6 to 10 Jun 2017
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6 Jun 2017
I flew to Switzerland for the European Federation of Audiology Society (EFAS) conference sponsored by O, with 6 other audiologists. Flight was turbulent hence, I forced myself to sleep for me not to be stressed by it. So I could say that flight was uneventful because I was asleep two thirds of the time.
The group arrived in Zurich safely. We all drove for about 2hours to Interlaken, the conference location. It was a scenic drive. We arrived at about 10am. We couldn’t check in yet, so we decided to walk around the area first. We passed by beautiful bridges, rivers and residential houses. Cheesy Swiss lunch and check-in followed.
I signed up for a free walking tour at http://www.interlakenfreetour.com/en/activity/30602/interlaken-free-walking-tour, just in case the group won’t have anything planned that night. True enough, there wasn’t anything, so I just invited everyone to join the tour with me and they were all keen to do so.
Free tour included passing though a Castle, churches, a trek to mid of Harderkulm, a panoramic view of the city, river, bridges, visit to some animal enclavements and plenty of stories. It was good however, fitness level of participants should be clearly stated in the website. Some of my group mates weren’t expecting the trekking part. Otherwise, it is highly recommended. We had dinner in a pub/restaurant near our accommodation after that.
Steinwild at the bae of Harderkulm, Interlaken
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7 Jun 2017
H and I decided to go for a morning walk after the sumptuous hotel breakfast. Interlaken is a town in between two lakes, Lake Thun and Lake Breinz. We took Bus 21 to the Lake Thun side. It was a perfect day for walking along the lake and a little bit of a trail walk by the river back to the city. We used the Helsana Trail. We wanted to head up to Harderkulm but we were afraid we wouldn’t have enough time to do so, thus, we just planned to it another day. Also, I dropped by the church for a short prayer on our way home.
We headed back to the city to prepare for the pre-congress talks. At night, we had dinner in one Asian Restaurant. I wasn’t craving for it yet, but I supposed most in the group were.
We were supposed to go up to Hotel M for sunset but we weren’t able to reach on time for it. Sadly, we just decided to walk home and conclude the night.
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8 Jun 2017
Conference programme started at 8am. I wouldn’t talk about Audiology here, but I have to say that topics were really very interesting for me. I haven’t been out attending conferences like this in a while, ergo, this was pretty exciting for me. I wanted to absorb as much as I could.
After the conference, H and I decided to go up to the peak of Harderkulm and skip the dinner with the group. We went up by rail insetad of trail For 21CHF. I wanted to trek up but I have to take H into consideration. She might not be able to be comfortable with it.
It was an 8minutes funicular ride up (1-2hrs hike). View from the top was breath-taking. Two lakes, the JungFrau, Interlaken and some surrounding small towns. After conversing with H for a while on top, fulfilled, we made our descent and tried on a pricey Swiss McDonalds for dinner.
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9 Jun 2017
Conference topics were as interesting as the day before. After a long day of learning, M, A , H and I went for a short trip to Bonigen. There, we were able to check out Lake Breinz, the other lake.
Also, we checked out these old yet quaint residential houses which is what Bonigen is famous for. They were mostly made of wood with facade of interesting inscriptions. Their porches and terraces were uniquely designed as well. It was a beautiful town, but we didn’t have enough time to visit all the recommended houses-to-see. We had to meet up with the rest of the group by 7pm.
My favourite, Chanellerhuus, built in 1735, front of the house has Roman and Gothic Inscriptions which was based on a tourist information brochure translates to “Many a one judges me and forgets his own shortcomings. Should he think of his own, so may he forget mine. Christen Michel, Master Carpenter, speaks to the reproving man, saying he should not despise me but rather ask himself if he could do it better”
The village of Bonigen has uniquely decorated houses with interesting inscriptions on the front wall. I kind of liked them.
Dinner was in an Indian Restaurant this time. I walked for a while to look for some Swiss knives for souvenir. I ended up buying 4, hence, no more Paragliding for me.
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10 Jun 2017
Last half-day of the conference. We went to have lunch at Taverne, inside Hotel Interlaken, the oldest hotel in Interlaken and tried their cheese fondue. After lunch, I walked around the center field and just watched people until almost 4pm. At 4pm, the van back to Zurich Airport collected us. We had dinner and waited for another 4hours inside Zurich Airport.
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It was an interesting learning and travelling experience. To be with my colleagues from different workplaces wasn’t very inviting to me initially, but to my surprise, it ended up well and fun. Special thanks to O, for the sponsorship, A, for leading the trip, H for being being my walk mate and my workplace for letting me go for this event. =)
A Woman in Search 