Hey ppl! I finally got a chance to settle down with my laptop, sort out the numerous pictures taken during the trip. Been really tired after the trip, a mixture of travel fatigue plus the happy tiredness. sokee’s terms again, always contradictory as usual :P

Here’s the long [in length and in the waiting] post!

15 – 18 mar [SALZBURG]

first stop of the trip, its like a getting to know each other phase. Would say they [my travel mates] can click together really well, so i often stand at the side just observing them.. haha.. the more I stay in Europe, the more I like the activity of people-watching, one can learn a lot about people thru this way~

first time I see snow, and have a mini snowball throwing just to get me acquainted with the snow. Was quite awed to see bushes and things on the street covered with snow. But definitely freezing..

salzburg old town is pretty with a quiet charm. One thing I find very special about the shops along Getreidegasse was the nice decorative overhanging sign on top of each shop. According to wikipedia, "it is a law in Salzburg to designate shops by hanging iron signs over the store." Look, even macdonalds has one!

The fortress Holhensalzburg is rather special as well. overlooking salzburg it looks rather formidable

Mozart museum was a disappointment, nothing particular spectacular about the museum. went to mirabell gardens, but it didnt look very pretty since it was so cold, and there werent many flowers

Guys gaying about with purple and pink umbrellas, or trying to act like one is a cool guy with a feminine touch -__-

Went on the sound of music tour. Of course, one can criticize that the whole tour is targeted at tourists, and is therefore very fake, but I don’t care! Its very nice! Haha.. i like the tour guide, he’s AMAZINGLY AMUSING! E.g. tour guide: “…and she felt something in her heart!” then tour guide proceeds to thump his left fist on his right chest..

He’s full of lame jokes! Cant rmb all his jokes, ask me one fine day, I will try to recall and tell u all, just so u can say sok is lame :)

The tour brought us to the little towns on the outskirts of Salzburg, passing by many BEAUTIFUL lakes surrounded by hills and mountains. Peering off to the distance one can see the snow-clad alps..i wish we had gone to these places and spent more time there instead of the shopping areas in Salzburg..

1^st note: we bought haribos and finished them really fast. E.g. on the plane to Salzburg, jiachuan bought a pack of haribos and me, mingjuan and jiachuan almost finished it within 1-2hrs. the imperative word is ‘almost’.

2^nd note: we played daidee and bridge almost everywhere! Our first ‘getting to know you’ game was on the plane to Salzburg, then we played asshole daidee and poker, with drinking involved, on one night, and jinfeng got royally drunk and crazily high. One should watch him get drunk instead of paying for a comedy ticket :p

3^rd note: mingjuan, Matthias and me were inducted into poker. I can only comment that my poker skills and luck is really bad!

18 – 21 mar [VIENNA]

when we reached Vienna, we were [as barney puts it] a happy family! Haha.. probably because the period includes the easter period of 20-21^st march, a lot of shops were closed..

found a great Italian restaurant that sells reasonably priced and really good pizzas and pasta! And just to make u all drool:

Actually I would say they were cheap for that great quality and the very charming waiter!

Hahaha.. and to show that sok has her eye on the charming waiter, look!

Haha! He looked so jolly! I gave him the name mr jolly! HAHAHA!!

Jinfeng and yihua had a SUPER DUPER long argument on whether there is absolute goodness in human for about 3hours. Started off in the Italian restaurant

and continued even while we walked back to our hostel. As the pictures illustrate,

3 people talking happily about nothing as important as absolute goodness,

the 2 men arguing in a circular manner and ignoring everythg that’s happening around them,

and me in the middle between these two groups of people, taking an observer role as usual, and very happy being the observer..

Then we explored the hofburg imperial palace and museumsquartier. Its obviously a place targeted to gain tourist revenue, since all the museums charged quite expensive entrance fees.

The place is really pretty, and as usual there’s always lame pictures taken. Like jinfeng suddenly decided to propose to matt at the imperial library:

Side note: jiachuan bought these really nice macaroons! This is the before picture:

Anyway, the macaroons were put into his bag, and when we retrieved the macaroons when we got back to hostel after pork knuckle, the macaroons were reasonably smashed!

Went to this really great place for roast pork knuckle. Its super packed! The pork knuckle was good, actually the skin was the best part (think fried lard) but the pork itself was quite tough/dry.. haha.. I had a tedious time chewing..

Don’t u think the pic below is familiar?

4 ambitious people stuck in the middle of traffic!

Got really drunk one night in Vienna, had uncontrollable shaking and kept everyone up till really late! After that, I had this allergy small rash, and was on drowsy antihistamines for a few days, so the rest of the stay in Vienna was in a drowsy stupor, don’t rmb much about what happened too -__-"

Went to Schonbrunn Palace, and it was snowing crazily. Of course we had crazy fun in the snow while walking towards the Gloriette.

Yihua and jinfeng with their respective special surnames, which combined to give a whole new meaning

Jinfeng with his 150euro jacket, which he insisted that it is very warm due to the price paid.

Alternatively, one can run in the snow to get warmth! Instead of relying on expensive jackets!

And guys’ favourite: taupok..

Snow angels! Look at the difference between jinfeng’s and jiachuan’s snow angels!

21 – 24 mar [BUDAPEST]

got a shock when I reached. Guess I got used to affluent-looking places with reasonable maintenance and care. Look at their train!

And the currency was 1 pound to about 330 forint, so just by exchanging about 31 pounds can give you 10 000 forint, which gives jinfeng the opportunity to be money faced. Literally.

I love the apartment we stayed in in Budapest! We have a kitchen and whatever an apartment should have. Though we have a dysfunctional washing machine and there was a fiasco concerning washing machine, but alls well that ends well!

Because we have a well equipped kitchen, we cooked instant noodles, bought milk and cereal for snacks and breakfast. Notice the difference between my breakfast and yihua’s breakfast!

Yihua’s: Made up of two (read: TWO) packs of noodles with eggs.

Mine: Nesquik cereal with milk

I love street markets! They have a great variety of great tasting food!

Went to the heroes square, fishermen's bastion, buda castle and gellert hill. took a picture with an italian tour group, they are super cute! hahaha..

Again, guys are always more childish than us girls. They claimed it’s the children in their hearts -__-

All in all, budapest has places that are really nice to see, especially places that are targeted at tourists, but there are some aspects that make you wonder if the people love the place they are living in.

25 – 26 mar [KRAKOW]

oh I love Krakow!

1^st reason: my name is on almost every menu J

2^nd reason: prob cuz of the stark difference between Budapest and Krakow

3^rd reason: also prob cuz of the traumatizing experience of taking the couchette from Budapest to Krakow. I’m such a light sleeper that I woke more than 5 times thru out 9 hrs.. but the experience is still sth that I would go thru if I got a choice..

4^th reason: mama’s hostel is really cosy! Haha..has a foosball table which reminds me of hc times!

5^th reason: there’s supermarket near the train station that has a biscuit section, which allows u to choose the type of biscuits u want, and how much you want in terms of weight. It reminds me of buying biscuits in sheng siong.. and the chocolate biscuits which I chose were really good! We ended up buying LOADS of them when we left Krakow for Warsaw!

6^th reason: polish food is great! And cheap in my opinion, for the value we got..

Our hostel is situated right smack in old town, near the main market square where the st mary's basilica is situated. visited wawel castle and the jewish quarters. really nice places to visit.

went auschwitz.. cant put my feelings to words, can only wonder how its possible to have such mass destruction, cruelty basing on one person’s ideologies and blind obedience from subordinates carrying out those dreaded instructions..

26 – 28 mar [WARSAW]

been to warsaw old town, maria curie museum and several places in warsaw..

it was not bad, but i would pick krakow over warsaw..for some reason or another, i find that there's nth particularly distinctive about the place. but we didnt explore much also, by that time travel fatigue was setting in..

29 – 1 apr [PRAGUE]

had to change rooms after we unpacked at the hostel, quite irritating experience cuz 1. have to pack abit again, 2. the room we got in the end is adjoined to another room, so we didn’t have privacy, not to mention also that the next morning people keep having to pass through our room to leave since their room does not have a door that leads out to the corridor! So I was woken up early in the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, especially when there’s one girl who keeps looking herself in the mirror in our room -__- but i find it amusing, secretly laughing away..heehee..

me and mingjuan thought we can go crazy shopping in prague but the prices were more expensive than in London.. don’t ask me how it can be possible, because I didn’t think it would be possible too! We ended up having more fun in a supermarket buying junk food than shopping along the Na Přikopĕ..

had a fiasco with ticket inspectors since we didn’t buy tickets for their underground trains..of course we were the one at fault in the first place for not buying tickets, but corrupted ticket inspectors are just to be abhorred!

Food was great! Pictures are worth more than a thousand words!

Though i find Prague alittle too touristy, I still like the atmosphere that the place offered..

the astronomical clock

Church of our Lady in front of Tyn

This is really special! the mural is drawn such that it looks like its part of the building its drawn on..

Charles bridge was really lively with the stalls along the sides, and painters drawing caricatures. Vltava flows below Charles Bridge. went to prague castle and saw the st. vitus cathedral. also went to the lesser quarter and the jewish quarter

ending note: I think jinfeng, yihua and jiachuan can be the best of gays =D