Zurich and Geneva

Departure
So, on Friday afternoon, I went straight from the office to Heathrow, on my way to four days in Switzerland. As much as BA has been hyping Terminal 5, I have no particular desire to fly through there again after this. The train stopped about a mile outside of the airport and the conductor said it was due to an evacuation at Terminal 5. We waited for 15 minutes or so, and then continued on without hearing any further announcements. When the train eventually got to T5, the public transit transfer area was deserted. Apparently an alarm of some type had gone off, so they were keeping everyone outside of it. Police escorted us up the escalators and outside into a huge crowd, without telling us anything about what was going on.

Eventually, I noticed people inside the main terminal building, fought my way through the crowd, and walked through a wide-open set of doors into the terminal. Now, I was on ground level, which is two stories (four escalator rides) below departures. The elevators were not working due to the evacuation, so I found a set of escalators and took them up to departures. Security was uneventful, except for the government statistician attacking me as I tried to put on shoes. However, the terminal itself was virtually empty, and my flight left from a gate at the absolute end of the terminal. The nearest food was six gates away, and it was closed. I ended up finding a takeaway sushi place another 10 gates further back toward civilization, and was able to eat dinner with chopsticks as I walked onto the plane.

Granted, after that, the flight was uneventful and the service was great. No lost baggage, food and alcohol included, just a bit of a hassle getting to the plane itself.

Friday Night
I got to Zurich just after 10, and met Chris at his place. He started a rotation to his company's office there just a few days prior, and is in corporate housing until he gets the keys to his actual apartment. After dropping my luggage there, we explored the city a bit, found a bar, and split a bottle of a decent French wine. It was great to catch up and to hear the stories of someone else who's doing a similar international rotation, but with a completely different company. Granted, I give him massive credit for doing it in a country where he doesn't yet speak the primary language.

Saturday
We found a decent place for brunch. Wow, brunch! We had issues with interpreting everything on the menu, but both settled on a Swiss breakfast plate. It had a few types of bread, fruits, jams, eggs, and more... it was phenomenal!

We meandered through the city for most of the afternoon and took a number of the photos posted here. Originally, we'd considered going swimming in part of the river through town, which is apparently great when the weather cooperates. Unfortunately, though, it was 20 degrees and off-and-on raining, which made that a bit tough.

We found a great little Italian restaurant around the corner from his place for dinner, ventured through the city at night, and crashed much earlier than the previous day.

Sunday
We went to a design museum for a bit, before I hopped a train to Geneva.

...or so I thought.

I was supposed to get off the train at Bern and transfer to a train on the opposite track to continue my journey to Geneva. Now, the train that I was on left Zurich 10 minutes late or so, and it was only a 6-minute connection in Bern. I should have thought of this, but it apparently didn't register. So, I walked across the track, asked someone "Genève?" heard something resembling yes, and got on the train. I buried myself in my book again, until the conductor came by, looked at my ticket, and told me I was not headed southwest to Geneva, but rather southeast. He told me to get off at Thun, the next stop, transfer back to Bern, and then on to Geneva. I did, and got to see some amazing countryside in the process, but it did put me into Geneva a bit later than initially expected.

Geneva
Sunday night was a quick walk through town. Monday morning, I got up and did my first run in five days. As the sun was rising, I went north along Lake Geneva. It was a crystal clear blue sky, clean air, light breeze... it felt perfect! After the meetings for which I was actually in town, I ventured out to a coffeeshop on the lakefront to write up my notes, go through email, and organize myself. I'd originally expected to have dinner with someone from my client, who was supposed to be coming in from London that night. However, he said he was on a later flight than expected, so I ended up getting dinner on my own at Restaurant Le Lacustre‎, overlooking the lake.

Today was a much quicker day -- I had a meeting that ended at 10:30, spent a half hour writing notes afterward, and then was back in London in time for a 4pm meeting. Now, off to a spinning class!

Switzerland!

So, one of the projects I'm working on is with a team based in Switzerland.  They suggested I meet the team out there at some point.  Somehow, this ended up leading into my first trip:  I'm flying to Zurich on Friday night, spending the weekend with a friend who's working for a different US company there, and then taking a train to Geneva for two days of meetings there before returning to London next Tuesday evening.  Should be a great trip, and even though I'll be in a strange city alone on my birthday, I think it's worth being able to explore Geneva!

Back to work

So, this week is the first that I've felt that I'm fully back to work in the sense of a "normal" week in the States.  I had meetings in two different offices -- one in Canary Wharf and one in the City -- yesterday in between working from our office that is in neither of those locations, and had my first 12ish hour day today.  For most of the time I've worked in the States, I'd consider this normal, but it's the first I've gotten back to this level of engagement and "wow, I'm mentally exhausted" at the end of the day.  Granted, the difference here:  At about 7:30, a partner walked over on his way out of the office, genuinely concerned about why I was working so late.  Maybe this is an exception here... and if so, that's a great thing!

Whirlwind

Wow, it's been a crazy week. 

Last Wednesday, I left work in time to meet the running club for the normal run.  I've been doing the mid-distance option, at a decent pace, but not going so far as to completely exhaust myself.  For some reason, though, I felt ambitious that night and decided I'd go out with the group that runs the longer option, up through Hampstead Heath.  A group of 10 or so of us ran together at the same pace, up through a wooded park, with some incredible views down into London.  It was great, despite the rain starting about halfway through the run.  Needless to say, after that 12-mile run, I was dragging a bit Thursday morning, but it was worth getting in a good distance run and meeting some new people!

Friday morning, I started my first trip out of town since having arrived in London just about a month ago.  Rather than going to explore Europe or the like, this trip was back to Pennsylvania for a high school friend's wedding.  I was on a 10:25 am flight from Heathrow back to NYC on Friday, which ended up taking off about 90 minutes late.  My parents met the (late) flight in New York and drove me down to Harrisburg, just missing the start of the rehearsal.  We ended up going through the full rehearsal again after that, and then to the bride's parents' place for an incredible barbecue, bonfire, and dinner.

Saturday was a morning at my parents' place to pick up a few things, drop off clothes that I don't have space to keep in the flat here in London, and to enjoy some fresh corn on the cob with lunch... something I definitely haven't experienced here. 

It was an outdoor wedding and reception on Saturday afternoon, at an amazing location headed up the mountains along the Susquehanna River.  I had a great time catching up with friends I hadn't seen in forever, and was even dragged out onto the dance floor for a bit.  It does happen!

The trip back here yesterday was a bit less exciting... I left Harrisburg on a 1:10 pm train, stopped in Newark airport long enough to join the second half of my fantasy football league draft, and then got back to my flat here in London at just after 9am today.  Fortunately, today is the summer bank holiday here in the UK, so all offices are closed.  That makes it infinitely nicer, in that I can catch up on a few things around the apartment and have an early night, rather than having had to go directly from the airport to the office this morning, which I had originally expected when I first booked this trip.

In all, it was a great, if exhausting, weekend and I'm glad I was able to catch up with as many people as I did, despite the amount of travel time involved.  At the same time, though, now that I've arrived back in London, this seems in some ways much more permanent now than it did just a few days ago.  I'm not sure if it's because I've actually talked with more people about living here, or if it's just had more time to sink in that this really is home for at least the time being.  The city itself continues to be great, but I'm becoming less and less excited about the weather... it's mid-60s and cloudy again today -- not bad for autumn, but this is August.  Also, I've met a number of great people here in London, and have been having a lot of fun, but also realize just how far away many of you are, over across the pond.  (note:  yes, you CAN visit for a weekend... as I just demonstrated :p )

Stuff

...and lots of it. I moved into my apartment on Monday night. The apartment is slightly smaller than my last one in NJ, but arranged differently, such that I have less storage space than before. I realized this because I ended up having just about everything from my previous apartment shipped over here and delivered on Tuesday morning. I didn't have much time to stay and organize everything after the movers unpacked it, so the bedroom looked like a disaster for the remainder of the week. There were literally piles of clothes, camping gear, and kitchen stuff all over the floor in my bedroom. Today, though, I finally organized it. After sorting stuff, getting rid of a trash bag worth of extra clothes, and packing one of the two trekking backpacks with extra stuff for a one-way trip back to the States, this looks much more like home. I feel remarkably domestic this weekend, after having baked cookies yesterday, gone to a dinner party, unpacked, hung photos on the walls, and cleaned the apartment. This is weird!

Now that I'm getting more settled in here, I'm starting to consider options for travel. One of my goals while living in London is to travel throughout the UK and Europe. If you want to visit me, either in London or elsewhere, let me know! I'm somewhat limited on vacation time, but certainly can make a full weekend of going to other cities, leaving either Thursday or Friday night, returning late Sunday or early Monday. Also, I'll be getting an air mattress shortly for anyone who wants to visit and have a place to stay here. I honestly haven't done much of the "touristy" stuff in London yet, but have rather tried to get into a normal life and settle in, figuring that I can go to the museums, the Eye, the Tower Bridge, and the like when others come to visit.

My goal at this point is to spend at least one weekend per month somewhere other than London. Next weekend, I'm back in Pennsylvania for a friend's wedding, and October 12, I'm back in Chicago to run the marathon there. I'm not sure that either of those necessarily counts as my at-least-monthly travel, though, as neither of those involves traveling Europe. I'm thinking I want to start by booking something for one or two of the weekends in September. The only one where I have plans so far is September 13, when I'll be staying in town for a concert in Hyde Park.

Now, to start planning... Let me know if and when you want to visit!

Moving

I picked up the keys to my new flat yesterday. One suitcase worth of stuff is now there, and I'm planning to fully move in on Tuesday, before giving up this temporary flat where I've been living. The new place definitely isn't quite as nice, but it's in an area with more happening on the weekends, and should still be reasonably accessible to the rest of the city for work and life and whatnot.

There are a few photos of the inside here: http://picasaweb.google.com/trenshaw/MyNewFlat
I was going to take other shots of the area, but it decided to start raining by the time I bought linens, unpacked, and the like.

Random thoughts and observations

So, this is just a collection of my initial random thoughts and observations after my first full week in London, and after having started work...

Running through the city
Running is a great way to explore a city! I've done a number of runs on my own throughout town over the past week, and it's been a great way to get somewhat lost, find my way around, and also see a few of the sights. I ran down along the Thames to Canary Wharf, through Shad Thames, through Hyde Park, and back and forth across all kinds of bridges. It felt great!

Serpies!
Along those lines, I also did my first run with the Serpentine running club here on Sunday. After four people from Hoboken all recommended that I join this group, I figured it was time to give it a try. We went out in Richmond Park and did two laps around the perimeter, for a rather brisk-paced long run for the week. I've now broken down, signed up for the club, and plan to get out with them once or twice in the next week. It's as much a way to meet new people outside of work as it is a way to get in mileage while training for a race later this fall.

Liveable
London is a remarkably livable city. I still don't believe there are 7.5M people in greater London... it is much more walkable, open, approachable, and less overwhelming than New York City. I think a good portion of this has to do with the lack of the "urban canyon" feeling that you can get in Manhattan at times. I keep hearing that the weather here can be miserable, but so far, I'm liking what I'm experiencing!

The Underground
Despite the city being so livable, there is a very different approach to operation of the Underground. First of all, I have to say, it's been remarkably useful. I've been able to get anywhere I've wanted to, in a mostly reasonable time. However, there are numerous service outages. Last Wednesday, when I was going all over the city searching for a flat, I heard announcements at three different times stating that portions of three different lines were closed due to signal problems. That doesn't seem to be a particularly rare occurrence. Also, it seems that there are major closures each weekend. Once again, I'm not trying to complain, as the system is redundant enough that there always seems to be another line or a bus route that goes toward my destination. It's just a different mindset, where it's not safe to assume everything is open. Everyone takes it in stride here, and it works, but there would be riots in the streets of NYC if the MTA had outages like this.

Drivers
I've mostly gotten used to just looking both ways multiple times before crossing a street. It seems to be safer than trying to remember which way traffic is supposed to approach, and then also determining whether or not it's a one-way road. The only time the left-side driving came as a bit of a shock to me was after the run on Sunday, when one of the other runners offered to drive two of us back to the tube station. He unlocked the car and walked around to the trunk ("boot," if you will) to drop a bag in there. Without particularly thinking about it, I went around to the right side of the car, opened the door, and stood there while talking to him. He looked at me with a weird look, I was confused, and then realized "um, oops, there's a steering wheel on this side."