Top of the world!

As I was doing a non-productive housekeeping for my 4kg ancient notebook, I bumped into directories of old photos of mine while I was a student abroad. Gosh... the memory hits..

Then I found myself mourning... Please bring me back my past. My long-lost life. Total freedom. I miss London so much!! Anyway..

My friend and I once made ourselves notorious for having to sleep overnight at Geneva airport on our way back from a duo-travel to Swiss during Summer 2005. The cheapest airfare always comes with a catch, so it was a usual thing to end up sleeping at the airport back then. I still remember that we're waiting to catch our 630 a.m British Airways flight at that time.

The entire trip was awesome!! We were on a student-affordable backpacker's budget hostel at Balmer's Herberge, Interlaken-Ost where we met travellers from The States, Europe and even Japan. We were the only Malaysians among the blue-eyed and blondies.

It was a dorm-style accommodation with a number of double-decker beds and a few bathrooms that were covered just by canvas.. ;P Like other guesthouse around Interlaken, Balmer's is a combination of wooden-brick house. During the night I could feel a stream of cold wind passing through the wooden windows like an air conditioner. I wonder how we'd survive if it's a winter time!

Above is the picture of a shop accross the road. The picture was taken from the window of our dormitory by my friend. That was a typical house found there. And yeah, I guess Backerei = bakery and Konditorei = confectionery.. hehe.. They speak 3 languages actually, depends on which border their vicinities are. In Geneva people speak French, while in Interlaken they speak Germany and in the southern part, people speak Italian.

The total expenses around GBP300 mainly spent on train tickets from Geneva to Interlaken, to and fro and around Jungfraujoch itself. But it was all worth it with the nice scenery and experience we gain. The green pines and oak, the wooden huts around the valleys, the top-half of the mountains covered by snow, the melting glacier at every corner and finally when we reach the top, it was all white!! It was slippery though at some spots and I was so careful in making my way around the peak as I was afraid of falling off the steep edge. I might roll down and became a snowball by the time I reached the bottom of the valley!!

The population around one of the valleys.

The snowy mountain.

View from the top of Europe.

While Jungfraujoch offers you a scenic view you can't find in our region, Geneva is a city of elegant and diplomacy. We managed to sneak-peak the United Nations headquarters from the front gate as it's already closed when we reached there. Another place we didn't have the chance to visit was the International Red Crescent Societies headquaters. Urmm.. you must be wondering what is so special about these offices.. nothing in particular, but urmm.. at least you can tell your friends.. "Oh.. I've been to the United Nations in Geneva.." hihihi..

Geneva is also well-known for its world's highest jet fountain at Lake Geneva (see picture). We also went for lake cruising along the lake. I was excitedly searching for the peak of Mont Blanc which supposed to be seen from the lake, but I was unlucky as the clouds were so low on that day (Mont Blanc, Chamonix in France is another place to go in my wishlist!!) And yeah, Swiss is also famous for its watch production like Raymond Weil Geneve, Omega, Swatch etc. You can find a watch garden at the heart of Geneva. Hey, it's a real watch tauu...