Traveling
May 29, 2022 – June 4, 2022
🇨🇭: Zürich, Chur; 🇫🇷: Strasbourg, Colmar; 🇩🇪: Stuttgart; 🇦🇹: Dornbirn; 🇮🇹: Tirano, Milan, Venice
This was my first business trip to Europe, and we packed a lot in. It was actually my first time back on the continent since my 2018 trip to Paris. Officially, the destination was Stuttgart for an industry-related tradeshow. Unofficially, it turned into a five-country sprint, thanks in large part to my boss’s generosity.
I flew into Zürich and met the team there. We only had a short window to explore before hitting the road, but I managed to grab some scenic photos on the Limmat River with Grossmünster in the background. It felt good to be in Switzerland, one of my ancestral homelands, even if Bern — near where my family is from — was a few hours away.
We pushed onward, stopping for lunch in Colmar, a town my boss had always wanted to see. It was like stepping into a postcard. Small, quaint, colorful, oozing with classic European charm. Then came Strasbourg, where we wandered past the towering cathedral and came across a Korean artist selling watercolor prints. My boss bought one for each of us. Mine, a painting of the town’s iconic multicolored houses by Youngmi Kim, now hangs in my living room.
That night we ended up just outside Stuttgart, somewhere near Sindelfingen. We had the next morning to roam around Schlossplatz before heading to the venue to set up our booth. Playtime was over. It was time to work.
To be honest, I used to detest going to tradeshows. I thought I was more of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy. But over time, as I got more confident in our products and more comfortable with our team, that changed. Now, I look forward to shows. It’s a chance to share what we do, connect with customers, and show off a little.
After the show wrapped, we hit the road again, next stop: Dornbirn, Austria. Dinner that night was at a local beer hall. The next morning, we made our way to Chur, Switzerland, to catch the Bernina Express, a famous scenic train I’d only seen in videos until then.
The Bernina Express
That ride through the Alps was absolutely unforgettable. I grew up around mountains, but these were something else entirely. Snow-capped giants towering above bright glacial lakes and tiny villages that looked untouched by time. I sat there staring out the window for most of the journey, not really talking, just taking it in. At one point, somewhere between a frozen lake and a cluster of stone houses that looked like they’d been there since the Middle Ages, one thought kept coming back:
Why did my great-great-great-grandfather leave this place for LACKAWANNA COUNTY?
I mean, no offense to Scranton. But come on!
The train dropped us in Tirano, Italy, a quiet town where Germanic influence still clung to the buildings and signage. My other ancestry is Italian, so I was genuinely excited to finally set foot in the “old country.” We made our way to the office near Milan, knocked out some work, and carved out time to explore. We shopped near the Duomo, wandered through the arcades, and capped it all off with an incredible Sardinian dinner at Osteria Molo 13.
Venice
With work behind us, we took one last detour: Venice.
I’d seen the photos. Watched the videos. Heard from everyone who’d been that it was worth it. None of it prepared me for actually being there. It’s one of those places that doesn’t fully register as real until you’re standing in the middle of it, canals where streets should be, bridges around every corner, centuries-old buildings slowly sinking into the water with zero urgency about it. There’s something almost defiant about Venice. It shouldn’t exist, and yet there it is, still going.
We wandered without much of a plan, which turned out to be exactly right. Every turn led somewhere worth stopping. At one point I found myself sitting at the water’s edge, drinking a Fanta, on a call with my dad. I remember thinking that this was a strange and wonderful thing — to be sitting in Venice, talking to my father at home, like it was a completely normal afternoon. It wasn’t. But that’s what travel does to your sense of normal over time.
Even with the tourists everywhere, it still felt surreal. That’s not nothing.
We covered five countries in just over a week. Long days, tight schedules, late dinners, but it was all totally worth it. Work brought me there, but it’s the moments outside of work that I’ll remember most. The Bernina views. The Strasbourg painting. Sitting at the water in Venice wondering what to even say to describe it.
Some places earn their reputation. These all did.
