Watching Susan Boyle singing I dream a dream (by the way, in case you are living in the Stone Age and have NOT watch Susan Boyle’s performance, you deserve… to be disconnected from the internet for the rest of your life) makes me think about my Les Misérables experience at London’s Queen’s Theatre and all the happenings that day!
Ah… all the wicked goodness. Now off to listen to the Wicked sound track… it’s not the same, but musical tix are expensive!
I am starting to think my impression of Melbourne is too much better than reality.
When I was travelling in Europe, I thought, ‘Eh, I will be able to find these in Melbourne.’ However, the truth is, usually, a big fat NO:
I couldn’t find good jamon Serrano. Good parmigiano-reggiano isn’t as readily available as in Italy. Proscuitto here tastes nothing. Pesto tastes weird. Good cheese is not as easy to come by as Europe. (I give up my search for Västerbottenost.) Bread is weird too… The collection of müsli isn’t as exciting as the one in Sweden. Collection in bottleshop is overwhelmingly Australian (duh. But is it a crime that I miss Systembolaget – not the price tag though). Grillakorv is a total disaster!!! (Okay, I know it is somewhat unfair as I am picking the cream of every country to compare what’s available in Melbourne…)
Aside from food, student accommodation is a nightmare here and a zillion times more expensive than in Lund. There are hardly anyone biking. Travelling by public transport on Sunday is more difficult than I could remember. Plus everything is so far away. And Melburnians are less chill than I could remember and intimidating in some cases (especially on public transport in suburbs!!! I guess that implies something?!)
But… the café latte in Melbourne never fails me. It truly is the best coffee in the world…! (And the ‘line’ in Castro is just how I remember it.) Soy option is always available in café (yay!). Fruits are comparatively affordable here. Beef and lamb are yummy… And availability of gourmet yoghurt continues to grow… (yummm…)
… So does my energy-intake per day…(!) Off to gym now – vi ses!
xoxo
Once upon a time, a girl went to Singapore for the first time in her life and had pineapple juice that was served in a plastic bag that is secured with plastic strings as a handle on top of the bag. The idea of having drinks in a plastic bag was such a novel idea to her and she had been fascinated by the fact that you can drink out of a bag since then. And the experience of drinking out of a bag has burnt to her brain that every time she is in Singapore, she would look for plastic bag drinks.
In February 2009, she arrived Singapore for the fourth time. It has been such a long time ever since her last visit that a lot has changed in Singapore. However, she still remember one thing about Singapore – plastic bag drinks – therefore she was determined that she would have to have to drink out of plastic bag for at least once before she left the country again. Unfortunately, Singapore as a country has progressed so much that plastic cups have managed to take over the country. Plastic bag drinks have virtually disappeared in every single beverage stalls. She was in Singapore for only 5 days therefore she was very desperate to make her dream come true that everyday, she would remind her local Singapore friends and companion that she was looking for plastic bag drinks: on the first day, they were very amused by the fact. And on the second day, they were still quite keen in trying to fulfil her wish. And then the next day, they actually saw plastic bag drinks in Maxwell food centre when they were having chicken rice there however they were too full to buy the beverage. On the fourth day, they could not find any beverage stall that serves drinks in plastic bag every where they went and started to find the request irritating and even promised to send her plastic bags for her future birthday. *HINT HINT*
On the fifth day was when the girl and her travelling companion were going to leave Singapore. She almost gave up on the idea of having plastic bag drinks because in no less than 5 hours, she was going to have to be in the airport and there is no way there would be room for drinks without class in a world-class airport. However, after her local Singaporean friend took them to Killiney Kopitiam for their last Kopi and Kaya toast. They went to the tiny food centre next door to have roast chicken rice. The girl originally did not have her mind on the plastic bag at all, however, a guy from the beverage stall approached them and asked if they wanted anything to drink. She therefore accompanied her local friend to the beverage stall to order drinks and something caught her eye – a pile of plastic bag!!!!!!!!!! She was so happy and ordered an iced tea and specifically requested that it be served in a plastic bag even though they were meant to be for takeaway.
At last, their local friends were so relieved that she finally found her plastic bag drink and the girl left Singapore with no regrets.
La fin.
Nikki had full-on uni this morning, so Peter showed us around this morning. We were already kinda late when we got out of the house. Just while Candy and I were trying to remember which way of the bus we should take, we already had our first obstacle – we didn’t know how to open the gate to get out of the property… so we ended up climbing the gate just like how Nikki showed us last night, only instead of climbing the gate from the outside, we are climbing the gate from the inside…
After meeting Peter at City Hall MRT station, he took us to walk through the Citylink Mall which connects Suntec City, Marina Square, the Esplanade, ad the City Hall underground while providing retail and dining opportunities. The walk was a total bliss given that the mall is air-conditioned (duh). While walking is not an issue for Hong Kong, it actually would be nice to have something like this in Causeway Bay – not that I cannot handle HK weather (well, sometimes I can’t) but the fact that an underground link like that could help easing the human congestion in Causeway Bay is enough of a reason for me to get this built. And I remember that an underground link was actually proposed in Causeway Bay before, I wonder why it didn’t get through… and ironically, the developer and owner of the Citylink Mall is actually Hongkong Land.
Anyways, we first went to Marina Square and had breakfast there in a fast-food shop which of course, I forgot the name of… Peter was really excited to show us their specialised dish – a rice paper roll that is called popiah but we were told it’s not served until 10 in the morning so now you know how early we met! After breakfast, we went to the Singapore Flyers – the Singapore equivalent of London Eye and Southern Star in Melbourne – loosely translated, it is an over-priced Ferris wheel. And Peter claim it’s even better up on UOB or the New Asia Bar of Swiss Hotel (hint!). But from my point of view, London Eye capsules look cooler than Singapore Flyer’s.
The Singapore Flyer
We continued to the famous durian! Personally I think that the building is very mocking… I mean, why durian out of all the fruits?! You just can’t help but relate to the fact that this country bans durians on MRT and the overwhelming availability of $1 durian ice-cream on the street. Granted, it’s a special design… but special design does not necessarily mean good-looking – it doesn’t look pretty under the sun light. It only looks nice when the sun is down and lights are coming out from it. However, if they are going for the wow-factor or depth of impression, then that’s another story… you can totally forget the name of it, as long as you tell your cab driver you want to go to the durian, they know what to do.
Singapore CBD Skyline on the way to the Esplanade
The durian! (Peter is displaying his discontent with the architecture by refusing to even open his eyes… ;))
Peter then took us across the green of Singapore Cricket Club (without knowing what it actually is) to the Supreme Court building that looks like an UFO. We originally decided to go into the building, but Peter figured we look too much like tourists so we wouldn’t be able to get in. And when we left, he decided that it’s a good idea to jaywalk across the road right in front of the Supreme Court. What he didn’t notice was across the road is actually the Parliament and there are several police standing right there… and I thought it was actually his attempt to get us into the Supreme Court. (I probably forgot to mention that it seems he has picked up jaywalking as a sport – he took us jaywalk across a 6-lane segregated carriageway the night before! I was mortified! What has Singapore done to you?!)
On the green of SCC
The must-take picture in S’pore
Before all of our stomachs started to growl, Peter also showed us the Fullerton Hotel, and walked along the Singapore river. He also took us to took the must-take picture in Singapore with Merlion (some how I think I had already took that picture a million times…), and showed us the air-con street that he had found before we reached the cooked food centre that Nikki recommended for lunch. We had minced pork noodle with supersized fish ball that is quite tasteless yet very bouncy…! Coupled with the ‘after lunch sydrome’, the hot weather of Singapore had really got to me: the ceiling fans weren’t really helping, and neither did the barley drinks helped. It felt so stuffy that I had to lie on the table for a while, but we eventually left because a lot of people were waiting for a table for lunch.
This street probably has the highest density of air-conditioning unit in the world
It’s bigger than my eyeball!
I swear I will never fly by budget airlines if the flight is more than 2 hour. I am annoyed by the fact that there is no in-town check-in even I went to the airport by airport express. I hate waiting in line for check-in because there is no online check-in. (Well, it might just be some of them because I remember I can even print my own boarding pass with EasyJet if I did not have any check-in luggage.) I hate getting into the bus to get to the plane. And I hate climbing up the stairs. Then there is no any kind of entertainment or food or beverage included with the price I paid for the ticket.
Anyway, so after the nearly-4-hour-flight, I finally touched down at Changi Airport for the fourth time. To be honest, I really can’t quite remember how Singapore is like. I know it’s an Island, I know how it is like to be there. But I can’t quite remember how it is from a macro point of view… or, aerially. I was so excited when I got off the plane and I ran off to the immigration counter (which by the way, conversed with me in Mandarin… thank god I went to Taiwan in November and still remember how to react), baggage claim and through the custom in whoop-speed as I couldn’t wait to meet Nikki, Candy and Peter again after such a long time. (Well, only Nikki, I guess ;))
We took a cab to Nikki’s place and on our way got the lecture of how Singaporeans are divided into TWO groups: the eastsiders and the westsiders. From what I’ve heard, the eastsiders claim that there is nothing to do on the west. And the people of each group both claim it takes too long and it’s too far to get to the other side… more explanation will be given in later entries…
While we were settling at Nikki’s, I told Nikki about all the things that I want to do in Singapore, including durian ice-cream, lohei, chili crab, chicken rice, and drinking colourful yakults and a plastic bag of pineapple juice. And on our way to the bus stop to take the bus no. 14 to City Hall to meet up with Sherman, Nikki already took us to satisfy my desire no. 1 – durian ice cream! It almost tastes exactly like frozen durian!
Enjoying durian gelato while waiting for the bus
When we got to City Hall MRT station and waiting to purchase the Ezylink card (equivalent of Octocpus, and Myki, that is, if it ever comes out), I bumped into the German couple that I have met while waiting to check-in in Hong Kong! Anyways, we then walked to Singapore Art Museum (aka SAM) where the NUS students didn’t have to pay a dime, while Candy and I needed to pay 4 bucks… They have a very good collection of Korean Modern Art and some other modern art exhibition going on. Personally I think I am more into Asian modern art than European modern art… or maybe I have just seen too much already of it last year… I am not saying the European modern art is bad – it’s actually very good… but there is just a click that I saw in Asian modern art but not in their European counterpart. By the way, the building of SAM was originally a primary school. How is possible for Singapore to retain nice historical buildings in the middle of the city but not in Hong Kong?
SAM!
Resting our tired feet…
After leaving SAM, we then went to China Town to have dinner at the whatever building that has a cooked food centre that I went to a million times in the past three times I went to Singapore. I really like these cooked food centres in Singapore: they are really local and cheap yet they are very clean and the food is very tasty. You just need to take a table, and then you can pick which ever dish from whichever store that you like within the centre. There is totally no pressure, no pretentious atmosphere… We ordered fish, chili fried clams, clay pot rice (a total different story to HK style, if you are asking), stingray, and lohei! The lohei was my first one and was quite an experience. I think it is only available in Singapore and Malaysia. It is basically a salad that is only available in Chinese New Year period. Apparently you have to say some specific CNY greeting phrase while adding each specific ingredients. And you need to keep saying these greeting words while mixing the ingredients. I will show you later on video…
Lohei :D
Singaporean-style clay pot rice
Originally Peter wanted to take Candy and I to Zouk for party because of lady’s night. But we lastly resorted to Clarke Quay for a drink. To me, Clarke Quay somehow resembles Sydney’s Darling Harbour but Nikki thinks there are more happenings in Clarke Quay which to a certain extent is true… We also saw/get to know the bridge to the international/exchnge students in Singapore – Kaho, you have no idea how many friends that Peter has got in S’pore, I think he knows the entire bridge… We finally settled at the Clinic which is a hospital-themed bar that is located right next to the water fountain in the Clarke Quay and under the canopy. (And speaking of the canopy, its supporting structure certainly reminds me of Sherman’s dirty mind…) Going back to the bar, the Clinic uses gurney as sofas and wheelchair as chairs. They also have over-priced drinks that serve in syringes or an IV-bag. (Don’t worry, it goes into your mouth, not to your blood stream) Not having big bucks in our pocket, we resorted to normal cocktails and regular beer but their cocktail was disappointing, they all kinda taste like… medicine… maybe that’s why they called the clinic? Nicely disguised…
Under the canopy of Clarke Quay
Cheers!
A glimpse of the Clarke Quay
And while I was re-documentating my travelogue, I dug this out from three years ago and realised that I have actually satisfied a lot of the wishes! (Striked ones are what I have done!)
想去tasmania行山, camping。每天都吃那裡出產的芝士, 牛奶, yoghurt, salmon。
想去new zealand, 慢慢踱步, 每天看日出, 看日落。
想去多次sydney, 慢慢感受那裡的生活, 走過每條大街小巷。欣賞sydney opera house, town hall, qeb的architecture。
想再去adelaide, 那裡的海灘和german town。
想去alice spring那塊ululu。
想去fiji, 每日平平淡淡的在海灘sun bath, 暢泳。
如果07可以到europe exchange…
我要到effle tower那裡坐一整天, 自己找書欣賞周圍的gothic architecture。 去paris library,paris opera。站在那個arterial road的focal point,踱步於paris的bolevard, 慢慢想想為甚麼hausmann這樣plan paris, pros and cons。坐在法國的小cafe裡飲一整天的咖啡,吃麵包和芝士。坐ｐａｒｉｓ的ｍｅｔｒｏ。
我要到德國看柏林圍牆, 看納粹黨的遺跡。放眼四周的科技。去oktober fest的celebration, 不理一切, 整天在飲beer。去萊茵河, 去leipzig, 去bremen, 去hanover, 去stuggart! 聽ｂｅｒｌｉｎ ｐｈｉｌｈａｒｍｏｎｉｋｅｒ的ｃｏｎｃｅｒｔ， 聽ｂｏｙｓ ｃｈｏｉｒ， 聽ｂａｃｈ， ｍａｈｌｅｒ， ｂｅｅｔｈｏｖｅｎ。去南德感受不同的德國, 用我有限公司的german去雞同鴨講, 和不同文化背景的人玩有口難言。
我要到荷蘭,看每一個mvrdv design的architecture。到紅燈區發呆。穿梭大街小巷，四圍看ｄｅｓｉｇｎ， 拍照。
我要去西班牙, 去酒吧跳一整晚的舞,看那個古怪architect design的古怪church。 到market畫畫, 看一整天的人。
我要去greece, 然後就坐在海邊一整天。
我要去北歐, 去試試winter一日不見太陽,depress到要死的感覺：
到sweden的ikea。在stockholm感受那裡的高gdp。去感受四周的ｄｅｓｉｇｎ ａｔｍｏｓｐｈｅｒｅ。
在copahagen踏city bike的單車, 坐一整天的public transport, 感受一下finger plan的效果。
到finland探聖誕老人, 預先寄christmas card給所人朋友仔。焗sauna。去ｓｉｂｅｌｉｅｕｓ ａｃａｄｅｍｙ， 去ｈｉｋｉｎｇ， 感受ｆｉｌａｎｄｉａ的背後。
在norway的marine system裡canoe,吃tuna, salmon, anchovies。
我要到瑞士去看alps,和一班人吃fondue, 飲酒。 走過三個說不同語言的district。
我要到italy, 去venice的canal裡坐一天的船, 和掌舵的伯伯說一整天。去吃不同種類的pasta, 飲wine。
我要去英國。坐tube。然後在cambridge, oxford坐一整天。到london的名店穿梭。在big ben那裡看車水馬龍的traffic, 坐紅色的double decker。去aquarium, 找closer取景的公園， 找ｎｏｔｔｉｎｇ ｈｉｌｌ那個ｓｕｂｕｒｂ，小街, love actually的所有取景。去scotland的callanish stone拍一天的照。
我要去ireland, 就在dublin的promenade坐一天, 到mall裡做big ｓｐｅｎｄｅｒ， 然後在ｓｔ ｐａｔｒｉｃｋ’ｓ ｄａｙ去ｐｕｂ飲一整晚ｂｅｅｒ。
去ａｕｓｔｒｉａ， 聽ｗｉｅｎ ｏｒｃｈｅｓｔｒａ的ｃｏｎｃｅｒｔ， 到ｖｉｅｎｎａ坐一天， 走一天， 聽人街頭表演。 去找ｓｏｕｎｄ ｏｆ ｍｕｓｉｃ的拍攝景地。飲１００１ ｎａｃｈｔ。
去ｌｕｘｅｍｂｕｒｇ，morocco, Liechtenstein, compare and contrast 不同的小國。
去ｅａｓｔｅｒｎ ｅｕｒｏｐｅ： ｐｒａｇｕｅ， ｐｏｌａｎｄ感受另一個ｅｕｒｏｐｅ。看ｈｏｌｏｃａｕｓｔ。
而ｓｏｕｖｅｎｉｒ會是．．．． 自己寄給自己的ｐｏｓｔｃａｒｄ， 和一大堆ｆｌａｇｓ， ｍａｇａｚｉｎｅ，和 ｎｅｗｓｐａｐｅｒ。
Although I didn’t manage to do all those things, my year in Europe had given me so much more than I have ever expected, even without mentioning the depth of it…
Q: What’s there to do on a Easter Sunday where it is snowing cats and dogs in Bergen?
A: Akvariet i Bergen!
By the way, we walked there with snow way past our ankle!
After ‘a good night of sleep’, we finally arrived Köln at 06.25 as scheduled. We originally planned to stay in Köln for just an hour and Bruxelles for 2 hours since it’s quite early when we reached Köln but because the early train requires reservation, we thus took the later one to Bruxelles which, turned out to be a wise decision because 1) things are actually opened in Köln already – in the station, at least; 2) Bruxelles was unbelievably run-down for a European city – for a split second I thought we were not in Europe but somewhere in the middle east – it’s the most dirty city I have ever seen in Europe. No wonder Kaho got conered when he spent the night at the station! We made full use of the time that we were in Köln and even paid the Cathedral a visit – it’s incredibly big – I had to step back quite a bit to capture the entire building even my camera is equipped with wide-angle lens!
The Cathedral
Ludwig Museum
River Rhein
When we reached Bruxelles, we had to rush to the Eurostar terminal to pick up our tickets but we still managed to buy some Belgian waffles before we had to run to our coach which happened to be, again on the other end of the 400m platform…
After a little bit more than 2 hours, we finally arrived London St. Pancras International. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention we had to pass through custom and passport control of both Belgium and the UK while we were clearly still in the turf of Belgium, which was just plain bizarre. We had lunch at Chop’d which is quite like a salad place of Pret a Manger. I had Terriyaki chicken with sushi rice with a soya latte. The portion is not bit but the food was quite tasty and fresh. Then, in order to catch the 2pm train from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh we ran from St. Pancras to KGX within 5 minutes, not to mention that Tess and Jennie were dragging their luggage among the crowds in London!
London St. Pancras
London King’s Cross
After 4.5 hours, we finally made it to Edinburgh Waverley Station! The train ride is actually very rewarding although the part of hunting for seats were very frustrating since we didn’t make reservation but only hop on with train passes. We saw a lot of natural landscape and townscapes for instance, Peterborough, Newcastle, Doncaster and York. More importantly, we also saw a lot of pontuses! And so as the North Sea.
Even though we traveled for 25 hours i actuality, it did not eel that long at all. Probably because we got to walk around and did stuff. And of course getting to pracitice German and taste Belgian waffle were also very satisfying. I swear this is so much better than getting stuck in the airport for no better reason.
We landed Dublin Airport from Copenhagen a little after noon and then the disillusion of Dublin being cheap started to surface. (Okay, I realise it’s completely non-sense to think Dublin would be cheap at all.) We first purchased our 3 day bus rambler ticket for only 11 euros which included travelling back and forth the airport. (Hey, at least that’s cheap when you compare that to the train fare that you have to pay for one-way from Kastrup to Lund!)
Double decker bus from the airport to town!
After sending our backpacks to our hostel, we started our adventure in Dublin. Since we had three days in just Dublin, we decided to take it slow and just to have a walk ourselves within the city without going to any touristy places and with a minimal guidance from the map. Kaho and I were both quite busy before the trip, so we didn’t actually do any research about Dublin. We just decided to go and booked the tickets and go! And we didn’t really have a lot of expectations for Dublin. The first impression that Kaho had for Dublin was that the city was quite run down, also that the people look like they have to bear a lot of burden and that they are a lot less posh than Swedes. (Seriously, who wouldn’t be?! Swedes are just a high maintenance bunch in average.) I however couldn’t exactly agree with Kaho about people looking stressed. People who live in city in general carry more burden than people who live in the countryside anyway.
We had so much fun just running around the town. We bounced through the O’Connell Street, every bridges on River Liffey and every tiny alleys that looked intriguing to us. We checked out every single store on Grafton Street, we said hello to James Joyce, took a picture with an Irish man in kilt and ‘flirted’ with the old man with the cart opposite the Trinity College. Admired the dazzling colours of Temple Bar and the ridiculous height of the Spire. We also relaxed at St. Stephen’s Green and tried to peek through the walls and windows of all the Georgian houses.
Most importantly, Dublin reminded me a lot of Melbourne and cured my homesick for Melb! Firstly, it has River Liffey which divedes Dublin into south and north side, and it has a lot of bridges above it… just like Melb. Then, Grafton Street is just like Bourke Street, except it is better, and without the tram. And yes, Dublin also has tram! Next, the button that you pushed to cross the road in Dublin is identical to Melb’s! Most importantly, I understood whatever that was going on around me – and I could eavesdrop! (HAHA! It’s another world here!)
Long-missed pumpkin souppppppppp at a café close to our hostel
Same as Melbourne’s!
Ha’penny Bridge – One of the million bridges on River Liffey
Grafton Street – you should be able to recognise this if you had watched Once
Temple Bar – WOOOHOOO!
Deco in TOPSHOP @ Grafton Street
After a long long search, we finally ended our long long day at a all-you-can-eat diner for 7 euro and went back to our Not-so-Shining Hostel… we checked ourselves into a dorm which we shared the room and an ensuite bathroom with 10 other people and its shower is not giving out any hot water!!!
This is our last day in Czech Republic! (I made it sound like I have been here forever, didn’t I?) We went back to the Pražský hrad (Prague Castle) to check out the paid components… turned out, there isn’t actually too much that is worth seeing… or maybe I was just severely affected by the cold weather that I couldn’t be bothered looking anymore… trust me, you will also get numbed after seeing more than ten European castle or churches, no matter how amazing they are. However, I do think the Zlatá ulička (Golden Lane) is quite interesting and visually attractive. It is made up of a row of tiny houses which are now served as little shops that sell souvenirs (or maybe that’s why it’s more attractive? ah well…)
Pražský hrad (Prague Castle)
After leaving the Castle, Greg and I then went on the wild search for Frank Gehry’s dancing house (Tančící dům in Czech if that means anything to you) which originally was named Fred & Ginger. I normally am not a big fan of Frank Gehry (Certainly was less of a fan after seeing the close resemblance of the Disney Opera House in LA and the Guggenheim in Bilbao!) But we really didn’t have too much left to do and this building has always looked so photogenic on Flickr that I couldn’t resist not to do some photographic documentation myself:
Being lured by the idea of having a hot bowl of Phở, Greg and I followed a local’s direction and went to the Vietnamese Market in Praha on tram. But I guess we arrived there too late, shops are starting to close – and I saw nothing resembling Phở, or any rice paper rolls… :( We finally went back to hostel and resort our dinner to pizza downstairs at our hostel with Nisha and Bala before going to Praha hlavní nádraží to wait for my past mid-night trains (4 changes on a night train by myself, you have no idea how much I was looking forward to it!!!) to Yvonne’s place at Zeulenroda in Germany.
Copyright © 2004–2009. All rights reserved.
RSS Feed. This blog is proudly powered by Wordpress and uses Modern Clix, a theme by Rodrigo Galindez.