Zurich, Switzerland

Hi everyone! :) I'm back in Korea now, and I thought I'd upload some photos from my short holiday in Zurich. I hope that those of you who are having holidays are enjoying your newfound free time, and those of you who aren't - are waiting patiently for them. :D

All in all, I think Switzerland is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. It's a very scenic place for tourists, and an incredibly peaceful place to live in. :)

But first things first - I saw, touched, felt, smelled, etc SNOW for the first time in my life!! :P


Okay, okay - so I didn't smell it. My nostrils were frozen up from the unbelievable cold. And snow is pretty dirty, haha. And it wasn't so much snow as it was ice - I mean, it is summer in Switzerland right now. It also felt like walking in the ice shavings of our Malaysian "ais kacang". And I was also terrified out of my wits that I was going to slip and fall to a slippery death, because it was so soft and slushy and high, high HIGH up ... Hahaha. I'm scared of heights, remember? So I think I deserve credit just for doing all that stuff - even on a minor scale. :D
But hey - according to all the career and personality tests, I'm a "very organized person", so let's blog this spectacular vacation in chronological order, shall we? :) Tell you what, I'll even give you subheadings. :DDD
After the airplane landed in Zurich, we checked into the Hilton Zurich Airport Hotel, which is a wonderfully convenient 5-10 minute bus-ride from the airport. One of the things I really liked about Switzerland was that it's summer, so the sun only sets at, like, 9pm at night! :D So even though it was pretty late in the evening, we got to explore the farmlands around the hotel, which is located in the countryside. :)

* Farmlands *

The countryside was beautiful, and the people were laid-back and friendly. Even though sometimes the place smelled of cow/horse/dog shit, it was very beautiful. :D As opposed to, say, Kuala Lumpur where everything is high-rise so you can't see anything past the next building, the houses and buildings in Zurich were pretty low, so you can see past the rooftops into the glorious scenery of Switzerland. :) This not only applied to the countryside, but the city too.

* Hotel *

I LOVED THE HOTEL BUFFET BREAKFAST. :D

* Cruise *

On the second day in Switzerland, we went on a short cruise on Lake Zurich. Haha, a supposedly 20-minute cruise turned into a 1 and a half hour one - so it was a bit like scenery overdose, but it was a cool experience. :) It was fun to see the ducks, swans, and people seizing the opportunity to turn every mini-dock into a sunbathing area. :D And I must say, the waterfront houses were be-a-utiful!

Along the lake, people own as many yachts and boats as they do cars. :D

* Zurich City *

After the cruise, we went exploring the city of Zurich. It was the usual pretty buildings, old buildings, monuments etc - so I won't upload the photos here, you can find all of them on the Internet anyway - but some photos I think are more interesting!

Springli is a big chocolate name in Switzerland (as is Lindt), and all their little chocolate shops smell like paradise! Unfortunately for us Ringgit-users, the Swiss Franc is not only more than 3 times our money, but the cost of living in Switzerland is so freaking high that we didn't really go shopping. :(

This next photo we took near the train station - I don't know what the banner is for (there were explanations in German - but my phrasebook proved to be rather useless when it came to the Swiss dialect of German), but I'm sure you can see why I thought it was funny. :D It's like a poster for what the modern woman looks for in a man!

Okayy, at least one typical tourist photo is compulsory. :D

Golden nugget!! :D I think this was in front of the Bucherer store.

Here's a cool story - I can't remember the exact information, but this is the gist I remember from our tour guide about Swiss watches: once upon a time, there was a king. The king didn't like jewellery so the jewellers' business really suffered. However, the king loved watches because he put a lot of emphasis on punctuality. He even put up clock towers all over the city so that people would not be late for their appointments. Accordingly, the jewellers' switched their trade to making watches instead - thus giving birth to the famous Swiss watch names. :)

Anyway, CHOCOLATE!

This last photo is in conjunction with the football fever that has taken Switzerland by storm. Euro 2008 is obviously a very big deal, haha. The Swiss flag was all over the place, as were football-related decor - very pretty!! :D



I can't help seeing a connection between my trip to Seoul in 2002 and this trip to Zurich in 2008. In 2002, the FIFA World Cup was all the rage, so there was a lot of football fever in South Korea. And this year, the EURO 2008 is obviously a really big deal to a lot of people. But the incredible thing about all the hype that is built in these countries is that one cannot help being infected with the football fever as well! I now support Switzerland in the upcoming games. :DDD

The following day, we went to the ...

* Top of Zurich *

A train ride to Uetliberg first, because that's the closest trains go to the top. :D

As preparation for the hike up, I decided to do some heavy lifting:




One train ride and one treacherous - I'm exaggerating - hike up the sandy slopes later, we were at the top of Zurich! Literally! :D Needless to say, it was very beautiful (and very scary - remember, fear of heights!) - plenty of photo-ops for tourists and locals alike. :)

The next day, we took a tour! :D It was actually one of the best tours I've ever been on, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone going to Switzerland (the Grayline "Mt Titlis - Glacier Paradise"). :) The tour guide, Cristina, even told us little tales and legends about the places we were going to - and we got a really panoramic view on the bus.

Oh, and funny story - the BUS BROKE DOWN! :) Yup, as it was going round and round on the way to a village at the foot of Mount Titlis called "Engelberg" (Angel Mountain) - something FELL OUT of the engine. It was hilarious and devastating at the same time - being stranded in the middle of a mountain road in Switzerland, but luckily two mini-buses were able to come and get us from Engelberg to take us up. :) The (original) bus driver, Hedi, was a real sport about it. Hahaha. What an experience!

* Engelberg *

* Mt Titlis *

We took 3 modes of transportation after the bus(es) to get to the top of the mountain:
First, an aerial cable car that seats 6 - my parents and I shared it with the lady I sat with on the bus, a Brit named Anna Eliot from London. :)



Second, a bigger cable car that fits about 80 people -

- and third, a rotating cable car called ROTAIR. It's supposedly really famous, the first rotating thingy in the world or something. :)

All the scary cable car rides later, we reached Mt Titlis!! :D It was crazy cold and crazy fun! There were actually 4 attractions at Titlis, but unfortunately, due to strong winds, the "ice flyer" and "sit-on-tyres-and-slide-down" things were closed because they'd be too dangerous. :(
But we still got to experience the other 2 attractions: walking inside a glacier [pics below] and going outside onto the mountain top to play with snow ice. :D



I now can add to my "resume": "I touched a glacier". Hahahaha! If you haven't touched one before, I'll tell you now how to simulate what it feels like:
1) Take an ice-cube from your freezer.
2) Put the ice-cube in your mouth. Hold it there for 5 seconds.
3) Spit out ice-cube into your hand. That's what a glacier feels like. :D

This is me, frozen in fear:

This is me, holding snow ice. A couple of moments after this photo was taken, I threw the iceballs at nobody. :D


HAHA, funny story - my mum was wearing the windbreaker than I wore to Prague a few years ago, and when she reached into the pockets at the top of Mt Titlis, she found my train tickets in Prague. HAHAHA. It was then that I realised I have a habit of leaving things in pockets - for example, if you reached into the pockets of my secondary school blazer (this is 3 years since I've left school), you'd find all my scripts and notes for the assembly protocol - coz I used to be emcee. Hahaha! How nostalgic.

Below is a photo showing how happy I was to get out of the snow and onto dry land, into the warmth of the mountain restaurant. :D I'm an indoors sort of girl. Definitely. No doubt in my mind 'bout that.





Natural statue of Buddha was the coolest thing in the bits of the Swiss Alps I could see. :)

Can you see it? :D

After a couple of hours or so, it was time to take all the cable cars back down to meet up with the rest of the tour group and our "new" bus. :D

* Lucerne *

We also stopped by the city of Lucerne (locally known as Luzern) for about an hour, another beautiful place - besides Zurich, it is also another tourist hotspot.

Here, you can see the greying skies in the background - in about an hour from that point in time the photo was taken, it started to rain - just about 5 minutes after we got on the bus! :) Weather in Zurich is rather rainy these days, but they don't have frightening thunderstorms like in M'sia as of late. But even the glaciers in the Swiss Alps are melting more and more than previous years - global warming, people! :(

Further evidence that EURO 2008 is a big deal to a lot of people:

The following day, it was time to leave Switzerland - it was a wonderful experience, and I'm very thankful to have had the opportunity to visit the place. :) The t-shirt I'm wearing in the picture is my only souvenier to remember my holiday in Zurich by - that, and the two hundred photographs and video clips we took, and the various train tickets, etc. :D This time I kept them in my slingbag, not my jacket pockets - hahaha.

Another 12 hours of flying later, we're back in Incheon, South Korea. :) Then we had a nice Korean dinner near our hotel - barbecue pork (and all the other Korean stuff - Korean food comes with a lot of stuff). The BBQ was absolutely delicious, especially compared to European food. :D I love being Asian, and living in Asia!

I'm flying back to Malaysia tomorrow. :) Going on holiday abroad always reminds me of how much I love my own country. :D
Or maybe, I love ... SS2MurninasilemakcharkoayteowcurrypuffchickenricecarbonarapastachickenpieDomino'spizza etcetcetc.
And I love youu, my dear dear friends! :D I miss you! I'll be back soon. :D