Finally back from the land of exhiliaration, wonder & fear all mixed into one! After one week in switzerland, i was pretty much looking forward to getting back to my cosy little apartment back in France, which is now more home to me than anything else... For the impatient readers, beware! Cuz this is gonna be the longest entry by far, recounting every single detail of my maiden skiing experience up in Zermatt, and quirky little things that came my way whilst i was travelling:
The first twist of inconvenience came about when we enquired about the train schedule from Geneva up to Zermatt. The train journey typically takes about 4 hrs, and to save money on accomodation, jovia and i though we could take the overnight train using our e-ticket that was valid on 06 apr. With growing dismay, we discovered that there was no overnight train to zermatt, the schedule that seemed like overnight journey to zermatt actually meant we take the last train to visp, and take the first train out from visp to zermatt = a night of waiting at an open air train station! But since our ticket was only valid for that day, there was no way we could do that, not that i wanted to anyway!
The implication meant that we had to get to zermatt on 6 apr itself and try to find accomodation for that night or stay at the zermatt train station for the night, as jovia was more inclined to! But i love myself more than my money to let that happen, there was no way i'm gg to stay overnight at a train station again, as we did the night before catching the plane to Geneva, cuz Paris Orly was almost 2 hours away from Cergy and we had an early flight...That was already a mistake, to be discussed in the next entry.
The moment we got to Zermatt train station, i was determined than ever to find a place to stay for the night whatever the price is, cuz there were no seats at the train station and i was sure that i would freeze to death at the open train station.
We approached like about 10 hotels near the train station but none of them had an available room, being easter weekend...grr...jovia wasn't really that eager to approach the hotels (to my irritation) as she still wanted to save money...
Finally we came to Alphubel Hotel, the place that we had booked 4 nights with...but of course they also had no room for the night (tough luck - we later found out that all hotels in zermatt were booked for that night!), and i had to do the most malu-ating thing on earth, or risk staying out in the cold - With jovia's suggestion, i approach the hotel with reluctance to ask if we could just sit in their lounge for the night as we really couldn't find a place to stay. Although the guy said "i cannot refuse you", that didn't make me feel better cuz it was such an embarrassing thing to do!
Aniwae, i quickly left the hotel and settled for dinner at the Swiss Chalet (i was in no mood to look for restaurants though i was hungry, my mood was pretty dark then) 
And my mood wasn't improved by the fact that there were no tables available such that we could only take seats at the bar...But luck started to change when the food we ordered turned out to be the best i've eaten in Europe so far...and that the service provided by the waitress there was second to none, they made us feel really welcome when i was in a foul mood!
I loved their decor as well, the cows, shot glasses, and basically, all things swiss. They nv fail to put smiles to ur face with their excellence service and friendliness.
Even the toilets look so welcoming, esp the cowie toilet roll holder..
As my mood was slowly improving (i tried not to think about what awaited us next, the prospect of staying in the lounge), another good piece of news lifted my mood considerably --> the owner of the family bed & breakfast hotel decided to go out of his way to open the living room and put in 2 beds for us to sleep comfortably (above), and he didn't even charge us a single cent, except for 25 swiss francs for breakfast buffet the next morning! It was really a horrible night turned wonderful!
We were allowed to check in the moment we woke up at ard 10, so nice of him! I must say that the swiss are really hospitable pple! Above is the view from our room number 10 in the hotel.
Our twin room in Hotel Alphubel
The welcome stand at Zermatt train station
Zermatt Train Station
The sports arena at the Zermatt Town
Can you see a parachuter in yellow?
Credit Suisse is really global to be here in the small town of Zermatt!
Our choice of restaurant for dinner the 2nd day, that specializes in Fondues and Mexican food!
I had enchiladas
Jovia had shrimp salad
08 Apr - The first day of our ski lessons, also Easter Sunday, hence the Chocolate Easter bunny and a red easter egg for us on the breakfast table. Even the serviette is folded into the shape of the bunny! But we had breakfast at an early time of 7.30am, which was eaten in a rush as we had to go rent our ski equipment (costing about 110 swiss francs for 3 days), and be at the cable car station to meet our instructor at 9am.
On the first day of the course, we went up to Trockener Steg, part of Matterhorn - it was a beginner's slope where we learnt the basics of skiing: walking down the slope with our ski boots, then putting on the skis and walking on the snow with it, side stepping up the slope to learn to snow plough down as well as complete some obstacles.
Me standing beside a rope that you had to hold on to, to get to the top of the slope. But it takes pretty much a lot of energy to hold on to the rope, cuz the rope is low to cater to the kids, and the rope keeps slipping off my gloves, so gotta hold tight.
End of 1st day ski lessons : That's us waiting for the huge ski lift to bring us down to take the cable cars down to Zermatt town.
That's the ski lift! It's interesting to note that in switzerland, clocks are everywhere, since they are the makers of the precision of time, this is no exception even in the ski lift...haha
Day 2: On skis but without the sticks cuz Craig, our 23 year old scottish instructor, reckons that it will only hamper our progress as it makes us reliant on the ski sticks to move. We learnt to do turns mainly on the 2nd day, cuz it's hard to snow plough all the way down a steep slope, it's better to do turns to reduce the speed n go smoothly down the slope...
My course mate, Kristen with the instructor Craig, who looks like he's proposing to her. But actually no, it's just that the shins hurt cuz the boots are too tight and esp when u lean ur shins alot on the boot when u ski...mine hurt alot too! :(
Having a snow picnic down on the ski slopes for lunch, with the fruits and yoghurt we nicked from breakfast table in the hotel....hehe
Actually there was no need to wear thick jackets for skiing, cuz it gets pretty hot from the sun despite the snow...I pespired more than other sports i've done when i skiied man....just a windbreaker to protect you from injuries when u slip on the slopes will do...
The place where we hanged out for breaks and lunches
We went up to higher slopes after lunch using the T-bar, to practise all that we had learnt so far
But halfway up the slope on the t-bar with lily, we both fell off cuz she held on too tight on the bar in the middle with both hands when u're supposed to do it with one...and you're supposed to lean and not sit on the bar which she did...plus we needed to lean on our shins for balance...all these did not happen, so we lost balance and fell halfway...dratz! And so i decided to take pics instead....
Another restaurant we went to on the third day, can't remember the name though, but we had dinner at like 5 plus cuz we were so famished from skiing! Aniwae, jovia had smoked salmon salad,
And i had prawn kebabs with mustard garlic sauce and rice...Then the chef asked us why we were having prawns and not swiss specialities like fondues and rosti? My answer was cuz i felt like having prawns, then he said that we shoudn't have had prawns cuz they are not european thing, the prawns in europe all come from prawn farms in Asia...So i learnt something new that night, no wonder the supermarkets in france sell salted and cooked prawns...no wonder i couldn't find raw prawns ard...haha
Day 3 Ski Lessons: We went up on a blue run, also known as a medium/hard slope on Sunnega. The slopes were damn steep and narrow, and i must have fell like 20 times or more that day, as compared to once or twice the first 2 days...bleahz...it showed me how my turns were still not as perfect and we practised on steep slopes the whole day to get the hang of it but it was so scary at first that i still kinda haf nightmares about steep slope...esp when i actually flew off one of the slopes down a few metres when i couldn't control my speed on turning..It's bruises and aches all over now...even the butt hurts from sitting down cuz of all that falling....Above is a snowmobile we saw while we were having lunch...
The restaurant on the mountains that we had lunch at
Sun tanning time! It's really hot up the mountains!
Us with the instructor...Lone survivors of the course, we were the only 3 pple who completed the course...One dropped out after the 1st day and another one dropped out the 2nd day
At the peak of Sunnega, for the last ski down the slopes!
OrAnGeL was fuming at
5:48 PM
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