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Venice!!! Love the Italian food!!!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Among the three cities that I had planned for the trip, Venice is the place that excites me the most before I started on the expedition. I have heard much about this exceptional city with numerous nicknames (e.g. "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Bridges", "The City of Light" and "City of Canals").

Taken in the guesthouse 'Venice Rooms', which was located in a town outside Venice. The greatest advantage of all is the common kitchen, where we can display our talented cooking skills. Haha... Oh well, it was an enjoyable and cheap meal. We just went to the nearest supermarket and bought frozen pizza, lasagne and drinks. It was definitely sumptuous! Just imagine, we had 2 appetizing pizzas, 1 tempting beef lasagne, 1 bottle of Coke (which I swear that it doesn't taste like the ordinary coke), 1 bottle of carbonated orange drink (it's just hard to find non-carbonated water anywhere in Europe) and a whole pot of instant noodles!!! Haha... All that and it just cost us close to 8 Euro (S$16)! Believe me, that was considered to be a low-priced meal. After lunch, it was time to take a bus which brought us back to Venice.

Above is a picture of the motorised waterbus (aka "vaporetti"). This is the most common mode of transport in Venice. I do realise that the waterbuses are always very packed due to the large numbers of tourists in Venice. Seriously, I wonder if it is very inconvenient for Venetians who have no private boats of their own and will have to squeeze in the bus with the rest of the visitors? I will certainly not like it if I'm a native, since there is a high possibility of missing the bus due to long queues.

Photo of a typical bus stop in Venice. I was beginning to get a headache while waiting for the bus in the bus stop, since the bus stop couldn't stop moving from left to right and vice versa.

That is a water taxi. The owner of the guesthouse, that we stayed in, told us that taxis in Venice are very expensive and it would be a wiser choice to take the water buses. Thus, we didn't even try since we are on a tight budget. Das ist schade.

Took this photo while on the water bus. The buildings were pretty far, so my friend could only capture my head with the buildings and the private boats. Haha...

This is taken while we were taking the bus to go around the 'Grand Canal'. We were approaching the 'Rialto Bridge'. The whole route around the 'Grand Canal' takes around 1 hour. After I got down from the bus, I never like stepping on solid land as much as I did then.

Yeah!! I'm holding the Italian flag!!!

St. Mark's Square in Venice. There are hundreds of pigeons in St. Mark's Square, with several stalls selling food for the pigeons. I noticed that many tourists purchased the pigeon feed and like to place the food on their palms,shoulders and even on their faces. It was quite a sight, looking at flocks of pigeons 'attacking' the man, who just stood there like a scarecrow.

Picture of the 'Gondola' on the Grand Canal. My friends and I definitely wouldn't miss the chance of sitting on the Gondola. Man, it was expensive! We had to pretend to walk away before the man rowing the Gondola agreed to reduce his price to 70 Euros (S$140). Hehe... We were great bargainers in Venice. I took plenty of photos while on the Gondola, including the house that belonged to the infamous womanizer Casanova. However, all the photos were gone now. Bless that one particular guy... ><

Alrighty! It's time for us to leave Italy! Our next stop would be Zurich, Switzerland. We had our dinner in a restaurant in Venice before boarding the train. It was the best Italian meal that I ever had. The spaghetti, lasagne and pizza were unbelievably delicious! I haven't tasted pizza that was as good! It's certainly of a higher standard than the pizza I ate in Pizza Hut. However, all good things come with a price. That meal was the most expensive meal that I had ever eaten during the one-month Europe trip.

In honest opinion, Venice is undoubtedly one of its kind. I wouldn't describe Venice as beautiful, however it is undeniably unique and has its own irreplaceable and distinctive essence. Probably deserved a 7.5/10.

--Mary HAD a little lamb--
4:16 pm

Experience in Vienna
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Vienna, the capital of Austria, has been given the name as the 'City of Arts'. It is indeed well-deserved. Among the European cities that I had visited over the past month, Vienna possesses buildings with the most beautiful and exquisite architecture and monuments.

I was most impressed by the Parliament House, which has a very strong Roman element.

The statue of Athena in front of the Austria Parliament

The words are in German. With my basic German, I could only understood the first statement, which basically depicts that:
"All men are free and have the right to be born."
One of the many operahouses and art theaters... There were so many sales personal on the streets. We were approached by at least 10 tickets officers who tried to persuade us to watch at least one musical. We would love too, but we really had no time. There are just too many places of attraction in Vienna!

However sadly, I have lost all the photos (around 300+ pictures) taken during the first 2 days in Vienna due to one selfish person. Uploading my photos into his laptop is the biggest mistake I had ever made. ARGH! Anyway, enough of it. Let's go more into each attraction. I'll extract some photos from Wikipedia in replacement of my lost photos.

I also visited 2 remaining and famous imperial palaces that were previously occupied by the Austrian royal family - 'Schönbrunn Palace' (the summer palace) and Hofburg (the winter palace). I had one thing on my mind when I entered each of the palace: 没天理的大, 太浪费了!

(Taken from Wikipedia)
From the picture above, Schönbrunn Palace does not seem too big. If you ever tried to walk around the garden and venture into the zoo (the Tiergarten Schönbrunn) and 'The Gloriette' at the top of the hill behind the palace, you would understand that 'big' is no longer the word for it.

Taken outside the entrance of Hofburg. Luckily, my friends and I decided to take one last snap of Hofburg during our last day of stay in Vienna, so thankfully we have at least 1 photo of the winter palace. It's a pity though that I no longer have the photo of the statues built on the other entrance of the palace. They were very striking and stunning. Sigh... Oh, and I do realise that there are plenty of statues with great emphasis on the beauty of human body... Just the human body... Hehe. You do get my meaning right?

In the winter palace, there were a lot of exhibitions (with entrance fees charged) with regard to the royal families in the past, with great particular emphasis on Empress Sisi. I was pretty curious about her life, since Empress Sisi and Mozart were the 2 most common appearances on any souvenir. However, it was quite disappointing to know that she did no noble or great things. People remembered her so well because she was well-received by them. Hmmm... That just reminded me of Princess Diana.
(Taken from Wikipedia)
I tried the popular and 'original Sachertorte' in Hotel Sacher. There was a pinch when the bill came. However it does not seem right if one does not try, even once, the cake that Vienna is known worldwide for. I didn't really like it since I'm not a fan of dark chocolate. Nonetheless, if anyone of you loves dark chocolate, 'Sachertorte' is something to die for (feedback from my friend).

Das Rathaus (the town council) - our last stop for the day before we left Vienna for Venice.
It's one of my favourites as I come to admire the gothic style of the building very much. It reminds me of structure of an ancient European church. I initially though it was a church until I went closer to the entrance.

Last but not least, they were our tour guides in Vienna. Great chaps from NUS, who were in Vienna on exchange programme and were kind enough to bring us around. Thanks a lot guys!

There are still many things that I wish to share about Vienna. However, it may be a little too overwhelming. Some things are better left in the mind as long-lasting memories. Overall, I will rate my trip in Vienna 9/10. It's definitely one of the places that I'll go again if given a second opportunity.
--Mary HAD a little lamb--
12:13 am

Cooking lessons, anyone?
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Today is the first time that I paid serious and careful attention in listening to my father's instructions while he was preparing proper meals for me. The reason I actually stood in the kitchen and watched my dad cooked was because I realized that it is time for me to learn how to cook for myself and others in times of need. I wouldn't want to repeat the same experience of someone (eg. my host-mother in Germany) asking me to prepare a 'Singaporean-style' dish and I had to call my dad from Germany for enlightenment. In the end, I managed to prepare steam fish and 'mapo tofu' (hot and sour tofu). Don't ask me if they were tasty. It was my first time cooking. I was pretty satisfied since they were still edible. Hehe...
It was amusing when Frau Sagemann (name of my host-mother) asked me whether 'beehoon' is rice noodles or glass noodles. I wasn't even sure of the answer then and gave a clueless face on the preparation of fried beehoon when she probed into the topic. At that instance, beehoon dropped from being one of my favourite noodles to something that I hoped not to hear a second time.
Yes! It is really necessary for me to learn how to cook Singaporean food... Sigh, guess my good times at just sitting back, relax and eat are now officially over...

At the top of the world...

Went boat-paddling with Natalie in Germany. She's really very helpful, sweet and generous. Ar... what a darling...

--Mary HAD a little lamb--
11:31 am

~Home Sweet Home~
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
After a month of eating Pommes frites, spending in Euro and Swiss francs and travelling with an EXTREMELY heavy suitcase, I'm finally back in Singapore. It feels good to be home though I'm already beginning to miss the days in Europe, especially Muenster. My host family in Muenster has been very welcoming and accommodating and I really hope to see them again, if ever I have the chance.

Here are some pictures taken:
Euro-Cityfest in Muenster

My first time going near cows which thousands of small flies seem to have great affection for...

Strawberry picking!!! Now is the season for it!

Tried pork knuckle in Vennia. It's big enough for several people. There were 4 of us who were trying our best to finish only 1 pork knuckle, and we barely made it. Nonetheless, it was really good! Didn't like the beer though.
I think I'll have to upload other pictures (for instance those in Venice and Zurich) another time. Now is the time for lunch! Haven't eaten Singaporean food for a whole month! Guten Appetit!
--Mary HAD a little lamb--
11:17 am

Me!

Cindy (Short: Cinz)
*Leo*

loves!

*Loves manga and anime*
*Fan of Desperate Housewives, CSI and Grey's Anatomy *
*Enthusiast of documentaries of animals and plants*

taggit!




peeps!


DaGe
ErGe
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Michelle
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Li Che
Li Heng
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