It's almost the end of 2009. The year of departures is drawing to a close and we all can look forward to homecomings in 2010. I write this from my bunk bed in a small hostel situated in the very beautiful capital city of Switzerland, Berne.
The eurotrip has been a really excited and sometimes very stressful journey. Mostly the stress was caused by freak weather in Europe. My flight from Stockholm to London was delayed by about 3 hours because of a snow blizzard. When I finally left Sweden and arrived in
London, I was amazed to see it was also snowing there because it is usually not that cold there in Dec. There, I met and stayed with the family of my friend from secondary schoo, Rachel. She, being the excellent guide that she is, took me to all the must-see places and some really cool markets. I had my own list of things to fulfill as well, such as walking down the abbey road zebra crossing in front of the recording studios - like the beatles did, visit Shakespeare's globe, eat many mincepies and attend a christmas service...which I did at Holy Trinity Brompton! I got to see Tim hughes and attend a very anointed youth service.
After London I had to head to Brussels, which turned out to be another test of my ability to hold it all together and keep calm. When I arrived at the airport, I was told my flight was canceled, probably cos of bad weather...I don't know, we never got an answer. And they could not book me on abnother flight as all the flights to Brussels were booked as the Eurostar had shut down operations due to bad weather. So I asked to be re-routed to Amsterdam by another airline, but that was only available at 6am the next day, so I went to the other airline by faith and asked for a flight to Amsterdam on that day itself. Somehow, they had a plane going to Brussels that night that was not made known to the other airlines and there was room for me on that flight. Thank God! So after many many hours wasted waiting for that flight, I got onto the smallest plane I had ever seen and arrived in
Brussels to find Song and Dale waiting for me at the Starbucks at the airport. We spent the night there and celebrated Song's 22nd birthday there before we made our way to the city center in the morning. Well lets just say Brussels wasn't worth all that work and waiting around... I should have gone straight to Holland :p
We made it to
Amsterdam without a hitch and I was extra excited to be there as the guys from Brazil were there too and we were all at the same hotel. Well Amsterdam is of course known for the red-light district and 'coffee-shops'. So apart from experiencing those 'attractions' I also visited the Van Gogh museum and explored the flower markets and wandered around the tiny winding streets and alleys. There were many museums but none really interested me, so while I did not do very much, I enjoyed my stay in Amsterdam. It is a beautiful city, the buildings and streets are all so pretty there.
Amsterdam was followed by
Paris. Getting to Paris was a real feat. With it being Christmas, all the eurail pass on the trains were fully booked and unless we wanted to pay close to 200 euros, we were not going to be able to reach Paris. But thankfully we found a connection that would allow us to get to Paris on our pass. It involved about 4 train changes at various major French cities. But Once I got to Paris, I realised that all that trouble was so worthwhile. I got to see the imposing Lourve and Eiffel tower, Oscar Wilde's grave, the famous shopping district and a whole host of other things, even though I was in the city for only a day. I really enjoyed the Christmas mass at Montmarte too and the food in Paris too!
From Paris we made our way to
Nice which was another multiple-change journey. But we had to go there as we were meeting Vishnu and Gabriel who had come down from Spain. Finally all 5 would be reunited. We had a nice Asian lunch and then visited the main shopping street, a Christmas market and the gorgeous seaside promanade. Nice(pronounced niece), as the name suggests is one place I think is perfect in almost every way, warm people, perfect weather and just overall beauty. Nice is really beyond just nice. I WILL return to Nice one day and stay by the beach, hahaha :)
After the beautiful south of France, we decided to go further down south and head to Rome. Italy, I'm sorry to say, despite having so much to offer travelers and tourists, really does a bad job of marketing itself. The trains were nothing short of a nightmare, as we were told on the French-Italian border that no reservations were needed for the train to Rome, by a very bad tempered Italian ticket counter staff member. And when we got to the train, we found that it was overbooked and the conductors did not care, so we stood, along with many other for a hellish 6 hours, next to a reeking toilet and had to endure cigarette smoke the entire journey as the Italians onboard (conductors included) paid no attention to the no-smoking signs. I am sure a few years later I will be able to laugh at this, but not quite yet. Thank God I was with 4 other guys who looked out for me and tried to be optimistic along the way. They even have a photo of me sleeping standing up and looking like 'Sadako' from 'The Ring' :s
But
Rome, was amazing, almost worth the arduous journey...I guess? But really, it was magical. At every turn, some random grand structure would be waiting to be seen, gawked at and photographed. The Plaza Novana and its Fountana Trevi is breathtaking. And of course the Colosseum and all the ancient ruins that come doused with a generous helping of myth and history are just incredible too. We also went to the Vatican city to see St Peter's square, the museum and the Sistine Chapel. The Chapel was the best part but sadly no cameras were allowed inside. I could not believe I was in there looking up at the intricate paintings, it was overwhelming. The guys and I stood there for a long, long time just craning our necks and gawking. Rome was amazing to say the least.
Well the journey continues over New Years from Berne to Munich, to Prague and Berlin, before I head back to Stockholm to pick up my things and head back to the East. I'll update as soon as I can when I get a good internet connection. Do drop me a msg on Facebook or an email if you want anything from the cities im heading to next :)
Its 31st December and although its sad to be away from home for the New Year's celebrations, I can't complain as I spent the day surrounded by the magnificent Swiss alps in the Interlaken area, less than an hour away from Berne. After checking out the city center of Berne we made our way to Interlaken by train. I really love how the Swiss cottages and towns look like they belong in some toy museum, everything is so pretty and quaint. I kept expecting to see a giant hand come down from the sky to rearrange things or scatter a few more cottages around.
The journey from Berne to Interlaken was the nicest ever, in terms of how scenic the route was. Vishnu, Gabriel and I were ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the snow-capped mountains the entire time. It was so beautiful and Vishnu commented that God has to be living on one of those mountains. Hahaha :) When we got to Interlaken, we were all awestruck by the majesty of the towering mountains in the distance that just loomed over the ground and peaked through the clouds. It must be so amazing to live in a place that immersed in such natural beauty. I wonder if the locals who live in the towns around the foot of the mountains are still amazed by the vision that greets them everyday.
Well I have no idea what we are gonna do for the new year celebrations, but I do know that tomorrow morning we move on to another great capital - Germany's very own Munich.
