How often do you get a negative amount on your bank balance?
Friday, June 27, 2008
When I couldn't use NETS to pay for the rental of my Commencement Gown just now, I thought I should check my bank account. True, I'm unemployed right now, but I'm certainly not penniless.. until I saw...
What happened was when I was in Greece, their credit card machine cocked up and hence didn't charge our payment. Since the debt was subsequently erased off my ledger balance, I assumed that they will never charge me again and didn't prepare my bank account for this deduction.
Well, it's time to hound people for money before the DBS comes knocking on my door... haha.
Signed off at 3:35 am
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OMG don't blame me if I get excited over this release because
It was a FANTASTIC feel-good musical I watched in London!! Definitely the most memorable one (after We Will Rock You).. and it's cool to see familiarities in the musical translated to the Big Screen
ABBA Songs are SENSATIONAL!!
The movie was filmed in GREECE!! The blue sea, the white buildings, the breathtaking scenery.. whoaaaaa....
This is the best 'adaption' of the actual musical yet.. screw the skewed screen.
Don't know when they will ever screen this in Singapore. Kid, if you are going to watch this in UK bring a video cam in.
Signed off at 2:41 am
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Woes
Thursday, June 19, 2008
As much as I should complete my travelogues about Santorini, Berlin, Salzburg soon.. I can't seem to get my ass to do it. There seem to be so many important things to do.
I've rearranged my room for better fengshui (I hope), recovered and repaired my Europe videos and photos, sorted them, getting my laptop & hard disk in order,went out consecutively 4 days for lunch and working on my job hunt. Job hunting is a pain in the ass. Shooting out resumes with totally no reply is terribly demoralising. 6 weeks ago I shot out 1 round or resumes with totally no reply. Now I'm doing the same sequence again. And it doesn't help that there are no good offers in the newspaper ads.
So the questions still comes.. is what I want out of a job more important or is money (or to put it fancifully.. financial freedom) more important?
If only I can walk up to HR managers and shuff my resume in their face to demand an interview on the spot. An interview - that's all I need. But I'm not even getting it.
As for the travelogue, I'll get to it. Ernest is right.. the more I put it off.. the more the distant the experience acccounting will be.
Signed off at 2:35 am
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Athens Revisited
Monday, June 09, 2008
This is going to be a short post because all we did today was chiong all the Athens attractions. From the Zeus Temple.. ..to the Panathenaic.. ..to the Agora.. ..to the Hephaisteion.. ..to the Keramikos.. actually only Gabe and I went in because by then everyone was tired already and just wanted to nuaah... haha ..to Socrates Prison.. again only Gabe and I went.. to our horrible dismay it has NOTHING TO DO WITH SOCRATES AT ALL!! KNS.. waste our time.. ..to catching our flight to our last destination - Berlin
Signed off at 2:36 am
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Santorini to Athens
Sunday, June 08, 2008
This is probably the most expensive post ever because I'm paying 2 Euros for half an hour of internet. But I can't wait anymore because the longer I wait.. the less I can describe how wonderful Greece is. I'll see how much I can type in this half an hour...
Back in Athens from Santorini now.. Today has been quite a disappointing day. Basically there are 3 beaches in this Greek island.. the Red, White and Black Beach. Having a ferry to catch at 3pm.. and that the buses don't run to the red and white beaches as often.. we decided to nuah only at the more famous Black beach.
Black beach, well, has black sand. Black volcanic sand which we all kopped some back. Haha. So if you received nicely decorated bottles with black stuff inside, yes, they are all DIY presents. But hey.. it's authentic Greek Santorini Kamari Beach Black Sand.
We didn't suntan under the sun chairs and the umbrellas for long before this guy came and demanded 6 euros from us for using their 'facilities'. Hmph.. I would pay if I were there the whole day but he didn't give us any discount for just another 1.5 hours of nuahhing at the beach using 'their facilities'. Fine. We left back to our hostel. I dunno about the rest.. but I was highly sianned that we did not get to enjoy the beach. After all.. the Greek beaches are famous........ At least we got to see a topless sunbather..
Headed back to the hostel.. swam in their pool.. before we took the 6 hour ferry back to Athens.
Totally boring 6 hours.....
Now I'm back in this hostel.. where they split us up into 5 and 1.. So I decided to be the lone ranger and sleep alone in another dorm. Which wah lao eh.. was damn smelly and hot when I went in! It was like saturated sweat smell and the windows were not open!! In the dark I only could make out half naked ang moh guys sleeping on the bed. Yes, so now I'm making myself comfortable in the mezzanine level just above the reception and spending the night there.. alone.. but well.. definitely no smell and much cooler.
Heard a bunch of Singlish speaking people checking in just now. Didn't have a chance to talk to them. Hope to see them tomorrow. Hehe. It's always nice to hear the accent overseas. =)
Signed off at 6:48 am
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Santorini
Saturday, June 07, 2008
The 7am ferry meant sacrifices.. sacrificing sleep (especially after a late night talk cock session on Filapipos Hill) and sacrificing breakfast (which was included in our hostel price). But well, this is travelling.
It was a bloody 7 hour ferry ride.. and when we got on the ferry all of us just concussed. Seriously.. We only had a table to ourselves and we all just slapped on the table like dead rabbits for a good 3 hours at least.. while the rest of the world whirred past us.. people sunbathing on the decks.. groups playing cards.. kids running around.. all we wanted was to enjoy our well deserved sleeeeep. The ferry was kinda cool though.. like your typical cruise ship just that everything isn't exhorbitantly charged.. oh except the wireless internet.. 9 Euros for an hour! Crazy madness.
3pm and we docked at our destination - SANTORINI!!
Guess what was the first thing that greeted us? The sea! Duh.. THE BLUUUEEE SEA!!!!
Goodness I've never seen water this BLUE before. We were exclaiming like kiddish swakooks like we never saw water before.Hustling amongst all the locals holding placards advertising for their hostels.. I tried my luck asking one of them how to get to the one that we had already booked online - Manos Villa. And to my surprise he enthusiastically pointed me to this guy standing behind holding a card showing well 'Manos Villa'.
They actually provide FREE FERRY SERVICE to the hostel! OMG!
What was even more wet was that because we booked last minute (the day before) he didn't expect us to be there and he didn't cater for a bigger van. So he actually
MADE ANOTHER TRIP BACK TO FETCH US!
Wow.. We were like how grateful! So while waiting we snapped photos.. while figuring out what to do on the island. For a moment renting vans and scooters sounded too interesting to be true.
The most memorable part about Santorini (apart from the sunset the beaches the fantastic weather the food the price the view the hot springs the volcano the view the fastastic view the superb view and the people) was probably the owner of the hostel itself. THEY WERE SOOOO NICE! Gave us a welcome glass of red wine each.. talked to us oh so earnestly about the hostel and Santorini and where to go and which tours to take and was just so so nice! I was like touched to tears can? So touched we even wanted to stay one more day in Santorini... Well.. the day wasn't spent doing much.. just splashing around in the pool in the hostel.. then went to the town of Fira for dinner.. which once again.. the waiter displayed splended Greek hospitality that we were once again so touched we just had to take photo with him. Boy I love Greece!!
The next day we embarked on the tour we paid for.. it's a one-day-round-Santorini-bao-kah-liao thing. The usual climb the highest point take panoramic photos.. history of Santorini stuff in the earlier part of the day. Intersting thing about the buildings here is that they are all painted WHITE.. with BLUE domed shape roofs! Cute huh? The whole of the afternoon was spent on the boat cruising around the islands.. First we went to this dormant volcano which yeah.. once again.. we climbed our lives out to the peak of each crater.. hoping to see molten lava bubbling in front of us but no. Of course the view was fantastic as usual. =) Next was the highlight of the boat trip.. HOT SPRINGS!! But..
Wah lao the swim to the "hot springs" was a killer lor.. Everyone plunged into the icy cold water and swam biathlon style towards the springs. It was really a mad swim that drained the energy out of me. Heng I got biathlon experience otherwise swimming in the open sea wil just drown me.
And the so called hot springs was like LUKEWARM water lor. Biangz! Risk our lives to swim there for that 20+deg water? The Budapest ones were so much hotter. But of course.. there was real mud this time la.. haha quite fun to play. At least for me. The rest weren't really impressed with having mud slapped on them.
The death swim back was really a killer. Allan and I were struggling to keep Yiling alive as we paddled against the current to the beckoning ferry. Lucky the rescue boat came and rescued everyone to safety. SHAAAGGGGGGGGG!!!!!
The next highlight was probably chopping seats for the Sunset-of-the-lifetime at Oia. Allan and I went scouting around the tip of Oia for the best place to watch the perfect sunset. Oh well.. I suppose we did find the perfect spots and let Allan Photography do all the talking.... For records sake.. the we spent the night walking around Fira.. where there was supposed to have a whole lot of nightlife. Well.. nothing much.
Signed off at 12:58 am
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GREECE ROCKS!!!
Friday, June 06, 2008
The airport was wonderful! Dunno if it was a budget airport or not.. but for a budget plane landing there.. we didn't have to alight at the airport parking lot (aka the tunnel thing Changi Airport has which brings us straight into the building), the luggage collecting system was quick and efficient, there was DRINKING WATER! And there was cheap 24 hour access to the city.
The people here are EXTREMELY FRIENDLY! OMG for like FIVE times in just 2 days strangers on the streets will just direct us to where we want to go ON THEIR OWN ACCORD. We just have to look lost with a map and someone will come to us and say "Hi where do you want to go? Can I help you?" No questions asked and no other demands after that. Whoa. Can we ever get that in Singapore?
The souvenirs are nicer and more reasonably priced.
The gyros here are so much nicer than those we have ever eaten. And so much cheaper! I gyros probably cost about less than 2 Euros while previously we would have forked out 6 euros.
Signed off at 7:34 am
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Touched down at 2am in the morning.. was supposed to spend the night at the airport assuming that there would be no decent traffic to the city centre.. but hey! There was an airport bus! So we took it hoping that we could at least spend the night in the hostel lounge...
When we arrived the receptionist was surprised to see us (obviously since we didn't book for that night) and told us to take a rest at the mezzanine level.. which is some makeshift level between the first and the second.. where all the sofas are.
Ah! Then he tells us that since we didn't book the night we he'd have to charge us for staying at the mezzanine level for.. 10 euros per person!! Whoa!! Stunning!!! I mean like it was only another few hours more to daylight and we have to pay for sleeping on their couches?? Ok, to give it to him.. he looked damn sorry about having to charge us but he said that he couldn't explain to his boss for letting strangers stay overnight blah blah blah... He's probably some temp worker trying to keep his job la.
We didn't stay la of course. He recommended some 24 hours restaurant to us which we stayed for pizza. And recommended this place called 'The Rock' near the Acropolis which we could gave a great view of the city.
And boy was it FANTASTICALLY SUPERB VIEW!!! When I finally climbed up I gasped out a WTF (the actual words) and the view was truly BREATHTAKING!!! Whoa.. great recommendation by that guy man... and the best part of it was that the view was FREE! Wow.. Stood up there.. took photos.. enjoyed the breeze.. watched the sun rise up from beneath the mountains.. and I just fell asleep on the rocks... Shiok. Enjoy life. Sweet.
7am and the wind was getting stronger and colder.. though the sun climbed higher up into the sky. We decided to head down to the Acropolis and be the first ones to enter.. and beat the tourists to the photo-taking sites. Haha.
Photos after photos after photos.. the lack of sleep the night before took the toll on us and we went back to the hostel.
Ah, we were greeted by a different person now. She allowed us to have breakfast even if we weren't staying the night before.. but we were too full (from the pizza) to have any. While the rest collapsed in the dining area/mezzanine.. Gabe and I was talking to this Singaporean guy who had already been in Greece for 11 days! And he was enthusiastically showing us photos of his expeditions to the different Greek islands... which were like.. wow. There and then, Gabe and I decided that 5 days in Athens was way an overkill.. and decided to make plans for a trip to another island in this country.
The options were narrowed down to
Santorini - A beautiful volcanic island with great beaches and a supposedly stunning sunset
(Forgotthename) - Temples on the built on peaks on hills. Exotic and interestingly nice
Mykonos - Party place with great nightlife and well.. nude beaches
Santorini won by popular vote. And it was a mad rush of cancelling our hostel in Athens, booking a hostel in Santorini, booking ferry tickets to Santorini, checking in (FINALLY) into our hostel.. and sleeeeeeeeeeeppppp.
Did I mention that this hostel is damn anal about only being able to check in at 1.30pm? Well, we would very much like to check in EARLIER but we couldn't.
The night was spending walking around the little part of Athens called Plaka.. sort of their answer to their Old Town.. but well.. not very much la. Then we climbed up this hill call Fila(forgotname) which gave us yet another great view of the city and the Acropolis this time.. which glowed magically in the night sky. We missed the sunset this time.. but the night scene was equally beautiful. Photo taking.. then we stayed on the hill top talking cock till late. Great time spent there.
"10 years time, let's meet back here.. on this very hilltop."
I love Greece. Let's really meet back here 10 years down the road. =)
Signed off at 7:02 am
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Warsaw
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
I tihnk this is probably the most screwed up day of the whole Europe trip so far. Angsty moods for some for a start.. and everything that happened seemed to make things worse.
We walked a hell a lot. Warsaw is not small like Krakow or Wroclaw.. and for the fact that our hostel is far away from many of the attractions.. like the Old Town and the Palace. The palace was well.. mediocre and not worth visiting I think. And the Old Town Square was small and well.. yeah. That's all. The only cool thing about the Square was this statue of a mermaid in the centre which has water gushing out from below. Kids were frolicking around in the water. Cool. Yeah.. I took off my sandles and had a play in the water too...
Ironically.. after walking so far to the attractions place.. there was no cheap good food there. Finally settled for this place recommended by some travel booklet that quoted reasonable prices for Polish Food. Well.. it turned out to be reasonable only by atas standards. Yiling was exceptionally pissed. She paid S$12 for a piece of chicken so small it couldn't last her an hours walk away from the restaurant. And the beetroot soup she paid S$6 for tasted like.. well.. Salty and sweet ribena. Seriously the most not-worth-it meal we ever had so far.
There was this so called 'Best Museum in Poland' i.e. the Warsaw Uprising Museum which we had planned to visit only tomorrow because we planned to buy the Day Travel Pass (it's rather far away) since we have to take a bus to the airport tomorrow anyway. Ah! And we found out at 3.30pm that the Museum is closed on Tuesdays! TMD. So we rushed down to the Museum which was.. a good 30-45 mins WALK away.
Decided to take a bus. Buying the bus tickets was a hassle as we had walk to 3 different newspaper stands before we could get our tickets. Finding out which bus leads to the Museum was another mystery we had to crack. And here's the event that spoilt the day..
We got on to this particular bus which according to the route should bring us to near the museum.. pointed out the Museum on the map to the bus driver to ask if he would be travelling there and he shook his head. Only me and kp was on the bus then. Kp was sure that the bus travelled the road near the museum. So I pointed to the whole stretch of road and asked if the bus travelled there.. the kanninah bus driver uttered a whole lot of Polish to me
AND HE CLOSED THE BUS DOORS ON ALLAN WHO WAS STANDING ON THE STEPS!!!
PIECE OF SHIT!!
Ok.. so we made the decision to take the risk and board the bus.. since we bought the tickets anyway.. so immediately after Allan boarded the bus fully..
THE FUCKER SLAMMED THE DOORS SHUT!! Leaving Gabe, Weijian and Yiling outside the doors and drove off.
WTF!
We were so pissed we got off at the next stop, linked up with the rest, and walked all the way to the Museum.
I still didn't think I was wrong in any way to ask the bus driver for confirmation even though I know he probably wouldn't understand English.
We arrived at the museum at 5pm. The museum closed at 6. Lucky it costs only 2zlt for students. The layout of the museum was strange also. We were supposed to travel from the first level to the THIRD level then end off at the second. The signs were unclearly marked except for the Instructions at the side of the main entrance which most of us clearly missed in our haste to enter the Museum. Yes.. I got seriously confused doing the first.. then second.. then third level.
Oh well.. given more time.. it would have been a good museum.
I screwed up at dinner too. Too ambitious to cook 3 packets of spagetthi at once in a big pit and inadequate stirring resulted in burnt pasta. Sianz. I was damn sian. And remember.. no butter in Pasta.
I treasure certain friendships and certainly won't let a lousy day like this screw it up.
Signed off at 7:23 am
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Wroclaw to Warsaw
Monday, June 02, 2008
Lemme see.. kinda short day in Wroclaw on the second day.. kinda coz there's nothing much left to do..
Woke up with a bit of stomachache + laosai.. could have been anything.. The dubious tap water I drank? The strange tasting free bread with cheese given free with the caramel beer? The next 2 cans of beer that I drank when back in hostel which was having a little party? The shot of Polish (damn spicy) Vodka which I downed with a drunk Southern English guy? Or a concoction of all these rubbish. Took carbon tablets and the symptoms didn't knock again till night time.
Went gnome hunting again. Found a map which pinpointed locations of MORE gnomes! Haha. In the morning with Kayping.. who wanted to go to the University anyway to look at their halls.. as in MPSH type of halls. Well.. yeah they were really decorated. Dunno spend so much money decorate for what? Crazy. I couldn't find the gnome at the university though. Damn sian. Even the university pple didn't know where it was. So had to give it up.
Found a few more before heading back to the hostel to cook maggie mee for lunch.
After lunch I detoured from the rest of the group who were on the way to the train station to look for my last 2 gnomes dotted on the map.. of which I couldn only find one. Sianz. If I didn't ahve a train to catch I would definitely have hunted down the last creature down.
The train to Warsaw was much more high class than the one we took to Wroclaw. But our enjoyment was short-lived (as we didn't reserve our seats).. and was chased away by those who did. While the rest ended up seating on the normal seats (not cabins like we were used to.. but seats like you know.. SBS bus type of seats).. Weijian and I stood in the middle of 2 carriages.. Ok for me coz I was playing this golf game on my hp..
Same Nathan's Villa Hostel in Warsaw (and Wroclaw) but the standard was way lower. Had a room that was far away from the reception and and no wireless in the room! So sad.. well.. but the interesting and coincidental thing was...
We are staying in Block D (in the hostel, yes)!
Signed off at 7:08 am
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Wroclaw
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Just so happened that the Old Town Square in Wroclaw (pronounced as VroSlaV) is hosting this mega event that has uber huge stage effects and lotsa little stalls and street performances and continuous booming music for the whole 2 days that we are here. The old town square is the biggest I have ever seen so far and the surrounding buildings are the nicest so far and hence brings to the conclusion that
WROCLAW ROCKS BIG TIME!!
Ok to be fair.. maybe without the event it would probably be like Krakow.. the buskers performance are about the same (good) standard but well.. comparing just the Old Town Squares.. Wroclaw's is better.
We kinda cleared Wroclaw in one day.. went to see churches and museums as usual.. Saturday was National Museum free entrance day so we just went in (usually we would just miss it w/o even thinking haha..) Went to this panorama museum thing which had this super huge panoramic painting of some Battle of Polish and Russian Armies in the 17th century and it was EPIC. It was like standing in the middle of the battlefield. Thanks to the superb audio guide which brought us through part by part of the painting.. the whole experience was like watching a movie unfold all around you.. short of the soldiers actually moving.
The interesting part of this little city of Wroclaw is that there are little (and I mean little.. about 30cm in height) gnomes hiding around the city. There are 15 of them actually and they could be just about anywhere.. sitting on benches.. climbing on lampposts.. sitting by flower beds and it was sort of a toursits' challange to find them. If you want to know, you can click here to find out why the gnomes were there in the first place (more than just tourist gimmicks).
I was super enthusiastic about searching for all the gnomes but the rest of them wanted to nuahh at some coffee place. So ok lor.. I went gnome hunting all by myself!
Thanks to the travel guide which pointed out where the gnomes were.. I didn't have to turn the whole city upside down to search for these little creatures. Getting to the streets pointed out by the guide was easy.. ohohoho.. searching for these little assholes when i got there weren't easy at all. The hardest to find was this gnome hiding by the river side washing his boots!! I really had a hard time finding him that little slime. Oh well.. wait till photos come out ba!
Dinner was this Polish dinner thing at some restaurant that had happy hour. It was HALF PRICE and they charged for food by the KILOGRAM!! Whoa I had super uber a lot of food for like 11pzt (about S$7!!) Rocks my socks.
The best ending to the night was trying this Caramel Beer self-brewed by one of the local pubs. Whoa seriously the best thing I ever had. Sweet beer! Smells good, tastes good and oh so smoooooth. Wonderful stuff. Definitely going there again tomorrow. Haha.
..to the Panathenaic..
..to the Agora..
..to the Hephaisteion..
..to the Keramikos.. actually only Gabe and I went in because by then everyone was tired already and just wanted to nuaah... haha
..to Socrates Prison.. again only Gabe and I went.. to our horrible dismay it has NOTHING TO DO WITH SOCRATES AT ALL!! KNS.. waste our time..
..to catching our flight to our last destination - Berlin
