Update from Vienna...

and so I reached.... after an extremely long train ride...

beautiful place... visited the summer palace... nice gardens with well trimmed trees, more elegant and lavishly decorated rooms...

And I have this nagging suspicion that the friends that I visit are always trying to fatten me up by bringing me for good food or cooking good food for me. :)

Going for dinner now... will update soon!

A lazy Thursday...

I was supposed to leave home like half an hour ago to go to school and print my notes and slides and readings and what nots. Been procrastinating the print jobs for some time. But ya.. I really need those print outs to well.. start reading and stuff. It's just difficult reading from my laptop. Especially with a million and one distractions. I miss having my own printer...

Anyway, it's been pretty quiet these few days. Stay at home, cook my meals... Go to school, revise my work. (I studied ok!) But that's also mainly because I'll be away *again* this weekend. Should really find some time to chill around Switz.. Maybe next weekend. (or so I always say).

Ok.. if I leave now, I have 25 mins before my class starts to go to the com lab and do my printing. and I should do just that! Toodles!

Off to Vienna tonight... be back on Sunday night!

OFFA Fair

Went to a Spring Trade Fair which took place in St Gallen about one and a half weeks ago. It is one of the largest fairs held in St Gallen and has products ranging from food (read: wurst/sausages) and wine in the 'degustation' section to clothes and bags, to household appliances as well as electrical appliances.

View of the exhibition ground

Also, I think they had this competition where displayes were made out of chocolates!


Looks like it was inspired by 'Ice Age', the cartoon


A closer look at one of the frames


A pianist! Look at the white chocolate balls!

A chocolate horse carriage!!!

And here's the real one!

Forgot to mention, there were also horses and horses related things shown at the fair.


'Horsey'! - kinda reminded me of my RDA comm service.

Giant Ferris wheel! Saw a Singapore carriage, but didn't manage to get on that.


View from the top of the Ferris Wheel

Munich Photos!

Heh... photos from Munich!

Upon arrival, we walked from the train station to the town centre- Marianplatz... Look who we were greeted by:

People holding up signs.. but it wsa a peaceful protest. Took this from quite far away with the zoom function cause didn't want to attract any unneccessary trouble. :)



A place to chill out by the city centre - a large fountain... and Macdonalds.



Liked these cute figurines which were carved from wood the first time i saw them... but decided not to get one in the end...



Stopped for a cup of iced chocolate... and it's really like drinking melted chocolate with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream! Sehr GUT!



A clock with the signs of the zodiac around it!



Nice car ya? It's a BMW - saw like 5 of them in a row!



The National Theatre.



Fountain in a park!



I decided to act stupid and imitate the statue.



Saw this cellist performing. Maybe it was where he was situated, but the melodies he was playing with the cello was hauntingly beautiful. I took a photo with him.. but it's in my friend's camera.



HofBrauhaus - one of the most popular brewery in Munich. Saw Paulaner as well...



Like they say, in Rome, do as the Romans do. In Germany and in a brewery, how can I not drink? 1 litre of beer!



Look! I emptied it. I'm swearing off beer for at least the next 2 weeks though...





The bed where I spent my night...



Beethovenplatz! Hahaha.. saw a few streetnames in Munich that were similar to the ones in St Gallen.



This is quite random... but I saw this sign pointing to Hackenviertal. (It's ok if you dunno my fascination with Hacken). I know 'viertal' means quarter in German... (See! I study ok!) and I used an online website to translate the whole word.. it actually means 'chopping quarter'. Go figure.

On Sunday, after returning to Munich after visiting the concentration camp, we walked around the town. But as it was a Sunday, all the shops were closed... Except for some cafes... So, we decided to climb up this tall tower. It was a vertical marathon!!! *huff! huff! puff! puff!* I think about 12 storeys high? Anyway, it felt never ending, coupled with narrow steps and all.



View from the top. Look how high up we were...



Do you see a windmill in the distance? That was the furthest I could zoom.

I like the feel of Munich. Like how on Saturday, the town centre was teeming with people. And we saw no less than 3 makeshift stands promoting vegetable peelers. I wonder why.

It's a blend of old and new - historical monuments coexists with modern shops. Lots of open spaces to relax in or cafes to guzzle beer or drink coffee.

And there were many buskers who were just playing music to entertain passerby, earn a penny in the process or to give a live demonstration of their recordings. Here's one group:



See the 3 figurines in top of them also holding instruments?

And that concludes my short getaway to Munich!

Back from Munich!

Yep... got back a couple of hours ago.

Munich is nice! With a vibrant town centre with people busking, beautiful gardens. I like how the old, historical buildings blend in with the shops. Loads of cafe with outdoor sitting. But the sun is very hot... maybe due to the lack of clouds... tt's why it feels extra strong.

Went also to a concentration camp for prisoners of war during World War 2 about 45 mins from Munich. It's just saddening. I could feel my goosebumps as I moved around the compound. And especially when I was visiting the museum where there was a lot of write ups detailing the events that took place and the atrocities committed. My heart just felt so heavy. Why do such a place even exist? How can a human being take a fellow human being's life so lightly? But there was no regrets visiting the place. Just feel pity and regret whenever I think of it.

And then, I remembered the Stanford Prison Experiment - a psychology experiment that was done on students in a prison setting. Students, who were assigned the role of a prison guard turned sadistic and abusive towards the prisoners while students who were assigned the roles of prisoners becamed depressed.

Eiffel Tower!!!

Hmmm... realised I have procrastinated blogging about my France trip... Shall skip Versailles first... so here's the Eiffel Tower...

Majestic looking ya?

There are beautiful flowers and nice grass patches where people can have picnics around the Eiffel Tower.

Look! They have policemen on horses patrolling the area. Heard that they were actually chasing a thief the weekend before I was there.

Me at the top of the tower... The view from the top is great! The are even signs to tell you how to spot other attractions/monuments.

I had to climb up a gazillion flights if steps to reach the top. 700+ I think... I could have taken the lift... but it's always better to say 'I climbed the Eiffel Tower'.

Look at the number of people who wanted to climb the Eiffel Tower that day! We took almost 3 hours from the time we started queuing till we came down - we queued for 1.5 hours I think.. which was quite long. According to Wanling, she only queued for less than half an hour when she climbed up the last time!

The good thing is that sun sets late.. so even at 8pm, it was still rather bright...

The Eiffel Tower being lit up at night. It was close to 9pm I think... and look at the sky!!!

Climbed the tower with Susi, Wanling's friend from Germany.

Hah! A angled shot of the Eiffel Tower! Does it look artistic?

For more pictures, check out my album at http://picasaweb.google.com/jillkjh?pli=1

Updated with Versailles and Eiffel Tower photos... was just too lazy to blog about them.

Anyway, I'm off to school soon... Will be in Munich this weekend... but only leaving on Sat. There's an international dinner tomorrow night. Still thinking of some 'Singaporean' dish to cook for the event...

Updates!!!

Ok.. I think I've fixed the links to the missing pictures... I think I've uploaded the pictures like 3 or 4 times. *hope it works this time*

Anyway, life's almost back to normal after my trip. Going for classes, and well, planning my next trip.

Went to this spring fair held in St Gallen yesterday and there was also a funfair near it! :) Nice... Like those pasar malams in Singapore. After that, went to Zurich... and I realised that I miss being in a big city!!! Like just walking along the bustling streets or walking into shops and browsing through what they have. Not that they don't have those in St Gallen, but the range of things available is much smaller. Kinda miss the big city life.

Anyway, went to this supermarket and we actually found Yeo's can drink. Except it's like 2.20 Fr per can. and we found a Movenpick ice cream parlour.. so I had Movenpick icecream!!! Yummy!!! Hahaha.. will get the picture of it later!

Although it's Spring, but it's rather warm in the day. And the sun's quite strong... It's about 22 ~ 25 deg cel in the day I guess... but at night, it's still chilly. But doing fine.. Looks like the turtlenecks I brought will be relegated to the back of the cupboard soon. :)

Rouen

Stayed in Rouen on Saturday and took a walk to town.


Here's my kind and nice host! Wanling! Posing with the forest near her place...

They have exercise stations there - not too different from Singapore. But they use the cross section of a log instead of metal weights...

Look! It's green on this side of the forest...

While the other side is totally brown.

I'm not kidding you. I just turned left and right to take the above two photos.

A tree with 2 colours!!! Actually, it's just that 2 trees were planted very near to each other. And the branches interwined to give the sight of a 2 colour tree.

Flowers in someone's well-kept garden.

We reached town in one hour or there about...

The cross that marked the spot where Joan of Arc was burnt.

Rouen is a rather small town - very different from the feel of Paris. It reminded me a little of St Gallen, but maybe more happening.

The main shopping street in Rouen. and another sight - the clock in the distance...

Me and the clock!

I didn't manage to go to the Notre Dame in Paris.. and so, I went to the one in Rouen. Looks imposing...

After that, we headed towards Seine River for lunch. Yep.. this rivers actually runs all the way to Paris.

Wanling and I!

After lunch, we decided to go visit this Maritime museum.. and to see this ship that apparently was docked nearby...

Wanling crossing the railway track...

Hee... I still think it's a bit freaky to walk across the railway track. But then I'm also aware that there is ample warning given if a train is approaching.

Yep! The ship! Belem.

It's a ship built in 1896. and the only ship that was once part of France's ocean-goign trading fleet in the 19th Century. Now, they refurbished it and it docks at different ports for people to board and walk around.

Haha.. found this giant anchor. It's bigger than me!!!!! And that's a blue Peugeot beside it. I see a lot of Peugeot on the roads in France.

More photos of me on the Belem!

*ring ring* Time to go!!!

We headed home where we prepared curry chicken!!!

Chef Wanling...

*work in progress*

actually, it was the almost done version already.

Ingredients needed: Curry powder, chilli, water and milk! Oh ya.. Chicken too!

Curry with rice!!!

And for dessert:

Chocolate mousse from Carrefour. It's pretty good!!!

See me pigging out...

And how Wanling is the official spokeswoman for the mousse! :)

And finally, it was time to pack up as I would be leaving from Paris the next day...

Oh.. and like here's a shot of Wanling's room.