After one month of traveling, today’s the day we head back to Vancouver.

It’s been a fun trip exploring the Five Stans in Central Asia but now we were ready to get back home.

After an epic last night in Paris where I saw Celine Dion in concert, it was another early morning for us today.

That’s now three days in a row where we had to wake up in the pre dawn hours to catch a morning flight.

Of course, with my midnight return from the concert last night, I only got a handful of hours sleep last night.

Adrenaline would have to get me through the day today…

Flight 1: Paris to Zurich

There were two flights on tap for us today.

First was a short flight to Zurich and then a 10 hour long haul flight taking us back to Vancouver.

It’s kind of counter productive as Zurich is actually in the opposite direction but, hey, that’s what Air Canada booked for us.

Ironically, despite it being an Air Canada flight, neither of our flights today would be operated by them.

Our first flight was flown by Swiss Air and our second one was with Edelweiss.

I knew there’d be no meal on our hour and half flight to Zurich so I bought pretty much the only food I could eat at the airport – a sushi triangle.

I hadn’t seen one of those in awhile and it certainly brought back alot of memories of those glorious sushi triangles in the Family Marts back in Japan.

Since we were flying to another country in the Schengen area we didn’t have to go through passport control for our first flight.

Just a simple xray of our bags and a walk to our gate.

The flight itself was pretty non eventful as I tried as best I could to snag a little shuteye but it wasn’t long before we were descending into Zurich.

An airport lunch

We had a two hour layover in the Zurich airport which was more than enough time to grab some lunch.

As we walked to the International Transfers area we passed several restaurants but I had my eyes on one thing and one thing only – McDonalds.

I know, I know – I can hear you all groaning “McDonalds?!?”

But let me explain…

It’s very rare for me to have a McDonalds burger now that I’m celiac.

Sure I can get one without a bun but it just ain’t the same.

But here in Switzerland there are gluten free buns available at their McDonalds making them one of only a dozen or so countries in the world where they do that.

So, yeah, I was hankering for some Mickey D’s.

Problem was I was in the middle of an international transfer and sadly the one and only McDonalds in the airport was on the landside while I was here on the airside.

I contemplated going back through passport control and then back again but I didn’t want to risk it time wise.

Now, because we had gone through passport control, all those restaurants we had passed were now inaccessible to us.

And in our gate area there was only one place to grab food – Pret a Manger.

They offer a variety of sandwiches which obviously I can’t have but they also have different salads and yogurt dishes which I can.

So, I opened up my wallet and paid the ridiculous Swiss airport prices and bought lunch.

For the low, low price of only $52 I had tuna salad, a berry yogurt cup and a Coke.

Yeah, Switzerland is expensive and being in an airport didn’t help either.

Oh well, whatever, I was starving and I was still in travel mode where I’m a wee bit looser with the purse strings.

Flight 2: Zurich to Paris

I’ve never flown with Edelweiss Airlines before so I didn’t know what to expect.

I will say I wasn’t overly impressed with their procedure at the gate where we first had to line up to have our documents checked and then go straight into another line to board our flight.

It seemed a bit redundant and, honestly, a little annoying.

But, then again, at the end of the day it’s not like the flight was going anywhere without us.

At 1:30 we boarded our flight.

Nathan had the window seat and I had an aisle seat and we waited to see who would join us in the good old middle seat.

And the answer was – no one.

Yup, we had an empty middle seat between us which meant we could stretch out a bit more.

An hour into the flight the attendants came by giving everyone goldfish crackers and I was starting to get a bit worried about the food situation.

Were we getting meal service on this flight?

I mean, surely there’s meal service on a 10 hour flight, right?

An hour later my worries were put at rest as meal service began.

In fact I even got a gluten free meal which I apparently had preordered when I made this booking months ago.

The meal today was chicken in red pepper sauce with quinoa and broccoli.

There were also a nice salad and fruit cup on the side and, unbelievably, a warm gluten free bun.

Let me repeat that…

A warm gluten free bun!

Usually the buns I get on the plane are always cold and hard as a rock and, frankly, inedible.

This one, though, oh my God – it was perfect!

Edelweiss, you’re scoring big points there.

Are you listening Air Canada?

A few hours later and you’ll never believe it…

Ice cream!

Yup, they served us all individual little packs of strawberry ice cream.

And, guess what?

A couple hours later we got a gingerbread cookie and a glass of iced tea.

Surely that’s it for food, right?

Nope.

There was still one final meal.

Mine was the gluten free option of a chicken and rice salad with a little cup of berry compote.

And, of course, another nice warm gluten free bun.

Okay, Edelweiss Airlines, despite your crazy checkin procedure, you get top marks in my book.

C’mon Air Canada – this Swiss airline is making you look like chumps.

Home, sweet, home

We touched down in Vancouver at 2pm which, thanks to time zones, is basically the same time we left Zurich.

Of course by now it was a good 17 hours since I woke up this morning in Paris which meant I was a sleepy boy.

But, first, there was a little matter of a two hour transit ride back to my home.

In fact, you’re only reading this and yesterday’s blogs because I typed them up on that very bus ride.

By 6pm I was finally home.

Back with my cats.

It didn’t take them long just to camp themselves on top of my backpack.

Just their way of saying “don’t you dare leave us again”.

So ends this month long odyssey of traveling to the Five Stans.

What’s up next?

Good question!

Guess you’ll just have to follow me on social media to find out…