Jing the wanderlust travels to Europe!

Paris Day 3 - Louvre!!

2008-10-09T20:24:00.001-07:00

the famous spiral staircase

from inside looking out the pyramid

whee!! finally in! there were tons of people though we (tried to) get there early. haha

the start of MANY whacky imitation poses to come. look out for them and have a good laugh =D but do enjoy the artifacts too! 'cos actually they are really interesting, with geek figures, roman statues, egyptian tombs, mythical creatures and many more! we stayed the whole day and didn't managed to cover the entire area, though we cleared about 5/6 of it =(

see what i mean about pretty architecture? =D

HAHA

welcome to the land of egypt!

makeshift moat

we like the interior =)

this is some silly thing that we found out in louvre. they have those kind of manholes-lookalike air vents, and the aircon comes out from below! thus i've become the guinea pig to test out the amount of force of the air. it was quite strong, surprisingly! haha

i find this drawing very calming yet there's a tinge of extreme sadness. in memory of a female, i suppose?

what are they all looking at??

hmm looks familiar

its mona lisa!!!

in full glory

can't seem to take a closeup and sharp shot with the gazillion glasses that surrounds the painting.

so we are contented with just taking a closeup of ourselves with it. haha! the amount of people around it is scary man.

:)

moving on to this horoscopes room haha! there are horoscopes painted on the ceilings if you peer closely (i did!). and it seems like no one else noticed too. ha! sharp eyes =D

my gemini :)

my cancer too :)

and this is for my virgo friends!!

roar!

ngawww

okay we were quite bored

imagine laying in layers and layers of them.

more to come soon! i'm not even 1/3 there yet. haha!

Paris day 2

2008-09-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry people, for the prolonged updates! hope you all are still visiting this site - a bit unlikely huh. haha

Paris Day 2!

notre dame! amazing =)

interior

thank you for keeping all of us safe during the trip. amen :)

wide, wide space

makeshift classroom haha!

courtyard!

dear yvonne who is so scared of sunlight but too 'pai seh' to take out her brolly, thus she resorted to being a red cape girl. haha

nice ceilings. if only my room is like that haha!

stained glass windows. awesome sight

supreme court of paris!

moulin rogue in daylight - doesn't look very appealing huh?

since we had some time before looking at how moulin rogue looks like in the night, we decided to explore the red light district area and stumbled upon a sex museum! paid about S$10 to go in (student's price - can you believe they have that? lol) and spend about 3 hours exploring the 8 storeys of R-rated stuff! very eye-opening, i would say. it's surprisingly not tacky or sleazy though, with brightly-lit rooms and nice carpeted walkways etc. all their displays are well labeled and kept in neat glass cabinets. being the 'deprived' singaporean we are, we can't help but take lots of photos while trying to decipher some stuff haha! it's really hilarious man. can't post much photos up here, but feel free to contact me if you wanna have a look haha it's really interesting to look at different cultures and their sexual artifacts they have. kind of like a cheeky history lesson. hahaha!

love seat :) right in front of a TV which is showing 1960s porn btw, in black-and-white lol!

look closely if you would like. haha

moulin rogue at night!! =) with hundreds of people queuing outside. didn't catch the show though, it's wayyy too expensive for these three budget-travellers-cum-students. haha

went to have ice cream on day 2's afternoon

little alleys of paris - i could walk the whole day and not feel tired :)

lengendary ice cream - as told from my neutral and trusty guide book

sounds very italian

wide selection

i like the feel of the shop

rose-like ice cream :) gosh i'm yearning for it now. =( it was so rich and creamy and so seventh-heaven

relaxing beside the seine river =)

Retro Metro! :D

Start of a new chapter

2008-08-06T05:47:00.000-07:00

First leg of the long holiday: to Switzerland, Bern!

28th June, the day we set off for Bern! =)

arrived safely! began our torturous journey of dragging our luggages to the pension hotel haha. i seriously swear i'll never ever bring so much stuff on a holiday next time.

beautiful, well kept city of bern! it's my second time here, and everything looks the same though! haha it's really a well preserved old town with cobbled streets and all. =) cars and pedestrians share the same road!

set off to Thun, the town with an amazing lake and swiss alps peeking out behind the lake!

our initial plan was to go up the swiss alps and well, ski around or something, but we found out that the train tickets up were too expensive so we gave up going up in the end. anyway, the woman at the ticket counter advised us not to go during summer anyway, cos there'll be fogs everywhere and we won't be able to get a good view of everything. thus we moved to plan B!

TONS of people sun tanning, lounging, lying around, and there's part of the swiss alps behind =)

we look really out of place here cos everyone's in bikinis or less and we were dressed to go up the alps -_- horror of all horrors. plus, that day was quite hot too =(

one more desktop-wallpaper-worthy photo

can't capture the awe of the lake with just one shot, but it's really breath-taking. =)

saw this guy with all his bodily possessions on him. i felt tired looking at him even. haha

welcome to the land of peace!

jing the future soccer star :D

acting emo, kinda hard haha

what a nice colour

i forgot what were we doing haha

strawberry house that sells strawberries :D

ahh such a lovely house!

superb views =D

time for some soccer!

unbelievable prices for macs

having a nice dinner (one of the rare times we splurged hee hee)

my rosti with bacon and ham and egg and cheese! hahaha

scarily sinful but delicious nevertheless =)

fountains everywhere!

unforgettable night scenery

next day... we went to walk around the city

soccer fever's on!

they really have pretty rivers haha

roar! grizzly bears on the move!

i feel quite safe on top taking its picture

okay, maybe not that safe haha

cool decorations! =D so artistic

free drinking water everywhere

the skies i love :)

didn't go in though, cos we find it rather commercialized

candies!

famous choc shop

$2.70 SGD to enter the washroom???!!!! are you kidding me!!!

my all new watch - only $1.30 SGD heh. and spain won euro 2008!

on our way to paris!!!!!

land ho! it's a beautiful train station =)

i can almost feel the 19th century paris

beside the louvre

street along the louvre

inner courtyard of louvre

some gate haha

the famous pyramid!

=D

trying to show that the sun's still glaring at us at 8pm

introducing the mesmerizing seine river :)

people on boat rides

another picture perfect moment!

hello eiffel!! that's my first view of it

yvonnee! the sky's pretty amazing huh? =) it looks photoshopped haha!

heh cool view eh? =)

went for the seine river boat ride at 10pm, so we could catch the lighting up of eiffel at 11 =)

getting dark...

=)

feels great floating along the river, listening to old parisian songs over the headphones

the bridges look totally different at night

okay, this is a lonnnggg story. i was on the boat happily feeling at ease with myself when a bunch of kiddos beside me started making a din and i was quite irritated. then two boys were bullying their sister, this little girl, and i was a bit bu shuang so i sorta shouted into the river something along the lines of, "can't they shut up?" and ended up scaring this little girl instead. =/ so she sorta got into a sad mood and i, feeling guilty, decided to make friends with her and gave her chocs. haha so all was well in the end, and i had a new friend! =D although we can't understand each other (she's french and the only french word i know is merci, and i don't say it properly too grah), we had fun for the last leg of the journey, taking pictures together =D

so here's to my little friend, thanks for making my seine boat trip a memorable one! haha

my new found friend helped us take this photo heh

Eiffel turns blue!!

=D that's my writeup about my stay in bern and the first day in paris! =D will continue my updates real soon yeah!

Farewell, and lots of misses

2008-08-04T05:17:00.000-07:00

a summer in germany,
a summer well spent,
a summer full of fun and laughter and hilarious happenings,
a summer never to forget. =)

to quote our head coordinator:

"Remember all the new things you encountered, all the friends you made along the way; all the times you came to German class in the morning feeling tired; all the times you thought you had left behind your family and realised you had found a new one here in Germany; the times when soccer became a life force of its own; the time when you realised that one of the best times of your life was about to end; the time when it came to say goodbye and return to your life before Summer University; the time when you told all your friends about it and decided that maybe - one day - you would return to Germany and see all of us again."

the first ones to say goodbye to:

mia!!! it looks rather sad from this angle haha

with it's friendly mom =)

its glaring at me cos it wants to slack but i insist on holding it

there you go: an angry kitty (and heavy one too) and a struggling jing haha

farewell party!

giving out the certificates :)

the lot of us

with kevin, and daniel's little prank haha!

daniel! the beer loving guy haha

lovely lovely! her name's lovely =D

PS i love you!!

cheers with jamin!

andy!

my most precious family in germany =)

alvina!

kenny bier!

a card i designed for dagma, our german teacher =)

danke schon!

wen ting!

and our final day in germany...

petra, my host mom, brought us around!

playing with marcia at the back heh

went to a beautiful lake

with a small palace beside it!

the natural =)

i took this snapshot of this doggie cos it looked so tired!

lots of duckies

blue, blue sky with green, green grass

off on a boat adventure!

paddling

vineyards behind i think

dinner at a beer garden, with huge beers!!

we taught them how to 'yam sheng'!

salad

mains

when we got back, we gave them this photoframe with our memories in it as a final parting gift, and also two friendship bands with their names. =) this is marcia before she turned around and started crying =( =( =( we all broke down right there and then, with marcia crying the most and the last look i have of her was her burying her head in her mom's clothes, refusing to see us. =( =( we went out to meet our friends shortly after and she was still crying when we left. we didn't manage to see her the next morning cos she was still sleeping when we left the house and boy, it was really really extremely hard to say goodbye to my two wonderful hosts cum family.

final supper session in stuttgart with kelvin and kenny. =)

being whacky as usual hahaha!

i miss the days of rushing down for breakfast (toasts, juice), chatting with the two of them, having BBQs together, going to the supermart together, singing and playing the piano together, teaching marcia hand games, and saying "gute nacht! habe einen gut geschlafen!" every night. it was a wonderful 6 weeks =) but yes, memories stay but people move on. who knows? perhaps one day wanwei and i will pop by again and see marcia all grown up and petra prettier than ever. =)

yep! my room when i'm halfway through my packing. haha. messy eh?

one journey has ended, but another has just began. =) our europe travel!!

another 21st (:

2008-08-04T04:48:00.000-07:00

a few days after the actual day of my birthday, my host mom threw me a party in her house! =)

enjoying the food!

my cake!

made specially by andrea, my neighbour and her host girls, zhang qi and ye yuan! =D oh the candle is a special 'sparkles' candle that is made for cakes but still achieves the fire crackers effect! =D

kelvin getting high haha

andrea!!

slacking around

deutschland!!!

with guys

hosts :)

my mom host asked everyone to leave a few words on her guest book and everyone wrote a lot!! =D

preparing for the match later - semi finals!

how patriotic eh

made our way down to town after watching the first half and boy, was it crowded haha!

along konigstrasse, the main shopping street =)

tried to get a group photo!

in the subway station, where everyone's celebrating!!

germany won!!!

hands up!

on our way home =)

there's farewell, and my 2 weeks plus worth of europe trip! =D more to come!

time for some updates =D

2008-07-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

i was checking the total amount of space my europe trip pictures took up and guess what? it's 11GB in total! whoaaaa there are wanwei's pics too but still! haha scary =/ must be all the lame photos and food pics hahaha!

it's memory refreshing time! let's rewind to one month and five days ago... on the day of my birthday!

i shall continue from what i stopped three entries ago, in the flea market of vienna. =)

random food which i refused to try haha

pretty streets :)

my birthday lunch - delicious kebaps! hahaha

beauuutiful palace!

and awesome skies to boot

imagine living here

secretly took a picture of the grand hall though we are not supposed to take pictures inside - it's too irresistable =D imagine having a ball here!!

one of the prettier shots =)

our fave activity - picture jumps =)

still honing our skills hahaha

another picture perfect photo =)

haha

whacky house

okay i forgot the name of this house but it looks like those funny houses in barcelona =)

interior

cool toilet!! but it's super ex to go in so we didn't in the end. it costs about 1.40 SGD per entry i think? lol

this ice cream salon was mentioned in a guidebook so off we went to try it out =)

massive blop of happiness XD

four blops of happiness! hahaha it was extremely delicious and creamy =) totally worth the money

jimmy spa lookalike!

okay i can't resist taking more pics heh

they are found in one of the subway stations

and we've reached... a funfair!!

once again, i forgot the name of the place... yikes!

but it's full of cheer inside =)

poor horses, they are being dragged into slavery =( they look damn sad lah, carrying kids and walking in circles the whole time.

see how sad they look

thrilling rides

funky clown

can compete with singapore flyer already haha!

and speaking of singapore...

we spotted the singapore flag on one of the signboards!! =D it's for the bumper cars. and there are only about 10 countries on it! we're so proud to see it there!

went to the soccer stadium in vienna!

tadah!

been here, done that!

i love euro 08 =) it adds colour to my trip the entire time haha

free drinking water! its a gigantic water cooler haha and it even sprays mists on you! =P

dinner celebration @ night

we chose a irish pub for my bday dinner =) they have a huge screen showing live matches (that night it was netherlands vs russia) and we were seating right in front of it! haha

toasting with yang zhao!

my bangers 'n' mash - it's mouth-watering and was sooooo good! their mashed potatoes are one of the best i've ever eaten seriously! i didn't know irish pubs are so good with their food haha.

a satisfied jing!

great pals to tour with! =)

wanwei's fish n chips haha

didn't manage to get shots of yvonne and wanwei and peisin cos the former two went off to get a surprise cake for me =) and all the pics i have of peisin are in her camera! haha

they sourced for so long and finally managed to get half a full cake, with oreo cheese too!!! =D yipppeee thanks girls!! i really appreciate the effort you all put in and finding a cake in a foreign city and surprising me is doubly hard when we have to stick tog as a group haha

the next morning, me with the cake!

i seem to be deep in thought huh

ohoh this is funny. you know, they operate a honour system in europe, it's like for train fares, you have to buy your own ticket and be responsible for it, cos there are no gates forcing you to buy the tickets before you board the train or whatsoever. so it kinda boils down to your integrity. same for their papers. lol! here it says $1.50 in euros, so you are supposed to take the newspaper and drop $1.50 into a compartment behind the newspaper. well, we didn't take the papaer but i acted for the camera's sake haha. if there are these kind of stuff in singapore, i tell you, it'll be total chaos. hahaha

opera toilet!

their famous opera house =)

i remember him from band days!!

acting like famous musicians - and failing miserably haha

milka!!

water cooler from ancient times haha

i seriously love their skies =)

and building of cos!

a fake? haha

dancing on the streets!

some famous vienna cake

macarons *swoon*

in heaven

interesting solar panels haha

and when i'm back in germany... guess what i found???

a surprise for me from my host family!!!!! =D =D =D =D that was totally unexpected!

cake, presents, chocs, notes, card =) they were asleep by the time we came back i gave them hugs the next morning haha

a backpack with the logo of luwigsburg! that bag tide me through my switz + paris + amsterdam trips =)

yep! that's about all for my vienna trip + birthday celebration. my host family threw me a party a few days later, will upload photos on that soon! =)

Home sweet home

2008-07-15T12:52:00.000-07:00

*waves*

after a hair-raising experience of missing a train on my way from amsterdam to frankfurt, 16 hours of flight including transit, 4 meals and 4 movies later, i'm finally home. :)

love the feeling of having internet connection wherever i go. haha that's something you don't really get in europe. then again, being apart from the web world made me realised that i'm so attached to emails and facebook and blogs that without it for a certain amount of time makes me uneasy. yikes.

it's still rather hard to register everything, the humid weather (yay! no need for moisturizer now!), how to use the shower at home, and the back-to-my-old-life routine. it's gonna be school, tuition and everything in between again. think i'll need some time to re-orientate myself. i will really miss travelling though i absolutely hate the luggage carrying part. (my muscles are still sore :/) i guess i wouldn't be able to relive the exact same experience like this one the next time i travel, so i'll just have to look forward to potential vacations abroad in the future! =D

jet-lagged? you bet. haha. met up with bestie to start updating her on my entire trip (haven't even covered one-sixth of it after 3 hours) just now and went for a supper trail (starbucks, teochew porridge) with david, bing and siew near midnight till 3 plus. i think the mocha i drank is kicking in 'cos i'm so wide awake now haha!

oh! thanks a zillion siew!!!! for the surprise you have done to my notice board at home haha. pretty angels and beads and hearts - i love! =D it was totally unexpected hahaha. i'll keep the board intact for years to come heh. we really love doing up each other's rooms huh? LOL quirks

will continue updating my blog with all the pictures so stay tuned yeah! the best part (two weeks of travelling ard europe) as yet to come!

Greetings from Holland!

2008-07-09T03:09:00.000-07:00

sorry for the total lack of updates. couldn't get an internet connection in my cousin's house cos it's still new and they haven't installed much stuff yet =D using their connection in their restaurant now. man, we were stuffed with good food (yummy chinese/HK food) when we arrived up till today. =D =D =D my stomach's feeling happy now. hahaa i guess 2 months of eating burgers and fries and sausages really made me yearn for proper rice and non-heaty dishes.

let's see, we went to the windmills, clogs shops, miniature theme park and i hopped into a huge casino for the first time in my life! though i didn't bet on anything using my own money (ten euros per play and it's 22 sing dollars!!), my uncle and cousin managed to win 70 euros playing blanco punto. =D gambling thrills you! now i know why there are so many gambling addicts around. it's real easy money, but of course it doesn't pay off every time.

oh yeah, paris! what can i say hmm... Eiffel tower is amazing at night with the sparkles and all but rather dull in the day. Louvre is GIGANTIC, we didn't even get to walk through the whole museum in a day and mona lisa is too over-rated =x had to squeeze pass dozens of people just to get a glimpse of it and it's hidden behind so many panels of glass! oh seine river is gorgeous =) the 11 euros boat trip was worth it cos we went in the night and all the buildings looked so different as compared to daylight. metro experience was rather horrible, squeezing in every available space we can every time we take it. there are beggars and rubbish everywhere (we saw a lump of watery shit once along a passageway) but i do like the frequency of it (one train every 2 minutes or so)

going brussels (belgium) tomorrow to lug back tons of belgium chocs!!!!

pictures will be up later if i can squeeze some time out to update hee

ciao!

Auf wiedersehen!

2008-06-27T16:35:00.000-07:00

i guess this is gonna be the last time i'm typing a blog entry in petra's house (my host mom) and also doing it on the steps of her staircase hee. =) i'll miss so many things, the place, the house, the school, the lessons, the excursions, the trips and most importantly the people!!!! without these great friends i've made over the past 6 weeks, the whole programme wouldn't have been a wonderful experience =) am really really glad that i decided to come over to europe and yes, all good things end sometime or other, and the times will never repeat itself again.

it's so surreal that i'm leaving for bern tomorrow, paris 2 days later, and amsterdam 1 week plus later. =x i feel so reluctant to go!!!! but most of my friends have gone for their trips and i guess it's useless to stay.

well, at least i had a chance to spend today with my host family and had a very teary-eyed goodbye session with many promises to see each other again next time. =)

I WILL BE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS: i hope deutschland wins euro 08 =)

PPS: sorry for the uncompleted post for my previous entry. will try to complete it soon yeah! =D

19th June - Germany vs Portugal

2008-06-26T02:48:00.000-07:00

last architecture class excursion on thursday. taken with jamin and his hat!

heehee

a church we went for excursion

no photoshop done to it!! i'm serious, it looks perfect eh?

people basking in the sunlight - i really don't understand. it's super hot out there and these people looks like they are enjoying it. haha. bet they'll be very happy in singapore

went to the schloss garden in the city center to catch the quarterfinals. the people there were so hyped up!!

me, wenting and yama!

the match was awesome - and germany WON!!! we cheered and cheered till we had no voice haha! luckily we got a good seat on the left side and were able to look at the huge screen clearly

GOAL!

sea of people

post! (cheers in german)

i love their football songs and cheers! there are so many but i think i memorised a few. haha! it feels great singing along and they have really catchy tunes too!

look how happy i was hahaha

and wanwei too!

went totally mad haha

more drinks!

deutschland!!!!

the german who sat beside us haha

all decked out

the wonderful companions for the night!! and the guys who are not in the picture too! haha

oh some days ago my host mom made vege soup with sausages! it was unexpectedly delicious cos she put bacon, cream and herbs in it. gosh it's gonna be my fave soup but i doubt i'll have the chance to drink it again! =(

okay more randoms: taken on friday when we went to the staatsgalerie and music uni to do our architecture project

memory of a 500 euros note. my last big note before i split it into smaller change!!

the super word search puzzle wanwei and i did wahahaha

now on to vienna!!! (wien)

trip's from 20th june to 22nd june. i think i've experienced every single scenario that could happen with trains during my entire trip =x lol!

arrived! i think this train station is silly. there's no signs showing which station it is, and we have to walk all the way to the end to see this notice and confirm that we have arrived in vienna -_-

vienna's westbahnhof

summer house hostel =) pretty rooms!

no showers attached, but we have a sink!

beautiful lounge

stephansdom in wien

another postcard material picture hee. the skies here are so pretty!!!

we were quite unlucky to catch so many croatia fans in the central square, and they were so rude and rowdy! =( one stepped on me really hard without saying sorry, and a few people was throwing stuff around. these people in the picture came in when we wanted to take a photo haha. a lot of them were shouting stuff like, "konichiwa?" "ni hao?" etc to us every few seconds. its funny at first but became totally annoying when it continues. and the thing is they are just shouting these phrases whenever they see us and everyone who is not a vienna local does that! (read: croatia fans) GRAH. was half hoping they lose that day and they really did =/ lol! they really destroyed my impression of vienna being a romantic, music city. sigh

mosaics =)

went to the mozarthaus but we felt that it was not worth the 20bucks to go in

so we settled for the poster of mozart in the end! hahaha

vienna has wonderful ice creams i swear

going into the fanzone in vienna to watch catch the match! =D we couldn't bring in any bottles or sharp objects, which is a great idea cos after the match some fights broke out and we were all running for our lives =x this drunk old man who was standing near me suddenly went to bang the tables of the stalls selling drinks and stuff and it was damn scary man. O.o

at the heart of the action

=)

wanwei and vincent!

my buddies!!

i LOVE this pic - nighttime vienna is wonderful =)

next day - my birthday!!! =D

ghostly figures at the subway hahaha

huiwen did this to me!! she actually thought i'm in venice but i was in vienna -_- tsk tsk

sidenote: thanks to all who gave me birthday wishes!!! (facebook, smses, hugs, everything!) =) i feel very very very loved! =D it was an amazing birthday =D =D

PS i love you! hahaha pun intended =D

vienna's subway

nachmarket!

shopping at the flea market with my girls and kelvin and yama

mega huge watermelons

pretty :)

this shop owner is a pervert lah!! grrr

we bought a watermelon to eat on the spot haha

roses here are unbeatable XD

weird stuff

-_- photobucket just informed me that they are having a site maintenance so i guess i'll update again tonight! haha

farewell party's later and i refuse to leave deutschland!!!!!!

You have mail!

2008-06-26T01:39:00.000-07:00

oh i need to type this down before i forget. the dumbest thing wanwei and i have ever done is to go into austria and to vienna without our passports!! hahahahaha the austrian police was checking on train and we could only show them our ISIC student discount cards and boy, was it scary =x i think they almost wanted to send us back to germany but in the end let us pass. maybe cos we look harmless and pitiful? hee hee. but we did get a good scolding though -_-

moral of the story?

never cross borders without your passport XD

moving on to my mail!!!

love sent from singapore! =D thank you daddy!!!! those are dried chillies btw. haha i wonder what to do with them =x

tsk tsk -_- daddy's so lame

football mania!!! they are macaronis btw hee

some random stuff:

yummy hazelnut chocs from milka =) courtesy of my host mom!

pretty builings in bad canstatt in stuttgart:

birthday post coming up!!

it's videos time!

2008-06-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

here are some of candid (and stupid) videos wanwei and i took when we were bored and some amazing videos of german fans supporting the german team for euro 2008. =D enjoy!

flag day! hahaa damn cool =D

hyped-up

Germany's national anthem

havoc!!!

candid 1 - check out wanwei's stoned face as compared to mine hahahaha!

candid 2 - with yangzhao as the cameraman!

the magic of football matches

2008-06-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

germany's in for the euro semi finals!!!!! we went to catch the live screening of the match yesterday evening in schloss garten's biergarten (read: beer garden) and the atmosphere was superb! =D =D everyone was so hyped up and were singing and singing away, waving huge flags and all. tons of videos to be uploaded but won't be adding them so soon as i'm gonna be in vienna for the weekend to catch the next quarterfinals outside the stadium and also to celebrate my birthday in vienna!!! =D

take care people, till next week!!!

PS: i'm typing this at 4am in the morning as i had to wake up at 3.30am to do my subject registration =( (singapore time: 9.30am) i hoped i clicked everything correctly cos i was so sleepy when i switched on my laptop haha. who in the world would wake up at 3.30 to register for subjects??!!

gonna go soon to catch my 6am long distance train to vienna =) wish me luck!

Weekend getaway: Cologne & Berlin! updated porsche museum + nunu's party =)

2008-06-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

i am gonna post up a record number of pictures (241) in one single entry. haha! let's see if i can do it within a night. =P and with my lappie's battery starting at only 48%.

without further ado!

lorraine's name is on the map!

yvonne sleeping on the ICE train. speaking of ICE trains, i would like to complain about their reservation and ticketing system. it is not shown clearly which seat is being reserved and in the end the three of us became stranded in the aisle finding seats when we got chased out of our seats by the conductor. we could reserve the seats beforehand but it would cost 22SGD each so we didn't. but yeah, it was quite a horrible experience because we could have found seats that were not reserved but because of the annoying display system that cocks up, we got embarrassed at least two times -_-

comfy ICE train but the seating system sucks!!!

one of our better moments

hello cologne!

DOM

walked ard the city and found some whacky hats hee hee. the euro 2008 fever is catching on!

bought a yummy choc pretzel!

siew, for you! haha. that's the shop i bought your shirt in btw. how apt right? =D

the streets of cologne

we saw giant pipes

and that is the rhine river if i'm not wrong

bridge

now it's time for...

chocolate museum!!!

they showcase the history, growth and harvesting of cocoa beans etc

and there's an assembly line right in the museum! stirring of chocolate

lindt bunny!!!

more stirring of choc

chocolate fountain!

rows of chocolates coming out - the smell was heavenly

this is the machine which sucks the chocolate pieces up and transfer them to another conveyor belt

chocolate in molds

tadah!

hollow shells!

he really looks like those uncles in the charlie and the chocolate factory

making truffels

rolling out

old chocolate shop

bonbons! hahaha

acting like bunnies

saw this interactive game thingy

asking you to match the chocolate bars to the cross section

limited edition nutella~!!

sizes

how now? purple cow?

minis

i want!

giant sweet

olden packaging

=)

ring?

asked someone to take for us haha

store!

chocs!

choc spag! amazing right?? i would bring these back home if they don't break into thousand pieces

tennis!

urp urp

you will need these when you grow old

mouse

fastfood, anyone?

kamera!

keyboard!

lindt choc

spherical shopping mall

no ice cream?!!!

jing the hoodie and yvonne the bubblie

house #4711, home to the original cologne

perfume water =) it smells okay i guess, not very appealing to me but i guess it's just not my kind of smell lol!

it says main train station!

luggage depositor and collector!

tschuss to koln (cologne) and hi to berlin!

our hostel's location

apart from the shared toilet and showers being very far away, i like the room! =) and we watched porn from their free-to-air tv! hahahaha it was so funny and the drama had absolutely no plot at all -_-

another view

saturday was flea market day and we found a water pump on our way to the flea market

*small interruption: my host mom cooked a fab dinner for us!! vege soup with sausages yesterday and toast with salami and cheese for today! lecker! =D and she was telling us the background of her house - how her great grandfather got the money to build the house etc. and how they gave people shelter during war etc.

tadah!

i see bears all around berlin. maybe their logo is that of a bear *shrugs*

lake

mini sized lakerol!! i like =D

smooch

hawaii, anyone?

cute :)

rustic station

KaDaWe shopping mall! the biggest mall in the entire europe. very impressive but looks so much like tangs or taka =x nothing much except a lot of shoes, clothes and all these are VERY expensive. bah

interior!

looks like taka right?

yvonne posing like the model HAHAHA

octopus likes me!

godiva choc counter!

berlin bags

clap hands!

memorial church partially destroyed in WWII

mosaics love!

peace candles

new church

the inside is sooooo pretty!

=)

you can't see it, but we were freezing =x

HAHAHAHAHA i got a huge shock when i saw this O.o

berlin's subway

down to the olympia stadium! they hosted the 1936 olympics

woot

bearie again

mega big

we did our jumps again =D our fave pasttime over here hahaha wanwei's expression is SO funny hahaha thanks to yvonne for the professional photography! lol

once more!

wheee

this is the venue of the 2006 world cup finals!

V for victory!

artistic shots

my self portrait!!

olympic flame

swimming pool

we ate berliner currywurst!

double red light!

mini sundae from macs - disgustingly small and for 2 SGD!!! =(

cool subway sign!

recycling is hot here

saw horses again hee

funky people standing in front of the berlin gate

=) we stepped through the border to west germany!

back

spree river i think =x

parliament house!

longgg queue of people waiting to go up the parliament house to visit this huge dome-shaped thing on top of the roof haha

security check

interior!

pros at work

all hail deutschland!

the very top

exterior

our love for jumping

bumping butts

a room for meditation

shhhh

berlin's subway map - i think i'm used to seeing confusing maps haha

and did i mention that we took free rides for two days? =P cheeky i know, but the fares are so expensive and there's no one to check so yeah. pity us poor students. and this is their stamping machine to validate the tickets you bought. they operate on an honor system which means you have to be 'zhi dong'

subway!

checkpoint charlie!

the entrace fee to the museum is super ex, but it has all the interesting stuff about berlin wall and how people escaped i guess. we didn't go in in the end (17SGD!!) but took a few photos outside

the old sign that used to separate the borders

mock display

i bought a piece of berlin wall for my daddy and let's hope he likes it. haha

ate kebap roll (again) but it's cheap and good!

pieces of berlin wall in globes

standing in the middle of the railway track haha

went to the largest open air gallery and it showcases the berlin wall - all 1.3km of it! =D i love east side gallery

it's so hard to climb over it

we made our mark!

the drawings were damn cool

and funny too

i don't know whether this is legal, but i stamped some stamps on my passport =x kinda regretted it after doing it cos i have this feeling singapore custom is gonna whack me O.o

look how thin the wall is

if only i could draw like that

brown and castle-like bridge

comedians doing stunts when the traffic light's red and they actually are able to get money from the drivers even! O.o

bought new shoes!! my poor toes are freezing the entire time here cos i kept wearing slippers even though its 10 degrees outside

on train back!

=)

my trusty companions - travel guide book, handy, water bottle!

the ICE train feels like an airplane actually haha. i think the highest speed i've seen it go so far was nearly 300km/h

and we saw a rainbow!!!!!

NURUL's party =)

my forfeit - to kiss a flower

yama's forfeit - to eat a blade of grass yuck! but she was very brave and actually swallowed it!

all smiles!

the dudes

and us all!!

beer time while watching euro haha

beer's too cheap here - cheaper than mineral water =x

PORSCHE museum cum workshop

architecture excursion =)

their workshop

swoooon

we totally went crazy when we got into the showroom and took photo after photos haha

some metal statue

tempted?

convertible!!!!!

=D

it says: I'm pretty, BUY ME!

cross section hahaha

aww

vroooom

i managed to squeeze a lot of people in this pic!

my fave

red hot porsche!!!

sunny porsche

well actually their designs are roughly the same

zi pai-ing

the most expensive car i've found - but i think it's still cheaper than singapore's

more interior

the most expensive porsche in the showroom - turbo

yums

kelvin aka gus aka ki fung posing lol!

=)

choose your colours!

couldn't resist taking their logo again

parts

cheers!

porsche's new museum construction site

lavender flowers beside my host mom's home! they smell really great =D

P.S: my host mom's planning a party for me next week when i'm back from vienna!! =D =D =D haha yayyy i love her so much =) and her daughter too =) we taught her daughter the yankee doodle song on piano yesterday lol shall upload all the videos now

Jason Mraz - I'm yours

2008-06-17T01:15:00.000-07:00

subway trains in stuttgart have different class compartments - first and second class, according to the amount you pay for your train ticket. haha. the funny thing is that wanwei and i happily went to sit in the first class compartment one fine day and got lots of weird stares along the way haha! =D (actually i have a deja vu feeling when typing this - i might have typed this b4 =x)

Jason Mraz - I'm yours (my current fave song!)

Well, you done done me and you bet I felt it
I tried to be chill but your so hot that i melted
I fell right through the cracks, and i'm tryin to get back
before the cool done run out i'll be givin it my best test
and nothin's gonna stop me but divine intervention
I reckon it's again my turn to win some or learn some

I won't hesitate no more,
no more, it cannot wait i'm yours

Well open up your mind and see like me
open up your plans and damn you're free
look into your heart and you'll find love love love
listen to the music at the moment maybe sing with me
Ah, la peaceful melody
It's your god forsaken right to be loved loved loved loved Loved

So, i won't hesitate no more,
no more, it cannot wait i'm sure
there's no need to complicate our time is short
this is our fate, i'm yours

*scat*

I've been spendin' way too long checkin' my tongue in the mirror
and bendin' over backwards just to try to see it clearer
my breath fogged up the glass
and so I drew a new face and laughed
I guess what I'm a sayin'is there ain't no better reason
to rid yourself of vanity and just go with the seasons
it's what we aim to do
our name is our virtue

I won't hesitate no more, no more
it cannot wait, i'm sure
(there's no need to complicate
our time is short
it cannot wait, i'm yours 2x

no please don't complicate, our time is short
this is our fate, im yours.
no please don't hesitate no more, no more
it cannot wait, the sky is yours!)

well open up your mind and see like me
open up your plans and damn you're free
look into your heart and you'll find love love love love
listen to the music of the moment come and dance with me
ah, la one big family
it's your god forsaken right to be loved, loved, loved, loved
open up your mind and see like me
open up your plans and damn you're free
look into your heart and you'll find love love love love
listen to the music of the moment come and dance with me
ah, la happy family
it's our god forsaken right to be loved loved loved loved
listen to the music of the moment come and dance with me
ah, la peaceful melodies
it's you god forsaken right to be loved loved loved loved...

http://www.imeem.com/hippielobster/video/4R5-KSLX/jason_mraz_jason_mraz_im_yours_music_video/

more updates coming up soon!

Baden-Wurttenberg weekend - Tubingen, Burladingen, Titisee, Freiburg, Triberg

2008-06-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

looking at my post title, i realised that we visited quite a number of places over the last weekend - typical singaporean haha!

**PS: 120 photos to come - you have been forewarned =)

gonna head over to cologne and berlin for this weekend so i'm rushing to blog everything about this week before i take another round of photos heh.

anyway, wanwei and i went to a beer garden in the city centre to catch the live screening of the germany vs croatia match just now with our friends and sadly germany lost 2-1 but the atmosphere was totally worthwhile. =D everyone was super high and they sang and sang songs after songs. lol! more on this later.

now for the happenings for the entire week starting from last saturday:

First stop: tubingen

nice house

neckar river - was rather disappointed cos it looked so murky, but the riverside scenery is quite good still

always in time for a picture or two =)

downtown tubingen - flea markets galore!

veges, fruits etc

i bought this homemade strawberry jam from this kind elderly man. =D

cool car. their cars here are generally small in size - i think to consume less petrol. haha

reached the castle!

we started getting quite high with peisin and yvonne, so we took lotsa pics while perching on the edge of the walls. one look down and i never wanna climb up again

back on safe ground

interesting windows

some random facts i found

someone actually stays here

popped over to burladingen in search of the elusive birks. it was so misty and freezing COLD there. i think i'll sweat buckets when i come back to SG haha

plus it was raining. =( the four of us were screaming the whole time there while trying to ask for directions to the factory store. haha

and we found it!!! but they don't have all the designs, though the prices were quite attractive.

sooo tempted to buy one (one strap birks is abt 55 SGD, three straps 70+) but eventually gave up because if i were to buy i have to order as they don't have the design i want. but i'm going to berlin to check out more outlets!

it's like genting

took a train down to Freiburg and managed to squeeze 4 people into a 2 person hotel room. heh. and it's right beside the train station =)

we caught the portugal match on tv!

the next morning, strolling through freiburg city. no shops were opened cos it was a sunday (basically, no shops will open on sundays in the entire germany, if not europe. i wonder how they survive man. we couldn't, and were whining away cos we need breakfast

sweet

i love their street signs

they have little brooks running through the entire city, cool eh? haha

tram

red - i like!

cathedral in freiburg - massive!

couldn't catch the entire thing on camera

saw this along the streets - hahaha! people here love to vandalise

finally found some breakfast - at a mind-boggling price - 8 SGD for a piece of waffle?

head down to titisee, which was where i went during acjc's europe band trip 3-4 yrs ago! no wonder everything looked so familiar hahaha. this quaint little town really melts people's hearts because of all the nice buildings, easy pace of the residents and also the wonderful, amazing scenery they have of the black forest and a lake.

walking there from the train station

vast fields

having fun hahaa

this hotel looked so pretty!!!!

darlings - yvonne and peisin!

titisee lake!! i didn't realise how beautiful it is 3-4 yrs ago and this time round i had a good look at it =)

boats for rent to row out to the lake

quack

have-potential-to-be-facebook profile pic

YUMMY

okay this is gonna be a looonnnggg story. we wanted to try the most traditional way of rowing a boat, with oars and everything, so we decided to rent a sampan at 4 SGD per person for an hour (-_-) and ended up shouting and laughing when we tried to row it out of the shore. wanwei and i were the "captains" and yep, we have zero prior experience in rowing sampans so you can say that we were quite brave to do it AND without life jackets too! -_- i think they (the people who rented us the sampan) presume we know what we were doing (which we don't) so they sorta heck care us and yeah. hahaha we managed to row out to the huge lake with minor hiccups (wanwei almost dropping her oar into the water and me whining away about definitely drowning if this sampan should capsize. hahahaa we took photos and videos and waved to everyone in sight who were much cleverer (they chose paddle boats or motor boats) and in the end got back to the shore safely after an hour. phew!!! we even managed to park our sampan quite accurately judging that we had to park it while our backs were facing the shore. hahahaa

my oars

the adventure of a lifetime - i still can't believe we didn't have life jackets and ALL our stuff (cameras, phones etc) were with us.

but it was fun lah =D

back on shore

the lake is super huge and super deep man O.o

pretty clock house

we spotted another vast field!

rushed down to triberg, our last stop of the trip

ulu pandan place haha

downtown

home to cuckoo clocks!!

we checked out the waterfalls

it was raining (again) and very colddd

steep slopes

swings!

we tried the authentic black forest cake!!!! the cherry liquor was so strong and i could even smell the alcohol way before eating it haha

our day pass =) only about 14SGD per person heh

back in stuttgart and they were showing the score lines for the euro matches haha

On Monday:

we went to esslingen after our morning german class! =)

look at the thing sticking out

its this haha

wanwei and i climbed this long flight of stairs to go up a bridge and had a beautiful view of the town =)

pretty flowers!

self camwhoring

saw some almost-high-raised apartments

i love the colours here =)

decipher this

climb climb

looks like fort canning hill

trying some sky-shots

we are flying~~

that's me flying

wootttt!

bye bye esslingen!

bought germany related cap and garland to support them in the euro 2008!

some place near our house. cool eh, arsenal platz haha!

random sign

Our host mom brought us to a farm few days ago!!

quack

moo

MOO

baby cow (what do u call it?) awww

our host mom, petra, talking to the cows haha

sheep trying to eat wanwei's pants

i look happy XD

feeding time

horses!

we went to the fields near our house

prettyyyy

that's me at the far end admiring the fields

lovely skies

i want it all! =D

haha

on an excursion trip to stuttgart airport during our architecture class:

these tree-like structures hold the roof panels up

explored the hotel nearby

interior

kelvin the hongkie, nurul and ww!

funny doors

explored their expo-looking halls

and we went to a beer garden near our house after that! =) caught the portugal vs czech republic match. it was awesome!! portugal played really well =D =D

beers!

screen

oh this is the place we went =)

ole ole ole!!

One minute post!

2008-06-09T23:44:00.000-07:00

ahhh one minute before my german class starts! lets see how much i can squeeze in this entry.
watching euro 2008 in germany is fun!! esp when it's free wahahha. it's like free-to-air TV here lol. and i caught the match (netherlands vs italy) yesterd night and it was so exciting. =D heh. and i bought lotsa germany stuff to support them too. okay gtg. ciao!

Stuttgart TV tower, Ulm and randoms

2008-06-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

today is such a roller coaster day of emotions. we were let off from school rather early, so decided to use the comp in school and felt guilty cos something happened but i shall not elaborate. then we went to the main train station hauptbahnhof and witnessed a person commiting suicide (we think) by jumping off the platform. at peak period. yikes. okay we didn't see him/her in action but we came down a few minutes after, when the train stopped halfway and even boarded the train but was chased out eventually. then we saw some officer holding a torch light shining down on the tracks and a lady in panic mode so we sorta concluded something bad happened.

20 years in singapore and never once saw a train suicide and to think i'll experience it in germany =x anyway it was quite exciting, truth to be told =x they had to inch the train back to erm, reveal the body and so many kaypoh people (like wanwei and i) were hanging around to check out what happens next.

luckily we didn't stay on so we didn't actually see the body being lifted up. i concluded that it'll be too horrifying for me so i nudged wanwei to go up and well, i hope the lady who has identified the body will be fine. =( what a sad day lah.

but then again, when we reached our other destination - this hypermart that sells household stuff, we saw that they have rabbits and guinea pigs for sale in a corner and this huge grey rabbit actually STOOD up when it sees us!! AWFULLY cute man. so i suddenly had this joke about wanwei and the grey rabbit, cos she is also wearing grey, so maybe the rabbit thinks she's one of its kind, so it was very happy when it sees us. hmm i look like i'm crapping but it's hard to type out the full joke. oh well. i laughed like crazy for the next five minutes and really couldn't stop. so there you go, my roller-coaster-like-emotional-day =)

now for pictures haha! going off for a two day trip around baden-wuttemberg region for the weekend so i won't be blogging till next week! enjoy =)

we went to the TV tower for an excursion on tuesday!

ashley and i - she's a classmate in my architecture class =)

zack and i - my german class and architecture classmate haha. i was laughing in the photo cos he actually sorta bent down to accomodate my height =(

tower is 150m tall!

first time i've ever seen a traffic jam in germany

it says it all =)

had another excursion on thursday - to the city of Ulm! i officially declare i love Ulm cos it's stuff is cheaper than stuttgart haha

on bus to Ulm!!!

wow

siew, all your friends - miehhh. and i saw the shepherd too! damn cool man, he really looks like those people in the storybooks. haha

reached!

Ulm's pride and joy - Munster - seen from afar

it's wonderful

adam the tall one trying to be funny with my camera. he uses his sunglasses to sleep in class. haha

romantic town of Ulm - with bridges and pretty houses! i feel like i'm in a movie

cool eh

donau river!

wanwei's gonna kill me for posting this up. HEH

kenny, wanwei and i went to climb the Munster!!!! it costs EUR 2.50. horrendous climb, but it's worth it

vertical spiral marathon

and the journey begins... we took about 15 to 20 minutes to climb up i think. with only minor breaks in between. my legs almost gave way halfway up and i had to drag myself up haha. but it's a good workout, just that i had leg cramps on that night - not a very nice feeling haha

view from halfway up!

i think this was taken at the very top

this too!

the last bit of climbing

interior of the church

=)

it's amazing how they can build this a few centuries ago

we paid for a candle and made a wish while lighting it up!

magnificent views

and i really love churches and castles and palaces and everything in between. i love the un-modern feeling of it, like turning back in time.

temperature outside!

today!

we found a toilet that charges 30cents but we could squeeze in the turnstill. hahaha!

see?

schlossgarten

found a few random ducks waddling around

me trying to catch them

they are so cute haha

huge chess pieces

we saw some bunnies and furry creatures in this hypermart, OBI.

awwwww

=D

this was the rabbit that stood up!!

=D =D =D

our host mom brought us to shop in kaufland, this dirt cheap hypermart haha and we went sightseeing after that! =)

results

2008-06-04T13:18:00.000-07:00

two words: very satisfied!

that's a great early 21st bday present! haha. =D

and i shopped a lot today! i can't believe the stuff here are so cheap. the stores are like topshop and the prices are half of those in topshop! wooooot!

Vocab

2008-06-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

some crude words in german:

arsch loch = ass hole
scheisse = shit

courtesy of our host mom. lol!

Rittersport factory and curry chicken! (not eaten tog)

2008-06-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

On sunday (yesterday), wanwei and i made a whole pot of chicken curry with potatoes for our host family! i bought the instant mix over and i totally don't regret it cos i miss singapore food so much!!!!

what i miss (people, pls have a makan session when i'm back. i'll just devour everything):
- xiao long baos
- stingray with sambal chilli
- chee kueh
- rojak
- chicken rice
- wanton mee
- ramen
- sushi
- tao huay
- siew mai
- satay
- sweet & sour pork
- chilli crabs
- lobsters
- carrot cake
- fried kway teow
- fish soup
- TOFU *gosh, there's virtually no tofu around here in germany =(
- prawn noodles
- roti prata
- porridge from crystal jade
- steamboat
.... (and many more)

you guys don't know how lucky you all are man. western food is nice but lacks variety seriously. haha.

anyway, luckily i still have the curry chicken and we made a huge pot to last us for two days!! wohoo

oh this was afternoon tea with cakes in the garden

see the strawberry cake? my host mom made it - it's absolutely mouthwatering

sweet people :) having blonde hair looks fun

curry chicken and salad. hahaha interesting combi

we made it!!! what a feat. and it tastes damn good

and so, today we went to the rittersport factory after school! it's located in walenbuch, near leinfelden (S Bahn).They have a huge shop selling the chocs, an exhibition hall, a museum and a cafe. too bad there are no tours around the factory though.

finding our way there. i forgot to bring the address out and we decided to just alight at the stop and ask around for directions. haha

took a longgg bus ride and this nice gentleman (who's working there) led us to our destination.

=)

hee hee hee. they all cost 74 cents euro, which is about $1.50 SGD.

eat away

there's more. these are the newer flavours - lemon yoghurt, raspberry yoghurt and blue orange yoghurt. can someone tell me the standard price of rittersports in SG? and whether are these flavours there yet? lol

we bought a packet of white paper-wrapped strawberry yoghurt rittersport (4 in a pack) that has minor defects like cracks and stuff but still tastes great and it's only about 1 dollar sing for one! wahahaa then we sat outside the shop and started eating 'em =D

mountains of them

hills and valleys

stacks

the humongous ones

do we have this in SG?

siew, you want this? it's rum lol

history of rittersport

we saw this pretty tree!

went shopping in boblingen

my purchases!

Schloss Lichtenstein - 31st May 2008

2008-06-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

while i'm blogging now, it's raining cats and dogs outside:

Germany's weather is so unpredictable. one moment it's sunny (abt 30 degrees), and suddenly poof! it gets dark and rain comes down in buckets. haha

oh yeah i'm supposed to blog about last weekend's trip to the castle!! finally i'm catching up on my blog posts. =D

germans love their fussball (football) and country too!

beautiful scenery along the way in our bus ride

i'll never get sick of looking at vast green landscapes

another postcard worthy photo heh

entrance to the castle

and this is the castle. abeit small but it's wonderous inside. they have really pretty drawings on every wall and it's really palace-like. there's some interesting quotes too like: serve a hundred women but die for only one - in french. haha! too bad phototaking is not allowed inside

i will never get sick of bird's eye views

bridge

=D

man, this is really one of the most memorable photos

ww & me & calvin! he's from nus on a similar programme as us

i'm a shortie

Discovered something interesting on our way out...

PORSCHE "showroom" outside the castle. i think the porsche people thought that it's the perfect location to showcase their cars and also to let the super rich people feel like they live in the castle - great atmosphere actually. makes you wanna buy the car on the spot. wahaha! we had a field day snapping photos though =D

all hail porsche(s)!

it's a tough decision to choose either this or the mercedes car as my dream car

*whistles*

how often do you see a fleet of porsches lined up in front of you???

made in stuttgart =)

i'm dying of lust

that's all for the cars =( but it's a great surprise actually. to think we don't even have to step into the porsche museum, which i'm planning to go anyway. hahaha

ladybugs =D

more scenery

my lunch - too many yummy fries = possibility of getting a sore throat *but i'm still fine so far. amazing haha

my daily dose of fibres

FOG CAVES!

entrance

loonnnggg way down

down and down and down

tadah!

lighting's not good in there, so my flash kinda spoils the photos

this cave's been here for a few centuries i think. cos our tour guide told us the columns of stuff grow 1cm cube every 60-80 years. and look at the size of these

exit! it was freezing in there, about 9degrees and my toes totally froze over cos i wore slippers -_-

way up

and because of the rain, our bob sledging plans kena cancelled and we came back to town earlier than expected, so the whole lot of us decided to pop over to alicia's, wenting's and meiqi's house! =D

front view

in the kitchen. they are so lucky, they got the whole of third level to them, with kitchen, bathroom, shower, tv etc! it's like living in ur own apartment haha

our dinner =) thanks to all who made it!

our makeshift table (on the floor hahaha)

yum sheng!

all in all it's a great day. glad that i got to know my fellow school mates a lil more! =D

Munich - 25th May 2008

2008-06-01T11:38:00.000-07:00

Took a day trip to Munich last sunday =) train tickets were so cheap, at only 9.30 euros (20 sing) to and fro!! wahaha. but we had to transfer twice on our way back and it was horrible. =x i hate transfers. lol

Daybreak at 5am

this is the actual colour of the sky

long distance trains (RE, RB)

reached olympia park in munich!

BMW museum - but we didn't go in

they hosted the 1972 olympic games

indoor swimming pool

the people we went with - Yvonne and Peisin!

us!

pretty swan! they are quite clever actually, coming to us when we hold out our hands

aww

erm i don't have food actually but i'm pretending and i think the swans fell for it. haha

duckling of the swans - it is so different from its parents

world-class stadium - home of bayern munich FC

subway station

subway station 2

we went to the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau! it was the first built by Hitler and used as a worker's camp.

map

audio guide

work will set you free - classic!

bunks inside the barracks

imagine if you have to use this

crematorium

famous gas chamber

inside the gas chamber - it's damn eerie =x

used to have barracks on every single platform and there was once 60,000 people squeezed in this entire camp

exit. we'll forever remember this place

back in Munich city!

Glockenspiel - the splendor of it all had me staring at it wordlessly for a minute. it's that great.

picture opportunity!

cute shop

church

postcard quality heh

we were there at 5pm, just in time to hear the music and the dancing of the figures in the clock tower - awesome!!

i LOVE the style

going home =(

we missed the toy museum, wanted to go there to check out the teddy bears but had no time. oh well, maybe the next time we head down to austria, we'll make a stop there! hee

Metzingen & Ludwigsburg Palace & some other stuff

2008-06-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

Germany: 7:36pm SG: 1.36am

Cute stuff

siew, this is for you

one more =D

and yeah, that's my neighbour's kitty =)

on train somewhere. we were wearing similar tops!

friends!

bang bang

we were at a departmental store doing school work when i found this. ha!

gogo germany!

Metzingen!!

walking to metzingen

reached the outlet city!

galore!

i bought this duffel bag from nike for 40 SGD

found a huge doggie in ralph lauren store

more stores

Actually the outlets are considered cheap in terms of the actual price of the goods (Hugo Boss for example) but to us, it's still ex =( a pair of jeans is still about 100 SGD or about 70-80 in Levis. heh. so we got quite high comparing the prices but didn't buy much in the end. lol!

had this for dinner! a lot of drunk and extremely friendly ah peks were around and we had quite an exciting dinner haha.

adidas bottle for 4 bucks SGD! wanwei got one haha

more pink phones

scene outside the bus terminal

taxis are expensive here. a 3-minutes journey is about 14 bucks in SGD

cookies my host family gave to me!!

darling marcia placed this on our main door to our rooms

luwigsburg!

pretty fairy flowers!

don't know whether you can spot them but they really look like fairies

roses blooming everywhere

Luwigsburg Palace cum music festival

entrance

inside...

HUGE garden

fountain

street music in the palace

man i wanna live here

the back

garden

great music

flowers!

cute kids

rapunzel's tower

see the long braid of hair? haha

the people who are pro at self-timing

i'm in a fairytale

we saw people holding lanterns!!

cocktails

it's breath-taking

Specials from Heidelberg trip:

discussing how to jump

take 1

take 2

us all :) with kenny and alicia missing though

i bought this! after eight with lemon! cool

u'll never see this in singapore - which is good actually, cos i think people in Germany have shorter lives because they smoke A LOT and drink A LOT. tsk tsk

doner kebaps - our staple diet here lol! we are always sharing cos the portion is humongous - imagine: two of these equals to one

cig machine - it's super cheap here but not very socially responsible i would say

went to kornwestheim for cheap branded shoes but it's still ex in the end lol

got the shock of my life though - have never seen so much shoes in one place before - and they sort according to sizes! gosh

shoes shoes shoes

we bought germany flags in preparation for euro 08!

my host family! Mom - Petra, young daughter - Marcia, and goddaughter (complicated story) Nina. and wanwei too!

we had a BBQ that day =D

my fave drink of all time - 500ml and 1.60 sing dollars

one of their famous pastries

class excursion 2!

adam the giant. he's so funny haha

=)

more roses - i see them everyday

1 SGD ice creams!!!! it's addictive, it's tempting, it's irresistible!

Munich trip update next!!

Heidelberg - Germany

2008-05-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

Another random fact:
cars here mount curbs like crazy, cos i think it's a standard rule to mount curb if you wanna park your car. someday i'll take tons of photos and post it up. i laughed like crazy whenever i see cars mounting the curb happily. =D maybe it's a requirement during their driving test to mount a curb correctly. HAHA

Heidelberg trip last saturday!! it was organised by the school =)

we went up a castle and visited its ruins and also snapped photos of the layout of the town

=) such a nice town

the lookout we were standing on

i think it dates back a few centuries at least

whee

our cute tour guide - jean-paul. =D he's wonderful! too bad i caught him in a bad position while he was trying to sit on the ledge. hahaha

the famous bridge

a real moat haha. the tour guide said they built the moat to ski in winter last time =x how fun haha

all smiles!

cool entrance

it got destroyed over the years

hee we were giggling at sth crude. see if you can spot it urself. lol

metal gates that might come down anytime!

amazing!!!

i wonder how people build that last time seriously

some roman words and numbers

actual sundial that can only be used when there's sunlight haha

our guide told us that people at that time drink wine and beer everyday, so they have huge wine cellars to store all the alcohol. haha! and there's this king who is permanently drunk and super plump i think. =x

first of the containers that they used to store alcohol

man we look small

the HUGE one. i think they store 2700 galloons or sth, i'm not too sure

shocked to see japanese words in front of some shop. haha. maybe because it's a tourist area

i'm always amazed by their buildings

aww

their uni square

more buildings

market place

CUTE

dalmatian :D

lunch place

drawings on the table

okay this wasn't meant to be an artistic shot, but somehow i took it that way. haha! there was some *cough* ulterior motive behind it actually. LOL

yvonne and i!

my lunch - thick egg noodles (their speciality in the swabian region) and turkey meat

along the streets

=)

river is endless

more scenery

oh a curb mounting stunt in action. wahahaha

road up the famous Philosopher's walk

afiah!!

nurul and us =)

it was a horrendous climb up man. it's like climbing bukit timah hill, only 5 times worse. haha! but we huffed and puffed and reached the top in the end =)

das Leute (the people)

we did some star-jumping stunts but all the pics are with another friend at the moment! lol

picture perfect

we secretly sat on some random person's bike parked at the side and took a picture! haha

we went a bit crazy

still picture perfect

bing! this is for you. saw a postcard with this picture and i burst out laughing hahaa. the armpits really have tiny hairs sticking out =D damn funny

hilarious =D

and a last photo before we bade goodbye to the wonderful town of Heidelberg! i bought some chocs and a bag ther btw =)

Suay-est day and class excursion 1

2008-05-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

there's this cute cristiano ronaldo lookalike in my german class =D =D in my opinion he looks a little like ronaldo lah. =D maybe even better than him. okay i know all my friends in germany are reading this =D i shall not dwell on it. tee hee hee. oh speaking of which , i might hop over to england and to manchester to visit man u's homeground! woot! if i have the money, that is. lol!

anyway, it was wanwei and my suay-est day last wednesday, and i'm gonna recount everything again haha! firstly, we woke up slightly later than usual cos it was the second day of school and we weren't quite used to waking up at 6 plus in the morning. so being the lazy bums we are, we dilly-dallied during breakfast and tried to heat up some sausages using a plate on the electric stove. i think we were either too tired to work our brains or we totally forgot our physics, we immediately placed the burning hot plate on the super cold table (that day was 10 degrees) and after a minute, it happily went "cccrrrraaaacccckkkk!!" right in the middle and yes, it split into two halves. O.o

horrified as we were, we couldn't do much except to write an extremely apologetic note to our host mom and place it beside the broken plate (it wasn't done on purpose!!) and rushed out the house cos we were running late. =x

so! since we were THAT suay, when we walked out the street, we saw the bus coming and we decided to run. it was freezing cold at that moment (10 degrees with strong winds) and i'm wearing three-quarters so my legs literally froze and i fell flat on my face when we were chasing the bus =( the result? i scrapped both my knees and hands and had a few scratches on my face too! =(

pictures courtesy of wanwei haha

it hurt like hell but luckily it wasn't that deep a cut and i only had to deal with huge blue-black marks on both my knees. oh and guess what. i broke my phone in the process too. cos the impact of my fall was quite great and i totally crashed my phone's LCD screen and yes, it is declared dead. =( gonna get a new phone when i'm back i guess. but luckily i have my back-up phone, the sturdy nokia 6230 from JC days and it's working as perfectly well as ever! =)

oh, to top it all off, wanwei and i didn't manage to get the bus since i fell, so we missed the train too and had to wait an extra 10 minutes, which resulted in us being late for more than 20 mins. whoops. =x but luckily i could explain to my teacher that i fell and all was well i guess. haha

had our first ever architecture class excursion that day!! we went to a tower in the main train station and there's this huge mercedes logo twirling above it. =)

city streets

this is stuttgart

haha

walking to another place during our excursion

we saw ducks roaming freely!!

my heart totally melted. that are that cute. haha

my architecture teacher talking about the history of the buildings. =)

grand, eh

knights!!

cool windows

oh we saw some protest going on in a corner and all of us were so excited cos we have not seen a protest before. -_- haha shows how peaceful singapore is. we are so kay-poh. =P

their version of wet markets - so vastly different from us =x

more interesting buildings

now for random pics again:

saw the countdown for euro 08 outside a adidas shop! haha germans here are so high about it lah, with flags hanging everywhere

choc given to us by our host mom =)

typical evening dinner in our host family. (although this is actually a breakfast photo. but that day was special cos it was a public holiday) we have place cards made by sweet marcia! =D

seats on their subway trains - their version of mrt

had our first-ever test today, and it went well =) glad that i'm able to score a decent grade despite dozing off while studying for it yesterday night. heh =P i quite like german language actually. =)

next post coming up real soon! have a great hols everyone!

Mercedes Benz Museum

2008-05-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

We went to the museum last Thursday, which was a public holiday, so there were a lot of people queuing for it too. luckily we got our tickets in a group, cos it was organised by our school =D

Before i go on, i have one more random fact to share: lifts here have no 'close the door' button, you are supposed to wait for the door to close itself. haha it kinda annoyed us the first few days cos we are all too used to violently hitting the close button until the lift obliged haha!

moving on... the long-awaited mercedes museum!! okay i did a stupid thing and asked people why do they showcase old cars and not new ones and someone replied 'because it's a museum!'

lol, but it was damn fun! =D =D everything is so interesting and i snapped about a hundred photos i think haha!

building. you can make your way slowly down from the top level and they have spiral grounds so that you don't have to go down the escalator to the next level.

entrance tickets!

the audio guide they gave us. =) we got the mercedes landyard for FREE as a souvenir too!! cool eh =P ops you can't see it in this pic, will post another one next time heh

PRETTY!

my dream car!!

if only they are still selling it

they have this stimulator ride, but it costs 8 SGD per ride =x

artistic

cool lift

hallo hallo

mercedes' funeral car =x

another reddie

*whistles*

purple car!!!!

logo

we saw this outside the mercedes museum

i look quite off in my green jacket huh =P well, it kept me warm at least. heh

pink public phone!! all their public phones look like this. lol

kiosk on the train's platform. yes, you can eat and drink all you want in their public transports.

that's all for now! will blog about last weekend tomorrow =) gotta study for my german test - yikes!