I'm on my way. Coming up to it, I think I was definitely feeling much more blasé about this trip. I messed up my back (again) two months ago, and I think the issues that I was having with it were dampening my enthusiasm for the trip. On several occasions I was seriously considering calling United and cancelling my flight, or since I had already committed to attending Alessandro and Christina's wedding in Italy at least altering it so I wouldn't be away for so long, due to my concern that it wouldn't hold up well with all the packing and unpacking I'll have to be doing on the trip. I got packed up okay, though, and it held up relatively well on the first leg of my flight (I'm currently on waiting for my connecting flight in Toronto's Pearson Airport), so it looks like I'll get by. I realize nobody wants to listen to me bitch and moan about my back, so this will be officially be the last time it will be mentioned on the blog for this trip.
I had a little different packing regime this time. Normally, I just carry a single backpack, sometimes one small enough to slide under the seat on the airplane, but I'm definitely going heavier this time. No way will I stuff one of my nice suits in a backpack for a month, so I've got my usual backpack setup, and a separate hanging garment-bag style suitcase with pretty much only the suit. Well, that, and a bunch of old sunscreen. I normally have to buy it on location because I can't get 3-4 weeks of sunscreen in my little 1 quart baggy of carry-on gels, and as I result, I've had 3-4 half-used bottles of sunscreen, some with labels in completely indecipherable languages, cluttering up my medicine cabinet. I can bring them in a carry on, so I've finally got a good opportunity to use them all up.
The other packing bonus I've got this trip is a bunch of food. I normally bring a little bit on any trip as I despise airport and airplane food. However, my BYOF on this trip is extending into the trip itself. Based on everything I've read, Switzerland is crazy expensive, and I'm in no mood to be dropping $15/day on a basic continental breakfast. So I've packed a bunch of envelopes of tuna, a box of cereal, a big pile of cliff bars, and some protein shakes. That way I'll have more money for drinking.
Should be arriving in Zurich in about 8 hours, and will be hitting Luzern after that. Should get my first real post up in a couple days.
I had a little different packing regime this time. Normally, I just carry a single backpack, sometimes one small enough to slide under the seat on the airplane, but I'm definitely going heavier this time. No way will I stuff one of my nice suits in a backpack for a month, so I've got my usual backpack setup, and a separate hanging garment-bag style suitcase with pretty much only the suit. Well, that, and a bunch of old sunscreen. I normally have to buy it on location because I can't get 3-4 weeks of sunscreen in my little 1 quart baggy of carry-on gels, and as I result, I've had 3-4 half-used bottles of sunscreen, some with labels in completely indecipherable languages, cluttering up my medicine cabinet. I can bring them in a carry on, so I've finally got a good opportunity to use them all up.
The other packing bonus I've got this trip is a bunch of food. I normally bring a little bit on any trip as I despise airport and airplane food. However, my BYOF on this trip is extending into the trip itself. Based on everything I've read, Switzerland is crazy expensive, and I'm in no mood to be dropping $15/day on a basic continental breakfast. So I've packed a bunch of envelopes of tuna, a box of cereal, a big pile of cliff bars, and some protein shakes. That way I'll have more money for drinking.
Should be arriving in Zurich in about 8 hours, and will be hitting Luzern after that. Should get my first real post up in a couple days.
