Beyond Beautiful Switzerland Chapter 3: Smelling the flowers solo

Travelogue: 13th June 2015

While walking to the castle, I knew I had to keep a lookout of the castle. When I finally saw it, I knew we were close and heading towards the right direction.

Not that I was not confident in the first place but I am THAT bad at directions. :p

The castle looked close, but if you are walking, trust me, it’s not. Lol. At least I did not get lost or lead May to the wrong direction. Can you spot the castle?

By the time we started to walk back, the sun was high up in the sky so it was pretty warm. Since we lived so near the equator and it is sooo much hotter back in our own countries, this was not an issue. I would prefer to walk by this lake to this view anytime, regardless of how hot the weather was.

Walking back to our apartment offers a different view. I thought it would not be much of difference compared to our walk to the castle, but I was wrong.

Such beautiful flowers all lined up to be appreciated.

There were some yachts in sight. I don’t remember seeing any yachts when I was here in winter. I was admiring the yachts because I have never been on one , while hoping that someone would offer me a ride in it. #fathope

Seriously, I could not get enough of this view. I was still snapping photos away while May was walking way ahead of me.

We stumbled onto this!

Trust me, all I wanted to do at this time was grab an ice cream and lay down on one of these benches to admire the view.

It was my ultimate dream to be doing that! Especially to a view like this!

My fascination with trees continues……

Actually I really wanted a photo taken under every unique tree I see but I worry that May will actually hit me with one of the chairs in sight.

We went to the supermarket to grab some junk food and headed back to our apartment. My feet did not ache at all, despite walking long distance in the wrong shoes. Perhaps the views were healing.

After packing her things, I accompanied May to the train station. Our apartment was walking distance from the station but there was this steep hill and we had to climb so it was not pleasant to us. Said goodbye to her and strolled back slowly.

Since the weather was still hot, I decided to head back to our apartment to rest and perhaps catch 40 winks. I have been awake since 6 am so I was getting sleepy. Unfortunately, I could not sleep at all despite being sleepy so I finally decided to get up at around 5 pm.

This view that I fell in love with two years ago, it is still here and it looks the same.

I think it’s very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not be defined by another person. – Oscar Wilde

How true this is. I must admit, I was always afraid to be alone. I have never gone out and have meals alone, I have never gone to the movies alone, I have never ventured out alone. The only thing I have done alone was shopping as I really hated it when people had to wait for me to finish shopping.

However, things have changed greatly for the past few months. Certain incidents taught me that I should learn to be alone. Now, given this opportunity to spend the time alone in a foreign land, it was a first time for me. I have never roamed around alone like this, I thought this was a good start.

I decided to do my favourite thing in the world. I went to buy bread and started to feed the ducks.

For some reason, there were not as many ducks as I expected but once they saw that I had food, they started to flock to me.

I am, no doubt a self proclaimed animal lover but I really do not know how to explain the joy of feeding animals. I am used to feeding stray cats back home and feeding birds here bring me the same joy. I wish I could touch and hug the ducks though but Bon made me promise to stay at least a metre away from any ducks. Lol.

Being alone, I was able to notice all the little details that I may have missed. For instance, these two birds perching on this beautiful branches of this tree.

I guess being alone also made me more aware of my surrounding. Actually one of the birds was trying to get close to the other but the other flew away too quickly.

These two ducks seemed be discussing while cleaning themselves.

There were so many tourists around, all busy snapping selfies with each other. I had originally wanted to sit by the lake quietly and enjoy the view, and perhaps watch the sunset.

My dream was short-lived because the wind started to blow and dark clouds started to form.

This was the last shot I took of the clouds and sky before it started to pour.

There was nothing to do except head back to the apartment. It rained so heavily. Instead of whining away indoors, I thought I might as well write a little while waiting for the guys to come home.

I pretty enjoyed spending the day alone. I felt rested even though I did not manage to sleep well. I always have trouble sleeping for long hours whenever I am away and I am used to it.

What I learned most about being alone, is that I can be. I can be alone, take good care of myself and even enjoy myself.

It is pure freedom. It is both a blessing and a curse.