I have arrived
I have arrived, and I apologise in advance for every time I swap a ‘y’ with a ‘z’ in this post some strange person decided that Europeans need QWERTZ keyboards instead of QWERTY.
I flew with Thai airlines from Melbourne to Bangkok on a boeing 777 which was half empty and lovely, the Thai Airways staff were attentive and friendly the food was delicious or as nice as airline food in economy can be. The flight was smooth and other than hearing the “if there is a doctor on board can you please make yourself known to cabin crew” announcement for someone other than me nothing much happened, and I never did find out what that was all about.
Then there was the flight from Bangkok to Frankfurt. OH Mein Got. (apparently the Swiss also don’t need exclamation marks either or at least I can not find it… just imagine about four of them after the last statement). 11.5 hours of torture, the food was terrible I have never seen totally grey eggs before, the seating cramped even more so than usual economy class. Though that was not so much the plane it was a boeing 747 as the gentleman next to me was using up his seat and about half of mine so I pass pinned between him and the window for 11.5 hours with his elbow trying to separate my ribs the whole time. I could not get up bend over to reach my bag or move at all. The only redeeming feature of that flight was the Lufthansa crew were lovely and apologetic and I am sure if there had been a single spare seat on the plane they would have moved me, but, we were in my case literally packed in like sardines.
The train ride from Frankfurt to Basel was smooth quiet and really comfortable and pleasant, especially after *that* flight. The country side was lush and green the trees to my Australian eyes looked all wrong, they still do, not gum trees is taking some getting used to. The air smells different, again I think it is the lack of gum trees, tea tree, all the things my nose has been used to for the last ten years.
The Swiss are friendly enough if not a little reserved, but I am not sure what language they speak… its not German… it is sort of German with a terrible head cold. My German is improving very slowly as I can use English for most anything.
The apartment here is lovely, though the three flights of stairs to get to it took some getting used to. The building is about as old as the country I just left. I äm slowly getting set up with furniture there is a couch, an arm chair, a bed, a desk a chair and some steps in the living room along with the requisite techno gadgets like a TV. A bed in the bed room. A desk and chairs in the office, which is very useful as I get to work form home most of the time. the kitchen has a few pans, and baking things, cutlery and crockery and a coffee machine and toaster. All in all it is coming together slowly.
Across the road is a park and there is a common courtyard out the back so I am surrounded by lots of green and open spaces. There is a Co-op the local equivalent of coles or woolworths around the corner which has a tram stop gust out front, the tram that stops there conveniently is the one that goes straight to the office. The Rhine river is about a five minute walk from home and the office about 20 to 25 minutes. The local department stores are called Manor (which is about the same as Myer) and Globus (which is like DJ’s).
So there is a quick update for now… later I might tell you all about the price of food… EEEP (again imagine the exclamation marks)
This entry was originally posted at http://arienmir.dreamwidth.org/563.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I flew with Thai airlines from Melbourne to Bangkok on a boeing 777 which was half empty and lovely, the Thai Airways staff were attentive and friendly the food was delicious or as nice as airline food in economy can be. The flight was smooth and other than hearing the “if there is a doctor on board can you please make yourself known to cabin crew” announcement for someone other than me nothing much happened, and I never did find out what that was all about.
Then there was the flight from Bangkok to Frankfurt. OH Mein Got. (apparently the Swiss also don’t need exclamation marks either or at least I can not find it… just imagine about four of them after the last statement). 11.5 hours of torture, the food was terrible I have never seen totally grey eggs before, the seating cramped even more so than usual economy class. Though that was not so much the plane it was a boeing 747 as the gentleman next to me was using up his seat and about half of mine so I pass pinned between him and the window for 11.5 hours with his elbow trying to separate my ribs the whole time. I could not get up bend over to reach my bag or move at all. The only redeeming feature of that flight was the Lufthansa crew were lovely and apologetic and I am sure if there had been a single spare seat on the plane they would have moved me, but, we were in my case literally packed in like sardines.
The train ride from Frankfurt to Basel was smooth quiet and really comfortable and pleasant, especially after *that* flight. The country side was lush and green the trees to my Australian eyes looked all wrong, they still do, not gum trees is taking some getting used to. The air smells different, again I think it is the lack of gum trees, tea tree, all the things my nose has been used to for the last ten years.
The Swiss are friendly enough if not a little reserved, but I am not sure what language they speak… its not German… it is sort of German with a terrible head cold. My German is improving very slowly as I can use English for most anything.
The apartment here is lovely, though the three flights of stairs to get to it took some getting used to. The building is about as old as the country I just left. I äm slowly getting set up with furniture there is a couch, an arm chair, a bed, a desk a chair and some steps in the living room along with the requisite techno gadgets like a TV. A bed in the bed room. A desk and chairs in the office, which is very useful as I get to work form home most of the time. the kitchen has a few pans, and baking things, cutlery and crockery and a coffee machine and toaster. All in all it is coming together slowly.
Across the road is a park and there is a common courtyard out the back so I am surrounded by lots of green and open spaces. There is a Co-op the local equivalent of coles or woolworths around the corner which has a tram stop gust out front, the tram that stops there conveniently is the one that goes straight to the office. The Rhine river is about a five minute walk from home and the office about 20 to 25 minutes. The local department stores are called Manor (which is about the same as Myer) and Globus (which is like DJ’s).
So there is a quick update for now… later I might tell you all about the price of food… EEEP (again imagine the exclamation marks)
This entry was originally posted at http://arienmir.dreamwidth.org/563.html. Please comment there using OpenID.