The Simple Life: Switzerland

I'm back from my final trip for the year. Both Geneva and Prague were freezing cold and to think I thought we could escape from the cold in Oslo. We reached Geneva in the afternoon and what is this trip if it was all smooth-sailing. But then it was nothing extreme this time.

First of all it started with the visa problem for Orange. We weren't sure if she could get into switzerland and there is a need for some visa and the visa must be applied in person at the China embassy. There isn't any here and so we decided to take a gamble. At the Geneva airport there are 2 exits, one to the France side and one to the Swiss side and so the plan was for her to try to exit from the Swiss side and if she was denied entry, Momo will accompany her to exit from the France side and they will go look for her friend who happens to be doing an exchange there as well. So on that day, she managed to sail through custom without any problem. Oh yea! One problem solved. Next will be accomodation.

Apparently there is very few (if any) hostel in Geneva so we booked a room for 4 person in a 2-star hotel. The problem is there were 5 of us. We weren't delibrately trying to "cheat", rather it was because the hotel doesn't offer a room for 5 person. And that was the cheapest hotel we could find. Another problem was we weren't sure if Orange will be able to pass the custom. It was a very small hotel with a very small reception area. We were going "oh no oh no" in our heads as if it was those big hotels...you can at least walk in and out without the person at the frontdesk noticing. We actually managed to get our keys etc and all 5 of us managed to go pass the receptionist without her noticing anything but the suay thing is that we bumped into the manager at the lift landing outside our room! The moment I saw her I have a bad omen. I mean since she is the manager, of course she knows that the room can only stay 4 person and there were 5 of us. When we went out to get lunch cum dinner, the bad omen came true. -_-" Anyway it was a long story and I shall just say in the end we booked another room at a discounted price and we were utterly embaarassed.

But something nice happen during dinner though. We were searching for cheese fondue and we were examining the menu (more specifically) the price of the food one restaurant after another. When we finally went into one, the entire restaurant was empty since it was around 4pm. Weird timing. The waitress spoke very little English and we know very limited French and we had to guess what she was trying to tell us when she went rattling off in French! We ordered a cheese fondue for 3 and melted cheese for 2 to share among the 5 of us. Then in the midst of eating, she appeared with 2 more plates of melted cheese and once again began rattling off and we can only stared blankly at her and all that we caught was something like "order cheese fondue 3, melted cheese 2.... these 2 Ok". We were stumped for awhile and in the end we guess that she is treating is the 2 plates of melted cheese. We just ate and decided that the mystery will be revealed once the bill is here and true enough, the 2 plates were on the house. Wow...how nice.

The next day we took a coach over to the France side, Chamonix, in order to take the cable car up the Alps. It was freezing like mad and it was super windy up on the Alps. We went up to the highest point of Aiguille Du Midi (one of the mountain) which is 3842m up. Some of them complained of difficulty in breathing while I personally experience a spinning world especially when climbing up the stairs. The cable car brought us up to a point and then there were stairs leading to different heights and the higher we go...the more stars I start to see. It was more scary climbing down than up as you will look at the stairs when going down and once you look down...you can see the steepness through the gaps on the steps. My fingers nearly dropped off when I took off my gloves to take photos. Then the drama began when we were waiting for our coach back to Geneva. It was actually an airport transfer service. We booked for 6.45pm departure from Chamonix but we waited and waited and still no sight of the coach so we called the hotline and that is when we realized we overlooked the date for departure! I was sure I had indicated 19th Dec, 6.45pm as the departure but somehow the booking reflected it as 20th Dec, 6.45pm. *palm forehead* None of us realized it till the phone operator told us. Luckily the person was nice and told us to wait for the next pick-up at 9pm. He could have ignored us (like what happened in Barcelona) since it was our fault. The 3 of us huddled into a phone booth to keep out the cold wind. It was that pathetic. And when 8.45pm roll around and still no coach, Pooh called the hotline again and it was the same person who answered and he was so funny. He said "Don't worry, the coach will definitly pick you up at 9pm" Hahaha!! It is not fun to be stuck in the cold, of course we need reassurance. When the pick-up came at 9pm, we realized it was just for the 3 of us. Awww... so touched and I told Pooh I'm going to write compliment letter. Speaking of which, I haven not gone around to doing it. oops.

Shall let the photos show you my trip. Photos for Prague will be up soon, hopefully.

At the train station near our hotel.

Look at those clouds. We were that high up.

After that we went to search for a student-y burger place that the coach driver recommended, Poco Loco.

The hot chocolate that everyone loved except me. I had yet to drank a single cup of hot chocolate drink for this entire trip. First I dislike hot drinks and secondly hot chocolate is so sweet n thick. *shudders*

The Special Poco Loco burger. There are 2 slices of cheese, 3 beet patties, lettuce, tomato and chips inside. All for 7 Swiss Frank. Quite exp but is already considered cheap by the living standards there. Yum yum!