europe trip cont'd
14th may. wednesday. kraków, poland.
ok so here goes! we went to kazimierz in the late morning and went into a synagogue, which is a place where jews worship. and we went into a jewish cemetery, which was once raided by the nazis. the tombstones were removed and were used to build a wall. mark said it's called the wailing wall. and those jews buried there now died during world war 2 i think.

after that we crossed the wisla river. to this square with a lot of chairs. and it was also a place where a lot of people were killed during world war 2.

so we walked around and bought ice cream! had ice cream by the river, then we decided to walk along the river towards this national park where we can climb to the top to see the whole view of krakow!

so we walked! and it's like soooooooo damn long walk! we walked pass 4 bridges.. then we crossed at the last bridge. and started walking towards the park. and had to walk up slope. and we persevered and poof! we reached! it was a very long walk i can guarantee. and after we've reached, i told mark we can go up the building to reach the highest point, but coz it was 6pm, he thought it was closed he dun wanna go up. so we didn't. but a few days later he told me we could have. but too bad! nvm, we've been there. (:

after that we walked back.. i cant remember if we had dinner that night. maybe not? haha.

15th may. thursday. kraków, poland.
we walked around the old town square today. and we went to this church. then i started not feeling very well, like no strength and all. so i thought maybe i have fever. after that mark suggested we go back. so we went back to hostel so that i could rest.

and sure enough i got fever and i slept the whole day away. sorry baby.

mark cooked dinner for us both that night! (: but i helped! haha..

16th may. friday. oświęcim, poland.
started having diarrhoea that day. but we went out anyway. went to the auschwitz camp outside krakow. reached there only at 1plus. so we didnt manage to go the the nx camp at birkenau.

we spent the whole day there. it was a very depressing place. a very disturbing place. a place where a lot of people died. where they were murdered. where they were experimented. where they were not treated as like human. where they were of little or no value.

you'll have to visit the place on your own. just cant use words to describe your feelings.

there's this room filled with shoes, all those that they found there after the war. i think it's the most depressing. every pair of shoes was a life. and it was a room of shoes. i couldnt walk to the end of the room so i just turned back half way. there's this other room filled with women hair. which contained cyclone B. which is believed to have been cut off from dead women who were gassed. these hair were to be sent to factories to be woven into cloth for money. 7 tonnes of hair were found, 1.5 tonnes were on display. and it filled half the room.

there were many more things. but i thought these 2 left the most impact on me.

17th may. saturday. wieliczka, poland.
we signed up for a tour to the salt mine! went in there but almost everything was fake according to the guide. everything there were just for show.. making it a very touristy place.

went back after that. and my diarrhoea's getting worse.

18th may. sunday. kraków, poland.
went to the wawel castle today. but we woke up quite late today. so we went out late, had a super long lunch! the lunch portion was soooo huge! i couldn't finish. so mark helped me finish and he ate so much he couldnt move, literally. haha!

and i had hazelnut ice cream after that! YUMMY! (:

i think i got quite tired of castles. so i wasnt that interested with wawel castle. haha. and the hostel person bluffed us! she told us sunday the castle has more free places to go to, but it's MONDAY! and sunday most places were CLOSED!! sian. so we just went there a few hours and we got sian of it plus it started raining, so we just went back le. haha! mark was too full that day for dinner. so i didnt eat as well.

19th may. monday. kraków, poland.
today my diarrohea got worse. i lao sai-ed many times in the morning since 6am. plus gastric, i felt so miserable. i vomited the breakfast and charcoal pill i took. plus lao sai-ing. so we stayed in that day again. sigh. sorry baby, again! i took gastric pills and went to slp. felt better when i woke up. so i ate some chips. then was forced to go back to slp. had pizza that night or was it instant noodle? haha. i think it's pizza. there was this other day we had instant noodle but i couldnt remember.

after that i felt very very cold and i went to slp. and i woke up with a fever. again. so mark had to stay up till late to look after me. he said my temperature kept rising and my heart beat was very fast he thought i was gonna die. but luckily i was fine and energetic the nx day!

20th may. tuesday. oświęcim, poland.
felt better.

met 2 singaporeans at the hostel during breakfast. (: we wanted to go czestochowa, but we missed the bus!

we went back to auschwitz, the camp II - birkenau instead. but it was raining and it was really really cold.. mark said the temperature may be less than 10 degree celsius and i believe so. coz i felt so damn cold!

anyway we went all the same. it was so cold, i only managed to visit a few wooden blocks. which were used as holding areas for the prisoners, and places where they slept, latrine and all. i was just complaining about the cold. so mark brought me back to the shop at the starting point of the route and he went back on his own and he walked to the gas chambers which were now just empty lands. coz they were heavily damaged by the nazis when they found out that they have lost the war and wanted to destroy their evidence of crimes.

though i didnt see it, i read about it. and i think it's sucha waste to not have gone all the way but i dun wanna fall sick again. so i didn't go. just couldn't go into the rain. so cold! plus the wind and all. but nvm, i've seen part of it. and it's just very. dunno how to describe this place. you just have to go there on your own!

21st may. wednesday. częstochowa, poland.
we woke up very early and manage to get the bus station before 10am, so that we could catch the 945am bus to czestochowa which is outside of krakow. and we did! but the bus came late. and the trip was so super long due to a traffic jam. so we only reached there at around 2plus almost 3pm.

anyway we tried to buy that night's train ticket to berlin, but it was sold out! so we could only catch the nx train nx morning at 730am. boohoo!

had lunch the walked towards the jasna gora. walked around and bought some stuff. by the time we reached the train station, it was already 6pm. and we realised we just missed the 547pm train! -pulls hair- so we went to the information counter and found out that we could take a train at 640pm and transfer at katowice. so we took the train to go back to hostel.

reached very late almost 12midnight. coz the train only reached krakow at 1130pm.

did last minute packing so that we could leave the very next morning!

22nd may. thursday. kraków, poland - berlin, germany.
spent the whole day on train. and only reached berlin at like 530pm. got to our hostel, dumped our bags and went to find dinner! yummy, had curry wurst and kebabs! and lotsa coke! berlin coke's the best man.. had an early night!

23rd may. friday. berlin, germany.
went to wansee conference house. it's a free museum. and it's also the place where the nazis held meetings. and it's also the place where they decided to use gas chambers to murder millions of jews, poles, POWs......

after that we went to hitler's bunker, which is a car park now. then we went back to the holocaust memorial, which is just a few metres away from the bunker. but we didnt go the last time. mark went to walk in the holocaust maze. which i walked the last time. the reason why he didnt coz he spent way too much time buying a book. and the other 2 guys were waiting to leave the place already!

bought some presents, then we went to the brandenburg gate again! wanted to see it at night, since all the photos showed how nice it is at night!

we went to reichstag and went up to the dome and watched sunset! but the sun was almost done setting when we reached the top but it's still a nice and cool place! haha. got lotsa photos of it! and you can see where they hold their parliament meetings! it's damn cool! (:

after that we went back to the brandenburg gate! and it's late and dark! and it's nice, but not as nice as the pictures. coz the lights got no colours! haha. bluff us one!!

went back to hostel after that.

24th may. saturday. berlin, germany.
went to the east side gallery.. took a lot more photos! then we went to unter den linden. which means under the linden trees, according to mark. so we've walked under many many linden trees! (:

walked pass the spree river! many people died there. coz it's part of the border between the east and the west..

after that we went to st hedwig for mass. then we walked a bit more and headed back since most shops are closing by then.

in the end mark didnt get to watch any opera in berlin. ):

25th may. sunday. berlin, germany - doha, qatar.
woke up early, did some last minute packing before heading for breakfast. then collected our stuff and checked out.

we're finally going to the airport, to go home. happy and sad. glad that im finally going and i can have porridge. it was the only thing i craved when i was sick. sad coz our holiday's ending and we have to come back and face the reality. of fighting to get into uni and stuff. SIGH!

at qatar airport, mark was hungry and we had supper! you can pay by any currency there, as long as you pay enough, but they only accept notes. and they give you qatari money back as change. haha.

26th may. monday. doha, qatar - sinagpore.
taking off back to singapore! and we reached at around 130pm..



yup i will post photos soooon! patience! (:

i've received all uni appli outcomes. and i didn't get in to anything. sigh. a bit disappointed. but maybe more than a bit. but i'll appeal and apply for sim at the same time as planned. SIGH. oh well! i guess im fine. i guess i will be.. (: tatax~

back!!
hello everyone!! we're back! ((: so im blogging as promised.. but no photos yet! coz some of them are with mark and he brought his memory card home. so will hafta wait till we meet some time this week.. so they'll probably be up by weekend? -shrug-

anyway lemme try and recall.. we reached on 3rd may afternoon in berlin.. found the hostel, dump our bags and we started wandering around our hostel while waiting for mr renyih to arrive.. and mr renyih arrived at night, forgot wad time le. we bought
water, chewing gums and cheap snickers, which lasted us for quite some time! (:

4th may. sunday. berlin, germany.
nx day we travelled a lot. we walked a lot! we went to the brandenburg gate, pass the spree river towards the reichstag, then towards the trinity column.. then we continued to walk towards the berliner dom, just walked to a lot a lot of places, without much chances to stop and look ard a bit, coz that 2 just kept walking all the way in front, without waiting for us one.. i think we went to the holocaust memorial on the same day.

anyway we walked and ate along the way. food was mainly sausages which are called wurst in german. which are very nicee!! or we just eat sweet snacks.. that look like over-sized egg tarts, and huge apple pies that are so yummy!

we walked some more, but couldnt really remember where le. just walked damn a lot! i think we went back le.

5th may. monday. berlin, germany.
where did we go, hmmmm.. OH we went to the topography of terror museum and checkpoint charlie. dun recall coz those photos are with mark! haha.. went there, walked a lot, looked at stuff.. went to the checkpoint charlie's museum, got loads of stuff to look at.. and we took photo with the 'you are now leaving the american sector' sign. (: and i think we took photo of the real one. and we touched it, though we were not supposed to! heehee.

the museum is super huge! and it took us very long and we didnt even manage to finish walking through it, coz we split up into pairs and the other 2 were waiting for us. so we rushed to meet them. checkpoint charlie took up almost the whole day. and we walked ard a bit more then we went back le.

6th may. tuesday. berlin, germany.
went museums. musical instrument museum was the 1st we went to. it's not that nice, although there were so many instruments there. coz all the explanations were in german and we know nuts about german la! so we just walked around looking at things without knowing wad they were. cant help it, coz soonkiat wanted to go museums.

nx we went to the technik museum, and we splitted up there, so you'll just see mark and i in the photos. in the museum we just wander ard without checking where we are, and we kept walking around trains. when we realised there are other things to look at like airplanes and ships and some other stuff, it was too late, coz we've ran out of time and the other 2 are already waiting for us outside and they wanna go to another building, which is the science centre. and we hafta go to the science centre i wonder why.. there's also one in singapore and they probably will show similar stuff wad. but mark and i followed anyway, even though the place's gonna close in less than half an hour. so we only walked ard level 1.

we played with this distorted mirror. and we looked so animated! when i wanna press the button and bend the mirror again to take photos, all the lights went off, which meant we hafta leave the place. we thought the other 2 were still inside so we squatted at the door to wait for them only to find out some 15min later that they were already out sitting on some nice bench. idiot us!

went back after dinner.

7th may. wednesday. berlin, germany - praha, czech republic.
we woke up at 4am in the morning which is like 10am sg time? and we left the hostel at ard 5 plus to catch the 6.45am train to prague. i told my mum and yl wad happened on the train, i think i dun wanna talk about it le la.

so anyway mark and i had an enjoyable ride! and we reached prague in the afternoon. i think we reached the hostel at around 12 plus. after we've dumped our stuff the 4 of us split up again.

mark and i walked to the old town square and watched the astronomical clock at 2pm just in time! (: then we walked ard and looked for food! yummy.. then we took photos and wandered to charles bridge! (: we also wandered to some churches too, snapping photos stealthily.

then we wandered up a staircase on the charles bridge tower and it brought us to a counter where we paid and get to climb all the way to the top of charles bridge! woohoo! it's sooooooo beautiful! and we stayed up there for quite some time waving to random people at the bottom. haha.

after we went down, we walked along the bridge. mark wanted to get people to draw caricature of us but in the end we didnt. haha. took more photos. then went for a concert at a church..... forgot the name of the church already! i think it's st francis of assisi church, just nx to the bridge. the ticket's EX! but it's quite a nice concert! (:

by the time the concert ended it was 9pm already, but it's still very nice and bright! thought the sun was setting already la. snap more shots on the bridge then we walked a bit there and we went back without dinner! boohoo..

8th may. thursday. praha, czech republic.
we went to prague castle! we climbed up the tall hill (which almost killed me) and finally reached the gate! went to st vitus church and climbed the south tower. another tower, faints! (i almost died, again!) the tower's so tall and there's no stopping! there's no landing or what. if you stop everyone behind will have to stop too! that's why you cant stop but to keep climbing and climbing! when i reached the top, i didnt really have the mood to look at the scenery but i still snapped a few shots anyway. i think charles bridge nicer though. haha!

so we continued to walk around, with our little guide book plus mark's memory of what the tour guide told us last time which i didnt listen at all! haha. so we walked around the castle going to places and museums in it. and wandered to the golden lane. went in to almost every shops that were opened. unlike the last time which we had to rush though everything.

anyway, i wanted to go the toy museum, but we didnt in the end coz it was closed by the time we reached there. but it looked kinda scary so i decided i dun wanna go in the end. it's all those scary dolls that looked like they will walk at night! eeeeeek!

so we walked ard the castle some more, and stumbled upon a nice garden while looking for a toilet. haha. oh i bought a cheap jodi picoult's 2nd hand book from an english book store! heehee. after that we wandered to the foot of charles bridge! and saw ducks and swans there!! heehee.

after that we went to look for the john lenon's wall. and we stumbled upon another place with this interesting water feature! which i took a video of! haha.. you all will get to see it soon! we scribbled on the lenon's wall!

after that we had dinner at this nice restaurant with a water mill! (: the food was nice, i had goulash, mark had straganoff! yummy! (: we had 550ml of beer each and my stomach almost exploded after drinking that! haha. i felt quite full after the soup la! lol.

went back to hostel damn late. almost 12 i think. wahaha!

9th may. friday. praha, czech republic.
we went to the infant jesus of christ church. met a priest there who started talking to us. after finding out that we're from singapore, he asked us to follow him to the back and he told us he was invited to sg in jan, and he gave us stuff to be brought back to the infant jesus of christ church in sg. and he even gave us a portrait of madonna with the infant jesus, made of butterfly wings.

mark bought a lot of infant jesus pendants for everyone. after that we walked around and stopped at a bridge over river vltava.. just stopped there to look at the scenery. then we walked back to old town square for lunch. we went to communism museum in the new town. which is quite a cool museum.. then we went to the wenceslas square and walked around.

we went back after it got too late.

10th may. saturday. praha - olomouc, czech republic.
took a morning train to olomouc. reached there in the late afternoon. the 4 of us split up again. mark and i had lunch and dinner in the same meal. we went to the old town square for our luinner, which was super yummy as i've mentioned in my previous post!!

went to st michael's church. and we climbed stairs again! took photos.. lotsa photos! then we went back to the old town square and walked around. so much memories.. walked around the place where the results were announced. sat around there and talked.

11th may. sunday. olomouc, czech republic.
caught the astronomical clock in action at 12nn. but it was super super long. so i didnt take video of it. waste memory space! haha.

then we went to this place called cafe 87 for chocolate pie and had lunch! then we went to another church and to free museums! (:

while walking to the nx free museum, we got lost and wandered to a park. so we just sat there to enjoy the sun, the breeze and the green!

we found our way there after a long nice rest! haha.

12th may. monday. olomouc - český těšín, czech republic - ciezyn, poland.
that 2 left the hostel earlier than us without even bidding goodbye. they were leaving for berlin, while we're leaving for krakow. anyway, mark and i took a train from olomouc to Český Těšín. and we walked from Český Těšín to Cieszyn town in poland! damn cool! but it's actually nothing majestic. haha.

the food portion in poland is like so damn small la! checked in to a guest house in ciezyn, which is sucha nice place to stay in!! (: too bad we didnt take any photo of that place. but it's really nice! if you have a higher budget you can stay there! it's actually less than a hundred bucks a night a person! so it's quite cheap if you're not back packing! haha..

13th may. tuesday. ciezyn - kraków, poland.
had a very full breakfast that day. served by the boss of the guest house! woohoo! just damn nice! then we set off for krakow. took a 3hours plus bus ride there.

cant remember the time we reached krakow. but after we reached our hostel which was like at the top of the level and there's not lift. we almost died climbing the stairs!! so we laze ard in our room for a while. then we went out to walk around and look for food.

went to the old town square, walked around. cant remember wad we did. photos with mark.. we had dinner at a restaurant. it's nice but the portion very small! oh we ordered this soup called laksa! haha. but it's not very spicy. but it's nice.. (:



wa super long, shall post this 1st, later jasper say i update so slow again.. to be continued!!

Cieszyn, Poland
we're in Cieszyn, Poland now.. we just walked across the border, from czech to poland!! wait and see the photos when we're back! (:

oh by the way the 2 of us are on our own now, like totally.. coz we got ps. ): we have to xiang yi wei ming leh.. with mark!! i have to look after him leh, haha! ok la, look after each other, later he beat me up, coz he's reading what im typing..

we'll be heading towards Krakow tomorrow afternoon.. mark wants to preach about the history of this little town we're at now, so i'll just type whatever he's saying..

in the beginning, there's only one Cieszyn town, but after WWI, they decided to divide the town along the river, into the Polish and Czechoslovak side. but during the German occupation they were reunited, only to be divided again after the war.. as a result, people on both sides usually consider this a same town. the czech name of this town is called Český Těšín! that's all folks!

hmmm, interesting hor? everyone please say yes..

ok, i think mark wanna use, better sign off, since we're sharing a comp.. coke here is super ex, as expensive as the zoo's coke! haha.. that's the coke in the guesthouse we're staying for the night la, so we dunno abt the rest.. hopefully it'll be cheap! as stated in the books..

anyway back to czech, the food's great and cheap in olomouc, you guys should go there one day, mark can bring you ard! 'cept czech food can get a lil salty, and the portion's too huge to be finished.. but it's NICE!! i had chicken liver in potato pancake, mark had PORK ondras.. both are nice mine's nicer! haha..

had goulash in a prague restaurant, while mark ordered straganoff.. just listing in case we forget by the time we go back.. haha!

ok la, shall sign off here, tatax~

olomouc, prague
yep, am at olomouc now! using the very confusing keyboard, with 'y' and 'z's places swopped and a different positions of all the signs that we normally use like ! ' : ? ( ) the numbers and so on!

anyway, things between us and the other 2 are getting worse, now they are leaving the trip a few days earlier due to some personal reasons, that's what he said.. what a let down.. so more than half the days in krakow, and the rest of the days in berlin, will be just mark and i, which isn't sucha bad idea, just that we may need to pay more due to that! not that im making use of them, but they are also, in a way..

anyway, we reached olomouc much later than expected, due to train delay, which we dun even know why, coz we didn't understand czech, how sad!! haha.. but we reached anyway!! the hostel guy, dennis is really nice, he told us many places we could go to, making us realise how much of olomouc we have yet to explore, making ME realise that 2 nights here may not be enough, and it would not be sitting at a cafe relax read book like wad mark said.. it will be another tiring sight seeing like prague.. but i guess it'll be worth it if we were to do so..

olomouc is sucha nice and pretty place without all those ppl there competing.. maybe just singaporeans.. at the square.. so peaceful and quiet (:

will be heading back to the hostel soon, am at internet café now, which is quite cheap according to mark.. i hope it is! coz we've sub-conciously spent a lot in prague.. just happily spend spend spend! but i think we wun spend so much in poland, coz things are cheaper there, but maybe not, coz when you think things are cheaper you'll start buying more! urgg..

ok la, i think we better get going le.. will update in full when i get back.. did i say that already in the prev entry?

oh ya, down here everywhere got queen songs leh! mark damn happy.. haha.. ok la, signing off, tatax~

prague, czech
dobry den, yep am there now! having fun at the moment, spending nights at charles bridge. which is sucha beautiful place at night.. even more so at night than in the day!

anyway the stupid mark is reading what im typing so it's damn irritating. all the more i'll have typos! some more it's late here like almost 12am now, when it's like well, 6am in the morning in singapore! and i just got back not long ago..

im slpy now from the very filling dinner and 500ml of beer. which is damn alot to drink it all by myself!

ohoh! do you know that there's a charles bridge tower? we went up there for only 40kr per person! that's student price, 60 for full.. and it's sooooo nice up there, even nicer than the prague castle's south tower! and did you know that prague castle has a tower, aj choir? those who went to olomouc, prague and helsinki in 2005.

bet you didnt, coz i didnt. prague castle's south tower doesn't need to pay but it's higher than charles bridge and you climb till you wanna faint and you can give up half way coz there'll be ppl coming up behind you.. you must perservere on!

actally charles bridge is almost the same i guess, just that it's shorter, yup, i mentioned, but it's nicer! the view.. coz you can see river and the castle i guess.. it just is.. it'll be more romantic to watch sunset there! (:

walked around a lot and spent quite a lot. oh and i bought a 2nd hand jodi picoult's from a book shop for SGD15! -happy- (:

we're supposed to wake up early tomorrow to visit churches and go on tour, i wonder how we're gonna do that.. anyway i'll be blogging more with photos when i get back to singapore which will be around 2 weeks' time, or slightly more!

czech is sucha nice and cool place! with cheap stuff everywhere! except it'll difficult to calculte coz you're supposed to divide the price of everything by 15 to get singapore dollar.. haha!

oh ya, you know this trip's supposed to be a 4 person trip but it's now only mark and i, coz the other 2 broke away. they totally ostracised us, buy water also nv include our share. how nice of them.. makes us so sian la. since we've reached prague we've been on our own, as in mark and i.. even breakfast and all.. which is quite sad.. im sure if we went with jasper/joey/pinkie/kiat/yuklum/hector it would be so much more fun! at least we wun be like doing this kinda things to each other. )):

now i dun feel like talking to them they dun feel like talking to us. funny ppl ah they all.. come here we're supposed to xiang yi wei ming leh, then they do these kinda things, and make life difficult for everyone! they bueh song we also bueh song like that..

HAIS!! ok la, we'll continue to have fun on our own.. and ignore that 2 whenever possible! since they started it, im damn good at this kinda things.

ok, tired already, i feel like i typed for very long, but like not even twelve yet, means i haven't even blog for 15 min! i guess it must be the alcohol.. better go bathe and slp early so that we can at least get up for the breakfast tomorrow morning! tatax~

off to europe!
wheeee leaving for the airport soon.. im going to bathe soon!

anyway just now went amk library to borrow all the guide books we need for the trip, so we can refer ma! you think we now then read meh? that's wad hector thought.. haha, not v smart hor, hector?

had luinner with yuk at this coffee shop near the lib, and the yong tau foo woman cheat my money! firstly i wanted beehoon & mee, but she only gave me beehoon! secondly, she only gave me 5 out of 6 items i chose! walau, im nv going back again!!

anyway went back aj after that for ajidol.. it was not very good, and it was pretty obvious who'll win after listening to all. coz ya, shall reserve my comments!

blue exit went back to perform! many would have forgotten who they are, including me! haha, coz they weren't that good then, but they are very good now la!! like the best tonight! they should win tonight's idol! hahaha.. but oh well! i think it's very nice to be still singing together like that.. i think they still do jam together, coz they appear to be so! (:

oh i went to collect my nf shorts from marie at the sch gate! wheee! i like, just nice! (: and on my way back to the audi, i saw ms leong!! and we spoke! she still remember me leh.. scary.. her memory is superb la! after sooooo long still can remember me! all the more i feel i let her down for doing so badly.. coz she remembered me for all the right reasons.. (i hope.. haha!)

okay, must go bathe le!! oh man, to think i spent my last night in sg at AJ!! thnx to mark tan the host of the night.. who did a splendid job, despite the weird weird crowd! (: tatax~