18th May 2018, Friday
We landed early at 7am. However we were stuck at the customs for almost an hour! There were just a lot of ppl... In the end when it was our turn, zj went ahead first but the officer asked if she was there alone, she said she's with me so I got asked to go to the counter too. After she processed zj, which involved asking quite a number of questions and also scanning of fingers, she scanned my passport and said "oh you used to live here". Me "yup". Her: "and you speak French?" Me: "un peu". She smiled and bid me a pleasant stay. Maybe staying there once has its perks. Hahah
We took our baggage, spent some time in the toilet and headed straight to the train station. It was somewhat cold, like when we visited London last fall.
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| We had to take a sky train to the customs |
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| The sky train's journey is pretty cool because there will be sounds like cows mooing and what not! |
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| Glad to finally stretch our legs |
Since we already had our Swiss travel pass, we didn't have to waste anytime at the ticketing station. We boarded the train to Zurich HB.
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| Pretty empty train since it's so early! |
I wanted to buy winter hiking boots because my old pair was wearing out. So when we chanced upon Dosenbach at Zurich HB, I headed in to ask the cashier about the pair which I pre-shopped online for. However she said that they don't carry winter shoes anymore. Which makes sense.. So I asked her where might sell and she told me perhaps the Ochsner sport on Bahnhofstrasse would.
Zurich Bahnhofstrasse is the most expensive street in the world! We were there by 8.53am and the store only opens at 9am. But seeing that we were already outside waiting, I think one of the ladies working there decided to open the doors once they were ready. Lol so shiok to be the first customers.
Anw it didn't go very well, had the same response as the previous store. So I decided to give up and we went to find lockers at Zürich HB. We couldn't find them. It was so confusing. I had initial gone through the station's layout but it proved harder to locate in reality. Because we were using different exits/entrances, so I was confused. We ended up asking this cute guy manning a juice shop where the lockers were and he told us that he would bring us there as it's tricky. He told his neighbour to look after his shop for him. I guess that's what they do for each other if one of them needs to pee. Lol.
At the lockers I realised the change machine didn't take 100 CHF notes which was all I had. So Zj and I decided to break a note by buying water, as she had initially planned. However we didn't want to waste time going to the supermarket to buy, so we ended up purchasing from a cafe. And omg it was 4.90 chf for 750ml of water 🙄 没办法.. The nice guy actually waited for us cos he said he wanted to help us load our luggage into the locker.
It's really kind of him as the bottom lockers were all taken so we (or I) appreciated the loan of his muscles. We managed to fit our luggage into two big lockers, each costing 9 CHF. After which he asked about our plan and we mentioned that we were going to Uetliberg mountain (he corrected my pronunciation there lol) and we chit chat for a bit while he brought us around the station so that we could easily find our way back to the lockers from the main street. He introduced a bit of the history of the place and brought us around the streets near to the station.
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| Museum. The weather looks bad :( |
Later, he sent us to the platform where we were catching our train up to Uetliberg mountain. We had a wefie with him (K) and exchanged numbers. I must say it was sooooo nice of him! I'm really glad fate brought us together 😃 It's one of the most memorable things on this trip! (We met with K once more... which is a story for another day)
UETLIBERG MOUNTAIN
Took lots of pictures while on the train. It was a 20 mins journey! It was also then that I realised I couldn't take fast moving objects (or I'm just really lousy at using an expensive camera 😅)
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| Special train |
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| And we are at the stop! |
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| We are not the only ones |
This mountain (more of a hill actually?) provides a good view of Zurich. However it was so foggy that we couldn't see much. The fog only got worse as we stayed on.. the starting path to the view point happens to be the planetary trail. So the first thing we saw was the sun. I joked that we should probably pray to the sun god for good weather. (We did.)
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| Our sun god |
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| Fog |
Despite the weather, we had a lot of fun taking pictures together. After all, this is our first day in Switzerland! We continued on the planetary trail and at some point, the path diverged and we took another path towards the top of the mountain instead of staying on the trail. It's not too hard a hike but I think we were not very used to it.
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| I wish I'm as fit as this lady |
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| Pretty lit |
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| We made it! |
Under better conditions, I think the following would have looked amazing...
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| Here's what we saw instead |
An old man offered to help us take a photo, and despite the weather, the photo was perfect. (Thank you!) We then sat at a bench to chill and soak in the foggy/wet atmosphere.
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| Entertaining read, I wonder if it's still there? |
It was starting to fog quite badly, so we decided it was time to go! We thought we might just come back to visit if we have extra time on one of the days...
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| On the way back |
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| Hello, snail |
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| Back at the station |
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| There's a playground! |
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| Looks really nice and fun |
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| The 'long' journey back to Zurich HB |
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| Scenery along the way |
The above was how we got by without WiFi. I researched on the timings (thanks to SBB app and Swiss train system for always having a timetable!) before we got to Switz. Granted it took some time to get all the info, but it allowed us to maximise our time in Switz to have the mental capacity to take it all in. Note that we didn't timebox ourselves, but had a range of timings that would suit our plan...
Lake Zurich
We wanted to do a boat tour around the lake (since it's included in the Swiss travel pass). To do so, we had to get to Zurich Burkliplatz. We decided to take the tram.
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| The train station's facade |
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| Walking to the tram stop along the most expensive street in the world |
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| The plan! |
I used Travefy to do the planning as their interface is really clean and nice to use + I could access my itinerary offline from their app. Unfortunately, they have since stopped providing free usage and I have yet found a replacement. 😐 I like apps that allow me maximum control (since I like to do the planning myself).
We were about 15 mins early for the 12:10 boat, so we walked around the quay.
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| It's cleaning time! |
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| Europeans are so chill with nude statues/bodies :) |
We took photos for each other too. Not posting them here 😁
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| Not our boat |
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| Our boat arriving |
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| Preparing to dock |
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| On board the boat! We spent most of the time under the shade 😂 |
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| Departing from Zürich Bürkliplatz. The weather is much better now |
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| Bye main part of Zurich, see you later! |
It's my third time to Zurich, but I've not seen toured the lake, so I was pretty excited!
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| The lake looks like it stretches to nowhere |
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| Whoo |
Our first stop: Zürich Wollishofen
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| So chill |
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| Even these workers agree |
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| Graffiti on display... Reminded that I'm out of Singapore (SG), since this would be illegal |
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| Wonder how much these houses cost 😂 Must be expensive, with a lake view |
Stop 2: Kilchberg
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| So smart to grow water plants |
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| I started to realise that each station has its own flag. I don't know if these are district flags? |
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| So zen! Also as you can tell, my pics are over-exposed oops. I really need a lesson in using my camera :X |
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| I also wonder how much it costs to own such a boat in Switz |
Stop 3: Rüschlikon
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| Windy |
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| LOL this... It's like me copy-pasting and image many times in a PowerPoint slide |
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| Look at this AMAZING garden. woaaah |
Stop 4: Thalwil
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| Another station with flags. We can now safely assume the blue and white flag probably is the flag for the canton of Zurich |
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| Ducky |
Stop 5: Erlenbach
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| Feel the vibeee |
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| Somewhat clear and glistening water |
Stop 6 & 7: Küsnacht ZH Heslibach & Küsnacht ZH
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| Erm... Looks like I took a picture of every stop 😅😅 |
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| Creative flags |
Stop 8: Zollikon
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| Last flag, I promise :) |
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| Concluding our 1.5 hrs round trip,,, That green boat looks fun! |
My thoughts: Lake Zurich doesn't displace Lake Geneva as my most favourite lake on Earth (it's the cover pic of this entire blog series!) The lake tour was kind of average (it's not a proper tour la, but a means of transport), but still, I enjoyed it! It's just so calming to be on the lake, appreciating the low-rise buildings... I feel quite claustrophobic back in SG with so many high-rise buildings...
Moving on... We'd arranged to meet my buddy John (whom helped me a lot while I was on exchange in EPFL) at ETH. He's studying there and was happy to meet to show us around Zurich. We also agreed to have early dinner together 😁
ETH Zurich
You know what's my favourite part of ETH? haha the polybahn/funicular xD I think I can sit on it multiple times without being bored. Anw I'm jumping the gun here! We took the tram again to get there...
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| Waiting~ I think it's because i'm OCD that I find the electric lines ugly :X |
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| Not our tram... We were waiting for No. 9 |
It wasn't my first time at ETH, so I kinda knew when to get off.. Also, google maps and GPS helps!
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| The iconic building |
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| Unfortunately I don't really know German, so I've 0 idea what this means |
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| The interior |
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| Part of it has works going on |
I got connected to eduroam, so I was able to contact John since it was close to meeting time. However, he was held back by his Prof, so we self-entertained in the meantime. We were supposed to meet at the polyterrasse so zj and I just hung out there.
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| Surprised by all these seats on the polyterrasse which wasn't there the last time I visited |
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| That's because an event is going on! |
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| Zj and I walked around for a bit |
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| The best part of the polyterrasse is this view |
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| Super over-exposed pano because I can't control the settings when taking a pano on my cam |
We (I) bought beer because of the event and because it was going for cheap @ 4 CHF. Then we just chilled in the sun - not my favourite activity, but need to get a bit of sun sometimes hahaa.
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| The cute guy manning the stall charged me student price and said it was ok x) |
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| The event name. I take pictures of 'everything' 😂 |
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| The view from where I was lying while enjoying the cold beer |
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| So comfortable hahaha |
John was held up still so we self-entertained by taking pictures of each other drinking beer lol. Zj and I also took the polybahn down and up because I said it was fun. LOL it was just ok for her.
John was finally done and when we met, I gave him my beer hahaa I'm not a big fan of beer so I barely touched it. It was so good to see him again 😊 I made introductions for Zj and John before we started walking towards some attractions of Zurich (I've been to some of them, but didn't mind going again since it was 3 years ago) because of the good weather!
Grossmünster
It was a downhill walk to Grossmünster, which is one of Zurich's major churches. It is a Romanesque-style Protestant church.
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| The walk... |
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| We were walking along Neumarkt street |
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| Good life, chilling in the afternoon |
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| Down the narrow path of Spiegelgasse... |
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| And onto Münstergasse |
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| And here we are, looking at the church |
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| Front of the church |
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| Okay... I suppose this is history. Can understand a few words here and there... |
John mentioned that we can climb up to the church and that, I didn't even know about! See why it's good to have a local guide you? :D I think usually tourists need to pay, but somehow the guy, seeing that we were with John, just let us climb for free. Seriously, I think it's our lucky day!
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| Narrow steps ensued |
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| How the view was! |
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| View today. I think didn't change much? That's the Fraumünster church in the center |
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| Looking at Lake Zurich |
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| Limmat river. On the left is Church of St. Peter |
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| Looking at the other tower of the Grossmünster |
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| Amazing pano |
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| I'm not a fan of cities, but this is niceee |
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| :O |
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| Captured with phone so the pic colour is different |
We took several wefies together before going back to street level. We crossed the limmat river stopping for some wefies again before getting to the other side.
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| The Limmat river with 3 of the major churches. I super love this pic, it's picture perfect. hahaha no edits though in general, I think switz pics don't need much editing |
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| Guess where we were headed? |
Lindenhof hill
It's a really popular hill, because of the amazing views!
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| The view |
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| We had a little break and refilled our bottles (wonderful thing about Switz! Free drinking water @ fountains) |
Hiltl
This isn't a tourist attraction... haha but a place for vegetarian food. Knowing I'm vegan, John planned to bring us there. The restaurant holds the Guinness world record for being the oldest continuously open vegetarian restaurant in the world. The restaurant is at Sihlstrasse, but we went to Hiltl Dachterrasse instead.
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| Flagssss. Sheldon from TBBT will enjoy telling me about each of these flags |
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| Entrance |
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| There's a lovely terrace, so we sat outside (it seemed like everyone sat outdoors) |
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| We chose what we wanted and it was charged based on weight (iirc). Sorry for the lousy pic |
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| My dinner |
The above was really what I had for dinner. Both Zj and John were like :O But I rmb my appetite was quite small then and I was conscious of how much it costs to eat out in Switz! It's a luxury ok xD The meal (with drink) costs 12.80 CHF
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| Okay well, it wasn't so bad. I bought a drink to treat myself after all that walking |
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| And it was time to part 😢 |
John was going for a soccer practice so we said farewell. Before that I told John I couldn't find my boots at Ochsner sport so he suggested that I try transa, an outlet right across the Sihl river. We went there but couldn't find anything that was comfortable and high. It was getting late, and I was struggling with disappointment as we were exiting the mall. There was another Ochsner sports and Zj told me to check it out.
Unfortunately, they didn't have anything that I wanted. But I did ask the cashier if they had the boots I saw online. She said no, but she can order for me. So I tried a couple of shoes for the sizes and blindly guessed my size for the order. I was to return and pick up my boots another day. I hoped that the shoes fit and are comfortable. You can never know with shoes, especially if you don't get to try! It costs 80 CHF btw, which I think is still okay la. I got my old boots at Migros (the big one in Lausanne iirc) last time for only 40 CHF. It was a steal and I wore them until they spoilt.
It was super late, and we needed to buy groceries for the week since we only intended to cook. Luckily for us, the Migros at the station closes somewhat late so we still had some time to shop for groceries. We then pick up our luggage and rushed for the train to Olten. Luckily Olten is only 30 mins train ride from Zurich HB, and our accom was 10-12 mins walk from the train station.
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| Olten. It's a city most people would never visit (because honestly, there's nothing much to see there. But I'm quite pleased with our decision to stay there) |
Since it was spring/summer time, there was still light so we could still figure out where the apartment was rather easily.
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| Living room. It's a sofa bed, and was my bed for the 2 weeks |
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| Dining area |
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| Semi-living space |
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| Zj's sleeping area |
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| Kitchen |
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| Toilet |
The place was clean and spacious, which is what I really appreciate about living in Switz. I just feel so cramped/cooped up in SG. Our main consideration for accoms was having a kitchen to cook, so we decided to go for Airbnb. Also, I'm pretty sure hotels are super expensive in Switz (I didn't even bother checking the price). The 2nd most important thing was the location. Olten is connected to the major train lines so it takes at most 3 hours to get to to the Italian speaking region, or Southern regions. Moreover, nobody really knows about Olten, so it means the accom price is cheaper?
Unfortunately, the house internet wasn't working... And we had no way to contact the host to ask if we are connecting correctly because there's no WiFi and we let ourselves in... Well the good thing was, we were staying very near to Coop city...
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| The building |
The thing about supermarkets in Switz is that there is usually free WiFi! So after we were done putting in ingredients to cook in the rice cooker, we went downstairs to Coop city and we stood outside trying to get WiFi. Luckily for us, there was WiFi! It was around 11pm so it was dark and honestly we felt a bit unsafe la cos got some shady people around so we just want to quickly ask about the WiFi and go home. We managed to contact the host and she told us that the WiFi is broken.. Something like it's the service provider that screwed up... And it should be fixed by Tuesday (cos Monday is a public holiday).
Wait, Tuesday?? It's only Friday. 😑 we had to settle for no WiFi for the next few days! I quickly double-checked the train timings for the next day (we'd made plans with my friend, Bruce who was exchanging in EPFL) as we were going hiking and also told Bruce what time and where to meet.
It's been a super long and eventful first day! Do look out for the next post!
