Missing St Gallen...

I still have the Yahoo weather feed for St Gallen's weather and it gives me daily updates on the weather in St Gallen.

Checking it always gives me a sense of nostalgy. How I wish I could be back there again. Currently, it's sunny and 23 deg. Sounds like great weather.

I AM BACK!

Yep... Home... Finally. Ahhhhh....

Well... do watch this space as I will still have more photos to post of other places that I've been to.

Last 12 hours in St Gallen...

Gosh... has it been just 4.5 months that I was away? A quick check at the calendar confirms it.

How can it be? As I sit here, having my last self-cooked dinner, it feels so surreal. How can it be that I have spent 4.5 months away from home? It feels just like yesterday. But I have the plane ticket stubs, photos I took on my travels to prove it and loads of wonderful memories to prove it.

As I was telling my friend, 'Although it is hard to leave, but at the same time, i think that it is just right for me... cause i travelled so much. I could probably go on living here forever though, but i am also looking forward to coming home...'

Actually, I don't really feel like I'll miss this place or anything now and this ironically was the feeling I had just before I came over too. A little like indifference, just a step that I have to take.

Oh... I know I will miss the cool weather, the scenic train rides, the fresh air, the pace of life. But at the same time, the things that mattered to me - friends I met here have all left for home some time earlier this month. This is what is real. Having felt the support from family and friends back in Singapore. when I was over here - that was also real. Perhaps what matters to me is not the place, but the people.

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This marks the end of yet another chapter of my life. A chapter that I enjoyed tremendously and cherish. Thank you Daddy and Mummy for being so supportive of this exchange. I really really really appreciate it.

"When will you be home?" she asks
as we watch the planes take off
We both know we have no clear answer to where my dreams may lead

She's watched me as i crawled and stumbled
As a child, she was my world
And now to let me go, I know she bleeds
and yet she says to me

You can fly so high
Keep your gaze upon the sky
I'll be prayin every step along the way
Even though it breaks my heart to know we'll be so far apart
I love you too much to make you stay
Baby fly away

-Fly Away, Corrinne May -

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Goodbyes...

"Your check-in is confirmed and your seats are reserved. We look forward to seeing you."

Feeling kinda emo now. 1 more day before I fly back.

Looking back, I had a very good time on exchange, met many new friends - friends whom I hope to keep in touch with. Was just reminiscing about the times we shared - the dinners we had, trips we took. Me always going down to Rosenbergstrasse to look for Mel and Sea, walking down to town after school.

The wonderful house where I lived in - Rehweidstrasse 2 with Andreas, Tara and the 2 cats, my housemates Ulrike, Rebeka, Markus, Martina, Maxim, Anders...

Singaporeans on exchange - Mel, Ian, Clara, Gracia, Zhimin, Huiyi, Yvonne, Glenn...

Sea, Charlotte, Yoojin, Lei, YJ,...

Thank You for making my experience so wonderful!

On 8th July, I left St Gallen and went on a 3 weeks trip living out of my suitcase. After half a day of puttering about, I have posted some photos as well as experiences I had the past 3 weeks.

I don't regret going on the trip... I enjoyed the cities I visited. I just don't like the moving around part too much and not having a base for 3 weeks. All in all, it was a good experience, I had a good break and now, I'm looking forward to going home!

Poland! (11/07/07 - 15/07/07)

Actually, this is the first official stop of the long trip. Endured an 11 hour bus ride from Vienna to Warsaw - nah.. it wasn't that bad. I think Poland grew on me cause I know I didn't like it that much when I first arrived. But I really appreciate their service attitude and the general 'feel' of the place after a couple of days there. Besides that, I was amusing myself a little with the 'Polish' (pole-lish) vs 'Polish' (por-lish) cause I saw signs like Polish sth...

I was in Warsaw first and true to the many comments I've heard, there is really nothing much in Warsaw.


This is some memorial. Ok.. I know I'm a lousy tourist.. I don't even know what is the place that I took a photo of.


This I know. It is the building that Stalin gave to the Poles. It's actually a huge, magnificent looking castle.


Stumbled upon the castle, which was part of the 15% of the buildings not destroyed in Warsaw during WW2, when we took the bus in the wrong direction. Ok.. this is just the castle grounds I think.


Finally got to the Old Town, but it rained barely 15mins after we got there.


Our hostel! It's pretty good. but not doing advertisement here, but I like the sign. :)

After one and a half days in Warsaw, we took a train which came 10 mins late and arrived 1 hour after the stipulated time to Krakow.

Decided not to go to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp... So, I decided to go visit the Old Town instead.


Some statue near the Old Town.


This is the last remaining tower that used to be along the wall that surrounded the city.


This sign caught my attention. Butik = Boutique?


If I were less rational, I might have bought one of these paintings home. Most of them are very pretty. Basically, artists just hang their works along the walls.


Traditional Polish Costume?


Accordian Buskers. Quite fascinating actually. Almost bought their CD. And it seems that accordians are quite a bit hit here cause I came across and accordian quartet and another pair.


Puppet!

From the Old Town, went to the Wawel Castle where I went for an amber exhibition - A showcase of amber statues or products made from amber. There was this table that is made up of all the different types of amber of varying shades and grades and what not.


Nice view of the river from the castle.


One part of the castle grounds.


What I realise is that castles are usually situated at vantage points, usually on a hill with nice views and I guess it is better to keep a look out for attacks?

There is this legend that there was a Dragon who resided in this cave at the foot of the Wawel castle. Anyway, visitors can go down into this cave. All I can say is that if a dragon really lived there, it had t obe a pretty small dragon. :)


The cold, dark cave.


And at the end of the cave, there is a 'dragon' which really breathes out fire!


That explains the numerous dragon plush toys around. :)

Yep.. and this is all I can say for Poland! It was one of the places I wanted to visit because I felt that I wanted to see this country for what it is now before it changes too much in future.

Rome (15/07/07 - 20/07/07)

Yes... I know I've complained that Rome is too touristy for my liking. But there are still things worth seeing here. It is Italy's capital and has so many sights to visit and things to see..


At the Spanish Steps... where there was supposed to be a fountain...


This was the rather pathetic looking fountain that has busloads of tourist scrambling to take a photo with it. I think there were as many tourists as the area of the fountain.


Me posing at the steps. hahaha... Nothing very magnificent actually...


Loads of fountains in Rome. This is one of Triton, the God of Sea.


The famous Fontana di Trevi. Like how the sun is shining in this pic.


And here's me at the fountain. There were enterprising individuals who offered photo-taking services for a fee. All I had to do was approach another tourist and ask if he could kindly help me take my picture.


The Pantheon... is supposedly one of the best preserved buildings in Rome... and visitors basically flock there to look at the dome, supposedly one with the largest diameter around I think.


The dome.


Of course, can't miss a trip to the Colosseum...


The cross actually marks the spot where the Emperor would sit as that was the place with the best view of the arena.


The arena... where man (prisoners and gladiators) and beast fought. It was a form of entertainment for the Romans and our guide told us that the floor of the arena was filled with sand so that it would be easier to soak up the blood spilled. Ewwww...


Ruins from the ancient city.


Statue of Julius Caesar



The ruins of the ancient city is pretty magnificent if you ask me... I marvel at how people had actually built them in the past. But walking around in the oppressive and suffocating heat especially when there is no shade just zaps energy.






A parting shot of the Colosseum. I think it wasn't very well preserved... and well.. the original Colosseum had 5 levels. This, or what is left of it today is just 2 levels. Destroyed by disasters, fires and what not.


Yishan and I

The other experience I had in Rome was that we booked ourselves into a campsite. So we saw a lot of families driving into the campsite with their mobile homes or pitching tents.


We stayed in bunks like these... Was pretty good actually, but in the day, it really feels like an oven cause heat is trapped inside.

Being a campsite, it was a distance away from the city centre. We have to take a tram out everyday... And the trams and metro are all graffiti filled.


What a great distance from the ground!!!


Yeah.. it had foldable steps... but still...


Finally, it was time to say bye to Rome, after the6 days spent there in the sweltering heat with little cloud covering. Can't say I was sad to leave the place. But Rome's pretty in its own way. I'm just now sure if I would want to return there in summer again.

Vatican City (17/07/07)

What's Rome without visiting the Vatican City right? So off I went to brave the crowds...


This is the queue to the Vatican Museum. It actually went around the perimeter of the walls to the Vatican City... The one hour queue in the late morning sun wasn't that bad...

The Vatican Museum houses one of the largest and most valuable art collections around the world. In addition, there are rooms with frescos and works designed and painted by artists like Micheangelo and Rafael and the Sistine Chapel.


A shot of this pretty looking car while queuing. I like the design on the car! The colour's nice too!


The end's in sight! After 1 hour!

One of the most fascinating display. This ball is set in the middle of the coutyard near the entrance of the museum. When I first saw it, I thought it was reflecting the buldings that surrounded it. But upon taking a closer look, nah... they are just cracks.


Ceiling Fresco which I think it pretty!


There was an Egyptian section in the museum and this is the front of a Mummy case. Been rather fascinated by mummies, pyramids and ancient Egypt after reading the Ramses series by Christian Jacq many years back.


One of my favourite galleries. Basically, on the walls of the rooms are paintings of the areas of Italy. Pretty impressive.


The thinker. I seem to like taking photos of statues in this pose.

The Sistine Chapel is okay. (note the word okay) No photography, so I don't have picts to show you. But basically, it was a room full of tourists, all staring at the walls or ceilings. The frescos are nice. But that was it.

After a 3 hour walk through the museum, I went to the Basilica of St Peters.


Outside Basilica of St Peters





There were security measures in place as we all had to have our bags scanned and go through the detector thing.


Some buildings in Vatican City is undergoing restoration...


Inside the Chapel.

And that concludes my day trip to the Vatican City