01.04.2007 - 06.04.2007

Sharon came with her friend Eva from Barcelona over the past 3 days and i have been busy bringing them around so haven't had time to blog. Many apologies for that. So once again, Yeesh does an entry of what she has done over the week.

Monday(01.04.2007)

Went to Kaiko with Kiki, Chiori, Shinie and Jennifer. Lol... had fun. Now i have one more bunch of girls i can ask out. =)

Jennifer, Shinie, Me, Kiki

Tuesday(02.04.2007)

Spent half the day in bed sleeping then i went out to meet Taina and her bf, Yuca (at least i think it's spelt this way). Yuca is going to be here till next week so i definitely hope i will get to see him again. It was nice chatting to him especially after i've heard so much abt him from Taina.

Yuca is also an addict to cakes and so, after lunch, we had coffee and cake together.
Here you see Mozart Bombe - it is chocolate sponge cake with pistacho nuts cream. =)

Wednesday(03.04.2007)

Sharon, Eva on the way to Schönbrunn after they dumped their luggage in my room.

This time round i climbed up the hill and got myself a great view of the palace and the city. Too bad it was cold. If not, i would have enjoyed sitting in the gardens while waiting for them.

We also visited the Easter Market after that but too bad it was already closing and so there was nothing much. The cold also drove people away from the markets. Sighz... that's all i got out from the Easter Market.

Cutes right? It was like calling out to me asking me to buy it. =P If it is still there on sunday, i MIGHT just buy it.

After that we went to a heuriger and as usual, had good good food. =)

Thursday(04.04.2007)

Sharon and Eva went to Stephensdom and after that, met Yvonne and i at Hotel Sacher, the place with the Original Sachertorte and may i say that it's really very very nice. The Sachertorte at other places just cannot be compared to this one.

Friday(05.04.2007)

Sharon went to Salzburg to meet her Salzburger and so Eva and i spent a quiet day out. We visited the Kaiserappartments, Sisi museum and also the Habsburg silver collection (all inside the Hofburg). It was great. =) Glad that i visited the Hofburg with her.

Me with Hofburg in the bg. Erms... do i look like i've put on weight? It's important to know cos while bringing them around, i have been eating really really rich Austrian food.

The dinner service for the imperial family, the plates are all lined with a gold border. This is their normal dinner service. Can you even imagine the special one?

This is their longest centre piece for State dinners. It's over 30m long. I had to take 5 photos just to get it all in. Luxurious yea?

Look at their linen! It was always folded so nicely during state dinners but sadly, this is a dying art. Not many people can do this now.

A gift from the French to Empress Maria Theresia. Look at the green. it's really super bright and the amount of details on the porcelain is also amazing.

Duck squeezers. They were used to squeeze meat juice out of bones and livers of animals so that Empress Elisabeth could drink them and get her energy. She was always on a diet to maintain her figure.

Sculpture of Empress Elisabeth (or better known as Sisi) She supposedly one of the most beautiful woman of her time (she has a waist of like 51 cm) and is quite popular. But oh well, i don't like her. I almost hate her. Think i'm almost turning Austrian. I just can't believe how badly she treated Kaiser Franz Joseph and how she was never there for him.

Oh, may i add that Kaiser Franz Joseph is now my new idol. I really admire him. He really did so much for the people of Austria!

And after visiting the silver collection, Eva and i walked to a nearby snack stand and got ourselves some food. Lol~ Eva and Sharon still can't believe that one serving of pizza here is 1/4 of the pizza. =) As u can see, Yeesh will NEVER ever do things like what Sisi did. Food is just too important.

Anyway, this weekend will most probably be less eventful than the week itself but i'm really looking forward to it. I wanna go back to relaxing, drinking coffee and reading. Will be going for a Heuriger with Alex and Kaman on Saturday. After that, i will be going out for coffee with Andreas and he will attempt to teach me some german. Lol~ Let's hope he succeeds.

My Buddy

After almost 2 months in Austria, i now finally have a picture of my buddy together with me and i can finally blog about him. Lol~

Anyway, his name is Gustav Wagner, he's 22 this year and is a student in his final semester in WU-Wien. This means that he is extremely busy juggling his thesis, his lessons and at the same time, his new found food allergy. A few weeks back, he discovered that he has this food allergy that does not allow him to eat dairy products, grains and even flour! Now he has to cook for himself everyday cos he does not stay with his parents and this is like torture for him. (Well, it will be torture for me if i can't drink coffee with milk or have the usual food i have like pizza and kebap.)

Btw, went out with him and Evie yesterday to MQ and it was so nice sitting under the sun and chatting. Will do that again soon. Now, time for pics!!!

Evie, Me, 1/4 of Gustav. Lol~ i thought that since Gustav has long arms, all 3 of us should be able to fit in but looks like his arms are still not long enough. Hahhhaa... it was really funny that the person holding the camera should cut himself out of the pic.

A clearer shot of him. He doesn't look so good in this pic though. Too bad for him, it's my blog so i have the say as to what photos i post. Wahahhaha...

And finally, a pic of Gustav and I. After having met him so many times, this is our first photo together. Lol~ I should make him take more pics.

Alright, now that i am done with posting the pictures, girls, you may start swooning over him. I had no idea why but so far, he's been receiving rave reviews from my friends. Cheryl and Anesia both think that he's kinda cute and Cheryl likes his eyes if i'm not wrong. Evie thinks that he's THE catch out of all the guys she has seen in Vienna so far. She couldn't believe that i don't find him cute. Yvonne thinks he is cute and is planning how to bump into us accidentally when i am out for coffee with him. Well, I think he's nice and a great guy to hang out with but in terms of looks, i think he is just average. Lol~ girls in sg, pls give me a 2nd opinion. Am i being weird to find him not someone to swoon about?

Yeesh's ideal day in Wien

After getting rid of the bad mood that plagued the earlier half of my day. I spent the next half doing exactly what i've been wanting to do for ages. This is exactly how i want to spend my days next week.

First, i went to Mariahilferstraße (something like the Austrian version of Singapore's Orchard Road) to get myself Mitch Albom's new book - "For One More Day". Do u guys have any idea how difficult it was to find this book in English? I tried 4 bookstores! They translate just about everything. They even translated Hugh Grant's latest movie - "Music and Lyrics"! For God's sake, Huge Grant without his blardy cute English accent is NOT Huge Grant!

Next, i planted myself in a cafe that gives you a good view of all the crazy shoppers on Mariahilferstraße and burnt 2 hours just reading my new found treasure with Cafe Latte and Sacher Torte. Yes, i ate again 4 hours after the huge pizza. =)

I was all ready to go home and continue reading when the crazy little voice in me told me to walk in the opposite direction from home and go to the park 10 mins away from my place. Glad that i have a crazy little voice. I'm sure i will be back there again next week.

So nice right? I'm gonna sit under this tree in summer to finish my book if i haven't finished it by then. If i have, i'm gonna get myself Mitch Albom's "Five People You Meet in Heaven" or "Tuesdays with Morrie". I am determined to be caught reading under this tree. =)

Just a random doggy. He/She was staring at me with the camera so i took a photo lorh... The flash kinda scared it. Lol~

I'm glad i saw this lamp post in bright daylight cos the last one i saw that looked like this kinda scared me. The last one i saw was on the way back from Donauturm and Jeff was super amused that i found this kinda scary. #@#$&^(*

Again, something i was glad to be seeing in bright daylight. I have no clue why there was this small graveyard at the park. In bright daylight, the place looked a little sad - surrounded by a small fence, tucked behind some trees with nothing more than a small mud path leading to it.

Well, something happier - The next few pictures are for the flowers fanatics or 花痴 like my mummy. Flowers galore! I can't wait to see them again later in the year in full bloom.

Cherry blossoms! Ah Siew 阿姨, who said you had to go to Japan for them? Lol~ Ok, fine. You don't get whole streets of them here but hey, it's still nice k?

And of cos, you are most welcomed to pick them up from the ground and smell them. They smell really nice.

I'm really happy once again. And once again, it doesn't feel so bad to be alone in a foreign land. =)

P.S.: You guys noticed that i now have more pics yea? Bought a new camera yesterday. Now i am one happy tourist snapping at almost everything. Hope this makes my blog non-boring enough for someone. -grinz-

When your internet does't allow you to call back to Singapore

Was supposed to go out today with Evie but when i couldn't call back to Singapore because of my lousy internet connection, my mood totally switched and so i canceled on her. After chatting a little while on MSN with Jill, i went out to get myself some comfort food (a Döner Sandwich) but found my favourite store (Kale Kebap) closed for the weekend (-wails-) and thus, i got myself a pizza instead.
Looks huge yea? But well, i almost finished the whole pizza by myself. Hey, i was in a bad mood and needed comfort food k? Dunch care what you guys might say. I can die of fatness for all i care. Now that i am settled down and happy with food here, i eat loads. Sometimes i go up to 4 meals a day, not including breakfast (I don't wake up in time for breakfast).

I'm glad to have gone out for the pizza cos the day just suddenly appears so much better when you see bright cheery white flowers on your way out.

I'm glad to have a teeny weeny field outside my window. So what if it's puny? At least i get tonnes of nice white flowers.

After that, i attempted one last time to call home and this time i got through! Yay!!! Finally something good to push me to go out for a walk.

Shimone's Easter Presents

Hello my dear Shimone PIE,

yes, i called you a PIE. And no... i don't care even if you insist that you are not a pie. =P If you like it better, you can be Princess Shimone PIE. You can be a Princess but too bad, i insist that you are a PIE!!! =)

Anyway, here are the presents i bought for you in Innsbruck long long ago. I just got my camera today so i only managed to take photos of them today. Here you go!

Here's a scarecrow bunny. I feel that during Easter, everyone should get themselves a bunny and since i couldn't get any chocolates one (they will be melted by the time i get to Singapore) or one painted on an egg (cracked by the time i get back), so i got you a scarecrow one. I have no clue what it will be useful for but here's an idea. You can ask your daddy if there is a Sylvanian Family Farm and if there is, you can stick this scarecrow at the farm! (Uncle Winston, how do u like my idea? - grin-)

And here's the other one. It's just a clown pen for you to use at home when you are doing your homework or when you go out and want to draw while waiting for your dinner. It has nothing to do with Easter but the clown was just staring at me with such cute eyes when i got into the shop that i HAD to buy them. =)

Hope you like these 2 presents. Tomorrow i will be going to the Easter Market at Schönbrunn (an imperial palace) so you might get more Easter presents if they are not all candies/chocolates/eggs. HAPPY EASTER HOLIDAYS!!!!

Heuriger

Once again, i "steal" photos off Mindy's blog so that i can write something in my own blog. Grrr... This is so sianz... I am going to get my camera tmr! I must have one!

Anyway, went out for a heuriger yesterday at this place called Vienna Classic with a bunch of new friends. Chiori(Jeff's girlfriend) organised it and so Jeff and Kiki just asked me along.

If i am not wrong, Viennese usually drink the wine together with sparkling water. You can of course taste the wine as it is but the waitresses will always serve water together with the wine so that those who wanna mix can do so.

Together with this wine, you can usually get traditional Austrian food at a counter as well. You order what you want and then your food is weighed. Some of this Austrian food however, may not go very well with your palate. For example, yesterday Shini ordered some potatoes with this black looking thingy. We had no idea what it was and were pretty okay with eating it till, unfortunately, Jeff kindly told us that we were eating Black Pudding or erms... Sheep's blood. It actually tasted pretty okay but erms... after u know what it is, how can you even stomach it!?!?
I took something much safer, just roasted pork with a salad of potatoes and beetroot and these funny beans that the guy over the counter asked me to try. Lol~ I'm kinda glad that no one knows what the beans were and so i didn't have to suffer a fate like that of Shini's.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun yesterday cos there were just so many of us from like all over Asia and so many different Asian languages were flying across the table. The locals however, must have thought that we were all Chinese and that we all understood one another in whatever dialect or language we used. Lol~ I counted 6 languages, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Cantonese, English and German. The common language we used for communication was English, which a lot of people especially my friends from Europe find weird.

And here are the people who went for the heuriger and the countries they are from.
Chiori [the one with the yellow hairband] (Japan), Shini (Korea), Vishnu (Sg), Kokonau (Japan, Chiori's sister), Jennifer (Korea), Fish (Sg), Ivy (China), Connie (HK), Mindy (Sg), Brian [in black, in front of me] (HK), Jeff (Taiwan), Me, Kiki (China).

Multi national yea? Tell me about it. This is what i like most about being an exchange student in Vienna. You get to meet people all over the world and finally, you know a lot more about things outside of the small island I stayed in.

Fun Learning German

I am having so much problem with German and so Yvonne decided that she should show me fun ways of learning German.

What better way than to recommend me a German band? This song is really nice. Check it out!