I have always thought I would write more about my travels than I end up posting. When I think about potential posts, I get caught up in trying to create some grand lesson I learned or deep observation to share. While I struggle, still, to find my voice, even after over a decade of blogging, potential posts about my travels wither away while they wait. Clearly, this post indicates a change. Instead of avoiding travel recaps or travelogues in favor of general or deep observations, I want to dive into travel writing with the start of this occasional, perhaps to become regular series. These travelogues will not replace my regular weekly post, except for this week. Instead, they will appear once or twice a month, perhaps once a week. The format will change and mature as I gain experience but I hope to still create meaningful content.
The travelogues begin with the Grand European Adventure, Day 1.
Although “day” implies a twenty-four hour time period, day one extended from 10am in Greenville on July 4th until I crawled in bed after 10pm in Zermatt, Switzerland, approximately 30 hours later plus a six hour time change.
Mom drove me to GSP with plenty of time before the first flight to Newark left. I had considered the insanity of trying to squeeze in the Red, White, and Blue Shoes 5k but Mom wisely talked me out of it.
For a month long journey, I travelled with my trusty Osprey travel backpack – well worth the $180 cost a couple years ago – a new Osprey small sling bag, and a purple neck pillow I won in a giveaway a while back. Inside the main section of the backpack I had four packing cubes, one small make-up bag, a box for my travel kettle, and two small plastic containers for my coffee. One cube held ziplock bags of oatmeal, squeeze packets of peanut butter and dried fruit bars. Another cube held all my running gear. The remaining two cubes held enough clothes for eight days, the longest span of my trip without access to a washing machine. Inside the small “make up” bag I put my charger and my aeropress. In the secondary pocket, I slid my Macbook air and my flexible binder with all necessary paperwork. The sling bag held my kindle, journal, camera, some snacks, the portable charger, passport, and some payment methods. That’s it. That’s all I took.
The first leg of the journey passed uneventfully. I had TSA pre-check and thus did not have to unpack anything. After arriving in Newark, I remembered the NY trip fondly since we spent the night in that terminal.
I made my way to Terminal B, knowing I would have to pass through security again. I later learned of a shuttle bus between terminals that would negate another pass through security. However, if you have a 4+ hour layover, all the “good” food , including Starbucks, is located pre-security. Prior to the trip, I learned that my Starbucks app would not work in the countries I planned to travel so I used the one birthday gift card I loaded to purchase lunch and several more dried fruit bars while I could use the app. Keep that in mind if you’re inclined to stock up on reward stars or gift card money.
When heading through security, I remembered the lesson of Salt Lake City and took in the TSA agent’s recommendation to take food products out of the bag. I pulled out the coffee containers and the packing cube with the oatmeal, peanut butter, and dried fruit. Thus, I passed through security without getting flagged. Compartmentalized packing helped me get through security quickly and helped afterwards when I had to repack.
Once on the plan for the longest segment of the journey, I waited for the row to fill up. I continued to wait until they closed the boarding doors only to discover that I had the whole row to myself! A few hours later I attempted to make use of the space to sleep, a hard ask since my body thought it was 6pm eastern time rather than 11pm Lisbon time. I managed to sneak in some light dozing but did not achieve deep sleep until I arrived in Zermatt many hours later. On long flights like this that cover multiple time zones, attempt to sleep according to the destination time but prepare for a lack of success by building in time for adjustment and an actual good night’s sleep once you reach your destination.
Early the next morning Lisbon time, I made my way through security one last time. It may have been customs but since I speak Spanish, not Portuguese and my tired brain had no energy to decipher all the signs, I simply followed everyone else. This time, however, something triggered a flag on my bag. The agent had to open ever pocket for some reason and made no attempt when done to place my things back or explain what he looked for in the first place. I muddled through packing my bag, irritated but realizing that my lack of sleep contributed to the irritation. Once repacked, I waited in the main area and ate breakfast. Like Heathrow, the Lisbon airport notifies travelers of their gate approximately 20 minutes prior to departure.
When I made my way to the gate, I had difficulty mustering any sort of positive energy since I still had two significant legs ahead, the flight to Geneva, and then a train ride to Zermatt. Next time, if a direct flight costs a hundred or two dollars more, I will gladly spend that. The frequent stops and starts, the not there yet feeling, exhausts more than crossing multiple time zones.
I slept for most of the flight to Geneva but woke enough to get myself onto the correct train and to make the change of trains at Visp. I had flexible tickets from Geneva to Zermatt which meant that I could take any train on that route within those three days. In Gare Cornavin, Geneva’s huge main train station, I made use of the information desk to locate my platform since none of the displays included the stop at which I needed to change. The agent printed off an information ticket with much needed specificity for my tired brain.
Although I could barely keep my eyes open, I tried to pay attention to my beautiful surroundings once on the train. The ride passed fairly quickly as did the wait on the platform at Visp for the much smaller train that would take me to Zermatt. Once there, I ended up sitting across from a man who was also running in Zermatt the next day. (He planned to run the full marathon.) I realized we would reach that the race expo location several stops prior to Zermatt so I should go ahead and disembark there to pick up my bib before heading on to Zermatt. That way I could cut out another hour of travel time round trip from Zermatt and back.
An adorable town greeted me at the expo location and once I arrived in Zermatt. I had fallen in love with Switzerland already. The relief of finally arriving at my final destination of the day, including clear directions to the AirBnb only minutes away from the train station, combined with a shower and coffee, revived me physically and emotionally. Before retiring for the night, I made a trek out to the grocery store for some food, to the pre-race pasta dinner for a free meal, and up and down the main street to find an adapter. Heads up to anyone travelling to Switzerland. They use different plugs/outlets than the UK, Italy, and the rest of Europe. Do yourself a favor and purchase a universal adapter that allows for US device plug in. I ended up purchasing two to provide that capability and disposing of my UK only and Italy only adapters.
The first day finally came to an end with an “early” bed time and a half marathon up a mountain awaiting me in the morning!