Lets talk about the weather first. Everday is below 0 degrees. It snowed at night but i didnt get to see it. So i literally experienced a "white christmas", which i thought was quite cool (pun not intended) though..snow wasnt anything new or exciting to begin with. Apparently my family went to Eastern Europe at the time when winter just started. So you can imagine winter beginning already so cold. In January ,i was told the weather temperature drops all the way to 26 degrees below 0. Cool huh. So its damn dark and gloomy and cold and quite depressing. But then because it was close to christmas, night time is quite a sight actually.
The weather is also damn damn dry. I washed my clothes and let it hang in the toilet. The next day morning dry already. And my face is still undergoing massive natural skin dermabrasion due to excessive drying and peeling. Night occurs two third of a day. And my brother didnt want to go and mingle with the other kids.. so night was damn boring. Actually all the kids didnt mix together. Wasted.
There was this damn cute little boy. Very cute. On the flight back he used the aeroplane phone to call my seat. After saying hello close to 20 times, he told me he was sitting two seats in front of me........ so cute. His siblings are very quiet. His sister never spoke anything to me. His brother talked to me on the last two days. Very helpful. Helped us take family photo. On the last day took photos with them.. but i forgot to give them my email.. so they cant send it to me.. sian...K i cut myself out from the pic coz it was below my acceptable level of fugliness.
And i didnt know i actually knew someone on the tour! In fact the other person recognised me but i couldnt recognise her coz she cut her hair and she looked different. Only when i came back to singapore, i went online and she opened a convo with me. So i asked her where she went and she told me she was on the same tour! omg.. for 10 days.. i didnt know she was on the same tour as me. How retarded. More retardedly, she knew who i was but NEVER once even said hi. zzz
K here are some pics. The buildings all look old and very communist looking. Everthing is ex, even toilet must pay. Its also damn cold and boring coz its winter and everything is closed.
yay food! Saw this at a Christmas Market.
The Berlin Wall!!!! part of it actually. I saw my sec 3 and 4 history textbook come to life. Its 3 metres high and when it got torn down, many artists were invited to draw on the wall to reflect the whole issue of the Berlin Wall. But many unauthorised "artists" vandalised the orignal drawings and paintings.. ruining some of the great works.
This is one very good example of me taking photo of a monument we were supposed to see and not listen to what it was made for. As far as i know, its a gate to the old city of Berlin and Napoleon loved the chariot on top so much ( i love it too) that he wanted one in Paris also.
There. The chariot. Damn nice right?
Berlin, actually Germany, is famous for its pork knuckles. Its DAMN DAMN DAMN NICE!!! k being delicious is one thing. Being fattening is another. So eat it in moderation. LOL. Also this trip i drank wine almost everyday. One interesting thing during winter is hot wine. Its really nice. Its the drink next to the plate.
A random view of Prague. I think Budapest is better. Budapest is in Hungary. Prague is in Czech republic.
This is part of prague's city centre i think. i cant remember but the lights are damn nice. And in front of the building is a christmas market. Its like our pasar malam like that but more stable huts used as stalls, more christmassy feel and products sold. The whole market is quite big actually but my lousy photography skills due to lack of height makes its look less impressive than it really is.
This is inside a Cathedral. A damn huge cathedral and very beautiful. Its of gothic architecture and made in a few hundred years back la. And the cool thing about prague is that its all original. Unlike berlin and vienna and budapest, prague managed to preserve all its old towns and buildings because if you take history and remember, the Nazi's just came and occupied Czechoslovakia without any retaliation. So there were no bombs or destruction that destroyed any buildings or towns.
This is the astronomical clock in the Prague old town area. Its damn cool coz it shows you the moon and sun postion as well as time and the constellation that is closest to Earth? ( im not sure about this but its about constellations.)
This is a damn nice view of Prague's old town area with another Christmas Market. Its damn nice!!!!! like some fairy tale like that.
This is POLAND! Auswitch camp number 2! There are altogether 3 camps in Auswitch. This first camp is much smaller and its now a museum. I would post pictures but its too much. The torture of the jews is really.. mentally exhausting to even view in the museum. Look at the size of camp 2. This is the right hand side of camp 2. Theres a left hand side. Both sides are separated by a railway track which if you watched Schindler's list, would find very familiar. And the tour leader showed us the movie on the bus so when we got there, it was very weird to view something as horrid as this and to know how terrible the whole idea of concentration camps is.
This is the railway separating both sides. You can see how big the whole camp is. There were 65 million jews beore WW2. After WW2, only 7 million jews were left due to extermination and genocide. Sad huh. And as mentioned in the Bible, Jews will be scattered around the world, but God will unite them under 1 country. And in 19-something, Israel was formed and now there are around 150 jews left in Poland. The rest went to Israel.
This is camp 1. The entrance reads "work to be free". We all know how many people have read that and died. Very sad.
This is another random pic of jewish mushroom soup( very nice!) in bread. In fact poland and berlin are countries very jewish-like. But there are more Roman Catholic churches around.
My white christmas lol! The scenary while on the bus is nicer. But when i took them they became very blur. But the outside scenary arh.. woah..WHOLE FIELDS covered in snow. Coniferous trees with snow on them.damn nice. And sometimes you can see windmills. Those modern windmills are freaking big. And its very foggy so theres this ominous presence about those windmills when they just creep into sight as you drive nearer and suddenly you comprehend the sheer size of those things.
My white chrismas! from outside the bus along the way to .. i think its budapest.
Random pic number 3! Beautiful fat cold cute cat!!!!
This is in Budapest already. Its called Heroes Square coz there are many figurines of past kings and rulers inbetween the pillars. Its really really very majestic.
If you squint your eyes.. you can actually see the figures.
This is a damn nice view of the Pest side of Budapest. Budapest is made of the hilly region, Buda, and the plains, pest. So i was on the Buda region andyou can see the Pest side of the country. And its damn cold so its very foggy and mistly as well. But as you can see, the buildings and everything is really nice.
Another pic from a higher region to show the snow.
Random pic 4! FOOD!!! omg.. the food there is marvelous. The sausages are to die for.. the price kills you instantly. And I've been eating kitkat and maggie mee and drinking lots of coke and wine and apple juice. Every morning i eat scrambled eggs. I so love them. Generally, i love food. I love the food there too.
Nice lights at some shopping area. In European countries, the shopping areas in the town and whatsoever are only assesible by foot. So you have to walk very long in the cold and dark, admiring the nice lights and the hideously expensive stuff in the shop windows.
I went to watch a ballet at vienna opera house. And i got this box seat which was an experience coz i never sat in anything like this before. Basically its three seats in the first row, two seats second and last two seats third row. The last two seats are damn sucky coz you cant see anything. Luckily i got the middle seats. Thats my brother over there.
I remember Mr Leonard Tan telling us that there are standing seats. I got to see them!
This is the back of the box where you can put your coats and all that.
This is how big the opera house actually is. Impressive. Damn nice.
The weird thing about Vienna. Mozart isnt just a composer now. He is a brand! Chocolates full of his name and picture and shops selling them. OMG.. i tell you arh.. they are obsessed. Or either that they think tourists are all damn enthu about Mozart just coz he is popular. weird.
This is a TOILET! complete with the money eating machine and barriers to entry. Quite groovy for a toilet. It waas created by this industrial artist. Theres this street full of his stuff. Huntertwasser was his name. Very unique.
You see all the houses at the back? THEY ARE ALL SHOPS!!!! Its called a Factory Outlet. And its just rows of shops. Branded goods boutiques and all that. But price is no better than that in Singapore. Seriously. Singapore should have one. Vivocity is good but Factory Outlet just looks so much cooler. Its a one stop retail therapy centre. But i dun really like it coz there too many things and i dunno how to shop.
Hahaz this Auntie sells fish soup at my mum's office. And she is damn funny. She survived below freezing temperatures wearing only slippers and socks! OMG.. best.
Theres also this salt mine thing that i went to. But they only allowed one camera per family coz you NEED TO PAY TO TAKE PHOTOS!!!!!! So my dad has all the photos. But its damn cool. All year round 14 degress in those mines.. and its full of exits and very nice to see. I touched the walls and i tasted it.. its really salt. We are allowed to do that. lol.
