A little pictorial journey

Second Last Stop: PRAHA

2008-03-26T22:31:00.000-07:00

This part of the journey almost got cancelled. Cuz dad developed a rash from sun exposure etc... and seemed rather uncomfortable... Fortunately, the cream we bought from a pharmacy in Bratislava helped.

Just remembered this clip I saw from Eurotrip... when they got sent to Bratislava... my photos of Bratislava is nothing like the movie setting.. ahaha dont know which suburb they visited. It's not that cheap either. =P

Okay back to the point. PRAGUE, Czech Republic. I think in Eastern European parts, they call it Praha. (There's a Praga in Poland... so not to be confused with that) With 2 days to spare, we decided to spend our time in Prague and abandon plans to visit Cesky Krumlov. (Zhimin said it's really nice... so maybe... ONE day... I might return =))

The history of Prague is really interesting - with connections to Luxembourg dynasty and eventually to House of Habsburg as well. hehe Seems like not many places in Europe are left untouched by Habsburg.

Street scenes.

Picture 1 reminded me of "Buy a brick, block a cow" fund-raising we did for Tumkur. The bricks in that picture are also for fund-raising.

You'll also see pictures of puppets being sold in stalls and shops. hehe THey are really well made! There are even witches on broom sticks that go "hyak hyak hyak" when you press a button or something. grin I wanted to get that for Aldwin, but I guess it's bulky and don't know what he'll think of it. hahaa Got him a top instead.

Hmm... what else.. the market also sold fruits and sweets. AND very thoughtfully included a tap that you can also see in the pictures. =))

hee I like things that are suspended mid-air. I think there were so many other pictures I've taken elsewhere with things suspended mid-air. =) OH! And whoever thinks Eastern Europe is backward... they have Crumpler too k!

This is my favourite part of Prague. Hehehe I want such a clock!!! =)

This is the Astronomical clock in Stare Mesto (Old town square). Every hour, there will be a mini procession in the clock. You see 2 little windows above the main clock? hehe Those will open and then you can see little figures parading within the windows.

The last picture is actually a postcard of the clock. I really really love the clock! =)

ZM, when you do your exchange in Netherlands, you HAVE to visit Prague!

Well.. Eastern Europe is characterized by music rather than drama. We attended a concert at the little concert hall. There was a mini organ and a harp. Among the many pieces they played for us, there is one particular piece I liked =) That's Bedrich Smetana's Die Moldau. It's really appropriate cuz this was his birthplace. And he was writing about the river Vltava that we saw flowing through Prague. Sigh... if you get a chance, you absolutely have to go and listen!

See? The river Vltava and Charles Bridge (Karlův most). The amount of activity going on on Charles Bridge is amazing. Cuz on one street, the traffic flow is huge... you see street musicians with all kinds of musical instruments, people actually standing around to listen to them, there are stalls selling handicraft items and handmade earrings and artists doing portraits etc... Bustling with life literally. =P

A bit of background on Charles Bridge. It links Old town with New town and is protected by 3 bridge towers, 2 on the Lesser Quarter side and 1 on Old town side. Hehe I took a picture of dad on level 2 of the Old town tower from the bridge. But it's kinda dark so I didnt post it up.

This bridge is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 statues and statuaries, most of them baroque-style (1700). It's considered to be one of the most astonishing civil gothic-style buildings in the world. Really really amazing!

This is one of the more 'famous' statuary.
Background: It's the statue of John of Nepomuk. In March 1393, he was thrown into the river Vltava from the Charles Bridge at the behest of Wenceslaus, King of Romans and King of Bohemia. I seriously have no idea about the specifics. But dad and I parked ourselves opposite the statue and watched tourists come one after another to touch the golden parts of the statue. haha NOBODY really knows why they're touching it.. but it's a chain reaction - you see others touching, so you inch forward to try to touch it too... even if you don't know why and so on. hehe 20 touches / minute. hahaha Very very fascinating study.

This is a random collage. Some taken on the bridge. Others taken at Prague Castle on the other side of the bridge. Can't remember how many flight of stairs we had to climb to reach it.

Motifs on the gate. =))

Another random collage of a photo collection. Mostly of the Prague Castle side.

Food! =) We ate one of our lunches in a fancy restaurant on the square - where even mineral water costs a lot.

Transport. =) I think this was quite an experience for dad.

Next post on Mikolajki, Poland!

Bratislava - Capital of Slovakia!

2007-11-20T08:31:00.000-08:00

Finally we arrive at the Bratislava post. Isn't one of my favorite places. hehe cuz it's a city... so a little more dusty... & dad was having a rash from the sun. So I don't think he was very comfortable. However, he's a better sport than I am... so it didn't stop him from enjoying himself. On hindsight... I wish I was nicer. Less grumpy and all. Mostly, I wish he was with me at the beginning of my exchange when I haven't yet tired of traveling. And we could explore the places and procedures together... hm..

Well This is our hostel. My only gripe is that it's next to a major road - so it was rather noisy even at night. But I sleep well anywhere la. haha Dad had a sudden tummyache. So i put the sheets on for both of us. There. Nice and cosy.

We got lost on our way to the city. Cuz of a road name that was similar to the one that we were supposed to turn left yet. Ironically, I was the grumpy one after having taken the wrong turn :( Oh well. we got it right eventually and never got lost there again. I have no idea why I didn't have proper pictures of the streets + tram tracks in the city center... maybe cuz we went to get cream for dad's rash straight away... But that street reminded me a little of a more bustling and city-like Cambridge. Not as quaint though.

Bratislava, like most major cities in Europe, has a river flowing through it... The Danube in this case =) haha but the river ride to Devin castle is too long. and boring. Grin dad was probably a little bored with insufficient activities... so he suggested the river ride. Oh well.. more about it later..

Sights of the city. The concert hall, a globe fountain, evil mentos advert and yellow pages in slovak? =) The power of icons. hehe I knew Yellow Pages instantly.

Art in the city. =) Bottom Left: Mozart w his clavi-chord. Bottom Right: a graffiti depicting a little boy with a cap leaping from point to point - path traced. hehe I loved it!

Gothic parts of the city and its main church + a few misc.

Had to cross a busy road and walk uphill to this castle. I'm sorry I'm not terribly informative at this point but it's difficult to be after so many months. hehS makes a great case for blogging upon returning. In any case, we had to stop by the foot of the uphill path because there were two roads ahead. The lady at the bar was nice enough to point us in the right direction =) So here we are and there happened to be some VIPs around hence the guards.

1st. I liked the gate motif very much. 2nd. The view reminded me of Singapore. It was unfortunate dad was traveling with the me who was missing home tremendously...

Another motif I liked a great deal. This was a building that looked somewhat abandoned. There were paintings of people at each window however - as if depicting personalities living in each quarter. Thought it was a pretty cool thing to do.

Streets of Bratislava. The cobblestone path that I was just beginning to take forgranted.. the greyish stone buildings of history. The graffiti on the walls. Dad looking up at I'm not sure what.. =P

And we took the boat ride to Devin Castle. Truly, the ride wasnt much. But the castle on Devin Island more than make up for it. =) It was again another not-so-easy-to-locate-place. We followed other groups of people who seem a little less clueless, glanced at maps that we don't exactly comprehend - grin ya and dad said it's easy to read maps. hahaha NOT ALL MAPS ARE USER-FRIENDLY! In any case... we got to the vicinity of the castle. LOoK!

Er. Yeah. Dad was still fascinated by plants, trees and fruits in particular at this point. =) He wilingly trudged across wet grass patches to reach these trees for close up shots. hehe If we lived in a suitable climate and a suitable place, we would have fruit trees in our garden.

There. The castle and its surroundings. I thought it was all very pretty... We didn't have much time before we had to leave by the next boat. But I guess it's enough to explore the charming little place.

Quite off tangent here. But here's food eaten at Bratislava. No we didnt Eat Tesco. We got our supplies from there. hee Bratislava hostel - being a city hostel - didnt have perks like free breakfast (though there was free internet). So we got ourselves milk and cereal for breakfast instead. Economical and good. hehs comes from traveling around quite a bit. =)

At the point where we were supposed to turn left for the city centre... we turn right early morning.. to catch the train to our next destination. Prague, the city that I've heard so much about and yearned to see. Perhaps one day... I'll catch it with the Music fest in Spring...

Last note: I think what I wish for now... would not be a graduation trip with friends. I would very much like to take a short trip with my whole family... Even Malaysia would be good. =)

Spissky Hrad

2007-09-25T05:26:00.000-07:00

Largest castle in Central Europe. Being in the vicinity, how can we miss it? =)

Took a bus to Spissky Podhradie... then we stood there gaping at the signboard. grin Walked through some old dusty streets and fields before we spied two people heading for the castle on a path some distance away. =P Thanks to them, we found our way up. hehee Else we'd be crossing fields and inching around the castle like some of e invaders of e past..

The Al-mighty Spissky Hrad! =)

The place was alive with squirrels!! The entire hill was full of little holes - home to these furry adorable creatures. =P hehee Dad waited patiently for me while I crouched by one of those holes and readied myself for shots whenever a furry snout peeked out.

Definitely a castle w a view. hehe Not my choice of abode though. Doesn't seem comfy with all. hee Was spring when we were there and the weather was hot... hott...

Different angles of the castle. =)

Spissky Kapitula. hehe Had time after getting down from the castle. =) So we took a walk to the town nearby. hehehe See the picture with e little girl? She got tired of walking at the foot of e hill. =P See why you shouldn't take kids on tours? hahaha

Took this on our way to Bratislava. =) So many sunflower fields!!! hehehe but it wasn't easy to get a good shot of those! But so pretty!!! =) That's all for Spissky - which btw is part of e gothic route. Next up: Bratislava!

Levoca (l-er-vo-cha)

2007-09-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

I know it's been ages. But I'm not the worst. People typically abandon their travel blogs once they return. And it can't be helped because we're all so busy... If we choose to do our work that is. =P haha I happen to still have a reader for this blog... so okay I'll try to finish up the entries.

Thought it'll hurt my head less to continue this pic-blogging for Levoca, Spissky villages, Bratislava, Devin Castle, Prague... & Mikolajki - I ach forgot how to spell this one. Sheesh.

This is the map of the little place we've chosen as our first point of exploration in Slovakia.

Frankly, this leg of the trip was most difficult to plan. Transport was relatively simple cuz there are certain helpful travel blogs that left hints and tips.. =) Accomodations was a major headache. No hostels. All pensions. No email reservation. All phone based. I'm not well versed in the art of gesturing over the phone yet... But not securing accoms got me very stressed up. Hm... in the end, this was the most expensive of all my accoms. haha But I guess it wasn't all that bad...

Wanted to do a 'walk through customs at Polish-Slovakia borders' and then bus to Poprad thing. But realized that we were leaving Zakopane on a Saturday and there happened to only be buses to Poprad on Saturday... so we took a bus right through early in the morning.

Good thing for that cuz it started to rain. haha Oh well... so we stopped at Poprad and took a bus to Levoca from there. Another round of figuring out what the bus schedules are about... and which bus goes where. Grin but I've been doing that sort of thing for months after all... so it gets progressively easier. We were soon on our way. =)

The closest match I have to this place is Romania. Haha But it's unfair to compare anyway. Let pictures do the talking. Dad liked this place a great deal. =)

By the way... this is the pension we stayed at in Levoca.

hahaha Yeah I tried my best to sound nonchalent abt it but I was gushing all the way about how picturesque it was! Especially after a long wait. We arrived in Levoca at 11+am when we were expected at the pension only after 2pm. For most hostels, this timing thing isn't an issue at all. So I didn't think it would be at pensions. grin How wrong I was.

We knocked for ages to no avail. Then some passerby decided to help by knocking on a window with an umbrella on our behalf. A guest in the pension responded but (in all the English he could muster) explained patiently that he didn't have the key to the place. So dad and I had to wait patiently for 2pm to arrive...

I guess seeing the little garden made the long wait pay off. haha =)

I think dad liked the garden a lot. Cuz he snapped many pictures of everything and anything.

I happily lounged in the little garden swing in a corner with my book. =)

The rest of the pension. (Didn't have good photos of the room. But you have my word that it's huge and spacious. 1 double bed, 1 single bed. Oh yes. That reminds me... you've got to see our breakfast...)

Grin. 2 days. Same breakfast. We were stuffed. This actually lasted us the entire day...

The little monument atop the hill was what we suspected to be a St Mary's Church or sth. We actually tried to walk there. ahaha But we couldn't figure out if we were going the right way at all and the sun was setting... so we didn't make it there in the end. Looks good from afar though.

The series of photos we took while on our quest to St Mary's. haha Dad was very amused by many many things and plants. and wells. I was more taken by the old boot in the window. =P

Main town square.

Bottom left: Cage of shame. Guess it's not the most famous of monuments in Levoca. It was used to punish minor delinquencies... I guess by locking them up for the viewing pleasures of the public. Hm... Yeah but dad wasn't very impressed by the huge bird cage.

Top left & right: Took couple of pictures of St Jacob's church - rather gothic in terms of architecture. Unfortunately, we visited on a day where it wasn't open to the public. So we could only circle the place. But I love that shot with the sunrays... =)

There's really nothing much in Levoca. It's really a little residential sort of town. =) Glad to be somewhere less touristy for a change though. =) Dinner was good. I don't think it was expensive. Was a restaurant recommended by Shoestring. Brocoli cream pasta is better than it looks. =P

Shall end abruptly with a view from our bedroom in the pension. =) Now, that's the sort of view I should like to have in my future home. ahhahahaa

Carpathian Mountains - Lower Tatry (Poland)

2007-07-14T04:17:00.000-07:00

a Having long heard of the beauty of the Tatra Mountains, I decided to include it in my itinerary with dad. =)

We didn't take the horse carriage ride up... cuz it's more expensive.. 40zloty/person up and 20zloty/person down. All the same... I felt bad through-out the ride... Swore never to exploit another horse in my lifetime.. Hehs doesn't mean I won't ride horses.. just not the sort that really look like they're overworked.

Last picture bottom right is an ideal scene. hehe Dad and mum taking a kid out. Nice sweet family. =)

We are on a mission to see Morskie Oko - Eye of the Sea - though I really don't see how the name fits... Perhaps Eye of the Mountains would fit better. =P The pretty streams and rapids along the way really brings to mind those pictures on glossy sheets in the Physical Geog Textbook from Secondary school days. The school should organize field trips here. hee

The arduous journey up.

Having these beauties line our path really makes climbing up less tedious. It's like a whiff of fresh air. hehe Then again... the whole place is fresh.

Mid point!

And then we arrive... Morskie Oko!

At the edge of the lake.

Dad after scaring away all the ducks with his mere presence. grin

We decided to go around the lake and see if we can reach the snowy areas.

See how clear the waters are. There are fish in there!

Mini waterfall!

Found another path where we could take to move onto higher grounds.

Onwards!

Grin cool water greets us at the top - (foot of Rysy - the highest Polish peak; but that would take us 3hr50min to conquer... Not today... haha)

Dad reveling in nature.

We decided to soak our feet. Er Bad idea. hahaha the blood rushes to the feet and leaves them numb for ages after we remove them from the water.

Think it'd be some years before I can go hunt for such a sight again...

Don't wanna go home...

Dad claims the white bits are ice. I don't know... It was pretty hot save for the chilly water.

I leave you with shots of the prettiest place on my trip...

Goodbye Tatra Mountains!

Beauties down south - Zakopane

2007-07-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

I haven't been to the Swiss Alps - so I can't tell you if this little sleepy place that bustles with life mostly during Winter is prettier than the Alps... But I'd gladly take Weiming's word for it and assume so... for what I've seen here easily beats everything else on the trip. (sights that is.. hehe not experience. =P) For the first time ever, I felt like I didn't allocate enough time for the trip.

The series of not-so-impressive pictures of the little town at the base of the mountain ranges
Dad's obsessed with berries... do look out for berry-pictures throughout the subsequent entries. =)
A note for those intending to visit Zakopane - a lil town in Southern Poland; the hostel Stara Polena is really great. Cheap and super pretty... and breakfast is provided too. The location is average, but I swear it's the prettiest hostel I had stayed at - and I have definitely stayed at a significant number of hostels.

I always save the best for the last, but this time, this delicious food isn't the best. =P Yeps... the mountains beat my tasty trout and dad's huge pork rib easily.

On the rail to the top of Gubalowka - for a view of the Tatra ranges. There was a promotion going on - for going up by rail and down by chairlift. Grin frankly, chairlift sounded really exciting to me. Dad was game for it and if mum was there, I wouldn't have explained to her what a chairlift was so that we'll go for it. ahhahaha *Evil*

At the top of the rail =) Dad & I immediately went for some toboggan-ing. =P hehe We're 70 between the two of us and we haven't tried it before. Swooshhhhh. hee

A view of the sleepy town at the bottom of the hill. Dad in the foreground trying to read the map I thrust upon him. *smiles* Dad did say "It's very easy to read a map.. can't imagine why you find it difficult sometimes". My response: yeps. do it =)

Dad fascinated by the grassy piles.

Meadows. =) That's what I do miss seeing back in Sg...

And then dad declares he wants a picture among the trees so that he can bluff mum that we went into the jungles and got lost. grin

Breath-taking views - and you haven't seen the last of it.

Basket???

Nah. We finally found the chairlift. hahaha it's a long long way down. I'm sure mum would freak.

Flowers along the road.

I'm saving the best for the next entry. The real tatras. hehe Now gotta scoot for a shower. The weather here is indeed... slightly unbearable. =P

Ojcow National Park

2007-07-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

Pronounced as "Oy-'ci'oov" National Park, this park is some dozens of kilometres away from Krakow. We caught the bus from Krakow and got to this place...

The tree was probably growing before and the owners had this place built to accomodate the tree. heh see how it pops out of the roofing. =)

In fact.. just by walking a little further up along the main road, we'd find the park... but dad says nature should be reached via nature. So we crossed a little bridge instead and got into the forest track...

Hehs... jungle like?

The tracks led eventually to fields of wheat and wild flowers.

We back tracked and found the National Park. There are several marked colour trails - but the one I was interested in was some 12km away... so we didn't end up there - some castle I think...
The ojcow castle wasn't as worth visiting though... hm

The next few posts which are to be the last of my travel blogging consist mostly of nature shots... cuz dad's interested in nature so mountain climbing for water sights etc was what we did for the next few days of the trip.

Krakow in June

2007-07-11T18:23:00.000-07:00

En route to Zakopane... Krakow has the highest frequency of buses to Zakopane, I'd believe.
This being the 2nd set of pictures for Krakow, I think there is no need for much description.

Georgian food goes with cherries.

Stalls

Street sights

The last I saw of Krakow

2/3-cities: Gdansk & Sopot

2007-07-07T16:23:00.000-07:00

Gdansk, Sopot, Gdynia - Tri cities of Poland. With a spare weekend on hand, 2/3 of the cities were our (twin & I) last common destination before home. =)

There happened to be some celebration put on by the church. And it was a funky one too! Rock bands and all. Twin was extremely happy to be able to understand the 1st line of the lyrics... which goes something like: nie nie nie... "-_-

Brick & Stone.
Gdansk happened to house the biggest church made fully out of brick in Europe.

Singular

fixtures...

Street scenes...

Gdansk is a seaport after all...

Fish (Ryby), Waffle (Gofry), Cheese (Ser), Candy (cukier - hehs I'm not sure this is accurate but the candy is definitely very sweet... too much for twin though)

A good tan on the beaches of Sopot. =)

We return a shade darker. Yet another Polish city - visited.

MUFC v West Ham 13 May 2007

2007-07-06T15:13:00.000-07:00

Highlights: Stadium tour, Match day.

One collage.

Soccer has never been a very wordy sport.

We'll be back. =)

Mada mada dane...

2007-07-06T12:34:00.000-07:00

Beginning with an incoherent collage... I bring you 3 gloomy days in London - the weather that is. hehs It rained so often it was sometimes a pain to be a tourist... cuz if you weren't, you'd definitely be curled up at home under a soft rug or holed up in some sheltered office cubicle all day...

I liked London though... despite our having to chase after the sun. But there aren't as many photos here... heh Cuz I think both dearest and I were getting tired of taking shots everywhere.

And so in a single collage, you see the London Eye along the raging River Thames beneath the cloudy skies, our 'free' walking tour guide =), St Paul's Cathedral (rebuilt along with some 51 churches by Christopher Wren - the man who will be remembered for as long as the churches stand), Templars fr Temple Church, us with Tower Bridge as background, a self service cashier area in Sainsbury (I think...), and our flight back to Warsaw. =) I don't really get the advertisement though... though Poland is definitely known for Vodka. =P

One of the hostels that's easier to locate. =) Also one of the noisiest - during the time we were there. Hehs but it IS a youth hostel after all...
Cancerian pic for my bro and dearest.

Yet another bridge. This time the Millenium Bridge aka Wobbly Bridge. =P Budgeted at 16million GBP, this expensive bridge cost 18.2m GBP in the end. Being part of the route for a charity walk, the bridge supported some 90000 users on the 1st day and started wobbling badly. Grin They came up with a system to limit the number of people crossing at any one time, but that resulted in horrendous queues. The bridge was closed for some 3 days before reopening with better support structures. Hehs But the reputation of this famous bridge had been sealed...

Tower of London.
Nope, didn't enter. Hehs a little out of budget.. But the tower intrigues, being a place with a history of crude cruelty - bloody executions, imprisonment, torture of incarcerated prisoners, mysterious deaths and executions of queens..

In one of the pictures, you'd see the Traitors' Gate. It is through this that state prisoners enter the Tower by barge. Often, severed heads of traitors would be hung there to intimidate the prisoners and the public.

An entire history book should be written around the happenings within the tower..

Since we're at this... Here's the juxtaposition of Old Bailey and Westminster Hall. The Central Criminal house and the parliament house. The visit to London certainly got me interested in V for Vendetta (which - again I didn't happen to catch when it was showing...). It's not the total truth of course. But the drama of the real Gunpowder plot is binding enough. Wiki it, do.

Anw, to dispel a common misunderstanding - big ben is not the entire bell tower... it's the name of the biggest bell of them all. =)

A view of London from the London Eye. =)

2 provocative buildings by Lord Foster - the one who restored Reichstag in Berlin, Germany, The Metropolitan Building in Warsaw, Poland, Wembley stadium in London, UK, and the celebrated (hee I forgot to mention his name earlier) Millenium Bridge in London, UK.

Here, I present you with London City Hall and the 30 St Mary Axe (Nicknamed Gherkin).

Beneath them, you see glimpses of the financial district - where the smartly dressed rules.

Shot with the famed.

Thai food in London! heh I kind of miss Asia you see... The picture of that little girl isn't from this eatery though. Heh it's taken at random elsewhere.. some buffet place with not so impressive looking food..

The highlight! At least for me... heh I so love theatre! hehe Caught Wicked! and Les Miserables. hm... Very different in nature - the two are. If I had more time and more cash... I'll seriously catch at least 2 plays a week. Grin thank goodness I'm not on exchange in London..

Oh yeah! I didnt feature the London Bridge cuz... turns out it's this extremely boring looking bridge. The history of the many versions of the bridge is kinda interesting though; worth a look-up. =)

No pictures of Oxford street though we spent quite a lot of time roaming the shopping district. Grin who takes pictures when shopping! =P Came across this super pretty black dress @ FCUK.. but it's really too costly for something I won't be wearing too often.. Hmm... likewise the Lancome Hypnose I saw today. hehe oh well

The other thing I didn't really talk about is the London tube. Hehs... with 12 lines, it should be remarkably efficient... if not for the numerous delays here and there... it was kinda a pain when you're in a hurry, but the Londoners seem rather used to such occurences. =)

mm I cant remember if I missed out anything else... But it was nice to come across familiar street names (thanks to Monopoly) and actually see Leicester Square (where all the ticket booths are), Picadilly, Trafalgar's Square with all its pigeons and the Art Gallery, etc etc.

Hehs I'll be back! I so want to visit Globe Theatre and watch a Shakespearean play. =) Next time!

Waiting

2007-07-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

Back in Victoria Coach station, I await Dearest with a little anxiety and a great deal of impatience. So watching an entire screen of Delayed, no information isn't helpful... That's London traffic for you.

And then I looked through my London Pics and decided that I'm not motivated enough to blog today.

There's London, Manchester, Gdansk, Prague, Bratislava, Levoca, Spissky towns, Ojcow and Zakopane left... along with many outdated volumes of Warsaw pics. hehs Soon soon... Now let me go rejuvenate me...

Dearest arrived 1.5 hr later than scheduled. Oh well, I'm just glad he arrived. =)

Taking on the world on my own! - hehs (Generally speaking)

2007-07-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

So on the 7th... I parted ways with dearest at the Eurolines bus station in Paris, setting off for UK for my own adventures for 2 days.

Hehs yeah. misleading picture. I didn't fly. Though that might have been wiser. hehs 15 min as opposed to... 7.5 - 8.5 - 9.5 hrs of busing around! It was 7.5... till I realize London's an hour behind... so it's 8.5... and then the bus got delayed... so it became 9.5. Sheesh. Nothing could have prepared me for the bus merrily driving onboard a HUGE P&O that'd chug across the ocean to the island I was headed for. That little 45-min ride left me nauseous and extremely pale at the end of it... It was with much relief that I saw my most reliable sis at Victoria Coach station... nestled comfortably in his seat, having waited for some hour or so... =P Thanks sis!

The Vernon-Hospitality.

Hee Knowing I havent had decent chinese food for ages, sis took me to Soho - the London Chinatown for roast duck rice! hee Though it's not the 4seasons duck, I'm happy enough with the familiar foods. hehz it's officially the most expensive duck rice I've eaten - at his expense. hahaha Plus he gave up his bed and lent me his laptop... gave me breakfast and most importantly, was there to meet me at my most nauseous, sad sad state. Sis rocks.

Hee not many pictures of the places we walked through - including the LSE library etc... cuz Sher was too tired of being a tourist and prefer just walking and looking just like she would in SG. hee

Next morning, bright and early, I barely caught the National Express to Cambridge. heh I seem to be getting into this wave goodbye from bus thing... Anyway, this time, sis waved me off. The next time we meet would be in SG with the rest! =)

Alighted at Parker's piece. The sky was looking ominous. haha But that was really the beginning of the spate of bad weather that trailed my tour of Western Europe. Along with a few clueless people, I navigated my way around to this place called... Lion Yard to meet my next great host - Haihan! =) It's a relief to be understood again... Goodness knows the number of months I spent gesturing and charading with people on the streets who speak a different tongue... But thanks to a very nice girl (1st year in Cambridge doing a rather obscure course that I found interesting), I got there all right. =)

Safely at Lion Yard, I bought myself this pure indulgence muffin... sat down and waited to be picked up. haha It's a fresh change from having to be pro-active and find directions, plan itinerary etc.

The Haihan-Hospitality.

Cambridge students are seriously a fortunate lot... cuz the neighbourhood's pretty... serene and tranquil... HH's room was spacious. There's no better word. hehe He's neat too la. =) Any space can be obliterated by messes. But messes do not exist in HH's space. hee And he too gave up his bed for me and retired into his friend's sleeping bag, fed me well all day and kept me entertained. Sigh... great friends I have. grin Galloway & Porter was a paradise he shared with me. I'm glad I didn't miss it. hee Left Cambridge armed with 2 books - The Pianist and Marie Antoinette. Cost: 5 pounds. =P Happy as a lark, I am.

Walks of Cambridge. It was decent of the swan to pose for me =P

Quaint streets and buildings. St Andrew's Street is the main street that runs North-South of Cambridge - hehe acc to HH if I remember rightly anyway. =)

And because I wasnt there to be a tourist, I'm not going to point out buildings etc... hehe I just enjoyed my leisurely walks around the place.

Last pic for my independent jouneys post. hehe Wireless on the bus! craziness. =P

Versailles

2007-07-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

We decided to do a little trip to Versailles since it's easily accessible from Paris via e RER train. =)
hehs Hotel Akena was not the easiest place to locate. =P But thanks to Herm's "prob the pointy top over there" - or words to that effect, we found Akena. hehe Nice place. Quiet. But a lil out of the way.

Taking yet another train to Chateau de Versailles, we walked past yet another Hotel de Ville, Versailles version on our way to the palace - where King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were hunted down and dragged to Paris on their final journey.

It's unfortunate we didn't have time for the interiors... that leaves something to return for - all the grand splendour that we missed.

The gardens were splendid though! Almost crazy considering how fountain-filled it was when the situation of the location was rather poorly endowed in water resources. Oh well.. the rich and privileged have their means.

Designed by Andre Le Notre, the extensive grounds featured marvellous fountains and canels. The fountains were set to work their magic thrice a day. We were just in time for the last. hehe

See the difference. Feel the magic. =)

Shh... focus for the miraculous palm jet. Hee on the grassy lawn, a couple was catching a quick shut eye beneath the skies. Very nice. Except everybody else were looking on and giggling nervously at the sight. Hehs but it's nice.. to do what you like without a care in the world.. with total disregard for the views of others.

Killing time before the grand finale. hee Dearest obviously has more depth and breadth in his facial expressions. I concede defeat.

Voila!

The Notre Dame in Versailles. =)

Frightfully good stuff at reasonable prices. As if reacting to the unspoken law of - nothing comes so cheaply... we both suffered greatly for at least 3 days after. hehs Poor tummies.

I suspect we are not all that remorseful after consumption of all that rich food though. =P

Paris - Second Instalment

2007-07-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

I always begin with hostels/hotels. Cuz a good night's rest determines to some extent how the day unfolds =) This is Hotel des Olympiades. hehe it's just weird to me to have a washroom with a sink and a butt washing equipment but not the toilet... and the shared toilet along the corridor doesnt have a sink... Bed creaks a triffle more than usual. Walls are thin so you hear your neighbours. Not the best I've seen, but reasonable for basic accomodations.

Random shots of interest to myself along the Parisian streets. =)

The metro system in Paris is particularly efficient with 12 lines linking you to practically everywhere... Being good tourists for a change, we dutifully bought metro tix for almost all our trips. And transport isn't all that cheap, mind you.

Cafes bustle with life during opening hours as we wondered aloud every so often, where do these idle, rich people come from... Tourists flock to these cafes for a taste of Parisian life - afternoon teas/coffees people-watching along the streets; and seriously.. I think it isn't too far-fetched to think that majority of the tea-sipping crowd consists of tourists alone. =P

They say children are most adorable when they are not yours. hehe I don't know that for sure. But they do catch my attention rather often in Europe. An entertaining hour passed seeing us parked across the fence from a playground, me getting insights into kids' minds, as perceived by my dearest.
Their chatter fills the air even before they make their appearances. Each hugging a round cushion, I stared - forgetting for a moment that staring is rude - and wondered why they were each holding such an odd object. The mystery dissolved as they happily dumped the cushions and sat around their teacher on the museum floor. Well... there's more than 1 who's posing in front of the little semi-circle of school children. =)

Round faced with soft curls, he toddles towards to a street busker, clapping his hands in gleeful delight.

"One day I'll fly away... Leave all these to yesterday.."
The all famous Moulin Rouge and the red-light district at Pigalle. Are you thinking about some over-sexed, sleezy area? Nahs... the queue for Moulin Rouge consisted mostly of well-dressed people, fit to be loosely categorized into 'upper class'.

Heh I felt rather ignored by the bouncers who urged dearest repeatedly to experience the wilder side of Paris. grin Until a female bouncer (ach... what's e right term? haha my vocabulary in this area is sorely lacking) came and said - 10 Euros to enter, your girlfriend gets to go in for free.

ha Sad to disappoint, but Sher didn't get to see what's behind those dark curtains and dimmed lights. hehe Maybe next time.. =)

Grande palais. I'm rather taken by the sculptures of the tussling kids. =P Classical style architecture. Not too elaborate, plenty of motifs.

And the Petite Palais across the road housing the Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.. =) Hehs 3 random pictures are in the collage. See if you can see which do not belong. =P

Loved the winged angel at the entrance, and the many painted ceilings scattered around the palais. If you squint hard enough, you'll see a little duckling by the pond. hee It has a little ramp which it teeters up and skim the circumference of the pond before plopping back in. So cute!

The world-acclaimed Lourve. I think it was free on Sundays? heh Can't remember.. but this museum seriously requires your entire day and all your energy. haha Absorbing the art and the description zaps life very quickly.. unless of course, you're an enthusiast who gets energized by exposure to art forms. haha that's be a different story. In any case... most of the visitors are simply clamouring to see the Mona Lisa - made extra famous by Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.. there's even a 10 Euro Da Vinci tour in the museum. heh Meetin Alvi there is one of the little things I hadnt expect. grin I think this is totally off but I just felt like putting down sth from an anime I was watching "There are no coincidences, only inevitability".

Hotel de Ville - contrary to my beliefs, is not a hotel.. but the town hall. Like many other town halls, it's witnessed lots of destruction, including a fire and tearing down and rebuilding in its time. The square it stands on is the Place de Greve - where most executions in Paris took place until 1830.

Well.. We werent exactly looking for Hotel de Ville though when we stumbled upon it... We were tracking the elusive Pompidou Centre - described to have been built with its insides turned out. heh I think I threw in its photo somewhere in the 1st collage in the previous post. I'm sure you'll have no problems locating it. =)

We meant to relax of course. But cafes are pricey. We settled on next best - or better. hehe sitting on chairs left lying around huge grass patches in parks. This one was probably Jardin du Tuilleries. hehs I know you can see Eiffel Tower in picture 3 - I threw it in by mistake. haha and there it shall stay =P

Arc de Triomph. ahaa Silly us had problems crossing the busy road to the little 'human island' the arc was on.

Eiffel in all its glory.. from many weird angles. haha by the time we were done with the photos, we had some 20 or 30 shots of Eiffel.. we got quite sick of it soon. oh! You can actually climb all the way to level 2 - which would be cheaper than taking the lift. But any higher - you'd have to pay more for the lift. The queue was formidable..

Grin, we decided that seeing the legendary tower was sufficient. =) haha Like many famous things in life, some love it, others hate it. To me, it's just another landmark in Paris. =)

I confess... to forget what this place is. heh At least I do recognize that this series of pictures are of the same place.. and recall how the exorbitant entrance fees sent us reeling backwards in mock horror... where we sidled into a corner and started snapping pictures of what interior we could glimpse from our vantage point. Heh that includes the gruesome painting you see next to the ice-cream cone.

And then... another series of photo-whoring took place as Herm suddenly found the space between two columns very cosy. =)

hm.. I always end with food. Cuz no matter how many wrong turns had been made, food makes things right. Tending to the aching belly.. soothing ruffled feathers. =)

I don't think I'm keen on French Columbian food though. I like my soup warm. hehs

Paris - e Churches Chapter

2007-06-30T02:28:00.000-07:00

Back from yet another trip. Drained. But the clothes are in the wash and I can't really sleep... so here's the next instalment of pictures. There are 773 photos in my Paris photo. Which translates to a lot of photos to browse through... Horrors! I guess these things don't occur to me when I'm happily snapping away.

Btw, if I sound sad, it's only because my ext hdd had been silenced and my comp couldn't detect it anymore after I dropped it from knee level... and my original photos (e ones that would actually look normal if developed) are all gone w it. If you have solutions... please let me know.. Thank you. Much obliged.

I thought a collage of the major landmarks would be a decent start. =) It's kinda not in any order... certainly not order of visit. =) And now, having created some kind of content page for my own reference, I shall launch into the places.

Our hostel/hotel being in Montmartre, it seemed almost natural we should start our tour from there. And the first major spot that seemed to be leaping out of e map at Herm (yeah cuz I was a lazy girl and decided to take a backseat for couple tours =P) was e Basilique Du Sacre Coeur de Montmartre (Basilica of the Sacred Heart)

The Basilique is - if you haven't already realized - atop the highest peak of the city... which means many flights of stairs. haha Somehow, Europe is like that; very hilly - up and down, up and down... But it also means you get fabulous views from up where we were. Mm... actually it's a view of the city... From an entirely egoistic point of view.. I guess it's quite a view of man-made achievements..

Posing on the flight of stairs leading up to the Sacre Coeur. Quoting Guibert, the successor of the Archbishop of Paris, "It is here, it is here where the matyrs are, it is here that the Sacred Heart must reign so that it can beckon all to come." So there we were..

Abstracts from biblical scenes. I've never been well-versed in the bible... so I shan't even attempt to describe the above... From wiki though, it's said that construction reflected heavy Romano-Byzantine influence or Roman/Greek of sorts. hehe I have seen too many churches and have them too mixed up in my head to comment. =P

A smaller, more nondescript church along the path down from Butte Montmarte - St Jean-de-Montmartre. All net searches yield results in French. Being a total idiot in e lang... we'll just quietly admire the colorful panes and architecture of the church.

The famous Notre Dame de Paris - a model of. hehe It's french-gothic style (which makes me wonder if there's german gothic, austrian gothic, etcetc.. or gasp! Chinese gothic! hee my crazy mind maps..) And nowadays, gothic just reminds me of Sam. Yeah so if you're looking... do keep popping by, cuz my latest trip to Bratislava and Prague saw me clicking away at all that gothic architecture that kept popping up everywhere... Maybe it could inspire more great works =P

The exterior of the Notre Dame. This church, like many others, has a rich history - particularly in construction. The initial building was deemed by Bishop Maurice de Sully to be unworthy of the role of "Parish Church of the Kings of Europe" - so he ordered the demolition and threw in huge sums to have it as it is today... It was dedicated first to the cult of reason (Culte de la Raison) - creed based on atheism - during the French Revolution, and then to the Cult of the Supreme Being after. And then you realise... it's really all about the period the building's set... what the building means changes with the people... and in the end.. perhaps it means nothing and everything - sitting quietly and bearing witness to the changes of time.

This church featured in Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame. Partly due to the awareness raised from that, it was saved from a fate of demolition.

And now, we admire the beauties hidden within. These painted glass panels have never ceased to fascinate - no matter how many churches I've seen. =P

Taking you away from the churches of Paris... we end off this entry with a cemetry; Cimetiere du Pere LaChaise. This is the last resting ground of many personalities who made a mark in their present, and ours.

In honour of the country that hosted me for the past 5 months... This is of course the grave of Chopin. We found his grave easily enough - guided by the massive tributes of flowers and a crowd of Polish speaking tourists taking pictures at the site. Hats off to this composer who's famous for his nationalism. It's said he carries a bottle of Polish soil around as he travelled - the truth of which, I know not. But his piano music brings a peace to my soul - my only regret being that I've never played his pieces.

There are other personalities of course, like Bizet (composer of Carmen) and Jimmy Morrison.. But my foremost interest is my old idol - Oscar Wilde; the controversial homosexual who's always creating commotions with his serious trivialities. =P Most would be familiar with The Importance of being Earnest and Portrait of Dorian Gray. I read Salome as well... but that one was beyond me... haha Now... to showcase his celebrated grave.

His followers are numerous and have trailed his footsteps right to his grave, not forgetting to leave their mark on his death stone as he had doubtlessly left on their lives.

The tomb you see here was designed by sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein. The modernist angel depicted as a relief on the tomb was originally complete with male genitals (hha how appropriate for Wilde!). They were broken off as obscene (as with a million other things associated with Wilde) and kept as a paperweight by a succession of cemetery keepers. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

I leave you with a quote on his grave:

"And alien tears will fall for him
Pity's long broken urn
For his mourners will be outcast men
And outcasts always mourn."

Still on Belgium - Brugge

2007-06-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

T'was a last minute decision to do a day trip to Brugge =) cuz practically everyone who's been to Brussels was shouting "Skip Brussels. Do Brugge! It's soooo pretty!"

Here we are... greeted by murals painted on the walls of the Brugge Railway Station. Wasn't too hard to get there =)

Whatever we were expecting... it certainly wasn't green sludge...

Fortunately, not the entire city's like that. =) Look! Clean(-er) waters!
Canals weave through the city.

Our tour really began with this Irenee Durez exhibition of sculptures. I like the four poses above. I guess it's a depiction of common feelings..? hmm
Well anyway, I didn't post the incriminating shots I have of Herm. =P Feeling nice today. Hopefully karma exists!

Sights and monuments in Brugge - No, Not intending to inject any more information wrt the architecture etc...

Belgium is also famous for lace...

And older sisters who bully younger siblings are everywhere. You can run, but you cannot hide. Bwahahaha (This one is making her sister rub her hands across all the surfaces they pass by.)

A single rose.

Lunch.

The focus here isnt us, really... It's the changing faces behind us while we snap away at the same place. Tells you roughly how long we spent playing with the camera there yeah? =P

I think this was of the 4 riding apostles fused together. =) Just thought the effect was quite interesting.

Getting to know Mr Bear...

Shadow play.

Gummies! =)

Chocolates Galore - Brussels

2007-06-04T11:51:00.000-07:00

Let's begin with this. =)

A highly impressive sculpture that greeted our eyes as we made our way towards our hostel in Brussels. Actually, it's nothing special... but somehow, it being shaped as such and mount on water made it slightly more impressive than I would have thought it is under normal circumstances. =P

Okies. Now that we're done admiring sculptures... ONWARDS!

This is our hostel - Sleep Well. It's more like a hotel than a hostel. And of course... the rates are like a hotel's as well. Heh at least we're comfortable. :) And Look, there's a miniature mannekin pis - the famous 'symbol' of Brussels. All tourists flock there to see it... We aren't exceptions of course...

It really is very very small. See? About the size of our heads. Grin but the two of us decided to practise taking photos of ourselves with it. Heh we stood there and snapped so many shots that a shop owner from opposite actually came and offered to snap a picture for us. =P hee It was fun trying to capture a nice shot though. In some of the shots, you don't even see the little pee-ing boy!

I did say every European city had an old town sort of this. This is the Brussels version: Grand Place. Frankly, it was breathtaking. It felt removed from reality...

That's us, photo-whoring at Grand Place. =P

Btw, Brussels has its fair share of talent as well. =P I love that staircase motif on the wall and these two men who were posing and amusing the passers-by. =)

And this one who sits at the same spot night after night producing beautiful pieces like the one you see above.

Of course... no European city is complete without churches. Here's Notre Dame of Brussels for you.

And this.. Uh. Heh I happened to see it and found it highly amusing. It isn't everyday you see a pair of boots hanging from cables high up above. =P

I kinda forgot what this is though... the name that is. Herm - do refresh my memory if you see this k? Anw, we were sorta stalked around here when it was quieter. There are weird characters around no matter where you are, it seems... Oh well, Herm will protect me. =)

This... is a tribute to Wendy. grin Hope you like it! =)

Well... I did say Chocolates Galore, didn't I? =) Sweet, bitter, dark, milk, white, nuts, liquor... you name it, they have it. =)

And Waffles... =) Brussels waffle is the rectangular one... Liege waffle is the oval one coated with honey. =) Both are good. I prefer liege waffles though. Yums

Dinners were always good. Heh I suppose we haven't tightened our belts. It was too early into the trip. =P But the whole tub of mussels sure was satisfying... no wonder Herm misses it. =)

Hm nearing the time for Elayne's birthday party. Gotta wash up a little. So that's all for now!

Though I know you want more photos~ =P Hehs I'll try not to be lazy and post the rest soon.

All right. Leaving you guys with a last photo. Heh, this - in a very warped manner - reminds me of KM. hahhaa Lin, you agree?

Conquering the West - Amsterdam!

2007-06-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

Our stay in Amsterdam was very much shortened due to unforeseen circumstances.. Nonetheless, we're all set for a great beginning to our 1/2 month holiday! =)

This series should be more pictures than words - you guys are more interested in photos anyway.

Flight to Amsterdam! We took the Polish National Airlines - LOT. They actually serve liquor for free! We tried whisky+coke while Herm indulged in his fav sok pomarancja. =) I think I gotta drink more to train up...

RijksMuseum @ Schiphol Airport. It features peasantry in the Golden Ages. Small exhibition but quite a nice one. =)
Hehs the apple wasn't part of it. Neither was the huge statue I was sitting on. =)

Taking the train from Schiphol Airport to Amsterdam Centraal. =) Btw, we arrived in Amsterdam a day before Queen's Day - Orange Carnival! Yep, the railway station was giving away orange 'crowns' - Ga mee actually means Follow me!

Sights of Amsterdam at night while waiting for our elusive shuttle to our hostel some 44km away from main Amsterdam. =)

Our beach hostel that we barely experienced.. in this weather, it's truly difficult to enjoy beaches. =P In any case, breakfast was good.

Snapshots of the ongoing carnival just before we boarded our bus to head for our next destination - Brussels~

Last instalment of Romania - Braşov

2007-06-04T04:24:00.000-07:00

Yeah... I know I kept you guys waiting... But you know, being on exchange isn't all play. It's also about reports, exams... and anime. Grin Feels so good to be done with the 2000word plague. Not my best effort... but whatever! I hope he won't be evil and fail me. :(

Braşov. We took a train there. And walked to the hostel. 7km. 1.5hr after going the wrong way as the sky darkened. Grin I know... we're crazy. But who cares! =P

On the way... we saw this "Hollywood" lookalike. See the lit Braşov sign in the hill? It must be the sign on some ski resort uphill.. According to the guide, it was there before Hollywood put theirs up. Grin. Who should we believe?

Like many European cities, Braşov too has a market square. This one had a fountain in the middle. On busy days, there are actually many people sitting around waiting for their dates etc. =)

This is Piata Dominii. We didn't really know where our hostel was... and we were wandering about when it was darker than when this photo was taken. Luckily, we met a few young people who could speak English and directed us with more than slight amusement on their faces - to this place. =) No picture of the hostel~ But if ever any of you decide to visit Romania... please don't be cheated by unfavourable exchange rates charged by hostels who lie about laws against payment in Euros. Bahs... I shall not name this hostel that's facing the church with a mass cemetry - 1 of the 2 hostels in Piata Dominii. =P

Anyway, there are 2 churches within the town square and Piata Dominii, and one more we chance to see along the way as we took a wrong turn. We attended service on Easter Sunday! But it was in German... and with my headache getting to me... twin and I both ended up dozing off a great deal - but waking at the right moments to rise with the rest and try to follow some hymns.

Well... it was an experience =) And it was in the Black Church... which was nearly destroyed in the great fire in 1689. The restoration took about 100 years. It was then that the Black Church received his appearance with his characteristic blackened roof of 20 m height. Cool yeah?

Easter Sunday was a public holiday of sorts.. which means nothing much was open..
But of course, it was within our expectations and clever us had already planned for it. =P After church service, (and slacking in the hostel after failing to steal more bread from the breakfast table for lunch...) we set off in search of Solomon's rocks.

We seriously have no idea what that was... but the guide from Bran & Rasnov recommended the place... no harm finding out. =) We asked the hostel staff... and got this: "well it's up hill... so just follow every path that goes upwards. You can't go wrong."

Yeah right... we ended up at some weird dead end place. But it wasn't all that bad... cuz of the prettiness of the countryside. =) Further enquiries along the way put us on the right track..

We weren't very bothered by the upward climb... cuz there's:

Pretty flowers along the way...

and people to keep us entertained...

Heh the photo of the uniformed guys dancing in a circle was taken at Piata Dominii.. They are having some celebration of sorts. =) Pity we couldn't join in - cuz we weren't sure if there's some gender thing involved (only guys in that circle...) but it sure looked fun!

The other 3 were taken on the way to and at Solomon's rock. Kids playing together... guys fetching firewood for their delicious smelling barbecue.. (Two of us truly felt terrible despite the scenery cuz we were hungry. Smelling all sorts of wonderful aromas does not help.) Oh... and the picture with the man in a white cap? He completely overwhelmed us with his hospitality as he met us on our way up and excitedly gave us each a hug and a kiss to say hello. Then, he got his friend to take a picture of us with him. Hehs... what can I say... Asians are exotic in that region...

So we found out... at the end of our 1 hr trek - that Solomon's Rocks is actually a picnic ground. It's a holiday after all. Many Romanian families were just taking the chance to relax and spend quality time with their loved ones in the wilds.

Sitting on the grass amidst the merry-making families, blue skies and sprouting greens... a sense of peace washed over us..

2 more pictures and a collage to finish off this series on Romania. =) On the left, you have the narrowest street in Europe - Rope Street. We almost missed it - if not for our guide's specific directions to it. And on the right... heh I don't know.. I just found this view pretty nice. =)

lastly... it'd almost be a sin if we don't show you what sustained us on the trip. First was the donut thing that left twin with a mouthful of icing sugar. =P And then two mouth-watering crepes! In Romanian, they are called "clatite". =) Whatever... they tasted good anyway! Heh to make it a 2x2 collage, I included the last one - twin making a purchase of our favourite Romanian pastry - Fornetti!

And then... we found out some weeks ago that we have that in Warsaw too... just 10 min from home. Oh well... =)

Flight home's from Bucharest. We had to go back there. Plans to take a P-train were altered upon meeting the guide from Bran-Rasnov at the station. Seriously, that guy was everywhere! Anyway, thanks to him, we found out about mini-buses to Bucharest. =)

This trip was the second last with twin. Last one would be the upcoming one to Gdansk, Poland. =) Next entry would be on Western Europe with Herm! =) Twin went to Paris.. but I doubt she'll post. hehs Yeps that's that for Romania!

Ola's 20th Birthday @ Hybrdry

2007-05-23T16:06:00.000-07:00

Tequilla shots, anyone?

These photos were also from more than a month ago - celebration of Ola's 20th birthday. =) A bunch of Ola's friends @ a rather nice club.

Sweet birthday girl in white =) Ola's one of the best things that happened to us on this exchange. Thanks, dear - for always looking out for us =)

Hope you enjoyed your lil party that night!

Remnants of Romania I - Bran & Rasnov

2007-05-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

I realise it's bad to procrastinate.

Cuz I can't really remember what I want to blog about for these 2 places now.

Also... I'm feeling itchy all over after a failed attempt to kill a mini cockroach. I managed to concuss him and I think he's fallen into the dark depths of 'behind-the-cupboard' which is bad cuz I like to keep an eye on my enemies... and this makes it tricky. Now I keep thinking it's out to take revenge so I'm itching. Herm is way up high, and hence is unable to kill my cockroach for me. :(

To quit whining and get on with long-overdue photos...

Yep yep! Now I use COLLAGE - Picasa. This means that some of my photos get cut. Ah well... for convenience... some sacrifices are inevitable.

Photos of Rasnov as above. We took a bus here from Brasov. The driver had to tell us to alight cuz the surroundings of that stop... is like the private housing area @ Bukit Timah. (Not as posh). Anyhow... you just can't imagine that you drop there to get to some ruins of a fortress. So we alighted... and there was nothing we can do but to follow the road and some obscure signs to Cetatea Rasnov. =)

Using alpha for rows and numerals for columns. You see twin following the wide trail in D1. The climb is really worth it - as you can see from A3, B4, C2 and C3. You can see miles away from the top of the fortress.

"In the morning light, during their trip through Transylvania, the future knights will see the profile of the Rasnov fortress. Its mysterious quietness draws them to it, as if hiding in its thick, eroded walls, terrible secrets are waiting to be discovered"
- Quoted from http://www.spirit.ro/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=42&Itemid

Supposedly, a well in the fortress' courtyard - dug by 2 Turkish prisoners in exchange for their liberty (Not sure if they got it or not) made the fortress inconquerable since the inhabitants are able to survive on the water supply from within.

It's pretty... full of brickish ruins - but frankly, I'm not so impressed.. After roaming around and checking out an ancient female skeleton remains beneath the ground in one of the cave-ish exhibition areas, we went into 1 of the few stores within the fortress. I picked up a dracula postcard and because of that, got into a conversation with a Romanian about the tale of Dracula.

I suppose this is a good time for the tale of Vlad Tepes. =)

Vlad Tepes was born in Sighisoara, Romania - one place we wanted to visit but didn't manage to. Tepes really means - impaler. That's what he does; he impales his enemies and prisoners. This exceedingly cruel form of punishment was what gave him his fame. To judge him solely on that would probably to unjust to the prince with one deep sense of justice. It is said that he dislikes sloth and greed. During his short reign, he left a golden cup by the drinking fountain so that his people can use it to drink - and nobody dared to steal the cup even though it's left unattended - till the day he died.

According to the guide, there are two rather famous stories. One was of how he was traveling around and he saw a man with an unpatched shirt. So he went over to enquire about the shoddiness of his attire. The man told him that his wife didn't want to darn it. When Vlad Tepes found out that the man's wife was a lazy woman who doesn't work or mend her husband's clothes, he ordered for her to be impaled.

The other was about his victory over the Turks during one of the numerous battles. He imprisoned some Turkish soldiers overnight and ordered his men to pick up all the corpses (dead in battle) - even those from his own army, dress them in Turkish uniform and have them impaled and stuck to the ground all around the prison so that he can release the prisoners of war and scare them silly. They will then go back to their Turkish Sultan and tell him to cut the crap and stop bothering Vlad's reign.

However short his reign, I guess he was quite cruelly cool.

So I was saying... we heard all these from a tour guide we met in the shop. He invited us to join his mini tour to Bran where he'll tell us more stories. In need of a transport and wanting to hear more about what we're seeing... we bargained a great deal more... and D4 sees us happily in the vehicle on our way to Bran! =)

Bran Castle. This is nicknamed Dracula's Castle. In truth? Vlad Tepes only stayed here for (I can't rem) 1 or 2 nights - as a prisoner (A2) en route to - I don't remember where either. Yeah... Queen Maria and King Ferdinand were the ones who actually got to live here. See B1? The fur skin rug on the floor is real - killed by King Ferdinand on one of his trips.

Queen Maria's heart is kept near one little cottage around the castle. The guide said sth about her exclaiming how her heart will always be here - and hence when she died, they had her heart brought here and her body buried next to her husband's some place else. mm..

B2 is worth mentioning. We got to try cheese and whiskey! The cheese's really good stuff - so we bought some back. =) The whiskey's really strong though. Just 1 teeny weeny sip and my stomach felt warm for ages and ages...

Hehs many apologies about the extremely brief write up and slip shodish appearance of the entry... Sher is seriously a lil tired after being sad about Herm's departure from Warsaw. Will continue with Brasov and finally to the 1500 photos from the 2-week Western European escape w Herm in between writing up the reports... =) Take care all...

Btw, I'm interested in visiting Slovakia. Anyone has any tips for me?

Sinaia - Pearl of the Carpathians

2007-04-22T06:01:00.000-07:00

Sher:

Sher has been ~~lazy~~ busy nowadays... (Twin is watching anime now - so... I think what ever my misdeeds are in delaying this entry should be pardoned. hohoho)

However, some things shouldn't be delayed for too long... especially the blog entry for my fav place in Romania (okay... I know I have only visited some 4 places in the huge Romania...). Bustling little 'town/village' at the top of a flight of stairs - Sinaia!

The town of Sinaia (elevation: 2,500 ft.), home to the Peles and Pelisor castles, is nestled at the foot of the Bucegi Mountains, in the Prahova Valley. (Quote: Romania - Official Travel and Tourism Information site)

The train journey to this place was something to remember... I saw a Romanian home by the rail way, with the mom (I assume) raking in the rubbish in a bonfire... and a dear little desk and chair in the 'yard' for the kids to study. The kids were running around the front of the little cottage. These are stuff... I only read about in storybooks. heh I can't imagine such things when I live, eat and breathe HDB flats...

Anyway, it was quite a jolt to me when we arrived at this station... and then there's no crowd, no directions, no map, no nothing.

So I thought... okay... the guidebook said sth about it being quite accessible to its town... something about stairs. But I can't rem if that's for Bran or Sinaia...

Fortunately, we kinda mastered the art of making enquiries despite speaking different languages. hahaha Twin's version of Romanian English is a drawlish kind of "Sinaia Town. Ya. Up? Where?" in a sing-song sort of tone. hee It gets through... no complaints there.

This is what we found at the top of a flight of stairs on an otherwise ulu stretch of road in front of the station.

There's actually a town atop the stairs! How can anyone ever guess!

Hm... we got the help of this nice guy from the Tourist Information - he's very efficient; just shooting info after info after twitching the key words out of us. =) Sinaia is actually quite small it seems... Tourist Info was at one end... and the key attractions on the other end. We happily walked back after he gave us a cursory glance and passed the verdict that neither of us are dressed for ski-ing so we should skip the Bucegi mountains. (Privately, twin & I agreed cuz we have this impression that all snow-top mountains are the same if we aren't intending to ski and we saw some at Innsbruck already) =P

Peles, Pelisor and the Sinaia Monastry are still atop yet another hill though... thus begins our climb... Twin is taking her time as you can see... hee while remarking that we're truly backpacking... (I think she means: sigh.. why are we climbing stairs with our backpacks...)

Sinaia Monastery!

According to my readings... (Wiki rox), the Sinaia Monastery is founded by Prince Mihai Cantacuzino in 1695 and named after the great Sinai Monastery on Mount Sinai. As of 2005 it is inhabited by 13 Christian Orthodox monks lead by hegumen Macarie Bogus. It belongs to the archdiocese of Bucharest.

There are a couple of significant paintings in the Monastery which I took pictures of.. but those came out too dark. Didn't really want to use flash in the place... so I didn't include the pictures in the collage. What comes through though, is the elaborate paintworks and architecture of even the columns.

We didn't stay there for too long... cuz the place is really still in operation... so we see people going about their rituals like bending over to kiss the bible on the altar and crawling under to emerge through the other side thrice. At another corner, people are being blessed by the 'monks' - Frankly it confuses me... cuz it's very catholic yet it's called a monastery... hm

And then, wandering into the garden, we came across an old woman confessing her sins to a 'monk'/Father/Reverend? Anyway, she looked our way as we passed. Despite self knowledge that we totally don't understand her anyway, we decided she'd be more at ease if we left... so yeah, we didn't stay long.

This... is what kept me perplexed for the entire Peles-Pelisor experience. Clock... in the model of the Peles castle at a road side stall along our way to Peles. Sighs... It's some 10Euros I think... And it's really really... literally just persuading me to buy it. Luckily we were carrying our backpacks... cuz it reminds me of the impracticality of bringing it around and then back to Warsaw and to Singapore...

Sighz. I did so hate to leave it behind. I'm sure it wanted me. :(

Peles! =) We needed to wait for 15 people to demand the English tour before they provided it. Luckily... it's Easter... there were just enough of us around to have this tour.

This time according to the Romania - Official Travel and Tourist Information site again:

Considered by many one of the most beautiful castles in all Europe, Peles Castle is a masterpiece of German new-Renaissance architecture. Commissioned by King Carol I in 1873 and completed in 1883, Peles' interiors are an opulent display of elegant design and historical artifact. Its 160 rooms are adorned with the finest examples of European art, Murano crystal chandeliers, German stained-glass windows, walls covered with Cordoba leather, Meissen and Sevres porcelains, ebony and ivory sculptures.

Opulent is right. It's a very tasteful display of wealth. The essence of each place the King admired. No wonder he's a king... or rather - thank goodness he's a king - else it'd be an impossibility to implement this project.

I wish I had pictures from every room to show you - Read somewhere that some ministers from various countries had a conference there and they occupied a room each during their stay!

Anyway, those pictures gotta wait - cuz there was a photo tax... and I didn't think there was much I'd want to take photos of (I didn't know how wrong I was!) but... I met a nice Spanish guy who's doing his exchange in Romania... He promised to send me pictures he took if I email him to remind him in summer =)

Decided to leave you with more information from Romania's Official Tourist Info site:

Almost adjacent to Peles Castle is Pelisor ("Little Peles"). King Ferdinand, who succeeded Carol I, intended to use Peles Castle as a summer residence. Supposedly he found Peles too big and overwhelming, so he commissioned the smaller, art-nouveau style, Pelisor Castle. Pelisor's 70 rooms feature a unique collection of turn-of-the century Viennese furniture and Tiffany and Lalique glassware. Peles and Pelisor are located 3 miles northeast of the center of Sinaia.

This... in twin's words - is a very grand home. But it is, a home - not really a castle. Guess King Ferdinand wasn't that much into lavish richness. Much of his home is designed or had the design influenced by his Queen though. =) She had an eye for the arts and exceled in painting, poetry, arts and all...

To end off... we had a great meal before heading for Brasov for the evening. =)

We did after all swear to try Romanian food. That we did =) Thanks again to the efficient man at the Information office - he directed us to this restaurant - the name of which I forgot =P

Pork Ciorba (Soup) with bread, Tochitura, Papanasi!

Actually they have more elaborate names than that.. and you can guess what a great, stomach-stuffing meal we had. hehe The bread was huge - and as forewarned by the guide - it's provided for at an extra cost (so if you don't want those fringe stuff - you have to let the waitress know!). Twin however, enjoyed herself stuffing the pork into her bread and creating her own "kung ba pao" for those who know what I'm talking about.. =) The Tochitura was served with lots of potato/corn/ starch like substance... which is extremely filling. Papanasi is cheese donut served with sour cream/yoghurt. grin Due to a misunderstanding, we had 1 papanasi each. Oh well... figuring that we can't get much fatter since we've already eaten so much... twin & I dutifully finished it.

I think twin was miserable after that. She hates being overly stuffed. hehe

Last parting shot at the railway at sunset. =) Waiting for our P-train (read: Personal - acc to Kismet Dao's guide: P trains should be avoided... unless you want to feel like cattle... and don't mind the weird smells... it is dirty and is nicknamed gypsy train). We would like to clarify though... that though the weird smell is indeed invasive on the train... our P-train experience wasn't bad. The train was quite empty... and dirty or not... it got us to our destination. =)

Love, love, love Romania!

Snapshots - Bucuresti; Capital of Romania

2007-04-12T23:28:00.000-07:00

Sher:

Why Romania?

Our answer may sound terribly incredulous to you... cuz.. it all started when we randomly found a hostel at 10 Euros a night... that provides free breakfast... free hot choc... tea, coffee... After looking at the horrendous prices tagged to Amsterdam and Brussels... it followed quite naturally that the 2 gian-peng Singaporean girls decided to go to this rather unusual holiday destination =P

Hehs I know the above doesn't really put us in a positive light.. but all we wanted... was a new experience with a cheap price tag.. We found out subsequently that Romania wasn't all that cheap.. happily though... we also discovered the charm of this less-trodden country. & yeps. We enjoyed this trip tremendously. The history, the sites... hot choc and all =P

Twin's dream hostel: toast, cereal, muesli, 3 diff types of jam, salami, butter, cheese and hard boiled eggs, milk, hot choc, hot and cold water...
Butterfly Villa Hostel really was one of the best hostels we stayed in thus far...

(I won't be writing much... twin will be filling you in when she's free. I have... 3 more folders of pics fr Romania to post you know... =P)

Random shots along the streets of Bucharest. =)

Village museum!

We were having some difficulty orientating ourselves with the map... and we were lucky to meet a kind doctor who offered us a lift to the place. *I know... shouldn't trust strangers... I have no defence for myself, save he gave us his namecard for his clinic. =)

I love.. the quaintness of the museum. I love.. the serenity of the surroundings. I love.. the unaffectedness of the place.

Hand painted works of art depicting Romanian village life a.k.a souvenirs. The prices are... if I might say so - reasonable. 10 - 15 lei per piece. They are really exquisite works... heh Artist's husband left us his email so that we might advertise and ask if you guys want to order stuffs from him =P So just in case you really do...

Dumitru & Gina: andy_dum_7000@yahoo.com

4 introductory shots to the series on the People's Parliament. Ironies of names still in full play here. hehs I'll leave you to figure this out till twin enlightens you. =) Grin. Did I mention our water supply was running low, so we decided to fill it in the Parliament? =P

Hehs my fascination was with chandeliers... Every material in this palace is MADE in ROMANIA. Even if the country wasn't producing it... they were made to produce it so that the palace could use the material. It's supposed to be the 2nd largest building after the Pentagon in the US and could be seen from the moon. hehs Human beings have this thing about making things huge... but the grandeur of this place cannot be disputed. I wouldn't deny that. =)

And it's also from the balcony within this building, the Michael Jackson addressed his public with "HELLO BUDAPEST!!!" major screw up. But when MJ gets the stage... you never know what will happen eh? =P

The ruins of Vlad Tepes (Curtea Veche) - the old princely court.

And below: the fountains at Piata Unirii - one of the 41 fountains lining the city. Each fountain was supposed to represent 1 city in Romania. And we suspect... (we don't know for sure of course) - that this huge fountain is the one representing Bucharest cuz we know from the tour guide that the Bucharest fountain is the biggest one =)

Romanian food is rich. Really. But our favourite remains the buttery pastry with cheese we get at the Fornetti franchise that litters the entire country where cities are found. =P

Top Left: Chicken from Killer Chicken fast food kiosk. Okie... the pic only showed half of what we were served. We did experience the feeling of being-killed-by-the-chicken. We swore of chicken for the rest of the trip. hahaha

Top right: Kebab from Arabian outlet. Hehs the owners were really worn out by us cuz we made them explain what each item on the menu was. hehehe and the menu wasn't a short one =P
Decided to take advantage of the hostel's kitchen facilities for once =) Romanian instant noodles w mashed luncheon meat. haha Good stuff!

Market at Piata Domenii. The one opp our hostel =)

Guess what stayed in my mind though... is the sight of child-beggars around the place... :(

Decided to have a People-We-Met-in-Bucharest series =)

Hehs... Sherms is tired really... so I'll just briefly say that we were detained at the airport customs upon arrival for some 40 minutes... and it was all because we were holding Singapore passports... foreign to this place... the number of phone calls they had to make... gosh. Thank god for nice officers who entertained us with stories of Vlad Tepes after scrutinizing us to see how we match up to our photos. =)

This is the Animals-we-have-met-in-Bucharest series. hahaha And yeah. Rat counted =P I know it's gross. But perhaps that's why it fascinated me. Hyaks

Closing photos. I leave you with the beauties of the place... There's so much more.. but Shermz cant post everything up... haha Now the exhausted me will get therapy from changing the bed sheets. laaa Hot Shower TIME. Till nxt time... I promise.. the story of Vlad Tepes will stay in my head and I'll blog all abt it here =)

Oh yeah... and b4 I forget... This is the land... where we met and talked to the most people... We met the warmest of souls who gave us directions here and there even though they might not fully understand us... I'm glad.. we decided to visit the country. =)

Krakow - Day 3

2007-03-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

Sher:

Yeah I know... our titles of entries are really boring... but can't be helped. grinZ brain cells are meant for greater things than conjuring amusing titles. Besides... I'm not being cryptic for once... (yeah... friends you know what I'm talking about...) so appreciate that.

Underpass @ Krakow Główny - entire stretches of book-stalls, punctuated by pushcarts of - plain bread twisted into a ring with sesame seeds on it. It tastes quite normal.. but believe me, we saw so many people holding it... It must be a staple here or something...

I'm supposed to be covering the Jewish trail actually... but I decided to finish what I didn't finish for the Auschwitz-day entry; the happier stuffs =)

In Poland, you absolutely have to eat Lody (Ice Cream) cuz... it's much much cheaper! Flavour variety is almost like that of Gelato or Venetia's in Singapore... but while you pay almost $3 for a one-scoop ice cream, you pay just 1.4 - 2zl here! Then you get flavours like Whisky Cream (Twin tried that @ Stare Miasto in Warsaw), Pistachio, Praline, Orzech, Caramel, etc etc... There's even this blue one called Smerfy - yeps.. the shade of blue comparable to the blue skin of Smurf's! =) 2 happy girls with ice-creams. Calories? What's that? =P

Oh yeah... please do not disturb twin when the last wk of our adventure in Poland commences... cuz twin fully intends to lounge at home with big big tubs of cheaper but equally sinfully sedap ice-cream. =P

"Yum! Okie.. get that camera away!!! I am trying to enjoy my ice here!"

This is the fountain piece that I liked pretty much at the basement of the mall.

Found out that there's a Salsa Workshop going on at U Louisa at 9pm on the 2nd night. Decided to go check things out! Oh man... those girls are really hot.. and they can really work their bodies. Impressed... Salsa in Poland leans towards Cuban style as well... Body waves are like second nature to the Polish people... The confidence they ooze just cannot be missed.

Now for a little of our hostel... double bunk beds =) We're both taking lower bunks cuz nobody else is using the room just yet... 8-bunk room & 1st night? We had 3 of us girls. 2nd night, there was just me & twin in the big room with 8 beds... We were perfectly happy with how things were - and were prepared to praise the hostel to the skies cuz of its generous breakfast supplies, nice sheets/etc, good facilities, free internet etc... until the 3rd night happened...

The view from the top bunk. =) So on the 3rd / last night in Krakow... I happily climbed up to the top bunk... There're supposed to be new room mates.. but we're both hoping that those are party animals and will stay out till we're asleep. All I can say is... peace is never long-lasting... We were soon facing 3 very friendly people who wanted very much for us to join their drinking session... to which we politely declined... Sigh... I shall summarize the story into the following:

1. Being the centre of someone else's phone conversation w/o knowing what is exchanged

2. Building false security within a makeshift fortress and wishing there's a huge, wide and deep moat outside the fortress

3. Smiling and reducing speech

4. Photos and being squashed

5. 3 Men strutting around in underwear in a room with closed door

The view that greets me in my bed in the hostel every morning for 3 mornings. =) Yeps... we survived the night - quite uneventfully.

With that, I resume the entry I'm supposed to be doing...

Statue of Maria =) It's prob the wrong focus.. but I do very much like the halo of stars and the flowers that's part of the sculpture..

Kazimierz District - home to the Jews of sorts. This is where the trail begins. This part of Krakow felt quite different from the Rynek/Florianska/Tomaska area where our hostel was.

Tempel Synagoga. One of the 2 Synagogues in Krakow that's still being used for worship. THe others have by and large been transformed into museums housing Jewish history/ customs etc by now. I guess the Jewish population is greatly diminished... and there's a need for awareness for this rather prosecuted minority group.

It's a pity we didn't get to go in to take a look. I did very much want to.. but the place was locked up. Tourists like us lingered around with a touch of longing. Couldn't do very much about things.. so we moved on.

One of the Synagogues that's been transformed into a museum. I think this is the Izaaka Synagogue. I might sound rather unaffected... but I guess I'm really just coping with the fact that there were 3.3 million Jews in Poland before and over 3 million were killed in the Holocaust during WWII.

Btw, this museum's closed to the public on Saturday and Jewish holidays... it's be good to take note.

2 Jewish posters around. Both seem to suggest liberty to me.. In truth, though, I have no idea what they are about. =P

Pl. Bawoł. The thing about synagogues, is that they aren't very showy. Mostly, you can just walk past them without even realizing you're going past a synagogue... cept for little hints like in the iron grilles above. The star of David.

We did go into this synagogue which is also a museum for Jewish customs and holidays. I refrain from commenting on religion cuz it's really subjective. But, I'd just say that twin likes the Jewish holidays a lot cuz there's just so many... and some involves abstinence from work - like Sabbath. hehs and of cuz she especially likes those involving preparing and eating food. =P

There was a room dedicated to the Jews who had special accomplishments in their lifetimes... be it in teaching, medicine, arts, or religion. Then you stop to wonder... what were the Nazis thinking when they felt that Jews were inferior as a race and have to be exterminated to make way for their Aryan race...

Jewish Memorial outside Pl. Bawoł.

A flea market of sorts. The stalls are being set up as we walked around... It was on Sunday (next day) when we returned to it, that we saw the market in full glory. Heh pity we were too busy being enchanted by kids' clothing to take photos. =P

Which reminds me... there's a eating place here.. and the food did look quite good. Unfortunately, we weren't hungry at all... so we had to give it a miss. Next time maybe? hehs

Spring is coming!!!

Sign of the Warsaw Rising (Aug 1944) - PW. As usual, I leave all things abstract open to your imagination.

Sights in Rynek Główny - town square.

Top Left: Bazylika Trójcy Swietej
Top Right: Twin beaming after chasing after balloons for kids =P

Bottom Left: Bazylika Mariacka
Bottom Right: Cloth Hall or Sukiennice (elaborated in another entry)

Bazylika Mariacka had a sign at the entrance that said "For prayers only" - so no pictures of the interior... but it was quite an experience... The interior of the church was a vision of splendor; Jesus on the cross against a blue painted sky of stars, biblical portraits, carvings, dim lights exemplifying the gold paint works, colorful stained glass panes...

Head of a fallen warrior - he's blindfolded. You'd wonder if there's significance to that... or is it simply part of the ritual with being killed at war. Today, amused teenagers scamper in and out of the hollow head to pose for photos.

I might get a little depressed if I were him.

Walls run all round Old town - the area around Rynek Główny. This little town is actually fortified - as you can see... The wall circling the town is supposed to be punctuated with 47 towers.

Today, I don't know how many are left... but this is the St Florian's Gate... with 2 towers at the sides. The eastern tower belonged to the haberdashers, whilst the western one was manned by the carpenters. I don't think anyone really mans the place now... but the legacy remains...

Food will most certainly not be left out of the entry that closes the Krakow chapter for 2 of us.

Dinner was the above! Yep we challenged the ultimate creamy cake. Surprise surprise! The cream actually tastes like strawberry ice-cream that is not cold. All the same, I'm glad we shared this slice... it's a little too sweet to be consumed whole. Then again, most creamy cakes in Poland are rather sweet...

Grin I know... this picture is totally irrelevant. I just wanted to highlight that they actually have LAKSA in Poland. Er... I havent tried it.. but neither of us felt quite compelled to give it a chance, given the disappointment that would set in if it's not quite the same...

Heh Another non-sequitor kind of picture... I just thought the cow reminded me of a certain card... haha jas, do you think it's the same cow? =P

Street performance @ the St Florian's Gate.

And then, I was just snapping pictures like nobody's business - of places we didn't visit. =P

Top Left: The Tourist Information Booth - I think we grew tired of these booths... got our maps from the hostel =)

Top Right: The memorial + maze that I didn't take a closer look of.

Bottom Left: Unknown and Uncharted Territory

Bottom Right: The train station. This we did visit - for peron/platform information etc etc... =)

The final picture in the entry shall be about Regrets.

STEVE REICH AND PHILIP GLASS IN CONCERT!!! Sobs.. it's on the 27th... when we have left. It's just not meant to be...

Krakow - Wawel Castle

2007-03-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

HL:

After the depressing trip to Auschwitz, and a good night's rest, we decided to visit Wawel Castle - well after all, it is one of the few recommended sights in Krakow. We had already seen it on the first day when we went in search of our concert tickets...but did not manage to go up cos it was too late already.

So the day started with a pleasant surprise - a lot of food for breakfast bright early in the morning. =) Even though the amount seems insufficient, it actually is cos few people are staying in this hostel (it is still undegoing renovations and this is not the peak travel season as well). So we happily helped ourselves to it before stepping out to Wawel.

After a short walk (the location of our hostel is really prime man), we reached Wawel (in the background). It was a bright and sunny day! Its quite good cos just yesterday when we were at Auschwitz, gosh you should see the rain!

Another picture of the Wawel Castle, cos the previous picture could not display the top of the castle. Assure you the weather was good despite the threatening grey clouds in the sky. =)

Unlike monuments and sights in Hungary, its neighbour, this castle is definitely older than 100 years! Despite the wars, this castle managed to survive. Were it in Warsaw, perhaps now it may still be undergoing massive reconstruction efforts! Cos unlike Krakow, Warsaw was flattened by the Nazis during the 2nd world war to quell the uprising efforts of the Poles.

The way up the hill. Twin is happy because of the good weather =) You prob cannot see but it is a longer way up than the picture suggests! By the way, can you see the signs of spring on the trees already? The weather is no longer as cold and leaves are already starting to sprout on the trees! Pretty! (Maybe this is another reason why twin is so happy - no need to wear thermals liao hahah)

Outside the gate onroute to the castle. =) Seriously, I think that we are the only Asians around. Somehow.

Well. the first corner that greeted us was the ticket office =) We wanted to go for a guided tour ard the castle, after all this is the most visited place in Krakow!, so we went to buy tickets. Sadly, the tickets for the state rooms and the garden grounds were not available. Think they closed the state rooms for cleaning and the gardens probably for pruning?

When we first walked into the castle, the first sight that greeted us was the cathedral and its museum, as well as the royal tombs. =) I think that the cathedral needs tickets to go into haha, and we wonder if they cost money...Anyway, we just went into the cathedral (no one checked for tickets!) without any tickets and looked around for a short while without taking photos. All the time, I was just telling twin that all the tombs are royal tombs. Haha! Actually, I think she took me with a pinch of salt...

Aren't the grounds pretty? All the white patches you see on the ground are actually flowers in bloom! =)

WOnders if twin was bored already. Anyway. upon turning left before the pretty flowers, we reached the armory place. It also has an admission ticket but this time, we did not sneak in =) Anyway. we were here mainly to find the royal apartments which we would be visiting before it was time so that we dun get lost and reach late. Its just up ahead from this point by the way. =) But can see from the pillar that Wawel castle is not the kind of castle that is lavishly and very expensively decorated...it seems more of a functional castle.

At the same place.. the courtyard. The pipes above on the roofs are shaped like dragons =) Can you see? The four sides of the roof are surrounded by these pipes, its really quite cool =)

See the openness of this courtyard! Haha, twin was just saying that no one could have a rendezvous in this place man. The whole palace could just look down and stare at the couple haha! Guess the gardens are a better place? Anyway, the courtyard is big enough to be a town square...like the old town square back in Old town in Warsaw.

Twin likes this clock =) Oh when we went for the royal apartments tour, we found out that the Poles like French clocks! Most of their clocks came from there! Wonder if this came from France too...But ya, its pretty isn't it? It looks like Christmas to me! Anyway this clock is from the cathedral!

We couldn't take picture during the tour therefore I guess the tour will be in words and no pictures. Basically both twin and I felt that the tour was a little brief. THe lady guide was basically telling us information on the art pieces of the rooms like who painted this and where he was from, rather than the people and their history...like who stayed in this room, what was he in the history of Poland or something. However, because of this, we learnt that most art pieces and deco came from other nations like Italy and France (esp the clocks...there was even a shiny golden one!). But they do use local products like Polish marble =)

After the tour, at my insistance? We went to look at the Vistula river. And this is the big bend, I think the biggest bend of the river in Krakow. BY the way, this river runs along Warsaw too! Separates our home and school haha! So we get to cross it everytime we want to go to school.

I wonder why but I always think that this kind of trees are pretty.

Twin is sleepy le I tell you =) Anyway, the wind was really really strong!

Another nice nice shot of the river =)

Ok this is seriously cool! You saw the river? They were all taken at the Dragon's Den which leads down to this dragon you see in this photo. SO this dragon is actually facing the river. And every 5 mins or so, the dragon will spew flames in the direction of the river. But the cool part about this whole thing is that the dragon actually spews fire. And we didn't think much of it, until we finished the scenery photos and were preparing to leave when from the corner of her eye, twin caught the ends of the flame. Thats when we starting camping there to wait for the dragon to spew fire. What a big sacrifice...standing still among the blasts of cold wind...

The signs that spring is coming. You see beautiful flowers blooming =)

This is a music records shop in the castle selling even old records! Those big big LDs! Hehes but mostly on the classical side...

You know the walk walk see see and must sit down eat something? =) We had a big breakfast so we weren't hungry, but we were still tempted by the idea of eating something nice in a warm place =) The lady at the counter was very nice. =)

And this is the cake with apple =) It looks like apple pie and tastes like apple pie =)

And this is the soup with meatballs. Seriously not what we expected. We were thinking of some thick soup with humongous meatballs. But this is good too, cos it tastes like Chinese cooking hehehes!

So with that, we ended our tour of the Castle. =) Will come back again for the state rooms =) I want to see!

Ending off with the last things we saw upon leaving the castle....The afternoon was spent on a Jewish walking trail..shall leave twin to cover it =)

Krakow - Oświęcim (Auschwitz)

2007-03-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

Sher:

Tried drafting this entry once... and felt that I can't help trivializing this entry of gravity with the small details I can't resist including... so... I shall do away with the smaller events or impressions first:

Sth worth mentioning is that the person who runs AQQ hostel is really nice... he helped us check out all possible means of getting to Auschwitz camp (which is located in Oświęcim - read: ors-vien-chim - sth like that...) on the internet when we asked. He even called up PKP railway to check out train timings and prices...

[Oh! He sleeps in a room with a working desk equipped with a PC, a printer, a NETS reader etc, a sink in the corner and a half sized single bed mattress in a corner. Minimalist living? =P I wanted so much to get a picture of his room... but guess that's kind of rude.. hm?]

After some amount of research and a little enquiry on our part from our really nice room mate, we decided on the 9.15am train to Oświęcim. =)

She fears the heat and the chill... and frequently underestimates the weather - here's twin. haha e same one who wore a spag strap and just a jacket and then started shivering last night on the streets... (Mutual friend A (u know who u are...), pls talk 2 her abt this... I'm tired of nagging) and in e warmth of the train, the layers won't stay on her.

Counter @ Oświęcim station - vacated some few minutes ago, the lady in there left after we confused her with our enquiries about train tickets back to Krakow Główny. Oh yeah, lesson from previous trips: always secure your return tix 1st thing... if you dont want to risk having to stay at wherever you are and don't want to be at overnight =)

(The railway station)

We werent lost for long - pretty soon, someone else sold us the train tix... Return tix: 3.45pm, next train was at 8pm! We weren't going to risk that... even if Carlin had recommended the restaurant opposite the station for cheap and good food and beer. =P

Before we get a little more serious... we spotted chickens or sth around... twin was hopeful for an egg to be laid... but she should now know there's no such thing as a free lunch - or egg for that matter.. so her dream continues =)

p/s. yeah i know it's highly inappropriate to keep punctuating e entry w sidetracks - but we both got hungry at this point and went 2 e kitchen to get tuna & bread. Marked.

Wry humor in the form of grafitti outside a military camp enroute to Auschwitz I.

Soaked and dishevelled.

All right... entry starts proper here...

Our itinerary for the day, as have been previous revealed, is the site that might well be the largest cemetry in the world, home to countless dead in the brutal genocide that was somehow allowed to take place unchecked, just a little more than 50 years ago.

Did I forget to mention that it's a cold, gloomy and rainy day out there... Yeah so that was how the weather was... and I guess, given the destination, the weather is perhaps appropriate... but as we suffered in the cold, we can't help thinking the gloomy weather was totally uncalled for... Not that we could do much about it.

We stumbled upon the way to Birkenau (Auschwitz II) while looking for Auschwitz I. FYI, Auschwitz wasn't a single camp. It was further divided into Auschwitz I - the nucleus of sorts, Auschwitz II (Birkenau - Extermination camp) and Auschwitz III (Monowitz - Labor camp).
I'm gonna get the pictures out of the way before delving into detail...

From this point onwards, I shall refer to the victims of this atrocity as 'prisoners' of the camps; but this word shall only mean that they were imprisoned against their will and were robbed of their freedom, dignity and anything that meant anything to them.

Aerial map of the camps - taken by the Allies

An appropriately bleak picture of the camp with its fences that had high electricity voltages running through them. It was said that when prisoners got desperate enough, some of them ran up against the fences to commit suicide..

A ditch in the camp. Countless bodies were found in each of the ditches - revealing what killed the prisoners when the cold, the lack of hygiene, illness, torture, gassing, sadistic medical experiments etc did not: hunger. Many died, famished, too tired to move.. piled up against others sharing the same fates, dying and dead...

One of the 'cells'. There were metal rings along the bars running along the thin walls of the place; undoubtedly to secure the shackles of some prisoners to.

One of the famous incinerators within the camp, used to cremate millions who died in the camp. These, along with the gas chambers (in which many were killed with the cyanide gas - Zyklon B) were hastily destroyed by the Nazis as they saw the end of the war nearing.

The tracks leading up to the camp. The Death Railway ran along these tracks - on which, some, deported, knew nothing of the fate that awaits them... all of them were tumbled out of the trains that took them here... at that point, they were stripped of their identities as they were made to stand in lines and then got separated into classifications that went along the lines of "ill, too young or old to be of any use to the captors", "able to work", "jews" etc. Those able to work, will be utilized beyond humanity, others, recognized to be of no economic value, are exterminated promptly.

A memorial for those who died in the camp...
The plague reads:

"For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe"

I think it speaks for itself.

This sculpture was found in the information centre at Auschwitz I - which happens to be the camp with more information in the form of photos and captions exhibited in the bunkers.

The sculpture is called "Before the Sun Rose". Recognizing the taller structure as the post to which prisoners are tied to as a normal sort of punishment for the smallest thing - or even nothing at all... I think interpretation of the sculpture should be left open..

The entrance to Auschwitz I - the sign reads “Arbeit Macht Frei”, or “work (will) make (you) free.” Irony at its best really. Each day, the prisoners would be marched to the beat of the orchestra, out of the camp, where they will be set to work in the worst of conditions... till death claims them.

Dark pictures above. This is from the exhibition in just one of the bunkers that we barely had time for. The invasion of Poland for the expansion of German territory marks the beginning of the second world war. To achieve a legitimate start of sorts, Hitler was quoted to have engineered the war - by creating a cause for it.

The Polish army put up a good fight, but was sadly outnumbered in almost every aspect that determines the victory or defeat of an army in a war.

Picture Left, Bottom shows a panel for each camp set up by the Nazis to house their Prisoners of War.

Picture Right, Bottom shows an example of Germanization where street names are altered along with signs.

The Nazis wanted to clear a space for their countrymen whom they believe to be the only Aryan species. To do that, they had to invade others and clear the space of the unwanted inhabitants... immediate death would seem like a waste... so they found ways to recycle the lives they didn't want; experiments on sterilization, on diseases, on bacteria, work etc. They even shaved the heads of all the females and collected those hair in sacks where they are used in the manufacturing of products in Germany.

Schools are closed. Education only taught submission to the superiority of the Nazis. Everything that had to do with Polish roots and origins is obliterated. In the words of the Nazis, "The Polish Nation can no longer be allowed to wear the name of a cultural nation in the community of Europe. Its existence is cancelled."

A 15 min long documentary shown in the theatre in the information centre of Auschwitz I recounted tales of inhumane experiments - sacrificing many in order to further medical knowledge for the Aryan race, the few who saw liberation, many more who didn't, and the irreparable damage done to those who lived to tell their stories... of frostbitten feet and dreadful scars...

Having visited the site, seen the evidence, watched the documentaries, heard the horror stories, read the recounts of those who suffered and trampled on the grounds that the victims did walk on, it is still difficult to imagine that mankind is capable of such acts against another human being. I half wish - with more than a little grim sadism, that the Nazi doctors cut open the brains of Hitler & other main engineers of this dreadful crime against humanity, and see if they are rotten from the core.

It was in deep thought we left the place that evening. Some lessons in history should never be forgotten. Never again, should lives be allowed to be trivialized in such a manner.

I'd leave the events of the rest of the evening to another entry.

Day 1 Krakow.

2007-03-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

HL:

So this is the start of another travel! =) This time, we are headed to Krakow, another Polish city. Krakow is known to be pretty and therefore, an extremely touristy place in Poland. We were there to see that for ourselves!

As usual before we set off, things must be neat in the house! And sobs, we left them behind...

Cyclops and Dear, sleeping on the bed without us for about 4 days

This was the train that would bring us to Krakow in 3 hours =) Very cheap wor! 29 zl only when the normal train ticket without this current promotion (only valid from Mon-Thurs) cost about 66zl.

On the train ride there. =) Grafitti is a big thing in Europe. =)

And tada! After 3 long (erm not really long...there are longer train rides out there, and bus rides as well) hours on train which we always sleep through, (the gentle rocking of the train and the warmth in the cabin? lol), we finally reached Krakow!

And the background is actually the 1zl bread that we see streets of people selling and eating. Its not especially interesting - its just bread shaped like a ring which tastes like plain bread. But it makes for a good snack when we get hungry from walking I guess.

See! We got hungry already! Laughs. Actually we wanted to try it because twin heard from PS that this is a must try! Hah. Thinking back, it wasn't so bad cos I had a worse experience in Hungary with bread and sesame =(

On the way to the hostel, we saw this scary exhibit outside a cake shop. =) Actually the rest were not so bad, and most of the other cake shops around did sell cream cakes but not with cream of this proportion. I guess the scary part is self-explanatory. =) I have never seem cake with this amount of cream before! There is a story tied with this cake. Later part wor.

We found our hostel! After a long walk...=) Thankfully, hostelworld had instructions and Krakow had kind English speaking ladies. =) Anyway, this hostel is like that of the one in Hungary, but at least it has a signboard outside =) At first, we rang the doorbell...but no one answered! And we only managed to get in when we called and someone picked up the phone =)

By the way, we stay behind the open door in a 8 bunk room named Communism. It was nice for 2 nights. Then the third night =( Nonetheless it is a nice hostel under renovation - perhaps it is why it is not too expensive. When it is fully renovated, there is no doubt this hostel (AQQ hostel) will become more expensive. They do offer nice basic free breakfast of cereal, break and milk and free hot drinks. =)

After settling down, and meeting Carlin, a girl from the States having an exchange in germany (the poor lady was sick and therefore had to stay in the hostel to rest before she moves on for the rest of the journey), we decided to start our sightseeing =)

First sight of the day - the St Mary's Basilica. It is one of the churches that we saw, and went into later in the travel to pray and not to visit =)

We did not visit our first sighting. Instead, we went to this place named the Cloth Hall! Haha but unlike what the name suggests, we do not see any cloth here. Instead, we find here filled with souvenir shops instead, especially those selling amber accessories...We shall go Gdansk and pick free amber (we heard that there was lots in the beaches in Gdansk)!

One of the souvenir shops in Cloth Hall selling chess sets. It fascinated twin cos she wanted to learn how to play chess. Any teachers?

Continuing the exploration, and seeing a street busker with the xylophone =) Its nice to walk in the streets and hear music and he was good =)

The Krakow streets...Random picture...But you see the Kebab sign? Like our place, Krakow has a lot of kebab stores =) And this was also our dinner place. The main highlight of this picture however, is the church in the background with the beautifully designed white structure! Its really elaborate.

And this is us with the church in the background. We did go into the church later that night and saw a night service, but left soon after before it ended to catch our concert. =)

Another church that we passed by looking for the concert venue so we can go buy tickets for the performance. We thought this was the place instead cos it had the music concert poster but haha, on the poster, there was an arrow marked and distance 200m written on the poster!

We found the concert venue! =) But how to go in wor? Can you see the door? Hehe, no its not in this picture...its the side of the church.

Haha! We found the door! And twin managed to open it. (Later realized all I needed to do was to push down the handle a lot harder) after 2 tries, upon which she triumphantly declared that only good people get to open the door and enter the place! Grr!

We found that ticket sales only starts 7 pm. Sigh. Went to the streets again for a walk =)

A pretty shop window that caught twin's fancy! The statue of the slim woman playing the flute looks really graceful.

Passed by this church which we could enter! =) Something caught our attention!

Highlight of the church - see the interesting design on the door?

After walking for the whole day, we were hungry. Since we had time on our hands, we decided to eat dinner too! =) This is rice with turkey and salad...the salad had a banana taste but we cannot understand why - there is NO banana in the salad. Overall the meal is like your expensive Singaporean cai fan but to do it justice, its really very nice.

And then it was time for the concert!

Happy us get to listen to a concert with Bach pieces!

The musicians! They were really good! We thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

The right paper shows the repertoire for the night. =)

End of the concert...We had to leave =( Took a last photo of the place and ventured into the COLD windy streets back to our hostel =( Well at least the hostel had hot chocolate..

Haha, our pretty new hostel that is still undergoing renovations =)

And then we went to sleep.

Additional mention - Carlin very kindly told us a lot of things about Krakow =) Thanks Carlin! And have a fun time in Berlin =)

Slowing down 4 thoughts

2007-03-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

Sher:
Have been zooming around lots... maybe to fewer places than weiming, but quite definitely, a substantial period of time had been spent outside Warsaw... so much so that we kinda havent explored Warsaw as a tourist yet. ahaha Life in Warsaw is really about school, keeping the home like a home, cooking, groceries.. living life like regular people... =)

Stopping to ponder about the take aways of each trip:

Budapest, Wien, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Frankfurt
2 inexperienced backpackers. That's what we were on that trip. We didn't know a single thing about using rail passes, or hostel rules.. or linen or orientation or where to start & how much to prepare. I guess I was just expecting to be wow-ed and just as well we started in Budapest.

I think that trip taught us a great deal... to be wiser, more discerning, more prepared, less in a fumble, expect less and experience more. heh Just to think about the things that happened to us - being caught for skipping metro tix, lying to the metro guard, forgetting to validate rail passes, taking trains, making reservations, sharing cabins, having cabins to ourselves, sleeping on trains, locating grocery stores wherever we go, finding the cheapest way to have a most satisfying meal, happily declaring that we're students at each tourist attraction, compromising of interests, getting waylaid by friendly people who appear threatening (to wide-eyed inexperienced girls in foreign lands), absorbing information like sponges to realize that those information don't keep in the head, unless passed on asap. haha I think twin can come up with a lot more... but that's the most prominent stuff I remember...

Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden
Slightly more prepared, armed with more information and a little more wisdom from the last trip, we set off again.

This time, we found a free (commission-based) walking tour, got better with directions and locating tourist offices, spouting minimal German to help us get by, looking less lost, battled with strong vicious winds using weak, brittle umbrellas, slept at train stations, ate tons and tons, managed time better, saw what we're interested in, forgone stuff we didn't think we'd like... getting a little more out of Berlin than the other places. Learnt that... each place has its own charm, that Leipzig and Dresden are as different as can be, learnt that eurail pass can be used to get a discount for a train tix from the country included in the pass - to the country that's not included. &... 1/2 day is really short for a place if you want to see it properly...

Krakow
3rd trip? A lil more seasoned... we were set to have a slightly more relaxing trip at a hostel that provides free many things...

Learnt that... deals closed when we are overly keen to get things over and done with are never the best, you could pay 30zl for a 8-bunk rm & have it all to yourself while you might pay 40zl for a 6-bunk rm and share it with 4 others during non-peak seasons... Then again, you run the risk of being in the same room as 3 men who sleep in their underwear and prance around in them whichever room type you choose...

Experienced... eating half a slice of extremely creamy cake, being terrorised by men who's just being friendly, anxiety from wondering if you missed the train stop, a little polish can earn you many a smile and sometimes even better service, being a tourist on a rainy day is extremely trying, sometimes conscience dictates you pay for some things even though you know you can get away with not paying, that just sometimes you try to ignore someone trying to get you to be charitable and meet that same person who recognizes you on your way back hours later... that tv & kids are universal entertainment, that hot chocolate is welcomed anytime, that hazelnut is not as nice as coconut HIT biscuit, that a little cheese can brighten twin's day, that ice-cream is cheaper in Poland, that we can actually overspend rather easily, that tourism is thriving in Krakow, that everywhere has an entrance fee... that ...

That I have to break this train of thought and get to posting photo memories soon... hehs

3 trips. 4 concerts. We're doing good! =) kies... hopefully we get the blogging done b4 our next trip to Romania in 1 wk or so...

Life when we're not being nomadic

2007-03-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

So. This is probaby one of the weirdest photo to start an entry with. But if it interests me enough to make me whip out my trusty T10 to sneakily capture a shot... then it is worth your attention. =P

Life on exchange definitely isn't totally about flying around or training around.. the bulk of our time is spent in Warsaw, Poland. And there's this quaint charm of this place.. that cannot fail to melt the hearts of those of us on exchange here.
The people are as warm as the weather is cold... (and the weather is really sub-zero) - I proceed to demonstrate.

Picture 1 is of the area around our residence... 2, 3 and 4, in which ever order you prefer, are snapshots of the path leading to our school on a terribly snowy day. =) Pretty whiteness.

This - is a snowflake caught on twin's jacket. See? It's almost perfect looking... Like those snow flakes illustrators draw on book covers for children's stories.. or on christmas cards.. You hav a second to try to keep it forever. After that.. it melts into shapelessness.

On such a cold day, people are still willing to queue... for ages. These are recommended by Rafal - who knows his food. So what might they be queuing for...
There we are. =) THE giant kebab for 6zl.

And then, there are nice surprises that arrive with a symbolism that one only understands later. But of cuz everybody else understood cept for the silly girl below who was adamantly in denial. Nvm, she's now in bliss. But just to recap... these r just a few photos of our trip to Poczta - the post office to collect twin's parcel. I made her a video... haha whether it'll get shown here... hm pretty much up to her.

Guess pictures speak for themselves. e sender would be happy to see that his efforts paid off. =)

Okay. This requires explanation. We only did this once. And hopefully that was the last time. =P hmm it all started cuz we went to a particular polish restaurant that's all things good cept for all e cigarette smoke.. so here's us - airing the clothes - with the aid of an air vent in the kitchen. Like I said.. it's not often we do this...

The other source of cigarette smoke on clothes isn't a frequent occurence... So on that one rare instance - we have a few photos...

Me, twin & Adriana (Mexican girl! - I love her eyelashes!)

Emily and Elayne chilling with their drinks.

Elena! =)

Twin & I sharing a drink.

So there wasn't that many shots cuz then the dancing began... the music's great! But sher's tolerance for beer is almost nilch... Aft 2 hours.. the puking began.. and home beckons.

Well, here's a before-party shot anyway... Where twin looked half awake cuz she did just wake up moments ago...

Our other favourite (Read: necessary & enjoyable) activity is shopping - for groceries. We do that every other day. When it's a major marketing trip... our destination would be Carrefour in Arkardia... after school.

Here's twin sniffing around for good cheese @ promo prices.

Half a month of groceries~ Just look at the bags... and remember it's just 2 of us... carrying all these back home.

Well of cuz... we do a lot of .. er.. ok some amount of studying as well... We are... afterall.. first and foremost.. Students.. Grin but one should never neglect having fun.
So yeah, that's e bandit tee. Love it!

And then.. of course it's important to keep in touch with those at home..
Those are postcards from Berlin... we just thought it'd be cheaper to post them in Poland.

So that's what we did. See the writing and the stamps? Ach.. we didn't realize we didn't pay for priority mail.. So as I'm typing.. it's probably still under some pile of mail somewhere.. maybe in the ocean.. Hopefully they make it across. =)

I did mention that hospitality is as warm as the weather is cold. See our happy faces as our dinner awaits us at the table. Ola (the girl on the extreme right of the picture) is the hostess for the night. Belarusian dinner beckons!

Looks at the food... And that's cucumbers on the table. It takes quite different from the cucumbers back home. hmm As for what the dish is called... I have no idea.. I kind of forgot. But no matter, Ola says we'll cook it together one day and she'll teach us! =) Yay.

4 of us playing w e cam's self-timer before dinner. Adriana, Elena, twin & I.

Twin & I do wander around somewhat too. Given that we live almost along e Orchard road equivalent in Singapore, shopping malls are everywhere. We have at least 4 or 5 malls within walking distance... and the train station 10 minutes or so away... and 2 metro stops within stone's throw. Life's pretty good where we are - central.

So we pose in front of the futuristic architecture that's distinctive in this shopping mall.. which is named... er. heh I forgot again =P

Palac Kultury. From this point on, the pictures look like postcards.. partially cuz of the color of the blue blue cloudy sky... =) I don't think the Polish like this building much.. it's a gift from the Russians... Guess people don't like being constantly reminded of a Soviet past.

I did say it looks like postcards. The people in the picture are just about small enough to help make the image picturesque.

What did I tell you? Even the gentleman in the foreground left looks set to be placed back in time and fit in perfectly...

Polish are predominantly Roman Catholics... I'm not sure if all the churches captured are Catholic churches... but I just wanted to show you the number of churches there are within vicinity of each other.

Churches! Nope... havent' gone into any yet..

The last place I'd want to show you before random shots are placed... is Ogrod Saski - the park nearest to our apartment.

Yep. Just me. Twin had other more interesting things to do. =P

The pond in the park. I can't wait to see this place in spring... Isn't it quaint?

This is the statue of Medycyna (still in the park) - and the only reason I took her was cuz she was holding a snake. Grin mummy, she doesn't fear snakes either =P

This... is a church - that I photographed cuz it looks like a mosque. Heh the things of interest to me... hmm

I shall end with this: sunrise from our flat.

Daylight saving to take place on 25th Mar! At 12.59am... the next hour is 2am... not 1am! =) Transfering night into day... then we'd be just 6 hours behind Singapore.

I wonder who ensures everybody switches time. It's a Sunday. So if we don't switch... everybody will be late for class on Monday? hmmm

Okayz Krakow next! Hope it's fun!

Day 4 Germany Dresden and Leipzig

2007-03-16T02:41:00.001-07:00

HL:

Today is considered the last backpacking day with all the sightseeing, because the next day was concentrated on meeting the times for the way home. =)

The night before we reached Dresden, we had already planned to spend only half a day there to save on time as well as cost of rail tickets (on the eurail pass with only 2 remaining days). At first, without the map and all, we thought it would be difficult to navigate; somemore we do get lost easily (but thank goodness for twin who copied instructions from the travel guide we found in our previous hostel in Berlin, haha, we found our way easily), we decided to only visit one place from the guide - Pfunds Molkerei! It was reputed to be the prettiest dairy ard with very pretty tiles and all...so i really did want to visit it and twin was agreeable. So when we came out, we made our way straight there. And because that place was so far away, we managed to pass by the old town which twin made up her mind to visit after Pfunds (meant we had to walk faster =( )

This is when we first reached Dresden. Man, cold wor! And that blue thing sticking out of my small blue backpack (I Love SMU *grins*) is the spoilt umbrella - souvenir from Berlin!

On the way there....Pfunds Molkerei!

We have no idea who is the statue though...

This is COOL! Haha. We saw this msg in front of the police station! Haha, wonders if anyone has
obeyed this msg as yet =)

We finally reached Pfunds Molkerei after an hour plus walk and this is the restaurant that is above the dairy. Haha. It is a nice but expensive place wor. Haha therefore, though we were a little tempted, we didnt have a meal here.

This is the toilet in the restaurant! Isnt this cute!

Ok this is the Pfunds Molkerei. I cannot really remember why we never took any photos of the place inside...whether its because we were too tired, not impressed or that they did not allow photos to be taken. Anyway, even though it was reputed to be the prettiest dairy, we didnt really think so. Perhaps I dunno how to appreciate ba. Ask twin why she didnt like it =)?

Saw this on the way to Pfunds Molkerei wor. And we did want to buy something to eat =) so on the way back we did. Its nice! Creamy and with peach =)

We wanted to go to the Old Town. And took this way instead so that we will get to the Old town more easily (the most direct route wor)

A statue of someone I don't know but think the name is Augustus (its written on the plague under the statue). But it looks gold plated. Wonders if it really is.

Map of Dresden in the old days. Isnt it interesting?

Twin saw this.

River! Either everywhere in Europe has a river, or our travel places do.

And with that we reached this old town! I think this was the reason why DK said this place is pretty. He also said that we should not make this a half day trip, but gosh, two poor girls with no time...Dresden was sacrificed.

We walked along a bridge and saw this cathedral at the top. We never got to visit it though cos it was locked up =(

If my memory doesnt fail me (it often does these days), it is the opera house here. =) We had only half a day therefore we didnt visit many places, not even musuems.

Oops. This is another shot of the Opera House. Laughs. I remember that another lady was going to stand here and take a photo until she realised that twin was doing the same thing. =)

This is some place that I cannot remember, but I do remember that this was supposed to house a glockenspiel, which I seriously cannot find. It is supposed to have 4 parts, all 4 with something to see. Well, we tried the glockenspiel and cannot find it and moved on. Memorable = we took a photo for a middle -aged and extremely happy couple wor.

Moving on a lot! Its already afternoon when we got here. This is the Church of Our Lady and at this time, there was a concert (mini performance by the violinists actually) going on. We queued quite long to get in wor. But sadly had to leave because we had to catch the next train to Leipzig =(

The Dome with a story.

Ending off Dresden with a picture of the toilet of the train we took. LOL! Twin was damn impressed with how spacious the toilet was!

And with that, haha, after about 1 hr, we reached Leipzig!

As usual, our first task on hand is to find a hostel. But sadly the tourist information is CLOSED! haha. in the end, we managed to get a map from the station and tried to find one of the road names that has a hostel. Thank goodness one of them was situated near the town central - Hostel Sleeping Lion!

But when we got there, the cheapest beds were no longer available and we had to take slightly more expensive bunks...but look at the amount of space we have!
This is twin's bed and half the space that we share!

We decided to go for a walk while there was still daylight and saw this first church which was supposed to be built more simply but still is an attraction. =)

Hehe. I remember that this place was not really built that simply as it is reputed to be. It houses the Bach choir, which we missed =( because of some misinformation from our hostel owner. And it was extra sad cos twin loves Bach and we were already in Leipzig!~

Unidentified. Or rather. Forget liao.

I think trees are interesting, especially during winter!

This is the new town hall! We didnt visit this place but we first passed by because of my terrible navigation skills. We had actually wanted to go to the tallest building in Leipzig, the Universitat, instead of the battle of nations (need to pay=() to have a bird's eye view of the city but in the end, the building wasn't open =(

Random photo of the same spot we were at when we took the photo of the town hall.

Well twin got the bearings right in the end and this was the pub named Moritz Bastei the hostel owner recommended we go if we wanted to pub...its on the way to that tall building.

Haha. This was at night when we were walking back in disappointment from not being able to go up that tall building...And passed by this statue who we don't know of. Grins. But this statue stands in front of one of the fine dining restaurants named Auerbachs Keller, which supposedly gives a free tour of their wine cellar. =)

And sadly, it is closed too =(

The sky starts to darken and we find ourselves facing Goethe =)

The streets of Leipzig...very colourfully lit

These are stores within the building above. Below are the clothes that caught twin's eye =) For someone's information wor!

Also in the same building, we saw this gift from ancient China. There's supposed to be sound reverberating when you rub on the handles if your hands are of a suitable wetness. I wasnt really able to do it...small sound, and I was proud of it until this nice uncle came along...and created this sound so loud, macham chinese dragon roaring lol!

And he kindly took a shot of us after his trememdous feat =)

Walking aimlessly on the streets feeling really cold, and on the way to Nikolaikirche, the church that is supposed to be very elaborately designed, we were waylaid by a San Remo Ice Cream Shop. And therefore, it is no surprise that this is dinner =)

The next morning, bright and sunny, we continued on our sightseeing!
Twin likes this statue...

The supposed simple church...

Where got simple?

And it was nice that we managed to find Bach too when we left the church. He looks authoritative wor.

Outside the Bach museum that we did not visit. Anyway, it wasnt open yet.

The Old Stock Exchange! Its cool how people can suddenly come up with ideas like, lets have a common place for trade..thats how this place was conceived =)

Nikolaikirche, the elaborate church...

And along the way, we ate a lot of nice food, like crepes with kinder schokolade! twin prefers it to nutella cos it has milk. Nutella also has milk what! Grins. Anyway, it was a nice trip. We also tried to visit the Hitler museum but not very successful cos the museum wasnt friendly wor. ANd there was also a German tour going on. In that small space, and no English, twin and I decided to leave...

And it was time to go Berlin Hauptbahnnof to do some Pfand!=) Tata...

Backpacking 4 real in Berlin (Day 3)

2007-03-13T12:40:00.000-07:00

Yeps back for another round of pictures. Decided not to be lazy b4 e Krakow trip. =P & Internet is up again. Hurray for the modem & e router. Now they just have to work in harmony consistently, then we'll all be happy. :)

Anw, this is Sher blogging. Ach - don't twin & I sound qte qte different? mm wells. anyways...

Last day @ David's Cosy Backpacker Hostel... this is e lounge area w books & board games to keep backpackers entertained - in case e weather sux... It does look quite cosy yeah? - towel pinched @ e door so that it doesn't slam & disturb the occupants =)

Yepz... last picture of us minus bag outside hostel - cuz we decide to head to the Supermarket to get water and provisions...

Oranges! Many many! & a dog chained to the trolley... I'd love to see what happens if the dog tries to run and all e oranges smash. But then again, in real life, these things rarely happen...

Btw, hostels usually have a rule of checking out before a certain time usually 10am or 11am, else you'd have to pay for that day's bed. Hostel isn't exactly near our destinations... so day 3 was the real thing - carrying backpack around to explore the place. We didn't want to buy transport card for the 3rd day - so we happily carried our stuffs and trudged towards the main city area.

These are the sights on e way...

=) I totally don't know what model this car is and all. But it looked cute - so it's here. Together w this hostel that's friendly with huge labels...
Somehow, knowing what we wanted to cover for the day relaxes us a lot. The feeling of 'Hey no hurry! The city is waiting for us...' Perhaps it isn't... But here's our agenda for the day: "Topography of Terror", "Deutschedom" & "Reichstag".

Across e Bridge. Frankly, I forgot e name of this one. But looking at it, I remember 2 thoughts that came to mind then. 1. Okie... that's Reichstag we see - and our final destination Berlin HBF is visible from here too. That's good news... 2. What's w lamp posts w spikes to keep birds from landing? (yeah... i know... preservation of monuments... & I can totally understand aft a bird pooped on me yesterday. Stinks!)

You can see the HBF station behind us. And I think we didn't grow fat - it's just all e clothes and the perceived lack of a neck when a scarf is wrapped around it. Ok fine... maybe just a little - cuz of all e pastries.. =P

Reichstag! More about this place later.

Yeah I have no idea why I go around snapping pictures of toilets everywhere. I'm just trying my best to justify why the hell toilet entry in Europe costs some $1SGD... No wonder people find it cheap when I price toilet entry at 30cents in Rollercoaster Tycoon..

We went back to the DG Bank @ Pariser Platz (where the Brandenburger Tor is) - to see if there really is a whale in the building... like Mike e tour guide from NZ says. The story behind this is that... the star of Pariser Platz has to be Brandenburger Tor... so NO BUILDING IN THE SQUARE WAS TO OVERSHADOW IT. yeps... therefore when the famed architect of DG Bank, Frank O Gehry, said that

"hey I'm gonna build a GIANT WHALE".
(ok he prob didn't say that... but he's famous for unexpected stuff...)

the authorities were like

"NO!!! The height of all the structures on Pariser Platz and all the buildings on Unter den Linden Street must be of the same height, and have to be lower than the height of the Brandenburger Tor, with all the buildings having facades which give off a unified impression.."

Frank O Gehry isn't one who bends the rules.. he kept to the restrictions... and the external facade of the building... is one of the most boring you every saw...

Yeah there you see? Behind Mike the tour guide from NZ. Ach. I'm not sure if that's the one. But even if not, it does look sth like that..

Yeah and look. There is a "whale thrusting its head into a fishing net" - though you can't see it clearly. Cant be helped... cant get in on a Saturday... =P

I think twin would have another photo taken of this Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe. She would probably have included history/facts like there's 2700 stone slabs to this monument and the architect didn't think it was huge enough... so i'll just talk about how it made me feel...

Yep.. that's my shoe. This place.. felt like a maze. Yet, it'd have been a lousy maze cuz the slabs of differing heights are just arranged in neat rows and columns. But it's not like any other monuments... cuz those are to be looked at. This one begged to be experienced. So I walked through the stone slabs. You just start wondering... should I take a turn here? Or perhaps the next. They look the same. Does it matter? All these walls. Who's behind each turn? Will I meet my friend at the next slab? Or perhaps, we'd just be walking by the same slab in opposite directions and sides... and miss each other totally when we'd just been - a wall away.

Graffiti on the wall... yeah Berlin Wall. It's new.. not from the days of restraint. But I found it quite interesting... :) Maybe you would too.

Does this place look like it sells food?

This is e 2nd floor of the same place - still doesn't look like it sells food. But aha it does... the Turkish food plus butter milk rem? It's from here.

Twin saw 99Euro cents Palmolive shower foam on day 1 in Berlin... so we're back on a search for it. hahaha check out her expression of pure excitement and anticipation. I swear - she's auntie-ified.

Came across this little mite @ a gift shop...
Only 1 person truly knows the significance (or lack thereof due to wrong size/color) of this... hahaha Mark, I wish you luck... and happiness. And I want to attend the wedding dinner.

Yeah. More Berlin bears. Rem them?

The pieces of colorful Berlin wall I was telling you guys about... You know... they'll never run out of Berlin wall to sell... just that you don't know how original your piece is.

And for the record, the Berlin wall wasn't really accessible when it was in place - so you can guess the age of all the paint and colors. =p

This IS East Berlin's distinguishing mark. It's way cool. Cuz the secret to "How can you tell where you are - East or West?" is in the lights! In Socialist East, the green man makes a walking motion... and the red man stretches out both arms indicating "STOP!" while in the west... they are... well. normal. Pretty much.

So you know... the East traffic lights are still where they used to be everywhere... cuz the East Berliners protected them from being removed - as a part of legacy. Of sorts :)

A mannequin display for a performance/event in Berlin. =)

Brandenburger Tor by night. I think it's much prettier w the lights...

Ok. This is the view of the Parliament from the cupola - the glass dome atop the Reichstag building - built to house the original Reichstag - renamed Bundestag (Parliament) today. It's supposed to symbolize metaphorically and literally - transparency of the current system.

And finally... Berlin HBF by night... here you see the lights and all....

And then the place got emptied of people... shops close... Yeah you wonder what I'm doing capturing such a shot.

Well, we slept here for the night. Not wise. Cuz it's freaking cold. Thank god for MacDonalds...

Giant computer! Promoting Window's latest - Vista. I think. Well. No worries you can't really see twin, she's there - as with all geog-like pictures; as a comparison for scale.

Here we are... sleepy... but comfortable - sheltered from the cold; at MacDonalds - where I exploited the power points and charged my handphone... and camera... =P

After being chased out at 2am - their official closing (for just awhile) time... a very tired Sher snaps a half-hearted sleepy shot of herself...

Yep here's twin. All wrapped up. Cold. Miserable.

So we took a walk. And discovered... DUNKIN DONUTS - "Baked fresh everyday" rem? Yeah look. Do you think it looks like they're throwing this away? I Bet they are selling them tmr. =P

We weren't very miserable for very long. cuz the walk around the place led us to the discovery of Mac's re-opening. So we were warm the rest of the night :) 2 happy people at the platform waiting for the distant train's arrival... We are off! To Dresden~~~

p/s. yeah I know I mentioned Deutschedom. Sorry there aren't pictures... cuz it's really a very wordy exhibition about democracy... so I wasn't really trigger happy in there. Learnt a lot though.. :) I suppose that's what counts.. on trips and exchange.

Berlin Day 2!

2007-03-13T11:33:00.000-07:00

HL:

Sobs. Lost this blog entry cos of the internet acting up. =(

Berlin is a very fun fun place, but sigh, its was raining all those days. Haha, its not so bad because we do have umbrellas which we bought, albeit not being really able to withstand the strong winds in BErlin and also that we manage to cover most of the places that we set out to. =)
Anyway the day started out nicely! No rain and whatsoever (or so we thought that is) until we got to the metro station of the meeting point for the FREE (erm its not free if you have conscience I tell you and I have haha!) walking tour of Berlin.

Well since we were early, we decided to go track down the elusive tourist information centre. After getting instructions from the friendly policemen at the metro, we started to walk down the streets in search of it..gosh the name I have already forgotten!

Well, whatever the case, it remained elusive to our dismay. However, we managed to find this tourist shop which erm obviously does not provide the free information and maps and whatsoever that we love receiving from our other travel places. =)

The surroundings of the tourist place and gosh it has already started to rain sobs! Anyway, this is a mega big bird cage wor with pretty and colourful birds!

Well, on the way back to the meeting point of the walking tour (since we wandered off), we saw, or rather, I saw this! Isnt it pretty? Haha. It is prob not the prettiest pair of shoes but it IS pretty and since I love PUMA and green, it settles well with me. Well my brother's shoes which I bought from him were PUMA and had green too! Haha! Maybe my didi will do something that will surprise me? laughs. Anyway, am thinking of going back to Singapore to prob get a pair - it is cheaper there.

This is a photo of the remembrance church, and we passed by this in the bright early morning where we started out from the west berlin meeting point. Well the tour officially starts from the east meeting point but since we stayed nearer the west meeting point, and oh dear we do so have a habit of getting lost; we decided to go West. Haha. The guide said that this was a monument worth visiting and therefore, we did go back the same day. More about it later in the entry.

Brandenburger Tor! Where the tour officially starts actually. Haha. Erm this is at the metro station Unter der Linden, which means under the Lime trees from Wiki. But twin told me that the guide was saying that those trees are not lime trees. Hehs. Morning so wasnt paying attention. But anyway, both of us didnt catch which tree. What a pity!

More on Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). *Sidetrack: Its raining boo hoo* It is known as the spiritual support of the Berliners. GOsh. ANd the sad thing about this was that it was caught in the middle of the 2 Berlin walls during the Cold war and the Iron Curtain. People could not get to this place wor. So sad hor. ITs weird cos its monumental to them, yet they could not have access to it due to the many traps and landmines and so on that was planted there to prevent the East Berliners from crossing over tO West Berlin. =(

This is the statue atop the Tor. This statue has a very funny history in a sense. Haha. It used to be a PEACE monument wor. The lady in the statue was supposed to signify peace all over BErlin. Well it would have remained that way had Napolean not passed by to conquer Berlin and brought the statue back home for his own enjoyment. Laughs. So the Prussians (I think) decided to defeat Napolean, take a day trip to france to bring back the statue and erm modify it so now it becomes a war victorious memorial. Two modifications, the eagle crest and the weapon that the lady now carries. ITs kinda cool. Oh by the way people never forget. The symbolism of the lady, victory, currently overlooks the French embassy. *Grins*

One of the coolest things that we saw in Berlin. Traffic light! Haha kinda regretting it wor but should have bought the traffic lights souvenirs! Nahs anyway not cheap really. But still it is cool!

Ok. As you guys know, Berlin was separated by the Berlin wall till 1990 when reunification took place. So even though there is reunification for 16 years already, some things are still not uniform and one of them is the traffic light. However, it could also be due to the want of the East Berliners to retain something of their previous lives. Anyway, the West Berlin traffic lights are like those at home, but as you can see from the above picture, it is totally different for the East berliners. IT is cool that the traffic man wears a uniform and looks so smart and has his hands outstretched like to protect the people crossing the roads and telling them, DO NOT CROSS!
It is really nice to belong to a communist state i hear. Welfare rocks.

Anyway, this was taken during the walking tour. thot it looked beautiful. Anyway, it is near the Reichstag and all cos it is still in the Unter den Linden area. =)

After the traffic lights, a short distance away. we reached the Jewish memorial, built for the Jews who all suffered greatly during the Holocaust. According to the guide, the Jews requested for a space for their memorial in Unter den Linden because they did not want people to forget their suffering with the time passing =) and the designer of this memorial actually wanted a space twice as large as was given. Anyway, the designer did not specifically say what he wants to protray with his huge monument. Left to the tourists and passers-by to decide what is it that they see.

Alternative view of the monument so you can decide what is it that you guys do see. I didn't really enjoy walking through the monument though - shall not elaborate.

Haha. part of the 4th generation vandalised Berlin wall. So pretty hor. We realise that vandalism's a common thing in Berlin - in fact the reason why the Jewish memorial above is not vandalised is cause it is sprayed with anti paint spray. =) And it is cool that the Berlin wall is vandalised lol (sounds warped) cos during the time the Iron Curtain went up, no one dared to near the wall to vandalise, only to escape.

At the Ministry of Finance (I think haha but I am certain this building holds people in charge of collecting taxes!). Lol. The tour guide was telling us how this place is terrorizing - air force building during ww2 under Nazi Party, then under the socialist Russian govt during the cold war, and now, tax collection! Anyway, this was the mural in front of the building showing a scene during the demonstration when people all gathered outside the building to demand for rights. think this was during 1963, when the next day after the demonstrations, the Russians brought in tanks to quell the demonstrations. =(

A mural on the building talking about the ideal socialist life which apparently does not reflect the truth.

Another section of the Berlin wall, over which is the topology of terror exhibition. Cos everyone came here to steal a part of the wall, so they have decided to protect it with the wire fence.

Cool! This is the line separates East from West Berlin! The West side reads the words right side up =)

As the walking tour continues, we saw this! Haha. All the boyfriends in the world should come and see this place! It has mega big chocolate statues of the Titanic, the Remembrance church, the Reichstag and one more that I cannot remember.

Chocolate fountain! Laughs. It erupts de wor! Like volcano!

Gendermenmarkt! Haha. Twin prob will blog about Deustcher Dom! Haa. Anyway since she is going to talk about that and the French Dom, I shall show a pic instead of the music house in the centre and Schiller's statue. And you know when we were there, someone was playing the guitar very nicely wor.

Humboldt university. Where the Nazi book burning took place. =(

Memorial for the loss of the books during the burning. Empty bookshelves in the basement can be seen from this window on the ground.

This is a bridge we passed by, which has statues dictating the the life of a warrior. This is when he has died and the Gods came down to bring him to heaven!

We saw many of such horse rider statues around and found out that the number of legs of the horse in the end dictates how the rider died. All legs on the ground means he didnt die because of the war. One in the air means he suffered injuries during the war and died after the war. Two means he died in action. Hero!

We traced back the walking tour to see this - the IM Pei building. A transparent spiral.

One more thing to note. this used to be something related to the East Berlin, think it was their old town square or something. Its now being torn down to rebuilt the palace of the King.

As said, we went back to the church. So here are the pictures.

The victory column that we passed by...

After a hard long day of sightseeing we went for dinner.

And then to this place.

And back to hostel to prep for DAY 3!

Berlin Finally! Day 1 =)

2007-03-08T03:43:00.000-08:00

Sher blogging again. You'll hear from HL in e nxt one I hope... she's asleep... shhh.

Restless? Maybe. Maybe not. But in Europe, you just can't sit at home for long... before packing for yet another journey.

Our tickets to yet another experience of our lives. =)
Europe's so connected, it's hard not to love the transport system. And so... we're off on another train journey to the once divided, now reunified capital of Germany :)

Thought it's nice to include a snapshot taken from within the comforts of our train cabin... Last stop before we exit Poland to enter Germany. 2 more chops in the passport! Whee! :)

Berlin HBF. :) Have I mentioned how I love the florists in Europe? Tulips by the dozens. Colors galore.

We stopped here a moment just to gasp at the place we came to conquer. (But of cuz... we're only going to see a small small part of this big big city.)

Directions to this hostel was pretty straightforward. Found it w/o much trouble, much to our relief. Looks almost posh, doesn't it? hehe well 1. the hostel occupies only the ground floor corner... 2. this hostel ach included in its description: "we welcome all gays and lesbians." hm throws doubt as to whether non-les/gays are welcomed. Anyhow, this is where we stayed for 2 nights without any incident :) Oh.. but the owner asked if KL's the capital of Singapore... sigh we're honoured.. but no... not us...

No beds for a change! I like this arrangement! No problems of beds creaking when you return late or leave early. :) Cool and cosy. And clean cuz only house slippers allowed.

This was just the view outside our hostel. It's one of my favourite sights in Europe...

So we wanted to first head out to find Mauermuseum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie.. and kinda overshot on the metro cuz it's a lil complicated to navigate at first... After getting used to things, we find that ach it's qte straightforward... there's the u-bahn and the s-bahn. s-bahn are main stations while u-bahn is more extensive and underground. And it's not fully connected yet cuz barely 17 years ago, Berlin was East Berlin and West Berlin with separate transport systems... They're still trying to link it up. U-bahn takes a lil more time. :) Connecting a city... Years ago, people can't even imagine getting to the other side...

But I digress... we overshot. So we alighted at this station to switch lines. :) And this was what we saw. After all, Berlin's supposed to mean swampy area or sth like that - so says our tour guide. (Hehe yep we're backpackers... we'll explain the tour guide bit in e next entry. =P)

Before long, the glorious weather gave way and it actually began to drizzle... twin & I wisely decided to backtrack to get an umbrella... Yeah. then it started to pour... and the winds started to blow very hard...

And our umbrella started to show signs of weaknesses... We swear it's new. And it's kinda cheap. Er besides the point... but sheesh, it got twisted... irreversibly. (It's not abt being cheapo, my dears... many other umbrellas on e streets were twisted and spoilt too... heh the winds are unfriendly. Seriously!)

Commercialization again. Checkpoint, Chat point...

Topography of Terror. This is where you can find the last preserved bits of the Berlin Wall. Cuz with the coming down of the wall, people with chisels and hammers just cannot be stopped. Everybody wants a piece of history in their homes. Tourists are no different I guess... judging from the number of alledged pieces of Berlin Walls sold in souvenir shops.

It was to be a brief visit cuz this open-air exhibition housed @ e former Gestapo quarters closes @ dusk... and dusk is especially early in Winter...

It took Germany quite some time to decide to come to terms with history... that includes their tinge of darkness... Erasing the past and all unpleasant memories... a rather human thing to do. And after all, that's what we are. Looking at the thriving tourism capitalizing on the recent shocking histories... I guess we're moving on.

Judges (2 from each Allied country) for the Nuremburg trials, trying the war criminals and organizations from World War II.

Twin brought up sth interesting... and that's - the Russians are elusive. Both Russian judges had (life unknown) after the trial. Wonder what became of them...

Topography of Terror @ dusk... Time to leave... We came back here again though... to watch the snapshots of history with audioguides. But that'd be another entry..

For now, we move on to Checkpoint Charlie. On this side, you see a picture of the Russian soldier. The sign says "You are leaving the American Sector."

On the other side, the picture is of an Allies soldier. The sign reads "You are entering the American Sector..."

We're skipping all e food cuz that got sufficiently covered in e previous entry.. I think readers are satisfied... cuz I had more people telling me to start exercising.. haha Noted... my dears.

So the dark dark picture above... is of us standing outside Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, the museum that started out as 1 1/2 rm @ the Checkpoint C... where the founder - Rainer Hildebrandt maintained this space w records of successful escapades over the Berlin Wall.

Some of the quotes...

"We're closing Berlin off. We're going to roll out barbed wire and the Western allies are going to stand there like dumb sheep."
- which was really what happened when one day, the Soviets decided to roll barbed wire around the borders and gauge reaction from the allies. They built the wall when they got no active resistance...

"The wall not only embodies the split in Europe but in the entire world."

"Walls aren't built for eternity."

It's not difficult to guess which side said what. But this wall was one of the saddest, yet strength evoking pieces left from the war and history. So many couples, family, friends separated. Nearly 200 people died from trying to escape to the other side of the wall (East to West). They tried tunnels, hot air balloons, car boots, luggages... and just blindly running over, across the death strip of mines and sand traps... Others forged travel papers.

Many succeeded.
Many others failed.
Some received help.
Others didn't.

The GDR guards had a duty. Most were unwilling to hurt their comrades. Their job... is almost painful.

Well anyway, we spent some 3 hours in the museum. It was quite exhausting absorbing story after story. But it gives as good a sense as it gets - of the situation then. We'll never truly understand the desperation and anxiety... but the smiles from the photos of lovers reuniting after having successfully braved the wall... genuinely priceless.

Yeah. This was in the Fernsehturm @ AlexanderPlatz. It's the TV tower with the debatable architectural merits. I think it's just tall - like many other TV towers. In any case, we didn't feel like we'd like to pay to take an elevator... so this bear is all you get. You see this a lot in Berlin... I think it's a promotional thing.. but I find it slightly... unpleasing to the eye.

But that's just me. If you like more of it... please visit
http://www.galenfrysinger.com/berlin_street_bears.htm

The Fernsehturm by night.

With this, we end our day.
Hm yeah... sounding a lil tired. Not because we didn't enjoy Berlin. We sure as hell did, but.. yeah lots of readings to do now...

So many trips planned ahead...
Krakow, Romania...
Italy, UK, Czech for me...
London, Paris & duno where else for twin...
Maybe Slovakia even - at the end...

Time to do readings to make sure credits get transferred. :)

Ill-treating ourselves? Not really...

2007-03-05T17:19:00.000-08:00

To make things easier for the readers... hehe This is Sher blogging:)

Firstly... please bear in mind that we went to Germany for approximately 5 days, of which, 1 full day can be dedicated to traveling. i.e. 4 days; 12 meals in total. Hahaha That should really be the case... but...

Europe's the place for really pretty clothes. I'd love to wear any of the above... But the activities that occurred after this point probably deters this desire - along with the fact that moolah is limited... haha and fast falling with our fave activity on exchange.. SNACKING! =P

Tadah! We'd like to introduce this to you: the cheaper range of biscuits in Europe. Big biscuits w Choc cream of varying thickness. Brands include: HIT! and erm at least 3 other brands that's around 69 Euro cents. (HL: only HIT is sold in Sg @ S$2.80. haha So it's a gd deal!) Most of the time... since we arrived in Warsaw, we've been eating this biscuit... Yeah. I can't tell the difference between the brands. Only twin can tell you stuff like the biscuit is different and which is nicer. Er... to me? hm Whatever. It's edible.

This was dinner (near Haus @ Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin); Portion Hahnchen w Pommes & Salate! 4.90 Euros. haha It was good... cuz the dressing rocks and we got a half chicken (albeit small) but it's really nice!

Yeps we enjoyed every morsel of it. hahaa NOTHING LEFT :) Not even of dressing!

2nd day at Berlin... we had no time to stop for a meal cuz we went on a free walking tour (which was seriously good) - so we did as backpackers do - carry provisions. hahaha We went to this cheap supermarket around our hostel and stocked up on biscuits (see above) and this marble cake that lasted for ages and ages as we stuffed ourselves silly with it. =P

This was dinner on Day 2 though. They call this the CHINA BOX. er. Ach. It's the Extremely salty noodle+sauce. bahz. it's 2 Euros for the Vegetarian one... Wonder what they add for the others but hm... Not recommended... hahaha
But I think Europeans have this misconception that Asia is all about Chopsuey (that's e chao mien...) cuz that's all they sell at Asian restaurants. Pengz

We weren't very miserable though... We had the equally salty currywurst w pommes and coke to complete the dinner set. haha Okay Currywurst w Pommes & drink is around 3.40Euros. Mm... it's supposed to be rather popular there - as in you really see this curry thing at many places... along with Bratwurst and Bockwurst w Botchen. (all spellings are strictly inaccurate cuz the extra dashes to e alphas aren't added in.. =P) We love wurst (minus mustard for Sher - hehe more details later)

Day 3 LUNCH!!! hee Turkish food! And guess what... we weren't even intending to lunch there. haha We ach picked up many postcards, and wanted to pay for it inside. haha The owner was eating his own turkish pizza and very generously treated us to some. haha We fell in love with it... and ended up eating there. YAy~
Ach we only ordered 1 turkish pizza (1Euro) and 1 spinach+cheese pizza thing (1.5 Euro - twin's dream since day 1 dinner). But the 2 hum chim peng looking and tasting things are complementary... It's all very nice... except for this:

Butter Milk.
1st encounter (sher's): Tumkur, India.
Impression of it: (in the nicest possible way of saying it...) - sucks. - No offence to all of you who enjoy it... it's a personal preference... or lack thereof.

Nevertheless, the association didn't sink in until the first sip - then recognition took place and memory cues started to be triggered as Sher invites twin to try it too.
We ended up dipping our hum Chim Peng into it to make things a lil better. grinZ

Guess what... it's not complementary - it's 1 Euro. I think it's good to reject unknown substances and stick to Turkish tea instead. :)

p/s. twin's guest: you know who you are, you nearly are subjected to the drinking of this substance. hahaha We were plotting very hard. Fortunately, we didn't really want to spend 1 Euro on pranks. =P

We saw dunkin donuts EVERYWHERE. So despite exorbitant prices... We bought 6 munchkins @ 1.99 Euros. hehs It was a quick affair - finishing that... sighz
(HL: We suspect the guy gave us an extra munchkin... cuz we had SEVEN. haha 2 stuck together.)

Then... we spent the night at Berlin HBF. Not such a great idea cuz there's no lounge! Sheesh... Even Salzburg had one!!! In any case... it was FREEZING. Thank god for globalization and MacDonalds. I'm loving it. hahahaa So lame. Jialat... staying with twin is detrimental...

But Kamille tea was nice. We ended up buying 2 boxes of those in Berlin to bring back to Warsaw. I declare it my new love in my life. hahaa Okie. Xia Sang Ju is still good. Either as gifts would be welcomed. =P

1 Euro Chicken burger! It's darn ex I tell you. hahaha it's 2 Zloty in Warsaw... i.e. 0.5 Euro. BAH! And it's Small. But heck it... we're cold and anything warm is good. [Btw, this was aft an hour of freezing at a bench outside Strauss (shop in HBF) cuz some @#$%^&*&^% person told us Mac closes at 2am and told us to leave. :( ]

Day 4 in Dresden! Breakfast! (Ach we took breakfast... rem the chicken burger, biscuits, wafer, tea...) haha Nonetheless. This looked good. So we bought it. hee cookie crust, with a hint of egg. peach and cheese. It's superblicious! =P

Lunch was bread; so not really worth mentioning. But as it is, it's good to just let you guys know that... all the bread we ate in Germany was good. Ok I'm running out of food vocab. haha How abt Yummylicious? =p

This was twin's heaven. Note: She's been gawking at every person holding an icecream (lody) in their hands... And looking longingly at each EisCafe we pass by... So yes, we decided to eat take a look at the above menu... which she probably nearly drooled over.

This was what we had: Strawberry Yogurt Icecream! hehe 3 big scoops of icecream (choc, yogurt and strawberry sorbet) + fresh strawberries + Choc fudge + hint of liquor. You can guess how happy twin was... There's a photo. hehe But due to concerns about twin's future, we're not posting it. =P

Minor mention: Breakfast on Day5 - The yellow pastry was shiok! The red one which I thought was raspberry turned out to be cherry... and sour ones at that. Cringe.

Heh Crepe was everywhere. How can we miss it? =P Crepe with Kinderschokolade! 1.90 Euro. hee It's good. But twin will choose Nutella - her first love anyday. I'd stick w Kinder Milk Chocs hehe Yumzz

Bratwurst @ 1 Euro. Hee And you'd think we're full up with pastries and crepe already. We prove you wrong. haha The mustard tasted like wasabi ach... :( Don't like. Don't even like mustard. Twin can have all the mustard she wants... boo!

Pastries in Germany are finger-licking good! hehe And according to the hostel guide... there's this Eierschecke (cake) that's worth a try cuz it's supposed to be very popular... So we went in search of it on the same morning at Leipzig HBF before catching our train. =P

There you are! =) 95 Euro Cents. Raisin, custard, egg, sugar, flour... haha Slight tinge of cheese as well. Eierschecke for you~ =) (personally prefer the other thing we ate at Dresden though...)

Berlin HBF. Schinken sth... haha Cheese and bacon bits... + the water we have to finish to get it pfunded (0.25 Euros) This was supposed to be lunch...

I feel fat. :(
Guess those clothes from the beginning of the entry would have to wait...

Last day in Salzburg - 2nd last day of our 1st Euro trip

2007-02-23T01:55:00.000-08:00

We really prayed super hard for good weather on our 3rd day in Salzburg. Cuz our hostel-mate (Canadian girl) said that the Festung Hohensalzburg is a Must-see, especially if the skies are clear. Well, the skies havent been clear since we arrived at the place, I must say. That's why we spent some time watching Sound of Music in the hostel in Salzburg (home to Sound of Music) on day 2... grinz Not complaining. I like the show a lot. =)

Super glad to see it isn't drizzling... though the skies weren't looking especially cheerful...

Yeps by picture 3, we were quite quite happy. The winds were really strong but we couldn't complain cuz they were blowing the storm clouds away from the fortress - which in picture 4 as you can see, still looked shrouded by clouds...

We took a picture of the statue of the famous Mozart with the dark clouds in the background and proceeded ahead to look for the cable rail up the fortress.

Here it is! Hm... but it's a lil sad though. Twin & I wanted to walk up and cable down - that's 7 Euros each. 2 way cable plus museums is 10 Euros. Unfortunately, we didn't understand the man when he said the tix for 1 way cannot be bought at their office at the foot. So he printed 2 of the 2 way tix for us and made us pay for it. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise cuz pardon my language - the place was Bloody cold. Serious... our bones were rattling, our teeth chattering, and our Cappy brand (on promotion) orange juice from SPAR mart was chilled w/o a fridge. Perhaps it's good we went up by rail. hahaha

This was atop the fortress. We took the bird eye's view - not knowing this wasn't the best of it... I think we just wanted to get out of e cold and find the museums in the fortress... :)

A nice tourist pointed us in the right direction and we got ourselves audio guides w e tix that we purchased earlier.

The above... are taken from the highest lookout point of the fortress. You could see in alternate pictures, the city area and the country area of Salzburg, separated by a river, juxtaposed as above.

Within one of the museums, there were little craftily made models of the place. I'm going to use twin's favourite word 2: intricate. hehe That just about sums it up. I was amusing myself greatly taking pictures through the little windows in the models and capturing glimpses of structures and stairways within. =) Not sure what twin was doing peering at the models though. Maybe she's thinking she'll never be able to make one of those in her life time. hehe Well neither could I. =P

Those are the torture instruments. However, according to the audio guide, nobody was tortured within the torture chambers of the fortress. The torture chambers only housed the instruments. I sure hope it's true... Each of the above looks real forbidding... :(

The musical instruments used at war. This fortress actually withstood many a war, including the Peasant's war where there were many casualties. sighz Well I digress.. but yeps musicians among the readers, you'll know it's super hard to pitch even with keys. haha so check out the trombone/ horn w/o keys. haha The curvey thing is the serpent's horn I think... and naturally, flautists will take pictures of flutes where ever we see one - or two in this case. =P Even if they don't look that interesting.

The cannon was pointing out of this little peephole. I sure am glad this is just a tourist spot today. A cannon ball in the direction shown above would be disastrous...

Figurines of soldiers w their weapons. These were suspended with strings to keep them in a mobile position. It's coolness! - to quote twinnie.

This is recently excavated I think... when they were trying to restore the place. The work put into preserving this fortress is formidable. They even had a video to show you how much work it is... (oh btw, there's a organ in this fortress used to play melodies to wake Salzburg and its people up. Many musicians wrote pieces to be played on that. But it's in a little room that's locked so I don't really have a good picture to show you.)

Grin one of those pictures I couldn't resist taking when stopping by a random window in the fortress. Seriously, if some apartment in SG had such a view from each of its windows, that place can fetch billions in auction prices. hahaha Ok I'm dreaming.

Edelweiss! hehe Still dreamy about sound of music... =)

This is from the RainerMuseum (Rainer, Archduke of Austria). It's almost a war museum with the many pictures, drawn/painted in of war scenes in winter... a used boot left over from the wars, badges of army... Yeah you could tell that I looked most closely at the drawings and were suitably unimpressed by the military articles. However, this is a fortress. And unfortunate as it is, the beginnings of countries are often fraught with wars... :(

The staterooms! I think the grand piano wasn't there before.. but they probably had concerts here. =) Just a conjecture. I'm not sure.

THIS: twin declares, is Sher's favourite photo. Cuz there's the turnip crest. The turnip crest is owned by Leonardus - one of the archbishops who expanded the fortress rather extensively. So you really see this crest almost everywhere in the fortress. According to the audio guide, his family subsisted on their plot of turnips, so that's e most probable reason for the crest. He himself, however, insisted that the turnip is in e crest cuz his uncle threw a turnip at him. grins

Marionette Theatre - within the fortress as well (don't know why...). This is set up by the Aichers. They crafted and created their own puppets (lots of years of study and experience) and then put up the famous works with puppets. - stuff like Mozart's Magic Flute & Don Giovanni.

These puppets are dressed really richly in drapes and intricate embroideries. Not sure what style these are dressed in though... victorian?

One of the skeletal puppet models we saw around. =)

See the variety of hands available in puppetry? =P Should get them to make a cast of my beautiful - now extremely dry hands too. hohoho

I did mention the fortress had a wonderful view earlier didn't I? This is the more country-area of Salzburg; i.e. on the same side of the river as the fortress. =) Twin adored the little cottage you see in the 1st picture. My personal favourite is the little body of water in the 3rd picture. =)

I think twin & I adore those leafless trees. haha This is one of those in the middle of the courtyard of the fortress. =)

We went up to the Fortress by means of a cable rail. According to the little museum beneath the fortress, the rail used to run on hydro electric power - that's so cool! And there were no accidents all the time it was running. But in 1995 I think, they decided to change the system to keep up to safety standards and run it as it is now - on electricity. Within that little museum, we heard a strange noise of spurting water. Yes SPURTING. So we went to investigate and saw this little man: hehe it's 7 qiao4 chu1 shui3 really. grinz

A building almost encrypted into the fortress walls. I was rather taken by it... so here it is =)

Actually took the above 2 shots from the cemetry. The headstones are allocated to families rather than individuals. They are all very decorative with quiet grace and dignity. Respectful of the dead, we decided not to take any pictures of them. But in the chilly Salzburg air, there was an additional air of peace as we strolled through the cobblestone paths set in the maze of headstones.

This is the exit from the cemetry. Ach, I took this cuz the path set in cobblestones is so pretty... If I'm that rich, I'll set e entire corridor leading up to my flat in Singapore in cobblestone. hahaha

Okay. I tried for ages on end to capture this w/o a single human being. BUT it's just impossible. As soon as one person walks out of my screen, another group enters it. Twin was laughing hard from my efforts. aha In the end, I had to settle for this.

St Petersdom. =) We didn't enter it. 1 side of it is being restored at the moment though, as you can see from this picture. (er... museum fatigue set in and churches/doms/kirches fatigue is setting in fast too.)

This is one stall in the Alter Markt. We actually stumbled upon this market. And as usual, the display captivated us with its bright, radiant colours. =)

BIG juicy red tomatoes!!! Bought some in Poland that looked like that too. And yes, it's GOOD. really.

The fruits section. See the bananas? That's our target of the day. =P

Our expensive but very fresh and sweet bananas. Tastes really good - especially in the cold cold air. =)

It was almost lunch time... and we were trying to find the Kebab stall we saw yesterday. Then, just next door to Mozart's apartment/museum, we saw this place... which irritated us a great deal w the following:

Sigh it all looks so good. Not to mention the fantabulous smells that kept coming out of the place. But we were pragmatic people... Filling our tummies is of utmost importance. Luxurious food can wait. er i guess... :(

Musical instruments in a showcase! =)

See? Commercialized Mozart in the Salzburg he was trying to leave all his life - told you the tourism office is making the most of him.

Hundreds of birds take flight. I was so excited to get this on film; while twin worried that those birds will poop on her. grin She fled to safety some metres away. =P

Oh this is ANOTHER shop window. But it's one that looked so artsy that I just had to capture it. Guess it should be, cuz it seems to be a gallery of sorts. =)

Dom Platz (no. 8 on e tourist attractions map). I think this was where I asked twin why do people spend so much time & money to make a functional church so pretty... She said... it's a place where you want to feel at peace. Just as you do up your home furnishings, these people also wanted this church to convey the same sense of comfort and peace. I guess so... So I spent the rest of the time admiring the mural stories on the ceilings - there are abt 24 of those around the entire church. Twin sat down quietly and started to pray I guess. =)

Yet another church organ against elaborate architecture/carvings.

Another fantastic shop window. If things are like that in Singapore, I'll just keep walking and walking along the streets. *grin is herman thinking "heng it's not like that... else I'll be lugging laptop and walking down streets hour after hour"? =P

This, DK, is called TULIPS. No they are NOT the same as lilies. hahaha

This is e way to the Toy Museum in Salzburg. haha We went on Monday - to find it closed on Mondays... then by Tuesday, we'd lost interest in the place. Plus the cold was causing us a great deal of discomfort... Was suffering from tummy ache. Twin, being the nice motherly her, said "let's go sit down somewhere" =)

This is found at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. The entrance of it I mean. hehe We were still suffering from museum fatigue, so no way are we going to spend precious euros on another museum of no particular interest to either of us. haha

We spent our time - almost 3 hours - roaming the streets, checking out Mango, Espirit, Zara... etc etc along the streets of Salzburg Old Town - and hiding from the rain at the same time. Hehs I was amused by this signage. It's like "awww... poor chicken... But it sure looks fat and good." =P carnivores @ work.

A warm shelter, a steaming cup of cocoa, a pen, paper. Notes on our little journey in this big big world. =)

Sugar keeps us happy! haha Twin was going on & on abt drinking cola... Finally we settled for this bag of cola gummies from the vending machine - yep the same one w e mozart chocs. =P

Concert @ Schloss Mirabell. Twin gave a short intro on this place earlier. Anw, this strings quartet is really quite good. Think they played 2 pieces from Mozart and 1 from Haydn. =) We were however a lil distracted by the number of balding heads among the audience. Hehs Yes... disgraceful behavior from us.. But you can't really stop our eyes from seeing what is of interest =P

2 of us looking half asleep @ e lounge area in Salzburg train station... night train at 2342hrs... We came from the concert so we were more than an hr early...

Twin pouting as we wait sleepily for our night train...

Trying 2 squash face up to look thinner... apparently, being in Europe does make one rounder.. :(

Bidding Salzburg farewell... This is the almost deserted train station by night. Glad we didn't decide to skip this place altogether. There is just so much beauty in this quaint place w rolling hills & snow capped mountains, bustling streets and a fortress guarding it. =)

Salzburg! Sights on e Street

2007-02-23T00:11:00.000-08:00

This... is the little shop windows special. hahaha I absolutely adore the shop windows along the streets of Salzburg! I snapped so many photos that twin fretted about irate shopkeepers scolding us and chasing us away. hahaha But I figured I had nothing to lose. hohoho

This is how the display of vegetables etc look like. Hahaha local markets should do this: vary colors and make everything look so appetizing that you just wanna buy it all! haha Till you see the price tags that is... =P

Dried stuffs... oh. See e bananas in e corner? Bananas are NOT cheap... In fact tropical fruits are not cheap... Well... there r enough apples around to keep twinnie happy - when she finally decides that it's ok I don't like crunchy apples w braces (plus orthodontist in SG not Poland) that is.

Sweets shop window!!!

This is e cute-sy series of miniature furniture sets. I swear our apartment has this layout. hahaha even the carpet in the middle =P (ok no xmas tree)

This... is soooo cute! Twin & I gushed over it for ages on end. Then we lingered at a corner and snuck this shot. hee Secret admirers of my twinnie... please scroll down. NOW.

This is e wallet she fell in love with! hehe 7.95 Euros. All right la yeah? It's in Salzburg. hahaha Check it out on Ebay perhaps? =P

Btw, we did streets-sight seeing cuz it was a semi-rainy day... and it's not clear enough for Festung Hohensalzburg. So we walked around. Seriously, the streets are part of the attraction! We are not visiting that many museums in Salzburg cuz 1. we were a lil sad abt the level of expenditure... and 2. we are all suffering from museum fatigue... a symptom described by DK in Frankfurt. Seriously, there's just so many museums one can take on a single trip... haha

A scene from the biblical stories...

Another snowy one to just about conclude this entry. =)

Why just abt conclude... cuz I decided to include these shots. This series is entitled... the lovesick series. hahaha Valentine's was just around the corner then you see... & my valentine's in Sg... =P

Love's in e air... saw so many couples in e streets. Or perhaps I'm just conscious. hahaha kies... Reverting to our usual day-by-day entries...

Day 9 in Frankfurt - meeting DK and going back to Poland =)

2007-02-22T18:54:00.000-08:00

Ok. This entry will be out of order cuz twinnie did the draft for this while waitin for someone to get online till 5.30am. haha but she fell asleep at 5am on the couch. That's where I found her in the morn. hahaha

Here goes:

So we took a night train from Salzburg (during which the police came by to check our identification - think Singaporeans in Europe are not common cos they like to check our identification and check very long somemore) and reached Frankfurt in the early morning 6 am. (Aiya this time the train is not train at night le; it is a NIGHT TRAIN and requires reservations and extra money =( ) Haha. spent the time waiting @ McDonalds for DK who appeared ard 8. That poor guy never even slept - just went home to bathe then came out and met us lo. Wah his internship is very very very shiong.

Walked out of Frankfurt hbf and went into the streets for breakfast. And passed by many many banks.

Breakfast courtesy of Dikun! DK, thank you very much! Wah we were 2 so very happy girls eating while DK was trying his best not to doze off. He hadn't been slping for 3 days; very kelian!

And he accompanied us for a while to walk the streets hah. Twin loves shopwindows! She takes so many photos of them I am worried for her - that the shopkeeper will come out and scold her. Dunno cos the guidebook say taking photo without permission is rude mahs.

DK took this photo. Zai hor. 1 time try and he got us and the background all in. ZAiness! (and he is also very proud of it. Must be practise many times liao haha!)

And at 9 plus 10, he disappeared from this inconspicuous metro exit. =( TO GO WORK!
*Faints!*

Shopwindow featuring V Day gifts. Very pretty hor. But also very expensive.

Central of where we were walking.

We know its cold, but we cannot resist a good ice-cream. =)

Domplatz! The only sightsee haha of the day. Not much time also. But the church was very nice. *We fell asleep inside cos very nice and warm and we were tired - night train not very long so did not get proper slp*

Shopwindow showcasing the buildings in Frankfurt - very real! Just miniature in size only. =)

Nice showcase, interesting at least! =)

We got Vday chocs from DK! Happy! Somemore got toy de wor!

Nice nice skyline on the flight back to Poland =)

And this concludes the end of our trip.
Oops, not really. We ended off with passport control - "What is the purpose of your visit to Poland?" =) laughs.