So last week, I went clubbing at LG after the mentor dinner on Tuesday. I woke up groggy on Wednesday but excited that I'll be off to London that very evening! I went for all my classes that wednesday and took a train to Eindhoven where Ryanair flights take off.
I got to Eindhoven on time and went through the procedures of checking-in rather smoothly. I traveled with one backpack and no check-in luggage. I still don't know how I managed to survive.
When I got to London Stansted airport, I rushed out to find where EasyBus is cause that bus is going to take me to Central London. I was suppose to catch the 8.30pm bus but the stupid airport is so huge and it took me so long to get out of the airport. I missed the bus. The thing is, I was right in front of the bus when it left and that BITCH didn't want to let me get on the bus. I was fuming mad with her. So I was left behind hoping that I could catch the next bus 30mins later. When I tried to board the bus, the driver said I had to wait till all the passengers have boarded and if there's room, I can get on the bus. So I waited anxiously... The bus looked very full, but thankfully there was 1 seat left. I was so damn relieved that I could get on the bus.
As the bus pulled out of the station, I tried to sleep but I couldn't cause I was squeezed on both sides and the bus was terribly uncomfortable. I looked out into the dark night and saw yellow lights lined the windy roads. Suddenly, I felt familiar. I felt like I was in Malaysia! With similar coloured road signs, vehicles on the left and dirty yellow lights, I truly thought it felt like Ayer Hitam road or something.
I reached Victoria station earlier than expected, so I popped into Sainsbury (even though David told me not to move about and he'd pick me up) My curiosity for supermarket got the better of me. Besides I felt that I should buy some food to bring to David's place since after all he let me stay at his place.
So we caught a bus back to off Elephant & Castle along Walworth street. We got to his apartment at around 11ish at night. I met Brian (his roommate) that night and I think he's a very friendly guy albeit shy.
The next day, I allowed myself to wake up a bit later since I was so tired. I went to buckingham palace to watch the change of guards and then Westminister Abbey and took photos of the famous buildings there. In that area, there's the Big Ben, Parliament Buildings and London Eye.
Then I agreed to meet David at Harrods where he brought me window shopping. We went from level to level and saw many many expensive things which Harrods sold.
Then we walked through bond street and regent street, passing A&F, CDG on Dover Street, went pass Chinatown, SoHo and eventually arrived in Covent Gardens where we met David Chew, Vince and Brian for dinner. We ate at this Belgian place called Belgo where they have a beat-the-clock promo. The amount you pay is the time you order your food! And it starts from 5.30pm till 7 or 8pm. There are several choices of what to order, of course mussels will be an all time fav. I had the roasted chicken because I had mussels in Belgium already. The portions were filling and I was stuffed by the time we left the restaurant. We walked around Covent Gardens and ended up at a dessert place where they sold chinese desserts. I had boiled milk with ginger juice, while others had pandan cake, mango cake and we had soya milk. It's like the stuff you get at the bakery below Bedok South Block 21 or Ang Mo Kio block 789. Well, you get what I mean.
The following day, I went to the Tower of London where I had a fantastic tour. It is called the Yeoman Warder's tour. The beefeaters led the tour in their uniform and they spoke theatrically throughout the tour. These beefeaters have to achieved a minimum rank of sergeant major and lived in the tower of london itself. The guide was really humorous and he gave a very interesting account of history. True or false, I don't know since I can't tell the difference between King Henry II and King Edward IV. I am absolutely clueless about English history.
After the Tower of London, I walked across Tower Bridge and walked along River Thames. I went past the London Bridge Experience (pseudo London Dungeon) and then I walked to Shakespeare Globe Theatre and Tate Modern. I met David at Tate Modern for coffee and dessert and we explored the museum for a bit and walked across the Millenium Bridge. It is quite a beautiful work of architecture, walking straight into St Paul Cathedral. We caught a bus which took us to Trafalgar square and from there he headed towards Chinatown while I headed towards Picadilly circus where I met Terence.
Terence took me to this Japanese place for dinner. Dinner was quite bad. It was a cheap place and the food was not delicious. Unsatisfied, we walked for a bit and decided to have coffee/dessert. Since Terence bought me dinner, I offered to pay for coffee/dessert. The desserts were too yummy to resist. I had a coffee eclair and he had a fruit tart. Very English. Haha...
After that we went to a bar/club where he bought me cider. It was surprisingly tasty but I was very bloated and I couldn't finish it. Plus I suck at drinking. At the bar, I met Terry and Young. We hung out for a bit and danced till around 12ish. I wanted to head home but they suggested I stayed over at Terence's place since it was too late and there's no more tube and the bus stop is far away. So I agreed. Terence's place was quite messy and looks quite old. But I was happy to have a couch.
Anyway, at 2.30am, I was rudely awaken by a phonecall over some issue and I didn't realise that my credit was being drained even though I'm on the receiving end. I got quite frustrated as I needed credit in order to make phonecalls when I'm in Milan. So I went out to buy a new Sim card, now I have a UK number. The surprising thing is, calls back to Singapore only costs 4p a minute! But calls to UK number is 10p a minute! Doesn't make any sense right?!
The next morning I went back to David's place and rested for a while before I went out again. I went to Tate Britain to see what's going on. After which I went to the National Gallery. It was huge and I was too tired to slowly walk the whole gallery. I went to SoHo to get a late lunch and then went to Selfridge for some shopping. Selfridge was AWESOME. I really liked the place because it's more affordable and fashionable compared to Harrods. I was so tempted to buy but I know I can't carry them and I should wait till April when I'm going to be back in London again.
In the evening, I met up with David, Vince, David Chew, Audrey & her husband, Jeya, Brian and David (yeah..3 davids in one dinner). We had dinner next to the very famous roast duck place. We had roast duck too. It was AMAZING. 9 of us, we had about 8 to 9 dishes and free flow of rice. The roast duck tastes SO freaking good, and the rest of the dishes were just like those you get at a good Hong Kong restaurant. We ended up paying 13pounds for dinner which was much lesser than I expected. They even serve watercress soup for free!
After dinner, we went to a rather "atas" looking restaurant to have coffee/dessert. I had a cappuccino and a chocolate cake which ended up costing almost as much as dinner. I was so full that night and I was so glad to have met all of them. Everyone's like from different background, have different experiences, very sociable and friendly. The best thing is, they are not trying to act cool or care only for drinking/partying.
I stayed up till 3.30am that night and caught a night bus to Victoria Station so that I could catch my 8am flight to Milan. When I got to Milan, I was half groggy. Luckily half the flight was empty and I could sleep on the way there. I took a coach from Bergamo to Milan Central, it took me an hour but thankfully the bus ride was quite comfortable.
From Central station, I went to the Duomo to soak up the Milan air. Eww... it was gross. When I got out of the Metro station, the Duomo looks impressive. But when I got onto the plaza, there were too many people! There were so many dodgy people trying to sell non-milanese some stupid things. But there's an entire street of shopping which kinda perks me up. Haha. But I had to be careful because the street was lined with dog poo. Urgh..
I spent the night at Michael's place. He shares a place with Ray who was his wing mate back in OCS. I think they are quite lucky to stay together in such a nice apartment although the rent is very high but they have a good amount of space. And they are so close to the Duomo! What a great location. Met some of Mike's friends, Saiko from Japan, Linda from Texas, J and Sean from Korea, Grace, Nicholas and Xinjie from Singapore. They were preparing for xinjie's birthday which was the next day. I must say that whole crew was very thoughtful.
The next morning, I went to Lake Como together with Linda. It was a short ride there, 30mins by train. We left at 9.30 in the morning and walked around for a bit. I got the return ticket for 3.10pm hoping we would have enough time for Bellagio. But turns out the boat leaves quite late and comes back quite late too. So we gave up the idea of Bellgaio and went up the mountain instead. There we saw the Alps in the far background and it was so beautiful. Although it was a little bit foggy, but at least it didn't snow or rain. We had delicious pasta for lunch with the Alps in the backdrop. Nothing can beat dining in that kinda environment.
At night, everyone cooked something and had a huge dinner party for xinjie. There were chicken rice, green curry, risotto, seaweed in soup, tempura cucumber, okonoyaki (i dunno how to spell it) and other don't know what. It was super sumptous la. Then 6 of them danced for xinjie to the tune of Nobody by Wondergirls (korean). It was hilarious and J was so good at it! Then the song ended with Mike bringing out a delicious chocolate cake and a tub of gelato.
After which, the drinking games started. Nicholas reiterated the rules of Ray and Mike's place.
The first rule: you do not talk about Ray and Mike's place
The second rule: you do NOT talk about Ray and Mike's place
The third rule: if this is the first time you're here at Ray and Mike's place, you get drunk.
Well, we started the game and it didn't take long before I had to down my first shot of vodka. Followed by whiskey, followed by a whole lot of "trying to divert attention to others" before I had to drink more whiskey and vodka. It didn't take very long before people started puking. Wasn't the most beautiful sight. I think Dennis got quite high and did handstands which I suspect was part of the reason why he started puking soon after.
Yeap, the second night in Milan, I saw merlions. I felt right at home.
Good thing I didn't miss my flight the next morning. I woke up at 6.30am and made my way to central station to catch a coach to the airport and flew back to Eindhoven where I took a train back to Tilburg for the last day of Carnival. That's for another post.
