Pies In My Sky: Travel diaries: Lucerne

My mom was about to burst into tears when I told her a few days back that I wasn't interested in writing anymore. Being the wonderful daughter that I am, here's one for you kay?

You see, initially the plan was to fly into Italy and only Italy and spend about two weeks there and that was about it. Being the cheapos we were, we searched for flights and we soon found out that the cheapest way to fly into Italy was via Venice and well, the itinerary wouldn't make sense because we wanted to visit Cinque Terre as well which was on the other end on Italy. So we continued searching and suddenly I stumbled upon cheap tickets, but to Zurich instead. And Zurich isn't too far away from Milan right? So why not right? Heh heh. What began as a short day trip soon evolved into a four day stop in Switzerland. And after googling and reading up blogs and such, it soon began to seem like we HAD to make a trip to Lucerne and Interlaken. And so we did!

So fast forward two weeks later, we got flew into Zurich via Riga and the moment we arrived we did the thing most tourists would do: search for an information counter! We did a little bit of reading beforehand and we concluded that getting the Swiss Pass was the most cost-efficient way of getting around Switzerland. Basically it covers most inter-city rail tickets, local public transport and also boat passes in Zurich and Interlaken. It also entitles you to 50% off mountain trains, cable cars and ski passes I believe. A 4-day pass costed us 240 francs a pop which roughly is about 170 euros per pass.

After about 2 hours in the train station figuring out our options and planning out our routes to Interlaken and Milan we took the next available train to Lucerne. You see, the best thing about the Swiss Pass is you don't have to worry about which train you can or can't take because they do have several types of trains. Just simply hop on any train available and as long as you have your pass with you, you're good to go!

So the journey to Lucerne took about 90 minutes and it was already dark by the time we left Zurich so there was no much to see out the train :/ Lucern itself isn't really a big city but the pace was quick as compared to Interlaken. There wasn't much to see in the city itself but it provided as a good base for day trips to the Swiss peaks i.e Mt. Rigi, Mt. Pilatus and Mt. Titlis which was what we did the next day. Anyhow, we reached Lucerne in the evening and checked in to the hostel which coincidentally happened to be a Korean hostel. Loved the Asian feel to it and we even had to remove our shoes at the entrance. Besides the usually dry pasta and sauces the kitchen was well stocked with Asian condiments i.e soy sauce and even Shin Ramen! Ahhhhh now I wish I had the sense to take photos of the places we stayed in. Ah wells... We bunked with a pair of korean teachers who were super cute for their age and one of the girls saw my phone wallpaper and exclaimed 'JUNG YONG HWA? YOU KNOW?' (to my dear mother: YongHwa is my kpop celebrity crush forever and ever) and with the most serious and believably face I cooly replied, 'Yes, my husband.' And we all started laughing till it became awkward again, as most asian tourists are. Hmmmm.

Anyway, so after dinner we went to bed in prep for our Titlis adventure the next day :)

Nah, a few pics of me in case you miss me Mom. <3