Eastern Europe Photos Part 1

Lets start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.....

Its gonna take forever to upload. My comp's pretty fast I must say (can be faster I suppose) but with 8mps... Its agonizing... but for you I will......

I'm gonna write a little bit more abt my travels instead of just the title ...so.... one day, hopefully, if my blog is decent enough, I'll get some advertisers, some sponsers, some free trips and perhaps even some money. Yeah, that's my resolution for the new year..... lets see how long it lasts. By the way, are there any openings for a travel writer Azzie? I'm up for it!

You know, this is really taking a long time to upload. Any one knows how to compress the pics and is willing to tell/show me how? Picasa doesnt work for me...... I have no idea why. Well, you realise that after 2 pics the image sizes have become smaller. Feel free to click on it and look at it. I think it takes a shorter time to download ( or so I say)

Bonn, Germany : Beethoven's House

We went there cos FIL wanted to go.... you know me... I dont even know the difference bet Beethoven and Mozart etc. We were not allowed to take photos of the interior of the house so I only have some exterior shots. The interior was very well maintained I must say. There werent many photographs around at that time so it was a lot of hand drawns and paintings. Well maintained..... its a good thing he wasnt born in Singapore..... his precious house would have been demolished to make way for some road or highway.

Christmas Market in Cologne

One gorgeous thing about travelling to Europe in winter is that there are Christmas Markets everywhere! It makes the cold more bearable I suppose..... Run into the market to grab a bratwurst and gluhwein(hot wine) and paddle around the crowds..... Its really fun. The trick is to look around and try not to buy too many things.... and dont freak out when you pay like 3.50 euros for a sausage and a bun.... take it or leave it......

Automatic Bag Storage in Cologne

This thing is truly amazing. Only the germans can pull this off with such precision too. What happens is that you put in like 4 euros and the box will open, chuck in your luggage and collect a card. The door closes and then reopens again but your luggage has magically disappeared. Chuck in more of your luggage and the same thing happens. When you are ready to collect your luggage, go to ANY of these boxes, slot in your card and your luggage will magically appear within 40 seconds!!!!!

Its snowing in Krakow, Poland

I spotted the snow on the plane before we landed, though I was sitting in the centre aisle. The flickering of the lights from the wings reflected blots and spots of beautiful whirls. I told SS it's snowing..... I dont know why he refused to believe me.... We landed on a bed of snow... soft and white..... hmmm.... like a cross between marshmellow and ice kachang.... It was such a blessing..... dint have to dream of a white christmas anymore..... These European pilots are fantastic thay can fly in all sorts of weather...... Anyway, this was taken at a park near our hostel. Lovely isnt it......

At night in Krakow

This was taken from our hostel/apartment in Krakow. Like many places in Europe, they can build up to around 7 stories or more without the need for an elevator. Lugging up my backpack wasnt hard I must say but with all the weight of the thermals, down jacket and hiking boots it was like wearing an armour.... And though the outside is cold, as soon as you enter the building, you'll become warm rather quick, cos you're sheltered by from the winds. And with a backpack and many layers underneath, your cant possibly take everything off, so its like a sauna in there. Our apartment was neat.. literally.... had a basic kitchen and roomy bedrooms. Nice place...... The heaters are really good. And in every hostel that we went to, no matter how cheap, there was a very good heater, so much so that in some places, we had to open the window!

Thats all the patience I have for now..... more to come soon.....

:)

Gatherings

It has been a pretty exciting week with the mahjong gathering and the family gathering part I and II. Hopefully the mahjong gathering can expand into many parts and subparts too!

Mahjong@Gracie's
It was the last day of the week, a short week but with enough excitement with the new faces and long (draggy) meetings. After a long rather entertaining wait (went to check out CE's new room and having a girl to girl chat) we went to Gracie's house for a nice therapeutic game of mahjong. It wasnt very therapeutic at first cos I was still trying to pick up the game and trying to recall the basic strategies, in addition to reading the chinese charac and to remember which wind will get me one or two doubles etc. But after my darling pres left, my luck seemed to have changed and I fulfilled my goal of winning at least one game ( I won a total of two) and another for 8 doubles cos I picked up the winning card myself. Yay! More mahjong sessions to come. Its only the warm up for the New Year. :)

Supper@ Thomson
Another small last minute gathering but it was really good to see you again MJ. Through sleepy and tired eyes we managed to catch up and munch on an unfantastic Bak Chor mee. Where have all the good bak chor mee's gone? Take care my dear and don't overwork. You only have one life..... LIVE it!!!


Sil's B Day
Finally, I get to eat crabs! You can tell how much seafood we ate in Eastern Europe by the stuff MIL ordered for dinner. I don't recall seeing an ounce of meat. No signboard has THE BEST crabs in the world! It was a good meal, everything that I was longing for the the land of beer, wine and meat. Happy Birthday SIL! I hope you like the bracelet. If its too big, let me know, they can remove more links.

Khoo Gathering
Another 2 birthdays, one for my uncle, Sunny and my dear long lost cousin, A. Again, another good resturant and more good food. We went to Bumbu at Kandahar Street.... did you read about my haunting stories? Bumbu has one of the best Thai-Indonesian food at good prices. We had lots of food and lots of fun catching up, in addition to the noise created my the 3 youngest babies. There were about 18 of us and we had the privilege to sit at the kid's table. Literally. No matter. There was more food since the kids... let me rephrase that, since 2 of the 3 kids dont eat that much. We had a lot. Steamed fish, pandan chicken, beef rendang, 2 salads, seafood curry, green curry, prawns in chili sauce, brinjal, kangkung, olive rice, garlic chicken etc. Not to mention 2 types of cake at the end. It is a rare occasion we were just missing 3 more cousins and one cousin-in-law and one spouse. After dinner everyone came back to my place to check it out. Thank goodness I was trying to clean it up (early start to the CNY). Took a group photo and printed it out. I wish we had more time together.

Stainless Steel
It must have been a traumatic year, 2007, that I hadnt noticed the trend in stainless steel jewellery. Now, to make up for lost time, I feel the need to buy more. There are a couple of stands in Suntec selling them and in Czech, there was a pretty upmarket store selling really nice patterns. So I spent over a hundred bucks buying stainless steel metal, of which could have been put to more use somewhere in my house. ( either... the money or the steel.....) But I'm happy.... and happiness they say is in your hands......I bought stainless steel rings to decorate them.... :))

Von Trapp Family
I'm utterly in love with the von Trapp family. Maria von trapp inspired the musical, The Sound of Music and after my SOM tour in Salzburg and buying the necessary kitsch SOM souvenirs and overpriced goods in addition to an autobio written my the real Maria (not Julie Andrews) I was also truly inspired and touched. I kept singing ... the hills are alive and my fav things and the lonely goatheard all day ( at least in my head) and I'm so into it so much so that I even dreamt of the von trapp family. Will tell you more about the book and her life in time to come.

Sales
When we came back from Europe, I had the urge to shop. Even I was surprised at my desperate desire to give away good money for clothes and jewellery. Then I realised why. I hardly did any shopping in Europe. There were 2 trips to H&M, a couple to the stainless steel jewellery shops there, and the SOM souvenirs, a couple of wines. Those were my main shopping highlights cos either the things to too expensive, not worth the effort of lugging it in my backpack or that I simply had no space cos my backpack was full of winter clothing. So when I came back the mere sight of the word S-A-L-E made my heart leap and sommersault, and tumble with joy. No more Euros!!! Yay!

Pics
I have about 16gigs of photos. some are worth 8megapixels each. It will take years to upload it. But I will. For you, I will.

Have a happy week ahead.