Unlocking Switzerland's Best-Kept Secrets | Switzerland Travel Vlog
after five long years I'm heading back to a country which can be best described in just one word Dreamland but this time I'm also man on a mission with cameras as my tools I'm going to Switzerland to participate in a competition well well well I'm getting ahead of myself and more on this competition later on let's start this journey at home with my mother using the brahmastra of all Indian mothers to make sure that I win the competition so before I start my journey here is something really special this is something that happens in all Indian households mom coming in and wishing me for the journey and this is also really special a little bit of yogurt with a little bit of sugar and this brings good luck my mom is wishing me to come back as a winner that's the whole plan thanks welcome to the terminal 3 of indraa Gandhi International Airport in Delhi in case you're wondering we'll be boarding in about 30 minutes or so it's about 8 hours flying and uh we should read Zur early morning have [Music] nice welcome to Zurich and it's about uh 7:30 here so my first bit stop here in Zurich is the Swiss arrival lunch so if you're coming in and flying in business off first class you can of course come here freshen up if it's early in the morning like it is for [Music] me so this is my day room here maybe lie down for a bit and uh go find some food and of course take a show I was tired after all this travel and decided to call it a night early so it's about 2:30 in the morning and I should not be awake I should be sleeping but here I am no matter how much I prepare I would always be stressed about a big day like this but my room is a mess complete mess I don't know what did I do in one day I've destroyed the room let me get back to work ready do the challenges these are the challenges that we something all right so now I can finally tell you why I'm here in Zurich and what am I doing in Switzerland so I'm here to actually participate in a very exciting contest it is a contest between four photographers from four different countries challenge is called the perfect shot four of us are meeting in zurk and then we are traveling in four different directions I'm going towards the east and over the next 4 days we'll have different challenges that we have to tackle so we have these really cute envelopes that we'll open on the day of the challenge and shoot a picture to fulfill the challenge each one of us um will then meet at the end of our trip and we vote and we pick the best pictures and somebody will win the challenge and the winner of the challenge will actually get his or her pictures displayed on the Time Square day one is today already we are heading off to the train station it's time to leave zurk and go to a small place towards East so for our first challenge we're heading to this beautiful Swiss town it's called harisa and to reach there we need to take two trains so we're starting from the zurk main station so throughout this adventure our plan is to use the very very very famous Swiss public transport system basically we'll be taking trains trans and you know all of that there's just one pass that you need to travel across all of these so it's called the CIS travel pass so I've taken a pass which will allow me access it's a first class pass it allows me access in all the first class trains and public transport systems right now we have actually started from Zurich and we are on our way to uh rapper whe so I'm going to write it down somewhere but the part uh is that we're going to change in in rappers wheel into another train which will take us to haris sou so we're going to go there leave our bags in the hotel and head out and start shooting some cows not literally shooting but yeah it's going to be a fun day it's going to be a good uh festive day how the cows are how how behaved and misbehaved they are I'll bring you all the stories very soon so stay [Music] tuned however things weren't me to go as smoothly I realized in a rather stupid way how efficient the switch trains are okay so in a very very very very stupid fil me have missed my train I just came out to record a short clip of me getting into the train and the train is gone the train is gone thankfully I had my phone with me with the local Swiss number so could easily catch up with my cinematographer at the next station by now we had already lost out on a few hours of shooting time but we were finally on our way to harisa we are in the for Alpin Express on our way to harisa which is where our first challenge takes place this train is actually pretty special because it's part of the grand trade F of swizerland Pretty Journey pretty trained but that's not why I'm here I'm here for unveiling my first challenge so my first challenge is urban and culture let's get philosophical capture the starkest contrast you can find in just three shots the interpretation is up to you be thoughtful and Choose Wisely this is not easy it's challenging uh the light has come out so it's in my favor let's see how this [Music] goes so after my Adventures today morning we have finally made it to haris house so I'm here now at the harisa cattle Festival this is an annual Festival that happens typically in the month of September when farmer along with their cows come down from the Al and then there's a competition which is what is going on behind me right now the round that's going on is on overall beauty of the cow I have no idea how the beauty standards are judged but we're going to go and learn something and uh of course I have to do the challenge also take some photos also but this looks very unique kind of an experience [Music] today even though I was late the day ended nicely and here are some of my favorite shots that [Music] day it was already dinner time by the time we had our lunch and with that the day [Music] ended all right so my day two starts here with uh me checking out of the hotel I'll just show you how messed up my room is ooh this is what happens when a photographer lives I don't know where I even slept even the floor is really bad and I have to pack in like 5 minutes and leave but I want to show you outside because the view outside is really pretty I just thought I will quickly share a little bit about what's happening today actually I don't know much about what's happening today but I know they will be a new challenge and the new challenge is around the theme of portraits I love taking portraits but I have also realized that it's not as straightforward it's just shooting a portrait uh the challenge will have something challenging to it so we're going to this place called uh scent uh but we are going there by uh using trains so multiple trains actually we are using I think four trains to reach there so it's going to be a bit of an adventure I'll make sure I don't miss anything because uh the journey takes about 3 hours frankly there's absolutely no reason for me to wear this jacket but I'm wearing it because it's so big and so fat that it didn't fit into my [Music] bag it's a second day and time for the Second Challenge unveiling of the Second Challenge my second challenge is Portrait and people now it's something that I absolutely love doing but I know it's going to be something with a Twist find a local with a compelling story pure surely by asking around no internet allowed once you have found your protagonist capture their Essence through your lens I actually like it I really like it but a bit of a long journey before [Music] that so we we just checked into our hotel and the rooms are not yet ready but this hotel actually has a bunch of other properties in the neighborhood which are part of the same family so they are all connected by this secret passage through the hill so we're going to take that passage to go and eat our lunch so kind of interesting passage let me show you guys what do you think [Music] mysterious [Music] so our second uh challenge is starting now we finished our very nice lunch and now we are on our way to sent so we don't know what we're doing so I think I'll do what I usually do go to a cafe connect with some locals there and uh see if they can help me connect with some interesting people it's about 2:30 in the afternoon so I have some time before the sun sets but finding the story is the challenging BD so let's see what happens there so we've reach scent and my first impression is that this is perhaps one of the most beautiful towns I've ever ever been to it's just [Music] gorgeous the homes have these special very interesting round doors and then they have these edged painting paintings or Edge Designs on the front walls front facade and then they have these sort of rounded Gables again on the front facade but I'm not here just to see nice houses I'm here to actually finish my second Challenge and I'm struggling already with it because I have no idea there's nobody here on the streets the entire town is completely empty not even one single soul I was hoping I was hoping that I'll go to a cafe and sit there for a bit and talk to locals build some relationships but even the cafes are closed so my first attempt at finding a subject failed because I found somebody who was actually willing to speak to me but he's polish so he is here to do some work uh from Poland interestingly scent has its own language it's called romanch which is uh quite different from um the the Swiss German that most people speak but this guy doesn't speak even that language he speaks only polish so onto our further journey we'll go walk and find the next story I'm not giving up on this hopefully so I just met somebody who's actually agreed to be a part of my portrait Series this is memma she is actually from sent she was born in 1930 so she's 93 years old [Music] now [Music] so it's about uh 5:45 in the morning and we're heading to our first destination actually our only destination today we take the bus to the station which is about 3 minutes away and then from there we'll get into the main bus it's going to be a long day and I'll fly my drone there too so thanks [Music] one [Music] okay so I really have to say this um it's not even Sunrise yet and we are taking a public transportation system in Switzerland to go shoot uh in dark they're not many places in the world where you can do this in fact I don't know any place where you can do this pretty much for every place you want to go to very impressed G morga from tarash this place is about 15 minutes or so in a bus ride from from hotel and now it's time to unveil my challenge for today I have two envelopes so this is going to be fun we are doing mountains and attractions choose a nearby monument and find a perspective that although faces away from it still offers a good view H use a mirror provided in your package to creatively capture The Monuments reflection in your shot there is an envelope too and uh let's open that one so I have a mirror with a stand and um I have use this mirror to capture a monument this is going to be not your usual Monument photography I have to use my brains a little bit uh let's see what we do I need to get started with my [Music] thinking so the challenge is quite interesting and uh I'm quite looking forward to trying it out but we just don't know where is a good spot from where to actually take a reflection uh in the mirror so we're just going to have to walk around here so for now we just had a quick word with the lady here and she suggested to walk on the other side but yeah this is one of the most photographed places in the region so to find something that has never been done before that's a allall task Let's [Music] see we are at the tarash castle which was built in the 10th 11th century and today is more more than a, years old the castle changed hands many times and today belongs to a world-renowned artist named not [Applause] vital so in my search to find the perfect reflection shot we have actually come to a cafe it's actually a restaurant it's old Heritage Hotel and of course uh there's coffee and there is cosso what better way to start at the morning so we had the most amazing time here at the hotel ended up meeting the owner of the place who is the 22nd generation owner of uh this place so the house is now converted into this beautiful Heritage luxury hotel we discussed some ideas and he was like okay maybe my sister could be a part of a picture and that's amazing she will join us for the shoot a little bit later when the sun comes out so Jonas and I are going to step out doing some trial shots um get the perspective the composition right and U then we'll have somebody join us what more can be ask for while we searched for a place to shoot uh we found this really cool spot up there jumping over the fence and going [Music] inside Mary wore the traditional angin costume and added such an interesting layer to this multi-layered reflection sh of the castle now if you didn't know angin is the name of this region of sand and has its own distinct language architecture and culture this shoot was much harder than I anticipated and it was only due to Mary's patience that we could finally get a shot that I was happy with we went back to skow and later that evening came back to taraj the plan was to shoot Stars around the castle but there were way too many clouds though I still enjoyed shooting the town in the cold [Music] night [Music] the worsening weather that evening gave us hints about what was coming up the next day all right so it's finally time for the last day and the last challenge so the fourth challenge today the day as usual starts Before Sunrise completely dark outside so today we are doing Landscapes and colors time to move find a colorful landscape and capture a photo where you are the moving element with within it use a self timer remote triggers or help is not allowed okay good so today is a selfie day we are not doing this here and SC we are actually doing this in a very interesting place we are going to the Swiss National Park which is about an hour's ride away from here in public transport of [Music] course the day had started on a rainy note and things got only worse from then on at the information office we were told that a storm was coming around noon and that then became the deadline to wrap up our shoot so we are waiting for the bus to come and um go to the first stop where we can take the hike from but it's raining a lot I got this coffee the idea is to take the bus go to that starting point and then do a hike and do my challeng challenge but it looks really hard because it's it's so much rain and it's also getting quite cold now I'm scared about my equipment I don't know what camera will I use eventually for taking these portraits because my Sony or the iPhone or the GoPro one of them will do the task for me but it is quite a rainy day so made it to the starting point here we have to go down to the river because that's where the bridge is I have some ideas uh but the weather makes it quite challenging to execute those but let's see as the rains became intense and my time cut short I had to quickly pack up my mirrorless camera and move to the GoPro to to shoot here is the final shot for the [Music] challenge so my Swiss Adventures are almost over in a way challenges are all finished my 4 days Outdoors are finished and now we are heading off back to the city life towards Zurich a lot of mixed feelings things happened in the last few days some amazing memories for the lifetime and also some interesting shots the Highlight definitely was talking to people and getting to know the local life through them but also it's cautious landscape but for now it's Z time So the plan is to meet at around 2:00 have lunch and then uh do the hard part which is selecting a winner and of course the first prize is some Fame on the New York Times Square building so not thinking about that right now all I'm thinking about is I don't know what enjoying the views to distract myself time to head [Music] back in case you're wondering what happened in zurk and who won the competition finally you will know the answer very very soon so what we sh for in Switzerland all four of us as photographers will actually become a web series for the Swiss tourism board and it will go live on their YouTube channel so I'll link those episodes in the description below and at the end of November 2023 the winner will be announced if you're watching it early then you'll have to wait for some more time also I really hope you enjoyed my SS Adventures if you like the video don't forget to like it here on YouTube as well and maybe even subscribe to the channel I would really appreciate that and as you can see I'm at the airport and ready to board my next slide see you soon in the next video but for now goodbye
2023-11-25 03:44
