And so this is the festival we have all been waiting for every year – Christmas! In Singapore, my family used to visit Orchard every year for the Christmas lights but as we grew older, we stopped doing that. Christmas became just another ordinary day and I really wondered how Christmas will be like in Europe. Hence December is one of my most look-forward-to month!
In the UK, Christmas is easily felt everywhere. I first felt it when the history museum beside Imperial is being turned into an ice rink and then friends are visiting Winter Wonderland one by one. Now, Imperial and student societies are having Christmas parties almost everyday and my flatmates are inviting friends over for xmas dinner! The festive season is really strong here and cosy too:)
Xinyi and I had the common childhood dream of experiencing the European Christmas and also taking a steam train (like polar express) and thus we decided to take the Santa Express in Bolton Station, Bury!
Arrived 30 mins before the train arrived and wow, we saw so many families around! Best of all, they are all locals and the families dressed up in christmas accessories and the children are excitedly jumping around. The whole wait was so lively that we dont feel cold despite waiting outdoors for the train!
Choo choo, the train arrived 10 minutes before the stated time. Despite looking old, the staffs are all dressed in christmas themes as well, and they are all really friendly! I them realised that most of them are volunteers doing a service to the community:) Guess Christmas is also a season of giving back to the society too!
As we are allowed up the train, we found our seats and was seated beside a Manchester mother and her daughter. This was their first time taking the Christmas train as well because the tickets were sold out last year. We also realised that we were surrounded by children as well😂
As the train departs, the staff began to bring drinks and mince pies to us, adding to the festiveness. Shortly after, Father Christmas and the elves appeared and started cracking cold Christmas jokes. Father Christmas then starts to hand out a present to the children. The thing is the parents would buy the presents and pass to the staffs as they check in, so the gifts would be magically what the children wanted (or what the parents want the children to have). Sorry to spoil your magical moment HAHAHA!
After that, a live band came into the cabin and asked us what Christmas song we wanna sing along to. To my surprise, it isn’t Jingle Bells or Santa Claus is coming to Town, but rather Frosty the Snowman. Omg, Xinyi and I were agreeing that that song was our favourite carol! And so, there we go, singing Frosty the Snowman with the locals! The innocent children and even the grandparents singing along made the whole experience so much livelier:) while the children are rowdy and noisy, we really enjoyed ourselves on the Santa Express! One more checked on our bucket list 🚂
After the train ride, we headed down to Manchester to walk around the world Famous Christmas Market at Albert Square. Manchester was so crowded on the Sunday, even more so than Southbank of London! And most of the people are locals, showing that Manchester is a highly populated city!
And our experience with the Christmas Market? It was really big and the deco was super ups but the crowds are horrendous as well. The walkway between stalls are narrow and with people squeezing around in all directions, we took awhile to get from one shop to another! We couldnt even find a place to enjoy our food properly 😦 I guess for that, I would say that the Manchester Christmas Market is too overrated? But on the side note, a lot of Brits from around the countries visit that market for the festival!
And we headed back to Birmingham when night came (essentially night has fallen by 4pm).
Facetimed Dingwei and Marcus the next day morning! Its great hearing from them once again:) And really appreciate them calling over because they are having finals this week and we miscalculsted the time (thinking Finland is only one hour ahead of London but it was 2 hours). Really excited for their post finals trips:))
After the call, Xinyi and I headed out to the Frankfurt Christmas Market in Birmingham New Street (it’s German theme) . The market is not bigger than the Manchester one but it is definitely nothing short of festive! They have street artists performing Christmas carols along the streets and even a stand up skit at the main square! A lot of parents brought their children along for the market as well and thus it was really fun to watch them as they joked around and took care of their grumpy kids haha!
What I really love in UK for Christmas is the families coming together and celebrating it as one (just like CNY). I am very blessed to be here experiencing the festival firsthand and I would reccomend UK as a place to celebrate Christmas in😎
Now, to part 2 of the Icelandic story! Apologies for late post cause its nearing the end of term and I am down with a number of coursework.. Don’t worry, life is good haha! I chose the shag life so the shag life it is:)
Meanwhile, I still reminisce about the Iceland travels here and there. Really cannot believe that we were in Iceland, OMG! Here’s to the dream coming true:)
Iceland is also known as the land of fire and ice 🔥❄️, what a dramatic contrast right? But it is true, Iceland is formed volcanic activities and a 200 volcanoes are scattered on it (the most recent erupted in 2014). At the same time, it is located high up in the northern hemisphere and that makes it very susceptible to extreme fickle weather conditions. You can see snow for 5 months of the calendar year, which gives it the title of ‘land of fire and ice’.
Of course, when it comes to braving extreme weather conditions, Iceland is rewarded with higher probability of viewing the northern lights (from October-March). For choosing to go in late November, we would have some expectations and desire to meet the Northern Lights! To see them, there are a few conditions to be met, including high geomagnetic activity and clear skies. We monitored the probability every day from these websites:
So as we ruined our best chance to see the northern lights in Reykjavik, we decided to try and catch it on the last night – where the skies are semi-clear near Jokusarlon (Glacier Lagoon). We waited there in the car for about 3 hours 🚗. As the time passed, we started to entertain ourselves by singing K in the car and having our dinner. More cars started joining us at the carpark and that gave us relief as we weren’t the only idiots waiting through the night. The night sky was really beautiful and without any light pollution (except the car lights), we could see it covered with stars!
Wanted to camp outside the car to take some long exposure photos but the winds were blowing at 30km/h. So we took turns to get out and take our photos. Man, it was so difficult to keep the camera stable! However, on one of my shots, I started to spot a flash of green on the photo. And the next moment, Xinyi and Rachel were out of the car, trying to get the photo of the northern lights 😝 From all the shaky shots, I filtered out and this is my best shot!
Yay so one checked off the bucket list! I have to add in that the northern lights are not as beautiful as they appear on photos, they are much fader and your eyes need time to adjust to the streaks before you can start to see them moving:)
Other than watching the northern lights, I really enjoyed hopping from places to places, mesmerising ourselves in sights we have never seen before. One of my favourite is the little canyon Fjaðrárgljúfur(its nothing like little by the way!) Once again, it’s geography heaven because we got to see the water flowing from the waterfalls and meandering around the canyon! Despite being rainy, the canyon still appear green and stands out well against the mist! Just like Wanling said, it is easily my favourite!
Another of my favourite has to be Jokusarlon itself! Its my first time seeing a glacier and I expected it to look whitish and icy. I was wrong, it was blue like the blue-colour pencil you have been using to colour your ice when you were young. The first thing I did when I left the car was just shriek OMG! Yea, its that outstanding hahaha! Saw alot of models shooting their photos there. Guess it is either I have became quite fashionable yo go where the models like to shoot or the modeling agencies are scouting me out for a hire😅 Oh and apparently, you can visit the ice caves in winter, by paying 100-200 Euros. However, do check what the package entails first before paying for it, the tour guide brought my friends to walk through a 100m long cave, took some photos and then head back out cause “you cannot see much even if you go deeper cause the sunlight cannot reach inside”. Heng we didin’t go hahaha!
And finally, the black sand beach! Leaving this for the last because I want to remember Iceland for this. The formation of black sand beaches are the trademark of iceland being volcano land:) the volcanic sands are black and they contrasted really well with the white snow falling on them. And surprisingly, en route to the DC plane crash, we spotted the change in landscape from rows of orderly vegetation to monochrome black sands with snow cover! It’s a pretty amazing scene! The official black sand beach was closed to foot walks and we needed to view them from a hill top, and it contrasted against the mist which added a level of mystery to the beach!
At the heart of another black sand beach, the DC plane crash site (nobody was hurt) was found! Since the plane crashed in 1983, the government did not bother clearing the wreckage away and instead leaving it there became a tourist attraction. There was no boundary around it nor any staffs managing it, the wreckage’s fate was just opened to the hands of photo-hungry tourists. The way up to the top of the train was to climb through some holes(presumed created by tourists) and it is quite sad that the wreckage might be destroyed by tourists one day:/ however, the randomness of this plane makes the view really memorable😆 So I finally got my mandatory icelandic shot with the plane hahaha!
And that marks the end of the short but fruitful journey we had in Iceland:) Apart from all the sites, the people mattered a lot as well! Go with people who have similar travel interests and goals and your trip will guarantee to be real fun:) also very thankful to meet the Singaporean family at Vik who heard about our northern light miss on day 1 and offered to send us their pictures instead. Talking to them make me miss home but feel at home at the same time:) I suddenly had a slight nostalgia of my family trip to Europe in 2013 and oh boy, it was so homely then haha! So excited to meet them in a few weeks!
I am very thankful to Rachel for joining us on this trip. To make the decision to crash this couple’s travel adventure, it would not have been easy but Xinyi and I are really sincere about wanting to travel with others as well haha! With an extra friend to travel with, it is not so tiring driving around and meals are not so routine too hahaha! Of course, this cannot compare to a couple trip like we always have, but Iceland is a place to travel with friends😆
Lastly, thank you to Xinyi for being so accommodating! I know that being surrounded by two domineering souls, it will be really difficult and unbreathable for her since she will not dare to voice her opinions as freely. But throughout the trip, Xinyi looked after our welfare and accommodated to us really well. Thank you!
So that marks the end of the very very long post but for everyone who is coming to USA and Europe, do drop by this mystical place if you have the opportunity to. Even if you don’t, CREATE the opportunity too;) summer is a better time if you want to cover more grounds, ie northwest, northern icelands and the volcanoes! Yay, looking forward to the travels once again after the term ends!
If there is a colour to describe Iceland, it has to be blue! Throughout this trip, I saw more shades of blue than I have ever seen in other places!
The travel impulse is mental and physical curiosity. It’s a passion. – Paul Theroux
Iceland has always been my dream to visit, and it is probably many people’s dream too. I am very blessed to be able to travel up this time! I first knew of it through a game of RISK, for it is a very important territory(bridge between Europe and America). Indeed, it is the case that Iceland is a common flight transfer station between European countries and the States!
Capital ReykjavikSo while we were prepping for our trip to Iceland, we heard that it is going to be a very expensive destination as the food prices rival that of Norway and the only way to travel between destinations is to drive! Hence, we stocked up as if we were going for war, buying packets of instant rice, biscuits and hotdogs from UK supermarket. We rented a car from Blue Rentals, it’s not the cheapest we can get but it is very reliable. We read a lot of stories where the car companies forfeited the excess deposit (about £1000) because of some minor hairline scratch on the vehicle that wasn’t caused by the drivers themselves.
Baby for 5 days:)And there we go, driving on the highway of Iceland:) As we are still sinking in “OMG we are driving in Iceland”, we are already in Reykjavik checking in the hostel. The route to the capital was breathtaking as well. It felt like we were on Mars, en route to a camp – the landforms by the side of the roads were craters and barren!
The WOW thing we saw when we alighted from our WOW flight!The hostel was quite conducive, we booked a 4 bed dorm and the 3 of us shared with a Hungarian Professor who was on her second Icelandic trip! She told us that she saw the Northern Lights the year before, amazing! We decided to have dinner and head to a secluded lighthouse west of the capital for the lights as well!
The backside of the ‘Bell Curve’ Cathedral Panoramic view from the tip of the cathedralWe headed out at 11pm, it was freezing cold (-3) and we drove for 15 mins to the carpark. We thought that it was cold and there would not be people around, but we were wrong. There were a fair number of people camping for the lights as well! However, we went too late and the aurora activity was falling to almost zero:/ We also realised that the aurora was there and can only be seen on a long exposure photo! Xinyi managed to capture a nice starry night with some green glow at the corner!
Look up the stars, look how they shine for you. No, they weren’t YELLOW.
No luck with Northern Lights but the sky is really full of stars.The second day, we became tourists and went on the usual Golden Circle! In this route, we would go to Þingvellir (Thing-vellir), Strokkur Geysir, Gulfoss and the crater Kerið (Ker-rid)! I suck at pronouncing and spelling the names too, so for memory sake and so I dont lao kui, I will put the Icelandic spelling followed by the pronunciations in the brackets so we can all practice hahaha!
Cause you’ve got that one… ÞingStarting with Þing, I have seen so many friends coming to this place and commenting on how colorful it was! To our pleasant surprise, it was all white! In fact, the snow has covered almost every surface of the fissure and the whole place is Vellir white (puns alert😂)! According to Rachel, there is a fissure at this park where the American and European plate meets! Btw, Rachel is a NUS Geography student exchanging in Birmingham as well! So if you like Geog, you have to come Iceland😁
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Spending about 2 hours in the park, we then had lunch in the car before driving down to the geyser. Upon reaching, we could smell the fart, i mean sulfur, floating in the air! We went to the big one and waited for the eruption. Trying to record slow-motion videos and making two iphones die in the cold (iphone sucks at low temperatures), we managed a cool video on our camera showing the transit between pre-eruption to eruption! The blue bubble that was formed and rose up as it break caused the geyser to hit more than 3 stories high!
Our lunch in the car! The petite geyser Strokkur GeyserI wanted to clasify all the waterfalls we have seen (in all 5 days) so I will deviate a little from the golden circle tour! Gullfoss was the most majestic and to fully enjoy its beauty, you should go in summer and you will be able to climb out further! If you are lucky, you will probably spot a rainbow on some angles! Seljalandsfoss was special because we were supposed to walk behind the water curtains and see it from a different angle.
Gulfoss, within the Golden CircleUnfortunately, the weather was too cold and the path to a good apot and the stairs to the back froze in ice. We could hardly walk up without slipping, let alone go behind the falls, HAHA!
Seljalandsfoss, the one you could supposedly go behind the veil, but it was too slippery! Taken by Xinyi, amazing silkiness!Next, we went over to the third waterfall, Skogafoss! Another massive one, but even more touristy! It was hard to take a nice landscape without any human trail😂 We climbed up to the top of the waterfalls to spot how did the water flow when it was upstream. And the view up there… leave you to judge!
Skogafoss Checking out the top of the falls Whee, I am at the top of the world!Finally, we went to the last fall in Skaftafell National Park. Raining moderately, we fought the biting cold and slippery conditions to the falls and finally saw the falls after like an eternal time of walking!
Svartifoss Had to remove my specs cause it is soaked from the rain. But hey, I do look quite okay without them:PThe waterfalls are all glam and majestic but they lack the uniqueness that some other nature sites would be able to give you! Do look out for my older posts, especially the one in Norway!
By the time we ended Gulfoss and headed for Kerið. The entrance to enter is about 3 pounds and it was snowing then. The snow added beauty to our video shots, somewhat like those you see in Kdrama hahaha! Gonna make a VLOG soon when I have the time:) Kerið is amazing, the crater is black and covered partly in snow and you can imagine seeing a monochrome scene! Loving Iceland more and more!
Calling out my lover Kerið It looks damn amazing in summer too!Because the post is gonna be too long and I am gonna be too naggy, here’s my first potato to you guys😁 I will post my second half in three days!
Till next time!
Potato for you, just kidding! They are rare volcanic rocks I found at the crater:P
Settling down 2Phase 2 of settling down.. Getting used to living in London, just that I am living on a budget everyday. Trying to cut on unnecessary spendings so I can use the saved up cash to travel hahaha! I would say I am proud of it? Like I only spent about 10 pounds on groceries a week (count 5 days)😁 London is really expensive I can’t deny but there are ways to save! The trick is to go to a supermarket (Tesco, Saintsbury, ASDA, Aldi etc.) and pick up the house brands. Your experiences with local house brands like Fairprice (in SG) are probably not very fairly priced, but its different in UK and Europe! Trust me, 42pences for a Tesco lemonade is as good as a SGD $1.50 Ice Cream Soda! The other trick is to always estimate the exchange rates. No matter if you change for £1:S$1.7 or S$1.99, just round up your estimations to S$2. It is far easier to calculate and the psychological effect will be that everything looks more expensive and you will reduce your expenses!
Something else to get used to is the cold! “The brits like talking about the weather” I finally see why, the weather here is so drastic! In the day, you can wear like two layers and still sweat cause the sun is up. While in the night, will shiver in 2 layers and duvet😅 There are gloomy days and the winds are unforgiving and there are better days where the sun rays bathe you in warmth. However it is really good to experience 4 seasons! Starting to like the Autumn a lot when I walked through Hyde Park everyday and watch the fallen leaves float down like Maplestory🍁🍂
How’s school? The UK education system is really different from Singapore. Firstly, most of them work on a trimester basis and they have Autumn, Spring and Summer. The former two are teaching terms and we can take as many modules as we want as long as we can cope with the teachings. Most modules come with 2 hours of lecture a week and… no tutorials. Yes, tutorials here are conducted like consultation and they are voluntary to attend. The final semester is the revision/exam trimester and that’s the camping period where everyone will camp at the library to chiong revision haha! The passing mark is 40/100 for each module and I guess that isn’t too bad for a curriculum that has NO BELLCURVE. Thank you, I won😉 However, most modules are offered in a fixed trimester and it is very difficult to have a timetable with nothing clashed unless you take all from the same year(ie year 2)! So you can guessed it, most of my lectures are clashing like crazy. Thank goodness, most modules have webcast and I decided I can skip most of them HAHAHA!
Yep, so having a chill term meant that I can spend the weekends and even some weekdays travelling, which I really wanted to do for the exchange. Next term will be more shag and I would not have so much time to travel anymore, so should cherish the freedom to run around with Xinyi more too! A pity that Kevin and the other NUS exchange friends couldn’t join our trips though, would really love to travel with them😞
And yes, made quite some friends and buddies here too:) I would say given my busy travelling commitments, it would be really difficult to forge strong friendships with a lot of people in general cause I don’t have the energy nor time to hang out with them for nightlife a lot. However, I am glad that I managed to meet a few of them like Kevin and Ken whom are quite sincere to talk to! Like now I have a gym and meal buddy hahaha! Really glad to have these friends close to me so I don’t feel so homesick everyday haha.
Of course I still miss home. Whenever I see my family going to Boon Lay for a nice meal when my ama 中马票 or when I see the chem eng friends having outing plans, I wish I could fly there to be with them:) However, seeing them all well and happy makes me satisfied too, it’s like a relieving feeling that makes me look forward to June 2017 when I can go back and have my reunion with them once again!
So yep, that is my London life so far! Just had a nice homecooked meal with limxinn in Birmingham (yay! Bucket list checked) My family is here haha, and I will probably feel a part of me being sucked out of me when she leaves haha! Its okay, I will survive:) Next up would be a nice trip with a friend whom I missed alot! From Hanyang hahaha!
After Poland, I crossed over to Czech Republic via Flixbus (For those who are new to Europe travels, do look out for buses as an alternate transport to train and car – they are cheap and convinient)! I visited Prague, Cesky Krumlov and Brno in 3 days.
Prague
Taken on a clear day at Charles Bridge @ 8amThe capital of Czech Republic, Prague is also well known for being a romantic city for honeymooners and tourists. The end results? 3 wedding couples having their Charles Bridge shoot at 8am, tons of people mobbing the town centre from 10am-8pm, restaurants packed and only reservations can be taken. Prague is a really beautiful city and it has a lot to see/offer but the tourists are really making the place too crowded… But i guess we don’t have a choice cause this part of Central Europe is where everyone stops by in their tour haha.
Romantic PragueAnyway, abit of information about Czech Republic – Czech and Slovakia used to be a nation called Czechoslovakia. Before World War 2, they were one of the flourishing states in the world and they even invented beer. This explains the strong beer culture in Czech! This however, went on a decline when Czechoslovakia fell into German hands during World War 2 and became a communist state when Russia liberated them. In 1993 (the year I was born!), the country split into Czech Republic and Slovakia peacefully.
Fact: Prague consumes the highest amount of beer (38 gallons per person per year) in the world, not Munich nor Berlin!
These information above, I got them by joining the SANDEMANs/New Europe tour! The tour guide is really friendly and she helps to explain a lot of Czech history to us:) During the tour itself, I met this businessman from Moscow who told me that he didn’t really like staying there but instead he would love to migrate somewhere else. I recommended him our sunny island, for the food and never-changing season:P
Enthusiastic tour guide (She’s from Manchester, but she loves Prague so much, she moved!)Also to mention that I got to stay in this cheap and cool hostel called Charles Bridge Economic Hostel. It is actually a tourist centre at the ground floor and it operates the hostel in the other floors of the building. This place is located just beside the bridge itself and they offer a lot of discounted tours. Ah and they have free flow of hot drinks and you can request at the reception, a pretty sweet deal:)
Cheeky car near Pachtovsky palacOne place to visit would be the Prague Castle. You don’t need to enter the castle, it’s overcrowded and quite expensive as well. But after going up the hill, you will get to see the panoramic view of the city:) There’s a balcony owned by Starbucks, but do feel free to enter, take some pictures or just admire the view. It’s the best of the city you can get:) Go around sunset time for the best view!
View I got on topThere is a few other places to visit but I was too tired to check them out! There is the jewish quarters, slightly north of the old town square. You will be able to find some pretty chill architecture and jewish graveyards as well. However, this place is closed on Saturday for their prayer sessions, so try and avoid going then.
Astronomical ClockThis shows the names and on the day where the name is on top, it will be the name day of that name.In terms of food, Prague is famous for Trdelnik too (compared to Poland). However, the Trdelnik here is much more touristy priced and the quality of the cake is not as good as the counterpart in Krakow. Therefore, I feel that trying once is good enough:) Had the famous Pork Knee at Restaurace Mlejnice! Must say that it is the best Schweinshaxe I have ever eaten! The pork is so juicy and the skin is flamed till perfection with a hinge of beer taste. It is really big though and I would recommend two people to share one knuckle or you will probably not finish it! Other than that, Prague is also famous for its soups and I wanted to try at this place called Loxal but it was full house:/ Do remember to call in to reserve as most restaurants will be quite packed from 6pm onwards!
Trdelnik
HUGE ASS PORK KNEE
Cesky Krumlov
On Saturday, I met Xin Yi and we headed to this less known town called Cesky Krumlov, south Czech Republic. This place was recommended to us by this Hungarian girl we met at Montserrat. Known for its medieval beauty, this town is another replica of a fairytale town!
When we arrived at the town, it was snowing and it was really beautiful experiencing the snow falling gradually onto our jackets, body and the streets, lest cold! It made the place even more magical:) We would recommend to travel up to the castle (again) and head towards the viewing platform for the postcard view of the place!
The view of Cesky!The town is not super touristy so the number of shops opened are quite minimal. We went to a cafe that sells only breakfast menu for lunch and it was quite cool that the cafe owner has a second job as a seamstress. In fact, she opened the cafe so she can use the place as her workshop to sew:) And she even made the cafe tailor-theme, having sewing machines as the tables! The lunch wasn’t super impressive but it is still worth it to have it there!
Grilled to perfection!Walking down the town, we went into a chocolate speciality shop that sells all sorts of chocolates, hot wine and honey. It is also a Czech thing to drink hot wine and even though we did not try, I would recommend the experience to do so if you want to experience the local culture! We also entered a woodcraft shops that sell all sorts of woodcrafts, from decorations to children’s toys. It felt really christmasy and the shop lady was nice enough to demonstrate how some of the toys work:) We bought ourselves a couple woodcraft and they look so cute hehe!
She looks her gift! Sucessful!Snacking on the Czech fried cheese (Smažený sýr), it tasted really normal too. Do not get it in Prague once again cause they are known to prepare it only at the street stands just for tourists and the sources of the cheese may be quite dubious! Having it at Cesky Krumlov was alright!
And for dinner, we went to Cafe Blue, a local pub that serves really nice grills. When I said grills, I meant that the meat are really grilled over a fire place, how cool was that? We came relatively early and they were just setting up the fire place – so we got to see our meat being grilled to perfection, YAY! The meat is really tender and juicy! Highly recommended to get the chicken one cause the sauce they used really complemented the chicken really well:)
Brno
And finally, I went solo on my last place in Brno, where I caught a flight in the afternoon back to London. This place has quite some places to explore if you are ever going there and have time to spare. Due to the lack of time, I have only been to the Freedom Square and bought my lunch there! You can check out Xinyi’s blog for more recommendations:)
And this marks the end of my solo trip in Prague and Brno, as well as a short day trip to Cesky Krumlov! It’s really a blessing to be given this opportunity to see the world while we are still young and willing to travel without comfort. Maximising this time around Europe makes me learn a lot and drawn me a step ahead to look forward to new travels in the upcoming weeks:) Hopefully, Spring Term won’t be so hectic and I can travel a bit more:)
Okay this week’s trip was bought on impulse because 13 pounds to Warsaw is too hard to resist. After buying the tickets, I didn’t have a lot of time to plan for the trip so I only got to sit down and look at the places properly on Tuesday (after I return from Luxembourg). But you know what, planning just the day before travelling makes me really excited about the trip:) so much that I am not complaining that I have to wake up at 4am to catch the bus to the airport.. Will have to thank Xinyi for inspiring with her idea of food trail in Brno, thus this trip focused more on food😂
It has been said that Poland is dead, exhausted, enslaved, but here is the proof of her life and triumph. – Henryk Sienkiewicz
On Wednesday, I headed to Warsaw first(since the flight there is dirt cheap). After going to Berlin and learning about the Nazi operations, I became really interested to find out about Poland’s perspective(being the greatest victim of the operation). This explained the motivation to embark on this solo trip even though hopping two cities in two days is quite shag!
Warsaw
The Old TownWarsaw is a rebuilt city after WW2 when the Germans razed the capital to the ground. Thus the buildings look pretty new even though they were built to look vintage(the rebuilt plans were based on a city blueprint in 1800s). People will say that Warsaw is boring and underwhelming, but I beg to differ.
But to me, Warsaw has a really resilient history behind it. I visited the Warsaw Uprising museum where they talked about Warsaw starting a revolution during WW2 against the Nazi forces. Even though they were smaller in strength and they lacked resources, they were courageous enough to fight back against the Germans (much like the storyline of Les Miserables). However, they lost to the Nazi after 2 months, and the Germans took revenge by razing the city to the ground. After WW2, the Polish needed to rebuild the city and they followed the architecture plan drawn up by an architect in the 18th century. This led to the reconstruction of old town and new town together, preservation of some sites and erection of memorials to remember how Poland suffered under the Germans. Its quite amazing how they managed to rebuild the whole city from ruins, much like Berlin did too!
Sites in Warsaw
Palace of Science and CultureI visited the Uprising Museum as mentioned above to learn about the history of the resistance of Warsaw during the Nazi operations.
When you arrive in the city by train or bus, you will definitely see a magnificent building that stood out across the surrounding buildings. This is Warsaw’s famous Palace of Culture and Science, which was built to remember the world war as the Nazis robbed the jews from both art and science. This palace houses a complex of theatres, museums and galleries and it is quite popular as an entertainment complex for the Polish teens!
Museum of the UprisingThe other place to check out would be the St Anne Church, located just at the end of the old town. On a clear day, you can climb up (literally climbing – you are WARNED) to the top to catch a clear panoramic view of the city! Plan such that you go around sunset so you will have an amazing view:) I didint got a cool view cause it was raining and the whole place was rather dark and gloomy:/
View from top of St Anne in the gloomy weather:/
Food in Warsaw
The other highlight to mention about Poland was the food! Europe food has been much more expensive than Singapore but in Poland, they have cafeterias called Milk Bars. Milk bars are popularised in the Communist era and is like the 茶餐厅 of Poland, selling a variety of cheap Polish meals. After researching about some recommended places to try, I had 2 meals in 2 milk bars in 2 days! The first at Warsaw, I ordered Pierogi Ruskie (Polish Russian-inspired dumplings) and Borsh (beetroot soup). Would say that even though they are all dumplings/ravioli, these pierogi tasted nothing like that in Asia/Italy/UK. The ones in Poland are stronger in flavor and they used potato as a base! The Borsh soup is also quite exotic cause it looks astonishing bloody (i didint know it was beetroot when i ordered), and it tasted sweet (not my kind of soup😅).
Borsh and Pierogi Ruskie (<2 pounds)Something else I would recommend to try in Warsaw would be Zapiekanka. I went to this place called Zapiexy that specialise in selling these Polish food. These are open faced pizza where they add meat, veg and cheese to baguette bread before toasting it. Sounds like subway but definitely much more delicious and economical than subway! Whats special about Zapiekanka is that they would add three sauces, tomato, horseradish and mayo to the end product which brings out the flavor of the dish really well. Super must try when you go to Poland!
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Krakow
Krakow CastleKrakow on the other hand, is left unscratched during the world war and the buildings are preserved. As a result, Krakow’s architecture are old and beautiful, pretty much like those you would have seen in movies filmed in Arab! Those are the conditions of the buildings.
For Krakow, you can allocate more time such that you spend a day in the old town and another day in Auswitchz Concentration Camps and Salt Mines. I only had a day and I did only Auswitchz and the old town!
Sites in Krakow
Auswitchz MuseumAuschwitz Concentration Camps is also called the “Death Camp” and the “Final Stop”. It is split into camp 1 (Auschwitz) and camp 2 (Birkenau). Auschwitz was built first and started receiving the deported jews from 1941. The exhibition of Auschwitz showcased the various kinds of torture(living or murder) that are inflicted on the prisoners and how the typical life of a prisoner is in the camp. About 90% of the prisoners did not make it out alive when the camp was liberated due to the insane living conditions( The most memorable of the camp is the room that showed the warehouse of properties(such as shoes, bags and glasses) belonging to the prisoners that were confiscated from them when they arrived at the camp. These are material evidences of the crimes committed by the Nazis and were used to show the scale of destruction the Nazis had on the war victims.
The last room that was used as the gas chamber was really depressing as well because when the chemical gas is used to exterminate the jews, they were caught unaware and told to enter the “shower room” to wash up. And that is where they would perish after 20 minutes of gassing, often struggling badly and scratching the wall of the concrete room to ease their pain. These left iconic scratch marks on the wall, as seen below..
If we bear all this suffering and if there are still Jews left, when it is over, then Jews, instead of being doomed, will be held up as an example. – Anne Frank
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After Auschwitz, I went over to Birkenau. On the way out, I saw that the number of visitors tenfolded and thus it is advised to come earlier (I went for the 8am slot) and beat the crowd(remember to reserve online to book the tour – it is free if you are travelling without a guide). And because it was going to be Poland Independence Day the following day, I met a battalion of uniformed soldiers visiting the place as well 😂
I wasn’t the only early bird here:)Birkenau is about 30 mins away by foot and on the way to the camp, you can see some abandoned factories and houses that were used during the war. There are also random rail tracks that seem to lead from nowhere to nowhere. Well, they led eventually to Birkenau and they are also known as the Railway of no Tomorrow. After discovering that the first camp was too slow in the purging of jews, the Nazi went ahead to build a second death camp. This time, the scale of the camp is far greater and offered worse living conditions. The prisoners are sent to this camp by train and sorted. The women, children and elderly are usually sent directly to the gas chambers upon arrival while the men would be sent to work till their deaths. Even though the camp was razed to the ground, some parts of the camp was reconstructed to show the camp situation in the 1940s. Birkenau is open to public and you don’t need a ticket to enter, but it is recommended to visit Auschwitz before Birkenau as the former offered more explanations than the latter. Going through both camps made me realised the need to understand the mistakes that the past have committed and appreciate that the future can easily commit the same crimes on your country for example. I believe if there was a Chinese Hitler in China/Japan, the extent of world war 2 on Asia would have been far worse than what was what our ancestors experienced.
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After the solemn trip to Auschwitz camps, I went back to Krakow to walk around the old town. Did not visit any site in particular but I would recommend to drop by the old town for food and appreciation of the architecture. The difference in Krakow and Warsaw is very evident in the old town as Krakow.
Inside the market squareKrakow’s Market Square
Food in Krakow
The smiley face made my day!I went to another milk bar and ordered the Bigos (Hunter Stew) and Potato and Leek Soup (yea i love soup alot)! Wanted to try the potato pancakes but they sold out:/ its quite important to go earlier at the milk bars as they prepared limited stock of each dish and will flip the price on the board over to inform the customers that they sold out of the dishes. The hunter stew is quite funny as it looks like a random mess of onions, meatballs, sausages, potatoes and more mashed together. The overall taste is quite normal though, not a must eat in Poland..
Hunter soup and stew. Oops, I spilled some soupFor desserts, I tried Sernik and Chimney Cake(aka Trdelnik) in Krakow. Sernik is a cheesecake made in Poland but it tasted far drier and do not stick to your hands as you eat. I love how it is not too sweet and just nice in terms of custard sugar, which was brushed on top of the cake. Chimney Cake was recommended by Gauri as she said that Prague’s cakes are nothing compared to those in Krakow. Ordered a plain one and it won me over immediately. The chimney cake was really big and the chef prepared each one fresh from the grill for the customer!
Lovely Chimney Cake (Thanks Gauri!)
This solo trip has been really meaningful for me because I don’t get to only eat and chill, I got to talk to some of the locals/ tourists too. It makes me wonder why Poland, having significant war histories, is not well known to the world as a model of peace. Poland is indeed one that survived the worst and rebuilt to become stronger today!
Poland should be strong and prosperous and independent and play its proper role as a great nation in the heart of Europe – George H. W. Bush
Alright, so this marks the end of the first part of my weekend trip! Do Czech the blog up on the weekends for my post on Czech Republic:)
Hello, I am back in Belgium! This time round, I am travelling with my buddy Woojin! I am really lucky to have met this awesome guy in Hanyang and that we kept in contact afterwards:)
Buddy JinAnother 7 hours of bus to Brussels and even though I was so tired of it, I was actually looking forward to meeting my buddy:) Envious of him though cause he was able to stopover at Paris for 3 hours and the view is, as you can see AMAZING EIFFEL with CLEAR SUNNY SKIES.
Taken by Woojin, edited by Yours Sincerely—–(A long long bus ride later…)—–
Brussels
An interesting fact is that Belgium is separated into 3 regions mainly due to differences in language – French and Dutch speakers. The regions are Flanders in the north (Dutch), Wallonia in the south (French) and Brussels in the centre (Bilingual) – Brussels Facts
Our damn good hostel!Reaching Brussels, I am finally reunited with my jin(that’s a reference to his email hahaha)! It’s quite relieving to see him once again😄 A good thing about Brussels this week is that the weather is much more forgiving and far warmer than it was 2 weeks ago. We went to check in at our hostel 2GO4 and hey it is AP very comfortable! We booked a 6 bed room but got upgraded to a 4 bed room! And it only cost like 17 euros, really worth the deal!
A good thing about hostel is that you get to meet Travellers (especially students) from other parts of the world and it is easy to connect to them and ask them about their perspectives and interests. During our night, we met 2 Spanish girls studying in Dublin and they were sharing about Spanish stuffs, and yea literally we were having a ‘tapas’ talk hahaha! Also met this Californian guy who is having an exchange in Paris! His life is admirable! Being 25 and married, he is also both an American🇺🇸 and Mexican🇲🇽. He signed on in Special Force (OMG) and was assigned to Afghanistan to support the US troops there (DOTS anyone?). The most interesting part of the convo was that he wanted to vote for Trump not because he hates Clinton; he did raise some very new perspectives from the military side. He said that Donald Trump would be able to collaborate with Russia to stop the war in Middle East, while Clinton will remain status quo and continue fighting what her husband has left behind there. While not everyone may agree with that but it’s his stance and it’s good to hear an educated answer from a Native American:)
Going back to the travels, we kind of followed quite similarly to what Xinyi and I had two weeks ago, so I won’t harp on them. Something cool to highlight was Grand Place in night is probably the only reason you should stay in Brussels for a night haha. Just look at all the purple glows!
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Oh and please don’t scrimp on your waffles and fries, thinking other parts of Belgium will be cheaper cause they are not the capital. Brussels food and souvenirs are actually the cheapest. I guess it’s like Berlin, but not as ridiculously cheap.
Mitrailette again~
Ghent
Moving on to Ghent(Gent), I will say that this is my favourite town in Belgium! While we arrived to be welcomed by a skies of grey clouds and gloomy atmosphere, we were greeted with a Dutch-ish town that is very very different from Brussels. So while Brussels failed to impress much, Ghent blew us away:) A cool thing about Belgium as mentioned in my previous post, is that it was under different ruling before it became independent. Thus, it is split into a few region – Capital Brussels, the northern Flemish (Dutch dialect) speaking Flemish, the southern French speaking Walloon and German speaking Wallonia.
River LeieThis would explain Amsterdam looking buildings in Bruges and Ghent and also windmills in Bruges, which you will see later on!
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Fun Fact: Ghent has always been know as a city of rebels.
Along river Leie, every point on the bridge is picturesque. We spot a hostel just located beside St Michael’s Bridge and there is no curtains. So…. tourists on the bridge can just look in and see the guests naked but the guests can sleep with the stunning view all day. Whether this is worth it, I leave it to you to decide hahaha.
We stayed at an airbnb room 5 mins away. The owner, José, is very kind to help us with the arrangement of check in even though he was not around physically. Would recommend his place – do ask me if you are keen, I paid about 60 Sgd for one night(for 2 people), with breakfast included.
Our Airbnb accom. The quote is so random!Ah and skip the castle, it is not that nice and you will need to pay 6€ to get in – don’t think it’s worth it though. Instead, we went earlier to the eat-all-you-can Spare Ribs restaurant Amadeus. For 18€, you can have unlimited servings of pulled pork ribs, glazed in some super addictive roasted sweet sauce. And the sides, salad and the signature Jacket Potato, are free flow as well. The jacket potato was the best I have eaten so far in Europe! The potato was perfectly baked and served with some savoury sauce that had a hinge of curry inside. In total, the kiasu me went straight for 3 servings of spare ribs and zomg, that was one of the best meal I had in a very long time. Kind of looking forward to a good meal back in Singapore!
Unlimited Ribs GaloreAnd annoyingly, it started to rain as predicted by the weather forecast. Despite the cold and pelting-on-the-face, the rain made Ghent much magical. One of my favourite song from Les Miserables was ‘On My Own’ and the lyrics of the song go like “In the rain, the pavement shines like silver. All the lights are misty in the river. In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight.” IT IS EXACTLY WHAT EPONINE HAD IMAGINED!
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Really thank you to the magic you have shown us, Ghent!
Bruges
On the third day, we went over to Bruges. Also known as “Little Venice of the North”, Bruges has canals, bridges and houses built around the river. However, it also takes up the touristy aspect of Venice, with overpriced food and souvenirs flooding the market square. Tip! Do not buy from stores around there. They are for tourists who came unprepared!
MarktWe checked in our hostel, Hostel Lybeer at around afternoon and the hostel is quite cool, with sleeping spaces shaped like rabbit holes/bookshelves. The only downside was that, there was no locker to lock up the valuables so it would be a risk to leave the valuables behind. However, just remember to bring a handy lock for your luggage and you will be fine everywhere:) No pickpocket will be zai enough to steal/slash open your entire bag without you knowing.
Bruges Facts: Like the country, the city is known for its liberal values and it’s mandatory for every citizen to vote. Not only has it recognised the institution of same-sex marriage since 2003, but it’s also legal to possess up to five grams of cannabis. (Beers and Beans)
Minnewater Lakeaka Lovers’ LakeWe decided to rent a bike to cycle around town, since bikes are very common there for Bruges is a Dutch influenced part of Belgium *coughs Amsterdam*. 10€ for 4 hours, and it was fun riding again. Can’t remember the last time I could ride, but its one of the three essential life skills one should acquire hahaha!
Bike buddy!Had lunch at Bocca, a pasta box store (not opened on Sunday). The verdict is that the pasta is darned good! Got the signature Bocca sauce(hello its in the name of the shop) with bacon and cheese. Ah… the flavour was so rich that I finished the pasta box really fast. Woojin was faster though… Guess we were really hungry too!
Pasta Box, only 4.50 Euros!After lunch, we cycled down to Minnewater; also known as Lovers’ Lake. Something interesting to mention about Bruges is that they are aware of why tourists visit the city and in their official map – they marked out Fries shops, Night shops(pubs) and KISS spots😂 Of course, Minnewater is a KISS spot but Woojin and I did not kiss for obvious reasons! The lake is probably the best reason to visit Bruges for a honeymoon too:)
Copied what Woojin did!We then cycled up to see the iconic windmills in the Belgian town. And yea whIle you definitely cannot compare them to those at Zaanese Schans, its still amazing to see a real life-sized windmill hahaha. Did some step/goofy shots there and it was just in time for the next change of Bruges – the merciless rain.
Bruges WindmillThe rain did not just pour continuously, it was on and off and heavier than drizzles. We decided to return our bike earlier so we could hide from the rain but by the time we reached the bike shop, we were kind of drenched. And after we returned the bikes, the rain stopped… for like half an hour before it started pouring again. Haiz, such fickleness makes me sick🙄
Regardless of the erratic weather, we still enjoyed our time in Belgium! Travelling with Woojin was really comfortable! Woojin is very organised and he had a self-prepared information sheet for each town we were going to. They were in Korean though but I am very thankful to Woojin for recommending these places to visit and for willing to make compromises here and there:) I posted on Instagram saying that I learnt a lot from this guy, so he asked me what exactly did I learn? Haha, other than speaking simple german phrases like schön, I have also discovered that Woojin is really disciplined. He has been pen-writing a travel diary everyday since the start of his exchange, and well, it has been three months and he is still going strong. I am ashamed to say that I cannot keep a diary cause it will just disappear halfway haha! Woojin’s love for his girlfriend is remarkable as well! Wherever Woojin goes, he will look for souvenirs to buy for his girlfriend and also take a photo of his polaroid (with the famous landscape as the background). He said that he wanted to compile a video for his girlfriend, Sooooooo sweetttttttt! Hahaha, but before you guys can ask when is it my turn, I did a video for Xinyi already. Just couldn’t upload on Facebook due to copyright issues with the song *groans*
Brussels Waffles (bought in Bruges ironically)Oh and Koreans have very similar databases! I think they used Naver to plan their trips, looking at Korean reviews and the result is that I see a lot of Koreans around (especially in the Hostel Lybeer). In fact, we even hit it off (they were kind to speak english to me) and we had lunch together. Thank Woojin for being my wingman HAHA!
A Night ViewIconic shot, but bad weather!And that marks the end of my friendship trip with Woojin:) Can’t wait for a future trip with him again!
Luxembourg
Fact: It has the highest GDP per capita in the world and its GDP is almost three times the average GPD of EU. (Interestingfunfacts.com)
Bock
Finally, after 8 hours of bus ride, I have reached Luxembourg 🇱🇺 This small country is landlocked by Belgium, France and Germany but it has the world’s second highest GDP per capita (second to only Qatar) Thus as expected, the cost of living would be quite high! A cup of hot chocolate could easily cost €4.50. Thank goodness for carrefour now haha!
Visited the city today but omg it was freezing! The weather report told me that it is cloudy buy they did not say it would drizzle! The rain froze my hands and phone died within 3 hours despite full charge😪
Grund
Nonetheless, this small city of Luxembourg is still beautiful in ts own way! Similar to Ronda, Luxemborug is built on gorges and there is an upper level and the Grund level, making it pretty unique. The city is very organised and uses yellow bricks as its theme. The only downside is that there are too much constructions ongoing. Overall, i feel that this place can be quite underwhelming and I would advice to come. Only if it is a stopover city.(The only thing that I found memorable was this sunset)
Ah, I know i have been travelling a lot and yes I do skip a bit of school to travel. However, I did fulfill my obligation as a student by catching up on webcasts, notes and assignments! I have finished my part for the project due in two weeks! If there is something exchange taught Xinyi and myself, it would to be time efficient!
Want to make a guess which country did I travel to this weekend? Good job, I am in England HAHAHA! Of course, I am not in London as usual. Went to Birmingham, the Wrekin(a hike), Cheltenham and Swindon Village for the weekend!
Birmingham
Birmingham is pretty quiet as usual (my second time visiting it). Met Xin at New Street, had 2-for-1 Caffe Nero coffee and hopped around for our dinner plan(we wanted to spruce up something nice). And we made… *DRUM ROLLS* Lemon Chicken Potato Skillet🍋🐔🍟 Making it was really fun simply because we got to try it out together! But after boiling the whole pack of potatoes, we realised that there were too much potatoes hahaha! In the end, we improvised and tried out another dish – Caramelised potatoes and it turned out amazing😍 Exchange makes you a better chef, can’t agree more than that! And presenting our candlelight dinner without the candles(yea, I uploaded the photos previously as well!)
The Wreckin
Went on a hike with the wayfarers from UoB on Saturday. This weekend, they were going up a hill called the Wrekin! And because next week is Halloween, many of the hikers dressed up and hike in them! There is one guy that put im the effort to design a scarecrow costume and he looked really into it, with straws jutting out of his pants and shirt. Applaud for his effort!
The hike is pretty decent and not too difficult. After Trolltunga, this feels rather normal, except that we are hiking with a bigger group of people haha. The views at the top is similar to that of Offa’s Dyke where you can see a lot of different counties. However, I was more amazed with the view at the bottom, with the shades of browning leaf and piles of leaf litter. Even though Autumn is really late this year, it is still amazing to see. I think I am becoming the son of Autumn, loving every shade of the orange and light breeze haha
Not a fully enjoyable hike tbh cause I don’t know the people there and there was a social dilemma on whether i should talk to them or not since I can’t reveal my identity (I crashed the school’s hike btw) And yea, when Xinyi stepped aside to talk to her friends, I did feel really lonely. Putting these negative feelings aside, I did manage to meet a few hikers and people during the journey:
1) A UK and Nepal duo! They are from wayfarers and have hiked with Xinyi at the Malvern hills. The UK guy is studying history and specialises in Greek history(OMG)! He shared with me about the UK love for cricket and how he preferred Birm from London! The Nepal guy shared about Nepal and also his hall life! I did enjoy talking to them and having lunch together haha!
2) A retired UK Professor who regularly brings his family out to hike. His wife was the coordinator of Wayfarers I think, and she teaches Sports Science. It’s quite admirable that they are both in their mid 60 or 70 and they hike faster than me😂
3) Two masters students from China. One who liked photography and one who likes travelling. Both were sharing with me how difficult it is for Chinese to travel from places to places if they are studying and that at the end of the day they would still want to go back to China to work and not stay in the UK. They don’t look old though haha!
4)At the top of the hill, there are a couple of elderly men who set up rebro sets are they were using some call signs as they communicate through the comm set. Apparently they are picking up signal with some guys doing the same thing in AUSTRALIA(WOW). Kind of reminded me of signals and army days haha. Nostalgia kicks in well.
And yep, kind of screwed up the last part of the hike and I am sorry about it, Xinyi..
Putting that aside, we went back to Birmingham and had a pint party (Oh it’s icecream, not beer😂). Thankfully both of us aren’t alcoholics cause alcohol in UK is quite expensive!
Cheltenham
On Sunday, bidded farewell to Xinyi *sobsobs* and travelled down to Cheltenham. Where is this place? Probably only those who stayed in UK would know of it as a train station. However, Cheltenham is more than just a train station. It is part of Cotsworld, which literally encloses the meaning “Sheep enclosure in rolling hills”. Cotsworld is the rural part of South England and covers 6 counties. It has a long history and preserves the best medival and old english houses.
So, after this brief background, I went to Cheltenham and to my amusement, the houses do look really English! They seemed to be built a long time ago and refurbished regularly till today!
Walked through the town centre and unsurprisingly most of the shops are closed cause it was a Sunday. It was not a ghost town though and I saw many families walking around the park and the children are really enjoying themselves. It seems like a friendly place to live in!
Something interesting I noticed was that the trees in Cheltenham are decorated with this red knitted poppy (flower) brooch and there are even congratulatory wreath made of these knits outside the Promanade. I was wondering what those flowers meant and I realised they are called Rememberance Poppies and UK has this tradition to remember the servicemen who were killed during WW1. They are starting to have fundraising events around UK (especially London) where the retired soldiers would dawn on their uniforms and sell these poppies to the public. Kind of cool to see actually!
Walking further up north, I went to the Wholefood Market that Xinyi found for me. It was about 20 minutes walk from the town and along the way I walked past a clock tower. Just on that day itself, the clocks around UK are set back by an hour for daylight saving but interestingly this clock tower has not been adjusted yet and is an hour ‘faster’. This probably shows that the Brits really don’t work on Sundays hahaha!
The wholefood market is nothing like that of Berlin or London but rather like Marche where you order the food, they prepare and you pay at the till. Got myself a roasted beef burger cause I missed beef so much! Not the best burger I have eaten though, the beef was left out for too long I guess:/
Swindon Village
So after lunch, I found a nice village that is near to the whole food market. It is called Swindon Village and the population size is only 112? Went up to it and saw an empty English cottage. It looks really pretty and I decided to ‘tourist’ it and just had my mini-photoshoot in the place😂 There were some people that walked by and saw me but I didn’t care about how they were going to judge me. Not coming back anyway!
Swindon Village is a really small village and there is literally 1 church, 1 primary school and some residential houses, that’s all! The architecture of the buildings are quite like that you can imagine on the cover of Enid Bytom though and it felt like I was in one of those fairytale towns😌
And that marks the end of my short but eyeopening weekend. I kind of like this, not going to cliché touristy places and still learning as I travel! Hope there will be more of this as I continue to go around places with people or myself! Now to end off, here’s me after my free haircut. I showed the person the Jin Goo photo. Guess they did a pretty good job in making me Korean😉
The first time I heard of Brussels was when Jun Ji Hyun whined that she only had 1 can of Brussels Sprouts in ‘You Who Came From the Stars’. Don’t laugh, but that was how SUA GU I was! I knew Belgium existed but I didn’t know that Brussels was a city in Belgium! But through this weekend trip down to Brussels, I began to learn more about the city.
THIS WAS THE ONE I AM TALKING ABOUT
For those who are interested, The history of Belgium is very much like Singapore in the Malay World. Before 1830, Belgium was always part of a greater territory (Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg or France). Because of its strategic location (FAMILIAR HOR), it was often used as a battleground between the territories and as a result, Belgium did not have its own identity. In 1830, the Belgian Revolution successfully gained it independence.
During our stay, we tried out a free sandeman tour around Brussels and we learnt a lot more from the guide:
1) Belgium is a city flourished by trades (post independence).
2) During its construction phase, in order to receive funding from neighbouring countries, Brussels agreed to be neutral during a war and not participate in any sides. This pact still holds.
3) Belgium do not have their own language and culture. In fact, the country is split between a few cultures – Dutch, French, German. While French is the majority and the official language of Belgium is French, it is quite cool to see the country mixing in the other languages, i.e. they say Danke (thank you in german) rather than Merci.
So where do I start? Well, we always wanted to visit Belgium someday but we ruled it out during the XinsonEUnison trip because of its chaotic security then and we did not want our parents to worry. It was only till recent weeks where we became more familiar with the European environment that we decided to give Belgium a shot. We booked Megabus and began on our 7 hours non-interrupted journey to Brussels. Or that’s what we thought; apparently to go from UK to Belgium (on bus), the only way is to cross the sea – via ferry or train. This means that the bus would be docked on the ferry/train as well. Of course, this also meant that we needed to wake up multiple times to change between the transports. So in total, we probably slept like 3 hours for the journey…
Gay bars are pretty common! To my dear friends out there, you will love EUROPE 😛
Even after 3 hours of sleep, we weren’t really welcomed in Brussels – the morning of Brussels was cold and desolated. The winds were piercing through our skins and it was definitely much colder than London. We simply underestimated the climate and wore what we had worn in UK… Cold and hungry, we headed for the nearest Macdonalds before we check in to our accommodation. The Macdonalds in Brussels is not fascinating and after learning my lesson in Rome, I decided not to order the Big Breakfast, which is just salty scrambled eggs with the two buns. I had hotcakes though, but they were not really hot. Macbreakfast in Europe is simply crap..
Some Space EXPO which we skipped cause we did not want to leave our bags outside
After which, we put down our stuffs at the accommodation before heading down to the old town. After the sun rose, the city became much warmer and in a way less painful to walk. First thing that we noticed was that the streets are quite dirty and you can literally see dried up spits everywhere. Brussels does give off a pretty young vibe like Barcelona.
We walked up to our first stop, the all-famous Manneken Pis! While you imagine the icon of the country to be humongous like Effiel Tower and Sagrada Familia is, Manneken Pis is just.. a statue of a peeing boy and is no taller than 24 inches… Seriously, even the Sandeman tour guide was disappointed by it too haha! However according to the guide, Manneken Pis is a timeless landmark and it was dressed up occasionally with costumes that represented the current affairs that affect Belgium/the world during that time. You can see below (I googled those)
Manneken Pis and its costumes
The next thing that caught our eyes are just along the stretch of road beside Manneken Pis – a whole stretch of 1 Euro waffles shop! This is the epitome of PERFECT COMPETITION, where you can just hop from one door to another and see that all the plain waffles are priced at the same price! We kind of fought and resisted the temptation of getting one cause we believed we will be able to find a better waffles subsequently. And indeed, we managed to find tons of waffles shop in the city centre. In actual fact, the whole city centre smells like BELGIUM WAFFLES! We got two that had the longest queues in the city centre. After having both waffles, we concluded that waffles are everywhere, but the good ones are the ones with the longest local queues (not tourists). Note to all going to Brussels, try and get the plain waffles (usually glazed in sugar) or just a sugar waffles. Adding extra toppings just make you a tourist and what you will be eating is the Tourist Waffles and not Belgium Waffles (according to the net). Some toppings can easily double or triple the prices of the waffles too, so don’t get scammed!
Official Belgian way of eating waffles The plain one is good enough, don’t get toppings from this stall
We then walked to the famous Grand Place, aka the Grand Market where trades around the world used to occur. It is to note that this place is particularly beautiful in August every two years where they would lay out an enormous flower carpet! We joined the free walkabout tour held by Sandemans and we followed them for awhile (see top for takeaways). Also bumped into a group of NTU students there haha!
*Grand Place is very crowded and there are a lot of Gypsies around asking for money, do watch out for your belongings!
Every 2 years in August, a flower carpet will be placed in the Grand Place! Image from Wikipedia.So after the Grand Place, we had our lunch at Fritland as recommended by everyone who have been to Brussels. We went at 11am, fortunately beating the lunch crowd and tourist crowd. Ordered a Mitrailette for 5 euros, which is a baguette with beef patties, salad, fries and sauce. The Mitrailette was quite okay but for a place supposedly world-famous for the fries, I just have to point out that the fries are so-so. You could have this standard of fries anywhere else in Brussels or even Berlin/London. The sauce we got was Basil and it actually saved the disappointing fries though! Tangy and minty, its really unique:) The Mitrailette is quite big and can be shared between 2 people!
Mitrailette. Sauce comes with a bang. Fries are so-soSo what’s after lunch? DESSERT of course! The pig-mode us began our search for good BELGIAN CHOCOLATES. Yes, you would be interested in this. The trick to savouring free atas dessert in Brussels is to walk in to the chocolate shops around Grand Place (there are like at least 20 shops) and browse for 3-5 minutes. Usually the staffs will come out and let you SAMPLE their speciality, and that is how we got to taste atas chocolate for free:P Some of the free samples are placed near the counters, but don’t be shy to take them. They are nicely cut into samples for tourists like us and we are not committing any crime taking them. Not like they can recognise us anyway, Asians all look the same…
That’s not all, we continued to glutton on ICE CREAM that gohjing recommended us. There is this Brussels chain called Maison Dandoy and we tried out their Senior cup (it’s actually 3 scoops but they called it a senior scoop to discourage egoistic tourists from getting it). We got Speculoos (yea, that’s a Belgian thing too), pistachio and cookie vanilla. All of them are super creamy and rich, and they totally reminded me of Gelateria de Teato in Rome. And the cost for the three scoops are about 4.90 Euros. Not too shabby! Funny how we keep complain that it is cold and we still went for ice-cream instead (cause Limxin has a bunch of sweet teeth)
Senior Cup @ Maison Dandoy. Shiok! Pistachio, Speculoos, Cookie VanillaFinally after posts of food, let’s take a break. We too, took a break and went to the supermarket to grab some Souvenirs. We had in mind: Belgian Choco and Speculoos Biscuits. But we ended up buying Praline and Trappist Beer to try as well. Trappist Beer are Belgian fruit beers that are brewed by monks and the profits are used to support humanitarian causes. Basically, drink beer and save the world hahaha!
Love their packaging, guess which is the house brand?Trappist beer is actually quite nice to drink. While alcohol content is similar to beer, I guess it doesn’t have a bitter aftertaste, but it has
Credits to xinfuladventures.wordpress.comAnd after our supermarket session, it is time for… DINNER! HAHAHA! Because we ate so much, we decided to have something lighter – Waffles and MORE FRIES! Fries are also called Frittes in Belgium. We were randomly walking down the alleys and we saw this fries shop that looks super legit. Bought one and tried and yes, that is the best fries I have eaten in my life. Presenting to you, the crispy and tangy fries from Cafe Geogette. While it is sold in a cafe, the takeaway menu is actually cheaper than Fritland cause it was less known. Highly recommended!
And that concludes the end of our Brussels trip over the weekends. Kind of a rollercoaster one with all the random little events that cause our trip to rather heart-throttling! But overall, this weekend has been really relaxing and I really look forward to more trips over the weekend. Stay tuned to more updates! This coming weekend will be home (UK) bound 🙂
For my friends in London, Unidays have this 1-for-1 promotion till 31st October. Do grab your coffee/tea in Caffe NERO!
CinqeMinte 