Montreux, Switzerland
fuhh....what a long, gorgeous day!! I had to wake up at 4am to catch the 7.20am flight to Geneva from London Stansted. But from the moment the plane lifted off until this very moment, the view was endlessly breathtaking. (ok well, I did manage to catch up on sleep when the aircraft was too high above and all I could see were clouds..hehe).
From the airport, I took a train to Montreux. The journey followed along Lake Geneva..and wow!! Roy had told me that Switzerland is a very beautiful country, but i never quite got what he meant until i saw it for myself. Check out the pictures tomorrow, because words to describe the beauty definitely escape me at this point.
At Montreux, I switched trains and got on a panoramic train (Montreux-Zweisimmen). The difference between the normal trains and the panoramic trains is that you could see that they take a little bit more effort in keeping the windows clean, and the windows are so huge, it goes down to your ankles!! All that so one could properly enjoy the view. For 7 swiss francs, you can actually go to the ticketing office and reserve a seat, which was what I did. The stress started when i found a middle eastern couple (and very large sized too hehe) on my lovely window seat, and the dude didn't want to move. no need to delve into our argument, but i got my seat back in the end, as reserved. So i spent the almost 2 hour ride pretending to cough and sneeze to kick them out of my seating area..but of course to no avail. Hahahaa...i enjoyed the journey nevertheless, although by the end of it i couldn't wait to hop off the train because i felt so bloody cramped.
At Zweissimen, I changed to another panoramic train that took me to Interlaken. Interlaken is full of tourists from all over (like me oso la keke). Then I took another train to get to my hostel in Lauterbrunnen, which is in the Jungfrau region. It's 20 minutes from Interlaken by train, about 800 meters above sea level.
After 12 hours of dragging my luggage around, I finally reached Valley Hostel. So relieved...berat jugak bag tu!!! I got a single room for a decent price, but i've got to share the toilet and bathroom. The room was surprisingly nice, although it's only about as big as our average store room at home.kekeke..and the closet is outside the room, which i suppose is a good thing because otherwise i would have to manouver myself around the really small room. It kind of reminds me of the attic room I stayed in once at Colmar Tropicale a few years back.
I'm now on the train back down to Interlaken to find some dinner, and then I think I'll just go back and retire for the day lah. I feel so tempted to just sleep, but I only had a sandwich to eat earlier and now I'm hungry as hell.
The one thing i don't quite like about this country is the smell of cow dung that seems to have integrated with the air around here. Oh well, malaysia bau belacan, india bau kari, switzerland bau taik lembu. Ok la kot..haha. Speaking of which, i was looking for shower gel at the shops. Even the teeniest ones cost like CHF2.50, dammit, i should've bought some from tesco yesterday. In 2 days' time i'm sure I'll start smelling like cow dung as well.
till next time..ciao!
p/s: damn, the rosti margherita was so tasty! Shredded potatoes, sliced tomato, oregano, swiss cheese, baked. Must try when get home.
Rosti Margherita
