yet another week(end)..

Yes! That's BA CHANG you see! Bought in Zurich? Haha in my deepest of dreams, perhaps.. ..and what's this? ZHI MA HU!
Wahaha they were brought over by my dad, who stopped over in Zurich for one day, before flying to other parts of Europe for his business trip. And both my parents prepared the following spread..! My mum bought SEVEN Ba Chang-s, froze it, and wrapped it up to let my dad hand carry it over... Love you, mummy and papa!! *muacks*
Yup, and while my dad was here on 29th May, we actually ate in the chinese restaurant in the alt stadt of Zurich, which i always pass by. I remember the first time i checked out the menu placed outside, and decided that no matter how much i miss the food back home, it was just not worth it to fork out 20+ Francs for a bowl of laksa or something along those lines. Haha i had Hor Fun with shrimps, which surprisingly turned out quite good! :)

And, over the weekend before that, I went to Neuchatel, together with Yuki and Eiko, to visit another swiss couple, friends of my father.
Yea, they were nice. The wife cooked good food for us, and the husband brought us around, telling us about the history of the area.Here's a palace in Gruyere.. The origin of the famous brand of cheese I always see in Migros..And the city of Neuchatel/Neuburg..Yea, we also took the paddle boat out on Neuchatel lake. Just a pity the sky was overcast...On board a ship from Neuchatel to Biel, which took almost 2 hours..And on our way back to Zurich, 3 of us playing around and talking lotsa crap.. :)

June's almost here.. Exams are drawing near.. *scary* That means i'll confine myself to Zurich for this month, and study hard, so that I can play guiltlessly in the month after that. And then, it'll be back to Singapore. Waa!! Time's flying!! On one hand, I can't wait to go back and see all my beloved family and friends, but on the other, I can't bear to leave such a beautiful city and great friends. Oh well.. guess that's what memories are for....

Prague!

17th May (Thursday) was Auffahrt public holiday, and Friday was my free day from school. And i'd say my weekend was utilised to the max, cos I was in Prague!! The most beautiful city of Europe.... (though I somehow like Zurich better) Still, the city lived up to its reputation and was gorgeous. There was a lot to see, and could get a bit overwhelming if you attempt to see too much in one day. The weather was sunny and warm, which made it picture perfect to snap pictures, though it started feeling really uncomfortable after walking long enough under the merciless sun.

Kay, I'll start from my train ride from Zurich Hauptbahnhof. I got on the 22:40 train on Thursday evening, which was supposed to take me direct to Prague in 13 hours. Shared a cabin for 6 lying couchettes with another 2 Taiwanese ladies and a Hawaiian chinese guy. Haha i actually communicated effectively to both sides, switching from English to Mandarin successfully! Unbelievable that I didn't get tongue-tied when it came to Chinese. So we just slept, ate and talked lots through the whole ride, which made it seem like it passed so fast. We wished each other good luck and went our separate ways upon arrival.

Met up with Dixie's friends (who're exchange students in Mannheim) in Prague and we navigated ourselves through the main attractions as stated on the map that day.

Prague's city is also divided into two, with a river running between the two sides, and the famous Charles bridge stretching from one bank to the other.
It was really crowded! Look at the number of people on the bridge itself. Tourists came from EVERYWHERE; saw many japanese and korean tour groups, as well as many English speaking free and easy tourists. And on this bridge, many artists set up their 'stalls' (the kind u pay them to draw a portrait of yourself), as well as others selling paintings and accessories.

This is one of the main Platz of the city area. Almost all the buildings in Prague have some architecture going on at the top of their building, which gave every building a unique look, but also made it look somewhat messy. Haha and this 'old-town' part was so huge....

The 2nd day, we took a three hour bus ride to the southern part of Czech to this place called Cesky Krumlov, a UNESCO protected site. A palace sat amidst the quaint little town, which was really relaxing to walk through. Unfortunately, pictures are in other people's cameras...

The third and last day, we visited the palace in Prague, and this day became my try/take/buy as-much-as-i-could day. So I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Oh yea, there were quite a few representative items of this country, i noticed.

Bohemian crystal was one, as there were many shops selling glassware and proudly proclaiming 'bohemian crystal'. The other one which I saw almost every 8 shops were puppets. The kind that had strings attached to them, and the 'witches' would cackle and do that evil laugh every now and then. Like this shop below:

A shot of Charles Bridge from the tower at the beginning of the bridge from this side:

And more snapping...


And here's the local specialty I tried: Fried Cheese. It was super goooooood...


I had to catch the 5.14pm train back to Zurich, in order to arrive in time on Monday morning to put my things down and go to school. I was thinking, since I'll have the 13 hour ride to sleep, it shouldn't be any problem in school.

BUT, we were cheated! Instead of having a direct trip, like what I was told I would get when I bought my ticket, there were some problems along the way, and we had to change from train-bus-train. Man! Luckily I gathered with a group of other travelers who were also going to Zurich, and we found our way around, when we had to change to a bus from Sommerau to Linz in Austria. Only in Linz did we get the proper night train, the kind with beds, and I felt even more cheated when i saw my cabin! (I had to get the first class sleeping wagon, cos there wasn't any vacancies on the other wagons by the time i bought my ticket), and it was sooooo comfortable! I had my own sink, and an armchair, and there was even a cabinet with hangers! Thing is, I supposed to be in this cabin right from the start of the trip, but with all those 'problems' was stuck in this run down train and had to sit through 5 hours of it, then an hour's bus ride, before I finally got to enjoy this! Sheesh!


What's more, I could choose 6 items from a menu for breakfast. Fantastic! To think the kiasu Singaporean mentality in me bought so many cups of joghurt and bars of fruit snacks from the supermarket before my train ride! Haha so breakfast this morning in the train, and looking out into the pretty swiss countryside scenery before arriving in Zurich, was pure luxury... :)

wet and cold :(

It's been a long time... And the reason for my absence? Haha there's just not much going on: with work at uni piling up, exams in june coming up (yikes!!) and most of all, that gloomy weather that's threatening to throw me into depression from boredom.. almost..

Yea exams back in Singapore are all over, and you lucky guys can play and enjoy their 3 months hols! haha viel Spass, peeps. *envious*

The weather now is so schrecklich that it's making me miss Sg alot! In the morning when I wake up, the sun no longer shines into my room like it did a few weeks ago. Instead, i see dark clouds and hear sounds of the trees rustling from the strong winds. We've had this grey weather for quite some time, and i finally understand why the old people here tend to die from depression. Although it's 'normal' spring weather now, i hate it!!! Argh!!

So I'm thinking back home more often now. :( How i wish i can just sms Ziyuan now, "let's meet in toa payoh in 1 hour", eat my red bean pancake from Mr. Bean, then buy some 'not here not there' food and smuggle it into Kbox. Or go to Tiong Bahru for breakfast with my family. Or go cycling in East Coast. Or go window shopping and try all sorts of clothes, but not buy them. Or just bumming around at home!

Ok, but then again, I'm going to Prague tonight!! wahaha the most beautiful city in Europe, yea? ;) Will catch the night train and arrive there at arnd 11am tmr: a good 13 hours. Looking forward to it lots! And i'll have updates for this blog, then! (if I have the time to update, that it) haha so stay tuned! Ciao!

busy busy busy!

It was a fulfilling and eventful weekend! Dixie came down from Mannheim, to spend the weekend in Zurich.

She arrived on Friday evening, and we headed back to my apartment after a short walk around the 'Altstadt (old state'). Haha i'd cooked maize soup in the afternoon, and we heated that up, as well as cooked a rosti (typical swiss) for dinner. Maybe in the first hour, she actually had a slang to her English! and I was sooo not used to it. But luckily (or unluckily), she lost that as we spoke, and soon, we were comfy with Singlish. Yep, updated each other on many things, and spoke about many thoughts and feelings. Haha basically ANYTHING. At 2am that night, we were still talking about Roti Prata, and how people can eat it with sugar (apparently we both don't).

Saturday, I took her on a 'city tour', haha just walking and buying souvenirs. It was great, cos even I discovered new things on this tour, like particular shops that i'd love to go back to. Haha we sat by Zurich lake for quite some time too, taking in the sun, water and mountains, and chatting away. We met a friend of her buddy at 5pm, and I stayed a while, before leaving for a house warming party of another friend. Dixie wanted to join me there later, but she called a bit too late, and I didn't want us to miss the last tram, so i decided to leave the party a bit earlier, meet her at the main station, and go back together. We were both, afterall, super tired after the whole day's walking and all.

The next day, we went on a tour, which we had booked at the Tourist Information Centre at the main station. Heidiland, was the name of the tour. It was fantastic. We set off at 11am to Rapperswill, a tiny town by Zurich lake. Then headed to Vaduz, Liechtenstein (a small country sandwiched in between Germany, Switzerland and Austria), and finally to Heididorf. It's apparently where the story Heidi (i love it) originated, and the setting of it, where Heidi lived with her grandpa. Sights were gorgeous indeed...

And this pic was taken outside Heidi's house, where goats were running about. Just love the countryside of Swit!! :):)
That evening, we arrived back at Zurich at around 7pm, met Yuki, and came back to my apartment to cook Japanese curry for dinner. Haha three of us slept in my room that night, and it felt like a girls' overnight party or something.

Oh yea, but on the tour, there were three other Asian ppl (2 female and 1 male). We saw their dressing and behavior and had a bad feeling. Dressing was way absurb for spring (boots and wool looking like tops), and behavior was schrecklich! Lk, when the tour guide was explaining something, they'll be somewhere nearby snapping their own pics, and in their own world, making their noise. Yucks. Thing is, the moment Dixie and I heard their accent, we looked at each other knowingly. Singaporeans. 99%. Haha we didn't wanna let them know when we were b*tching abt them, so we spoke in Deutsch when they were nearby. Even gave them the nickname 'hasslich Blumen', meaning ugly 'flowers'. haha. Oh well, we didn't speak to them AT ALL. Only one girl approached me to ask about sending a postcard from the souvenir shop.

Hmm ok back to my week. Mondays are my looooooong days in school. From 10-6pm, after which i feel basically drained. So Dixie was alone, and she did her own walking around. I met Yuki after school, and we both made our way to the main station, to send Dixie off, who was taking the train back to Mannheim at 7pm. Dixie even wrote me a card! so sweet! :):)

Haha on our way back, Yuki asked if I wanted to go to Uetliberg the next day, since it was May Day, and I had nothing on. Ok, we decided to go there, and have our own small picnic. So Yuki stayed with me again for another night, and the next morning, we prepared our potato salad to bring for our picnic.

Ueltiberg is actually called "Zurich's own mountain", and is the highest point of Zurich. So you can imagine that the panorama was pretty! Not just Zurich city, but it's surroundings too. Yup, 'top of Zurich' is actually a climb up a structure that brings you 900m above sea level. Took some shots..


And this evening, Catherine told us about an interesting restaurant, called Blindkuh (blind cow). What an experience! We had made a reservation 2 weeks before, and upon arrival, were given a short introduction at the reception. We then left our bags in the lockers outside (nothing with light was allowed inside; things lk handphones and watches), and were told that we'd be served by Elizabeth. Oh yea, i forgot to mention, all the service staff were blind. So we were guided into the dining area, with 4 of us following Elizabeth, by putting our hands on the shoulders of the person in front us, to form a 'train'. We went through the curtain, and were engulfed by total darkness. Yup, it's the kind that closing or opening your eyes would make no difference! We were guided to our seats, and I basically started feeling what was on the table. My napkin, fork and knife. We placed our orders (the menu was outside, and we'd decided), and started talking.

Then came our food. I had NO IDEA how it looked like, or how much of it there was, so I used my fork and knife to make out the shape of my lagsane on the plate, before attempting to cut it. Haha first few times, I raised and empty forked and just about poked my face around the mouth area before i found my mouth. haha i was laughing at myself. When I finally got something on my fork, the piece was so large. TOO large. haha and the thing is, when I was eating, I was concentrating so much on my sense of feel and putting the fork into my mouth, that I hardly participated in the conversation. It's tiring, you know!

When I thought i'd finish, but was not sure, I used my fingers to feel a bit around the plate, and picked up what few pieces of Lagsane before I was quite sure there was nothing left. The food was good, really.. :) Yup, we talked quite a bit after the dinner, and then decided to leave when it felt late enough, led out by Elizabeth, whom we had to call randomly and hoped she could hear us.

Yea, the main setting of this restaurant was actually to let us have a feel of how the visually impaired feel, and do things. I wouldn't say I know how they feel after only about 2 hours, but at least I know that it's really not easy.

Okok, for now, that's all! it's late, and I'm gonna sleep! To everyone back in Singapore, enjoy ur hols! haha exams are over, so it's time to play hard! But don't forget to miss me too! love y'all! *muacks*