PARIS, BARCELONA and COTE D'AZUR with my family

Dear all

This will be mostly pictures because i am rushing to Germany for 2 weeks and I know my sisters will kill me if i make them wait so long to see their pictures. :D I miss them already...

BARCELONA ( part of it... the other pics are with them)
Sagrada Familia - Gaudi spent 40 years on that piece of art before he was killed by a tram car. Very sad...



Another Gaudi's work, Park Guell.
The lizard, by the way, is damn small. And the houses, according to my da-jie-fu, look like Hansel and Gretel's house. With my da-jie as company (she majored in Arts), Barcelona turned out to be less of a shopping trip and more like the chase after Gaudi's works. Fine by me, but my er-jie nearly had to have her stomach washed. Or so she says.

All in all, they really enjoyed Barcelona and I'm so glad we had such a good view of Barce from Park Guell. Lesson learnt: Do not go to the Olympics Village and stay faithful to the Gaudi trail... :D

PS: Outside the restaurant La Quinze Nity (damn good Spanish restaurant) at Place Reial, is Calvin Clown. Who entertained me and my er-jie throughout the half hour queue. He is SO FUNNY. "na ne ne ne ne phey phey" he whistles, each time he makes a stunt. :D


PARIS
This is Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, La Defense and us on board the BATOBUS, which brings us throughout Paris' most famous sights for a very cheap price. Esp good when the French think all asians look alike and my sister could get in with student's price as well. EVEN THOUGH they prob graduated 10 years ago... HAHA...



NICE

Beautiful coast line, pebble beaches, top naked women sun worshipping, paranomic view at the Chateau, Cours Seleya for fresh flowers and produce, Promenade Anglais and the very very yummy Pasta Bastas along Rue de la Prefecture.


I think that Nice was the nicest among the few towns i visited along the Cote D'azur... And of all, it was the most organised and I had the most relaxing feeling there when I sun bathed by the beach... Thanks to my family who had to endure the sun (when women get older, they absolutely refuse to suntan.. freckles fear etc...only applies to singaporeans, cos the old ladies there were naked):P

On to MONACO...
The Land of the SUPER Rich. Quotes a sentence from a friend's friend's blog that i just read. Even the Singaporean's Richest may qualify for their welfare system. Known for Princess Grace (Actress Grace Kelly) and if you read the tabloids, her scandalous daughter Princess Carolina, F1 races, yachts, Casino Monte Carlo. We basically just stationed ourselves outside the casino and people watched. Beautiful young women and old men in antique cars, and lots of other damn chio cars which sadly, i dont have the names for. Luckily, my sisters redeemed our poor sad sorry looks by buying alot of stuff from Gucci. 3 cheers to working women and their husbands' credit cards!


CANNES
Was it glitzy? Nope. Worth going? Nope. Saw any celebrities? Nope.
Although i can proudly say i saw the Cannes fest's CHAIRS. Yep, they were preparing for the big show in 2 weeks time. Rosh, are you sure u wanna go?
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GRASSE - the land of perfumes and flowers
Went to Grasse for their perfume tour and I love it! The sales lady was really nice and we had a free guided tour, after which we strained our noses for 1 whole hour looking for nice fragrances. Finally i can start to smell nice after my perfume spilled on my flight to France... :P


Ok, this is the end of our 2 week family trip. -pats on my own head- for a job well done in organising this trip for my family. And many thanks to my sisters who paid for my expenses, even though it meant that they had to go on budget and burst their spending limits. i love you!

Next stop: Berlin, Munich, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg. -yawnnnnn-

Clubbing at La Hacienda

This was when Ade was still with us at Rouen... We decided to go, even though the entrance was as usual a bomb = 15 euros, because it was an open secret that it was OPEN BAR. Shhhhhh. So we went! After a loooong bus journey (outskirts of Rouen), where we witnessed the embarassing scene of a French boy puking all over the bus and himself (they drank before the clubbing, it's called pre-party. We think its quite dumb, since it was open bar anyway, but most of the people on the bus were drunk already, so no one cared. Not even the guy beside that poor fella who was drunk also, and making ALOT OF NOISE cheering and singing at the top of his voice)

The vodka orange was quite mild, but ohhhhh the whiskey coke was DAMN STRONG. After 4 glasses, i was quickly and decidedly happy high and danced. DAMN FUN! It was even comparable to the experience in Argentina (ohhhh those days were soooo fun!), and there are not many clubbing experiences i have that can even remotely be compared to my South Am trip. (Gerald, JR, Sam, when are we going again?) All in all, it was great fun! Even though there were hiccups at the end, but still, I declare my last clubbing in France a very very very good one. :D

Spring

It's always very strange to come back to Ango (my hostel) after every 2 weeks. The season changes never fail to amaze me. i remember when i first came back from a very long trip, the barren trees were starting to bud and as if to welcome spring, spring blossoms bloomed. Then later i left again and when i came back, the other spring flowers have woken up, filling the green areas around Ango with pretty, wild dandelions and some other purple and white flowers that I do not have the name for. My family was very happy to see these flowers, of course, that is to be expected. And they even had a long discussion on whether the flowers at my car park were peonies, etc... The giverny experience at the Monet's garden added to that excitement of the coming of spring. Now that I'm back once again, the flowers have dropped and instead, green leaves are growing on the trees. Not so much green as in the trees in Singapore, but light green ones that according to my sister, only happens to trees in countries with 4 seasons. The dandelions have shed their pretty yellow petals and are now balls of fluff seeds waiting to be blown away by the wind. So pretty. :D I love spring.

What donut am I?

You Are a Caramel Crunch Donut

You're a complex creature, and you're guilty of complicating things for fun. You've been known to sit around pondering the meaning of life... Or at times, pondering the meaning of your doughnut. To frost or not to frost? To fill or not to fill? These are your eternal questions.

What Donut Are You?

In the first place, i digress, this is not supposed to be about ME, but my travelling. But I was toooo curious to find out what donut i am, since i dont even go GAGA over them in the first place. not like Zee and Doy in Bangkok or Fang and Rosh in the Barca Dunkin Donut place... 12 donuts at one go... we were damn crazy laaaa :P

Thanks to Lipen for the link! :D Who happens to be a Sprinkled Donut.. The sinful kind with alot of colourful sugary stuff on top... What does that mean then? :D

GIVERNY

Paris with my family... They were jet-lagged, so we didnt visit many places...
But we still went to Sacre Coeur (5th time for me) and Hotel des Invalides AND to the Artists gallery at the foot of Sacre Coeur (my mum and da-jie went crazy there. Er-jie got dammmmmn bored and I just ... walked. )

PS: Never travel with jet-lagged mums. They get really cranky. Seriously.



On to Giverny, where Claude Monet's garden is... my mum's dream came true... The flowers are soooo pretty! :D Thankfully they bloomed in time for Her Majesty, otherwise my head would have been chopped off... :S

For the benefits of various individuals: Namely my brother-in-laws, the next few pictures will be portfolios of their respective loved ones

1) For Da-jie fu


2) For Er-jie fu

Congrats! Aiyah, one more ang pao to prepare already, siiiiiiiiiiiiian. :P

3) For MaMa


4) For Isaac


To illustrate my point on how different my mum, da jie and er jie are

1) Da jie is mulling over art books
2) Mum is sourcing for postcards to draw for her new painting
3) Er jie is bored and fell asleep
4) I'm bored and decided to whip out my cam
They were in the Art shop for 1 whole hour!!!! #(*%@)(^)%(


US!

POLAND

Poland was one loooooooooooooooooooooooong trip.

Mission 1: Find Jan a girlfriend
Conclusion: FAIL > Polish girls are NOT pretty. seriously, found only 4 in 7 days.
Mission 2: Eat super good and cheap food
Conclusion: PASS > with too colourful flying colours. Totally stuffed myself to death, eating with a Foodie (Ade) and a man (Jan, self explanatory)
Mission 3: Take it easy
Conclusion: Pass > Sit in the park. Sit in the church. Sit in the cafe. Sit in the museum. Sit outside the castle. Sleep on the car. Sleep on the train. Damn slack. :D
Mission 4: Visit churches
Conclusion: Pass with super distinction > Visited so many churches that I think we did AT LEAST 40 churches. In 7 days, that's dammmmmmmn impressive.
Mission 5: Sleep in peace
Conclusion: FAIL > Shit loads of bed bugs. Argh. I need disinfectant please... :S
Mission 6: Get to know a cute Polish boy
Conclusion: Pass la. I think Jan's brother is cute... HAHA... ok Jan cuter... but of course, Isaac's cutest. :D Still, Jan, without you, and with Ade and my non-existent Polish, we will never have made it so far. YOU ARE THE BEST!


Warsaw attractions


Krakow attractions


Kazimiere Dolny: A town in between Warsaw and Krakow


Cafe Camelot. Doodled, drink vodka shots and hot chocolate, chit chatted, played hang man to find out Jan's prediction of our goal in life. Jan says I'll peddle drugs. HAHA. Totally... :D


The highlight of my trip: meeting Jan's family. I LOVE THEM. seriously. best hosts in the world and i had such a great connection with Aunt Helena. Even though she cant speak English. She's so nice!!! Taught Ade and I how to make great Polish food and made my favorite Golabki. And they even gave Ade and I a Polish picture book each! Can I be their God-daughter please?


Pope John Paul II's death Anniversary. He was Polish, and sort of a national leader to the Polish people at a time when they were suppressed by the Communist government. People brought candles to the street named after him. Rows and rows of candles, it was beautiful...


Of course there were sad things as well. Auswichtz - the Nazi's largest concentration camp where out of 3.3 million Jews, 3 million died, where other POWs from other parts of Europe were sent to, and where many died of human experiments, torture, starvation and cruelty. Didnt take photos because we felt it wasnt right to act touristy in such a place of terror. And we also visited the Warsaw Uprising Museum where we had a very interactive tour on how events of rebelling against the Nazis led to the destruction of 80% of Warsaw's architecture, street by street, meticulously bombed. Thankfully they reconstructed most of the important architecture.


nonetheless we still enjoyed ourselves in Poland, stuffing ourselves silly with loads of super-yummy-and-cheap food...


My travel buddies... :D
I'm going to come to Coventry! FB me to discuss about the 1 pound ticket please! :P

AMSTERDAM

Once again, this has taken yet a long time to update... with me being in Rouen for only 1 or 2 days fortnightly, i havent had much time to upload pictures or comment on them, or even just to rotate them to the right side.

Anyway, on to Amsterdam. I have Poland and Giverny to update too, so it'll mostly be pictures... Which, Chris Zhuo likes. HAHA.

Amsterdam was with 5 other girls... So after having cheated and smuggled one more person into the 5 bed room and having a nice cosy threesome with rosh and fang, i conclude that the trip was REAL GOOD. :D lots of laughter, anticipation over space cake and purchasing cheap 2 euro books.


First stop: SEX MUSEUM.
No la, not because we're sickos but because since we decided to go to the land of the free, WHY NOT? Lots of vintage porn, fetishes (think pig sex, horse sex, urinating AND drinking it, SM of course, and fat mama),huge penises on display, and the gross chastity belt that many women have died from: too much rust > infection > STUPID MEN)Anyway, vintage porn is damn funny la... and yes very explicit too...


How can we miss out THE sex symbol Marilyn Monroe? She looks damn pretty here.

Took a day trip out to Zaanse Schans... Gorgeous. Great weather too! Other than the fact that it was SOOOO windy we had to hide in the shops and museum cafe. fang actually said something damn intelligent "That's why there are so many windmills in Holland what!" ohhhhhhhhhh. :P
The Zaanse Schans is a delightful old hamlet on the banks of the river Zaan with characteristic green wooden houses, charming styalised gardens, small hump-backed bridges, tradesmen's workshops, historic windmills and engaging little shops. This enchanting hamlet gives an excellent impression of how a typical Zaanse village must have looked like in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.


Drugs, booze, sex. Need I say more?


Bicycle trip! 6 girls + 1 guy cycling = single file. mess. traffic hazard. thankfully we made it back safe and sound. though i went over 2 humps without falling, dropped my headlights 3 times and nearly died from a traffic accident at least 1000 times. NEVER let Ivy cycle. Lipen where are youuuuuuuuu?
Disclaimer: I still DONT KNOW how to cycle. hehehe. You know who you are that i am passing this message to. :D


Beautiful Amsterdam.