Back from Easter

Hello! I've not been blogging for so long, sorry! Have been busy... and oh well you guessed it, lazy. heh.

Anyway because I'm really lazy, I'm just going to post more and more photos. Of course of Switzerland and Amsterdam (still very much my favourites)

Here was the 'genealogy' of Easter:-
1) Switzerland - Zurich, Lucern, Interlaken, Bern
2) Netherlands - Amsterdam
3) Belgium - Brussels, Brugge
4) Ireland - Dublin
5) UK - London
6) Scotland - Edinburgh, Glasgow
7) Spain - Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, Madrid

It was a trip of really mixed emotions - tiring, adventurous, fun, stressful, pis*ed off. And way too much money spent. I need to start living like a pauper now. haha.

Oh yes, and I realized how important it really is to choose your travel partners carefully. Like, really carefully. It was so easy, comfortable and enjoyable with a certain group of 4, but just when 1 person was replaced with another, it became so stressful - just trying to adjust to that person's temperament and change in group dynamics. Let's call her x. I am not bitching, just expressing how difficult it was.

x, before I got to know her on this trip, seemed like a really cheerful, easy-going and sociable person - just the type of travel partner I'll love. But within a few days I realized how dead wrong I was. She was very helpful and looked out a lot for us, but at the same time bossy, patronizing, and had these weird extreme bipolar disorder where she'll bounce from a mature 40-year-old mother who tells you do-this-don't-do-that to a 6-year old girl, squealing, jumping and whining.

Awfully painful and hard to adjust. I probably aged about 5 years in a one-and-a-half weeks living with her.

But she was overall, a very nice friend - and I appreciate her friendship. Just that I would not travel with her again. Oh well.

Oh, but there's worse. Another friend joined the travel (with her own friend) - let's call her y. y was gentle and softspoken, but blunt. Horrendously blunt. She would retort her thoughts directly and sharply - like a knife cutting the air.
And maybe because I like to act like a joker, but her words were especially cutting towards me. For example, a conversation goes like this:-

Me: Hey y, you look happy! (Smiles)
y: Just because I smile doesn't mean I'm happy. You know, I feel really self-conscious when you comment on how I look, like when you say I'm tired or something and I don't know how to answer...

That shuts me up completely. I'm like what in the world just happened... ...

So with y, traveling with x actually seemed like heaven. What a paradox. When was around, I didn't know whether to be pissed off with her and ignore her, or to act like nothing's happening and pretend to be friendly, or to start second-guessing when I'm annoying her. IT WAS TEN TIMES AS STRESSFUL AS WITH x.
It didn't help that when x, y & y's friend were together, a bimbo-like atmosphere was generated & the group separated into 2 quite often.

Grew to accept y as just a sharp tongue who can do better at thinking before she speaks. But oh, words - simple intangible utterances that don't even make an ounce of impact on air molecules - can be so hurting.

On the bright side, am really thankful for a fellow Singaporean girl and a Korean guy who made things liveable. Thank you both so much, for bringing sanity to Easter.

Okay, now for the pictures!!

Switzerland
Zurich - An indescribable sense of peace, tranquility and quiet beauty pervades the city. You can understand - almost instantly - why it consistently tops the 'Highest quality of life in the world' list. Screw Vienna - it may be very nice to live in, but Zurich beats it hands down.








Swiss Francs - Beauty does not escape even the currency bills. See for yourself how pretty they are!!










Lucern - Same attractive air of serenity, enhanced by a nice mist. Add to that paddling in a boat in a reasonably large lake and you have it - a perfect afternoon in Switzerland!



Interlaken - A picturesque scene by the lake. Just gazing, without uttering a word, at the mountains fading into the horizon, against the backdrop of the gentle yet mesmerizing orange-golden sun rays is enough to take your breath away...








Just another scene in Interlaken to make you jealous. haha.

So simple - just a road by some mountains - but yet so ubiquitous throughout the land and, beautiful nevertheless. Switzerland is amazing.










Balmer's Lodge. The hostel in Interlaken. My personal favourite. Doesn't it radiate feelings of cosiness, warmth, the outdoors and life?!?






A Burnese Mountain Dog. My apologies for being so random. I saw 4 - yes, 4 - of these dogs bundled together in a lift in the Swiss Alps and I couldn't resist. They're really properly in Central Europe.





Marvel at the beauty of the Swiss Alps. It cost about 65 Euro just to take the cable car up. Now you can see how all my money disappeared. But oh well, it's once in a very, very long time.









Some more beauty to take your breath away. Somehow photographs can never capture the full essence of the sights that loom in front of you like depth etc... or maybe I just suck. But you get the idea...











Pretty Swiss Cottages fortuitously positioned in the Swiss Alps. Wouldn't it be cool to live there? These are residences. Yes, they are.

Bern - A typical day at a park. It's so wonderful in Bern - you feel as if everyday is such a perfect time for a nice, enjoyable time picnic-ing at a park, and having a slow chat over lunch with a friend cross-legged over a ledge overviewing the city.

Playing chess in a park, still in Bern. More of the same feelings described above.

Part of the city in Bern. Sorry for the bad lighting - you can't always get good lighting outside, you know.

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Food for thought: Do you know what's the capital of Switzerland?

1st Guess: Zurich.

Wrong.

2nd Guess: Geneva.

Wrong.

It's Bern. Yes, you didn't hear that wrongly... Bern. Which means, BEAR.

Haha. Gute Nacht alle!! (Good night everyone)

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And oh, I can't resist: I LOVE SWITZERLAND!!!!!!!

This is THE place for your honeymoon :)