been there, done that...

I just remembered I still haven't the chance to go through my Europe photos and reflect back on that period of craziness and adventures....It has been at least 3 months now and to be honest, I don't miss traveling all that much. Maybe in another year or two, I will pack up my bags and go somewhere but for now, I'm just happy to be in the comfort of home and doing my laundry whenever I want to :)

This is a reminder that I need to sort my Europe photos soon. Okies, thats all for now.

mission days

-edit-
this is actually an entry from august 5th this year, but i forgot to post it!

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Last year during Christmas time, a team of 7 from CPC including myself went on a STM to BaoShan, Taiwan, where we helped out at this local church as well as taught in a high school for juvenile delinquents. Since today is the last Sunday I would be spending in Taiwan, I decided to visit those people I met during the STM and see how they are doing. BaoShan is a hour train ride away from Taipei, but to make it to their 9am service, I actually had to wake up at 5:30 in order to get there in time (including time taking MRT to the train station etc.) I made my way to the train station half awake, until a stranger really woke me up. Basically I was waiting for train while kind of dozing off when this 40 y.o lady dressed in bright purple legging with a pair of white shorts came and started talking to me like I'm her best friend. She told me that I had the words "I want to sleep" all over my face. I thought she was just being friendly, so I just smiled politely at her. I must've dozed off again but the next second I found her shouting at me loudly with her face right in front of mine (like 1 cm away)! She seriously freaked me out and I literally jumped off the seat (thankfully the train had just arrived...)

Ok, so it was so nice to catch up with some of the people I grew so close to last December. I can't believe all the little kids still remembered us and warmed up to me within minutes. The church recently moved to a different location however almost all the same people still attend the service. It is again strange to get used to a congregation of only ~10 members! I spent most of the time with the kids and a missionary couple from Singapore there. I once again saw how different my life is compared to theirs...

What stood out to me was this 17 y.o girl who has to look after her young brother and sister all the time because their mother (unemployed single parent) is out all day long. I asked the girl where her mum goes each day and she hesistated to tell me so I asked her whether her mum has a boyfriend and she said yes. Her little siblings' clothes look as if they havent been washed for 6 months and because they eat all the lollies they want, they have so many untreated cavities. It is really sad to see how there are kids who are without parental guidance and are insecure about themselves...I pray that they will grow close to their Heavenly Father and know of His unconditional love.

Last post from Europe

I am now at Amsterdam International Airport heading to Taiwan :) I managed to check in 3 hours prior to departure and now am bumming around trying to take my mind of my abused limbs. I have never felt SO itchy in my life before, and those bed bugs bites have kept me awake in the past couple of days thus I am feeling pretty run down right now. When I woke up one morning to find one arm covered with 30 bites, I felt so disgusted and when I showed the hostel people the bites on my arms, they immediately refunded my money. Yup, it is quite a sight, and perhaps it's good that they didn't see the state of my legs. So now with over 20 hours of flight ahead of me (I think...as I'm stopping over at Bangkok), I'm going to try keep myself busy...and not scratch otherwise the person sitting next to me will think I have some contagious skin disease. ARGHHHHHH...

Ok, goign to find a book to read now...

Will update more about Amsterdam when I'm in Taiwan!

BYE for now!

I AMsterdam

Which way do I go?!?

LOL :P saw this sign near my hostel tonight...

I am now at my final destination in Europe :) It is somewhat a sense of relief, that I will no longer have to drag my super heavy luggage around anymore after this... ahhhh...home is so close!

So I haven't really the opportunity yet to explore Amsterdam having arrived at around 5pm. At the reception of my hostel (Flying Pig), there is this common area where everyone sits together (kind of like sitting on a square tatami bed), smoking pots/weed/hash (I've only heard of such thing as hash today). Oh, and apparently mushroom is not allowed in the hostel...like I would know the difference...:p It was quite eye-opening...not to mention this hostel is not too far away from the red ligh district (prostitution is legal here!) I got to walk around the hostel tonight as I needed to get something to eat...and saw so many "coffee shops" one after another, and almost walked into one thinking it was a cafe! It was quite a scary experience being out there alone and also wearing my thongs (flip flops for non-Aussies) in the 5C weather is not fun! (my only pair of shoes is still saoking wet from walking in the rain for 5 hours yesterday in Luxembourg.)

I also came across a whole lot of souvenir stores selling the stereotypical Dutch items such as clogs and wooden tulips. I can't wait to see and explore another side of Amsterdam tomorrow...the artsy fartsy part of it - the floating flower market, Van Gogh musuem, the colourful houses, Rijksmusuem, the parks...and people watching in the quaint cafes...

Alright, I better plan my schedule for tomorrow...

I'm a bit anxious about meeting my roommates, I hope they won't come in all high and drugged!

luxembourg in the rain

Sleeping time now, update later when I get to Amsterdam....

final week tentative itinerary

Brussels really is an underrated city - the fine cuisines and the friendly people really make me fall in love with this city! :) I wish I could go out and explore the city a bit more, however it is freezing cold outside (colder than Sydney winter) and I do not have a jacket to keep me warm. Today, it was great to have Christine, who's a local, showing me around Brussels. She took me to the list of chocolate stores that I had written down (from my research on the best chocolatiers) and then we went to see the peeing boy (Mannekis-pis) as well as the less famous, peeing girl.
However, by lunch time, I felt my muscles ache and a sore throat developing... >< So I retired back to my temporary home (the bunk bed) and swallowed a panadol. Hopefully I will be better by tomorrow.

26th Oct - Bruges
27th Oct - Bruges
28th Oct - Ghent and then back to Brussels
29th Oct - Day trip to Luxembourg
30th Oct - Train to Amsterdam
31st - 1st Oct - Amsterdam
2nd Oct - Au revoir Europe!!

random pics

The Amphitheatre aka Colosseum!

On a bridge in Florence

hola! bonjour!

Yesterday, my camera was stolen without my knowledge of the theft taking place! Thankfully it was returned to me at the end (since I wasn't aware that it was stolen, it was a nice surprise!).

So what happened exactly? I was in an outdoor churros cafe in Madrid (deep fried dough dipped in hot chocolate sauce...hmmmm) with Anna-Marie (from Finland) and we were deep in conversation about something (I can't remember what though) when 2 gypsy kids (one boy and one girl) came over to our table. The boy was holding a piece of newspaper and I think he pretended to be a handicap and kept pointing at some random stuff on the newspaper for me to read. I was confused and so we ignored them, and then he pointed at my churros so I concluded that maybe they are here for the food coz they're hungry. We shook at our at them and they left. Twenty seconds later, a man came up to my table and handed me my camera!! HUH?!?! How did he get it?!

What happened was, while the little boy distracted me with the newspaper, the girl next to him took my camera which I put on the table next to my churros. He used the newspaper to cover up the camera so I wouldn't see the girl taking it, however that Spanish man was sitting opposite us and I guess he witnessed the event and ran after the kids when they left to get my camera back!

Phhheewww, most of my photos from Barcelona are still in the memory card as I still haven't the time to burn them onto my CD. I'm so grateful as I was extremely close to losing my camera and it would totally dampen the rest of my holiday...I can't imagine traveling without my "memory keeper". It actually took me a 10 minutes to realize what really happened and then I walked to the Spanish man's table and told him that he saved my day!

So now, I am in Brussles...waffle-land now! Since my last entry, I've been in Italy (Florence, Rome, Cinque Terre, Sorrento, Milan and Venice) and Spain (Barcelona and Madrid). I'm not particularly impressed with Italy despite the great gelatos I've had! Barcelona had been wonderful so I ended up staying there for just over a week.

I still have around a week in Europe....so basically my Euro trip has come to an end now! I still haven't planned for the rest of the week so I think I should do that now.

i'm lovin' it...because i'm using free wireless at maccas

Little town, it's a quiet village
Every day like the one before
Little town full of little people
Waking up to say...

Bonjour x4

There goes the baker with his tray, like always
The same old bread and rolls to sell
Every morning just the same
Since the morning that we came
To this poor provincial town....

Ok, so I was strolling down the streets of Rennes on a Saturday morning, and for some reasons the opening song from Beauty and the Beast started playing in my head. Then, I realised that the town fits the song perfectly (except I'm not sure about the town being poor)!

Rennes is the capital of Brittany and is known for its beautiful traditional timber frame houses. Every Saturday, they host one of the biggest outdoor markets in France! What great timing as I had just arrived in Rennes from the 9am train ride from St. Malo! :) The towns people, with baguette on one hand and a bunch of flowers on the other, strolled along the market stocking up on their weekly veges and fruits. Being so fruit deficient for the past few days (I'm on a crepes and cheese diet) I picked up some figs and clemetines on the way. I also picked an apple and when I gave it to the stall owner to weigh, he said "UNE pomme?????..." and gave it back to me while continuing on in French. Since I did not understand a word, I was confused and thought he didn't want to sell only one apple. But then he was smiling at me so I assumed its for free. French people in small towns are so much nicer than the Parisiennes!

A girl from the hostels informed me that this month, the photographer Steve McCurry has an exhibition at the town square and that I should check it out. I guess he is better known for his photo for National Geographic of the Afghanistan girl with green eyes! So I headed to the square to look at the 40 photos on display, then went to grab galettes and crepes from a creperie as recommended by a local. Next stop was Parc Thabor because according to WikiTravel, it is a really nice park that is worth seeing! With shopping and museums visits, I am totally fine being by myself. But when it comes to walking in parks, it felt really strange being there alone and so I just quickly made my way through the rose bushes and the canary and left the park.

Well, now I am back in Paris and since this is my last afternoon here, I tried to take in the culture one last time by sitting in a cafe and watch people go by. It wasn't that great though because people were smokes all around me and smokers aren't exactly my favourite people in the world.

Alright, will talk to you when I am in pasta-land!

things that made me smile

After I returned from Mont Saint Michel at 6pm today, I decided to walk to the Old Town again to grab dinner (what else but crepes?) and enjoy the walk on the beach on the way. It was the most amazing walk and I almost wished that it would never end because every few minutes you find yourself with a completely different view of the sea and sky.


During that 40 minutes walk, I saw many different scenes. And what made me smile:

-The old ladies sitting at the bench gossiping (well it seems!) with their friends. They wore really cute head warmers!
-Young and old couples holding hands strolling along so casually
-Families with young kids running around with their colourful kites
-This dog-loving French holding up his dog and kissing it like a baby
-A toddler learning how to walk to her mother on the beach
-Fishermen with fishing poles waiting so patiently
-The ever changing pattern and colour of the clouds
-The sun setting and reminding me that "this is the day that the Lord has made...let us rejoice and be glad in it".

Rennes is coming up tomorrow! Gotta go to bed as early train to catch tomorrow.

a little town of st. malo...

Salut!

This morning I took the TGV train to arrive at this small town west of Paris in the Normandy region! This town is surrounded by the ocean thus it is also well known for its sandy beaches! I was actually looking forward to a relaxing day lying on the beach especially after spending the most hectic week in Paris running round the museums and climbing up sky high cathedrals. However, it turned out to be one of the coldest days and I was almost blown away by the strong wind at the seaside! The views were still amazing tho despite the thick clouds and I noticed that there are not a lot of foreign tourists here but most of the visitors are from other parts of France.

From my hostel to the main town (Old Town Square) it takes 40 minutes walk along the beach! It really was depressing walking by myself in the cold with no one to talk to. But I got over it when I arrived at the quaintest town that is filled with creperies (Brittany is well known for their crepes), souvenir shops and restaurants. There aren't a lot to do here except walking around and enjoying the atmosphere!

The hostel I am staying at is Auberge de Jeunesse It is dirt cheap here. At 16 euros a night, you get free breakfast as well! :)

Ok, really need to get going. Will finish the rest of the post tomorrow if I get back from Mont St. Michel early!

Au revoir!

RATATOUILLE

Watching Ratatouille in Paris is tres cool...

Christelle and I went on Sunday night to the movies for 4 euros each! So cheap! We both enjoyed it so much and I'm looking forward to get the DVD when it comes out! I am also looking for a restaurant (hopefully rat-free) in Paris that sells ratatouille just like the one in the movie :)

So much to update on about the past few days yet so little time...there are emails to reply (so behind!) and gotta do some research for Thursday as I am leaving Paris for St. Malo -> Mont Saint Michel -> Rennes -> Paris.

Today has been a long one for me, as I went to Versailles in the morning to see the chateaux and Marie Antoinette's estate! Si jolie! It was fully packed there by 10am and I could hardly see anything or take any good photos in the King and Queen's chambers because there were tourists by the bus loads everywhere! However, I loved the gardens and wished I had spent more time there relaxing instead of running around trying to see everything!

As I have been drinking a lot of tap water in Paris, I decided to stop by the Les egouts de Paris (Paris sewer museum) after Versailles to figure out exactly how they filter and purify the water!
I only spent 15 minutes there as it really smells in the underground sewage areas!

Then onto Arc de triomphe for the 3rd time. This is the first time that I climbed up the monument tho! It was awesome seeing all the arrondisments in Paris and identifying the places that I had been to in the past few days from above!

It started raining by the time I got to Notre Dame at 5pm. I still managed to climb up the cathedral to get some great shots of the city under thick clouds! By then, I was so exhausted that my legs were numb and the only things on my mind were croissants and bed.

Yesterday was a rather interesting day....(actually everyday in Paris has been exciting in different ways). I had my portrait drawn at Montmatre (this lady kept following me and said she wanted to draw me so I gave in). She originally said 60 euros and somehow we agreed in 8 euros afterwards. I still don't know whether that's overly expensive or cheap....
When I saw the result, I exclaimed "Ce n'est pas moi!" (it's not me!)....it does not resemble me at all as I know I look very different to that the last time I checked myself in the mirror. The lady kept explaining to me that I have to understand that "Ce n'est pas un photo...it's a cartoon..."

So here it is!




I sent this pic to someone yesterday, and today I got this in reply:

hahahahahahaha X 100....
that sooooooooooooo doesn't look like you... that person must need glasses...

Oh wells....

Tomorrow is last day in Paris...I'm going to this cooking demonstration at Le Cordon Bleu!! :D