My Vacation was so-called the ASIAN TOUR! :)

I dont know where to begin. For 2 whole weeks, I had one of the most challenging, yet amazing holidays in my life. Me and my sister ( as in the 1st pic ) embarked on our backpacking journey to few cities ( known as the Asian Tour by my European friends..haha ). From Zurich, we took a train to Paris ( 5 days ), flew to Barcelona ( 3 days ), flew to Rome ( 3 days ) then up north to Venice ( 1 day ) by train. This is simply impossible to put into words. The bundles of excitement, astonishment, crappiness, silly cost-saving acts and all our Asian touristic traits meant a whole lot to us. Despite the fun and all, sure it had to come with daunting stuffs and all. Yeah...do you know we had to sleep at the train station in Barcelona as the hostel I booked closed before I arrived?!! It was close way before the business hours. Gosh..How lazy Spanish people or should I refer as Catalonians ! We waited till 10pm and decided there was no point to hunt for another hostel!! So, we tried to stay in some cafes but unfortunately, this is no Malaysia mamak. These places closed at midnight. Therefore, we slept at the train station!! Well, this is not the end of the story yet! We then heard the sound of some keys and it didnt take us long to realise that our hope for shelter was shattered!! The security closed the station, so we ended up sleeping outside or known better as 'fan kai'!! Haha..ok..probably not as bad as you thought because we were not alone. However, still it was tough because we were shivering till almost death and as my sister had less jacket, she had to roll herself up in the baggage locker. Haha..it was by far the most unforgettable moment in my life!
Ok..besides that, I lost all my remaining hard-saved EURO dollars ( on the train to my last destination, Venice by a charming Italian guy..darn!! )and my sister mobile phone also got pickpocketed. In short, we were just plain careless! We were alert with all these 'tragedies' but somehow God has its way to make it happen! I dont know how! And talking about fate, many things just happened by luck. But , I must admit we really had a splendid time together - great deal of supermarket shopping ( ohh..lala..), food-hunting ( including Chinese food :p yum..yum.), METRO exploration and conversation with the locals in 'chicken & duck' language :p !
Read more about where we went and what crazy things we did in my photos album. You should be warned that I had taken tons of picture, so, be ready to view them when you are ready yah! hehe.. Well, you will see every city we visited has its own individuality, history, landscapes, architectures, METROs, food and my favourite - observing the characteristics of local people. We met some people, and they were really sweet. However, the biggest problem in Europe is the SERVICES is bloody SHIT! I supposed that their tourism sector is soaring so strong that they dont give a DAMN to what impression they made to the visitors. Now I absolutely got it why Asians are regarded as the most friendly inhabitants on Earth, especially by the Europeans! It is indeed TRUE! If I had time in future, I would really want to revisit the countries I went. Paris was beautiful with the Seine River, Barcelona is like a deja-vu, exactly the harbour I dreamt of, Rome is incredibly old and historical,yet romantic while Venice - no other cities beat the wonders and greatness of how the city mainly runs by water. Bravo!! Bravo!!

Swiss Wedding Ceremony isn't quite Special

On 24th Sept, I attended my first ever wedding ceremony. My boss, Rainer Rohn ( thanks to him I got this traineeship :) ) tied the knot with Christine after err...I think 7 years of together?! Amazing huh!? My boss is really a workaholic ( I never seen him take things easy..even worked on Saturday and sometimes Sunday - c'mon this is not Asia where you work like a dog, isn't it?! ) and yet, has a lovely woman. I admire the relationship he has. Yea..you know why. I'm completely the reverse. Haha..
The ceremony was indeed..er..boring. I couldn't understand a single word. Well, sure I knew before I went but I was just curious how Swiss conduct their ceremony. What impress me though was the yodelling ( if I spelled it right ). The guys ( as in pic ) from Appenzell ( known as the most conservative and traditional part in Switzerland ) were brilliant. They did some acapella and whether it was in English or German, still fantastic!! Hey, I told my colleagues that it will be cool we wrestle our way through for the so-called-magical-wedding flowers but c'mon, then I realised it was not the typical American wedding tv series we watch. Hehe..
After the couple exchanged rings ( Darn funny when Christine mistakenly slid the ring into Rainer's middle finger instead of the 4th! ) , we had Apero ( desert ) but to me, it looked more like Dinner! There were tons of food. At some point, I felt so Asian when I started gobbling up the cheese, fruits and hams. Haha...was fun though

Octoberfest!! Groser Bier!!

OctoberFest spells mass BEER drinking!! I went to Munich to visit a friend (an AIESEC trainee from Taiwan), at the same time, to join in the opening of this festival that drew millions of visitors all around the world. It was absolutely crowded. What you do is sit on a long bench, eat bread and sausages, sing and drink drink drink!!
We did not have a seat, therefore, we left the festival and head to Hofbräuhaus (HB) which was just as good. Like they say, photos say a million words. Take a look.
I got to know more trainees especially from Munich and it was just brilliant. A while later, the Chinese ( me, Taiwanese, 2 from Mainland China ) somehow clinged and we were then communicating in Mandarin most of the time, probably except me ( the banana ) :)

The next day, me and some trainees visited the castle, Neuewanstein. I really cant recall much as I have to rush off for my train to Zurich. Uff, awful experience, was also freezing to death. The castle was indeed very beautiful though.

My Geneva trip with 2 sweetest guys :)

Straight after the hungover, Zdenek, Martin and I decided to go to Geneva (where the UN building and all International NGOs are, if you not know yet). So happen we could join each other in the same train somehow to Geneva and it was one of the strangest moments when we all looked so busted. We all had a long night, hard party!!

As the next morning in Geneva, we were back to yourself. Thank God! We enjoyed the Jet d'eau (water fountain) which propells 500 litres of water per second to a height of 140 metres at a speed of 200 km per hour (124 miles/h). Well, I dont even know if you realise how astonishing it is if you were not able to grasp that whole bunch of measurements. haha..in fact..I cant if I had not seen it.
We scrolled around the Old Town ( pretty quiet though as it was Sunday ), made some silly pictures and then lucky enough to have roller-blading which I had the most bruises since I came ( not that lucky after all, guys ). I only skated a couple of times, and I have not done it for ages but Martin and Zdenek were great. I felt almost like a princess :)

Puked in Basel!

I owe myself and my friends an apology. I have not been updating my blog. I cant recalled the moment since I had no time for myself. For sure, I knew I always had stuffs more urgent than blogging. :)
I spent the 10th Sept ( friday ) night in Basel with Cileia ( as in pic ). I remember how drunk I was! No matter how hard I partied back home, I survived without puking. But I cant believe I puked 3 times or more. I dont know. Cileia, I am up for another challenge. That's it!
Isnt this wonderful? I saw a rainbow for the first time in Switzerland, me and Cileia attempted some sight-seeing even with the hungover. C'mon it was a beautiful Saturday. There was no way I will just stay home :)

One of my best birthday ever!

Nothing best describe what I had last Saturday. I remember the last time I drank so much V.O.D.K.A ( thanks zdenek ! haha ) in such a short time was before I left Malaysia. I organized my belated birthday party at my apartment – really cool as I have never done this before especially a drinking party. You know, when my parents are around – nothing like this can be cool.
Follow me with the order of pictures, and I’ll tell you what we had :)

Ist pic - night was young. we sat comfortably, had friendly chat with some sips of vodka :)
followed by couple of rounds of VODKA
pic on left - I wore my swiss t-shirt present from fabian(far left). then it was me, christian & fabian's gf ( sorry , cant spell her name )

Martin is the most important person, of course. After pizza, carbonara & omelette..what else? :) picture on right - dani, daria, lukasz & me posing with the camera.

picture above - it was these few minutes later that my neighbour came screaming and threaten to call the police.haha..
We were over-fascinated with my company's protection glasses & cap.
This is what a 2-head higher guy can do to me!
zdenek & kai were busy taking care of my plants. excuse me?!! in the midst of a party?

Well, the most dramatic scene came last though. That was upon the return of my flatmate, Carole! Real scene. I wont talk much because she ruined my party ( sorta 'potong stim' ) but lucky me, it was still my day. We were then laughing again, cooking sausages? ( christian!? ), having bits of banana stuck in the nose?!, slapping banana into faces, and what else? It was too crazy..total mess. I had to clean the house one whole sunday. So, there gone my beautiful sunday.

Excursion in CWK's 60th Anniversary

My company's (CWK LTD) 60th Anniversary. Brought Zdenek along for a whole new world of cosmetics manufacturing and food feast :) So much fun during the excursions ( It wasnt my first time, but with Zdenek, it was just so funny) and we had abundant food to enjoy. C'mon.. FREE food! and good food. Why not! The picture was me with Elisabeth, good colleague of mine and also my German teacher :)

Lotsa of Cultures in Wien :)

Let me see how should I begin. I will try as far to keep this posting as concise and brief as possible so you guys wont need to digest only facts and boring unknown names. Here goes. Guess where I went last week?! Hehe…very romantic city - VIENNA! Yes, 4 days there, not mentioning being my first country outside of Switzerland. Applause applause!! However, the pre-tour was dreadful. I had to get so many things ready – from choosing the cheapest tickets, searching information of places, dates clashing, to having heavy communication with Dani, my friend in Vienna. :)as seen pic- the pretty gals :)
It wasn’t over though. I made it to Vienna but only after an awful journey of 15 hours!! Can you imagine that!? I can practically fly back to Malaysia!! Supposedly took 9 hours but due to the floods in Switzerland, trains had to take alternatives routes which were totally gone case to me. That is like instead of taking a direct route from Penang to Kuala Lumpur, you first go to East Coast, crossing the border of Pahang and Terengganu only then arriving Kuala Lumpur. Painful isn’t it? The picture next was taken while I was too bored in the train.
Yeah… but I accepted it as part of an ‘exciting’ experience. :) I got a seat coach and imagine how impossible to sleep - but lucky me, I am tiny, so I managed to lie down somehow, apparently I felt myself so much as a restless backpacker who did nothing but peeked out the window wondering when I would arrive. Ok so that was me in the train. But as soon I stepped out of it, it was incredible. I first visited the famous church, St.Stephen’s Cathedral (as in pic) – good choice indeed. It had Romanesque origin ( constructed began in the 12th century ) but it was completely reconstructed in Gothic style following the orders of Duke Rudolph IV of Habsburg. Habsburg is the emperor family of Vienna and they were residence of many state of the art palaces around Vienna. Inside this cathedral, there were amazing art treasures and works and down to the catacombs, there were legions of bishops and habsburg pieces buried. This place is rather memorable to me because I met a local guy who was ever willingly to show me around. How ironic! You see on occasion time on tv or friends, but never expected anything to be in Vienna. This guy ( Lukas as in pic ) didn’t look innocent or anything, obviously he had some intention ( guys would know what I mean..hehe ) but I guess he wasn’t life-threatening or what, so we both had fun, on a safe side :) To name a few more, I visited one of the most important Baroque works in the world - Belvedere Palace! I didn’t know much about this place but it just looked good – the palace and garden ! Okie..there were museums of Medieval Austria Art ( with Romaneque and Gothic works ) and another was Baroque Museum. I was there with Lukas, but he knew nothing about history either. So we passed by a couple, and they had brilliant facts about the place. So, just like a tourist, my ear barged in, but still trying very hard to act as though I wasn’t listening. Haha..you see the pic. They explained how the woman face linked to eagle and lion, because it symbolised the spirit and bravery of the emperor. And many statues like this, each of them had different looks. Interesting huh?
Then , I went to the ever touristic Schönbrunn Palace, claimed to be the ultimate palace experience in Vienna. It was former summer place of Habsburg family and Empress Maria Theresa lived with her 16 children and her husband Emperor Francis I. The admission to the rooms and all was a bit pricey, so I forewent, but upon returning to Switzerland, my Swiss friends were telling me how stupid I was to miss it! I saw pictures that it was very beautiful but then again, I didn’t want to know how luxurious or opulent everything was displayed. Still no regrets though because what I really enjoyed was the spectacular view of the palace and Vienna city from the top of the hill ( called Gloriette ). I also went to the Austrian library ( as in pic ) which was again amazing - with great altar, authentic paintings and architectures. I managed to stop by at the naschmarkt flea market but when everyone was packing up already. Hey, wrong timing?! NOooo..perfect timing. I saw something nobody would have, even Dani. :p Look at the pic. Apparently some old stuffs were left over after the flea market, and bunch of locals were simply digging into the trash to find some useable goods - leaving the sight with several loaded bags, or even luggages. Unbelievable!!
So, the last day, I went to KunstHausWien, Hundertwasser’s major contribution to the Viennese art world - great sense of colours and imagination. Look at the pics – they are self-explanatory. Then off to Zentralfriedhof ( Central Cemetery ) where Mozart, Beethoven and other luminaries of the musical world are buried, or at least memorialised here. It was slightly creepy for me when I first entered ( as I got in from the unofficial entrance ) which was quiet and very spooky. Then as I walked much further up, I heard noisy people and realised this is yet another touristic spot, immediately got boring. I myself was puzzled how some people hated touristic areas, but now the real picture comes in, I can totally understand!! Next picture is a place where I watched an ochestra performance in a crowd of mostly elderly ones :p
What I also fancy were the strudels and delicious cakes.yum yum.. Rate 9.5/10 for the apple and peach strudel ( Lost 0.5 point because it was a little too sweet..hehe ). But anyway, thanks Dani,at the end of only 4 days, I had lotsa of ‘cultures’ *wink*