The day started early because we had an early train to catch from Paris Gare de Lyon to Zurich. With enough rest and past experience of carrying heavy luggages through Paris metro system, I was well prepared and guarded my mood well. We reached Gare de Lyon rather early and our train was not listed at the board yet. Tried get a help from the staff at the station to no avail. I guess he just could not be bothered attending to an Asian. Thank goodness our train finally appeared on the board.
It was a cool experience to sit in First Class with a ticket costing only 8 Euro more than 2nd Class. Comfortable seats, breakfast served, and peaceful quiet environment with classy First Class people that allowed me to have additional sleep.
We reached Zurich at noon and we spent quite a bit of time at the Tourist Information Centre to book a tour to Jungfraujoch for our parents as well to ask for directions to our hotel. Switzerland is my number 1 destination during the planning of the trip and just with our first impression with the Tourist Information Centre, I fell in love more with Switzerland. They are very warm, welcoming, helpful when giving information (lengthy information), and the most important: they speak English!
After we alighted from the tram, we opened our maps to see which direction we should walk. A lady who alighted with us knew that we were tourists and immediately asked where we were going and pointed out the direction. Wow.. kindness from a stranger which I had not experienced even once since I stepped my feet in Europe 5 days ago.
We were kinda lucky that we managed to stay at Mercure Hotel (4 star) due to their promotional rate. The room was fantastic: large room, thick bed and thick blankets, plenty of towel which comes in various sizes, bathing robe, plenty of power points, bath tub, TV in the bathroom, and free drinking water from the minibar. Whee..
Ironically this was where everything turned sour. I wanted to pay for laundry in hotel but it was Saturday and they did not do laundry on the weekends! Haiz.. as my sister wanted to play her mobile game, I decided to wash 1 shirt and 1 pair of jeans. After that, I asked her about our plan for the rest of the day as I honestly had no idea what places of attraction that we had. No answer as she continuously played her dumbass game.
When we wanted to find a place for lunch, we were like idiots. We just looked at the tram map not knowing where is what etc. The town was also kinda eerie with very few people and traffic at 3pm. Hii... We just had random lunch in whatever food place which was open. And my assumption that everyone can speak English in Switzerland was proven wrong. That shopkeeper girl was an embarrassment to Swiss! Haha..
Lake Zurich
We went to Lake Zurich which I thought was boring. We actually just took a random train and alighted when we saw the lake and people were alighting too. Anyway, we were too far from the "shore" as well as from the mountains and the photos taken look like photos of open water. Not to mention the lack of wind which did not cool my mood down. Then it started to drizzle for few minutes and then it stopped before the cycle repeated itself.
My sister walked towards some nice looking buildings and entered a church which I had no idea what. Basically I just hate to walk aimlessly without knowing where to go or what places to visit. I definitely did not enjoy it and from the day's experience, I posted this on facebook: "Always know that it was a wrong decision but this is the first and the last time I am doing this..". 'this' refers to travelling with my sister.
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| The unimpressive view of Lake Zurich |
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| Ganymede statue |
My aunt sensed something wrong and called my sister in the evening. I was taking a nap but again, I somehow was awakened when I sensed that someone was bitching about me. Lol. As expected, she complained about the Disneyland, my umbrella, my laundry etc. Of course she left out the parts that she refused my offer to plan for Disneyland trip and for Zurich, how she pretended to know where we were going when she didn't know, how her mood was screwed because of her period, sunburnt, and hunger, etc.
To prevent the similar thing from happening again, I decided to plan which places to visit for our following day to Lucerne. That made me slept at 3am in the morning but it was worth it! Why? That will be a story for Day 7 :)
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