A visit to Switzerland.

It was because due to the invitation that gave me this ocasssion to visit Switzerland. On the 21 Dec 2008, a Sunday, I woke up as a very determined person, more or less due to the holiday season, I don't feel as tired as the other days. In other words, I was fresh that morning. After having prepared everything that needed, I departed from my house and I rejoined my friends at the entrance of my appartement. It was 8:50 am.

As usual, to go to somewhere out of town, no matter where, we have to take the train; so, we walked together to the railway station, which is not that far from where I stay. It wasn't as cold as usual, so I had made an assumption that it would be the same in Swizterland.

Off we went, we boarded on the train, riding happily all the way to Basel, the border of Swizerland and France, then transitted on another train from Basel to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. About two and a half hours , we arrived at Bern. Another 5 minutes of walk, we were allowed to discover the tramway station:

The tramway, it's always red!

Stupidly, we bought the tram ticket from the tramway station, in which the vending maching is unmaned; in spite of the fact that we don't read german, we have suceeded in finding the right tram which would lead us to the Malaysian Embassy, it was the tram number 3, heading towards Saali. And the ticket costed us 3.8o swiss francs(which is considered expensive). At this point, are you wondering why I introduced this paragraph with an unkind word 'stupidly'? The following statements will help you in solving this enigma. Looking at our beautiful watches, they indicated 11:30 am, which meant that we had another 1 hour to spend before we were obliged to attend the luncheon. Our absurdity first appeared when we found out that there was a time limit in the validity of the ticket: 1 hour. I confirmed to all my friends that "ok, we have the right to board on the tram even at the last minute of the time limit." So the silliness wasn' that obvious!

However, after having walked about 30 minutes and being mesmerised by the beautiful architecture and being amused by the entertainment on the street, we came to decision that it was time to go to our primary destination... But of course, before heading towards the embassy, let me show you the pictures that I have taken during our promenade.

The zebra crossing which is extended to the tramway station.

Look at the cables above our head, they are the cables that supply current to the tramway an eventually guide them.

At the end of the road, we couldn't resist taking picture with the beauty of this wonderful town. Next to me is Khairul, a scholar of JPA.

This friend of mine was showing his desperate to take a picture with me, so this is the result.

And the street performance, of course, they are performing chrismas' songs, like "Petit Papa Noel", "Stille Nacht", "Mon Beau Sapin"

Well, let's get back to our topic of discussion, we got back to the tramway station, and finally, we were in the tram. We were getting excited and few minutes later, we were surprised to find that our destination was just one station away which was about 3-5 minutes walk. In conclusion, we paid 3.80 swiss francs for a 2-minutes-ride. We have learnt our lesson, we would be going to Malaysian Embassy for the next invitation-ON FOOT!

The surroundings of our arrival point.

Towards Zurich and Basel, this way please!

Aha, the snow!

Behind me it's the Einstein's museum.

Bern means 'bear' in english, that's why you can see so many bears everwhere in Bern.

Voila, I have taken a picture with Einstein.

The road that I have taken (a metaphore derived from a poem).

We spent almost a day in the embassy, meeting students from all over Swizerland who are currently pursuing their studies in Hotel Management, we are more or less of the same age, and for your information, they are not sponsored by the government, they came here all by themselves. We exchanged our ideas, we laughed while eating, and we ate while laughing. Regretfully, I didn't take any picture there, but all I can say here is that it was worth travelling all the way from France to attend this luncheon. From the luncheon, I know more about the lifestyle in Swizerland, I was shocked when they informed me how calm is Switzerland, people can't really speak loudly even in the house, they will get a complaint from the police sometimes, no car washing sundays because it's the day thatthey want to have some peace. All in all, I will never reside in Switzerland.

The good side is that in Geneva, they speak french, and for those french speakers, we will eventually get a higher salary than those who don't, this interests especially me, because I am hoping to work for CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) one day, and now I am preparing myself for the qualification round in the selection of employees of CERN in 2015.

And, I am actually inspired by the speech of the malaysian ambassador in Swizterland, he gave a lot of respects to students and he advised us to study really hard and bring the knowledge back to help in the development of the society; get into the best school; graduate with a distinction. Yes, I can absolutely do that!!!

At about 5pm, the sky was already dark, we made our way to the railway station, and there, I saw a book store, I couldn't resist myself, there was a huge force of attraction, and I went inside to see what kind of books they have there. What intrigued me was that I saw some English books, I had some in my hands, and thinking that I was having 5o swiss francs in my pocket, in a blink of time, I intended to spend all of this amount on books. Without hesitation, I bought two books in a rush because my train would be departing in 10 minutes time. These are the two books and I am very happy with my choices:

I haven't started reading it, but soon!

I am halfway through.

In the train, I was concentrating in these new books that I had bought, and my friend took a picture of mine.

The result was quite good, I find it.

Next trip, the luncheon during Chrismas' day in my teacher's house, Patricia. Let's wait for the excitement to come! And this is the wrap of the one day visit in Bern.