Saturday, June 16, 2007
I got back from Croatia a week ago- spent 6 days driving along the Adriatic coast with 3 other friends- Milan, Cynthia and Andre (German). Prior to going I confess I had no idea what to expect; I knew nothing about Croatia except that it was a coastal country and that it was Milan’s hometown (we were sending him off too). I also knew that it wasn’t that big of an economic power, and adjusted my expectations accordingly. Furthermore, I reckoned beaches weren’t that big of a deal (like most Europeans seem to think it is), what with me being born and bred on an island in the sea.
I have to say though, that Croatia exceeded my expectations in every way. We set off on the afternoon of the 5th, with 5 people in the car- Milan, his friend Evon (don’t know if I got the spelling correct), Cynthia and I. We first drove to Zagreb where we said hi to Milan’s dad (he works there and only goes home on weekends) and had dinner, then drove on the Rijeka where we dropped Evon off, and slept over at Milan’s family place. They lived in a high-rise, and that reminded me of Singapore- we met his Mom and his brother, Milos. The next day we truly begun the trip-we rented our own vehicle from Hertz, packed our luggage in, and left for Split, another of the four most populous cities in Croatia (respectively there is Rijeka, Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik- and Zadar, which we didn't visit). We stopped in Split for a few hours for lunch and to stretch our legs- we strolled down palm tree-lined promenades and enjoyed the sea breeze, and also found time to look at the remains of Diocletian’s palace. Back in the days of the Holy Roman Empire, Croatia went by the name of Dalmatia, and I suppose Diocletian was the HRE’s representative in Dalmatia. As a result of being under Roman rule for quite a while, modern day Croatia also boasts a few Roman ruins (we got to see some on the last day).
From then on it was all the way to the island of Hvar- where Milan's relatives owned a hostel that we could stay in. We had to take one of those car ferries, and we only got to the island relatively late- everything was dark so we didn't get a good view of it till the next morning. That night we basically stayed in and watched soccer, though we also discovered about 30 channels of porn (Arabic, European, call-ins...you name it) on TV.
The next morning we had breakfast on the very spacious porch-something that every Croatian house seemed to have. Our "hostel" was more of a bed and breakfast, a pretty stone house with its own front and back gardens where the owners grew everything- from olives to grapes to lemon and orange trees. There were plums trees, sour cherry bushes and of course, a profusion of flowers of every shape and size. Breakfast was very pleasant- fruits from the garden and jam made from these fruits, pate, cheese and plenty of fresh white bread washed down with hibiscus tea and coffee. There were all these bees and jewel-backed beetles (Croatians believe the latter are symbols of luck) buzzing around us, and for awhile that was all we heard, plus the sound of the sea washing up against the wall just a few meters away from us. That day we went exploring around the island; we set off with a bunch of stuff for the beach- towels, snorkel gear, a huge inflatable bed and some food.
The beaches in Croatia are very different from the kind we are used to back at home; first and foremost, the water is so clear you can see the sandy ocean floor and the myriad sea creatures that live there, and because the Adriatic sea is so young (a thousand years or so I think), most of the beaches haven't been weathered down into sand yet. So there were rock beaches and pebbles beaches all along the coast. The first one we came to was a rock beach- there isn't any stipulated "beach" here, because beach is all along the coast, and you only have to find a private enough place and lay your things there before you commence swimming. I had a rather difficult time of it at first because unlike sand, rocks are slippery and Cynthia and I each fell down at least once. The second problem was that the ocean bed was teeming with sea urchins, and whilst that wasn't too much of a problem because most of them were further out, I did eventually step on one and came up with about two dozen spikes firmly implanted in the side of my feet. I seem to have an affinity with these creatures anyway, the last time I encountered them was whilst snorkeling in the coast off Cambodia, and yeah, I stepped on one then too (I got really mad and relieved it of all its spikes before throwing it back into the sea). Andre was really freaked out because we described being stung in such lurid detail, and being German he didn't know what an actual sea urchin was (they have a different name for it in Germany), so he refused to touch the ocean floor until we lent him the snorkel so he could pick up a sea urchin and examine it.
The next beach we went to was a pebble one- somewhere on the other side of the island. Everything was white- the pebbles on the beach, the petrified trees that lay here and there on the shore...and by then it was in the evening so it was cold. The sun was setting over the sea, so it was really a really pretty backdrop- a blazing sunset lighting up the sky in shades of pink and gold against the misty mountains in the background and the pristine whiteness of the pebble beach... and for a few moments we were delighted to catch sight of dolphins swimming in the distance=) Us girls thought it was too cold to swim, so we only treaded around in the water a little and picked up the starfishes lying here and there.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Earlier on tonight I went over to my Portugal friend Felipe's place for a sushi dinner, there was also his flat mates, 2 French girls, and their French girlfriends plus one guy from Israel. You would think I would've gotten better at this by now, but I didn't manage to catch or retain ANY of their names. I feel kinda guilty, and the only saving grace is that I tell myself they probably can't remember mine rightly either. Despite this though, we had a nice time at dinner.
We ordered take-out sushi, which meant that it was delivered to us. I miss sushi a hell of a lot, so naturally I jumped at the chance of a sushi dinner (I suppose I could order it in myself, but how sad and lame would that be, to eat by yourself?). To the Europeans, sushi, much like Chinese food, is exotic and mysterious (for lack of a better word), so it was really amusing to watch everyone fumble with chopsticks and wasabi, and poring over the sushi filling trying to determine what it was.
Anyhow, it was interesting just to meet new people. The Israeli guy was dating one of Felipe's flatmates, this French girl Emanuelle, who was telling us about her really cool summer job in which she would be going all over France as a juggling act promoting the Tour de France. How come these European kids get all the cool jobs? Did I mention they get paid a hell of a lot too? The other day my Italian friend Sasa told me he would come to Singapore if I promised I would bring him around, and I said it wasn't well worth the 500euros (or more) it might cost to fly from Italy to SG because, well, you could probably stay in SG for 3 days without getting bored and that would be that. He said money's not a problem because in Italy they pay you 50euros a day to be a waiter. He said he would work 10 days and then come visit me, hehe. In SG you have to work for like a whole MONTH to get that kind of money=/ As a consolation though, not all of Europe's that lucky- I checked and they pay much, much worse here in Hungary- like SGD$3 per hour (minute of silence for underpaid struggling Hungarian students).
That's the thing about Europe too- the countries in it are really, really different. Obviously there's much more to this disparity than just wages and standards of living, but this is one thing that's really puzzled me. The Hungarian people aren't that lucky at all- in fact, my friend Chantal (who's American/Hungarian and lives with her Hungarian granny here) says that most Hungarians live in flats that were way less nice than the ones us exchange students live in. Hungarians are poor, period. I heard their average salary was something like 500 Euros per month, which is really downright sad, because at the same time the cost of living is supposed to be rising (but us foreigners cannot tell). Of course, the Western European countries are flush with money, not to mention the Scandinavian states. In Finland for example, homeless people on welfare are given a stipend of 1500 Euros per month. And the students are similarly paid whilst they are studying- 4oo Euros per month. It isn't as if that money is too hard to come by either, my friend Saki said they all have to fill out and submit some form with their semester credits to get their allowance, and once he took a semester break to travel but got the money anyways because he made up a story about how he had problems with his girlfriend and couldn't study. I guess in some places money does grow on trees! Finnish homeless people can afford to travel here and there too...which I reckon would be a smart plan: If I were a homeless person in Finland I would collect my stipend every month and jet off to some new place where the cost of living was less high (virtually anywhere else in the world) and hang out there till my next stipend was due. I could go skiing in poorer countries like Slovakia, lie out on the beaches of Madagascar, scale the pyramids of Egypt, pick up surfing in Bali, learn yoga in India, go shopping in Hong Kong... ...you get the picture. Must be nice to know you're making more than most people in the world even though you're not doing anything! =p
Being homeless in good ol' Hungary on the other hand, is entirely another story. These are people who sleep in railway stations wrapped up in dirty sheets (if they are lucky enough to have any) that smell like pee. Everywhere they go they are looked upon with a mixture of pity and revulsion; when they beg others for money they are at best ignored like they were invisible and at worst shooed away like stray dogs. They spend most of their money on alcohol, sometimes you see them randomly slumped over stairways in a puddle of their own puke/pee, and they have to scavenge in dustbins for food people have thrown away (how gross is that?!). I got chased home by a homeless person just that other day- it was late at night and I was going home from a flat party over at Theo and Paniakos' place(they are Cypriot/Greek boys). Budapest is not a very dangerous place, and when said homeless man came up to me I was more irritated than afraid, because he looked really skanky and smelled even worse, and I worried he would grab me and dirty my new dress. I shooed him away but he kept following me, and I noticed with alarm his footsteps behind me were catching up, so I started brisk walking and then outright running, and for a whole stretch of road he really did chase me! It got to this point where I was kinda scared and very VERY pissed off (more accurately, I was so scared I got angry). I stopped running, turned around (he was almost right behind me too) and yelled, "FUCK OFF you homeless piece of shit!" and glaring at him continued "Stop. Following. Me." (the effect from pausing between words made them sound all emphasized and firm, although in truth it was only because I was panting=D). He looked stunned for a moment, and then he just turned and walked off meekly. Haha...score one for Chai!
Friday, May 25, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
I cannot believe that my semester in Europe will be over in less than 2 months…and that’s not even counting the time I will have left in Budapest hanging out with all my friends. The fact that, very soon, I will be on a different frigging continent from almost everyone I have been going to classes with and seeing nearly everyday (and night) really makes me sad=( Before coming to Europe I was all excited about traveling and sightseeing; experiencing a whole new culture and adapting to a new environment…but I never factored in how attached I would become to the friends I would make! How ironic it seems, that when I have just begun to know most of them well we will have to say farewell in a few weeks. I think I will cry all the way back to Singapore=/ Or at least, to London. It's not as if I do not want to go back to Singapore to everything familiar, its just that it will be really long before I get to see any of these friends again- some are in America, some in Germany, some in Italy, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Norway, Turkey...you get the point. It's not even fair either that the Europeans only need to get into their cars and drive (my German friend Jakob says 50Euros worth of fuel will take him 1000km) to see each other if they are so inclined, but I will be a hundred thousand miles away stranded on an island in the sea thats only connected to bloody Malaysia. And it's not as if having a car would make a difference for me- I couldn't drive from one end of a parking lot to the other=/
Maybe I should save the negative emotions for later, when farewell parties are being thrown and everyone is leaving for real towards the end of June. For now I can preoccupy myself with the upcoming Croatia trip on the 5th. We will be renting a van again (which means greater mobility and freedom) and driving first to the capital Zagreb, then to our friend Milan's hometown, and from there all along the Croatian coast to the Black Sea at Dubrovnik! If weather here in Budapest is by any means indicative of weather in the rest of the region, it will be a really nice trip- we can lie out in the sun (it's a very warm spring...somedays it feels exactly like Singapore, except much windier, but the nights are nice and mild) and go fishing or whatever it is Europeans do in the warm weather. Us Singaporeans just turn up the air-conditioning.
Come to think of it, June will be another hectic month. My papers are due really soon (probably by the first of June), and there are 3 of them...I have been working on paragraph ONE of the first paper for the past three days and haven't gotten any further. So there will be that to worry about. Regarding further boring administrative matters, I will also have to book flights here and there- first from Budapest to London, then from London to home. The latter part is tentatively settled- am flying home on the 4th of August from Heathrow, making a stopover in Doha and landing in SG at 1pm in the afternoon of the 5th. It's really late to be going back, but then after our European tour I plan to travel a little bit more, to Spain definitely, and probably either Scotland/Dublin or Belgium. Gotta work that out too.
On the bright side, I have trips to look forward to...like the aforementioned one to Croatia, and then one long, LONG one (at least a week and a half) in the Balkan regions. I just bought a Balkan pass, and am looking forward to train-traveling through Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Yugoslavia, GREECE and TURKEY! The last two countries are definitely on the priority list...can't wait to see the Acropolis at Athens (birthplace of philosophy and Western civilization and land of the Olympian Gods and mythology=)), the Greek islands: Santorini (which is supposed to be tied to the fabled Lost City of Atlantis), Mykonos, Corfu, Crete, Ios (heard water-sports is very much feature-will be fun!) and Thessaloniki/Salonika (the other major city), Istanbul (the famous Hagia Sophia and all that glorious Byzantine architecture), Cappadocia (a town consisting of mainly caves- even the hostels are built in caves and I think it will be cool to stay in one), and Antalya (seaside town where if I get my way I will stay in a treehouse hostel). I am looking into the possibility of going to some Middle Eastern country nearby too, if time permits, like Jordon (I want to see the lost city of Petra) or Israel (just for fun). Most likely though I will run out of traveling time and have to hurry back to Budapest to catch my flight to London. Lots of planning involved for that long trip, so I will really have to work on figuring out train timetables, reading maps and all the unnecessary survival skills I never had to pick up in Singapore.
In the meantime, Chai is really bored doing papers, so email me often!
Monday, May 21, 2007
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Yesterday night everyone was over at Marco, Amaury and Florian's place for a flat party. We took the occasion to celebrate Cynthia's graduation (she is supposed to graduate the day itself if not for exchange), and also there was another American girl Lauren who's 21st fell on that day. We set off from Andre the German's house because he had invited us to dinner (met a Finnish couple Susanna and Antti, and a Turkish girl Ayshegul), but halfway there it started storming (weather is erratic nowadays=/) so we arrived at Marco's looking like something the cat dragged in (way to make a grand entrance=))
The flat party itself was fun enough, like any other there was lots of liquor and beer and people mingling, but we didn't stay all that long because a bunch of us decided to head to Studio, a club near/on(?) Margit Island which was having its closing party that night. Prior to last night I had never been there, and though I was deterred by the notion of a long trip home (the night bus ride alone takes 30 minutes), I was persuaded by enthusiastic friends who told me it was something you had to see, if only once. Boy were they right!
From the outside Studio looked like any big club, a sprawling complex with a hotel-like reception area, complete with a coat/bag check-in counter to one side and potted palms amongst lounge chairs. It deamnded by far the highest entrance fee I ever had to pay to get into a club in Budapest (though its still peanuts in SG), like 1000ft (4 Euros), and the guys had to pay twice that. The first thing that registered as I stepped inside (besides the shot of whatever from a test tube we were handed that went straight to my head) was the sheer size of the club. It was HUGE, and packed to the gills with three levels of revelers. To both sides of the club were blonde female angels swinging from their perches, and between them on raised platforms were devils (buff guys in tiny costumes wielding pitchforks) gyrating to the music. The entire wall on the far side of the club was one of those things you only see in music videos- it was lit up in different colours, and consisted of a series of tiny rooms (about 4 levels) with an individual, lingerie-clad girl in each one, and as the music played you could see them dancing silhouetted against the light.From our vantage point on the podium we could see two separate performances going on at two different stages- on one there was a made-up midget in a costume alternatively juggling colored balls and twirling a fiery baton whilst traversing around the stage on a unicycle, and on the other were two women doing a combination of belly/pole-dancing routines. As if it wasn't enough, while all this went on there were also trapeze artists doing somersaults high above our heads, Cirque Du Soleil style. It was a bewildering first 10 minutes- the whole set-up was reminiscent of some decadent, orgiastic harem scene of some exotic, far-flung and ancient prince's court.
I had a fun night, though halfway through one of the Italian boys morphed into a stronzo (sure he was at least a little drunk), which meant he kept trying to make out with me, and that was decidedly stressful. I gained a brief respite only by convincing him I was a lesbian, and even that wasn't very long-lived, because it only made him fixate on the idea of a
threesome. This is funny, because he was so insistent, and the whole idea was so ridiculous I kept laughing in his face and at how earnest he was (he kept saying, "Don't laugh Chai, look, I am not laughing, I'm not joking!"). All the way home I had to deal with his advances (I heard Italians are like that in general); he tried to convince a girl friend of his who was visiting to join us in bed as an incentive for the lesbian I was supposed to be, he told me I had to "try an Italian" (it was so hilariously bizarre, like he was offering me some dish or some sample perfume), and he told me how Italians did things differently...like with NUTELLA and stuff (this really doesn't merit further explanation). It was pretty funny, though I never want a repeat of this ever! To his credit though he has always been nice and super-gentlemanly to me, so I've decided to let this little incident slide (towards the end of the night I was getting really cranky and tired and not too patient with him).
This is probably one of those things you find a lot funnier on hindsight.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Just got back from Poland a few days ago from the long weekend- it was a fun trip,thankfully! Cynthia and I were trying to not raise expectations before we went because there were so many of us going (almost 60) there was a very real possibility of the whole trip turning out to be one big mess.
The fact that we all hung out in the gigantic group saved the trip, actually. Or at least, made it so much more interesting. The city of Krakow was pretty enough- complete with the necessary trimmings of every European city; charming town houses and cobblestone streets built in a concentric circle round a church with its own place in the town's history, a Castle situated not far off overlooking the city from atop its perch on the hill, and stately horses drawing along wide-eyed tourists in their pseudo-Victorian carriages... its always, not-quite-but-almost the same (and I am hating myself for saying this). Don't get me wrong, I liked Krakow, its just that I feel like you really have to read up and learn about a place before going before you can fully appreciate the import of everything you are seeing. I figured that there were two kinds of cities in Europe; the breathtaking ones that blow you away seemingly without even trying (think Prague...and erm, Prague), and then there are the ones that are pleasant enough, but lacking some sort if distinctive character, and Krakow belongs to the latter.
I actually tried to read up on it- there was this one part I liked about how when the clock strikes a certain hour a trumpet call would sound from St Mary's church; and this call ends rather abruptly in the middle. The legend goes that this is so because a soldier on watch duty was blowing the trumpet to alert the town citizenry during the Tartar invasion, and mid-way through the call he was felled and killed by a Tartar arrow. So to this day they still cut off the trumpet call mid-way in his memory...I thought that was a nice tale, so I waited around all day to hear the trumpet, but never did. Go figure=/
What I did get to experience (that I liked very much) was the vibrant nightlife in Krakow. We spent 2 days and 3 nights in the city, but didn't stay out late the first because we were (Christineh, Cynthia, Chantal and I) tired out from the long bus ride (still not something I am very used to, coming from a small country like SG when one end to the other takes about 2 hours max). The second day we wondered around for a while at first trying to find a nice club; the first promising one had a club TV outside, from which you could check out the interior of the club with all the dancers and decide from there if you wanted to go in. Unfortunately they also charged 20 PLN (Zlotych: the Polish currency. I think its verbalized form is something like "Sluttys". At least that's what we've been calling it for the whole journey=p) for each guy's entrance. It is one thing that still amuses me every time I observe it: it seems to be a creed of European students to never feel like they have to pay to enjoy nightlife. Cheap nighttime entertainment is almost like a Right to them- mention entrance fees and they get all bristly. To a certain degree I can understand where they are coming from; after all, when you plan to chug tons of alcohol you kind of want to save all your money for that- and they really do drink a hell of a lot here. Especially when traveling, guys here can drink throughout the day; they have beers before they even brush their teeth I think! No wonder they all have these little potbellies, which I think is adorable=D Still, sometimes too much is too much...but I digress.
Back to the topic at hand; the guys had to pay at most places though the girls could technically get in anywhere for free, and we kept walking because it didn't seem fair somehow. Finally we found this club where we could get in free, and without IDs. That was a nice night out, though we were forced to trudge through the freezing cold afterwards (the further East of Europe you get, the colder it is) back to the hostel, only to find it locked up. Turns out they had a lock-in time, and we had to ring the buzzer and wait another 5 more minutes in the cold, during which the last vestiges of the alcohol wore off, and we were left standing there in cranky sobriety.
The next night out was something else altogether. After a day exploring the city we would drop by at the local supermarket to get alcohol, and it became a sort of established custom (as much as you can establish in 3 days anyway) for everyone to meet up in the guys' room (we were 15 in a room of bunk beds) and sit around playing drinking games till it was time to go out. Somehow that night everyone got thoroughly inebriated, and many decided that they weren't up for clubbing after all. In the end only some of the guys went out, and the rest of us were kind of standing around in our PJs and ready to sleep when the bunch who went out came back with tall beer mugs in their hands, all excited and talking about this place they had found where there was free food and free beer.
Apparently, they had followed some people and ended up in this building just down the street, where they chanced upon a party for theater actors. Since there was no bouncer to keep gate-crashers (like them) out, they just went in and helped themselves to the buffet table. And they only took so long to come back with the news because one of them discovered there was free beer too. It seemed like a good idea then; probably because of the words "just down the street" and (more importantly) "free beer", so the small group of us who weren't asleep yet climbed out of bed and followed them. And that is the tale of Chai, the girl who went partying with her buddies... in PJs. Somehow or other, it didn't strike any one of us that we should've changed into something that didn't scream "GATE-CRASHERS FROM THE HOSTEL ACROSS THE STREET" as obviously.
Maybe it was the fact that the free beer had already kicked in and dumbed down those belonging to the legitimate,
invited crowd, or perhaps they thought we were just another bunch of eccentric theater people in costumes, seemingly no one caught on to our little scheme. Although Miguel the Spaniard said he overheard a rather perplexed manager commenting on how much the crowd seemed to be drinking that night, because "the free beer had never ran out before"=p
I'd say it was a good night out, I got to meet a few new people (like the aforementioned Miguel, and another Spaniard, Jason- they dance really well too), and if nothing also because of the novelty of dancing in jammies=D And don't forget the free beer! Anyhow, we only got back in the morning, around 430. I was tired and fell asleep almost immediately, but some of the guys decided that there was no point in sleeping since we only had about 3 hours more before waking up for the bus ride back to Budapest. They stayed up drinking some more, and come morning they apparently felt like it would be funny to attack the girls with TOOTHPASTE. Vasiliki and I were the unlucky ones, but we were so tired neither of us got up to wash it off/exact terrible revenge, which gave the culprits (Christopher, Milan, Philip, Andre) plenty of time to get it down on film. Vasiliki attempted to wipe it off in her groggy state of mind and only made it worse by smearing it all over her face. They told me I woke up, kicked Christopher in the stomach as he was trying to take a picture, and promptly went back to sleep again, toothpaste in my hair and all. Christopher says I am dangerous.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Hi everyone! Its been awhile since I last wrote anything...sorry! It's difficult to keep backlogging...so I'm just going to put up some pictures and tell the whole travel story in the captions. Here goes nothing (it is not well organized either...Bocsanok!). Maybe I can put it up under different entries just so you all will know which country is which...have been real lazy with the pictures namely because it takes an ETERNITY to upload anything.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Saturday, April 07, 2007
The hostel we stayed in, the Easy Martin, was really nice and new, so we all had a good night§s rest. However, the shower wasn§t working, and the receptionist had no idea what to do, so all of us kind of had to make do with just attending to the bare necessities of basic hygieně=p It§s a lto better than it sounds, because we weren§t all that dirty, having traveled in an air conditioned bus all day, and arriving only at night. That said, I hope the shower is working tonight!
I love Prague! It is the most charming, beautiful city...every corner yields a new photo opportunity- today we walked around aimlessly and managed to somehow see most of the major sights, like the clock tower with the revolving toy figurines, the bridge, the Concert Hall and the Grand Cafe Praha which Kafka used to frequent (he also used to live above it). This time I actually took many, many photos, so I can§t wait to upload them so you guys can see! Besides touring the above places, we also went shopping-many big department stores here, like Debenhams and Sephora...I don§t even dare calculate how much I§ve spent=p We also tried the Prague bratwurst at an Easter market- its this huge sausage, german style, which they grill for you before presenting it in a hot toasted baguette. It§s really good!
The whole of Praha is celebrating Easter, so there are many Easter themed knick-knacks for sale at these Easter markets- besides the usual array of cultural food, there were wooden toys, miniature replicas of the gorgeous Astronomical Clock (I will buy one tomorrow), and paintings of Prague (will also have to get some of these). There were even bunches of willow sticks tied together with colorful ribbons-only for symbolic purposes of course, since their original employment was for whipping young women on Easter Day- this is done by the young men in a bid to bestow fertility. Of course, Easter cannot be complete without chocolate bunnies, goodies and Easter eggs, all of which featured prominently in many store fronts. I bought a really pretty one with a sketch of the Prague castle on it, and the words "Praha" behind, to commemorate having spent Easter in Prague=)
It§s actually not very late now, and we will be heading back to the city to see nighttime Prague. We also found this bizzare Sex Machine Museum along one of the little streets, which opens till 10pm at night, and we want to go see that! At the entrance of the museum they had this hilarious centerpiece...I dont even know how to describe it really. But I took plenty of pictures, so you all know what to look out for when I upload them. Will take more later when I go...I wonder what they§ll have for sale at the gift shop? Heh.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
We started Day 2 with some shopping- and here's proof that EVERYTHING in Prague is ornate and beautiful; Case study: Mango (Compare this with the one we have in Takashimaya or wherever)
Nice ambience...A HUGE collection...and Chandeliers. 
Then we went along the promenade...(you can see Charles Bridge in the distance, it is damn crowded I might add)
We are heading for the other side
We saw this funny restaurant on our way to the castle: Notice it says Restaurante Italia above...which is fine and all, except the flag is inverted and thats the Hungarian one.
Up the hill to Prague Castle
The view from up there (check out the cow=D)
Prague Castle
The temple behind the castle grounds. 
Maybe I have an overactive imagination, but this is what I pictured the entrance to the Beast's Mansion in Beauty and the Beast would look like (in a blizzard, with lights glowing from inside for effect)...
Chantal and Laura =p
Another church in a village somewhere within the Czech Republic. Our last stopover before heading back to Budapest
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
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