innsbruck

And so I stayed another night in murnau. I was invited to attend a german bbq. Yes, you may think that it's not really exciting when you don't get to try the bbq sausages and meat but only eat salads, cheese, bread, cakes, muffins etc. So what. I'm just thankful for the whole experience of sitting round the fire, listening and not understanding what the Germans were talking about. (: Having said that, I felt sad having to leave Murnau. There's something about this small town that I really liked.

The next morning (noon), Andi drove me to the train station and helped me purchase my onward ticket to Innsbruck. There was no train service from Murnau to Innsbruck so I had to take the SEV busses which were parked just outside the train station, bringing me to Patrick station where I then boarded the train which took me to Innsbruck.

Alighted at Innsbruck hbf and walked towards the famous olimpic ski jumping arena.A very nice view of the city with the mountain range at the background. Took a night sleeper back TERRIBLE IDEA.

Reached Vienna at 7am, walked around and met Ms Oh and her mom at 2.30 before playing tour guide to them.

Last day in Vienna and it rained non stop. major sian-ness. It was museum day as we visited 3 museums, schloss schonbrunn, hous of music, sisi museum. The eat all you can pay any amount pakistani restaurant was closed so SIANS.

murnau

Murnau is a relatively small town 1hr away from München by regional bahn. I've decided to visit it because I wanted to couchsurf at a place where there are mountains in the surrounding. And I was lucky enough cause Andi, Sabine, Lisa and Hanna offered me a couch for 2 nights.

Oh, yes, Schloss Neuschwanstein was simply stunning. I was gald I made the decision to visit that castle. The only think that I hated was the additional hour that it would take to get to füssan due to some railway works. And on the way back, the train just had to break down, so there was a slight (30min) delay. That made me panich as I had a 1hr connecting time for the next train to Murnau. 


And so I arrived at the Lichtenstern's 2 hours later that the planned timing. Their home was a good 5 min walk away from the train station so that was good. Had home-made apple struddel which was YUMMY!


Today me and Sabine went to Schloss Linderhof, which was a good 45 min drive from Murnau. I simply love the fact that all you see in the surrounding area while driving are endless mountain ranges. However, luck wasn't on my side cause it was raining. ): In my opinion, of all 3 castles, I love Schloss Linderhof the most. I love the gardes, labyrinth and the venusgrotte. Simply awesome la.

My feet were aching by the time we finished going round the large compound and boy was I glad to return home and nap. LOL. But as soon as I got out of the car, Andi who welcomed us back suggested that we go cycling round the lake. Er, ok, it's not always I get to cycle round a lake in Bavaria, so why not. And hohoho, it was a 1.5 hrs, approx 20+km cycling trip. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it cause it's simply nice to be close to nature. Came back home to delicious Bavarian dinner. Another YUMYUM moment.

münchen

Yesterday was my first day in Munich. Got a free ride as Hans also had to drive up north to settle his university application and also to pick up his brother who was coming back from Turkey with his family. That saved me euro20+!


As usual, I nearly got lost when trying to find the hostel (easy palace hostel). Luckily there were kind people around who helped me out. Well, I felt really uncomfortable when walking from münchen hbf to the hostel cause of so many Turkish  people, beggers, xxx clubs. And I was thinking to myself, wth. It's really funny because on one side of the street you have sofitel, le meridian and on the other you have xxx clubs!

And so I dumped my bags and went straight to dachau concentration camp. It was really easy to get there cause all you need to do is to follow the large groups of tourists. (more abt dachau concentration camp when i have the time to blog)


After that, i headed to Karlsplatz and walked, walked walked, taking in the sights along the way. Oh, and I saw this group of Singapore airline cabin crew. Thy were like trying to slang angmoh but cmi cause will of the singlish that would subconsciously come out of their mouths.

Tried finding the mosque in the evening but failed. So I ended up breaking fast at the nearby turkish restaurant (euro3.50 for kebab) and praying at the hostel.

Ok, I've decided to go to Schloss Neuschwanstein.

münchen

I´ve just arrived in munich an hour ago. Finding the hostel wasn´t easy. That was because I didn´t follow the directions i noted down yesterday.

Anyways, Ruhpolding was simply awesome. I love Hans´s house. His mom and aunt were very welcoming even though they could not speak any english. Hans had to become the intepreter for those two days. Food was good too as usual. Had pasta with home-made cream sauce for buke. Our plan was to hike up a mountain on the second day but we had to change plans as it started to drizzle in the morning. Instead we went to Lake Chimsee and visited the Herrenchiemsee Palace which was almost an exact replica of the Palace of Versailles in Paris, only if King Ludwig II had not ran out of money!

So we thought we were lucky cause the weather seemed to have improved and decided to climb a plateau once we got back from Chimsee. Walked for about 15 minutes into the forest and it started raining. Major =.=!!

Nonetheless, I still had an awesome experience couchsurfing at Hans´s.

wien day 3

Woke up early again and this may probably be due to jet lag. Was trying hard not to fall back to sleep after breakfast but the ZZzzz monster won. Woke up again and joined Marlene at the living room where whe watched Into The Wild. Brainstormed on where to head next and ended up at a super cool museum which biology geeks would love. There was also an exhibition on charles darwin and his theory of evolution. Had dinner at a turkish restaurant before heading back home.

wien day 2

On the second day in Wien, we set off rather late (noon) to our first destination. The Flohmarkt (flea market) was located above the U-bahn station Kittenbruckengasse. It was similar to our thieves market at bras basah road, except that this place was even larger in scale and people sold even more nonsense stuff. However, there are a few stalls which caught my eye. Those are the ones that sell old cameras and photographs of Wien/Austria. Some of the stall owners weren't too happy when I snapped pictures of their stalls. Oh wells.

Beside the flea market, there was the food market which sells everything from olives, to halal meat, to candies etc. There were a couple of Asian minimarts that sold 'exotic' Asian food. And surprise surprise, they even sold durians there. 1/2 kg durian costs euro 6.50!! and the insides doesn't look durian-y enough to be eaten. I pity those ang mohs who have not seen real durians. So you see, it's really not difficult to survive in Europe as an Asian. You'll easily find black soy sauce, chili sauce, curry powder, even banana leaves!! at the Asian minimarts. Just that you probably have to pay 3 times of what you would normally pay back home in S'pore.

We headed over to schonbrunn palace at around 3+ and had to squeeze our way though the 823503253 million tourists who were there to see one of the highlighted attraction in Wien. The schonbrunn palace reminded me of the palace of versailles. It probably had the same grandeur interior. We only walked through the gardens as it was free. I'll probably enter the palace when I meet up with ms oh sometime next week.

From the palace, one had to walk up a hill so as to observe the spectacular view of the palace and the city of Vienna in the background. This was when me and Marlene decided to do jump shots which according to Marlene was an Asian thing. HAHA!

I think we walked along the danube afterwards where we say lots of nice and interesting graffiti.

Sorry but I still cannot upload pics because the internet connection here is really wols to the max.

Oh, and it was so hot yesterday that wore slippers out and sweat a couple of times throughout the day.. LOL!

wien

The flight from DXB to VIE was much better than first leg of the journey. The cabin crew were motivated to serve us so that's good. Waited for everyone to disembark from the plane before approaching the cabin crew stationed at the door and asked her if it was possible if I had a quick look at the first class suites. She led me to the first class section and left me alone. As I was smapping pictures, another cabin crew came and asked if I wanted to have all the small stuff pop out from their storage compartments. Of course I said yes la. haha! She then left me alone before another came and asked if I wanted my photo to be taken. And I just had to say YES. Oh, and this stewardess was Singaporean and she was surprised when I told her I was too. It's obvious she's Singaporean because her ang moh slang seriously cannot make it. Passed through immigration in less than a minute, grabbed my luggage before making my way to the S-bahn station which was strangely not connected to the arrival halls via any link way. Oh, and at the immigration area, there was this man with an interesting character who was shouting so loudly that everyone looked at him. He probably drank a little too much alcohol during the flight.

This was where I met the second funny person. There was this group of 4 chinese tourists just sitting down, waiting for the train to arrive when this woman shouted, 'ching ching chong tao tiong she she'. All heads turned towards her. She then approached the validation machine and said something in German which make people laugh. This local who was standing beside me signalled me, telling me that she's just a little crazy. haha!

Took the S-Bahn (cheapest option to get to the city centre for euro 3.60, 2 zones) to Westbahnhof and dumped my luggage into one huge locker (euro 3.60, pls pay exact cause they don't return you any change hor) before walking down the stretch of shopping district which was obviously packed with locals and tourists. Met Marlene back at the train station at 5.15pm before heading to Stephansdom and walked around the city centre for about 2 hours. It was nice meeting Marlene and it was now her turn to show me her beautiful city.


At about 8pm, we headed back home. She cooked dinner while I was upstairs checking the foodstuffs (especially the tin cans), making sure that they didn't explode. LOL. My bag is probably 1 kg lighter after passing Marlene her kaya and some other 'exotic' Asian food stuff. haha!

ahlan wa sahlan

I'm currently in transit at dxb. 2 more hours before my next flight. I didnt change any dirhams so I'm just going to sit quietly at one corner. Dubai T3 is seriously packed with ALL emirates passengers in transit. No quiet corner to chill. Nonetheless, I like the design of the 'new' airport terminal. The last time I was in transit here was in primary 5 and the airport then was erm, yar. Ok, batt low, will update when I reach Wien.

bye singapore. hello wien.

This is it. Off to the airport after Isyak. InsyaAllah everything will go smoothly. (:

wednesday.. thursday.. wienday..

Hello friends! It's Wednesday today, which means that in 2 days time I will once again set foot in Europe! How exciting is that? Haha! I've more or less settled everything I need to. Just need to deposit some money into my other bank account, exchange SG into EURO and USD. I doubt I can get HUF here so I'm probably going to get them in Vienna.

I really can't wait to start couchsurfing once more. Will be crashing at Marlene's house in Vienna for a couple of days before heading over to Salzburg (a day trip). Will then be heading north to Ruhpolding where I will do some hiking, hopefully. And the planning stops there. haha!

Oh, and I will be bringing over some kuih raya. Kuih tart confirm will hancur berderai by the time I reach Vienna. LOL!

During the past week, I've been packing and unpacking my stuff. Will be bringing 1 trolley luggage, 1 puma sports bag and one small backpack. (: