Summer Trip 08! - Day 1
2nd Sis (asyhhie) is in the pionner batch of SIM students doing an SIM-IMI programme - International Hotel & Tourism Management degree and she is graduating this week! Due to the fact that she is the first person in my family to get a degree, I decided to be the supportive sister and fly to Switzerland for her graduation! Convinced Tania to travel together with me and also as part of her graduation trip, after much planning D-day is here!
Day 1
We decided on the Singapore Airlines 1am (GMT+8) direct flight from Singapore to Zurich. ETA in Zurich is about 7.45am (GMT+1). I rather arrive in the morning than in the evening = more hours in the day :)
As a tradition which started from my Winter trip in 2007, my family and I had dinner at Popeyes on me. The tradition is that whoever is flying off will treat the whole family to a dinner at Popeyes, which is a good family bonding ritual in imho.
me, mummy and my 2 youngest siblings
After dinner, hung out with my family before meeting up with Tania and the rest of the clique who were sending us off. Checked in our luggage, hung out with the clique and we only went into the departure hall about 30mins before our ETD.
Its been awhile since i last took a Singapore Airlines flight to anywhere and I was excited! The last time I took a SQ flight there wasn't such a thing as a personal entertainment system thingamagik :P Our SQ flight was a direct flight from Changi Airport T3 to Zurich, and speaking of which I have to say T3 is mega huge! Ok me and Tania didn't really walk around the T3 transit area much since we only went in 30 mins to our flight and we met Naz during her break in the Transit area, and ooh boy the short time I was walking around the area the carpet was actually making me dizzy. tsk.
Before we knew it we were boarding our flight! I had picked the window seat coz it gives me more room to stretch my legs and well, i'm not much of a fan of aisle seats since i'll either 1 - get hit by passing passengers walking up and down the narrow aisle or 2 - i'd have to get out of my seat everytime someone in the middle / window seat needs to use the loo or stretch out their legs.
The new SQ entertainment system thingamagik :P
Tania and me!
If you look in the middle of this photo you'll see another airplane a few thousand feet from us
Yay they have Japanese movies onboard!
The flight arrived on time and darling 2nd sis met us at the arrival hall. It felt like ages since i last saw her! She bought us train tickets in advance so we proceeded to board the train from Zurich Flughafen to Lucerne Banhorf.
Darling 2nd sis!
Upon reaching Lucerne banhorf we took a local bus service to our hotel. We used a day ticket that sis had bought for us earlier in the morning. Upon reaching the bus stop that was suppose to be near our hotel, we got kinda lost, unsure which directions to take. After walking for a few minutes, getting stopped by an Arab girl who thought my sister was Arab as well and getting directions from a kind old lady, we managed to find our hotel! yay!
This is our hotel, the Hotel GoldenerStern. Its your basic bed and breakfast hotel, basic amenities, no frills whatsover. Hotels around the area are quite expensive and the price for the room we got was quite reasonable.
Our next agenda after settling in, we went back to Banhorf to purchase our 4days youth pass which starts the next day. By then it was already lunch time and we were famished. We bought takeaway pizza at their local pizza place and proceeded to my sis' school since she had errands to run since she was in her school's events committee.
Lunch!
Waiting for the bus at the banhorf (interchange)
Lunch at IMI study corner
the view from sis' school!
If my school had a view like this, i'd go to the study corner everyday just to look at the view lol!
my sis is one of the numbrs in the 2nd class upper! So proud of her!
After hanging out at sis' school, we headed out to the halal meat store and an asian mini mart to get some items for dinner. Thereafter we went back to sis' hostel and handed over the raw market items to the group who'll be preparing dinner. Dinner was home made dishes by Surene's mum. Rice, prawn sambal and tom yum to name a few. After the awesome dinner, me and Tania went back to the hotel to get some needed sleep. More things to come on day 2!!
the view from sis' study table in her room
