Berlin Day 1-29th March 2008

Arrival at Berlin Bus Station-07:15 hours

That's early.
Headed to the tourist office and waited till 8 before it opened
Checked out the various places we wanted to visit
All the war museums especially

Our first stop was the Brandenburger Tor.
The most visited tourist attraction in Berlin I guess.
12 columns.6 on each side.5 entry gateways
The middle one was the largest-meant for the king.
Citizens were allowed to use only the outer 2 gateways
On top of the gate is the Quadriga (a statue) representing Viktoria (Goddess of Victory)
When Napolean invaded Berlin
He took the Quadriga back to Paris and kept it
When the Germans took it back again, they changed her name to Nike
And installed the Iron Cross
It's grand!
It went through a lot of ups and downs in Berlin's history

The Gate (notice the middle gateway is larger)

Just for laughs! Imagine we were there in 1961. The Quadriga atop the gate. (see the new iron cross?)

When Hitler came into power

He passed through the gate as status that he's equivalent to a royalty
During the Cold War, the gate was held by the East Germany government
Which means if you want to enter East Germany,
You have to pass through the gate
Or Checkpoint Charlie

2nd on the itinerary.
the Free Walking Tour once again.
It originated from Berlin.
The group was so big that they actually split into 2.
There was this 2 really stylish, model-alike Czech guys in our group
One of them looks like Takeshi Kaneshiro
But Kim insisted he looks like Craig David instead
Anyway, we visited all the key places during the tour.

German Parliament Building
Designed by a British Architect
The rooftop of the building was made of glass which makes it transparent
Intention was that when politicians debate policies
They are constantly reminded of transparency
Also, the public will be seating there watching them
For the people, they exist
Constant reminder of democracy in Germany
which was once plagued by dictatorship

Jewish Holocaust Monument.
To the left of the Parliament building.
The Monument was right in the centre of the city
Unlike Munich, Berlin faces its Nazi Past and embraces it.
The monument was designed by a Jewish descendant.
He didn't explain the rationale behind the design
It was deliberately left unexplained to give people room to imagine
The 2 czech guys told us that it represents the Jewish Cemetry in Prague.
When I was in Prague, I caught a glimpse of it.

The Holocaust Monument. What do you think it represents?

The Interior of the Monument

Our guide gave us his perspective, which was the same as the one I'd in mind.

It represents uncertainty.
High and Low walls
As you move deeper and deeper
You don't see what's on top or to the right or left of you
It represents the kind of emotion the Jewish felt back then
You were brought to concentration camps
Separated from family and friends
You don't know what lies ahead of you

Not to be missed
Berlin Wall
The Wall no longer exists today but there are still bits and pieces
Only portion that was kept intact was the one we visited
There's a story behind it too
When Cold War begin
Soviet Union took control of East Germany
US & the allied forces West Germany
People from East germany started fleeing to West Germany
The SU were afraid that East Germany's economy would collapse
so they wanted to stop people from leaving East Germany
on 1961, August 13
The berlin wall was erected
It originated with barbed wires and East German soldiers with riffles standing guard
Improved wire fence next
Then cement was used to build the wall
And finally pipes were added atop the wall.
Purpose was that they wanted to deprive people of the grip when they try to climb the wall.
That didn't stop people from escaping because ladder was available.
Instead they introduced the death strip.
An area in between the walls that is covered with sand
Signal fencing, anti-vehicle trenches, barbed wires, dogs on long lines.
In order to escape, you 1st need to climb the wall at the East German side
then you had to run across the death strip
And climb another wall to get to West Germany
Most people died while moving across the death strip
There were watch towers, dogs etc
You will be shot if you attempt to escape.
Plus, you can't run that fast because of the sand which sinks your feet.
But don't be surprised, there were successful escape attempts but at a minimal level.

Berlin Wall-see those pipes on top?

Death Strip. Now it takes on a completely new look.

There's the topography of terror on display. It depicts Hitler's Nazi and the SS and its success to power. What they did between 1933-1945, to the Jewish, to the Polish etc. Sad...

Sorry but there are really lots of stories in berlin!
Next on Hitler's death.
Hitler was hiding in an underground bunker
when the Allied forces were busy bombing Germany
the bunker had 2 levels and it was huge!
larger than my house in Singapore! WTH !
He realised his time is up.
So he decided to marry his long-time companion
On the wedding, he poisoned himself, his new wife and his beloved dog
He also try to poison all the other soldiers with him
But he first made them burn his body first
He didn't want anyone to find his remains
Otherwise they will most probably be doing all sorts of evil things back
KARMA.
Who knows before his body was completely burnt
the SU troops found him.
But the SU soldiers wanted to play a trick on the Allied forces
The AF searched high and low for quite some time
Finally, the SU told them hitler's body was with them.
HILARIOUS

National Library
There stood a spot where you could see below
And see columns of bookshelves
It was there that Hitler started burning all books that opposed to his ideas.
I like this quote that lies upon there-Can't rmb exactly but the idea is this.
"If you start by burning books, then killing people will be the next to follow."
Oh ya, Albert Einstein has some Jewish blood.
He used to be a researcher and professor in Berlin
Fortunately he left Berlin b4 Hitler came to power :)

Enlarge this photo. It's the spot where books were burnt. You see bookshelves beneath.

University Einstein taught at. Why this monument? There was this son who pleaded his mom to let him go to war when he was only 16. After several attempts, his mom gave in. 10 days later, he died in the war. This is to commemorate the soldiers' wives and moms for the pain and agony of losing their beloved kin. It's structured with a really big hole in the top of the building where it's placed. The woman is holding his son in her arms. It's said that when it rains, it represents the mom crying for his son and when it's sunny, the light reflects on the statue and .... I can't rmb. hahaha...

Checkpoint Charlie next.
It's damn cool.
You see a photograph of an American soldier there.
That's because he was on guard at Checkpoint Charlie
The day when it was decided that the Berlin wall will be demolished.
At the east germany side, they hang the photograph of an East German soldier too.

From the picture above, you see crowds of people at the Britain flag. There are these FAKE soldiers carrying flags there and offering tourists the chance to take a photo and that costs you EUR 1 or 2 I think. Kim & I didn't want to pay so we took with our own cameras while the guard wasn't paying attention. That's why you see the photo beelow. Some Church in East BerlinThat's the TV tower. Voted ugliest architecture in Berlin! There's a story behind this TV tower. The Russians had built a TV tower back then and the East Germans wanted to imitate them. So they started to work on it. Halfway through, they met with some problems so they called up the Russians to seek help since both were under Communist Control. To their surprise, the TV tower in Russia was built by some Swedish engineers so in the end, the Germans got the Swedes to complete this TV tower. WTH?

Because of all the war stories and exhibitions,
It saddens us.
Though everything happened decades ago
till today you feel for the tragedy seeing all the photos.

My dreamed bag

I saw my dream bag at LV store, Stockholm yesterday.
I am so attempted to buy it.
But I have to make a choice.
It's either traveling or bag?
I shall wait till Paris.

Vienna Day 2-28th March 2008

The day started kinda early. We left the house at 8 a.m!

We wanted to do a self-walking tour in the city once again. Vienna is really a very beautiful city especially with its architecture and children playing musical instruments, harmonica, flute on the streets etc. There's music everywhere~~

I don't want to be too routine in my blog so I shall not describe every detail. It will just be of places we go to, pictures and stories here and there which we pick up along the way.

First stop-Stephen-platz (btw, platz means square in German I suppose.)
There stood one of the oldest church in Europe, St. Stephen Cathedral. The building is hard to miss seriously, right in the city centre. Oh ya, i would use infinity to estimate the no. of churches in Vienna. We passed by so many that I simply couldn't keep track of their names.

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Interior

St Paul's Cathedral if I remember correctly. :)

Where you see the column and the slope behind, that's Beethoven and his house.

Along the streets selling musical instruments

Along the way, there was the Parliament, the City Hall, Opera House, National Theatre, blah blah. I bet they have the largest no. of cultural related halls and museums in Europe!

Yet another church dominating Vienna's skyline

Vienna City Hall

Directly opposite the City Hall. It's either the National Museum, or National theatre. I don't remember. Connecting these 2 buildings lies statues of all kings and nobles in Vienna's history.

Counting down to Euro 2008-I'll most probably miss the event despite being in Europe! haha

Vienna parliament. I just like those statutes. They are beautiful ain't they?

3 guys posing some spastic shots.

An interesting event-We were outside the Parliament when there was this group of kids aged between 11-13 doing some street interview. They approached me and asked if they could interview me. Topic was "Do you think news reporting is being manipulated?" I told them we were tourists and Vienna news is alien to us. However, they say we can just comment on news in general. So Kim & I played around. They were really cute and the boy who acted as the reporter was really nervous. haha.. Singapore should start having these kind of school projects. It looks fun to me at least.

The Interviewers and Interviewees plus Crews!

Oh ya, Vienna's education system. They do not study English, Mathematics and Science separately. Instead, they go by the Unit of Inquiry way. So for every semester you will have 2-3 units of inquiry on different topics. For e.g Shopping, Water, Forces, Cooking etc. When you have shopping, you learn English vocabulary in shopping like groceries, retailers etc. In addition, you go on excursions to SHOPPING MALLS where you learn location of emergency exits, their purposes, what to do in cases of emergencies. That more or less cover a little of the Science aspect. You learn mathematics in problems of purchasing stuff. That sounds so interesting to me!

By noon, we were at the anchor clock. Trust me, it's one of the worst shows in my opinion. The music was poor and soft and it's just figures going in circles! Plus, it was late.

Anchor Clock-(To see the video, message me. I can't upload the file. it's too big.)

On the way to Beldervere Palace

Then off we bounce to Beldervere Palace. The lady at the Tourist Office recommended us to go there. Honestly, it's all Art Galleries inside the Palace now. Of course we skipped it. I mean our maturity level is not at the Art gallery stage yet honestly. hahaha..

Lower Beldervere

Upper Beldervere

Random fountain outside the palace

Now, we need some Viennese cuisine, don't we? One of their specialities is Schnitzel. It's actually pork chop but I assure you it's probably the best I'd eaten in my life so far. We were told to go to this cheap and good one but apparently it was only opened for lunch so by the time we arrived at 4p.m, it was closed. Instead, we settle for 2nd Best but it was still nice. :) The meat was fresh, juicy and tender! I didn't taste any stench of blood unlike those in Singapore where it's not well prepared. :)

Not to miss out, the Summer Palace of the Hofburg royalties. We didn't enter the state apartments this time though. I've been into at least 10 palaces so far!! There we saw the Spanish Riding School (where horses perform a show or two for you.) but we didn't catch the show. There was specific timings and we missed it. Btw, feedback from other friends were it was really boring. You pay 10 EUR to see horses trotting in circles. :(

Hofburg Palace

Ceiling of the interior. NICE!

Spanish Riding School

Where there's girls, there's shopping. haha.. We headed to 2 of the most popular shopping districts, Karlsplatz and the other Ma..platz. (can't recall the name). The best place to shop is always LONDON or rather the UK. haha...

Oh not to forget the famous Danube Tower. Coincidentally, it's within sight from Kim's dad's friend's house. We see it everyday but we didn't go up. Towers are the 2nd most visited attractions on my traveling list already. So sometimes, I should just skip 1 or 2 I think. Hahaha!! Plus, I forgot about photos :(

With that, I more or less summarized Vienna!
Wien, mit Vergnügen!

French Dinner

Happy Birthday JJ a.k.a Jin Jie! (Dated 19th April 2008)

14th April 2008 20:00hours -French Dinner

I just came back from Edinburgh in the afternoon
Was preparing for class when my french neighbour told me to be there
So after classes, I dumped my laundry immediately
It was at another student hostel
Had to arrange to go with the other students
Quick as I am, managed to reach the venue in time before 8p.m.

I don't know much about french food prior to this
Only the popular ones like ratatouille, crepes
According to others, weird stuff like snails, snakes etc ? haha..

France is my FAVOURITE country
Paris has always been my dreamed destination
French is the most pleasant language around!
AND, the dinner was FABULOUS!

Kicked off with small pieces of bread with some toppings on it
To be truthful, I really didn't know what was in it
Ate 3-4 pieces though.
Maybe eggs or salmon?
Anyway, it was good so it shuts my mouth. haha...

Started mingling with all my fellow friends whom I had not meet for ages
People were questioning my absence for the past month
Yeah & sorry, i was busy traveling!

Up next on the menu was some PIE stuff.
I think they call it the "Chrys Cake" or what.
There were 2 different flavours
One with mushroom and Blue cheese **Fav**
Other with salmon **I love salmon too!**

My french neighbour came with the mushroom one initially
But there was only one left.
Had to share with another 2 Japanese girls
Then he came with the salmon one
I was like,"can i have the mushroom one?" haha...
So he told me to wait there while he go get the mushroom one for me
However, another french girl offered me the mushroom before he did.

3rd Dish was Ratatouille!
As you know, I am not a veggy-lover
But I changed.
I eat vegetables nowadays.
Nevertheless, constraint amount. :)

The 4th one was probably the one all the girls were queuing FOR!
Yes-CHOCOLATE CAKE!
There's this Serbian girl and my Dutch neighour
3 of us came up with a plan to "guard" the cake
Once it was ready for consumption
We should get it.
Came up with a stupid "shift-duty" plan.
Hilarious but ended up everyone dispersed and forgot about it

Sadly, I didn't get to eat in the end :(
My french neighbour wanted to tease me
He was like,"Back off, Ginnelle.. You eat too much chocolates!"
I was like,"No, you can't deny me my precious."
In the end, both of us were laughing away that I actually forgot about the cake
Some other girls took it and in the end it was finished before I laid my fingers on it. :(
Instead, he gave me the Apple one. :)

The finale dish was Crepes!
I had it with lots of chocolate sauce!

Finally at 23:30 hours
I decided to leave.
All the girls had left except this Mexican guy
He stays in the same hostel as me but I only got to know him during the Mexican Party
But no worries, he's a reliable guy
So in the end we took the bus back together
He's damn cool too. He's a classical music composer!
I really like him as a friend. Economics major but his love for Art is those typical artist-like.

That's what I like about meeting people from different backgrounds
You really find out a lot about them
I love reading bibliographies.
I love listening to real-life stories.
As long as you are willing to share,
I am always MORE THAN WILLING to LISTEN. :)

Met the "bike gang" as we were leaving too.
Apparently, it used to be my French neighbour and the Barca guy who have bikes
The rest were influenced and now freaking 6 of them cycle everywhere
They were preparing to leave
I was like if Only one of them could ferry me back
It would be much faster.
My french neigbour was damn funny.
He cycled past me and turned round the corner
As I approach the corner, he was there waiting on his bike
"Ginnelle, I haven't bid you goodbye yet." hahaha..
Yeah that's the practice.
As the host, you are supposed to bid everyone Goodbye. :)
He's nice.
He said it in a joking manner,"Don't get raped. Be very careful on your way back and I'll see you back at Saltis."
The bus came and off I ran after it.

And, I appreciate his concern for my safety.

Vienna Day 1-27th March 2008

Before we could even begin our adventure at Vienna, we experienced a "scare-you-out-of-your-wits" in the woods. haha.. Why do I say that?

We were making our way to Kim's dad's friend house the night before from Salzburg. The instructions were rather clear but i guess Kim was pretty tired by all the traveling and she took the wrong route. We went right into a neighbourhood where construction was in progress and there was this huge grass patch nearby! Indeed we were lost. We had made a big round and if we were to trace back our original route and restart, it will probably take another 20 minutes. So we decided to take the risk and cut through the grass patch. God knows it was fenced. Luckily, we still managed to find a small path where we squeeze our way and get back to the main road and finally at our destination.

That was my 2nd time experiencing the feeling of "lost". 1st was Manchester. :)

Anyway, description about who we stayed with. It was an Indian family, Kim's dad's friend who used to live in Singapore but work and live in Vienna now. They were really nice. Two kids, a girl & a boy and honestly, I really enjoyed my stay with them. Imagine me, mixing around with Indians? haha.. Despite Singapore being a multi-racial society, I don't have much Indian friends except Jaya? This was a beyond description experience for me. I ate Indian cuisine and they are vegetarians so dinner was simple, tomato soup with Indian rice which apparently I no longer remember the name. There was also this fried potato puffs which I give TWO thumbs UP!

The kids were cute! I think I am just too BOYISH. Kim was mixing with the daughter all the time while I had a great time playing swords and fighting with the little son! haha.. He liked me so much that on the 2nd night, he waited for me to play with him again but because we were back late & in a rush to catch the night bus, I couldn't. I could sense his disappointment though.

Yet another cultural exchange that I've undergone during this trip :)

Sunny Day.Alfresco Dining for you?

Back to the itinerary for the day.
We first had to settle our bus to either Brussels or Berlin.
Bus to brussels then to Berlin would mean we would get proper rest since we will be putting up at a hostel in Berlin on Sunday night. In order not to screw things up, we decided to call up the Brussels' office to book our Brussels-Berlin connection. Hilarious! We used an international call booth and we started with 1 EUR. God knows it used up within like 3 minutes when I was halfway through the booking! It's as though we were fighting a battle following it because Kim had her coins in her hands and whenever the level went low, she had to quickly insert new coins!

Luck wasn't on our side because Brussels-Berlin connection was full on Saturday so we had to do the most CRAZIEST thing! Our connection became: Vienna-Berlin.Berlin-Brussels.Brussels-Berlin before we flew back to Stockholm. That simply means we will go without proper lodging for 3 nights. The seats on the bus became our beds :( For me, it would have been something do-able but definitely not Kim. She isn't really used to such hectic traveling and she fell sick on the 9th day of our 12-days trip, which is 2nd day on Vienna. I asked her if she could withstand the long bus journeys once again and she insisted she could. So we went ahead.

We spent almost the entire day at the Schonbrunn Palace, the winter palace of the Austrian royalties. Trust me, the Austrians have the BEST Palaces in all the nations that I've been to so far! It's amazing! This one was a bit out of the city centre and it's INSANELY HUGE. Yet there's another Summer Palace in the city centre whose size is no smaller than this.

Entrance of Schonbrunn Palace

Spastic Shot inside the garden terraces

Garden Terrace View

From the Balcony of the Palace

In order to fully experience the palace, we bought the classic pass which included our entrance into the state apartments, the apple strudel show (Austria is famous for strudels?), the Labyrinth Maze, rooftop terrace in the gardens, & the paranomic view tower. 14 EUR for all that, it's worth it I'd say. There's even a zoo in the palace. Initially we thought it was just a normal zoo so we skipped it. Who knows actually it was a zoo meant for the royalties! WTH? They build a zoo in the palace!

I like this. That's the paranomic view terrace in the background.

Close-up View

Paranomic view from the terrace.

Stairway to Heaven?

Once again, the photos are replacing my words.

The Labyrinth Maze

Where am I?

Lost.
Playing with the mirrors

Stupid Jump Shot! haha..

Prater Amusement Park

In the evening, we went to Prater, the amusement park in Vienna. There it stood, the oldest Ferris Wheel in Europe which has been standing for almost a 100 years if I remember correctly. Anyway, prater will be where the 2008 Euro Cup will be held. I couldn't see the stadium though because you have to walk quite a fair bit and we weren't sure of the directions. However, come June 2008, the metro will be ready to take you right to where the stadium is.

The ride which I've yet to try.

That's really for kids!

I've been on London Eye so ferris wheels no longer arouse my interest much. You need the right person on a Ferris Wheel. haha....

Before the sky darkened, we hurried to the supermarket to grab snacks though it was near dinner time! Woohoo~ But we gotta be back b4 1930 so we skipped our shopping plans...We met this really F***_up sales woman at the supermarket. Just because we couldn't speak German, she totally ignored us. She was sweeping the floor when we asked her if she could come by so we can check out.

1st attempt: Ignored us.
2nd attempt: Took a glance at us and continued her work
3rd attempt: Speak a string of German words which she didn't understand

The bill came up to 5.55 EUR. So we asked if we could give her 0.55 EUR. We said that at least 4 times but she completely IGNORED us and just gave us back our change of 4.45 EUR without muttering a word. What the hell is wrong with these people? There wasn't any smiles, not even a Danke! How rude can these people be!

Euro 2008!

Football for LIFE! ~