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.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, May 21, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
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.
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.
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