...Solitary...

switzerland. paris. taiwan.
dreamed alone at 9:36 p.m. on 2008-01-06

im back from taiwan! =D but i need to blog about europe first haha.

switzerland was a blast, lots of snow and mountains and sausages and rosti...it really is the prettiest place i've ever been to. and yes i want to retire there! haha.

went up to jungfrau (this super pretty mountain) where i got super giddy cos of the altitude...there was a gorgeous ice palace with amazing ice carvings everywhere too...we had a really nice bus driver in switerland who yodelled for us while we were on the road!

had a 3-course fondue dinner in this little restaurant called bebbie's with a super entertaining owner. the chocolate fondue was WONDERFUL haha cos he melts a scoop of vanilla icecream into the chocolate and that makes it v creamy and omgomg chocolateeee haha.

interlaken was beautiful (it's this little quaint town between two lakes, hence the name) and we had alot of fun wandering along the streets. shopping was surprisingly not bad considering how strong their currency is, and i managed to buy stuff from h&m and claire's! haha me and my sister went into every claire's we saw and came out with stuff almost every time. so yay! and i discovered this place called c&a (i think) which has some good finds if you look hard enough =D

bought aLOT of chocolate there - it really is very good! like, the random bars you buy from the supermarkets are already as good as, if not better than the more expensive stuff here (obviously not the high-end kind).

met people on the trip too - thankfully our tour group was nice and friendly, with quite a few people around my age. met yuanchyi at the hotel in interlaken! haha it was such a nice surprise cos i wasn't expecting to meet anyone i knew there, much less a guy who is supposed to be Serving the Nation.

took alot alot of photos from the bus so if you go see the ones that i (am going to) put on facebook, don't be surprised to see weird reflections haha they are NOT the main point!

this is all very disjointed - i don't know how to describe it, you really have to be there to appreciate it

paris was wonderful too, but in a totally different way - like, the beauty there is man-made, whereas switzerland was so natural. saw architectural marvels like the arc du triomphe, the eiffel tower, the louvre, the opera house, notre dame and the palace of versailles. i think i loved it more because we slogged so hard over the french revolution and so knowing all that just made me feel so...historical!

we spent our free day walking along the seine river, eating crepes and shopping and enjoying the cold weather. i love the cold! haha. didn't have time to go into the louvre, but we went into notre dame, which is really really gorgeous. the stained glass windows are amazing!

tried escargot for the first time...didn't like it haha the image of a slimy disgusting SNAIL kept popping into my mind as i was chewing. eeeeeeyer.

babies are cuter there for some reason - i think it has something to do with the fact that they're all bundled up in winter jackets and look like little dumplings hahah. guys are hotter there too -grin-

ok i know this is a way too inadequate description of my trip but it will have to do - pictures speak for themselves, will be up on facebook shortly. (=

taiwan

i figured i may as well blog about my travelling escapades all at once. although genting will have to wait haha.

taiwan with marianne amy and iris was great fun! things are really cheap there haha we ate alot, shopped alot, slept (quite) alot too. tried all the things the guys told us we "MUST" try, like the XXL chicken, milk tea with pudding, chou dou fu. and obviously we tried even more stuff, like deep fried crabs, mango ice, some egg biscuit, egg tarts, a really good steamboat lunch on our last day, pig's blood and alot more! and we had lunch at din tai fung on our second day - OMG the xiaolongbao there is better than the ones here! and it was quite cheap to haha me and amy were super happy with the fried rice.

the night markets are wonderful shopping; even though it was mostly winter stuff i still managed to find things! like pretty jeans for less than 20 haha YAY.

we went to a few touristy places too, like the museums, but those aren't particularly memorable. went to the hotsprings too! haha its the FIRST TIME i've managed to SIT in a hotspring ok! cos even though they had them in japan and korea, i always refused to go in cos it was too hot. like seriously it was HOT. this one was hot too but i went in ok! so proud of myself haha. they had coldsprings too - those i liked =D

first time flying budet hahaha it was surprisingly comfy! and since the flights were pretty empty we managed to take up one row each and play bridge both ways. haha.

on our last day there was a mad scramble to buy food home haha. dunkin donuts, eggtarts from kfc, exotic-flavoured chips, lychee and mango hichew, luohanguo chewing gum, cup noodles etc. haha especially marianne! we can open mama shops already. haha.

went up to the top of 101 - the view would be alot nicer if it wasn't so foggy. haha. and marianne made her classic "MY EARS ARE BLOCKED" comment in the super crowded lift, prompting the lift attendant to offer advice. tres embarrassing.

oh and we saw farenheit on our last day! thats the boyband with wuzun in it haha and even though none of us particularly like them it was just very exciting to be fangirly and all hahaha. wuzun really is a pretty boy. the crowd was horrendous lah haha. and me and amy took great pleasure in sms-ing our sisters 'hello guess what i'm looking at wuzun now!' only to get radically different responses. haha.

i think that's about it - travelling by a country's public transport system instead of a tour bus really does open your eyes to alot more things haha like how taiwanese are so polite! they're so orderly when they walk - of course driving is a whole different issue. we concluded that just about all taiwan drivers would fail singapore's driving test

ok i think that's about it for travelling. oh i love holidays i wish they would never never end. one more week of freedom! genting with elly hanyi huahua lyl and poon YAYYYYYYYYYY