Footsteps

Austria - Vienna (180508)

2009-01-30T22:11:00.000-08:00

~ A WEEKEND GETAWAY ~

After a mad rush and some lousy planning with the help of wikitravel, bern and I had decided to embarked on a getaway for the weekend! *which leads to us missing out on Bokhoven's lecture* We had decided to go to Austria Vienna and Prague in Czech with Kami! but she will meet us straight at Vienna.

After getting the tix for Click and rail and settling some admin stuff, we are off on a night train to Vienna from Zurich! haha.. the train was comfy and we had the whole cabin to ourselves tgt with a gentleman! =) did nutin much except to read lect notes IN ORDER to fall asleep.. ahah..

DAE 1 - ViENna

Finally morning came and we met up with Kami who came from germany!!! hey i bet you guys out there cant imagine the thrill and joy of linkin up with a friend somewhere out there in a foreign land.. As its still early, we hung ard the train station until the metro service started and off we are to hunt for our hostel. Its a recommendation from esther cow's fwen as he claimed that it was a cheap and beautiful place, just a little off the city thou..

After much huntin, taking bus, etc etc, we finally reach our hostel!

Lol.. dun be mistaken, this magnificent one is the hotel NEXT to our poor place..

Its actually pretty comfortable and had a nice view at a hilltop.. We met this ger from germany who is only 16!!!! and she has been touring on her own for months! dear oh dear.. But she is really fwenly and naive i wld say.. she leaves her ipod and keys and handphone ard the table when she bathed.. lucky we are all good folks.. She smokes alot too.. hmmmmm..

After dumping our stuff, we proceeded to our 1st destination! the Sissssssy museum! Sissy was an Austrian queen who enjoyed popularity due to her rise from a peasant to a queen in a fairy tale like love story!

in the metro..

Queen sissy!

Took pics ard the city while headin to the palace which sissy lived. Just a note, for guys who dislike museums, dont visit Vienna, cause the whole city is flooded with them and u may get pretty bored after a while.. Upon reachin the musuem, to our horror the entrance fee was pretty expensive, so we toured ard the palace for a while n headed to another palace, the Schonbrunn palace, which is nearby..

Toured the city along the way and lots of interestin sights!

magnificient church that resembles the one in Koln..

inside the church..

Gelato sighted!!! haha, pple go into frenzy.

looking at the world through a ice cream cone! hahaha..

Upon reaching the Schonbrunn, we were pretty hyped up! Coz it looks pretty from the outside and theres a legendary Apfel strufel making and tasting session which Esther proudly showed us her recipe! We have to wait thou, coz its a loooong queue on a hoooooot day..

The gloriette from afar~

Heres the apfel strufel event, oh man, its amazing to see how they soaked the whole freaking dough in OIL for an hour or more, i dun dare to eat alr la.. But nevertheless, i gave in and tasted the free sample piece, its was SUUUUUPER~ hahah.. they gave us a recipe at the end and offff we go to explore other attractions!

Darn, my bag was sighted..

I took this on the way!!! hahaha, pretty proud of my foto skills neh!

We decided to go for the maze first and make gloriette our last stop! the maze was pretty awesome! hahaha, when we conquered it and reach e tower in the middle, there was a couple still stuck in the maze shouting for help! hahah, *chuckle*

tryin to make OUR own way in the hedge of the maze. hahaha..

Went into the children corner and played there for awhile too! theres were interesting stuff that we nv came across before!

mirror maze!

Started to walk towards the gloriette! It was pretty nice in the evening..

Awwwww.... wad a nice fam time.. wheres the mom!!!!! mahjongin? ahhaa..

Breathtaking!

AFter some time of relaxing and chilling at the top of the observatory in gloriette, we went into town hoping to catch a cheap muscial at nite.. A must do in Vienna! but tooo bad.. we missed the laz one and decided to go back to our lovely hostel, ending our dae..

Some theater house..

Kami fascinated about the muscial toilet..

Dae 2

We departed earllllie in the morning to visit the famous cemetry of Austria which is rumoured to house more 'pple' dead than the ones living in the country now... Before that, we decided to visit the place of a famous architect, i tink is van gorh? His mansion design is supposed to be the talk among archi students and we engineers decided to widen our horizon..

Pretty houses along the way..

We got pretty lost and after hrs of walking, walking, and more walking, we reached.. We were left dumbfounded that we had came all the way to see this *toot* building.. Nevertheless, we found it compelling to take a pic with it..

Our forced smiles say everyting.. dun they? ahaha..

On our way back to the metro, we met this kind ah-pek who chatted with us and told us which cemetry we shld visit as there are PLENTY of them in Vienna.. After thanking him and parting ways, we marched on eagerly in hope that we will get to meet the music greats like mozart, schubert soon, albeit them lying 6 feet underground..

MOZART!

in the church at the ctr of the cemetry

A very pretty wreath in the shape of a heart.. awwww..

The jewish section of the cemetry..

I have tons of pics but i tink its not nice to post them here, as it may be creepy for some of u.. After some fun there, we picked up our luggages from our hostel and off we go to take a bus to prague! Vienna was kewl~

Switzerland - Zurich, UEtLiBERg & BREMGaRTeN (150508)

2009-01-27T22:13:00.000-08:00

UEtLiBERg & BREMGaRTeN

Wad a letdown! everyone was sooo lookin forward to rent a car n go for picnic at interlaken n lucern.. But alas.. God @ work.. We din get to rent coz i dun have credit card.. oh well.. mb it wasnt meant to be.. So we wen back n devised a laz min plan to visit uetliberg and bremgarten!

View from the train..

After reachin uetliberg, we hiked all e way up for a view of lake zurich at the top of zurich..

A restaraunt rite on the mt!

a family lazin ard on the grass! fine weather!

Our lunch!! Vari vari feng fu, with green tea cake n mochi i made!! =) n of course swedish brot from GG

AFter our picnic cum lunch cum nap hr.. we headed back to bremgarten!! An enchanting place as usual, nothing special but juz so carefree feeling, back in the woods really rox.. coz uetliberg was swarmin with tourist..

good old bridge.. haven change abit

GG pluckin pple flower!!

e slide it urself slide!!! lol..

a secret pier!

Finally after a walk, we reached our campsite!! but its alr occupied, luckily e folks were kind enuff to let us share the pits!! So GG n me n bern wen to gather wood n started fire!

camp by e lake!

FINALI FIRE UP!!

cun wait to BBQ!!!! standin by alr.. lol..

caught moching while BBQ

YAY READY TIME TO EAT!!!!

Someone tried to dispose the queen by feedin her sausage with satay sticks inside.. hahaha..

A uber-fun dae! with fond memories.. my aunt called me from netherlands at nite!! cun wait to go there to meet her!!

Switzerland - Geneva (290408)

2009-01-27T22:11:00.000-08:00

GENEVA

Took me a real loooong time to blog tis entry, but nonetheless, it was too fun to be mized out.. It was realli one of the most fun trip I had in swiss.. No wonder esther who wen to geneva for the 2nd time remarked how different it was with different company..

A brite sunnie dae, a bunch of fwens (me, bern, gg, kami, esther, anni) and a nice blue lake!(Lake geneva) Wad more can we ask for? Originally wanted to go there to meet a fwen of esther, but the plan failed coz tt ah ma seems to be anti-esther and din pick up her call.. but aniwae it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it was much more fun on our own..

Rite from the start of the journey.. we had "choc buffet" on board the train tt consists of strawberry, honeydew with nutella dip!

AFter 3 hr of train ride, we finally reached geneva! After restockin at e nearest Migros, we were baskin in the comfortable daelite and watchin locals stroll in the flea mkt..

Any part of the city wld look nice with the mt background! I brought along my tripod so we had chances to take tons of gp pics! We decided to pay a visit to the local university and soon, we found ourselves in this lush park with greener leaves dan Zurich!

After takin pics n more pics, we decided to visit a place esther claimed to have a paranomic view, which turns out to be.. well, a mere mound.. hahah, but e view was great and our childhood was stirred up by the playgd there!

I absoluetly love this pic!

After lazin ard n playin, we decided to head to the famous geneva fountain for lunch!

Stopped along the way, anni was bz feedin the swans with her 1kg bread! ahhaha.. BEt gg muz be droolin when he saw the bread..

He tries to lure the swans with.. well.. our lunch..

MOre pics along the lakeside!

AFter finishing with fototakin.. we decided to juz picnic at the nearby grass patch.. there werent anione on it yet.. we are the 1st gungho pple to sit down n even lie down after the morning rain..

It din take us much long to start comin up with wacky ideas again.. haha.. as usual..

AFter we took countless shots tt failed.. decided to get help from a guy.. hahah.. Wen to take pics with the fanmous clock too!

Nx up.. to the UN headquarters! It prolly sux and wasted our $$, nt realli excitin but. well.. UN mah..

After our trip ended.. we decided to make our $$ worth by takin alot of pics with the UN sign, with the security eyeing us closely.. as if we care.. we paid 12francs ok!

After the UN trip, there wasnt much time left til 7pm, so we decided to head to e botanical garten for a rest n teatime!

AFter the sun starts to set.. back home we go.. on the way back.. the sceneries was simply stunnin.. a full moon on top of a lake.. too bad my cam ran out of batt n esther cam sux.. SIGH~~~ wasted totally..

a trip full of fond memories..

Switzerland - Zurich, SECHSELAUTEN (210408)

2009-01-27T22:10:00.000-08:00

SECHSELAUTEN

Realli bz these few wks, learning to cook, studies, travels and BSF, etc.. so sorry if i had neglected anyone! but heres something outdated! the festival of sechselauten! its only a festival in zurich where a snowman called Boog, symbolizing winter will be burnt. Time taken for the cracker in its head to blow was recorded, the longer it is, the shorter our summer!!!! N boy it took 26min tis time.. one of the longest in history (urgh..) Forgettin bout the spirit-dampener, lets see some of the parades they had b4 the burnin!! enjoy!

Switzerland - Bern, Basel (120408)

2009-01-27T22:09:00.000-08:00

++ BERN and BASEL ++

Originally was headed for geneva.. but the ah ma which GG & esther wanted to meet was occupied for the dae.. so esther decided to accompany her fwen to Locarno while e guys, me, GG n bern decided to visit.. well.. Bern.. haha.. N we will meet in basel at 5pm to shop..

Early in the mornin while i was lazin in bed, i recd a msg from esther, sayin tt she had boarded the wrong train and ended up in some ulu place.. Felt bad for her coz its a lousy feelin to screw up rite at the start of the dae.. Met the guys at ETH to print out the tix but to our horrors, it was sold out.. Instead we had to buy tix which costs us 9 chf more.. N luckily i was Susumu katayama for the dae which i enjoyed halbtax n gleis 7! ahahha.. boarded e train n off to bern!

although we r on a hol trip.. Muggers stil sighted onboard!!

In an hr time, we reached bern! pretty fast coz i was used to takin trains tt take ages to travel.. (record is 12hrs to berlin) got off, got the map and off we go to the City of BEAR~ But the 1st ting we saw was nt bear, but..

Butter hares for 90 rp each! cheap~

A bull dog! no, i mean blue dog!

Swiss amry knife shop!! so tempted to buy.. but lucky i bought later.. u noe y lata too!

The town was nice, got an old town feeling but it was rainin! sigh.. tink my poor meaniemachine is goin to be kaputt soon.. keep soakin in the rain.. 1st stop! the 2 colour river as seen from kirchefeldbrueke!

As wetter ist schlecht.. both the river look green.. zzz.

Off to nx stop! einstein hse! It was supposed to be the place he stayed in with his family and where he developed the Relativity theory. We were hesitating whether to go in anot since it costs munnie but since theres slight discount for us, we went in aniwae..

Einstein's son, Hans albert's crib and bear

I left a dumb comment there n shamed spore.. hahaha

Esther called us to cfm the meeting in basel in the midst of our Einstein video and since we had 5hrs more.. We decided to do tings leisurely.. haha.. Nachste halt.. BEar pit!! E famous bears tt everyone who is been to bern certainly takeS! So should we!

snappin on e way..

When we reached n saw this, we were dismayed.. coz rain may have drove the bears inside n we wasted our tip again! but luckily!!! they were out! even if there were oni 2, better dan nutin rite..

they were so lazy and spoilt and pampered tt they juz sat there waitin for people to feed em.. even if the food landed few cm from them, they will be too lazy to move over to them!! growin fat like me.. sit n wait for food.. ahahha

Nx, we decided to go to the Rosengarten where sakura blossoms were promised! wad a scene to behold!! Eagerly anticipated! and this is wad we got..

juz a norm garten... zzzzz..

decided to sneak into a corner of a restaraunt to have lunch w/o anione noticin.. heres the spread!!

my fried rice!

GG's spaghetti!

bern's sandwich!

Juz after we finished,we were caught by the assistant and asked to leave.. so malu.. but we pretended to say tt we thought it was public area.. aniwae.. sceneries were much better on the downhill side..

Sakura cherry~~~

we wanted to watch the clockwork recommended by wikitravel in bern, so we hafta wait for every start of the hr.. Had time so we scouted ard the shops.. Wen into a swiss army knife shop! saw a design tt i liked so much n was unique! But it costs 69 chf.. which is ard 90 sgd.. so ex!!!!! n after pinchin myself.. i wen ahead to burst my purse for once.. BUT! miracles happen... dont they.. ahhaah.. Thank God.. mb the salesger was too stunned by me.. she charged me only 46 for tt knife!!! YIPPPPPEEEE~~~ saved 30 sgd!!! hahahahaha.. so hapi! n the knife was so gud! (tried n tested..I was bleedin profusely for a few min when i accidentally cut myself when exploring.. hahaha) Finally caught the clock work after tt.. juz lik a cuckoo clock!

Cursin wikitravel yet again for a wrong tipoff, we set off to Basel to meet our dear esther who is so desperate to see us after a dae gone wrong.. Finally met her there n everyting felt so nice! lik meetin an old fwen! hahaha.. Once again psychoed by wikitravel, we set off in search of basler leckerli.. a supposedly local special gingerbiscuit tt doesnt contain ginger.. lol.. sounds ridiculous but we found it in e end.. there was cheaper version in Migros, so i got a 1kg pack for 11 sgd.. but luckily it was a better tipoff dan the clock.. taste nice!

We started to walk towards st alban tor in search of the little venice shown in the local brochure.. pics on the way!

I juz cun help to be amazed at hows pictures can do the real place injustice sometimes.. n in our case a neg sense..

looks nice? wait til i zoom out and it wil look lik a long kang to u.. ahhaha but nt to spoil e place ya..

papier mill!!

After our venice trip.. we felt dejected n decided to go for shoppin instead, as a tip-off from anni says tt its nice n cheap to shop.. on e way, barged into a church tt has no one but it has such nice innercourt tt we decided to take some pics!

A clover-lik reflection spoilt my pic!! but a lucky sign to come?? ahhaha

GG's shot!

my shot! so proud.. did editin til 1.30am when i had class at 8 nx dae.. i am a foto-fanatic n perfectionist!!

along freiestrasse n marktplatz

Finally all the shops are closin n off back to home sweet home..

Had so much fun!!! been awhile since i enjoyed myself! more to come! lucern, zermatt, interlaken, geneva, slovakia, france, spain, norway n more!!!!!

Switzerland - Locarno, Lugano (010408)

2009-01-27T22:06:00.000-08:00

++ TRIP TO LOCARNO, LUGANO ++

AFter 2 daes of rest.. here we go again.. This time rd to Locarno n Lugano, italian speakin part of the schweiz.. Tim, esther n yushan n co. wen laz time when we were away and they convinced us how great tt place is.. so there we go..

DISASTERIFFIC!~
tts how i will describe e start of the dae.. halfway to the main station to take train to locarno.. bernard called n said our train left.. I was lik @!#%*%&?! it was all..

DAELIGHT SAVING

fault.. the clock had been tuned 1 hr later in all swiss, n no tv, cun read german papers led us to end up in hot soup.. but luckily there was stil a train to lugano.. it was a italian train n it was much much better dan SBB trains..

It was kinda ironic when we travel to germany tellin pple we are interested in sceneries.. Boy, we shld have juz stayed in swiss.. The train ride alone proved to be breath-takin, there isnt time to sleep!! look below n u noe y..

upon reaching lugano.. we headed str to Mt Bre, where the view was said to be incredible.. But the weather was pretty schlect.. Fogggy.. Cun see.... SIGH~~~

Lucky there were donkies for me to shoot.. n they aint foggy.. ahhaha..

Luring the donkey with my camera lens cap.. ahhaha. close shave!

After agreein our trip was futile.. We went to walk ard lake lugano.. So much prettier!

On towards locarno! Locarno was nutin much.. the lake wasnt better dan the Lugano lake.. So we went up to the famous church.. Madonna Del Sasso.. Which was supposed to overlook the lake.. theres actualli some place further up the mountain but it cost a bomb to take cable car up.. so we jus settled for tt..

Sorry no sceneries shot.. all got me.. ahhahaha..

Last stop b4 callin it a dae, Castle Grande!

Thats all for the dae!!! A decent trip for a 42 chf dae tix! =)

Germany - Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Sachischer's Schweiz, Hamburg, Koln, Koblenz, Stuttgart, Munich

2009-01-27T22:03:00.000-08:00

I AM BACK!!!

Yes pple.. get ready for a loooong post of BS and pics.. but to shorten ur pain.. I shall try to tok less n flash more.. I mean pics..

DAY 1: BERLIN

Reach berlin in the mornin from a nite train.. Gosh.. hard to sleep + got a mad woman onboard..

Went straight to our hostel to put down our luggage! was pleasantly surprised! coz its sooo kewl given its e cheapest hostel in Berlin..

Joined a free dae tour and our 1st destination, bradenburg gate! but din take much pics coz its crowding with pple..

Hotel Aldon! Famous as M.Jackson swung his baby on its balcony there!

Checkpt charlie!!

Berlin wall.. zzzz.. u wldnt noe if i took a pic of the wall in my courtyard n say tts e one..

This is the Jewish memorial.. its realli fantastic.. Very shen ao in chinese.. Its profound architecture and design serves to portray the feelin of a jew during those times.. Lost in a labrinth..

this is the reichstag! their parliment building.. Queue was crazily long due to security checks and it was snowin heavily outside! (I dun have gloves or hoods! So sad..) But its well worth it.. u see in a min..

This unknown dude claimed he is the Kaiser n took pic with me..

Stroke of genius from bernard.. wonderful shot.. Fit for times magazine top 10 influential guy tt kind.. u get the draft..

Tada.. Bradenburg gate at nite.. nicer!

Charlotten Schloss..

Finali found cheapppp food!! ahhaha.. Love Turkishe Pizza tt i ate it for 3 daes in a row

Dae 2 - Berlin, 2nd round

walked ard.. Took a pic with an ugly pig.. n off to Siegesaule..

Ampfel man!

the siegesaule! (Victory column)

Took half my life to climb all e way up! I got height phobia u noe..

Off to victoria park n off on e way saw some kewl statues of Bismarck n his merry folks..

Off to leipzig to meet shareen! had the die-die must eat currywurst!! REal nice!!

Day 3 - Leipzig

this is our temp bedrm!! so cosy! much better dan dietikon..

shareen's rm! quanhui joined us for the 1st dae!!

The residents cats

Leipzig victory monument

Got lost on our way to the lake.. ahhaah everyone overslept! Ended up in Wilderness..

Yay! finalli got to our destination

Their instant rice!! looks yummy..

Shareen's easter bunnie.. Thus ends our dae.. Zzzz..

Day 4 - Dresden

Met the singaporean community over in Leipzig! Raymond, Soon and shareen! Tom, a german guy hangs out with us too! Totally wacky n farnie crowd! 1st stop to dresden! the trading town..

Frauenkirche

Martin Luther, Nt king

The hansum superstar Jesus portrait!

The saints

Golden rider~

Protest against violence in Tibet!! Was worried we chinese will be stoned over there! haahha..

Shagged after a looong dae.. Got stucked on the train for an hr coz of a strike by the gErman workers! (its pretty common i heard) Nt my cup of tea.. REali city area..

Dae 5 - Sachischer's Schweiz
The guys have been tryin to discourage us by sayin how tough the hike in Sachischer Schweiz is, but it has the best sceneries in Germany! So how can i miz it! Even if its as tough as a Guard's conversion course! (ok i take back my words.. hahah)

Snowing heavily on our way! Woah.. I was tinkin wad about the hike!?

Reached!

Cheap ice-creams for 1.20 sgd! I wanted rum n raisins, but the lady duno eng, n i duno german for rum n raisin, so i said "ALkohol please"

I got this.. Pretty yummy..

Easter eggs boost!

Lunch break!!

Glad to be back at the station!!

totally zonked out..

BAck for dinner at fave doner hangout!

DAy 6 - Leipzig again.. and rest time..
Todae was meant as a rest dae for the super shiong hike.. wen walkin ard leipzig city centre..

they have a special store sellin hot hotdogs.. Theres a rank n the highest is supposed to be Mother of pain.. n u nid to sign a paper to consent tt they r nt responsible for any thing happenin.. Hahaha.. Soon said "wait til they taste my mom's sambal chilli.." lol..

Church dedicated to Bach!

REsting place..

Buskers!

Medieval market!

A final dinner with everyone at soon's place.. So sad to leave them.. but tts life.. They are a great bunch of blokes aniwae.. Miz their company..

Dae 7 - Hamburg - Koln

DEeparted from Hamburg, the port city early in the mornin!

St Michealis! Church dedicated to the Archangel Micheal! looks so kewl!

Fischmkt!

Nutin much le.. So went to koln for the nite!

The Dom!

Slept early for the dae ahead!!!

Dae 8 - Koln - Koblenz - Stuttgart

Visited the Dom in the morn! pretty grand church!

The prophets Isiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekiel

Schokolade Museum! highlite of the dae!!

The overflowin Cacao tree!!! Yippe!

Free sample..

Screamin rabbit!

Mr Lindt..

TTs alles! departed for Koblenz, a supposedly scenic area, but kinda let down, waste of time!

Fort Constantin, which was closed..

Draw of the place.. der Deutsches Ecke.. supposed to be the corner where the water from the rhine gorge spilt.. But.. OVERATED!!!

Its was real late when we reach.. I was vari tired.. Rested in hotel..

Dae 9 - Stuttgart - Munich - Zurich
yay!! the thought of home boosts my morale!! Mouth watering at the possiblity of cookin fried rice! Tts how deprived i am! been eatin bread bread n more bread.. zzz

Walked ard stuttgart, went to Metzingen for shoppin! bought some shoes and off to Munich!! 1st stop, Nymphenburg palace!!

Kewl Pic i took on the way! so many elderies couples in Germany liked to stroll in their freetime.. So nice.....

Too bad had to skipped olympic village due to time constraints.. but.. BACK TO ZURICH!!!!! YIPPEEE.. n thus falls the curtains over my germany trip.. Fond memories!

Switzerland - lausanne, Montreux and Villeneuve (180308)

2009-01-27T22:01:00.000-08:00

~THE ROMANTIC TRIP~

I be leavin for berlin the nite i am typing this entry.. but to prevent fotos from piling up.. I will take some time to blog my trip to lausanne, Montreux and Villeneuve..

As the rest had left for Valais to ski (din go coz i found it too ex.. savin n scrimpin~) instead.. wen with tim, kami, adi to lausanne! It was laz min but kind GG lent me his gleis 7 and halbtax!!! so grateful... coz of tt.. i oni spent 30 chf for the dae trip! hehehe..

Went over to bulachof for the nite coz the cheap train is at 522am! n there was no train from dietikon to HB yet.. So walked all e way down with tim.. met the rest and onto e train we go! Everyone slept lik no one biz until oni a few of us realise we act pass by bern!!! my reflexes were to slow to capture the deep valley tt bern was renowned for.. but.. i got this instead..

Tokin bout cheap thrills.. haha..

Finalli reached lausanne!

On the way out, captured an interestin shot!

Made our way to OUCHY~ yea.. its oo-chee. nt ouch-y.. hahaha.. shots of the slumberin town!

Finalli reached ouchy! blown away by the serenity of the lake before our eyes.. Praise Lord for His creation!

Mi and adi! 2 hunks! ahhaah..

Weird n strange pic.. horse ascendin on a path of cloud?

Finally when we recover to our senses.. we alr spent near to an hr there standin in awe of the lake! hahaha.. time to head to olympic museum! but still... cun resist the temptation to take pics of lake n nearby!

Tim's breaky!

yahui complained it was a blade of grass instead of flower! hahaha..

LAke again!

AFter stop, foto-takin, walk, stop...... u get the idea.. we finalli reached the museum!

On the way from e museum to St francois, i, tim, vass broke away from the main team to topo our way instead of takin bus.. N yup.. nutin is new.. We got lost.. ahhahaha.. But we got to a nature park! mini scale thou..

A kewl skewl!! i dun mind turnin back time n study pri skewl again! hahaha..

Berlin wall.. ahhahaha..juz kiddin..

A butchery.. look closer! Horse meat!!!! wad the!?! time to try.. ahahhaha.. got u again!

Laz but not least! We got drafted to participate in a local uni student's video production tt will be aired on Dec!!!

Got mei nu somemore!! hahaha.. too bad nv got her contacts..

Ohya.. this is the farmer's mkt on every sat! they sell all kinda veg! but stil ex.. =(

St francois! Met up with min yak, yvonne and weizhong from NUS!!! they r archi student who are adi's fwens! our guides for todae! On our rest stop there.. met a sporean auntie who brags about how she travelled whole of swiss n japan.. how 40+ bucks is ok to her.. n how her son earns near to 10k per mth.. oh well.. thank God for tt dan..

An effigy!!! duno isit knight templar's! Wld wish to see em sometime in my life!

too small to be noticed.. hahah

Bestest pic wor!!! tim took with my meanie.. kami looks lik yui!

i have no idea whose head is tis..

sundial!! kewl eh...

kami's flower from the farmer mkt

The guides recommended us to go Montreux and Villeneuve for sunset! so we parted with them and off we go!

Caught off gd when i am sleepin again! haaha.. lake geneva with snow mt!!

WE slowly walked along the lake to breathe in all the beauty of tis place has to offer, towards Chateau De Chillon! a castle tts built on the shore of this lake!

juggler outside castle! so hapi my meanie can catch the motion w/o blurrin! gud cam!

gosh! is tis a bear or dog! ahhaha

wine cellar!

emergency esc route!

storerm.. ahhaha so unglam name.. i forgot its wad ar.. granaries?

Finally out of castlee! DEcided to go to Montreux n watch sun set!!

Casino! i nv went in ar.. dun gimme tt look hahahah..

The curse of the lake strikes again.. causes one to take pics of it involuntarily..

Nite view of montreux!

Germany - Konstanz, Titisee-Neustadt (180208)

2009-01-27T21:58:00.000-08:00

Konstanz, Titisee-Neustadt, Germany

AFter a dae of rest back at our homely hostel at Dietikon, the 4 of us set off on yet another journey to scharzwald, black forest region in Germany which are famous for their cuckoo clocks.. (which we din see alot aniwae)..

*Juz a short sidetrack, if yer wondering what r we doin in hostel daily..*

We had coined a nick for all of us, the desperate househusbands.. haha, well, its simple to guess y as our lives now revolves ard grocery-shoppin at Migros, grabbin cheap stuff, doin laundry, vacuumin our rm once in awhile.. Wow, Mom yer the best! ahhahah.. since me paul n jh live tgt, we have a special role to play..

Main chef - JC
Butcher/sink plumber - Paul
Walkin rice cooker - JH

heres our master piece..

We are stuffin ourselves with mince meat, sausages, lettuces, onions, potatoes and carrots coz tts about all we can afford.. Gettin yucky.. Heres something special in my rm!

Flown in from spore

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Ok back to the trip.. As usual we set off at the time when even the rooster are still asleep to catch our train to 1st stop.. Konstanz.. a reputedly beautiful city of Germany tts famous for its lake.. Took a 2hr ride and we step out of the train.. We knew we had committed the worst mistake of our stay in swiss.. Imagine a subzero temp with strong wind from the lake.. We cun even stay in the open for too long! Gosh.. Quickly took sum pics and off we are..

Dun tink i am smiling so hapily! I got frostbites on my hand til it bled!!!! =(

Plan B.. Titisee.. which was 3hr ride away and the must see place within Schwarzwald, Blackforest.

On the way, we transited at Donaueschingen..

Since paul had problem pronouncing tt word, we shorten it to "Duno-wad-shingen". ahaha, was cursing our luck for missing the train and ending with 1hr to do nothing.. Decided to walk ard the seemingly dead town.. To our surprise, we unearth many picturesome places, the church, the park, the brigde, etc..

We were somewad reluctant to leave the rustic old town..*esp havin seen birkenstock sandals for only 44 euro* however, we had to part.. Rush on to titisee..

Upon reaching, there were a nice bakery there which sells pretty cheap bread n cake!! Utilized my broken german to buy 2 cakes n rolls for everyone b4 we stepped out of the station.. Once again, we felt lousy as theres nutin much except a few hostels ard..

Determined nt to let our dae be a flop *and be swindled by wikitravel* We march on, into forbidden territories, climbed the slopes, crossed the bridge and finally! We spotted wad seems lik our destination.. the Titisee!!! (its a sea fyi)

Since titisee was within the black forest, we decided to go exploring the hiking regions to see if the trees are really black.. *tt was a dumb thought on paul's part*

Its a gud place for a quiet vacation! Affordable prices, close to nature, and so much hiking trails.. nice for a couple vacation.. =) *Wan to go Ms sammy?*

Went back to Konstanz to do some grocery shoppin *e househusband nature emerged again* Got some real cheap broccoli for 1+ sgd, some meat, fish, chicken tt we cun afford in swiss and went over to explore schaffhausen, where europe's largest waterfall, the Rheinfall is.. Too bad.. By the time we reach there, its pitch black.. Worse still..

WAd the!?!!?
Wen back to cook dinner and our dae ended..

PICTURE OF THE DAE:

Reflection of a statue..

GERMANY - NEUSCHWANSTEIN, FUSSEN (150208)

2009-01-27T21:57:00.000-08:00

NEUSCHWANSTEIN, FUSSEN, GERMANY

Its our 1st trip abroad b4 our skool starts! N we chose Fussen to see the fairy tale tt was so well-publicised.

Everyone woke up right in the morning at 6+, after breakfast we rushed off to validate our train pass, boarded e train and everyting was according to schedule. EVen thou our pass is only valid for germany and swizterland, we hafta chiong thru 1 stop in Austria before we reach Germany. So.. as always, we formulated this all powerful plan that once the conductor arrive, we shall all start speakin in tongues.. CHinese tt is.. hhahaha.. N true enough we were approached and had to purchase separate tix for Austria stop for 10 sgd each.. Lucky it was stil affordable..

5 hr train and we were all rottin lik pudges onboard the train, so we all whipped out cameras to take pics..

CHALLENGE: how to take to avoid reflections, how to use e correct shuttle speed to avoid motion blur..

heres my best pic.. hahaha, stil nid trainin with my meaniemachine..

Finali after 5 hrs of havin backside glued to seats, we reached Fussen!! Its vari nice.. n pretty cold coz its 800m above sea level or so Paul says.. When we were at the bus station, we saw 2 cheena gers n we began to sprout our Cmi german in hope of impressing them, but when they boarded the bus, they spoke more fluently dan us. ahhahah, so throw face.. After 5km of bus, we finally reach..

Erm.. Wasnt THAT impressive as the pics on net shows.. hmmm. lucky we din spend 18 sgd to tour the castle.. U judge!

SO much for the hype and a 30min uphill walk against the wind.. !#%^&^@# And there was horse dung all over the path.. WE decided to walk ard Fussen instead of visitin more castles and we discover a cool lake tts freezed up!

E 1st gp foto we had! but a lousy one coz i forgot to take stand out.. ZZz

Nx up, we stumble onto a forest and straight ahead was a path of snow.. But weirdly, its less dan 100m long, and its back to sand again.. its e 1st time i saw such ting.. But everyone was so captivated by tt small patch of snow rd!

Paul got his shoe wet from tryin to break the lake of ice and we had to return to Dietikon our home sweet home instead of stayin over at Konstanz.. Konstanz on sat dan!!

PICTURE OF THE DAE:

A easy to take pic, but Paul's expression was great. ahaha

Switzerland - Zurich, Fasnacht Carnival! (120208)

2009-01-27T21:53:00.001-08:00

FASNACHT CARNivaL

Just in time to catch a carnival! which is something lik Chingay! but over here even the spectators dress up! sooo farn! gona meet 8 other sporeans who are here too! yippe!
I am a traveller!

Made our way to Zurich Gross munster area to wait for the parade to start.. In the meantime.. snap snap with my meanmachine!

When we reached the area..its stil early, so theres some gp who is warmin up and everyone is just walking ard, drinkin beer n chattin!

One of my fave pics of the dae!!! A lucky shot.

HERE GOES THE PARADE~~ pple were queueing up at the start pt and proceed down the designated route for the parade. N here are the pics..

Phew finally the end.. Walked ard tgt with adi, weiguang, kami, yu shan, esther, ani, etc.. n of course. snap snap along the way!

busker from america

Typical Cafe scene..

HAd a nice chat and everyone went back to our place to whip up a meal! its soo fun with a whole bunch cooking n eatin! lol..