To the Chaplin!

“A day without laughter is a day wasted”

Charlie Chaplin

Earlier, in my blog 35 Minutes you have been introduced to my incredible travel companions: Pooja, Patrick and Darez. It’s time I present to you the fourth and very important one: Araya.

If you ever see any stunning photographs on my blog from now on or my social media, it is probably her doing. She has the ability to light up any room she enters and I am grateful that I get to travel with someone who has a number of countries and a ton of fun up her sleeves. Araya and I were about to do our first trip together!

In case I haven’t already mentioned, getting to any place from Bluche requires quite the planning. To give you an idea: in order to get to any other town/city within Switzerland, we first need to travel to Sierre, since its the closest stop with train station. We usually do this in the Funicular (Great Views for 5.30 Francs!)

The Funicular that has been our savior in getting around!

 

You can spot our College as point of Departure and Sierre as Destination (and the cute little Funi)

When we plan our trips we keep in mind the following:

1. Time of the Funicular from Bluche to Sierre
2. Time the train leaves from Sierre to our desired destination
3. The last funicular back to Bluche (Except on Weekends, the last Funicular is usually at 9:15 pm)

The advantage of traveling with Patrick is that he loves to plan things to the dot. The only task you will have to do is book your tickets. He will have the best itinerary in hand so you can trust him blindly and board the train.

 So where were we headed next?

Charlie Chaplin has embraced all of our televisions, brought families together and filled our homes with laughter. It was essential that I go see the place he spent his last few years in. After being denied re-entry into the United States, which had been his home for over 4 decades, (read more about it here) Chaplin, along with his family decided to reside in the town of Vevey, in Canton – Vaud on the North Shore of Lake Geneva.

With the intention of reaching Vevey for breakfast, we got an early start to the day and took the 7:27 AM Funicular.

Departure from Bluche (Funi or Omnibus) 7:27 am

Arrival at Sierre: 7:37 am

Departure from Sierre: 7:50 am

Arrvial at Vevey: 8:54 am

Traveler’s Tip: If you prefer to save on food, its always useful to pack your own box of sandwiches or fruits and peanuts (or whatever you like!)

After munching on sandwiches and croissants on the train, we were ready to explore Vevey when we got there. Our first stop was The Fork of Vevey. Holding the Guinness World Record for the tallest fork in the world, standing at 26 ft. , the Fork was created to mark the Alimentarium (The world’s first food museum’s) 10th Anniversary.  There is also a placard stating The Fork is a symbol of the purity of Lake Geneva.

Capturing the essence! (I told you, Araya is just too good!)

And right across from The Fork, I spotted the real reason I was there:

Chaplin, Thanks for the Laughs!

On our way to see The Fork, we stumbled across a flea market with a ton of vintage goodies:

I am not sure how often they have stalls, but in case you are in Vevey and are enthusiastic about owning a vintage collection, I would definitely recommend stopping by, you should find it just across from the station.

Following this, we decided to visit the Alimentarium.  I would suggest anyone traveling to do some research on the place to see if it is of interest to you. With a student discount we payed around 11 CHF, so without it I think it would be over 20 CHF. In case you are interested to know about Nestle and all that they are doing, this would be a good visit. If you are traveling with children, there are fun games inside the museum to enhance their experience.

Vevey is a nice little town to stroll around. Since it was winter, we were still not able to enjoy the colors of the place to its fullest. If you can instead visit during the spring, I am sure you can make the best of it.

The highlight for me on the trip however were the food trucks. After 5 weeks of living in Europe, I spotted Indian Food! (Of course I was missing my spices!)

Life felt complete

 

Dal Chawal, pickle and Samosa, all at once?! I had clearly hit the jackpot! 

After relishing every bit of it, we decided to walk around and explore the town a little more. Just like most European towns, these places are best explored by foot. What’s interesting was how different Vevey and Lausanne are even though they are all on the same stretch.

Its always wonderful to find people who share the same amount of fondness for traveling as you! So go out there and find them, and just get going!

Stay tuned for more on one day trips, budgeted traveling and my shot at getting back to fitness!

SANTÉ!