Home for the Holidays

  6:30 AM came fast, as it felt like my head had hit the pillow seconds earlier.  After spending the majority of the night at our company holiday party, with over 1200 colleagues that lasted well into the morning (3:30 AM to be exact), I learned that next year, I will have to better plan my trip home for the holidays.  With my apartment cleaned, fridge cleared, and bag delicately packed, mostly with glass and gel candles from the Vienna Christmas markets that I cannot carry-on, I departed for the Vienna airport, for my short hour flight to Zurich, then 10 hours of fun in coach to the windy city.

  Upon arrival in Switzerland, I received some bad news while passing through Swiss customs to my connecting flight.  Since I have a Slovak work permit, I was told I will no longer receive EU passport stamps when traveling through Europe.  I love travel, and my reaction to finding out that I will not be receiving stamps was the equivalent of being told that Santa Claus does not exist.  I will definitely have to find a way around this obstacle, or else book all my travel through non-EU countries.  After passing through customs, I made sure to stop for lots of Swiss Chocolate, and headed over to the next security line, which the airport was handing out candy for the wait.  Although the flight was long, the ride was easier because Swiss Air provides the widest selection of movies of any airline I have traveled on, and you can start and stop each movie at anytime.  Which made the experience even better was they served ice cream mid-flight!  I think I know where I will be connecting on my future flights.  The only odd moment about the flight was when landing, where as usual, the pilot provided the weather and wind conditions, which were 0 degrees, and 40 mile per hour winds, followed with a “hope you enjoy your stay in Chicago”.  He probably could have ended on a better note saying at least there is no snow, but regardless, I am happy to be home.

  While I packed light for my travel to Chicago (1 bag), my “bags” for the return trip to Bratislava will be much different.  Two weeks earlier, I started ordering items online to bring back with me.  Other than my computers, I only brought one electrical item to Bratislava from the US, which my Playstation became so hot from 20 minutes of use, that a 240/220W to 120/110W power converter was essential if I am going to watch any of my DVDs.  I was warmed of this potential issue by a colleague ahead of time, but like most guys, did little research and still went ahead anyway.  Unlike my past travel when I packed just a laptop that had power converter capabilities, I now know that a regular plug adapter does not account for the wattage difference, even if the product does work while plugged in without the converter.  Hopefully I did not fry my Playstation, or else is it back to watching Shawshank in Slovak. 

  The second item on my list is something that I have had trouble finding in Slovakia.  A couple months ago, when viewing different apartments to lease, I was told you could always tell when an American was the prior tenant.  In Europe, it is not common for the bath tubs to have a shower curtain, so anytime there was a curtain, the prior tenant was most likely American.  While my apartment here does have a shower curtain, there is no holder for the handheld water sprayer.  Since using the handheld faucet is the only way to shower, and I have just two hands, I must set down and turn off the water mid-shower each time, which is absolutely awful.  So I ordered a portable shower arm suction grip to hopefully make that not one of the worst parts of my day.  While I am trying to live as European as possible, there are some things that will just not work, at least not in the winter months.

I am looking forward to seeing my family and spending time with friends during the holidays.  I want to wish everyone happy holidays, and hopefully will get to see some of you while in Chicago.  Please note the pictures below were taken in the summer, and it is getting colder there now, which I did hear snow fell in the city for the first time.

View from my desk; my apartment (or flat) is exactly right in the middle of this photo and a 7 minute walk each day

UFO bridge on the Danube