happy like bird

'happy like bird' is a grammatically erroneous singlish phrase that i learnt. there is no such thing as 'happy like a bird' or even 'happy like birds'.

why am i 'happy like bird' today.

egad. its a macbook. and its kinda like sitting on my desk back home in singapore waiting for me to rip open the package and slobber all over it. i so dont deserve it. i really dont. MOM! DAD! you didnt have to do thisssssss. i consider myself indebted to my parents for the rest of my life (as if i werent before) because they've just paid for a new laptop and are financing my life on exchange. just shackle me to my house.

eventhoughmystupidlaupokfujitsudidcrashlastnightalmost
causingmetohaveagreatheartattack
because ofallmypicturesandmusicthatitcontains
butthankfullysamhadanexternalharddrivewithenoughgigs
tostoremydataandsalvageeverything
ifnotiwillsurelytiaolouandzisha
sonowimtryingtorunonminimalcomputerusuage.

at the end of the day, fujitsu really sucks. one day it works just fine, and the next, it crashes without a word. and ive had to reinstall my microsoft office, configure my outlook, save new contacts. which isnt so bad, because i know of worse non-salvagable scenarios, BUT lousy crashing computers when you're in a foreign land is BAD NEWS. bad. bad. bad.

but on a lighter note, anyone would like to donate money to the 'get-terri-a-red-ipod-nano' for my birthday fund? seeing that i've already maxed out my 20gb trusty ipod, and take to culling music out of my ipod everyday?

juicy red goodness. yum yum yum.

its getting cold.

yes it is, its freezing over and the wind is sweeping us off our feet. welcome to the world of 7degs celsius and dropping ever drastically.

HEEEEELLLPPPPPPP!

that aside, guess who's going to this year's mtv europe music awards in copenhagen?

yours truly.

thats my audition number at the back. we headed down to bella centre today, which is in the middle of nowhere in amager just to wait in line in the freezing cold for 1.5 hours, because we got there too early, but guess what, the ang-mohs are also kiasu, so there was already a competent line in place. anyhow, we had to audition for those tickets. indeed they're free, but they make you audition for them. 3 rounds of judging- first, chant 'MTV' as loudly as you can, then dance with thumping euro-trash music AND behave as if you want to marry justin timberlake. i've no idea how i managed to do these things, those of you who know me, know i can't dance for nuts (save vj mass dances), i do not like JT and i havent had MTV on my cable tv for the longest time. i just got terribly lucky.

anyway, the botanic gardens outside our place looks like this now:

lovely lovely lovely. colours of red, yellow, orange, purple, green and the sound of ducks doing huge water splash downs.

a bloody good time!

thanks to sam's painstaking blogging efforts, we have pictures of the halloween cum housewarming party that we had on the 25th!

see: Housewarming cum Halloween Party!

but to whet your appetite, here's some pictures of the preparation and blood, sweat and tears (of course not) that we shed for our very first party.

dirty hands maketh hapless looking ghosts

the beautification (or rather, uglification) of samuel lim. well, he looks like he's lovin' it!

me in my terri potter outfit (not bad right!) and junne the japanese kawaii girl// terri potter and the weird sisters (from harry potter)// ms i-can't-decide-if-im-an-indian-or-greek-princess doreen// junne with her eagle nose// a seditious looking circle// karen desperately trying to find her pumpkin// yay! she found it

truly, it was a night to remember.

the truth about school.

random friend on msn: so, how's school?
me: erm erm... that's a good question.

well, i dont know why but lately people have been asking me how's school, so let me just properly explain things here. i'll be taking 3 modules each semester that i'm here because each module is worth 10 credits and 3 mods x 10 credits per module works out to 30 credits which is a full work load thats required by the university. law students can do math.

i'm taking international environmental law, media law and the law of armed conflicts and these are international law subjects, so it doesnt matter that copenhagen and singapore do not share the same legal system, because international law is, well, international. prior to leaving singapore, ive had also alot of people asking why i didnt choose to go to the US or the UK where systems are similar. why, cannot ah?

moving on, total class time amounts to something like 10hrs a week, all of which are seminar/lectures, (ie one does not have to do any tutorials whatsoever) which is a far cry from the amount of work needed to be done back in nus. and we dont have midterms and other irritating time-wasting such-like. our only exams are oral, and they last 15mins each. :) cue to look horrified and in disdain.

and the lecturers, who are all danes, save for my belgian media law prof (who comes all the way from ghent to teach us 3 hr media law classes on friday afternoons) may or may not speak english very well, and hand out lecture notes (if you are lucky, that is) which have spelling errors, cause lessons to be pretty boring. i try to entertain myself by correcting the speelling ellors. but the thing is, they are so nice. even though my env law prof is one boring fella, he's really quite lovable and apologises alot for the spelling errors when he knows its a spelling error. the media law prof grouped us into pairs to do a 'sweet surprise' where each week when we have break time (we all live for break times) the sweet surprise pair will provide the necessary tidbits. the french have brought wine before. how cool right. and we dont have snazzy powerpoint presentations. only have OHP. btw, classes also do not have wireless connection, so sam takes to playing either hearts or some pool game with exploding balls when he's bored. i just doodle like crazy. i got caught doodling once on my name card for my first env law class (first class already bored), and i was doodling stuff on environmental degradation (there was no other inspiration), then my prof came along and complimented me! he was like "im so glad that you're inspired by the class!". told you i love him. as for the armed conflicts class, both lecturers (yes, there is a system of 2 lecturers per class) are judge advocates, ie they work in the military courts and have military experience. how pro is that? the one that i like is a pretty arty guy and he knows how to use powerpoint to go measure. he's always showing us art pieces in between the slides and gives us nuggest of war art history as we go through syllabus. i doodle less in his class. and in cph, the tradition is that classes start only 15mins past the hour and we have a 15 min break in between if we have a 2 hr class. so effectively we have 1h3omins of class time for a 2hr class. thats really not bad at all. the media law class is rather xiong because the prof makes us go through 2 hrs of solid teaching before he hands out the break. you can imagine the sigh of relief that passes through the class at the 2hr mark.

so as you can see, syllabus is interesting... BUT not the classes. and im not the only one complaining! the rest of the internationals have been cutting classes too! and the lecturers usually just look resigned and hope for a better tomorrow. :) my greek friends usually go for the first half, and if they get disatisfied with the level of interestingness, zao off for coffee during the break and dont come back.

so this is why i travel. and read my lonely planet books rather than read my law textbooks, catch trains to countries rather than buses to school. anyway, the last time i ponned school was for oktoberfest and the next time im ponning is for russia. i think that's fully justified and its just part and parcel of life on exchange. there was once my mom actually forgot i was here to study! that was nice. until lately she reminded me to hit my books. -___-"

oh well, fall break is ending tomorrow, so i guess ive to start revving the mugging engine before the last big trip before exams.

might i add that i really like fall, esp when the wind blows and rustles up the yellow leaves in little whirlwinds and its a sunny day like today.

you've got a friend in me.

its something about the night, and listening to the melodious ditties of sufjan stevens that make you ponder and wonder.

i just read jo's post on germany, and it just reminded me of the really really fantastic time that i had with them. it was my first trip out of copenhagen and ten days with people that i knew and didnt. like i didnt know shuwen or nick before we embarked on the trip, and only knew jo and jess a little bit. and yet, everything turned out so well. i really thank God for the genuine friendship, love and warmth that sprang out from those times that we shared and when they took care of a very invalid me in cologne.

so like i said, travel with people that you do and do not know. the milk of human kindness wont fail you.

homeless and hungry singaporeans are welcomed.

i think sam's post more than adequately describes our new apartment and that painstaking (understatement) process it took to finally secure a place.

a word of caution: in case you start drooling all over your keyboard, i suggest you cover it with some cloth, and keep sharp metal objects away from you lest you grab one and start hacking away at your screen out of pure green jealousy.

im serious.

now read it: Apartment!

we are happy like birds!

halloween at tivoli (lordag, 22 oktober)

singaporeans know our 7th month very well, dont walk into creepy dark alleys alone, dont step into cemeteries and dont stomp all over scattered ashes ( i can still vaguely remember my dear vanitha apologising profusely when she was forced to walk through some) and of course, the burning of hell notes for the pockets of departed souls.

well, halloween is a definitely happier affair. how come we dont have halloween ah! especially in tivoli, where, for the first time, a halloween themed event was being held. we managed to catch the last night (seeing that we've been trooping all across holland and belgium) and it was great! it was soooo purrtttyyy. orangey glows from the pumpkin heads, stacks of hay forming hay mazes, jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin scarecrows.

jack-0-lanterns!

the pumpkin carving station where you can carve your very own pumpkin lantern for 50kr! what an expensive treat.

looks like the taj mahal got bombed by a very large pumpkin.

a new found favourite fried snack! CHURROS! hide with chocolate sauce (that rocked), me with soft ice (ditto) and sam's with cinnamon and sukker (original flavour). and then we had a 30cm tall cotton candy floss for that added sugar rush.

photographs from the netherlands and belgium

den haag centraal station// the mauritshuis and the girl with the pearl earring looking right at you// the lake behind the dutch parliament// autumn presence// way cool skull chandelier// inside the escher museum// the deluca cafe// random building but with pretty yellowing trees// the superduperyummy hot patats!

mmm!! happiness is a gd macchiato on a cold day// cafe waterloo// peering over the edge of the canals in amsterdam// the damraak (dam square)// hehe wok to walk, our favourite chinese takeout which is actually not too bad// nieuwmarkt// that pancake with icecream, bananas and whipped cream// me looking slighty unhappy at the long queue in front of anne frank's house// amsterdam centraal station

go gape at those lovely winding canals.

the stedilijk art museum we paid nothing for since we got there 15mins before closing// dont cross the bridge with an oncoming boat// directions to whereever// in case you dont know what to do with that button at the traffic light

at taryn's place! maggi porridge smells like home// the lovely taryn marina yap!// sam and tar cooking supper// supper!!!

the loveliest of lovelies: the antwerpen promenade (btw i forgot to add that antwerp belongs to the flanders region, where the flemish people are, so they speak dutch)

sam and bob trying to navigate their way to our hostel// panos and belguafra (belgian fast food)// my first belgian waffle in belgium// a closeup// the square and cathedral and an important building and a castle overlooking the river

a 16th century alleyway with my birthdate (16 nov)// pretty creepers growing along the building// random shot// bob and batman// more creepers// the lonely planeteer: belgium bob// mmm!! chocolacinno and more waffles// the art museum

3 of us chilling by the left bank

the very very old pedestrain tunnel across the river with wooden escalators. a mechanical wonder.

velkommen til bruges! top 3rd picture was that huge bowl of spaghetti.

more beautiful pictures to get you drooling. bottom 2nd pic was taken at a chocolate shop where we had a shot of chocolate milk that was oh so dreamily delicious. bruges was overflowing with chocolate shops- godiva, neuhaus, leonidas and various other local brands.

comic shops, i love! this one was amazing stocked with many tin tin posters// inside the beguinage// our third belgian waffle

antwerp by twilight at the canal :)

the piece de la resistance. the mussel dinner! having a small sip of belgian kriek (cherry beer)// cheering each other// sam and bob//me and my pot of 65 mussels// bob steadying himself// bob very very full// tiger the terrier// interior and exterior of the place

sam trying to teach sarah, our hostel mate, chinese

check out those chocolates from mary's chocolate, chocolatier to the belgian king! sadly it was way too expensive for us so we restorted to stealing the small ones (ok, they were free to take, but we took copious amts when they werent looking, esp sam)// brussels has random quotes all over the place// central station// cathedral// italian place where we had dinner

hit the road jack.

just some afterthoughts on travelling as a student, having covered 2 pretty big trips in a span of 3 weeks, i've learnt:

1. to go with friends you know and you dont know. there is always solidarity when you know that you're alone overseas without mommy and daddy with you.

2. to make sure that your hostels are clean, bright, offer breakfast!

3. to be open and make friends with fellow travellers on the road, some who have just started the journey of their lives, some taking a yr off school to explore planet earth, some on the tail end of their journeys. to listen to their experiences and share yours.

4. to not walk into mama shops that double up as makeshift internet cafes. im talking about that mama shop in brussels which lured us with the cheaper internet rate, AND then we were faced with hanging computers, and an msn messenger that was sending out virsuses to my friends.

5. brace yourself for very painfully difficult keyboards that do not cooperate and rely on a host of commands like ctrlaltshift etc etc to produce your most needed punctuation mark. it took me 5 mins to get the @ sign out, can u imagine. i promptly gave up on the punctuations and typed my emails with zero punctuations. the friendliest overseas keyboard yet is the danish one, followed by the german one. the belgium one is just bad.

6. to embrace techology ie 3G. thanks to my phone,i can check email from whereever i am in the world! go singtel! (someone shld pay me for shamelessly advertising for singtel and that i'll pay my parents back for the phone bill).

7. to control bowel movements so that i can save money. except for denmark, i dont understand why toilets in europe must be paid for! most expensive yet were in germany.

8. to pray hard that when you're staying in a hostel, you're not staying with a ton of kids on the verge of exploding into teenhood. they're noisy, pesky, generally piss me off and do stupid things, like throw billard balls at each other. maybe im just old and cranky.

9. even better to pray hard that you're not staying in a mixed hostel room with drunks! the almost nightmare in munich.

10. to trust that God will provide in every situation, not only hot meals, but that He has gone before you to provide help, show us roads that we need, allow us to catch trains and be safe.

i've just spent the last 4 hours blogging, and im spent. shifting into my new place tomorrow. do comment please on the chatterbox. its for you guys that i blog ok! so show some appreciation leh!

going to bene without the lux: bruges and brussels

after amsterdam, sam and i said that nothing could top amsterdam.

after antwerp, sam and i said that nothing could top antwerp.

strike one, two and three. because bruges is bloody fantastic.

pronounced as 'brugger' in dutch, this town a little away from antwerp is a tourist magnet. shops of godivas, leonidas, neuhaus' and many many many other chocolate shops (touting to be the best in belgium, -__-) line the cobbled roads. there are tourist thingys like canal tours and horse carriage rides. but for the budget tourist like me and you, we dont buy expensive chocolate and we WALK. yes, up and down and all around. again bruges is easily explorable on foot and with a map in hand, just go whack the whole place. its all about exploring, and wandering around to get a sense of the town. i mean how much photos of cathedrals do you really want to take right.

bruges is characteristically catholic, we found a female beguinage (somewhat like a nunnery) and the corners all have a little mary statute, and beneath it 'ave maria'. i didnt manage to ask why it was so though. lunch was at a super cheap but highly recommended place called menard and true to the recommendation, the owner looks like freddie mercury, only fatter. must be all that cheese. i had a ham and cheese tagilatile and it was SWIMMING IN A BOWL OF CHEESE. damn jelak. sam was one better. go and order the large plate (it was only 5.50 euros) and the amount of spag can probably be weighed in kilos. it looked like it amounted to 3 normal servings of spags.

we climbed the highly recommended belfry, all 366 steps of it, but because it was a pretty foggy day, the horizon wasnt clear. a tad disaapointing actually after you've climbed our saviours church here in copenhagen. it is not as tiring as in cph and we were surprised how quickly we did it. we kinda didnt believe that we reached the top when we reached the top. and it was an expensive climb! 3 euros just to be at the top of bruges.

because bruges is so touristy, naturally the foodspots besides our lunch foodspot was expensive, so dinner was a sharwama pita. hiaz. but we did have another waffle (this time with melted chocolate all over) and an icecream (with the hot icecream girl: sam has pictures) for tea. i know its alot of food. dont roll your eyes.

i highly highly recommend bruges, even hotel lybeer which we stayed at. apart from the freaking long staircase and the one loo one bath PER level policy, its an interesting place with eclectic furniture. i made friends with the owners dog, chloe. i almost made friends with tiger the terrier (haha) at the antwerp dinner. love dogs!plus it has a good breakfast spread.

because im losing steam and because brussels is just like any other capital city (serious), i will make it short. i only really liked brussels for 3 things, where we had dinner, the tons of comic and bookshops and record shops, and the fact i can practice french here. i managed to buy like old music scores for pretty cheap at this funky record shop and the scores feature old advertising graphics, which i really really like. and the bookshops are just crazy. they stock so many graphic novels, even translated manga. i dont know if you guys know that belgium is home to tin tin and the smurfs, among many others. comic literature here is totally astounding. and i can practice french here! it nice to revisit la langue de francais after so long, and thankfully the basic grammar and vocab is still there. roshni, if you are reading this, i cant wait to head to france with you! nous pouvons parler francais ensemble! hope that turned out right. and two amazing concidences happened: we met sarah, one of our fellow hostelmates from abhostel in antwerp along the street and we also met waikit lah! who was sleeping in the same hostel as us! how amazing is that! the world is truly truly small.

going to bene without the lux: antwerp

speed blogging is seriously tiring.

after rotterdam, we met bob at antwerpen central station and it was another amazing train station. quoting sam 'it ranks next after berlin hauptbahnhof' because it has amazing classical architecture, and a nice sunroof to let the sunlight through. btw, i havent really mentioned that God was really great to give us blue skies and sunshine all throughout our trip, which is pretty unusual for autumn. just imagine summer weather with autumn brown. aww shucks. im getting dreamy again.

and we werent used to the extreme niceness that the antwerpens were showering on us man. from the man at the tourist info gave us a free map (contrast to that lousy map in amsterdam that we were blatantly tricked to pay 2 EUROS for) and told us what to see and do, to the random strangers that held doors for us as we tried to find toilets to the nice lady at the newsstand that let me break down my euro notes with her, we were floored by belgian hospitality. we met bob, then headed off to our hostel which was a little difficult to find. but i do recommend it www.abhostel.com coz its cosy, clean, funky interior and bridget, the owner is a darling. she gave us free maps (the use-it one was a gem) and some heads up on things to do. plus we met pretty cool hostel mates.

anyway, belgium. very easily, you'll think of the goodness of belgian chocolate, fresh waffles, steaming hot mussels and pommes frites. been there, DONE THAT! we had our first bite of belgian waffles at the belguafra waffle chain and fresh waffles are unbeatable. like really. we headed down the pedestrain street (past more tempting shops) to the grote markt and basically explored antwerp on foot. very walkable city. essentially, covering a typical european city looks like this. find central station. main shopping pedestrain street will link central station to big square with quintessential statutes of founders/famouspeople/famous happenings then turn either left or right to find cathedral. its almost the same everywhere!

but before u categorise antwerp into the ranks of 'another european city', i need to say that its easy to fall in love with antwerp. the atmosphere resembles that of a big town, streets are cobbled and they've got neat antique shops, bookshops, children´s toyshops and little family owned restaurants with creepers growing all over the bricks, turning the shades of autumn. its very easy to explore and get lost, but you want to get lost in the alleyways of antwerp. there are small alleways, but at the same time its a spacious city you can breathe in and not feel claustrophobic.

bob brought us to the promenade overlooking at the schelder (hopefully thats how you spell it) river and it was good to walk along the boardwalk on a beautifully sunny day :) thanks to our belgian tour guide, with the lonely planet in one hand and map on the other, we headed through a few decades old pedestrain tunnel which had wooden escalators (!) to the other side of the river. we found park of sorts and just sat with our legs hanging over the edge over the river, chilling and enjoying the weather. cant do that in copenhagen or singapore. antwerp is good for chilling.

for tea we made stop by cafe troubador in front of a chapel for a sit down, and that lead to us downing chocolacinnos and waffles with icecream (and bananas) to the sound of clanging unharmonious and unmelodious chimes. but when u're eating waffles and icecream, with bananas, you pretty much just concentrate on your food. we managed to explore the south of antwerp where the museums were located and hit the promenade again by twilight, so you can imagine alot of sunset pictures that's being hoarded in my laptop. stuuunnnninnnggggg.

and on to dinner. i know it seems like there's more food than sightseeing stuff, and we seem to live for mealtimes, but really, when you're in belgium just eat lah. plus we walked so much, so i need to emphasise that eating alot is justified. in any case, for me. again, thanks to God's grace, dinner didnt disappoint, even though we didnt have any recommendations to anywhere and didnt want to fall into yucky tourist traps. in fact, dinner far far far far (times infinity and beyond) exceeded our wildest expectations. it was a 20 euro dinner, but it was worth every single minute we were there. you know how you never really believe restaurants when they say they have the best mussels in town? this place which we accidentally found tells the honest truth. i forgot the name, but if you go to belgium, bob will take you there (right bob?).its run by the owner and her helper, so its very intimate and cozy with like 6 tables. it has an antique interior and warm lighting. the exterior walls are covered in creepers. now you just imagine that. imagine it and drool. and i havent gotten to the food.

each of us ordered a pot of mussels each and they came with chips. those steaming pot of fresh mussels are a work of art. i had mine just plain steamed with big onions and carrots and it was supercalifragilisticexpiolidociously (for the lack of a better word to describe gastronomic fantasy)delicious. the juice (czap in hokkien) was amazing man. next time im going to cook seafood with onions. it brings out the flavour! sam had his with tomato sauce and prawns and bob's was steamed with white wine. for the most part, we were just silently tackling and easing the mussels out of their shells, trying to get each and every tiny morsel out. and at the end of the dinner, we each conquered an average of 60 mussels per head. yup, we counted. it was very difficult to move after that, and unfortunately had to pass on the dessert. damn. glorious photos of mussels will be up i promise. you guys need to get your asses down to antwerp!

going to bene without the lux: rotterdam

so after that misadventure on the tram to ICJ, we caught the train to rotterdam for more crashing with taryn. our lovely host met us at the train station and brought us to her place, which i must emphasize is big. very big in fact by danish standards (been living in copenhagen for too long, im starting to compare everything with copenhagen!)and its cozy! plus her crazy landlady wasnt in town, so the three of us had lots of space to just relax and chill. given that sam and i were pretty zonked out by amsterdam, we didnt see rotterdam at all, except the central station, taryn's place and images of rotterdam on the tram route from the station to taryn's place. thats it. not even that sir norman foster-designed erasmus bridge which apparently is world famous (just like the reichstag in berlin, but look what happened to the supreme court in singapore.)but it was good spending time to rejuvenate and have long talk cock sessions with a fellow singaporean living overseas. sharing survival tips, international experiences and the general grouses of expensive living and living with nutty landlords. taryn shared her local food rations (tomyam and chicken instant mee and maggi porridge and then milo and national day biscuits) which was very very nice of her. we all know local food rations are precious, so a big big thank you, taryn! we also managed to skype xiuying in toronto, and if you read her blog, you'd find that nice huge post filled her rants against sam and the general bunch of us on exchange in europe because we are travelling and xiuying, you arent! :) although it was three of us to one of her, so the fight wasnt on equal terms.

anyway, taryn was telling us repeatedly that rotterdam is a super boring place and that its tourist info brochures are sadly laughable, so ok lor, her place was nice and warm anyway. no intention of freezing our butts off, thankyouverymuch.

going to bene without the lux: den haag

for the uninitiated, benelux stands for the lands of belgium, netherlands and luxembourg. -cue ORRHHHH....-

ok, i managed to type sth on amsterdam from alfian´s room, see below for the post, so i wont be going on and gushing about its loveliness. i'll just go on and gush about the rest of the places that sam and i visited over the week AFTER squatting (crashing) in alfian's territory. i'll just narrate as much as i can in this post, the pictures (475 in total) are stored in my laptop because i've lost wireless yet again. so pictures later, words now.

DEN HAAG:
we reached den haag in the early afternoon, prepared to visit the two museums, the mauritishuis and the mc esher museum AND the mother of all courts (except for strasbourg) the international court of justice in the peace palace. its like since we're law students we might as well go and see see abit right. having come all the way to the netherlands and not see the ICJ is like going to singapore and not eating hainanese chicken rice (my third consecutive lame analogy. apologies). and this being europe, any city on a sunday would be probably 90% dead, if you take copenhagen as an example. and after being wow-ed to bits by the expanse of food (cheap at that) and shopping in amsterdam, we were crossing our fingers for den haag. after fiddling with a super high tech map printing machine at the train station (the machine prints you a map with directions to get you to the place you want to go) we set off in a random general direction to find the mauritshuis.

if you didnt already know (i mean i didnt before i reached holland), rembrandt, van gogh and vermeer are dutch. and because i missed the rembrandt and van gogh museum in amsterdam, i needed my fix of these guys and promptly found their paintings in the mauritshuis. no van gogh there, coz the museum only houses paintings from the dutch classical period and van gogh's pretty much younger than the other two. i know next to nothing about art history, so it was very very enriching and enlightening to be able to have a nifty audio guide to listen to as you walk from painting to painting. we werent able to catch the entire collection of the museum because they we introducing a new collection and cordoned off one the levels. that was a pity, but in return we got free entrance! to poor students on a tight budget, this is welcome news i tell you. anyway we did see the famed girl with the pearl earring so all's good.

after mauritshuis, we followed taryn's advice to the mc esher museum, which absolutely blew us away. this guy, mc esher is a brillant brillant genius whom i cant begin to describe as how brillant. just google mc esher and you'll understand why. i think most of us would have once upon a time come across illustrations of optical illusions like stairs leading to nowhere, rooms both concave and convex et al? mc esher is the mind behind these awesome pictures. the museum also featured some of his woodcuts from his early days and the fine detail of those is similarly breathtaking. for the most part, sam and i were speechless.

and then it was off to find lunch. den haag is happening ok. even on a sunday, the shops are open, people are out on streets having a good time, a stark contrast to copenhagen. and i need to give special mention that there is a dean & deluca cafe in den haag. -gasp- ok, on with the post. remembering that we are poor students on a tight budget, lunch options are limited to 6 euros and below. max that we are willing to pay is 8euros. very limited options. so we ended up eating subway at den haag :) subway meatballs are oddly comforting. maybe its because they are HOT and it was cold in den haag. we were also blessed to find a super neat chips shop (the dutch call it patat) along the shopping area and for cold and hungry travellers, mayo with onions on hot freshly fried chips is the bomb. there was no way we could refuse the aroma and the sound of that sizzle.

and we tried to find the ICJ. honestly we did. the tourist info lady told us to take a certain tram which would most certainly stop in front of the ICJ. it certainly did not. and we took the tram all the way to god-knows-where until we decided we were getting lost and it was high time to get out of the tram and head to rotterdam. where are your signs ICJ?! how do you expect your plaintiffs to find you if your tourists cant?! i was sorely disappointed as you can see. now i cant say ive been there done that in den haag. phooey.

there goes my baby.... an obituary

there goes my orange lexan nalgene water bottle :(

the bottle that braved copenhagen, germany, the netherlands and belgium with me is probably sitting in some rubbish bin with all over lost and found items in a far off scandinavian airlines warehouse. damn you, terri! no amount of kicking myself can suffice. its the second lexan that i've lost over 2 years but this one is pretty special seeing that my mom got it for me, when i lost my first one. sigh.

im just hoping that the SAS crew might against all odds trace that little bottle back to me, so im keeping those fingers crossed.

a dutch hello

i'm typing this now from alfian's room in amsterdam. amsterdam has totally blown me away. contrary to popular opinion, amsterdam is a really nice place, its cosy, dignified and doesnt take itself too seriously. sure they've legalised pot and coming here redefines the term 'coffee shop' (not the kopitiam kind) and it has that infamous red light district, but seriously that can't entirely convince you that amsterdam is seedy and dodge right?! i admit im an amsterdam convert. when we first got out of the amsterdam centraal, it was like 'whoa there'. but right now, i'd encourage anyone to really explore this city.

its a pity we didnt manage to cover as many museums as i wanted to, the van gogh, the rembrandt and the anne frank house. i know! its a terrible shame. but the queues were too long (anne frank), the prices were too steep (rembrandt) and it was way too far off for our tired legs (van gogh). still, i might just come back to amsterdam in the near future :)

and i havent even mentioned the canals! and the cafes! and the nice cosy bookshops and shops that sell rubbish that i like! and the cafes! and the restaurants! and the takeouts! seriously, this place is overflowing with food joints and food joints that serve quality meals for the price that you pay. compared to amsterdam, copenhagen has a pithy food selection. and the cafes are awesomely cool. most of them are alfresco by the canal, now imagine that. obviously you cant alfresco all the time, but it was a pretty sunny day (until the fog set in at 6ish) and there were people just lazing on the decks, playing scrabble, having a latte, reading a book... tres parfait! and we were pretty blessed today to have chanced on 3 food joints that didnt dissappoint: cafe waterloo at waterlooplein (great latte macchiato and salami sandwich coupled with quaint charming atmosphere), tasteful (an italian place with not too bad ravioli) and a pancake house at princessgacht (where we walloped a pancake with generous scoops of icecream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce). hehehehehehe.

will post pics once i'm back in copenhagen, its den haag and rotterdam tomorrow!

germany (pt 4)- cologne and berlin

knowing me, i must die die finish blogging on the germany trip by tonight.

cologne:

the days were pretty dreary in cologne and our numbers getting smaller. nick left us for hamburg before salzburg, and jess was leaving a day earlier to get back to rotterdam, leaving the 4 of us to our wits. but shopping in cologne was madness, it has the best shopping street ive seen in germany yet, because everything is crammed into one long street! and they believe in malls! anyways, thankfully we got out of cologne when we got out, because we had to share our last night with 3 russian dudes, who were walking around our dorm in their socks and underwear. and they were nothing to look at! quoting sam "i'd pay them to put on their clothes lah!" they caused our shared toilet to stink because they also hung socks and undies IN the toilet and just made life really uneasy for all of us. i do not believe in sharing the russian love. -shivers- but we did meet sarah, who's a pretty funky californian studying her masters in env science in cologne, once she gets an apartment.

hey mom! here's the cologne dom! so now you know where photokina is held after all these years :)

a replica statue of david with nothing on. the corny part is that only his hair and his privates are highlighted yellow. goodness knows why.

inside the cologne dom// cologne's lego shop is how power! it has both the imperial star destroyer AND the x-wing (help.)// a cologne drain cap// always follow the guy with the map, even if he has professed to be lousy with directions// the tram at neumarkt// out for a night stroll (yea right, it was cold.)// us and sarah, our bunkmate at meininger hostel

the backsides of shuz, sam, jo and jess :)

a very grey picture of the river rhine. unfortunately we only caught the river on a sunny day when we were on the train back to berlin. no time to whip out my camera, so one has to be content with grey bridge upon grey water.

a collage of pictures i took while sam and i were at the jewish museum back in berlin. its a fantastic place not only in terms of its comprehensiveness in tracing jewish history, but it has very high tech interactive displays that will put even our newly revamped singapore discovery centre to shame. and its 2.50euros for students! gdness!

now that germany's done. prepare for the next wave of posts when i head to the netherlands-belgium to catch up with alfian, taryn, farida, yixian and bob!

germany (pt 3a)- munich continued

i have to unceremoniously slot in my other part of munich which i forgot to blog about. less words, more pictures!

some sites as we took the free tour around munich also. but we zhao-ed halfway because it got too cold and boring.// im standing on unmarked graves which have been exhumed.// finally, a city that's smaller than i am. ya right.// shuz and me// viktualien market!

this is self-explanatory. but ooohhhmaaannnn.

basically the marienplatz area (ie shopping district) only that munich shopping pales in comparison to berlin. we hadnt seen cologne shopping at the time of the photo. thats the church with a massive glockenspiel. not very exciting, although that golden statue of mary symbolised antiprotestantism during its time.

generous photos of food from the market! 2.20euros for chili padi. wah lau eh! $#%$@##!

and finally, the dinner of all dinners. we had it at weisse which was recommended by the lonely planet and bascially we went crazy. shuz was the only sane one who ate properly. sam had a pork cordon bleu, jess and jo shared another knuckle, i had a veal schnitzel, shuz had her sauerkraut and potato pancakes, nick had his knuckles for the 3rd time. and then we walloped 3 desserts: apple strudel, apple fritters and pancakes. it was so good. im hungry now.

a note about the schnitzel: ever since i heard julie andrews sing "my favourite things" i've always wondered what in the world were schnitzels. and i finally had mine at munich. its basically breaded veal cutlet. nothing really fancy about it, though. but it was good. as with all other foods ive eaten by far.

"...girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles..."

austria (pt 3)- salzburg

salzburg:

i couldnt write germany because salzburg is in austria, but we managed to train to austria because the german railpass allowed it. so it was a day trip to salzburg then a 7hr (yes 7hrs) ride to cologne. the city of mozart and the sound of music. it was pretty cold up in salzburg and you could see really low clouds surrounding the festung. which is the salzburg fortress. generally a very pretty little city, duh, they filmed the sound of music there. and from the fortress, it was breathakingly gorgeous.

you see what i mean?
and this?
which is also this?

thats me, pointing up to the top and looking very miniscule.

i shldnt have looked so happy. that steep climb wasnt over yet.

it was a very steep climb up the fortress// salzburb before and salzburg at present// another perspective of the fortress// i went to the ladies at the fortress// a wasser bull//a flag of austria-germany (??)// woe betide those heretics (ie protestants ie people like me) who got caught during the thirty years war// peeking through a window// interior design// another window into another world// blueprints of the festung// more shots

shuz and me taking a pitstop to take photos :)

horse-drawn transportation. very horsy smells abound.// residenzplatz// inside the salzburg dom// if you can make it out: the centrepiece reads alpha and omega// happy buskers// the fortress overlooking the city// the backside of the residenzplatz// the festungsbahn: the funicular which brings you up to the fortress// but we took the long scenic walking route.

a picture of the fountain with faith, hope and charity depicted as statues in front of the salzburg dom. it was bombed in WWII (no surprises there) and reconstructed.

my chum, mozart and me. standing on a UNESCO world heritage site leh! donch pray pray.

pictures of sleepy souls and magnificent views. definitely a picturesque journey down to salzburg.

taking a stroll in the gardens of schloss mirabell, who's claim to fame, besides the manicured hedges, is that it was the stomping ground of a certain fraulein maria and her seven rascally wards of the von trapp family.

orh.. train conductors nonchalantly crossing the rail lines. id like to see someone do that back home.