Tuesday 11 March 2014

Duck, Duck Duck, Costumed People

Day Two: I still have no wifi.

Ngl, me and my siblings slept for 12 hours and I’d blame jet lag but let’s be real, it’s because my life is made up of wifi and sleep and no wifi means only sleep.

Anyway, the plan today was to go to town and I assumed that meant shopping but we went to the tourist help shop for maybe an hour before breakfast and that was it. The day was still pretty great though; during breakfast/lunch, a band or something just walked into the train station in small groups before coalescing in the empty middle square and playing a few songs.

This man's cape is very important. 
Once that was over and I was left sufficiently confused and elated, we decided to walk around to visit some churches and see more buildings and stuff.




We also saw a lot of ducks so that was very exciting for me I love ducks. DUCKS.
For some reason some party or parade or something was going on and everyone was in really colourful costumes and everyone jingled and it was actually kinda great.

I feel like that baby is looking right at me. 

I love this picture because what does that sign even mean omg 'No women and children'? 'All children must be unattended'? 



Have I mentioned how I really like the buildings and architecture in Zurich? They’re all old and interesting. They all have a sense of history, a muted personality that begs to be explored.

No, really, what is all that shit on the ledge. That looks potentially hazardous


ducks
haha. fart. 




Have I done J. J. Abrams proud? 




We eventually ended up in a park that overlooked the city and goodness gracious me, what a view.

Hi dad 
That dog is braver than me.



After we made our way back we were passing by a lake and my dad decided we should get a better view of it. Guess what the first thing we saw was.

I would have accepted ‘birds’ or ‘drop down; avoid
Is this even a duck


And also dogs but I didn't get any photos of them.  

Monday 10 March 2014

My Fingers are Frozen: Zurich Edition

My English teacher once asked my class “Who’s felt discriminated against because of their race before?” and she was faced with a silent class to which she quipped “I guess none of you go overseas too often then.” This post isn’t about being discriminated against or even a negative experience overseas though, it’s just that what she said stuck with me especially for this Europe Tour. It may have been an odd introduction, but it was something that echoed in the back of my mind in the days leading up to leaving and on the journey over to my first stop: Zurich, Switzerland.

To get to Zurich, we had to take a 130AM, 8 hour flight going to Dubai where there was a 4 hour layover before finally taking a 7 hour flight to Switzerland.

The only picture I took of the airport because I spent most of the time going "uggggghhhhhhhh plane ridesssssssss"



For the flight to Dubai I was excited about having a window seat but it turns out because of the Earth’s rotation and other sciencey matters, it was dark for the entire plane ride. We were basically doing the opposite of chasing the sun; we were running from it not dissimilar to how I run from my responsibilities. I have to say though, Dubai looked great when we were landing at about 5AM ish. Since it was still dark, all the street lamps were still on and from above; it looked like a net of fairy lights.

Since I didn’t eat on the plane (what’s up with airplane food yo), I got a giant cookie and pringles from the airport and that’s actually all I remember from the layover. Aren’t I living life to the fullest?

I did get this itty bitty can of pepsi on the plane though how precious
By the time we boarded the plane and it took off it was about 9, so it was bright and sunny and you’d think this would be good conditions for having a window seat but nope, we got sat right next to the plane wing whoop de doo who has cursed me with this bad luck I hope you get a hang nail.

But anyway, the flight was otherwise pretty alright although when we landed people clapped and I found that weird because why are you cheering did you not expect this plane to land or

Once we landed, we got our rental car and drove to the hotel and man oh man Switzerland is gorgeous and all the houses look great and even the dogs look great because they’re all fluffy and gREAT.

Is this house even real it looks like something from Pushing Daisies



Pictured: Big fluffy dogs. I miss spade. 
I really liked the atmosphere or Switzerland. It was different from Singapore where any large flatland is critically endangered and most residential areas consist of block and blocks of buildings that go up to 30 stories. The houses and buildings here looked personal and intimate – like a little enclave separate from the rest of the world. They also have cool trees and weird statue things.

Singapore needs more strong bearded men to hold up our balconies. 
Since we’re only staying here for two days, my dad booked a cheap hotel that is literally just a bed, ledge table and bathroom.

This isn't a picture of the room because it was too messy to be documented but haha look minus levels
Once we got all our stuff sorted, we headed out for groceries and dinner. Grocery shopping was about 170% more interesting because the different inventory that this country carries. They had a bucket of gummies. Literally just a clear 5 inch bucket of assorted gummies. Fun fact: The only words I recognised was pomme de tere (thanks yanxuan!) which is potato so that was useful.

For dinner, I was hoping for a ncie bowl of soup in the hotel but my parents wanted to try this restaurant that turned up to be up a mountain and through like a little village-y like thing. I’m not even sure what it was to be honest, there were little houses and chickens and also a flock of sheep (Herd of sheep?), which was very exciting because I am easily excited by farm animals.

The view from the restaurant was wonderful though, albeit a little (“it’s not haze its-“) misty.



I took none of these photos because my hands were busy staying warm in my pockets


I asked my sister to take a nice photo of my because I literally only have one (thanks marcus i still suspect witch craft tbh)  
This was her first attempt though. 

Dinner itself was hella expensive because i guess it was a high end place or something. The food was good I guess but really just not for me. I have the palette of a 7 year old which means no greens, no fruit, no wine, just shove some fast food down my throat please.





I have that 'fondue for two' jingle from Glee stuck in my head good lord
We headed back after dinner and it’s literally 840pm in Switzerland time but we’re all pooped and tired goodnight. Tomorrow we’re going into the town area which hopefully means shopping for things that I don’t have to pay for which is my favourite kind of shopping. Also what are those things that fly around leaving air trails are they just planes


Go home plane thing, you're drunk