With half a day left before our train to Paris, we make our way to Lausanne. A 30mins ride on a local train costed a whopping CHF7!! Prices here are even more ridiculous than Sydney, Switzerland would be like heaven on earth if it wasn’t for the outrageous transportation prices, but maybe everyone travels by car here, who knows?
Lausanne is the official Olympic Capital, hosting the Olympic Committee.
With our local train ticket we could ride on the metro freely for about 60mins, so TIME TO MAKE GOOD USE OF THAT CHF7! Made our way first to the metro station called Ouchy (😂 it’s pronounced u-shi, like cow in Japanese, don’t make a fool of yourself and go around saying Ouch-y), it’s a lakeside area with piers for boats to France etc. and is a popular destination for families especially during summer for water activities.
Swans, meaning this is a freshwater lake.
I keep forgetting this is actually a lake, looks like the bloody sea, man!
Lakeside hotels which are probably too expensive for me to ever stay in… Wonder if they are hiring. 😂
What is this Disneyland-like hotel, I wanna stay here! 😭
Countdown until the next Olympic Games, you don’t really get hyped up until that year though.
On the bridge towards Lausanne Cathedral!
The cathedral’s full name is Cathedral of Notre Dame of Lausanne, which I just found out from Wikipedia.
The interior is simple amd still grand, which is a nice change from the cramming-as-much-art-as-possible Roman cathedrals.
A stained glass showing all the cities in this canton (they are called cantons here, sort of like states/provinces) and their coat-of-arms.
The decorations may be simple, but the stained glass certainly doesn’t lose out.
Close up of the big round stained glass. 😍
Look at that light coming in through the stained glass window! How much would it cost installing a stained glass window in my room? 😂
This church organ is so badass it sticks out like exhaust pipes. 😎😂
Leaving the cathedral, we walked around Lausanne taking in the city.
Space Invaders graffiti! 👾
How come the police stations here look like travel agents? It’s like you just walkin and start consulting the police or something. 😂
Basically Lausanne is located on a hilly terrain, so prepare walk a lot of slopes!
Visited the supermarket to buy food fro train, look at that whole cabinet of cheese!!! I think I need to move here.
Last hot chocolate im Switzerland, boo~~~ 😥 But I’ll be back. 😎 (Eventually… hopefully. 😂)
Train ride from Lausanne to Paris is extremely scenic until you realise you’ve crossed the border into France and it just suddenly seem less scenic…
Lunch time! This Swiss Rivella softdrink, Su hates it but I think its okay, a bit like sour tonic water.
I want to list out the things people told me about Paris before I came here and my personal account:
– Metro smells like piss.
Metro does NOT smell like piss, no where in Paris smells like piss. Well you might get that little whiff when you passby a hobo corner, but every city has that.
– Parisians are assholes and looks down upon everyone who speaks English.
Parisians are NOT assholes, in fact the ONLY people who were rude to us the whole time we were here were people from tour groups. 😒 Most Parisian customer services are friendly, there’s the occasional grouchy waitress but every city gets that.
– Streets in Paris are full of dog 💩.
Streets in Paris are NOT full of dog 💩, the only time I saw dog 💩 was at a park but the owner walking the dog picked up after the dog within 10 seconds.
– ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE will get pickpocketted in the Paris metro.
To be fair, I’ve never been on a metro in Paris crowded enough for anyone to be close enough to pick my pocket, but I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry.
So as you can see, I didn’t have high expectations of Paris before I arrived, I treated it like a crossing-off-the-bucket-list-geddit-over-and-done-with sort of thing. So I was pleasantly surprised to find Paris far beyond my expectations and hope to cone back again! 😁
Walkes up a tower of winding steps to our hotel situated near the Notre Dame.
Nice location, nice view. It gets very busy at night so it’s loud, but we get free live music! (Su even went down to buy a CD from one of the bands, lol! 😂)
Had steak and chips for dinner, it’s not the Frenchest thing to eat but it was delicious. Basically you once you sit down the waitress will only ask you two questions: How would you lile you steak done (medium or rare, no other choice) and what would you like to drink. So… that’s about the only choices you have. And they’ll only serve you half of the portion and keep the other half on a hotplate until you’ve finished your first portion so your steak and chips won’t get cold! No wonder French cuisine is so highly acclaimed! Of course had dessert: Crème brûlée!!! 😍 I go crazy over crème brûlée, just like how I go crazy over cheese. The crust was thin but chewy, which was quite exquisite. I’m so hungry as I am type this…
Took a walk after dinner to burn off the steak and chips, I think you know where we’re headed… 😉
Passed by L’Hôtel national des Invalides, actually I took a picture without even knowing what this building was and had to Google “gold dome in Paris” to find out what it is. 😂
Look at this French garden and its cute little cones. ☺
Bunny rabbit!!! 🐰🐰🐰
Here it is, the jewel of Paris, the Eiffel Tower silhouetted against the sunset, the most romantic thing you will ever see.
It is indeed quite a sight in the sunset, if only I could walk down this hand in hand with James Franco or Johnny Depp… 😂😂😂
In case you were wondering what that ball in the middle was, here it is. Roland Garros. 🎾
So apparently it does a sparkly light up thing at 10pm so that’s what people were waiting around for. 😂
Walked to Arc de Triomphe (Arc of Triumph) from the Eiffel, I do not suggest anyone walk, it turnes out to be a really long walk!! Take the metro instead, I implore you!
Paris at night. 💖
Look how fancy this A&F store is! 😂
We started calling the Eiffel “Eye of Sauron” after a while. 😂😂😂
Around ½ of The World in 80 Days 