Our flight was at 7am, 8th of June 2007.

We arrived in Milan 16hours later! but the time there was only 8pm, 8th of June. Ha! traveling back into time.

We din get to see much of Italy, only Venice. Everywhere looked pretty much the same la! Day 1 there, i took over 300 pictures. Then day 2, i only shot slightly over a 100 frames. But i liked it there cause we got to eat Gelato ice cream on each of the 5 days we were there =D CHOCOLATE AND MELON, very nice =P yumyum! The Venice Biennale was pretty good, i prefer-ed the one in Giardini. Especially the Korean Pavilion, everyone loved that -The Tom and Jerry in skeleton form. But i like that fella wearing that glass helmet which visually enlarged his eyes and mouth, so funny la! The other exhibitions in Arsenale was just too much for me, i guess we were all very tired, so we gave up half-way and had a little picnic with 'stolen' bread and butter. And yes, we had bread and butter and cornflakes every morning in venice! The hotel could at least serve something else mah. We saw the famous San Marco Square. Hmm, it wasn't really what i imagined it to be. The only thing which was just as i heard it to be were the pigeons. Lots and lots of pigeons. So many many all over the place. haha we fed them with ele's smashed cracker. Architecture there was nice, just that, erm, every thing looks the same lo. Oh yes, and water is everywhere. No cars, hardly any bicycles. Only Gondolas, water taxis (just small ferries), boats... Every street has a bridge. And the residents there plant really pretty flowers =) Ciao (hello). Oh yes, and my room mates, Eleanore and Das were the best! So funny la those 2. Our room, 206 in Venice Hotel became a gathering room, and yes, we received complaints for being too noisy. Thanks to Das' borrowed boiler, we cooked our own pasta and sauce the last 2 nights we where there. We made our own little kitchen in 206. Don't know why, but i always thought that our room number was 204, so i'll kept mentioning it as 204, which is Emilyn, Ros and WeilingTan's room. Then ele would always say since i like the room so much why don't i go over and sleep. Nonono, i want to stick with that 2 nonsensical women. haha they make me so happy =D

When we left Venice for Prague, we took a night train. Our first Eurorail. 6 beds in a cabin. It was so crampy and squeezy! We had triple decker beds on each side of the walls and a 80cm path in between. Emilyn and i had the top beds, Ele and WeilingTan the second, and Ros and Das the bottom beds. And imagine how we had to tuck our huge backpacks, including Bobby's into the bag racks right on top of the cabin. Prague was good, for Albert's Supermarket! Ha! But, people there weren't that friendly. There was a really pretty tower thingy, which looked so fairytale like, like the one in Wizard of Oz, well, the witch's tower. But from which ever angle i wanted to take a picture of it, there would be another building right in front. such things always happens =( The hostel we stayed in was al-lite, considering the girls had a bathroom with 2 translucent door-ed showers. 5 of us shared one room, Me, Das, Emilyn, Ele and Bobby. Everynight we would have a facts night, and yes, i have to say i learned something new each time. haha. Thanks to ele and her -did you know giraffes' tongue are blue? i think the 4 of us girls had a pretty good time gossiping. keke. Bobby oso quite funny one, he will do his workout in the middle of the room, and start running along the corridor. Yes its good to be healthy =i We walked over the very pretty Charles Bridge that ele had been wanting to visit since our feets were still in Singapore. Before we crossed the bridge, we had Gelato ice cream. It was quite hot that day, so when i had my pineapple flavored Gelato, it sent the heat away =P very nice! Lots of artist were displaying their works for sale along the bridge. So many of them la! The works were nice. Then we climbed up a large number of steps to the Prague castle! It wasn't really like a castle castle, but it was a more of a modern building la. There were guards outside, standing like statues under the sun, poor them, but well done for the effort! Miguel took pictures with them, making stupid faces while they were TRYING to ignore the world. HOW RUDE... haha. There was a Cathedral in the 'castle'. That building itself is old. And yes, it had a tower with 287 steps spiral stairway. We climbed all the way all the way all the way up! View was good, we could see all the different bridges. NICE =) Getting back down was easy, not as strenuous as going up. On our way back to the hostel, it started raining heavily! And it was hailing a little too. My first hail experience. PAIN! i got hit on my shoulder once only, but it hurts. The winds were so strong, Emilyn's umbrella became a little bent when we used it block the wind and rain against ourselves. Has, Das, Emilyn, Ele,  Jasmine,  Chien Ling, Rebecca, Nandu, Ros, WeilingTan and myself cuddled up closely to warm ourselves in the open tunnel. Poor Miguel and Bobby, they were on their own. Prague is famous for its marionettes (string puppets) Ele, Terry and Has each bought a Pinocchio marionette. I guess its quite attractive to have a long nose =P Well, something happened to Ele's and Terry's Marionette, i'll fill in the details later in this entry. Thats almost all about Prague. BTW Prague is in Czech Republic. And once again, we took the Eurorail to Kessel, Germany. Jasmine was sketching a guy with a cap on board the Eurorail, she felt that he was kind of cute. Then when the guy was about get off the train at Berlin, Bobby called out to him and told him that Jasmine would like to have a picture taken with him. He made Jasmine smile soo much! haha, she was really happy. On the second train we took, there was a huge rainbow outside! It was so lovely! A whole arced rainbow! Initially there were 2 of them, but one disappeared after awhile. At that point of time i thought of someone. hehe =)

Kessel was the most county side place which we stayed at during our trip. The hostel was great! SO BEAUTIFUL LA! The whole hostel was designed the IKEA way! All of us loved it! The place was relatively new, so there was a fresh smell in every room. 5 of us shared a room, Ele, Das and myself again, including Emilyn and WeilingTan. There were 2 double decker beds, and i had my own loft. SO COOL! it was directly above the room's door, and i was above all the other girls. haha. i wouldn't mind having such a bed of my own at home. Oh yes, there was free laundry too!! So we got the chance to do a little washing. My clothes weren't smelling la, just that it would be more comfortable to know that you have clean clothes to wear mah =) Our trip to Kessel was to visit the Documenta, something like the Biennale. There was a total of 4 exhibition sites, but Ele, Das and myself decided to cut short the trip, so we only visited 2 of the sites. It was enough =l Oh ya, there was another of the Documenta's site up a hill. Its was some 'willing...shoehe' museum. (thats what Nandu calls it)  Up the hill, there was a very pretty view of Kessel. Thats what we thought at first. On the entry level inside, there were statues from hundreds of years ago. Well, it felt special to be next to something so ancient, so i told Nundu that we had to breathe in the same air as what the long ago people did. So we came to this statue of a woman's head, and started taking in deep breaths of air close to it. Yeah we looked stupid =P ok, we did not realize that the lady's nose had fallen off, who knows when. So when we walked in front and saw that she was without a nose, we felt that we had in a way insulted her by breathing so hard just next to her. But it became a joke to both me and Nandu, and i could not stop laughing! I guess only the both of us can catch our own joke =D I forgot to mention that Nundu was the Bollywood star of the trip and i'm her only fan! ha! From the backyard of this 'willing...shoehe' museum, we could see a castle, Lowenberg or something like that, and the Hercules (kessel is popular for this building on the peak of the hill, in which i wonder why). Oh yes, i'd like to say that i like the people in Kessel because they were of the friendly-ist and most helpful of all throughout our trip =) A few of the people i can remember are, the cyclist who offered to lead us all the way to our hostel, the cashier at the counter of the Esso station, he was patient with us counting the unfamiliar Euro money. The lady cashiers at the huge supermarket just across our hostel, they greeted us each time we where there.The lady who helped us find our way to the Lowenberg castle. WONDERFUL PEOPLE, thank you =) There was nothing much exciting to do in Kessel, but well the view was good enough. The few of us girls, Ros, Emilyn, Das, Ele, Rebecca, Chien Ling, WeilingTan, Jasmine, Nandu and me took a little hike up the hill to Lowenberg castle. We passed by a pond on the way up. And there were DUCKS! they all swam towards us when we went to the pond's edge. Camera's came out. snap snap snap snap. haha... we don't see ducks often in Singapore, so... yeah. Mountain turtles. We hiked up to Lowenberg, the castle was closed because it was a Sunday (which is like rest day in the whole of Europe). The castle is pretty small, but yes, very fairytale like. Its not a really old ancient castle, someone said it was built as a tourist attraction. We had a mini picnic on the grass field just next to the castle, its very serene there and the air is really fresh. Ros, Rebecca, Chien Ling, Jasmine, Nandu and myself continued hiking up to the Hercules, while Ele, Das, Emilyn and WeilingTan went back down hill to the city to do a little shopping. Everything seemed so near at first, but the journey uphill took like forever la! Nandu and Chien Ling had a pit stop halfway up. The both of them hid behind a denser area of trees along with 2 umbrellas, just incase. The rest of us waited along the path, trying not to make things too obvious. Nandu came out first, and just as it was Chien Ling's turn, a cyclist cycled past the trees. We hoped he did not see Chien Ling. Anyway she was really worried at that point of time that someone would spot her. But the whole incident was quite funny la. hehe =J Myself, Jasmine and Chien Ling sang our way up, and finally we reached the base of the Hercules. It took us 581 steps to reach the peak, but all was worth it. Remember i mentioned that the view from the 'willing...shoehe' was pretty, it was much better from the peak, though things where tiny-er. he! We could see a little of the city area, so Nandu and myself started saying that we could see Ele and the others, that they just got off the tram, that when we were taking a group pic, Ele was smiling at the camera too... all the funny nonsenses. There was a pretty little cottage house at the back of the Hercules, so we stayed there for awhile (after all the effort climbing up), and did some sketching. It was so beautiful there that we forgot about the time and we had to rush back, thinking that the others might have thought we lost our way and could not find our way back. But nooo, no one back in the hostel thought so. ha! but well anyway, dinner was good cause it was long missed 'home' cooked food, by Ele, Das and Miguel! hoho! For the first time in Europe, we had porridge and egg, plus CHEAP BAKEBEANS! very nice =P Oh ya, there was a cherry tree just outside the hostel, so we had FREE cherries! They were pretty sweet, and it felt good having free cherries. haha. Typical freebies collector. And off we went again, and took a Eurorail to Paris. Our last stop =(

Once the train entered into the city of Paris, all my beautiful images of the city vanished. All over the walls were graffiti. The place looked so unkept. It really isn't what we see on television. We had to take a metro to out hostel, and just as we entered the metro station, there was an awful smell. URINE la! It was so not nice to inhale in that area. When we boarded the train, i asked Ele a question. Where's your Pinocchio? Terry was supposedly carrying it, because Ele had trouble carrying her 22kg backpack along with her 9kg chocolate filled bag. So she asked terry if he had her Pinocchio. OH .... He left it at the train station where we alighted from the Eurorail. Terry became a little disoriented because his marionette was left next to hers. Both were worried they won't be able to get their Pinocchios back again. As we walked out of the metro station, the first 1/4 view of the top part of the Eiffel Tower. It was quite a pretty sight because it was dark and the lights were flickering. SO COOL! When we arrived at our hostel- Aloha Hostel, again, my picture of a beautiful and romantic Paris was further smashed. I missed home! We had to use a common WC which smelled the first day of our arrival. Lucky for the 6 of us, Das, Ele, WeilingTan, Nandu, Emilyn, Ferlicia and i, had our own shower in the room, 215. I was a little reluctant to use the WC in the hostel, so I said that i would make my mark in the museums we were to visit instead. hehe =P The first museum we visited in Paris was the Pompidou. I got free entry because I was under 18! So did Bobby and Rebecca. Yeah us! It feels good to be young =D Just as i was to enter the first gallery, daddy called me! I felt really happy, then my eyes started to swell, no, tears din roll down, but that call made me miss home more, considering the living conditions we had. The works there were good, but the basement toilet was even better. It was totally empty, so Das and i made our mark there. Followed by Ele. A few of the other girls also left their marks somewhere in the Pompidou. haha. On the same day, we visited the Notre Dame which did not look anything like the one in the Disney cartoon leh! There was only one similar view which was, the entrance of the building. Oh yes, and they had the gargoyles too! The next day we supposedly had to visit some museum, in which i have forgotten its name. But no, it was too much already, too many museums for the few of us. While the girls were deciding where else to go, i was messaging mummy, complaining about the hostel, and that the place was not much of what we imagined it to be, and i wanted to have poh piah when i'm back in Singapore. Mummy replied that we can have poh piah when i'm back, and yes, my eyes started to swell and my mucus began to flow. By that time, the girls had made their decision to walk to the Arc De Triomphe. Then Nandu turned and asked why i was so quiet. Ah yes, and the tears started flowing... It was pretty sudden, i never would have guessed that i would miss home so much, it was a new feeling; homesick. I had to let go of my feelings for awhile and things went back to normal after the cry. Das, WeilingTan, Jasmine, Nandu, Ele and i walked into this street of the very high end boutiques. All the big names where there. We couldn't even afford to step into any entrance la. We walked further down, till we found a street that led straight to the Arc. The street din look long, but thanks to all the affordable shops along the way, especially the Disney Store! We took about 3 hours to reach the Arc. Ok, the Lourve is HUGE! Yeah we saw the Mona Lisa! hohoho! Well, its not a very big painting, and it is even smaller when you can only view it from 4 meters away. Also, you don't get a full view if you're not the tallest person around. Me and Ele passed forward our journey and skipped 2 levels of masterpieces to stare at dead bodies. haha. I wanted to see the mummies and the preserved body which were located in the basement of the museum. When we were there, daddy messaged me and told me to call home. The whole family was at our house, celebrating Samantha's, Da Gu's and Er Gu's birthday. And i wasn't there. I spoke to mummy, daddy, then jiejie Stephanie, who told me not to cry when I heard their voices. Ya and things became the opposite la, it was at that point where the taps opened! Ele had a tissue on standby already, so i put it to use, while keeping my cool as i continued speaking to Samantha and jiejie Sarah. Sam told me that she had strawberry short cake, and that she was 9 years old already. I had to remind her she was 10, not 9. Finally, the best part of Paris. The Eiffel Tower! Its actually brown in color leh. I always thought it was bronze! Ha! Something new =) The 6 of us, Ele, Das, WeilingTan, Jasmine, Ferlicia and myself paid 3.10 euro each to climb 668 steps! The view was not too bad, but it was cold!! it started to rain up there somemore. Lucky there was an enclosed area on top of the tower where they had souvenir shops and a toilet where Das left her mark, of all places! But i would like to do that too =P Lucky girl Jasmine, who kept telling herself that Paris was a romantic city, despite what we have really seen, met the guy she was sketching on the train from Prague to Kessel! How small can the world (or in this case, Europe) get! He was staying at the same hostel, and the room beside hers! She got to take another picture together with him again! At least her bubble of Paris being romantic and all did not get burst! Jasmine, Chien Ling, Rebecca, Terry and Bobby left 1 and a half day before us. When we sent them off at the metro, the homesickness also hit Ele. I wasn't the only one. Das was hit too. It was natural la, its our longest time away from home. So... ya. Singapore's better. We then became so patriotic we started singing national day songs. It lifted our moods =D I'm actually glad that our parents pay tax and all to hire people and keep our nation clean. Really. Did i mention that our beds in Paris were infected with bed bugs?! We even found their nest la! YUCKS! Das and Emilyn were badly bitten, and aunty Ele was was so paranoid she thought she was bitten, she kept scratching herself. haha, she even asked Mr Chrng how to say 'my backside itchy' in French- Sacut Mafest. Our stay in the Paris hostel wasn't all that bad la, we got to meet new people, like Fabi from somewhere near Brazil, Jessica from Australia and Andrew from California. All backpackers traveling on their own. The kitchen was where we all met, and it all began because we were friendly, we offered our cooked food to them, and so we started conversations with those backpackers =D Nandu learned alot from Fabi and Jessica. They taught her how to say, 'no matter what happens, i love you' in both French and Spanish. Yes, and she went everywhere telling everyone that. Who knew that the least pleasant place we were at, we would meet the friendliest travelers. We all still missed home, and for the very first time being overseas, i can't wait to go home! The last 2 mornings in Paris, we tried to wake up early, be the first in the kitchen for breakfast and skip the breakfast queue, finish breakfast and go back to sleep till 11am. We did wake up early, but no, we din manage to be the first
 in the kitchen. Disappointing... hoho, no la, not that much. But well, we were less that 48hours away from leaving the continent. So,  home is all we were thinking of! Yeah Singapore!

This is HOME! truly, where I know I must be...