Post Florence... pre Porto

Wow, didn't have time to update this blog for so long. I feel so bad..

Florence - SO... I was too cheapskate to pay 10 euros to see the real David sculpture by Michaelangelo, I just saw the replica which was supposedly exactly like the real thing. Ha.

Venice - Celine and I got to Venice on the 21st June. The hostel turned out to be almost like a hotel, but the vibe wasn't as cool as Archi Rossi in Florence. But given it's a cheap option, it's quite good nonetheless. We walked for a bit in the evening and had Jewish meal for dinner. A little pricey because it was by the canal, but it was a good meal. Everything in Venice is expensive! The stupid transport card to take the vaporetti (water buses) were so expensive but we had to get it anyway. The view at the bell tower in Santa Marco was awesome. Given the clear skies, we should have been able to see Croatia from the tower, except we didn't know which direction to look at. We then went to Murano, an island slightly further away to see glass being molded into different ornaments. Yeap, didn't get anything or mama sure scold. The useless glass candies will only accumulate dust. We met up with Mitch and Sandra for dinner, but we ate at some horrible bar. It was the cheaper option and I didn't have time to look for better alternative. Then I caught the overnight train to Vienna.

Vienna - After a gruelling 10 or 12hr train, I finally arrived in cold cold Vienna. It was drizzling and it just wouldn't stop! It's like Vienna was out to show me the melancholic side of Austria, totally erasing the idea of bright sunshine over rolling hills like those in the Sound of Music! I stayed with Cain, the art director of Invisible Children, and we went around Vienna having overpriced coffee and desserts at different cafes. He was nice enough to visit Freud Museum with me even though it was quite crap. The rainy weather made me not want to go many places unfortunately. The next day we went to a castle slightly further out from the city centre. It was huge and the gardens were amazing! There was a huge arch on top of a slope where we could see the entire city. It was breathtaking.. until it started raining again. A few hours later, I was on the overnight train back to Venice.

Travelling day.. 25th June.. I arrived in Venice at 8.30am, caught a nice train to Milan, arrived at 1.30pm. Then took the afternoon train from Milan at 3pm to Nice, arrived at 8pm. Got to the hostel around 9pm. Gosh.. I must have been on the train for a good 20+ hours. The next day, I went to Monaco and Eze Village. Monaco is quite beautiful, except everything's so bloody expensive. I feel underdressed even walking around! The yachts parked at the harbour are huge and gorgeous. But I wasn't very interested in exploring, I just wanted to rest because I was really tired from the train rides.. I went to Eze village which is along the way back to Nice. It's a small medieval village and I could see the French Riviera along the way. It's SO beautiful, more than Liguria! Cote d'Azur is really out of the world. The coastline is lined with beaches, rock formations and beautiful buildings. The clear blue skies blend into the mediterranean sea in the horizons and the view just makes me want to stand still and not move.

Onwards to BARCELONA!~The next morning I left early to get to Montpellier by 12pm. I met up with Aurelie and Sarah for lunch there. The girls brought me to a nice square where baskers played music and everyone was having lunch al fresco. It's a really nice atmosphere and they bought me lunch at a nice cafe/restaurant. I had foie gras salad and duck meat on the side. It's AMAZING. I thought I didn't like foie gras in large quantity but the salad changed my opinion totally. After lunch, I caught the 3pm train to Barcelona... in a crappy train..

I arrived in Barcelona at around 8pm. Kuba came to pick me up and we walked back to his apartment. It's a small apartment but it was in a prime location. Barceloneta. It's 50m away from the beach and walkable to La Rambla, the main centre. 2 hours later, Jerry arrived and I picked him up from the metro station. The next three days, we went around visiting museums, churches and exploring nice and cheap eating places. We went to La Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, Picasso museum and hung out at Placa reial, walked about la rambla, watched the pride festival and the beautiful musical fountains at Montjuic hills. Barcelona was nothing less than expected, in fact it is much more. I couldn't bear to leave after 3 days but we had to. SO we left in the most stylish way, the Trenhotel, a super nice overnight train to Granada.

Granada is in the south of Spain, it's in the Andalusian region where Flamenco, Tapas and bullfighting are renown. Granada has two main attractions, Albayzin which is the arabic quarters and Alhambra which is a moorish castle/fortress. We explored Albayzin the first day and caught a beautiful view from San Nicolas Mirador. Then in the evening, we went to watch an awesome Flamenco show which we enjoyed tremendously. The next day we went to Alhambra, explored the castles, towers and gardens. It was really interesting because the architecture is very much influenced by Islam and there's a sense of familarity there.

We left Granada on the 3rd and we arrived in Seville several hours later. The temperature was scorching at around 38 degrees and we couldn't leave the hostel because it was too hot. Plus it was siesta time and all the shops are closed. So I soaked in the rooftop pool of the hostel, while Jerry edited photos on his computer. That evening we bought ingredients to make dinner. We had tacos and it turned out pretty decent. Then we went to a bar called La Carboneira which had free flamenco shows, but we were interested in the Tapas. Too bad, no more tapas, ended up with a glass of Sangria each. Weak weak alcohol, but enough to turn both of us red. The next day we went to the Cathedral which is the largest gothic cathedral in Europe. It's quite impressive in there, and Christopher Columbus is buried in there! Then we went back to the hostel, and made ourselves a nice lunch while the rest of Seville goes into siesta again. I too had a siesta. We woke up at 6-7 and had dinner at 8 at this nice Tapas place called Coloniales. It was cheap and delicious! for 6euros each, we had 4 tapas to share and drinks too. We then walked to the bullfighting ring and explored areas around the bridges nearby. Gorgeous views. I realised there are several places and things I didn't get to do in Seville, and I wished I had more time there.
The next morning, Jerry went to Amsterdam, and I left for Lisbon.

Sweet beautiful lisbon - I arrived at 10pm in Lisbon yesterday and I met up with Kuba's friend. He showed me around Bairro Alto but everything's closed on Sunday unfortunately. So we went back to rest. This morning, I went out, took a tram to explore the city. Lisbon is nothing less than gorgeous. It reminds me of Prague, but with more sunshine, more hills and smaller roads. the cobblestone paths and tramways just make this city so beautiful in some way. The long sunset dribbled over the rivers and meandering corners made the city shine like no others. Today Jakub and his friend drove to Costa, a nearby beach and I tagged along. The beach is exposed to the waters of the Atlantic. I was lying in the fine sandy shores under the comfortable sunshine, feeling the salty breeze brushing against my skin for a good 3-4hours! In front of me were countless kite surfers yet the beach was not too crowded. Good thing it's a monday afternoon, we managed to avoid the crowd. Now I'm back in the hostel waiting for a local chef to whip up a meat and veg pie for dinner plus a chocolate mousse for dessert! Can't wait!

Florence is beautiful

So it has almost been a week into my travels..
I went to Cinque Terre which is an area where there are 5 italian villages along the coast. It's really pretty there and scenery is beautiful. The villages are small but touristy. Things are quite expensive because of all the tourism and the first day I bust my food budget. Thankfully, I have managed to even it out by cutting other expenses. It was very sunny and I went trekking along the coastline from one village to another. It usually takes 5 hours, but because we stopped along the way to explore the villages, we took a day instead. I met several people there, and they were friendly so we hung out together.

After Cinque Terre, we went to Pisa to see the leaning tower. It is quite a wonder because it tower really looks like it would fall over! I didn't thik it was worth going in so we just took photos and left. We missed the train to Rome and had to wait for 2 hours. I was quite upset and sian about it because we didn't have much time in Rome.

When we got to Rome, I met up with Charles and Mike for dinner. They were there for holiday and we arranged to meet up for dinner. It was a very late but yummy dinner at a very reasonable price. I had pork chop with porcini mushrooms, Charles had carbonara, and Mike had veal cutlet. We shared a bruschetta for appetizer and had gelato for dessert. They were very kind to pick up the bill. I had a very relaxing and nice evening with them.

The next day we went to the Vatican city. when we got to the museum, we had to join the queue in the sun and I felt like I couldn't enjoy the museum as much as I would have liked. There were just too many tourists.. Then the same thing happened at Saint Peter's Basilica. Too many people. But I must say it's a really grand and magnificent church. We also tried to join the free walking tour but the guide couldn't speak very good English so we gave up.

We got to Florence yesterday afternoon. Then we went exploring the city and it's quite beautiful. The weather was good and the place was comfortable. Lots of tourists but not like Rome; Florence is filled with nice buildings, less immigrants, more art and it is compact as most sights within walking distance.

Today, we joined the walking tour organised by the hostel and it was really good. I learnt stuff on the tour and I appreciate Florence better. After the tour, we got to know Vivian and Gary. We went around together and saw a few places like the Duomo (big church) and the replicas of David by Michaelangelo. It was not a very fruitful day cause there's really not much to see unless I go out of Florence. But I guess it would be really nice to shop and hangout by the river.

Tomorrow I'll head to venice. For now, I'm finally ahead of schedule and ready to take it easy. Need to do laundry soon...

Coming to an (exciting) end

It's my last week in Tilburg! I can't believe it. The last sunday I'm going to be in Tilburg. The best part is, I'm still (a little bit) sick. The weather forecast says it's going to rain tomorrow. What horrible weather, the temperature is still hovering below 20 degrees. It's still too cold to just wear shorts and a t-shirt. The thought of packing is dreadful. First, I need to find a box so that I can mail some stuff back! I've started packing already and my suitcase is full!!! Damn, now everything has to fit into my backpack... which is highly impossible. I just need to recover quickly so that I can go out there, look for a box, pack my stuff in there and ship/fly it back.

Yup, so this Friday is my last exam, I'm constantly trying to study yet at the same time finish planning my epic journey. Today, I finally got down to booking all hostels and the possible transport tickets. My cousin Jerry will join me in Barcelona when I'm there! Yay! Looking forward to that. Seems like this 1 month trip is going to cost quite a bit.. The estimated cost for this trip is around 1800 euros. Aiyo.. I feel guilty for spending so much money..

Okay.. so the trip goes like this:

June
15th-16th: Cinque Terre
17th-18th: Rome
19th - 20th: Florence
21st - 22nd: Venice
23rd - 24th: Vienna
25th - 26th: Nice
27th - 30th: Barcelona
July
1st - 2nd: Granada
3rd - 4th: Seville
5th - 7th: Lisbon
8th: Porto
9th - 12th : Madrid
13th - 16th: Netherlands
17th: Home Sweet Home!!

I'm anticipating so so so much hassle getting around... these people just don't speak English. I'm going to countries where their languages are so widely spoken they don't bother learning English. I just hope I won't run into too much trouble. Basically from July onwards, I'm traveling on my own so I think it'll be a bit scary yet exciting. I definitely need to be super careful.

Bad timing...

After being in Europe for so long, I'm finally sick. Urgh. Not that I have been looking forward to it, but I'm surprised how I survive winter through spring without falling sick but suddenly, two days ago I woke up with a dry (sore) throat. Initially I thought it's just dry airway but when it didn't go away in the afternoon, I kind of expected it will worsen and more will follow. True enough, yesterday I woke up with semi-blocked nose, by afternoon I could only breathe through one side and feeling slightly achy. I started my medication at night before I slept and forced myself to sleep early (i.e. before 1am). I woke up at 2a.m and took another 2 tablets of Febs and drank more water. Today, I woke up with a totally blocked nose, didn't get much better and I'm still drinking lots of water, taking my flu tablets. It's just so difficult to study with a headache, an aching body and breathing obstruction. Today is public holiday, everything is closed and I ran out of groceries. Left with bread, cheese, eggs and instant noodles. Sigh.. looks like it's instant noodles tonight..

Late late post

Okay, I know I haven't posted for 2 weeks. And I haven't called home for a week+++
I feel so bad. Okay, I shall call tomorrow before I go to school... =P

Anyway, I passed my Dutch Exam!! Muahaha, I feel slightly more proficient in Dutch now! Not that I can read the newspaper, but I'm like 75-80% accurate when I'm reading short passages. Haha.. I scored a 7.1/10 and the passing was 5.5. Well, I'm just happy that I passed. Now I have to mug for 3 more exams... argh.. *stress*

I know the stress here is nothing compared to the stress experienced in SMU but because I've been travelling and haven't been as diligent throughout the term, I need to make up for lost time. Whenever I travel, I actually do bring my readings/notes along and read on the bus/train/airport!
It's possible only when I travel alone though. I feel like I can be quite used to travelling alone, but I don't like the inconvenience of it. I'm a lot more alert when I'm alone (which is probably a good thing) and I know why... it's called the 'spotlight' effect. I think everyone's looking at me... "the asian", but they are in fact not bothered about my presence.

I received a message from my Cousin (Jialiang) saying he wants to come to Europe! I told him just come! It'd be really fun to travel together in France/Spain/Portugal. Well, depends on how long he can be here for. Air tix seems to be much cheaper... apparently emirates have tickets as low as $800 to London and Airasia $1200! That's really cheap... I think it's the swine flu that resulted in it, which spells good news for people on a budget to travel!

Maybe papa and mama wants to come to Italy, France or Spain? I miss travelling with my family! The last time we travelled together (in my memory) was probably Hong Kong when I was 9 or 10 years old! I remember insisting on swimming in the rooftop swimming pool of the hotel at 15 degress celsius!! Mum was so worried I might catch a cold. Haha.. Yah, that was when we last went overseas (Malaysia not counted) together as a whole family!
Subsequent trips with papa and mama...
1999: Australia (Sydney/Melbourne) - I think kor kor didn't go
2000: Thailand (Bangkok) - I think kor kor didn't go again, not that I remember la.
Probably because of NS or something.

I really want to go on a family trip again!! Like join a tour group so that we don't have to bother with transport, bookings etc. Then we can spend some time together as a family.. We could go to China! Like.. Lijiang! Banyan tree at Shangri-La county.. http://www.banyantree.com/lijiang/gallery.html

Okay.. it's quite expensive.. haha.. but now Kor kor and Jie jie got earning power!
Oh well.. I should get back to studying and stop thinking about all these holidays...

Critic

I was on google searching for "invisible children" cause I was hoping to read some critics and follow if there are any progression.. and I stumbled upon this...

"And the cast, whose task it is to not just perform, but support the narratives and carry the film’s emotional tare, by and large deliver – with the sole exception of the Army storyline, which is makeshift and seems like a scaffolding to support some jabs at disciplinary maneuvering, and how it can backfire. Here, it is an officer’s struggle with his emotional self as he gets caught between frustration in his relationship and the urge to compensate for the lack of human connection – credible, but sketchy."

http://www.sinema.sg/2008/11/02/review-of-invisible-children-debut-feature-by-brian-gothong-tan-2008/

Hmm, maybe I wasn't sure what Brian was trying to convey. Haha, sketchy? *shrugs*

Pain in the big O.

O stands for Oral.

My wisdom tooth is inching out and it is pushing my molar and has caused me a lot of pain. The pain comes and go and today it decided to come. And came it did, I've been suffering a 5/10 pain since morning and it just won't go away. I knew it was my wisdom tooth when I stuck a finger into my mouth and felt for my wisdom tooth. It grew by quite a bit, I can feel the part that has grown out of my gums has become larger. I pushed it away with my finger and felt an instant relief of pain. But as soon as I let go, the pain continued.

I hope the pain will subside soon so that I don't have to see a dentist here. I don't think they can do anything here except to extract it but that would cost a few thousand euros which I don't think I want (my parents) to spend that kind of money. I may just live on pain killers for now and when I get back to Singapore, I'll go for an extraction.

My flatmate gave me some ibuprofen and I took half a tablet. I'm feeling much better now. Geez, hope the pain goes away!! >_<

More pictures!

I'm back in Tilburg already and I'm gonna be here for exams in 10 days time. So I really should be studying hard now. A little bit worried and panicky, cause the volume seems quite scary.

Anyway, I was at Zurich and Berlin, my first overnight train in Europe. Not the most comfortable but it's alright. I got to Zurich early in the morning and I kept my luggage in the train station's lockers. Then I started walking at 8.30 in the morning when everything was still closed. So my first stop was at this restaurant in a supermarket called Manor and I got some supposedly cheap breakfast. And I got to use clean toilet plus refill my water bottle... Zurich is quite clean, like Singapore. Things are expensive in Zurich though. I withdrew 60 swiss francs (around 40 euros) and told myself I better be careful on my expenditure. After breakfast, I went on to explore their main street bahnhofstrasse. It's not that long, but it's lined with expensive places... nice watch shops and clothing shops. I reached the end where there's a flea market going on and it was where the zurich sea is. Then I took a boat ride around the zurich see to take a look at the regions around the sea.




The Zurich central station

My breakfast, which in the end I "da pao" the crossiants for snacks on the way.

The flea market near Zurich Sea

That's the boat I didn't board. It was another boat I boarded. Haha..


I got off before it made a complete loop and I walked back so that I could explore other areas apart from the city centre. The morning weather was beautiful. As I was nearing the city centre again, I popped into a supermarket to get lunch. There's this part of the supermarket which serves express hot food and they had a "buffet" thing. They charge for the weight you have on the plate, but the selection was pretty good. There's melted cheese asparagus, pork chop, broccoli with cheese (the swiss love cheese they put chesse in everything). I ended up paying 10CHF for my lunch.. and I didn't think I took a lot...



Some metal sculpture in a nice garden

I continued exploring the city centre, this time on the east side of the river that runs through the city centre. I went into a nice looking church, walked through the happening streets and ended back at the train station. Then it started raining so I stayed in the station and there was a beach volleyball match going on! So I happily sat there to watch the match. It was quite exciting la.

After a while when the rain stopped, I went out again to the spots which I missed earlier. Took more photos and had dinner.

There were many fountains like this in Zurich. According to the guidebook, you can drink from it! Nice...
Beach volleyball in the station!

A narrow stretch of bridge along the river that runs through the city.
Largest clockface in Europe! Or so the guidebook says.

The beautiful night view of the river. But my camera not good enough to capture. Haha.

The train to Berlin was nice. I sat in a compartment which was initially empty, then a man came in, then a family came in, then another woman came in. The compartment was now full and not that comfortable anymore.. Urgh.

When I got to Berlin, it looks huge. I bought a day ticket which allowed me to take bus/train/metro all day till 3am. I got to my hostel and checked in, had to pay an extra 2.5 euros for bed linens and it's compulsory. And found out Wi-Fi costs money. Was so disappointed! Apart from that, the hostel is clean so I won't complain.

Berlin!
This must be one of the coolest advertisement ever. The red arrow is not added digitally, it's actually a real balloon in the air!
East side galley with all the graffiti on the berlin wall.
After that I went out exploring Berlin, and bumped into a few Spanish friends near East Side Gallery. We were suppose to meet later in the evening together with the Finnish girls so we split up and met up again later in the evening. The Spanish have friends in Berlin who brought us to a nice restaurant for dinner. It was cheap and served traditional German food. I had a pork knuckle but it was not fried! It looks kinda gross but it tasted really nice. Then I had an apple struddel which was suppose to be good but it turned out so-so..

The next day I met up with the Finnish girls for breakfast, because the Spanish weren't interested in breakfast that early (10.30am). We went to a cafe recommended by the guide book and it was a huge breakfast. It kept us full through lunch. That day, we went to Charlottenburg Schloss which is a palace, had a nice walk and had our lunch digested. Then we went to the Zoologische Garten area for sightseeing. We went to a church which was bombed during WWII and kept in its state of rubbles to remind people of the atrocity of the world. Next to it was a stretch of shops and a huge departmental store called KaDeWe for short. It's Berlin's "harrods". When the Berlin wall fell, many "east berliners" went there to buy things they couldn't get before the wall came down.

The super huge breakfast that is served with a big basket of bread.

Such a dramatic photo of the Charlottenburg palace

Satu in the foreground. Yes, her name is Satu and she's Finnish.

The church that was bombed during WWII. Quite an interesting building.

The inside of the new Church next to the bombed church.

We went for coffee in the afternoon, had a pastry each before we set off for more sightseeing. We walked through another shopping street and passed by Deutsche Bank. The difference is, this branch has a shop in it! There's a shop selling nicely designed household items in a bank! I thought it's a really cool idea. Customers can browse through the items while waiting to be served!

Following that we went to a few landmarks in Berlin like the Humboldt univeristy where Einstein taught, the Berliner Dom, Babel Platz, Russian Embassy, Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (parliament house). We saw a long queue outside Reichstag and it was drizzling, so we decided to eat dinner before coming back again. We went to a place recommended by Clarisse for Currywurst and kebap. It was SO GOOD. And cheap too. Haha. less than 5 euros for a very full dinner, but no place to sit la. When we got to the Reichstag, the Spanish were there queueing, so we just joined in the queue to get inside. It's a really beautifully designed parliament house. As I was there, I thought about my history lesson during Sec 3. I actually learned about the Reichstag and there it was right in front of my eyes. The feeling is incredible, getting to see what I learnt.
It was a very fulfilling day indeed.
The berliner dom. Or Berlin Cathedral.
Pinja, Satu and me in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

According to Clarisse: The best kebap in the world.

The super famous Curry wurst. It's really really good. 1.40Eur for a curry wurst.
Big lips on the east side gallery!

Night view of the brandenburg gate.

On top of the Reichstag.

Close up of the dome of the Reichstag. Beautiful architecture.

The next day I went on a walking tour, but the weather wasn't fantastic so I couldn't enjoy as much because it was really cold and it was drizzling/raining. I saw a few more sights of Berlin and felt really happy to see so much in Berlin despite only being there for 2.5 days. People in Berlin were really friendly, they would come up to help us when we were looking for directions. It happened more than 3 times! And they spoke fluent English.

The statue on top of Brandenburg Gate.

The monument for the persecuted jews.

Propaganda left behind from East Berlin days.

Street art in Berlin. Posing next to the queen of england is the tour guide.. Summer..


Sony centre in the middle of commercial centre Potsdam Platz.

I took an overnight train back to Netherlands and went for class right after school. After class I was cycling home with a huge haversack on my back. Then suddenly my bike wobbled and I braked immediately to see what's wrong. I realised my bike broke. The frame broke!! I couldn't cycle on it and it can't be repaired! I walked back home pushing my stupid bike and my heavy bag, only to found out that my residence permit is missing! I was feeling really shitty, so I called the hostel and asked if they found it but they said no. Now I have to replace my residence permit, and I think it's going to be troublesome. The worst thing is, i don't have a scanned copy. What shitty luck. Well, that's the update for now. Gotta study!!

I miss my family back in Singapore!! Will be home in 2 months! Yay.

To my sis.

The Marni Bag.

I know you can't wait, but you'll only get to caress the soft black lamb skin in July when I'm back. Meanwhile, here are the photos so that you know where the pounds went.

Way too behind

Wah, it's Labour day and I'm super behind in my updating of posts!

Since April 10.. it has been a mad rush for me. No internet access for almost 3 weeks! Seems like I won't be able to update much until I'm back form Berlin next wednesday. I'll first upload the photos I guess. =)

Always start a tour with a full stomach... by taking in all of the Lourve.

Of course I didn't get put off by all the anti-hype. I went to the Eiffel..

Caught me in a hungry state!

The solution... crepes with parma ham and melted cheese...

In the Lourve, I fought my way through.. Mona Lisa and Whistler's mother. Why all women?

Palace of Versailles... huge and overwhelming.


I had to do it. Everyone would. =P


How can I resist.. sundried tomatoes and basil flavoured pringles! It was so-so...


Cube houses in Rotterdam. Living in a tilted world? Slanted vision..

"I AMSTERDAM" had kids climbing all over it. I could only hold on to "I"


Swans and ducks in Keukenhof. It was mating season! Seen ducks mate? Quite a sight.





Never seen so many flowers in my life. After a while, I got an overdose. Unfortunate for my companion, he has an allergy to pollen. He kept sneezing...

and I thought he might have caught the swine flu... *gasp*.

Sir Wellington the Iron Duke. The inspiration for wellies!



Change of guards at Bukingham, red uniforms and microphone headdress.

Pompidou in Paris. The queue puts me off.


Modern art in a pond!

Random shot in Paris.

The oxford trio.
Some old structure in oxford.
Some college in Oxford.
Emo oxford.


Street shot of oxford. Quite a condusive place to study. Nothing much going on though.