On our way home...via Zurich

Since there are no direct flights back to Toronto, our journey back to the Great White North took us through Zurich, Switzerland.

We booked through Swiss Air but the flight from Zurich is codeshared with Air Canada. As Canadians, we all know about the mediocre service we get from our national airline, however, I wasn't sure what to expect from Swiss from Nairobi to Zurich.

A few people mentioned to us how terrible the service was. Employees yelling at travellers to stay out of the isle, not being able to use the washrooms, extra baggage charges costing more than the ticket! After hearing all this, J & I expected the worst.

Well, thankfully, our experience was very pleasant. The planes were or seemed to be brand new, and the employees very cheerful and friendly. The food and wine were good and I managed to watch like 3 movies on our personal seatback TV's. Gotta love these new systems (not like AC with their projector style to the bulkhead screen).

The minute we stepped into Zurich airport it was almost a surreal experience.

Brand names, bright lights, no smoking signs...everything I had always just taken for granted came back in an "in my face" rush. All of a sudden we're not the percieved wealthy tourists anymore but just another joe schmoe.

J also summed it up nicely by saying "it's ok to get sick now". I had thought about that all throughout our trip. What would happen if we got sick? Do we trust the system where we are? Is everything clean? It's pretty much a given here that the answer is yes. But elsewhere, I'm not sure if I want a needle poked into me or drugs prescribed.

I guess this is the culture shock we are supposed to have when we arrive. You see everything in a new light and hopefully I won't take this for granted again.

Now let me get back to my half-caf, low fat, sugar and gluten free latte... ;)