Hi,
After returning to Singapore for some time, I realised that I've been neglecting the blog for a long time. Been too busy and all.
Furthermore, with an incident that painfully reminded the perils of owning online material, I am finally closing down my blog.
Its been a long run, but thanks for stopping by!
love,
jiehui
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Tour of Capitals: Vienna
Ah, Vienna. Vienna was interesting. Definitely more so than Bratislava. The fact that the Hofburg castle is actually open for public should give a hint. I did so many note worthy things in Vienna that it was definitely very memorable. One thing that I recommend when visiting Vienna is that to make sure that it is the weekends when you visit. I was so glad that, by pure blind scheduling, we wound up in Vienna over the weekends. There is SO much going on during weekends.
For example, the open air Market is the biggest during saturdays. There was so much variety there at the market. It is different from all the other open air markets that I had visited, be it in France or Switzerland. The range of goods available for sale is pretty mind boggling. They had a side for food and another side for a flea market and the items sold in both areas run from the high-quality wine down to the cheapest fake trinkets one could find. The range of things that one could find there is just mind boggling. Its like having a hyper department store out in the sun!
There at the market, we encountered a stall selling wine, Honey Wine. The stall owner let us have a taste of the wine and I must say, it is one of the best alcohol I had ever tasted.
Well, granted, I don't particularly drink much. Beer, red and white wine and the occasional mixed liquor that my sis happened to concoct at home are all about sum up my drinking experiences so I wouldn't really know how good alcohol tastes like. But that honey wine is really something. One thing nice about it is that it is sweet. Really sweet. Not really honey mixed with wine, but tasted more like honey flavoured wine. Afterall, it IS wine that was brewed from honey. I loved it so much that I started wondering if I could bring it back to Switzerland. Ah, but no such luck, I didn't get check in luggage for my flight back to Switzerland (cheapo flights lah...).
Even so, that didn't stop us from buying a bottle of that stuff to share back at the hostel. We even got so well along with the stall owner that he gave us a bottle, FREE OF CHARGE!! What a nice man he is!
Anyway, the best way to show you the coolness of the market is through the pictures that I have taken!
Look how crowded the market is!
The strange species of vegetables are pretty curious. So these are the types of vegetables that they eat...
Turkish snacks. Oh, one thing. In Europe, one can find turkish food like kebabs and that big column of meat on a vertical rotisserrie thing almost everywhere. Its like the cheap fast food here.
Random stall selling second hand stuff.
As you can tell, they sell mainly german books but occasionally, you can see some english books. Evidently, this stall owner is anxious to make this fact known...
Besides food, we also went to do some cultural stuff! Mainly, WE WENT TO AN OPERA!! :-D
Thats right folks, we went for an opera in Vienna! Isn't that really expensive, one may ask, and the answer is Yes, but....
So yes, the tickets into the opera are typically expensive. It could cost anywhere from 40 euros to 100 plus euros. However, the Vienna State Opera also allows people to enter and watch the opera at a much reduced rate - 3.50 euros. YEP! ITS less than 5 euros!! Since it can't be that perfect, there are drawbacks. You have to wait in queue for about 2 hours and after that, you have to stand through the entire opera. The ushers there are very anal about patrons not leaving the queue once they are in and the number of tickets each person are allowed to buy. One ticket per person. No more, no less, all for the same price. Strict, but made sense since there are loads of people trying to get in and there are very limited standing space at the back of the auditorium.
The best picture I have of the interior. The rest are too blur... Sorry about that...
The opera that I went for turned out NOT to be My Fair Lady, as I thought it was, but another REAL opera titled "The Gold Ring" based on a mythology that I had forgottened. It was sung entirely in German, but there were english subtitles available at the stands. However, because there was limited space, and I wasn't lucky enough to "chope" a space that was infront of the subtitle machine, I had to spend the opera alternating between staring down the chest of the japanese lady in front of me to get a look of what the hell they were singing, or trying to peek at the machine nearest to me. For the former method, I think the japanese lady had a notion that I might have been a pervert and so she completely blocked my view of the machine by putting her back to me. As for the latter method, my eyes couldn't squint out the words and I could only vaguely make out lines and squiggles, hard as I've tried though. In the end, I just chose to listen and watch. It is sufficient to say that I was so glad when the second act ended and we made a dash for the exit.
Oh, but though I didn't appreciate the opera, the interior of the State Opera and just the experience of attending one of these events is well worth the money, especially if you have an evening free. The interior is smaller than I thought, with less decorations, more boxes. The people dress up to go to the opera. Even the people who came for the standing area, several of them were wearing gowns, shirt and ties. Some even had those binoculars thing that looked like an artifact from the 16th century. (No idea why they needed it though. Maybe to catch sight of a piece of dinner from the singers' teeth. Who knows? ;-P )
The other cultural thing (or maybe religious...) that we did was to attend Mass at the Burgkapelle, the imperial chapel that is located within the Hofburg Palace, which meant waking up really early to get there. It was more cultural than religious for me because I was really only there for the chapel and their main attraction: The Vienna Boys Choir.
For the uninitiated, the Vienna Boys Choir is one of the oldest choir in the world. Formed in 1498 by Maximilian I of Habsburg, it is now one of the most famous boy choirs in the world (from wiki). Their concerts are pretty always really expensive to go but if you wake up really early to start queueing at the chapel, you can listen to them for free, but, as usual, at the standing area which is along the main aisle. On our way to the Palace, we met this young man in a suit and tie on the metro who got off at the same stop as us. Using our impressive abilities of induction, we deduced that this guy had somethong to do with our destination and so we asked him for directions. Indeed, he was heading to the palace for work as one of the helpers and he kindly offered to lead us to the chapel. During the short walk, he told us a little about the choir, him being one of them several years back. He said that the boys stay in the choir for only four years and that the whole choir was actually mde up of 4 (I think) smaller choirs. One of them is the Schubert choir, from which he belonged. So today's (or that day's) choir was sung by one of those four choirs, not the entire troop of them. Still, it was pretty cool, I think.
It was an hour and a hlf worth of waiting again for the entry to the chapel. Oh, one could get seats in the chapel instead of standing, for 9 euros, if I'm correct. I find the whole "you must pay to enter the church" thing ridiculous but I'm not saying anything more on it...
The interior of the chapel is every bit as grand as the exterior of it. Sadly, I don't have any pictures on it, I used my friend's camera because Olympus gives blurry results in low battery and dim conditions. Bottom line: Come back in about a week's time...
In the chapel, the cameras flashed. When the mass started, the cameras flashed a little more for a while. At the end of the mass, when the Boys came out, it was mayhem... There was this slight sally of people forward to take the pictures of them that I got even more squeezed than I already am. They didn't even care about the commotion they were causing. Its a mass and it haven't ended yet, for god's sake. To top the whole absurdity of it all, when the Boys finished the ending piece, everyone clapped. Gee, talk about sacred rituals... It was like attending the opera yesterday all over again. I don't know what to feel or how to react. I felt a little ashamed for those who clapped actually... Ah well, I rather not talk about this furthur here else it might run on several pages (and I REALLY need toget back studying again). Anyway, it appeared that it is a common occurance since neither the Boys nor the priests batted an eye. That's that.
Moving on, after the mass, since we were at the Palace already, we decided to tour around the Palace, visiting the museums they have there. The stuff on display at the museum was not so much on the Austrian history but more on the decadent lifestyle of the royals of that time. Yes, we went to visit their Imperial appartments and an exhibition of the imperial silver collection. Silver as in the cutlery collection. Don't ask me why, but yea, we spent an hour looking at plates, forks, spoons and knives used by the imperial family. Interesting stuff though. Some were so expensive that one could probably buy a car from a set of these stuff...
The more interesting exhibitions were the tour of the Imperial Apartments and the SiSi Museum.
While not as over-the-top decadent and did not scream as loudly "Look at me! I'm Bloody Rich" as the Chateau de Versailles, the palace gave a good idea of how the royal family, especially that of the second last, but one of their most respected ruler, Franz Josef I of Austria, lived.
Yes, picture time. Unfortunately, again, the pictures are with my friends. Sorry about that.
I would love to describe it all to you, but this is one of the times where words would not do much good except for your optometrist's business. I will, however, put in pictures from the net. Hopefully, thats better than nothing.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2374/2293280257_094948dd06.jpg?v=0
Dining room. Oh, note the napkins on the plates. Evidently, the way the napkins are folded is a state kept secret that only 2 person know. There are holes in the napkins to allow bread rolls to be placed in them.
http://www.rumormillnews.com/images/Kaiser%20Franz%20Josef.jpg
The Emperor Franz Josef I... He seemed like a decent emperor. Really hardworking, loved his subjects who in turn loved him.
http://www.jci.cc/images/33/30/Empress%20Sisi.jpg
Empress Elisabeth (known also as Sisi) of Austria, the neurotic wife of Emperor Franz Josef I.
She's a real beauty, this lady. From the Sisi Museum (yes, named after her, with displays about her life) it seemed that she really liked the Emperor. Too bad that he IS the emperor, because that meant that she had to be queen. She hated the attention it came with being a queen and it made her a little weird. It could be inferred from the exhibits that the Emperor loved her that he overlooked her oddity.
How odd is she? Well, she was obsessive about maintaining her figure, exercises a whole lot that she even has gymnastic hoops in her room, traveled a lot to escape from the courts and was really adament on not showing her face in public in her later years (so much so that she always carried an umbrella or wore a veil in public). Can't blame her though. No one said that it was easy being a queen.
Ah shit, look at the time. I've been writing this for 2 plus hours... Need to study...
Next up (when I have the time) - Tour of capitals: Prague.
À plus!
For example, the open air Market is the biggest during saturdays. There was so much variety there at the market. It is different from all the other open air markets that I had visited, be it in France or Switzerland. The range of goods available for sale is pretty mind boggling. They had a side for food and another side for a flea market and the items sold in both areas run from the high-quality wine down to the cheapest fake trinkets one could find. The range of things that one could find there is just mind boggling. Its like having a hyper department store out in the sun!
There at the market, we encountered a stall selling wine, Honey Wine. The stall owner let us have a taste of the wine and I must say, it is one of the best alcohol I had ever tasted.
Well, granted, I don't particularly drink much. Beer, red and white wine and the occasional mixed liquor that my sis happened to concoct at home are all about sum up my drinking experiences so I wouldn't really know how good alcohol tastes like. But that honey wine is really something. One thing nice about it is that it is sweet. Really sweet. Not really honey mixed with wine, but tasted more like honey flavoured wine. Afterall, it IS wine that was brewed from honey. I loved it so much that I started wondering if I could bring it back to Switzerland. Ah, but no such luck, I didn't get check in luggage for my flight back to Switzerland (cheapo flights lah...).
Even so, that didn't stop us from buying a bottle of that stuff to share back at the hostel. We even got so well along with the stall owner that he gave us a bottle, FREE OF CHARGE!! What a nice man he is!
Anyway, the best way to show you the coolness of the market is through the pictures that I have taken!
Look how crowded the market is!
The strange species of vegetables are pretty curious. So these are the types of vegetables that they eat...
Turkish snacks. Oh, one thing. In Europe, one can find turkish food like kebabs and that big column of meat on a vertical rotisserrie thing almost everywhere. Its like the cheap fast food here.
Random stall selling second hand stuff.
As you can tell, they sell mainly german books but occasionally, you can see some english books. Evidently, this stall owner is anxious to make this fact known...Besides food, we also went to do some cultural stuff! Mainly, WE WENT TO AN OPERA!! :-D
Thats right folks, we went for an opera in Vienna! Isn't that really expensive, one may ask, and the answer is Yes, but....
So yes, the tickets into the opera are typically expensive. It could cost anywhere from 40 euros to 100 plus euros. However, the Vienna State Opera also allows people to enter and watch the opera at a much reduced rate - 3.50 euros. YEP! ITS less than 5 euros!! Since it can't be that perfect, there are drawbacks. You have to wait in queue for about 2 hours and after that, you have to stand through the entire opera. The ushers there are very anal about patrons not leaving the queue once they are in and the number of tickets each person are allowed to buy. One ticket per person. No more, no less, all for the same price. Strict, but made sense since there are loads of people trying to get in and there are very limited standing space at the back of the auditorium.
The best picture I have of the interior. The rest are too blur... Sorry about that...
The opera that I went for turned out NOT to be My Fair Lady, as I thought it was, but another REAL opera titled "The Gold Ring" based on a mythology that I had forgottened. It was sung entirely in German, but there were english subtitles available at the stands. However, because there was limited space, and I wasn't lucky enough to "chope" a space that was infront of the subtitle machine, I had to spend the opera alternating between staring down the chest of the japanese lady in front of me to get a look of what the hell they were singing, or trying to peek at the machine nearest to me. For the former method, I think the japanese lady had a notion that I might have been a pervert and so she completely blocked my view of the machine by putting her back to me. As for the latter method, my eyes couldn't squint out the words and I could only vaguely make out lines and squiggles, hard as I've tried though. In the end, I just chose to listen and watch. It is sufficient to say that I was so glad when the second act ended and we made a dash for the exit.
Oh, but though I didn't appreciate the opera, the interior of the State Opera and just the experience of attending one of these events is well worth the money, especially if you have an evening free. The interior is smaller than I thought, with less decorations, more boxes. The people dress up to go to the opera. Even the people who came for the standing area, several of them were wearing gowns, shirt and ties. Some even had those binoculars thing that looked like an artifact from the 16th century. (No idea why they needed it though. Maybe to catch sight of a piece of dinner from the singers' teeth. Who knows? ;-P )
The other cultural thing (or maybe religious...) that we did was to attend Mass at the Burgkapelle, the imperial chapel that is located within the Hofburg Palace, which meant waking up really early to get there. It was more cultural than religious for me because I was really only there for the chapel and their main attraction: The Vienna Boys Choir.
For the uninitiated, the Vienna Boys Choir is one of the oldest choir in the world. Formed in 1498 by Maximilian I of Habsburg, it is now one of the most famous boy choirs in the world (from wiki). Their concerts are pretty always really expensive to go but if you wake up really early to start queueing at the chapel, you can listen to them for free, but, as usual, at the standing area which is along the main aisle. On our way to the Palace, we met this young man in a suit and tie on the metro who got off at the same stop as us. Using our impressive abilities of induction, we deduced that this guy had somethong to do with our destination and so we asked him for directions. Indeed, he was heading to the palace for work as one of the helpers and he kindly offered to lead us to the chapel. During the short walk, he told us a little about the choir, him being one of them several years back. He said that the boys stay in the choir for only four years and that the whole choir was actually mde up of 4 (I think) smaller choirs. One of them is the Schubert choir, from which he belonged. So today's (or that day's) choir was sung by one of those four choirs, not the entire troop of them. Still, it was pretty cool, I think.
It was an hour and a hlf worth of waiting again for the entry to the chapel. Oh, one could get seats in the chapel instead of standing, for 9 euros, if I'm correct. I find the whole "you must pay to enter the church" thing ridiculous but I'm not saying anything more on it...
The interior of the chapel is every bit as grand as the exterior of it. Sadly, I don't have any pictures on it, I used my friend's camera because Olympus gives blurry results in low battery and dim conditions. Bottom line: Come back in about a week's time...
In the chapel, the cameras flashed. When the mass started, the cameras flashed a little more for a while. At the end of the mass, when the Boys came out, it was mayhem... There was this slight sally of people forward to take the pictures of them that I got even more squeezed than I already am. They didn't even care about the commotion they were causing. Its a mass and it haven't ended yet, for god's sake. To top the whole absurdity of it all, when the Boys finished the ending piece, everyone clapped. Gee, talk about sacred rituals... It was like attending the opera yesterday all over again. I don't know what to feel or how to react. I felt a little ashamed for those who clapped actually... Ah well, I rather not talk about this furthur here else it might run on several pages (and I REALLY need toget back studying again). Anyway, it appeared that it is a common occurance since neither the Boys nor the priests batted an eye. That's that.
Moving on, after the mass, since we were at the Palace already, we decided to tour around the Palace, visiting the museums they have there. The stuff on display at the museum was not so much on the Austrian history but more on the decadent lifestyle of the royals of that time. Yes, we went to visit their Imperial appartments and an exhibition of the imperial silver collection. Silver as in the cutlery collection. Don't ask me why, but yea, we spent an hour looking at plates, forks, spoons and knives used by the imperial family. Interesting stuff though. Some were so expensive that one could probably buy a car from a set of these stuff...
The more interesting exhibitions were the tour of the Imperial Apartments and the SiSi Museum.
While not as over-the-top decadent and did not scream as loudly "Look at me! I'm Bloody Rich" as the Chateau de Versailles, the palace gave a good idea of how the royal family, especially that of the second last, but one of their most respected ruler, Franz Josef I of Austria, lived.
Yes, picture time. Unfortunately, again, the pictures are with my friends. Sorry about that.
I would love to describe it all to you, but this is one of the times where words would not do much good except for your optometrist's business. I will, however, put in pictures from the net. Hopefully, thats better than nothing.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2374/2293280257_094948dd06.jpg?v=0Dining room. Oh, note the napkins on the plates. Evidently, the way the napkins are folded is a state kept secret that only 2 person know. There are holes in the napkins to allow bread rolls to be placed in them.
http://www.rumormillnews.com/images/Kaiser%20Franz%20Josef.jpgThe Emperor Franz Josef I... He seemed like a decent emperor. Really hardworking, loved his subjects who in turn loved him.
http://www.jci.cc/images/33/30/Empress%20Sisi.jpgEmpress Elisabeth (known also as Sisi) of Austria, the neurotic wife of Emperor Franz Josef I.
She's a real beauty, this lady. From the Sisi Museum (yes, named after her, with displays about her life) it seemed that she really liked the Emperor. Too bad that he IS the emperor, because that meant that she had to be queen. She hated the attention it came with being a queen and it made her a little weird. It could be inferred from the exhibits that the Emperor loved her that he overlooked her oddity.
How odd is she? Well, she was obsessive about maintaining her figure, exercises a whole lot that she even has gymnastic hoops in her room, traveled a lot to escape from the courts and was really adament on not showing her face in public in her later years (so much so that she always carried an umbrella or wore a veil in public). Can't blame her though. No one said that it was easy being a queen.
Ah shit, look at the time. I've been writing this for 2 plus hours... Need to study...
Next up (when I have the time) - Tour of capitals: Prague.
À plus!
Monday, June 15, 2009
A quick insert
Haha, never thought I would say this, but I missed those raging thunderstorms back home.
The storms are pretty mild here. Usually in the form of a mild drizzle.
Right now, there is a storm going on outside but its magnitude is nowhere near the magnificent ones back in Singapore.
Ah, I miss the storms... But only when I'm safe and warm at home and not out there in the rain.
The storms are pretty mild here. Usually in the form of a mild drizzle.
Right now, there is a storm going on outside but its magnitude is nowhere near the magnificent ones back in Singapore.
Ah, I miss the storms... But only when I'm safe and warm at home and not out there in the rain.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Tour of Capitals: Bratislava
Bratislava is the little known capital of Slovakia, a country nestled in the middle of Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine and Poland. After its seperation from Czechoslovakia in 1989, the Slovak Republic was established with Bratislava being the capital.
Bratislava seemed to be the poorer brother of its former sibling, Prague. It reminded me, in many parts, of Malaysia. More of those less developed parts of Malaysia, like Ipoh. There are little skyscrapers or modern buildings. The streets are dustier, buildings look older and the general feeling of the place is a little dilapited.
There wasn't a free tour of Bratislava. In fact, we did not intend to go to Bratislava at all. I just happened to see it on google maps and saw that it was a capital and so slotted it into the itinery. A one day tour of the place to see how it looked like.
I didn't remember much about Bratislava. On the first day that we arrived, we heard that there was this food festival going on. Thus, we set out to search for it. We asked this man in the park where the festival was supposed to be held and he kindly offered to show us the way. Well, turns out that the expo that he brought us to didn't exactly sell food. It was an exhibition for coins and there was a 2 euro entrance fee that we got duped into paying. To cut the story short, we ended up looking at coins instead of food.
However, there is a silver lining.
In the expo, they have a food stall thingy going on that sold lunch. Being famished from all that walking, we decided to settle ourselves and make full use of our 2 euro entrance fee.
Although Slovakia is using euros, their prices are still far from the price in France or Vienna so that meant that we could still have a decent meal. I ordered a sausage and a soup. The sausage had traces of lard in them again, but it was better than the one in Budapest. It had more flavour... But what I liked from that meal was the soup. It was the sour cabbage soup that I had mentioned earlier. Ahh... I don't have the pictures cos its with my friends. Have to get it from them. But anyway, it looks like shredded vegetable soup, and it IS shredded vegetable soup. Its just that it is sour. Like tom yam soup, but not spicy at all. Yea, that is a pretty close description.
After lunch, we just walked around the old town. It was a bummer that the Bratislava castle was closed due to reparations and the other castle, Devin castle, was a pretty long bus ride from town. In the end, we didn't go to the important destinations and had to be content with just the old town.
There wasn't anything much that we hadn't already seen in our tours. But, I have to point out a very curious church that we visited - the Blue Church.
Just like what the name suggests, the Blue church IS blue. From the roof down to the doors.
The architecture is curiously like the one in Budapest and I could have sworn that there were turkish influences on the design of the building.
When we arrived, it was in time for a session of mass. There was this kind elderly lady who beckoned us to enter the church, saying (more like gesturing though, cos we didn't understand slovakian). Inside was also a curious study of design. Yes, even the interior was blue. Blue in the candy sort of way... So this must be how Oz looked like from Dorothy's point of view, except that its all baby blue instead of green. Hmm. Interesting.
All pictures from the Blue church was taken off the big WWW. I don't think it was polite of me to be snapping my camera when a mass is ongoing. But evidently, many people don't think the same way, as seen in Vienna when I DID attend a session of mass. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself. That is another story to tell. Stick around a little while I finish up Bratislava.
Anyway, the main highlight of Bratislava had to be the food. Really, I'm such a pig. First thing when we arrived is always to check out the local food market. Haha. Its a nice place, a good place to find out more about the local people and their ways. And besides, they often sell great cheap food!
But no more filet mignon for me in Bratislava. However, I did stock up on plenty of junk food to bring back to Switzerland. I had bought 3 giant Snickers, an Ice cream (my first Ice cream since Singapore!! Gelato doesn't really count...) and 2 bagfuls of nuts and dried fruits. Honestly, I think I'm so healthy in Switzerland because I am too broke to spend money on junk food... A pack of chips for 2 Fr (about SGD2.70)? No thanks, man!
Also, evidently, the beer here is pretty good too, so we bought a can of local beer to try. Not too bad, a little better than Tiger, I think, but I still prefer the german beer that I can get here in Switzerland.
What else is there to say about Bratislava? Hmm... Not much, I think.
Perhaps it would have been much better if we went to the outskirts of the city to the Devin Castle. After all, I heard that the view there is nice. Too bad we had so little time.
Bratislava seemed to be the poorer brother of its former sibling, Prague. It reminded me, in many parts, of Malaysia. More of those less developed parts of Malaysia, like Ipoh. There are little skyscrapers or modern buildings. The streets are dustier, buildings look older and the general feeling of the place is a little dilapited.
There wasn't a free tour of Bratislava. In fact, we did not intend to go to Bratislava at all. I just happened to see it on google maps and saw that it was a capital and so slotted it into the itinery. A one day tour of the place to see how it looked like.
I didn't remember much about Bratislava. On the first day that we arrived, we heard that there was this food festival going on. Thus, we set out to search for it. We asked this man in the park where the festival was supposed to be held and he kindly offered to show us the way. Well, turns out that the expo that he brought us to didn't exactly sell food. It was an exhibition for coins and there was a 2 euro entrance fee that we got duped into paying. To cut the story short, we ended up looking at coins instead of food.
However, there is a silver lining.
In the expo, they have a food stall thingy going on that sold lunch. Being famished from all that walking, we decided to settle ourselves and make full use of our 2 euro entrance fee.
Although Slovakia is using euros, their prices are still far from the price in France or Vienna so that meant that we could still have a decent meal. I ordered a sausage and a soup. The sausage had traces of lard in them again, but it was better than the one in Budapest. It had more flavour... But what I liked from that meal was the soup. It was the sour cabbage soup that I had mentioned earlier. Ahh... I don't have the pictures cos its with my friends. Have to get it from them. But anyway, it looks like shredded vegetable soup, and it IS shredded vegetable soup. Its just that it is sour. Like tom yam soup, but not spicy at all. Yea, that is a pretty close description.
After lunch, we just walked around the old town. It was a bummer that the Bratislava castle was closed due to reparations and the other castle, Devin castle, was a pretty long bus ride from town. In the end, we didn't go to the important destinations and had to be content with just the old town.
There wasn't anything much that we hadn't already seen in our tours. But, I have to point out a very curious church that we visited - the Blue Church.
Just like what the name suggests, the Blue church IS blue. From the roof down to the doors.
The architecture is curiously like the one in Budapest and I could have sworn that there were turkish influences on the design of the building.
When we arrived, it was in time for a session of mass. There was this kind elderly lady who beckoned us to enter the church, saying (more like gesturing though, cos we didn't understand slovakian). Inside was also a curious study of design. Yes, even the interior was blue. Blue in the candy sort of way... So this must be how Oz looked like from Dorothy's point of view, except that its all baby blue instead of green. Hmm. Interesting.All pictures from the Blue church was taken off the big WWW. I don't think it was polite of me to be snapping my camera when a mass is ongoing. But evidently, many people don't think the same way, as seen in Vienna when I DID attend a session of mass. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself. That is another story to tell. Stick around a little while I finish up Bratislava.Anyway, the main highlight of Bratislava had to be the food. Really, I'm such a pig. First thing when we arrived is always to check out the local food market. Haha. Its a nice place, a good place to find out more about the local people and their ways. And besides, they often sell great cheap food!
But no more filet mignon for me in Bratislava. However, I did stock up on plenty of junk food to bring back to Switzerland. I had bought 3 giant Snickers, an Ice cream (my first Ice cream since Singapore!! Gelato doesn't really count...) and 2 bagfuls of nuts and dried fruits. Honestly, I think I'm so healthy in Switzerland because I am too broke to spend money on junk food... A pack of chips for 2 Fr (about SGD2.70)? No thanks, man!
Also, evidently, the beer here is pretty good too, so we bought a can of local beer to try. Not too bad, a little better than Tiger, I think, but I still prefer the german beer that I can get here in Switzerland.
What else is there to say about Bratislava? Hmm... Not much, I think.
Perhaps it would have been much better if we went to the outskirts of the city to the Devin Castle. After all, I heard that the view there is nice. Too bad we had so little time.
Tour of Capitals: Budapest
Budapest, the capital of present day Hungary, has a long and colourful history from its humble origins of a Celtic settlement from eons ago to one of the most beautiful capital cities of Europe. It is not a joke that Budapest is made up of two cities, Buda and Pest. Honest.
Anyway, we attended this free tour that was held by this really cool guide. A great tip for those travelling on a budget like us students: Look for free tours and attend them! Its a really cool way of getting to know a city well. One thing that I pretty much dislike about travelling is the fact that I can look at a building and not know its significance. For all I know, I could be standing on some historical noteworthy place and wouldn't know! Its like finding gold but thinking it was lead and throw it away!
But I digress. The free tour was really VERY informative. The tour guide was very helpful and very knowledgeable about the subject. Being a history graduate and had studied english at a local university, she should be! She spent like 30 minutes explaining the origins of Budapest, the language and the many dynasties that came to rule. For brevity, I shall omit much of the history here, but it makes the tour of the place more significant when one realises the history behind major monuments and appreciate the city more. For example, when we first arrived, we found the people here to be pretty gloomy, as in general sales people and those on the streets.
There wasn't any buskers around and the people seemed to be unwilling to help strangers (e.g. us) and sometimes they are just outright unfriendly. Even the service quality left much to be desired. But the tour guide explained that after the second world war, things were generally very bad for the hungarian economy. Hungary had amassed huge national debts and the economy is not faring well, and the people are shouldering the brunt of the damage. Many people are working 2 to 3 jobs just to make ends meet. The tour guide herself is also holding multiple jobs, this tour job being one of them (we give tips...). From the fall of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire to the economy crisis, the Hungarians were just hit with wave after wave of bad news. No wonder they have such dour dispositions. Made me glad that Singapore has such a stable government that has means to adapt to most financial crisis.
Anyway, on to more happy thought, the views of Budapest is not too bad. The architecture is european but has a disticnt flavour from Switzerland or France. Instead, if I have to describe, I would say it is mainly european, but with a hungarian twist. It has its fair share of Gothic and Baroque styled magnificent buildings, just like France and the other european capitals. But there is a kind of touch that reminded me of Turkey.
For example, there are buildings there that have roofs of coloured tiles and rounded domes, not those onion domes of Islamic structures, but more like those absurd old french style parasols that are streched length-wards, like a mushroom. This was probably a reflection of the Turks' rule during their period of conquests and expansion.
Buildings like the Musuem of Applied Arts shows one of the many buildings that were built in this style.
From Wikipedia.
I won't bother you with the details on what I did step by step like I did in the France Chronicles, so I'll highlight the notable ones.
Lets see... We went to the Great Market Hall that was much featured in many books and guides. Pretty interesting, especially on the upper level where the cooked food stalls and the touristy trinkets could be found. I had my first taste of Hungarian cuisine there, where I tried their Hungarian sausage and a cabbage roll. Totally did not know that Hungarians eat lard like meat till a friend mentioned. The sausage had chunks of lard that were visible. If I don't think about the lard, the sausage actually tastes pretty bland. The sausage that my friend had was better. Slightly spiced with much lesser lard. I loved the way the people here do their cabbages. They have it sour here. I tried some cabbage that were stewed in vinegar, sour cabbage soup that my friend said bore a resemblance to kimchi and the aforementioned cabbage roll was just delectable. It was just noodles wrapped in cabbage but the whole combination was really good. Made me wonder how they did it. I could have asked the lady behind the counters, but I had this feeling that she might bite my head off...
The round thing on the top left is the cabbage roll, beside it is the sausage. Check out those pieces of fat in them (blow them up)!
It was in Hungary that I became a Thousandaire. The exchange rates were like 1 euro to 242 HUF. I had changed 100 euros, so that made me an instant thousandaire. I could finally say that I had thousands to spare!
The prices in Hungary are great for meat deprived people like me. I ate a very nice Filet Mignon in a cafe like place for 2790 HUF. For the uninitiated, filet mignon is probably one of the most expensive cuts you can find in a cow because it is the tenderest part and each cow only has a small portion of it. It could easily cost above SGD 50 at a restaurant but if you don't let the 4-figure sum deceive you, it set me back at about SGD 20 or 10 Euros. Not too bad a deal at all!! It was great and I felt so satisfied after that that I probably went to sleep with a smile. :-D Jealous? Too bad! Haha. In short, it was a splurge well spent although that meant I had to be prudent for the remaining leg of Budapest.
Besides the meat, I had also tried the pastries there. We went to a place called Retesvar that was near the castle and tried a hungarian pastry named Rete. Its a studel with sweet or savory. It wasn't too bad, but the prices were probably a rip off due to its touristy location. But I read from another blog that the Great Market Hall has a stall that has great Rete. Should have tried it there. But anyway, I also bought several other types of hungarian pastries from a bakery near our hostel. Not too bad. Nothing fancy, just normal stuff that is good for tea.
Budapest is also known for its many thermal baths and spas. Baths and spas were brought in from the Romans, who had found and built many of the baths that are present today.So, being set to try anything Hungarian, we went to a bath! Just nice, our guided tour led us to one of the biggest thermal baths in Budapest, the Széchenyi Spa. (I won't even bother trying to pronounce the name. We just called it the S bath...)
The bath was... an experience. The main outdoor pool is really just a heated pool with jets of water around and a cool whirlpool place in the middle of it. Great to just sit at a fet and let the pulse massage your body. The pools in the interior of the building are just heated swimming pools. Like a huge pot of water where people come in to stew in. The place would have been paradise if it were private and I could stay in it all day long. Unfortunately, it wasn't private and we had to get out sooner or later. When we got out, the sun had set and so it was ass-bitingly cold. We had to scurry into the toilets like a bunch of soaked mices to get warm because they don't provide towels beside the pool, but near the toilets down below. It was a great experience, getting to soak in the warmth of the pool while admiring the moon behind the domed roof ot the bath. Where is that glass of champagne when you need one?! ;-D
Well, that was the more interesting aspect of the tour. For other interesting aspects, lets look at the pictures to jog my memory...
During our tour, the tour guide pionted out that this statue of a king (can't remember his name) is really famous locally due to a legend that a bunch of university kids started. That bunch of university kids had a tradition that was passed down from seniors to juniors that if one touches the horse's balls, one would have a great love life. We met this american guy in the tour. Being american AND a guy, he dared my friends to touch the balls just for fun. So, much to our amusement, and to a group of german tourists, these crazy kids (not boring ol' me though) went ahead to touch the horse's balls. Of course the crowed cheered. One of them even filmed the entire process! Haha, it was really crazy fun. The horse's testicles are all golden from the many such escapades in the past. The horse had literal golden balls!
Oh, before I forgot, I had a new companion on this travel. Joining me, Jessica and Esther, we have another person from NTU, Nicole! She provides much wacky antics and lame jokes to fill the gaps of our travels. :-D
Left to right: Nicole, Jessica and Esther.
I've left out some historical stuff and instead focused on the fun aspects. Of course I visited many historical sites and places, like the many churches and cathedrales, the famous Hero's square, the ironically named Freedom monument (statue of Liberty) and many others. However, as I didn't take many pictures on this trip (I was a little lazy...) I would have to wait till my friends upload their photos on facebook before I can post them here.
Overview of the Pest side of the Danube.
Anyway, we attended this free tour that was held by this really cool guide. A great tip for those travelling on a budget like us students: Look for free tours and attend them! Its a really cool way of getting to know a city well. One thing that I pretty much dislike about travelling is the fact that I can look at a building and not know its significance. For all I know, I could be standing on some historical noteworthy place and wouldn't know! Its like finding gold but thinking it was lead and throw it away!
But I digress. The free tour was really VERY informative. The tour guide was very helpful and very knowledgeable about the subject. Being a history graduate and had studied english at a local university, she should be! She spent like 30 minutes explaining the origins of Budapest, the language and the many dynasties that came to rule. For brevity, I shall omit much of the history here, but it makes the tour of the place more significant when one realises the history behind major monuments and appreciate the city more. For example, when we first arrived, we found the people here to be pretty gloomy, as in general sales people and those on the streets.
There wasn't any buskers around and the people seemed to be unwilling to help strangers (e.g. us) and sometimes they are just outright unfriendly. Even the service quality left much to be desired. But the tour guide explained that after the second world war, things were generally very bad for the hungarian economy. Hungary had amassed huge national debts and the economy is not faring well, and the people are shouldering the brunt of the damage. Many people are working 2 to 3 jobs just to make ends meet. The tour guide herself is also holding multiple jobs, this tour job being one of them (we give tips...). From the fall of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire to the economy crisis, the Hungarians were just hit with wave after wave of bad news. No wonder they have such dour dispositions. Made me glad that Singapore has such a stable government that has means to adapt to most financial crisis.
Anyway, on to more happy thought, the views of Budapest is not too bad. The architecture is european but has a disticnt flavour from Switzerland or France. Instead, if I have to describe, I would say it is mainly european, but with a hungarian twist. It has its fair share of Gothic and Baroque styled magnificent buildings, just like France and the other european capitals. But there is a kind of touch that reminded me of Turkey.
For example, there are buildings there that have roofs of coloured tiles and rounded domes, not those onion domes of Islamic structures, but more like those absurd old french style parasols that are streched length-wards, like a mushroom. This was probably a reflection of the Turks' rule during their period of conquests and expansion.
Buildings like the Musuem of Applied Arts shows one of the many buildings that were built in this style.
From Wikipedia.I won't bother you with the details on what I did step by step like I did in the France Chronicles, so I'll highlight the notable ones.
Lets see... We went to the Great Market Hall that was much featured in many books and guides. Pretty interesting, especially on the upper level where the cooked food stalls and the touristy trinkets could be found. I had my first taste of Hungarian cuisine there, where I tried their Hungarian sausage and a cabbage roll. Totally did not know that Hungarians eat lard like meat till a friend mentioned. The sausage had chunks of lard that were visible. If I don't think about the lard, the sausage actually tastes pretty bland. The sausage that my friend had was better. Slightly spiced with much lesser lard. I loved the way the people here do their cabbages. They have it sour here. I tried some cabbage that were stewed in vinegar, sour cabbage soup that my friend said bore a resemblance to kimchi and the aforementioned cabbage roll was just delectable. It was just noodles wrapped in cabbage but the whole combination was really good. Made me wonder how they did it. I could have asked the lady behind the counters, but I had this feeling that she might bite my head off...
The round thing on the top left is the cabbage roll, beside it is the sausage. Check out those pieces of fat in them (blow them up)!It was in Hungary that I became a Thousandaire. The exchange rates were like 1 euro to 242 HUF. I had changed 100 euros, so that made me an instant thousandaire. I could finally say that I had thousands to spare!
The prices in Hungary are great for meat deprived people like me. I ate a very nice Filet Mignon in a cafe like place for 2790 HUF. For the uninitiated, filet mignon is probably one of the most expensive cuts you can find in a cow because it is the tenderest part and each cow only has a small portion of it. It could easily cost above SGD 50 at a restaurant but if you don't let the 4-figure sum deceive you, it set me back at about SGD 20 or 10 Euros. Not too bad a deal at all!! It was great and I felt so satisfied after that that I probably went to sleep with a smile. :-D Jealous? Too bad! Haha. In short, it was a splurge well spent although that meant I had to be prudent for the remaining leg of Budapest.
Besides the meat, I had also tried the pastries there. We went to a place called Retesvar that was near the castle and tried a hungarian pastry named Rete. Its a studel with sweet or savory. It wasn't too bad, but the prices were probably a rip off due to its touristy location. But I read from another blog that the Great Market Hall has a stall that has great Rete. Should have tried it there. But anyway, I also bought several other types of hungarian pastries from a bakery near our hostel. Not too bad. Nothing fancy, just normal stuff that is good for tea.
Budapest is also known for its many thermal baths and spas. Baths and spas were brought in from the Romans, who had found and built many of the baths that are present today.So, being set to try anything Hungarian, we went to a bath! Just nice, our guided tour led us to one of the biggest thermal baths in Budapest, the Széchenyi Spa. (I won't even bother trying to pronounce the name. We just called it the S bath...)
The bath was... an experience. The main outdoor pool is really just a heated pool with jets of water around and a cool whirlpool place in the middle of it. Great to just sit at a fet and let the pulse massage your body. The pools in the interior of the building are just heated swimming pools. Like a huge pot of water where people come in to stew in. The place would have been paradise if it were private and I could stay in it all day long. Unfortunately, it wasn't private and we had to get out sooner or later. When we got out, the sun had set and so it was ass-bitingly cold. We had to scurry into the toilets like a bunch of soaked mices to get warm because they don't provide towels beside the pool, but near the toilets down below. It was a great experience, getting to soak in the warmth of the pool while admiring the moon behind the domed roof ot the bath. Where is that glass of champagne when you need one?! ;-D
Well, that was the more interesting aspect of the tour. For other interesting aspects, lets look at the pictures to jog my memory...
During our tour, the tour guide pionted out that this statue of a king (can't remember his name) is really famous locally due to a legend that a bunch of university kids started. That bunch of university kids had a tradition that was passed down from seniors to juniors that if one touches the horse's balls, one would have a great love life. We met this american guy in the tour. Being american AND a guy, he dared my friends to touch the balls just for fun. So, much to our amusement, and to a group of german tourists, these crazy kids (not boring ol' me though) went ahead to touch the horse's balls. Of course the crowed cheered. One of them even filmed the entire process! Haha, it was really crazy fun. The horse's testicles are all golden from the many such escapades in the past. The horse had literal golden balls!Oh, before I forgot, I had a new companion on this travel. Joining me, Jessica and Esther, we have another person from NTU, Nicole! She provides much wacky antics and lame jokes to fill the gaps of our travels. :-D
Left to right: Nicole, Jessica and Esther.I've left out some historical stuff and instead focused on the fun aspects. Of course I visited many historical sites and places, like the many churches and cathedrales, the famous Hero's square, the ironically named Freedom monument (statue of Liberty) and many others. However, as I didn't take many pictures on this trip (I was a little lazy...) I would have to wait till my friends upload their photos on facebook before I can post them here.
Overview of the Pest side of the Danube.
I'm Back (again)!!
Hello! I'm back from my trip with some stuff to share!! Unfortunately, the internet at my place is pretty much down. Something wrong with the server that had been going on for some time already, it seems. Thus, I would be typing it out when I have the time back at my dorm, then uploading it on blogger when I'm in school.
Right now, I'm supposed to study in school. Study study.... So much to do, so little time...
Right now, I'm supposed to study in school. Study study.... So much to do, so little time...
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Slacking Sunday (or saturday...)
It's really bad, I know.
I should be studying in preparation for my exams, which is in a month's time, but yet I am on the computer for all of yesterday and a few hours today. Can't help it. Will definitely put in a little quality time with my books within the next 2 days before I head to Budapest.
But before that, let me show you a find that I had just found!
I was pottering around youtube when I stumbled across accapella groups. So, by a stroke of curiousity, I decided to youtude The King's Singers. Well, for those who don't know who they are, they are a bunch of guys who sing together but on a smaller scale than a choir. They are pretty fabulous, as fabulous as singing accapella goes, and their songs make a good lullaby. But here, the one I found, is really funny and interesting.
Check it out!! Especially the guy who can sing a soprano!
"Deconstructing Johann"
Lyrics:
J. S. Bach had a little problem.
J. S. Bach was in a fix.
J. S. Bach couldn't find an answer.
What to do?
I've written most of a rather fabulous work!
Toccata, it's in D minor, but now I'm feeling a bit of a jerk.
I can't think of what should come after it.
Now, said his wife, who was resting up after her 33rd child.
Johann, my dear, you should just go to bed.
Something always comes up.
Don't be a twit!
It's a real crisis and I'm working to a deadline.
What can I fit?
What to fit after the great toccata
Maybe it needs to be something faster
I haven't got a clue
and in a week the piece is due
I'm in a panic.
I'm stuck like glue.
Don't get your knickers in a twist, Johann,
'Those are only notes,' you've always said.
There's only twelve so use your head
How many arrangements of twelve notes can there possibly be?
That's a problem I don't want to deal with
How many permutations on C and D and E and F and G, A, B is a thing that I never heard of.
You can leave that to Arnold Schönberg
He is the person to do that twelve-tone thing
No! No!
It isn't the answer, I haven't the foggiest.
What am I gonna do?
I'm all in a panic
Aaah, no.
What can I do?
I've finished my toccata but I have no fugue
(Phone ringing)
Ah... and now I've got the fugue!
From Wiki:
Toccata (from Italian toccare, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers.
In music, a fugue (pronounced /ˈfjuːɡ/) is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of parts, normally referred to as "voices".
I should be studying in preparation for my exams, which is in a month's time, but yet I am on the computer for all of yesterday and a few hours today. Can't help it. Will definitely put in a little quality time with my books within the next 2 days before I head to Budapest.
But before that, let me show you a find that I had just found!
I was pottering around youtube when I stumbled across accapella groups. So, by a stroke of curiousity, I decided to youtude The King's Singers. Well, for those who don't know who they are, they are a bunch of guys who sing together but on a smaller scale than a choir. They are pretty fabulous, as fabulous as singing accapella goes, and their songs make a good lullaby. But here, the one I found, is really funny and interesting.
Check it out!! Especially the guy who can sing a soprano!
"Deconstructing Johann"
Lyrics:
J. S. Bach had a little problem.
J. S. Bach was in a fix.
J. S. Bach couldn't find an answer.
What to do?
I've written most of a rather fabulous work!
Toccata, it's in D minor, but now I'm feeling a bit of a jerk.
I can't think of what should come after it.
Now, said his wife, who was resting up after her 33rd child.
Johann, my dear, you should just go to bed.
Something always comes up.
Don't be a twit!
It's a real crisis and I'm working to a deadline.
What can I fit?
What to fit after the great toccata
Maybe it needs to be something faster
I haven't got a clue
and in a week the piece is due
I'm in a panic.
I'm stuck like glue.
Don't get your knickers in a twist, Johann,
'Those are only notes,' you've always said.
There's only twelve so use your head
How many arrangements of twelve notes can there possibly be?
That's a problem I don't want to deal with
How many permutations on C and D and E and F and G, A, B is a thing that I never heard of.
You can leave that to Arnold Schönberg
He is the person to do that twelve-tone thing
No! No!
It isn't the answer, I haven't the foggiest.
What am I gonna do?
I'm all in a panic
Aaah, no.
What can I do?
I've finished my toccata but I have no fugue
(Phone ringing)
Ah... and now I've got the fugue!
From Wiki:
Toccata (from Italian toccare, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers.
In music, a fugue (pronounced /ˈfjuːɡ/) is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of parts, normally referred to as "voices".
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Done with it!
I'm finally done with school!!
Hooray!!
No more cryptic assignments and tough labs!
Why cryptic assignments? Honestly, if you take a look at some of the graph theory or probability and statistics questions, you would have sworn that they are greek. Not to mention that some of the notes are reworded in a way that is makes cryptology a prerequisite module to take before figuring out what they are trying to say.
Ah, I'm done with school, now for the exams!
Oh, about the exams, they are 4 hours long!! It's like even longer than the longest exam I had ever taken. Not to mention that I am so unlucky to have 2 exams on the same day, from 8 to 12, then from 2 to 6. It would be 10 hours of non-stop pain...
I fear for my sanity at the end of that day...
Hooray!!
No more cryptic assignments and tough labs!
Why cryptic assignments? Honestly, if you take a look at some of the graph theory or probability and statistics questions, you would have sworn that they are greek. Not to mention that some of the notes are reworded in a way that is makes cryptology a prerequisite module to take before figuring out what they are trying to say.
Ah, I'm done with school, now for the exams!
Oh, about the exams, they are 4 hours long!! It's like even longer than the longest exam I had ever taken. Not to mention that I am so unlucky to have 2 exams on the same day, from 8 to 12, then from 2 to 6. It would be 10 hours of non-stop pain...
I fear for my sanity at the end of that day...
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Let's talk about the weather
The weather is turning hot here recently.
With the coming of spring, the warmth is to be expected. However, what I did not expect was how hot this place could be!
The past week had been dreadfully like Singapore!! The temperature was as high as 32 degrees and was pretty dry. I would be sweating buckets by the time I come back from school and would have to jump into the shower or take a swig of cold beer to cool me down.
Sometimes I wonder if Singapore was the same, but then, the humidity in Singapore is much higher with the occasional wind and not to mention the obsession with fans and air-conditioning and other what-nots that we use to cool ourselves down. Here, the people don't even know the meaning of a fan. My room only has a heater and so, to get past those warm nights, I sleep with my window wide open, sans blankets. Just don't think about the bugs that come in and it would be fine...
The afternoons are the worst. The sun can be relentless and the dry heat makes one burn up faster than a toaster oven. I think the reason why I might return darker than I left would have more to do with the sun here than my escapades around France and Europe.
Luckily, right now, it is raining. A welcomed reprieve from the usual glaring evening sun in my room. Because my room faces the west, I get a generous dose of the evening sun. Mornings are great for me to sleep in, but the evenings are just too hot for me to even open my window beause the air in my room is much cooler thn the air out there. So, because of this fortunate reprieve, I am going to enjoy my first hot cup of tea since the end of winter and look out at the nice gloomy sky.
With the coming of spring, the warmth is to be expected. However, what I did not expect was how hot this place could be!
The past week had been dreadfully like Singapore!! The temperature was as high as 32 degrees and was pretty dry. I would be sweating buckets by the time I come back from school and would have to jump into the shower or take a swig of cold beer to cool me down.
Sometimes I wonder if Singapore was the same, but then, the humidity in Singapore is much higher with the occasional wind and not to mention the obsession with fans and air-conditioning and other what-nots that we use to cool ourselves down. Here, the people don't even know the meaning of a fan. My room only has a heater and so, to get past those warm nights, I sleep with my window wide open, sans blankets. Just don't think about the bugs that come in and it would be fine...
The afternoons are the worst. The sun can be relentless and the dry heat makes one burn up faster than a toaster oven. I think the reason why I might return darker than I left would have more to do with the sun here than my escapades around France and Europe.
Luckily, right now, it is raining. A welcomed reprieve from the usual glaring evening sun in my room. Because my room faces the west, I get a generous dose of the evening sun. Mornings are great for me to sleep in, but the evenings are just too hot for me to even open my window beause the air in my room is much cooler thn the air out there. So, because of this fortunate reprieve, I am going to enjoy my first hot cup of tea since the end of winter and look out at the nice gloomy sky.
Friday, May 22, 2009
A Reason to Rejoice... For a while...
YAY!!!
FINALLY! After hours of slogging in front of the computer and bashing my head against my laptop, I am finally done with programming in C!! Well, at least for this sememster.
Argh, it is pretty official that I hate C. And when it suits me, I hate Java and all the other programming languages too. Thank God my future career doesn't revolve around it. My future is SO secure! ;-p
I'm not going into a whole diatribe about why I don't like C, but if one's knowledge of C is amatuer at best and is suddenly forced to programme in the Kernel with C, the experience would be nothing short of extreme torture.
But it is over! And I can say, there is a certain sense of acheivement when I submitted my last assignment about 10 minutes ago. Hooray!! NO MORE C for the rest of the semester!! I am SO NOT going to take any programming modules when I get back...
Anyway, I went to Lucerne yesterday. It was sort of a "get-away"-from-the-homework-that-I-had-promised-my friend-sometime-ago and-so-can't-back-out-even-though-I-had-a-deadline-to-meet thing.
Did I mention that I had gone to Lucerne previously before this? Well, that was 2 years ago and I still remembered the Swiss Lion monument, the watch shops that the tour guide herded us to to collect those gift spoons and the chapel bridge. However, because we went yesterday, which was the public holiday for Ascension Day, all the shops were closed. But no matter.That place is really a tourist district. The stuff there are all so overpriced that what I could get there, I could most probably get them in Lausanne at a cheaper price.
It was really one unlucky day for me yesterday. First, I left the house with the aim to catch the 0821 bus to the train station so that I would reach at 0830 to buy my ticket for the 0845 train. I had reached the bus terminal right on the dot, but to my chagrin, the bus actually left already. Let me briefly mention that the Swiss transport system operates on the clock. If the train leaves at 0845, it really leaves at 0845 sharp and not a minute later. Thus, imagine my surprise when the 0821 bus left without me! In short, I missed the 0845 train, which meant waiting for an hour to catch the next train to Lucerne.
Fine, I admit that I should have gone there earlier and so it did not really piss me off that much. Besides, I could browse through the bookstore at the station, so I was fine for an hour. BUT, the train ride there had seriously pissed me off. Originally a two hour straight train ride from Lausanne to Lucerne, it became a three hour train hop due to a train malfunction at a particular station. Thus, I spent 3 hours on 3 different trains, two of which I was stuck with family with noisy kids that my iPod couldn't drown out.
It was a good thing that I had decided to purchase a day pass for the swiss transport. At 54 Fr, it was pretty expensive, but still a bargain if I factor in the train ride (58Fr) and the boat ride that I took in Lucerne. Yes, I took a boat from Lucerne to one of the outlying villages, Alpnachstad. It was a furthur 1 and a half boat ride, then a furthur 30 mins ride on the cogwheel rail up the mountain there. Yes, the view was amazing on the way up, but it was a little too expensive for me. In the end, I had to borrow money from my friend just for the 36 Fr ticket to go up. My day pass evidently does not cover it and it would be bad to make my friends stay down. Sigh, in the end, it was 90 Fr on transport alone... Way more than what I would pay for 2 months of transport!! I still feel that the price of that ticket was too much, regardless of the fact that the rail is the world's oldest cogwheel rail.
It is a historical landmark. Does it justify the cost? 
Maybe... The train goes up at an incline of 48% and it was really steep. Lets just say that if it weren't for the powerful braking system, it would have been one hell of a roller coaster down...
But the view up there was amazing. The sky was pretty clear then, so we could see pretty far. The only glitch was... my camera phone was acting up again, so what pictures that I had taken weren't saved. ARGH.... Never mind, I took a mental picture. It was cool. And you could always google for the pictures. Besides, the top was pretty calming and good for reflective thoughts. Enough thought for a half hour stay anyway, since we had to catch the tram down.
Anyway, we were left with so little time after that that we could only visit 3 places for sights. It was an express trek through the town to get to the places, like Paris all over again. Overall, the day was not really fun for me, spending 90Fr on transport and 7 hours on traveling (3 hours to go, 2 hours to Alpnachstad and back, and 2 hours back to Lausanne) was not my idea of fun. Then again, not all experiences are sugar and fluff.
But to be fair, it had its redeeming qualities. The streets of the not-so-packed Lucern is nice to wander around if we had the time, and the boat ride, expensive tram ride and the summit were all picture worthy and awe inspiring experiences. It just happened that it wasn't a good day for me to step out of Lausanne. Maybe next time.
Oh, did I mention that I'ld be heading to Budapest, Vienna and Prague at the beginning of next month, before my exams? It would be a one week affair with Bratislava as a day trip. Hopefully it would be fun and rewarding.
The Swiss Lion Monument. It is great as a Desktop picture! Its the desktop picture of the computer at home. ;-D
FINALLY! After hours of slogging in front of the computer and bashing my head against my laptop, I am finally done with programming in C!! Well, at least for this sememster.
Argh, it is pretty official that I hate C. And when it suits me, I hate Java and all the other programming languages too. Thank God my future career doesn't revolve around it. My future is SO secure! ;-p
I'm not going into a whole diatribe about why I don't like C, but if one's knowledge of C is amatuer at best and is suddenly forced to programme in the Kernel with C, the experience would be nothing short of extreme torture.
But it is over! And I can say, there is a certain sense of acheivement when I submitted my last assignment about 10 minutes ago. Hooray!! NO MORE C for the rest of the semester!! I am SO NOT going to take any programming modules when I get back...
Anyway, I went to Lucerne yesterday. It was sort of a "get-away"-from-the-homework-that-I-had-promised-my friend-sometime-ago and-so-can't-back-out-even-though-I-had-a-deadline-to-meet thing.
Did I mention that I had gone to Lucerne previously before this? Well, that was 2 years ago and I still remembered the Swiss Lion monument, the watch shops that the tour guide herded us to to collect those gift spoons and the chapel bridge. However, because we went yesterday, which was the public holiday for Ascension Day, all the shops were closed. But no matter.That place is really a tourist district. The stuff there are all so overpriced that what I could get there, I could most probably get them in Lausanne at a cheaper price.
It was really one unlucky day for me yesterday. First, I left the house with the aim to catch the 0821 bus to the train station so that I would reach at 0830 to buy my ticket for the 0845 train. I had reached the bus terminal right on the dot, but to my chagrin, the bus actually left already. Let me briefly mention that the Swiss transport system operates on the clock. If the train leaves at 0845, it really leaves at 0845 sharp and not a minute later. Thus, imagine my surprise when the 0821 bus left without me! In short, I missed the 0845 train, which meant waiting for an hour to catch the next train to Lucerne.
Fine, I admit that I should have gone there earlier and so it did not really piss me off that much. Besides, I could browse through the bookstore at the station, so I was fine for an hour. BUT, the train ride there had seriously pissed me off. Originally a two hour straight train ride from Lausanne to Lucerne, it became a three hour train hop due to a train malfunction at a particular station. Thus, I spent 3 hours on 3 different trains, two of which I was stuck with family with noisy kids that my iPod couldn't drown out.
It was a good thing that I had decided to purchase a day pass for the swiss transport. At 54 Fr, it was pretty expensive, but still a bargain if I factor in the train ride (58Fr) and the boat ride that I took in Lucerne. Yes, I took a boat from Lucerne to one of the outlying villages, Alpnachstad. It was a furthur 1 and a half boat ride, then a furthur 30 mins ride on the cogwheel rail up the mountain there. Yes, the view was amazing on the way up, but it was a little too expensive for me. In the end, I had to borrow money from my friend just for the 36 Fr ticket to go up. My day pass evidently does not cover it and it would be bad to make my friends stay down. Sigh, in the end, it was 90 Fr on transport alone... Way more than what I would pay for 2 months of transport!! I still feel that the price of that ticket was too much, regardless of the fact that the rail is the world's oldest cogwheel rail.
It is a historical landmark. Does it justify the cost? 
Maybe... The train goes up at an incline of 48% and it was really steep. Lets just say that if it weren't for the powerful braking system, it would have been one hell of a roller coaster down...But the view up there was amazing. The sky was pretty clear then, so we could see pretty far. The only glitch was... my camera phone was acting up again, so what pictures that I had taken weren't saved. ARGH.... Never mind, I took a mental picture. It was cool. And you could always google for the pictures. Besides, the top was pretty calming and good for reflective thoughts. Enough thought for a half hour stay anyway, since we had to catch the tram down.
Anyway, we were left with so little time after that that we could only visit 3 places for sights. It was an express trek through the town to get to the places, like Paris all over again. Overall, the day was not really fun for me, spending 90Fr on transport and 7 hours on traveling (3 hours to go, 2 hours to Alpnachstad and back, and 2 hours back to Lausanne) was not my idea of fun. Then again, not all experiences are sugar and fluff.
But to be fair, it had its redeeming qualities. The streets of the not-so-packed Lucern is nice to wander around if we had the time, and the boat ride, expensive tram ride and the summit were all picture worthy and awe inspiring experiences. It just happened that it wasn't a good day for me to step out of Lausanne. Maybe next time.
Oh, did I mention that I'ld be heading to Budapest, Vienna and Prague at the beginning of next month, before my exams? It would be a one week affair with Bratislava as a day trip. Hopefully it would be fun and rewarding.
The Swiss Lion Monument. It is great as a Desktop picture! Its the desktop picture of the computer at home. ;-D
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Scenic Saturday
I finally got round to visiting Vevey and Montreaux yesterday.
After hearing so many praises about these two places and how beautiful they are for the past few months, I finally made the trip down myself to see what the fuss was about. Nah lah, actually, I just don't wanna get stuck in my room all day since I have a rare break from my deadlines. So, it was off to Vevey and Montreaux we go.
From my friend, Vevey and Montreaux was all about the lake-side view. Both cities are very close to each other on the shores of one end of Lake Geneva. But, besides the view, it was also the annual Museum Night for most museums in Montreaux and Vevey after 5 pm. That was a definite reason for me to go since the entry to Chateaux de Chillon is at 10Chf on normal days. What to do? Poor student on a tight budget could only go to places for a very good reason...
There was this weekly saturday market going on at the big square of the village and it just so happened that they were also having a huge sale on second hand books. All books selling for an unbelievably low price! But there was one bad thing about it. All the book were in French... Ah well, but it was still very interesting to browse through the titles. I bought an Enid Blyton book (in French, of course) for 1 Chf only!!! Cheap right! My friend had bought another book, a huge thick book on the adventures in Switzerland. The organiser of the store could not find any price tag on the book, so after thinking a while, he sold the book to my friend for 1 Chf. I felt very cheated after that, but ah well, I got a French book that I could actually finish! LOL...
We then got to Place de Chaplin, a little park where a statue of Charlie Chaplin stands, gazing out into the waters that are speared by a gigantic fork.
Yes, you've read it right. A huge stainless steel fork.
I have got no idea what the fork was for, but for Chaplin, it seemed that he was stayed in Vevey at some point in his life and so they built a monument for him there. I wonder if I became famous, would they build a monument for me here in Rhodanie? haha...
I digress, so let me get back on track by posting some pictures of me in Vevey.
The Enid Blyton book that I bought.
A French version of Jane Eyre that I didn't buy...
Along the streets of Vevey
The Fork that almost speared me. Look how pretty the background is.
A rendezvous with Chaplin.
After Vevey, we went to Montreaux for the next leg of the trip.
Little known to some tourists, Montreaux also has an old town. My friend, who had visited Montreaux countless times before, had actually not been to the old town, and so, we went exploring. The old town of Montreaux is charming, but of a different charm than the other old towns that I had visited, like in Nice or Yvoire.
Lakeside view inMontreaux
Because Nice or Yvoire are popular tourist destinations, the place would have some people on the streets, walking around or just sitting at the cafes, sipping tea, coffee or wine. But in Montreaux, the streets were almost deserted bacause everyone was down at the lakeside, soaking in the sun and sight. I'm not complaining, because the absence of people and the presence of many open shops and traffic made the stroll much more pleasant. And there was this spot in the middle of the town that had a waterfall in the middle of a neighbourhood. Imagine the residents there! A waterfall in the backyard, the magnificent view of the lake in the front! All the more spectacular without the tourists crowding around.
The Backyard, and...
the front yard!
Montreaux also had its own Saturday market going on, but it was an antiques and other what-nots rather than food and bread. Many interesting stuff, but some of the stuff were overpriced, in my opinion. Still, it was an interesting experience.
We then walked a long way to the Chateaux de Chillon. The chateaux is in a neighbouring town, not in Montreaux, and so was quite a walk. Once we got there, there was a pleasant surprise.
I'm not sure if it was a usual get up for the Museum, but the people in the castle were dressed as medieval people! We were greeted by ladies dressed in the medieval gowns and there were musicians and jugglers performing in the main square in the castle. There were also several story tellers in different parts of the castle recounting stories to any who stopped to listen. I sat through a story on how one oarticular person became the bear constellation and another on Paris and Helen of Troy. Didn't understand much of it, but it was an interesting experience listening to strange ladies in long cream gowns, with belt and crowns of leaves, recounting stories in French.
A performer playing some strange instument. His right hand rotates a gear while his left presses on keys. It is like a mechanical violin-piano thing.
This guy can even perform techno songs on it...
Storytellers who had the rapt attention of both adults and kids.
A campfire....
To roast hot dogs on wooden sticks!! (Why isn't this guy in medieval costume like everyone else?)
The castle had been a source of inspiration to many writers and poets. Lord Byron was so inspired by a prisoner's account of his days in the castle's dungeon that he wrote The Prisoner of Chillon. Other famous authors who were similarly inspired were Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo.
Some lady who decided to freak everyone out by sitting near the entrance of the cellar. She was playing the role of the unfortunate maiden who had to sigh in dismay at the rate of growth of the weeds. :-D
Outside, in another part of the castle, there was a roaring campfire where tourists could sit around to roast some sausages. At 4 Chf a piece, it was a tourist blackmail. But the performers were performing there as well, and so we stopped for a little while to enjoy the show before continuing the tour.
After the castle, it was starting to get a little late, and so we decided to head back to Vevey to check out another museum there. Originally, we wanted to go to the Museum of Swiss Games. However, it was really far, about the same distance as the chateau was from the train station, and so we went to a museum that was much nearer, the Museum of Food. It was interesting. I was just glad that I ate dinner before entering, otherwise I might be tempted to pinch the displays off. :-P
Looks good enough to eat eh?
Evening view of the lake in Vevey.
After hearing so many praises about these two places and how beautiful they are for the past few months, I finally made the trip down myself to see what the fuss was about. Nah lah, actually, I just don't wanna get stuck in my room all day since I have a rare break from my deadlines. So, it was off to Vevey and Montreaux we go.
From my friend, Vevey and Montreaux was all about the lake-side view. Both cities are very close to each other on the shores of one end of Lake Geneva. But, besides the view, it was also the annual Museum Night for most museums in Montreaux and Vevey after 5 pm. That was a definite reason for me to go since the entry to Chateaux de Chillon is at 10Chf on normal days. What to do? Poor student on a tight budget could only go to places for a very good reason...
There was this weekly saturday market going on at the big square of the village and it just so happened that they were also having a huge sale on second hand books. All books selling for an unbelievably low price! But there was one bad thing about it. All the book were in French... Ah well, but it was still very interesting to browse through the titles. I bought an Enid Blyton book (in French, of course) for 1 Chf only!!! Cheap right! My friend had bought another book, a huge thick book on the adventures in Switzerland. The organiser of the store could not find any price tag on the book, so after thinking a while, he sold the book to my friend for 1 Chf. I felt very cheated after that, but ah well, I got a French book that I could actually finish! LOL...
We then got to Place de Chaplin, a little park where a statue of Charlie Chaplin stands, gazing out into the waters that are speared by a gigantic fork.
Yes, you've read it right. A huge stainless steel fork.
I have got no idea what the fork was for, but for Chaplin, it seemed that he was stayed in Vevey at some point in his life and so they built a monument for him there. I wonder if I became famous, would they build a monument for me here in Rhodanie? haha...
I digress, so let me get back on track by posting some pictures of me in Vevey.
The Enid Blyton book that I bought.
A French version of Jane Eyre that I didn't buy...
Along the streets of Vevey
The Fork that almost speared me. Look how pretty the background is.
A rendezvous with Chaplin.After Vevey, we went to Montreaux for the next leg of the trip.
Little known to some tourists, Montreaux also has an old town. My friend, who had visited Montreaux countless times before, had actually not been to the old town, and so, we went exploring. The old town of Montreaux is charming, but of a different charm than the other old towns that I had visited, like in Nice or Yvoire.
Lakeside view inMontreauxBecause Nice or Yvoire are popular tourist destinations, the place would have some people on the streets, walking around or just sitting at the cafes, sipping tea, coffee or wine. But in Montreaux, the streets were almost deserted bacause everyone was down at the lakeside, soaking in the sun and sight. I'm not complaining, because the absence of people and the presence of many open shops and traffic made the stroll much more pleasant. And there was this spot in the middle of the town that had a waterfall in the middle of a neighbourhood. Imagine the residents there! A waterfall in the backyard, the magnificent view of the lake in the front! All the more spectacular without the tourists crowding around.
The Backyard, and...
the front yard!Montreaux also had its own Saturday market going on, but it was an antiques and other what-nots rather than food and bread. Many interesting stuff, but some of the stuff were overpriced, in my opinion. Still, it was an interesting experience.
We then walked a long way to the Chateaux de Chillon. The chateaux is in a neighbouring town, not in Montreaux, and so was quite a walk. Once we got there, there was a pleasant surprise.
I'm not sure if it was a usual get up for the Museum, but the people in the castle were dressed as medieval people! We were greeted by ladies dressed in the medieval gowns and there were musicians and jugglers performing in the main square in the castle. There were also several story tellers in different parts of the castle recounting stories to any who stopped to listen. I sat through a story on how one oarticular person became the bear constellation and another on Paris and Helen of Troy. Didn't understand much of it, but it was an interesting experience listening to strange ladies in long cream gowns, with belt and crowns of leaves, recounting stories in French.
A performer playing some strange instument. His right hand rotates a gear while his left presses on keys. It is like a mechanical violin-piano thing.This guy can even perform techno songs on it...
Storytellers who had the rapt attention of both adults and kids.
A campfire....
To roast hot dogs on wooden sticks!! (Why isn't this guy in medieval costume like everyone else?)The castle had been a source of inspiration to many writers and poets. Lord Byron was so inspired by a prisoner's account of his days in the castle's dungeon that he wrote The Prisoner of Chillon. Other famous authors who were similarly inspired were Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo.
Some lady who decided to freak everyone out by sitting near the entrance of the cellar. She was playing the role of the unfortunate maiden who had to sigh in dismay at the rate of growth of the weeds. :-DOutside, in another part of the castle, there was a roaring campfire where tourists could sit around to roast some sausages. At 4 Chf a piece, it was a tourist blackmail. But the performers were performing there as well, and so we stopped for a little while to enjoy the show before continuing the tour.
After the castle, it was starting to get a little late, and so we decided to head back to Vevey to check out another museum there. Originally, we wanted to go to the Museum of Swiss Games. However, it was really far, about the same distance as the chateau was from the train station, and so we went to a museum that was much nearer, the Museum of Food. It was interesting. I was just glad that I ate dinner before entering, otherwise I might be tempted to pinch the displays off. :-P
Looks good enough to eat eh?
Evening view of the lake in Vevey.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Homework Break
Hi,
Yes, I'm not dead from the work yet. And no, I'm not really serious about evolving into a total geek. Gintama is too much too give up on. :-D
Anyway, I sttended a showing of PolyJapan in school today. PolyJapan is a "club" that halds screenings for japanese shows, mainly animes, on a weekly basis. I know it was a slightly overdue visit, but I decided to pop by today's screening to see what goes on in the theatre since I had stayed back in school for an OS homework and had time to spare (since I finished about 2/3 of my stupid graph theory homework).
It was like a cinema, except that it was a lecture theatre. Someone brought in popcorn, and so it even smelled like the cinemas. They were selling japanese food outside the auditorium, like instant noodles and canned drinks from Japan. Evidently, the people here knows how to use chopsticks pretty well. My exchange buddy told me that most people here eat Asian food pretty often and so they know how to use chopsticks. Cool, but not really surprising.
There was nothing much to say for the show because I felt that the plot was really rehashed. Probably good for kids, but not for me. Gintama has spoiled my taste in animes... :-D Really, go check it out for a few moments of craziness in your life. Not suitable for too young kids though, if you get my drift. ;-P
Yes, I'm not dead from the work yet. And no, I'm not really serious about evolving into a total geek. Gintama is too much too give up on. :-D
Anyway, I sttended a showing of PolyJapan in school today. PolyJapan is a "club" that halds screenings for japanese shows, mainly animes, on a weekly basis. I know it was a slightly overdue visit, but I decided to pop by today's screening to see what goes on in the theatre since I had stayed back in school for an OS homework and had time to spare (since I finished about 2/3 of my stupid graph theory homework).
It was like a cinema, except that it was a lecture theatre. Someone brought in popcorn, and so it even smelled like the cinemas. They were selling japanese food outside the auditorium, like instant noodles and canned drinks from Japan. Evidently, the people here knows how to use chopsticks pretty well. My exchange buddy told me that most people here eat Asian food pretty often and so they know how to use chopsticks. Cool, but not really surprising.
There was nothing much to say for the show because I felt that the plot was really rehashed. Probably good for kids, but not for me. Gintama has spoiled my taste in animes... :-D Really, go check it out for a few moments of craziness in your life. Not suitable for too young kids though, if you get my drift. ;-P
Monday, May 11, 2009
ARGH!!!
Annoying, annoying, annoying, annoying!!!!!
I've been staring at the same question for my graph theory applications homework for the past half hour and the problem does not seem to vanish from the question paper! Why didn't I have the power to glare away difficult questions?!
Argh!!!!
I feel so stupid sometimes. More so now that I'm in university than ever. University just makes me feel dumb. I look at those questions and I start to wonder if there was something wrong with my understanding capabilities. Why can't I seem to understand what the stuff is talking about? It doesn't help that these academic stuff seem to like to drown students in gallons of technical jargon and weird greek symbols.
Really, these people have to start to realise that the rest of the world is speaking english!
Its not just graph theory, but everything else too! I had gotten back the results for my latest prob and stats test and it was pretty bad. I don't think that it was a consolation that the test was just a "bonus" and that it didn't matter as long as one did well for the finals. Not when I happen to see a guy scoring 47/50 for the test, which was supposed to be difficult. And upon review of the answers, I realised that I didn't understand the concepts as well as I thought I had.
Argh... Seriously, I feel dumb...
The other modules, operating systems and digital photography, are still okay. Not like I am flunking them, but neither am I ace-ing them.
Was it a problem with my focus, or was it because I am not studying hard enough for it? Perhaps it was my study habits. I should start to reviewing the lectures everyday... Start to evolve into a total geek...
Dear all,
you are gathered today for the demise of the once fun-loving and vivacious Ho Jie Hui. She has vowed henceforth to become a total geek, devoting all her time to her studies and letting nothing come between her and her books except food, drinks, the occasional toilet breaks and Gintama.
With her evolution, it would not be surprising to see her sport thick glasses, messy hair with several bald spots (due to the excessive pulling of hair when frustrated) and a bad tea-breath from all the cups of tea that she consumes.
Let us take a quiet moment to reflect on the lost moments where she allowed you to annoy her because she had the time to be annoyed. Now, she would just be annoyed at her books. Joy to all who will be saved from her annoyance.
Amen.
:-D
Ahh... that feels much better. Hey, blogging (or whining about personal stuff) really does wonders for one's mood. Sigh... Back to staring at the next question of the homework. Damn...
I've been staring at the same question for my graph theory applications homework for the past half hour and the problem does not seem to vanish from the question paper! Why didn't I have the power to glare away difficult questions?!
Argh!!!!
I feel so stupid sometimes. More so now that I'm in university than ever. University just makes me feel dumb. I look at those questions and I start to wonder if there was something wrong with my understanding capabilities. Why can't I seem to understand what the stuff is talking about? It doesn't help that these academic stuff seem to like to drown students in gallons of technical jargon and weird greek symbols.
Really, these people have to start to realise that the rest of the world is speaking english!
Its not just graph theory, but everything else too! I had gotten back the results for my latest prob and stats test and it was pretty bad. I don't think that it was a consolation that the test was just a "bonus" and that it didn't matter as long as one did well for the finals. Not when I happen to see a guy scoring 47/50 for the test, which was supposed to be difficult. And upon review of the answers, I realised that I didn't understand the concepts as well as I thought I had.
Argh... Seriously, I feel dumb...
The other modules, operating systems and digital photography, are still okay. Not like I am flunking them, but neither am I ace-ing them.
Was it a problem with my focus, or was it because I am not studying hard enough for it? Perhaps it was my study habits. I should start to reviewing the lectures everyday... Start to evolve into a total geek...
Dear all,
you are gathered today for the demise of the once fun-loving and vivacious Ho Jie Hui. She has vowed henceforth to become a total geek, devoting all her time to her studies and letting nothing come between her and her books except food, drinks, the occasional toilet breaks and Gintama.
With her evolution, it would not be surprising to see her sport thick glasses, messy hair with several bald spots (due to the excessive pulling of hair when frustrated) and a bad tea-breath from all the cups of tea that she consumes.
Let us take a quiet moment to reflect on the lost moments where she allowed you to annoy her because she had the time to be annoyed. Now, she would just be annoyed at her books. Joy to all who will be saved from her annoyance.
Amen.
:-D
Ahh... that feels much better. Hey, blogging (or whining about personal stuff) really does wonders for one's mood. Sigh... Back to staring at the next question of the homework. Damn...
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Yvoire
After working hard (or trying not to play too much ;-D) I decided to join my friends to a trip to France again. This time, it was on a tour, with a bunch of students, to the medival city of Yvoire.
Yvoire (yee-vo-ahr) is situated on the banks of Lake Geneva, which means it is about 2 hours of a leisure boat ride from Lausanne's Ouchy harbour. For 30 Fr, it was a pretty good deal. The trip included the transport to and fro with a guided tour of the city. Instead of saying that it is a city, it is more like a village that is really a tourist destination. Tourism is definitely the main trade there, as could be seen by the many shops selling really touristy stuff like toys or souvenirs.
One can certainly see how Yvoire got its reputation as one of "Les Plus Beaux Villages de France", or the most beautiful villages of France. It has a picturesque view of Lake Geneva and the buildings there are small and quiant (read: restored for tourism) and has a chateau, a garden and a church that are of tourist interest. Unfortunately, we did not visit any of these 3 places. :-p Well, it wasn't due to the lack of trying. For some reason that I did not catch (because the tour was conducted in French) the chateau seemed to be off limits and the garden had an entrance fee of 7.50 euros. Since all of us were not really interested in flowers and that we had only 1 hour left to explore, we decided to skip it. I think the flowers all around the village is impressive enough.
Indeed, you can really tell that spring is here. Not just the presence of the blooming flowers, but also from the swarms of flies that seem to decide on congregating in the village today. Maybe swarms was an ovverstatement, but the flies were definitely a nuisance. The absence of most insects is a definite plus for winter.
Moving on, the town of Yvoire has 2 ports and fishing seemed to be the number 2 dominant industry, after tourism. I didn't really understand what the tour guide was saying, but it seemed that in the middle ages, a duke realised the stategic position of Yvoire and decided to fortify the area in order to secure the lake for some battle. And thus, strong walls and the chateau could seen, restored to its formal glory as I believe, from its past disuse.
One could see that the French people took pride in preserving the place, even if it was only for tourism. The flowers looked very well taken of, the streets were clean, fountains of portable water were around. Even the medieval houses that are now shops and restaurants are all well preserved, with most windows having a trough of flowers adorning it.
Makes me think about Singapore. Sigh, due to the space constraints and the turnover rate of buildings, it is a miracle that we even have a building, not to mention several buildings, that are well preserved and still in use. I guess its because the usefulness of the buildings in a cultural and commercial sense (more commercial than cultural, perhaps) outweighs the costs of maintaining and replacing them with newer ones.
Anyway, picture time:
A monument for some war, I think, outside the tourism office. Note how the tulips are in bloom.
Tulips seem to be the favourite flower here.
The entrance to the village proper.
The chateau of Yvoire, as captured from over the head of an unknown guy.
Just a disclaimer: It is not that I like France in particular. I would LOVE to go to another country but it seems that just nice France is the closest country that I can go to without taking too much time to travel.
Anyway, I am planning for a trip to Budapest, Prague and Vienna with some friends for early next month, before the exams (I like to live dangerously... Or not...) That's 3 countries in a shot. Ha. Looking forward to it! Especially since I heard that one could get a good meal in Budapest for like 5 euros!
Definitely looking forward to some meat. MEAT!!! I can finally afford to eat decent meat then!!!
Not frozen, not in the form of some mashed up burger, but really SLABS of steak dripping with awesome-ness!
Ok, I better end the post here before I salivate all over my keyboard.
Ciao~!
Yvoire (yee-vo-ahr) is situated on the banks of Lake Geneva, which means it is about 2 hours of a leisure boat ride from Lausanne's Ouchy harbour. For 30 Fr, it was a pretty good deal. The trip included the transport to and fro with a guided tour of the city. Instead of saying that it is a city, it is more like a village that is really a tourist destination. Tourism is definitely the main trade there, as could be seen by the many shops selling really touristy stuff like toys or souvenirs.
One can certainly see how Yvoire got its reputation as one of "Les Plus Beaux Villages de France", or the most beautiful villages of France. It has a picturesque view of Lake Geneva and the buildings there are small and quiant (read: restored for tourism) and has a chateau, a garden and a church that are of tourist interest. Unfortunately, we did not visit any of these 3 places. :-p Well, it wasn't due to the lack of trying. For some reason that I did not catch (because the tour was conducted in French) the chateau seemed to be off limits and the garden had an entrance fee of 7.50 euros. Since all of us were not really interested in flowers and that we had only 1 hour left to explore, we decided to skip it. I think the flowers all around the village is impressive enough.
Indeed, you can really tell that spring is here. Not just the presence of the blooming flowers, but also from the swarms of flies that seem to decide on congregating in the village today. Maybe swarms was an ovverstatement, but the flies were definitely a nuisance. The absence of most insects is a definite plus for winter.
Moving on, the town of Yvoire has 2 ports and fishing seemed to be the number 2 dominant industry, after tourism. I didn't really understand what the tour guide was saying, but it seemed that in the middle ages, a duke realised the stategic position of Yvoire and decided to fortify the area in order to secure the lake for some battle. And thus, strong walls and the chateau could seen, restored to its formal glory as I believe, from its past disuse.
One could see that the French people took pride in preserving the place, even if it was only for tourism. The flowers looked very well taken of, the streets were clean, fountains of portable water were around. Even the medieval houses that are now shops and restaurants are all well preserved, with most windows having a trough of flowers adorning it.
Makes me think about Singapore. Sigh, due to the space constraints and the turnover rate of buildings, it is a miracle that we even have a building, not to mention several buildings, that are well preserved and still in use. I guess its because the usefulness of the buildings in a cultural and commercial sense (more commercial than cultural, perhaps) outweighs the costs of maintaining and replacing them with newer ones.
Anyway, picture time:
A monument for some war, I think, outside the tourism office. Note how the tulips are in bloom.
Tulips seem to be the favourite flower here.
The entrance to the village proper.
The chateau of Yvoire, as captured from over the head of an unknown guy.Just a disclaimer: It is not that I like France in particular. I would LOVE to go to another country but it seems that just nice France is the closest country that I can go to without taking too much time to travel.
Anyway, I am planning for a trip to Budapest, Prague and Vienna with some friends for early next month, before the exams (I like to live dangerously... Or not...) That's 3 countries in a shot. Ha. Looking forward to it! Especially since I heard that one could get a good meal in Budapest for like 5 euros!
Definitely looking forward to some meat. MEAT!!! I can finally afford to eat decent meat then!!!
Not frozen, not in the form of some mashed up burger, but really SLABS of steak dripping with awesome-ness!
Ok, I better end the post here before I salivate all over my keyboard.
Ciao~!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Pictures Galore
Sorry to take so long in posting the pictures. I had been busy studying for another test. Now that it is over (don't ask how it went...), I have a little time on my hands. So, here are the pictures!
Here are the three friends whom I travelled with. From left, Jessica, Esther and Felicia.
This is a park in France, near the Notre Dame.
This is outside a cathedrale that was closed in Cannes.
At Palais Longchamp in Marseilles
Some one was giving out free dessert as a promotion to their product. Free food means second helpings s'il vous plait!! :-D
A very cool picture of me taken by Esther. I look positively murderous!! :-D Watch out. Don't annoy me or I'll knock your head with my deadly camera and slap your face with my painful maps!
Here are the three friends whom I travelled with. From left, Jessica, Esther and Felicia.This is a park in France, near the Notre Dame.
This is outside a cathedrale that was closed in Cannes.
At Palais Longchamp in Marseilles
Some one was giving out free dessert as a promotion to their product. Free food means second helpings s'il vous plait!! :-D
A very cool picture of me taken by Esther. I look positively murderous!! :-D Watch out. Don't annoy me or I'll knock your head with my deadly camera and slap your face with my painful maps!
Monday, May 4, 2009
A quick break between studies
I have forgotten how nice it was to have a shower without worrying that my teeth would shatter from excessive chattering...
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Aftermath of the France Trip
Hi!
Did you guys enjoy the Chronicles of France? Hope you guys didn't strain your eyes too much when reading those entries.
Anyway, I did promise to write about the weather before I left for France but I didn't have time, so let me make up by writing one now.
The weather in Lausanne is much warmer now. I can store the huge winter coat that I have and just wear the seater I have when I go out. However, the temperature can still get pretty cold sometimes, like the past 2 days where it had been raining.
We are in the transititon from winter to spring, although its now more spring than winter. The flowers are blooming and the birds are all coming out. Yea... Its definitely spring when the insects are out to bug you.
The trees were still bare and ugly when I left for France but after a few weeks, the leaves have grown back (and I realised that they were the same trees that I saw in France) and the neighbourhood seemed to have gotten more colourful.
This picture was taken just after I returned so the trees looked a little nicer.
Anyway, I had gotten back my results for the midterms. It turned out that I had not done as badly as I had thought I would get. Whew... The teacher was really very lenient in his marking (I think...) and so I got 58/78 (don't ask me why it had such a weird denomination) which is about 74%. Not too bad, but the average for the test was 80% (10 people got 100%... What the hell...) so I had gotten a little below average. But that grade seemed to be common, since the passing mark is 66% (or 4 out of 6 points).
Here, I don't have to worry about the bell curve, but I have to at least score 66% for a pass. Easier said than done... I'm trying. Its definitely not easy, but its attainable, something like the workload in NUS, except that its much easier since I don't have to make time for work and tuition.
Oh yea, I can post up the group pictures of me and my friends from the France Trip so I'll be doing that pretty soon.
See u ard!
Did you guys enjoy the Chronicles of France? Hope you guys didn't strain your eyes too much when reading those entries.
Anyway, I did promise to write about the weather before I left for France but I didn't have time, so let me make up by writing one now.
The weather in Lausanne is much warmer now. I can store the huge winter coat that I have and just wear the seater I have when I go out. However, the temperature can still get pretty cold sometimes, like the past 2 days where it had been raining.
We are in the transititon from winter to spring, although its now more spring than winter. The flowers are blooming and the birds are all coming out. Yea... Its definitely spring when the insects are out to bug you.
The trees were still bare and ugly when I left for France but after a few weeks, the leaves have grown back (and I realised that they were the same trees that I saw in France) and the neighbourhood seemed to have gotten more colourful.
This picture was taken just after I returned so the trees looked a little nicer.Anyway, I had gotten back my results for the midterms. It turned out that I had not done as badly as I had thought I would get. Whew... The teacher was really very lenient in his marking (I think...) and so I got 58/78 (don't ask me why it had such a weird denomination) which is about 74%. Not too bad, but the average for the test was 80% (10 people got 100%... What the hell...) so I had gotten a little below average. But that grade seemed to be common, since the passing mark is 66% (or 4 out of 6 points).
Here, I don't have to worry about the bell curve, but I have to at least score 66% for a pass. Easier said than done... I'm trying. Its definitely not easy, but its attainable, something like the workload in NUS, except that its much easier since I don't have to make time for work and tuition.
Oh yea, I can post up the group pictures of me and my friends from the France Trip so I'll be doing that pretty soon.
See u ard!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
How to read the Chronicles of France
Dear people,
I have completed the Chronicles of France.
Unfortunately, I don't know how to post it such that the first book would appear right at the top.
As such, here is what I am going to do:
Click on the books below and it will jump to the proper pages so that you can read in order.
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
At the bottom of each book is also a link to the next book, so you can read it all in one shot though I wouldn't recommend it as it would be too hard on your eyes...
Have fun!!
I have completed the Chronicles of France.
Unfortunately, I don't know how to post it such that the first book would appear right at the top.
As such, here is what I am going to do:
Click on the books below and it will jump to the proper pages so that you can read in order.
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
At the bottom of each book is also a link to the next book, so you can read it all in one shot though I wouldn't recommend it as it would be too hard on your eyes...
Have fun!!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Last Book of the Chronicles of France
Yay! Rejoice! We are at the last book of the Chronicles of France. 2 more days to go. Are you having a caffine high? Really, stay away from coffee. They leave your breath smelling bad.
Again, a gentle reminder to read this in a well lit room, with the screen 50 cm away from your eyes and turn off all your beeping devices!! (:-D)
Day 8 of the France Trip
I wasn't in the best of moods after being shocked awake so early in the morning, but since this was a vacation, my normal mood returned pretty quickly, after breakfast and a cup of hot chocolate at a roadside cafe. :-D I love doing that in France, especially in front of beautiful buildings. Its so frenchy...
We walked along the streets of Marseille and just explored the city since there were very little attractions to see. But, not before visiting some places that looked promising.
We wanted to go to Chateau d'If, the french version of Azkaban, opps, I meant Alcatraz. :-D
However, due to bad weather conditions, all the boats were not heading to the Chateau. And I quote the lady selling the boat tickets: "La mer, c'est ça" (the sea is like this) and her hand mimics the rolling wave action.
The port at Marseille is supposed to be busy with fishmongers with their fresh catch, but when we went there, it was pretty quiet. Perhaps we were too early... So, with our main attraction, Chateau d'If downfor the count, we had to go to the other places. So...
First, took a bus to the oldest abbey in Marseille, the abbey of Saint Victor, and took a look around. While there, we took a stroll (or rather, we got a little lost) around the area and saw this bakery that was famous for their navettes. Navette is a type of pastry that is supposed to be a Marseille specialty. I didn't buy my navettes from that store because it was so expensive! They were like 8 for 12 euros! No way!! So I bought the next best option, cookies. Haha... Anyway, while strolling along much later, I found another shop that sells navettes at a much affordable price, and so, I bought like 8 of them for 5 euros. So much cheaper right!!! But then I might just be paying for the brand and the packaging if I had bought at the first store.
Next, we went to the Notre Dame de la Garde, which was a really cool basilica. It is dedicated to Mother Mary with the aspect of her as the Lady for sailers and voyagers and so it has those marine crests around the basilica. Then, we to the Palais Longchamp, a really cool and magnificent place, actually, more like the facade of a palace, that had a huge fountain and really majestic columns. Great for pictures!
The Notre Dame
Me and the Notre Dame
Palais Longchamp
Closeup of the main guy in the fountain
After all those running around, we finally settled down and just took a seat at the opening of the port and watched the setting sun.
Day 9 of the France Trip
We checked out of the crappy hotel as early as we could and boarded the train to Lyon, making sure that we did not miss the train like the previous time. In the end, we were about 40 minutes early for the train. Ah well, more time for me to study...
We had breakfast at Macdonald's at the train station after before boarding the train to Lyon. It was my FIRST time eating Macdonald's in Europe. I hadn't even ate Macs in Switzerland cos it was SO expensive. But then when we saw the price for the brunch menu, it was really reasonable, 6 euros for a burger, a yougurt, 2 pancakes, a tea and an orange juice. I know, if you translate into SGD, it would be about 12 dollars and its insane to pay such prices for breakfast. But hey, we are in Europe, and 6 euros is really really decent for such stuff already.
So anyway, Lyon. Lyon was nice...
After checking into the hotel, we decided to chill a little in the nice hotel room and decide on our destinations. But the first destination that we have to head to was the tourism office.
Its like a habit. Once you get to the next town, locate the nearest tourism office to get a map and a transport pass, if needed. Maps are essential to travellers. I've lost count of the number of maps that I took from this trip. Many of them are pretty torn up by the time we left the city.
At the tourism office, we bought a city pass for the next day and I bought a book on Lyon. I figured that since we didn't know what was good in Lyon, and the picture book looked really nice, it wouldn't hurt to get one as a souvenir, like the one in Louvre or Chateau de Versailles. Never mind that my backpack was 10 kg and books are not the best things to bring along a backpacking trip...
Ah yes, did I mention that Lyon was nice... Its like a not so touristy Paris. Though Lyon has lesser attractions, it also has much lesser tourists, and it all added to its charm.
I think we are all suffering from the tourist-cathedral fatigue as we were already losing the enthusiasm of visiting churches that are out of the way. But, the Basilique Notre-Dame (another one for Notre-Dame) up on Fourviere hill is superb! Easily comparable to the Notre Dame in Paris! While the exterior is not as impressive as the Notre dame de Paris, it has 2 levels in the interior. The lower level is dedicated to St Joseph, the husband of Mary, while the upper level is dedicated to Mother Mary. Again, gold inlay, gold gildings, gold paint... Colourful murals, impressive statues, beautiful facades... The churches in France must have been really rich to do this huh?
Anyway, out of the Basilique, one could get a panoramic view of the city. Oh Oh!! Did I mention the very quaint tram that we had to ride to get up the hill? It was really something straight out of the old days! Too bad the picture I had for the tram was pretty bad.
Sorry for the sudden outburst... Umm... Let's see...
From Fourviere, we then walked down the hill and stopped by the Roman Theaters ruins that was near the Basilique. That place makes a great place for pictures too. I heard that it's used not for outdoor concerts.
On our way back to the city, we met this really nice lady on the bus. She was laughing at us during the ride as we were chatting about the places we should go to for dinner. Lyon was our splurge-for-dinner destination because we've heard so much (or rather it's my friend who had heard so much)about the gourmet in Lyon. Finally, unable to ignore her any longer, my friend said "why don't we just ask the lady behind you (me)? She have been listening and laughing at our conversation for some time already."
I was like: What? Are we embarassing ourselves? Not again?!
:-D
Anyway, the lady was really nice. We asked her about any restaurants or places where we could get good food for a reasonable price. Her instant answer was "In France?"
In the end, she pointed out a nice pub where we could have a decent meal and chill out for the evening for a reasonable price, and so, off we went to that pub.
So, to cut a long story short, we went to the pub, got dinner, then ordered beer on top of the wine that was included in the set. We all got rip-roarin' drunk and left the pub swiggin' on a bottle of wine.
Or so it would be if the alcohol was free and we were back in Singpore with someone to drive us home and we don't need to care about parents breathing down our backs. :-P
We had a fun time at the pub. We did order beer, but it was only2 mugs shared between 4 people, so it was ok. The food wasn't honestly great, but it was decent and affordable and the company was great. Thus, overall, it was a very enjoyable night. (The beers might have something to do with it too ;-D)
End of Day 9
Day 10. The last day in France!!
It was the last day of the France Trip and I was facing it with a mixture of Yes-I-get-to-finally-go-back-soon (I was kinda missing Switzerland... Or maybe just getting tired) and No-Aww...-I-still-wanna-stay-and-play-in-Lyon kind of feelings.
We checked out of the nice hotel that gave us extra towels and checked our baggage into the train station's baggage lockers before heading to the Old Town to do some exploration.
Today was basically a museum day, since our city pass includes free entry to museums and the free use of public transportation. We went to 3 museums.The Museum of Religious Art, The Museum of Automations and the Museum of Miniatures.
The first 2 museums were so-so, but the Museum of Miniatures was really awesome. Very detailed little pieces of art and stuff! One wonders how the creators don't suffer from extreme myopia...
After the museums, we went to this place where many shops selling Lyon specialties are. The place was really cool. I love that place... I bought a Lyonnaise Saucisson, cured meat that is a specialty of Lyon, and a big packet of soft sweets that I think is also a specialty. I was almost sad when we had to leave to catch the train back to Geneva.
It is very suficiant to say that I was very happy when I left France with a bagful of souvenirs and 4 blog posts full of memories.
Are you guys satisfied with my accounts?
Be nice, I spent an entire day typing these four posts instead of enjoying the nice weather at the lake. My eyes are about to pop out...
So as something nice for all you nice people who sat through god knows how many pages of stuff that I had written and almost 5 pots of coffee (are you still drinking that?) ...
A nice picture of me and the Palais de Justice in Marseille! And....
Me and the cheeses in the market in Lyon!
Autographed pictures are at 5 euros a piece. Grab'em while stocks last!! :-D
Again, a gentle reminder to read this in a well lit room, with the screen 50 cm away from your eyes and turn off all your beeping devices!! (:-D)
Day 8 of the France Trip
I wasn't in the best of moods after being shocked awake so early in the morning, but since this was a vacation, my normal mood returned pretty quickly, after breakfast and a cup of hot chocolate at a roadside cafe. :-D I love doing that in France, especially in front of beautiful buildings. Its so frenchy...
We walked along the streets of Marseille and just explored the city since there were very little attractions to see. But, not before visiting some places that looked promising.
We wanted to go to Chateau d'If, the french version of Azkaban, opps, I meant Alcatraz. :-D
However, due to bad weather conditions, all the boats were not heading to the Chateau. And I quote the lady selling the boat tickets: "La mer, c'est ça" (the sea is like this) and her hand mimics the rolling wave action.
The port at Marseille is supposed to be busy with fishmongers with their fresh catch, but when we went there, it was pretty quiet. Perhaps we were too early... So, with our main attraction, Chateau d'If downfor the count, we had to go to the other places. So...
First, took a bus to the oldest abbey in Marseille, the abbey of Saint Victor, and took a look around. While there, we took a stroll (or rather, we got a little lost) around the area and saw this bakery that was famous for their navettes. Navette is a type of pastry that is supposed to be a Marseille specialty. I didn't buy my navettes from that store because it was so expensive! They were like 8 for 12 euros! No way!! So I bought the next best option, cookies. Haha... Anyway, while strolling along much later, I found another shop that sells navettes at a much affordable price, and so, I bought like 8 of them for 5 euros. So much cheaper right!!! But then I might just be paying for the brand and the packaging if I had bought at the first store.
Next, we went to the Notre Dame de la Garde, which was a really cool basilica. It is dedicated to Mother Mary with the aspect of her as the Lady for sailers and voyagers and so it has those marine crests around the basilica. Then, we to the Palais Longchamp, a really cool and magnificent place, actually, more like the facade of a palace, that had a huge fountain and really majestic columns. Great for pictures!
The Notre Dame
Me and the Notre Dame
Palais Longchamp
Closeup of the main guy in the fountainAfter all those running around, we finally settled down and just took a seat at the opening of the port and watched the setting sun.
Day 9 of the France Trip
We checked out of the crappy hotel as early as we could and boarded the train to Lyon, making sure that we did not miss the train like the previous time. In the end, we were about 40 minutes early for the train. Ah well, more time for me to study...
We had breakfast at Macdonald's at the train station after before boarding the train to Lyon. It was my FIRST time eating Macdonald's in Europe. I hadn't even ate Macs in Switzerland cos it was SO expensive. But then when we saw the price for the brunch menu, it was really reasonable, 6 euros for a burger, a yougurt, 2 pancakes, a tea and an orange juice. I know, if you translate into SGD, it would be about 12 dollars and its insane to pay such prices for breakfast. But hey, we are in Europe, and 6 euros is really really decent for such stuff already.
So anyway, Lyon. Lyon was nice...
After checking into the hotel, we decided to chill a little in the nice hotel room and decide on our destinations. But the first destination that we have to head to was the tourism office.
Its like a habit. Once you get to the next town, locate the nearest tourism office to get a map and a transport pass, if needed. Maps are essential to travellers. I've lost count of the number of maps that I took from this trip. Many of them are pretty torn up by the time we left the city.
At the tourism office, we bought a city pass for the next day and I bought a book on Lyon. I figured that since we didn't know what was good in Lyon, and the picture book looked really nice, it wouldn't hurt to get one as a souvenir, like the one in Louvre or Chateau de Versailles. Never mind that my backpack was 10 kg and books are not the best things to bring along a backpacking trip...
Ah yes, did I mention that Lyon was nice... Its like a not so touristy Paris. Though Lyon has lesser attractions, it also has much lesser tourists, and it all added to its charm.
I think we are all suffering from the tourist-cathedral fatigue as we were already losing the enthusiasm of visiting churches that are out of the way. But, the Basilique Notre-Dame (another one for Notre-Dame) up on Fourviere hill is superb! Easily comparable to the Notre Dame in Paris! While the exterior is not as impressive as the Notre dame de Paris, it has 2 levels in the interior. The lower level is dedicated to St Joseph, the husband of Mary, while the upper level is dedicated to Mother Mary. Again, gold inlay, gold gildings, gold paint... Colourful murals, impressive statues, beautiful facades... The churches in France must have been really rich to do this huh?
Anyway, out of the Basilique, one could get a panoramic view of the city. Oh Oh!! Did I mention the very quaint tram that we had to ride to get up the hill? It was really something straight out of the old days! Too bad the picture I had for the tram was pretty bad.
Sorry for the sudden outburst... Umm... Let's see...
From Fourviere, we then walked down the hill and stopped by the Roman Theaters ruins that was near the Basilique. That place makes a great place for pictures too. I heard that it's used not for outdoor concerts.
On our way back to the city, we met this really nice lady on the bus. She was laughing at us during the ride as we were chatting about the places we should go to for dinner. Lyon was our splurge-for-dinner destination because we've heard so much (or rather it's my friend who had heard so much)about the gourmet in Lyon. Finally, unable to ignore her any longer, my friend said "why don't we just ask the lady behind you (me)? She have been listening and laughing at our conversation for some time already."I was like: What? Are we embarassing ourselves? Not again?!
:-D
Anyway, the lady was really nice. We asked her about any restaurants or places where we could get good food for a reasonable price. Her instant answer was "In France?"
In the end, she pointed out a nice pub where we could have a decent meal and chill out for the evening for a reasonable price, and so, off we went to that pub.
So, to cut a long story short, we went to the pub, got dinner, then ordered beer on top of the wine that was included in the set. We all got rip-roarin' drunk and left the pub swiggin' on a bottle of wine.
Or so it would be if the alcohol was free and we were back in Singpore with someone to drive us home and we don't need to care about parents breathing down our backs. :-P
We had a fun time at the pub. We did order beer, but it was only2 mugs shared between 4 people, so it was ok. The food wasn't honestly great, but it was decent and affordable and the company was great. Thus, overall, it was a very enjoyable night. (The beers might have something to do with it too ;-D)
End of Day 9Day 10. The last day in France!!
It was the last day of the France Trip and I was facing it with a mixture of Yes-I-get-to-finally-go-back-soon (I was kinda missing Switzerland... Or maybe just getting tired) and No-Aww...-I-still-wanna-stay-and-play-in-Lyon kind of feelings.
We checked out of the nice hotel that gave us extra towels and checked our baggage into the train station's baggage lockers before heading to the Old Town to do some exploration.
Today was basically a museum day, since our city pass includes free entry to museums and the free use of public transportation. We went to 3 museums.The Museum of Religious Art, The Museum of Automations and the Museum of Miniatures.
The first 2 museums were so-so, but the Museum of Miniatures was really awesome. Very detailed little pieces of art and stuff! One wonders how the creators don't suffer from extreme myopia...
After the museums, we went to this place where many shops selling Lyon specialties are. The place was really cool. I love that place... I bought a Lyonnaise Saucisson, cured meat that is a specialty of Lyon, and a big packet of soft sweets that I think is also a specialty. I was almost sad when we had to leave to catch the train back to Geneva.
It is very suficiant to say that I was very happy when I left France with a bagful of souvenirs and 4 blog posts full of memories.
Are you guys satisfied with my accounts?
Be nice, I spent an entire day typing these four posts instead of enjoying the nice weather at the lake. My eyes are about to pop out...
So as something nice for all you nice people who sat through god knows how many pages of stuff that I had written and almost 5 pots of coffee (are you still drinking that?) ...
A nice picture of me and the Palais de Justice in Marseille! And....
Me and the cheeses in the market in Lyon!Autographed pictures are at 5 euros a piece. Grab'em while stocks last!! :-D
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