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Saturday, January 05, 2008

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My Great Europe Experience

24 NOVEMBER - 5 DECEMBER 2007

I went to Europe for holiday during the dec holidays last year.... the problem of not writing immediately is that i'll start to forget what happened.... i know now is jan 08 and hols are over but hols will forever be on this blog!!!!!
I know not many ppl get the opportunity to go for long hols like this so i must be very happy that i get to go so far.....
Now i'm going to start telling story.........

DAY 1:

11pm. We reached the airport.... with a 1am flight to catch...... The plane ride from Singapore to Rome took about 12 hours... the longest flight i ever took....
Singapore and Europe has a time difference of 7 hours so we reached Rome airport at around 6am... When we first stepped out of the airport we had to adjust to the temperature difference.... the temperature was about 11 degrees...... the first time i ever experienced smoke or mist coming out of my mouth......
Because we signed up with a tour group, we straight away start the tour...... havent even go hotel yet....... btw, every night change hotel..........

The 1st place we went was the Vatican City in Rome........ Inside got the Vatican museum and the Pope...... All there is in the museum is paintings and sculptures and some stuff by Michael Angelo......there's the famous 16th chapel with the famous last judgement painting.

Many paintings is on the celing, which means the guy painted it lying down. The museum is so big can get lost and all the ppl dont speak english......
All the buildings in Europe look like those olden day buildings from last time...... but the design is quite unique and nice to look at........
We only had a few hours in the museum cos we had to rush off to the Colosseum..... which is one of the famous landmarks of Italy...... But sadly we didn't get to go inside, only outside..... due to time....... it's like some broken down stone building from outside.... last time it was supossed to be some grand place where ppl getting killed is a sport.......

Next we visited the largest church in the whole world! Which is St. Peter's Basicilla. And i took a pro picture of it........ ya i took

it........ Inside the church it's like about 20 times bigger than my church which is already quite big........ BIG............. And i thinkthe pope was there preaching....

That night we visited the Trevi Fountain and which is nothing much but a big fountain where many tourists and pickpockets go to........... btw, Italy is the home of mafias....

I like Rome not because i saw everything IN 1 DAY but because the city is just very nice.... the buildings and life there..... sadly i only had chinese meals there...... that night we checked into the hotel and checked out the next morning to leave Rome.......
DAY 2:

The next day we woke up early because we have to leave as a group..... and all the breakfasts is at the hotel...... We set of in the coach for another town, Siena......... This place sells good pizza!!! And coffee also...... Siena is a very quiet town with beautiful buildings........ oh ya and btw, everything in Europe is so ex!!!! One burger is about Singapore $10... just 1 burger..... i meal is about S$20!!

Pizza at Siena is good...... best in the world. I found out that pizza is actually not circular but squarish.... and the bread is so soft and crispy.........

The allies in Siena are very nice... no roads at all, only streets and buildings. And there's this huge church in the middle of the city that looks nice but i forgot the name..... Every city in Italy has a very big city square, like those old days.... the place where all the pigeons will gather... later i'll talk about the venice pigeons haha....

That evening we travelled to another town, Pisa. And there's another famous landmark there... of course Leaning Tower of Pisa! I didn't get to go up the building, only outside.... actually the building is just an odinary building that's just slightly tilted...

DAY 3:

The scenery in Italy is very nice. Over there is a temperate country so the leaves of the trees are colourful. Better than the malaysia ones. We travelled all the way to northern Italy so that we could take a ferry to venice, the waterland..... Venice is much colder that the other states.... at about 7 degrees.... I think only 30% of venice's transport is by land.... Everything else must take the gondola, which is their boat...

The enterance of venice, just after we alight from the ferry, is St.Mark's square. It's a huge city square where millions of pigeons come to rest on everyday.... If the pigeons see that u got food, they'll all attack u haha...

In Venice there's hardly any shops, but the houses are very interesting.... Outside the front door is all water.... so unless u have a gondola, u can't go anywh

ere else. And from the ouside, all the houses look like some 1600 house from last time... but inside the building is as morden as singapore, got air-con, and other stuff.....

I took an hour ride on the gondola round the mini city and life there is very interesting, different from singapore... it's more of a liesurely and slow lifestyle and not so crowded.....

I visited this glass blowing factory there... i dunno wat the visit was for but it was part of the tour...... i know Italy produces glass........

The sunset at Venice is very nice..... cos the city faces the sea and the weather is so cooling....

That night we travelled back to mainland to rest for the night.....

DAY 4:

The next day we headed west to another big city, Milan. Milan is the place where all the rich ppl in the world go shopping. All the branded branded stuff is all in Milan and nothing that we can ever afford, especially at Milan's " Orchard Road". All the bags and clothes all a few K...

At Milan's central shopping district there's a huge church, this time it's the 3rd largest in the world. It's called the Duomo. The second largest is in Germany.......

Inside the church is also very big but this church is different from the St.Peter's one becuase it's famous for it's large stained glass windows...

I like the road side stops in Italy. After many km, there would be this road side stop that is something like 7-11 but bigger and sells fresh pizza where we'd take a break....

The transport in Milan is quite interesting. There's bus, underground mrt and ground train thingy. The ground train is travelling together with all the cars, but it is connected to cables hanging on top of it.
Basicaly for the whole day, the tour guide left us to do our own shopping but as not so rich ppl, we decided to just walk around and explore the city.

So fast 1 day passed again and we checked in to another hotel in Milan for the night. I must say the hotels in Europe are not as nice as the singapore or malaysia ones but not bad for 4star... although quite small..... and the lifts are mini, only can fit 4 ppl at 1 go.....

DAY 5:

The next day was a big day cos we were leaving Italy for switzerland!!!!

The ride across the border was about 7 hours which is a terribly big number if u think about it...... Half way, we stopped by some factory outlets where all the branded stuff is like 40% cheaper than in the city. The factory outlet is just a few shopping centres joined together. We didn't buy much, just ate some ice cream. Btw, the temperature in Switzerland for daytime is like 2 degrees..... At night it can hit 0.....

When we reached the town of Interlaken, which is a tourist town, it was already evening. Spent the whole day travelling. Btw, all the residents in Interlaken their job is got to do with tourism. Interlaken is a very nice place. The town is very small and u can walk a few metres just to get to a shopping centre or a convenience stall andd u can anytime go to the beautiful lake and if u look up, it's the mountains!!!!!!!!!!!!! Best mountain range in the whole of Euorpe, THE SWISS ALPS!!!!!! talk about it later...........

That night there was a grat dinner at a Swiss restaurant where all the waiters and stuff there r so friendly. They will sing songs and play games with the customers. The meal was a cheese fondue, meat fondue and chocolate fondue!! Swiss dinner.....

The meat fondue is a western version of our steamboat.....

Below our hotel there's this shop called Bucherer which sells swiss watches like swatch and other brands but they r super ex! My bro bought a reasonably priced watch but some of the branded watches can go all the way untill 60k!!!

I noticed that all or most of the shops in Interlaken are souvenior shops..... which all sell the same thing. And there was a Macdonalds near my hotel. This time the food was a bit cheaper because the Swiss frank not as bad as Euro. It was a nice town, we stayed there for 2 nights and ppl go there for the mountains.....

DAY 6:

Today we climb the mountain!!! Early in the morning we set off for the tallest mountain in the whole of Europe.... Anyway we are surrounded by snow cap mountains wherever we go and the scenery is wonderful.....

We took a 30 min bus ride to the foot of the mountain where we took a train up the mountain.... Journey was about 1 hour. There were ppl climbing the mountain... ya, i saw...... The scenery up the mountain is so nice, much better than mountains in asia or SEA...... much much much much much nicer than mt.kinabalu in sabah where ppl go for obs and stuff......... even if u climb kinabalu, although i havent tried b4, i know mt.jungfraujoch in the Swiss alps, tallest mountain is europe is much better and has a scenery that will blow u away! And i saw snow for the first time in my life! I know u dont get to see it in Singapore or SEA, that's why it was a once in a life time experience for me......

even with gloves on, my hands were freezing. I think i was wearing 4 layers..... The camera can freez up there but luckily it didn't.

On top of the tallest mountain in europe, we were in this building where u can either see through glass or go out and explore...... And the air pressure was making a lot of ppl sick...... The temperature up there was -13 degrees. Very Cold!!!!! At First we went to the outdoor observation area where it was snowing a bit and we went to another area where we can venture out into the snow to the peak. That part was crazy. The wind speed was so great that it can literaly blow u away if u doing stick your feet to the ground. And if i don't wear anything to cover my eyes, all the snow from the snowstorm would get in the way. I took like 3-4 seconds to take a step foward against the wind. But it's actually quite fun. Many ppl fell down there because of the terrain. And the scenery from up there is great, although i can't really open my eyes. My mom didn't want to go out cos it was to cold for her..... and it's very glaring up there so must wear sunglasses...

It was probably my most memorable experience from the trip and i think that would be my first and last time there.

One thing about europe is that cold is part of life. Cos in singapore it's very warm and humid but over there it's so different. The weather, buildings, nature, people and life.

That evening when we returned from the mountain, we went shopping at the town's only shopping centre. Oh ya and b4 that we went to a lake where i kept playing with the swans.... like they'll eat anything u throw down...... At Migros hypermart, i bought all the souveniors for my friends..yay......swiss chocolate..... Then it's the end of the day...... and I love indoors because of the warmth... random......

DAY 7: The Nightmare

In the middle of the night, i fell sick, vommitted 5 times....

The next day, vommitted more than 10 times..... And we were supossed to go up mt.titlis.... i still when up but i felt sick all the way. I vommitted on the bus, on the mountain top..... and almost everywhere..... dunno y it happened...... I missed breakfast, lunch and dinner..... had a bowl of soup for dinner after much difficulty and i started to have a fever. Everything that's got to do with the mountain was a complete blur for me so i can't say much. In the evening we headed for another city, Luzern, with is further east of Switzerland.

I went to rest at macdonalds while the rest of the group went shopping. Had a cup of hot chocolate but vommitted it out.... Then we checked in to hotel and i just knocked off...... and b4 that i was praying so badly that this was just a one day thing.......

DAY 8:

I woke up..... and hey i was feeling much better.... i could even have a proper breakfast...... thank god i was back to myself....... It was a great day cos we were leaving for France!!!!!! Another 7 hour journey to Paris, one of the biggest cities in the world.... We reached there at night and i was quite excited because paris is a big city..... Btw, in europe, the sun sets at around 5pm because it's winter.....

We had a chinese dinner at a restaursnt before going for a cruise that took us around the city.... and we saw the eiffel tower at night!! Great view...

There's also a statue of liberty opposite the eiffel tower..... a gift from US....

Our hotel was the only skyscraper in the whole of that area... further down in the city there's a skyline, very different from Italy where the buildings are much older. But France still kept their old buildings so that they can preserve history and all that stuff........

The night view of Paris from the hotel room window is just so nice..... The night life of Paris is just different from Singapore.......

DAY 9:

Another great day. Today, first thing in the morning, we visited Paris' most famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower!!!! It's actually a very big building, the tallest in Paris i think.... made only of steel..... We had to take a lift up the tower to the second floor which was already very high up. And the scenery from there was beautiful and i wish i can stay there longer...... From up there i think i can see almost the whole of Paris. The temperature was a cooling 10 degrees with a nice breeze.

After that we had a bus tour round the city and all the buildings very nice to see...

We went to the Louvre museum where there are a lot of famous paintings like the Mona Lisa.... The museum is more modern than the vatican museum and the paintings are different. But we were only given like 2 hours to tour the whole building....... At least i can say i've been there....haha

We also caught a glimse of the Notre Dame Church which is the most famous church in Paris.

The rest of the afternoon we went to Paris' main shopping district and we saw this famous Napoleon Arch...... The stuff in Paris is also quite ex so we just explore the city......... The shopping centres indoors look s exactly like the Singapore ones but from outside it looks like some stone building..... Got a lot of shopping centres, like orchard road..... And i noticed that there r quite a number of chinese working there......

That night was our last night in Europe, so we decided to have one last look at the Eiffel tower.....

DAY 10:

Time to say goodbye to Europe, it has been a long trip and a once in a lifetime one.

I won't forget this 1 and a half weeks in Europe..........
The plane left the Paris airport and then it's back to Singapore, back to real life...........

SUMMARY:

Day 1: Rome

Day 2: Siena and Pisa

Day 3: Venice

Day 4: Milan

Day 5: Interlaken
Day 6: Interlaken- Top of Europe

Day 7: Luzern- Mt.Titlis
Day 8: Paris

Day 9: Paris

Day 10: Paris-Singapore

Labels: My Greatest Experiences

Gabriel
9:21 PM