EUROTRIP

back from our one week trail across western continental europe, west of holland. its been a great adventure! covered rotterdam, paris, nice, monaco, geneva, bern, luzern, basel, zurich, strassbourg and brussels.

Holland
rotterdam: scenic port city of holland where vedors sell fresh steamed mussels and fat herring at cheap prices in the flea market. peaceful and laidback unlike amsterdam and eindhoven; even the folks are much friendlier. my fav place in holland thus far. they also have a chinatown where you can find eggtarts and fried popiah among many other treats from home at a ridiculously high price.

France
paris: romantic city of love. visited it on museum day, which meant that all museums were free of charge! including the louvre, housing the all famous mona lisa. contrary to popular belief, the french to be really friendly people, willing to help us, even conversing in english.

nice-monaco: border town of france and the principality of monaco. played roulette and slot machines in monte carlo. cyrus lost €250 straight in five spins. also walked through prince raniers collection of fancy cars.

strasbourg: stop over old town with unique architecture.

Switzerland
geneva: house of the UN in switzerland. it was also the seat of john calvin during the reformation. the streets full of branded watch shops, not the ordinary kind of branded for the rich, but those kind for the super duper rich, like chopard, cartier and patek philipe. rolex is a 'siao3 ca-se' there.

bern: capital of switzerland. there is a fountain every 20 metres spouting spring water. the water tastes incredibly refreshing, seriously, the kind you pay 3 bucks for 750ml kind back home.

luzern: lake town bordered by the alps, where we viewed picasos art. he's a genious but sometimes i just cant get his art, many of them seem like stuff you see scrawled behind public toilet doors, those rough sketches of naked women in suggestive poses and all.

basel: northern town close to france where we visited the paupenhaus, showcasing dollhouses and teddy bears dating back to the early 19th century.

zurich: important banking city filled with rich people and fast cars.

Belgium
brussels: capital of belgium with a rather rough edge. the people there are tastefully grunge in a bohemian way. denise took me out for drinks with her erasmus friends while the guys were in luxembourg. belgiums known for two things, beer and chocolate. the belgians drink this cool sweet fruit beer, called grueze or kriek or something like that.

back in eindhoven,
finally getting my apartment today, theres a park just behind. the whole load of us have been putting up at jordans and cyrus's. thanks to jess's rice cooker, we've been having singaporean food regularly, like chicken curry, teriyaki chicken, cabbage with oyster sauce blah blah.. occassionally we have burger night, which is great, cos for €1.50, we whip up two huge burgers each with cheese, egg, and thick merlot soaked beef patties. josh and jordan are great cooks, the rest of us just wash up, the girls cant cook to save their lives. not that i can very well either, but frankly i'm quite contented with boiled potatoes + boiled chicken breast with soy sauce + salad daily. call it lazy, i call it pragmatic. all the neccessary carbo, protein and vitamins in a meal, and boiling is the healthiest, you cant go wrong.

missed chinese new year this year. a real pity. never took it that seriously, but once you leave home, being chinese does mean something. now i understand why many overseas chinese often try to amplify their chinese-ness, not that over-amplifying is a good thing. its an identity, it defines who you are. people respect you more when you know who you are and are proud of it.

weathers been really good too, suns out almost everyday now, i can even walk about school with only a polo tee and jeans. hope it stays that way.

btw update on the bike situation, got a bike alr! bought a spoilt bike and have to repair it. it'll cost more than more than a stolen one though.