Signed off at
8:03 am
▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Signed off at
11:59 pm
▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Signed off at
7:58 am
▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Signed off at
5:25 am
▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Signed off at
6:49 am
▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
EX MAYTHEFLEASOFATHOUSANDCAMELSINFESTYOURPUBICHAIR
GRAD TRIPPERS OPS ORDERS
SITUATION. REDLAND Petty Thieves being numbskulls are eyeing on Peace-Loving BLUELAND's valuables and territory.
ENEMY
GENERAL. 01 x Platoon of Thieves
SPECIFIC. 01 x Section of Thieves armed with Poles, Lock Pickers and Sleeping Gas
OWN FORCES
INTENTION OF HHQ. To ensure integrety of all valuables placed in CABIN4
MISSION
GRAD TRIPPERS ARE TASKED TO SECURE AND DEFEND CABIN4 FROM 262130 TO 270630.
TASK OF ADJACENT FORCES. Taiwanese Ah Mah and Ah Gongs in neighbouring cabins will be bait for the numbskullic thieves.
GROUPING AND TASKS
GROUP OWN FORCES TASK 1 Zibin, Weijian, Meiqiang Defend CABIN4 from 262130 to 270030 2 Chio, Kayping, Yiling Defend CABIN4 from 270030 to 270330 3 Allan, Gabriel, Xiuying Defend CABIN4 from 270330 to 270630
PHASES AND TIMINGS
262130 - 270030: Group 1 to defend CABIN4. Group 2 and 3 on Stand II in CABIN3 and CABIN5 respectively.
270030 - 270330: Group 2 to defend CABIN4. Group 1 and 3 on Stand II in CABIN3 and CABIN5 respectively.
270330 - 270630: Group 3 to defend CABIN4. Group 1 and 2 on Stand II in CABIN3 and CABIN5 respectively.
COMMAND AND SIGNAL
Shouting (DABIAN! DABIAN!) to be the main forms of communications. Yes, we even had a mini sand model exercise at the restaurant during lunch. Too bad we didn't video the CAOS process down.
When we finally got to our respective cabins, they turned out to be fortresses. Double-locking systems, the metal latch thing, key holes to look out of the door.. the windows could only open like 20 degrees. There was seriously NO WAY anyone or anything could penetrate the cabins unless they could apparate or something.
Still, we carried on with the Ops Orders.. since we already planned for it. Better be safe than be sorry.
And there were seriously NO THIEVES AT ALL! I was seriously hoping that they could come so I could whack them or something. During my shift.. everytime the train stopped, we would turn off the lights in the cabin and peep out of the window to see if the petty thieves would be looting from our fellow Taiwanese neighbours. But NO.. no one in sight at all. I even contemplated waving a $10 note outside to lure them here.. but.. oh well.
So much for the big scare on the Infamous Prague-Krakow Train Ride.
While we could have gotton a good nights sleep all 9 hours.. I think the planning process was rather exciting.
At least everyone arrived Krakow safe and sound.
Signed off at
7:57 pm▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Prague has officially become from the Most Beautiful City in Europe to the Most Overrated City in Europe. I still like the Charles Bridge Riverside scene and the atmosphere in the Old Town Square but that seems to be about it. Exploring the city more these 2 days didn't offer me anything more.. What a disappointment.
Went up the Prague Castle for the 2nd time. Well, the castle isn't a castle like those you see in Disney Cartoons. Prague Castle is something like Beijing's Forbidden City. A little walkable Castle-Village with different buildings inside. The last time we were pressed for time and paid to go into a few of the Chapels and Museums only. Seriously, by now, I totally have no impression of what I saw last year.. shrouded amidst all the many churches and museums I've seen in the whole of Europe so far. So I decided to take not pay for any of the entrance fees into the any of the chapels/museums within the castle and just walk the castle grounds with the rest of the group. And everyone just decided not to pay for anything too. Cool. We just strolled by the buildings in the castle grounds and tag along any tour group we could understand to listen to their explanations of the various buildings. Most of the time was just spent nuahhing and photo taking. Yes, the rational is simple:
Take Photo = 'Been Here, Done That'
The second half of the day was the much needed split once again. While the rest of the group headed off to eat Chinese Food at some Chinese restaurant, KP and I decided to go down the save money route and have microwavable pizzas from the the supermarket for lunch. The pizza SUCKS MEGABIG TIME. Oh well.. but we pay for what we get.. and we got super full (and sick of pizzas).
Then we headed down to the more Southern areas of Prague in search for Beer Breweries recommended by the Tourist Information Centre. And the more interesting thing is we ventured into the non-Touristy area of Prague. It was so amazing to see the streets of Prague EMPTY. NO ONE IN SIGHT. ZILCH. NO TOURISTS. That was the real Czech. The Real Prague.
Which looked like Budapest.
Night time the guys went down to a nearby pub to sample the famous Czech Beer Pilsner Urquell. Tasted way much bitter than what I tried the previous time. Again everyone was disappointed by the beer. To think I told them that Pilsner from the tap is really very nice. Sigh.
The next day out of utter boredom we visited Vyšehrad, the last remaining of Prague's Historical Reserve we hadn't visited.. and it's way down South. It's just an ancient Castle (again) where Czech kings from long long ago used to reside in. And yes, you might have guessed, that we were utterly bored by the visit.
Our much anticipated atas lunch was a disappointment too. The servings were small even though it was cheap(er) than what we could find in the touristy part of the city. We weren't full at all. Sigh.
Yiling, Xiuying and I headed down to this Mozart memorial place as a last ditch attempt to 'not waste our trip to Prague' while the rest of the group headed back to hostel to nuah. Again, need to pay to enter. So we ended up talking cock and taking photos.
To summarise, this return trip to Prague was plagued with disappointments. My impression of Prague would have remained way much better if I didn't come back this time. That again.. I would have misled more people into coming to this uber touristy haven. As a comparison..And one more thing,
- Prague is 'cheap' when I converted to Pounds the last time I came. Now, converting everything to Singapore Dollars, Prague is a bloody moneysucking city.
- 3 days in Summer (where the sun rises at 6am and sets at 9pm) is way an overkill to visit this city.. which has only Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, Castle and Jewish Quarter to offer. The last time I came was in autumn-winter when the sun set as early at 5pm. No wonder I said 2 days wasn't enough.
- Summer is way more touristy than in Winter.
- The other Czech beers like Kozel taste much better than the widely publicized Pilsner Urquell.
watch 'Lovers in Prague' before coming here.
Signed off at
4:07 pm▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Prague
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Check back previous posts later for Salzburg posts.. I decide to whine about today first..
It's back to Prague again for me.. for the rest of the group.. they had high hopes about so called Europe's Most Beautiful City. But it was disheartening to see that we met with disappointments after disappointments...
First of all.. the train to Prague cocked up. Yeah. It was supposed to be one straight train to the city but somehow halfway we had to get off.. get on a bus (which at that time we didn't know where it'd bring us to or how long the journey would take).. and then board a train again which was delayed for 40 minutes. The whole journey was a fiasco. The train conditions were terrible. Bad start.
Second.. the hostel was a disappointment. Ok to me it was a normal standard hostel.. but to the rest of the group that was pampered with good hostels all the way till now.. squeezing in a 9 man bunk with shared toilets and showers seemed to be a terrible inconvenience. And breakfast was disappointing too. Sigh.
Brought them to the Old Town Square first.. which well.. no one seemed terribly impressed. The Astronomical Clock was a disappointment to the rest too.. as probably they expected much more from the Clock that would prance into life every hour. Probably not as lively as everyone expected it to be. Not that early in the morning as well.
We did the usual stuff by walking around.. Brought them to the New Town and the usual photo spot of the St Wenceslas statue and the National Museum. Again no one seemed interested in photo taking the statue nor the Museum.. which probably was because we were still dulan with the burger guy that gave us attitude just barely an hour before.
Heading down to the river banks.. they were already lamenting that Prague was not as pretty as they had expected. Yeah.. I guessed as much.. When I was in Budapest I thought the Danube River banks were much nicer than Prague's. Before heading to Petrin Hill I finally stumbled onto the Dancing House which Matt showed me on a photo before. Nothing fantastic. To me and, of course, to the rest of the group.
Petrin Hill was another great disappointment. It was the only part of Prague which I haven't been there myself the previous trip.. and was expecting a panoramic view after scaling the top of the hill. After a 26Kc funicular ride up the hill with superb views on the way up, we ended up on the top of the hill SURROUNDED BY TREES! The only way to get the intended view was to climb up the Observation Tower which we had to pay for. Mind you, the keyword is 'climb'. No lift no elevator. And climbing is definitely not high on our list of activities.
Hence we went downhill in search of a better view, without trees.. and found what we wanted at the funicular intermediate station. Didn't stay long though.. as our ticket only allowed us 75 minutes on the hill. Damn stupid.
Went to chill at this coffee/ice cream place and ordered frappucino.. which turned out to be merely milkshake for me. Tamade. Slept while the rest played cards.
We had an early dinner at some Chinese restaurant.. expensive, yes. And again I am eating Chinese food in Europe. But what to do?
Walking along the river banks with the late afternoon sun gleaming behind the castles made me regain my affection for this little city. Budapest may look nicer on the whole but Prague does have it's quant charms. Never mind what the rest feel.. I still think this place is worth this second visit.
Charles Bridge was thronged with tourists. Much more than the previous time. Maybe because it's Summer now. Tourists made it irritating for phototaking. In fact, Prague is FULL of tourists.. even more than Czech citizens themselves I feel. Which made everything so expensive. Yes, that was another disappointment for everyone. To think I still told them previously that Prague is a cheap place. I probably forgot that I was still converting to Pounds rather than Singapore Dollars the last time I came. Either that or the global inflation phenomenon riding on the Summer tourist season drove prices to ridiculously high levels.
Point is.. I feel kinda bad that everyone is not having an as good a time as they expected to have in this city.. after all I was here before and should be able to be a good 'host'. There are 2 more days here and I hope the castle tomorrow can save Prague from further condemnation from the group. Otherwise.. oh well.. I'll just feel suckier.
What's worse.. I left my bottle of soap in the communal shower last night and it's probably cleared away. Tamade gotta spend money buying soap.
Sigh.
Signed off at
6:57 am▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Vienna Day 3
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
I'm now sitting at the back of the Viennese Opera House blogging about day 3 of Vienna. Cos I'm sibeh dulan now. Why? Cos I'm giving up this very fun House of Music museum for this opera which would probably be in german (with english subtitles though) and I'd be standing for THREE HOURS
PLUS
There are people who came earlier and actually CHOPPED SEATS using pamphlets, scarfs and whatever shit they can use! So kanasai rite? To think in such a high class opera house people actually exhibit this 'low class' shenton-way-use-tissue-paper-and-chop method. Though we would have probably done the same thing if we were early.. The most dulan thing is
WE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THIS POLICY BEFOREHAND.
PLUS
The usher who is an old man is damn bad attitude la. He could just be stern la. But he just got on my nerves when he kept telling me to put my jacket at the counter when i wanted to use it to 'chop seats'. Wait, what seats? They were standing places..
=opera starts=
WAHLANEH!! WHAT SUCKY OPERA!! Ok, maybe i totally don't appreciate it.. Or maybe i was comparing it to the many musicals that i have watched.. But in this show
1. The storyline was terrible. They built up the plot to such a developable potential classic only to throw it off with a cheesy ending. Argh!
2. The songs were horrible. Ok, was it the style of opera? To have forgettable melodies? Oh well, can't comment much on that.
3. The sets were elaborate but there was no scene change at all! Such a fance state-of-the-art opera house and no scene change was factored for the whole opera? Again i'm comparing with musicals here. Even the lousiest musical i've been to (Evita) had a few scene changes. Bah.
4. Standing throughout the whole show irritated me more.
Damnit. Lucky only €2.
Actually the whole day was quite screwed up. For me at least. Today was 'Museum Day', where the group split up to visit our various museum of interests. The girls went to the Sisi Museum, which was the Empress Museum, and they enjoyed it thoroughly. Gabe and Weijian went to this highland thing but the sucky weather shrouded their otherwise panoramic view. The soccer museum they went to made up for that i guess. Allan kayping and I went to the Museum Quarters to stroll around and hung round the Lomography shop looking at cool stuff before Allan went to his Science History Museum while kp and I went to the market to walk walk. The most interesting sight was probably seeing pigeons nibbling on an unattended kebab machine! Yikes!! We would have gone on to this 1516 Brewery Place but we had to rush off to meet the rest at 3 at Cafe Central, some atas cafe where Mozart and other big shots once had coffee there too. Big deal rite?
I guess it was the rain that screwed up the day. It was raining throughout the day. We were cold and wet. The cafe was good as the coffee was nice and there was free wireless! The House of Music that we went to later on was good too. It was fantastic in fact.. But.. We couldn't stay there for long because we had to buy tickets for the stupid OPERA. Argh. You know the rest of the story.
Damn moody now. I think it's my turn to pms soon. I hope i don't affect anyone. It better not rain in Salzburg and ruin my TheHillsAreAliveee expectations.
Signed off at
8:41 am▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Vienna Day 2
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
We awoke to showers in the city which turned it into a giant freezer. I swear it was so cold we could do the blow-mist-out-of-our breath thing.
We visited the Summer Palace in the morning and i was sure this time that if the Austrian King were to visit his neighbour SLovak king, he would burst out in laughter. The Palace grounds were beautiful! Both the inside and outside. Hard to describe in words. Wait for photos ba. But maybe even photos won't justify it's grandeur and beauty.
Met up with zhiqian there. Where we took lotsa paparazzi shots of the him and his old flame (Sarah Kueh Xiuying). Haha fun.
6 of us (all except gabe, weijian and zibin) went to this museum which we thought would be fun and interesting as described by Lonely Planet. Turns out to be an ART MUSEUM which we exited the museum after 15 minutes!! What a waste of the €4.50 entrance fee. Kanasai.
We headed down to the theme park after that though. It wasn't exactly disneyland type of theme park, quite old school, but we had a good round of bumper cars! Almost paid for the old school carosel with REAL HORSES!! Oh luckily I was sensible enough to figure out spending S$5 on horses running in small circles was a waste of money.
Dinner today was super uber fantastic! It was a place recommended by Zhiqian's Austrian friend. It's an interesting place with an interesting menu. Mq ordered a 2m long sausage! As for the guys, we shared this meal which consisted of Weiner Schnitzers (vienesse cutlets.. We had turkey cutlets.. Yum), pork chops, chicken wings, fries served in a huge sword. Yes, in all babaric sense all the meat was pierced through a sword which we had to rip them off before eating them. And the turkey Schnitzers were wow, superb. Even now as i'm drafting this post can even smell it. Droolz...
Spent a grand total of €52 today! Whoa!! Must start cutting my expenditure already man.
Signed off at
8:31 am▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Vienna Day 1
Monday, May 19, 2008
I LOVE VIENNA!!! It's like the London and Dublin of Austria.. So energectic and lively.. Yet it's unique charm still lies in the roman architecture sprouting all over the old town. It's really a very welcome difference after weeks of the rest of old slow europe.. Lovely!!!
Lucky for us last night there was this anti-AIDS event held at the city hall so gabe, kp and I took a loooong walk into toe city to join in the fun. We were there just in time only to catch the sponsor's segment. And guess who were the sponsors? Some sexual lingerie company. Haha. So we just watched models strutt around in clothes covering only, you know, what is to be covered. Ha. Ironic hor? Aids event with dirty lingerie show. Hmm.
Since it was a sunday morning today we woke up like damn early to watch the famous Vienna Boys Choir sing at the chapel in the palace. Some guidebook told us we had to start queuing for standing tickets as early as 8 when the mass will only start at 9. And so we did, dutifully, start queuing up at 8. Standing in the queue for 1 whole hour before the doors were open to the standing audience. And guess what? WE DIDN'T GET TO SEE THE BOYS SINGING THE ENTIRE MASS. Yes, it was a Christian Mass and to make matters worse it wasn't in English! So can you imgaine all of us non-Christians, standing for yet ANOTHER HOUR in the chapel, feeling tired and cheated because we didn't get to SEE the boys singing. For all we know the melodious voices coming from the roof could be from a cd!
What pissed us more was when we exited the chapel after the mass, we saw people crowding around a TV outside the chapel watching the Viennese Boys Choir singing! Yes, they saw the boys singing while we didn't. Tamade, we could have woken up later and watched the live video too! Rarrh.
Feeling tired and cheated we headed down to this Cafe Demel place to try the so-called 'world famous' cake SacheTorté. Had their orange liquor coffee at a ridiculous €7.80 and the verdict was
- the coffee not nice
- the cake was normal
Waste money.
The St. Steven's church that we visited after that was one of the nicest churches that i visited. I must say even nicer than, say, Notre Dam in Paris. Nice gothic designs. Cheered me up a little.
The otherwise fantastic weather was ruined by the dark clouds that set in in the afternoon. We spent a few hours in front of the Parliament building playing cards before we were chased away by a policeman. Haha. What unlucky weather. The fountain in front of the parliament was interestingly pretty. But the photos were, well, in gloomy weather.
The night was spent watching some opera that cost us €20. We thought we were cheated when this 'opera' venue turned out to be a little room the size of a classroom. But the contents of the performance were as promised by the guy who sold us the tickets. Songs by Mozart and Strauss, some soprano and tenor singing, and some ballet. Definitely not top notch performance, but certainly not low class anybody-also-can-do-it type show either.
Conclusion: Only €20 worth. No more. No less.
Another notable fact about today was the first time tensions arose within the group. Well, things should get better soon.
Signed off at
8:11 am▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Bratislava
Saturday, May 17, 2008
After a good nights sleep at this fantastic hostel with nice big beds and comfy mattresses/comforters/pillows/friendly staff/cool furniture.. we headed out to explore the little city of Bratislava.
This is a neither here nor there town.. it's neither too full of history nor too modernised. The streets are filled with grafitti but the people are more friendly then menacing. There seems to be a lot of things to do and yet it seems that we can do all these in a day.. It would be ideal if we could stay here for another day.. but oh well.. we had to miss that flight.. !@*&^&*$!!
Started off at the Bratislava Castle. Damn ugly. I was even joking that if the Kings of Europe visited each other they would all laugh at the Slovak king for having such a lousily built castle. Haha. Oh well.. but the magnificent view kinda made up for it. Uhmm.. still.. we've had our fare dose of panoramic views the past few days already.
Had lunch at this traditional Slovakian restaurant which Lonely Planet recommended. So the famous Slovak 'dumplings' that all tourists had to try turned out to be just like the Chinese wat kueh. And it's supposed to be a delicacy. Wait till they come Singapore. Will bring them to wet market and buy tonnes for them. Haha.
We walked around the Old Town after that and I fell alseep on the bench while the rest went on to visit some museums. Waking up to find everyone gone.. Kayping and I ventured into this street recommended by the Hostel receptionist in search of this certain Slovak Pub which she recommended. Cool place. In fact it's a student's pub.. with special discount for students and even give a free soup for students who got an A for examinations. Haha.. Cute rite? Of course we saw their Slovakian delicacy - dumplings - which was described as 'meat dumplings'. Tempted to try to see if we were conned by the previous restaurant.. but didn't dare to. Haha.. scully they give us another plate of wat kuehs... kanasai. Waste money. In the end.. tried their beer cocktails - Beer + Coke. Student price of course. Taste like... oh well.. don't try it. Haha.
Now waiting for the girls to come back from their museum adventures. Apparantly it's a special day in Bratislava today and they could go visit all the museums in here for 40 kronos instead of the usual 20 kronos for each museum. Girls just like to go for bargains eh? Yeap.. when they come back we'd be catching our train to Vienna..
In the meantime.. I still pray and hope that some potential employers call me to make some appointments. It's been so damn long already! I'm starting to get worried. Sigh.. sigh.. sigh... sian......
Signed off at
10:22 pm▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Having had enough of Budapest.. we headed down to the sleepy town of Szentendre off the Danube River Bend for a half a day out of town. Took a cruise down the Danube River.. which could otherwise have been superbly boring (not to mention that we didn't have time for breakfast before the cruise and were excruciatingly hungry) if not for a hoarde of 9 year old kids coming to entertain us.. Or maybe it was US entertaining them instead.. It was really like a group of chickens talking to a group of ducks.. we didn't understand an ounce of Hungarian while they couldn't make out anything we were trying to tell them in English. It soon degraded to drawing pictures on pieces of paper and teaching each other what those were in our respective languages. 'Cultural Exchange' or so we called it. But come on! They were all kids! And all so so adorable.. Kayping had a field time signing his autograph on their hands like some superstar.. While the rest of us just enjoyed being surrounded by pure innocence and enthusiasm after so so long...
There was really nothing to do at Szentendre actually.. had lunch there.. walked around using a highly inaccurate map taken from the tourist centre and in the end Allan, Kayping, Gabe and I just sat down at a coffee house to chill. 'Chilling' has become a very promising activity to be proposed these days.. albeit it being antonymous with sightseeing and making the best out of the visit to any city.. But.. I guess tired feed and weary physiques need pampering once in a while...
We headed back to our hostel ridiculously early.. because the rest wanted to clear their Hungarian Forints buying souvenirs at the market.. and of course there was the paranoia that something was going to happen to our train so we decided to go to the train station more than an hour earlier..
So while the rest of the world was shopping I finally watched The Sound of Music at the hostel.. Why? Because we were going to Salzburg next week and I wouldn't want to go to the famous Sound of Music place with absolutely no knowledge of the film at all! Didn't manage to finish watching the show.. but the songs are oh so stuck in my head hahaa..
The hilllllss are alivveee... with the Sound of Muuuusicc...
I can't wait to go there.. Green grass hilly mountains are a fantastic change from buildings, buildings and more buildings.... and history history and more history..
Hey but this is Europe.. why am I complaining? Haha.
Now in a hostel in Bratislava. We will only be here for a day and hence reluctant to draw any of their currency.. so we didn't buy our tram tickets from the rail station to the hostel.. so we just *whispers* took a free ride. Yeah. The hostel is a damn cool place. I totally love it. Good music in the reception.. Funky people around.. Nice big beds.. Nice showers.. toilets.. view.. SUPERB!!
Too bad we are only staying for 1 night. Bah.
Ok going to sleep now. Hectic day ahead.
Signed off at
6:10 am▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Budapest
Friday, May 16, 2008
Well.. today was a much better day. More relaxing.. somehow I felt lighter and happier.. maybe because I had a good sleep the night before. Or maybe it was beer. Haha. The only irritating thing was that my heels are starting to crack.. the dry weather and lousy sandals I guess.. muscles starting to ache from too much walking.. which just means that I'm losing weight! Yay!
(That is if all my ice creams, burgers and other random snacks don't set in too quickly)
Guys woke up to cook breakfast today.. Fried yesterday's macaroni with eggs and ham till slightly chao tar (Gabe and Allan's invention) and it tasted like char tao kuay. Haha. But still not filling lah.. the girls had to cook their own instant noodles after that.
Talking about that.. it's interesting how come girls (like Yiling) can eat that much. For her small size. Again talking about that.. this trip had been an amazing discovery about Susan Tan Yiling for all of us. Let me share.. do you know that....Close your jaws. We were as surprised as you are now.
- She has a monsterous appetite. She probably gets hungry faster than any of the guys in the group
- She is only a few steps away from being a Caroline.
- She is a Grade 5 Ballet Dancer.
- She is a Grade 8 Pianist.
- She got sing in front of the her whole school before.
Back to the trip.. we began by visiting the Parliament House.. but what interest me more were the colourful flowers outside the building rather than the building itself.. Wa lao eh.. this is like the first time I see so many colours naturally blooming in front of my eyes! Damn pretty sia.. wait till the photos come out...
Next stop we went to this place called the House of Terror.. the building was formerly used by the Nazis and subsequently by the Communist Party of Hungary when they were in power.. and thousands of people died within the building. Now it's a museum, but it's still an eerie place to be in thinking that so many lives were lost there. Museum-wise.. it's a fantastic exhibition.. with creative layouts and aesthetic decorations. One big drawback though -
Every Damn Thing Was In Hungarian
We didn't understand the videos.. the audio snippets.. the articles on the wall.. luckily at every exhibition room where was an A4-sized writeup in English we could read about the corresponding history behind the exhibits. And so the whole trip through the museum we just walked and glanced around while collecting these pieces of paper as 'lecture notes' reading them diligently like we were damn siao on about history like that. Some of the writeups were FOUR PAGES LONG ok?? Mai siao siao eh..
We were quite lost after the House of Terror.. cos there wasn't really anything particularly interesting to do. Headed down to this little island called Margret Island floating in the Danube River between Buda and Pest. Thought it would be this little Pulau Ubin like place for more nature stuff for a change but it turned out to be nothing interesting after all. Surprisingly the whole island was filled with KIDS!! It probably was a school holiday or something. If I had more energy I would have checked out what all the kids there were up to or why they all came to this island. But we were quite shagged out.. so we left the island after a while.
Spent the rest of the afternoon chilling at some pub before we headed down to our very atas dinner.
Yes, we made it a policy to have an atas meal at every city.. to pamper ourselves and to taste local fare. Headed down to this restaurant called Menza simply cos it was highly recommended by all the guidebooks that we had. The food was simply amazing! Especially Weijian's Roasted Duck in Mango Sauce.. wah siah.. crispy skin.. succulent meat.. tantalizing sauce.. heavenly.
Regretfully most of the food we ordered weren't authentic Hungarian food (as we realised only halfway through the meal).. So we topped me meal up with authentic Hungarian dessert! Can't rememebr what i was already but.. tasted interestingly nice. And filling. Rocks.
The night was spent strolling along the Danube River banks looking at the historical buildings of Buda illuminating in its majestic glory. Nice cool breezes accompanied by excellent scenery I must say.. a fantastic way to soak up the atmosphere of the final night in Budapest.
Damn shagged when i returned to the hostel. Plonked on my bed and slept for like 2 hours. Now I've washed up.. packed.. blogged.. and the receptionist isn't even around for me to pay for our laundry! To think I hoped he would appear earlier so that I can borrow the Sound of Music DVD to watch through the night. I'm going to Salzburg in 4 days time and I haven't watched the show.. So Disappointing!!
Oh well.. For now let's see what Youtube has to offer while I wait for the AWOL bum to appear.
Signed off at
8:50 am▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Budapest - Buda
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The day started out strange today due to a small mistake that I made.. somehow i felt its after effects continuously probing me throughout the day. Maybe I'm to sensitive.. or maybe I'm too tired. I should stop all these late night blogging. Ok. This shall be a fast one.
I can't believe I'm blogging about our cheaponehnehness but yes, we hitched on a free guided tour when we went to the Jewish Great Synagogue.. MQ, Zibin and Xiuying paid for the guided tour while the rest of us just blatantly tagged along behind while the guide was talking. Haha.. what cheats we were. But to be fair.. I wasn't really listening also. Just caught the gist of everything and somehow can't keep my eyelids open when she came to the boring historical parts of the talk. NUS trains us well to sleep during lectures.. even on holiday.
In an attempt to utilize our transport pass fully, we took a tram/bus right to Castle Hill where we had a good top view of Budapest. And what do we do there? Photowhore! The place is actually quite big.. as we spent the entire morning there.
For the 2nd day consecutively, the rain did not spare us.. forcing us to head for shelter/lunch at a chinese restaurant. And this was when I broke the 2nd of my food principles in Europe:Oh well. boh bian lah.. How to be a spoilsport and eat something else? To be fair the servings were really huge. Uncle Vincent and his merry men should never come set up a shop in Budapest. They will be stoned by the locals for being terribly giamkoo in their serving portions.
No eating MNC fast foods (Macs, KFC, Burger King)
Ate my first Macs 2 days ago after the rest of the guys dabaoed it back as our dinner...No eating Chinese food since I can cook for myself for so much cheaper.I just had my first Chinese meal in 2 days.
The next on-top-of-the-world place that we went was Gellért Hill.. where the birds eye view of Budapest itself was amazingly superb! It was a long terrible climb up.. and I guess everyone was tired.. and we didn't do the jump shots and video amidst the fantastic scenery. Sigh. What a waste.
Well, we met Hongjun in the evening and he brought us to this place for nice cheap palacintas! Palacinta is actually simply Crepe.. much smaller though.. . They tasted really good and sounded cheap initially but after serious converion.. didn't turn out to be that cheap after all. Still, had to take a photo.
Ok damn sleepy now.. In fact my eyes were drooping as i type this post. Must be the beer at the pub just now.. Going to sleep now.. Hope tomorrow will be a better day.
Signed off at
8:01 am▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Budapest - Pest
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Budapest consists of the town Buda on the west of the Danube river and Pest on the East. So today.. we explored the bigger of the 2 - Pest.
Zibin and Weijian led the way today.. refreshing change coz these 2 history students have their history-student-photographic memory and can recite the guide book's description of the places at will.. Hence my videologue of our travel escapades have a more pro emcee now.. thanks to them!
It was kinda a slow pace of travel today.. maybe because we didn't had the buffet spread we had the past few days to keep us going.. maybe we kept on stopping for food along the way.. or maybe we were still recovering from the fiasco earlier.. but still.. oh well..
Our first stop of our walking tour was the National Museum.. which we well.. just stood outside to take photos. Yes.. Europe's all about Museums and Churches none of which I'm particularly interested in.. Glad that we all shared common interest.. and photos outside the Museum were all so enough for us.. oh actually.. they were more than just ordinary photos.. (and videos) You guys will know soon. Haha.
We spent quiet a lot of time at the Market though.. it was not only a wet market where fruits and foodstuffs were sold but the top level was full of cool stuff like Eastern European toys and handicraft.. as well as the touristy catches like postcards and magnets. It was like a er.. Hungarian Mustafa Centre. Haha ok no, not that extreme.
Along the way we went to some University of Economics and pretended to be students there (who ironically can't speak a shit of Hungarian haha). Got myself a fried turkey sandwich cheap. And got ourselves a lot of freebies such as chocolate bars with rum (which seriously tasted like bananas *yucks* no wonder they were free la!) and pregnancy test kits. Yes, pregnancy test kits were given out free in Budapest universities. Makes you wonder what they do in their free time..
Well, as if we had not enough of shopping we headed down to a shopping street next where all the common franchises mushroomed along both sides of the street. As with every shopping trip so far..And then a strange thing happened.. there was a recommended atas restaurant serving good apple strudels.. so we went in.. found prices quite exhorbitant.. and some of us just walked out feeling paiseh for not ordering anything. Remember in Switzerland we got chased out by one restaurant after another for ordering nothing but cheeze fondue. But this turned out to be the start for another uneasy event later.. I guess...
- We will always stop to look at postcards
- We will always eat ice cream
- Xiuying never fails to check out her favourite H&M store.
An interesting event was that we happily stumbled into this church with its fantastic church orchestra doing its practice. Thinking that it was the Last Parish Church, some church that at some point in its history was converted into a mosque then back into a church again, we sat down happily enjoying the sweet sounds of the orcheestra while Allan as usual goes around snapping away.
Only to realise after quite some time that we were in the wrong Last Parish Church. Hahahahaa! Quite hilarious. We eventually went to the correct one.. which was much grander and mroe colourful.. but I thought I still liked the fake one better. At least got nice music. Haha.
As much as I would like to avoid going into too many churches if I can.. the St Stevens Church's greatest draw was probably the observation tower haha.. which we could.. guess what? Photowhore!!
We did more jumpshots and videos at this bridge.. forgot what it's name is called.. will update again tomorrow. Ha.
Then the dark clouds started looming.. literally... and this was when we had our first small scale disagreement within the group.. over dinner. Like.. I kinda expected this sooner or later.. but we still have yet to find a good way to resolve such issues. It's such a big group and there's bound to be different opinions throughout the trip.. more tackily so when is comes to how we spend our money.. So.. till now we all know that we have to solve this somehow.. but just don't know how/when. Or simply.. How do we throw the topic onto the table?
Heroes Square was our last stop before we split up to the bath-goers and the non-bath goers (which consist of only Weijian and Xiuying because they want to spend their own lovey dovey. Ha joking.) Heroes Square is just another but open place with lotsa statues to take photos with. Of course each statue has its own meaning and significance.. but er.. I'll read about them later. Haha.
And so we ended our day with the recommended Hungarian thermal baths.. While it was fun splashing around the hot water and playing like little kids in the pool for 2 hours.. it was quite sian to find out after coming out that...
WE WERE ONLY LIKE UTILIZING 10% OF THE ENTIRE BATH AREA!
We missed the mud baths.. the carbonic acid baths.. medicinal baths and whatever nonsense hidden in the rooms which we didn't explore.
Damn super duper sian. Makes us wanna go back for the baths again.
Oh well.. seems like we did a lot today right? But we could have done more. We missed going to the Torture Museum.. the spy museum probably sounded interesting.. the UNESCO Heritage walk was missed as well. This just means that some other day.. we would have to clear these places.
For tomorrow.. Buda!!
Signed off at
6:03 am▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Cologne
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
I'm in Budapest now.. using their ultra slow computers to blog... it's free anyway.. so i shan't complain.
It's 2am now and I just woke up.. why? Because I slept oh so early the night before.. in fact.. the afternoon before. The day before had been disasterous. Making the stupidest of all mistakes in any European travel.. we complacently went to the wrong airport in Frankfurt to catch our plane to Budapest.. only to realise that the next airport was 1 hour 45 minutes away!
And hence we tried to change our booking to another country/another later flight using the internet terminals there.. which sucked our Euros like it never tasted the coins for centuries (ever since the last group of idiots went through the same plight as us eons ago).. Turns out that we couldn't change our flight that flies out of the country on the same day itself through the internet. Worse still, due to the lousy cookie system and the layout of the website, we accidentally spent 2000+ euros in all (from my card) to change our flight to the exact one the next day!!
I had to call DBS immediately to block the card to deauthorise the transaction. WTF.
Since the bloodymoneysucking internet couldn't serve us well enough, we decided to call the airline company to change the booking through the phone. And yes, seems like all the machines in Frankfurt airport are Eurothirsty animals. The phone leeched our Euros like nobody's business as well. Worse still, their telephone operators dont speak ENGLISH!! WTH!! It took us to call a few different telephone operators to find one who could speak English. BUT STILL, we couldn't call the airline company because it was a service number aka the 1900- numbers we have back in Singapore. KNNB.
Hence we headed off to the airport to speak with the budget airline people at their booth directly.
12 euros to head to that wretched airport which we should have been.
During the journey there.. i could almost hear the jets of the plane that we missed booming pass the take off strip.
Damn stupid mistake. I really blame myself a lot for making this mistake. It's not like I don't know of the probabilty of 2 airports in a city. It's not like I've never heard of such incidents before. And I'm supposedly the more experienced Europe traveller.
Damn Damn Damn Damn Damn.
Things started to turn our a little better once we headed to that airport. We managed to change our flight to the same one the next day for only 75 Euros. And the extra one day we have in Germany, we went to Cologne. (18 Euros to and fro)
To me Cologne wasn't too bad.. just that it was a bit rowdy over there that day because their Cologne soccer team managed to kick themselves into the German league or something. Trust me, it was so exaggerating to see the whole town celebrating but they actually were donned in red and white. I must say like 90% of them were. Those who weren't were either oblivious to the soccer fraternity or tourists like us. Throughout the whole day the streets were filled with people singing victory songs at the top of their voices.. waving flags of their Cologne team.. doing crazy things.. and of course.. the places with the greatest intensity of these victorious sentiments were the pubs were these people watched the match with beers in their hands.
We spend most of our time at the Chocolate Museum.. Why is there a chocolate museum at Cologne? I don't know. But i was cool to see how the chocolate is processed.. though I've seen almost the same thing at the Cadbury factory before.. but oh well. Chocolate brings out the kids in us. Haha. Bought chocolate liquor. Interesting right? It's superbly nice. Bug me for it when i get back.
The Rhine river is nice and beautiful. Enjoyed a nice walk down the river.
There's this huge catherdral in Cologne which is super grand and super gothic. Too bad we couldn't go inside coz it was closed by the time we are done with the Chocolate museum. That didnt stop us from taking more jump shots and stupid videos there. Anyway.. since all of us aren't Christians, we woudlnt' have missed much anyway.
By nightfall, the streets were getting rowdy and dangerous. People were drunk and getting themselves injured. The howling and singing still kept ringing on the streets. We were tired, wary and just wanted to get back to the airport. We spent the last few hours in Cologne in trusty ol Macdonalds while we waited for our bus to pick us up back to the airport.. where we spent the night there.. yes, sleeping in the floor.. all lokkokked and shagged out.
And here we finally are, in Budapest. The whole day was spent virtually doing nothing. What a waste. Seriously.
But I think everyone got the rest we needed from this fiasco.
30 more days.
MAKE IT COUNT!!
Signed off at
7:57 am▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Heidelberg
Monday, May 12, 2008
3 days in Frankfurt is definitely an overkill. Luckily we managed to find a cheap rail ticket to this old town of Heidelberg where Chongwee highly recommended us to go.
We checked out the Frankfurt Flea market in the morning. Had to coz they only have flea markets every saturday. By 9am the riverside was bustling with traders trying to sell away their old stuff. Quite interesting. But we couldn't stay for long.. coz we had a train to catch.
And we were almost late for our train so we had to runnnnn!! Haha. Exciting.
Heidelberg is a small university town.. but it's like 5 times more touristy than Frankfurt. Went up the old castle where we had a nice view of the city.. and the Nectar River that spans the city. This view came at a price though.. it was a death defying 30deg slope climb up to the hilltop where the castle resided. The cobbled stones made it worse. But it was worth it.
The castle was just like any castle lor. Some of it was in ruins alraedy coz according to Lonely Planet it was remnants from bombings from WWI.
Had lunch on the grass (yes, frolicking in the grass) before we took a few more videos and jump shots and descended the castle grounds.
The sun was super scorching but the winds were super cool we couldn't resist not walking. Haha. So the guys did our guy thing by sitting in this outdoor cafe drinking German beer while the girls did their girl thing by going around shopping for touristy gifts. This is called Enjoying-Life-To-The-Max.
Walking down the main streets of Heidelberg tired us out even more.. so we skipped the Philosophers Walk, had dinner at some Fast Food outlet serving fish (that cost the same price as the 1st nights dinner) and headed back to Frankfurt.
Signed off at
9:08 am▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Frankfurt
Saturday, May 10, 2008
3 days in Frankfurt is definitely an overkill. Frankfurt is the Shenton Way of Germany. Financial hub. Business district. Touristy-nilch.
Day 1
After touching down and smooth passage through the customs, we found our hostel all too easily and was greeted with fantastic first impression of our hostel. Techinically, it was a Hotel. Private rooms, private toilets, buffet continental breakfast.. even a TV in each of our rooms. Sweet.The first day was spent walking around aimlessly in Frankfurt. We visited this old town called Rohmer.. probably the only tinge of history left in this commercial place. After which we went to this Botanic gardens called the Palmengarten which was closed. So we spent the afternoon walking around the adjacent park beside it.. which was nothing much. Just that European grass is so lushous and green and juicy and oh so delicious. I coined the term 'frolicking in the grass' which would come to be used much in the trip. Haha.
We hollanded in the park. Took long before we found a way out.. took a metro to beside the Main River. And had dinner on a boat. Sounds atas? Well, actually the food didn't cost much. But the ambience was good. The weather was fantastic. And guess what? The sun sets at 9.30pm! That's like a whole lot of sunlight!!I love summer. (that's without the capital S you assholes)
Day 2
Probably the best 3 Euros I have spent so far was on going up the observation tower on the Main Building in Frankfurt where we could see a birds eye view of the whole city 200m above it. We spent the whole morning there. Whole morning! Can ya believe it? And what did we do? Snapping picture.. jumping shots.. random shots.. zi pai shots.. stupid videos. Celebrating the Singaporean camera culture.Weijian and Meiqiang joined us in the afternoon. The afternoon was spent strolling along the main shopping areas of Frankfurt. Ok, they weren't really like shopping areas coz the things there are not worth buying at all. So expensive and not nice. Haha. It was only until we reached the Zeil when we suddenly saw like more of the Frankfurt population than we ever saw in the last 24 hours. Like the whole Frankfurt was there!
Zeil is like the Orchard road of Frankfurt.. like Regent Street of London or Diagon Alley in.. London? Haha. The street was filled with buskers, children.. Oh yes children. Did I mention that I never saw like a single kid/baby until Zeil? I wonder where they were all hiding previously. The girls broke off to do their girly shopping while the guys just walked around. Had more bratwurst aka Gernan Sausage and ice cream while we waited for the girls to be done with their H&M.It was atas dinner night. Every city we will try to have an Atas Dinner night.. where we just splurge on authentic local fare. Adolf Wagner is a place highly recommended by Lonely Planet and our hotel reception. So there we were where I had the best Pork Knuckles yet. Yum yum. Fatty and Crispy on the outside and juicy and tender on the inside. The potatoes were interesting too. And it wasn't terribly expensive. Compared to dinner the night before.. it only costs a little more.. but the food was so so much better.
We were approached by 2 Bachelor party groups during dinner. Germans have special way of celebrating the night before marriage. They go out and saboh the would-be groom. One of them asked us to give him money to snip off a piece of his pants. Another one got 1 euro from us to bite a piece of gummy candy safety pinned to his shirt. Xiuying didn't bite it off. She just removed the pin. Kayping ate the candy. Haha.The table beside us taught us how to toast in German. In return we taught them how to Yam Seng. And they had so much fun! Yes, cultural exchange rocks.
No photos sorry. Check back again later. I'll decorate the posts with pictures once we get the chance to upload them.
Signed off at
8:37 am▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
FINALLY OFFICIALLY UNEMPLOYED
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
So this is it... finished my last paper of my life. I thought I'd be super duper happy but it just feels like any other last paper of the semester.
I guess the difference is that in the past what lay ahead of the submitting the final examination paper is a few months of slackness while this time.. what looms ahead is a shroudy cloud of dunno-what-is-going-to-happen-next.
Whatever it is.. let all my worries set in again after I come back from my long awaited Grad Trip!!
A few customary posts.. in chronological order..
Block Comm Treat
From Block Comm 04...
Finally yeah Francis Yeo Boon Leong.. he finally treated us after much bugging. I was in Block Comm in Year 1 and now Year 4 already then he treat!! But it was great that everyone turned up. Too bad we couldn't get to Arts House Timbre.. still.. As Matt said.. the agenda is the people not the food.. =)
Year4Fun Last Supper
From Year4Fun Last...
2nd day into reading week and what do silly boliao Year4s do? Organise farewell supper for ourselves. $10 and we get to indulge in a whole spread of Uncle Vincent food! (supper standard, not dinner)
Actually it's a great batch.. It's amazing how so many of us are still staying in hall after 4 freaking years.. Still miss those post-SWOC year 2/year 3 days when we are much closer to each other.. do crazy things.. even play Maple.. haha. Now Year 4 already everyone just hides in their rooms/blocks with their boyfriends and girlfriends and FYP.. strange how friendships work eh? I guess we all have to go on leading our own lives now.. what a sad though. Though now we all aren't superdupersuckcockbuddykickass friends.. i sure do feel closer to them than say.. Chem Engine people.
It's just the hall spirit I guess.
Food Hotel Asia
From Food and Hote...
So Kayping's mom got us into this Food Hotel Asia exhibition which showcases a hell lost of food! It's actually not a food exhibition but an exhibition for kitchen equipment and hoteliers to trade and network.. but of course how can kitchen equipment be sold without chefs to demo on the equipment?
Which leads to gluttony free-loaders like us poor students to scavenge on the free food.. haha.
Mayday Concert
Ever since Chye recommended Mayday to us years ago.. say.. during Army? I never really became a die hard fan.. not until I realise I only can sing their songs during karaoke.. not only till I discovered my music preference to incline towards soft rock/rock pop like Queen and Nickelback.. that I started to realise that deep down inside.. I'm already a rooted Mayday fan.
And hence when the opportunity came I jumped to their concert!
From 五月天《回到地球表面》演唱会
Fantastic stage effects.. lighting.. and the 360 stage thing was rather cool as well. Though in the beginning they sang their older songs which we had to kek high but I swear towards the end their hits saved the day. I was literally tearing when they sang 温柔（还你自由版）with all the bright lights shining and all.. the last time I teared was during We Will Rock You the Musical's We Are the Champions in London.
Seriously, listen to it. Blast your speakers out...
The crazy fans.. Mayday Rocks!
From 五月天《回到地球表面》演唱会
Though I liked their previous concert album better.. the money paid for the seats were worth it. Definitely definitely going to the next one!!
In the meantime.. addicted to this playlist.. haha
All right then.. less than 2 days before I hit off to Changi airport and land myself in the other part of the world again!
How exciting!!
Signed off at
4:02 am▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
|
|
