Sing your Song

It's awesome to meet like-minded and easy to talk to friends. And it's even more amazing that we found so much in common last night when we were drunk, and realize there's even more differences between us today when we're sober. 

What more, you're so similar to a brother I've had for so many years. I've always believed that he'll do great things in future, and I'm sure you will too. Rock on, dude. But for now, let us enjoy the next 4.5 months together peacefully. Hahahah

And I'm back here at the sun deck again

Watching the dark sky and counting shooting stars. 

5 last night, 2 so far. And with every one of them I wish for only one thing. 

Yes, we'll become stronger and so will the two of us as individuals. 

Cos tax free

It's been awhile since I've been this drunk. 

But everyone else is dead drunk in the room and I'm here watching the stars. And there's absolutely no other people at the deck. So I got that going for me. Which is good, I guess. PAnd I'm not regretting this impromptu trip. 

Helsinki bound!

Even before school start. With people I've met for less than a week. And not from my Uni. Haha

Bye, temporary home!

First dinner alone

At least it's in the room 

And it's BACON! 

新加坡人 in 斯德哥尔摩

So we met Lihong who's a fellow government scholar and 1991-er on exchange to SU but has been studying on France for the past 5 years, and decided to chill out at some cafe! So first cafe hunting, checked. And it's also a pretty awesome one; nice decoration and stuff. 

And NOOO, it's bad angle; I'm sitting on the sofa unglamly with my legs on the armrest and Lihong is just standing behind the sofa. Lol. 

Then at night was Bak Kut Teh session!!! 

It's actually an improvised steamboat session with BKT base and using our (my) newly-brought rice cooker! Steamboat session, checked. 

And the next day was a surprisingly cheap (relatively, since they are priced about the same as Singapore's outlets) meal at TGIF (and it's really Friday!) after our guided bus tour. Everyone's tired and so we retired back to our room. Haha. 

Tomorrow's my first Excapade to Helsinki with the SSE peeps! Though I really feel bad for pangseh-ing the SU people... Tsk. All Song En's fault. Haha

Just rice cooker

Yimei says she "wanna cry" after eating the meal k. How powerful, the porridge. 

First time cooking with the Singaporeans!

A disaster for Huihan's kitchen but it was a really nice meal. Thanks for hosting us, Huihan and Jiahan! 

Maybe it's a Gemini thing

Solomangarephobia - The fear of eating alone

A fear I have to face daily for the next 5 months. Maybe at the end of this I will grow out of this fear, and anyway, there's no one here to judge except my own lonely heart Hah! 

(Temporary) Home

Sio, after running around for a month, I have settled down. 

And I thought I was strong

Cried a bucket in the toilet before we left the apartment and I told myself I have to be strong or you will start pouring. 

But nope. I wasn't strong back there when we had our farewell hug. So when I came back, I thought about everything positive... Even when the sky started to change with dark clouds, I made fun of how it reflected my feelings now and how it's gonna be a cold lonely night. 

But I couldn't hold out anymore when I saw that you left a letter for me. I haven't read it yet. But I know I'll lose myself after I do. 

The past month was one of the happiest time of my life. You were literally the guide, and I was sheltered by your care. Now you're gone, and the true challenge begins. I keep telling you to be strong and independent and have fun... I'm actually just telling myself all these. 

Really, thanks for whatever you have done to make this trip such a success and it is the best farewell gift. I sometimes think I'm kind of an insufficient boyfriend... Didn't buy anything for our anniversary or your 21st and only a small parting gift before my absence of 4.5 months. 

But really, I know this absence will only make us stronger... And we will survive this!!! 

Amsterdam 20/8/14-22/8/14

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Antwerp 19/8/14-20/8/14

ANTWERP! Yet another beautiful city; it's like a smaller version of Brussels but quieter. Same old weather as well. But we arrived as the rain subsided so poncho was not employed through the drizzle. Central station here is the top attraction (as in the top attraction on TripAdvisor) it's funny but not hard to see why; the moment we step out of the train, I thought we were gonna look for Platform 9 and 3/4. It's also regularly voted as one of the most beautiful train station in the world as well.

Reached our hostel before the check-in and thought we'll just leave our luggages in storage as suggested by them but we were lucky and the rooms were ready! So we checked in and wow, it's really like a hotel room (the lobby actually already gave it away cos it looked wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better than the previous private ensuite we had in Milan, yeah... Milan again; it's kinda like the benchmark, or perhaps the threshold). Settled down, washed some clothes and off we go! 

Antwerp gave me the impression that's it's a work-in-progress cos there was this one whole stretch of tram line that was undergoing upgrading. But as I read it's concised history on some of the many free guides/maps available, it's actually quite an interesting city that borders the Netherlands (Belgium used to be South Netherlands, so it's kind of where the divide is; think 38th Parallel!). But perhaps also because of the quietness that gave it the laid-back feel; even tourists are sparse, and that's a rarity this whole trip (maybe something to do with the climate; maybe people here are the ones going out to places like Florence and Paris). In any case, I appreciate the cool weather and quietness. 

Lunch place was, unfortunately, closed, once again. So we decided to go visit the city centre instead (and unintentionally skipped the whole lunch thingy which made Ms Blur pretty "tired" -- as she puts it). We did found some nice(r) frites (than the Brussels' famous one surprisingly) at some road side to appease her tummy. Covered the Museum Plantin-Moretus (first industrial printing factory and a UNESCO cultural heritage site; but we didn't enter as usual, also because it looked/sounded boring); the Stadhius (also UNESCO heritage; with lots of flags hanging on it's facade and we tried looking for Singapore's; found two that has red-top white-bottom so we decided one is Indonesia and the other us, cos all of them were twisted by the strong wind so pole-side half of the flag can't be seen); the Grote Markt (seems like every where has one, but this one appears a lot nicer in the tranquil sense); Cathedral of our Lady (yes, it's called Cathedral Notre-Dame, no surprise... But it was surprisingly tall; in fact, once the tallest in Europe long long time ago apparently); some oldest Antwerpen structure called Steen (which is a nice looking castle that was once a fort guarding the city by the river bank); Museum ann de Stroom (didn't go in as well, looks like a boring tourist trap; but it's also kind of Antwerp's rare few iconic stuff); M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp; wanted to go in but we were late! But guess Ms Blur is right: contemporary art are just abstract and lame *self-consoling*); also crossed the St Anna Tunnel (which is really cool, it's a tunnel under the river that goes -31m with wooden escalator! And it's 500+ meter long but not a problem for the locals since everyone seems to own a bike, otherwise there're also bike spots every other street where they can just pick up a bike and park them elsewhere; not sure if they pay. In fact, quite common everywhere in Europe) to the left bank of the Schelde River where we found the supposedly everyone-in-the-trade-agrees-they-make-the-best-frites frites shop which made the best frites we/I have had so far (though we had a bad choice of sauce this time round; Do NOT try American!) and also a super nice currywurst (again!), and it's just an inconspicuous small little shop isolated from the rest sprouting from the middle of no where at the other side of the river!!! (Lucky Ms Blur read the free guide) in any case, we enjoyed our nice food by the river bank looking at the city scape from afar. 

Returned to the happening side of the river and went to find our dinner place (after some shopping that ended with 1kg of Caramelized biscuit, or Speculoos as they call it) which was open!!! And we were lucky cos they were fully reserved... Except for one table that just saw the two customers leave! So there we go. Beef stew and, wait for it, HORSE STEW (which tasted like the beef stew, but guess they had a stronger taste thus the need to add beer into the stew though I really couldn't taste it and the meat was nice and tender!); one more exotic food checked (which ain't that exotic, really don't get the big hoo-ha about the ikea meatball incident previously; people should taste some horse meat before they comment on how gross it is in their beef balls -.-). 

Back to the hostel, aka wifi time, before we did some abs and had the nicest bath in quite a while. Turned in for the night and the next morning was just packing up. Had Chinese food (again!) for lunch and some mad rush to send out my postcard to myself before we went to wait for our bus (yup, no more train for this trip!) to Amsterdam. Also, brought 1kg worth of Speculoos (or Caramelized biscuit as we call it) 

Brussels 17/8/14-19/8/14

BRUSSELS. Arrived to the end of some party (flower festival, as we later come to know) but the fun fair was still on and all the rides looked so fun! On another note, the weather's getting colder and colder after the nice cities by the coast; and it even threatened to rain with looming dark clouds! It did eventually drizzled before we reach the hostel but it was all minor, and Meininger hotel!!! The rooms are basically hotel rooms but you share it with 4 other people (6-bed dorms) so it's pretty awesome; and green hotel concept yo! It's 22 degrees Celsius in the room no matter in 30 degree summer hear or 0 degree winter cold (or so they say)

So, settled in and decided to go out since the sky looks friendly enough at this point in time (but one thing I've learnt through my days in Brussels: don't talk about the weather). We took the train to our destination and boom, heavy rain. So we can't do our itinerary as planned and headed for lunch-dinner instead and had western food (half chicken!) which was pretty good. Best thing: the rain stopped (yea, fickle minded; worse than Singapore). Took a photo with Atomium then toured around Mini Europe (which was more of a propaganda for EU but quite pretty). Weather seemed fine so we took the metro again to see the Cinquantenaire (looked like Brandenburg Gate and the one in Paris again) and European Quarters (kinda lame). Walked a few metro stations down before we took the metro (illegally) back to our hostel. 

Continental breakfast was good, sleep wasn't. Walked a few metro stations again to the Grote Markt where the City Hall is to meet the Free Tour group; they were busy clearing up the flowers from the flower festival! Brought some Godiva chocolate-coated strawberries before we started the tour. Comic strip was interestingly cool and even more so, the history of Belgium/Brussels (especially the part it played in WWI); Manneken Pis was the most disappointing attraction (voted so) in the world as it was really tiny (and contrary to popular myths, its actual existence was due to the urine trade that took place in the market by the leather makers who brought urine there to treat their raw leathers). One of the most beautiful city to tour about so far! 

Tour ended in the early afternoon and we headed to the lunch place Ms Blur had researched but was unfortunately closed, so... Asian food again! Wanted to be half-full for other Belgian food but the serving was so huge we ended up over-eating. But that didn't stop our foodie excursion! Frites (fries, in which they double fry it at two different temperatures) with samurai sauce (nothing Japanese; mayo with chili); hot chocolate (super rich!); Belgium waffles (Brussels one was the fluffy rectangular kind that goes well with just sugar; and Liege one was the harder sweetened rounder version that's good on its own but we had ice cream with it!); and of course, Belgium bier (Belle Vue was good; apparently they made this beer before people knew how to make beer, by allowing natural fermenting using the yeast in the air from the stinky river... Hmmm. But the cherry/classique version was the nicer version, not the original non-flavored one). 

Ms Blur calls Belgium the Taiwan of Europe, cos they had so many varieties of snacks that are really good!0

Paris 15/8/14-17/8/14

PARIS! Contrary to what many have said, this place is actually pretty beautiful and I don't find it overrated. "Paris Syndrome" didn't happen to us, or me at least. Arrived and settled in to our private apartment (smaller one this time round; like a studio apartment without bedroom). Headed out to the Grand Palace, Eiffel Tower (and "love bridge" which wasn't the original one but a nicer one in my opinion cos it has the tower on its background; we also locked our love there!), and Arc de Triomphe, and also found a nice Chinese restaurant to have dinner in between (didn't wanna get discriminated so we decided to eat with something we are familiar with the first night). Oh, and Churros... That weren't very nice. One thing I don't like about Paris: there's no English anywhere!

Next morning was grocery time! Wanted to nua till 12pm for our sushi buffet but we woke up too early and had too much time to idle around so we headed out to the Louvre and saw some fun fare nearby! Got scammed by a lousy gelato but oh wells. Decided to not see yet another Notre Dame and also driven by our hunger, we headed back for a very worth it (Europe sense) sushi buffet just at the alley of bars under our apartment! Haven't had so much food in quite a while (one week actually, cos self-cooked dinner in Florence was awesome too). 

Headed out again to the St Ouen Flea Market that turned out to be a gathering point for the homeless (and the African community). The streets were chaotic (especially the "slums" under the bridge) but the alleys of Marche's were pretty interesting, selling antiques and old stuff; even got my postcard of an old Eiffel Tower there! (Didn't manage to send it out cos Le Poste are all closed during the weekend and the Tobac shops seem to all have sold out their stamps). Since the day was early, we went over to the Love Wall and played spot-your-languages since they have all sorts of different languages' version of "I love you" on the wall. Streets around this area was also nice and we even found the flower petal gelato cone! 

Headed back home to cook our dinner and yep, it was awesome again thanks to master chef Tey. Haha! Two good meals in a row; kinda not what real backpackers can afford (and that's if you exclude next morning's breakfast, otherwise, 3!)

Bars underneath plus long weekend (oh Friday was some public holiday) meant noisy and sleepless night. On the train to Brussels now so Bon voyage et bonne nuit! (Rare few French terms that I still remember)