berlin revisited, poland conquered.
now that i got my grievances with the people at flybussenvarna (swedish airport bus company) and DSB (danish national rail) out of my system, i can nicely get on with my trip update. this time around, i was travelling with sam (until krakow) and 2 of our jap friends, hidetoshi and akane. and then we got stalked by the uk bunch aka sheena, ange and mel. the world is honestly shrinking before my very eyes.
berlin:
technically, it was my third time in berlin, so we didnt have much to 'cover' in terms of sightseeing. although this time we finally made it to the reichstag and a museum on the museum island. bode museum to be exact. ive never seen so many sculptures in one museum ever. the reichstag was definitely amazing, the architecture and the symbolism, and we listened to ange's/mel's/sheena's advice to go in at dusk, so the transition from day to night was cool. but i think we spent the most of it like actually waiting OUTSIDE the reichstag, which is probably the longest queue ive ever been in (minus mtc europe awards). unfortunately, my ambition of going mega shopping in berlin was never really quite realised because i forgot that for all its great shops, berlin is still a european city, read: everything closes on sunday. oh well. save here, means more money for later! anyhow, i sort of feel a special connection to berlin, because it was the first city i visited out of denmark since coming on exchange. i'm very sentimental if you dont already know. so coming back to it and revisiting the complicated-as-hell s/u-bahn lines and going back to zoologischer garden, unter den linden, alexanderplatz, brandenburg tor and my dunkin donut shops was sort of like memory lane. dont roll your eyes! see:
technically, it was my third time in berlin, so we didnt have much to 'cover' in terms of sightseeing. although this time we finally made it to the reichstag and a museum on the museum island. bode museum to be exact. ive never seen so many sculptures in one museum ever. the reichstag was definitely amazing, the architecture and the symbolism, and we listened to ange's/mel's/sheena's advice to go in at dusk, so the transition from day to night was cool. but i think we spent the most of it like actually waiting OUTSIDE the reichstag, which is probably the longest queue ive ever been in (minus mtc europe awards). unfortunately, my ambition of going mega shopping in berlin was never really quite realised because i forgot that for all its great shops, berlin is still a european city, read: everything closes on sunday. oh well. save here, means more money for later! anyhow, i sort of feel a special connection to berlin, because it was the first city i visited out of denmark since coming on exchange. i'm very sentimental if you dont already know. so coming back to it and revisiting the complicated-as-hell s/u-bahn lines and going back to zoologischer garden, unter den linden, alexanderplatz, brandenburg tor and my dunkin donut shops was sort of like memory lane. dont roll your eyes! see:
akane looking at the statue and the statute's looking back at her (bode museum).
the infamous reichstag queue. when i took this picture, i was told i had to wait for another 1.5hrs. -____-"
and the queue snakes longer as it gets darker.
and it gets even longer.
a coffee and the s/u-bahn map. im ready to conquer berlin.
a mini for me!
sam and akane walking through tiergarten.
the exterior of the pergamon on museum island.
inside the reichstag
the other side of the reichstag
akane and i lying at the top of the cupola in the reichstag.
my wishing and hoping shot
hide's nostrils are damn big. taken on the train from berlin to poznan.poznan:
honestly, before i met my polish friend, kamila, i never knew poznan existed. then again, my geography has improved by leaps and bounds because of exchange. so our happy travelling group went to poznan for the sole purpose of paying kamila a visit in her hometown. poznan, like most cities, has an old town and thats pretty much it. we did find a great quaint chocolate cafe though. it is not unusual that my trips are marked by eateries and cafes. i must say we (the asians) did get stared at quite bit in poznan.
akane and kamila and i with a huge psychedelic eggs in the background.
the way to the stary rynek (old town) in poznan. i like polish sunsets.
sam, akane, hide and myself finally in poznan.
kamila taking us through the cytadel.
headless and limbless humans.
honestly, before i met my polish friend, kamila, i never knew poznan existed. then again, my geography has improved by leaps and bounds because of exchange. so our happy travelling group went to poznan for the sole purpose of paying kamila a visit in her hometown. poznan, like most cities, has an old town and thats pretty much it. we did find a great quaint chocolate cafe though. it is not unusual that my trips are marked by eateries and cafes. i must say we (the asians) did get stared at quite bit in poznan.
akane and kamila and i with a huge psychedelic eggs in the background.
the way to the stary rynek (old town) in poznan. i like polish sunsets.
sam, akane, hide and myself finally in poznan.
kamila taking us through the cytadel.
headless and limbless humans. it took us a good 7.5hrs to make it to krakow from poznan. krakow is charming, oldey, quaint. seriously, the old town thing gets quite boring after a while. but i liked the huge-ness of its old town. it is seriously big. krakow is also famous, or shld i say infamous for auschwitz (will blog separately bt that) and the salt mines. oh! and thanks to the hostel's recommendation, we found a super cheap polish diner that served HUGE portions of super food too! after 2 meals there, ive sworn off polish food (for now) because its so jelat! i think the fact that the poles use alot of lard has something to do with it.
subsistence for the 7.5hr train ride from poznan to krakow. you're looking at alot of rubbish food. but it was pretty fun when we ended up playing hangman.
pierogi- polish dumplings and the quintessential polish eat.
krakow's old town. its the biggest open air square in europe. plus they had an easter market too! not as exciting as the christmas ones, but ive never seen an easter market in my life, so it was pretty nice.
the vistula river
i dont know what it means. but the brass plate contrasted nicely with the blue sky, so i took a picture.
its only level 3 below the surface of the earth, and im already at 135m below ground level. and the mines have 9 levels!
pretty much amazed that we're standing in a chapel in carved out of salt.
walking along the walls of the barbican, separating the old town from the new one.
the barbican
a shot of the chapel of st kinga (once princess of krakow, now patron saint of salt miners.)
underwater salt lake. with the density as low as the dead sea, you cant drown in this 9m deep pool.
hehe. i couldnt resist taking a photo of this class of old folks.
well now, it looks like some singaporeans have also been to the mines.
looking down from the largest caverns in the mine. its 36m high and people have bungee-d off the top of the cavern before.
salt encrusted walls of the salt mine. lick'em!
a labyrinth of wooden staircases and bad lighting. you dont want to get lost in the mines.
on wawel hill
a very hi-tech dragon statue, which bellows fire if you sms 'SMOK' to a number.warsaw:
we were warned that warsaw wasnt as nice as krakow, or had anything to see because its just another big capital city. plus with easter around the corner, even the malls would be closed. indeed that was what happened. but i was impressed with the size of the city (it really is HUGE) and the transport system. you name it, they have it. old trams, new trams, bendy buses, metro, rail, everything also have. and although we didnt see much, akane, hide and i ended up having long conversations with each other over meals, and i ended up getting to know them better and learning a decent amount of nihon-go from them. plus, we had a great hostel and we hung out with the hostel people. honestly, i was quite sad to leave warsaw, because i wouldnt be seeing the new found friends ever again. unless bec and erin (from australia) come to singapore and colin (from vancouver) comes to copenhagen. also, because we were in warsaw right on the saturday before easter sunday, we witnessed the poles going to church in full force, carrying pretty baskets decorated with eggs, chicks and rabbits. and i think warsaw has like the most no. of churches per square metre lah. its choc-a-block with churches and they're all crowded with people headed for the confessional. one of the churches i visited on good friday actually preserved frederic chopin's heart in it. o_O and no, ange, we didnt bother to find the soviet escalator :)
nowy swiat. its supposedly one of the more happening districts, but everywhere in poland is like "shhhh quiet".
a statue of copernicus
akane and i at a mock up radio station, where we both played dee-jay for a good 5 minutes.
strange polish cake which we had in a polish cafe. dim overhanging lamps, rattan chairs, grumpy old women, brown lace curtains, you get the idea.
me playing weather girl at the mock up tv station. i think if i was weather girl, no one would want to know the weather. ever.
a memorial statue in front of yet another church.
warsaw has many circles. a view from the huge palac something.
pretty polish flowers!
the huge and imposing palac something. apparently it took only 3 yrs to build this monstrosity. personally, i think its rather ugly. but its like a warsaw icon.
most of my pics have hide opening his mouth. wonder why.
we were warned that warsaw wasnt as nice as krakow, or had anything to see because its just another big capital city. plus with easter around the corner, even the malls would be closed. indeed that was what happened. but i was impressed with the size of the city (it really is HUGE) and the transport system. you name it, they have it. old trams, new trams, bendy buses, metro, rail, everything also have. and although we didnt see much, akane, hide and i ended up having long conversations with each other over meals, and i ended up getting to know them better and learning a decent amount of nihon-go from them. plus, we had a great hostel and we hung out with the hostel people. honestly, i was quite sad to leave warsaw, because i wouldnt be seeing the new found friends ever again. unless bec and erin (from australia) come to singapore and colin (from vancouver) comes to copenhagen. also, because we were in warsaw right on the saturday before easter sunday, we witnessed the poles going to church in full force, carrying pretty baskets decorated with eggs, chicks and rabbits. and i think warsaw has like the most no. of churches per square metre lah. its choc-a-block with churches and they're all crowded with people headed for the confessional. one of the churches i visited on good friday actually preserved frederic chopin's heart in it. o_O and no, ange, we didnt bother to find the soviet escalator :)
nowy swiat. its supposedly one of the more happening districts, but everywhere in poland is like "shhhh quiet".
a statue of copernicus
akane and i at a mock up radio station, where we both played dee-jay for a good 5 minutes.
strange polish cake which we had in a polish cafe. dim overhanging lamps, rattan chairs, grumpy old women, brown lace curtains, you get the idea.
me playing weather girl at the mock up tv station. i think if i was weather girl, no one would want to know the weather. ever.
a memorial statue in front of yet another church.
warsaw has many circles. a view from the huge palac something.
pretty polish flowers!
the huge and imposing palac something. apparently it took only 3 yrs to build this monstrosity. personally, i think its rather ugly. but its like a warsaw icon.
most of my pics have hide opening his mouth. wonder why. btw, happy easter everyone!
i hope u guys managed to eat your easter eggs like i did! milka eggs are the best :) we hunted all over krakow for them coz akane and i couldnt find them in berlin. and a good thing that we did too. too bad i dont have a photo of it. it comes in a pack of 4 in an adorable purple egg box (you know, the recycled cardboard kind you find normal eggs in), wrapped in purple alu foil. and they give you 2 purple spoons to eat the cream inside the chocolate egg with. super milky, super creamy...heaven.
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