My parents just came back from Japan. Telling me and my sister about their trip, my dad was saying that there were a lot of things my mother was unadventurous to try, had me and my sister been there we'd have more fun eating and playing. WIth that he sort of said that perhaps next year we could go there as a family. Next year after my sister's A levels. By then I'd be working already, I should be able to earn my keep and spend quite a bit on myself and have less financial constraints when buying stuff.
Then my sister brought up that she wanted to go Shanghai. She was planning to work for a couple of months after A levels before uni and earn some money to go Shanghai. She has a friend there so she can stay over with her. Shanghai has always been a place I wanted to go. I no longer trust another other part of China, at least I know I don't dare to eat anything in China. But Shanghai being more modern, and with more discerning people around, I think it should be quite safe. Besides, I want to have the xiaolongbaos there. And also to see the colonial architecture.
But those are not my dream travel plans. I was telling Someone the other day about it, then I told my dad about it, now I'm telling everyone here.
I want to go on a month long road trip around Germany. Just me and one or two other friends, we can rent a car and drive around Germany, totally free and easy. Usually when people talk about road trips it seems like it's usually America or Australia because of their inefficient rail system and vast expanse of land. But Germany's also a really interesting place to go on a road trip. Because of one major important reason. Autobahns. No speed limits. A must try for all roadies.
Okay, I don't have a driving licence now, but it's always nice to dream. My dad says it's dangerous to drive in a no speed limits environment where any little mistake can cost lives. But how can I not try it out in the birthplace of the auto?! It's also one reason why a small group of friends might be good. Too big a group can get too rowdy, but I don't think I can do it alone as an inexperienced driver. erm... Assuming that I can get a licence somehow or another...
One month would be long enough to fit in as many places as I can. I can travel around the big cities, small towns and little villages. For the big cities, I can park the car at the outskirts and take a train in and stay there for a couple of days. For the little towns and small villages I can town hop and village sightsee. A lot of the beauty of a European town is the traditional and quaint little suburbs, very pretty, very delightful.
A road trip with a nice car also settles the headachey logistics problem of travelling which I hate. I was thinking of getting an SUV, a Mercedes-Benz one no less, then can just dump all the luggage into the car and go around. I'm a very lazy traveller, I don't like to lug heavy things around, and taking trains with heavy articles for a weak girl is quite jialat.
I was calculating the cost of one such trip. If I go alone it would probably set me back by $10k, maybe sharing costs with friends will reduce the amount quite significantly to $6-8k depending on how many people are in the trip too. Think the main costs for the trip is the air ticket and the petrol needed. Car rental shouldn't be too expensive since cars are selling real cheap in Germany, as compared to Singapore. Food and lodgings shouldn't be too bad. We can eat currywursts every day and/or Nordsee, and once in a while in a proper restaurant. We can sleep in the car or a little motel along the autobahn. I noticed that where there're motels and/or factory outlets, warehouses, or huge hypermakets in Germany, there'd always be a McDonald's nearby. So when I miss home, I can pop by a Mackies and get some junk food.
Guess I need to slog it out to be able to experience such a dream. grr... And I don't even have any proper savings at the moment.
Showing posts with label the globe trotter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the globe trotter. Show all posts
Friday, October 12, 2007
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Kinderdijk
I was in the toilet in NUS that day when I saw this advert, after that, these pictures that you will see popped up in my mind. Somewhere along the way, I became lazy and stopped posting my travelogues, so I shall start with this again. I'm not sure if I'll do the rest, but well, enjoy these. I really love this place very much.
I first saw this place in somebody's blog, so when I went to visit, I asked for directions to go to that place. It was worth the 45min bus ride~ And I got sunburnt after that little trip. heehee...
(click on them to go to the flickr page and see them big~)
I first saw this place in somebody's blog, so when I went to visit, I asked for directions to go to that place. It was worth the 45min bus ride~ And I got sunburnt after that little trip. heehee...
(click on them to go to the flickr page and see them big~)
Friday, August 11, 2006
Benelux - Belgium - Brussels
The next stop of my Benelux tour was to proceed Northeast for Belgium. I guess the place to visit when visiting Belgium is to head for Brussels, the capital of the European Union.
I bought my ticket from Luxembourg the moment I reach there. I asked the ticketing salesperson for a one way ticket to Brussels, but she told me that it's cheaper to get a return ticket and bought me the return ticket instead for €16.90. I later checked from the internet that the one way ticket cost €19.90. Like amazing~ I passed my return ticket to Gabriel since I knew there's no way I'd make a trip from Brussels to Luxembourg. If any one fine day he might want to make that trip, he can use that ticket. He did used that ticket in the end, like about one month after my trip, or is it more than one month? Anyway, the ticket was not wasted~
The person informed me that the train came by the hour, and I could take any of them. But as I reached the train station earlier than the scheduled time, I found out from a platform master than there were many more trains plying other than the one that came by the hour. He told me to get on the train. And I did. At first I was a bit afraid that I might have the wrong ticket, but in the end, the ticket inspector turned out to be the platform master I met earlier, so no problems.
Reaching Brussels was a headache because I couldn't understand road signs and couldn't find my way to the hostel which I'd booked a room from. I asked about 3 people for directions, but they all gave me different directions. In the end, after walking and go staning, and walking a lot more, I reached the hostel. I thought I could finally take a good rest. BUT the receptionist told me that the hostel was fully booked. I said I made a reservation, showed her my handphone call logs and the number I'd called. And made many pitiful faces. She can't possibly asked me to sleep in the streets after all I did booked a bed.
After some negotiation, and I think she realised the mistake made on her part, she relented and gave me a room. But it was a single room. She said it was the only room available. €30. €9 more than budgeted. But the non-membership tariffs and sheets were waived, so I was offered the basic rate of €30 with the benefits of the sheets and not being a member but paying member prices. It turned out to be okay. FOr the price I paid, I made full use of the room. I bathed. In the private bathroom. I slept early, to make full use of the room and bed and sheets. I ate breakfast there too. So it can be considered quite worthwhile for the price I paid.
I checked out just about 15min the checkout time because I wanted to make full use of the money I paid for the room. I had wanted to deposit my bags there while I toured the city, but in the end decided against it because the walking trip back to the hostel was a bit of a hassle. I had not bought any public transport tickets in either Luxembourg or Brussels. I went on my two feet to everywhere. I dropped my bags at the lockers at the train station and went out exploring the city. Somewhere in between I bought tickets to Utrecht. After buying the tickets, I realised to my horror that I needed to transit and I didn't know where to transit. Had to queue all over again to get that itinery.
Going everywhere on my two legs means really exploring and finding places that normal people might not be able to find. Travelling the Joan way means not having any inkling of what the city is like before going down there. It also means having no expectations. Take Luxembourg for example, I never knew there was a fortified ancient castle there, much less it's a UNESCO world heritage site. I found it from my walking and was very pleasantly surprised. It was the same for Brussels. I walked and I discovered.
A walk around Brussels.
Although I numbered the pictures, I'm not talking about it. hehehe~ I think some pictures you can just look and understand. Maybe I've seen like so many of the same kind of stuff that I'm like numbed to all of them already. But anyway, a little note about the Mannequin Piss. It's probably the stupidest icon ever, only losing out the ther Merlion. It's just an ugly little boy pissing (but at least he's not vomiting water, what crap?!), but what's stupid is that he's dressed, he's dressed in a different outfit with every season. In the picture above you see him dressed in the getup of an American footballer. I bet if Belgium had made it to Germany 2006 which they didn't, that boy would have been in the football jersey.
This day in Brussels was the second day of the start of the good weather. A sign of god weather? Everyone's out in the garden. The public gardens were filled with people lying on the grass. To also reiterate the point that the weather was getting hot, I had to buy a top in Brussels because I hadn't thought that I'd sweat so much and needed this many change of clothes. I wanted to buy a skirt too, and shed my long pants but I couldn't find a nice skirt.
Somewhere in between my walking I came to an art museum. Maybe you haven't noticed, but art musuems don't attract me, maybe some history museums might, but generally, I don't really like museums. But this museum was different. It looked big, and it was cheap, and I hadn't got any better idea on what else I can do. And the museum had a cafe, I can have lunch there. For all these reasons, I went there. And as always when I head out to something I've no expectations of, I was pleasantly surprised.
Art Museum. (It's the biggest art museum in Brussels. Think you can google for the name. I didn't bother finding out what's the name of the museum, to me it's a nice museum can already.)
The thing I was so pleasantly surprised with, the art piece that redeemed the money I paid for the ticket, picture number 8. Death of Marat. For all those who don't know, I'm a big big fan of David, Jacques-Louis David. It's my European history upbringing and reading too much romantic revolutionary ideals and Maximillian Robspierre and Napoleon and those dictators that made me fall in love with that painter. I'd say, he's the founder of propaganda. wahahaha~~~
My lunch is in number 12, 22 shows the special exhibition which I also went to. It's named Bing. No photography was allowed inside. It's a stupid exhibition la... Nothing much... Or maybe I just preferred the normal exhibition stuff. I thought by going to visit a museum on a weekday, I could have the whole place to myself and be in some peace and quiet. It turned out that weekdays meant that there were lots of school trips. There were like at least three big groups of students doing art appreciation there. One group even gave a presentation of Marat, making me unable to get a picture of him. I had to return an hour later to get that picture of Marat.
I think there were like 6 galleries in the museum. Some galleries were closed during certain hours, as told to be by some security officer in the museum. But it turned out to be bullshit la. I went to the gallery, it was open, and nobody chased me out.
After the museum tour, I was tired, and I didn't know where else I could go. My legs could only carry me this far. Then I noticed some brightly coloured buses that brought people sightseeing. I asked the price and decided that I can use that one and a half hour journey to occupy my time before I head down to Utrecht.
Sightseeing Bus.
I think the reason why I put those numbers is to prevent people from taking my pictures unauthorised. Also, if you noticed, I stopped putting up full sized pictures, everything's either collages or animated gifs. Must prevent plagarism and priracy~
The bus driver had quoted me a standard price when I asked for pricing, but later as I noticed the ticket, there was an option of a cheaper price for students, so I managed to get my ticket at a lower price. This was to happen again at the Mercedes-Benz Museum. I had checked out that as students we're offered concessions, but in the museum, it was not stated. I just went to the counter and asked for a concession ticket and got it. The person didn't even check my identity for concession. hehehe~
Interesting things to note. 7 shows a Japanese garden. Like diaoz... 9 shows an stom thingie which apparently is as much of a Belgian icon as is Mannequin Piss, but I've never heard of it until I saw it. It looks just as dumb anyway. And it's so out of the way. Unless you drive or you take a sightseeing bus you won't be able to see it, but so many people make a trip down to see it, and it's plastered across many many postcards of Brussels. 16, 17, 18 is in Brussels economic region which I was not able to make it there on my two feet. I should have like just took a bus/train there and can spend the whole day in like shopping centres. But then again, crap la, I go all the way there just to shop meh? I want to shop can shop in Singapore. hahaha~ But it turned out that I did go to somewhere just for the purpose of shopping in one of my later travels. To Zurich. Oh man... The shopping district in Zurich is the ultimate sia... But that will be in another travel log.
Also interesting is 13. It looks like the Brandenburg Gate, but it's just a gate in Brussels. It was a gift from the monarchy, I think it was the king to the city on I think National Day or something. It's really a damn stupid gift. Of all things, a gate??? Like what would the people of Brussels need a gate for? It becomes just another stupid icon like the Mannequin Piss and that atom thingie.
After the sightseeing trip, it was also time for me to take that train down to Utrecht. In all Brussels was great. If I've the chance for me to go there again, I'd head for the economic district to tour instead.
Next up, watch out for my Holland pages~
I bought my ticket from Luxembourg the moment I reach there. I asked the ticketing salesperson for a one way ticket to Brussels, but she told me that it's cheaper to get a return ticket and bought me the return ticket instead for €16.90. I later checked from the internet that the one way ticket cost €19.90. Like amazing~ I passed my return ticket to Gabriel since I knew there's no way I'd make a trip from Brussels to Luxembourg. If any one fine day he might want to make that trip, he can use that ticket. He did used that ticket in the end, like about one month after my trip, or is it more than one month? Anyway, the ticket was not wasted~
The person informed me that the train came by the hour, and I could take any of them. But as I reached the train station earlier than the scheduled time, I found out from a platform master than there were many more trains plying other than the one that came by the hour. He told me to get on the train. And I did. At first I was a bit afraid that I might have the wrong ticket, but in the end, the ticket inspector turned out to be the platform master I met earlier, so no problems.
Reaching Brussels was a headache because I couldn't understand road signs and couldn't find my way to the hostel which I'd booked a room from. I asked about 3 people for directions, but they all gave me different directions. In the end, after walking and go staning, and walking a lot more, I reached the hostel. I thought I could finally take a good rest. BUT the receptionist told me that the hostel was fully booked. I said I made a reservation, showed her my handphone call logs and the number I'd called. And made many pitiful faces. She can't possibly asked me to sleep in the streets after all I did booked a bed.
After some negotiation, and I think she realised the mistake made on her part, she relented and gave me a room. But it was a single room. She said it was the only room available. €30. €9 more than budgeted. But the non-membership tariffs and sheets were waived, so I was offered the basic rate of €30 with the benefits of the sheets and not being a member but paying member prices. It turned out to be okay. FOr the price I paid, I made full use of the room. I bathed. In the private bathroom. I slept early, to make full use of the room and bed and sheets. I ate breakfast there too. So it can be considered quite worthwhile for the price I paid.
I checked out just about 15min the checkout time because I wanted to make full use of the money I paid for the room. I had wanted to deposit my bags there while I toured the city, but in the end decided against it because the walking trip back to the hostel was a bit of a hassle. I had not bought any public transport tickets in either Luxembourg or Brussels. I went on my two feet to everywhere. I dropped my bags at the lockers at the train station and went out exploring the city. Somewhere in between I bought tickets to Utrecht. After buying the tickets, I realised to my horror that I needed to transit and I didn't know where to transit. Had to queue all over again to get that itinery.
Going everywhere on my two legs means really exploring and finding places that normal people might not be able to find. Travelling the Joan way means not having any inkling of what the city is like before going down there. It also means having no expectations. Take Luxembourg for example, I never knew there was a fortified ancient castle there, much less it's a UNESCO world heritage site. I found it from my walking and was very pleasantly surprised. It was the same for Brussels. I walked and I discovered.
A walk around Brussels.
Although I numbered the pictures, I'm not talking about it. hehehe~ I think some pictures you can just look and understand. Maybe I've seen like so many of the same kind of stuff that I'm like numbed to all of them already. But anyway, a little note about the Mannequin Piss. It's probably the stupidest icon ever, only losing out the ther Merlion. It's just an ugly little boy pissing (but at least he's not vomiting water, what crap?!), but what's stupid is that he's dressed, he's dressed in a different outfit with every season. In the picture above you see him dressed in the getup of an American footballer. I bet if Belgium had made it to Germany 2006 which they didn't, that boy would have been in the football jersey.
This day in Brussels was the second day of the start of the good weather. A sign of god weather? Everyone's out in the garden. The public gardens were filled with people lying on the grass. To also reiterate the point that the weather was getting hot, I had to buy a top in Brussels because I hadn't thought that I'd sweat so much and needed this many change of clothes. I wanted to buy a skirt too, and shed my long pants but I couldn't find a nice skirt.
Somewhere in between my walking I came to an art museum. Maybe you haven't noticed, but art musuems don't attract me, maybe some history museums might, but generally, I don't really like museums. But this museum was different. It looked big, and it was cheap, and I hadn't got any better idea on what else I can do. And the museum had a cafe, I can have lunch there. For all these reasons, I went there. And as always when I head out to something I've no expectations of, I was pleasantly surprised.
Art Museum. (It's the biggest art museum in Brussels. Think you can google for the name. I didn't bother finding out what's the name of the museum, to me it's a nice museum can already.)
The thing I was so pleasantly surprised with, the art piece that redeemed the money I paid for the ticket, picture number 8. Death of Marat. For all those who don't know, I'm a big big fan of David, Jacques-Louis David. It's my European history upbringing and reading too much romantic revolutionary ideals and Maximillian Robspierre and Napoleon and those dictators that made me fall in love with that painter. I'd say, he's the founder of propaganda. wahahaha~~~
My lunch is in number 12, 22 shows the special exhibition which I also went to. It's named Bing. No photography was allowed inside. It's a stupid exhibition la... Nothing much... Or maybe I just preferred the normal exhibition stuff. I thought by going to visit a museum on a weekday, I could have the whole place to myself and be in some peace and quiet. It turned out that weekdays meant that there were lots of school trips. There were like at least three big groups of students doing art appreciation there. One group even gave a presentation of Marat, making me unable to get a picture of him. I had to return an hour later to get that picture of Marat.
I think there were like 6 galleries in the museum. Some galleries were closed during certain hours, as told to be by some security officer in the museum. But it turned out to be bullshit la. I went to the gallery, it was open, and nobody chased me out.
After the museum tour, I was tired, and I didn't know where else I could go. My legs could only carry me this far. Then I noticed some brightly coloured buses that brought people sightseeing. I asked the price and decided that I can use that one and a half hour journey to occupy my time before I head down to Utrecht.
Sightseeing Bus.
I think the reason why I put those numbers is to prevent people from taking my pictures unauthorised. Also, if you noticed, I stopped putting up full sized pictures, everything's either collages or animated gifs. Must prevent plagarism and priracy~
The bus driver had quoted me a standard price when I asked for pricing, but later as I noticed the ticket, there was an option of a cheaper price for students, so I managed to get my ticket at a lower price. This was to happen again at the Mercedes-Benz Museum. I had checked out that as students we're offered concessions, but in the museum, it was not stated. I just went to the counter and asked for a concession ticket and got it. The person didn't even check my identity for concession. hehehe~
Interesting things to note. 7 shows a Japanese garden. Like diaoz... 9 shows an stom thingie which apparently is as much of a Belgian icon as is Mannequin Piss, but I've never heard of it until I saw it. It looks just as dumb anyway. And it's so out of the way. Unless you drive or you take a sightseeing bus you won't be able to see it, but so many people make a trip down to see it, and it's plastered across many many postcards of Brussels. 16, 17, 18 is in Brussels economic region which I was not able to make it there on my two feet. I should have like just took a bus/train there and can spend the whole day in like shopping centres. But then again, crap la, I go all the way there just to shop meh? I want to shop can shop in Singapore. hahaha~ But it turned out that I did go to somewhere just for the purpose of shopping in one of my later travels. To Zurich. Oh man... The shopping district in Zurich is the ultimate sia... But that will be in another travel log.
Also interesting is 13. It looks like the Brandenburg Gate, but it's just a gate in Brussels. It was a gift from the monarchy, I think it was the king to the city on I think National Day or something. It's really a damn stupid gift. Of all things, a gate??? Like what would the people of Brussels need a gate for? It becomes just another stupid icon like the Mannequin Piss and that atom thingie.
After the sightseeing trip, it was also time for me to take that train down to Utrecht. In all Brussels was great. If I've the chance for me to go there again, I'd head for the economic district to tour instead.
Next up, watch out for my Holland pages~
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Benelux - Luxembourg - Luxembourg City
Benelux, Luxembourg, Luxembourg City
About two months ago (yea... It's been that long...) I went on a solo tour of Benelux. Almost solo, I guess, since I did meet up with a friend for one leg of the tour. It's during this tour that I really understood that I am still in command of my life.
Why go solo? Mainly because I don't have friends here, also because I want to go on a trip, on my own pace, do what I like to do, go to places which I like, and hasten the whole process and see more things. Having a buddy by your side can reduce efficiency, and that I don't have much time to spend, I'd like my trip to be as efficient as possible.
"You went on a trip alone?" Yes, it really isn't as bad as what most people would think. I am an indenpendent person. I grew up within the four wall of my house, staying at home alone rather than going out with the parents. My parents given me enough freedom, I grew up without a curfew, and I can take care of myself. I can go home at 4am alone, and walk straight to my house, my apartment, my room without an escort. I'm not afraid of dark, not afraid of supernatural beings, not afraid of being alone. Even when friends ask me to drop them an SMS when I reached home, I never do. I also don't like it when friends go out of the way to send me home (unless they drive). Yes, I can live my life myself. Maybe it's also because I've seen enough people failing me, so in the end, it boils down to me and myself.
Actually, I made plans with a friend to go together, but at the ticket counter, she started being indecisive again, and made life difficult for the ticket agent, and made me pissed with her indecisiveness. That was when I knew I didn't want to go anywhere else with her anymore. In my haste, I purchased a single ticket to Luxembourg, and a single ticket from Utrecht. So it meant that die die I must go to Luxembourg, die die must find my way from Luxembourg to Utrecht, and die die must reach Utrecht so that I can come back home. The tickets were cheaper than my Berlin tickets, so I was happy.
My initial plan was actually to just go Utrecht and Amsterdam and maybe tour a bit around Holland since Gabriel's there and I can bunk in free of charge, so must make use of it. But the friend who was supposed to go with me wanted to go to Liechtenstein, so I thought it'd be nice if we went around the region and go by Luxembourg, Belgium, before going into Holland, so I said we'll go Luxembourg. When she pulled out, I saw no point in going to Liechtenstein, and just went ahead and told the ticket counter that I wanted to go Luxemboug.
There are a few different connections to Luxembourg, but because of the time I chose, I took the connection via Offenburg/Strasbourg/Metz Ville, transiting that many times. It was the first time I was transiting that many times, and I can't speak a single word of French other than "Merci". I can't even pronounce "Bonjoir" properly (I don't even know if I spelt it right). The connecting train from Metz Ville also didn't provide the platform number, and I only had like 5min to transit. Panic attack. Luckily, I've been to Strasbourg before, so I knew Offenburg and Strasbourg pretty okay.
Taking that many trains, I decided that the French trains are the worst of the lot. My connecting train to Metz Ville was probably the worst train I've taken.
Metz Ville apparently was the last stop of the train, so I needn't worry that much. But I still worried, when I reached Metz Ville, there wasn't any annoucements, there wasn't even any announcements in France itself. The train from Offenburg to Strasbourg announced all the stations within Germany, and stopped after crossing the border into France. diaoz... I peeked out and saw sign boards saying "Metz", I wasn't sure, so I asked this French girl who couldn't speak English or German (why am I not surprised?), but she was nice enough to nod her head as I pointed out the destination in my itinery list.
The train to Luxembourg was comfortable, and empty, save for two rowdy guys who looked Turk. I really can't stand the Turks infiltrating into Europe, and of all things, I hate being picked up by Turks. damnit... Anyway, thanks to the two rowdy guys, a police came by to check my passport. Luckily I remembered to bring it along. I didn't really need a passport because there isn't any borders within Europe, save for Switzerland, but I brought it just in case. Speaking of the Swiss, remember I was saying I was denied entry in Konstanz because I didn't have my passport? I went to Zurich the other day, and nobody checked my passport. damnit... Stupid border police. Okay, back to the border police on board the train to Luxembourg, there were seven of them in total. And it took a female police to ask for my passport, think they thought females easier to talk to females. lol~
At Luxembourg, after depositing my bag at the lockers, I got picked up. This is a sign that it's finally summer. Just the day before the weather was freaking cold. As such, I packed cold wear, and just a change of one tee, and I wore long pants, and I brought my jacket and shawl, the weather forecast said temperatures of 20 degrees mah... But it's bluff people one. It was so freaking hot. Okay, not too hot. Actually Luxembourg was still okay, I went about with my sleeveless tee and long tight fitting pants. There was still a bit of wind. Just nice. But as the day went on it because hotter and hotter. Back to me got picked up. I'm not saying I'm ugly, or pretty, or what, just that I know I don't look bad, and I do dress well, but only in summer because I only have nice summer clothes. My winter clothes suck. And I bet all those people who picked me up just think that I look hot. bah~ I know I have a nice body (okay, I still complain, but really it isn't that bad. Okay, I have fats, I know people like Jinwei like to poke my fats, but I still look not that bad ba...).
I reached Luxembourg in the afternoon at about 2 plus (I left my place at about 9am), and I was hungry. I remembered the real reason why I was at Luxembourg.
Let me ask you a question, what do you think of first when I say Luxembourg? Rich people? Small country? Not me. When I think of Luxembourg, I think of this thing, the most representative thing of Luxembourg. Big Macs. Although Big Macs are from the US of A, but Luxembourg is really damn famous for THEIR Big Macs, because their Big Macs are supposedly the most expensive ones in the world based on the Big Mac Theory. Being the sadomasochistic me, I wanted to see for myself first hand these pricy examples of the world's most eaten food.
Hence I headed straight for McDonalds.
I don't eat beef, so I cannot eat the renowned Big Mac.
That meal at McDonald's was very disappointing. I expected something more expensive, expensive enough to blow me off my chair, but it turned out to be my wishful thinking. All the way to the most expensive place and it turned out not to be expensive at all. The menu turned out to be a German menu, the same menu that Germany is using, the price, in Euros, was the same too. bah~ The Euro not only standardised currency, but also standardised price in Europe. sucks~
After the meal I walked around the city. Before going to Luxembourg, I've no idea what's there in Luxembourg, excpet expensive Big Macs which are not longer there. Random walking around is fun because that truly means exploring the city. So, it was me and my two legs all the way. I didn't bother to take public transport because I didn't know where I was going and public transport is expensive.
Taking a leaf from Cindy, I tried to arrange my pictures too. Personally, I don't really like this kind of composite pictures because it looks too messy. The words in magenta are handwritten using the mouse, so it's not very neat.
Click on it and choose to view it larger.
1. Cathedral. All European cities will have one main Cathedral (or whatever you call it in their language, in German it's Münster).
2. Some other church thingie.
3. Main Station.
4. Dog Shit Bags. The public cleaniness of Luxembourg really emblazones itself everywhere.
5. The Luxembourg flag with the EU flag.
6. Some grand governmental building.
7. Some grand hotel.
8. Some grand commercial building.
9. Some semi statue, semi rest point.
10. Railway tracks. I like taking pictures of railways tracks that seem to go on and on and on.
11. Another semi statue, semi rest point, semi water dispensing thingie.
12. A statue that rotates.
13. The courtyard of the Cathedral.
14. Rubbish bin. Not the print on it.
15. The Main Station again.
Then after viewing the city, I saw a couple of bridges and went over to check them out, then I saw a whole long chain of fortress and ancient built up not unlike those ancient castles. The view was beautiful. It was only until much much later after I left, went back doing some free surfing that I actually found out that that place I went to is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The ancient fortresses of Luxembourg. wow~ And while I was there I only had a look see look see sentiment.
Click on it to the flickr page to see bigger.
The whole fortress was very large, and the roads were hilly, but I didn't feel tired. I surprised myself at my drive to go up ahead and be all by myself.
I didn't linger there for long because once I had booked a bed in Brussels so I had to get to Brussels that evening. Once I reached Luxembourg, I went to buy a ticket to Brussels. The single ticket to Brussels cost €19.90, but the return ticket on special offer cost €16.90, so the ticket agent made me buy the return ticket. It's nice to finally buy cheap tickets. Tickets in Germany are the most expensive in Europe man. The train to Brussels depart every like half an hour, so it didn't matter when I wanted to leave. The tickets from Luxembourg came in a nice ticket holder made out of cardboard. The German ones are only of flimsy recycled paper, the Belgian didn't even have a holder, the Dutch you needed to pay to buy a ticket from the counter. Luxembourg is rich. lol~
While waiting to go to Brussels, I passed by this state garden somewhere in Luxembourg. At that time I didn't know where I was, but I knew I needed to get to the main station, all those walking made me lose track of my directional position. Anyway, at the garden, I did what I do best~
I don't know why I numbered them since I'm not describing it, it's evident, just look and appreciate those flowers by yourself.
Because I neeeded to get back to the main station and I have no idea where I was, I asked a passerby. I got the "immer gerade aus" answer again. He didn't speak English, I can't speak French, we ended up with German. The thing about immer gerade aus was that in Berlin, this guy told me that, and when I asked how long would it take, his reply was "ein Stunde". *faint* Being afraid that this would happen again, I asked how long would it take, luckily he said about 10 min, if not I think I'll die.
Having a little bit more time, I walked around the shops about the main station. Luxembourg's fashion is bad. I wanted to buy a skirt because I thought the weather was getting too warm for me and I hated pants. But I couldn't find something that's anyway halfway decent. The clothes were cheap too. And there was a huge lack of huge departmental stores (or manybe it's just that I couldn't find it). But I thought it's just not a place to go shopping.
I was about to leave Luxembourg thinking that this really isn't the most expensive place in the world, when I saw this print outside the toilet.
This is really expensive sia. German toilets and French ones cost about 50cents, the ones in Switz is 1CHF, but this really blows us down. wahahaha~
In all, it's a very nice place to visit. Maybe one day I'll go back there.
About two months ago (yea... It's been that long...) I went on a solo tour of Benelux. Almost solo, I guess, since I did meet up with a friend for one leg of the tour. It's during this tour that I really understood that I am still in command of my life.
Why go solo? Mainly because I don't have friends here, also because I want to go on a trip, on my own pace, do what I like to do, go to places which I like, and hasten the whole process and see more things. Having a buddy by your side can reduce efficiency, and that I don't have much time to spend, I'd like my trip to be as efficient as possible.
"You went on a trip alone?" Yes, it really isn't as bad as what most people would think. I am an indenpendent person. I grew up within the four wall of my house, staying at home alone rather than going out with the parents. My parents given me enough freedom, I grew up without a curfew, and I can take care of myself. I can go home at 4am alone, and walk straight to my house, my apartment, my room without an escort. I'm not afraid of dark, not afraid of supernatural beings, not afraid of being alone. Even when friends ask me to drop them an SMS when I reached home, I never do. I also don't like it when friends go out of the way to send me home (unless they drive). Yes, I can live my life myself. Maybe it's also because I've seen enough people failing me, so in the end, it boils down to me and myself.
Actually, I made plans with a friend to go together, but at the ticket counter, she started being indecisive again, and made life difficult for the ticket agent, and made me pissed with her indecisiveness. That was when I knew I didn't want to go anywhere else with her anymore. In my haste, I purchased a single ticket to Luxembourg, and a single ticket from Utrecht. So it meant that die die I must go to Luxembourg, die die must find my way from Luxembourg to Utrecht, and die die must reach Utrecht so that I can come back home. The tickets were cheaper than my Berlin tickets, so I was happy.
My initial plan was actually to just go Utrecht and Amsterdam and maybe tour a bit around Holland since Gabriel's there and I can bunk in free of charge, so must make use of it. But the friend who was supposed to go with me wanted to go to Liechtenstein, so I thought it'd be nice if we went around the region and go by Luxembourg, Belgium, before going into Holland, so I said we'll go Luxembourg. When she pulled out, I saw no point in going to Liechtenstein, and just went ahead and told the ticket counter that I wanted to go Luxemboug.
There are a few different connections to Luxembourg, but because of the time I chose, I took the connection via Offenburg/Strasbourg/Metz Ville, transiting that many times. It was the first time I was transiting that many times, and I can't speak a single word of French other than "Merci". I can't even pronounce "Bonjoir" properly (I don't even know if I spelt it right). The connecting train from Metz Ville also didn't provide the platform number, and I only had like 5min to transit. Panic attack. Luckily, I've been to Strasbourg before, so I knew Offenburg and Strasbourg pretty okay.
Taking that many trains, I decided that the French trains are the worst of the lot. My connecting train to Metz Ville was probably the worst train I've taken.
Metz Ville apparently was the last stop of the train, so I needn't worry that much. But I still worried, when I reached Metz Ville, there wasn't any annoucements, there wasn't even any announcements in France itself. The train from Offenburg to Strasbourg announced all the stations within Germany, and stopped after crossing the border into France. diaoz... I peeked out and saw sign boards saying "Metz", I wasn't sure, so I asked this French girl who couldn't speak English or German (why am I not surprised?), but she was nice enough to nod her head as I pointed out the destination in my itinery list.
The train to Luxembourg was comfortable, and empty, save for two rowdy guys who looked Turk. I really can't stand the Turks infiltrating into Europe, and of all things, I hate being picked up by Turks. damnit... Anyway, thanks to the two rowdy guys, a police came by to check my passport. Luckily I remembered to bring it along. I didn't really need a passport because there isn't any borders within Europe, save for Switzerland, but I brought it just in case. Speaking of the Swiss, remember I was saying I was denied entry in Konstanz because I didn't have my passport? I went to Zurich the other day, and nobody checked my passport. damnit... Stupid border police. Okay, back to the border police on board the train to Luxembourg, there were seven of them in total. And it took a female police to ask for my passport, think they thought females easier to talk to females. lol~
At Luxembourg, after depositing my bag at the lockers, I got picked up. This is a sign that it's finally summer. Just the day before the weather was freaking cold. As such, I packed cold wear, and just a change of one tee, and I wore long pants, and I brought my jacket and shawl, the weather forecast said temperatures of 20 degrees mah... But it's bluff people one. It was so freaking hot. Okay, not too hot. Actually Luxembourg was still okay, I went about with my sleeveless tee and long tight fitting pants. There was still a bit of wind. Just nice. But as the day went on it because hotter and hotter. Back to me got picked up. I'm not saying I'm ugly, or pretty, or what, just that I know I don't look bad, and I do dress well, but only in summer because I only have nice summer clothes. My winter clothes suck. And I bet all those people who picked me up just think that I look hot. bah~ I know I have a nice body (okay, I still complain, but really it isn't that bad. Okay, I have fats, I know people like Jinwei like to poke my fats, but I still look not that bad ba...).
I reached Luxembourg in the afternoon at about 2 plus (I left my place at about 9am), and I was hungry. I remembered the real reason why I was at Luxembourg.
Let me ask you a question, what do you think of first when I say Luxembourg? Rich people? Small country? Not me. When I think of Luxembourg, I think of this thing, the most representative thing of Luxembourg. Big Macs. Although Big Macs are from the US of A, but Luxembourg is really damn famous for THEIR Big Macs, because their Big Macs are supposedly the most expensive ones in the world based on the Big Mac Theory. Being the sadomasochistic me, I wanted to see for myself first hand these pricy examples of the world's most eaten food.
Hence I headed straight for McDonalds.
I don't eat beef, so I cannot eat the renowned Big Mac.
That meal at McDonald's was very disappointing. I expected something more expensive, expensive enough to blow me off my chair, but it turned out to be my wishful thinking. All the way to the most expensive place and it turned out not to be expensive at all. The menu turned out to be a German menu, the same menu that Germany is using, the price, in Euros, was the same too. bah~ The Euro not only standardised currency, but also standardised price in Europe. sucks~
After the meal I walked around the city. Before going to Luxembourg, I've no idea what's there in Luxembourg, excpet expensive Big Macs which are not longer there. Random walking around is fun because that truly means exploring the city. So, it was me and my two legs all the way. I didn't bother to take public transport because I didn't know where I was going and public transport is expensive.
Taking a leaf from Cindy, I tried to arrange my pictures too. Personally, I don't really like this kind of composite pictures because it looks too messy. The words in magenta are handwritten using the mouse, so it's not very neat.
Click on it and choose to view it larger.
1. Cathedral. All European cities will have one main Cathedral (or whatever you call it in their language, in German it's Münster).
2. Some other church thingie.
3. Main Station.
4. Dog Shit Bags. The public cleaniness of Luxembourg really emblazones itself everywhere.
5. The Luxembourg flag with the EU flag.
6. Some grand governmental building.
7. Some grand hotel.
8. Some grand commercial building.
9. Some semi statue, semi rest point.
10. Railway tracks. I like taking pictures of railways tracks that seem to go on and on and on.
11. Another semi statue, semi rest point, semi water dispensing thingie.
12. A statue that rotates.
13. The courtyard of the Cathedral.
14. Rubbish bin. Not the print on it.
15. The Main Station again.
Then after viewing the city, I saw a couple of bridges and went over to check them out, then I saw a whole long chain of fortress and ancient built up not unlike those ancient castles. The view was beautiful. It was only until much much later after I left, went back doing some free surfing that I actually found out that that place I went to is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The ancient fortresses of Luxembourg. wow~ And while I was there I only had a look see look see sentiment.
Click on it to the flickr page to see bigger.
The whole fortress was very large, and the roads were hilly, but I didn't feel tired. I surprised myself at my drive to go up ahead and be all by myself.
I didn't linger there for long because once I had booked a bed in Brussels so I had to get to Brussels that evening. Once I reached Luxembourg, I went to buy a ticket to Brussels. The single ticket to Brussels cost €19.90, but the return ticket on special offer cost €16.90, so the ticket agent made me buy the return ticket. It's nice to finally buy cheap tickets. Tickets in Germany are the most expensive in Europe man. The train to Brussels depart every like half an hour, so it didn't matter when I wanted to leave. The tickets from Luxembourg came in a nice ticket holder made out of cardboard. The German ones are only of flimsy recycled paper, the Belgian didn't even have a holder, the Dutch you needed to pay to buy a ticket from the counter. Luxembourg is rich. lol~
While waiting to go to Brussels, I passed by this state garden somewhere in Luxembourg. At that time I didn't know where I was, but I knew I needed to get to the main station, all those walking made me lose track of my directional position. Anyway, at the garden, I did what I do best~
I don't know why I numbered them since I'm not describing it, it's evident, just look and appreciate those flowers by yourself.
Because I neeeded to get back to the main station and I have no idea where I was, I asked a passerby. I got the "immer gerade aus" answer again. He didn't speak English, I can't speak French, we ended up with German. The thing about immer gerade aus was that in Berlin, this guy told me that, and when I asked how long would it take, his reply was "ein Stunde". *faint* Being afraid that this would happen again, I asked how long would it take, luckily he said about 10 min, if not I think I'll die.
Having a little bit more time, I walked around the shops about the main station. Luxembourg's fashion is bad. I wanted to buy a skirt because I thought the weather was getting too warm for me and I hated pants. But I couldn't find something that's anyway halfway decent. The clothes were cheap too. And there was a huge lack of huge departmental stores (or manybe it's just that I couldn't find it). But I thought it's just not a place to go shopping.
I was about to leave Luxembourg thinking that this really isn't the most expensive place in the world, when I saw this print outside the toilet.
This is really expensive sia. German toilets and French ones cost about 50cents, the ones in Switz is 1CHF, but this really blows us down. wahahaha~
In all, it's a very nice place to visit. Maybe one day I'll go back there.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Singen and Triberg
Singen and Triberg.
Singen.
This was where we went after Konstanz. Singen was because there was a rather large train station where there were connecting trains to quite a lot of places while Triberg was because previously we'd met another family who was going there. They said that there was the largest Cuckoo clock in the world, so we decided to put that place into out itinery.
I don't think I'll blog much about it since both places have their beauty yet also disappointments. For one, the going of there itself was a huge mistake, another, the partner was bad. On top of all these, the lack of sleep really didn't do me too well. And I'm not really in a very good state to blog now. hai... Just had an emotional breakdown last night, lack of sleep, piling homework, and a long good talk with someone in attempt to clear up some of my emo-ness. I think I didn't thank you, must thank you properly. Okie, thank you said~ It's cute to see how some people feel paiseh when you thank them. lol~
First up, the picture tour. The pictures log a progressive tour I took, follow them in the visual tour~
1. Singen.
2. The view that greeted me as I stepped into the town of Singen. Pretty disappointing, but it was a Sunday morning, so I guess it was very sleepy ba...
3. Any town would look instantly nicer with a couple of sculptures around, I guess.
4. Fiberglass bears. I saw them in Berlin too...
They seem to be like those fiberglass lions we have around in Singapore. Those colourfully painted by famous people ones lining the walkways of some places in Singapore. I guess it's a trend ba...
5. Mouse World. Looks damn cute.
6. A sculpture in memorial of the 1870/1 wars. A Prussian soldier.
7. A church.
8. The scene which made us excited about Singen.
9. A closer look at that scene.
But we didn't stay in Singen for long. There wasn't really anything much there, so we made our way to Triberg. After all, to us Singen was for transit~ lol...
Triberg.
Triberg literally meant three mountains or something to that effect, so definitely that place was filled with mountains and of course, that sitting pretty smack in the centre of the blackforest, there's lots and lots of greenery. It made a good photo taking place, but sad to say, my camera isn't a very professional one, so without the wide lens zoom and pan focusing. The pictures turned out pretty simple, yes simple and pretty, but not really amazing. lol~
The mountains and greenery~
I like the way the rails and the road look like a valley amid the lush green hills. It also looks as though the rail goes all the way down to infinity. I like these sort of disappearing roads and rails pictures. The road will go on and on and on... A bit depressing to think about, but hai...
Guess which is the real clock?
Highlight to read the answer.
The one on the left is the fake one, just a simple decoration. The one on the right is supposedly the world's biggest cuckoo clock. It looks damn disappointing. I was imagining to be in a hall with a huge gigantic clock, but it turned out that the clock was outside. It looked more like a house. For like 3 or 5 euros you can go into the clock and see the mechanism of it. erm... I prefer aesthetics to technicalities.
lol~
It took us a long while to get to that cuckoo clock place. The sign near the train station said it was 1km away, but after walking for something seemingly 1km of distance, we saw another sign saying that that place was 1km away. And after than 1km, we came to the outside entrance, we still needed to walk for another seemingly 1km of distance to get to the top of the hill inland to see that damn big clock.
And another thing not very convenient of this town is that the Altstadt (town centre) was far away from the train station, the sign said 5km, but I think it's more. There's supposedly a very beautiful waterfall at the other side of the centre, but we didn't have the time or energy to get till there. yea... not only was the walk far and though, it was raining. sucks... I hate rain. We just managed to grab a nice warm lunch at a little hotel restaurant and went back that long foot journey back to the train station.
I like water, river, streams, fountains, and all things of water, I guess most people should know after seeing all my pictures, I never give up a chance taking photos of these. I like rapids too~
During secondary school geography, we learnt all about landforms and stuff, but well, all those are just theory. It didn't occur to me the beauty of the rapids until I saw them with my own eyes. I think right now, the only thing I can think of that's prettier than a rapid is a waterfall. I love water~ After all I am a pisces mah~ And my chinese name, all bearing the element of water, all three characters. hehehe~
The road won't go on, but the path will.
Now wait patiently for the benelux tours. Think that will be more fun, but more work for me. So much to write about, so many photos to sort, and so much photoshopping to do. gah~
Singen.
This was where we went after Konstanz. Singen was because there was a rather large train station where there were connecting trains to quite a lot of places while Triberg was because previously we'd met another family who was going there. They said that there was the largest Cuckoo clock in the world, so we decided to put that place into out itinery.
I don't think I'll blog much about it since both places have their beauty yet also disappointments. For one, the going of there itself was a huge mistake, another, the partner was bad. On top of all these, the lack of sleep really didn't do me too well. And I'm not really in a very good state to blog now. hai... Just had an emotional breakdown last night, lack of sleep, piling homework, and a long good talk with someone in attempt to clear up some of my emo-ness. I think I didn't thank you, must thank you properly. Okie, thank you said~ It's cute to see how some people feel paiseh when you thank them. lol~
First up, the picture tour. The pictures log a progressive tour I took, follow them in the visual tour~
1. Singen.
2. The view that greeted me as I stepped into the town of Singen. Pretty disappointing, but it was a Sunday morning, so I guess it was very sleepy ba...
3. Any town would look instantly nicer with a couple of sculptures around, I guess.
4. Fiberglass bears. I saw them in Berlin too...
They seem to be like those fiberglass lions we have around in Singapore. Those colourfully painted by famous people ones lining the walkways of some places in Singapore. I guess it's a trend ba...
5. Mouse World. Looks damn cute.
6. A sculpture in memorial of the 1870/1 wars. A Prussian soldier.
7. A church.
8. The scene which made us excited about Singen.
9. A closer look at that scene.
But we didn't stay in Singen for long. There wasn't really anything much there, so we made our way to Triberg. After all, to us Singen was for transit~ lol...
Triberg.
Triberg literally meant three mountains or something to that effect, so definitely that place was filled with mountains and of course, that sitting pretty smack in the centre of the blackforest, there's lots and lots of greenery. It made a good photo taking place, but sad to say, my camera isn't a very professional one, so without the wide lens zoom and pan focusing. The pictures turned out pretty simple, yes simple and pretty, but not really amazing. lol~
The mountains and greenery~
I like the way the rails and the road look like a valley amid the lush green hills. It also looks as though the rail goes all the way down to infinity. I like these sort of disappearing roads and rails pictures. The road will go on and on and on... A bit depressing to think about, but hai...
Guess which is the real clock?
Highlight to read the answer.
The one on the left is the fake one, just a simple decoration. The one on the right is supposedly the world's biggest cuckoo clock. It looks damn disappointing. I was imagining to be in a hall with a huge gigantic clock, but it turned out that the clock was outside. It looked more like a house. For like 3 or 5 euros you can go into the clock and see the mechanism of it. erm... I prefer aesthetics to technicalities.
lol~
It took us a long while to get to that cuckoo clock place. The sign near the train station said it was 1km away, but after walking for something seemingly 1km of distance, we saw another sign saying that that place was 1km away. And after than 1km, we came to the outside entrance, we still needed to walk for another seemingly 1km of distance to get to the top of the hill inland to see that damn big clock.
And another thing not very convenient of this town is that the Altstadt (town centre) was far away from the train station, the sign said 5km, but I think it's more. There's supposedly a very beautiful waterfall at the other side of the centre, but we didn't have the time or energy to get till there. yea... not only was the walk far and though, it was raining. sucks... I hate rain. We just managed to grab a nice warm lunch at a little hotel restaurant and went back that long foot journey back to the train station.
I like water, river, streams, fountains, and all things of water, I guess most people should know after seeing all my pictures, I never give up a chance taking photos of these. I like rapids too~
During secondary school geography, we learnt all about landforms and stuff, but well, all those are just theory. It didn't occur to me the beauty of the rapids until I saw them with my own eyes. I think right now, the only thing I can think of that's prettier than a rapid is a waterfall. I love water~ After all I am a pisces mah~ And my chinese name, all bearing the element of water, all three characters. hehehe~
The road won't go on, but the path will.
Now wait patiently for the benelux tours. Think that will be more fun, but more work for me. So much to write about, so many photos to sort, and so much photoshopping to do. gah~
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Visiting adidas in Herzogenaurach
The actual travel log will be up much much later, this is just a photolog to show people that YOU HAVE SEEN IT HERE FIRST!!!
Places visited in Herzogenaurach:
- museum featuring sneakers culture
- adidas headquarters
- adidas centre
- adidas factory outlet
I feel like an adidas groupie now, but anyway, hope you guys will like what you see here, all from the sleepy little town of Herzogenaurach. And remember, you've first seen these pictures here, taken by Joan Ang.
Teamgeist welcoming all people into the town of Herzogenaurach.
That big rotating ball was sitting right smack at the entrance into the town in the middle of the traffic circle.
adidas.
World Cup Germany 2006.
+Teamgeist.
FIFA approved.
adidas headquarters in the town.
There's another of those big rotating Teamgeists at the bottom of that huge gigantic Argentina banner.
Herzogenaurach played host to the Argentine football team. Actually, it's not really the town which played host, unlike other hosting towns, it's adidas who played host. The Argentina team was like staying in the adidas hotel, training at the adidas sports training facilities. The press conferences were conducted by adidas. yea... I heard it when I went over to the adidas centre at the outskirts of the town. I went there by accident but more about that another time.
Though adidas might have wanted Argentina to win, but I guess adidas is much much happier than Germany won the match. lol~
In front of the adidas centre.
With the huge gold Teamgeist Berlin ball.
With the match details except the competing teams.
But then again, nobody would be able to play with such a huge ball.
+Teamgeist Berlin.
Another big big ball.
This was outside the adidas Factory Outlet at the outskirts of the town.
Now we go take a preview in the Museum featuring adidas and Puma. To those who don't know, Puma is also a German brand, in fact, it's a brand also from Herzogenaurach. It's founder is Rudolf Dassler, the brother of Adolf (Adi) Dassler, the founder of adidas. This reminds me the story once told by Prof Murfett. After the war, the Americans decided to break up German dominance of the chemical industry, so it decided to divide the biggest chemical company of Germany into four smaller chemical plants. Of these four chemical plants, in about twenty years, three of them formed the biggest four chemical plants in the world. The breaking up of the bigger original company resulted in greater efficency and drive to succeed.
This must be something German, to see the breaking up of the Gebrüder Schule Fabrik into adidas and Puma resulting in them at one stage in time garnering 80% of the sportswear market. Even until now, they are the leading sportswear manufacture in the world minus America.
Sidetrack a little bit, America is such an outcast lor. With the whole world other than itself totally glued to the World Cup, I really can't understand why it's still so disinterested to that sport. bah~
Anyway, on to my preview of the museum.
An autographed adidas jersey of the 1990 World Cup winning German team.
Pele's autographed Puma football boots.
Actually I'm not that interested in Pele or Puma, just thought you might want to see it. I said I'm an adidas groupie!!!
The first football boot produced by the brothers when they weren't estranged, out of their mother's backyard in 1924.
There are more to see and more to hear from me when I finally get down to blogging about my travel logs, but in the meantime enjoy these pictures~ And enjoy the World Cup~ I was just counting, I've altogether watched 36 out of 60 matches already played, though I've only watched them on TV, but it's good enough~ And of course, I'll definitely watch the remaining 4 matches, all of them!
Places visited in Herzogenaurach:
- museum featuring sneakers culture
- adidas headquarters
- adidas centre
- adidas factory outlet
I feel like an adidas groupie now, but anyway, hope you guys will like what you see here, all from the sleepy little town of Herzogenaurach. And remember, you've first seen these pictures here, taken by Joan Ang.
Teamgeist welcoming all people into the town of Herzogenaurach.
That big rotating ball was sitting right smack at the entrance into the town in the middle of the traffic circle.
adidas.
World Cup Germany 2006.
+Teamgeist.
FIFA approved.
adidas headquarters in the town.
There's another of those big rotating Teamgeists at the bottom of that huge gigantic Argentina banner.
Herzogenaurach played host to the Argentine football team. Actually, it's not really the town which played host, unlike other hosting towns, it's adidas who played host. The Argentina team was like staying in the adidas hotel, training at the adidas sports training facilities. The press conferences were conducted by adidas. yea... I heard it when I went over to the adidas centre at the outskirts of the town. I went there by accident but more about that another time.
Though adidas might have wanted Argentina to win, but I guess adidas is much much happier than Germany won the match. lol~
In front of the adidas centre.
With the huge gold Teamgeist Berlin ball.
With the match details except the competing teams.
But then again, nobody would be able to play with such a huge ball.
+Teamgeist Berlin.
Another big big ball.
This was outside the adidas Factory Outlet at the outskirts of the town.
Now we go take a preview in the Museum featuring adidas and Puma. To those who don't know, Puma is also a German brand, in fact, it's a brand also from Herzogenaurach. It's founder is Rudolf Dassler, the brother of Adolf (Adi) Dassler, the founder of adidas. This reminds me the story once told by Prof Murfett. After the war, the Americans decided to break up German dominance of the chemical industry, so it decided to divide the biggest chemical company of Germany into four smaller chemical plants. Of these four chemical plants, in about twenty years, three of them formed the biggest four chemical plants in the world. The breaking up of the bigger original company resulted in greater efficency and drive to succeed.
This must be something German, to see the breaking up of the Gebrüder Schule Fabrik into adidas and Puma resulting in them at one stage in time garnering 80% of the sportswear market. Even until now, they are the leading sportswear manufacture in the world minus America.
Sidetrack a little bit, America is such an outcast lor. With the whole world other than itself totally glued to the World Cup, I really can't understand why it's still so disinterested to that sport. bah~
Anyway, on to my preview of the museum.
An autographed adidas jersey of the 1990 World Cup winning German team.
Pele's autographed Puma football boots.
Actually I'm not that interested in Pele or Puma, just thought you might want to see it. I said I'm an adidas groupie!!!
The first football boot produced by the brothers when they weren't estranged, out of their mother's backyard in 1924.
There are more to see and more to hear from me when I finally get down to blogging about my travel logs, but in the meantime enjoy these pictures~ And enjoy the World Cup~ I was just counting, I've altogether watched 36 out of 60 matches already played, though I've only watched them on TV, but it's good enough~ And of course, I'll definitely watch the remaining 4 matches, all of them!
Monday, June 26, 2006
Want Anything?
I'll be going down to Herzogenaurach tomorrow early morning. What's there? The headquarters of two of the biggest sportswear makers in the world. adidas and Puma. And of course, I'd definitely be visiting the adidas factory outlet, not so sure if I'd make it to the museum. If there's time, I'd drop by the Puma side to see too.
So, if anyone wants anything from there, SMS me IMMEDIATELY. Those who know my Singapore number, SMS me there, those who don't SMS me at +49 0162 1529454. But don't sadle me with too many things, only those you really want, and it's too expensive in Singapore, or not even sold in Singapore.
I'd be going tomorrow, so catch me before I leave there. And more importantly, DO NOT CALL ME. I can't afford to pick up calls, unless you call my German number, bah~ lol~
Okay, that's it, bye!
So, if anyone wants anything from there, SMS me IMMEDIATELY. Those who know my Singapore number, SMS me there, those who don't SMS me at +49 0162 1529454. But don't sadle me with too many things, only those you really want, and it's too expensive in Singapore, or not even sold in Singapore.
I'd be going tomorrow, so catch me before I leave there. And more importantly, DO NOT CALL ME. I can't afford to pick up calls, unless you call my German number, bah~ lol~
Okay, that's it, bye!
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Konstanz
Some eons back, I went with my Taiwanese friend to Konstanz. The Konstanz trip was actually her idea, she wanted to visit the Bodensee and the little villages around it. Since I had the time, and wanted to visit other places too, I went with her. Sad to say, this isn't one of my more pleasant trips. It also made me more appreciative of myself when I went on the Benelux trip alone. Company might be good, but wrong company can be a pain in the ass. Granted, my friend is a great person and everything, just not compatible to me.
My sister asked me, why don't I have many pictures of myself in my photos, it's so unlike the Joan we all know. Usually I don't have people to take photos for me, and when I do, I'm quite shy to ask them. It's like not very nice to impose on people, especially people you don't know very well. hai... It's times like this when I miss my personal photog so much. I must I must I must find a girl for him and repay him back in kind for all the trouble.
The trip to Konstanz included two transits. I hate transits. But well, after my Benelux trip, transits are no problem for me, but that's another story altogether, I'll dictate the story when the time comes. On two of the trains, I met this Hong Kong family. The parents were about in their late 30s to early 40s, the son about 10 years old. At first the family were conversing in Cantonese, then somewhere in between, the mother started interrogating the son in British-crisp English. The son haltingly answered in grammatically and politically English answers to the questions. I then realised that the mother was making her son practise for a school enrollment interview.
This brought me back to a Hong Kong drama I once watched a very long time ago. There's this parent who wanted to enrol the kid into this prestigious school, and brough the child to the interview, not before a series of practising. But one of the questions from the interview was not scripted, rather than fumble, the child answered the questions from his own thinking, and displayed his child-like innocence. The principal was impressed by the child's answer. If I were an examiner, I'd hate those politically correct answers that sound scripted. This is an interview for the child, not for the parents to stage their homecoming drama. In a way, I do pity that child, for his parents' expectations weighed heavily on his little shoulders.
Some people say Singaporean parents are kiasu, but I think Hong Kong parents are even more competitive, and they all have that metality of wanting to win. From some little exchanges I had with the mother, I found out that she too was from a boarding school in England when she was young, that explains the accent, and the perfect English. The father spoke no English, maybe it isn't as good as the mother's, or perhaps, he just doesn't speak English. From the nuggets of information, I think I can conclude that they should be a quite well off family, or at least the mother is from a well off family. After all, boarding schools don't come in cheap
But for education, all parents are willing to spend.
Finally, we reached Konstanz~
It took us like half a day to decide on taking the Rundfahrt on a boat. Correction, it did not take US half a day, it took SOMEONE half a day. One thing about Joan is that she has extremely short attention span, and if she wants to do something, chop chop she'd do it. Many of the time I need to tell her to decide on what she wants to do. If I decide, she'd come up with half a dozen arguments to question my decision, so I gave up deciding. Besides, I'm fine with anything, so as long as it's not something major, I'd go along with it. If it were something major, I'd wouldn't even have let her go into her second round of deciding.
This is how she decides something. Look at it, this one round, and ask me for opinion which I won't give because it's just so ridiculous. Continue stare it at for about another ten minutes until I ask her the second time, what's her decision. She'd then think about it for the second time wasting about another ten minutes. Then after about 15 min more she'd walk off saying forget it. Repeat this process in every restaurant we go to except that she'd finally make an order which she'd regret when the food arrives.
Enough of my complains, i don't really want to get started in the middle here. So, on the boat, we enjoyed the sceneries of the Bodensee.
Just enjoy the sceneries, I'm not going to describe them, there's nothing much to describe anyway unless you want me to say things like, this is a church, this is a clock tower, these are railway tracks. kauz...
Actually I was very tired on the boat journey and almost dozed off after I'm done with taking photos. The weather was nice and windy with a bit of sun, and with enough clothes on me, it felt really great to just lie in the middle of the lake and sleep. Okay, I did not have adequate sleep the night before because I had to get up hell early in the morning to catch the train. But once I'm started with the camera, I'm all energetic once again. Speaking of the boat and sun, I really don't understand why some girls hate getting tan. Especially those of the far Eastern Asia. You see a whole lot of Japanese and Korea whitening products and the Taiwanese so dig into them. I like to be tanned, and I think most of my girl friends share the same thoughts with me.
Wile taking photos somewhere around in Konstanz, this weird guy approached me. At first I thought he wanted me to help him take a photo of him, but he actually wanted to take a photo with me. He was so interestingly dressed that I thought it'd be well, interesting, to take the picture.
he looks like he's killing me. lol~ Maybe the beer's getting into his sytem.
After the tour of the sea, we went to the city centre itself and just took pictures of the towns and everything. Konstanz is interesting. Konstanz is one of the very few European cities not to have been affected by the World Wars of the 20th century. Because of it's proximity to Switzerland, and Swiss neutrality to the wars, few dared to bomb Konstanz for fear of stray bombs landing in Swiss territories and alluring the Swiss into the war.
There is this one thing that Joan likes, is to take pictures of water, and fountains, and stuff... And innocent little children...
Seeing those kids, I realised that I'm old.
Whenever I see kids playing with pigeons, running around a Platz filled with pigeons and attempt to catch them, I thought of the times when I was still a kid. I relished feeding pigeons, and always wanted to catch them, or just run into them and watch them flutter around. That was when I was still living in England, and touring Europe at like three years old. The pigeons in Singapore are absolutely digusting, because they mostly congregate under HDB blocks near the rubbish cutes, and they shit everywhere. yucks...
Speaking of under HDB blocks,
"I just threw a durian seed out of the window!
I've been throwing lychee and durian seeds out. Hope that they will all grow into tall, sturdy, fruit-bearing trees in a couple of years! :D
Pretty trees. :D"
- written by some prominent blogger
This is why I have a phobia of walking under HDB blocks. I really have no idea what those people in HDB are thinking, inconsideracy is at a new high, together with ignorance and naivity. Now all those crazy young HDB living girls will do the same, I shall vow never to walk under HDB flats when I go back to Singapore. NEVER.
Anyway, back to the pigeons, I still hate them now even though they are no longer under HDB blocks, but in the big open Platzes like when I was still 3 years old. Seeing children frolicking with pigeons now make me wonder if those children will get like sinus problems or god-forbid bird flu. And I stare hard at the ground to see how much shit those pigeons have shitted. And worse, I get a depraved kind of excitement when I see pigeons like this.
This is taken by Gabriel, but spotted by me. I don't know why I didn't take a picture of it, perhaps it was because I didn't want to stand in the middle of the road and look like a fool.
In Konstanz, I finally ate my first strands of spaghetti after leaving Singapore. think the last strands of spaghetti were with Cindy at Liquid Kitchen, the Seafood Pasta one... I like seafood pasta~ I want to go to Pastamania, or Cafe Cartel, or even back to Liquid Kitchen, but oh well...
Although not seafood, but it's still prawns~
Maybe I shall go opposite later tonight to buy pasta, or lagsana, or even pizza. Yesterday's dinner was terrible. I asked my housemate what I should eat, she said lagsana, but of course I didn't have ingredients. I saw the menu for the restaurant opposite my hostel, but finally decided that I'd cook pasta, not spaghetti though, the spiral ones, don't know what they're called. I don't know why, but it turned out totally horrible, almost inedible. Something when wrong with the pasta, and also the sauce was weird, and the ham was out of place. hai...
Back to Konstanz, I'm almost done already, bear with me a little bit more. I've taken a liking of taking pictures of flowers here in Europe. Especially when all the flowers are so beautiful and colourful. And that I've mastered the art of using the macro function of my camera, pictures of flowers taken close up looks just so beautiful. One day, I want to compile all my nice pictures of flowers and make a postcard collection or calander or just a photography album~
With that, let's say goodbye to Konstanz~
Note, I've used lesser animated gifs and lesser crappy descriptions, but because of the pictures, the length of the post seems longer. I hope those people not happy with my animated gifs being too fast for you will like this post better. But then again, there's nothing much to be said about Konstanz that sleepy little town anyway. We spent like one day and one night in Konstanz that we got so bored of it that we wanted to go and watch a movie, but as you know how she makes her decisions, we didn't watch it in the end. lol~
I shall now go and fiz up on the other travel logs. And maybe upload more photos up into my travel journal photo album. I'll put the link up maybe at the end of my whole trip, then you can save the trouble of going back there to check for updates every now and them.
My sister asked me, why don't I have many pictures of myself in my photos, it's so unlike the Joan we all know. Usually I don't have people to take photos for me, and when I do, I'm quite shy to ask them. It's like not very nice to impose on people, especially people you don't know very well. hai... It's times like this when I miss my personal photog so much. I must I must I must find a girl for him and repay him back in kind for all the trouble.
The trip to Konstanz included two transits. I hate transits. But well, after my Benelux trip, transits are no problem for me, but that's another story altogether, I'll dictate the story when the time comes. On two of the trains, I met this Hong Kong family. The parents were about in their late 30s to early 40s, the son about 10 years old. At first the family were conversing in Cantonese, then somewhere in between, the mother started interrogating the son in British-crisp English. The son haltingly answered in grammatically and politically English answers to the questions. I then realised that the mother was making her son practise for a school enrollment interview.
This brought me back to a Hong Kong drama I once watched a very long time ago. There's this parent who wanted to enrol the kid into this prestigious school, and brough the child to the interview, not before a series of practising. But one of the questions from the interview was not scripted, rather than fumble, the child answered the questions from his own thinking, and displayed his child-like innocence. The principal was impressed by the child's answer. If I were an examiner, I'd hate those politically correct answers that sound scripted. This is an interview for the child, not for the parents to stage their homecoming drama. In a way, I do pity that child, for his parents' expectations weighed heavily on his little shoulders.
Some people say Singaporean parents are kiasu, but I think Hong Kong parents are even more competitive, and they all have that metality of wanting to win. From some little exchanges I had with the mother, I found out that she too was from a boarding school in England when she was young, that explains the accent, and the perfect English. The father spoke no English, maybe it isn't as good as the mother's, or perhaps, he just doesn't speak English. From the nuggets of information, I think I can conclude that they should be a quite well off family, or at least the mother is from a well off family. After all, boarding schools don't come in cheap
But for education, all parents are willing to spend.
Finally, we reached Konstanz~
It took us like half a day to decide on taking the Rundfahrt on a boat. Correction, it did not take US half a day, it took SOMEONE half a day. One thing about Joan is that she has extremely short attention span, and if she wants to do something, chop chop she'd do it. Many of the time I need to tell her to decide on what she wants to do. If I decide, she'd come up with half a dozen arguments to question my decision, so I gave up deciding. Besides, I'm fine with anything, so as long as it's not something major, I'd go along with it. If it were something major, I'd wouldn't even have let her go into her second round of deciding.
This is how she decides something. Look at it, this one round, and ask me for opinion which I won't give because it's just so ridiculous. Continue stare it at for about another ten minutes until I ask her the second time, what's her decision. She'd then think about it for the second time wasting about another ten minutes. Then after about 15 min more she'd walk off saying forget it. Repeat this process in every restaurant we go to except that she'd finally make an order which she'd regret when the food arrives.
Enough of my complains, i don't really want to get started in the middle here. So, on the boat, we enjoyed the sceneries of the Bodensee.
Just enjoy the sceneries, I'm not going to describe them, there's nothing much to describe anyway unless you want me to say things like, this is a church, this is a clock tower, these are railway tracks. kauz...
Actually I was very tired on the boat journey and almost dozed off after I'm done with taking photos. The weather was nice and windy with a bit of sun, and with enough clothes on me, it felt really great to just lie in the middle of the lake and sleep. Okay, I did not have adequate sleep the night before because I had to get up hell early in the morning to catch the train. But once I'm started with the camera, I'm all energetic once again. Speaking of the boat and sun, I really don't understand why some girls hate getting tan. Especially those of the far Eastern Asia. You see a whole lot of Japanese and Korea whitening products and the Taiwanese so dig into them. I like to be tanned, and I think most of my girl friends share the same thoughts with me.
Wile taking photos somewhere around in Konstanz, this weird guy approached me. At first I thought he wanted me to help him take a photo of him, but he actually wanted to take a photo with me. He was so interestingly dressed that I thought it'd be well, interesting, to take the picture.
he looks like he's killing me. lol~ Maybe the beer's getting into his sytem.
After the tour of the sea, we went to the city centre itself and just took pictures of the towns and everything. Konstanz is interesting. Konstanz is one of the very few European cities not to have been affected by the World Wars of the 20th century. Because of it's proximity to Switzerland, and Swiss neutrality to the wars, few dared to bomb Konstanz for fear of stray bombs landing in Swiss territories and alluring the Swiss into the war.
There is this one thing that Joan likes, is to take pictures of water, and fountains, and stuff... And innocent little children...
Seeing those kids, I realised that I'm old.
Whenever I see kids playing with pigeons, running around a Platz filled with pigeons and attempt to catch them, I thought of the times when I was still a kid. I relished feeding pigeons, and always wanted to catch them, or just run into them and watch them flutter around. That was when I was still living in England, and touring Europe at like three years old. The pigeons in Singapore are absolutely digusting, because they mostly congregate under HDB blocks near the rubbish cutes, and they shit everywhere. yucks...
Speaking of under HDB blocks,
"I just threw a durian seed out of the window!
I've been throwing lychee and durian seeds out. Hope that they will all grow into tall, sturdy, fruit-bearing trees in a couple of years! :D
Pretty trees. :D"
- written by some prominent blogger
This is why I have a phobia of walking under HDB blocks. I really have no idea what those people in HDB are thinking, inconsideracy is at a new high, together with ignorance and naivity. Now all those crazy young HDB living girls will do the same, I shall vow never to walk under HDB flats when I go back to Singapore. NEVER.
Anyway, back to the pigeons, I still hate them now even though they are no longer under HDB blocks, but in the big open Platzes like when I was still 3 years old. Seeing children frolicking with pigeons now make me wonder if those children will get like sinus problems or god-forbid bird flu. And I stare hard at the ground to see how much shit those pigeons have shitted. And worse, I get a depraved kind of excitement when I see pigeons like this.
This is taken by Gabriel, but spotted by me. I don't know why I didn't take a picture of it, perhaps it was because I didn't want to stand in the middle of the road and look like a fool.
In Konstanz, I finally ate my first strands of spaghetti after leaving Singapore. think the last strands of spaghetti were with Cindy at Liquid Kitchen, the Seafood Pasta one... I like seafood pasta~ I want to go to Pastamania, or Cafe Cartel, or even back to Liquid Kitchen, but oh well...
Although not seafood, but it's still prawns~
Maybe I shall go opposite later tonight to buy pasta, or lagsana, or even pizza. Yesterday's dinner was terrible. I asked my housemate what I should eat, she said lagsana, but of course I didn't have ingredients. I saw the menu for the restaurant opposite my hostel, but finally decided that I'd cook pasta, not spaghetti though, the spiral ones, don't know what they're called. I don't know why, but it turned out totally horrible, almost inedible. Something when wrong with the pasta, and also the sauce was weird, and the ham was out of place. hai...
Back to Konstanz, I'm almost done already, bear with me a little bit more. I've taken a liking of taking pictures of flowers here in Europe. Especially when all the flowers are so beautiful and colourful. And that I've mastered the art of using the macro function of my camera, pictures of flowers taken close up looks just so beautiful. One day, I want to compile all my nice pictures of flowers and make a postcard collection or calander or just a photography album~
With that, let's say goodbye to Konstanz~
Note, I've used lesser animated gifs and lesser crappy descriptions, but because of the pictures, the length of the post seems longer. I hope those people not happy with my animated gifs being too fast for you will like this post better. But then again, there's nothing much to be said about Konstanz that sleepy little town anyway. We spent like one day and one night in Konstanz that we got so bored of it that we wanted to go and watch a movie, but as you know how she makes her decisions, we didn't watch it in the end. lol~
I shall now go and fiz up on the other travel logs. And maybe upload more photos up into my travel journal photo album. I'll put the link up maybe at the end of my whole trip, then you can save the trouble of going back there to check for updates every now and them.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Berlin
Actually I wanted to do the Berlin entry after my friend did his, but he just haven't done it yet and I might be going on another trip, so before I let my travelogs pile up, I think I should just blog about something first. After all, it's less than seven days down to the first match.
Actually, I've made another online travel journal, but it's mainly for photos and a bit of description, but I'm still making it look somewhat decent so I've only opened that journal up to eight selected friends. Wait a little while longer and I'd put up the link over here and hopefully that will be a blast~ Must go there and visit hor, after I put up the link! And see all the photos I've taken. I've painfully resized them all, so it's a lot of hardwork.
Speaking of photos, yesterday as I was tinkering with my documents and saving my resized photos, I had this little warning balloon pop up. It said that I'm running out of hard disk space on my C drive. This C drive is one month old plus, how can I run out of space so quickly??? I didn't even bother transferring data from my external hard disk to my C drive because there's just too much to do. I only transferred my pictures file over because my friend asked me what would I do if my external hard disk dieded on me and I lose all my photos. I needed to back up all those photos in my laptop. And so I ran a check in My Documents folder, it's 12gig, with 10gig coming from My Pictures. Want to know how I managed to chalk up this many photos?
I took more than 470 photos in Berlin over a period of two days with two hours spare to go watch a movie. My 1gig memory card was can let me take up to 501 photos. So, rounding up each trip costs me 1gig of photos, it's no wonder I managed to max out my C drive so quickly. bah~ Anyway, I've transferred my old pictures, those I copied over from my external hard disk over to my D drive, so I can free up some space in my C drive for my next couple of trips. The friend who went to Berlin with me went with a 128mb card and took about a third of the number of pictures I took.
The amazing thing about NUS would be this situation. Two NUS FASS year two students meeting for the very first time about 6000miles away from Singapore in the city of Berlin. I have never met in along the corridors of NUS Arts Fac, and I was to meet him in Berlin. Oh well... The effects of globalisation.
These pictures are when we first reached Berlin. Okay, when we first reached Berlin, we actually had to find a hostel and check in and drop our stuff. More on the hostel later, I've got pics, but now I'll show what we did in the morning of our arrival.
1. My first view of Berlin city. The sight that greeted me as I hopped of the train and haven't met the thing that dampen my spirits.
2. Some people don't understand why some people take pictures of bahnhof signs, well, doesn't this prove that I'm in Berlin and not some other city. At least to me, this makes sure that I alighted at the right station, doesn't it?
3. The famed Checkpoint Charlie. I thought this placed seemed more like a tourist area, like you know a theme park or something, especially with that huge poster of that army guy.
4. The famed American sign. I'm sure all of us have seen parodies of this at some point in our life.
5. Our breakfast cum lunch, a quick and cheap meal in Checkpoint Charlie's vicinity. The food looks good, the taste is normal. Chicken Schnitzel with pomme frites. We both had that.
6. Calamaris. It sucked. Okay, it's better than the ones at Nordsee. I guess this is what it means to NOT eat seafood in a landlocked city.
7. Have you ever wondered why his blog entries are always so long? Okay, mine's long too, but mine's rambles, his is long and filled with content. This is because he takes notes as he walks!!! kaoz... His papers were filled with pages of notes written in very small and almost illegible font. Joan will never be able to do that, she's too lazy, and she know that will make her blog entries even more longer than they already are. wahahah~
8. Gedachtnis Church. Built by Kaiser Wilhelm, the guy who started the First World War. Bombed in the Second World War. Left in it's unrepaired state to remind Germany not to start anymore World Wars.
9. A pissior. For guys to piss. It looks so weird standing in the middle of nowhere. Want to know what's like inside? Ask the guy in photo number 7.
10. The interiors of a Church. Can't remember what church it was, perhaps it was the Gedachtnis Church. I like the blues~ nice...
In the afternoon, we went on this Insiders Tour. It's called the famous walk tour which brings us on a foot tour of everywhere important we needed to see in Berlin. It costs only 10€ for students and 9€ for those with ISIC cards. And the best thing? It's in English!!! wahaha~ I love those globalising Americans, they own the world and they speak English~ ANyway, this tour basically brought me everywhere I wanted to see in Berlin and allowed me ample time to take pictures, and if there's not enough time, at least I knew where the place was and can come back another time to take more pictures.
I'm only show a selection of pictures, wait till I post my travel journal up then you can see all the pictures I took. I'll try to be as brief as I can, I realised that there are 20 photos in this series.
1. Our guide for the day. Joe from London.
2. Me waiting for the tour to start. My friend wanted to help me take the picture, but I prefer my own phototaking skills.
3. The very new Berlin Hauptbahnhof. It reminds me of Frankfurt am Main Airport, with the glass curved shaped ceilings. Why did the only glass curved shaped ceilings of an architecture piece in Singapore turned out to be so ugly when these Germans can make it look so beautiful?
4. The new Reichtag, I think. I saw so many buildings that I can't remember which are which. Go look at the other person's blog if you want exact details, he wrote everything down. bah~
5. Dom, I think.
6. A river with a bridge.
7. River with bridge with S Bahn.
8. It's an island with a few museums on it. That is the modern art museum.
9. The used to be the Kaiser Church, then the State Church, then now dunno what Church. i think the bodies of the Hollenzollens are kept there.
10. The ancient history museum. I think he went in there, my attention span is too short to view a museum. Actually I wanted to visit the German Historical Museum, but it was down for renovations. damn... The only museum I want to go and I can't go. Okay, I went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, but but but, it's still not the German Historical Museum!!!
11. Fernsehturm. The Eastern Germans structured that to show off to the Western Europeans, but God's revenge on it. hehehe~ The Swedes made it, and made it in such a way that when sun shines on it, the ball would reflect light and that structure would look like a cross. So much for anarchical Communism.
12. Stadt Oprea House.
13. Some memorial building. There's like a whole lot of memorial buildings in german remembering a whole lot of things from war to dunno-whats.
14. Humbold University, and a memorial for German thinkings and ideology. That stack of book there are named after various German writers from Marx, Goethe, Kant to Schiller to name some.
15. This is to remember people like Bach and Beethoven, the German musicians. The Germans are really promoting their country until it's becoming a bit OTT. All this for the World Cup.
16. Some important building that I can't remember what's it.
17. Me taking a lunch break. I finally let him take a picture of me, don't think I look terribly nice in it, but at least it shows me in proper clothes. Four layers of jackets that make me fat is not proper clothes. Yes, I was in four layers. That tee, my black pullover, my pink jacket, and my red windbreaker cum raincoat. It was so bloody cold and wet in Berlin. It's actually not much better here in Freiburg. 8°C in summer. When Gabriel came over Freiburg and went to Titisee-Neustadt he actually saw snow, in end May. Goodness~
18. What is seeing berlin if you don't see the Berlin Wall?
19. Another memorial, this time for the dead Jews from the Holocaust.
20. The thing I wanted to see when I'm in Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate. It was pretty disappointing. It didn't wow me as much as I wanted to wow. I think it's beause of all the people and all the obstructive stuff that minimised the grandeur of the gate. kanasai...
Dinner time. Being Joan, there'd naturally be lots of photos of food. Especially if she goes to a decent enough eatery with very nice aesthetics.
Joe's Löwenbräu, or something along those lines.
1. Welcome~
2. The exterior, I like those lights~
3. The interior, I like those lights~
4. The menu~
5. Being in a nice place what else can Joan do? Camwhore!!!
6. This is a digitally brightened up picture. I like that feel though~
7. I like mirrors~ I tried to do another double Joan image because someone said I looked fat in my double Joan image in my header. This was also digitally brightened up, but I like that feel!!!
8. Double Joan, not taken by me, not digitally done up, totally original. I like how I look without the ugly fat clothes man...
9. erm... By now I guess half the blogosphere have seen this pic on his blog. I TOOK IT!!! bah~ But this is digitally brightened up. I like the colours, I like the lights. His face looks so guniang under the lights and with his prized (only by him) hair.
10. Stuffed cabbage, his food. The mash potato was nice though~
11. The stuffings inside that stuffed cabbage. At first thought of hearing something called stuffed cabbage, I thought it was like some poultry with cabbage stuffed up their ass, like you know, turkey, but this was the other way round. I'm not a cabbage person as you can tell.
12. My Schnitzel with potato salad. The salad was cold, but the Schintzel was good. The prices were less than 10€, so I think it was a pretty good eat. Berlin is cheap.
13. Goodbye~
The next day I spilt with him and went on another Insiders Tour, the Third Reich Tour. yea... How can I pass up that chance? He went to view museums, bah~
1. The demography of this tour and that yesterday was quite a bit different, the median age was higher. Tour guide Kenny from Ireland, if I remember correctly.
2. A bridge, some military came over across that bridge during World War II.
3. Some important building that the Nazis used. I've the video recordings of the details, but too lazy to do that now, I've already spent like 3 hours on this blog post and I've still a lot more to do.
4. Another important nazi building that was rebuilt.
5. Soviet soldiers took 13 days, or some number similar I can't really remember, to pass through that patch of grass. 27 000 or even more of them died there, and I haven't included the number of German soldiers who lost their lives.
6. The Reichstag. Stalin could have just bombed it and save the lives of those 27 000 soldiers, but he wanted that intact so that he can take a picture of him standing there triumphantly and make a statement.
7. Another memorial, this time to the Soviet soldiers who lost their lives taking Berlin.
8. Where is the Brandenburg Gate? bah~ I hate!!! I hate all those disgusting things covering up the grandeur of the gate. Note that huge gigantic football behind the gate? Everything's like bigger than the gate now. yucks~
9. A lot more soldiers died there.
10. A nicer picture of the Jewish memorial thingie.
11. This is the deathbed of Adolf Hitler. No memorial, no nothing. A memorial cannot be built there, or even a signpost because of fears of it becoming a neo-Nazi shrine.
12. A building used by the Nazis, then the Soviets, now the Finance Ministry. Traces of Nazism and Sovietism can be found on that building.
13. Berlin Wall
14. Topography of Terror, a memorial, another memorial. I went in there and bought four books, and took a whole lot of photographs.
This tour is very depressing.
This tour actually reminded me of a year ago, when I was doing Singapore Military History, Farrell brought us on a field trip. The way the tour guide told us details about the Third Reich, the analysis he gave of the reasons for the rise and fall of the Third Reich, and the battles and the Soviets, were all so Farrell-like. I remember that time we went to several WWII sites and Farrell also told us details, gave us analysis and brought us about the sites. Imagine Farrell to conduct a tour like that in Singapore. hahaha~ It was already so weird that a Caucasian tall big man was guiding a group of young Singaporean boys and girls and telling them what happened in Singapore. We had a few weird stares from the other tourists because most tourists would be guided by a Singaporean, and them being Caucasians.
Anyway, I thought of a lot after this tour. Looking at Germany now, it's hard to believe that it has been through so much, especially Berlin, it went through really a lot a lot over the past century. From the glory of the Kaiser, just look at the Gedachtnis Church, the symbol of power and glory to the king, and the military might, the Gedachtnis Church has military structures all over. And them going through the defeat of WWI, hyperinflation, the Great Depression, and super-hyperinflation, the Nazis, the WWII defeat, the Cold War, when it stood on the very front line, and reunification, and the rise of Germany as a strong power again, with high standards of livings. Even Japan didn't go through this much to achieve its present position.
It's less than two decades from the fall of the Berlin War, from the divided Germany, but you can't really tell all this just from looking at Berlin. You can feel it though, the sadness when you get just looking at the city. Too bad I didn't have the time to take the Insiders Tour Behind the Iron Curtain.
After that tour, I was supposed to meet my friend again, but I got lost, so we decided to each do our own stuff. He went to more museums, I went to take more photos and to roam the city, all by myself. Warning, really a lot of photos...
1. I got lost. This is a school I saw along the way.
2. And a memorial like thingie. I asked for directions when I got lost. The guy told me to "immer gerade aus", I aksed him how long would it take, he said "ein stunde". In the end, I took a bus that I saw to go to a U Bahn station, and used the U Bahn to get to the place I wanted, and included changing of Bahn, about 15min.
3. The Modern Art Musuem
4. An SLK
5. Grass, Arendt, Heine, Luther, Kant, Seghers, Hegel, Gebrüder Grimm, Marx, Böll, Schiller, Lessing, Hesse, Fontane, Mann, Brecht, Goethe, Germany the Land of Ideas Campaign. Remember the musical notes, Germany the Land of Ideas.
6. Some building
7. More building
8. Only the first column on the left hand side is real, the rest is a canvas painting. cool~
9. Another building
10. An empty platz with pink buildings
11. Buildings by the river. There's something different about these with the others we seen in other European cities.
12. I thought trishaws are only found in Asian countries, but wahaha, in Germany!!! I saw this trishaw went by, I wanted to take a picture of it, but it went by. I walked further up, I saw it. I took out my camera and wanted to take picture when I noticed something wrong, there was nobody in it. I looked left looked right, I saw that trishaw man pissing by a tree. erm... I didn't dare take picture and quickly walked past trying to see nothing. Then he finished and got on the trishaw and drove by me again, then I dare take picture. wahahaha~
13. Some sculpture
14. Some church
15. I finally went back to meet Gabriel. He sat by the steps resting. I wanted him to help me take picture, but I is a considerate girl, so I call him to continue sitting there and use the zoom on the camera to zoom in to me. This is a big bowl outside the Ancient History Museum. Schinkel, the architect who designed the museum during the Kaiser's time planned to put the bowl in the main hall, but he built the pillars before he brought the bowl in and the bowl ended up not being about to pass through the pillars. He left the big bowl outside, in front of the museum for more than two hundred years.
16. E=mcSquare. Being the nice considerate girl, I told him that he can continue sitting there even though that was the back view of the equation, I told him "don't worry, I'll just use photoshop to flip the picture over so that the equation is in the right direction. The only problem is that the background~ hehehe...
17. Me and fountain
18. Some statue in the middle of nowhere
19. My dinner, currywurst mit pommes and of course coke.
20. After dinner I parted with him again. He want go watch concert, me went to watch MI3~~~ wahahaha~~~ Then I went back to my hostel at midnight, and went back to the train station, all alone. I is a big girl in a big city and not scared of being alone, and not scared of dark. This is a train set in the train station. ICEs, freight trains, bahnhof, regional trains, even bridges. You can put in money to see the trains move. kawaii ne~
Being alone for almost the whole day in Berlin, I surprised myself by my independence and my mental strength, even when I was lost and that guy told me I needed to walk for an hour. Even when I went to the cinema and bought a ticket for one and watch Tom Cruise speaking in German and me not knowing much. I'm also surprised that I managed to complete seeing Berlin in two days with two hours to spare. I have short attention span and I think this trip fits me just very well.
Now, a little treat for all those people await the World Cup before I go to sleep...
1. Berlin World Cup 2006 banner. Doesn't that reminds you of those festival banners in Singapore, hung on street lamps? bah~
2. An adidas gate
3. adidas banner. Although adidas doesn't sponsor kits to as many countries as Nike and Puma, adidas will still win the advertising war because of the sheer number of adidas stuff being marketed around and displayed prominently. After all, it's the World Cup Sponsor.
4. Huge gigantic inflatable football.
5. Remember the SLK from above, this the adidas boots version.
6. Stadium banner
7. Party area. This is the area for fans to watch football and drink beer and party the whole night~
8. The stadium, of course with lots of adidas banners around. The +10 series~ I like~~~
I have spent 4 hours on this post. It reads 12.32am on the post, that's when I started writing it. It's now 4.38am. Good luck to me~
Actually, I've made another online travel journal, but it's mainly for photos and a bit of description, but I'm still making it look somewhat decent so I've only opened that journal up to eight selected friends. Wait a little while longer and I'd put up the link over here and hopefully that will be a blast~ Must go there and visit hor, after I put up the link! And see all the photos I've taken. I've painfully resized them all, so it's a lot of hardwork.
Speaking of photos, yesterday as I was tinkering with my documents and saving my resized photos, I had this little warning balloon pop up. It said that I'm running out of hard disk space on my C drive. This C drive is one month old plus, how can I run out of space so quickly??? I didn't even bother transferring data from my external hard disk to my C drive because there's just too much to do. I only transferred my pictures file over because my friend asked me what would I do if my external hard disk dieded on me and I lose all my photos. I needed to back up all those photos in my laptop. And so I ran a check in My Documents folder, it's 12gig, with 10gig coming from My Pictures. Want to know how I managed to chalk up this many photos?
I took more than 470 photos in Berlin over a period of two days with two hours spare to go watch a movie. My 1gig memory card was can let me take up to 501 photos. So, rounding up each trip costs me 1gig of photos, it's no wonder I managed to max out my C drive so quickly. bah~ Anyway, I've transferred my old pictures, those I copied over from my external hard disk over to my D drive, so I can free up some space in my C drive for my next couple of trips. The friend who went to Berlin with me went with a 128mb card and took about a third of the number of pictures I took.
The amazing thing about NUS would be this situation. Two NUS FASS year two students meeting for the very first time about 6000miles away from Singapore in the city of Berlin. I have never met in along the corridors of NUS Arts Fac, and I was to meet him in Berlin. Oh well... The effects of globalisation.
These pictures are when we first reached Berlin. Okay, when we first reached Berlin, we actually had to find a hostel and check in and drop our stuff. More on the hostel later, I've got pics, but now I'll show what we did in the morning of our arrival.
1. My first view of Berlin city. The sight that greeted me as I hopped of the train and haven't met the thing that dampen my spirits.
2. Some people don't understand why some people take pictures of bahnhof signs, well, doesn't this prove that I'm in Berlin and not some other city. At least to me, this makes sure that I alighted at the right station, doesn't it?
3. The famed Checkpoint Charlie. I thought this placed seemed more like a tourist area, like you know a theme park or something, especially with that huge poster of that army guy.
4. The famed American sign. I'm sure all of us have seen parodies of this at some point in our life.
5. Our breakfast cum lunch, a quick and cheap meal in Checkpoint Charlie's vicinity. The food looks good, the taste is normal. Chicken Schnitzel with pomme frites. We both had that.
6. Calamaris. It sucked. Okay, it's better than the ones at Nordsee. I guess this is what it means to NOT eat seafood in a landlocked city.
7. Have you ever wondered why his blog entries are always so long? Okay, mine's long too, but mine's rambles, his is long and filled with content. This is because he takes notes as he walks!!! kaoz... His papers were filled with pages of notes written in very small and almost illegible font. Joan will never be able to do that, she's too lazy, and she know that will make her blog entries even more longer than they already are. wahahah~
8. Gedachtnis Church. Built by Kaiser Wilhelm, the guy who started the First World War. Bombed in the Second World War. Left in it's unrepaired state to remind Germany not to start anymore World Wars.
9. A pissior. For guys to piss. It looks so weird standing in the middle of nowhere. Want to know what's like inside? Ask the guy in photo number 7.
10. The interiors of a Church. Can't remember what church it was, perhaps it was the Gedachtnis Church. I like the blues~ nice...
In the afternoon, we went on this Insiders Tour. It's called the famous walk tour which brings us on a foot tour of everywhere important we needed to see in Berlin. It costs only 10€ for students and 9€ for those with ISIC cards. And the best thing? It's in English!!! wahaha~ I love those globalising Americans, they own the world and they speak English~ ANyway, this tour basically brought me everywhere I wanted to see in Berlin and allowed me ample time to take pictures, and if there's not enough time, at least I knew where the place was and can come back another time to take more pictures.
I'm only show a selection of pictures, wait till I post my travel journal up then you can see all the pictures I took. I'll try to be as brief as I can, I realised that there are 20 photos in this series.
1. Our guide for the day. Joe from London.
2. Me waiting for the tour to start. My friend wanted to help me take the picture, but I prefer my own phototaking skills.
3. The very new Berlin Hauptbahnhof. It reminds me of Frankfurt am Main Airport, with the glass curved shaped ceilings. Why did the only glass curved shaped ceilings of an architecture piece in Singapore turned out to be so ugly when these Germans can make it look so beautiful?
4. The new Reichtag, I think. I saw so many buildings that I can't remember which are which. Go look at the other person's blog if you want exact details, he wrote everything down. bah~
5. Dom, I think.
6. A river with a bridge.
7. River with bridge with S Bahn.
8. It's an island with a few museums on it. That is the modern art museum.
9. The used to be the Kaiser Church, then the State Church, then now dunno what Church. i think the bodies of the Hollenzollens are kept there.
10. The ancient history museum. I think he went in there, my attention span is too short to view a museum. Actually I wanted to visit the German Historical Museum, but it was down for renovations. damn... The only museum I want to go and I can't go. Okay, I went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, but but but, it's still not the German Historical Museum!!!
11. Fernsehturm. The Eastern Germans structured that to show off to the Western Europeans, but God's revenge on it. hehehe~ The Swedes made it, and made it in such a way that when sun shines on it, the ball would reflect light and that structure would look like a cross. So much for anarchical Communism.
12. Stadt Oprea House.
13. Some memorial building. There's like a whole lot of memorial buildings in german remembering a whole lot of things from war to dunno-whats.
14. Humbold University, and a memorial for German thinkings and ideology. That stack of book there are named after various German writers from Marx, Goethe, Kant to Schiller to name some.
15. This is to remember people like Bach and Beethoven, the German musicians. The Germans are really promoting their country until it's becoming a bit OTT. All this for the World Cup.
16. Some important building that I can't remember what's it.
17. Me taking a lunch break. I finally let him take a picture of me, don't think I look terribly nice in it, but at least it shows me in proper clothes. Four layers of jackets that make me fat is not proper clothes. Yes, I was in four layers. That tee, my black pullover, my pink jacket, and my red windbreaker cum raincoat. It was so bloody cold and wet in Berlin. It's actually not much better here in Freiburg. 8°C in summer. When Gabriel came over Freiburg and went to Titisee-Neustadt he actually saw snow, in end May. Goodness~
18. What is seeing berlin if you don't see the Berlin Wall?
19. Another memorial, this time for the dead Jews from the Holocaust.
20. The thing I wanted to see when I'm in Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate. It was pretty disappointing. It didn't wow me as much as I wanted to wow. I think it's beause of all the people and all the obstructive stuff that minimised the grandeur of the gate. kanasai...
Dinner time. Being Joan, there'd naturally be lots of photos of food. Especially if she goes to a decent enough eatery with very nice aesthetics.
Joe's Löwenbräu, or something along those lines.
1. Welcome~
2. The exterior, I like those lights~
3. The interior, I like those lights~
4. The menu~
5. Being in a nice place what else can Joan do? Camwhore!!!
6. This is a digitally brightened up picture. I like that feel though~
7. I like mirrors~ I tried to do another double Joan image because someone said I looked fat in my double Joan image in my header. This was also digitally brightened up, but I like that feel!!!
8. Double Joan, not taken by me, not digitally done up, totally original. I like how I look without the ugly fat clothes man...
9. erm... By now I guess half the blogosphere have seen this pic on his blog. I TOOK IT!!! bah~ But this is digitally brightened up. I like the colours, I like the lights. His face looks so guniang under the lights and with his prized (only by him) hair.
10. Stuffed cabbage, his food. The mash potato was nice though~
11. The stuffings inside that stuffed cabbage. At first thought of hearing something called stuffed cabbage, I thought it was like some poultry with cabbage stuffed up their ass, like you know, turkey, but this was the other way round. I'm not a cabbage person as you can tell.
12. My Schnitzel with potato salad. The salad was cold, but the Schintzel was good. The prices were less than 10€, so I think it was a pretty good eat. Berlin is cheap.
13. Goodbye~
The next day I spilt with him and went on another Insiders Tour, the Third Reich Tour. yea... How can I pass up that chance? He went to view museums, bah~
1. The demography of this tour and that yesterday was quite a bit different, the median age was higher. Tour guide Kenny from Ireland, if I remember correctly.
2. A bridge, some military came over across that bridge during World War II.
3. Some important building that the Nazis used. I've the video recordings of the details, but too lazy to do that now, I've already spent like 3 hours on this blog post and I've still a lot more to do.
4. Another important nazi building that was rebuilt.
5. Soviet soldiers took 13 days, or some number similar I can't really remember, to pass through that patch of grass. 27 000 or even more of them died there, and I haven't included the number of German soldiers who lost their lives.
6. The Reichstag. Stalin could have just bombed it and save the lives of those 27 000 soldiers, but he wanted that intact so that he can take a picture of him standing there triumphantly and make a statement.
7. Another memorial, this time to the Soviet soldiers who lost their lives taking Berlin.
8. Where is the Brandenburg Gate? bah~ I hate!!! I hate all those disgusting things covering up the grandeur of the gate. Note that huge gigantic football behind the gate? Everything's like bigger than the gate now. yucks~
9. A lot more soldiers died there.
10. A nicer picture of the Jewish memorial thingie.
11. This is the deathbed of Adolf Hitler. No memorial, no nothing. A memorial cannot be built there, or even a signpost because of fears of it becoming a neo-Nazi shrine.
12. A building used by the Nazis, then the Soviets, now the Finance Ministry. Traces of Nazism and Sovietism can be found on that building.
13. Berlin Wall
14. Topography of Terror, a memorial, another memorial. I went in there and bought four books, and took a whole lot of photographs.
This tour is very depressing.
This tour actually reminded me of a year ago, when I was doing Singapore Military History, Farrell brought us on a field trip. The way the tour guide told us details about the Third Reich, the analysis he gave of the reasons for the rise and fall of the Third Reich, and the battles and the Soviets, were all so Farrell-like. I remember that time we went to several WWII sites and Farrell also told us details, gave us analysis and brought us about the sites. Imagine Farrell to conduct a tour like that in Singapore. hahaha~ It was already so weird that a Caucasian tall big man was guiding a group of young Singaporean boys and girls and telling them what happened in Singapore. We had a few weird stares from the other tourists because most tourists would be guided by a Singaporean, and them being Caucasians.
Anyway, I thought of a lot after this tour. Looking at Germany now, it's hard to believe that it has been through so much, especially Berlin, it went through really a lot a lot over the past century. From the glory of the Kaiser, just look at the Gedachtnis Church, the symbol of power and glory to the king, and the military might, the Gedachtnis Church has military structures all over. And them going through the defeat of WWI, hyperinflation, the Great Depression, and super-hyperinflation, the Nazis, the WWII defeat, the Cold War, when it stood on the very front line, and reunification, and the rise of Germany as a strong power again, with high standards of livings. Even Japan didn't go through this much to achieve its present position.
It's less than two decades from the fall of the Berlin War, from the divided Germany, but you can't really tell all this just from looking at Berlin. You can feel it though, the sadness when you get just looking at the city. Too bad I didn't have the time to take the Insiders Tour Behind the Iron Curtain.
After that tour, I was supposed to meet my friend again, but I got lost, so we decided to each do our own stuff. He went to more museums, I went to take more photos and to roam the city, all by myself. Warning, really a lot of photos...
1. I got lost. This is a school I saw along the way.
2. And a memorial like thingie. I asked for directions when I got lost. The guy told me to "immer gerade aus", I aksed him how long would it take, he said "ein stunde". In the end, I took a bus that I saw to go to a U Bahn station, and used the U Bahn to get to the place I wanted, and included changing of Bahn, about 15min.
3. The Modern Art Musuem
4. An SLK
5. Grass, Arendt, Heine, Luther, Kant, Seghers, Hegel, Gebrüder Grimm, Marx, Böll, Schiller, Lessing, Hesse, Fontane, Mann, Brecht, Goethe, Germany the Land of Ideas Campaign. Remember the musical notes, Germany the Land of Ideas.
6. Some building
7. More building
8. Only the first column on the left hand side is real, the rest is a canvas painting. cool~
9. Another building
10. An empty platz with pink buildings
11. Buildings by the river. There's something different about these with the others we seen in other European cities.
12. I thought trishaws are only found in Asian countries, but wahaha, in Germany!!! I saw this trishaw went by, I wanted to take a picture of it, but it went by. I walked further up, I saw it. I took out my camera and wanted to take picture when I noticed something wrong, there was nobody in it. I looked left looked right, I saw that trishaw man pissing by a tree. erm... I didn't dare take picture and quickly walked past trying to see nothing. Then he finished and got on the trishaw and drove by me again, then I dare take picture. wahahaha~
13. Some sculpture
14. Some church
15. I finally went back to meet Gabriel. He sat by the steps resting. I wanted him to help me take picture, but I is a considerate girl, so I call him to continue sitting there and use the zoom on the camera to zoom in to me. This is a big bowl outside the Ancient History Museum. Schinkel, the architect who designed the museum during the Kaiser's time planned to put the bowl in the main hall, but he built the pillars before he brought the bowl in and the bowl ended up not being about to pass through the pillars. He left the big bowl outside, in front of the museum for more than two hundred years.
16. E=mcSquare. Being the nice considerate girl, I told him that he can continue sitting there even though that was the back view of the equation, I told him "don't worry, I'll just use photoshop to flip the picture over so that the equation is in the right direction. The only problem is that the background~ hehehe...
17. Me and fountain
18. Some statue in the middle of nowhere
19. My dinner, currywurst mit pommes and of course coke.
20. After dinner I parted with him again. He want go watch concert, me went to watch MI3~~~ wahahaha~~~ Then I went back to my hostel at midnight, and went back to the train station, all alone. I is a big girl in a big city and not scared of being alone, and not scared of dark. This is a train set in the train station. ICEs, freight trains, bahnhof, regional trains, even bridges. You can put in money to see the trains move. kawaii ne~
Being alone for almost the whole day in Berlin, I surprised myself by my independence and my mental strength, even when I was lost and that guy told me I needed to walk for an hour. Even when I went to the cinema and bought a ticket for one and watch Tom Cruise speaking in German and me not knowing much. I'm also surprised that I managed to complete seeing Berlin in two days with two hours to spare. I have short attention span and I think this trip fits me just very well.
Now, a little treat for all those people await the World Cup before I go to sleep...
1. Berlin World Cup 2006 banner. Doesn't that reminds you of those festival banners in Singapore, hung on street lamps? bah~
2. An adidas gate
3. adidas banner. Although adidas doesn't sponsor kits to as many countries as Nike and Puma, adidas will still win the advertising war because of the sheer number of adidas stuff being marketed around and displayed prominently. After all, it's the World Cup Sponsor.
4. Huge gigantic inflatable football.
5. Remember the SLK from above, this the adidas boots version.
6. Stadium banner
7. Party area. This is the area for fans to watch football and drink beer and party the whole night~
8. The stadium, of course with lots of adidas banners around. The +10 series~ I like~~~
I have spent 4 hours on this post. It reads 12.32am on the post, that's when I started writing it. It's now 4.38am. Good luck to me~
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