Like it hard? Why not like it smart ;)

http://www.businessinsider.com/ways-to-work-smarter-not-harder-2014-11?utm_content=buffer55259&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Don't be negative!

Especially for the homesick people...

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/how-stop-negative-thoughts-from-getting-you-down.html

--

Also b'cos I'll hate you >< hahaha.  I'm kidding. Or... Maybe not... Ok I'm kidding. 

16 years old, maybe 18

When I met you, you were "15" 

You've grown, and we both know it. I'm proud of you, really. 

Especially your most recent positivity and reaction to what I've been trying to tell you all these while. 

Officially 2 months

Not some monthsary; it's a countdown. 

People tell me how my exchange is fruitful: cos I got to travel a lot and "cleared" many places (still find it an interesting word to use); cos I got to freeze my CAP at a pretty good time (iPhone tried to autocorrect "CAP" to "zzz CAP" I have no idea why); cos I got to use it as an excuse to spend one month of HONEYMOON with Ms Blur (wanted to use inverted commas on the word but it really felt like a honeymoon haha); and mostly cos it's paid for for the most part. 

But I know these are not the things I left my home for. And I know I'm working towards making this journey a fruitful one; I still have two more months to accomplish them...

How could you

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6096764

One of the best things in the world

Doesn't depend on the opinion of the rest of the world...

Iheartintelligence

The website's name sounds elitist but the content of this article is not too bad. Confidence! Not the most important quality a human must possess but definitely one that everyone should have some. 

http://www.iheartintelligence.com/2014/11/12/confident/

Every life a story, too

And not every story is meant to be told. 

Realize I sounded a little too angry than I really am/was and made things really uncomfortable for others, so I've decided to take down one of my previous post. 

I'm really sorry about it! 

--

I really wasn't angry; I was sincerely just trying to bring across the point I thought was pretty interesting :) 

Tekniska Högskolan 11/11/14

KTH! Finally had the chance to come to this place where many of my friends had came and many more would come; similarly, been passing by so many times and it's only one stop away from where I stayed but I've never had the time to drop by. Woke up to a nice weather and checked the forecast to be pleasant, but as always, the weather changed after I'm done with my laundry and it suddenly became cloudy. Still, it wasn't too cold and so I picked up my coat and left. 

Took a train for one stop and there it is: Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan. If I have visited this place earlier I might have been less impressed with Lund cos this royal university really lives up to its name. The main entrance of this largest technical university in Northern Europe that greeted me was one that I can only describe as grand. As one of the best engineering school in the world, I was actually expecting a modern campus with glass and metal buildings; perhaps an even more impressive modernity than Stockholm University. But turns out, it's quite the opposite. Maybe I've overlooked the fact that the "K" in "KTH" stands for Royal, and this place really give you the feel. Red bricked building with yellowish vines crawling up half the face, surrounded by an inclined garden with cobblestone steps and water fountains; this is exactly the kind of place I imagined the princes and princesses would go for school. While Lund gives off a down-to-earth studious vibe as a university town, this slightly misplaced "palace" in the middle of a modern city has an additional "majestic" feel to it. And as I walked deeper into the campus, I see more fusion between the rustic and modernity, where brick walls are fitted with full-lengthed window panes. At the other end of the school, the majestic feel fades off as wooden-planked buildings with more neutral colours of pale yellow (still fitted with large windows) and green forests replaced the domineering bricks. Suddenly, it was a countryside scene, with old-school trains and narrow dirt tracks leading the way. Soon, I wasn't even sure if I'm headed in the right way...

But alas, I took out my phone and checked that I was indeed in the right direction, heading towards Stockholm university. In fact, I wasn't the only one lost: this Swedish looking guy was also heading to the same place as me, except in a more urgent quest. He asked me for the directions and I confirmed it with my phone; but I also read off the expected duration of "30 minutes" to him, but he didn't believe me. He ran off, literally, while saying "I'll try," and saluted me with a friendly gesture of goodbye. At his pace, I figured he'll probably take less than 10 minutes to reach "the library" (his answer to "why are you heading there for?" I guess he really needed some books pretty urgently). It took me another 20 minutes before reaching the familiar, yet contrasting, Stockholm University. 

And that ended the peasant's trip to the royal palace! 

My oyster

They say the world is a book, and those who do not travel reads only one page; on my SEP application, I told them Google has many pages of results when you search for image of places. 

They also say travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer; they obviously haven't been educated financially or economically. Heck, they won't even pass philosophy modules with these kind of arguments. 

Then they say to travel is to live; breakfast, lunch, dinner, and supper are probably all not gonna be happy about it.

They also say not all who wander are lost; hello, not all who eat are hungry, too. Not all who cry are sad; not all who run are fit; not all who sleeps are sleepy; not all who...... You get it. 

They say they haven't been to everywhere, but it's on their list. Becoming a millionaire and die painlessly probably also appeared on that same list. 

They actually say a lot of things but they say I won't say a thing, until I travel, then I'll start saying a lot of things like them (originally: travel leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller). But they don't know the secret: storytellers exaggerate and tell lies. 

Then some say they got the travel bug (see a doctor please); some admit they chose travel as a choice of drug (and they boast about their addictions!); others say they fall in love with cities they haven't been and people they haven't met (this one needs a shrink); some says to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice (just...); others say people don't take trips, trips take people (probably gonna be careful not to be randomly taken away!); some travel not to escape life but for life not to escape them (doctor, definitely emergency!); others say they wanna travel forever to find other souls (oh my, are you Dementor or something?); and there's this one that laughs at travelers saying traveling makes them small. Lol! I don't even...

I actually liked the one that asked me to move my butt and wander around. So cute. Wiggle in the oyster. 

Vilnius/Kaunas 8/11/14-10/11/14

VILNIUS! Reached Vilnius late in the evening at some ulu bus station and we all thought it seems abit too undeveloped. The fact that some random guy asked me for cigarettes along the way didn't help. Walked past all the rundown houses with the same Chinese girl slightly ahead of us; I must say she's really brave. Reached our hostel and realize she's in the same one (except we booked it with a hostel of different names... Sleezy huh); there was this party going on with people seemingly on drugs and are generally just high and randomly waving, getting touchy with each other and stuff. Nonetheless, we found the hostel (upstairs of the bar/pub in a quieter setting) to be really cool. It's called Hostel Jamaika and it didn't disappoint on its Reggae theme. What's nicer is they the beds are not bunk-beds! And they don't have a bed frame per se, just a thick mattress on top of beer bottle crates. The beds are separated by linens and quoting Ms Blur, it looks kinda like a hospital setting (except it's only so thorough the photos and is actually not so when you are physically there). There was even private cupboards! Anyway, went out for beer cos Songen was hungry and while he had his pizza, Sho stayed in the hostel for his wifi. Oh, the hostel also had some combination locks that was cool, cos you had to depress some numbers together to get in; took us awhile to get it. Did I mention that the beds were €1.70 per night per person? Well, turns out there were some technical errors and it was supposed to be more expensive but they were nice and only charged us what was agreed on the paper (we were nice too, cos we mentioned that we were willing to pay what it actually cost; that made them even nicer isn't it?) 

Breakfast next morning was disappointing cos it was just bread (they didn't even say they will provide breakfast anyway). But the morning shift receptionist was nice too! He checked that the system only recorded one night stay for us after I told him to do a double check (somehow intuitively I doubted te system, after what's happened the night before). So he added another night, told us how to get to where we want to go, and even checked the train/bus timing for us! They don't even look the part: sleeve tattoos; nose piercings; and punk-style dressing... Never judge a book by its cover. And it's only when we come back from the next city that we'll know that that also applies to this capital... 

KAUNAS. So we went away from the city centre (we were staying at the fringe) once again towards the bus/train station (which was 500m away from the fringe of the city centre, aka our hostel; so we haven't actually stepped into Vilnius' main area even up till this point). Brought a train ticket after much confusion and took a 1hr train to the previous capital, Kaunas. It's actually quite a recent "ex" considering the fact that they changed the capital from Vilnius over to this place only during the post-WWI era when Poland claimed the current capital (shifted back after the Russians returned, this time as the Soviet Union instead of the previous Tsarist Russia). This place was... boring, but pretty in the rustic way, especially the old town portion. This city also changed our Japanese's perspective of a UNESCO heritage site for its failure to impress (that says a lot isn't it? Considering how Japanese are famous for visiting sites for their fame on the allusive UNESCO list - according to Songen, at least, that's the case). Went to the castle and we all thought it was really rundown and whichever king that stayed in it probably isn't much of a "royalty". We walked another 20min towards the famous Seventh Fort (cos we were too lazy to take a bus to the further-away Ninth Fort), but we were still too lazy in the end and gave up somewhere near a supermarket; the pull of 95cents Magnum was too strong. Alas, we realize things aren't that cheap here and Magnum isn't 95cents anymore. Brought some random stuff and drank some beer before we headed back to the train station, where I would proceed to get a surprisingly good caramel latte from a vending machine, before we train back to Vilnius...

Back in Vilnius and we finally had the chance to walk into the Old Town. But before that, food (of course, what else)!!! Went to this local food chain that's recommended on the map ("map made by locals" as they call themselves, and we've been using the same thing throughout the Baltic states) and it was pretty awesome in my opinion. Dumpling was, I guess, of polish influence; but difference is: they deep-dry the whole thing here and it comes in a bite-size instead of the normal-sized ones I had before in Warsaw/Krakow. Definitely goes well with the local-brewed beers we had and nicer on the palates without the strong cheese. Then, it's time to explore cos it's too early for the technology slaves to go back to their masters (if there's one thing I know for sure of our generation, it's that we are all slaves to technology; guilty as charged). And if you think I walk fast, you haven't walked with Songen and Sho. According to Songen, "I only have two modes: either I'm walking damn fast, or I'm in front sitting down waiting for the rest." I mean I walk fast too... But after much complain from the long-legged Huihan (the rest of us are just longer-legged), I try to slow down when I'm traveling (and also because I don't wanna sweat beneath my thick layers of clothes). But that's besides the point. The main point is: I'm impressed by the city centre; we all are. It actually has a very European-feel, the developed yet old-fashioned feel; though less of a London, it's kind of like a Brussels or Antwerp, or a posh Warsaw or Prague. The Town Hall square was even lined with high-end shops like Burberry and expensive cars like Rolls Royce. Streets were littered with beggars but even more so by street artists; and the university actually looked pretty grand. There's a lot of white "formal" feeling buildings that gave it the developed feel, but they all weren't tall; in fact, the taller buildings are the colorful religious ones: Russian Orthodox Churches in their fanciful colors and Catholic/Christian Churches in the usual red-bricked façade; and there's so many of them (a staggering 40 actually). We ventured even further, to the Cathedral Square which has more space and less expensive-looking stuff (it's BMW and Mercedes instead of RR and Porsches kind of "less expensive") but we gave up on going to the Three Crosses Hill cos it was a little too creepy with the meandering, dark roads leading up the hill. So we went back to the hostel, and it's time to serve our masters...

Next morning, same old routine: breakfast (I skipped cos strawberry jam just isn't my thing); wash up; pack up; check out. Got a free postcard from the receptionist and said our goodbyes to the nice people there. Walked around the same place to see the city centre with daylight before settling down for brunch... at KFC! After the unhealthy food, we went for a walk, a quick one, up a hill, with some steps. But we were rewarded with the city's view from a vantage point; and I also realize that that's the view on the postcard. Only had a few minutes up there before we strolled down to the Town Hall for the free city tour. I was initially afraid that we'd be the only ones, seeing the yellow suitcase was sitting with a lonely self at the entrance of the townhall. But it wasn't long before a crowd started to form and it soon reached a number I thought I'll only see in the summer (we also recognized a French couple from our Riga tour, and had the chance to speak to them later on in the tour; the guy's Asian that's why lol). 

This tour was different cos I've remembered a lot of the stuff said and things saw, mostly because it's a really amazing city and I'm genuinely impressed and positively surprised. Vilnius was once Polish (as mentioned);  Basketball is often referred to as the second religion (or first, for the atheist) for Lithuanians; the locals first got baptised for free shirt (sounds familiar isn't it? Doing things for free shirts); and they even have an "independent state" within the city! The guide also told us things like how the Russian blocks are so similar that there's a movie on it (Irony of Fate); there's a Project Siberia going on every year to visit graves of deported Lithuanians in Siberia during the Soviet era; and for the soon-to-vanish national currency, the Litas (they are switching to Euros next year, just as Latvia had done earlier this year), they have a movement called the Crying Litas, where people are drawing tears on the figurine on their notes. And the free "independent state"! A little like Christiana in Copenhagen, it's also has its rules; mainly, be open-minded (it's even got its own constitution drawn up in 3 hours and translated - and displayed - in 23 different languages on a wall). But this place is much less serious, much less official, and is, for the most part, just for laughs. Quite literally, actually, since entering it requires visas in the form of smiles. The Užupio Res Publika ("Užupis" as it should be pronounced), is a "republic" conceptualized by a group of artists, with a restaurant as its "parliament" and a "national day" on the 1st of April. It's little wonder the current Vilnius mayor who came up with the "don't make me get my tank" campaign lived in this district (google it). 

The tour then crossed the "border" back into Vilnius and we headed to the Literature Street where there were many artsy stuff on display, as you might have guessed. What's most interesting is this piece with a person's two thumbs sticking out between the index and middle fingers of a clenched fist: apparently in some culture, it means "Goodluck" but here, it kinda translates to "fuck off" (or "you won't get anything from me," and it's a representation of what the government is telling the locals, in a overly critical sense, IMO). Such cultural differences is quite interesting isn't it? Anyway, along the way towards the end of the tour, I chanced upon a sticker on a random wall that says "it is important to see what is invisible to others" and it really sums up my impression of this city...

Dinner at Būsi Trečias (a local restaurant recommended by our guide), cabbing to the airport (they drive like Southeast Asians), and now, sitting on a propeller plane, physically sums up this trip. 

(It took me the whole plane ride to type this out... Really a lot to say bout this place, surprisingly... Still surprised. Lol) 

--

Three days of reality before heading out to Spain! 

Riga 7/11/14-8/11/14

RIGA. Four hour bus ride and here we are in the capital of Latvia. Checked into the hostel where we met our roommate, Satwant, whom we went out with after dropping our packs. We also exchanged some alcohol and drank a few shots before leaving, lol. As he was already here since the previous night, he became the guide! But first, lunch (it's already 4 in the afternoon and we haven't had any food since breakfast! And the sun's already set, by the way), and we found a local-recommended restaurant, Lido, which served really nice food Marche-style. Walked around the city centre abit, courtesy of our new friend/guide. Brought a small bottle of their local liquor which tasted more like medicine than alcohol, but it was indeed effective against the cold. It soon started to pour so we headed back to our hostel. Nothing much to do so we just lazed around watching television and sipping liquor. Chit chatted with the receptionist abit and continued to nua all the way till 9pm. Side track abit, this hostel is really a cool one as it's only a few rooms and it's really more like a home than a hostel; everyone's like a family, even their breakfast area is just a small table in the kitchen, just like every other house. 9pm meant dinner! Wanted to find another Lido nearby as the rain seemed more persistent than the usual European ones, but the one we located closed early, so we went food-hunting in the drizzle. Found a kebab shop and settled dinner with nothing fanciful. Back to hostel, then rested for the night. 

Next morning was breakfast, chillax, and checking out after we bid our friends goodbye. Went for the free tour in a nice weather (sunny!); while the whole tour was really impressive, we blame it on the boring city and not the guide. Anyhow, saw the harbour that dried up, the Stalin's Birthday cake (looks similar to the one I saw in Warsaw, just slightly different with a Latvian touch at the top), art Nouveau houses, suburban community, the biggest wooden church in the Baltics (which was burned down three times previously, mainly for strategic reasons during war, but the last time was due to misinformation); indeed, the only thing I really remember is that they are good at burning things down... Highlight of the tour was when we had no small change and each embarrassingly dropped a €1 coin into the guide's cap and left sort of hurriedly. Got directions to a local restaurant whilest we tried to escape the awkward situation. And yes we found the restaurant (according to Songen, it would have been more justified giving the €1 tip if he ended up giving us wrong directions; but nope, the guilt stayed in us), and yes we enjoyed the lunch (in fact, it was really awesome; especially the pork knuckle!), but this came at a price. The place was nice but the kitchen was slow; we waited more than an hour for Ye food to be served! And from having the luxury of time before our bus' departure, we ended up having to rush to the coach station. But thankfully, it was nearby, and we got to catch the bus with some time to spare. 

Also, the Chinese girl from our previous bus ride is here as well! So we striked a conversation and made a new friend. Awesome! Now, time to read my book as another 4hour bus ride unfolds...

Tallinn 6/11/14-7/11/14

TALLINN! Left Stockholm early in the morning just early enough to catch the first snow of the year at 5 in the morning! I have been churning out rain every time I stepped out of my house, and I'm glad it's finally snow I'm generating this time round. So yay, first snow in about 15 years!!! 

Everything went smoothly (even Sho wasn't late) and the transport only cost 75kr with direct train from T-centrale. Took off, landed. Reached Tallinn in the morning and was greeted with showers and drizzles that lasted quite a bit. Really nice city with a Medieval-style old town, where every building is nice! Found a shopping mall and guess what, Magnum sticks are €0.95! Finally get to eat the Champagne flavor, CHEAPLY. Heh. Walked around a little in the rain before noon, where we met up with the guide for our tour. As usual, history, trivials, architectures and bunch of stuff I don't really remember (population is only 1.3million, that I remembered) but the Russian Orthodox Cathedral was really quite mesmerizing. After the tour we went lunch together with this Canadian Chinese dude from the tour; had pancakes at a place the guide recommended as it was supposedly pretty "Estonian," and it didn't disappoint. Turkey meat (was quite disappointing, cos it's actually just turkey ham) and smoked salmon with cream cheese, and the portion was huge so I half-halfed with Song En. 

Went to our hotel to check in after lunch. The story goes like this: Song En sucks at booking accommodation (and he admitted it); he booked a hotel for S$96 when hostels are like €1.70 per person per night in this region. And it's really quite out of the place (considering how small this city is). BUT, I must say the place is really quite well furnished and one of the best accommodation for my budget travels this far (duh...). Put down our stuff, be the technology slaves that we always are, then off we went back to the city centre in search of museums we were interested in. They were all closed; and the sun has already set by now. So we went back to the cathedral and went in... It was super creepy... So we left in awhile. And continued to our favourite activity once again: hunting for food. Finally settled in a Estonian-looking restaurant with reasonable price and nice ambience. All of us ordered the same food (some slow cooked pork) that is really damn awesome, and I finally get to order my Vana Tallinn Kohv (coffee with the local liquer) which was also awesome lol. Chilled and watched Bugs Bunny in the restaurant (they projected it on the wall). Then... SHOPPING! Didn't buy anything though (only Song brought some beanie from H&M -.-). Got defeated by the cold so we headed back after getting some alcohol...

But first, JACUZZI and STEAMROOM!!! (Sauna was down). Never felt so relaxed in a long long time, just fell asleep in the bubbles, forget about everything in the world and float in the jacuzzi; streamroom also means I get to soak myself up in my own sweat and the steam... My skin is still crying in joy now. And I literally went hysterical in the pool lol. Too damn shiok. 

Got dry and went back to the room. After we gave up trying to get the cork out without a corkscrew and got assistance from the restaurant, it was chilling and more chilling. Sat down and talked about everything under te sun with a glass of wine in our hands. How awesome. And before we know it, time has slipped by...

Next morning (now) was just breakfast, wash up, pack up, check out and off we go for the next city! On the bus now and there's this Australian Angmoh handsome dude speaking mandarin with a Chinese Beijing lady in front of us; I must start remembering that Caucasians understand Chinese nowadays and not bad mouth them in it in the future hahah

Östermalmstorg 5/11/14

Firstly, a qotd cos it's Guy Fawke's Day! 

"Remember, remember, the 5th of November

The Gunpowder Treason and plot; 

I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot"

--

ÖSTERMALMSTORG! We've always been here yet it's my first time stepping foot on this place. Sometimes we rush off as the train came by at the other side of the platform, sometimes we sit down and be the slaves we always are as we wait for the next train. But we're always stuck between these two parallel lines, never escaping it to meet the world outside. And today we finally did! And this place is so pretty! To think I've already been in Stockholm for so long. And these even Hemköp here! Why did we even bother going all the way to T-centrale to squeeze with the crowd? 

It took Ai Weiwei (@aiww) and his ice sculpture for the Stockholm Film Festive 2014 (#sff14 you see, I'm supposed to tag my selfie on Instagram but they're not of sufficient quality to go up there; partly also because my face here is kinda frozen) to bring us here...

So here I am, with Yimei, in the 4 degree "night" (it's 4plus in the evening) after our class looking for... ice. Haha. 

Anyway, the qotd really isn't that no link if you're vaguely familiar with Ai Wei Wei and his work, and the story of Guy Fawkes; or, like me, where I got the quote from - V for Vendetta. Political activists trying to prove a point against a dystopia (or unsatisfactory) government, it's quite cool they coincided in this place where politics is quite a hush hush (or just less dramatic, except for the latest elections that many says is a storm brewing). 

--

What's more no link is that this brings me think about the political apathetic situation back home. "Trapped between two parallel lines never to see the world beyond" sounds kinda like what is happening to many people in Singapore (and maybe even in Sweden). So many people just adopt the DKDC attitude. And it's even so in life! After watching Tangled (yes I just watched it), I'm convinced that some people actually love the life of Repunzel, thinking "mama is always right" and trapped in their own little enclosed worldview, protected and spoilt. I'm guessing many doesn't have the courage and adventurous spirit of hers, and shall always remain trapped. Untill.. Something happens. 

Perhaps sometimes we should find something in life to fight for instead of staying in our strawberry beds, be it to catch the lantern or to set some fire; perhaps, just perhaps, we'll find something amazing about ourselves! 

Remember, remember, the 5th of November...

I'm on a mission

Clean eating diet mission (before I pig out in the Baltics haha!) 

Looks pretty awesome right! 

 😋