On my 1st weekend in Swiss, I was told that willy, hari, and mark had planned to visit our host family in Fribourg. I was quite shocked since I had not really settled down yet in Zurich and yet, I was thrilled because I really wanna see them again after 1 year. The reunion was fun. The 2 days I stayed over in their place, I drank alcohol that exceeded the amount I drank during my entire stay in Singapore. 1st day, 2 glasses of wine and 1 glass of beer. 2nd day, 2 glasses of beers and 2 glasses of wine. I had enough. I don’t really enjoy drinking beer and wine. I mean, I can live and survive without alcohol. But, the european ppl drink so much alcohol and I think they cannot live without it =) that's already in their culture perhaps. Even, in the national budget, the swiss authority considers beer as the staple food of a typical swiss family. However, there is 1 type of wine that appeals to me. EISWEIN in germany. Oh man! It tastes so good. It has a tinge of sweetness combined with the typical flavour of wine with its lingering pleasant after-taste. I simply love it.

We had fun chatting and travelling around fribourg and visited our favourite place - the jutted-out terrace on top of the hill that overlooks the whole city of fribourg. It was awesome. Then we had a great BBQ dinner. Time flies and on sunday night we have to head back to fribourg. We took the after-7 train since we have bought the Gleis 7 pass that entitled us to free after-7pm train ride to the whole Swiss in 1 year.

It was 1 week before the ETH Zurich and uni of zurich start the new semester proper. This 1 week is so precious because this will be our last chance to have a long break for travelling. During school term, we won't enjoy such a luxury. Not even a mid-semester break =(  Most of us had a travelling plan fixed already. Willy, Hari and Mark planned to go Amsterdam, Den Haag, Rotherdam. Zic and Kenneth flew to spain. Winnie, Suetchian, and Maybelle planned to shop in London. What about me? No plan at all. This is because I don't have a schengen visa. i never applied for one in Spore. Therefore, I could not go out of Swiss until November perhaps, when Swiss will join the Schengen territory.

Then on the friday night, a nasty idea came to my mind. “Perhaps I should travel to Germany?” The idea really challenged me to take the most bold and rebellious act I have taken in my life as I asked myself, which country has the most amiable and peaceful relationship with Swiss? Perhaps the border checks are not so stringent over there. Italy with their notorious mafia is out of question. France could be but last year I went to Paris, the whole train passengers have to pass the immigration counter. So, the answer will be Germany. Many german and swiss people commute to and fro daily crossing the borderline for works or study. Yes, LET"S GO GERMANY. hehehe...... But the consequences of my action really scared me. It is still good if the police ask me to go back home. But, what if they deport me back to Indonesia? All my SEP plan would go down the drain. Nevertheless, being inherently rebellious in nature, I took the challenge, hoping for the best.

Then, a stream of ideas came rushing to my mind. I should go Frankfurt to meet my friends Ivana and Johan. So, I can have free lodgings =) I should go car-sharing. The cheapest way to travel. By train Zurich - frankfurt costs me 90 one way. With Car-Sharing (Mitfahrgelgenheit), it costs only 40 francs. Then I immediately search the website www.mitfahrgelegenheit.ch to check out the possibility to hitch-hike. It was cool =) we travel by a turquoise-green VW van. I should go Heidelberg, the fairytale-like town in Germany. Soon after I invited Joanna and Yinuo to join my travelling, I drafted the initial travelplan: zurich - frankfurt - Heidelberg - Stuttgart - Zurich all with car-sharing. In Frankfurt, I stayed with Johan while Joanna and Yinuo stayed with Natasha, an Indonesian who study medicine together with Ivana. Johan is my church friend in Singapore. He is working for a project in Commerzbank Frankfurt. I was so happy to meet Ivana, my old friend back in junior high school. She became our trustworthy tour guide in Frankfurt. Thanks a lot, because of you we can learn a lot about Frankfurt and other cities in Germany for our travelling itinerary. 

After learning about Hessen ticket, Baden Wurtemberg ticket and Schoenes Wochende ticket from Ivana, we realized that we can save more money by taking train for the rest of our journey. So, we modify our itinerary to become: Zurich – Frankfurt – Rudesheim – Heidelberg – Rotenburg – Konstanz – Zurich. I guess Stuttgart can be omitted since there is nothing much to see over there except for the numerous german industrial establishments.

In Konstanz, through Ivana, I met 2 new friends, Rio and Lia. Both are studying in Konstanz. I guess there are more Indonesian communities in germany compared to in Swiss. I really envy them. On Sunday night we went back to Zurich =) What a fabulous 1-week germany trip. And I thank God that we can come back home safely.