After an 11 hour flight with drug-aided sleep, we arrived in Zurich. The Euro Cup soccer tournament has been taking place across Switzerland, and we strolled downtown to watch the Portugal vs. Germany game at the 'Fan Zone', a cordoned off area of downtown for soccer hooligans. We decided to "Go Big" since we didn't have anything to do the next day except fly. Rookie mistake! Flying with a hangover is the worst, but the business class seat made it somewhat bearable. I'm definetly spoiled.

We arrived in Nairobi after dark and were ready to hit the town, but with the locals repeated warnings against going anywhere (even a block from the hotel) we decided to play it safe. Nairobi isn't nicknamed Nairobbery for nothing.

We got up early to see what we could in Nairobi before taking a 6 hour bus ride to Aurusha. We went to two conservation centers; one for elephants and one for giraffes. I had to see if the Monahan tongue was longer than the lengedary giraffe. Score one for the giraffe, but just barely. We even met Obama's 'cousin' and we promised that we would tell Obama 'hi' for him. Now if we could only pronounce his cousin's name.

Tomorrow morning we start our safari to Tarangire Natl Park, Serengeti NP, and the Ngorongoro crater. Over dinner, the owner of the safari company, an eccentric German transplant, treated us to some local stories and beers. So far, Tanzania is showing potential.

We were on our way to LAX with aspirations of sweet-talking our way into an upgrade. We're flying on mileage tickets, and got charged for the amount equivalent to a first class ticket. But when we booked, the LAX-Zurich leg did not have first class or biz class availability. So we showed up at the airport a good three hours early try and plead our way out of coach.

Normally I'm really good at this kind of thing - my mom worked for American Airlines for 30+ years, and she taught me the way to handle airline employees. However, this ticket agent was having none of it, so we'll be in 48E and 48G on a stinking Airbus. In fact the flight is so full they had signs up asking for volunteers to DOWNGRADE to coach from business.

Fortunately, we were not deterred from enjoying the Star Alliance lounge where we can sample many liquors, Thai beers, fried rice, cheese and crackers, and other foods that are way too fancy for any domestic airline to serve.

However the most disturbing event in the 2 hours we've been on the trip now was this direct quote from Juli as we passed through security: "I don't think I can travel with you like this anymore." Message to Juli's bosses - no more first class flights to Brazil and Russia for her. Next thing you know she'll be checking luggage.