What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger – Friedrich Nietzsche

Cazzo, Vittu, Foda-se, Scheiße, 狗屁 – Claudio

For those of you not knowing what such quotes may refer to, and for those who do, here is an explanation of the facts, as they’ve happened in chronological order. Or thought so

I do understand that my narrative skills aren’t the best, so for anyone that might be really bored you can jump to the last part!

Thursday – 30th of April – 15.00/2.30

After a tiring week of lessons and exercises at ETH João and Claudio set off to the center of Zürich to buy chocolate. More chocolate. Claudio has tickets to reach his girlfriend, Eppi, in Finland, the day afterwards, the 1st of May.
The weather is fine, a bit cloudy, once home, where Mike was waiting for them, the trio sets off to kick a few times the ball in the nearby park, and then to program a mysterious iPhone application which will see the light in the future.
At around 19.00 João and Claudio decide that it’s about time to bring the luggage to the Airport for a night-before-check-in (which is definitely a very good option for all the people who have their flight early in the morning). After the operation yielded successful results the duo went on to the Chinese restaurant where they decided to grab some food for the soirée.
NOTE: João paid the dinner since Claudio has been helping him the whole previous afternoon being the best money-investor for his reach family (all fake, ETH Human Resources Management course project)

Home again, the trio reformed, dinner is served and eaten, followed by the delicious apple-lime-sugar (re)mix © by João.
Cards are now entering the scene, with a few fast matches of Briscola, and some tricks done (and later explained) by João.

The second part of the evening, beside occupying the same time as the previous spots fewer activities, first the last Lost episode has been watched by the full trio (yes, they are fan of the series) and then João brought up a cool opensource FPS, Warsow, which kept the three guys busy until around 3 in the night.
With very few hours of sleep ahead, Claudio decides to take home João and get some rest before the trip. Or so he thought….

Night – 1th of April – 2.30/4.00

To take João home, Claudio, the driver, needed a car, which he has, parked outside home. Apart from a working car, he needed a license, which he has, safely stored in his wallet. Which he has … Or no, he had. You guessed right, the wallet was nowhere to be found. Not in the house (which Mike has been scanning inch-by-inch), not in the car (which João scanned centimeter-by-centimeter), not in the streets, neither from car to home, nor from Chinese (closed at 24.00) to car park (scanned by Claudio & João meter-by-meter).

With his plane leaving in just hours (2, roughly) Claudio lost his hope to find the wallet. But he didn’t lost hope to reach Eppi, in Finland. Here comes the telephone aid:

  1. 117 – the police national emergency number. A friendly voice answers in German (terror!) but then after the start-question: “Sprächen Sie English, Franzosich öder Italienish?” and the comforting answer: “Italiano” the issue is solved. Well, the language issue. The police-guy was actually answering from Ticino (Southern part of Switzerland) and redirected Claudio to the kantonpolizei of Zürich.
  2. kantonpolizei – the police for the Canton of Zürich. A not-so-friendly voice answers in German (terror!) and refuses to speak any other language than Deutch (abyssal terror!!!). Asking help from Mike (he’s supposed to know German, but he roughly manages) Claudio manages to explain that he lost his wallet, and needs to take a plane morgen (aka: tomorrow). The guy redirects Claudio to the Flüghafen polizei.
  3. Flüghafen polizei – the police of the Airport of Zürich. A sleepy voice answers in German (terror!) but manages to speak English. The problem is explained and a solution is proposed: get to the police asap and get a paper stating that the ID card has been lost. As a substitute the permit issued by the Stadt Opfikon (where I’m living) will be used to identify myself. The flights will be Shengen-bounded so it shouldn’t be a problem

Morning – 1th of April 4.00/5.00

The two iron-forged guys, João and Claudio , leave Mike behind and rush to the airport, where, after some waiting and a grumpy almost-sleepy-badly-awaken police officer fills in the report and gives it to Claudio with the comment: “they won’t let you board the flight”

Back home, Mike is in bed, sleeping and dreaming about jumping sheeps overflowing the maximum integer size, Claudio takes a quick shower while João chats with some Portugues friends still awake.
The time has come. The two heroes reach the airfield, and João gifts lends Claudio some money for the trip, Claudio advances to the gates of heaven the passport check and passes through, without any inconvenience.

João brings back the car to my place and gets some rest. He deserved it!

The holiday

All goes fine, from Zürich to Düsseldorf and then to Helsinki, final destination Loviisa and all the way back. The small holiday has been a charm, a needed refreshening time with lovely people. No troubles encountered at any passport check, nor at at the check-in on the way home (apart from weird looks from the woman at the counter). The wallet was found by João at the Chinese restaurant on the 1st of May, at 11.00, the opening hour. Life is happy, once more.

Conclusion

All is good what ends up being good. And this adventure definitely ended up being good. The sleeping time wasted was gained back with some extra sleeping the following days, and for sure the duo João – Claudio proved to be strong and compact, a good friendship, bound to last for a long time being. I would like to thank João for showing me how good friends can be, Mike for helping out whenever he could, Eveliina for always having encouraging words whenever they’re needed and overall life for giving me adventures and opportunities which should be lived through to learn how to live better and always managing through whatever hard or complicated issues come up.

As for the two quotations, the first looks obvious, the second is a collection of swear words in all the languages related to the posting: Italian, Finnish, Portuguese, German and Chinese, in no relevant order.