BELGIUM.LuevenBrusselsBrugge
HOLLAND.AmsterdamKeukenhofZaanseSchans
PARIS.MANCHESTER.LONDON
In short, I could have died of happiness (:
This is why I love europe. Hop onto a plane for an hour or two, and you find yourself in a completely different place.
Different culture,different language,different people,different food, everything is different.
I could vividly remember how envious I was of my rich friend in primary school when she told me of her many adventures around the world - how she hiked up the eiffel tower and touched the clouds, how she hugged mickey mouse in several disney-lands that her rich parents brought her to, how she saw the windmills in our english textbooks, how she boasted about the authentic belgian chocolates her parents brought her from belgium, how she was walking along the streets of london which I could only picture because I read alot (at that time). In fact, the only reason I started talking to her in the first place was because she travelled widely and I wanted to leech off her experiences to know more about these places which I could only reach through my books, movies and nap time. Although I was 10years later than her, I managed to do the same, and maybe a little more.
We met up with Tom, our MA project group mate who is coincidentally Belgian. He’s been really sweet the entire trip to put us up at his apartment, and to mother over us at night to make our stay as comfortable as he could. Brussels wasn’t the most interesting city, it’s almost 2/3wks after my visit to brussels, and i can hardly remember anything about it.
But, I can remember us going into every well known chocolatier and coming out with a bag - Godiva (factory outlet FTW!), Pierre Marcolini, Neuhaus, Wittamer, Leonidas. I think I just saw a little piece of heaven in my paper bag.
Let’s also not forget about the delicious waffles! They melt in your mouth, and i’m not exaggerating.
Oh, and we had moules frites EVERY dinner. Another piece of heaven in my mouth.
You know how people describe places as ‘picturesque’? You wouldn’t know what picturesque mean until you see quaint little towns like Brugge and Zaanse Schans. There is this charm about traditional wooden houses that i simply cannot resist. This is the perfect place to stay in, grow old, and watch the day pass you while you await the day you pass on. Btw, I touched a piece of jesus in Brugge.HAHA. There is this basilica with a piece of cloth drenched with jesus’s blood during the cruxifixion. They bring this relic out only on specific times and we were actually there at the right time!
Zaanse Schans = windmills. Need I explain more?HAHA
Amsterdam’s a really interesting city, and i’m not saying that cos’ they have a vibrant ‘night’ culture, if you know what i mean.
I have this comedic feeling when I walk along these streets, peering into the ‘fish tanks’ as Nic puts it, watching these mannequins coming to life, in their teeny tiny pieces of cloths flirting with every passerby on the streets. I think they’re all exhibitionists. The catch is - they don’t like people taking pictures of them. IMHO,secretly they really don’t mind, but they’re conforming to social norm cos’ their peers don’t want their pictures to be taken. I mean, c’mon, how believable is that?
Oh, we tried space cake. 6Euros for a muffin that size shared among the 3 of us. Omg, the effects were HORRIBLE. We were laughing at one moment, and stoning into blank space the next. The effects lasted for more than an hour!
Nah, i’m kidding. Really, I am. We actually ate it, and fell asleep 5mins after. How boring huh? That version just makes my story more interesting.
Amsterdam’s the epitome of partying and taking life easy. Seriously, you could see people cruising down the canals on a WEEKDAY with music blasting out loud and a champagne in their hands. You could also see people tanning in their balconies, over the most random places, like over a touristy flea market in albert cuyp market.
The dutch definitely knows how to live.
Keukenhof was amazing. Really, i’m not exaggerating. Although the line to the buses which take you to the park was. You can’t imagine how the line was snaking through the bus terminal. The only reason for the crowd was because of the annual flower parade in keukenhof on 16th april. Worst day ever to visit keukenhof. There were more people than flowers, although the park was beautiful. You can NEVER compare it to botanical gardens.
Once you enter the park, there is a faint floral scent that lingers even after you leave the park. It was like a sensual aromatherapy. I’m running out of vocabulary here, the park was beyond words!The flower parade sadly, wasn’t. Cos’ we’re a bunch of short asians in a tall tall world of europeans. So we couldn’t see anything. We left halfway. Sad Sad truth. Kids, drink more milk or you’ll live to regret it.HAHAHA
Paris is beautiful, only if you skip the parts where you mingle with the common folks (like in the public trains) and concentrate only on the sights. To be honest, I was more than a little disappointed with Paris. I had such high expectations of the supposedly most romantic city in the world.
You couldn’t imagine how much I’ve wanted to go to paris, where I imagined it to be clean, glamorous, romantic, with the accordions playing in the background, people speaking in beautiful french, and me, sitting in an alfresco cafe with a cup of coffee in my hands, soaking all of it in. The sad truth - I smelt pee wherever i went (so alfresco and ‘soaking it all in’ is the last thing i wanted to do), Seine river’s pretty dirty, there were black drunks in the trains, the trains were old and rundown (SMRT trains are like 100X better), buildings are ugly and old, and the atmosphere was just pretty much MESSY and disorganised. Now you see why i’m so disappointed?
But the sights in paris weren’t disappointing at all. Disneyland was awesome cos’ we finally met up with Jolene and Zhiwei, and I finally had company on thrilling rides (I always had to go alone cos’ my friends are wimps.HAHA).
Eiffel tower look absolutely dazzling (literally), Notre dame was grand (I can see why so many kings tried to build imitations of it in their own kingdoms), and sacre coeur looks suspiciously like Taj Mahal of India.HAHA
Funny story about the Pantheon, I was about to be chided by YY and Nic for bringing them to a big hall (grand nevertheless), but still a big hall for 5euros. So they wanted to make the most of their 5euros and decided to visit the restroom.
The restroom was in the basement, and that was when we opened a whole pandora box (not of aweful things) but of awesomeness. It was so beautiful, like an underground medieval maze. I loveee it.
To say the lourve is big would be an understatement, it was humongous. According to their website, it’d take you 9months to finish the lourve. We weren’t that much of an art enthusiast, so needless to say, we finished it in an hour. What i meant by finished would be seeing the Mona lisa (Myth: Her eyes follow you as you walk from one end to the other. Still a myth cos’ her eyes didn’t do that. Btw, her portrait’s super small. There was a crowd of people in front of the painting and EVERYONE was zooming in.HAHA), Venus of Milo (or sth like that), and the last supper. I can’t remember the rest. and of course, we found the ‘love’ as YY mistakenly pronounced the lourve.HAHA
I’d go back to paris if I was with a tour group, if I had more time, and for Laduree.
Laduree sells the best macarons I have EVER tried in my entire lifetime. Seriously, everything i’ve eaten so far is trash compared to Laduree. It’s unbelievable. The crust melts as soon as your saliva touches it, and the filling is sooo rich and the flavours complement each other so well! I can’t eat another macaron again. :(
London’s like how I named my fb album - so familiar yet strange. Without a doubt, Singapore is definitely modeled after England. London’s clean (maybe not so green), and we could finally read the signs with no difficulty since everything was in English. It was such a relief after 4months to finally understand every signboard and menu. No more dutch, no more norwegian, no more french! Even the london underground’s really similar to our MRT system (oyster card VS ezlink).
I loved the juxtaposition of historical buildings and modern buildings in London.
We did the usual London bridge (fell down a couple of times), Big Ben, London eye (Singapore flyer’s bigger.HAHA), harry potter’s stuck trolley in kings’ cross station (total disappointment, it was just a poster to pacify tourists cos’ the actual site is under construction), Tower of London, Westminster abbey, buckingham palace,St. Paul cathedral etc.
It was funny how I managed to spend easter in the 2nd biggest domed cathedral in the world, st. Paul’s cathedral. We were visiting it (EASTER SO IT’s FREE!) and I decided to stay a little longer to join the mass. Catholic mass is really different from the christian ones that i’m familiar with, but nevertheless, we serve the same god.haha. Oh, and it was a couple of days away from the royal wedding, so the media were already camping outside buckingham palace and westminster abbey (the place where the ceremony was held at). Westminster Abbey’s is the ‘royal cathedral’ where the coronation takes place, so needless to say, it was really impressive. There was so much history at this place, I was listening to my audio guide so intently so that i don’t miss out anything. One of the most remarkable cathedrals i’ve seen so far.
Tower of London’s equally..gallant. Like a knight, cos’ there were so many knights in it.HAHA. It was a fortress of medieval London, and every king who reigned made some changes to it.
I’m a boring history student, so you can imagine how psyched I was visiting the museums in London, reading about the cold war, WW2, and all the other wars and major events Britain’s ever involved in. It was too bad I couldn’t finish the churchill war rooms cos’ i was having a fever and had to wait for the rest in the cafe.
London’s just amazing, even without Lush (I’m a new lush convert!) or the shopping. With Lush / shopping, i’d go back to london in a heartbeat. That next heartbeat would be on 4th July.HAHA.I’ll be counting down.
Yes, I’m definitely having the time of my life in Europe. But I haven’t forgotten you guys, I wish you could have been here with me. Especially Amsterdam, with Fad and Adilla.HAHAHA.
I’ve been counting my blessings, and I’ve lost count cos’ I’ve received too many. Thank god for that. (:
