Preweddingmoon Part 2 in Santorini

After a cold and chilly adventure in Switzerland we moved on to a hotter country. We touched down in Thira, Santorini close to midnight due to delay in our flight. I will never take Aegean Airlines anymore. To and fro Santorini using Aegean really made us headache with delays after delays. 

Luckily, our Airbnb located at Karterados is just 15-20 minutes away from the airport. Anyway, Santorini is quite a small island, you can tour from one end to the other end in just one day LOL. The airport was a vast difference from Zurich. It was very small, and you can see so many couples were either there for their pre wedding photoshoot lugging their gowns or on their honeymoon. This is really a place for romance.

Our Airbnb host has also arranged transportation for us so we need not worry on how to get to the place because we are not familiar with the routes and it was already midnight. Once reached, our room was quite unique. 

It was a 2 floor room and the roof was dome shaped as all the houses in Santorini were. So, we had to be careful of our heads everytime we get into or get out of bed LOL The roof was quite low and I think we hit our heads on the wall a few times after waking up haha

Our view in the morning at the balcony. 

<3

The next day was our pre wedding photoshoot. This time, instead of DIY as we did in Switzerland, we hired a proper photographer to take our pictures. I bought a wedding dress to bring all the way to Europe for this! I also hired a makeup and hair artist through the photographer and she came in early to do me up first.

Hair and makeup in progress.

On the way to the photoshoot locations =)

We were in a bit of a weather shock during our photoshoot. Mind us, we just came from a cold weather in Switzerland but didn’t expect the sun in Santorini to be merciless. We were actually sunburnt during the photoshoot! I didn’t realise I had to put on sunblock on my body and didn’t think the sun would be shining this bright to burn us HAHA So for those going to Santorini around early September, please be prepared to use a lot of sunblock!

But aside from that, goodness the view was gorgeous!! I couldn’t believe my eyes. 

Look at this! We were in awe.

The sea was so blue. The sky was bright and blue and it was just amazing to see God's creation!

What I have been seeing from pictures, I am now seeing in real life! The blue skies, the blue sea, the blue dome, the blue and white houses. It was all so beautiful and so surreal. We had a fantastic time. Plus, our photographer is a local so he knows many secret private locations for photoshoot and brought us to 5 amazing locations that we have already seen most of Santorini just on the shoot day itself. We didn’t need to explore much of the island anymore because we have seen all the amazing views already. I am so happy to be able to fulfil another of my bucket list. It was a dream come true seeing it all with my eyes. Will be writing more about my pre wedding shoot together with some sneak peek shots in another post and how to achieve all of this with a reasonable price =)

After our photoshoot, we were so hungry and we stopped by a restaurant nearby our Airbnb for lunch.

Greek salad! People say go Greece to eat Greek salad.

Ermm...there's cheese, cucumber, tomato and onions? Meh..Malaysia also have Greek salad sans the cheese LOL

Pasta!

Moussaka, a Greek dish. A potato baked dish with meat and eggplant.

The weather was so hot, ice cream seemed tempting.

It was a tiring day of photoshooting and once we reached our room, we knocked off til the next morning.

Woke up the next day and on our way to Fira, we stopped by at this cozy cafe for breakfast.

Yay! Yummy brekkie =) We realised how much we missed having eggs in Switzerland because we didn't have any so omelette for breakfast it is!

From Karterados, a breeze walk to Fira town took us about 15-20 minutes. It was definitely more picturesque and crowded there. When we were photoshooting in Oia, it was also crowded but Oia is more expensive as compared to Fira.

Died seeing this view.

We stopped by a cafe and had some fruits and coffee overlooking this impressive view.

Then, we had margarita on a hot sunny day haha

With Buffalo Mexican wings...yummy

We walked quite a bit and there's a lot of stairs and shops around Fira. Nothing much to buy though. What is made in Greece? We just went around window shopping and taking pictures hehe

We walked back to our room, rested and changed to go to Fira again to see the sunset. Fira is a very happening place at night. While we were walking around in Fira in the afternoon, we booked a restaurant to see the view of the sunset. You must book early otherwise the restaurants facing the view is almost always fully booked on a daily basis.

The view of the sunset was amazing. The day view and night view were both equally amazing. The sun rays during the setting made the sky’s colour ombre.

Dinner! Ermm, well, I'm not much of a fan of European food though but the kebab and the fish soup plus dessert was not bad considering the view we had.

Night time.

Pistachio gelato.

Cocktails at night.

The next day, we lazed around at the pool for awhile before packing to our next destination!

Passed by the black sand beach on the way to airport. The sand is really black!

Even the view at the airport was beautiful.

However, I must say Thira's airport was small, crowded, hot and stuffy! They should really upgrade their airport.

And our flight with Aegean got delayed again and we missed our connecting flight to Istanbul. See, our flight from Santorini was supposed to transit at Athens airport and thereafter to Istanbul, Turkey. Since we missed our flight to Istanbul because our first flight got delayed, they had to re-route our luggages resulting in us receiving our luggages late and had to re-check in to our flight to Istanbul -.- OMG, we were already so tired and had to go through all these. The worst part was that our luggages had our gowns and suit for our next photoshoot in Istanbul and the photoshoot was scheduled the next day itself. If our luggages didn't arrive in time, then ermm...I guess there would not be a photoshoot >.< Luckily, everything went well, we got our luggages and they changed our airline to Turkish airline and it was soo much better! No more Aegean! 

Other than the mess at the airport, Santorini was a beautiful stop that took our breaths away. I can't wait to show our pre wedding shots during the wedding because it was too beautiful and if people didn't know we actually went to Santorini, they would have thought it was a photoshopped background. It was very very surreal!!

Preweddingmoon Part 1 in Switzerland

My preweddingmoon finally arrived! Been waiting for this day since the start of this year ever since we got engaged. Ok, so how we planned it was that we knew we will be going overseas for our pre wedding photoshoot. And my dream has always been to take wedding pictures in Santorini, Greece after seeing so many couples going there for photoshoot and the beautiful scenery is just so picturesque. I just love the blue skies and the white buildings I see in pictures. Now, what I’ve been seeing in pictures all these while is now a reality.

So, Santorini was the main destination. But, to think that we will be going all the way to Europe just to go to Santorini would be a waste. We then started researching and saw neighbouring countries which we can also explore at the same time. After all, taking an 18 hours flight just for one country doesn’t justify the whole journey LOL

So, after much research, we decided to go to Switzerland and then to Santorini and after that to Turkey. Haha from 1 country in the initial plan and then to 3 countries. We thought why not even take pre-wedding pictures in all 3 countries? We had a photographer for Santorini and Turkey. So, for Switzerland, we decided to do it DIY by bringing our own tripod. FYI, Switzerland was our first time using the tripod ever! We didn't even train or studied on how to use it for the angle, height etc but luckily our amateur skills still took some beautiful pictures because Switzerland itself is a beauty! 

And so our pre wedding journey started in Switzerland. I saw the term preweddingmoon in the internet and it stands for pre wedding honeymoon where couples typically take pre wedding photoshoot overseas and have their honeymoon at the same time hehe

First of all, Switzerland is one of the most expensive country in the world if not THE most expensive. The primary mode of transport is train and even that it’s not cheap. Before flying, we did a lot of research for Switzerland mainly on how to save cost because everything is just so expensive. We were there for 3 nights and the main attraction was to see Jungfraujoch, the highest mountain in Europe.

Inclusive of the train ride to Jungfraujoch, our train ride itself costed us RM2,000.00 for 3 nights for 2 people >.< Yes, can you imagine? Taking train rides can cost you that much LOL. That is also after 50% discount okay, otherwise we would have paid RM4k. We bought the Swiss Half Fare card before flying to Switzerland which entitles us to 50% discount on all train rides in our route. But, it is very important to plan the entire itinerary because if you fail to plan, you plan to fail HAHA

We researched through hotels and Airbnb and found out that Airbnb has the cheaper rate instead of hotel. And I have a preference of having my own private bathroom so hostel is not an option. I will not be sharing bathroom with anyone during my preweddingmoon thank you very much lol. And I am also super picky and only wanted a ‘superhost’ because as much as I love staying in a hotel, we know we couldn’t afford it so the next best thing to a hotel is a superhost Airbnb with good ratings.

We finally found one and there were no regrets. Some might be uncomfortable staying in people’s house but Airbnb these days are like hotels where the rooms are literally just for travellers like me. We travelled with Oman Air which was not bad but the delay made us anxious because we had a train to catch after that in Zurich and if we missed the last train, we had to stay overnight in Zurich airport LOL

Yes, they have a menu card. First time seeing one on flight.

Chicken and cashew for me.

Spinach omelette for him.

We transitted in Oman airport for a while before taking the next flight to Zurich. Flight entertainment was not bad. I managed to watch Black Panther like finally which was really good.

After a 14 hour flight with a 4 hour transit, we finally reached Zurich airport. 

This is their bus and train route *faints*

We were so worried to miss the last train and get lost because it looks so complicated. It also didn't help that our luggage was slightly delayed. Once we took all our 6 luggages, we were literally running around Zurich airport finding for the train station which was on the opposite side. We were so kan cheong because we needed to queue up again to buy train tickets but luckily everything fell into place and we managed to catch the train.

 We then took the train to our Airbnb place in Wimmis. It was a 2 hour plus train ride. We already checked the train schedule beforehand in their SBB train website and boy, are their trains super on time. Since we already bought the Swiss Half Fare Card via Klook, it was just buying the train ticket to Wimmis. 

At that time we were so afraid of having to sleep in Zurich airport if we didn't catch the train but now looking back, it was super hilarious running around like a headless chicken trying to find the correct place and the train =')

The trains were quite old and Switzerland trains are one of the oldest around. But the insides are nice. Plus, they are super on time so make sure be punctual. Further, our host was going to pick us up from the train station so we couldn't be late and keep her waiting. But since we were new, we actually took one route wrong but managed to get down in time to change train. We were so lucky that night that we finally managed to reach our final destination on time.

At Wimmis, our host picked us up from the train station. Luckily, otherwise, we will need to tag along 6 bags walking on the road to the house which was quite hilly. Thank goodness she picked us up and showed us our room which was better than expected. We stayed at a private guesthouse and it was very spacious and we were very happy with our place. She prepared for us complimentary chocs and already prepared breakfast in the fridge for the next day. We were soo happy after a long day to have found such a cozy place to sleep. 

 It's like a studio unit for us. Dining table, living hall, bedroom and bathroom in one place.

Fully furnished as well.

2 Toblerones for us also <3

There's a microwave oven, kettle and a toaster.

Complimentary chocs and bananas for us and she fills it up everyday.

We were soo lucky to have a fantastic host.

We then knocked off and woke up early the next day due to jet lag. The next morning, we prepped a heavy breakfast before going out because most shops don’t open that early and it’s very expensive to eat out. Luckily, our host has already filled up the fridge for us.

Orange juice, beer, cheese, ham and desserts

Jams and drinks. Even a Proseco to welcome us =)

In the morning, the outside of the house looked soo beautiful. When we first came at night, we couldn't really see the scenery. But in the morning, it looked like this:

Pool in the garden

View of the mountains. There's just so much greens in Switzerland.

 It was 31st August- Malaysia's Independence Day and we tried our tripod here before taking it out hehe

A horse barn next to our home. We were in a small countryside village which was peaceful and quiet.

We planned to go to Lake Thun so we took the train to Thun station. The train station is just a 10 minute walk from our Airbnb. I researched on nice sceneries to take pictures because we wanted to take some pre wedding shots by ourselves. The lake was nice and it was a nice walk in Schadau park nearby Thun. I'll save most pictures for my wedding hehe

Look at the swan's feather! So white and fluffy.

 The SBB station which is the train station. We literally took train and walked everywhere.

Cheese is abundant in Switzerland and a must try is a cheese fondue. When we found a place which sold cheese fondue, we wanted to try it. It was okay-lah. They put some alcohol in it though so the taste was a bit bitter to me. I don't know if the recipe is the same for all cheese fondues.

Coffee by the riverside.

It is also a bit of our goal to try McDonalds in each country haha.

Their big bang menu burger.

Beef, bacon and cheese.

Meh, still haven't found McD nicer than Malaysia's one =p

It was getting rainy on that day and we were also informed the weather that week was rainy (just our luck! haha) so we decided to just walk around indoors and then take the train back. It was a rather chill day. We then went back and had an early night to be prepared for a very early next day to Jungfrau.

The next day was an exciting day. We took the train all the way to Jungfraujoch. The journey was around 2 hour plus from our place. Because it has been rainy the past few days, we expected the mountains to be even colder so we were all prepared with thick jackets and layers of clothings. But even after that, we still couldn’t stand the snow rain and the drastic drop in temperature. The snow rain was what caught us freezing like crazy. If it wasn’t raining so much in Switzerland that few days, it could have been better but it’s okay, we took what we got. 

The train ride up Jungfrau was a beautiful sight! The scenery was so much of greens and easy on the eyes =) 

I got to see snow for the very first time in my life!! YAY!! It was so white and we were ambitious wanting to fix a tripod in the mountains to take some pre wedding shots but ended up cancelled all plans to do that since we couldn’t stand more than 5 minutes in the snow HAHA

I don't know how a blizzard feels like but it certainly felt like a blizzard to me with the snow rain and super strong wind!

*faster take the picture* *faster take the picture* *I cannot smile anymore* *after picture, quickly runs inside for shelter*

They even gave us complimentary chocs!

My cert <3

 But Jungfrau was interesting. We get to tour the whole place from the ice palace, to the panorama, to the deck and Lindt’s chocolate shop. Food there is very expensive so be sure to have a heavy breakfast before going up or pack some food. It was definitely a lifetime experience. We thoroughly enjoyed our experience up there although it was super freezing cold at -5 degrees. I felt grateful to be born in Malaysia with no snow HAHA because I don’t think I can stand it. And to be able to experience all these with my other half was a total dream come true. We laughed so much because we couldn't even stand long in the snow and we came all the way up for it =p

We then came down to civilisation for some food.

We stopped by Interlaken for an early dinner. After a super cold weather, we wanted something hot. We ate at quite a popular restaurant- Des Alpes Interlaken

 Rosti- a Swiss dish. It's mostly potato baked underneath..

..and a warm tomato broth with bread. Yummy.

Our day to day breakfast is something like this:

We actually brought Samyang instant noodles there HAHAHA

But our host provided some instant noodles as well...so sweet

So we'll cook Samyang, microwave cheese with ham and bread, have cereal with milk, chocolate and caramel dessert, yoghurt and finally Toblerone chocs to finish it off. All for freeee!!! We had quite a ball of time preparing our own food =)

The next day, it was time to go to our next destination. The first day we were rushing to catch the train so we couldn’t really explore much of Zurich’s airport but now that we had the time, we couldn’t believe that it was super HUGE. It was very busy and it’s one of the busiest airport I have ever been to and there were just so many nationalities in one place. We had our brunch there ready to head over to Santorini for our next adventure =)

Overall, Switzerland was cold, scenic, friendly and had a lot of walking to do. We thoroughly enjoyed our short time span there and in fact, out of the 3 countries, this was the best country honestly. If only it wasn't so cold and expensive, it would be great to retire there hehe