Want to go to St. Petersburg?
Where is St. Petersburg? St. Petersburg is located in the west of Russia. It is located at the head of the Gulf of Finland which is basically part of the Baltic sea. It is easily accessible as it is a major city in Europe. There are about 5 million inhabitants. If you want to travel from Moscow, the high-speed train only takes 4 hours. Why is it such a special place? First, St. Petersburg is gorgeous. I must say that the architecture in this city is beautiful. You see churche
Last day in Europe!
Day 27 Sad times. Today is the last day in Europe. To make it worthwhile, we first traveled to the Borough Market for some fresh oysters. Afterwards, we spent the rest of our day at the British Museum. I kid you not, most of the artifacts displayed in the British Museum were ransacked by the British Empire. Ownership for many artifacts are still in dispute with other countries. This is the famous Rosetta Stone, which is the first translation tablet that ever existed. This is
Wimbledon!
Day 26 I remember when we took the train (Eurostar) to across the English Channel from Paris to London, it was a disaster and quite exhilarating. When we traveled between European countries, we never had to present our passports or go through customs because all the countries belong to the Euro zone. We naively thought the same when traveling to UK. I think technically UK is part of the European Union, but for some reason, it requires its own customs and checking. Anyway, we
The Louvre: Home to Mona Lisa
Day 24 You will not believe how many people lined up early to go to the Louvre. I also swear that majority of the tourists lining up for tickets are Chinese tour groups. That's okay. We did our part and we were able to get tickets. At the centre lobby, you can see famous architect, Leoh Ming Pei's, upside-down pyramid - La Pyramide Inversee. For those who watched the Da Vinci Code, apparently this is the location of the Holy grail. The Louvre is not all about Mona Lisa. There
Bonjour Paris!
Day 23 It is funny how the first attraction that we visited in Paris was not the Eiffel Tower, nor the Arc de Triomphe, or even the Notre Dame. As a true tennis fan, the first attraction that we visited was the Roland Garros stadium. We took the city train and arrived at the arena of one of the Grand Slams of tennis. I definitely could not contain my excitement (as seen from the picture below) because every display in here just fascinated me. It was also fitting that Domeny a
I amsterdam!
Day 19 When I thought yesterday was a serious day, I was wrong. Today was even more serious and even depressing. We signed up for a paid Sandeman tour to visit a concentration camp - Sachsenhausen. Since the camp was completely abolished, the site was a large open field. Our tour guide told us that they were training camps for detainees to test the durability of the shoes. Honestly, the stories told by our tour guide was way too depressing and creepy. As a result, I barely to
Berlin: A very serious city
Day 18 Once we arrived at Berlin, the atmosphere definitely changed. It is no longer a city of music, like Vienna, nor a city of festival, like Munich. Berlin, to me, gives a very serious tone. It is probably attributed to its history from the World War, and also the separation that took place when Germany was divided to East and West. In the morning, we arrived at the iconic Brandenburg gate. Similar to other cities, we signed up for another Sandeman tour. Throughout the tou
First Opera Experience
Day 17 This time, we are really exploring the city of music. One thing I forgot to mention was that yesterday we had Austrian schnitzel for dinner. The schnitzel tastes exactly the same as German schnitzel. To be honest, I don't notice any difference. At Vienna, we toured around the city centre including the iconic St. Stephen's Cathedral. Conveniently, we walked by an eatery called Henry! The way you get food is almost like Longo style, where you get food from the tray, and
Vienna: City of Music
Day 16 Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti.... Well, even though we are in Vienna, we are not quite at the centre city of music. We decided to spend a day on a nearby palace, before fully exploring the music culture tomorrow. At the outskirt of Vienna (South west) lies an enormous palace, Schonbrunn Palace. It is the palace of the Habsburg family Empire. The Habsburg family was one of the most important royal houses of Europe. Multiple times that the Holy Roman Empire was occupied by the Ha
Neuschwanstein: The Sleeping Beauty Castle?
Day 15 After a wild and crazy party day yesterday at Oktoberfest, we decided to tour around somewhere more classy and elegant. Some of you may have heard of Neuschwanstein, because of those beautiful wallpapers that appear on desktops or art galleries. We had to take a train from Munich to a city called Schwangau. Beautiful isn't it? Apparently, this is the inspiration to many movies, including the famous classic Disney movie: The Sleeping Beauty. Here is a model of the cast
Oktoberfest! Whoo-hoo!
Day 14 Part of why we scheduled our trip to Munich around end of September was because we did not want to miss the Oktoberfest. In the morning, my friends and I put on our Oktoberfest outfit. It was an attempt to try to blend in the crowd. Do we blend in? Anyway, I must say that these outfits are not cheap. I remember the Lederhosen costs about 200 euros! (minimum). When we entered the Oktoberfest carnival, we were surprised the scale of it. It is completely different from th
Hallo Deutschland!
Day 12 Most of this time is spent on the train towards Munich. I remember that train is filled with drunk people. This is probably the pre-drink party before Oktoberfest. Day 13 At Munich, we signed up with this walking tour called the Sandeman Tour. These tours are awesome because they are free and are given by people who can speak English. Most of these tour guides are actually from North America, whom they moved to Europe to study history or for work. As a part time job, t
