BERLIN!

It's funny how i get so lazy to blog abt my holidays till i get almost ready for the next one...

Boy & i were deciding between Berlin or London for his birthday and i settled for Berlin... & then i went to London alone for shopping and catching up with some friends.. Best of both worlds i'll say. ;)

So ladies & gentlemen.. after almost 2 months of procrastinating, here's my pics to the awesome trip!!

We got there friday night..chkin in almost past midnite.. zzz..

The almost-birthday-boy had to do the job of checking in :p

Dinner for the hungry!! :D

We took a plunge and decided to join this free walking tour for the trip.. NOT something we usually would have done as we usually prefer to just take things own time own pace for our holidays.. But i'm not kidding when i say this free berlin walking tour thingy really made this trip a blast! I've probably heard (not learnt - coz i cant remember as much now) more german history in that 3-4hrs than i can possibly hear in my entire life. :p Anyway they run in quite a few European cities & i was so planning to go for it in Madrid (yes, next up is Madrid in 10 days!!!) till i realised from their website that they suspended the Madrid free tour coz of some lousy protest from their competitors. sucks :(

Anyway, the story with this free tour thing is that u tip as much as u tink they are worth or as much as u can afford.. which sounded damn gd to me in Europe especially. Cool rite?? Our free berlin tour originated from Brandenburg gate...

They're essentially Nazis..so dun be fooled ;)

The holocaust memorial. The huge slabs of stones were made of a different height on purpose and the ground was meant to slope downwards towards the middle and the stones kinda just grow taller, making one feel more and more "helpless" i guess? Totally cold and hard when u're walking ard it like a huge maze. I felt small. Not that i was very big to start with..

This Canadian... was my guide for the new free berlin tours. & he was FREAKING AWESOME... nevermind that trucker cap, tattoos and massive ear piercings.. Boy & i were just soooo pleasantly surprised we tipped 20 euros which was seriously way more worth it than the 50euros we paid for that lousy 2 hours on the overpacked open top bus tour we took in Paris. Big mistake there.. long bus rides make ppl tired... Big mistake.

I really thought the baby trolley is totally cute & innovative....The vest and fugly white bare skin on a man>>> a death sentence. Lets not even go to the hair and unkempt beard..

At the bunkers where Hilter ended his life & saved the rest of the world. Boo to u & kudos to us. haha..

Thats my tour group by the way. U cant see me coz i was blocked by that fat big arse in a black top & jeans on the left of the green sweater girl.... watever.. i'm short & i know it... BLEAH.

See those tattooes.. Why would anyone want faces tattooed on him/herself?

the honest truth is the wall is not as tall yet so formidable that countless have lost their lives undermining its prowess.. likewise for that little person standing in front of it :p

Checkpoint CHARLIE. meaning checkpoint C.. yes, that means there's A and B tooo...

Plenty of empty bookshelves.. too much to read = misery.. no books to read & it made history.. geez.

Neue Wache - A German memorial to the victims of war and tyranny featuring the sculpture by Käthe Kollwitz. Another depressing place.. where they have remains of an unknown soldier and a concentration camp victim underneathe it. Think that's a trend coz the Arc de triomphe had an unknown soldier tomb beneath too!

I really dun remember whr i took this.. it's been 2 mths.. so do gimme a break yeah.. still  nice no?

On museumsinsel (Museum Island) which is a Unesco World Heritage site..

Taken by my guide who obviously lack some basics on photography. But hey..there's me this time! Who cares who got cut out of the picture this time.. maybe it was that same fat arse that covered me earlier! Ha.. KARMA!

Sitting by the canal enjoyin the sun & view of museum island...awesome

The tv tower.. the famous Ulbricht's last erection. (Walter Ulbricht is the German communist politician who ordered the building of it in Alexanderplatz).. :D It was built on East Germany side to show off to the West but ironically, the disco ball like glory was created with the help of the Swedes..

so basically the Nazi had help from the Swedes for his massive 365m erection.. nice..

Some shopping before we headed for our BIG dinner to celebrate the birthday. But Boy & i got alittle hungry so we combed the bistro floor in KaDeWe first for some soup.. & Boy that is definitely the BEST cream based soup i've ever had in my entire freaking life. White asparagus soup.. YUMMM...

I got free wine.. compliments from the chef!

I was almost flirting with the generous & cute chef.. and the boy caught it on memory card.. oops..at least i got him a glass of free wine..

The wonderful ground level of the legendary Kadewe.. its like the Harrods of London.. maybe just not with as beautiful toilets.

Boy lookin great for his 25th! :D

And i so have to complain about this freaking restaurant..which i chose from some raving reviews online.. speaking of which i've yet to leave a totally crap feedback thr.. i shld so do it man.. we paid 200+ euros for this meal tinking its gona be PERFECT... 6 courses, awesome sounding menu.. and i'm so wrong. They did SO MANY things wrong!

1. Serve the boy first ALL the fucking time. Hello its fine dinning... and no matter wat.. THE LADY IS ALWAYS FIRST!!!
2. the (apparently) new (+maybe dumb)waitress didnt stop to explain whats on our plate after she's served. Hello... what the hell are we eating .. dun u tink we wanna noe? ...doh
3. Boy had wine pairing & this same lousy crap of a waitress recommended a pinot for his last main course... and she said its from Austria...hmmm. turns out its fucking German. HOW FUCKING CRAP is that?! (See i told u she's probably so intellectually challenged she cant even tell a lie without getting caught!)
4. They served my freaking 2nd main course when i was in the toilet... er helo? wtf?!
5. I told the same lousy bitch that its the boy's birthday at the start of the meal and was asking if she had a small cake or something.. she said.. "oh no worries..will be taken care of.." we didn't see ANYTHING even after we called for the bill, paid no tips and just walked out without saying anything to get our cab they called for us.

I skipped the pics of rest of the dishes coz its just way too troublesome.. it's a FREAKING 6 course meal for god's sake.. and by the time my 2nd main course was served.. i was almost falling asleep & just wished we can just go back to the hotel instead... Anyway, heres a pic of my lychee sobert... & yes, they called it Li-Chi too.. DOH. why dun they just ask me the Asian?

Some cheaper real GERMAN food for once. Say hi to Porkie knuckles..

& say hi to Er-mei & Wudang sect members who probably qing gong-ed their way to Berlin from some cheena moutains.

So cool rite? Excpt for that middle guy w the bottle.. the rest had HOT HOT bods.. ;)

last day at Brandenburg gate... :p

@ the Reichstag dome. Pretty cool eh?

It's totally gorgeous inside too. does make me alittle giddy walking up tho... & the coolest thing..the up & down spirals arent the same! Awesome rite?!

Currywurst. I hate curry powder did i say.. dun ask me why i bought this.. boy hates sausages! But i tot hey! we're in freaking Berlin.. so 1 mouth & eeek... off to the bin.

Holocaust museum underground.. it told the depressing story of 5 individuals... sobz..

Yes... such a brilliant msg conveyed in the simplest of words... 

Alritey.. so here ends my trip.. Love everything about it excpt that damn meal.. but oh well, shit does happens once in a while. I'll make sure i NEVER take a  >5 course meal EVER again.. unless its asian (all served at once) or some wedding dinner.. :p

And oh yes.. i did actually post about another trip to Rotterdam earlier and that trip took place after Berlin. Geez.. what a totally complicated timeline.. but nvm.. u wont know if i dont say anyway..

geez.. why am i so jumpy today? Must be the lack of sleep.. been ages since i partied til 4 and hear ppl scream "Encore" at zouk..

STONED

 from the seriously excessively long flight from AMSTERDAM back to SINGAPORE this morning.

Just touched down 6hrs 50mins ago & i've been in officce for 2hrs 20 mins already. My eyes are almost closing..

Another short trip, another not-much-of-sight-seeing trip. Make it a NO-Sight-seeing trip.

At least boy & i got LOTS of stuff out of my short 4 day trip up. I transformed his fugly landlord decorated crap into a better looking work-in-progress bachelor pad (sorry he's still not up for grabs)!

We rented a Peugeot station wagon for a day just to get everything & DAMN we bought a whole wagon of things which miraculously disappeared into the cupboards, the floors, the shelves & made it look like we did hell a lot of work & bought nothing!

Anyway, the one who felt the most satisfaction out of the entire day's worth of exercise was definitely the boy....

After 3 years of being a nag, he finally fulfilled his dream of a stylish coffee machine...
something I can never comprehend. Can u?

The boy told me Unilever actually has a funky Nespresso machine in their office locally with the whole variety of cutesy coffee cups to choose from. Considering they are actually their competitor, that's way cool. & its afterall really true.. how can one fault a competitor for getting it right, & better?

So back to the story of boy & his insanely expensive (relative to a good working brauns/philips coffee maker fpr say 50sgd?) Nespresso machine, its red, it's black, it comes with a milk frother, could make everything a starbucks coffee place sells excpt a frappa but thats never on his list anyway. How cool is that? George CLUNNY coolness i guess..

"Hi are u George Clooney?"

Paris!!

Took a long time and many many trips to Europe before boy & i found time for Paris.. But it definitely is a blessing in disguise! Cheaper Euros and great timing too! Lucky us, the gorgeous weather, the beautiful sights & the fashionably dressed people made its a fabulous trip nevermind our slightly biased opinions about the Frenchies! :D

so.. here's a quick run of that fabulous trip which was, like every other city trip, simply too short.

Pretty pretty postcards which we were simply to lazy to buy.. write.. and send.
But we did it in Berlin.. or rather..the boy did it for his family & relatives. 

Anyway, it's not exactly something v asian... and i did try to write just er... ONCE?  It was the first & probably last time i wrote a postcard to my folks, boy & i were in Turkey (& they didn't know i was travellingcoz i was living in Hong Kong alone then..) so i thought it'll be kinda funny for them to receive one that says "i'm here!" pointing to Turkey on the globe... 

& guess wat?

NO RESPONSE...  *doh*

Maybe i'll try again next time. 

Notre Dame de Paris

the best duck confit i've ever had.. they called it "ROAST duck" and i had no idea wat was in my head when i ordered it.. defnitely no regrets! :D

if you havent noticed, boy & i have this lovely habit of buying fruits to snack on in the hotel/on the streets when we travel.

We visited the Lourve but it was closed! We arent massive fans of musems anyway.. whahaha 

i was asking the boy.. "that looks exactly like the obelisks we saw in Luxor temple! Did the French steal it from Egypt?" wahahahaha... turns out it's a gift from Egypt to France :p (and it's really one of the 3 obelisks from Luxor temple originally!)

At the world's most famous roundabout... Arc de Triomphe!

Eiffel Tower.... plus a great day for icecream :D

We had to walk damn far to be able to snap a full pic of that damn tall tower.

Moulin Rouge in the sleazy Pigalle neighbourhood.. too bad we din make it for any peepshows.. :p No pole dancing action either :(

i thought it might a idea to get a nice sketch of myself too.. boy din tink some random artist is gd enuff for the job.. so he chased that poor guy away..  

The gorgeous Basilique du Sacré-Cœur!

From the steps of Sacré-Cœur, we saw the world in Paris.. a not-afraid-of-heights-footballer & a not-so-entertaining singer busking for money..

In Paris, everything is SWEEEEEET!

I had the lemon tart... slightly sour tho.. but still damn sweet!

Then to the Latin quarters to satisfy a craving for some Vietnamese pho bo!!

Yayaaaya.. what the hell am i doing eating this in Paris... Comeon, boy hasnt been back in Asia for over a mth & i havent had any spicy coz of that stupid sore throat for 3 wks so this was way more desirable than some fancy frenchie restaurant! & we actually had table reservations at fouqet for dinner in 3hrs time or something... yes, we WERE actually trying to stuff ourselves silly with food in Paris i guess. :D 

Everyting just looks great.. even in freaking smelling-like-pee undergrounds..

Breakfast on the gooo..

Le marche aux puces de Saint-Ouen for some vintage window shopping

then back to Champs Elysées where this whistling bunny girl was attempting to direct the traffic!

Think it was some kinda showdown..they were trying to see if the maracas can beat the whistle..

Another dickhead down the streets of Champs Elysées..

Tea time at the best tearoom in Paris!!! the G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S Laduree!

My super yummy ice macaroons with chestnut icecream... MMMmmmmmmm..

Then we had to go for the best icecream in Paris.. Berthillon. EVERYONE in Paris talks abt it..

& we can definitely taste why.. ;)

Latin Quarters area for some nice Jap (Boy's idea... NOT MINE!) before going back to the hotel.. i don't know why we ate so much in Paris but we did!

Last chance to grab these yummy babies before we flew back to Rotterdam...

And we sure did.... Sugar high!

Taaadahhh.. maybe a wk and i'll have Berlin up too.. *wish & hope... *
tink i left out ALOT of pics like Rotterdam from March, Luxor & Cairo from Nov and Cambodia from god noes when...

OH MAN.. wat a lousy lazy blogger i'm!

How to pay for 1 seat & get 3 on SQ..

Not the most glamourous thing i've done..and definitely not something i'm super proud of but oh well..

I didnt write about this terrible sore throat that stuck on to me like a freaking shadow for 3 wks last mth... Everytime it felt slightly better, i'll start on my fried food, tons of sugar & spicy goodies.. & in no time i'm back to square 1 where i feel like crap & dun give a flying shit even if the sky's crashing down.

Until the sunday before i was sups to fly (on weds) my right ear got blocked and it started buzzing.. & then it ached. *roll eyes* so obviously i knew i had to see a specialist else i might just burst my eardrums & be in terrible pain when the air pressure changes in the cabin.

So i did.. and turns out my throat infection went up to the right eardrum and it's swollen & DAMN freaking red. Only because i'm due to fly soon, the specialist helped me puncture a small hole in the eardrum to release the pressure & for me to clear the water thats trapped inside.

Of coz i left the hospital with a huge bag of antibiotics, logenzes blah blah and the best of all, some nasal spray which i have to stick up in my nose, press it and take a super deep breath of that vapour. That looked quite uncool really but i rather that than being miserable in pain.. And the doc said i have to spray it once before i fly and after i land..

When i checked in, i already kinda knew i have no one sitting on the 2 seats beside me coz i asked (yes yes.. before u fly be nice, ask the check in lady/guy if its a full flight.. he/she could easily put u on a row with no one and possibly have whole 3 seats to urself!) and after settling down in the 80% full plane looking forwrd to the door closing, i took my huge bag of medicine out to fish for my nasal spray.

Then this joker of an angmoh (i tink he's dutch) jumped out of nowhere and plonked his fat ass on my aisle seat..(ok.. hes really not fat.. just tall..)  i felt the sky crashing down this time tinking about losing my 3 seats wide flat bed.. and i had all these crazy thoughts running thru my mind.. Should i speak, and wat should i say.. and if i dun say anything i know i'll be cursing myself for the rest of the flight sitting upright. sooo....

with the nasal spray in my hand, i turned around and said in the weakest voice "Excuse me is that your seat?"

"Oh no.. i'm sitting in over there but its too cramped and i cant sit there.. blah blah blah" Then he turned over spoke in some foreign language with his whole bunch of pals.. there must be like 20 of them stupid noisy men in the same cabin. grrrr...

so i smiled weakly and said.. "i actually asked the ground staff to block these 2 seats for me coz i'm feeling very unwell. I think you might not want to seat so close by.." *feeble half-closing-eyes & grabbing my big white plastic bag of medicines*

He had that "OMG!" face and he said "ar ok.. i'll move when the plane up"

but he left within the next 2 mins before the door was even closed!  

YIPEEeee..

so i had my 3 seats to myself for 12 hrs to Amsterdam and it was an awesome flight! but of coz, i kept using my nasal spray, kept getting warm water to have with my manuka honey to soothe my throat and kept clearing my throat. 

Well, i was afterall really sick!~  

Jetlagged..

Almost a week and i'm still not backon Singapore time.. sleeping everyday at 4am is gona kill me eventually

Finally got down to sorting the pics from Paris out.. but i shld really get some sleep.. so i'll just put the other pics another time.. :p

Dont u just love pretty graffiti?

From Paris with

Au revoir~