♥; Simple Pleasures of Life.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008 @Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Amelie

Synopsis:

Amélie is a 2001 French film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou. Its original French title is Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain ("The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain"; poulain is French for foal). Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical and somewhat idealised depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre. It tells the story of a painfully shy waitress who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better, while struggling with her own isolation.- wikipedia

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I suddenly remembered about this movie when I was browsing through my paris photos. I recalled that the tour guide for the night tour in Montmartre mentioned that most of the scenes in this movie is filmed in Montmartre- The grocery store, the cafe where Amelie works, Sacre Coer, Abbesses metro station. Watching this movie brings back memories in paris.. the familiar sights and scenes. Montmartre is an artistic place where numerous artists like Van gogh, Picasso used to live and work in. I remembered walking down the narrow streets and the guide introduced us to the house where Van Gogh used to live, Picasso's favourite cafe.. and numerous stories on them.

I found this movie to be rather unconventional. The way the story develops, the wierd behaviour of the characters in the story and the love story of Amelie. I guess it is a different way of expressing her love to others. I loved the theme songs to this movie, it is very folktale-like in my opinion.

Labels: travels in europe

Tuesday, May 06, 2008 @Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Manchester- 22 to 24 march

I went to Manchester for the weekends in the midst of my long backpacking trip was to visit Veena and Benedictus. It was a great trip catching up with them. They were really hospitable-coming to the bus station to pick me, bringing me to the best indian restaurants there, Veena offering her bed to me. We had a blasting time at Alton towers, UK's biggest theme park and one of the best theme parks in Europe! One of the best rides in alton towers is definitely the Oblivion. The ride goes to the top and hang there for a few seconds before plunging into a dark tunnel. During the few seconds, u will be inclining downwards and in view is the dark ominous tunnel.. but it was really shiok! I drop by the old trafford but I did not managed to catch any matches there. The main purpose is to buy souvenirs back for dear kor kor.. hahaz.

Old Trafford!

Alton towers- there is this red dryer machine in the college above to dry us after the wet rides. Very interesting machine. As usual, benny doesn't wanna be in the photo.. hahaz.

I ate fish and chips in Alton towers. It has vinegar in it and supposedly the traditional food of UK. Nothing special in my opinion. But VERY filling.

I cooked a simple dinner of meat patty and chicken for benny and veena during the last night. Venna prepared an indian vegetable dish. We had a super late dinner close to 12 midnight. In the midst of our dinner, I was very sleepy and we slept over at benny's place. The next morning, we woke up early and rushed back to get my belongings at Veena's place and head to the bus station.

London- 24 to 28 march

London is a cosmopolitan city. It is the place that u must go at least once when u r in Europe. But I feel that London is too modern and nothing special. The only good thing about London is that most of its Museums r free.. but yiling and I were soo tired of visiting museum already. We did visit a few interesting Musuems like the Albert and Victoria Museum. It show cases London's fashion in the past. Im sure Sj will love this place.

The food and accomodation there are generally very expensive. Luckily, tsu open up her house for yiling and me:) Tsu's place is really very warm and nua. There were ard 6 singaporeans in the house when we stayed there. We have dinner in the house most of the time. After dinner, we will sit around and chat. There were so many people in the house that any time of the day, at least one of us will be awake to look after the house..hahaz.

Clockwise starting from me: Justin, Nicole, Tsu, yiling, pak, Kai and me!

Must definitely catch a musical in London! Because yiling and I saved up on food and accomodation, we could afford to watch 2 musicals- Wicked and Lord of the Rings! wad an indulgence, but it was really really nice! I felt very cultured..hahaz. I still prefered Wicked because the I love fantasies. But the music and props for Lord of the Rings was good too.

The backdrop of Wicked

The lord of the Rings musical cast.

In London, I met up with my uncle's friend, Uncle Tony. He treated us to a chinese dinner and tim sum tea during our stay in London. It has been such a long time since I had such an extravagent chinese meal. I had my favourite har kow too! Now I can endured till july before returning back to Singapore and gobbling on more tim sums.. yum yum. We enjoyed chatting with Uncle Tony too. We cannot feel any generation gap between uncle Tony and us. But Uncle Tony is rather pantang. He doesn't like to take pictures because he feels that it will harm the friendship between us.

Our dinner at the Chinese restaurant with Uncle Tony. He is on the right side of the picture.

Tim Sum lunch! The mouth-watering porridge.. har kow.. siew mai..

Yeah! we love Lido restaurant for its delicious chinese food.

I was able to keep to my budget and enjoyed myself to the max during my UK trip because of all the friends who reside there. The importance of friends when u r overseas..

Labels: travels in europe

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 @Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Madrid

What I can remembered about Madrid is that there are many plazas (empty square spaces) circled by cafes where people could sit under the sun with a cup of beer and listen to spanish music. Madrid is a relaxing place to chill.

A few examples of plazas

There is also a big pretty park on the east of the city. It is the nicest park I have ever seen. It has a couple of lakes in it and a glass palace. The park is well maintained. Baskers will approach people who are lying on the grass and play them a tune or two, hoping to receive some pennys for their efforts.

The lovely park!! the lakes, statues, trees

Madrid is also a place with lots of Museums, palaces and churches. Prado Museum is one of the famous museums. It is free admissions after six on one of the weekdays. Palazzo Reale is the famous palace in Madrid, but must be prepared to queue for at least an hour even if u arrived early in the morning.

The Spainish dance- Flamenco is very popular here. We went to watch the show in a bar and the dancers were really good.. Smooth and sharp moves:)

Traditional spanish meal before watching the Flamenco- bread, russian salad, meat (tapas), cheeze and a potato dish

Cheers to the great night:)

The Spanish dancers dancing Flamenco

a great night w the girls

Bull fighting is a speciality in Madrid. I would definitely recommend visiting Madrid over a weekend because the flea markets and bull fighting shows will be on during weekends. The bull fighting season is typically during April and May. It is important to book the bull fighting show in advance. When I was in Madrid, I visited the bull fighting ring and joined the bull fighting tour. It is really interesting listening to the bull fighting rituals. Bull fighting in Madrid seems like the modern day gladiator show in the colossem- brutal and bloody, but that is what people come to watch for. The thrill and excitement of witnessing how the bull fighters escaped from death. The bull fighters are like football celebrities and they enjoyed a handsome sum of reward for every bull they kill.

At the bull fighting stadium

I would prefer Barcelona over Madrid anytime. Barcelona has more interesting sights to see. However, if I am going back to Madrid in future, I will make sure I make it for the free guided tour that I missed. It is in Sol station, 11am, everyday.

As I travelled in Western Europe, I had a sudden urge to learn Spanish. Spanish is the 2nd most widely used language after English. Initially I wanted to learn French or Japanese but now I feel that Spanish would be a more useful language. I hope that I would have the motivation to take this urge into action.

Labels: travels in europe

@Wednesday, April 23, 2008

This is confirmed already. My exams will end on the 2 june, I will be embarking on my 2nd backpacking trip with yiling and jinny to eastern europe from the 8 to 18 june.

8-11 june: Vienna, Austria
11-14 june: Budapest, Hungary
14-16 June: Krakow, Poland
16-18 June: Prague, Czech republic

These are the countries that I have always wanted to see. Everyone seems to say that Prague and Vienna are beautiful countries. Eastern Europe will definitely be much cheaper than Western Europe. We will be following the exact itinery of my friends who have been to Eastern europe during Easter. Yiling will be travelling to Brussels and Venice on the 3 june after exams before meeting jinny and I at Vienna's airport on the 8 june. We concluded that our previous 3 wks backpacking trip was intensive and tiring and 10 days trip this time should be comfortable.

I will return back to copenhagen on the 18 june and caryn will join me for my 3rd travelling trip from the 20 june to 30 june. Ruo will join us one day later after her last paper ends on 20 june. Jinny will be joining us for the trip to Belgium before heading to London to travel around western Europe with her boy friend.

20-23 june: Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp- Belgium
23-25 june: Porto, Portugal
25-30 june: Frankfurt, Munich- Germany

I booked my tickets back to Singapore already :) 3rd july. Can't wait to meet up w u all. Lets meet at food centres instead k? I missed the local food in hawker centres esp hokkien mee!!!

Labels: travels in europe

Wednesday, April 16, 2008 @Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Barcelona, Spain- 15 to 18 mar

My impression of barcelona is that it is a bright, sunny city at the right coast of Spain. Spain is the hottest places I have been to- hot people and hot weather:) There r drastic weather differences in barcelona- warm in the day and rather chilly at night. The people there are simple, friendly and happy.

These 2 pictures says it all abt the people and the weather at barcelona:

At the beach

Along the harbour. They were playing traditional spainish songs and there r instructors teaching the people how to dance along

Along the harbour, there was a statue of Christopher Columbus. He is suppose to be pointing in the direction of America but it was pointing in the wrong direction.

There are 3 vantage points in Barcelona- at Montjoic, Park Guell and La Sagrada Familia

View from Montjoic:

Behind me is Museum de Nationale. Climb to the top and u can see the view of barcelona.

The view at the top of Montjoic just outside Museum de Nationale.

At Park Guell:

You can see the 2 tallest buildings in barcelona at the background, which in my opinion, wasn't really tall at all.

The hill is Montjoic. You can take a cable up to the hill from the beach area but be prepared for long queues!

The construction site with some tall buildings at the background is La Sagrada Familia

At La Sagrada Familia:

The hill is Montjoic.

The Olympic stadium was situated at the top of Montjoic. We were there when a football game was abt to start. Below is a picture of the people all dressed up for the match. It is really cute when u see little kids dressed up to support their favourite teams.

Antonio Gaudi is the most famous architect in Barcelona. He created numerous unique architectures that become tourist destinations. Below are 3 pictures of his architectural works.

A lamp post created by him.. it is very cute.. with the little devilish hat at the top.

The No. 1 tourist destination- La Sagrada Familia, aka the holy family. A church with numerous intricate carvings and designs. The top is made up of 12 honey comb spires, symbolising the 12 apostles. It is going to be build finish in 20 years time? This is the 1st time I see a construction site as a tourist destination.

Lastly, our delicious seafood dinner treat next to the harbour. Starting clockwise from the top: our seafood platter which was enormous, the russian salad made up of tuna and olives, fried squids which is our tapas (apetizers), and our seafood paella (seafood in rice).

Labels: travels in europe

Tuesday, April 15, 2008 @Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Paris- 11 to 15 mar

Everyone says that paris is a romantic place. I totally agree with this statement. Strolling along the banks of river Seine is indeed a wonderful experience. As u walked along the river, you will see numerous touristy sights like Notre Dame Cathedral.. the latin quarter and eiffel tower.

Paris was the 3rd city in my trip. Yiling and I were already very exhausted when we reached paris. But staying in a hotel room is a good resting point of us. I remembered that Paris was very windy and drizzling most of the time. Although it was very cold, we wore our slippers out because our shoes were drenched by the torrential rain in rome the day before. I believed that paris will be even more lovely in june during the summer. Even another chance, I will visit the Versailles in paris during the summer. We decided to give Versailles a miss because it is too far and we do not have time to travel to the outskirts of paris and we reckoned that the flowers in Versailles wouldn´t be blooming in winter.

The eiffel tower is very pretty at night esp when the lights start to blink every hour starting from 7pm. Being energetic budget travellers, we climbed up the eiffel tower. The queue was much shorter and we can admire the scenery near by and the structure of the eiffel as we climbed up leisurely. Tsu mentioned that we can actually send a postcard from eiffel tower back home and there will be an eiffel stamp on the envelope. It was a pity we didn't know that when we r at the eiffel.

A picture taken inside the eiffel

It was a pleasant surprise when we met 2 NTU girls during the night tour. They were doing an exchange in ESADA in barcelona. We met them again coincidentally the next day in the Lourve Museum as we were busy finding the famous Mona Lisa portrait. Mona Lisa´s portrait is really really small (abt four A4 sized paper) framed inside a glass panel with a red tape to cordon off people about 5 metres away from it. Tons of people were crowding ard it and trying to take a shot with it!

The 2 NTU girls and us, behind is Sacre Coer

I enjoyed the night tour alot. During the night tour, we saw Van Gogh´s apartment from the outside.. Picasso´s art studio and his favourite cafe.. and Sacre Coer, a splendid vantage point to view paris esp during the sunset. Amelia, this famous french movie was filmed at the Montmartre.

I enjoyed paris because of the great company I had on the first day at paris! Wen and Yoon, my new friends I met in the Norway trip, came down to paris and brought us around for a day. We had a blasting time strolling along river seine & the park near pantheon..eating the delicious, famous macarons along Champs Elysee.. 3 course dinner and drinks after that in a piano bar at Latin Quarter:)

The park near the pantheon

Along River Seine

Delicious Macarons

Dinner at Latin quarter

Some tips in paris:

1. do join the free paris tours.. there are 2 tours.. the day tour which starts in front of st. michael's fountain near the latin quarters at 11am daily and the night tour which starts in front of moulin rouge at 6pm daily. For more information, visit http://www.neweuropetours.eu/.

2. Musee d'orsey has free admission for those under 25 years old every thurs from 6pm onwards.

3. Lourve Museum has free admission for those under 25 years old every fri from 6pm onwards.

Labels: travels in europe

Thursday, April 10, 2008 @Thursday, April 10, 2008

Rome

From milan, we took a train to rome. In the 5 hrs train journey.. we saw lots of beautiful mountains and green fields.. small cottages with smoked chimneys.. puffy white clouds. It reminded me of musicals like sound of music etc.. i can almost imagine people having picnics and kids running ard on the grassy hills. Although taking a train may be time consuming compared to taking a plane, it is still a refreshing experience.

Rome is a museum city, an eternal city, city of Caesar, City of La Dolce Vita. A modern capital set amid ancient splendour. Rome is my favourite city! Rome is so pretty..you need not have the most sophisticated camera or professional photographic skills. All u need to do is to take out your camera and start clicking. The ancient ruins.. meandering rivers.. rich heritage.. Walking through the forum of rome.. it reminds me of Julius Caesar's play. I can imagine the huge crowd of plebians standing in the forum.. brutus and mark anthony making the speeches there. I will definitely return to rome agn one day.. I have already throw the coin into the fountain of trevi.. hahz..:)

Most of the streets in Rome are narrow and one way. I remembered that the first night yiling navigate rome.. i was complaining to her, " yiling.. why r we ALWAYS walking in the alleys? im feeling very scared.. can we walk along the main road?" Yiling scrutinised the map and replied that most of the roads in Rome are only one way.. a 2 lane road with vehicles travelling in both directions is considered the main road! The metro in Rome is just 2 lines.. so simplified compared to the cosmopolitan cities like paris and milan. This is because there are still many ancient ruins deep underground and the romans do not want to destroy these hidden treasures.. so their metro system is very simple.

The places of attractions in rome included the famous colussem and Vatican city. Looking at the cracked walls and asymmetrical top, colossem is indeed weathered down by all the natural environmental elements and pollutions like acid rain. I wondered how long this almost 2000 years old structure will continue to remain as one of the 7 wonders of the world. Yiling and I walked to the vatican city. It was a drizzling day and the moment we entered the vatican city, we saw a long queue of people holding their umbrella, queuing to enter to st. peters church. After much consideration, we decided to give up entering the vatican city and head straight for an ice cream treat in the near by ice cream palour. I kinda regret it now. Part of the reason for hoping to return back to rome is to enter into the Vatican city. I will make sure that I will be in Rome on a wednesday.. as the pope will be out to greet the public every wednesday in the Vatican City.

The Forum itself has rich history. It is the place where cicero stirred the plebians with his rousing orations and Mark Antony came to 'bury Caesar and not to praise him'. However, Mussolini loved the Colossem so much that he destroyed over 5000 Medical and Renaissance buildings in the forum so that he can see the Colossem from his balcony at Palazzovenezia during his regime.

Senatus Populusque Romanus! -centuries year old motto, "the senate and the roman people"

"Rome is a world and it would take years to become a true citizen of it. How lucky those travellers are who take one look and leave"- Goethe

A lifetime is not enough to know Rome.

Labels: travelling in europe, travels in europe

Wednesday, April 09, 2008 @Wednesday, April 09, 2008

WESTERN EUROPE IN A NUTSHELL!

Berlin