battling against all odds..

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Bratislava- a smaller version of vienna..

i didnt expect myself to be at this place. came over from vienna becoz a direct flight back from vienna is expensive. ryan air has a flight from bratislava to brussels thus here am i in solvakia! it's only an one hour bus journey from wien to bratislava. this place is relatively small, nothing very interesting though...the only incentive is that the buildings all looks really old and not restored at all..unlike other european cities that i've visited. this is something different..at least i get to really see the original form of the buildings... bratislava is like JB whereas vienna is like singapore. viennese will come over to bratislava for cheaper opera and concerts or maybe shop for their groceries. overall, it's just a stop over and resting place for me! it will be an ideal place for you if you're done touring in vienna...

clock tower...

overview of the city landscape...

observatory tower..UFO looking like..

me at the top of bratislava castle...

smaller opera house...

they have lots of cute sculptures around..peeping tom..

interesting scuplture of different famous children stories...

paparazzi...

devin castle from afar..think this is the more ruined kindda castle that i've seen..something different though

fekete and i at the river beside the devin castle..

old town square...

bratislava old town...

me at st micheal's gate..

bratislava parliament..now the solvakia president stays in there..not a big place, even smaller than istana

parliament from the back

park behind the parliament

things we do on the bus journey...so rovers!

absinthe aka green fairy aka copper sulphate drink(i tried one only..dont worry, i didnt KO-ed) and beer...

absinthe..the banned drink in singapore. in sep, we do things that cannot be achieved in sg!

us up at bratislava castle

potato soup...

pork with plum sauce..i really like the plum sauce it's sweet! the potato soup and main costs 4 euros only! cheap...

goulash soup again...

meat pancake with chez....

p/s: will update vienna post soon...

Vienna-city of music (incomplete)

schronbunn palace..

austria..the birthplace of mozart.

parliment..

hofburg palace...

me at hofburg

behind me is an ice cream stall! love the arty farty chairs..

the famous stateopera house..got the standing tickets at 3 euros to listen to something we didnt understand. haha! however, there were english subtitles though. the opera singers were really good. they managed to amplify their voices that can be listened up till the 5th storey.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

didnt update again as i've got another trip immediately after my exams..eastern europe trip... pictures say a thousand words..i'm going to type a billion!

here's my eastern europe trip..
1st stop:budapest (hungary)
2nd stop:vienna (austria)
3rd stop: bratislava (solvakia)

budapest
budapest is a really nice and not to mention cheap place for hotel. personally, i feel that it's even better than paris. i think paris is over rated. budapest has 2 main cities, basically buda and pest. i think it sounds really funny..but fekete(my hungarian friend) was telling me that it was due to some historical reasons. i shant dwell about it here. but i cant imagine telling my frenz this, "hey! i'm staying at singa!" sounds weird..haha! it's a big city whereby we travelled alot by bus. travelling around is messy coz you need to either take the metro, tram or bus coz all the attractions are so far apart. one thing for sure, the night view of budapest is breath taking..especially up at the citadella..

the first bridge that i crossed...

bastillica at night...

heroes square

me at heroes square

buildings in budapest all looks so nice..in fact, i think they're better than paris

pork with apricot and potato croquette

pork with noodles(the yellow stuff are called noodles)

dessert which i didnt like...

rabbit leg with harsh brown..it tasted as tender as chicken!

behind me is the chain bridge..i like the bridges in budapest. i wanna build a bridge for myself!

the view from the citadel. did i forgot to mention that we stayed up the hill and we see this view everyday...imagine living in a castle...

goose liver...

trout..

us at the bath..this time my waterproof camera is put into good use!

outdoor bath...the water is warm..whee!

hungarian traditional dish..goulash soup

lovely breads..many different kinds. i'm so addicted to breads and pastries now!

food + merlot red wine= best combination

creme brulee again..i think paris one was better. it's a french dessert afterall..

the view from the budapest palace..

budapest royal palace

river in the day...

river in the night...

p/s: stupid photobucket made my photos look ugly. will do a better post for vienna and bratislava!

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Hey guys, many apologizes for not updating my blog for such a long time. No worries, i'm still alive and kicking. just that i lost my voice and having a bad sore throat. thankfully it was after my presentation. i'll start off from my weekend visit to keukenhof and Zaanse Schans, not to mention that i went sigh seeing during the midst of my examinations. it's something that i'll never even think about doing back in nus. ha!

it's spring and flowers are blooming. visited keukenhof, the world's largest bulb garden. took the train and then bus down. though it's not near to eindhoven but the trip was worth it! had to go soon coz the garden only opens from mid-march till late may. it closes at 21st may..so those who wanna see tulips in the netherlands, do rush down soon! the garden is really big and beautiful. amazed by the number of flowers they have, not to mention the effort needed to maintain them.