Friday, December 18, 2009
just came back from switzerland trip!!! :)
yeah!
departed on the 10th dec morning 0200hours and came back on the 18th 1430hours.
had a connecting flight to DOHA and then to ZURICH.
this connecting thing is really very sian. nothing to do at DOHA airport... we don't have the currency and can't buy anything there. so we just slept for that 3hours or so. and we need to take a bus from the airport to the plane... a new experience though, it is quite a waste of time... just now we took the bus to the plane (coming back to singapore), and the bus just stopped in front of the plane without opening the doors to let us alight. because they haven't finished uploading the luggages and others. we waited in the bus for like 20mins or so. there was one guy who was very angry and banged on the doors. the ppl outside were like oblivious to the noise. but a while later, they opened the doors and let us into the plane. =.= its like if u haven't finished uploading luggages or whatever, u shouldn't even let us board the bus in the first place. make us wait in the bus for 20MINS. its not 20seconds... and we don't really know what is happening. what a bad thing to do. we were standing somemore... haiz. so there was a delay in take-off. delays in both the flights somemore. from zurich to doha and from doha back to hometown.
well. anyway, the first flight from sg to doha took 8hrs and from doha to zurich took about 5hrs... total 13hrs to zurich. can't really sleep on the flight there. think too excited or something. haha. maybe the seat is not comfortable. hmm.
reached there about afternoon 10th dec. there was a timelag of 7hrs between sg and zurich. my bro came to fetch us and we went to INTERLAKEN. bought the swiss pass (4-day), but at the end of the 4-day, we bought another swiss pass(4-day), didn't thought that we need to take the train on the last 4 days... so waste some money here... heard that the swiss train is the best in the world. board the train from zurich airport to interlaken. i think the journey took around 2hrs. didn't keep track of the time. the train was not bad. the seat i think is better than the plane's seats. haha. so talked about my bro's life in switzerland in the past 6 months... reached interlaken at evening time... it was very cold. my mum, sis and i wore only 1 shirt and 1 jacket inside and the temperature was like around 5degrees? freezing. shivering. so we went to check-in to the hotel. hotel MERKUR. the main doors of the hotel closes at around 10pm, so we got a bunch of keys for the main door too. first time i heard of this... hmm. well. the shops here closes very early... like 6pm 6.30pm... we stayed at this hotel for only 1 night. luckily. the room is quite small. and the breakfast not very nice... restrict one bread to one person. i can't really remember what we ate for the 1st dinner there. but i think we shared because the food there was very expensive. one meal cost about 18francs ( ~S$25). shocking... but its because the standard of living there was very high. people can afford. although the pace was slower than singapore. 1st night there, we came back to hotel quite late, around 11plus. i think we went BERN.
2nd (11th) :
we checked-out of the hotel and walked about 5mins to the next hotel. also in interlaken, called the hotel wreiss-kruez or smth. can't remember the spelling. stayed here for 3 days. this hotel is much better... the person there even told us which places to visit and help us plan and gave us some ideas to work on. introduce the hotel facilities to us too. the room is much bigger (got heater too), the breakfast is much nicer...
after breakfast, we went up to the mountain Grindelwald to shop at the 'village' there... and there was SNOW! HAHA. very fun. threw snow at my mum, bro and sis. first time seeing snow leh! very white! then we took a cable-car to the FIRST, another mountain where people can ski, sledgh... but we reached there quite late, so the person advised us not to sledgh down because we can only play for like 1 hr, not worth the money... she said we can walk in the snow down to the next cable-car station and take the cable-car back to Grindelwald... haha. so we walked! when we were walking to the start point, there was a person who told us not to walk because he tried walking and the snow was very slippery... but we still continued walking. HAHA. very nice. can slide down... like sledghing... but my mum was very scared. she fall down like about 100times ( hmm, maybe around 50times). super funny sia. lol. it was around a 30mins walk. actually can walk at our own pace but the last cable-car was 4.15pm and we had only like 40mins to walk. haha. nice nice. then at the last 50metres, i roll down and slide down the snow. super fun! :) then we saw that the cable-car suddenly stopped. and we heard that there was an error. so walking in the snow is like a blessing in disguise for us, but not for my mum. haha. i think she rather to be trapped in the cable-car than to walk in the snow. so we waited for a while, took some photos, and the cable-car resumed. haha. so we sat down to Grindelwald. i think in the middle, the cable-car stopped again... took some photos too. we went to interlaken ost to have our dinner...
3rd (12th) :
we went up to the highest mountain Jungfrau ( pronounced as Yongfrau ), about 11000metres above sea level... haha. felt a pain in my ears when ascending. not bad... went to the ice palace. everything there is ice. the floor, the railings, the 'ice' sculpture... slippery though. haha. took some photos too. wanted to sledgh but it was closed... husky pulling the sledgh leh!!! haha. but what a pity...
went luzern (lucerne) after that to get to know where is our hotel FLORA in luzern and know where my brother stay, go look at his results too. FIRST CLASS HONOURS... haha. not bad not bad. then we went back to interlaken...
4th (13th) :
in the morning, my mum, sis and i went walking around the town of interlaken... didn't have time to shop at the shops in interlaken, either the shops are already closed or we are not in interlaken when the shops are open. bought some postcards, chocolates... after our lunch, i think we went to BERN (capital of switzerland) to walk around... then at night, my brother went back to his hostel to pack some of his things while we went back to our hotel in interlaken to pack our things for check-out the next day...
5th (14th) :
the 3 of us check-out of the hotel and bought another 4-day swiss pass. boarded the train to luzern. 2hrs train ride. when we reached there, we rested for a while and went to explore the town of luzern on our own... took bus 53 to emmen centre, the biggest shopping centre in luzern (as said in the brochure). but the things there were very expensive... cannot afford. only went there to get a free chocolate. haha. we left at around 3pm as my bro will be coming to meet us...
went to see the Lion Monument, Chapel Bridge around the town of luzern... went around OLD TOWN street too, where the things there are cheaper (by a bit), and went to have our dinner at a Thai restaurant where we had tomyam soup (best for cold weather)... there were some misunderstanding and they served us an extra dish so our dinner that day was super expensive. 80francs=~S$110. heart-ache... what's more is that that extra dish is not nice at all... well. we went to take a look at the Chapel Bridge... there were many swans and ugly ducklings there... very nice view. but at night can't really see well. then we walked back to our hotel while my bro went to play games in starbucks.
6th (15th) :
we went up to the mountain MOUNT PILATUS. took bus 1 to the place and walked all the way up to the cable-car station... quite a far distance. actually can just take bus 15 to the station but we didn't know. took a small cable-car to the second station and a big cable-car to PILATUS. SNOW again! :) played with the snow. walked up and took some photos. even my mum played with us. think she not really scared of snow since that day. haha. that's a good thing. actually i wanted to buy a pilatus shirt and my sis a pilatus jacket but it was not very worth... only bought a keychain and a torch which requires no battery to operate. quite worth but we found out that it cost 18francs in other places whereas 22francs here. met my bro's friend and family there too. then we went back to the bus 15 together. it was them who told us that bus 15 can come here. haha. went to see my bro's working place (hotel CENTRAL) at kruiezz(not sure how to spell)... the boss was quite nice. then went back to the luzern bahnhof to have our lunch at old town again. this time round, we have asian food. roasted duck and beancurd... hmm. not very fantastic but still better than other food. this dinner also cost a lot. around 80francs too. shopped around in old town for a gift for my elder brother... in the end, we bought a working shirt for him. then went back to the hotel.
7th (16th) :
today is my bro's graduation day... we went old town to shop in the morning from 9 to 12noon and bought some blouses, chocolates... then had our lunch and went to GRAND CASINO Hotel for his graduation at 2pm. took some photos too. we left at around 5pm and decided to go bern shop shop as i didn't really have a clear impression of the city of bern yet. but we didnt' buy anything there... only bought a drumstick each for our dinner... very nice. haha.
8th (17th) :
today is the last day in switzerland... ate our breakfast and went back to the hotel room to pack our things... but my sis and i slept till like 10.15am... my mum said my bro will be coming soon to fetch us to the airport so we must get ready. so we went to the Bahnhof and waited for him... went to zurich flughaven (airport). did some last minute shopping (chocolate), actually wanted to buy a swatch watch but it is like buy just for the sake of buying... although i quite like it, i want a metal strap watch... but still open to other choices la. haha. so the flight delayed again...
reached DOHA at 11pm. waited 3hrs, thirsty, hungry, tired but can't get to sleep due to the many announcements asking people to get to their gate as the boarding gate is closing soon... another delay but we still reached singapore in good time. within the stimulated timing. not bad.
watched several movies on the trip... such as UP, G.Force, On his Majesty's service (or mission) - very funny , Turning Point, Taking Chance, Overheard... ... not bad. had a chance to catch up what i had missed...
had fun on this trip although a bit regretful that shopping time was too little... or rather there were not many shops around... well... there will be a next time! :)
I painted my dreams at
8:52 PM
