european illiterati part ii

[... continued]

friday (25.5):

we woke up stupidly early, finished packing and walked to the train station, stopping to pick up gipfeli on the way. once we had acquired our ridiculously expensive tickets, we sat eating breakfast by the river, then returned to the station to catch our train. i was surprised at how little seating is available on the platform.

switzerland makes for overly-picturesque train travel: by "overly", i mean that it was hard to stop staring out the window, snapping away with my camera, when i had work to do on my seminar paper.

chur is a great little town, but by the time we arrived i was far too tired to move. we had a very nice lunch with pg's aunt and uncle and the bride (i was feeling a little less illiterate after that), and in spite of my tiredness i not only moved, but went out with pg to a hiking trail by flims.

that was totally worth it: flims is absolutely stunning. we arrived home in time for dinner, completed by a shameful dessert wherein pg reserved a milk dessert for me after the family had gone to the trouble of organizing lactose-free catering for me specifically at the wedding, and she did so without an explanation...

in swiss spring / summer, 8pm feels like 4pm. the sun sets really late - strange and cool.

i had a great nap, then woke up later to work into the night on my seminar.

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saturday:

i was the first guest up, which led to slight awkwardness around the superbly set table. after a long breakfast i went back to bed, waking up just in time to be the last to the table for lunch.

it was time to get ready for the wedding. with a smart jackets and my hair down, i *did* feel a bit mafia - pg's father and brother were endlessly amused at how we all looked.

the wedding: the church was beautiful, the choir seemed traditional, and the minister looked a bit of a punk even though she was very sweet and funny. for the hour or so that we were there, and us not having drunk enough water, we understood little aside from that little jokes were made and somewhat appreciated, marriage is a convoluted thing and i managed to identify the lord's prayer even though it was in german.

setting the tone: the bride and groom came in to the organ sounding the world in union. at some point, the choir's lead performed a solo of dream a little dream of me, which in spite of cass eliot's looks seems more appropriate for a piano lounge than a wedding, especially when the soloist is oozing sex appeal and appearing to sing to the groom.

the groom's family performed a tripartite funeral-toned blessing, and as none of us understood the words the experience was kinda creepy.

so no water, no eating in church, and at some point the standing and sitting made me woozy...

we then spent two hours in a beautiful courtyard, with cocktail snacks, beers and wine for some of it but no water, no coffee, and the sun heating us up properly while we waited for the photographer to finish. we were then packed into an old postal bus, which might have been quaint and fun but involved much suffering because we couldn't open the windows. the driver was amusing though - the comments he made were dry and uninteresting and held no sense of irony, and appeared to be for the tourist's benefit although he only spoke in german. the swiss all laughed at how silly it was for them to have their backyard described to them, and us foreigners couldn't understand a thing. except "16 cylinder".


between our arrival at the hotel and our rushed flight on the early bus home at 2am, a full twelve hours since our arrival at the church, we sat politely at our tables talking, a couple of times interrupted by delicious food. at midnight the band started up, but they were more about the idea of music than the music itself - excellent, but low-key and undanceable music far more suited to an old-age home than a wedding. at least that brought with it the dessert tray, which was undoubtedly one of the most decadent i've ever come across - absolutely magnificent.

of course we had fun: statistically, it was highly unlikely that during that much time we wouldn't be able to amuse ourselves. it was nice to meet pg's family, at least, they're all pretty cool and unless they were just being super-polite i think we all got along well.

i wondered if divorce stats are lower in switzerland because the weddings are such an investment, but apparently they're just like everywhere else. but i can see why two-thirds of the country are cool about unmarried couples :P

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sunday:

sunday morning was taken easy, and as soon as we had the energy pg and i were driven to the train station. i worked on my seminar the whole ride back to zurich, where we dropped our bags before heading underground to do some last-minute shopping (everywhere else was closed - aaaah, civilization). we had lunch and macaroons in the park by the river, then made a mission of returning home by going through another park that was absolutely gorgeous.

why is it always harder waking up after a good nap? but who needs coffee when the neighbors are up on their roof playing sweet beats to a gorgeous sunset?

we had to pass on a few places (either too expensive, or too demandingly german) until we arrived at spaghetti factory for dinner. it's a great little place, and the food was incredible! we came back via the lake so that pg could feed the swans, and when she went to sleep i got into a serious man: i highly recommend it.

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monday:

three hours of sleep was not enough, and it was incredibly lucky that we managed to get up on time because the alarm wasn't working... it wouldn't have been such a rush to leave if we weren't still half-asleep. the coffee i made didn't seem to help much, except that maybe that's how i noticed that pg was about to put the keys to the building in the postbox inside the building on our way out before unlocking the door, when we were already running late for the train to the airport. i can think of little less pleasant than being in a hurry and having to knock on the neighbours' doors before 7am to sign-language them into letting us out :S

a poster at the train station amused me greatly: i don't remember now if it said this precisely or if this is just how i read it: "weddings are so yesterday".

the airport: checking in was simple, quick last-minute cheese shopping was irritating, and there was far less security than we were expecting, which was pleasantly strange. or strangely pleasant. it's better than usual.

on the plane, we were unhappy to discover that we'd been given two seats in the middle of a row of four: the aisle seat turned out to be spare, and the woman at the check-in counter sticks us in the middle?? that's not very nice.

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there was a moment while i was watching the iron lady that i realized that there i was, tearing up with emotion while pg was sitting next to me watching mission impossible 4 with a half-interested expression on her face.

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the airport experience was super-fast, and the warm israeli welcome became tangible in tel aviv when we found ourselves running to jump onto the bus pulling out of the station with the door still open and a little old granny still standing on the threshold, clutching on for dear life and with not enough room to step inside.

oh, middle east, how we'd missed you.

halfway home we discovered that back in switzerland, in my early-morning haste, i'd washed the mug i'd used and dried it with the wrong cloth. my return home was written into pg's libri nigri* as i'd forced her to send an sms to her mother (still in switzerland) to tell her which mug needed re-washing, and so the new week began...

* i stole that from asterix, it might just be better to say that i was in the dog box