Switzerland - Landed

Switzerland - Day 1 - Oct 11, 2008

I took a Friday night/Sat early morning red-eye flight into Zurich. I was sad to leave Beirut as it is one of my favorite cities in the world. It is nice to be back in Switzerland though. Everything works, is on time and one does not need to haggle with taxi cab drivers over pennies because of principle. ("My foreign accent doesnt mean you can charge me triple!") Switzerland and Lebanon are worlds apart on the surface - even a Lebanese cab which costs triple the going rate is still significantly cheaper than a Swiss taxi on the meter!

The first time I went to Switzerland was to go ice climbing and canyoning. None of that natural beauty on this trip this time: tomorrow are the Switzerland premieres of AN ISLAMIC CONSCIENCE in Zurich, Basel and Bern and then I will be leaving soon thereafter.

In the country's papers, I saw a few articles on the film in them - from the translation that was given to me, I am told it was good overall.

I met up with Sara Leu, who is helping with the screenings, tonight. She took me out for some fabulous schnitzel. After this, I was hosted by an Ismaili and the small Zurich jamat. Most had not seen the film and were looking forward to seeing it on Sunday. They have many questions they tell me.

Till tomorrow...