A Reason to Rejoice... For a while...

YAY!!!

FINALLY! After hours of slogging in front of the computer and bashing my head against my laptop, I am finally done with programming in C!! Well, at least for this sememster.

Argh, it is pretty official that I hate C. And when it suits me, I hate Java and all the other programming languages too. Thank God my future career doesn't revolve around it. My future is SO secure! ;-p

I'm not going into a whole diatribe about why I don't like C, but if one's knowledge of C is amatuer at best and is suddenly forced to programme in the Kernel with C, the experience would be nothing short of extreme torture.

But it is over! And I can say, there is a certain sense of acheivement when I submitted my last assignment about 10 minutes ago. Hooray!! NO MORE C for the rest of the semester!! I am SO NOT going to take any programming modules when I get back...

Anyway, I went to Lucerne yesterday. It was sort of a "get-away"-from-the-homework-that-I-had-promised-my friend-sometime-ago and-so-can't-back-out-even-though-I-had-a-deadline-to-meet thing.


Did I mention that I had gone to Lucerne previously before this? Well, that was 2 years ago and I still remembered the Swiss Lion monument, the watch shops that the tour guide herded us to to collect those gift spoons and the chapel bridge. However, because we went yesterday, which was the public holiday for Ascension Day, all the shops were closed. But no matter.That place is really a tourist district. The stuff there are all so overpriced that what I could get there, I could most probably get them in Lausanne at a cheaper price.

It was really one unlucky day for me yesterday. First, I left the house with the aim to catch the 0821 bus to the train station so that I would reach at 0830 to buy my ticket for the 0845 train. I had reached the bus terminal right on the dot, but to my chagrin, the bus actually left already. Let me briefly mention that the Swiss transport system operates on the clock. If the train leaves at 0845, it really leaves at 0845 sharp and not a minute later. Thus, imagine my surprise when the 0821 bus left without me! In short, I missed the 0845 train, which meant waiting for an hour to catch the next train to Lucerne.

Fine, I admit that I should have gone there earlier and so it did not really piss me off that much. Besides, I could browse through the bookstore at the station, so I was fine for an hour. BUT, the train ride there had seriously pissed me off. Originally a two hour straight train ride from Lausanne to Lucerne, it became a three hour train hop due to a train malfunction at a particular station. Thus, I spent 3 hours on 3 different trains, two of which I was stuck with family with noisy kids that my iPod couldn't drown out.

It was a good thing that I had decided to purchase a day pass for the swiss transport. At 54 Fr, it was pretty expensive, but still a bargain if I factor in the train ride (58Fr) and the boat ride that I took in Lucerne. Yes, I took a boat from Lucerne to one of the outlying villages, Alpnachstad. It was a furthur 1 and a half boat ride, then a furthur 30 mins ride on the cogwheel rail up the mountain there. Yes, the view was amazing on the way up, but it was a little too expensive for me. In the end, I had to borrow money from my friend just for the 36 Fr ticket to go up. My day pass evidently does not cover it and it would be bad to make my friends stay down. Sigh, in the end, it was 90 Fr on transport alone... Way more than what I would pay for 2 months of transport!! I still feel that the price of that ticket was too much, regardless of the fact that the rail is the world's oldest cogwheel rail.
It is a historical landmark. Does it justify the cost? Maybe... The train goes up at an incline of 48% and it was really steep. Lets just say that if it weren't for the powerful braking system, it would have been one hell of a roller coaster down...

But the view up there was amazing. The sky was pretty clear then, so we could see pretty far. The only glitch was... my camera phone was acting up again, so what pictures that I had taken weren't saved. ARGH.... Never mind, I took a mental picture. It was cool. And you could always google for the pictures. Besides, the top was pretty calming and good for reflective thoughts. Enough thought for a half hour stay anyway, since we had to catch the tram down.

Anyway, we were left with so little time after that that we could only visit 3 places for sights. It was an express trek through the town to get to the places, like Paris all over again. Overall, the day was not really fun for me, spending 90Fr on transport and 7 hours on traveling (3 hours to go, 2 hours to Alpnachstad and back, and 2 hours back to Lausanne) was not my idea of fun. Then again, not all experiences are sugar and fluff.

But to be fair, it had its redeeming qualities. The streets of the not-so-packed Lucern is nice to wander around if we had the time, and the boat ride, expensive tram ride and the summit were all picture worthy and awe inspiring experiences. It just happened that it wasn't a good day for me to step out of Lausanne. Maybe next time.

Oh, did I mention that I'ld be heading to Budapest, Vienna and Prague at the beginning of next month, before my exams? It would be a one week affair with Bratislava as a day trip. Hopefully it would be fun and rewarding.
The Swiss Lion Monument. It is great as a Desktop picture! Its the desktop picture of the computer at home. ;-D