if only we could get past the waiting. Mainly because we havent figured out what the hell that thing is. Also, life can keep you occupied very easily, so unless you explicitly set out to do things (with a vengeance, almost), they will not get done.

Except this. I am, right now, in a hotel in Zurich, typing out this post.


Edited to add: I realized i havent actually written anything about the day itself. Which was not the point, but could have found a mention! It was a good one. Last year this time we were the talk of the town, but this year not one friend remembered. Which is not at all surprising. As genuinely excited as i am about my friends getting married, i rarely remember their anniversaries. Relatives remembered though, almost all of them! I had left my phone alone for half an hour in the morning and when i got back to it there were 7 missed calls. That never happens to me, not even on my birthday! Relatives i tell you, rock hard when required.

The dude took me to a Reliance Digital store and asked me to pick the gaming console i wanted. My eyes grew wide and I grinned like mad and then ran away from the shop terrified. He almost bought me an xbox! Imagine! (Apparently, i can be hard to get, but damn easy to please). In return, I almost bought him an ipad. And we lived happily ever after.