Switzerland Towns/Cities

Bismillah..

It's been a while since I last post about our travel.. Hutang post semakin banyak~ 

So as promised, this time I am going to post about some of the towns/cities that we passed by in Switzerland. Well, I'm not that into cities before I went to Europe. Living in Asia, I used to have the impression that all cities are crowded and always on the rush. But then, European towns offered an absolutely different atmosphere than that of Asian's.

On the first day, we drove all the way from Geneva to Interlaken and had a quick stop at Oberhofen and passed the most medieval-looking town that I've ever seen, Fribourg. And on the second day we drove from Interlaken to Lucerne in which we had stopped in Lauterbrunnen, Trumelbach  and Grindelwald.

I think, if we had more time, I would've spent more days in Lucerne. It is such a beautiful town with lots of things to do. You can either go up on one of the mountains or take the cruise along Lake Luzern or just simply stroll at the old town vicinity which I find very interesting as well. 

We were on a budget trip and with at least three countries to go, we have to opt on the budget things to do which as you've probably guessed, strolling! (^^)

We spent a night at the Lucerne Youth Hostel which is located in walking distance to the lake. We shared our room with a middle age lady from South Africa. Didn't chat much that night because we were hushed to sleep by our dorm mate because she needed to catch an early train the next morning (^^") 

But I think she was a nice lady, anyway...

The Chapel Bridge is one of the free attraction around. We spent some time strolling there; walking pass cafes and a street market. I got quite carried away watching the white swans swimming on the lake and they would occasionally dive to the bottom.. I still don't know why they do that, though. There was no fish inside their beaks when they surfaced

Then we set off to the Nine Towers, which in reality, only four of them are opened to public. This was where we met a lady who works with the tourist center who had spent much time explaining to us every detail about Lucerne. She was really patient answering all of our questions.. Eyh aku bha pulak yang paling banyak tanya (^^"). She then gave us some pamphlets and some chocolates. There are quite a number of them around; it's easy to tell from their uniform and red bags. We got some more chocolates from another lady as we enter into the clock tower.

The towers gave beautiful view of Lucerne and as we walked further, the towers get even taller and at the last tower, we could see the whole town without any tree branches blocking our view like this one on top..

This is actually the innards of the clock tower which is made to chime a minute earlier than other clocks in the city. They also displayed the many types of mechanism used in clocks in this tower. Ranging from those that uses mechanical pendulum to laser beams. I'm actually easily impressed by these kind of stuffs.

Hebatnya otak manusia!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the view from the last tower.

We were heading towards Laussane on the same day so why not stop at the capital, Bern. 

To our surprise, the town is rather too quite for a Capital.. Talking about Malaysia's capital.. Pheeeeeewwwww....

Melting pot... Dreadful traffic... Everybody always in a hurry...

But Bern is one extremely peaceful capital

We visited one of the Church and the sound of the organ was echoing as we walk around surveying the statues and carvings on the walls. I've never seen an organ in real life before; always in those Vampire or Dracula movies. I was pretty impressed by the size. It was colossal. I mean those silvery rod thingy above the main entrance. I even took a video of the guy playing the organ. Teruja sunggoh!

And then voilla! The astronomical clock. Ok this is my 2nd encounter. It's actually simpler than the one in Prague.. BUT! I only knew an interesting fact about this clock a few months ago..

This is the very clock that Einstein stared at as he was sitting on a tram on his way home from work. And he'd thought about traveling at the speed of light which eventually led to his theory of relativity.

Haaa... aku tengok History channel ok baru aku tau! *NERD!*

And to end this post... If you're craving for something spicy after all the long journey and self-cooked meal in the hostel, there's an Indian Restaurant in Bern who serves the world's best fish Briyani eva! 

Ka kami terlampau lapar??? But really, it was quite costly but since it was like the best eva, we ordered another one and paid hurm.. 50 euros (mind you, we always share to cut cost)

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Mantanani Island Day Trip

Assalamualaikum...

I thought of continuing my Eurotrip post just now but I think I am mentally exhausted for today so let me just share a little bit about my day trip to Mantanani Island last Saturday; 26 April 2014.

Yang merah itu Mantanani Island yah (^^)

Well, my last dive was in October last year so it's been 6 months. I thought it's best that I gear up and dive again. Luckily my October buddy was in town for the weekend so I sort of coaxed him to join me and of course he'd brought along another friend. I did a very quick survey on price offered by various companies and the best price was given by a friend of mine at the climbing centre (^^)

The itinerary is very simple..

Pick up at 7.15 am. 1 hour and 45 minutes bus ride to jetty. 45-50 minutes boat ride to the island which depends very much on the weather and then 2 dives and a buffet lunch.

Yup! That's our Mountain! (^^)

Trip to Mantanani is very very weather dependent. It can be suddenly cancelled because of rough sea but money will be refundable in such case. Even when the sky is all clear and deep blue in colour, the ride was still very bumpy. My friend got thrown out of his seat on our way back when he fell asleep. It was such a funny scene. I heard a loud thud, and when I turn, there he was lying on the floor; swarmed by the Chinese tourists assisting him to get up.

I think one thing that I won't forget about the trip was that I was hoping to meet some Europeans but it turned out that we were with more than a dozen tourists from China and even the tour guide spoke chinese! So I went to the kiosk at the jetty to ask whether we are already at the jetty or is this place some kind of R&R thingy because we didn't understand a word the guide was saying when we arrived at this place :p

Kamera aku kawan aku pegang so0o0o0o0 gambar2 yang diambilnya ni... 

Haih~ bole2 laaaaa~ (^^")

I definitely think Mantanani has it's own qualities like the the water is exceptionally stunning, the beach is bigger so it is more suitable for family outing. The dive centre has a beach volleyball court. I was very tempted to play, you know. But only the half naked dive masters were in the court so... I'd refrained myself from doing so hahaha Mantanani is famous for the sightings of Dugong but we didn't see any.

I saw a sting ray, a turtle which perhaps an adolescent (sukati aku jak kan) and lots of coral fish. I actually prefer the coral fish because they don't look intimidating. I get excited when I see a big school of fish but I can feel slightly intimidated by their huge number (^^") During the first dive, we were at a site with lots of corals but not that colourful. But the second site was even beautiful. Tapi aku pelik betul air nya sekejap extremely sejuk and sekejap panas~ I dunno why.. Aku memang diver yang noob heeee

Feeling gtew~ Well.. I needed the short getaway... New responsibilities are coming in and I foresee a lot of effort will be put ahead to fulfill all these things that I've to shoulder... You know when I stand atop of a mountain, I realize I'm just an insignificant speck in this vast universe. A speck that could just be an ordinary object or with the power to bring good and make the world a better place to live. When I go underwater, I see the hidden treasures; the micro and macro things that make me realize how limited my knowledge is. There must be more to this world to be discovered....

Otak aku sangat occupied sampai aku jadi nada perasaan tentang hati masa trip ni.. Allah knows best.. Allah lagi tahu kalau sesuatu yang kita suka itu bukan yang terbaik untuk jadi milik kita. Tapi Allah akan letak yang kita suka itu di tempat yang sepatutnya dalam hidup kita...

"You who is still out there... I secure my heart for only you.." Ececececeh! Yah! itu lah maksud posing ini :p

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The transition... And changes

Bismillah...

My friends and I have talked a lot about how we have changed over the years in the past few days... I happened to be in many places within this week that I met friends from school and university and we coincidentally talked about the same topic altogether; CHANGE...

I listened to what one of my BFF had to go through this year. Entirely different from what I faced last year but slightly similar in its on way. Last year, I was dealing with lost and some career shifts. Battled my way through to gain stability, get control of my life and become positive again. It's something that I prefer to call as my 'transition period' because when it's all finally over, I am (Alhamdulillah) totally fine today.

During the transition period, I realize, not all that are close to you will be there with you. That's when you can finally realize who love you solely for being that witty and carefree woman who is fun to be with and those who love you fully as an individual and stick around when you are at the lowest point in your life. It is absolutely normal to suddenly change into a grumpy person who has mood swings and pour all the burden in her life to the people she trust. That's what women do. They have to let it out~

One thing that I noticed was I did have all the solutions to my problems hovering in my temple but my mind was actually too shrouded by all the negative thoughts and tiredness that I can't direct the physical me to execute anything properly. And the hurdles that I have to deal with especially when it comes to people's attitude, response and expectations were making it even worst for me.. So I did confided my problems to the people I trust... And that's when you can see, who among the people you trust is there to raise you back to where you were or even higher or just want to run away from you because you've become this prick who keeps on complaining about the universe conspiring to pull her down...

From my point of view as the one who was being tested, I just wanted to pour it out. I just wanted a trustworthy person's shoulder to cry on. It is already very much helpful and soothing just to hear the person you trust respond with "You can get through this" or "I pray for you to be granted patience" or "If you need anything just tell me" or "I understand". I didn't expect bombastic ideas that works magic. The least that I needed was a pair of ears that listen. That's all. And it was ludicrous when some responded with "Kahwin la GG," which simply can be translated into "You should have a spouse to share this with instead of sharing this with me", right?


What I'm trying to say, it's the 'transition period' that is the toughest. It's that period when multiple things in your life start to change simultaneously and you have to figure out how to incorporate all these changes into what already exist in your life, your routine. It's the time when you have to constantly do 'trial and error' until you figure out what works. Best of all, this is when we actually GROW exponentially without we realizing it..

I'm truly blessed with family and best friends who understood what I went through although there were some who drifted away from my life with their own reasons. My family was very supportive and we changed for the better after the great lost of one of our beloved. We appreciate each others' presence more than before realizing that any of us could 'leave' at any time without warning.

My best of friends were very mature in handling my breakdowns. There are moments when we entirely give time to listen to each others' problems and then rejoice our hearts by filling each other with pleasant updates and activities.

It was hard but I could feel how it changed me... Hopefully for the better lah!

The next time when a good friend come to you, complaining about the hardships she is going through, she is not trying to drag you into her problem.. It is because you have proved to her as a trustworthy person among all the people she knew. Don't ever break that trust... Ever~

"Ujian itu indah jika ia membawa kita hampir kepada Sang Pencipta.."

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