day 17: stowaway to krakow

The train conductor came by. He motioned to us to draw the cabin door and window curtains which we had earlier drawn so we could watch the shadows of the passing trees.

He reminded us to keep quiet before handing me a thick chain and lock. We had to chain our cabin door in addition to the two locks already latched.

This was my first night train in Europe. I felt like a stowaway. But stuffed in my right jeans pocket is the €27 train ticket, so I am legal.

I had a good nine hours of sleep before the loud abrupt knock on our door. I am in Krakow Poland!

• Location: Prague, Czech Republic
• Highlight: Instant noodles with sausages, home-cooked by Jerrain.
• Cost: 55 czk hot chocolate, 62 czk groceries for instant noodles and sausages dinner and snacks for night train, 45 czk ice cream.

day 16: i ate peter rabbit

I could not resist the roasted home-bred rabbit with garlic, cabbage, bacon on the menu. Going at 210 czk (approximately €8.40), this traditional Czech dish can be found in most restaurants beside beef or deer goulash.

After letting Jerrain have a bite to taste, I finished the 300-gram meaty plate which came with sauerkraut on the side. It tasted like chicken breast, while the more tender parts had a duck-like texture. It went perfectly with the sauerkraut, red wine and brown bread.

A hearty dinner at Starmomacek Rearaurant near the Old Town Square was a spledid way to end a full day of sight-seeing. We joined the Sandemans New Prague Free tour. Our guide, Colin who was from Scotland, showed us the Astronomical Clock, Statue of Jan Hus, St Nicholas Church, Old Jewish Quarter, Wenceslas Square, House of the Black Madonna and told us lots of stories!!

Jerrain and I spent the rest of the afternoon getting lost in Prague Castle and taking loads of photos.

• Location: Prague, Czech Republic
• Cost: 45 czk hot chocolate, €5 tip for Colin from the New Europe Prague tour, 90 czk soup and hot chocolate, 270 czk traditional Czech dinner
• Highlight: Roasted rabbit
• Hostel: Prague Square Hostel right around the corner of the Old Town Square - Definitely one of our least favourite hostels on this trip. Bathrooms are not only shared, but gender neutral. The bathing cubicles do not have locks so anyone can open the plastic door or peep over the wall while you bathe. Only saving grace is my bed! A ladder in the room leads to a two-metre wide platform above the door, enough for a mattress and some space for my stuff.
• Health: After a day or two of sore throat, I now have a cough. Hope it will go away soon.

day 15: rail relax

I am starting to really enjoy these long relaxing inter-country rail journeys.

Today, Jerrain and I left Berlin for Prague. Setting off at 10.37am, I had five hours on my hand to spare before our arrival into Prague-Hlavni nadrazi at 3.27pm.

What did I get up to?

• 10.37am: Finished my half-eaten breakfast, ham sandwich from Kamps@
• 11.00am: Read about Sheba leading a rebellion against King David which eventually led to his death, and how Joab killed Amasa, in Chapter 20 of 2 Samuel (the bible)
• 11.30am: Listened to the sermon 'How could God send to hell' by Paul Clarke
• 12.00nn: Fell asleep
• 12.30pm: Still napping, by this time I looked really unglam, mouth opened and drooling
• 1.30pm: Read up on Prague, Krakow, and Vienna and snacked on chocolate waffle, honey cashew nuts, and cheese croissant
• 2.30pm: Gazed out of the window - mountain and river running by on our left, and trees and occasional houses on our right
• 2.40pm: Fiddle around with my stuff, took out my iPhone to blog

Location: Berlin Germany and Prague Czech Republic
Cost: €5.60 sandwich and juice for breakfast, €2.30 bread to go for the ride, €17 five bed mixed dorm
Train: Berlin hbf to Praha 5 hours

day 14: black out!!

We ate in complete darkness. I tried waving my right hand in front of my face and I could see nothing. Not even shadows.

When I was told that we were eating in the dark, I had no idea it was going to be pitch black. In fact, I do not think I have been in such a dark room before.

The restaurant, Unsicht-Bar, had a well-lit lounge where we first chose our drinks and type of meat - fish, beef or poultry - from a set menu. Our waitress then led us in a row, hands on the shoulders of the person in front, into the main dining hall.

Our €43 four course meal was served by a friendly and professional visually impaired waitress. We had:

• Starter: small selection of fish pralines with a sauce of honey and dill and leaf salad
• Entree: fried pike perch under a crust of sauerkraut served with saffron-fennel and risotto out of vegetables, on white wine foam
• Dessert: cream of passionfruit in a mini-preserving jar and fresh couls of raspberries

I always wondered what it was like to be blind. I think I had a 'glimpse' of how it was like this evening.

• Location: Berlin, Germany
• Cost: €1.40 sweet flat doughnut for breakfast, €6.10 day trip train ticket, €43 dinner
• Activities: Topographie des Terrors, East Side Gallery 1.3km of graffiti and art

day 13.5: dance craze in berlin

My trusty Lonely Planet guide describes Berlin as a city with night owl stamina. So we did not need much persuasion before signing up for the €12 Sandemans New Europe Pub Crawl.

The new friends we met from our hostel and the New Berlin tour quickly caught our contagious enthusiasm. And we made even more new friends along the way!!

• Ben from Canada: Taught me how to say 'ey' at the end of every sentence
  
• Tim and Chris Smith and Steve from Texas: Tim and Chris are brothers, Chris hates it that everyone thinks he is the elder brother
  
• Jin Sha from Hunan: Grabbed attention with her alluring eyes once the spectacles came off
• Ariana from Brazil: She had the best party hair that night
• Diana from Columbia: She did not look like a party regular but she danced and drank as hard as me when we got it going!!
• Carlos, our 'Arrmano' or big brother: He made sure the guys we do not want to dance with are behind the wall, there was like a 'death zone' which he was guarding. He is the best!
• Kelly and Sarah from Kansas USA: Hot babes!!

The bars we covered were:

1. Zapata
2. Silberfisch
3. Ruderclub Mitte
4. XO Berlin
5. Matrix Club

day 13: and then there was silence

Jerrain and I did not exchange many words this afternoon. No, we did not fight. We were moved and deep in thought after visiting the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Walking through the memorial was like passing a massive cemetary with oversized tombs. I guess that was the idea. The 2711 tomb-like concrete stelae represented the innocent deaths of more than six million European Jews between 1933 and 1945. Unlike a regular memorial, the 19,073 square metre field of stelae of varying heights must be walked through. Nobody could pass through that memorial without being engaged on a certain level. It does not leave you a choice.

The information centre in the basement put faces and names to the rather impersonal memorial right above. It was sad to hear personal accounts and track the stories of families.

This was not an easy day. But I am sure Auschwitz will be worse.

• Location: Berlin, Germany
• Highlight: The free New Berlin tour is excellent. Finn, our enthusiastic and extremely knowledgeable guide brought us around twenty over key sights in three and a half hours.
• Cost: €5 tip for free Berlin tour, €2.90 muffin and tea for breakfast, €2.80 croissant and coffee for lunch, €2.60 train, €3 computer in the hostel lobby, €3 currywurst
• People: Met many new girl friends - Our roommate Gougou or Madelaine from Nanjing China now studying in France, another roommate Kelly from Kansas USA, Jin Sha from Hunan China, and loads of Singaporeans!! Rachel who is studying in UPenn and her two girl friends, and four more people who are studying in Hamburg.

day 12: journey to berlin

We gave ourselves the much deserved rest after last night's Ultimate Party pub crawl. We woke up just in time to check out of the Heart of Amsterdam, our hostel in the centre of the Red Light district.

The seven-hour train ride to Berlin had two legs. We took the first train for about twenty minutes to Hilversum, before switching to the opposite platform for the train to Berlin.

The seven-hour train ride turned out to be a pleasant and comfortable one. Jerrain and I had a four-seat cabin (almost) to ourselves. A German lady joined us briefly. It was great we had the time to relax, nap, read, listen to our iPod and play games.

The trains are efficient and easy to figure out. For majority of the trains, we did not need to make reservations. Just turn up at the designated time according to the train schedule, fill in the date on our Eurail Global Pass, and just wait for the train conductor to come by and punch a hole in the pass below the date. I am thankful we got the Eurail pass.

• Location: Berlin, Germany
• Cost: €1.50 hot chocolate, €3.80 brownie and orange juice, €3.60 snacks for the seven-hour train ride, €7 dinner at Asian Gourmet
• Train: Amsterdam Centraal to Berlin seven hours

day 11.5: i survived leidseplein

The Leidseplein pub crawl organised by Ultimate Party gets a full 10/10 score from me!

For €20, we got entry to six clubs, your choice of beer, wine or shot at each club, a 'I survived' t-shirt, unlimited mouthfuls of some sweet vodka concoction, and non-stop dancing with 50 to 60 other partyheads!

The pubs we went to are pretty much alike, differing only in the music they play. They were all in the Leidseplein area, which is in the centre of Amsterdam nightlife (besides the Red Light district). The clubs were:

• The News
• Pirates
• Amsterdamned
• The Cooldown Cafe
• Royalty!

The bunch of pub crawlers were amazing. We met three girls from Germany, Gohan from Southern France, Joe from England with an English accent so strong I almost could not understand him, Joel and two friends from Canada who stayed in the same hostel as us, just a floor below. They were obviously high from something, and we lost them in the middle of the crawl. Fortunately when we went back and passed their room, they were already in bed.

Jerrain and I surrendered after the fifth club and headed to Burger King for wings and twister fries.

• Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  
• Cost: €20 pub crawl, €8.50 vodka lemonade, €6.20 Burger King supper wings with twister fries, €8 taxi back to hostel

day 11: the movable bookcase

Jerrain wanted to sleep in so I ventured out on my own at 8 in the morning. The streets were empty, except with the few drunkards who have not found home or the locals cycling to work. It was nice to be out early (ask me again in a few hours after fatigue kicks in, and I might say otherwise).

First - and my priority - stop was Anne Frank Huis. Despite being 15 minutes early (it opens at 9am), there were already three American tourists in the queue.

No photography was allowed. But none was required. I would never be able to capture the Secret Annexe as well as Anne had described in her diary. The unfurnished house demonstrated how moving her words alone are. I cannot imagine how scary it must have been. And I pray that no one would ever have to go through that type of fear again. *world peace \V/*

To lift my spirits, we decided to get some authentic Dutch food. Open since 1945, Van Dobben serves excellent Kippensoep (chicken noodle soup) €6.50, Broodje Croquet €2.50, Broodje Pekelvlees (ham sandwich) €3.25, and others which we had no stomach space for.

I took a quick stroll around the Bloemenmarkt (flower market) and an endless shopping street before heading back to the hostel. It is our last night in Amsterdam and we were determined to check out the clubbing scene.

• Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Cost: €8.50 Anne Frank House, €6 Dutch lunch, €2.50 hot chocolate in a cafe.
• Highlight: Visiting Anne Frank Huis, and relating to a lot of what she wrote in the book

day 10.5: how much is that doggie in the window

Can living in the red light district ever be a good thing? In Amsterdam, we paid premium for that and are enjoying it! Our hostel, Heart of Amsterdam, is right in the centre of the action. A quick walk along the canal just outside and behind the line of windows were near naked prostitutes in neon bikinis. Some sat, some stood, some danced. They would tap the window to attract the attention of men walking by. And those who liked what they saw went closer to negotiate terms.

Every now and then, the pattern broke from these dressed up windows, and what greeted us were colourful sex shops, sex shows, and erotic clubs.

We did not want a part of the action despite several distant invitations, so after a quick drink at Cafe Bar de Stoof, the bar beside our hostel, we headed back to rest.

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Train: Brussels Midi to Amsterdam Centraal 3 hours
Cost: €20 six bed mixed dorm, €5.60 fried chicken and fries for dinner
Highlight: Walking through the most colourful red light district.

PS: I do not mean to offend with the title. Several of them have stopped and now make a living by giving tours of the red light district during the day, giving accounts of what went on behind the scene when they used to work as prostitutes.

day 10: hunt for the moules

A hot bowl of mussels with fries sealed the deal this afternoon. It was easy deciding what to eat, but it was another matter when it comes to choosing where. The entire stretch of Rue des Bouchers was lined with restaurants. Waiters stood at the entrances urging you to enter.

The first restaurant we sat at unpleasantly asked us to leave because we did not order a drink to go with our food.

We skipped right next door to La Cotelette which not only did not require us to buy drinks, the boss offered complimentary drinks. The €12 set lunch started with creamy fish soup and warm bread, followed by mussels and fries, and completed with buttery waffles with sugar and chocolate fudge.

Nabil, the restaurant manager, taught us French, offered a shoulder massage, sang for us, and wanted to hold back the bill just so we stayed longer.

A day in Brussels is short, but we managed to cover the key sights, such as Sainte Catherine Cathedral, The Stock Exchange, Saint Nicolas Church, Brussels Town Hall, Grand Place, and the Manneken Pis Fountain.

It was difficult saying goodbye to the hotel. At €55, Hotel Queen Anne offered a private double room en suite with television and hairdryer (I have learnt to appreciate these little luxuries), breakfast with excellent scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, selection of bread and cereal, and the experience of riding in its super vintage lift!

Location: Bussels, Belgium
Cost: £12 set lunch, €27 hotel, €1 orange juice on the train, €5 black netted stockings
Highlight: Meeting Nabil the friendly restaurant manager
Train: Paris Gare du nord to Brussels Midi in 1.5 hours

day 9: sleepless and homeless in paris

Yes, you heard me right. Just as we recovered with a nice relaxing afternoon in the park, we were thrown into another situation.

We arrived in Paris France only to be turned away by the hotel which we had made a reservation with! It was a long weekend so all hostels and hotels we subsequently called (rather frantically) were full.

With backpacks pulling down on our shoulders, we walked two metro stations from Hotel De Ville to Bastille in search for two beds for the night. Fortunately Norie was with us and she could quickly dodge in and out of hotel lobbies to ask. But we kept hearing 'Complet' which is a French word I have now learnt to dread.

After about two hours (it was already close to midnight), we came to terms with the fact that we had to stop the search and think of alternatives. There were not many options. We settled into Hippopotamus for dinner and stayed till they closed at 3am. Fortunately, we found a bar (pictured above) across the road which was open till 7am.

I could hardly stay awake. Jerrain took a quick nap while Norie and I caught up and chatted about nothing and everything.

Although we were completely exhausted, we figured we needed to make good use of the remaining 12 hours before we move on to Brussels. So we dragged ourselves to Gare du Nord train station and deposited our bags for €7.50.

We had prata with beef and mutton curry for breakfast before heading to the Louvre. While Jerrain went in to say hi to Mona Lisa, Norie and I caught up on some much needed sleep in the park.

Location: Paris France
Cost: €14 medium rare steak and chocolate mousse dessert at Hippopotamus, €7 tea at Bastille cafe, €7.50 locker at Paris Gare du Nord station, €2.80 orange juice
Highlight: Staying out and up the entire night and feeling thankful to have Jerrain and Norie there with me

day 8: day in the park

You need a break every once in a while, even when you are on a holiday. My favourite way to recuperate is to find a nice park, an even patch of green, a small sandwich, and a bottle of chocolate milk.

I did just that for the majority of this afternoon in a park near the hostel. I managed to catch up on King David in 2 Samuel and researched a little about Paris and the next few stops with my Lonely Planet guide.

Beside the park was Brunswick Mall. There was an international food fair, serving everything from French pastries and sweets, Spanish seafood rice, Japanese gyoza, American hotdogs, English caramel swirls, and lots more. I chatted briefly with a Hong Konger selling Malay food (how strange) and he said this fair is on every Saturday. I am glad we managed to catch it.

It was time to leave London, via Eurostar to Paris. Having learnt our lesson when we missed the Megabus to Coventry, we arrived at Saint Pancras station way ahead of time. I am looking forward to meeting Norie!!

• Location: London Britain
• Cost: £2.80 chicken, bacon and cheese sandwich, 99p chocolate milk from Waitrose
• Highlight: Reading in the park at 20 degrees celcius, the occasional breeze can be a little chilly, but you quickly get warm up by the sun

day 7: instant comfort food

Too many glasses of vodka cranberry. That was the first thing on my mind - together with the headache - when I got up this morning, still in my dress and make up from last night.

Jerrain and I dragged ourselves to Leicester Square to hunt down noodle soup, which we have been craving the moment we landed in London. The first shop we passed was Cafe de Hong Kong at Newport Court. Both of us agreed that we could not wait to walk to the next stop. I had luncheon pork and egg instant noodle soup at £4.70. Bubble tea would have been a heavenly finish, but it was £3.60!

The highlight of the afternoon was seeing Dirty Dancing at Aldwych Theatre. There was less dancing than I expected.

To make up for that, Jerrain and I joined the New London Pub Crawl for £12. It gave us four drinks (though I only remembered drinking three shots) and priority entry to a bar and four clubs in Covent Garden. But most of all, it is the company of 91 other partyheads that made it a crazy night.

1. Belushi: Rather no-frills bar which Jerrain and I were there the night before. First shot of rum.
2. Roadhouse: Single storey club with harleys scattered around. This was where we had wanted to go last night with the London lawyer trainees.
3. Verge: Bar with a tiny basement club. Good DJ playing the latest hits by Lady Gaga and Shakira. Shot of sambuca. Salsed shortly with a guy but I could hardly handle the turns in that space.
4. Oxygen: Bar with a basement club. It had poles at several corners but I couldn't convince Jerrain to do a demo. Shot of tequila. Met Matthias from Germany and Vitor from Brazil who were part of the pub crawl bunch.
5. Zoo: Biggest club of the five and had the highest energy both in the bar area and the basement club. Met James from Boston who just completed his first year of the Masters programme at the London School of Economics, Rebecca and her guyfriend from Zurich who are doing an English course in London, and (wait for it)... two Singaporeans!! I cannot remember their names now but it sure feels great bumping into them. We wanted to have frog legs congee (popular post-club supper in Singapore) after being chased out of Zoo at 2ish in the morning, but Jerrain and I settled for cup noodes and strawberry milk respectively. They sent us back to our hostels before heading back, how sweet.

• Location: London, Britain
• Cost: £7 chinese food for lunch, £39 Dirty Dancing, £3 ham and cheese croissant, £3 Starbucks mocha frap, £12 pub crawl, £12 drinks
• Highlight: Bumping into two Singaporeans and dancing six hours straight in my heels!

day 6.5: aunties from singapore

I know I said this is a-post-a-day blog but there are a million and one things happening and it pains me to leave them out. So I cannot promise this will be the last of my 'day x.5' blog post.

We have been overly pampered in Warwickshire - accommodation, food, drinks, transport and activities were all taken care of by Gavin and Serene. Once we got on that Megabus to London, we were back on our own.

The original plan was to leave for Paris today, but a Eurostar ticket would cost each of us £179! We decided to lengthen our stay in London for two nights so a ticket will be £57.

We were exhausted by the time we weaved through peak hour crowd with our 15 kilograms backpacks and secured the Eurostar tickets. But before we could heave a sigh of relief, we had to find a place to sleep for the next two nights!

Jerrain - while blonde most of the time - came up with a brilliant idea to hijack the train station trolley for our backpacks while we roam the Kings Cross area for a hostel. Thankfully, the YHA hostel (part of the Hostelling International group) had space. We got the £28 bed in a six-bed ensuite dorm for tonight, and a £60 private room for tomorrow.

After all that drama, Jerrain and I needed a drink or two (or three, or four... Ok, you get the idea). It was a little too late to join the hostel pub crawl, so we went to Belushi ourselves. Situated at Covent Garden, it has a proper mash of locals and tourists. There were flags (the only Asian one I spotted was Korea) on its ceiling and random posters on the walls, including one of the London underground in case you did not know your way back. When Retro Velvet, the Scottish two-man band, was not playing, Belushi reminds me very much of Singapore's Ice Cold Beer on Emerald Hill.

People were friendly, though who could be otherwise to two sweet and petite Asian girls? We chatted with George and Antonio (who are school teachers in the day) from Retro Velvet, Josh and David who knew each other since they were five, and a bunch of lawyer trainees whom we spent more with at another mini club after we were chased out of Belushi about 1am.

• Location: London, Britain
• Cost: £57 Eurostar to Paris, £88 hostel for the next two nights, £4 per vodka cranberry
• Highlight: Feeling like I am on Amazing Race, not knowing where, when and how we are making the next step; clubbing in London with Jerrain and meeting new friends.
• Lost and found: Only lost really - my camera landyard and Melody whom Caleb my iPhone has grown to love (he is now in mourning)

In case you have not figured out the blog post title, middle-age housewives in Singapore often push the supermarket trolleys back home, until the shops started making them return the trolleys to get their dollar back. I felt so much like one of them pushing the train station trolley on the London street.

day 6: royal tea party

Inspired by the 1898 Royal Weekend Party we saw at the Warwick Castle yesterday, we decided to throw one ourselves. Short of dressing up as Earl and Countesses, I must say our tea party was just as grand (and very English).

After visiting Chipping Camden and Broadway Tower, we quickly made ourselves comfortable in a lovely tea room in Broadway. We had fruit scones with jam, Victorian sponge cake and Cotswold Afternoon Tea. Gavin introduced clotted cream, which went perfectly with the scones and jam. Jerrain was happy to polish off all the cream before she found out clotted cream was more fattening than butter. Actually she was still licking off the saucer after she was told the fact. You go girl!

Gavin and Serene had to peel us off the seats of that tea room before we miss our Megabus to London. We dropped by Lakeside to check out Serene's apartment and the wild geese she feeds from time to time.

Then it was time to leave Coventry with our oversized backpakcs and tuna and egg sandwiches which Gavin and Serene lovingly prepared for us. They are the sweetest!

• Location: Cotswold, Britain
• Highlight: Tea and scones with clotted cream

day 5: the return of the princess

My dream of becoming a princess was ruthlessly dashed this morning at Warwick Castle. I was refused entry to the Princess Tower. It is only for kids. Looks like I am a few years too late. I settled for a photograph with the princess who was welcoming kids into the tower.

The rejection was still too much to bear. So Serene and Gavin thought it best to bring me to quiet Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was born. I rowed a boat down the river and fed the swans some leftover tea cakes from lunch.

We are back at Union Court, where Gavin lives. The lamb hot pot is in the oven. The clothes are in the laundry and some in the dryer. After dinner, Jerrain and I will have some heavy packing to do. We leave Coventry tomorrow, but not before we see Cotswold.

• Location: Warwick Castle, Stratford-upon-avon, Britain
• Cost: £19.95 Warwick Castle, £4 half hour boat rental, £3 fish and chips for lunch
• Highlight: Rowing down the river and feeding the swans at Stratford, and sipping mulled wine as we cuddled in the room to watch BBC's Over the Rainbow

day 4: what do the english know about breakfast?

A lot it seems. After having a home made traditional English breakfast, I was satisfied (and stuffed) for the next nine hours.

Serene and Gavin insisted on making everything - bacon, scrambled eggs, beans, tomatos, mushrooms, and tea. They only allowed me to help toast the bread. Perhaps they knew how bad a cook I am.

That was a perfect start to the day! A visit to Oxford and dinner at Zizzi's after left me feeling very accomplished.

We dropped by to pick up some groceries for breakfast and dinner tomorrow. I'm looking forward to what is cooking!!

• Location: Oxford & Lemington Spa, Britain
• Cost: £0 (Gavin and Serene refused to let us pay for anything! Now I know, never trust the British when they say you can get the next one)
• People: met up with Nicholas from Cyprus and Dominik from Slovakia for dinner

day 3: five minutes too late

Jerrain's heart stopped twice today. It was our first (and second) misadventure. It is a little early if you ask me, considering it is just day three.

We were five minutes too late for our bus to Coventry. Jerrain thought the guy behind the counter was pulling our legs. But no, he was as serious as the rest of Europe is about keeping time.

I, rather reluctantly, went to get us new tickets. Fortunately, there was another bus leaving in two hours, giving us time for some needed lunch to calm our nerves and replenish all that we have burnt from sprinting 400 metres with our 1.5 kilograms backpack.

Just as our heartbeat returned to a regular rhythm, we realised - fifteen minutes before departure - that the ticket was for one adult! Sounds 'drama-mama', but picture me running across the coach interchange to the ticket counter to snatch up the last seat left on the bus.

Serene, whom we were supposed to meet, was delayed in Toronto due to the volcanic ashes. Fortunately, her university friend, Nicholas, came to pick us up from the coach station. So, Jerrain and I are now safe in Coventry. Finally.

• Location: London & Coventry, Britain
• Cost: £6 bus, £4 mutton curry lunch, £18 last-minute coach ticket to Coventry
• Highlight: Missing a coach ride for the first time in my life
• Other activities for the day: Portobello Market, sent a few postcards, drinks at White Horse Lemington Spa

day 2: meeting mr big

I cannot believe Jerrain and I are finally here. Our excitement expresses itself through involuntary and uncontrollable smiles every few minutes or so (which explains the many stares by passer-bys).

We walked for most of the day, and checked out the usual key attractions: Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Westminister Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and others. As we only had a full day in London, we mercilessly struck off several other tourist hot spots.

Despite all that rush, we carved out time to have American hot dogs and hot choco at St James Park, and dinner and wine at Covent Garden.

• Location: London, Britain
• Cost: £11 transportation, £13 hostel, £1 postcards, £4 lunch, £18
  dinner
• Highlight: Relaxing at St James Park, feeling all relax, then
  realizing I have 36 more days of holiday!
  People: Met 7 new friends who are our room mates, from Brazil, USA, Hong Kong and others.
  

day 1: whispering our goodbyes

The big send off almost sent me off in tears. Here are a few personal thank yous:

1. Adele - picked me up and prayed for Jerrain and I
2. Jaso - picked me up and helped me with my bag
3. Thomas - made sure Jerrain got to the airport on time and safely
4. Siew Huey - prepared us for this trip by training our stamina at Mt Ophir
5. The Keith - tolerated all our quirkiness
6. Yvonne - took photos with her new camera S90
7. Alex - was the quiet listener during dinner
8. Pih - prayed for us and gave me bible reading guide and a lovely crystal cross necklace
9. Isabel- made sure I get my vitamins by supplying a few weeks worth of Redoxon
10. Jenn - gave Caleb (my iPhone) a new pink friend to hang out with
    
11. Jerry - introduced a resident mini miss shy into my bag
    

Big hug from Jerrain and I to all.

PS: Now why didn't anyone offered their credit card? That would have been a perfect farewell pressie!! :P

minus 1 day: the traveller's greed

If you recall, an implication - among others - of getting the eurail global pass is that I have the incentive to cover more grounds. So, I reworked my itinerary and expanded the list from eight countries to 11. Finally, to those of you who have been bugging me for the destination list, here it is:

1. Austria
   
2. Belgium
3. Britain
4. Czech Republic
5. France
   
6. Germany
7. Italy
8. The Netherlands
9. Norway
10. Poland
11. Switzerland

There will be 15 stops across 11 countries. To find out the route we are taking, stay tuned!

minus 9 days: meet samuel

Samuel will be the eyes of this blog. He will go whereever I go in Europe. He will capture scenaries I cannot describe, record old architectures that I might not know names of, and report back if I have been up to no good.

So count on him to be there!

I first met him at MS Colour and having met his relatives and friends - who were mostly fatter or bigger than him - I knew he was the one for me. I brought him home that same night, with an additional battery and an eight gigabyte SD card.

Though I am $408 Singapore dollars poorer, I know I will enjoy his presence in Europe. And I know you will too!

minus 7 days: stuffed

The 12 days of packing...

12 tops and dresses, lots of pinks, floral and bright colours!
11 pieces of under garments, packed the smallest ones I could find
10 bottles of bubblies to fill my toiletry pouch
9 accessories, cannot do without my necklaces, bangles and ear rings
8 bandaids to take care of the blisters from excessive walking
7 cosmetic items so I can be picture-perfect all the time
6 party dresses to check out the major clubs every weekend
5 currencies, SGD, GBP, EUR, NKR, and CHF
4 pairs of footwear, something for every occasion - boots, sandals, flat shoes and heels
3 scarves to match different looks
2 hats - my favourite Riverlife cap and grey hat from Shanghai
1 whistle, to call for help if anything goes wrong *fingers crossed*

There is so much to carry! Fortunately, Jenn Yang lent me his 70 litres backpack. Only complaint is that it's green. But I'm sure I can get some pink ribbons on it.