I'M BACK.
Friday, December 12, 2008, 12/12/2008
Hello! Apparently my brain tells me to blog so here i am! I'm in EUROPE now, so I'm posting from an ITALIAN hotel at 6 plus in the morning=]=]- can't slp mah. So i just want to say that this entry is for sole purpose of recording the experience i had in WONDERFUL EUROPE so as i type away in italy, read this( but onlyu if u hav tons of time and nothing better to do coz this entry is abt 2000 words long, so ya.. ARIVADA- CEH( bye bye in italian, i think)
EUROTRIP!
Note: all “we”s refer to my mum, dad and awesomely, wonderful ME.
Day 1: touch down at Heathrow London airport on the A380 airbus!! WOW. So big ah! But too bad couldn’t check out the entire bus coz guess what… I had NO GUTS WHATSOEVER to move on pass the economy class to the business class coz I scared they say: “ eh, boy ah, u go where, lost your mummy isit?” this happens because of the fact that I’m a short individual with a slightly small stature. And that is why ppl think I’m a 9/10/11/12 year old (as u liked it);];]. After leaving airport then get, car, talk abt sme insurance thingy, then go wrong hotel, then waste time, then go right hotel, then ta-pao MACS( UK macs not bad la ) eat BIG MAC, go back hotel room.. ya-di-ya-da-ya-da… sleep then wake up to---
Day 2!: woke up at abt 5.30 A.M. in the fricking morning- if ure smart u wld know that the time in London is 8 hours earlier and that is simply why I’m not accustomed to the time zone/ sleep zone/ some other chim thing that makes no diff.. but anyways, woke up at 5.30, watch tv, play PSP, slack.. slack… then at 8.30A.M. in the morning, we set off to Windsor castle or somewhere around it lah. And since its so fricking early in the morning, the streets were literally empty.. till we saw some Japanese guys walking in packs, and gasping in utter bewilderment abt the beauty of the place( or some other stuff coz I dun understand japanese- apart from “ALIGATOK DAIZAIMAZ”- and I just know I spelt it wrong. “hai ya!!!” ) nevertheless, we ate BREAKFAST at the great Mcdonalds, I ate sausage MCmuffin which was a little bland but fulfilling and drank HOT CHOCOLATE:pp XD.. aft that, we went to see a few stuff, bought a souvenir.. and err.. u know the type of name stuff they sell in souvenir shops like a name carved in wood or plastic or pig skin? I actually saw a chocolate with names on it… very innovative I wld say, and if I were rich, I wld have bought them for u, random reader! ( they cost 5 pounds( 11.50 dollars) a piece). Moving on, we went into the castle and at began to take photos but to our utter shock, some half-bald brit shouted: “ NO PHOTOGRAPHS.” The thing was that he was bellowing at the top of his voice, in an enclosed area!! So all the ppl in the area looked at me and stared. Red-faced and humiliated, I trudged my way into the castle, picked up one of those cool remote control thingy that gave a commentary abt the castle and wad not, and began THE TOUR.
The castle was HUGE X5. It was like the size of 9 vivocities, and it even had its own rugby field and chapel/cemetery(coz all the dead royalty are buried here). But the impressive thing was that the rooms of the royalty were humongous. And every single one of them had like 10 or more murials, paintings and portraits. But more than just magnificent beauty, the commentary explained that it was a fortress of impeccable defense due to its mighty walls and the fact that it was perched on high ground and accessibility was strained. So I went into the hall, king’s bedroom, king’s study, waterloo ballroom or something, queen’s study, bla-bla-bla… and the tour was over! One interesting thing abt this castle was that it was set on fire internally in 1992. I mean, what castle in the world would be so carelessly stupid in setting a fire? The fire burnt down loads of rooms, paintings, damaged the floor, chandelier etc etc. I always thought that castle were the safest places on earth, but apparently, anything can go wrong. Finally, the last thing I checked out was the QUEEN’S DOLL HOUSE and some exhibition about PRINCE CHARLES. I learnt two things that moment, ROYALTY ARE PAMPERED COZ THEY ARE FRICKING RICH. The doll house itself is so intricate and beautiful that I just know it coz a bomb to make. But I guess that royalty gives u privileges( free stuff). The other thing I learnt was that PRINCE CHARLES must be a sad man coz he is 60 already and he still isn’t the king! I mean like when he eventually becomes the king, he wld be SUPPA old lar. Anyways, I think that royalty have lesser power these days… almost everything is controlled by politics and politicians.
Ok, once we left the Windsor castle thingy we went to a sub-urban town called STRATFORD. It was a sweet place with many shops like DOLCE AND GABBANA, HMV AND A RESTAURANT CALLED PEiLLINI. It was Italian and that was where we ate our second dinner in Europe. I had a SPAGHETTI GABINE, a seafood pasta that had lots of lots of prawns=]=]=]!! BON APPETITE=]. but that was not the reason we went to this town. We came here to see stuff about SHAKESPEARE, his birthplace, his wife’s place and his grandson in-law’s place. I gained knowledge about 1500s living and more abt William Shakespeare’s life. Firstly, he 1st saw the light of day in his own hse! John Shakespeare and his wife gave birth to him right beside their bed!( no hospitals at that time.) I know that’s gross coz all the icky fluids and goo will be on the floor right next to where they slept, and they’ll be smelling it all night. But another thing I learnt was that ppl in those days didn’t sleep straight on he bed. Instead, they slept upright, to prevent blockage of nose coz in those days, people were largely infected by the horrible smoke and pollution( river thames was 10 times more polluted than the Singapore river at its worst). Furthermore, ppl those days drank ale( even the little children!) coz the water from river thames was polluted and those extremely poisonous. It was safer drinking ale( in case u were wonderin’, ale is something like beer.)
So as we explored the town after going to the Shakespeare thingy, We shopped around in the afternoon, and I bought a splendid, super duper TOP-PIECE(collar-shirt, tie, and VEST-XD) for abt 24 pounds- I know abit EX but it was seriously worth it=]=]. that night we stayed in a hotel called THE FALCON. It was a small room, but nevertheless, it was cozy and warm=]=]. I chatted with JERYL TAN, BEN A and AMANDA HSIUNG online. Those ppl were nocturnal and psycho coz it was like 8pm in startford but 4 am in SINGAPORE! I mean, SERIOUSLY, who stays up THAT late! I’m seriously freaked out. What DO THOSE GUYS DO? Then I went to sleep at 8.30 plusplus++=]=].
So Stratford was great and all… but,
Day 3!: It came pretty fast! All English breakfast at the hotel- BACON, SAUSAGE, SCRAMBLED EGGS, BAKED BEANS, TOAST, CEREAL AND ORANGE JUICE=]=] one of the biggest breakfast I ever had, it was certainly fulfilling[;p] from then on, we went to BATH, the town named after the roman bath, a natural hot spring that the romans named when they conquered brittania. It was used as a public sample where Roman soldiers and others gathered to relax and enjoy the hot steam bath. It was also a religious place where the Romans worshipped Minerva, the goddess of hot steam or somethin’… so we were in bath, and all the road signs were on buildings(unlike SINGAPORE WHOSE SIGNS WERE ON METAL PIECES THAT POINTED THE WAY thus SO much clearer). Anyways, there was a daniel street, so daddy was pretty HAPPY, coz his egoistic and loves his name (JUST KIDDIN’-S-E-R-I-O-U-S).
So the ‘hotel’ we stayed in was called the wentworth house hotel. Well, the ‘ hotel’ we stayed was more of a Bed and Breakfast but they probably called it a ‘hotel’ just to attract guest, coz that night only 2 rooms were booked: us and a old british couple. So it was like spooky, and I dunno why, but I always felt like a serial killer was going to burst into our room and kill us all. Yupp, I was psychotic, but maybe that was the result of the lack of heaters! Understand that the temperature In Bath was below 0 degree celcius at night so with only 2 mediocre heaters in the room, I was FREEEEZING. It was FRIGGING cold. So moving back to my psychotic thoughts, I put the chair in the room underneath the door knob( if there were serial killers, I would know because of the sound they would make when pushing against the chair. So I went to sleep with the extra sense of security, and slept at 9P.M.
Day 4:woke up at 3.30A.M. it might seem dreadfully early, but the day before I slept in the car for abt 1 half hours and added to the 6 half hours I slept here, I slept for an accumulated amount of 8 HOURS. So it was sufficient, and maybe normal for an early waker like myself- I’M SERIOUS! Slacked around in the bed for another half an hour or so, then started writing this journal/blog/thing, for abt 40 minutes, then went back to sleep. But I couldn’t sleep, so at 5.30am, I AROUSED and washed up, and got ready for breakfast which was abit small- eggs, sausage, cereal, toast and tea( they use clumps of sugar instead of packets.) it was fulfilling, and I even though it was a little disappointing stay, I thanked God for at least the privilege to even come to Europe. Anyway, we did come to Europe to enjoy ourselves, and complaining brings sadness. So we left the hotel, and went to the Roman Bath-very fulfilling experience, as I learnt lots abt history, about the romans and old brittania. The Bath itself was about 95 degree celcius itself as it came from beneath the earth(crust) and it contained lots of stuff- I can think of MANURE OF ALL KINDS( shit, as anything and everything went in to the bath. Probably had pee too), JEWERLLERY( amazing right? Apparently all the rich folks wore their rings into the bath and didn’t come out with them) and OTHER RANDOM STUFF like stones, plates, iron stuff, shoe ETC. even the old roof above the bath fell into the bath because of bad natural conditions! We got lost and then went to the glass blowing shop and saw 2 men blowing glass very expertly and managed to stamp intricate designs.
It was about 1pm when we made our way to STONEHENGE- a bunch of stones that were MYSTERIOUSLY placed there by something or someone. I would like to think it was MERLIN, the wizard from King Arthur and the knights, who put it there for some mystical reason or FOR FUN. Half of the Stonehenge has dissipated or disappeared over the 500 years of its existence and now it looks less majestic but still it was a memory that has etched itself into the depths of my complex mind. Ooh ya, I also walked on very wet mud so my beautiful black shiny nikes were R-U-I-N-E-D. I’M SAD.
We proceeded back to London to catch the flight to ROME, where we would be joining the land tour with CHAN brothers. So we had dinner( THAI CURRY RICE) and stayed at RAMADA( sounds malay right? LOL) which was my fav hotel coz I watched SIMPSONS! I LOVE SIMPSONS! I slept at 9pm, and woke up at 3.50AM on,-
Day 5: went to airport, and I didn’t feel THAT tired for some STRANGE, MYSTERIOUS,
MYSTICAL, WEIRD, LUNATIC REASON. Took a MERCEDES cab to the airport, then an ALITALIA PLANE to ROME.
TOUCHDOWN! When I landed in ROME, the temperature was AWESOME- not too cold and not too hot. 13 degrees celcius, and u shld seriously come to ROME=]=]. We met up with the Chan brother ppl there and started the tour BY EATING LUNCH AT A Chinese restaurant… I mean, I dun come to Italy/ Europe to eat frigging Chinese food. But anyways, it was tasty and thankfully didn’t have bird flu. HALLELUJAH PRAISE THE LORD.
After going to china in Italy( restaurant called the GRAN CINESE- I think that they spelt it wrong ( gran- suppose to be GRANDE.), we made our way to the COLLOSEUM. 0.o- waaaaaaa. It was super huge, like national stadium but bigger and more impressive. The tour guide warned us that we had to watch out for pickpockets( gypsies) as they came in all shapes and sizes, boy/men/girl/women, act as tourist/rich business men/ gangsta/ poser/etc. So the coliseum was MAJESTIC, IMAGINE 80 huge arches, each 2 plus metre wide surrounding the circumference of the amphitheatre. AWESOMENESS. A fact of the coliseum is that its about 2000 years old, and some of the stone originally built in had been taken away to build other stuff in ROME. ITS PURPOSE was to create a place for all the SADISTIC roman soldiers and kings who had nothing better to do apart from seeing gladiators and animals fight in sand (they fight in sand so that the dead bodies can be get rid off easily). So u could say that the ROMANS were fantastic architects who had a thirst for blood too.
Okay=]=] after the coliseum, we went to VATICAN CITY, THE SMALLEST COUNTRY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD BUT HAVING THE BIGGEST CHURCH IN EUROPE. It only consist of a HUGE CHURCH- ST. PETER BASILICA, AND ITS POPULATION OF 1- THE POPE HIMSELF. As I went into the church, this structure was more magnificent then the coliseum itself. It had magnificent works of art by all renowned artists like Leonardo da vinci and Michael Angelo. It had intricate statues, but the crazy thing was that its structure was about ten stories high, and about 186 metres wide. It can host up to 1800 people just inside the church, and thousands more just outside where the pope greets the people. If we had a church like that in SINGAPORE, imagine the amount of people we can attract. The day continued by us visiting a wishing fountain(called trevi fountain)- i’m NOT superstitious so i did not throw precious coins into the fountain, then went to the Spanish steps, a fleet of boring steps that had mediocre significance. Still took pictures there though=]=]. Mummy bought a Louis vutton handbag for mamamummy and i ate GELATO(ICE-CREAM-XD)
Ate at an Italian restaurant, and the starter was a salty, porridgey substance that was NOT to my liking(yuck- who likes salty porridge? No one in the tour finished theirs 0.o), and the main course and dessert were chicken and chips and coffee cake respectively.
Went back to a hotel with tiny lifts and slept at 10.
Day 6: woke up at 4 because of a tiny bladder condition. Went back to sleep and woke up AGAIN at 6.30AM. suppa tired lah. GO HAV BREAKFAST- HAM, SCRAMBLED EGGS, CEREAL AND ORANGE JUICE in twilight mode. Then the tour bus took 4 HOURS for us to reach PISA, where they have the famous LEANING TOWER OF PISA and the most expensive sprite i have ever bought and drank in my ENTIRE LIFE. BOO-HOO... it costs EURO 4.50= SINGAPORE DOLLAR 9 FRIGGING BUCKS... anyways, i took some pictures ‘holdin’ the tower, like using camera trick or perspective. Its quite amazing that it CAN EVEN lean. Too bad i didn’t go in coz chan brothers says that “WE MUST STICK TO THE ITINARY.”
SO as i’m a very good boy, I stuck to the itinary, and then the bus brought me to the city of beautiful art/statues- the CITY OF FLORENCE. DID YOU KNOW that Michael ANGELO was borned and buried there? There are a lot of of his NUDE statues there all with precise detail. GROSS, but thats ART=]=].
I toured FLORENCE, and its quite an interesting relic and its statues( of DAVID, from David and Goliath, was said to be MICHAEL ANGELO BEST WORK.-yes, david’s ‘down under’ is shown in its full glory. I’m not gay so I DIDN’T APPRECIATE IT THAT MUCH*) we ate at a fancy restaurant that night, called FRANCINI. First to last- spaghetti, lasagne, pork and chips( imma PORK HATER), and finally ICE CREAM for dessert. My stomach was shiverin after that. So went back to this hotel where i’m typing the final parts of this entry. (HOTEL IS CALLED DATINI, But who cares? Thank GOD they have FREE.FREE.FREE. internet and WIFI connection though=)=]. So, i’ll blog abt Europe once i go to a hotel with FREE INTERNET CONNECTION. BYEBYE.XD
