Switzerland

Switzerland was amazing!! Nobody was free to go with me.. so I decided to plan a solo trip there.. and to meet up with Jon and Louis in Bern. My plan was to enjoy the mountains, buy lots and lots of chocolate, eat rosti, eat fondue.. and I think I accomplished it totally!!

First stop: Geneva

U.N. Look at the flags waving in the air

The amazing botanical gardens next to the U.N. It was so freaking big.. it took me about 2 hours to find my way out again. It links to different parts of the garden I was really lost!!

As planned, I took a 1 hour river cruise on Lake Geneva. It was amazing... amazingly cold!

The view along the lake.. it was breathtaking! Autumn leaves, houses scattered with the occassional mansion..

Jet d'eau.. shoots up 7 feet into the sky! Awesome. And I managed to catch it with the rainbow!

2nd stop: Bern

Jon and Louis came to pick me up at the station.. and we headed to a restaurant for Rosti! Nice! But all the talk about Swiss high costs of living is really true. Amazing.

Somewhere in the city centre?

Clock tower of Bern.. seems like the one in Prague.. but less complicated?

Amazing view.. there's the lake at the background

HMM.. can't believet they're playing PING PONG in the cold and outdoors.

It was snowing the first time in Switzerland this year and it coincided with the first day I was in Bern!! God's way of welcoming me?? It was so nice! And freezing! Snow on autumn leaves!

3rd stop: Zurich

All thanks to Jon, I cancelled my hostel booking for Interlaken, to go skiing. However, the weather was bad and the cable-lifts up the mountain were stopped.. SOO.. we couldn't go skiing.. and ended up in Zurich, which by the way, was FREEZING. It was like 1-5 degrees, raining, I didn't even feel like taking out my camera..

Cute walkway

Climbing up the tower.. here's the paranomic view.. the wind was so freaking strong up there.. when Jon tried opening the door, the door almost slammed into him. ALMOST

Really good cheese fondue near the train station.

4th stop: Thun and Interlaken

Took a short train to the small city of Thun (on a Sunday) to take the boat to Interlaken. Almost got fined by the conductor cuz stupid Jon was telling me there's no need to get a ticken from his place to the main train station in Bern cuz it was a Sun morning and there usually isn't any conductors, PLUS, we were running abit late. Somehow, unluckily, a WHOLE group of them got on the train to check at the very last minute, we were already reaching the station when the conductor came to check. OH MY GOD. Luckily they were nice enough to let me just get a ticket from Jon's place, transit at main station Bern, and then to Thun. So in the end it saved me the time to get a ticket to Thun. PHEW. If not there goes 80 francs.

Thun.. really pretty small town, but everything was closed cuz it was a Sun. VERY QUIET

Some castle.. that I had to climb up a hill to get to..

The boat ride to Interlaken that took me around 2hours.. a group of Singaporeans consisting of 2 families were aboard too.. interesting cuz at first glance I already noticed them, and I think they noticed me too cuz we were like sneaking glances at each other.. when they started talking, I just KNEW they were from Singapore. Heh. Interesting how we can differentiate ourselves from other Chinese.

An old guy came to talk to me on the boat too.. and he started talking about himself.. and showed me his passsport.. to be exact, his DIPLOMAT passport. Like WOAH.

The view was really breathtaking.. even better than the Lake Geneva one..

Snow capped mountain, autumn leaves, green grass, houses, and the lake. The most perfect picture ever

At Interlaken.. super touristy place. It's the first place I see so bustling with activity on a Sunday. There were lotsa shops opened too, especially those catered to tourists. They had signboards saying Japanese language, spanish, chinese etc. etc. were OKAY at their shop. The Japanese and Chinese were going crazy in the shops.. getting watches and stuff. I was super tempted to get too.. but it's really expensive.. 280 Fr? BAH

However, the tourist information center was closed.. so I had to walk around the place, ALONE, without a map.. amazing how I accomplished it..

Pretty place.. looks symmetrical huh?

Love the snow capped mountain in the background

Japanese garden. Apparently Japan and Interlaken are sister cities??

Really nice casino. Looks really grand. Walking through the entrance from the main street is like walking through a gateway to another place..

Notice the cows?? They're everywhere!!


Switzerland was amazing.. I really loved it. And I managed to buy some chocolates from the supermarket.. but not enough. Thought I could get more from the airport and they might be cheaper cuz it'll be tax free. I was mistaken. Totally. Super expensive at the airport. Decided not to get any.. and be satisfied with whatever I got from the supermarket. My supply is rapidly decreasing tho.. really hard to resist the temptation when I know there's one whole bag of choclates sitting in my fridge. Argh