Day 2 in Switzerland

Day 2: I went to sleep at 11pm local time and woke up around 4,5am, like yesterday, to start writing because I couldn't sleep despite a busy day. I don't usually sleep while traveling (at least I try not to). It's like a habit I guess. We accomplished a lot today.

First we woke up early, had breakfast with eggs and pepperoni. Then my uncle called and told us that he wanted to see us. We went to a local grocery store first to pick up some things. It's a nice, close place called Coop. I bought some chocolate and maggi for my mom, and some local beer :) Then we went downtown Fribourg to meet my uncle in a small coffee shop in the city center. It's a nice place but we didn't take any picture. We met and talked a little bit about work and life. I was surprise because he wore a "Michigan Engineering" shirt, which is eye catching (yellow/blue and it's in English) in a small city of Fribourg. He never went to / taught at Michigan. Then I realized that his son (my cousin) is a professor there. It was a good talk, I had a cappuccino, which was okay. It was nice seeing him again in Switzerland though.

Next we went up to the top hill/mountain and had a spectacular view of the city of the bridge, the houses on mountain sides... It's a great view. Next up was Ponte de Berne, a 13th century wooden bridge. Not much to see here besides the bridge so we snapped some photos and headed toward Gruyeres. We passed by the Cathedral of St Nicolas on the way to Gruyeres.



The instant we arrived, we encountered some thugs (by thugs I mean polices). It's sort of universal everywhere you go, you will be harassed by these thugs. They told us we couldn't park there. Instead of telling us to move the car to a different parking area (because we were right there just getting off the car), they wrote a ticket. The conversation was in French so I didn't understand anything they said, but it was later translated. Switzerland is overall very peaceful with a lot of greens, cows, sheeps, and is not as violent as America, they could use a little less police in my opinion.

The frustration quickly disappeared as we approached the old town of Gruyeres and the castle. It's so beautiful from every angle. The small old town lies beneath the mountains with an uphill walk leading to the castle.


On the way up, we saw sheeps and cows eating grass, each one of them had a bell on their neck making funny sounds and they looked so cute. The view from the castle window was amazing. It was a great place to take panoramic photos. I am not much of a castle fan but we enjoyed it. My girlfriend really loved it. She wanted to see every castle in Europe.




Finally, to wrap up a busy day, we went to the Cailler Chocolate Factory. We took a tour to learn the history of chocolate in a newly renovated factory. At the end, they gave us free samples of chocolate, which was like a buffet. I ate too much that I was full before dinner. It was a busy first day, but I could go to more places. Well, still couples more days in Switzerland.

Photos posted

First day in Europe

My flights weren’t so bad. First Baltimore to Detroit was okay. We were there early so we got through security pretty quickly. There weren't that many people at the airport anyway I guess because of the bad weather. I thought the flight was delayed or canceled because nobody was calling for boarding, turned out it was on-time but moved to a different gate without notice. The second flight from Detroit to Amsterdam was great. However, we only had 35 minutes to change plane and we were the last ones through the gate. I like this flight. There were movies and music on the screen so it wasn’t so bad, just like the ones I had going to Korea and Japan but shorter flight. I slept a little. Amsterdam is beautiful from the airplane window. There were a bunch of windmills (old and modern) and organized farms. The streets were clean too. We went through security and the guy asked us for return tickets which we didn't have. Then we did a complete body scan which was pretty cool. The machine went around and read my body, after 3 seconds it displays OK. Funny how I had so much metals attached to my jeans and it was okay. We sat at a sport bar and watched some tennis, I tried a small Heineken draft which tastes a little differently.

The first day in Europe was as expected. We didn't do much because we got there a little late in the afternoon (Surprise all the planes were on time). The weather wasn't so good, it was cloudy and some light rain but still beautiful. I don't know why I slept at 9pm (3pm US Eastern time) and woke up around 3:30 am (9:30pm US Eastern time). I guess I'm going to see what the sun looks like in Europe.

My Big, Fat Euro Adventure

Finally, my vacation begins. That's the map of where I'll be going, from A to N, about 6,7 countries, 15 cities in 28 days (might be more depending on where the planes and the trains take me and my budget). Look for lots of writings and photos...

New Immigration law

I read the new Arizona immigration law last week but today I came across this article

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-05-03/news/bs-ed-arizona-immigration-letter-20100503_1_illegal-immigration-arizona-curbing

This law reminds me of a trip I had about 8 years ago with my brother, cousins and friends to my country. We booked tickets to go to another city overnight. When the mini van arrives, we realized that it was a mistake to book cheap tickets as there were so many people inside. There was no more space to sit. All of us were boys so we didn't care. People inside gave us looks like they didn't want us to come in even though we have proper tickets. The mini van went around and picked people up. After so many stops and so many people getting on board, some people including those just got on were mad and told them that there is no more space. The driver and the guy collecting ticket pretended like they didn't hear anything and kept going. Of course the more people they get for their trip, the more money they make. It was a 15-seater but by the time we finished picking people up, there were about 25 people inside (not including the driver and the guy collecting ticket). What I learned from that trip is that people just wanted to get on board and secure their seats. Once the van arrived to the next stop, people who already occupied seats do not want any more to get on board. And the cycle repeated. It was a fun and memorial experience, anyway.


Now, I don't even know what to say about this law. There are so many things wrong with the new law in Arizona, why do people support it to implement in other states? Don't get me wrong I am against illegal immigration. My family filed proper papers and waited decades for multiple interviews to come to America. I don't think it's right for many people to just come across the border. However, this law doesn't solve the problem. If anything, it allows law enforcements to have more power on people and violates lots of our rights. You may ask "if a person does nothing wrong, then why should he/she be afraid to show ID?" Well, the question would be if a person does nothing wrong, why should he/she need to show ID? An ID (driver's license) does not prove that you are legal / illegal citizen. To prove it, you need a birth certificate, naturalization certificate, or a passport. I'm sure nobody carries that with them all the times. If you support this law, ask yourself this question: Do you want to carry all those papers with you when you walk your dog, take a walk in the park, go running...? If you don't then why do you expect others to do so? What if a group of high school US citizen Hispanic students gathering around, what ID would you expect them to have? Would you detain them?

If they implement this law in every state, ever time I get pulled over by a cop, the first thing I'll ask is "you, sir! show me your ID, badge, birth certificate / proof of US citizen". Until you do so, don't expect to ask for my ID.

I got another email from Delta airlines telling me that they have changed the time of my trip. WTF this is the 2nd change. Months ago I booked a trip for my parents to Puerto Rico and the same thing happened (this is Airtran). Basically we paid a higher price to book non-stop flights. By the time we're about to go, they say there's not enough seat for the flight and they moved us to a one-stop flight. If we wanted a one-stop flight, we would have booked it long ago at a lower price. They didn't reimburse the money because they said that the price at that time for the one-stop price is higher. Unfortunately I have to deal with these as long as I travel by airplanes.

Check out easyjet baggage policy:

Each passenger is permitted

• one standard piece of hand baggage to maximum dimensions of 56x45x25cm, and
• Up to 8 pieces of checked-in hold baggage to a maximum combined weight of 20kg. Each piece of checked-in hold baggage will incur a fee, which is payable online or at the airport at a higher charge. A fee per kilo for excess weight is charged at the airport prior to departure

So by understanding English, that means you are allowed up to 8 suitcases but all of them have to have a combined weight of 20kg. So on average each one is about 2.5 kg. You can have one piece that weights 20kg and that's it, no more. That is very misleading and people might think you are allowed to check in 8 pieces of baggage each weighting 20kg. Ryanair is even worse... I would never fly that shit. I don't go to Europe on a vacation with just my pair of shoes, okay!

Airlines are also talking about adding fees for restrooms and crap like that... yeah keep milking and lose customers!

Planning is hard

Planning is a lot of work. But finally the plan is almost done!

March 17, 2010

Today, I cut down several tree branches and probably killed the niche for many species living there