Homecoming

Spending the last two days in Europe in Stockholm made the entire 5 plus months come full circle. It was just how I started my journey except that it was summer and in a different hostel then. The first day was quiet - I was exhausted after all the traveling, so I only went to the supermarket to get treats for the people back home and some dinner, then I spent all day in bed. However, I found out -thanks to Bryan - that Kata was going to be in Stockholm at about 8 to catch her train to Lulea after having gone back home to Hungary for the holiday season. Well long story short, she didn't make it in time for the train and the next connection left close to midnight, so we had many hours of catching up and hugging. It was perfect and I was thrilled to get to see her again :D

The next day I met Mel and James who were coming in from Stockholm and then went over to Emmy's for ficka before bringing all the bags I had left in her place back to my hostel. Then after some shopping (crazy end of season sales were everywhere) I headed back to pack and hit the sack.

Leaving the next morning was really uneventful. Have breakfast, say goodbye to staff and board the express train to the Airport. This time leaving was not as emotional...I guess its because I felt like I had no ties to Stockholm per se. But I love Sweden, it had been awesome to me. I spent thr plane ride befriending the lady next to me - and Iranian who has been living in Sweden for 26 years - and imagining what seeing my loved ones at the airort would be like. I couldn't sleep at all on the 10 hour flight from Stockholm to Bangkok, however the 2nd leg from Bangkok to Singapore was when I was terrbily sleepy cos it wad finally nightfall in Sweden.

But of course, I could not really catch my forty-winks. But all my tiredness melted away when I saw the beaming faces of Shaun, Rett, Arman, Sharm and Ipul waving hi to me when I was picking up my bags at belt 19. Oh it was so good to see them! Many hugs and loving words were exchanged. I missed them all so much. After lunch I headed home with Ipul and Shaun. Mum was waiting at home and I was so happy to see her...We hugged so much.

I spent a long time just sorting out gifts (Mum loved all of hers thankfully) and putting books and clothes away. Then my Cuz Lin comes over with my adorable new neice and shortly after my dad walks in from work. It was so nice to be all together just talking and sharing. Then I decided to go see my grandma and aunt who were delighted to see me :) I helped to take down their Christmas tree and was off to deliver gifts to Shaun's family before the both of us headed out for a little stroll :)

I think my first day home was perfect. Though I must say, the only downside was the realisation of my immense weight gain and the fact that I have to start dieting pronto :( Europe's cheeses, chocolates and breads did me no good at all!

The nervewrecking trip back to Stockholm

God always always comes through for me, even in the most desperate of situations. Like yesterday night when I got to Copenhagen at 6pm, I found out my 9pm train to Stockholm got canceled and there is only a 4:03am one. It was freezing outside - since I was already in Scandinavia - and the train station closes at 1am. Which means Gabriel and I would be stuck out in the cold for 3 hours. Plus I had already booked a hostel in Stockholm for the night which meant loosing $23 euros in addition to loosing my toes. I wrote an email to the hostel in Stockholm explaining the situation hoping they will not bill me for the first night in case they were the compassionate kind :s

So began the mad search online at a 2euro per hour internet kiosk for a hostel at walking distance as we would have to walk back to the station at 3:45am. Everything we found was booked and overpriced. And everything that was affordable and nearby was fully booked. So I prayed. And we found another website with the same hostel listings and guess what, the cheap and 3-min-away hostel we wanted, had room! More than enough room! In just 2 mins....however that happened I do not know, but I am sincerely thankful.

We we walked over, slept for a good few hours and caught our 4:03 am train. Im now in Stockholm in my lovely hostel called city lodge. Can guess what, they are the compassionate kind. They said that even though it is their practice to do so, they didn't bill me for the first night. God is so good :)

I have two full days of rest, last min gift buying and packing then its full speed ahead to sunny skies and warm weather!

Wurst, Walls and Warzones

This could only mean Berlin! Well ok, I think it is a lot more happening in Summer. I happened to be there in Winter, on a Sunday so I can't blame Berlin for not living up to expectations. But I did get to touch the Berlin wall and buy a broken brick back :D I also went to Checkpoint Charlie which was the furthest American outpost, just along where the berlin wall was.
You can still see the sign telling you that you are leaving American territory. I was told that during the cold war, that was where the Russian and American tanks were positioned pointed as each other.

At about this point, Vishnu, Gabriel and I were freezing our butts off so we decided to go in search of a Hardrock Cafe so that Gabriel can expand his shirt collection and we could sit down for a good German pint. A tad bit uneventful for a last destination, but it was laid back and relaxed, I think we all appreciated that.

Bohemia!

After being in Berne surrounded by majestic snow capped mountains I was certain no other locale would impress me. But Prague - known as Bohemia in the old days- was magical. Oh we stopped by Munich on the way to Prague. Either there was nothing to see or we were supposed to go beyond the main town center, I don't know...but it was pretty blah.

But back to Prague! We went on a walking tour and saw the amazing astronomical clock, music halls, churches, parlimentary buildings, cubist buildings and the Jewish quarter. We also learnt a whole lot about the harrowing history of The Czech Republic. Not only were they invaded by the nazis, just one day after a triumphant uprising, the soviets invaded them. They are in fact younger than Singapore although they have so much more history than we do.

I was most affected by the section of the tour held in the Jewish quarter. We were told that the oldest surviving Jewish temple in Europe is in Prague as Hitler wanted it to become a relic or museum almost for an extinct race. Can you imagine the evil driving this man? And yet Jesus loved him and would have welcomed him to heaven if he had accepted Christ....wow! The measure of God's love is unfathomable.


But I digress...It was freezing so at the end of the 3 hour tour we were just dying for a hot cup of coffee and a warm place to thaw out before going shopping! I went completely crazy with the shopping in the Christmas market in Prague because not only had I held off shopping the entire trip, Prague was also really cheap and their goods were authentic and traditional unlike the usual stuff you get everywhere else. I spent about 85 euros on shopping and food alone!! Madness.


Prague is a MUST SEE, for me it comes right after Berne. But if you prefer history, cheap eats and shopping to the alps then you can't go wrong with Czech Republic.

New Year's in Beautiful Berne

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.

Can't quite get over how beautiful Switzerland is. I wonder if God likes some of his landscape design creations better than others? :p

On the Road

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 :)

The Long Goodbye (and a bit arriving in London)

Finally it was 6pm on 16th Dec. I knew it's arrival could not be avoided. My friends started filling the my apartment to spend the last hour with me before my taxi came to whisk me away to the train station. Everyone was exclaiming how empty my room was, giving me hugs, and doses of optimistic thoughts. Kenza and Lucie were blocking the main door so I could not get out =D
I left a note on my desk for the next person who would be getting my room. I simply wanted to tell them that Lulea was an awesome choice and to use the room well, cos it was good to me.
Then shortly after, Micheal from upstairs came down and told me that the guys upstairs had prepared the Sustromming (fermented herring that smells awful) for me to try before I leave. So we all went up and boy oh boy, the smell of the open can of fish that hits you in the face. It smells like poo, literally. I'm not kidding you.
To eat it the 'right' way you need Swedish tunnbrod, boiled potatoes, sour cream, onions and dill. So you pile it all up, and take a small amount of the fish and dot it around. Okay it was bad, but not impossible to eat. I finished the portion I made and did not go back for seconds.
And was fun though, everyone was screwing up their noses and faces, making weird noises, looking sick in the face...
I went down shortly after eating my share and saying goodbye to the kind boys who opened the can of fish in their home - I seriously don't know how long it will take before the smell leaves their apartment. Back at my place, more people had come to say goodbye and it was getting really sad. I was proud of myself for not crying. Reticlyve was especially sad, but at least I'll see him again in Amsterdam!
And of course, dearest Katalin, came with me in the cab to the train station and we were just standing and talking in the carriage until just before my train had to pull out of the station. It was heartbreaking to say bye to Kata, we had a very long embrace before parting. She gave me a letter and a friendship band and I gave her my word that I will see her again.

On the train, the movies and my sleepiness from not having slept much the night before, helped to make sure time flew bye. I woke up right on time to gather myself and my stuff and alight at Stockholm. Frederick from LURC was also in the train, so I could not escape one more goodbye :)
I made my way to Emmy's home to hang out with her and her adorable baby girl for a while. We had lunch and I practiced my Swedish. Then it was time for me to make my way to the airport for my flight to London. Stockholm was having a snow storm, it's rare that they have snow so early and in such large quantities. This slowed down traffic and delayed my flight by 2 hours.

In London, the landing was so rough I really doubted if we were all going to make it. Apparently London is having freak weather right now with the strong winds and snow too. But thankfully God saw us through and He helped me get all the way to Fullham Broadway station, where Rachel Berry (a secondary school friend) and her dad were to pick me up and take me to their home. I'm so blessed that I have such a lovely place to crash in London and save so much money too. They are a lovely family and I really really like them.

More London updates to come in due time!