The end is here

Tell me how should I feel during the last night here... the last 24 hours... I can't seem to feel it, even though the night before I could feel the wetness trickling down the side of my face... I am scared... But it is not showing. I am going to be excited but it is not coming. Today it snows and I know it is probably my last time watching it fall in Germany till... forever... The music I listen... are reflecting a lot of how I feel. The time spent on packing is coming to an end... and soon I will be in London. Not along after, I will be home... I am confused how I should even feel. Hour by hour... minute by minute... second by second, I try not to think about it. But I know it is coming. It is... sooner than I thought, faster than I expected, quicker than I could even dream. I wonder how I will feel... I wonder if I will cry... I wonder if I know what loneliness is... I wonder if the heart is still calling.

A 'Movie''' X-m-a-s

When it's cold, freezing and too slippery to walk outside... It also means it is a perfect time for inhouse movies!! Germany broadcaster is definitely overly generous with good films on such an occasion. Imagine with cable, you could have more than 2 or 3 good movies going on at the same time at various different channels. And well all in GERMAN...

I caught an incomplete version of Aschenputtel (Cinderella, heard it's more the original version compared to the Hollywood kinda), also incomplete version of Vanilla Sky (starring Tom Cruise. Well it is a bit complicated to understand the story, even more in German:S), incomplete version of Sleepy Hollow (I really like this movie, I don't understand why people do not appreciate such "horror" films;))... The Whole Ten Yards (starring Bruce Willis, an OK killer-plot-comedy), Nightmare before Christmas (by Tim Burton, lovely songs but why in german:(((() and Wasabi (French-Japanese-Combi can be quite an eye-opener and a good laugh). Ooo, if you wonder why it's incomplete, it was because I didn't watch it from the beginning... only caught it half-way or something. :))

Oh I did caught bits and pieces of an OLD (really old) film starring Bruce Lee. It was quite funny to watch a "Chinese" film in German, but I fell asleep... it was already 2am so...

Nürnberg, my 2nd Luv

The best in Bavaria!!!!

I am not kidding, people whom like to see Germany should make a "must go" destination to the Bavaria part of Germany. Nürnberg is the only city down there that I've been to, I really like to see München too but didn't have the money and time permitting. However, thanks to Nürnberg, Bavaria has since left a deep impression and I definitely like to see more again. Then thinking of it again, it could be the Christmas festive that does so much for the city too - it certainly has the atmosphere.

My favourity city still remains Edinburgh (in the UK & Ireland) and now I've to categorize another of my favourties... My favourite city in Germany is Nürnberg. I'll do a brief summary of what we did there;)

On the first night, Angela and her brother whom flew from London met us up, so did one of Flo's buddy. It was a good crowd, we done the Christkindlesmarkt and showed off our big appetite!! Kartoffelpuffer, Fleischkäse, Lebkuchen, Nürnberger Würstchen, Kirsch Gluhwein, Heidelbeere Gluhwein... It was really fun going around eating and eating... no wonder I have a tummy now:( Then we proceeded to 2 pubs later on to have a little drink.

The second day was mainly sightseeing: Kaiserburg and its museum, which is already fascinating without entering. The guided tour in the castle was in German, even though I have since learned a bit, it didn't help me enough to understand:( Next, Lochgefängnisse is where they used to held prisoners. This one is more visually entertaining and you can imagine how they were locked up, tortured and had to live and shit in a confined space. On the last day, we visited Dokumentation Zentrum where they showcase the history about Hilter, the Nazis, the poor Jews... It was a tedious audio guided tour, it took us a couple of hours but not much went into my head. It shows that I'm not so much of a HISTORY person;)

We also had a traditional pub lunch, Eisbein mit Sauerkraut. OH MY GOD, yummy but fatty!!! This is the occasion you should give up all the sausages for such a delicacy!! The second night was followed by endless eating at the Christkindlesmarkt again.

On the last day right after the "historic sightseeing", his friend brought us to Adidas warehouse. As he is an intern with Adidas Germany, we get 30% off the usual price in the warehouse, got priority to enter the employee's shopping arena where the latest Adidas fashion is. What an opportunity eh!!! Don't be too envious because Adidas stuffs afterall aren't cheap (in Euros somemore!). I did bought myself a "cool" bermudas, cool in the sense that it's thin and good for hot weather! Not for this winter. And... a top as well, which looks more fashionable than practical - this is the problem with girls. They always prefer pretty things to practical ones;)

Just an hour before we left Nürnberg, his friend had a surprise for us (such a darling). He got us both a free pair of shoes each - from Adidas, of course. Now you've the rights to be jealous. But for your consolation, the size of the shoes are not the right fitting as they are sample pairs and come in only fixed sizes for men and women. Mine is only half a UK size bigger so I figure I can manage with thick socks, hehe... Afterall it is better to be bigger than smaller!!

My little story of Nürnberg has come to an end, hope you've enjoyed ;)

Have a smoke~

I tried this the other night at an Arabian couple's place - our neighbor. We had the strawberry flavor. It feels like cigarette smoking, but much more fun and I hope less harmful to the lungs - not too sure about this! I found a very nice article describing how it works, so enjoy :) (BTW you should be able to try this too in Singapore's Arab street!!)

"Famous Middle Eastern long, brass water pipes with glass base are one of the most popular spare-time pleasures for many Arabs. Almost everyone has a nargillah at home to smoke with family or friends. Nice, better quality argille are also used as a decoration, proudly displayed by owner. In street cafeterias one can order a coffee or tea and a shisha. Usual choice for a pipe (nargilla) order would be a very light tobacco mixed with aromatic fruits - apple, cherry, etc. You can see people spending hours over nargillah and a drink of tea or coffee. Very pleasant, relaxing experience helps socializing and making new contacts. If someone offers a nargillah to you, you can be sure of his friendly intentions towards you. The smoke itself is very light and pleasant, even for those who don't normally smoke! Specially constructed water pipe additionally filters the smoke through water, and cools it down in long brass tubes, offering rather a tasty "dessert" than a smoking experience."
QUOTED FROM HERE

Scottish travels IV

My favourite city award goes to...... EDINBURGH!!!! *loud applause*

Chapter 8 It is not finished yet!

End of the tour doesn't mean end of my travel blog, just hang on for a few more Chapters okay?? I'm not going into Cologne, because the only thing I saw was the Dom and the river Rhine. It is just another shopping city!! So let me speak about Edinburgh and you're free to go thereafter ;)

Chapter 9 St Christopher in Edinburgh

Just in case you're wondering, that's the name of the hostel I was in. It wasn't the best but satisfactory. A number of us from the tour were staying 3 more nights in Edinburgh, all of us have got different hostels booked. I was the only staying at St Christopher since I've pre-booked. Budget backpackers would be a better choice, I was told to believe! We met up for a "post-tour-dinner" at Castle Arms which offered really cheap food and beer for the travellers :D

The guys decided to make a day trip to Glasgow the following day to catch up with the 2 aussies whom have gotten there the night before. I made up my mind to stay rooted to Edinburgh because 2 days is not enough lah. I am so glad I did, Edinburgh is the best city I ever saw, and it has now become my favourite city!

It has so much to offer. A visit to Edinburgh castle will be worthy for every single cent you paid; a climb up Calton Hill or Arthur's Seat (Holyrood Park) will give u a stunning view of the city; the old town with its narrow or long alleyways called closes or wynds (can't miss this, they're all over -- as seen on picture above), good choices of pubs and small shops with their own distinctive character; the Georgian new town with fantastic shopping, the fine Scott Monument, galleries and much more. Overall, Edinburgh is just so.... perrrrrrrrrrrrrfect for me!!! Even though it has a lot of steps and steep slopes everywhere, I don't mind as it keeps me fit.

My favourite street is the HIGH Street, there's a rounded about corner where they have very individualistic shops ;) I heard Grassmarket is good too, but I only saw the area at night when all is closed. So check it out when you're there!

Chapter 10 'Open Mic' Night

The good thing about travelling alone is meeting new people, and I realised I can open up more to Americans. I fit in better than with the typical beer drinking aussies or kiwis (no offence at all).

At my hostel, I met my bunk-mates Kelly and Shane (a canadian). Shane's the backpacker with a guitar, someone suggested him doing a song or two at the Open Mic which happened every Monday at this pub. So a couple of us from the hostel went to support him, even we knew each other for barely an hour! But it was totally cool, there were really some good ones out there ;) So were the Scottish pair we met.

It was really a shame when I had to leave Edinburgh... The sky was pouring, I know they wanted me to stay! Edinburgh, I love you :))))))))))

----- The very End -----

Did I forgot about Cologne... I think I just did. I was by the famous river Rhine, and the dom. In fact I think I have seen too many churches along the way but they do not appeal much to me anymore. The hostel stay was so-so, could be better and cleaner... but oh well, I still very much miss the cosy one up in Scotland. Sometimes in Germany, I'd prefer the much smaller places than the cities... I love the peacefulness.

Little trip to Marburg

It wasn't anything fascinating about the trip, but it was really nice to meet a friend again. The first and the last time I met him is 2 years ago in Singapore, he has since returned back to Germany to continue his studies in Marburg.

Travelling alone in a country where I can hardly speak their language is an exciting one... not speaking about places like thailand. But Germany can be quite a task, had a couple of people talking to me in German, but I didn't get a single word. The thing is they don't speak English - so tough luck. Just keep the mouth shut lor! I did try to reply in English leh, not that I didn't even try. :S

I took 2 trains to get to Marburg, which is 2.5 hours away from where I am. Marburg doesn't seem as interesting as Braunschweig; imagine I said Braunschweig was boring, can't think of what else you can do in Marburg. It's a really old town, though there's a magnificient view looking up at the castle from the lower city ground. The castle looked new to me, unlike the old ones made of grey rocks like what I saw in Ireland.

Oh Marcus, thank you for showing me around... Marburg is not so boring with your company.

**************************************************************************************
I wanted to share this particular incident on the train journey there... I sat besides a woman who later spoke to me. She is thai and married to a german since she was 19, living in Berlin for 5 years since - sounds like she's my age. After speaking to her for some time, I began to become suspicious with her gender. Was she a man???!! I couldn't help noticing how big her fingers with the almost perfect french manicure and how thick her wrist was... and the hoarse voice. I witnessed her digging her nose, not that we girls don't do that... but it disgustingly reminded me that she might be a transexual... eeeeekk

Signs to look out for that "SHE" might be a "HE"... so I tried to spot if "she" has an 'apple', but "she" had this scarf wrapped round "her" neck, enough to hide any evidence. She was carrying a branded handbag (I remember seeing it somewhere because I liked it as well!!) and very well groomed, accompanied by a CELINE (some upper-class FRENCH brand) shopping bag. She is unbelievably busty for a thai woman! (Someone please tell me its the sex change operation!!!)

If you're curious of our conversation, she was encouraging me to get married here on hearing I've a german partner. I couldn't believe my ears and her reason for her marriage was to get her citizenship here; her ridiculous way of telling me how much having an european citzenship can make your life so much better and easier! I don't seem to agree to that %&!#*$&

Note: Singlish added in red.

Hamburg... hamburger... hamburg

Yeaa...

After what seemed like a day long of traveling, the plane finally landed its 'ass' on the runway. I'm in Germany, a new place I have never been to, Hamburg. The plane from Heathrow departed really late and it was really bad. How can so many planes be delayed?? How can they just take off from one runaway!! They must be making lot of money from a single runway (at one termainal) packed with countless number of flights.

Hamburg airport was at least more impressive!

Flo and I had a small tour of Hamburg city, to me, it is less exciting than Berlin and almost like Frankfurt. At the same time, it reminds me of Amsterdam somehow - the river cruise and buildings. Oh but we must have missed a lot, because it's not a weekend. No extra busy night-life, no morning wet market, and of course there should be a nice harbour view from this city which resides by the sea. However... however, I'm too exhausted to enjoy, oh well, we did have an ice-cream - nice in warm spring! We went to the famous red-lights district (Reeperbahn), Amsterdam is still more advanced ;)

Okay, another 3 hours drive back home... arghhh.

Oh boring oh...

What can I say about Frankfurt, just a financial city... To be frank, I didn't see much in an evening, looks boring, feels boring... Just nice cosy places to eat/drink maybe - at least the ones we been to.

Pre-flight IV

Oh my god!! I don't want to go...

It's starting to snow and now I have to leave, how unfair! ... No more broadband, no more fat cheese, no more nice chocolate, no more cold, no more traveling, no more german sausage, no more cheap beer, no more romantic candlelight, no more lovely Flo right besides me :(((

Can someone tell me Chinese New Year is much better than this?? Convince me. I'm not at all excited about home, about Singapore. But I guess I will start to like it when the flight is about to land in Singapore.

I hope so...

De.Christmas

For my curious blog-followers with an itching head... want a brief storyline of my very first christmas out of Singapore?

No white christmas, no snow... no snowman. Oh well, at least they say it might be snowing on Tuesday! We spent a week in two places - Erfurt and Magdeburg, both of his parents' places. The first day began quite badly, everything went wrong and we arrived late due to the first train being delayed. Fortunately, it became a lot better and the week could be said to be ending quite smoothly with tonight being the last at his mum's house. His dad has a big house and the family was certainly very easy-going. His step-sister spoke english, so there was something we could laugh about. His mum's side was equally fun, his sister is a pretty doll, his step-dad is always nice; I enjoy their company even though they hardly speak english. And oh... I still can't understand much german! Arghh...

Surprise Surprise! I have a new hair-cut enhanced with some highlighting. How cool... please don't envy. He he he. Flo's sister, Juliane, was a hair-dresser, so she did our hair. Actually she could do anything with my head, since I was so sick of the usual hairstyle already! I'm a satisfied customer now.

I bought some chocolate for visiting, and also a present for him. I received one from Flo, one from his dad, one from his mum and one from his maternal grandparents. They are all nice to me... I love the one from Flo best because he knows what I want, ever since I've been wearing it for a week now - ah stinky me! The rest are bundled with kind thoughts and I like them too.

Christmas at Flo's dad was accompanied with champagne, red cabbage, olives, salad, fish, etc. Christmas dinner at his mum's was ducks, green cabbage with sausage, red cabbage, potatoes, fruit salad, cheese cake, choco-whipped-cream-banana cake (which me and Flo were making)... Now I feel 2kg heavier :(

Christmas for them is like our Chinese's Chinese New Year; but I don't think I get as much money and the joy of surprises like them. I'm lovin' it!

p.s: Girls, get ready for the postponed christmas gift-xchange, I'm almost ready ;)

Berlin, just germany

I was in Berlin for the weekend with Flo and his friends (a couple), we stayed with his friend's uncle/aunt. It all seemed exciting to be in another new city, a bigger city! As usual I dozed off during the 3 hours drive (lucky I'm not driving or lucky I can't drive), we sat at the back and Louis (their dog) was behind us. The car was Louis's smell, it soon flooded all our other senses. Immune.

Arriving in Berlin is a funny feeling, I'm still in Germany, so it didn't feel like a new place. To me, Braunschweig (where I stay now) and Berlin are not of huge differences. It is still not as busy as London - I'm starting to compare everything with London. It's not as cosmopolitan as London, yet Asians are lingering around more than in those little towns. Finally I overheard a guy speaking English in the train, I was thrilled - someone was there with me (native english speaker).

Sunday was non-shopping day, in fact it is never a shopping trip! Shops are closed on Sunday. The first night ended at 4am after an exhausting night-out (clubbing with live band "The Roots") and late night supper/drink. Saturday was dedicated to long hours of sleep, some hours of shopping mostly in second-hand stores & some funky small shops, and roaming around mostly ending up at christmas markets; we never almost visited a shopping mall. Well the germans should know Berlin best, so probably shopping mall is a bad idea to start off in a city with. Anyway, shopping in europe is almost never cheaper than in London - so why waste the time window shopping! Great, so you know next time when you visit Berlin... unless your wallet is fat.

I realized something from the trip - I'm never sick of walking in the christmas markets! Ha ha.

Oh, yes, I did sightsee as well. We missed the opening hours of the Parliament, at least I was at the door. I was at Brandenburger Tor though... I didn't think much of it, because I seen so much statues in London. But then again, Germany has a very rich history about how it came about as it is today. And I'm surprised I never learnt them in school... or well, maybe it is after I had my history classes! How Germany came together as one from the former EAST Germany and WEST Germany. Goodbye Lenin is a good film to illustrate this!

More to explore...

p/s: Berlin still didn't appeal to me as much.

wein wein wein

I got drunk with hot wine at the christmas market. Oh, christmas I love it!
Carry me home, please...

Opa und Oma

= grandpa and grandma

It was Flo's grandma's birthday - she's only 75. We went for a little family celebration at the house, an hour away by train. I was nervous about speaking German with them, supposing they wouldn't speak English. Guten Tag! Ahh... the easiest yet most useful one comes in handy. His mum was there, his step-dad, his uncle and the family, not that big but enough to crowd around the table for tea and lecker (yummy) cakes and later on a traditional German dinner. Deer meat and gravy. Pear in cabbage. Red cabbage. Potato (I call it potato rice). Cheese cake. Fruit pie. Almonds icing cake. Cream cake.

Mmmmm... it is difficult to be not speaking the same language because I couldn't understand:( They did try some english though, and I'm glad it was still a good weekend.

Germany - tanzen in dem Schnee!!!

I get drunk with rum balls!

Stone like a frozen chicken out in the chilly weather; cold enough to make snow falls... can I say I love this weather? I don't know. The first sight of white amazed me, waking up one morning, peering out of the window, there they were - all covered in white. It wasn't snowing, it did and I didn't get to see them :( (in the middle of the night)...

It was raining, wind blowing into your face - piercing cold. I was struggling to keep my head in the hood, fighting the way into the shelter when the rain didn't seem like pouring anymore. Floating. Drifting. Oh, its snowing!! I was thrilled, jumping like a little kid, twirling under the snow. It lasted for a minute and it turned water again...

Stupid things

A random ICQ user was asking for my authorization, 'she' said she's Santa Clause and posted me a link! Hoax, must be some porn or spam or virus... I told her I'm Santa's mum!

Leaving London was as easy as I expected, maybe it is the fact that I knew something over the other side is awaiting me! The only trouble about leaving London is the unpredictable future if I'll be back (in London), I'm sure I want to come back to UK to sightsee. So there, I had to settle everything from moving out of my room, ending of my job to bank account and tax refund. I was stressed out for the last week. But it all soon disappeared the time I arrived in Heathrow...

To be frank, I haven't had time to get upset about leaving London. Probably only the hour I was preparing to leave the house, I missed living alone, missed sightseeing in London, missed the friends there... and my housemates. Once I was out of the door, it was all about how I was going to DRAG 2 backpacks and 1 luggage to the tube station. One bus, one tube... there I was in terminal 1. Believe me, its damned heavy!!!

I got a newspaper at the airport and was reading till the gate is closing... I always ended up so late for boarding! And then I was counting the good things in London - getting free CDs with newspaper. Can they do this in Singapore, please.. ;)

In the small BMI plane (no, its not budget, but its one of the cheaper ones), everyone flying to Hannover seem to be German. I heard them speaking but I couldn't understand except for a word "Lecker" which rabbit has always been using. I was getting giggly again. I was like an alien (newly arrived into this world), even the custom officer was new to my Singapore passport!

Hannover airport was really small, just one arrival hall, barely 5metres wide... so I saw him there. It felt like heaven, I AM HERE!! I thought he shrank, or maybe too many stocky men I encountered in London. I had a new rabbit (called Felix), a rose and best of all someone to fetch me :) Aaaaaa...