It’s a London thing

After one week of acclimatization in Zurich it was time to leave the country again – destination London. Friday night I took the train to Basel to catch my flight there. Sitting in the lounge and checking cool architecture and fashion magazines (Zurich airport is crap compared, they don’t provide you with all these cool magazines, you have to be lucky to get the daily newspaper) somebody was calling my name. I looked around and I saw this blond girl smiling at me – it was Stephie, an old friend I met ages ago in France during French studies in Antibes Juan-les-Pins. What a surprise! We managed to get seats next to each other and had chats about good old and recent times and some gross white wine. She is doing this internship in art banking (haven’t heard about that before) and was telling me about her experiences and I of course shared mine from Russia. In London I got a warm welcome by my girlfriend; it’s some time I haven’t seen her… all excited we went to her dorm in Knightsbridge. Saturday was a lovely day, the sun was shining so we decided to do some sightseeing. We started in Covent Garden (with a vegetarian breakfast in Neal’s Yard), went to LSE, continued on Fleet Street, crossed Millenium bridge, decided not to go to Tate gallery (though I had to mention million times that it was built by Herzog & de Meuron, our Swiss star architects) and ended up in Borough market. I love such food markets. Ok, Borough market is more this posh place with all these delicatessens from all over the world, full of wealthy visitors and tourists but it is still great and I couldn’t get enough to go around and take pictures. It looks like one of these markets where Jamie Oliver goes to get stuff for his creations. In case I end up in London one day , I will be around in these markets on the weekends… Sunday morning big breakfast with Rösti I brought from Switzerland then Camden town. Another cool market though I didn’t like the clothes section that much but the food and antiques stuff was great. A good place to get some pieces of furniture and cool accessories. In the evening we met a friend for shisha, mint tea and a chat about life. Later Iranian food for take away… reminded me kind of my stay in Turkey, as food is similar. Colbeh is a great place to discover Iranian dishes, ask for the fresh bread to accompany the delicious curries and kebabs. On Monday I had the opportunity to attend a lecture at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) where my girlfriend is doing her master. It was a very interesting and contemporary session about nuclear weapons and proliferation. During the session we went through the instructions for the use of nuclear weapons published by the Bush administration – it was astonishing to imagine that there are still thousands of officers out there that do daily planning for a nuclear war or the use of weapons of mass destruction (not only in the axis of evil!). Before the lecture we had a drink at the student union and I was jealous that we don’t have such a relaxed place (with big bar) to hang out at my university. After the lecture I met Nicolas, one of my Zurich boys, working in London for the past couple of months. I got a brief introduction into investment banker life (sorry private equity) in the city of London and I visited his flat that is nicely located but when asking about the rent I was shocked – London is just fucking expensive! For the rest of the week we enjoyed the being together, checked out some great food (first time Pakistani (go to New Tayyabs in Islington and try the lamb chops), Malaysian (in China town) and South Indian (Ravi Shankar restaurant rather boring for me), went for more markets (Chapel) and saw "Cabaret" (listen to the most famous song: "willkommen, bienvenue, welcome..." check out the samples in the upper left corner) a musical that plays in Berlin before WWII – about sex, politics, sex, love, sex, sinful lifestyle, sex, Nazis, sex, Jews and yeah about sex… the master of ceremony made me like the musical very much.
Friday 5.30am it was once again time to say goodbye, I continued to have sweet dreams on the flight to Basel.

Zurich je t'aime

After the excesses at the Pulkova airport I slept all the way trough to Prague, ignored the guy at the check-in in Prague as he blamed me for the over-luggage and then slept through most of my flight to Zurich. I woke up as the duty-free articles were offered and got myself a present, something like a farewell gift. Arriving in Zurich was not that strange as I expected… just as I waited for the train to bring me to the main terminal I saw this telecommunication provider advertising: “Missing the mountains?”, I realised YES and somehow things poped to my mind that I missed. My father warmly welcomed me and it feelt good to hug him tight. At home my mother welcomed me with kisses and hugs and I was excited about the smell of cheese as my first dinner was (as wished): Raclette! Soon later Jens arrived and we enjoyed a delicious Raclette, good wine and at the end of course some vodka. After dinner I went up to my room, opened the window and just looked the field and forest, enjoying the fresh chilly air. I slept like a baby :-)
The next day warm sunshine woke me up and I decided to go to downtown Zurich to get the feeling for my city again… it was an amazing day, the sun and the view of snow on the hills and mountains started the “reintegration process”. I took the “Postauto” (a very Swiss thing) to get to Zurich, there I walked along the Bahnhofstrasse all the way down to the lake… and I felt that “little big city” the slogan of Zurich tourism expresses the soul of the city very well! The feeling was similar as I came back from my stay in Istanbul and went up the Üetliberg to see Zurich: the city is so tiny! But when you experience it and live there it offers so much… Zurich je t’aime… though I got this globetrotter virus and also want to work as international as possible, I think in the long-term I’ll get back to Zurich… still, despite all the emotions some things already bored me: no chaos, not too many smiles on people’s faces, no rush…
The rest of the week was nearly daily business already (what I actually enjoyed): meeting more friends, enjoying my family (chats with my parents & bro, shopping with my mother!), moving some stuff to St. Gallen, meeting my new flatmate Maria and plenty of administrative stuff. It was relaxed and busy at the same time… not too much time to think about the past 5 months but here and there I could feel that soon there will be this moments when I will miss Pieter…

bye bye Питер...

The last days in Питер past by very fast... though Thursday was the "students day", nobody wanted to come out with me as everyone had exam. Friday we did a last dinner in Gorohovaja 3: mexican food with the Italian boys, Tolik & Victoria and Olivier. A very nice evening that ended at 6am in Fidel. It was good to spend the last party with the people I hanged out the most though some where missing (either because they have already left or were otherwise busy...).
Saturday, the second last day in Russia started late in the afternoon and was mainly dedicated for some souvenir shopping (actually just red caviar & russki standart). In the evening Rici invited us to the dorm to eat the leftovers from his last trip to Italy... I would say leftover is very much an understatement! We enjoyed an amazing Italian dinner, starting with nice antipasti, primi plati oignion soup and carbonara & tuna spaghetti as secondi plati! As everyone was kinda tired from the night before, we did not go out and I had to go back all the way alone (kind of adventurous as the streets were frozen and my Lada taxi driver was not the most experienced!). So I had all night to reflect about my stay in Russia and sorting pictures I collected from the others... so many memories... my English vocabulary is to limited to describe them all! Compared to my stay in Turkey it was less about the place but much more about the people that made this 5 months an unforgettable experience. Though Saint-Petersburg is one huge museum it does not have the soul other cities have (this is just my very personal opinion). The city is just amazing, I think one of the most impressive sites in the world but it lacks the taking-part-of-your-soul thing. Anyway, as I said it was about the people... I will not mention everyone here... everyone who reads this lines will exactly know how she or he made my stay! I just can say "thank you" for the memories, for sharing the moments, for enjoying & suffering!
The last day started with a big brunch with Nico & Nora, two darlings :-) We finished the food, the liquids and waited for Sasha & Andreij to pick us up (thank you so much!). We enjoyed our last drive to the airport, left Nora out on the way :-( and were surprised by the most fantastic (most Russian) farewell gift from our landloards: Zar's style antique crystal shot glasses (old Russian style: appr. 70g) and a limited edition vodka! Time to say good bye to Russian soil... the check-in was tricky, I made it to Zurich with at least 15kg over luggage, being either charming or very annoying (sorry to the stewardess of Czech airlines). Passing the passport control I remembered my arrival: cloudy sky, windy, grey buildings, grim securities all over... but now I got a cute smile from the custom lady and that was not a flirt thing but just a very nice gesture! You made my day! I will keep this country in good memory though by the end I could not deal with the melancholie anymore...
all of us had plenty of Rubles left so we headed to the next bar... Nico and me ended our "being-flatmates-relationship" the way we started! I spent a great half an hour before leaving, Nico thanks for everything, Olivier ZH is not far from Lausanne and Prune I hope you could follow my explanations about my emotional status leaving this place :-) Rici you were late but cya in ZH soon (bring the Italian crew with you)! Sasha & Andreij thank you for being the most amazing landloards and the best farewell gift (besides the most fantastic flat in Pieter)! To all the others: have a great start back home, enjoy the social REintegration process, all the best and keep in touch... the world is small!