Landed at Heathrow Airport around 6am after a long flight on the 747 (suppose to be A380) The thing about London customs is that they ask so many questions that even you start to question yourself whether you are a terrorist. So yeah, was bombarded with questions from this old man behind the counter. Later we found our way to the tube, and off we went into LONDON! Being on a budget tour means that we need to spend the minimum. How else but to buy the child ticket for the subway? Haha. Ivan decided to approach the counter to buy the tickets. However, freaking guy at the counter asked for identification, and he immediately bolted away, didn’t know how else to react. In the end we each bought a children’s day pass costing £7, thats S$14! so expensive
Our first brunch in london
What was planned for the day was to go down to Queensway station for the fat tire bike tour. But started at only 11am. went down early to walk around though.
Famous English Fish and Chips
London cycling
The fat tire bike tour was excellent, no wonder its rated 1st on the list of things to do in London on Tripadvisor.com, it really is that good. the guide was informative and cheerful, well, one of the few things in Europe I didn’t mind paying for. Went to Buckingham Palace, Parliament Building, Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, Kensington Palace, St James Park, Princess Diana’s monument just to name a few. The weather was excellent for the ride, didn’t really break much of a sweat. Had like traditional british fish and chips as well as a good pint of beer for lunch, that was went i grazed past a metal gate, but i still say it was because of the tight turning and not that I was drunk. Saw like a british entourage on horses along the way back, really really cool, to see how modern london traffic will grind to a halt just to allow the man on horses to troop past.
Went to Royal Plaza hotel for the pre tour brief, that was when we saw the composition of members on the tour, sian got 3 PRC that we thought weren’t going to be on, but unfortunately were. It was basically doing all the registration work before the actual day. There was no koreans/japs that the tour agent promised! SCAMMED! lol
Went to ask our Tour manager Rory for directions to good food, in the end he directed us to some shitty Indian food restaurant. Lousy food with noisy people all around, can still remember the old british couple next to our table smiling with us at those noisy Americans, damn funny, guess they could sense we were pissed as well.
Journey to Amsterdam
Woke up rather early, checked out of the Generator and went to the designated meeting point. Got onto the bus and off we were! European Whirl. The tour consisted of a large group of aussies, 2 canadians, a few americans, 2 other singaporeans and 3 PRCs. Yes, we were conned, no Korean, No Japanese, No Taiwanese. Would have loved for a bigger asian community though.
The trip was long, had to take a ferry at Dover over to France. The scenery at Dover was amazing, white cliffs and all, its really like the grass would grow all the way to the edge of the cliff, amazing place to build a home to live in. So the ferry across to France and a long ass journey over to Amsterdam through Belgium.
My friend and i on the ship
Hit Amsterdam close to evening time, had a buffet dinner at the hostel. Hostels were good, each room had its own toilets and stuff. After dinner we took the bus in, had a walking tour of the famous red light district of Amsterdam.
Went there it was still day light, and the only prosties out in the windows were the once that had the power to make your dinner magically appear again on the side walks. The red light district in daylight isnt as scary and shady as if it were to be in the night, it would be totally different.
After the show the rest of the tour went to the Coffee shops, shops which sold weed. In amsterdam its legal to smoke weed. We didn’t though, just walked around the now dark and spooky red light district. Ivan got a middle finger from a prostitute for getting caught taking pictures. “Back to China!” lolx, we are not from China. Later at night it was quite confusing trying to find our way back to the hostel, got confused as to which trams to take. Luckily we managed to get our directions and avoid a hefty cab ride back.
Amsterdam
Started the day with a bike tour in the town of Eden, seeing the dikes of Holland. The weather wasnt too good, a bit of a drizzle, and it was cold. Dutch bicycles brake a little differently, and needed some getting use to, all you need to do was back peddle and it would brake.
Team PRC managed to score 1 for the trip, playing dominoes with our bicycles when we laid them all in a line to see the dikes, Wing went there to park his bike, but unintentionally pushed all the bikes down ala like Dominoes. Classic PRC moment. Ivan and wayne decided that this moment was worth a spot in their camera. haha
Right after we were told to not make them fall
After that we hopped onto the bus to some demonstration on how the dutch people make cheese and their traditional clogs. The cheese was really good, but didn’t really buy any as i wasn’t sure if it would be able to pass customs in singapore. Had a little cheese and wine tasting session at the end, the cherry wine was good, so we just go a botle of that and some caramelised biscuits to go along with it.
HAHA! i got big feet
Had like a free half day in Amsterdam after that, only managed to visit the number 1 tourist attraction in Amsterdam, which was the Anne Frank’s House. It was okie, some sort of museum dedicated to Anne Frank, haven’t read her book yet so I’m not too sure what really went on, other than that she and her family were jews hiding from the Nazi. Again we tried to ghost our way through as students, asked for ID, but didn’t bring any. Sucks on having a student card, if not could really enjoy alot of discounts in Europe.
Anne frank's secret apartment
After Anne Franks’s House went hunting for a long sleeve shirt to protect me from the cold in the main shopping street of amsterdam. Managed to find one for €5.
Met at the river at 5pm, to do some river cruise along the amsterdam canals, supposedly “the best way to see amsterdam” by Rory, whole load of crap. Another dissappointing optional tour, in which all we got out of the tour was 3 servings of booze, not much explaining or anything,which was what I hoped.
Following that we went to this floating chinese restaurant, something like the one in hong kong, only thing was that hong kong one was a million times better. For the relative amount we paid, we could have gotten MORE food than what we gotten there. Rory said there would be heaps of food, but in general it really wasn’t that much considering the amount of money we paid. The meat was hard, didn’t dare touch the veggies, the noodles bland and the dessert was crap. The soup was just salty water. But all these appealed alot to the caucasians, cause they didn;t know what authentic food taste like. I guess it was another mistake going for the dinner.
I am not actually peeing
After that we followed the group to some Aussie Bar, had one shot really, and didn’t really stay long. Took a tram ride back to the hostel for an early night!
Basically in Amsterdam, if you’re not there for the sex and drugs, than Amsterdam isn’t really for you. We didn’t do sex, couldn’t do drugs, so yeah, and definitely no mushroom cookies, so Amsterdam was great as an eye opener, how a city could actually function with legalised vice.
Amsterdan to Berlin
Moved off from Amsterdam, and we were off to Berlin, Capital of Germany. Another long ride on the road, along the famous german autobahn where there were no speed limits. Lunch was expensive, those highway stopovers are seriously overpriced. And they don’t really speak english, so ordering was a problem, all we could do was point. Their toilets must also pay.
Killed in a Berlin toy shop
Germany’s traffic light
Ample man!
Arrvived in Berlin on a wet day. First shock, was that the hostel we were in, was damn bloody good. Its called Wombats. Had tables and chairs in the room, very nice and clean. Managed to get Wifi Signal from our room too.
Had a good dinner at the restaurant of the hostel. Some Pork cutlet snitzel, or pork cutlet as we call it. After that we were scheduled for the Eye-Spy Berlin tour, originally we didn’t want to do it, but accomanied Ryan anyway. Due to the weather, the tour had to be conducted from the bus, so there was this young american living in Berlin who was giving us the brief history of Berlin. Saw a recreation of the Berlin wall and the “deathstrip”, but again it was raining quite badly, didnt get to enjoy much before we boarded the bus again.
The tour also had a pub crawl included. I guess they really know how to target the main caucasian tourist, by feeding them with booze and more booze. Bloody good friend he is. Shortly after we went to the 2nd pub, had a little fun with the fussball with the rest of the guys, good ice breaker between us and the rest of the group.
Our staple source of liquid
Took a tram to our 3rd stop of the pub crawl, an underground night club called The Matrix. Drama on the tram, Louisiana our tour guide starts shouting at Ryan Forster for stealing her beer, Alex manages to convince a stranger to drink beer from the clog. Never get such stuff on our MRT!
Berlin-Suffering from the Ghost of the Past
Today we had a walking tour planned for us, to tour Berlin. Went walking around for quite a bit, visited many many historic sites like the Brandenburg Gates, Berlin wall, site of the book burnings, pink armory, Reichstag building, Nike Goddess monument and so on. Berlin is like a brand new city, rebuilt that is. Almost 90% of the buildings were bombed in WW2, thus much is needed to rebuilt and restore the city. During the walking tour, went to visit the monument for the halocaust, which was just like giant slabs of concrete like a domino game, also visited the site where Hitler and his wife committed suicide. Apparently they got married and died on the same day.
The statue of Nike.. if thats how u spell it
After the walking tour, we walked around the city on our own. Along the way we stumpled into some sort of bicycle fair of some sorts near the Brandenburg gate area. Pretty cool that they have such a cycling culture in Berlin, in fact in most parts of europe its the case, bicycles are very much a popular form of transport there. There were like heaps of people young and old with bicycles parked along the side of the roads.We decided to push through the “gartens” to see Nike, the goddess right in the center of the gardens. Walked damn far(4KM at least), just to snap a few photos,maybe take a leak in the pubic park. Walked back to take some photos with the soviet monuments as well. Traces of soviet monuments from the time Russia occupied east germany and east berlin.
Later we visited the Reichstag building, which is the current and historic parliament building of Germany. And they converted part of it into a tourist attraction of sorts, nice dome at the top with 360 degrees view of east berlin. But the queue to go in was a bit of a wait though.
The German Reichstag’s roof
well, since we didn’t sign up to go to the next pubcrawl in west berlin, practically had the whole day to ourselves, which we spend walking EVEN MORE. Most of the historical stuff is in East Berlin, West Berlin is more opened up, more liberal and hence more neon lights and shops.
Crossing over from East to West berlin
Nice shoes
Had some shitty turkish kebab for dinner, before walking back to the hostel. Went up for a free complimentary beer and than called it an early night.
Berlin to Prague
Along the way to Prague today, we were able to stop over at this beautiful german town called Dresden. Small as it may be, still rich in history and monuments. Only had like 3 hours there, which we spent walking around the city and admiring the beautififul monuments. Wonderful town to drop by for a couple of hours.
sucks having that for lunch
We are part of the art in dresden
Has to be ivan
Entered Prague close to evening time, went off for some walking tour of the Prague Castle, which was one of the biggest in Europe. Rather huge, with Gothic style cathedral, St Vitus Cathedral and St George Bascilica. Walked around touring the castle, which was a free attraction and a walking tour given by Rory himself. Enjoyed the scenic view of Prague for the castle area before making our way down to the bus to the hostel.
First order of business was to curb the hunger pangs. Didn’t take up the hostel’s offer of pizza and beer for dinner, thought that we could at least get some local food at a local restaurant and stuff, guess that was a wrong decision to make.
First impression of Prague was that it wasn’t a beautiful city, well at least not where we were located, at the suburbs. Kind of spooky, 3rd world feeling. Made a laugh that we would get captured/kidnapped and be put into a Hostel the Movie situation, maybe a random car will pull up next to us and gun us down kind of thing.
Carried on walking through the spooky neighbourhood, till we hit the metro station and saw lots of shady people standing around. Well, if their locals all look so shady than I guess you’ll get the picture, then we saw the golden arches, and immediately decided we will just have our dinner there. Well, getting saved by Macdonalds was the first of 2 times on this trip. So had our macdonalds there, and this was the only Macs i know that we must pay for sauce, how stupid is that.
After dinner, basically bolted back to the hostel, visited the bar, got a couple of beers. There was this old couple that was bringing down the house that night, crazy drunk old couples. HAHAH
Prague
Had a late morning, and then followed Rory into the city via tram ride. The journey was rather long which could only mean that we were harbouring quite far off from the main city center. Went off to see the astrological clock first, which has some animations on it, but nothing exciting in particular. One of the top 3 touristy attractions of Europe. Apparently in the olden days people would gather around this clock to be entertained.
Wayne blew a cool lot at Nike, buying a Tour De France jersey and gloves. Happily got my lithium batteires as well, in the end it wasn’t needed, wasted my money. Following that we just walked randomly through the city. Crossed a local market where they sold like their local art work, very interesting. The standard of living in prague isn’t that high as compared to the rest of Europe, and they still hold their own currency of Czech Crowns (Kc)
Went off to Charles Bridge with Evan and Nikky, took some photos there and the we went off to find some local cuisine for dinner, Goulash soup back at the local market.
Walked back through the astro clock and rode a tram back to the hostel. Came out again to clear some of our Czech Crowns as it was useless elsewhere in Europe.
Prague to Munich(Germany)
Off we went from Prague back into Germany, to Munich for only a night. Before that we had a stop over at Dachau, which is the first Concentration camp that sparked off the Halocaust. Apparently the one in Dachau is the main inprocessing camp, which meant that after that prisoners would then be transported to other camps. It also served as the model in which other concentration camps around the country was built after. German students are also required to visit this site, in the name of national education. Visited the museum, the cremation area, which had a really dark feel to it. The camp was rather big, but given the number of prisoners it was holding, i guess it just wasn’t big enough. Grim grim grim.
Dachau jewish concentration camp
Haiz
Reached Munich around the afternoon time. Had “Mike’s Bike Tour” immediately upon arrival into Munich, wasn’t as good as Fat Tire Bike Toure, but it really wasn’t a choice. If it wasn’t the bike tour it would be roaming around Munich on our own for a couple of hours.
DINNER???
Did a couple of attractions, historic stuff and off we went into the English gardens ( called that cause it was modelled after the English Parks in Britain) where they had this nudist group/ culture there where peope will just sunbathe in the nude in the park in the open! How cool is that, try doing that in Singapore! Went to the World’s second largest beer garden, had like half a litre of beer and some local pancake dish, which was really tasty. In Munich, their beer is served in half litre or full litre portions, and you had to place a deposit on the beer jugs because of the fear that people will take them home, which Evan and Steve eventually did. On the way out of the park we saw some dudes surfing. Yes! Surfing in the park. Apparently it was artificially created so that waves will gush out from the opening.
Dropped our stuff off at the hostel, and the next thing that night was the Bavarian Beerhall. Well, kind of dissappointed cause i was really expecting like a huge beer hall with locals there. But in the end what we got was more of a tourist site, with 3 different contiki groups there at the same night, so you can call that a Contiki Beerhall. Had some fatty pork knuckles for dinner. This old man was like toasting us frequently for 15mins, probably trying his very best to get us to drink and order more beer, which we did at the end. Got some performances by the girls, entertaining to say the least. Did the chicken dance performance which was pretty fun, great atmosphere even though we weren’t at the authentic beerhalls. Everyone was pretty tipsy back on the bus, partying and taking photos. Fun and crazy night!
Was it a draw?
Beerhall in Munich
Crazy ryan foster! All high even when we haven started drinking
Munich is very much similar to Berlin, much of which has been rebuilt after WW2. Would really love to come back for more time to appreciate the culture and history of the city, as well as see the Allianz Arena as well. The visit to the concentration camp was really an eye opener, it really had a very dark feel to it. But its good that the german people acknowledged the hideous things done by the Nazi Regime, and instead of sweeping it under the carpet like the Japanese, they actually kept it as a reminder to the youths about the dark past of Germany.
Munich to Austria Tyrol
Short ride from Munich over to Austria, through some very scenic routes before hitting Austria at around 10am, in a little town called Hopfgaten. It was a little inn run by contiki themselves. We were scheduled for the mountain biking, but the weather was really raining. Still carried on with it nontheless. Austria is famous for its ourdoor activities, such as skiing, cycling and other extreme sports. Mountain biking was a good way to explore a small part of the area, which was already by itself so spectacular. The locals actually live up these mountains in nice houses, so can you imagine the lives they lead, so peaceful. The climb up was a little challenging, and the ride down was fun, too fast though. Had BBQ lunch, which was actually just sausage and bread and a bit of salad by the side, so wasn’t actually BBQ.
Look what happens without a windbreaker
raining is no problem for ivan! Wear a plastic bag over! LOL
Acting pro
Had our bikes till 5pm, so after the rain stopped we decided to spend the rest of the day trout fishing at a place nearby the cabin. For €7.80 we were allowed to catch a trout and they would cook it for us to eat. Pretty fun though, managed to kill some time in Austria as well as had a really really well cooked trout, fresh from the pond. Poor Wayne, don’t dare to kill his trout.
Our lunch is swimming in there
One is missing... ryan's lunch was still swimming
Lunch is served
Dinner was also surprisingly good. It was a 3 course meal, starting first with Goulash Soup, followed by Turkey Snitzel and ending off with some Apple Strudel. Watched the news and heard that Real had a bid accepted for Ronaldo, which was nice. Watched a bit of television, but didn’t take part in the “Battle of the Sexes” held in the bar. Went off to sleep after that.
Austria would be a really nice place to visit again, maybe in winter when all the mountains are covered in snow. Really a very beautiful place, maybe only second to Switzerland in Europe.
Austria to Venice
First order of business for the day was white water rafting. Got ourselves suited up and off we went. Our boat had all the asians, apart from Team Spore Pt 2, they seem to be on a water tight budget. Our guide was this strong austrain teen, 20 yrs old and he looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Wayne was drooling over him. Lolx.
Had a free day in Venice. The thing was that our camp site was on the other bank of venice, which meant that we had to take a ferry over into Venice, and the ride was pretty long, maybe 20mins?
White water rafting in austria in a 5 degrees cold river
Had a great time rafting, could be better if we could dump the 2 PRC girls off the boat. First time doing it and it was really enjoyable. Water was freezing cold. Took our turns to jump off into the river. Floated down the river and did stupid things on the raft as well.
Ended down at their little shack, washed up and had a nice hot cup of cuppaccino, played a little volley ball with Christian and Alex, and it was off for a 6hr drive up to Venice.
Again the scenery in Austria was stunning, went past the former “highest bridge of europe”
Hit the camp site, which wasn’t really as bad as I imagined it to be. Still had like a private toilet, and it was just me and Ryan inside! Everything was clean, just that it was a mozzy infested place.
Had a great and expensive night at the bar, drank a couple of beers. Young was trying to get us hooked up, but it didn’t happen.
Venice
The canals/bridges of Venice
First up was the lace explaination and shop, very much a tourist trap. Second was the glass blowing demonstration, which was also a tourist trap. But these 2 were the traditional art works of the Venecians, very cool, but costly.
Went to queue to enter San Marco Basilica,his church. Rory said that the murals on the basilica deplicted how the venecians went over to Istanbul to steal the body of St. Marc’s himself, hid him under a basket full of pork, all deplicted by murals outside the basilica. Crazy catholics.
There was also a 100m high tower called the “campanile”, but must pay to go in. Got Melvin’s hard rock cafe pin, and then after that it was basically walking around randomly in Venice. Went to see the Rialto Bridge, which was just a normal bridge to me, but surprisingly big enough for ancient battle ships to sail past. Last time Venice was a port that built battle ships, and those completed would sail past the Rialto Bridge and off to war. Guess the ships of the past weren’t really tall in that sense.
Had pizza for lunch, basically sat on some random steps to have it. Got scolded by some crazy old italian woman (1st of 2). After that we walked till we couldn’t anymore, and just sat at some random canal to rest for a while. Stumpled upon a wine shop, and decided to get a berlini, their local wine. The guys bought it for me for my birthday celebration. Saw that they also served cheap coffee, so what the hell, got myself a latte. That was when the old man poured us a glass of their local venecian wine. Love at first taste! It was clear, we needed to each get ourselves a bottle. Ryan got 2! €9 each! we got a total of 5 bottles. What a stroke of random luck, if you could call it that.
Rested at the water side waiting till 5.30pm to take the boat back to the camp site.
After walking all day in Venice
Dinner was great! Heaps of BBQ chicken and ribs. Really tasty. Accompanied by a bottle of cheap wine as well. Sad thing were the camping people. While we were having good delicious food they were cooking their own meal, cleaning up after themselves and drying their plates.
At night at 9 plus was the Beach Olympics. Too bad our tour group didn’t send a team out to compete. Sumo Wrestling, oily abs, wet tshirt and tug of war.
Venice was rather dissappointing i guess, or maybe we really didn’t maximise the time given to us to fully expereince this city. To me there really wasn’t much to do, and our random walking at the opposite site of the the city didn’t really show us much other than the random works of art, face masks. So yeah, maybe for this city random walking was a bad idea.
Venice to Roma
Long day of travelling. 3 hr driver, rest and another 3 hr drive up to Rome. Had to budget a bit, so lunch for me was tea biscuits again because there was so much biscuits bought from Prague. Miss home cooked food and the rest of the singapore menu.
italian pizza
Next we headed for Piazza Navona, which was this huge square with many local artists displaying thier art work and drawing caricatures. Had an hour dinner break, settled on a 4 course dinner. 3 to be exact, the coke doesnt really count. Had literally tomato on bread, followed by a lousy Spagetti and then Espresso to round it off. It was dissappointing to say the least, not what i expect of true italiano spagetti. Probably cooked by some semi qualified cook or even microwaved by the bartender. The espresso was underestimated, and wrecked my night. Made our way back to the campsite, whcih was opposite Lazio’s training ground, too bad it was off season. Well, Rory described the camp site to Dog Kennels, which was true to a certain extent, did really look like some dog kennels. Spent the night at the bar drinking our holland cherry wine and playing big 2 and asshole with Alex Christian and the rest of the group.
OUTWITTED
Roma
First thing in Rome was to do Rory’s walking tour, just to clear a few attractions. First stop was San Pietro in Vincoli ( St Peters in chains cathedral). Apparently held there was the 2 chains that held st peters at seperate times, and magically merged together.
A brief walk pass the colosseum, forum entrance en route to Piazza Venezia, a huge square with the national monument, dedicated to the first king of Italy.
Following that we went to the Trevi Fountain, which was beautiful. Apparently if you flick a coin over your shoulder into the fountain, you will return to Rome some other time in your life. Stopped for photos, and got ripped off €3 for 3 scoops of mint gelato, basket, comunication error.
Hit the Pantheon next, which was amazing too, a temple to all the gods, now a church and inside holds one of the ninja turtles, joking, the famous painter Raphael is buried in there. Alot of history this one, but like the rest of rome, history from many different times periods.
Did our guided tour of the Roman Forum, which was really filled with history. Had a look at Julius Caesar’s tomb/ shrine, as well as other historical artefacts. Well, the forum was used as a place for nobles and a place for the general public to gather.
Rome is filled with tonnes of history, and to fully appreciate this city for what it is I guess you’ll need a masters in Roman History or something. So many monuments each with its own history. But from the outside, it looks like the whole city is crumbling.
We are gladiators
Rome is like constantly being rebuilt, so there are mostly cities built over existing cities, much like a kueh lapis. Same with the historical monuments. Whenever the Romans want to build another monument, they will raid other monuments around the area for all the precious designs and gold, and place them on the new monument, leaving the old monuments looking like shit. Rome resembles a crumbling apple pie. Everything seems crumpled and not taken care of, which is exactly the case.
After the guided tour of the Forum, went on into the Colosseum, which looks magnificent. You get to appreciate it more when you come to terms with how they built such a massive structure with the kind of technology they had in the past. How they managed to pull the over head cover on raining days. Really crowded attraction, pretty girls aplenty as well =)
Following the tour of the Museum, we went on to find Rory at the Metro station, before pushing off to the Vatican City. Before starting at the Vatican, he brought us to a place which served pizzas by the serving size. The attendant would weigh up the amount of pizza she cut for you, and charge you accordingly. It was rather cheap, for the amount of pizza i got. Wayne went overboard, and had to down 8 slices of pizza by himself.
My money for lunch…
First we had to pay to get into the Vatican Museum, cause that was the only way to see the Sistine Chapel, so called main high light at the Vatican other than St Peters Cathedral. So weren’t able to ghost our way past this gate attendant, had to pay €14 to get in. Well, the Vatican Museum was massive, and if you went without a guide , or didn’t pay to use the electronic guide, it just seemed like hallway after hallway of scupltures and paintings, nothing made sense. So yeah, walked through hallway after hallyway of scriptures, paintings and sculptures, before finally making it to the end , which was where the Sistine Chapel was. The police inside were constantly saying “NO FOTO NO FOTO” to everyone who was trying to take a pic of the Sistine Chapel.
haha! Secretly posing
After that we went over to St Peter’s Basilica, which was also a very nice chapel. Massive massive chapel dedicated to St Peter’s. Beautiful.
Still had a few more hours before we had to make it back to the Campsite for dinner, so Joel decided to go back to Piazza Novana to buy some paintings. Cherrie and Young decided to follow us. Got lost at the Pantheon, than finally managed to find our way to the square. That bugger only bought one drawing in the end. Following that we walked up to our nearest Metro station, which was like 1.5km away. Thats one flaw about Rome, because ancient Rome is so many layers below the current Rome, they will be unable to build a metro anywhere near the city center without finding some new artefact. Hence, Rome City Center has no rail stations.
Managed to catch the shuttle bus and made it back just in time for shitty dinner. Spent the night at the bar, with Alex and Christian Billie and a few others drinking shitty ass wine before going to bed at around 10-ish. Again, didn’t get a good nights sleep. By far the worse campsite
Roma to Florence(Home of the Ninja Turtles, Leonardo, Rafael, Michelangelo, Donatello. The Birthplace of the Renaissance)
Had Breakfast and departed off at around 8.30 to Florence!
First thing we did was to go take a group tour photo on top of a high point overlooking all of Florence City, but seeing the way she took the photo, luckily we didn’t pay through our noses for it. Saved some money =)
Proceeded into the city, went to see a leather demonstration, of how traditional florence leather products were crafted. As well as how to spot fakes. Well, Florence is famous for its leather products. Thus many stores selling real stuff, many stores selling fake as well.
After the demonstration, proceeded to Rory’s recommended bread stall for lunch. Not too bad, they had a cool meat/cheese slicing machine, and at least they have hot sauce, something not too common in Europe. Taste just like normal subway, maybe even below par to that of Subway.
After lunch went on a walking tour with another old woman as our tour guide. But she wasn’t all that bad. Well, first was the square, which had history written all over it. This building was the building that Da Vinci invented the flying machine in. Outside the building was various sculptures of various characters, including greek mythology, medusa being slayed, Archilles slaying some monster. even has an artist hiding his face at the back of the medusa sulpture!
Went on to some other sites, the Bridge where Hitler apparently ordered not to destroy, and another at the side of it that was destroyed by the germans, but subsequently rebuilt again by the debri that had fallen into the river. The church, Basilica Santa Maria Del Fiore, or Florence Catheral in short is beautiful. Was one of the few churches that was still intact after years. The colour of the church came from its pure marble walls. Apparently, the dome on it was used to model the next dome to be built at St Peters Cathedral in the Vatican.
After the walking tour, Didn’t sign up for the optional Tuscan Dinner thingy, which we were sure was going to be not truly Tuscan. So the 4 of us, plus Christian and Alex, Cherrie and Young went off on our own to find food.
Aparently all we did was walked right into the first restaurant that we saw. Ordered us some wine, Carbonar Pasta and a pizza. The Spagetti did justice to Italian Pasta, after the horrible one we had in rome. The pizza was alright too, order the Fungi one. NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER! Really good dinner, for around €17 or S$34, saved quite a bit and still managed to come out with a full stomach and some wine in my system.
Went over to link up with those who went for the dinner at this bar called Red Garter. Didn’t stay around for long, but while we were there they were having some cool Karoke display and the girls were singing songs. Went back to the campsite on a coach after that. Hang around the bar playing cards for a while, but wasn’t as happening as the rest of the bars we have been to, slept soon after.
Florence is pretty wonderful, didn’t expect it to be so nice, but it was really one of those cities that wowed me. Blame me for not knowing enough history, but the number of popular characters coming out from that city, during the renaissance period from the 14th to 17th century. Cool stuff, would love to revisit the city again once i’ve done my history homework. Quite a bit to absorb in a day, as with the rest of the other cities.
On the way to Swizterland
Had a 6hr bus ride from Florence down to Switzerland. First stop was however in a town called Luzern, which was a more populated touristy part as to our final destination. Was only dropped off for a 45 mins shopping blitz, and by Blitz i mean really just going in and grabbing the the swiss goodies you want to buy within 45mins and making it back to the bus pick up area. Lucern was beautiful, the crystal clear lakes with swans and ducks swimming in them. These are not ponds or enclosed lakes, but really a river flowing past the city. Absolutely beautiful place to be in.
Rory brought us to this shop, which sold every Swiss thing a tourist might want other than chocolates, those were down the road.
After that went down a few shops away to get some swiss chocolates as gifts. The chocolates here are very very cheap, compared to the prices at home, same goes for the swiss army knives. Went around some high end watch shops to see some watches, realised that there were alot of Asian tourist in general.
After the shopping blitz we boarded the bus to go view some monument of a Dying Lion, supposedly built to remember the 700 swiss guards who gave their lives to King Louis XVI from an angry mob.
Boarded the bus again for another long trip up to our next campsite. Through more beautiful scenery, up and down and through several mountains, seeing massive lakes and towns. Reached our town called Lauterbrunnen, which was situated in a valley. The name means “many waterfalls”, which was really true in the town, many waterfalls all around the valley. Well, it only is a small town.
Reached our hostel, which was another cabin owned by Contiki. Cool thing is that they converted the bomb shelter below the inn, into a bar, so you can really drink jeigerbombs while getting bombed! No need to scared no booze when getting bombed.
Had dinner, which was a simple hamburger meal. Nothing much happened after that, went to the souvenior shop to change more francs, went to the bar for a beer and played cards, and called it a night.
Switzerland Day 2
Early Breakfast today, than we were off to JungFrau mountain, the highlight for me for this trip! Well, had to walk a bit to the train station, and then had to sit on our asses on a train ride up the mountain for like 2 hours. Jungfrau mountain was the highest mountain in Europe, so yeah, it also included the highest post office in the WORLD! Pretty spectacular huh.
Was expecting a super cold day, but turns out that it really wasnt, in fact, i was kind of sweating a bit. Reason being that up at the mountain area, there wasnt any cloud, so we were like right near to the sun, and that really helped to warm us up a little.
On guard!
First thing we did was visit the sphinx observatory, grabbed lots of photos there of the scenery. Later after that went down to the glacier portion to play and grab more photos, sit on the bowl thingy down the slope. Started throwing snow balls at ourselves, hitting random tourist along the way. Even had time to save an old lady who was about to faint, how cool is that!
Had an expensive and salty lunch, sausage and fries for a good 17 CHF, S$22. I wasn’t gonna starve on my birthday celebration day. After that we went to the ice palace, as well as the plateau to snap more photos. Our dear wayne clocked top spender award, claiming a nice watch as well as flirting with the HK sales lady. By this time we were rushing around because we needed to catch at least a 4pm train down the mountain, which would take us 2 hrs, to reach back to the campsite for dinner at 6pm. Bought our post cards and stamps, but realised that we didnt have a pen to write and post it at the highest post office in the world, so carried it down.
Down the mountain, stopped at a convenience store for booze, got us some heineken, jeigermister at cheaper prices than the convenience store at the camp site, went to the post office to mail out our post cards and rushed back to the campsite for dinner.
Had some curry chicken with potato for dinner. After that we tried our very best to hide in our rooms to rest before the big night, so that we won’t get wasted so fast. In the end that plan kind of failed cause Alex kept popping into the room with his red dress to disturb us. Kind of realised that resting was not gonna happen that night.
Ryan the responsible was busy trying to keep the booze chilled for later that night. Once we got dressed up, started the drinking in our rooms. Beers and crazy shots. Alex and Christian bought some hardliqour from Amsterdam, apparently made from leaves used to make cocaine, suppose to heighten our senses. They came with nice shot glasses that allowed us to mix a good portion of redbull in them as well. Insane man. Downed a couple of those combination, as well as Jeigerbombs.
In preparation for ivan’s death drink
3 shots to rule them all
After a while we proceeded downstairs to continue with our drinking, more shots followed of course with Young and the rest joining in. Weather outside wasn’t that good, drizzling a little. Probably that must have limited the number of people in the Bomb shelter ( the bar). There were suppose to be 4 Contiki groups stationed there that night, meaning 200 people, but in the bar the numbers seemed less. Was trying to pace myself that night, needed to last till midnight really. Thanks to Young, Jill, Cassie and Ryan, ivan managed to escape the evil plot.. no thanks to Wayne and myself, tsk tsk.
Well, we did caused ivan to throw up though, over a bridge into ice cold swis alps water running below. But he went back in after a while of rest, and partied the night away.
happy birthday dude!
And where was ivan? Check him out below. Outside the room acting like he drank all those booze. The liquid in the cup was WATER.. -.-”
He drank the water in the cup. We drank those alcohol
Paris
Today we get to discover the magical city of Paris! Had a Rory’s guided tour of the city, where he was able to point out some monuments and stuff along the way. Stopped at a nice site overlooking the Effiel Tower, managed to get some shots in, then we were back on the bus to the Opera House.
Went for some perfume demonstration, and I ended up buying 1 canisters for my mum. S$50 for a canister of 30ml, omg, so expensive, but smells nice, so shall not complain. After that basically it was free time for us since we didn’t sign up for the end of tour dinner.
First order of business was to hike up to Hard Rock Cafe, to get guitar pins. Following that we walked our way to the Notre Dame De Paris, the famous story we have all heard about the hunch back based inside that gothic cathedral. Well, gargoyles served as gutters, but also as a reflection of the devil, to protect the church. Apparently the devid is afraid of his own reflection, hence the gargoyles. Didn’t get enough time to go up the tower, or into the church, cause we were rushing for time. But from the outside the Gothic church looks beautiful as it is. Weather was starting to get gloomy and slight drizzles could be felt.
Decided to go find us some food, in some area where supposedly the food would be cheaper since there were many university students. But the rain got so heavy that we just settled for a nice restaurant in one of the random streets. Had a 3 course meal for €15, S$30. For starters, 6 escargots marinated differently from in singapore, they had some green spices. Main Course was a beef steak and fries, not too bad, heaps of fries around. Dessert was shit though. Me and Ryan though thought cheese would be a good idea for dessert, come on.. cheese? sounds interesting right? well, it was literally CHEESE. Goat cheese somemore.
After lunch, walked past a monument of St Michel slaying the devil from heaven. Cool monument. Rushed off for the Lourve to see Miss Mona. Thankfully the weather had cleared up. The glass pyramid was very nice, from the outside. The main museum was below ground level, spilt into 3 different sections and house more than 40,000 pieces of art! Well, our main aim was to see Mona Lisa and than scooted off, and had to pay €8 just to see her.
We had to squeeze through a mob to get this pic
The queue was quite okie, didn’t dare to smoke that we were students since we didn’t have our student IDs. Sian. Got our tickets and rushed in to see the painting. Would have loved to spend more time there, to appreciate all the art pieces that were in there, but its near impossible to do so even if i give you 2 full days inside there. No one in the Mona Lisa gallery gave a damn about the no flash rule, all took photos with their camera flash on. After we got our fill of Miss Mona, quickly rushed off towards Champs-Élysées, where the shopping was. It seemed like our Orchard Road, just that instead of shopping centers they had individual boutiques lined up in 2 neat rows.
Hit LV first, which was target number 1. It was the HQ of LV, 4 storeys high, filled with menacing looking handbags and wallets that will scare every man to a corner. * Never bring your wife/girlfriend/mistress to Paris, if so, please go without your credit card. . Wayne got one though, super spender moment. There were heaps of asians inside, i guess everyone knew that that would be target number 1 to hit. Its like a must see for every female tourist, and must avoid for every male toursit.
But since wayne had a LV bag, might as well take the opportunity to go into Gucci, which i(ME) found and pointed out. Inside was where the steal of the trip happened. Not steal as steal, but bargain buy.
I: “can i see all the colours for this model?”
Lady: *takes out all colors, proceeds to say the prices, until the yellow one “Oh, this is 50% off”
I: JAW DROPPED
I: “Can show us all those on sale?” =)
Somehow by whatevery stroke of luck, the sales lady blurted out that there were 50% off certain items, which made my jaw drop. So ivan asked her to whip out all those on sale, and he got 2 wallets, one for his mom and one for his sis. Refrained from getting one for myself cause even so people will stay say its fake. what the hell.
Popped into some convenience stalls along the way trying to find some wine for later that night. Finally settled that problem at the wine stall. Got ourselves a bottle of white wine, and then off to find dinner.
Best starter of the trip!
Choose to have a €20, S$40 dinner at some restaurant in some little alley. The whole restaurant was run by an old lady and the cook whom was inside the kitchen. Small operation but huge profits as well. Don’t think they were able to accomodate alot of diners in a night though. First course was a surprise, the lobster thing was pretty good. Some lobster cake. But the main dish was dissappointing. Chicken and pasta, but didn;t taste fresh, like it was microwaved or something, definitely looked pre cooked to me. Maybe the starter raised our expectations a little. Dessert was the Creme Brulee, sugary and creamy.
Best view of paris in the night
After dinner, proceeded to the Effiel tower, which was the first time we saw it glitter at 10pm. Found a nice spot at the park to sit down, chill over a glass of wine. Just basically enjoying the moment, drinking wine in the park overlooking the Effiel Tower. Would be a nice place to chill with your loved one definitely. It looks really really good when it is lited up, glittering. In the day it just looks like another piece of metal, but at night its much more beautiful. Definitely worth staying up for the view.
Not Mine!
the way to view/admire the Effiel tower
After 11pm, it started glittering again, and after that it signalled the end of our night.
Beaaauuuuuttttiiiiffffuuuulllllll
beneath the Effiel tower
Walked over to the metro station to take a train back to the campsite. Couldn’t really find a cab at that time, so rather than standing at the metro station like potential targets to be robbed, we walked our way all the way back to the camp site. Pretty scary at night, but luckily the neighbourhood we were walking through was not that bad. last part into the campsite was scary, with no lighting.Called it a day, bathed and slept shortly after.
Paris was great, covered alot in one day, it was intense since we were beating the clock. It was a sat, and we were really scared the shops will call it an early night. Apparently the French dont even work on Sundays.Would really sucked if our only day in Paris was on a sunday. Paris is beautiful, would definitely be one of the top places to come back to when i’m back in europe. Paris is apparently a well planned City, monuments are placed there by city planners, for a reason. Like the 3 arces, forming a triangle and all. Pretty interesting. And its really romantic, if you dont bring your credit card that is.
Reached our Russel Square station and started to navigate our way to the hostel. Left our bagage there since it was too early to check in, went for some secret breakfast cause really it was too early in london to do anything, everything was still not opened.
After the fat tire bike tour we went back to the Generator hostel, checked into our mini rooms, which were really really small. like the 4 of us couldn’t even open all our bags at once, but the toilets were surprisingly sparkling clean.
