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

Ou la la

-Day One-

Before I came to Paris, I didn't want to arrive with any expectations because there are people I know came with such high hopes for this city and return disappointed or with terrible experiences to share. I have to say that Paris is the only city that I've visited so far that looked and feel exactly as I have imagined in my mind for so long. To me, it seems like everywhere I go, the grandiose architectures make me feel like I am in a movie set!

Not all my encounters are perfect but I love the cobblestoned alleys hidden between landmarks all over the city and how getting lost in this city is such a pleasure because you discover exciting places hidden everywhere (for me, these are usually places related to food)!

I ate 3 croissants today and they melted in my mouth. I went to the patisserie as recommended by Christelle this morning and when I walked in, I felt like I was in the bakery of my dream. There wasn't one thing in there that I wasn't crazy about trying so I just ended up standing there and convincing myself that since this is my first day, I am allowed to indulge in as much of those little delights as possible....YUMMMMMMM!


I found out today why French women are so slim. At breakfast today, Christelle asked me if I wanted to have bread and I said yes. I went into the kitchen to see one tiny piece of toast that is 1/4 of the size of the typical slice back home! It's like a miniature sized toast that I could put into my mouth easily!

Ok, I'm terribly tired right now as it is after midnight and I need to get enough rest for a big day ahead of me tmr, so I will just jot down whatever it is that I can r emember from today.

-The 3.5 hours tour this morning was great...gave me an overview of the city and what I'd like to visit for the rest of the week.
-Met Alicia (Toronto) during the tour and for the rest of the day we bummed around at Gare de Nord and had cakes (today's her 26th birthday!)
-Montmatre is the quaintest area I've ever been to...it is the place where lots of scenes from Amelie was filmed! (i.e. the fruit shop, the cafe where she worked etc)

I wish I could post photos but the internet is slow (stolen wireless connection..heh) so I'll leave that for another day.

Oh, today I was finally speaking French to the French! However, there was this encounter when I was ordering something in French and the lady replied in English!!! GRRRR!!! I must've spoken with terrible accent....

I am going to have a picnic tmr in front of the Eiffel tower...hopefully it won't rain. It's been terribly cold and so I've been wearing the same jacket everyday as that is the only warm top I have...need to do some shopping at H&M!

paris je t'aime

Bonjour!!

I feel weird writing from Paris! This is afterall the place that I've been dreaming about since those year 9 French classes from the high school days! I actually almost laughed out loud when I arrived in Paris tonight at the train station...because it feels all too surreal! However I am not too fond of my first experience in Paris...when I got stuck between the turnstile and this electric flap at the metro and someone had to help me call the guards to release me and my luggage. It was rather embarassing.

So the past few days have been rather exhausting! Diana and I rent another car in Munich (a Volkswagen Golf!) and drove to Neuschwanstein and all the way up to Frankfurt along the famous Romantic Road! It was a 8+ hours drive and we were completely worn out after the road drive and last night we just collapsed in our hotel! You may be wondering why I would be tired even though I did none of the driving. I have to say navigating is harder than driving itself. Having no maps and no basic German reading skills basically means that I had to pretty much had to guess which ways to turn and which highways to go on. Me with my "excellent" sense of direction got us lost a couple of times :p The most beautiful drive during the trip was in Austria for sure.

Anyways, I am now in the 13th arrondisment (district) in Paris, which is also known as the Chinatown! However, it doesn't have the same feel of it as the Chinatown in Sydney or SF...I need to check it out more in the daytime in the next few days...as I am so craving for any Chinese food! Haven't had any rice for at least 2 months and have been having bread or sandwiches for 3 meals a day! Carb overload!

Christelle is the French girl whom I'm staying with while in Paris. She lives in an one bedroom apartment by herself in Paris so I am basically crashing at her living room right now. She's the sweetest girl and I met her when I was on exchange in the US (however, I don't recall ever talking to her when I was there!)

Anyways, off to bed and looking forward to a day full of francaise tmr!

road trip baby!

y = z
z = y

ok, so i will explain whz i am sitting in front of the computer at 1am. first of all, because there are still 30 minutes of credit on this computer that ive paid for. second of all, i cant seem to sleep after one of the longest and most tiring daz of mz entire trip.

reallz earlz this morning, me and diana (a melbourne girl) took 2 barcelona girls we met in the hostel in salyburg to Puch (apparentlz a college town here salyburg) in our Panda Fiat....zes, we rent a car the night before so we could go driving around in Austria. what was supposed to be a 30 mins drive took us close to 2 hours, as we got terriblz lost on the highwazs.
then after we dropped them off, we began our daz trip to Zell am See, which is supposed to be one of the nicest little town (non-touristz too!) in Austria. we got there just after lunch (i think we got lost several times too) and walked around the most scenic and beautiful town for about an hour...the water and the mountains are unlike anz ive seen in mz life!! zes its that good!
then we began our 2nd part of the daz trip to innsbruck! that was supposed to take an hour, but we got there 3 hours later... the problem was, we had to return the car bz 5:30pm, but it was alreadz 4 something when we left innsbruck and being stuck in traffic on highwaz on the waz back doesnt help! it was reallz frustrating in a waz!
bz the time we returned to salyburg it was after 8pm, and so we book on a night train to munich...bz then, i was exhausted bezond anzthing...we got to munich main station at almost 11pm. the storz doesnt end here. when we got to the hostel, we foudn out it was fullz booked for the night (zes, need to learn to plan ahead more and be less spontaneous). however thez todl us there are still spare beds but we gotta wait till 12am just to make sure the ppl who reserved those beds dont show up. in that mean time, i walked down the streets of munich going from one hotel-hostel to the next, asking for rooms and rates. thez were all either too expensive or booked out. boz, was it scarz to be out at night....worse was having to check out seedz hotels (this guz showed me this room up in the attic and i reallz thought he was gonna lock me in there)
sometimes i wonder what i am doing here....haha
anzwazs, so on sundaz, we going driving up the 'romantic road', all the waz from munich to frankfurt....its supposed to be a lovelz drive...i shoudl be excited, but for now, i feel like the room is spinning and i am reallz in need of sleep. however, there are still 20 mins of credit left. i think i am just gonna leave it at that eh?