Spring Holiday: London - Geneva - Lugrin (Part 1)

Assalamualaikum.

Honestly, i don't know how to start. I seemed loosing words day to day..huhu.

Anyway, we had came back from our long vacation on last friday. It has been three days until i can sit in front of my laptop to update this. Phew, it's not easy though, it took time for me to start..But i will try my best to share as detail as i can. So...it must be darn long stories to finish it...huhu unless the big M suddenly comes..

(take a deep breath)

On 3rd of April, hubby woke me up at 2am to finish packing our things (too many things to bring). We had to go to bed earlier before because the kids will not go to sleep if we didn't. Luckily, they were deep in slumber when we woke at 2am so i managed to cook our packed meals which was Nasi Goreng and Telur mata for breakfast and lunch. Yup, i had cooked a large portion of it. Simple and avoided liquidized meals so that i could take it into aircraft with me. ;)

By 5am, we were done with packing. Only after the Solat Hajat and Subuh prayer, we woke the kids up and brushed their teethes, they were very cooperative as they were excited to start the journey especially the Eins. :) 

Then when everyone's ready, we finally departed from our house with doa and Ayatul Kursi. Also kept praying that the house will not be broken into by anyone while we were away. We also let one light in the house on..just in case.

From our house, hubby sent us and all the luggage first to Seven Kings Station by our car. Then hubby returned home to park our car, and he walked back to the station alone. Alhamdulillah, he had arrived safely. just couldn't imagine if we had to walk kids with all the luggage at 5.45am..

After topping up our Oyster Card, we were ready to catch the first train. Honestly, it was hard to drag along one, stroller with Zafri on it, two luggages, two kids with our 4 backpacks and one hand-luggage..huh, really tough..though i have tried to pack our things in a genius way but i'm still sucks at it! there were too many important things to bring like food, medicines and clothes for ten days! Hah even for three days pon dah banyakkan..inikan pula ten days! Huh tobat mak nak travel lama2 lagi nak. huhu

my kids and me inside the Easy Jet ..

From Seven Kings Station, we boarded on train heading to Startford International station. It took only 10 minutes to arrive as the train didn't stop at other stations like Ilford, Forest Gate and Maryland.. i think may be it's still early in the morning and not so many people yet..

When we arrived at Stratford station, we had to wait for an airport coach bus to take us to London Stansted airport at 6.20am. We had arrived about 20 minutes early, it was freezing cold waiting at the open-aired bus stop..pity my kids had to bear with the coldness.. Alhamdulillah, they were fine as soon as we got into the coach bus. All of them went back to the Lalaland for about 1 hour and 15 minutes before arriving at airport.

The check-in process went smoothly. The luggages were on the weight limit. Pheww..if not i don't know what should i take-out and how to re-pack in last minute..

And lastly at 8.30am sharp, we had took off with Easy Jet low-fare airlines to Geneva, Switzerland. The Eins were all up and excited to be in the aeroplane again. Hehe the last time we were on the aeroplane was when we flew to the UK from Malaysia back in 2010. :) So it's was the first time experience for our lil Zafri and also this holiday was considered to be as his 2nd birthday treat too..senang dah tak payah nak cari hadiah lain lg..:P

Since it was the first time and Zafri was still infant so he hadn't got his own seat. He sat with me of course..at first he's fine as he's still sleepy..but once he's started engine, hoho he didn't want to sit still. So sometime he wanted to sit with hubby and sometime with me..but the game in iphone did kept him quiet..;) in that 1 hour and 30 minutes flight, we managed to eat Nasi Goreng Telur Mata and other snacks like biscuits..minah saleh kt seat belakang hubby dok jeling-jeling kat kitorang..skodeng kot nak tengok kitorangg makan apalaaa yg bau sedap (read:kuat) sgt...haha Nasiblah  kan..mana ada Halal food yang dijual dalam tu..Easy Jet kot not Emirates...:P

5-seated Vauxhall Corsa ..that we had rented at Geneva for a week..actually, not this colour, ours was the black one next to it..

Geneva city and the left-sided drive car..

Jet d'eau, the largest and the highest water fountain. The landmark of Geneva city.

Alhamdulillah we had safely landed at Geneva airport at 11.30 am local time..FYI, Swiss time was 1 hour ahead than UK time..our iphones' time were automatically changed but not our watches..hehe had to change manually. Hubby did mine for me as he noticed that i didn't change mine straight away...:P 

Hubby had to buy something in order to get a swiss franc coin. The chf1 was needed to take a trolley and the trolley was highly needed as it will make our life easier...hehe. So hubby pushed the trolley with our  luggages and the Eins on it while i pushed Zafri on his Quinny Zapp stroller..

Then the next thing we went to find was Avis counter, Avis was the company that we had rented a car with. Luckily, it was easy to find, credit to the signboard at Geneva airport. I say it was very systematic airport as our stroller and carseat (we brought from London? yes! to cut cost :D) was taken at special baggage claim area. 

Mind you, peralatan ski pon ada their own special baggage claim area..ok. Mula-mula kitorang terpergi kat area tu, haha lagak macam nak amik peralatan ski jugak sekali ada mamat tu bagitau kitorang kat mana nak claim stroller and carseat..may be dia terdengar kot kitorang sebut-sebut carseat and stroller..:P Aihh tak nampak signboard dia..mana nak tau kan..sebelom2 ni claim stroller and carseat kat area claim baggage jugak..haha..

Anyway, it was an easy process, no documents and credit cards being asked at Avis. The car rental for a week had costed us GBP479. Hubby just booked and paid through online. Then we waited for their bus to take us to where our rented car situated at. All the documents were already given to us at the counter earlier, we just need to show it at the Avis staff whom waiting at the car park area. At first, the staff gave hubby the wrong key, the key was for Vauxhall Corsa in silver colour but actually ours was in the black one, next to the silver one. 

Honestly, the car was small for our family and our stuffs. hehe It took time for us to stuff all of them in its bonnet. We had to put some staffs at our feet too. :P Well, it's just for a while...so we just bear with it. ;)

Since the car was manual and left-side drive, it was kinda hard to adapt at first. That was not the first time for hubby to drive a manual car and at the left-side but it was different this time. May be because it was at Geneva or may be because it's not our car. I was also stressed sitting as a co-pilot as i found the road at Geneva was complicated though it mostly wide. Bersimpang-siur, busy with so many vehicles. Yer la Geneva khennn..what did i expect? 

Talking about expectation, i had some expectation about Geneva..Through my reading and research about the city, i found out that pick-pocketing was one of the top crimes in the city. I was worried and i reminded hubby about it. But no matter how hard we tried to be cautious, we just can't deny the fate. The unfortunate event just happened to us again in Geneva..sobs.

After taking our car, we planned to go sight-seeing first around the city since our rented apartment was out of Geneva city. Family rooms in Geneva was too expensive for our small budget so we had rented at Lugrin somewhere in Swiss-France border which i will share later. 

We hadn't got much time so we just chose a few city attractions like Jet d'éau, The Giant chair and Geneva Hard Rock cafe. So we decided to go to Jet déau first. It was hard to find the way there as we were lost few times due to take wrong turns. huhu wasting time there..The kids were tired and all were sleeping at the back seats. 

Once we arrived at the destination and found a strategic carpark, hubby went to the ticket machine to pay. Unfortunately,the language was all in French so he took times to do it. Then, my bad i was also got outta car with Iris to help him..(kononnya) and we tagged him along leaving Zahin and Iris were in the car. Seriously the distance between the car and the machine was just a throw of stone and hubby also already locked the car.

Never we know that Zahin also got out of the car afterwards..even she closed the door but the door didn't lock right. But hubby and me were too engross in thinking how to pay the tickets were simply forgotten about that. One minute afterward, when i turned my head to look at our car, just what i found was the door at my side was left-opened! I was surprised and blurted it out..

at first i thought it was Zahin who didn't close it properly but then i was sure that i saw it was closed after her..so i thought maybe it was the wind that made the door opened. So not thinking anything..after hubby had successfully paid the ticket, we went back to our car to close back the door and locked it. Zafri was still asleep, and Zahin and Iris wanted to stay in the car since they were too sleepy. So only hubby and me were across the road to take a closer picture of jet d'eau. Just few shots because we didn't want to let the kids wait for too long in the car...worried of their safety as well. 

The moment i stepped in to the car, i realized my bag pack was missing! I was panicked and asking hubby whether he saw it. We started looking for it at the back seat then in the bonnet but to no avail! i almost had histeria at that time but not after i remember to istighfar...Astaghfirullahaladzim..! It's just only day 1 ok but this such thing had already happened to us..

I was so sad..i lost many things including my purse, my IC, hubby's supplementary bank card which he gave it to me to use..Poof, all had gone together with my mood on that day..i was mad to myself for being careless..though i've been never being careless before. or Whether, the bagpack was already being covered with my jackets  and put at my feet or though the distance between the car and the ticket machine was near, i should not take for granted and  forget to take it with me at the first time and place..hmm..

But you know what, surprisingly i healed quite fast. I dont care about the bag anymore as long as my kids were allright. Rasanya lepas Zahin keluar tu, ada orang lalu-lalang happened to be the bad guy yang berani and very skillful yang bukak pintu kereta kitorang dan sempat curi my bag pack yg i letak kat area kaki..may be, maybe la just my assumption masa Zahin keluar ikut pintu belah i tu jacket teralih ke so the bad guy terus nampak my bag and grab dan terus cabut without tutup pintu. Pandai kan..kalau dia tutup sah-sah kitorang yg just sekangkang kera je sure dengar dan nampak dia kan..cuma masa saya perasan tiba2 pintu terbukak tu tak terfikir pon bag dah kene curi..huhu..

aih nasib baiklah dia tak buat pape kt Zafri yg tgh tidur dlm carseat kt seat belakang tau ..syukur sangat. syukur juga ;ah bagpack  hubby yg ada laptop dan documents hotel and tickets sume selamat tau..sbb backpack hubby kt bawah kaki Zahin kt seat belakang..luckily, i didn't keep my passport and money with me..ada tdetik juga nak ambil duit separuh kt hubby macam ktrg selalu buat but didn't do it..syukur la ketidak habisla lesap..

The view of Alps along the way had cool me down quickly...Subhanallah, Allah is the greatest. Issokay, only my bag was taken away from me, but not my precious baby. Thank you Allah...T_T

Well, that;s the unfortunate event that i managed to keep as secret until now. In fact, i didn't tell my family yet..kalau cerita on day 1 tu sure tak senang hati, tak senang duduk la our parents and family kt Malaysia. So to avoid, we just kept quite and acted normally. Cover baikkkk..hehe..

We''ll think how to report about my stolen IC. We had decided to report once we were back in London. Soon, in shaa Allah.  Ok jgk kan..ada alasan nak buat Ic baru nnti sbb gambar dlm IC tu pon dah tak samalah dgn muka skrg..hehehe..

Hmm okla since i've revealed the secret and it's too long already, i think i will continue about our journey in the next post k..with alot of pictures..promise! hehehe..

PS. Ada sesiapa yg ada pengalaman Ic kene curi atau hilang especially kt Oversea? atau sesiapa je yg tahu how to report if lost the Ic..Share with me k..really appreciate it..:)