I will be back

Oh hay.

Just wanna say something quick.

Tonight I will be heading to Asia!! So the blog will be a liiitttlleee abandoned.

I was gonna do some scheduled post for the remaining European trip but I didn't have enough time. I will get to it soon.

Follow me on instagram @bolubyrima with #boluinasia as the hashtag!!!

Wish me luck to not get sick!

One cool fact: the Pillow is meeting me in Bali for 1 night as he is on route to Australian from Malaysia & Singapore. I miss him a lot.

Keep in touch!

xoxo
Rima

#boluineurope: Lugano

Oh Lugano. You are such a sweet little town. Lugano is nestled next to, you guessed it, Lake Lugano, Switzerland. This is the Italian part of Swiss. Being in towns with 3 different languages in a couple of days was getting too much for me. From Yes to Ja to Oui to Si, it's crazy. I don't know how many times I messed up my salutations.
So from Neuchâtel, late night, we took the train to Zürich Airport to pick up our rental car. We drove a French Eco Car. Thank goodness the GPS spoke English though. Hehe. The drive from Zürich to Lugano was about 2.5 hours... Unfortunately we drove in the dark so we couldn't really see the view. 

Now, between the German side and Italian side, you will pass one of the longest tunnel in the world (it's number 3 in the world), Gotthard Road Tunnel. It's almost 17km long. It was loooonnngggg... I can't imagine if an accident happen in the tunnel, how the traffic would be. 
So we arrived in Lugano almost 1 am, and we literally crashed and woke up at 10 AM... Thanks to the Housekeeping Lady. After we checked out, we decided to walk around town, enjoying the view of the lake.

We didn't spent too long in town since we woke up pretty late and wanted to hit Milan, Italy, as quick as we can. Nevertheless, it's a pretty town. 
Til then,  Rima

#boluineurope: Neuchâtel

Ah, my second stop! Neuchâtel... Another city nestled by a lake (called Lake Neuchâtel... what else?). A town which name means "New Castle", most of the native speakers are French. Good thing for paranoid me, the hotel people spoke English. *wipes sweat off of face*

I have never heard of Neuchâtel, Switzerland until the Pillow mentioned about it. Why? Because that was where he was working at the time. It's very clean and peaceful, I say. I spend pretty much 2.5 days there in total. 

I stayed at 2 different hotels, Hotel Beau Rivage and Hotel Beaulac. Both hotels are right next to the lake. You can explore around town by foot or also by renting bikes. That's one thing I love about Europe is their bike rentals. But I opted to explore by foot (which made me so hot and sweaty but it's okay, let's say I'm burning all the calories from the European food!)

This is the view from my room @ Hotel Beau Rivage.

After walking around town, I decided to get some snacks and just chill lake-side as I waited for The Boyfriend to come back from work. The weather was great, crisp air blowing in and the warm sun made it perfect. People watching at its finest as I chomped down some Digestives.

The next day, we had brunch at the hotel and we both split up. He went to work, I decided to explore more of Neuchâtel. I started again by walking around lakeside and actually roamed around the main Pier. I was debating if I wanted to rent a bike, but to continue my calorie burning, I decided to walk again. FYI, I got the ugly Toms tan :(

After exploring the Pier, I decided to head to their little City Center and walk up to the Neuchâtel Castle. I super dig the old buildings.

Once you're up to the castle, you can see the whole view of the city with the lake. It was awesome. I ended up just sitting there for 2 hours, just enjoying the view, reading and writing down some stuffs. I seriously could just sit there forever.

The lake water was so clear, I seriously just wanted to jump in to the lake! Swans were just swimming along, minding their own business, just being fabulous. I want their life for a moment. 

  

I regret not taking a lot of pictures, but I was just too busy enjoying the view and surroundings. I don't mind going back again for a mini getaway. But shoot, that's expensive. Hehehe.

Til then,

Rima

next city: Lugano!

#boluineurope: Zurich

Ah part 1 of my recent quicky vacation to good ol' Europe. Who would've thought that I would be hitting Europe for the second time in 1 year. I would never imagine that in years.

The benefit of dating a working man that travels is milage points. The Pillow aka #TheTravelingPillow has racked up so many miles within this past year, he gladly let me use his points (aka I forced him too, hehe). We are both proud members of United's MileagePlus and Star Alliance, so we tend to stick with the group (plus a family member of mine is a steward for United Airlines). So while the Pillow was sent again for his 2nd Euro trip for work for another 2 weeks, I decided to tag along for about a week.

Free flight... Can't say no, eh? Well, it's not so free since I paid the differences in taxes, but I would still considered free since I only paid less than $250 for a round trip flight. Woo. PLUS, I only had to pay for accommodation for 2 nights (those were the nights were I was alone without him). Consider that a steal.

Anyways, I woke up every morning to a different city and I think that was pretty rad.

So for my first stop: ZÜRICH, Switzerland!

The weather was nice, the view of the WATER from Lake Zürich was amazing... (the only water view I see in SoCal is from the beach, which is like a 50 minute drive for me). Being surrounded by historical and old buildings was fascinating.

The night prior of my walk-around, I stayed in a living room at an apartment from Airbnb. As I arrived from the airport, getting lost for like 1 hour, getting confused because everything was in Germany, and almost getting on to the wrong train, I was relieved when I finally got to the Zürich HB train station and hopped on to the tram that took me to the apartment. I was seriously sweatin on a cold night. Nevertheless, just seeing the city thru the tram windows was awesome.

So anyways let's get back to awesome Zürich. Good thing about Zürich HB train station, they have lockers to drop off your luggages so you can roam around the city. I find that highly convenient. After locking up my luggage, I head out and admire the beautiful city.

I downloaded the PocketGuide app and used that as my audio guide and map for Zürich. It came in really handy.

Seeing the lake and rivers filled with swans was amazing. Rarely I've seen swans in the States, it really brought that European vibe thru out this day trip. The people were friendly, walking around, doing their own thing. Lots of people were just sitting by the water, either enjoying their lunch, reading, chit-chatting with their partner or just literally admiring the beauty of the city.

Despite being the biggest city in Switzerland, there was just some peacefulness to the place. I believe its due to being surround by clear blue water, just floating around town.

After my full admiration to beautiful Zürich, I had to catch a train and head on over to my next stop, Neuchâtel, another lake town where the Pillow has been residing for the week.

Til then,
Rima

PS: Please visit Gula&Garam for my food blog/recipes. New entry: Foods of Travel