St Gallen (Part 1)

Was thinking of working on my paper but after i called back to Singapore, i realised that i really haven't blogged in a really really long time and i really ought to do it soon before i get "blogstipation" like Jill did.

Anyway, was in St Gallen's to celebrate Jill's birthday over the past week. Had a few people in Europe tell me about Switzerland and it was all true. Hhahahah... Switz has wonderful landscape, is a beautiful country but has weird people. =P

Well, i thought the Swiss were great actually (not like i got to meet a lot of them) but i can understand why other Europeans find them weird. Had a really funny incident happen to me on my way to Switzerland.

I took a bus to Switz cos it was the cheapest way and didn't take much longer than train. When i booked the ticket, i was just wondering why the journey there was 1/2 hour longer than the journey back. When i got to the border of Switz and Austria at Bregenz, it totally dawned on me. A cute but unfriendly Swiss guard came onto our bus and asked us for our passports and asked if anyone of us had anything to declare. He took all our passports, including mine (when i was at the German border, the guard saw my passport, said:"Ohhh... Singapore!", smiled and left without taking it). Anyway, we all said no and waited while our passports were being checked.

-5 minutes later-
The guard returned and said something to the bus driver. The bus driver again asked us if we had anything to declare but in a different language now.

-Another 5 minutes later-
The bus driver returned with the guard and now he told all of us to get off the bus and get our luggage. There was going to be a bus check. I left my paper bag with my orchid(I had to bring it cos no one will take care of it for me) on the bus cos i couldn't think of why anyone would confiscate my orchids and i got off the bus.

-3 minutes after that-
A swiss guard came to me and passed me my paper bag with the orchids in them. Seems like my paper bag will have to be screened too! Now, we started moving into the room with the guards one by one to have our bags checked.

-15 minutes passed-
Now all of us have got our bags checked and our bus driver put his luggage on the bus again. At this time, we thought:"Oh... finally!" And so, we followed. To our surprise, we were stopped. We were just wondering why when we saw a guard holding a tennis ball attached to a string. He whistled and we heard a dog's bark and yes, we were staring with a funny sort of disbelief. THEY GOT A CANINE TO SNIFF OUR BUS!!!!

At this time, i was still on the Austrian telephone network and i was extremely tempted to sms my Austrian friend to tell him that i now totally understand why he didn't like the Swiss when he was driving around Switzerland a few years back. Hahhahah... even Jill was highly amused by it when i told her the story.

Hahhaha... as a Singaporean, i understand why the tight security. I actually feel good with the tightness of security in Singapore. I believe that the Swiss feel the same way. BUT... if i was an European, i would be highly annoyed and amused at the same time. Hhahahah... It was seriously like seeing an European version of Singapore.

Okay... that's all for Part1. There are loads of other stuff i wanna say about Switzerland. Shall leave that till the next time. The first impression of Switzerland is a story in itself already.