Europe was AMAZING! There's so much i've learnt and much more i
want to learn now :)
RyanTourAgency Poster courtesy of Weixiang
With Ryan, Quanyao, Xizhen, Weixiang, Ningqi, Wenyang, Xiaoxuan, Yijin, Yifan, Bean and Tongkai,
Singapore>Dubai>Frankfurt>Berlin>Potsdam>Prague>Bratislava>
Vienna>Salzburg>Venice>Florence>Pisa>Assisi>Naples>Rome/Vatican City>Dubai>Columbo>Singapore couldnt have been better!
In trying to organising my photos, i realised that there's a limit to how much i can show on pictures of the places i have been to and pictures chosen here dont do justice to the moment i tried to capture. Nevertheless, i'm glad that each shot has its unique memories and i hope they will never be forgotten :)
|Arriving in Dubai|
|Frankfurt, Berlin & Potsdam|
I like berlin. This city made the first perfect city to stay in cos the hostel we stayed in was wonderful. Not only was it simply- and ikea-furnished, it also had a fully equipped kichen [with dishwasher, oven and all] that allowed us to nourish ourselves well. We probably had the most fancy self-cooked meals here. Loved it :)
Also, one of the things very unique to berlin is their traffic lights.
The trafficlight man of East Germany wears a hat! How cute is that? I spent a few days thinking that the traffic lights can be used to identify if i was on the East or West Germany. But apparently, they have been mixed up presently to blurr the divide :) Interesting.
Prague
Though i didnt like Prague as much as i thought i would, i must admit that it is a beautiful city. Prague was too touristy for me and i felt a little unsafe, prob from all the bad reviews we've read and the language barrier.
|Prague to Bratislava|We took a night train to Bratislava and i must say it was quite an experience being in a sleeper car. We had to be woken up for passport check in the middle of the night when we crossed the borders and of cos, i will not forget the 3-tiered couchette which barely had space to let us sit up straight :)
Xiaoxuan, Xizzy and i shared a room on the night train.
|Bratislava|The guys were so eager to set foot on Bratislava after watching
Eurotrip. This city is apparently very cheap in european standards and true enough, we ate to our fill! It was hilarious how our treasurer Ronnie joked that we had enough money to go 3 more rounds of desserts at the cafe.
Group photo taken on top of the castle.
Vienna
Beautiful place which i like a lot. Too bad i was quite ill and i had to spend money on medication that cost me 18+ euros!
Salzburg
Taking the cable car to the top of the Alps in salzburg was one of the highlights of this trip,'cos it was the first time for many of us to see snow! Check out the snowman we made :) Some of us even attempted to make a snow angel.
This child i saw at the Marketplace made me smile :)
Venice
Despite being very touristy, i like Venice a lot. I didnt take long to fall in love with the atmosphere and the unique sights of this place. I'm also very thankful to have visited the offshore islands Murano, Burano and Lido. Murano is known for its art of glass-making, Burano is known for its colourful houses and art of lace-making and many pictures you see above are taken on the beach of Lido.
Window shopping was a perfect therapy to a museum fatigued me. Not that i had the intention of buying anything, but the activity of peering into what's on display of those shops thrilled me greatly. I think my peers will not forget my description of the SLABS of chocolates on display. Yum!
Oh, btw, Venice has the cheapest gelato [commonly 1 euro per scoop, 2 euros for 3 scoops away for city centre] of all the italian cities we visited. Here's Weixiang looking absolutely happy with his gelato. Oh, and our guidebooks taught us that the way to judge if the shop sells gd quality gelatos, one that makes use of real fresh fruits, is to look at the banana flavoured gelato. It should look grey. Cool :)
Florence & Pisa
From the John's description, i expected Florence to be a quiet, charming and peaceful city. On the contrary, the traffic drove me crazy! There were just too many cars and i felt that there were too many angry drivers, too much honking and bad air. I was glad to have seen
David though.
Pisa was most memorable for us not for its leaning tower but a new Albanian friend we got to know. He accompanied us to eat at the university canteen and even offered to show us the university's faculty of Medicine. It's at Pisa that i learnt a useful phrase: dove supermercato [where is the supermarket], u'll find out why it's useful below :)
Assisi
I had no expectations of this place, but it turned out to be exceptionally pleasant. Glad that we decided to go there in the end. This place was best rmbred for the lock incident. The keys to the locks of Xiaoxuan and my bag were missing and i had to saw through my lock. Weixiang successfully broke my lock after i was half way thru. This incident earned him the title, the MAN. -LOL- I kept my lock!
Naples
Did you know Naples was the place of origin of Pizzas?
Traffic in Naples was crazy. Most traffic lights werent working (or werent even turned on) and even if the traffic lights were working fine, the drivers and pedestrians didnt even follow.
Pictures above were mainly taken on our last day, on the pretty attractive volcanic island Procida. It was nice relaxing on the warm sand and let the cold water wash up to your feet :)
Rome
Dove Supermarcato? This very useful phrase allowed me to conquer almost ALL the supermarkets in Rome. The lady at the tourist info centre marked out all the supermarkets of Rome for me and i made it my check points as i walked across Rome. It was quite a good idea cos it was scorching hot and Supermarkets made perfect stopovers to cool down. I bought some things from some supermarkets too :)
I like Rome a lot. I threw one coin over my shoulders into the Trevi fountain, which is supposed to bring me back to Rome again :)
Food in Europe
Food in Europe needless to say wasnt cheap. But what kind of trip would it be if we survived plainly on bread only? There were times we slurged a little and had several 1 x good one in several destinations.
Sunset in Europe
We saw several breathtaking sunsets. If you think the photos look nice, the real ones are better ;)
Oranges & Peaches
The dinner on Emirates flight was super UP! I especially love their Orange mousse cake drizzled with chocolate dessert. I loved it soo much that i attempted to make one with the help of kendrick. It tasted not bad but the base needs to be improved. Orange appeals to me because it adds a refreshing and citrus-y twist to any dessert. That's why i like orange chocolate.
Peach coloured roses look lovely dont they? :)
Hmm.. i wouldnt have thought abt owls again if i havent watch Harry Potter today. They're interesting creatures arent they? Remember how we often see them drawn with tt square hat looking smart as they sit on a pile of books? It makes me wonder what really gave them the "intelligent" label. Another interesting thing i got reminded of is how they're called in Chinese. 猫头鹰. It made me marvel again at how wonderful the language is cos owls indeed look like cats in some ways.
|Yoghurt Makes me Happy| It's real disgusting how i've been feeling perpetually hungry and all i do all day is to sit and revise my work. Kaoshi in a wk+ time and after that i'll be able do all the things i want, like running.