Buda-Pest (CHEAPEST city ever) Part 1

Finally, the cities that I have long been told are beautiful. Central Europe is an interestingly different place compared to the other “more developed” Western european countries. Let’s start with my favorite – Budapest.

It was so shabby and dirt cheap, precisely why I loved it. We flew Wizz Air for the first time, and I could not believe we had to compete to get on board! My favorite budget airline is still Easyjet.

It was my first time landing into an airport covered with snow. The timing, geographical location all doesn’t add up to snowing in my head. I was puzzled. Can anyone tell me why it’s so cold in Central Europe?!

Boarding the metro, it was like traveling 50 years back in time… they probably have been using the same old train for a century; like was going to fall apart any time, how lovely.

At city center, there was this huge colorful market building with overpriced touristy souvenirs. It was filled with an energetic vibe. But I preferred the outdoor although it was freezing.

I HAVE NEVER SEEN THAT MUCH SNOW EVER IN MY LIFE! Those kinds that I only see in movies: upon each step, crushy sound will be heard and footprints (like on sand) are left 1 inch deep. I would have lied down and do the snow angel thing if my jacket wasn’t new and I have someone to clean up my clothes afterwards.

The snow was so thick that we simply couldn’t resist drawing a smiley face on this cute turquoise car.

Then of course in ANY city, there are the churches.

See how different it looked when the sun came out? Even the color changed. Erm , my friend said the people loved this saint stephen so much that his hand was cut out and placed inside this church…interesting logic eh?

Why i said Budapest was really cheap: we had dessert-tea for only 2 euros / person! It was sweet bread soak honeymilk with mysterious powder on top (It reminded me of heung low fui – sorry for the Cantonese) and Chocolate sauce pancakes with raisins and crushed nuts.

To burn off the calories, we went for a scroll along the famous river. The sun was setting and to me, it is the most exhilarating moment of a day.

Yes it is calm and still, but it recharges my soul (If I have one?) with its glorious golden rays, upon the river, melting the snow, tinting the lonely (ugly) snowman. With every breath, I took in the wonderful scent of twilight as the day come to a close.

On a nice day like this, it also reminds me brutally that a lot a lot of minutes has passed and it will be tomorrow soon. On a bad day, however, it is a relief to know that darkness is approaching and I will be secluded again soon to just settle everything internally.

Dinner: my first try of rabbit meat, it tasted like chicken. And the arguably tasty vegetable dish. Who knows it’s that difficult to order normal veggie? Come on all we wanted was to stay healthy!

– And up to this point, my list of lost things include 2 left gloves, a hat and an adaptor …

Somehow this lonely chair, and the melted snow (yes same as water) mirroring the bronze railings reminded me of the song Someone like you.

“Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead” – the MV was filmed in PARIS! better check that out when I am there next month 🙂

Milan, Italy

First of all I’d like to declare my love for these gorgeous, lovely and heavy keys. The Rome one even has my favorite number on it. They were so tricky to use but I just adore them 🙂

Now why such a dull title? Because that will only suit how the 2 days felt in Milan. Some personal issue undermined the supposedly very exciting shopping hearts of ours. But none of that matters anymore, issue was not fixed, but I have learnt to let go and accept. So back to Milan.

They have these GENIUS technology in the train station so we could spare our arms for once (Apart from the lifting up and down buses, budget airlines’ staircase to the plane, UP our 3nd floor hotel etc.)

When I thought of Milan, I automatically think of the huge cathedral. But what I didn’t know is that the plaza in front of it are full of black guys handing out bracelets “for free” saying those are “gifts from africa”. It just sounded so odd and we never took them…wonder what would happen though if we did.

All the branded luxury shops are here in this glorious mall: Gucci, Prada, LV etc. Not exactly what we were looking for, we were starving FOR FOOD.

The mall has starry tiles in blue. AND THERE we found it. We had lunch there twice during our 2 days in Milan.

These friendly Swiss couple sat next to us and told us how they like to hear Chinese because they think it’s a beautiful language. What we noticed was how nice the old man was towards his wife. He helped her into her jacket, and these things I just never see in the Chinese society. I know that does not mean they don’t love each other as much, but perhaps they just show it in a different way.

Turns out Milan will hold the World Expo in 2015, there were all these flags along the walking street. Until we felt tired and sat down in this coffee place.

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Then we got hungry…no wait I think we were tired again, or were we cold? OH WELL who cares, we had gelato right after. This GROM place is one of the best one we have had so far!

The next day we came back to the same restaurant because it really was that good, and we were too lazy to think.

The plan was to see other famous attractions, i.e. Sforza castle, and The Last Supper, but since the theme of Milan is fail, we not only missed the opening hours of the castle by just 5 minutes, we also didn’t know to see the oh – so – famous – last supper has to be pre-booked one week in advance…

Caught a glimpse of someone taking photo of a couple who was so “in love”. 😉

At the end we sat down outside a church to take a break. Suddenly the bells started to ring. Usually it is peaceful and calming, but the ones there? It sounded unsynchronized and so chaotic. Sigh, what else to say about that? Even the bells we heard were super fail.

World’s smallest “independent state” – Vatican and more Rome

Although I am not the most religious, devoted Catholic out there (according to the social norms of going to church and stuff) the idea of meeting the pope (THE NEW Pope!) was such an excitement and luckily we got to spend Sunday in Rome without any previous planning!

Right from the metro station, it was already extremely crowded. We were literally squished; even worse than Admiralty station. Everyone was heading to one direction only – Vatican. We just had to follow the parade of people and every step I took was faster than the previous. It was like going to Disneyland, the security check, huge crowd etc, but on a more spiritual level kind of excitement.

As we got to the square, the mass has already started and we could only see from afar, the first Pope from Southern Hemisphere under the red shelter. The hymns sounded so serene and there must be over tens of thousands of people! Everything was kept in order though and I was not afraid of theft at all, because I didn’t think anyone would be desperate enough to steal in the Holy See.

The sun was striking hot but everyone just stood there patiently and intently. Well except the horny couple right in front of us…not very nice is it?

After 45 minutes of listening to the Italian mass and watching the Pope from afar under the searing sun, we gave up and went for lunch.

Strolling along the river under the sun and going through the flea market was just so relaxing. I can imagine myself doing this every day when I retire. (Ahem, seems like you haven’t even started a day of actual work and you’re already thinking of retirement…)

Then we went back to the famous Basilica just in time to catch the super long line. The wait actually was not too long because the group behind us was very entertaining. They were a group of mainland Chinese discussing what nationality my friend and I were.

They couldn’t understand Cantonese and came to the conclusion that we were Malaysians. HAHAHA Perhaps Hong Kong people tend to be whiter? Honestly though, nationality really doesn’t matter. It takes more than what race a person is to determine their morality and virtues.

The basilica is the largest in the world. You could tell by how tiny the people are compared to it. It obviously made all previous churches that I have seen extremely small.

At this point, I started reflecting on the whole idea of faith and religion. I used to have this theory that only kids and old people are most religious. As a kid, I knew nothing and tend to believe in everything nice and miraculous. As I grew older though, I started questioning how things were and there’s a part of me that seemed to believe more in fate in my own hands. I can imagine though that when we became old, religion is perhaps the only reassuring thing that calms our fear of the unknown.

After that the inevitable resting spot is GELATO! Then we went for a bit of shopping and early dinner before going back to watch Angels and Demons again.

With that context in mind we were excited to visit the last few attractions in Rome. We first arrived at the random pillars, then the Pantheon. It was magnificent. After 2000 years, it is still the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome!

There is a hole in the middle to allow sunshine into the temple (it was not particularly catholic, but rather a temple to all gods) First I did not understand why the central part is restricted, then I remember it rained earlier and thus right below the hole was wet and slippery 😉

The bodies of 2 Italian Kings were buried here too. After that it started raining rather heavily and we had to skip along souvenir shops and gelato shops (such a good excuse) before arriving Piazza Novena. The flea market there was not as fascinating as the dogs passing by. It seems like Italians like bigger, chubbier dogs compared to the petite and fragile dogs in Southern France.

That’s it for Rome and next stop? The fashion city, Milan!

And lastly, what made Vatican even more like Disneyland were these colorful Swiss guards 😀

The land of RUINS – Rome, Italy

The first stop of my longest trip ever. Rome… movies like Angels and Demons, Eat Pray Love etc. built a high expectation inside my head and the reality is, everywhere I looked in Rome was RUINS. Not that I didn’t like it, but may be if it was tied together with a wretched love story of a Prince and a beautiful girl, it would have been more interesting. (Even the signs call those “ruins”)

So what I loved about Italy? Sorry for being shallow again, but it has to be the gelato. All in all my lovely companion and I had almost 30 scoops of gelato throughout Rome and Milan. Some were better than others, but most of them were way above average and reasonably priced. That alone is a big enough motive to go to Italy! Then again they also have the pizza, risotto, pasta, panini…you name it and they probably taste better than you could imagine 🙂

The inevitable first stop is obviously the old town. Colosseum, some kind of Square, some crippled walls, broken rocks (Sorry too lazy to look up what they are called, but you really don’t need to know, just follow the crowd and you won’t miss these “touristy” places)

All those ruins looked the same and we kept going in circles. My map reading skills must have improved a lot but still not meticulous enough.

How I wish I was born a man, not being sexist, but it’s biological that they are better in navigation.

The weather was thankfully nice, although for a southern France-r no weather can really impress me anymore, so spoiled by the always bright sunshine white clouds blue sky weather. So much talking and laughing along the way, combined with gelato stops in between.

Before we know it, we stumbled upon THE fountain. It was BEYOND crowded. My height, of course, was a huge disadvantage at these scene, good that my buddy is tall and I could just cling on to her 🙂

I did throw coins in so hopefully it will bring me back to Rome 🙂

The sun set so quickly while we ran into a WWF event. Do you know why their logo is a panda?

Because when they started they were too poor and black and white printing is cheapest! Learn something new everyday eh! (Credits to my roommate 🙂

The mornings were so warm but at night, it started to get cold again. We had to stop by an ancient but elegantly designed mall to defrost before we could continue walking to dinner. We were really exhausted from the 8 hours of walking and decided to take the metro back instead, 1.5 euro each. It was too cold to walk back anyway. And that’s when the REAL adventure begins.

We finally sat down at a restaurant. We first sat outside reading the menu but suddenly everyone started jumping onto their chairs and we did the same, not knowing what was going on because they all spoke Italian. TURNS OUT THERE WAS A MOUSE RUNNING ACROSS from the other side. No big deal, we then moved inside to dine. I mean all we wanted was some hot food to replenish our energy… Ok we ordered our food and it tasted good, of course it has to be, it’s ITALY.

Funny how we only carried just enough cash and brought our credit card along. When we paid for our meal, we realized service charge wasn’t included and the waiter was expecting tip. We gave 3 euros to them and happily left the restaurant with a full stomach. THEN it occurred to us why we have 3 euros left is because we saved that for taking the metro back home! So instead of our perfect plan, we had to walk 45 mins home. We couldn’t even find our map anymore. Turns out we left it outside when the mouse intruded…it was wet because water was spilled when we were frightened.

What else could we do but laugh at our own stupidity? We had to half run half walk back because it really was cold, our clothes wasn’t meant for the night. All in all it was a great day though. Get a good companion and you are 50% guaranteed to have a good trip 🙂

The next morning we had breakfast served inside our room. It wasn’t super fancy, but we were just staying in a hostel! I wasn’t expecting that at all. The next day we met the new Pope in Vatican! More on that in the next post 🙂

Oh and I almost forgot about these lovely Brocoli looking trees 🙂

The Gloomy and Briefly Sunny Copenhagen

Funny how I finally picked up writing again after 15 days of non-stop traveling to 6 cities. Wasn’t completely crazy, no, but challenging enough for someone as “sporty” as myself. Time to walk down memory lane and record bits and pieces before I forget. Hang on though, I still haven’t wrote about Copenhagen, which was a month back! Seriously where has the time gone? (That reminds me of Dali! can’t wait to get to write about him later on when I get to Venice 😉

Copenhagen was special because I saw snow for the first time. It made me clapping and jumping deep down in my heart. But then Budapest and Vienna welcomed me with too much snow…Can I just have the snow without the cold please? (In your dream -_-)

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Late Feb was pretty gloomy up north. Good that the salivating food made up for it. Here are some highlights of my trip 🙂 First and foremost, the green frozen poor baby. Nah kidding. Of course there were things to see in Copenhagen.

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Point to note: really touristy landmarks are usually a let down, or was it because my expectation was too high?

1) Touristy places (I know… someone painted the C out lol)

It was freezing (-2, that’s beyond tolerable for someone who was spoiled by the Southern France weather) so we simply couldn’t walk, the Canal tour was at least warm. All there is to say is a landmark without sun is like food without salt.

It was snowing/raining (Can’t really tell, no expert at this) and I knew it’s not really the colorful houses’s faults, they did their best to look pretty, the sun simply wasn’t feeling cooperative.

(Under comparison, Venice + Sun was wondrous if not for the gazillion tourists) At least here it was not crowded.- more on that later on 😉

The lake was frozen so the boat had some things to do – cracking the ice while we listened.

This is it, THE mermaid. I couldn’t help but think why are all statues so miniature? This obviously is a salute to the most famous Danish, Anderson. We paid a visit to a museum about his life, and finally after all these years listening to Ugly Ducklings, I understood why he wrote such story.

This was where he stayed in for sometime! The story teller we all have heard of.

Apparently, Anderson was very unconfident as a child because he was, well ugly. (The museum put it in a nicer way but essentially that was it.) I wouldn’t comment on that because I think the concept of beauty is relative and very subjective. But I’m sure in one way or another, we feel unconfident, unworthy even, at times. I have definitely had one of those moments especially recently. Not really in the super optimistic mode right now but I guess all there is to comfort myself is that everyone has to be good at something, however trivial.

In the Ripley’s museum, some “talented” people could make music out of a flute with their nostrils. Well so be it. I am sure one day in my life I will figure out something that I am qualified to do. (Hopefully it doesn’t involve my nostrils.)

We also saw like a change of guard ceremony thing with these blue pants black furry hat guys. Wasn’t particularly fascinating but then again, there was nothing else to do otherwise 😛 Oh ok, I really liked the way it sounded when they march, the crisp sound of heels clashing the rocky ground in a synchronized rhythm.

2) Food – Was not particularly cheap, but I think the quality made up for it. Breakfast – heart shaped pastries.

FREE ICE CREAM! We each got 2 scoops and I dropped mine… typical me. Scraping out the part touching the floor, I finished my ice cream 😛 without getting sick (safe to say that after a month I supposed)

Traditional cake shop with a friendly old man receptionist (or owner?) Such a cute little shop with pricey but good cakes.

The hotdog stands, It seems like hotdogs are famous everywhere…

Dinner all you can eat. Not very “local” but buffets are just my type. THEY HAVE PARMA HAM AND MELON. Capitals for the melon actually because they are so rare and overpriced in France. (or Europe in general)

It may seem like we were always eating, but trust me, every calorie was 100% justified, you know the coldness, gloomy wet weather, non-stop walking etc.

These sandwiches was really good. But still for the amount we paid, I expected it to be more filling.

3) Shabby Train station and Protest – Copenhagen is such a civilized place (especially compared to Central Europe) but why did they allow their train stations to be “decorated” as such? I have no clue.

On the way out for dinner, we witnessed this huge student protest where people drink beer and marched. My 3rd time seeing a protest/demonstration in Europe and they never gets old unlike the guard changing ceremony 😉

On the second/last day, THE SUN came out. The whole place lit up and the city was suddenly all warm and welcoming.

Perhaps to end this it is worth mentioning their airport has some of the best wifi compared to the Europe airports I have been to 😛

The END of iceLAND.

The weather was just getting better and better everyday. And our hope to see the northern lights was up again. First night was cancelled, second night we went, too cloudy 😦

We were lucky to have a 6-bed room with just the 3 of us 🙂 It made life a whole lot easier.

Finally time to do some intense activities! Horse riding for 1.5 hours around the mountain.

We each got matched to a horse and the owner of the riding school put us each in a fitting jacket and helmet. My horse, (Icelandic horses all looked like ponies, but they are actually really comfortable and reliable) was Gramerer. (I’m just guessing that’s how you spell it, it was too difficult to pronounce, like Grrrrameeerrrrer, with the multiple tongue curling sound) It meant the mask, because it has a white face 🙂

We first were crossing rivers, looking over mountains, and the horses started running so fast and although I was afraid, I could only convince myself to trust him and hold on to him. It felt incredible to be so intimate with a huge animal like a horse. But afterwards my whole body ached really badly… I felt grateful that I am born in the era with planes and trains 🙂 I liked my horse so much because it made me felt safe the whole time and it was such a special feeling to feel its breathing under his thick muscles when I placed my palm on its neck.

Remember how Iceland is well-known for its natural scenery? The Golden Circle tour has got it all, the Gulfoss Waterfall, Euro-American tectonic plates (not sure if that’s the right term :P) and the Geysir where water shoots up from time to time to release the pressure. Unfortunately, weather was poor and it compromised our experience…

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Although the attractions were not that captivating, the tour guide himself was rather entertaining. He said the weather here is even more unpredictable than his wife. And these white, green things you see in the photo there, are marshmallows for the cows. Green is mint flavor and it makes their milk minty. Yes I think he is crazy. He mentioned the Reykjavik Mayor being his cousin, and he was a former comedian…He wears pink suit too, I verified the last piece of information. Isn’t Iceland the cutest country ever? 🙂

from http://www.newsoficeland.com/home/entertainment-leisure/other/item/594-the-mayor-of-reykjavik-jumps-into-a-pool-wearing-a-suit

Good stories are not always perfect, and the best ones are those that leave certain regrets. At the end after trying for 3 nights, we did not manage to see any northern lights. We saw a lot a lot of stars though but that was it. (yes those are not dusts on your screen)

We stopped at a really cozy family-owned B&B for toilet. Perhaps I will come back one day and just stay in their cottages for a month 🙂 And watch the stars and attempt northern lights again. (The tickets are kindly valid for 3 years. Although the tour guide did say there will not be any more northern lights after 2 years from now 😦

Last night in Iceland, we had again traditional Iceland food in a restaurant named after Nordic god, Loki (Yes! Like in Thor/Avengers 🙂 The color tone was creamy yellow with warmly lit lights. I tripped as I was going up the stairs and the waiter said to me “It’s still too early to be drunk!” And I was so embarrassed 😛

Hot chocolate with Iceland spirits.

Assorted fish, and shark that tasted really fishy

My craving for sweet food 😛

Although this trip was not perfect, it was beyond my expectation. Perhaps I did not even know what to expect! I felt so lucky to have the resources to be here and at the end of the day, everything in life are reminders of how lucky I am, the great food, the nice people, the weather, the sun! I will never take things for granted. I have never been this appreciative of how fortunate I am until now.

Reykjavik left with us the impression of a beautiful night city and I became even more fond of Iceland at the end. Northern lights, when it is meant to be, when it is the right moment, I will see you some day.

The coolest (not literally) country – Iceland Part 2

Let’s start off with homemade Icelandic breakfast: Skyr, (Skii-er) the local yogurt like cheese and it tasted…healthy. Blueberry skyr though, was good.

Note to self: follow what a local buys when doing groceries in supermarkets…

Remember how in High School you studied Geography and you thought to yourself- when on earth will I be able to use these tectonic plates and currents theories ever? Well, I had my chances right here at Iceland. It was around 8 degrees considering its geographical location, it is extremely warm. This is because of the gulf stream that brings warm current all the way up from Florida.

Iceland is really the perfect Geo field trip. You get to see Eurasia and North American tectonic plates, waterfalls eroding the cliff and volcanoes etc. Iceland thus have the privilege to utilize geothermal energy and they use a lot of water to cool off those plants and here comes the wonderful by-product- geothermal pools ALL across Iceland.

They were amazing. Because we went in the low season, the pool was so spacious, water a creamy blue, just the right temperature with periods of mist passing by… We saw the sunrise and overlooked the black mountains all over.

This saved my life. I wouldn’t be able to continue the trip if I did not have such a relaxing morning floating, lying down, drinking strawberry smoothie and just let the sun penetrates my skin and hair.

The latter part of the day we roamed around Reykjavik again under the flawless weather. The famous Dreamboat sculpture right by the bay… as if it is ready to sail out anytime.

Watching young adorable children skating under technicolor graffitis with their parents watching over them

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It is that time of the day again, as the sun goes down, it radiates such soothing rays of light all across the sky, through the clouds and all the way into my heart. My whole body warms from inside out. I felt so peaceful in Iceland, it’s like calming music is playing in my mind all the time.

Did that sound like the end of part 2? Well of course not because I still haven’t mentioned much about FOOD. This is Iceland’s best ice cream place according to Trip Advisor. We walked pass it so many times without realizing this is IT.

Such a colorful and bubbly family-owned shop. The owner’s daughter told us that they open and close whenever they FEEL like it. Imagine this business model in Hong Kong? Doomed. But right here, it’s just so lovely. I wish I own a crepe shop that opens and closes whenever I want to.

Hazelnut ice cream with banana icelandic pancakes (= crepes in France)

That’s my snickers ice cream with chocolate fudge sauce on pancakes. The more fattening the food, the better it tastes like – the number 1 tragedy in the world. oh well.

This is frozen pancake with vanilla ice cream wrapped inside dipped in caramel and chocolate sauce on each end with coconut and almond toppings. Or to sum up in one word = heaven.

Apart from the relaxing routine, we understood a little more about the history of the Icelandic people by visiting this sweet little open air museum. It’s basically a real life model of the lives of Icelanders back in the days before modern civilization.

There were a small church that became someone’s house at some point and other civilian cottages.

The tour guide demonstrated how Icelanders eat without a table (I want one of those), how they sit on skulls to milk the cows, how they make wool sweaters, how they cram many people under one roof because they were poor, and smoke ham right over their pot while cooking 🙂 Genius.

In the kitchen, there was already a waffle maker, how cute is that? Icelandic people were even tinier than me and their beds were just like baby cribs.

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Who says Iceland isn’t cool? 😉 practically the only nice car I saw in 4 days though, Icelanders are rather modest. All the more reasons to like them 🙂

People in Iceland are funny, nice, and they don’t do things just to rip off tourists’ money. They genuinely want visitors to appreciate the country that they so very much loved. We had to beg the guys to open the souvenir shop for us.

End of Part 2

The coolest (not literally) country – Iceland Part 1

3 weeks after the trip to Iceland and I am still so excited about this country. I mean come on, it’s ICELAND. It is not an obvious country to visit in Europe but then again, I don’t always do the obvious 🙂

Starting with the airline, WOW. yes WOW, it is a funny budget airline, their flight attendants looked like they were made from barbie moulds. Blonde, pale, slim and tall. Funny how the tour guide said when the vikings came to Iceland, they took all the beautiful women. If that didn’t happen, perhaps everyone in Iceland would look like barbies.

Currency exchange: it’s such a pain that up North, they rarely use Euros. Kroners is fine but can they NOT be called the same when in one country it’s x1.3, and in another it’s /164? The rate is really good in Iceland though, the bank is also the most modern one I have ever seen.

Of course to me, the most essential part of travelling, is the food. On the first day, we walked for almost 1 hour straight all the way out to the bay for this restaurant that serves lunch buffet for less than 10 euros. It was a very sincere and traditional Icelandic seafood buffet.

For the price we paid, it was extremely worth the walk. (Especially for me, buffet is always a good deal 😉 The owner and staff was so nice too and I started to form a really positive image on Iceland despite the shitty ever-changing weather.

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On the way back, we walked pass the photography exhibition that I read about on the plane. I love reading those inflight magazines; they always tell you interesting things to see in the time that you are visiting. This photographer took photos 25 years ago with the idea of juxtaposing the past and present 25 years later. Isn’t that a really intriguing life-time project? It’s kind of like a time capsule, you see a new Subway here and the old building was restored … I could easily copy him and do the same but will I remember this silly idea after 25 years?

We landed 1 am at night so we had a really chill first day. We explored Reykjavik really thoroughly: the main street was filled with exciting graffiti, interior design and window displays etc.

I think Icelanders (sounds really cool, I’m an ICELANDER) are really amazing people, they value their heritage, they respect their nature, and they embrace arts and literature.

The modernistic Harper Concert hall is nicely designed and it was dazzling to see it at night.

Although the weather was cloudy and occasionally crazily windy and rainy, the city lake with swans and ducks was quite entertaining, especially to the kids. (and me.)

This church is so different, so out of the box. 🙂 I liked it.

The air there was revitalizing. Iceland is simply too remote to have any kind of pollution; their population helps too. If we think in a world with only HongKongers and Icelanders, you can only find 1 Icelander for every 22 HongKongers you meet!

Icelanders claimed they have the best tasting water, and I would attest to that any day. It quenched my thirst with its refreshing and deliciously cold taste. It’s hard to explain how flavorful water can be, you just have to try it for yourself. It just felt like what water should taste like. Funny though, you must remember to turn the tap to the coldest side or else you get the hot spring water that smells like rotten egg. Yes we made that mistake like, twice. However, that water is extremely good to shower in 🙂

At twilight, the ground absorbed the rain from earlier and was reflecting the traffic lights under the glowing lampposts. I felt peaceful and safe.

Back to hostel, we cooked in the cutest kitchen ever with cheese that we thought was butter. And we rested. Realize I never use the word rest in this blog? Because we really never did.

The day before, I dramatically tripped and landed on the floor at the end of a horizontal escalator like in a bad Mr. Bean show…

R: (Traumatized) shoot I feel like grandma

V: No you’re worst than them. At least they know that they’re weak so they don’t turn around talking on an escalator and then trip.

R: …

This is the 5^th day of our trip and the 13^th day of 6-8 hours walking. I really couldn’t stretch myself to the max anymore. I had the best night sleep in a long time snuggled up in my sleeping bag brought to me specially by a dear friend.

End of part 1.

The Unintended Trip Finale (Antwerp, Belgium)

Originally, it was never my plan to rush any country/city. But somehow there really was nothing much to see after spending one full day in Ghent/Brussels, and we thought, why not spend the last 5 hours before our flight in Antwerp, the fashion center of Belgium. With this limited timeframe, however, detailed planning was needed and here I lay out the (much anticipated, I hope 😉 ) grand finale of Belgium.

I loved the trains here, for youth like us, you can travel to any city for 6 euros one way. There were quite a lot of “THE First/Best” claims here and the first we saw was the “Prettiest” train station in Europe.

For that particular day, there was a Rotary event. As we headed for the pedestrian street with most shops, I saw this lovely chalkboard and as I arrived at the Italian Church, I looked down and there was a black, long limo. (Of course it was too rude to take a photo of it.) Someone died. My heart sunk a little.

But these once-off moments are the little bits and pieces that build up to a memorable and unique experience. Indeed, the Schelde River will always be there, and so will the clock tower. But these spontaneous snapshots were not here to stay. At this precise moment, the event must have ended, probably no funeral today and the cafe owner might have drawn up a new smoothie menu. And it’s comforting and special to feel that you were there at that particular moment in the universe. Isn’t it a wonderful thing in life that despite the static castles and clock towers, life is ever-evolving in big and small ways?

Now inside these marvelous architectures, was a huge champagne glass bar. And next to it THE First Skyscraper in Europe (Not exactly scraping the sky at that height though I suppose), the Farmer’s Tower 1932.

Since Antwerp was an important port, we saw a lot of related decorations all over the town.

This was the furthest walk because we were heading to a special floating swimming pool that was frozen into an ice rink in Winter! (On the way we passed by the red light district. OMG. It was just, shocking. I was too timid to take photos, but my friend should have it. The ladies were banging the window as we passed by. I simply cannot imagine how it’d be like at night, a small, curious part of me wanted to stare longer, but the startled part of me pulled us away from that street.)

That day was somehow the coldest ever, the wind was blowing from all directions pushing me forward and dragging me back at times. We decided to take a break, and walked in to the MAS. They have a wonderful view on the top (Also where I realized I lost my left glove 😦 sorry grandma) but the point was, the intriguing and slightly dark exhibition on Life and Death. (I don’t know why this motif kept appearing in Belgium)

In the introduction it asked the questions

“Where do we come from? Where will we go to?” As the first one addresses what was already happened, my curiosity for that is not as strong as for the second one. What happens after this wonderful, vibrant life? What would be left of me? Interesting questions to ponder upon in my free time.

It reminded me of one of my favorite poem by Robert Frost,

“Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice”

Perhaps the only convincing and utterly calming answer to this is to make an impact that will last even years after I vanish. There would be a tiny part of me staying and watching as the world progress.

Finally we arrived! It was my first time skating in the outdoor and you could not imagine how freezing cold it was. Also, I am a bad skater for all sorts of reasons: poor balancing and coordinating skills, inability to lose control, pathetically thin blade on the shoes and the slippery ice…

I would rather be dragged around like this.

Afterwards we rushed through the plaza and heard the clock town ring and saw the fairy-like fountain. Honestly, these are really the same after seeing the 3rd one. Suddenly though, a carriage just passed by us out of nowhere. Wow, I think I really haven’t seen one ever in my life.

For lunch, I had the best ham and cheese sandwich I have ever had and this was my camera working the natural blurry filter upon entering the store.

Finally it’s 3 pm and we were back to where we started, the beautiful Antwerp Centraaaaaal Station. (They like to spell it with many As 🙂

The Unintended Trip Part 2 (Ghent, Belgium)

Quote of the day: Life is too short to NOT LOOK BEAUTIFUL EVERYDAY! 🙂

After a nice warm sleep, we took the early train and headed for Ghent. We didn’t really have anything in mind particularly, and perhaps that’s what made the trip so fun. Learning from our mistake, we made it to their big Friday Flea Market and bought some really cheap but cute stuff. Yep, those are buttons. We’ll figure out what to do with them somehow…

The weather was a bit gloomy because it was still winter, but the river view mirroring the fluffy clouds above still tried its best for us to take nice photos 🙂

Now we arrived the “Graffiti Factory”. It really wasn’t much, just “Graffiti” on an abandoned “Factory.” It was cute though, midway, a dog started barking at us and I thought of running, but then I realized I was way too tired. That was when I dropped my map 😀 and picked it back up where I dropped it. Typical me, careless mistakes + fortunate outcome.

And then another antique shop. There were creepy baby cribs for sale… I did not quite like it there. The aura was somehow frightening to say the least.

Afterwards we went into a museum that displayed the lives of Ghent people back in the days. But the MAIN point: the door knobs were HEART SHAPED. awwww, first time I saw something that cute. Now I want one on my front door when I have a house.

Now, time for some food! We went to a bakery where they were supposed to have cookies that they use a real iron to flatten, but turned out they only sell those for breakfast 😦 so we had something else instead, the Creme Brulee is obviously delicious as I forgot to take photos 😛

These strollers we saw everywhere, sold Ghent specialty, purple nose or whatever it was called I forgot. They weren’t exported because they expire very soon. It was with some strawberries and rum inside I think. Worth trying, but were too sweet.

Now to the main part of our GHENT day trip. GRAFFITI. DIY. We walked into this spiraling alley FULL of paints in all colors you can name. I did not see a single empty space. Somehow I have always associated graffiti with bad guys and the thought of actually doing it myself is thrilling.

We bought a bottle of white paint spray and my heart was just jumping up and down insanely inside me.

There was me looking retarded and amazed by the bottle of white paint spray 😛

So there, I know it kind of spoiled others’ great art work, but that’s the whole point of Graffiti, right? To find beauty in ruins. That’s the cost of having a free canvas, and constant public audience. It is refreshing to think that every now and then, the walls would be renewed, Rebirth.

Well, it probably is gone now and is replaced by some beautiful graphics(or perhaps ugly, signatures by tourists like us) but at least we established our presence there vividly. 🙂

Before the sun went down, we found a cute and ancient looking cafe and had what they said might be best coffee in Ghent, and waffles. aaah Isn’t it just wonderful, the combination of cream, milk, butter, egg and flour. Almost like a miracle.

Notice that the blurry effect, was natural! Since it was only 0 degrees outdoor, once we entered the warmly heated cafe, my camera just automatically created these wonderful effects. (I know it is simple physics, but just let me put it this way so my photos feel more special)

The view when the sun was going down was intoxicating. The dimly lit lights within the buildings, the floating boats and metal bikes was just so… “Europe”. (Sorry for the lack of a more intelligent word)