Europhia Chapter 19: Austria - Vienna

When we landed in Vienna at night, it was still raining. Luckily it stopped by the next morning.

Austria is one of my least known countries in Western Europe. Austria is commonly confused with Australia. And personally I often mispronounce its capital Vienna as Venice. Even 'Austria' written in its native language (Österreich), looks like Ostrich. A country of misunderstanding haha.

The only thing I know about this place is people usually come here to further their studies in music. I learnt this from TV dramas haha.

Another magnificent castle/palace in Europe.

How about a ride on the horse carriage?

Castle also means big big gardens.

Well-maintained grass patches.

Reminisce of Sahara Desert in Paris. Luckily the weather is quite cooling.

Castle gardens are actually quite ideal for jogging.

Gloriette. Viewing gallery at the top of the hill.

You've to pay to get to the top, but it's not very worth it. The view from the hill is good enough and this building isn't that tall anyway.

This is how far we've walked (and climbed).

How do you pronounce that beta symbol? lol (btw this is the name of the castle)

This long string of digits denoting the value of pi is found in an underpass leading to a train station. Weird place for such mathematical stuff. It's carved on the mirror so its photo is not that easy to take nicely.

I don't understand but the counter looks interesting. The number keeps jumping. Probably it's trying to count the number of babies born in Austria, or something like that.

No place to decorate, then take the edge.

Golden ball.

So cyclist-friendly.

If you can name one famous person from Austria, that would be Mozart.

This ice-cream parlour is so crowded. You can see people eating its ice-cream everywhere around the vicinity.

Didn't know the standard is 3 flavours. I only called for 2. Ok have to eat quickly, going to drop liao!

Take this escalator up and you'll be gassed.

This place used to be gas tanks for storing natural gas. Now it has been converted to a shopping mall, but the name remains. Hope SG can name a place as 'thermometer'. That would be interesting.

The layout of the mall is really reflective of its past use.

This is a train station. How come can walk through just like that?

Metro stations without a ticket gantry is quite a common thing in Europe. Passengers should purchase a ticket first, and get it stamped (or validate) using a validating machine located at the platform. Occasionally there will be checks by conductor either in the train itself, or at the platform exit.

This system is based on honesty and integrity. Of course the cheapskates will try to cheat fares by riding the train without tickets. There is a risk of getting slapped with a heavy fine if caught by the conductor. If you are feeling very lucky, you can attempt to cheat. Isn't this like gambling? As opposed to the casino where there is low probability of winning with high payouts, fare cheating has a high probability of winning with low payouts.

Sometimes it's irresistible. Sometimes it's for convenience sake. Sometime it's forced by circumstances. Whatever the case such a gamble is part of the Europe experience haha. I admit I did that a total of 5 times throughout the trip...but not all were very successful...

Europhia Chapter 18: Switzerland - Zurich

Even after leaving Lucerne, it's still raining in Zurich. The sky is still very much overcast with dark clouds. This explains the darker than normal photos I took.

Wore the poncho I brought for the first time, though I was hoping not to use it at all. When the rain is reasonably small, locals will usually just walk without any cover. Unlike SG where rain often pours heavily and stops quickly too, rain in Europe can last for a long time, light and intermittent. Hence you can't just simply 'wait for the rain to stop'.

Swiss people are generally nice and friendly. Motorists give way to jaywalkers even when it's their right of way. I came across Starbucks giving out free coffee at the streets. Standard-sized cup, not a reduced-size sample cup. That coffee definitely brought warmth to the cold rainy day, and lifted my spirits when I was feeling down.

Anyway a very coincident thing happened. In the previous chapter I showed beautiful photos from Mt Pilatus taken by my friend who is currently studying and working in Switzerland. Yea I bumped into him at the train station. Seems like Switzerland is a very small place... The world is getting smaller.

A fat lady in wings spotted at the train station. What could this symbolize?

Zurich Station.

Coop supermarket - my savior in Switzerland.

I kept seeing these nifty trams everywhere but I didn't have the chance to ride them...=(

These church spires and clock towers are an icon of Zurich.

It started to rain heavy enough for people to take out their umbrellas.

Grossmunster, a major church in Zurich. Despite the name, it's not gross at all.

Lake Zurich. I miss the blue skies.

鹅，鹅，鹅，曲颈向天歌，白毛浮绿水，红掌拨清波。

Swiss flags can be seen hung at many places, unlike in SG where our flag only appears during August.

Other than watches and Swiss knives, the Swiss are proud of their chocolates too.

A mini-tram runs overhead.

The tastiest rosti I've ever eaten. SG's rosti is too dry and flaky.

Cheese Fondue! One of Switzerland's specialty. Sadly, I was kind of disappointed. The wine taste is too strong. Struggled to finish the whole basket of bread.

The bill came in a music box! It played a melody as we opened it to take out the bill. We literally splurged on this meal.

Back to nature.

Where does this river lead too?

The speed of water flow increases.

Rhine Falls. Largest waterfall in Europe.

Like fireworks, waterfall should be appreciated with the tremendous sound of falling water.

The waterfall is more spectacular than it looks from pictures.

You can ride a boat to reach this rock island in the middle of Rhine Falls.

The closest you can get to Rhine Falls. The experience is just pure amazing.

Eeek...

Mickey Mouse in more colours.

Can you tell which one is German, French and Italian?

1/2 Franc! Haha. They should release a 1/2 Dollar too!

Amazing views you can only see from a plane.

Switzerland is one of the most expensive countries in the world. It can be gauged from the price of one McDonald set meal, which costs about 18 SGD! During our stay in Switzerland, we lived on supermarket stuff. Bread and apples could keep me sufficiently full fortunately.

In Europe, I can only think of two things that are definitely cheaper than that in SG. Alcohol and chocolates. Alcohol is so dirt cheap that even plain water can cost more. As for chocolates, I bought a lot just to try a bit, but realised I couldn't eat finish in the end. I even received free sample chocolate bars at the Zurich airport. Chocs became my staple snack for a week or so. Yea, extremely heaty and unhealthy, but I'm glad I didn't fall sick during the trip.