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3.5 Zürichsee

3.4 Proper and Well-Done

And the sign was right. Stepping his foot for the first time in Switzerland, all he wanted was something to fill his stomach. A bratwurst vendor was seen in the middle of the Hbf. The guy selling bratwurst greeted him in three different hellos: Deutsch, French and English. He ordered in Deutsch just to test himself. The price was not that affordable even for a good bratwurst, but it was served with a good multigrain brötchen and senf so he could not complaint for more. People here just did not understand how to things badly, everything was so proper and well-done. If he ever wanted to settle down, here is the place to be.

Having had an original cheese fondue, although not originated from Zürich, nothing could beta the delight of dipping a Swiss bread into a hot cheese at Friburg Fondue Stübli. The after taste was probably the most pleasurable after all the meal he ever had.

Hungry

People are trying so hard to please those who we don't even like.
Spending money to impress people that we want to flaunt to,
people who don't even care about us.
Why are we letting the society to define us?
Why do we want to satisfy those who are not even close to us?
Since when did this become our hunger? 

Tiga Enam
By Projek Arka

3.3 Freitag

 Diese ist Freitag

3.2 Between The Mountains

He felt in love with Switzerland. Though things were far more costly, he could sense the sense of properness throughout the country. His days in Zürich were the coldest among all, he remembered one day it was -22°. He could almost stayed under his blanket at the  Zürich Youth Hostel, his best hostel that he ever stayed in.

But somehow he managed to get out of his bed and enjoy a cup of hot coffee and having a bratwurst triple the price as it would be in Germany.

3.1 Moving Image

It was the prettiest moving image he ever sat eyes on, from Milan to Zürich it was. The lake met the mountains, layers of hills were fading out, creating an ephemeral view. Hints of snow here and there, more obvious when the train passed the small towns.

A city called Lugano was passed. Some people got on to the train. A husband wore a cream cashmere turtle neck sweater and a black blazer, whereas the wife wore an off-white sweater and cream tights. They both were in their mid 40's. The found their seat and settled themselves to a comfortable position. Life was hight - they were seen chatting quietly once in a while and sipping their coffee from a polished brass thermos flask.

Now  he knew how Monocle's target market looks like. Life was high in here. It was about 17:30 at that time, the sun hit the tops of the mountain delicately, leaving two parts of mountains separated by a slight line of shadow. There were just some things that you have to see with your own two eyes. That can't be documented with any analogous image capturing device. And now that his light meter went off, please forgive all the uncertain character visible in his photo. However, he just wanted to enjoy the beautiful train ride. 

2.9.8 Of Course The Gondola

What else to do when you're in Venice. We almost turned down the idea that we have to be on a gondola, too touristy. But hey, there are some things that you just need to do once in your life.

Anyway, our cousin, Prana joined us from Torino. A great car designer he is. Miss him much! We had a massive lobster dinner at one of Venice's best. We had coffee and had a look at the Carnevale di Venezia. We had nice chit chats until we had to go our separate ways. Meet you somewhere else again!

2.9.7 Taxi

Taxi? 

What taxi?

Ah you mean the water taxi...

No car here ma'am

2.9.6 Time Freeze

"He wouldn't find me today," he thought
"You shall call it a day."

And so he went to San Marco's piazza where the tower of clock was. It required 100 steps to reach the top for normal people. For him, he just have to scan his eyes onto a scanner, located of one of the tower's brick, for it to detect his iris and pupil size based on the amount of light there was during the day. An elevator popped up from the ground, carrying him up directly to the floor where a battery is located. He would just need to tak the battery off, although it was quite heavy and pretty challenging to do. Once he did that, time stopped at 12:11 am, the water calmed down, the wind stopped blowing. Another day was over and he would have to continue the game tomorrow.

2.9.5 No Picture Was Allowed

His analogue watch showed it was 735 already so he decided, because he still had a bit of time, that he would go to Punta Della Dogana. Among some museums that he had been before, this was one of his favorite just because it was Tadao Ando's and the collection was pretty good too. He tried to make a list of his favorite but it kept changing overtime.

-

A temporary list of his favorite museums:

1/ Kolumba, Köln Louisiana, Copenhagen

2/ Vitra, Weil am Rhein

2a/ Pompidou, Paris

3/ Kolumba, Köln

4/ Ludwig, Köln

5/ Punta Della Dogana, Venice

-

He tried to like Zaha Hadid's but he never did. If there was anything too contemporary, then it was that to him. Tadao Ando did it just right, a proper amount of confinement and closure, not overpowering like if it was going to gulp down the artworks begging for more attention from the passerby. He has not been able to spot a tatami that did not possess the perfect six holes, that why he kept coming to solve Ando's puzzle. Although the flow of people was pretty much defined by the orientation system, there was a dead end somewhere that forced you to stop and walk back. If he was the architect, he would make a slide, which connects the room with David Hammon's Forgotten Dream to the main reception area just like the canals of Venice that could surprisingly bring you to somewhere unknown. 

In the main reception area you can see people were anxiously waiting for themselves to be checked. This area functioned similarly to a narthex of a church so that only the selected could enter the museum. The criteria of who could enter the museum changed overtime following what is present. You simply have to be present enough in order to get in. No need to be contemporary, nor conservative, just represent yourself.

He stepped into the museum, passing all the familiar artworks, straight to the backyard where he could sit down and watch the sun was disappearing to the Adriatic Sea.

*No picture was allowed inside the museum

2.9.4 Hide and Seek with Caroll

It was hard to imagine how such city can function. It was just like no where else in the world. The mark on the wall, adhered to the water, showed that the city will be drowned in a hundred years or so.

The charm of Venezia was on its tiny lanes and the canals. He would take his Caroll to play hide and seek here, to count until 1037 and he would be given unlimited time to look for him. While Caroll was counting, he would go to Doge's Palace where St Mark's lowe would be waiting for him to jump on his back and fly through the lanes, over the cute Italian flats, passing the Venetian ghetto, then landing him to a hidden alleyway where only him and a couple of others know. 

The end of the alleyway led to an underground. The underground wooden door was as usual very hard to open because it was really old and it was meant to be heavy just like at the Chinese restaurants on Melbourne's Exhibition Street, to prevent people from running away without paying. By the count of 381, he would be ordering a cappuccino with a piece of canelloni ala crema - his favourite tapas, Venetian style. It was a bit dark at where he's sitting now so he moved a bit to the side allowing a proper amount of sunlight to shine through. As he was reading his black-covered magazine, he could hear some guys on the other table were chatting about things. He wished he could understand but he only knew his mother tongue, a good amount of English and a bit of German. He envied those left brainers who learn languages so easily. 

Dense

Up up keep the spirit up
Keep the momentum high
Projects are coming
Experiences are waiting

Not wanting to be too stiff
Get rid of what other people think
What you do might some be overwhelmed
But what makes you do what they want

Be true
Be dense

2.9.3 Murano Island

The land far away was Murano island. How to get there? Only water taxi could do.

 What's there? Glass blower.

2.9.2 To Murano Island

A journey to Murano island took us about 40 minutes on a small boat. Water taxi was the best way to get to the glass blower's island. However, a journey to life is an everlasting mystery. We simply never have enough and always wanting more. A big part of it is just trying harder and wanting something so badly that you have to do something about it.

2.9.1 Doge's Palace

The next morning he woke up to the sunrise of Venice in one of his coldest mornings. He was tempted to sleep all day but then Doge's Palace looked really nice from the outside he wanted to see what's inside. 

2.8 Moving On

Finally he had to move on. He remembered this was one of the lowest points of his journey, apart from one night in Hildesheim when he felt so lonely and he took a train straightaway to Hannover to go to Starbucks just so it felt a bit like home. 

Now that the train guys were giving the bedsheets to passengers, he set his instant bed to the most comfortable arrangement it could possibly be. And overnight train would take him to Venezia Santa Lucia in the dawn tomorrow. Always been afraid of white bedsheets, he wondered if he could put himself to bed tonight. It was weird how things work paradoxically sometimes. The more you travel, the more you miss home. All he could think about was to have a warm plate of steamed rice with a sunny side up - asian style - with sweet soy sauce that he cooked on his own, although he just had the best gnocchi for lunch at Da Francesco today. The freshness of homemade pasta reminded him of his eight months in Brighton. The train trip would take him about six hours too his destination. 

Roma Termini -  Venezia Santa Lucia

Sleeping on a train was not as comfy as he thought. Glad it was only a couple of hours of sleeping on a 0.75 x 2 meter collapsible bed. The current read was Tarzan in The Media Forest by Toyo Ito. Cold as it was, the train was rushing in no time to get to Venice the next early morning just to find out that he had to sleep at the hostel lobby.

2.7 Exhausted

 Piazza del Popolo

  Spanish Steps