Copenhagen!
Bored from doing my term paper.
I'm so slack.. Dropped a finance course cos I dun think I'll have time to do work and study enough for it to pass it. And it's true. People really fail here! And it's not hard to fail at all. Fail rates are like 40+%! Thank goodness I passed my 2 courses last block so it's an excuse to slack now. Since I'll be starting work in less than a year.. :( So I'm left with some culture, society and politics in asia module that requires me to crap stuff about asia in class and do a 10 page paper and presentation. how hard is that? hahaha!!
Been travelling a WHOLE GREAT DEAL! Kinda getting traveller's fatigue but all is still good.
Went to copenhagen over the weekend and thanks to Melvin we got to stay at one of the NTU exchange student's hostel and saved a great great great deal of money. Copenhagen is SO expensive. A hotdog costs like $3+ euros. Which is like close to S$7. And this is from the roadside stores! We ended up cooking every dinner.
But oh well. Copenhagen is BORING. HONESTLY. What i think was the best attraction:
Kulorbar! Which is a club in fact. It must have been my best clubbing experience in the whole of Europe. Everyone was CRAZY. Paid 60DKK which is about 8 euros to go in but got free flow of beer till 1am. Think I had like 5 beers in 1 and a half hours. Naturally, I was super high. That probably added to the fun too! But the music was fantastic and so was the atmostphere and the crowd! Everyone was just NUTS. And we were in a group of 1 guy and 5 girls. So special thanks to the guy - who took care of 4 drunk girls. And got us home safely. Quite at least! ;) HAHAHA!
Apart from that, Copenhagen has hmm.. Has nothing much to do? I guess this is compared to the rest of Europe. It just doesn't have the WOW factor that Paris or Prague has. But it's still a nice small town anyways. Just not my cup of tea..
Looking forward to Nice and Monaco this weekend! Monte Carlo! Ferraris! Sun! WOOHOOO! :D
Paris!
Just came back from the Spain/Lisbon leg this afternoon. Back into the cold. The temperature right now is 0 degrees. So cold not fun.. :(
I shall attempt to my best to blog about magical Paris. It's definitely on my list of the favourite cities right now. Though many have said that it is over-rated, but I still loved it. Loved basking in the atmosphere. Loved the streets. Loved the what-would-have-been shopping. Loved the gastronomical experience. It was just absolutely amazing.
My only regret was not being able to go to Galleries Lafayette. Which was so near to the hotel we were staying at. But Paris has just too many things to see and do and 2 and a half days was just too short for sightseeing and major shopping.
I look super cui in most of the Paris photos though so I shall leave those out. :P
Was supposed to go to Paris alone but thank goodness managed to persuade Jo and Melvin to come along quite last min so this is a photo of the "Paris gang" in the metro on the way from the bus station:
We were so hungry when we arrived and many cafes were alr closed for lunch. But we insisted on having a Parisian lunch so we settled for this cafe called "Select Cafe" on the way up to Montmatre and we were pleasantly surprised. Especially me. We had escargots to share and I had grilled lamb which was totally amazing! The best I've ever eaten! The meat was tender and juicy. And the skin was fried to such perfection that you couldn't taste the fats. Even the potatoes on the side tasted great!
The escargots! Having the usual swayness, one of mine was empty.. :(
Forgot to take a picture of my grilled lamb!!
The pastries in Paris were fantastic too! We bought some from a Pastesseire on the way which won some Grandprix of Baguette and the pastries from there were just amazing as well!
After lunch, we proceeded on to our first sight: Sacre Coeur and it was utterly SURREAL.
Sacre Coeur.
After that, we proceeded to the Montmatre area which was bustling with activity. Would have loved to have dinner at one of the restaurants and enjoy the atmosphere and people watch there!
Next, we made our way to the red light district. Where the highly acclaimed and made even more popular by the movie stood - Moulin Rouge. It was really nice. But going in would cost a bomb. 74 euros for just 2 drinks and at least 150 euros for a meal.
Moulin Rouge!!
Thereafter, we took the metro to Champ Elysees where the famous Arc de Triomphe - the confluence of 12 roads is! It's said that Napolean tore down everything in Paris when he conquered and build everything from scratch from the Arc de Triomphe inclusive. And that's why the streets of Paris are so straight and well planned!
Arc de Triomphe!
Of cos no trip to Paris is complete without walking down the famous shopping street of Champ Elysees where you can find all the luxury brands and everything is MEGASIZED. The building that left the greatest impression was this:
The LV Castle. The picture isn't too clear but it's a 5 storey LV building. And the building is built similar to the architecture of a castle!
We walked along the street all the way to Musee du Lourve to take pictures of it by night and it was really beautiful!
The reflection of the Lourve at night in the water's really beautiful!
That ended our first half day in Paris!
The 2nd day was the 1st sunday of the month which is free entry to museum day so we visited the Lourve the first thing in the morning cos we didn't want to queue! We were there about 915 but there was alr a long queue but it moved really fast though so we got in in about 10 mins.
The so highly acclaimed Mona Lisa. As Melvin puts it, she must be one happy woman. So many ppl queue and squeeze just to catch a glimpse of her.
Me at the Lourve. I'm hardly a hardcore fan of art and I won't pretend to be. Honestly I wasn't too impressed with the art pieces at the Lourve. For one because they picture the exact same things as the Ufizi which was totally disappointing and I am really not a fan of Madonna and the child. My travel companions weren't that excited about art as well so we left after 2 hours!
Inside the Lourve.
Us inside the Lourve.
Outside the Lourve.
After that we passed by Hotel de Ville and on to Notre Dame. And passed by the Seine River on the way:
The Notre Dame.
Later in the evening, we visited the Effiel Tower! And it's really really nice at night! Especially when it sparkles with florescent lights! I always thought I would be like "oh ok. the effiel tower - a big chunk of metal". But really it has its own magnetism.
Effiel Tower by night!
Sparkling Effiel.
Too bad my camera's battery decided to die on me. If not I would have taken many more photos!
The next day, we went to the Effiel Tower in the day and went all the way to the top! The view from the top was good. But didn't have it's WOW effect. Probably becos we have been seeing too much of such things. So it was just one of another. But from the top it's really possible to see how straight the streets of Paris are!
Effiel in the day.
View from the top.
Enough said. Paris Je'taime!!! :)
eastern europe
Went to 4 cities in 3 countries in eastern europe last week - Prague, Vienna, Salzburg and Krakow.
Prague was just amazing; a fairytale. I loved it thoroughly. Vienna was a bit of a disappointment. A lot like most cities in Europe. But I loved the hostel there and the smooth coffee and europe's best chocolate cake! Salzburg was really pretty because it's a city surrounded by the mountains. We couldn't stop "wow-ing" at how beautiful the scenery was. Krakow was short. But cheap even by Singapore standards and the clubbing was fantastic!
Let the pictures tell the story:
We flew to Prague from Brussels. By the time we arrived it was dark so we decided to just wander around the city centre - the old town square, jewish quarter and the charles bridge. the charles bridge i think should be one of the most famous bridges in europe.
One of prague's famous cathedrals at the old town square.
The old town square with the clock tower at the back.
The girls in the old town square. We were really awed at how beautiful Prague was. And this is before seeing the Prague castle and the Charles bridge.
The clock tower with the astronomical clock.
The start of the Charles Bridge.
On the Charles Bridge with the Prague Castle in the background.
View from the Prague Castle
Jump shot in front of the cathedral at the top of the castle!
We climbed 287 steps to the top of the cathedral and this is the view from the top.
The girls at the palace park.
The Prague castle from the Charles Bridge in the day.
Acting cute in front of some building.
We partied in Prague but they played house so everyone was quite bored and the night ended rather early. They club weird there though. Everyone just faces the dj as though it's some concert and they dun really dance with one another. So we were sticking out like a sore thumb. What's new.
We took a train to Vienna the next day and because we missed the morning train cos we didn't know we had to go somewhere else other than the main train station to take the train, by the time we reached it was dark again! But our hostel was really nice. More like a hotel actually:
Looks like a hotel doesn't it?! It's under the Meringer branch of hostels in Europe. Absolutely luxurious for a hostel!
My first cup of coffee in Vienna that it's famous for. Check out the presentation! So elaborate for a cup of coffee! This glass of coffee was SOOO smooth! Yummy!
Church at Stephenplaz.
Just had to post this photo cos it's so funny: Chris trying to attain nirvana on a ball.
On top of the Albertina museum. Autumn is a really really beautiful season. All the leaves are yellow or red..
We went to Salzburg (the home of the sound of music and mozart) on a day trip the next day. The return ticket cost 55 euros. And this is what we saw when we got down the train which made the ticket ALL WORTH IT:
The countryside on the way was alr beautiful but cos i was really drowsy from the lack of sleep i only caught glimpses of it and didn't manage to take pictures. This is what i meant by a city surrounded by mountains. It's just amazing!
The pictures speak for themselves. The scenery was the highlight of the Salzburg trip. Let's just say no one was really that interested in Mozart nor the part of the Sound of Music garden that we saw.
The next day, we toured around Vienna starting with the palace in the morning, famous for being the summer palace of Maria Theresa and Franz Joseph and his wife Elisabeth, commonly known as Sisi.
The Palace.
Check out the colour of the leaves in the palace garden. Absolutely beautiful!
Vienna's opera house which is famous and where we caught the ballet, Copelia for 2 euros that night. Standing tickets though.
Just opposite the opera house, home to Europe's best chocolate cake they say.
Another of those "just-had-to-post-it" photos. You know why! ;)
Europe's best chocolate cake! It was so good Jo and I had to order another one. The cake is a little sour but it's the sourness that makes it yummy cos it's not "jelat" AT ALL. And the chocolate layer on top and at the sides is just totally heavenly!
Inside the opera house!
The next day, we flew to Krakow in Poland which was REALLY COLD.. Food was really cheap though not fantastic. Meal in a restaurant with shared soup and side dish and a main course and wine on my own only cost like 8 SGD. WOW!!
Some castle in Krakow
Entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp, one of the most famous in the world. It was a death concentration camp, where the jews were sent here for the sole purpose to die under the pretext of starting a new life. These jews were not aware that they were onto a route of no return. Until they were locked in the gas chambers and poisonous gas released. It was mass killing every day. 7000 each time. Worse, the belongings of these jews were not spared. Their hair, shoes, clothes and utensils were sold for money.
Won't continue about how depressing and eerie it was. Especially cos it was totally dark when we were there. Looking through the photos still send chills down my back.
It was so so so so cold and the wind was kinda strong so we didn't do much sightseeing in Krakow. Ended up shopping in H&M and Zara in the shopping centre cos it was so much warmer. Then after that walked to the town square, took photos for 5 mins and decided that we preferred to be warm!
It was early when we reached our hostel, and it was Halloween so some of us decided to go party! In a club that plays R&B! Which is SOOOOO rare over here. The music was really really good. And the girls really hot. Long legs, slim, gorgeous faces. The guys were oogling all the time! Too bad I have no pics of the hot girls though!
The guys.
The girls.
The girls and Kenneth.
The girls and Ding Sheng and Lionel. No idea why Lionel looks so "asleep". Even though he wasn't drunk.
That sums up the Eastern Europe trip. I took 2 whole days to put this up!!!
Oh yeah. I'm glad to say that I haven't been stoned since that Friday. Great improvement! ;)
Kulorbar! Which is a club in fact. It must have been my best clubbing experience in the whole of Europe. Everyone was CRAZY. Paid 60DKK which is about 8 euros to go in but got free flow of beer till 1am. Think I had like 5 beers in 1 and a half hours. Naturally, I was super high. That probably added to the fun too! But the music was fantastic and so was the atmostphere and the crowd! Everyone was just NUTS. And we were in a group of 1 guy and 5 girls. So special thanks to the guy - who took care of 4 drunk girls. And got us home safely. Quite at least! ;) HAHAHA!
