I departed the great USA from Dulles International Airport on Tuesday September 9th. My parents took me to DC and the butterflies were flying in my stomach! I was prepared and ready to go but still so nervous! The fear of the unknown will get you ever time if you let it. I kept repeating to myself “Only be concerned for today. Take it one day at a time.”
A couple months ago, I booked my flight through United using miles. I wish I could go back in time to when I signed up for that credit card on a whim and give myself a high five. Totally worth it. After a bit of searching, I found a decent flight to Spain. Pros: I booked it for $100 including an upgrade to economy (yay extra leg room,) Cons: I had a 7 hour layover in Zurich. No big deal I told myself. I had some free passes I could use to gain access to the United Lounge. Perfect. Layover rationalized. Flight booked.
The flight to Zurich was fine, dare I even say comfortable. The economy was great PLUS no one sat beside me. Does that ever happen anymore? I arrived in Europe bleary eyed but happy to be there. I proceeded to look for the United Lounge and in the process of getting lost ended up going through customs a few times. It was totally confusing because it wasn’t your average “WELCOME TO A NEW COUNTRY” type of customs. It was a toll booth looking turn style thing where a guy stamp my passport. I ended up going through it 3 times. Whoops! 3 stamps from Zurich in my passport it is!!
I arrived at the club while visions of comfortable sleeping chairs, free wifi and all the coffee my little heart could handle danced in my mind. I proceeded to walk up to the desk and hand a very nicely dressed woman my pass. “Sorry we do not take these here.” “Pardon?” I asked in the sweetest voice I could muster. “These day passes. We don’t take them here in Zurich. Annual club card holders only.” WHAT?! What am I supposed to do now go back out there with the general population? Lack of sleep and a couple free lounge passes were making me snobby all of a sudden. “Goodbye,” the lady smiled at me with an expectant “you need to leave look.” Oh my gosh what are my options now I thought? A- leave without a fight, B-try to protest a bit more C-go totally crazy on her and tell her that she must let me in NOW! Obviously, I chose option A because I am a lady and a very exhausted lady at that, so I smiled back at her (which probably looked like a painful grimace from her point of view) and made my way back out into the airport toward the freebie seats.
As I looked around trying to find somewhere to sleep something suddenly dawned on me. This was a very fancy and sophisticated airport. Not only were there amazing shops but everyone was dressed impeccable. I am use to the USA where people are often in pajamas and carrying a pillow (guilty as charged!) More often than not I am flying before or after a huge snow storm and it’s like a zombie apocalypse in the airport. People are laying everywhere, lifelessly staring off into the distance, moving through the airport in huge masses. Not so in Zurich.
I finally found a group of seats together where there weren’t many people. Maybe it was because extremely loud construction was happening about 10 feet away but at that point I didn’t care. I just wanted to lay on the seats and sleep hugging my luggage like any red blooded American would do. So I did it. I woke up 2 hours later feeling slight refreshed and ready to wander the airport aimlessly for 5 hours until my flight boarded. Off to Spain!!
The Weather From Here 