13Aug2006m,Day 0,Arrival

I flew Swiss airlines though Zurich and was reminded of some pleasant memories of my coaching the POLE project in Zurich. However, I didn’t sleep very well. It seems that I sleep better on transcontinental flights if I stay up the whole night before leaving. However, I got a bit of sleep the night before this trip.

The flight from Zurich appeared to be nearly full of Italians. I passed the 40 or so minutes talking to the guy next to me. Alessandro was returning from a holiday in Prague, and was happy to explain how to get from the Malpensa airport to the city center by bus or train. I opted for the train although it cost 5€ more. The train was mostly empty, but I noticed something nostalgic from last spring break. It seems Italian trains mostly sound and smell the same. Both are hard to put to words, but unmistakable.

I arrived at my apartment with little trouble and Elenora, one of my landlords greeted me in the foyer after I struggled to fit my enormous bags into the elevator. Elanora showed me around the apartment, asked if I had any questions, and volunteered some dry posta that I could cook for dinner because I would likely have trouble finding anything open on the Sunday before Ferragosto. I asked for a phone, to call the home front and notify them that I had arrived safe and sound, but there was no phone to be found. So she offered her cellular for a short call.

After showering I went looking for dinner, and ended up walking the 20 minutes to the Catherdral in the center of the city before finding anything open aside from an Indian restaurant that I opted to pass on. I boxed half my dinner to have for breakfast and began the trek home. Only it started to thunder and rain within a few minutes, so I took the tram.