Luanie's Heidelberg and Stuttgart Weekend (24-25.03.07)

and this is the weekend keith came to visit. we set off on an ominously cloudy saturday morning (50% change of precipitation) to nearby heidelberg and its the enchanting old town. and i helped keith fulfil his wish of eating his favourite bratwurst. haha what is it with singpaoreans living in london and their love for german sausages? i guess we'll appreciate the german sausages only when we're out of germany for good.

so we took pictures with the wonderful ruin of a castle and walked and walked along the main street in search of various stuff like birkenstocks, bratwursts, pubs to watch soccer, ice cream (gdness, the nutella ice cream was heavenly) and dresses to fulfil the shopping-crazy girl in me. i think we must have walked along the street about 3-4 times in total. it is a LONG street, mind you. and i was quite beat at the end of the day.



sunday we made our way on a baden-wurttemberg ticket to stuttgart.. decided to go there since it is the 'capital' of our province ( or state or something.. ) and jinteng was mightily urging me to go there rather than karlsruhe. and it wasn't a wrong choice! haha. partly due to the weather i guess. it was sunny and clear and every stuttgarter was out strolling around the park even though the shops were all closed. had a taste of the crepes jinteng was always raving about and it was GOOOOOD.

quite happy strolling around konigstrasse, the lake and castle area, and enjoying the spring sunshine. wonderful weekend altogether :)

The Most Fun we've had in Bruchsal

our sleepy little town of bruchsal finally has something exciting to offer!!!! ( haha i don think bruchsalers reading this will be happy.) but yeah, a funfair for us to relive our childhood :))) there was a ferris wheel, some pepsi-revolution-like thingy which blasted funny songs which sounded like cantopop at one point in time, reverse bungee, candy shops, funfair games like shooting and throwing darts at balloons and food stalls.

there was this ride which was just a row of seats going in wide circles and this group of firemen got on it..


quite weird la. they looked like they would have more fun sliding down their firemen emergency poles or going up the yun2 ti1 (very long ladders) on the fire engines haha.

anywayssss the highlight of the night was definitely the FIREWORKS!!! wheeee! haha we timed our ferris wheel ride to perfection and watched the amazing fireworks from our seats!

i only have one shot of it coz i took a video. walked around with the IU pple for a while after that, playing games and taking pictures. all in all a very enjoyable evening :)

One of the Days at the Backyard when its still Snowing~~

One fine day, when boring mr and boring Gerald aka Retard Chen, have nothin to do, they decided to go on an adventure to their backyard ( we dunno y they call it the backyard cuz its like hmm not so near our apartments and urmmm shldnt backyards be near to our houses??).

And all thanks to their bravey and great sense of curosity, here we are with the wowing pics of the backyard! haha and they caught the sunset too!

Our 1st Shopping Spree @Esprit @Dusseldorf! And The Gothic Catherdral @Koln (17 - 18.03.07)

as you can see from the silly face underneath that ridiculous yellow-green hat, yes, adrian koh is here to join us for our weekend trip to dusseldorf and koln. hahaha. adrian koh: sorry if the 2 cities were boring la.. we've already toured the more interesting cities liao.. haha..

so we left our bleary town on a wintry-cold saturday morning (cold snap when spring is supposed to come!) for dusseldorf on a 7am train. many train changes and mishaps later, which involved a shouting train driver, crossing forbidden railroads and a 1-hour wait for 3 of us, we FINALLY arrived at dusseldorf for our long-awaited shopping spree!!

you know, germans don't really like to shop. they're not as brand-conscious as parisians or londoners.. and thus, US GIRLS HAVE REALLY BEEN DEPRIVED!!! soooo the esprit factory outlet was like meeting an old friend and breath of fresh air at the same time!! wheeeee! it was crazily crowded with women just changing outta their tops and bottoms for everyone to see in front of the mirrors.. but us conservative and sane singaporean and indonesian girls kept to the changing rooms, thankyouverymuch.

we found tops for 1euro and whatnot, but they were few and far between. the girls mainly bought tops and the guys got some messenger bags. i think ADRIAN KOH has his 2 good JC friends to thank for clearing his shopping bags. if not he would have spent like 100 euros on a cannotmakeit spring jacket and other funny stuff.

tadah! so we were all happy people at the end of the day :)

latest news is that there's an EVEN BIGGER factory outlet 1-2 hours from our place!! wooooots!! metzingen, here we come!!


later in the evening we boarded a 20min train to koln hbf.. where our small and neat hostel awaited us. the cathedral caught our attention once we stepped outta the train station, however, and it took some restraining to get dinner before we snapped away using flash, no flash, night mode, mobile phones and everything.

next morning we took MORE pictures of the dom and also went inside for a peek at its stained glasses and high ceilings. it's really impossible to get a full shot of the cathedral from top spire to bottom, even though i tried my mum's method of practically placing the camera tilted on the floor. wells. anyways, the weather was really really bad that morning and it poured quite a few times. so we just hid at the tourist information centre and waited till lunch.

lunch was at a traditional german place where pork knuckle and koln beer (forgot the spelling) were specialities. walked around the oldtown for abit, but it was sunday and everything was just closed. walked here and there aimlessly, saw a singapore flag and took a pic with it, crossed a bridge over the rhine river to find more interesting places.

before we knew it, we were on a train back to bruchsal.. koln really has little more to offer other than the grand cathedral. maybe it's coz we were there on a sunday. wells. at least there were bratwursts to keep adrian occupied. hahaha.

Bruchsal Market & A Nicey Saturday Breakfast! =)

We went to our 1st "marketing" session on a Saturday and boy~~look at some of the stuff they've got! Colorful flowers of all sorts and healthy looking fruits! haha i love the strawberries!

Cheese's like the fav for almost all europeans. and nice cheese goes w nice wine~

And 1st sumptuous bkft at Pavilion. haha craving for full english bkft again after enjoying one at London so here's chi-de-hen-bao english bkft for me n mr. and quite-delicious-but-abit-too-dry spaghetti for ivina and chi-de-gen-bao-cuz-too-cheezy baguette for luanie

and den off we went to slack away a lazy saturday~~~

ABIT late, but here's our version of London! haha (02-05.03.07)

haha lazy us ( but i'm more dilligent dan tt mR pig) here's our part of London!

After hrs of travel, we finally reached our 1st venture outta germany. We met Adrian at Liverpool Street and followed him to his house, where we stayed for the wkend. Nice Adrian gave up his bed for us and even changed the bedsheets! (haha oks, for once u're ren hao n shuai la) At bout 11+pm we left for SOHO, this street full of clubs and pubs like Mohd Sultan Rd back in Spore. But in the end, we didnt go to any pubs or clubs and instead, went to eat some Chinese dessert at Chinatown. yummilicious =P

On sat, we went to Borough Market after watching the London Games ( its like an Asian gathering man, mR met his JC frens, Chih Yang and Jia Xuan there). Borough Market's like a food paradise man. Everything looks and smells soooo delicious! Our fav's the Belgium choc brownie--I sooo wannna carry all of them back with me! haha

Then we went to Harrods, where all the astonishingly expensive stuff lives. Quite an exciting experience cuz on our way out of Harrods, we actually witness a crime in action! some lousy snatch-a-pair-of-lady's-boots-thief. haha quite ben4 of him, so many ppl there la, confirm get caught, which he did.

Next stop's the v beautiful Hyde Park with the v enchanting lake and seagulls and many hungry-looking ducks. ahaha they just dash to anyone with food to offer man.

We spent the rest of the day roaming around the streets, exploring the shopping district of London, around Piccadilly Circus, before meeting Luanie, Keith and Adrian for some Chinese buffet at Chinatown.

Sunday started off with some v fruitful shopping at Petticoat Lane Market. Its mega huge with endless rows of pasa-malam style stalls selling stuff of all kinds. Then we moved off to the Tower Bridge of London. The scenary across the bridge's really beautiful, but it would have been better if it didnt rain so much!

Oh, and we went into the National Gallery and saw the famous Picasso's Child With A Dove painting and a few of other Vincent Van Gogh's master pieces like The Sunflowers. haha so cultured rite.

Dinner was at this Korean restaurant which serves pretty delicious korean-style steamboat and hotplate rice. After that, we went with Adrian, Gerald and Jin Xiang (haha Gerald's mian2 tian2 nei4 xiang4 hai4 xiu1 fren) to this pub in a hotel for some drinks (guys la, they love drinking man haha)

Finally, our last day in London, we had a vvv yummilicious Full English Bkft at a v comfy cafe at Covent Garden.Then, we rushed off to Buckingham Palace to catch the Change Of Guards. ahaha and the rest of the story's in Luanie's entry! haha that's it for London! Till we visit England again!

random stuff

no trips the past weekend, so random pics coming up!



我们精神的来源， ritter sport and purple cow!! biscuit, cornflakes, nuts and milk chocolate!


our stocked-up cabinet! depleting rations of oyster sauce, soya sauce and dao biao you, skippy from singapore, tonnes of bread for the weekend and potatoes (hidden from view)!


our freezer and fridge.. got apple strudel, ice cream cake, minced meat, greens and apples! haha damn healthy right.


wider view of our fridge, got milk, jam, hua diao jiu, miso paste, ham and cheese!

blogger doesn't let me upload my sunset pics, or any photos for that matter.. so that's all!

Blimey, Aren't You Chuffed to be in London? (02-05.03.07)

This is luanie's account of our london weekend (:

Haha okay so no one actually spoke to me like that when i was london. but i did hear 'cheers, mate!' while i was there. haha. we got on board an evening flight from frankfurt hahn airport to london stansted, and the whole journey from IU to liverpool street actually took about 7 hours, with bus, train and plane connections.

after meeting everyone's friends and receiving some inevitable suan-ing from adrian, we split up and i went off to keith's apartment in old street. haha it isn't really old, quite nicely-furnished actually, but he does live right beside a cemetery.

saturday morning we met jinteng and mingrui to go watch adrian and gerald in action at the london regional games. HAHA i think we were too bored la! saw some familiar faces.. but didn't know where to place them. too many asians la..


after that i made my way to covent garden to meet my pri sch bestie, florrine ng! haha. it was great catching up with her and going around trafalgar square and covent garden market (: the buskers there are really good!! violinists and sopranos. went to the national gallery for a quick peek at van gogh's sunflowers and his chair. but the sun was so good we came out to bask in it again. haha. her bf bought her a white rose when he met up with her la!! so sweet wor.. :P


and this is the late afternoon view from the london streets of covent garden or leicester square (can't remember la). nice eh?


walked around with keith in the afternoon and went to hamley's, a huge toy store. if you enlarge the picture, you can see that the giraffe on the left costs a crazy 3,500 pounds. that's more than 10K SGD! haha this beats the heidelberg giraffe and elephant by miles!! went chinatown at night for dinner with adrian, jinteng and mingrui. haha we were still in time to catch the CNY mood and decorations there! took pics like mad coz there's no such thing as chinatown and much less CNY feeling in germany!

walked around after dinner to the south bank where we saw the huge london eye, which was closed already.. and the big ben and westminster. oh there's the moon in the picture! there was actually a lunar eclipse that night, and me and jinteng kept telling adrian it was just clouds covering the moon.


sunday keith and i ventured to greenwich to see the prime meridian, despite adrian telling me it's damn boring haha. and so we stood on either side of the prime meridian and made a wish like i read somewhere.. it was quite a challenge to take the pic of the line i tell you, coz people were just crowding around that line looking for their own countries. haha. we also stopped by the greenwich market where there were foodstuff and quirky cards and wallets and cow hide carpets and whatnot for sale. it was raining heavily the whole day and quite sian to be outside honestly. london must pay for sunny days like saturday. haha.


monday in london i waved goodbye to keith at liverpool st station and went to meet the rest at buckingham palace for the changing of guards. you would think that the novelty of the changing would have worn off (esp among the londoners) after sooooo many years of changing but no, a huge crowd gathered at the looooong gates and huuuuge roundabout of buckingham palace to watch the guards in action. they didn't look as grand in their red suits as in summer coz they had the grey winter coats on. anw the queen was in the palace while we were there! coz the Union Jack was fully hoisted up. wonder if the princes were around. haha.

and so our trip in london ended biding adrian goodbye at holborn station and having this announced over the PA system in london stansted airport,

"would passengers Tan, Thia, Chan and Chen please proceed to gate 43 for immediate boarding?" haha. never underestimate the size of stansted airport and the time taken to clear the baggage check.

春

spring is coming!

the days are getting longer,

the weather is less extreme,

the flies are starting to buzz around,

the flowers are blooming

the down jackets are in the cupboard

and it's gonna be spring!

picture taken at around 7pm.

sunset at 7pm!! spring is definitely on her way (: