so it is, the final day of my endeavours in europe. currently in madrid now and didn't explore much of it due to a dire toothache. gotta work on that when i reach home in say..28hours haha. exciting to be back home. facing things with a new found positive attitude! not to say that i've been very positive and active during my stay in europe. in fact i find myself troubling the guys often with my negativity. but they are great guys so they are fine hehe.
really lucky to run into the barcelona team training 2 days back. amazing skills and technique. messi, bojan, henry, thuram, valdes, edmilson, dos santos blah blah. woo! but the stadium tour was a waste of money, no guide but audio guides. and that's at a cost of 5euro. went on a shopping spree yesterday with some neat purchases for kelly's family and my own! mango, zara, h&m~! incredible stamina to shop from 10am-7pm i must say. blur. the train ride to madrid was not that bad, laid down in the cafe and slept gingerly. oo yeah we were targetted by pickpockets the way ck did when he was in europe the previous time. fortunately alan was alert enough! dangerous man.
reaching madrid and finding the hostel was a hassle. nobody speaks english at all here! haha. so we had to struggle to find out where the hostel was. not that bad but privacy is not at its best. there's a brazilian guy raphael sleeping on the top tier of my bed. nice chap.
yeah yeah..going home..thanks for the memories lulea and europe. lots of highlights which will be tough to type it out. just greatful and glad that i came! =) signing out..bye~!
what a week in england. manchester united game(although fergie commented the crowd was like a funeral) and visiting emirates and places like big ben and abbey road. the bus ride from manchester to london cropped up with an unsavoury incident. 6 birmingham supporters were evicted from the bus after 5 minutes for being too rowdy and disturbing other passengers despite several warnings. salute the driver man. alan's relatives were awesome. always looking after our welfare and making us feel at home. we had a lot of treats from his uncle and cousin. got a spin around town on the first night as well! father, mm and son are awesome. the most "full" 3 days of our entire trip.
emirates stadium was captivating. the design is cool with all the curves and the guide was humorous, always poking fun at tottenham. some of the things in the stadium..tsktsk..sly man. things they do to gain that bit of advantage over their opponents haha. found the platform 9&3/4 from harry potter at king cross st pancreas railway station too. cock la, still purposely put half a trolley there for tourists to take pictures ha.
we had to squeeze our stuff into 1 bag at the london stansted airport! so troublesome! then have to take off shoes for inspection too. blur. fortunately all went well and here we are at barcelona. vibrant and sunny place to be. there was a parade yesterday which was something like chingay. "the 3 kings festival" or something like that.
fortunately alan was alert if not xiaomeng would have lost his bag on the bus yesterday. blur man. just few more days to home. hope nothing crops up! =)
happy new year to all!=)
spent the last day in berlin by going up to the reichstag and enjoying a paranomic view from the top of the dome. wen to checkpoint charlie in the evening after a meal(and only meal of the day) of biscuits haha. checkpoint charlie is a poignant reminder of the divide between east and west germany. many people have either successfully or failed to escape from east to west germany.
made our way to amsterdam via a horrid 10hr bus ride. when we reached some undesirable events happened but let's put it down to a narrow perception of the world around those people. nothing much to visit in amsterdam and the museums weren't that spectacular either in terms of exterior outlook. visited the red light district and it was buzzing with curious onlookers. it's opened in the morning too! a place that doesn't rest. the main highlight was visiting ajax amsterdam stadium!!! learnt pretty much about the stadium and visited places like the press room, conference room, museum and walked right next to the pitch. knew about the colours of the stadium seats and its plans for changing them to white/black and white/red in 2 years time. white/black is the colour of amsterdam and white/red is the ajax colour. oh ya we ate KFC in amsterdam!!! been 5 months since i sunk my teeth into that juicy tender chicken hahaa.
slept at airport on the 2nd night. tough man. but reaching manchester was good. it feels like singapore=) the manchester united tour was amazing too! tomorrow is the big game haha. so exciting. went to the players dressing room, lounge, conference room, stands. got to know some funny stories about the players and know where the players sit in the dressing room and what were their routines before a game like. awesome! =)
time to take a rest while alan and meng are out in town haha. till london!
wao, from finland to estonia and then to germany within 12 hours. departed from helsinki at 8am yesterday via ferry to tallinn. weather wasn't that fablous upon arrival and the place is like the poorer cousin of finland. it's a bit like thailand in terms of shopping centres layout. the old town was great though. took lots of pictures but we had to trek through meandering alleys with our heavy backpacks! arrived in the town centre for some post xmas celebration. we were treated to a concert of xmas carols and hip-hop dance. we in turn treated ourselves to some pork chop courtesy of alan haha. the place was cold and windy like helsinki and we took the bus to talinn international airport at 330pm. it must be the smallest international airport we've come across so far haha. but the great thing was it provides free wireless internet! that meant catching up with love ones for an hour of course.
berlin is even colder than helsinki or talinn. probably due to the high humidity. we reached the hostel at 840pm and to our dismay we found out that we had to pay for internet access. so we unpacked and went out in search of dinner. it was a blast! Burger King! haha. like what gerald mentioned during his exchange in stuttgart, berlin is the cheapest capital in europe and so it is! after dinner we made our way around town and took pictures of some nice architectures. the brandenburger gate, reichstag and also laid our eyes on this marvellous swarovski xmas tree in hauptbahnhof. sight to behold, imagine crystals hanging around the tree instead of bells haha. reached back and paid for internet access but when we reached our room, we discovered that there was this free wireless service!! blur!! felt a bit cheated but what to do haha..just use lor.
today was a tiring day travelling from monuments to museums and shopping centre. berliner dom, neue wache, pergamon museum, national galerie, altes museum, fernsehturm, roles rathaus and more. woohoo. great shopping day for alan and meng! haha. day ended with meng playing boss and giving us a dinner treat. sweet=)
day 2 was a shopping and photo day! woke up to the complimentary breakfast, eggs and sandwich and ham~! went to the Cathedral and soaked in the solemn atmosphere of the church. even though i'm not a christian, stepping into a church never fails to amaze me. we shopped at H&M and there's this shopping mall which is similar to taka. managed to buy a denim cap and a pair of gloves at quite a bargain haha. it's rare that i buy stuff for myself so..hmm..lol. strangely it feels cold in helsinki although the temperature is above 0 deg cel. must be the wind. we passed by the central train station and saw this outdoor ice skating rink! cool man. there were a big crowd skating and the xmas spirit was strong. we ended the day by reminiscing at photos from lulea days. sweet memories.
today is ah kai's last day in helsinki as he's leaving tomorrow morning for barcelona. sad. he'll be able to take care of himself though, tough guy. the weather was not very good so we went bowling! the bowling alley was very cool but we had to rush for time because it was per hour rate! haha. went to search for presents for the guys and friends back home. rummaged through shops and xmas market. i bought a pin for 2eur but...when i reached home then i realised i paid without taking it back. well done. i shall go back to sg and buy the pin then=p it's just a pin of the finland flag. lots of japanese tourists encountered. rich man those people.
had dinner with eva and fiona and we exchanged presents. early xmas gifts haha. after that meng, alan and me went to try and get my pin but the xmas market was closed already sob. last day some more. kai and me got presents for all of us so alan and meng were shocked haha. so they went to buy something for us too. i got a rubik ball from kai! haha. milk from alan. erm..waiting for xiaomeng still...? haha.
had late night supper and in a few hours time ah kai will be leaving us. safe journey bro and catch u back in sg!!
so it's over. the study experience, the life and the days in lulea. it's been a wonderful and sensational experience. we had a farewell dinner before we left and on the day itself we had nguyen and eli sending us off. with tears in our eyes(and theirs) it was. everything seemed so surreal on our way to the airport. this may sound cliched but it really seemed like we just touched down not too long ago and memories were still fresh and vivid. it was sad to see the empty room before i locked the room. exactly the same condition as when i first arrived but entirely different emotions.
by some freak coincidence, we got onto the same plane as the lulea hockey team to stockholm. we had more than 20kg of bags on each of our poor backs and we had to trek quite a distance to the jetty to board the cruise to finland after our last MAX meal. first time on cruise! the cruise was nice although we didn't really get to enjoy it as we concussed late into the night once we got onto the ship haha. we chilled out at the pub and irish bar where we were entertained by this canadien-french singer.
arriving in helsinki at 10am was great. we managed to get the big bright sun and it was a first time on the tram for me(lots of first time, quite a mountain-tortoise ha). our apartment was great with a sauna, kitchenette and lan connection! awesome. we didn't have much time to settle down before we headed out to the nearest shopping centre to have lunch and buy flowers for THE PRESIDENT OF FINLAND! wooHoo. her name is Tarja Halonen and so happened she is the aunt of our australian-finnish exchange mate, eva. we went to see the president with eva and fiona and had a tour of the palace. a little coffee break with the president was the highlight and she was so down-to-earth. no airs and she certainly went out of her way to make our stay pleasant, booking a bus tour for us on xmas day. awesome lady. we gave her orchids! she knows that the orchid is the national flower of singapore. woohoo. we walked out through the front gate of the palace and people were giving us that "why are these people walking out of the palace" look haha.
things are cheaper in euro than in kroners. especially food! buying groceries was so much much much cheaper la. sound like some auntie already. we enjoyed a great sauna session at night before going to sleep.
exams tmr! so fast. that indicates that we're leaving here too. it's sad when we've begun to adapt to life here and then we have to leave. even saddening when you see others leaving first. the french gang have left on friday and today 2 koreans are leaving. yeah we have got msn but nothing beats seeing each other in person, talking and interacting.
lifang was here for the past week and she added a female touch to the overly male aura. haha. meng was certainly boosted with her presence too and lucky him, he got to celebrate his birthday with her around.
ah kai passed one of his exams from qrt 1! happy for him. at the same time i couldn't make it so..it's back to sg to slog it out. gotta make sure no hiccups happen in this qrt 2 exams then.
embarking on europe trip soon, sending things back home is exp but it was necessary. gotta inform mum about it though haha. wrapped the luggage in a big black thrash bag, if not they won't send the luggage bag by itself. weird. hope they don't throw it away thinking it's some rubbish. wahaha.
