Woke up at 4:30 to catch our flight. Rich had a problem with his visa, and ended up getting stuck in Zurich.
The flight into Turkey was uneventful. Security took a bit longer to get through than I had anticipated, so it was lucky my flight out was delayed an hour. I went by the Turkish Lounge, got some soup and baklava, and then got on the flight home.
Woke up and met for breakfast before taking a car to Flumserberg. The Uber we called happened to be driven by the same Dmitrijs as the night before. He was just as intense and chatty, though neither Rich nor I were really up for it.
Once we arrived at Flumserberg, we walked around and just checked out the ski resort and the town. We took the gondola up to the summit and just checked stuff out. It was difficult seeing everyone around me skiing and being that guy in jeans and boots just walking around. Still, being able just to see the Alps was worth it. They defy words. Absolutely beautiful. Just vertical grey walls ending in snow rising up from flat verdant valleys. Pictures don’t do them justice.
We called Dmitrijs to see if he was still in area and able to give us a ride back to Zurich, but he was already an hour out. Pulled up Uber. Nothing. Public transit in the country is so good that people take it to go skiing for the day. mind. blown. So, we hopped on the bus and took that to the train, back to Zurich.
We finished our shopping, got dinner at Public burger and crashed.
Woke up and worked over breakfast, then well past lunch. I walked to the office for a massage, then rejoined the group. We did a little shopping before heading to dinner at Vulkan.
We took an Uber to the restaurant, maybe 4km away. When we got in and the driver learned the destination, he immediately began hassling us for a tip, as he wouldn’t make any money off the ride. After the experience with dinner the previous night, this didn’t land nearly as well as the driver, Dmitrijs, intended. He tried to save the situation by playing a game involving numbers. Not a good move. At one point, he said to one of my coworkers, “You have the brain of a five year old.” We’re not sure if it was intended as an insult, a hint, or something else.
Eventually pieced together that the population in Zurich is so ambulatory that 4km really is an atypically short ride. Incredible. I love it.
Dinner itself was good, though for making the claim of being an Indian restaurant, half the dishes were suspiciously Thai. All tasty, though!
Post dinner, we walked to a bar called Tales and had a few rounds.
Finished out the summit, then got dinner at Gartenhof with our hosts. The food was very tasty, all french, and quite good. The end of the meal was disappointing, though. Dessert was meh, crepes filled with pear compote flambéd table side in schnapps. The show was fun, but the outcome was meh. When we paid the bill, our waiter (who was probably also the owner?) inquiried multiple times why he was not tipped and got salty about it. Buddy, half the table lives in Zurich, don’t try to pull a fast one.
Once back from dinner, we headed back to our customary table in the bar and worked until about two.
Full day of work, followed by a train ride back to Zurich in the evening. Once there, we ended up working from the hotel bar until four am.
Had a series of productive meetings, then took the train from Zurich to Munich. It was less than six hours (should have been five, but there were delays), but for whatever reason it felt like ten. Got in around 11:30, then went out to get dinner.
Originally we had planned to meet the teams already in Munich at Schumann’s, but got in too late to make it happen. Instead, the three of us wandered and eventually ended up there. Fantastic bar with great cocktails and food.
We got four rounds, then spent an hour or more walking back.
Got up, had breakfast at the hotel, then spent the day at the office. Had a couple productive meetings, then walked around Zurich.
Got dinner at the Zeughauskeller (turns out it’s where Bethany and I got dinner on our way to India!). Post dinner, we walked over to look at the Zurich opera house, then back to the hotel and sleep. Glorious, glorious sleep.
Woke up, started laundry, made breakfast (merguez sausage, eggs, and rice), went climbing, ran a 5k in 23:45, and then went home. By the time I got home, my co-workers were already at the airport, and I had yet to even pack. Eh.
Got to the airport with plent of time to spare, and hung out in the lounge until our flight. The flight to Istanbul was pretty uneventful, other than it being my first flight outside of Economy. The lay flat seats were nice, and the food was decent.
We landed in Istanbul and spent the layover in the Turkish Lounge, which was definitely a step up from hanging out at the gate.
On the flight from Istanbul to Zurich, pretty much all of us worked on perf, all being pretty much everyone sitting in business class. Evidently, lots of Googlers were on the IST to ZRH flight that night. One even looked over at Libby and asked without any other introduction, “Are you working on perf?”.
After landing, we met up with Ajay at the hotel, planned out the week about bit, and hit the hay.
Woke up, packed and wandered around Ponta Delgada. We got lunch at Conversa à ???.
Though the airport only has ten gates, we used every minute of the two and a half hours the airline recommended we allow at the airport. Returning the rental car alone took almost an hour with the jovial agent inspecting every inch of the car inside and out. Check in took nearly an hour. Passport control crawled. The agent was kind enough to get contiguous seats for Wade and me (meaning Tiffany), and was flexible with the 8kg carry on limit for my bag. Once on the plane, a family traveling together asked if I’d trade seats from row 33 to 6 so that they could sit together. So that was cool. Helped with my connection, not that it was necessary. CBP took all of two minutes. I spent more time waiting for Wade and Tiff to catch up from the back of the plane than we collectively spent getting through customs. Meanwhile, the non-Global Entry line looked to be about two hours long. So, also cool.
I made it to my next gate and killed time walking around the terminal. Everything else about the flight home was super easy. Slept the last few hours.
Who knows?! We did stuff, though. And it was fun.