The old, beautiful organ at the old, beautiful church.

The good, the bad, and the Zurich Airport.

Adminisk8or

06/28/2023

I'm not joking when I say there has been enough that happened this past week for pretty much every day to fill up it's own blog post. With that said, I'm going to condense this down as best I can, and... well, the title I gave this blog post explains well how it will be categorized. Here we go.

The Good

There were a LOT of things we saw and did this week. We saw Sansoucci Palace and had a cool tour of the gardens and palace itself- and then had to go out into a less-than-ideal rainstorm. However non-ideal it was, it made for a very pretty photo! ...which I probably won't have the time to attach to this post, but look for it in my photography album, soon. We also toured another nearby princess palace, where one of the rooms was made to look as though you were not in a castle at all, but a traveling tent. They had even used a green and brown carpeting, originally, to make it look as though you were really out in nature. Royalty life in Prussia was weird. We saw Marienburg Castle and Hildesheim Cathedral. We also took a tour of Cecilianhof Palace, where I learned quite a lot more about post WW2 than I had ever imagined. If you never asked yourself what did happen to Germany after the war, you might take the time to go do some quick research on it. Just... wow.

Aside from the sightseeing, we also got to spend time with some friends- some old, and some new. Half our time this trip was spent at my sister-in-law's flat, but the other half was spent at the father of a native German friend of ours. While we had primarily spent our time in the big city up until this point, we now had traveled out to the countryside and were staying in someone's farmhouse-turned-normal-house in a very small but still lively enough town. It was quite a difference, going from capital city to small, countryside farmhouse- and honestly, pretty nice. I can't say I disliked or liked on more than the other, overall. Oh- the reason for our travels was for a wedding...

And so, we spent the next few days, going through the traditional wedding celebrations and traditions with these, our friends. One evening, we had a barbeque, the next morning, a civil wedding. I also got to try an alcohol-free beer (I'm not a drinker) and... it didn't totally suck, it was alright. Ah, but that same night was something far more unexpected and startling. We don't really speak a lick of German, my wife and I, so we understood about a fifth of all conversations going on- if that. And at one point in the evening, we all began to walk outside in front of our friends' flat. A truck had pulled up and staged two pieces of wood, so as to create a very, very small stage-like area. Out of my view was also a large collection of many various kinds and styles of dishes. Without warning, the next thing my ears heard was loud shattering. Alarmed, I looked at what was going on, and everyone was throwing down dishes at this stage area, creating large piles of shatters. As it turns out, I had actually been told this would happen, previously, but I had thought it was a joke. Nope. Turns out it's a legitimate German wedding tradition. Look it up... it's kinda interesting.

Two days later came the actual wedding celebration day, though- and what a day it was! My wife and I were separated a good deal of the day, each helping out the bride or the groom with their preparations. Later in the afternoon came the religious ceremony, and it was really something! The church in that village was beautiful! I especially loved the old, ornate organ that sat at the back of the chapel on the balcony, and sounded oh-so very beautiful! Perhaps, though, my favorite part was a surprise that almost no one knew was coming. As everyone entered into the chapel, and finally, after the bride and groom marched up to the pulpit and took their seats, everyone sat in silence, waiting for the priest to begin. But ah, before he did, somewhere in a corner of the chapel was heard a small sound of snapping... I thought, wait, am I hearing things? And just when I wondered, suddenly there was an acapella quartet singing "Let it Shine". And they were really pretty good, especially with the reverb of that pretty chapel. After the ceremony, we eventually all went to the reception hall, where we had the usual- food, drinks, speeches- you know the drill. And then came the dancing- oh yes, then came the dancing. Not to brag, but when I get in the right mood, I can be a pretty mad dancer- no wait, let me rephrase that. I can be... enough to make people smile and laugh. There we go, that's more accurate. Anyways, it wasn't long after the dancing began that my wife and I were out there on the floor, having the times of our lives. I think the dancing began around 9 or so... and by 10 or so, I was like "Whoo... yep, that's fun, I think I'll just sit the rest out now." Turns out that "the rest" actually didn't end until 4:30 AM. Those Europeans know how to PARTY. And I know how to party too hard all at once, as it turns out.

Saying goodbye to everyone that night and the next morning was sad, but also a happy goodbye. Our host who housed us, though he hardly spoke a lick of English, was one of the best folks I ever met! What a great guy. I would also be exceedingly remiss if I did not give a shoutout to my sister-in-law for, well, basically everything. She basically planned our whole trip, was our translator the entire time, helped us navigate our way around everywhere, let us use her room the whole time we were there, cooked meals for us, was a VERY helpful emotional support for my wife, and sacrificed her time on graduate research to help us in all these endeavors. We owe so much to her for this whole trip.

The last day we spent in Germany, we went out on the town, just the two of us, with no guide and no translator- and we did great! We found all the souveniers we needed, and found our way to and fro. It felt very accomplishing to do that. And... it may have been foreshadowing for what was to come...

The Bad

Our journey back... so far- yes, we're still on our way back home- have been interesting, to say the least. We got to bed the evening prior at about 11, I want to say, and falling asleep was difficult, in part thanks to a very loud dog just a few balconies away. And we didn't get very much sleep- my poor wife got less than I did- before we had to wake up at 2:30 AM to get a bus and another bus to get to the airport. Another shoutout to my sister-in-law for accompanying us to said first bus at those ungodly hours. We made it to the Berlin airport, and got through just fine- in fact, too fine. We made it through so early the passport checkpoints hadn't opened up yet, so we had to wait around about an hour until they did. But the flight was just fine, and we made it to our first layover- the Swiss airport. And THAT'S where the fun began.

Have you ever had an experience so bad that you just have a hard time finding the right words to describe it- particularly without certain choice words? With that said, the following is a HUGE summary of what went down, but I'll try my best to convey just how bad everything was. We touched down in Zurich and discovered our next flight was cancelled. No biggie, it happens. So, they told us to go to transfer desk at gate A and get rebooked. We got in line and waited awhile to get to the front. When we finally got to the front, they told us we needed to just go to Gate E42 and talk to them about getting rebooked. So, we navigated our way there, having to get our passports stamped and take a subway. Once we got there, they told us to talk to the transfer desk for gate E, which was thankfully just right by us. Not so thankfully was the state of the desk, itself. There were three individuals at the desk, and only a few people in line- but the three individuals at the desk were taking a VERY long time for each of these people. One lady was ALWAYS on the phone with someone, which made me think it was her first day and she had no idea what she was doing; the other lady was just helping a customer who kept talking and talking; and the other one was old and trying his best to use the computer system, which based on how long it took him to wait after typing and clicking, makes me wonder if it's as old as he was; oh, and don't get me wrong, of all the people I describe in this story, HE might actually just be the most helpful one we encountered. Anyways, we talked to the second lady I mentioned, and she told us they were working on rebooking flights for everyone on that cancelled one. She also told us we could scan a QR code and try talking to an agent to see if we could figure it out faster. This, we did. But not successfully.

We were sitting there in a lobby for over two hours, waiting and waiting for the "queue" to free up. IT NEVER DID. My wife suggested I got talk to the desk again to see if there were any updates on their end. And so I went to talk with them, waiting in line again for probably about a half hour- and when I say line, I was at the front of the line the entire time. I finally got to talk with them, and discovered that, in fact, we had been rebooked, and had just missed the rebooked flight. Now, THIS was the first big moment I had to keep it together. This time, I was talking with the man I described previously, and after a little confusion, he said I needed to go back to the transfer desk at gate A (AGAIN) and get rebooked there, and possibly get a hotel. At this point, my poor wife, who was not only low on energy and sleep, but also not in the best of emotional states, was having a worse time than I was. Nevertheless, trusting this man's words, we went back through the passport checkpoint, taking the subway again, and made it to desk A. We waited in line for probably a half hour, and finally got to the desk- where we were promptly told we needed to talk to the transfer desk at gate E. Flustered and very confused, I said we came from there, but no matter how I insisted, they said their systems at desk A just couldn't handle anything to do with our flight. Baffled and angry, I said thank you, and we went, once again, to the desk at gate E- subway, passport stamp, etc. This time, I had my wife go sit down and wait, since she was barely making it by without breaking down. The next part was, by far, the worst thing that happened to me.

I got in line at the desk, which had a dozen individuals or less in line, and waited my turn. I waited. And I waited. And I WAITED. I didn't keep track of the time, because I wouldn't have thought to at that time, but if my hypothesis is correct, I was in line for two to three hours. Yes. A line of less than a dozen people. TWO TO THREE HOURS. And that was just waiting in line- when I got to the actual counter, I stood there for nearly another 45 minutes! But while I was in line, I began to feel my heart rate begin slowly rising. And it kept going all over the place. By the time I got just halfway through the line, I was starting to feel a bit lightheaded, and tired. I then began feeling very lightheaded and tired. I then began losing all sensation in my body. I was shaking head to toe, with my vision going a little blurry, by the time I was three quarters of the way through the line. I was praying hard to stay conscious, as I couldn't afford to lose my place in this long line, and my poor wife, who was also low on energy and barely keeping it together, emotionally, was out of eyeshot. Indeed, I was starting to feel sure I was going to find myself waking up to security personnel giving me medical attention. At this moment, I suddenly remembered a little miracle I was carrying in my carry-on bag- a miracle in the form of a small chocolate truffle. With subtle desperation, I opened the pocket they were in, reached in and grabbed the first one I saw. Thought it was white chocolate- it wasn't, but I couldn't have cared less in that moment- eating it was like drinking from a fresh, blue oasis in a dry, barren desert. It didn't happen all at once, but by and by, my vision became clearer, my mind became clearer, my body stopped shaking from head to toe, and I found I had a small bit of energy, again. In any case, it was enough to get me up to the desk, talk with the same man I talked with before, and FINALLY get a rebooked flight.

He then sent us back to the desk at gate A, where thankfully, they did not send me back to E, but rather got me a hotel booked- though it took them a half hour of being out of eyeshot and me standing cluelessly at the counter to do so. And then we found out the hotel they booked was not the one in the airport itself, but one a little ways away from it. Fine. Whatever. So we left the airport, stepped outside into the strange Swiss air, and had no idea where to go. Had I had any wits left about me, I would've know to look about 50 yards further down the lane and see a sign that indicated a hotel transit we should take- but we had none left to spare. So we grabbed a taxi and got to the hotel. Walking into the doors of that hotel was one of the most beautiful things I felt like I had ever seen. We got checked in, got to our room, fell flat on the bed, and we both just lost it, laughing and crying like idiots. WE WERE DRAINED. After we had a chance to let it all out, we got our selves recomposed and went down to enjoy a free Italian dinner. After essentially 24 hours with almost nothing to eat, it may as well have been the best thing in the world I ever had. And it nearly was. We returned to our hotel room and just SLEPT. We probably slept a good ten to twelve hours before waking up the next morning. And it's at this hotel, this morning, and now back at the airport, that I am writing all of this down.

And That Brings Us To Zurich Airport

I mean, I've pretty much summed it up as best I could in those last few paragraphs. Keep in mind, through all these experiences, I make it sound like we just went from point A to point B and knew how to get to point C. We had seriously no idea what we were doing- we were just trying our best to find these various places. Getting on the subway? I remember being like "uhh... I think this is where we go...?" Figuring out our hotel was outside the airport? I probably asked like three different employees for help in figuring out where to even vaguely go. It was just all a HUGE mess. It has been so bad, that of all places and things I never want to see again, Zurich is EASILY in the top 5. We still have about an hour before we board our flight, so even still, I am not counting on everything to just magically go right from here on out. With that said, being a man of good faith, I have faith that whether it goes swimmingly or whether we go walking across a field of rusty daggers, we'll make it though this. And with that, that might just be the most inspirational thought I can leave this week. ENDURE AND SURVIVE.

The best part is, now that we're a day late, that extra day we gave ourselves to let the jetlag settle is gone- at least for me. I have an important backcountry backpacking trip that I'm leaving for a mere 16 or so hours after we get back from that flight. Oh, and yes, I still have to pack.

So, with all the time in the world right now, and yet none to spare, I say goodbye this week. Until next time, see ya!