Part 1
Before I start to talk about Lausanne, let me first kaobei kaobu about Barcelona’s airport. Although it is a major international airport with great duty free shopping possibilities and better drinkable water than those in the city, I was quite amazed with 2 incidents. The first is about the “efficiency” of the airport traffic management. We left only 20minutes after the stipulated departure time. And most fantastically, the gate was changed 10minutes before the departure time, meaning we waited at the wrong gate. The information was not updated at the gate itself, until I went to the main departure screen to check. Luckily the corrected gate was only 2 gates away, or else if we miss the flight cos we remained at the original gate we can all call it a day and fly back to Singapore cos the next scheduled flight on the original gate is to Singapore.
The 2nd incident is the apparent bo-chupness on part of the custom officers. They anyhow stamped our passports, without looking at where is the appropriate place to stamp. I was so scared they stamped on my visa without looking, and PY’s got stamped on a page that say “the following countries are not valid”. This implies that maybe next time when he wants to enter Spain he will be denied entry.
And now back to Lausanne. I am glad that the weather here is something like Germany and not scorching like Barcelona cos I am totally sunburnt now and my skin is red hot. We arrived just in time to check into the guesthouse and I am glad I made the correct choice to book this guesthouse because its real homely like the one in Prag with a backyard garden and all the necessary facilities. The only downside is that there’s a fee for Wifi. This guesthouse is not listed in hostel booking websites and its owned by a family. The receptionist at the counter speaks German as though she is singing an opera which sounds very cute.
What I found amazingly expensive was that the prices of groceries in Lausanne are damn expensive. I am really surprised cos I dun remember the prices to be that high in Basel when I went there about 1.5 months ago. Like here in Lausanne, 200g of minced meat costs about 4€, which is like 3x the price in Germany! And 2 pieces of porkchop costs about 6€, while an uncooked chicken costs about 5€. That’s madness. It took me a real long time to source out the affordable food. Though we are only staying for 2 days, the high cost of living in Europe has taught me to be very prudent.
In 2 hours we covered most of the Innenstadt in Lausanne. Like most other cities (I would call Lausanne a town rather than a city actually), Lausanne is very walkable. Tomorrow we will be going to the lake to see the most beautiful part of the town.
Part 2
Woke up real late today (about 8+am), considered late by my standards in Europe. We left the place at 11am and went straight to the quarter of Ouchy, the port area where you’d see anchored boats floating around and swans all over the place. This is without doubt the most beautiful place in Lausanne, reminding me of Konstanz. As compared to yesterday, today’s walk was more sceneric and laid-back. After checking out the Olympic park, we continued the walk along the Quai de Belgique. We even had 1 hr of time to lay a groundsheet by the water and eat, slack, and sleep. And yes, we had bread and butter for lunch.
What I liked about Lausanne is that despite its wonderful scenery, it is not touristic at all. The Swiss people where were much more friendly than the French in Paris. (Lausanne is a French-speaking canton in Switzerland). The guesthouse was a big plus. It’s really not like your typical hostel because most of the people are here not to party and get drunk but we see lone travelers, families as well as a lot of Asians. We met a lot of people in the guesthouse and exchanged contacts (Singaporeans and Taiwanese), as well as this queer german guy who is on a holiday with the main mode of transport being his foot! And a very untypical german guy he is! And Ying appears to be quite interested in him… maybe she will write about him later lol
-benhardt
I’m the tour guide for Lausanne and I’m actually quite happy to be revising my French here. No chance to use it yet and I’m not very confident in spurting any it fluently. Words take very long to come out and for me to form a complete sentence. Sigh.
The hostel is probably on my number 1 spot now. I still have Amsterdam to evaluate but I’m very pleased with what I have seen so far. At first look we were already impressed with the exterior. It’s like we walked into some very expensive English country side resort. The interior did not disappoint. The reception area and lobby is very spacious and user friendly. And then the toilets rooms and kitchen were the cleanest so far. Although the toilets are shared they are sparkling. The room albeit simple is bright and cooling. The walk through the city was rather boring and I wait to be impressed by the lake. Apart from the beach, anything with water always excites me. Lakes waterfalls seas and oceans etc. Even though I am scared of water very unfortunately. Next to stars aqua is probably my next favourite sight. Lac Leman was a beautiful sight. Though I find the lake district, ambleside in the uk more attractive and the beach at Barcelona more interesting.
The people we met here are the most memorable part of the journey. Singaporeans serene and wenwei. Taiwanese on a ioa trip Chelsea and junming. German mr simon Schmidt. Mr Schmidt for a german doesn’t drink smoke and is vegetarian. So I casually said that this is one good guy to marry and jokingly asked bs to intro me to him. Which he did! That was really awkward. The last time I saw Schmidt he actually laughed at me. Argh. Bs keeps saying he’s on his path to becoming the next jesus. Oh well. I’d say he’s just a very decent guy and a most endangered species.
-Yves-
Lausanne was a great stop. Beautiful city and it’s at the top of “Best City to Nua” list. Furthermore, the Lausanne Guesthouse and Backpacker was comparable to the one in Prague. It’s really hard to decide between the two but I would vote for Hostel U Melounu since there was free breakfast. Apart from the lakes, there was nothing much sightseeing to be done. No cheap shopping either. However, the weather was great – windy and cooling. So, I would still rate Lausanne highly on my “City to Return” list – that’s if my financial allows. It is certainly a great place to relax – it does not have much of the hustle and bustle of the big cities. A place good enough to forget all the worries and to get revitalized. Oh yah, making your own meals would be the wisest things to do since the price of food there are rather steep. =)
~Pierre-ter-o~ (French-German-Italian)
Before I start to talk about Lausanne, let me first kaobei kaobu about Barcelona’s airport. Although it is a major international airport with great duty free shopping possibilities and better drinkable water than those in the city, I was quite amazed with 2 incidents. The first is about the “efficiency” of the airport traffic management. We left only 20minutes after the stipulated departure time. And most fantastically, the gate was changed 10minutes before the departure time, meaning we waited at the wrong gate. The information was not updated at the gate itself, until I went to the main departure screen to check. Luckily the corrected gate was only 2 gates away, or else if we miss the flight cos we remained at the original gate we can all call it a day and fly back to Singapore cos the next scheduled flight on the original gate is to Singapore.
The 2nd incident is the apparent bo-chupness on part of the custom officers. They anyhow stamped our passports, without looking at where is the appropriate place to stamp. I was so scared they stamped on my visa without looking, and PY’s got stamped on a page that say “the following countries are not valid”. This implies that maybe next time when he wants to enter Spain he will be denied entry.
And now back to Lausanne. I am glad that the weather here is something like Germany and not scorching like Barcelona cos I am totally sunburnt now and my skin is red hot. We arrived just in time to check into the guesthouse and I am glad I made the correct choice to book this guesthouse because its real homely like the one in Prag with a backyard garden and all the necessary facilities. The only downside is that there’s a fee for Wifi. This guesthouse is not listed in hostel booking websites and its owned by a family. The receptionist at the counter speaks German as though she is singing an opera which sounds very cute.
What I found amazingly expensive was that the prices of groceries in Lausanne are damn expensive. I am really surprised cos I dun remember the prices to be that high in Basel when I went there about 1.5 months ago. Like here in Lausanne, 200g of minced meat costs about 4€, which is like 3x the price in Germany! And 2 pieces of porkchop costs about 6€, while an uncooked chicken costs about 5€. That’s madness. It took me a real long time to source out the affordable food. Though we are only staying for 2 days, the high cost of living in Europe has taught me to be very prudent.
In 2 hours we covered most of the Innenstadt in Lausanne. Like most other cities (I would call Lausanne a town rather than a city actually), Lausanne is very walkable. Tomorrow we will be going to the lake to see the most beautiful part of the town.
Part 2
Woke up real late today (about 8+am), considered late by my standards in Europe. We left the place at 11am and went straight to the quarter of Ouchy, the port area where you’d see anchored boats floating around and swans all over the place. This is without doubt the most beautiful place in Lausanne, reminding me of Konstanz. As compared to yesterday, today’s walk was more sceneric and laid-back. After checking out the Olympic park, we continued the walk along the Quai de Belgique. We even had 1 hr of time to lay a groundsheet by the water and eat, slack, and sleep. And yes, we had bread and butter for lunch.
What I liked about Lausanne is that despite its wonderful scenery, it is not touristic at all. The Swiss people where were much more friendly than the French in Paris. (Lausanne is a French-speaking canton in Switzerland). The guesthouse was a big plus. It’s really not like your typical hostel because most of the people are here not to party and get drunk but we see lone travelers, families as well as a lot of Asians. We met a lot of people in the guesthouse and exchanged contacts (Singaporeans and Taiwanese), as well as this queer german guy who is on a holiday with the main mode of transport being his foot! And a very untypical german guy he is! And Ying appears to be quite interested in him… maybe she will write about him later lol
-benhardt
I’m the tour guide for Lausanne and I’m actually quite happy to be revising my French here. No chance to use it yet and I’m not very confident in spurting any it fluently. Words take very long to come out and for me to form a complete sentence. Sigh.
The hostel is probably on my number 1 spot now. I still have Amsterdam to evaluate but I’m very pleased with what I have seen so far. At first look we were already impressed with the exterior. It’s like we walked into some very expensive English country side resort. The interior did not disappoint. The reception area and lobby is very spacious and user friendly. And then the toilets rooms and kitchen were the cleanest so far. Although the toilets are shared they are sparkling. The room albeit simple is bright and cooling. The walk through the city was rather boring and I wait to be impressed by the lake. Apart from the beach, anything with water always excites me. Lakes waterfalls seas and oceans etc. Even though I am scared of water very unfortunately. Next to stars aqua is probably my next favourite sight. Lac Leman was a beautiful sight. Though I find the lake district, ambleside in the uk more attractive and the beach at Barcelona more interesting.
The people we met here are the most memorable part of the journey. Singaporeans serene and wenwei. Taiwanese on a ioa trip Chelsea and junming. German mr simon Schmidt. Mr Schmidt for a german doesn’t drink smoke and is vegetarian. So I casually said that this is one good guy to marry and jokingly asked bs to intro me to him. Which he did! That was really awkward. The last time I saw Schmidt he actually laughed at me. Argh. Bs keeps saying he’s on his path to becoming the next jesus. Oh well. I’d say he’s just a very decent guy and a most endangered species.
-Yves-
Lausanne was a great stop. Beautiful city and it’s at the top of “Best City to Nua” list. Furthermore, the Lausanne Guesthouse and Backpacker was comparable to the one in Prague. It’s really hard to decide between the two but I would vote for Hostel U Melounu since there was free breakfast. Apart from the lakes, there was nothing much sightseeing to be done. No cheap shopping either. However, the weather was great – windy and cooling. So, I would still rate Lausanne highly on my “City to Return” list – that’s if my financial allows. It is certainly a great place to relax – it does not have much of the hustle and bustle of the big cities. A place good enough to forget all the worries and to get revitalized. Oh yah, making your own meals would be the wisest things to do since the price of food there are rather steep. =)
~Pierre-ter-o~ (French-German-Italian)
Our wonderful guesthouse
The garden of the guesthouse
"Playing chess" at Ouchy
The Quay at Ouchy - probably the most beautiful spot in Lausanne
We had bread and butter for lunch 
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