day 29: a promise

It was heart wrenching to say goodbye. A part of me would never leave Interlaken, now my favourite destination in Europe. It is the most romantic place I have been to.

The drizzle and gloomy skies in the morning reflected both Jerrain's and my reluctance as the train pulled off. We said goodbye to the beautiful surrounding and our hostel mates.

I promised the mountains and lakes that I would be back.

The only consolation was having Jerrain and Oyvind by my side. We drowned our sorrows in a shot of absinth and countless shots - one per bridge we crossed to be exact - on the pub crawl.

• Location: Venice, Italy
• Train: Interlaken to Brig 1 hour, Brig to Venezia S. Lucia 5 hours
• Cost: €1 ice cream, €10 Nussel "Marinara", €1.20 ice cream, €10 pub crawl, €38 hostel, €10 drinks
• Highlight: Yes! Finally Oyvind and I meet again, after almost half a year. It was good to be able to pick up where we left off. After travelling and meeting more people in the past four weeks, I have learnt to appreciate our friendship. It is rare to find a great friend whom I can keep in touch and travel with.

day 20: somebody, call the ambulance!

Okay, I was exaggerating. There was way less drama.

I twisted my right foot last evening at the Old Jewish Quarter. I was coming out of a bar and did not see the uneven ground.

For those of you who are wondering (I can so read your minds), I had only two drinks and was extremely sober! Might I also add that it was a really graceful fall; Jerrain thought I just bent down to pick up something.

The optimistic (and lazy) me did not bother icing the area when I got back. So it was no surprise that I woke up this morning to find a numb right foot which I could not even stand on. Any weight would cause me to bounce back to the other foot in pain.

I was rushed to the A&E department of Szpital Uniwersytecki w Krakowia, a hospital ten minutes drive away. Anne Asenko, a young Polish lady doctor who could speak English, sent me on my way after examining two x-ray images of my swollen right foot. "There is no broken bone, just rest your foot and you will be walking in one to two weeks," she assured me. Only other instruction was to not run after the night train I needed to catch tonight for Vienna. After that, I was released back into the streets of Krakow!

We had to pick up the muscle relief cream Dr Asenko prescribed from a pharmacy ten minutes away by taxi. And after grabbing an overpriced umbrella off the Old Town Market Square, I was (almost) back on my feet - at a crawling speed of 1 kilometre per hour - and ready for lunch.

• Location: Krakow, Poland
• Cost: 40 zl return taxi ride to hospital, 20 zl umbrella turn walking stick, 25 zl lunch, 20 zl muscle relief cream, A&E medical expenses unknown (will be billed to Singapore)
• Highlight: Sitting on the wheelchair at the hospital.

day 18: time has no power over these memories

The three-level wooden bunk beds look recently abandoned. So do the sanitary barracks, wagon and what is left at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Twenty-five times the size of Auschwitz I or the main camp, everything which stands there today is original.

Walking on the uneven stone ground in the rain and chilling wind at 13 degrees celcius, I could not imagine how the prisoners could have survived in their torn striped jacket uniform which never fitted them. The uniform would have hung loosely on their frail and malnourished body. Surviving on watery rotten vegetable soup and scraps of stale bread, they were forced to work till they die. 'Arbeit macht frei' -work did set them free.

I suppose the unseasoned look of the remains at Auschwitz represents how fresh the memories of the event are for those affected. Time has no power over these memories.

• Location: Krakow, Poland
• Highlight: Learning so much at Auschwitz
• Cost: 130 zl two night hostel stay, 90 zl (€22.5) Auschwitz tour, 8 zl hot choco and snack, 25 zl vodka tasting
• Hostel: Tom & Greg Junior. It is right next to the train station. We were welcomed when we reached at 7am with a lovely breakfast spread. Justin was an excellent host, she gave a brief introduction of Krakow and answered all our questions. There is food all the time, cereal and fresh fruit in the kitchen and louge all day long, and special dinner for free.
• Fun: It was strange to have fun immediately after the trip to Auschwitz but we were just in time for the vodka tasting session once we got back to Tom & Greg's at 8pm. We went to a bar in the Old Town called Wodka and tried four flavoured vodka shots - cherry, honey, lemon and mint. Met many new friends from Britain, USA and Canada.

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.