Travel Plans!

Will be travelling loads in the coming weeks with Jill:

Here's my timetable.

11th - 13th July: Poland, Warsaw
13th - 16th July: Poland, Krakow
16th - 18th July: Italy, Rome
18th - 20th July: Italy, Florence
20th - 23rd July: Czech Republic, Prague
23rd - 26th July: Greece, Athens

It's a whole long list of cities so i don't expect them to be really fun and stuff. Most European cities are about the same anyway. A nice old looking city centre with nice buildings... Snap a few photos then go sit a place, try local food then chill. But well, i booked all these in April so now it's to late to change plans.

This won't be my only trip to Europe anyway. So i'll go experience the other sides to Europe when i come here again. Been wanting to do what a friend advised: drive around the countryside. Till next time i come back to Europe then.

Brussels

If i followed the chronological order, the next entry should be Konstanz but bah! It's such a chore and it's so boring blogging about all my travels religiously.

So... i shall move on to Brussels!

The trip to Brussels was an experience. Lol~ Not cos the city was pretty and filled with nice people but more cos it was the total opposite. It was ugly and grey and filled with weird people. Not a city i would choose to go back to but the experience was funny.

This trip was a trip alone and so i went to most places alone so please do not expect to see any pictures with my face in it k?

The airport at Brussels was impressive. Clean and modern and looks great. But the moment u get out of it, it's yucks. =P

First encounter with weird people in Brussels:
I was trying to find my way to my hostel and having had only 2 hours sleep and gotten lost, i was seriously tired. And finally, i found the street that my hostel is on. Imagine this scene. A young, super tired chinese girl is lugging her duffel bag and she walks past 3 Turkish girls in their long skirts and tudungs. And then suddenly in the middle of the street, they looked at her and shouted:"CHING CHIANG CHONG CHINESE!!!" And then they retarded-ly laughed and walked off. I was way too tired to respond so i just walked off. I wanted my bloody hostel.

Thinking back, i can't help it but be highly amused. Erms... excuse me. Turks ain't exactly the most popular people in Europe are they? And they pass racist remarks on me? Ha.ha.ha... It's a huge joke. If i was more awake, i might have just shouted back at them. Bah!

Anyway, after leaving my luggage in the hostel, i took an American's advice and visit the EU building and the city centre (called the Grand Place).

The EU building. Europeans, that's where they rule your country from!

A park near the EU building. Pretty right? Why Yishan say ugly?

See? This was in the same park. Gosh... whatever did the sculpture do to them? "Little Suckers" spray painted on a nice old sculpture was not exactly my idea of pretty i'm afraid.

The Grand Place. It's an UNESCO World Heritage. Pretty but erms... read below.

My banana chocolate waffle!!!

The ever famous/infamous pissing boy(Manneken Pis)

But don't say i didn't warn u... He's SMALL! I feel like a cheated tourist and i think he feels like an overly harrassed young kid. Can't everyone just let him piss in peace?!

After that, i sat down at the sidewalk of the Grand Place to have my waffle and here comes the second experience with weird people in Brussels. This old looking guy sits beside me and starts smoking. He looks at me and then starts talking to me. At first, he seemed just plain friendly and then after a while, he was like:"Do u know you're really beautiful?" Erms... yeah. I sense bad things coming. And then of cos, as expected, he goes on to ask me if i was free at night and if i would like to go for a drink with him. I told him no, i wasn't in the mood to. He asks why and so i told him i have a boyfriend in Vienna and it's not nice to go out for drinks with random guys now that i have a boyfriend. Most people would have thought that was it. But OH NO... u were dealing with a weird Egyptian man in the middle of a weird city Brussels!

He goes on to suggest that i don't tell my boyfriend. I of course reject. I am very much in love with my boyfriend and lying to him is just wrong. He still doesn't give up... He goes on to tell me how he thinks i'm really pretty and he really likes me. So i told him to stop all those mushy praises and shit stuff. Then here comes the highlight dearest audience. He replied:"Oh... how can u ask my heart to stop beating and me to stop breathing?" (Pardon my language) BUT WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?! That i swear, is the epitome of cheesy pick up lines. I told him i was gonna walk off if he doesn't stop and finally he gives up but guess what? He had the nerve to ask for a kiss before he left.

So... without my own knowledge of how he looks like and who he is, i now have a boyfriend whom i love very deeply and loves me deeply too. =) So... should he have blue eyes brown hair, blue eyes blond hair, green eyes blond hair or simply brown eyes brown hair?

And if that's not enough, 3 mins later, another guy tried to ask me out for a drink. This one was easier to fend off though. The moment i said i have a boyfriend, he backed off.

Guys, it's really nice to feel attractive once in a while but 2 cheesy guys who are totally weird in 20 minutes? It's way too much. Thankfully, that was about all the weird people i met.

Cherry beer. Something i expect an Austrian/German to be disgusted with. Lol... Beers are not meant to be red, pretty looking and sweet tasting. But well, i HAD to try something new. This bar i was at served 2004 different beers. As a tourist, i GOTTA go check it out.

Mussels!!! I had that for dinner on both days. Same restaurant somemore. It was great! =)

Anyway, in conclusion, Brussels was really an experience. It was really funny now that i think back about it. And... how many girls can claim that they have been hit on by a weird looking Egyptian uncle? Lol... Won't go back there again but yeah... it was a great trip.

Departure	Arrival	Flight	Status
	15:15 Sun 29 Jul 2007 Vienna (Schwechat)	17:20 Sun 29 Jul 2007 Amsterdam (Schiphol)	KL1846	SEAT RESERVED
	21:30 Sun 29 Jul 2007 Amsterdam (Schiphol)	15:55 Mon 30 Jul 2007 Singapore	KL0837	SEAT RESERVED

Yeaps... i've started checking when i go back to Singapore.
Will i miss Vienna? Hell, YEAH!!!

I really do love this place. I will now seriously consider Taina's suggestion that i get an Austrian boyfriend. But erms... problem is i have 30 days left and half of them are spent outside of Vienna. How to get Austrian bf? Hahahhaha....

St Gallen (Part 2)

I'm now already back from Brussels and i'm still not done with St Gallen. Arghh... Now i'm the one with extreme blogstipation!!!

Anyway, let me continue with St Gallen and then we can go on to Brussels soon k?

Well, i didn't really do much in St Gallen other than to visit friends and have good food. It was nice that i got to meet Abu and Melvin both at the same time. It's been like more than a year since i actually last went out with Abu and as for Melvin, i don't think we met since my "farewell" in January.

They decided to start my trip to St Gallen with a proper Swiss meal and what can get more Swiss than CHEESE FONDUE?! Hahahha... I'm glad Jill and i made the decision to share cos the portion was huge and i'm not quite sure if choosing a cheese pot with snapps in it was a wise decision. =P

Mel and i under the umbrella. Doesn't it look weird that there is this umbrella sitting between us? -bleahs- Honestly, i would have liked a better looking photo but this is the only photo i took with him in St Gallen.

Abu and his cute t-shirt. Hahhaha... it was nice meeting Abu in St Gallen. Heard about his interesting stories and weird apartment which overlooks Lake Konstanz. Hahahha.. And i like Abu's shirt... it's just SO ABU. Hhaaha... =P Miss hanging out with him and the guys from my JC class.

During my stay in St Gallen, i also got to visit the Abbey of St Gall(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_of_St._Gall) in town. It's like the only major tourist attraction in St Gallen and its a UNESCO World Heritage. Well, it's not really as impressive as i thought it would be but it was nice and quiet. Guess i've had an overdose of cathedrals in Europe. I mean, take a look at Stephansdom! It's magnificent... i honestly think it's gonna be an uphill task for any other cathedral to charm me.

Near the cathedral was this library. It was quite interesting and as Jill puts it, it's like a library out of Harry Potter. It was old but very well preserved and it was just nice to see such an old library. Sadly, u can't take pics inside the library so this photo is one taken just outside the library. It's a window that has been covered up by books instead of a glass window. Quite nice ya?

And lastly, to complete my stay in Switzerland, how can anyone not see any nature when she visits Switzerland? Well, i've had too little time to actually go up the mountains so Jill and I had to settle for a little nature hike down the hill along a small river. But well, the river was really nice and Jill and i really enjoyed ourselves. It was noisy cos the water was gushing down from the mountains but yet it was peaceful. It was a pretty nice feeling i must say.

And finally on the morning before i left St Gallen, i had a short jog with Ulrike, a housemate of Jill and it was nice. I mean, how many places can be 10 minutes away from your house and yet have a view of the mountains, the town and the forest? To make it even better, it was so quiet that i could hear the bells on the cows' necks even though i couldn't see them. It was fabulous.

Anyway, that was about all i saw in St Gallen. It's just a small city anyway. (erms... honestly, i won't even wanna categorize it as city. Way too small!) BUT... my stay in Switz has a part 3 where i travelled out to Konstanz and that was like the mega highlight of my trip. Shall update again soon. Now, i run out of the house to go meet a friend for some nice Austrian wine and rich Austrian food. I'm 100% sure i am gonna miss the nice cheap white wine i get here when i go back to Sg. =P

Tschüss! Bis bald!

St Gallen (Part 1)

Was thinking of working on my paper but after i called back to Singapore, i realised that i really haven't blogged in a really really long time and i really ought to do it soon before i get "blogstipation" like Jill did.

Anyway, was in St Gallen's to celebrate Jill's birthday over the past week. Had a few people in Europe tell me about Switzerland and it was all true. Hhahahah... Switz has wonderful landscape, is a beautiful country but has weird people. =P

Well, i thought the Swiss were great actually (not like i got to meet a lot of them) but i can understand why other Europeans find them weird. Had a really funny incident happen to me on my way to Switzerland.

I took a bus to Switz cos it was the cheapest way and didn't take much longer than train. When i booked the ticket, i was just wondering why the journey there was 1/2 hour longer than the journey back. When i got to the border of Switz and Austria at Bregenz, it totally dawned on me. A cute but unfriendly Swiss guard came onto our bus and asked us for our passports and asked if anyone of us had anything to declare. He took all our passports, including mine (when i was at the German border, the guard saw my passport, said:"Ohhh... Singapore!", smiled and left without taking it). Anyway, we all said no and waited while our passports were being checked.

-5 minutes later-
The guard returned and said something to the bus driver. The bus driver again asked us if we had anything to declare but in a different language now.

-Another 5 minutes later-
The bus driver returned with the guard and now he told all of us to get off the bus and get our luggage. There was going to be a bus check. I left my paper bag with my orchid(I had to bring it cos no one will take care of it for me) on the bus cos i couldn't think of why anyone would confiscate my orchids and i got off the bus.

-3 minutes after that-
A swiss guard came to me and passed me my paper bag with the orchids in them. Seems like my paper bag will have to be screened too! Now, we started moving into the room with the guards one by one to have our bags checked.

-15 minutes passed-
Now all of us have got our bags checked and our bus driver put his luggage on the bus again. At this time, we thought:"Oh... finally!" And so, we followed. To our surprise, we were stopped. We were just wondering why when we saw a guard holding a tennis ball attached to a string. He whistled and we heard a dog's bark and yes, we were staring with a funny sort of disbelief. THEY GOT A CANINE TO SNIFF OUR BUS!!!!

At this time, i was still on the Austrian telephone network and i was extremely tempted to sms my Austrian friend to tell him that i now totally understand why he didn't like the Swiss when he was driving around Switzerland a few years back. Hahhahah... even Jill was highly amused by it when i told her the story.

Hahhaha... as a Singaporean, i understand why the tight security. I actually feel good with the tightness of security in Singapore. I believe that the Swiss feel the same way. BUT... if i was an European, i would be highly annoyed and amused at the same time. Hhahahah... It was seriously like seeing an European version of Singapore.

Okay... that's all for Part1. There are loads of other stuff i wanna say about Switzerland. Shall leave that till the next time. The first impression of Switzerland is a story in itself already.

Bratislava (12 May 2007)

I now finally have some time to breathe and relax and so, here's an update before i rush out of the house again.

Went to Bratislava with a couple of my friends here last last saturday. Wasn't really expecting much cos erms... Bratislava is pretty small and it just pales in comparison to Vienna. We planned to reach there at around 10am and get back to Vienna by about 6pm but the stay was shortened because of various reasons, which will not be mentioned here.

Anyhow, Bratislava turned out to be a pleasant surprise and Taina and i are planning to go there again soon for some shopping and good food.

First of all, some info about Bratislava. I had such a hard time trying to tell my parents where it was so i won't be surprised if some of u dunno where the heck Bratislava is. I didn't until i got here.

It is the capital of Slovakia and is also the largest city in Slovakia. It borders 2 countries, namely Austria and Hungary and is only 60km away from Vienna (i only spent an hour on travel even though it was to another country). The city was called Pressburg in the past and was a key economic and administrative centre of the Habsburg (Austrian) Monarchy. It was once upon a time part of Czechoslovakia and joined the EU only recently in May 2004.

Alright, now the history lesson is over. You may view the pictures. =P

The fountain in front of the presidential building. This is really quite cool and nice if u were to think about it. Slovakia was a Baltic state all the way till recent years so to have something so modern and nice looking was pretty impressive.

We were kinda expecting all the buildings to look something like that which may help to explain why we were so surprised with the modern looking buildings and the fountain. Sorry... it's just that we had a stereotype of former Baltic states.

After Monica and I met up with Taina and Evie, we started with a tiring climb up the hill to see the castle. I was happy to see that the castle was worth the climb. =P

Here u see the Danube (Donau) River from the castle. Quite cool yea? My second Donau Capital. The first was Vienna, now it's Bratislava and in July, there will be Budapest and i'm missing out on Belgrade but it seems a little too far to travel there now.

The view of the old town from the castle.

And oh, something strange about the old town of Bratislava. They had a lot of funny sculptures and statues like the one u see above. They would appear in the middle of streets and it was quite a fresh experience for us cos in Vienna, everything is so prim and proper and jokes like these are really hard to find.

Anyhow, Bratislava was really nice and i'm definitely game for another visit there sometime soon but with different company this time. I thank God that it is only 60km away from me right now. If not, i would have killed the people who made this trip not as pretty as it should have been.

Lack of updates

Many apologies for the lack of update. Though i'm leading a really really slack life here, there are still moments when i have work to clear. This period is one of those. I have my "hell week" this week. My timetable is filled from 9am till at least 4pm and i have a presentation tomorrow.

Promise i will update once my "hell week" is over. After this week, i get a week of good break where i won't be traveling so be patient! Soon ya? Let me get through all these papers and presentations first.

Meine Geburstag in Wien

My first birthday spent overseas and it was a blast!!!

For starters, my darling Jill suffered 9 hours on a train from Saint Gallen and went around with me to wherever i wanted to.

And she also brought along tonnes of chocolates and a bottle of white wine to fatten me up nicely. (as if i'm not already fat enough)

Jill's sianz face when we had to queue for half an hour to get tickets to Schloss Schönbrunn. She hasn't had a time when she didn't need to queue whilst travelling. Lol~

Now for main course...
On the 2nd day Jill was here, we were supposed to catch an opera but we ended up shopping on Mariahilferstrasse. I bought myself a black halter top and a simple black dress and gosh, i haven't realised how much i miss shopping till then.

After that, we went for sushi dinner.
Tokyo Sushi Set!!! Looks cool ya? Yvonne was however kinda grossed out with the eel, octopus and squid that was on my plate. Lol~ I had fun making her eat half a slice of raw salmon from my plate.

And since it was my birthday, i had every right to make Yvonne eat sushi like a Jap. All in one mouth. Wahahahha...

That day was really good. Though it was simple, i had great fun doing all those activities with my closest friends here.
And after dinner, we went for a drink and they surprised me with a nice set of jewellery. Nice yea? Simple yet bling enough. Just the right kinda thing for me.
And DESSERT time!!!

On my birthday itself, i was busy bringing Jill and Ivy (Jill and i bumped into her at Hofburg - the world IS small) around city centre. It was fun but the best part of the day was when i went over to Alex's house for a BBQ. I met her mum and her grandparents for the first time. Her gramps don't speak very good english so there was a bit of communication problem but i didn't have any problems feeling how nice they were. Her grandma was extremely cute and always willing to try something new. I can now tell where Alex and her mum got their outgoing personalities from. The BBQ was great. I was fed really really well with Käsekrainer, pork cutlets, and Leberkäse. And after the BBQ, Alex surprised me with a cake her mum and her baked together. Lol~ It was really sweet of her. No wonder i'm so in love with her. =P

Her birthday present for me was really cute. She bought me some orchids. Wonder where she found it from. Lol~ Now i'm hoping that i will be able to bring it up nicely and that it won't die like how my yellow flowers did.

Anyway, in short, my birthday was great and i really had fun. These few days are really the best days i've spent in Vienna so far.

Wikipedia and its close ties to my life in Europe

As of now, i've already been in Europe for 2.5 months. In this 2.5 months, i've realised how much i DIDN'T know about Europe and the rest of the world. Maybe because I've always been so comfortable in Singapore that i do not bother to check or maybe my friends here just study different stuff from me.

Anyway, Wikipedia has been my best friend here in Europe. So far, i've referred to it for information about Austria, Vienna, Greek related stuff (cos of Evie) and also other random stuff that my friends might have mentioned. I'm sure it has helped my other friends in one way or another as well. Lol~ Andreas apparently went to read up about Singapore after he got to know me, Evie has used it to look up about Singapore food (she's madly in love with Asian food and swears that she will get a scholarship to come visit me next year) and Taina recently got a shock when she discovered that Singapore still has capital punishment.

But of cos, they didn't need it as much as i do. I've referred to Wikipedia for Hundretwasser, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Secession, Otto Wagner, Klosterneuberg, Baden, Cyprus, Greek Mythology, 7 years in Tibet and countless other stuff. Just today, i spent 3 hours reading on Wikipedia. Lol~ Every minute spent with Wikipedia is a minute spent learning more about things you didn't know and that was quite cool for me.

Anyway, today i discovered the cutest article in Wikipedia i've read so far. Nothing i've read even comes near to this. Go check it out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish
And even though it was about Singlish, something i should be rather familiar with, i was still amused by how little i know about Singlish. Did u know that there is a structure to Singlish and people have attempted to analyse it as they would do for another language?

Lol~ Okok... it's now like 2.30am le... I should go to bed. Gute nacht~

Venezia~

Was in Venice (Venezia) for 4 days last week. Really enjoyed myself cos the place was really beautiful and it was nice for a relaxing week but the place is quite sad at the same time. From the beautiful and old buildings, you can feel that once upon a time, this city was really magnificent and grand. And now, all that is left to it is pretty much an empty shell. The city is filled with tourists and you heard much more German, English, French and sometimes even Chinese than you hear Italian. The stores are filled with sovenirs meant for tourists and seem to have very little for the locals. In fact, the locals don't even stay in Venezia. Most of them stay in the little islands/areas around it instead.

In my 4 days there, i did not get to feel what the locals were like. Whether they were friendly, unfriendly, hospitable or maybe even hostile. I didn't get to experience what my friends meant by "typical Italian men" either, other than the incident with the reception guy at the hostel i stayed at. Lol~ His face was like 5 cm away from mine when he was asking me what book i was reading. It was erms... oh well, a bit scary. It was kinda sad. One of the American girls staying in the same room as i was also mentioned that something was missing in the city. It was like short of a soul.

Anyway, it's time for photos again. Let's see what you guys think of Venezia.

My first glimpse of Venezia from the train from Mestre. This was taken on the causeway just before we reached Santa Lucia, the main train station in Venezia.

This is what it looks like in their bus stops. There are 2 personnel on each waterbus, one is in charge of steering the boat and the second is in charge of using the ropes to tie the boat to these bus stations when the boat needs to dock.

The more romantic ways of getting around Venezia.

The first one is a gondola, you travel like really really slow but it's very romantic and as with most of the other stuff, very geared towards earning tourists' money. It's mega ex, €100/hr and if you wanna be more romantic, you can add in a singer for another €100/hr. But oh well, these people rowing the gondolas really work damn hard so i suppose €100 is not too much to ask for. The second is a water taxi. It's also very expensive but you gets you around Venezia quickly and is not as costly as a gondola.

Told ya guys Venezia's beautiful yea? These 3 photos are my favourites amongst 137. Yeah, i took tonnes of photos and behaved absolutely like how Europeans think Asians are like. Too bad, I was Japanese for a day k? Like how Charmaine would say, Yishan was trigger happy that day. =)

Piazza San Marco, the tallest structure in the city and from up the Piazza, you get to see most parts of the city. I however, chose not to go up. It costs €6 just to get up there and it had a freaking long queue even though this is not supposed to be the tourist peak season yet. The Basilica of San Marco is hidden behind these buildings. I got a photo of it but it didn't turn out so good. Anyway, i queued like 20 mins to get into the Basilica and the tour of it was only 5 -10 mins. (-_-)""

Rialto, one of their market places whereby it actually is possible to hear nothing but Italian for a while (according to my guidebook). Too bad, i heard English and German whilst i was there.

For me, this was interesting. Not sure how other Singaporeans will feel but hey, even in a tropical country like Sg, we don't eat our coconuts like that! And you guys in Europe do not get more South than we do.

On the 2nd day, we went to Campo de Gheto Novo and as it's name suggests, it is a Ghetto. This is the first ever known Ghetto in history. It started in 1516 when all the Jews were asked to move to this island and were locked up in here from midnight till 7am. We also visited a Jewish museum but the museum only managed to piss me off. It had 3 rooms to it and had absolutely no details about how Jews lived in that Ghetto. It only showed us some of the clothes, prayer scriptholders and Hannukah candle holders. -bleahs-

Yvonne, my Dutch friend whom i was touring with.

The sun was out all the time in Venezia and it was impossible to get around without sunglasses. And with that, comes my newest obsession - getting a photo of my reflection on someone's sunglasses.

I told ya i was trigger happy those 4 days. =P
Anyway, do i look like i put on weight? Guys, i need your opinions. I don't trust what my mummy says. She's always saying i've gotten fatter anyway. -bleahs-

And lastly, some presents i bought for you guys.

My 3 dearest aunts, please choose. I only have 1 watch but i have 3 aunts here. Who wants it?

Earrings for Wen, Jo and Susu. You girls will just have to wait in suspense to see how the earrings are like. =P

Lastly, a necklace for 猪八戒. Nice right? And i tell you hor... you better start speaking nicely to me when i call back to Singapore. Otherwise, i'm gonna kop this necklace. I'm damn tempted to do that already.

Alrightey, now i go work on my papers. Yishan still does work in Vienna okay? She's slack but not totally not working. Bis bald!

When the sun is out in Wien

So far, it's been a love hate relationship between me and the weather in Vienna.

On days when the wind is blowing and the sky is gloomy, you just hate it. You wanna stay indoors, you don't wanna talk to anyone and u simply feel down and out.

And on days when the sun is shining, you can't help it but fall in love with Vienna all over again. Everywhere looks so postcard perfect that it is almost unbelievable. Sometimes, if i didn't see it for myself, i would think that the pictures i took have been photoshop-ed. The sky is so blue, the grass is so green and the flowers look wonderful. U may even think that i've become a professional photographer.

Today was one of those days. I'm really glad i'm here in Vienna. I'm so in love with it now.

If you didn't see that guy in the right bottom corner, you might have even thought that this was a painting. Anyway, that is Vienna's City Council u see in the bg.
See all the people lying on the grass? Soon it's gonna be my turn. =)