Familiar stranger's thoughts

Cesky Krumlov, a nice little mediveal town. Monday in Cesky Krumlov, the tourist town....it is quite dead...the castle was closed...so we ended up shopping and exploring the town.

To get to Czech Republic, first we travelled on the U-bahn (their Metro) to Spittelau, then we took the S-bahn (Suburban train) to Franz Josef Bahnof. We then had to switch trains which was going back to Spittelau. At Linz (at the border of Austria), we had to switch to trains from the Czech Republic....the train brought us to Cesky Budejovice. Then we had to wait for the bus which would bring us to Cesky Krumlov.

As it was Sunday, there were not many buses...so we had to wait about 1-2 hours. On hindsight, we could have gone to the City Centre...but we were baggage...so just sat around the interchange...waiting for the bus to leave...

We didn't have a good impression of Cesky Budejovice...

The day before, while having coffee at a cafe in Vienna Woods, we met an uncle who started chatting with us, asking us where we are from, and where we were visiting in Vienna. We told him that we were thinking of going Tulln. He was surprised that we would be going there and recommended that we go to Durnstein instead where we can see the Danube Valley...so we heed his advice and went to the train station to check on the available trains to go.

We managed to get 2-way train tickets for 12 euros each. The ticket stated that we can travel anywhere on the OBB (Vienna trains) within that day. Franz (the guy from Happy Hostel where we were staying) translated it for us, and said that he has never seen such a ticket with no restrictions. :)

Durnstein was beautiful...we climbed uphill to the old ruins and could see far and wide.

Read about Vienna Woods in the guidebook and decided to go and take a look. However, we couldn't find anywhere in the map or information that says Vienna Woods. We finally realised that Vienna Woods refers to a group of hills around Vienna and does not refer to a single place.

The Tourist Information at Vienna were not very helpful. They said that they are the Vienna Tourist Information Centre, so can only help with information relating to Vienna only.

Based on our trusty guidebook, we managed to take metro, then tram, followed by bus before reaching Grinzing & Kahlenburg (the part of Vienna Woods where the guidebook details on)....from here, we can see the Danube River and Vienna town. If the weather is good, perhaps we can even see Budapest. Alas, the weather wasn't too good and our view was abit blocked.

What sets Vienna apart from the other European countries? Perhaps it is the Danube River? Perhaps it is the buildings?

On 27 March 2008 (Thursday), we flew into Vienna. We stayed at Happy Hostel, with the nearest station at Westbahnof. It is accessible on both trains and subway. Hence it was convenient for us to travel around Vienna.

We visited the Statrooper, the famous Vienna Opera House on Thursday evening.

How do you know that you have reached Amsterdam? Is it the narrow houses? Or the canals? Or the red-light district?

We went to Amsterdam today, took a tram to Den Haag Centraal Station, then a train to Amsterdam Centraal. From there, we took another tram to visit Van Gogh Museum and walked around Amsterdam. Getting lost til we were too hungry and had to find a place to have dinner.

The main course took such a long time to come that when we left, it was quite late. We were so bored while waiting for the main course to come that we experiemented with the camera and took so many pictures of each other!

While walking back to Amsterdam Centraal Station, we met a guy on a bike, who sorta begged some $ from us. Normally, I wouldn't give $ to beggers, and perhaps we should have stood up to him. However, as we were on unfamiliar grounds and we didn't know our exact location, we gave him a euro to get rid of him and went on our way.

After more getting lost, we finally got on the right track towards Centraal Station and on our way back to Den Haag. Totally exhausted when we finally reached home.

Was quite excited to see snow falling during breakfast on our 3rd day at Koln. We took pictures of the snow falling, of the frozen flowers, and the snow on the ground....everything became so fairy-tale like...however, it seems that everywhere is snowing too. Even back here at Den Haag....

It was sunny, then raining, then raining hails, then snowing, then clear and sunny skies ago....we were getting worried for our 7 day trip to Eastern Europe as the weather forecasted was snow too....

KX was also falling sick due to the cold ...so we spent a day-in for her to rest and for me to explore the neighbourhood...had to top-up on body lotion as we were using up a year's supply within a day.

5:40am (Netherlands Time)
We landed in Amsterdam after a 13 hours flight...the flight on KLM was most uncomfortable because of the cramped seats, the horrible food, the lack of onflight entertainment etc...we were most happy to end it all...the flight was quite full...and all around us were caucasians....we spoke to the italian on our right and the Australian family on our left...it is nice to know that they all enjoyed their stay in Singapore.

6:01am (Netherlands Time)
We boarded the train to Den Hague Centraal Station. We were hit by the cold when we got off the train at Centraal Station where AY was waiting for us...it was so thoughtful of her to bring a bottle of water for each of us....it was most needed as we couldn't bring our own due to the liquid ban....

AY showed us how to validate our tickets for the tram ride to her place and we waited on the platform for the tram to come...getting colder and colder....It was good to finally reach her place...a nice cozy place on Level 1 with 3 bedrooms...

While at her place, the sun came out....followed by rain...followed by sun...followed by hailstones...followed by rain....followed by sun....the weather in Netherlands seems more confused than that in Singapore! The whole day, it alternated between rain or a little sun...we hope that the weather would be better when we travel to Koln tomorrow.

Around 12+, we finally ventured out of AY's place to the Den Hague's town centre...walked the whole afternoon at H&M, Mango, Zara then went grocery shopping for steamboat dinner ....a nice lazy afternoon....

This is the first day of the start of the Finance Convention. Almost a whole week of seminars, workshops at the Eastern Part of Singapore. Have to spend at least S$60 per day on cab.

Changi Village Hotel...the last time I stayed overnight was many years ago. I didn't stay at the hotel this time...although its new image is very nice...too bad we didnt' bring our swimming gear to enjoy the nice sea-view swimming pool on the Level 8...however, we had a good time dipping our toes into the pool. :P

The daily toil of sitting the whole day for seminars followed by dinners is making us more tired than working....it is a good thing I have my holiday to look forward to. :P

V told me tat she has a blog and showed it to me...aft seeing how nice her template was, I attempted to spice up my boring brown blog...

See, it is so kawaii now! :P 1 grouse, I can't stand the way the date sticks out. Can anyone give any advice?

Somehow with such a cute template, don't think I shd put in pic and spoil it..don't u agree?