warning: hardly ever updated

europe 2006

itenary (as best as i can rmbr!)
10dec singapore/frankfurt
11dec-14dec paris
14dec-18dec zurich
18dec zurich/frankfurt/rome
18dec-21dec rome
21dec-24dec frankfurt
24dec-25dec singapore

at 1130am on the tenth, the taxi came to pick us up to the airport! the excitement hadn't really kicked in yet, considering the whole trip was only confirmed like..5days before we left! so anyway, the SIA staff didnt want to let my mum bring 3 guests into the lounge. phft! i mean come on.. 1 young adult + 1 teen + 1 little kiddo = 1 big adult, no? naturally, the littlest kid gets to go with mummy, so my poor sister and my poor self had to wander around the airport. haha. it wasn't so bad...comfy sofa-chairs, tvs, free internet etc. still, the lounge has yummy food !!!!!!!!!!!! no fair.

the plane ride was uneventful. had to keep checking the local time vs time at frankfurt so i knew what time to sleep to prevent an extreme case of jetjag. hahaha. oh yeah, i was bored see, then i was peeking at this fella's in-house com screen. he was doing a quiz thingy.. then one of the questions was ''who came up with the comcept that y sthsth equals sthsth of x or sth'' hahha. i can't rmb the question lar! but like logically thinking, it would be anything but ewan mcgregor right?! which was what he chose! hahahah. how embarassing. =D
after 12 long hours, we arrived at the frankfurt airport..met my dad over there..(he was in USA for business trip before that) took a shuttle to the hotel. (express by holiday inn. lousy.) complimentry apples at the counter..anyone? they actually have a cigarette dispenser! how apalling. the hotel toilet had one door only, that could close either the cubicle, or the entire toilet. so funny.. i think i might have a picture of it..

the next day we woke early to catch the train to paris. woohoo! now the excitement comes into play..it was a really nice day outside too..wanted to take a walk down the gorgeous trail with the autumn-winter trees of golden-red beside. so nice right?! plus the sky was really beautiful too, with the streaks of pink slowly turning into orange/yellow, and all the birds and everything...its actually not that singapore doesn't have nice skies, but we don't have nice landscape to make it picture-perfect. but anyhow, there was no time cos we had to be at the train station early.
the train ride was long, boring and boring. hahahah. it was like.. 7 hours. we played like..taboo and stuff in the cabin.. slept. looked outside. but it was pretty cool to think that i was passing through hills and forests and stuff like that. haha. we passed by alot of grazing cows and sheep. several horses too. it'll be absolutely awesome to actually live there..the rolling hills and mountains as a backdrop. to wake up everyday to God's own handiwork right infront of you. =S

when we finally reached, it was dark.. say maybe 6pm.. us, being not so rich,took the metro to where the hotel was supp to be within walking distance from. ( remember, we've got our luggages and the metro system there isnt so nice like ours. escalators are a luxury, much less lifts!) but when we got out, there was no hotel in sight. so we asked the friendly parisians for directions....which turned out to be a tough job because.. *drum roll* ..they can't speak english to save their life! surprising huh.. i always thought like the french could speak english, but for the accent. apparrently not. supposedly speaking, out of all the europeans, the french are the worst english speakers.haha. we learn something new everyday!

but yeah, back to the 'friendly parisians' part.. it's not actually sarcasm. the people there are a whole lot nicer than people give them credit for. like at the train station, my dad asked this guy for directions. he's those working adult kinds..dress pants, shirt and tie, smart shoes and matching hat+ trenchcoat. i'd have though he would be stuck up but then later when we got off the train, we stood there lost for a moment, then that guy passed by us in the train and pointed to the exit.. actually it was by chance that i happened to look up and see him do that, and for a moment i was confused as to whether he was talking to us or not.. then my brother and i asked at the same time ''is that guy....?' and so answered our query. haha! the image of him in his hat, in the passing train, pointing us in the right direction, still kinda makes me want to laugh. =P and also, on another train, the people inside helped us hold open the CLOSING train doors so we could squeeze up. haha.. nice hor? i wonder how they did that tho..

so yeah, we managed to find the bus to take us to the hotel and my oh my, what an experience. firstly there was the whole communication problem, which made it hard for us to get proper directions. and it was like, rush hour so the buses were crazily full. plus, we were'nt the only ones lugging our luggages around so it made it all the more inconvinient, and to top it all off, it was raining! bummerrrr...

had pizza for dinner. pretty good. but their portion for three filled five hungry asians perfectly well. haha. and they use chilli oil instead of chilli flakes! gross.it was real cold at first, then later when the heater heated up the room properly, the air got uncomfortably dry. i missed the humidity in s'pore for that one time! haha.

twelfth dec! it took us half an hour to get from the hotel to the city center by bus, then ten mins to our destination by metro. so, charles de gaulle was our first stop. the gate thingy that signifies their freedom or sth.. i rmbr elaine telling us about her visit there, when i was sec2. hahha. amazing.

we didnt go up though, for reasons unknown to me. after snapping a few shots like typical tourists, we took a leisurely stroll down what resembles orchard road, except for the huge branded boutiques left and right. ( oh yeah, in europe, macdonald's is a good stop -> free toilets! other public toilets CHARGE..like there was one at the boat ride, fifty spore cents man! )

we went to the louvre at first, but it was closed. like every tues they close it for maintenence of sth. bummer.

right. so we walked to the..square..can't rmb what the name was. it was a looong walk. so crazy. and one funny thing in paris was that they trees along the road were trimmed into rectangular tree tops. so odd! haha. okay, back to the square. apparently it was where the first public execution of some noble or other. and there's a basilisk? a monument of some sort's there too. a gift from eygpt. my sister says that her ex-french teacher commented that ' the egyptians give us so many gifts and the government puts them all over the place..it spoils the whole architecture!' teehee. fancy that. and all the tourists take endless photos of these things while the french go by finding them an eyesore..hahahah

alright so passed through this park that was designed by a nurse and built by a gardener. weird or what huh. what happened to the architects and all? didnt the nurse have patients to look after besides designing a park? haha. but anyhow, there was this fella in like shortshorts and a sleeveless top, running. and there i was in three layers of clothing. i'm like- ?!! and i tell you, the best place for birds to perch, are the top's of sculptures of men. EVERYWHERE we went, there was always this ridiculous bird sitting atop this muscular, 'perfectly-built' man.

check out the expression: 'why on earth is THAT considered nice?!'

And so as we continued our never-ending journey on foot, we passed by this shoppe selling crepes! Mm-m, the aroma was tres magnifique! Right so it’s just crepe with ham and mozzarella cheese basically. But it was good! And filling.. actually halfway through i got bored with it. But that’s not the point, it was yummy! Hahah. Somebody should bring that into Singapore. And ooh there was this really cool outdoor skating rink..we’d never see anything like that here.. darn.

Hehe I rmbr my brother trying to entertain himself, and me, by making up ‘miss swan stories’. Like, miss swan the fortune teller. Hahahah. And he even gave me parts to play. Hahahahha. I TOTALLY giggled my head off. Heeeh. I’m so sure, if miss swan dies, my brother can take over!

As we were queuing to get into notre dame the ticketing lady was really friendly and like asked us where we were from. And when we told her we were from Singapore she totally got so excited and starting gushing about how delicious the Indian food in s’pore was. Hahah. Amusing or what huh. Why isn’t the government promoting Singapore as a food hub instead! I mean, the FRENCH like our food.

notredame is really big and ancient.. plus there's that whole story of ' the hunchback of notredame' to add to the interest factor. but that place is in SERIOUS need for a lift! it's like, 40m upwards. not really VERY far but still tiring enough. especially when the steps are teensy and neverending. its crazy.. the first level was a good platform for viewing the area closest to where notredame was situated. the next level was good for viewing the entire vicinity..and its so cool cause you totally could imagine quasimodo climbing to the top and looking down on the breathtaking view below. far far far below. hahah. SO AWESOME. *gushgush*

anyhow, we saw the church bell. it's like, an eight-men operated bell. dunno how they squeeze into that small platform. and like, if something gives way, they'll fall downdowndown......but okay lar, the structure's quite solid. biiiiiiig wooden planks. an entire forest must've been deforested to bulid the interior..tsk!

after climbing up and up and down, i totally never wanted to see another step again! and like if we were going down and someone was going up, we had to bear hug the centre so that the other ppl could pass ( or vice versa ) thank God none of us tumbled down!

paris! that's the effiel in the distance.

after notre dame we went to take this boat ride. ridiculously expensive and all we saw was lameo stuff like this

*back to it when i'm free*