back from switzerland..

i am back!! haha.. just touched down earlier in the evening.. so far still alright.. didn't feel much of a jet lag right now.. =) yar.. this will be a long story.. haha..

29th may - departed singapore for Zurich in switzerland.. aline, waipeng and ryan came to send me off.. haha.. *thanks pals..* flight was 9.15pm, on swiss air.. a 13-hour flight.. manz.. quite tiring.. given that you were stucked to the same seat for such a long time.. and some of the movies provided by the airplane i have already watched them.. so for most of the time i was listening to oldies on the plane.. haha.. =) realised that the flight attendants on swiss air are quite old.. hmmm...

30th may - reached Zurich at their time 7am.. 6 hrs behind singapore time.. so we had some free time roaming the place ourselves, other than having to have lunch and dinner at the hotel.. tried their mode of transportation, which was the tram.. and their tickets were sooooo ex!! manz.. a one way trip costs 2.40 franc (about SG$3.40) and a 24-hr unlimited ticket costs 7.60 franc.. wow.. super ex siah.. so we went exploring the central area (with the railway station) for a little while before lunch.. and saw lots (really LOTS) of teddy bears all over the place.. haha.. some teddy bear festival thingie.. then back to the hotel for lunch and out to the Lake Zurich to explore further.. up the boat then we realised that we bought the wrong ticket (made me wasted another 7.60 franc) and had to get off the next stop.. oh well.. better than having to spend 1.5 hours on the boat just to tour around Lake Zurich.. haha.. then we walked along the main shopping street again, doing mostly window shopping, cos the things there are generally more expensive.. =( then back to the hotel for dinner, and rested for the night.. haha.. slept like a pig.. need to recover from the horrible sleepless night on the plane.. haha.. by the way the sun over there works from 4.30am to 9.30pm..

31st may - went out to the central area again with helen, my roomie, early in the morning.. realised that the kiosks can be a cheap shopping area too.. hah.. anyway was trying to see if there were anything there were buyable.. haha.. then back to the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal + performance at the ETH, the school where we were performing.. had lunch in the school.. and the canteen was sooo high tech.. even the returning-tray-area was automated!! manz.. anyway the performance wasn't up to our usual standards, partly because it wasn't a proper hall (it was only a foyer area) and the space was quite small.. so we ended up cramping together.. duh.. anyway met some singaporeans who were working in Zurich after the concert.. somehow it felt great seeing fellow countrymen.. haha.. (sounds patriotic huh.. =P) was dead beat at the end of the day..

1st june - went to another city of switzerland, Lucerne.. took a 1.5 hr boat ride to Pilatus, where we took the steepest train ride up to Mount Pilatus.. it was cold up there and saw a bit of snow.. *brrrr* chatted with a german couple up there.. haha.. as usual.. took pictures, "vandalised" and left my mark there.. haha.. our lunch was there as well.. the long-awaited rosti and sausage!! haha.. then we came down by cable car.. went back to Zurich after that.. along the way, there was a traffic jam.. so i was stone-ing looking out of the coach window.. then there happened to be a car with funny guys in there.. haha.. the driver was winking, smiling, blow-kissing.. haha.. as if he never get to see an asian "beauty" before.. whahaa.. too bad i missed it and didn't managed to get a picture.. haha.. after dinner at the hotel, we rushed out again to buy chocs at co-op.. haha.. not the nus co-op.. it's actually COOP (but we are used to pronouce it as co-op.. haha) and it has its own supermarket (like our NTUC), petrol station.. as most of the shops close at 6pm or 8pm, COOP closes at 9pm, so we went chiong-ing to buy chocs there.. =P then we had to pack our luggage cos we would be moving from hotels to hotels after this..

2nd june - went to Mount Titlis.. it was colder than Mount Pilatus, and was covered with snow!! whee~~ i was walking on snow!! took the ice flyer and played snow sledge!!! haha.. manz.. once in a lifetime.. *grinz* and i got burnt by the sun.. =P down the mountain by cable again, and when walking around the central area of lucerne.. where we stayed for the night.. went to climb some towers and visited the church there.. met a singaporean couple there too.. haha.. such a coincidence eh.. then went to this high-class shop called BUCHERER.. where we could collect ROLEX spoon with our voucher.. haha.. anyway bought some chocs from there, and because we could have our 7% tax rebate by spending over 300 franc, 9 of us combined all our stuff and we spent a total of 680+ franc.. and it was all under my name.. haha.. for a while i felt like a rich kid.. haha.. but then i had a hard time doing the calculations after dinner.. oh well.. i can't seem to avoid money matters everywhere i go eh..

3rd june - went to another landmark of Lucerne, the dying lion.. next we went to the capital of switzerland, Berne.. stopping by a rose garden for a rest.. at Berne, we took pics of the main parliament building, the Zytgologgeturum, the wide alley pathway, the house where einstein used to stay, the Bern bears, and the Munster church, where we went climbing up the clock tower.. took us 220+ steps up.. manz.. tiring.. then we went off to another city, Interlaken, where the famous Jungfrau mountain is.. went to visit Trummelbachfalle hidden in the caves.. wow.. magnificent.. the sound of the water was really like thunder.. and filled my water bottle with the clear cool water falling down from the fall.. =P after dinner we had some local delights.. the FONDUE!! we had cheese and chocolate fondue, which was eaten with bread and fruits respectively.. the owner and his partner were really entertaining.. 20 franc for such great food (with refills requested.. haha) and great entertainment.. it was worth it.. =P

4th june - set off to this little town called Zermatt.. this town is unique, that other than bicyles, and the small little four-wheeled vehicles hotels used to transport luggages and people, no other vehicles could be seen.. haha.. fresh pollution-free air.. =P some of my CO mates went up the Matterhorn (another snow-capped mountain) but the entrance + transport fees up the mountain was way too expensive (72 franc, SG$100) so me and helen chose to walk around the town instead.. went to some churches there, and some window-shopping.. =)

5th june - only journey back to Zurich.. it was our last day in switzerland.. on the way back we past by this old town Sion and Montruex, stopping by the castle of Chillon.. had lunch at Zurich, then went to the central area (again) for some last minute shopping.. by the way, most shops close on sundays, so we tried our luck at the underground shopping area beneath the railway station.. managed to buy 2 pairs of earrings.. haha.. and got myself a soft toy dog at the machine that has the metal claws to grab the toys (if you know what i mean).. helen got one too!! what a luck.. haha.. got it at the second try.. haha.. so it's only 2 franc!! haha.. then we tried looking for the catholic church in the town, but we went to 2 other churches instead.. but it was still an eye-opener.. lastly, we went back to ETH to collect our instruments.. but the doors were locked, so we had to wait for quite some time for the security guard to open the door.. meanwhile i went around taking pictures of flowers.. haha.. then we left Zurich for Singapore at their time 10.25pm..

6th june - another 13 hours on the plane, had some white wine to make me more sleepy.. haha.. watched movies to kill time.. anyway the tv on the plane allows passengers to get a view from the cockpit.. interesting eh.. =) anyway we touched down.. and now we are back home..

it was an wonderful and eye-opening experience.. nice weather, slow pace of life.. great to have a big bunch of people travelling together too.. it would be nice to go there again in future.. taking one's own time enjoying every step looking at the different kind of life, instead of rushing from place to place.. kinda feeling a bit nostalgic here.. haha..

end of one journey.. hoping to embark on another..