Sunday, May 22, 2005

Our seventh month day in Zurich

Arrived in Zurich on Friday morning. And I was greeted with the oh-so-familiar 'Ni2 Hao3!'.. Uncle Carlo! I haven't seen him in 4 years! I remember he used to bring us each a bag of 1kg Toblerone chocolates everytime he visited us in Singapore. It's nice to meet him again in his own country for the first time. :)

He drove us to the Hotel Biber, our (very humble) backpacker's abode for the next 3 nights. We had to share a dorm for the first night with 2 other people cos there were no more available rooms. It was so squeezy it felt just like those railway cabins in China. Thank God we roomed with 2 GIRLS from Brazil, and not 2 big noisy American GUYS. They would probably come back drunk at 4am, and make the room stink with booze and cigarette smoke. Ughhh.. I'm not exaggerating, the people we saw at the reception room really did all that.

Shopped at Bahnhofstrasse and Paradeplatz for the rest of Friday. Those are the equivalents of Orchard Road here. For all the scrimping and saving I've done so far, I was like a tiger let loose on Main Street. Got a top from H&M, a tank top from the basement of Manor, and a tee from Benetton. It says 'United Colours of Benetton Zurich'. My best souveneir of the place. :) Heehee

Saturday brunch was at Sprüngli's with Uncle Carlo, Aunt Marion and their older son Marco. For the clueless (I was too), Sprüngli is a bakery-confisserie famous for its chocolates, macaroons and sweet nothings. The price matches the quality of the food there. The hot chocolate there is TO DIE FOR. Uncle Carlo wouldn't hear of me settling for steamed milk or Ovalmoltine. It was that or nothing. And it beats the Suckao at Max Brenner's hands down. The Sprüngli hot chocolate tasted like a liquid chocolate bar. The brown velvet was magic on our tongues, and I can't find any other way to describe it. It's just amazing. Weiming had 2 small pastries, one with a caramelized sugar crust, and the other with a pure chocolate molten center. Our waistlines sinned, and so did Uncle Carlo's pockets. We liked it so much we went back this morning for breakie again. I had the cold chocolate this time, and it was just amazing. Ahhhhh. Ditto for the warm brioche and quiche I had. I'm a sucker for good food.

Uncle Carlo is really a god-send! He drove us around the whole city on Saturday after our maiden Sprüngli adventure, and we got to see the city in his C320 Benz, which can't be found in Singapore. Meng liked it so much he posed for a picture with Uncle Carlo in front of the car. Haha

Sundays in Switzerland are always lifeless. So that's how we spent today... Being lifeless :( We went to the local Landesmuseum. Which was kinda boring cos there was alot to see, but everything was so overwhelming and disjointed that it didn't leave me with any inkling of the history of Zurich and Swiss traditions at all. Just a lot of regal and important looking things.

There was a whole set-up at the Bahnhof station, that showed the Montecarlo Grand Prix live. There was a stage, a huge screen showing the live race, and Credit Suisse sponsored games and stalls at the side. The coolest one has got to be this pitstop game, where guys race to beat the clock in changing tires on a race car. And there are race girls strutting their stuff around, and people get to watch all this for free. Very cool.

So now I'm racing against time in an Internet cafe to journal all this down. My CHF3 investment better be worthwhile! Tomorrow we're leaving for Lausanne, so I don't know when I'll get to journal all this down again... Til the next time, this is Celest over and out!

Our seventh month. Though nonchalant, though it passed in a moment of a slap on the forehead, it was never forgotten. Zurich probably became Paris for a day.


Laid bare at 5:12 pm
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