4 posts tagged “holidays”
hi all, i'm alive, albeit rather tired after days on end of exploring, lugging my broken trolley bag (more on that later) and trying to figure out directions and being best friends with maps. oh, and tired of trying to speak with some strange mix of american/ brit accent so that my hostel mates or locals can understand me better. sigh, i miss lapsing into anti-queen's english but its definitely fun to experience a mish mash of local culture and quirks. i'm in dublin now and its been a slow day since we arrived rather late in the day. probably going on walking tours and visiting the museums and guiness brewery tmr... yummm authentic fresh brews. however, after coming from london and edinburgh, dublin seems somewhat run down and backward, but since it produced so many literary greats, i'm sure that it can't be that bad. eurocup 2008 is in full swing now and every night there are pockets of drunken fans staggering along the streets with a flag draped across their shoulders making excessive noise and fertilising the sidewalks.
budget airlines suck. yes i'm publicly condemning easyjet. the lousy airline totally disclaimed all responsibility after their baggage handlers broke the wheels off my brand new trolley bag. wtf, if baggage handlers are not responsible for breaking bags, then pilots can jolly well shrug their shoulders in nonchalance when their plane crashes (assuming that they're alive of course). i changed tack and asked them for an official statement about the broken wheel instead so that i could claim from my insurers, but they still refused to do anything besides shove me the paper that read "easyjet does not accept responsibility for broken luggage, including wheels..." farkerdoodledoo. now i'm traversing europe holding a damn heavy trolley bag in my hands cos all the repair shops i went to don't repair wheels for some reason. thank goodness i don't have a long way more to go. meeting shloke in london was lovely and it was a wonderful afternoon just catching up on life with her and thronging the oxford street shops. huiying will be hosting me soon and she says that she wants to bring me to some cheese chasing festival... hmmm how very bizarre. hokay, i think i shall go get some sleep now and prepare myself for a long day ahead. take care in sunny singapore.
hello from barcelona! we arrived in the middle of the night and the unfriendly airport had no good place to sleep so i had to spend the night sitting at a 24hr cafe, not being able to sleep because a very shady looking hobo kept walking around trying to scrounge for food at the vacated tables. plus, even if i wanted to sleep, it would be by putting my head on my arm which results in a friggin bout of pins and needles. so yeap, 1 hr of sleep thereabouts, but barcelona has been damn cool so far so i´m not sleepy at all. hmmm wait i´m never really sleepy anyway, but we´re back at the hostel now cos khel needs beauty rest and nearly dropped dead as i tried to venture the shopping district just now. sigh. the las ramblas streets we walked down was extremely vibrant and colorful, with talented buskers, super cute animals for sale and lively markets. i even chanced upon a church which was having weekday service at that time so i´m glad that i got the chance to go for service.
madrid the past 3 days wasn´t too cool, probably because the weather sucked (it´s summer! why do we still have to wear sweaters!!) and there weren´t similar markets during the time we were there. but the walking tour guide we met peppered our tour with fun facts and in depth history, which was quite invaluable. plus, food and neccessities in spain are cheap and good so its all good. churros are like crispier yu cha kuehs, suckling pig at the oldest restaurant in the world was an experience but not to my liking cos of the scary amount of oil and fats, sangria was an afternoon delight which was deceptively easy to drink, but to giddy consequences. i´m enjoying the new sights and sounds, but things could be better with sunnier weather. hope that all´s fine at home...
// cloud crossings in interlaken // the bridge that was half burnt and rebuilt // granny on wheels // super chio scenary // the area that´s darker is the original burnt portion, the whiter areas are the newer rebuilt ones // dandelions in the breeze // incredible colors. my favourite scenary shot i think // french seafood platter dinner with the family // the seafood family //
// homeless // sunset dusk from the river Seine // Eiffel by night // Eiffel by day // outside the lourve for a quick stop during our paris night tour //
Hello from denmark, my sweet chawamushis! errmm, pardon that outburst; i had steamed egg for dinner last night and it was memorably good, kudos to khel's co-tenant Yulin. the house had some sort of farewell dinner for the 2 asian tenants and their guests yesterday and we had bak kut teh, chicken rice, steamed egg, sweet sour chicken and a danish cream and fruit dessert thing, washed down with generous servings of alcohol in true danish fashion. khel fears that he'll be deemed an alcoholic when he returns home after a year of learning how to drink like a dane. the last few days here have been relaxed since i've already covered the touristy things back in winter and because khel still had to prepare for an exam. we went to Roskilde 2 days ago though, which was a small town with a viking museum and an old church to its name, with nothing much more. i also joined him at some parties thrown by his friends; in denmark, when people throw parties, they just provide the date, time and location. the guests bring their own booze that they want to drink or food that they want to barbecue. how convenient!
i fly off to spain to begin my eurotrip in about 5 hours, grahh why am i not sleeping. dawn is breaking now at 4am! the weather forecasts say that it'll be rainy the next few days in madrid so dammit, how am i to sightsee properly in the rain. please plant an onion in the corner of your field and do a rain dance for me please. copenhagen has been colder than expected; i have no idea how europeans keep clean since taking a bath is such a painfully cold process. if anything, i miss my shower back home. ok ok, i shall go off for now and continue doing some travel research. have a great summer holiday and for those with exams left to tackle, work hard!!
// waiting for time immemorial // swiss cheese fondue. too jelat. // streets of Berne // against a beautiful lake within the mountains // clocktower in Berne //
// going up to jungfraujoch, peak of europe // snow crevices // my first snow flake // on the mountain plateau // some kind of magical to be on the same level as clouds and mountains //
hello i'm homeeee!!!
for 3 more days, that is; i fly off again on tuesday 1am. i've exhausted my supply of inflight movies to watch already so i think i'll have to entertain myself with 13 hours of puzzle bobble en route to copenhagen. grrrr...
italy, switzerland and paris were lovely! it sure helped that i had a wonderful tour guide who was super responsible, funny and knowledgeable, and tour group members who were all rather nice, esp 1 livewire who singlehandedly livened up the whole group. italy wins for its lovely churches, DROP DEAD GORGEOUS men at every street corner and along every street, people who all look like they belong on the runway, for the quaintness of venice and the majesty of the vatican. switzerland was less vibrant, but i was literally at the top of the world, or at least europe, on jungfraujoch (tallest peak in that continent) and i saw falling snow for the first time in 21 years (yes, lagging). paris redeemed itself since that awful NYE incident. i received the best ever service in a store in galleries lafayette's prada boutique; the (very charming) salesman was damnnn sweet! after i bought my bag, i went to printemps next door and saw a design that i liked more and kept grousing to myself for the next few hours before i decided to bring it back to galleries to see what they could do. without much prompting, the humsum salesman volunteered to dash to printemps to get the bag for me so that i could do an exchange in the store. in his spiffy suit, he ran about 4 blocks back and forth in just abt 10 minutes. when he came back with the bag, the rest of the staff helped to repack and settle the accounts. i felt sooo bad and so grateful but happy that i've finally changed my impression of parisians as a bunch of snooty rats. the parental units thankfully didn't cause much grief; and many thanks to them for covering my shopping expenses!
i took so many photos there and now its back to bite me cos i've got to upload them asap so that my parents can view them and do whatever photo album thing that mum has up her sleeves. and there's the packing to do... argg no comfortable tour bus to ferry me and my luggage from point to point now so i've gotta travel light. how!! i've been travel-pampered by this tour already. plus, i wanted to revise my spanish to try to show off abit in spain but there's no more time cos i'll be out everyday till i leave. but it's been nice to meet up with friends again =)
// the famed roman Colosseum // the family // cute cars plying the streets. about 90% of cars are of this mini variety! // trevi fountain // chanced upon an event at the Vatican to beatify some saints. but the earlier crowd created a disgraceful mess // the altar area in the church of churches // macs decided that in rome, they had to do as romans did, so they planted a sculpture or 2 in their restaurants // daily life in the historical city of sienna // the town square that the new james bond movie will supposedly feature // multitasking as i consume my gelato a day // windows to the soul //
a mother with her toddler daughter sat next to me in church today. little girl asked mummy "is it 15 minutes more till mass ends?" her mummy answered "my watch is 10 minutes fast so we have 25 minutes more." the little girl accepted this and stopped fidgeting in her seat. i looked at my own watch and it was 6.45, mass officially ends at 7. i suppose it never registered in her young mind to question the truth of her mother's words.
here's to the questions never asked and the truths held back...
