I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but one of the big lessons of my trip, which was further reinforced by my experience of Florence, was that the single most important factor for how much fun I have in a city is the company that I am with, whether it be friends or family that I am meeting up with, or even good strangers (who can be just as good sometimes). For LIVING, the differences between cities matter a lot, but for these short visits, I've discovered that the architecture, the food, maybe even the nightlife doesn't matter so much as long as I'm with people whose company I enjoy (and that even in places with great qualities, with no good company or inability to meet people, those great qualities are immaterial). After all, even in the places that were kind of boring, the best times there were when I met people I liked (the Australian couple in the hostel in Texel, the Canary Islands couple I met on the bus leaving Texel, the Irish/Dutch bartender in Groningen, the mathematicians in Maastricht).
Objectively, Florence wasn't exactly my kind of town probably. After all, it seems to be mostly populated with traveling families, couples (where the boyfriend/husband is doing someone a favor), and groups of girls looking for love. I've seen enough Italian architecture, churches, museums to satisfy my lifetime quota. And while the pasta and pizza there were admittedly excellent (especially the pasta, wow!), Italian food is far from my favorite (far behind Mexican, sushi, or even Germanic style sausage based meals). BUT THE IMPORTANT POINT IS that I had an amazing time in Florence, probably some of the best days of the trip, because the company was good. Everywhere I went was fun, because there were people with which to laugh, to have a glass (or more) of wine, or to listen to music. Thanks N, J and L -- you all were great company.
And once again, a barely productive day in Firenze! After waking up late (I was up until 6:30 a.m. after all!) we had pasta at a different spot, this one even closer to the apartment, and I had something with meat sauce, as I think I've probably been inadvertently avoiding protein. And a diet coke. The waitress had a bit of an attitude when we said we had to rush for me to catch my 3 pm train (the fact that we had to rush for me to catch a 3 pm train is a little bit pathetic on my part, but I'll forgive myself since, after all, I'm on vacation). But we did get out of there on time and I did get my ticket ("expensivo!" to quote J) to Zurich via Milan.
My remarks on the train ride:
1) I read about 100 pages of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Engaging!!
2) The Swiss border patrol actually searched the bags of a guy sitting a few feet away from me, went through each bottle, each wrapped item, looked at his passport with some high tech device. Apparently they didn't find anything and left him alone, but it was very uncomfortable just being there.
Mi hermano met me at the train station at 9:00 p.m., under the big clock, just like he did back in early July, when I had just started traveling. Going through the motions of Zurich again reminds me of how long its been that I've been away. I'm much more comfortable with the logistics of traveling, once again (I knew they would come back), my body feels different (lost weight), and I have much less to worry about on the trip (major logistical difficulties have either been worked out (Iceland hike) or abandoned (trans-Siberian railroad)). We walked to a Thai type place for crispy duck. My appetite was at first almost non-existent, even after the 6 hour train ride, but picked up after a while.
We went back to his apartment, taking the familiar tram 3, and watched Seth Myers' opening monologue for the ESPY's in Los Angeles (sports jokes broad enough that even I got most of them), and I watched Jon Stewart's Daily Show interview with Jane Goodall.
My plan in Switzerland is to visit a few places outside of Zurich between now and the 19th, when I leave for Israel. Which actually isn't that far away in time, is it?
Firefox AK -- City to City
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