DEFENSE of the ancients – london version

If not for the breakfast ending at 9am, I don’t think we will wake up so early every morning. Even so, after breakfast I just nua-ed on the internet until about 10.30am. Haha… =/

the underground TUBE

Initially plan was to visit the Tower Bridge and it’s engine room, but when we exited the Tower Hill underground, we headed towards Tower of London instead. It was like the castle of London, and that was exactly what it was, with a moat and drawbridges and where cannon are pointing out from.

Tower of London

catapult, maybe it's used for catapulting some beheaded head

There were many many towers in the whole compound, because each king that occupied it wanted to expand it to boast about his capabilities. It took us almost three quarter of the day just to finish walking the whole tower. But I liked it alot! It was more like a castle than the Prague castle. Oops.

in the King's room

the King's throne. the one in Wawel castle looked much nicer and grand

we are 2 of the guards (aka Yeoman's warden)

the real Yeoman's Warden

To be one of the 36 Yeoman’s wardens, there were 3 strict criterias, one of which you must have already served the nation in national service for at least 22 years, the others I couldn’t remember. These Yeoman’s wardens are called Beefeater as well in the past, those that you find on the GIN bottles. Because in the past, their salary was not monetary; they received beer and beef in exchange for their hard work. Beer was cheap, so it was no surprise, but beef was really expensive, and not easily affordable by commoners, thus the Yeoman wardens had these names

Yeoman's warden say that's where he lived in the Tower of London, with his wifey

No, I didn’t go to the zoo after Tower of London, these were vegans that were kept in the castle. Legend has it that if these vegans leave the castle, the castle would come tumbling and crumbling down. Thus, till now they still have it in the Tower, though it has since been a tourist attraction and no longer functioning as a castle. It’s impossible to find Queen Elizabeth here. Also, you might wonder if these birds seems free to fly, how can the people be sure that they won’t fly away. Well, at the other side of the grass patch, there was a metal cage where 3 of them are kept inside.

it stands for QUEEN ELIZABETH REGINA II

in search of the mango, coconut milk, and black glutunious rice dessert

Try it in Cafe TPT, at 21 Wardour Street, in Chinatown.

It’s impossible to miss watching a musical or two since this is the main entertainment for Londoners, we watch movies like they watch musicals, just that it’s much more expensive. But there are counters in Leceister Square which sells them at a discounted price, sometimes, half-priced. So we caught Wicked at £24.50. Wicked is a story adapted from The Wizard of Oz, about the good fairy Glinda, and the bad witch Elphabeth. Each musical/play had a theatre dedicated to it’s whole length of performance, which could range from 2 months to a few years! You can imagine how many theatres they have in London alone, whilst we only have one Esplanade.

Mechandise relating to the musical

after the musical

GOOD! I like

the lousy socks from British Airways, made my feet so much longer

walking around MONOPOLY land

There has been some f***-ups with my post. All the html coding just disappeared! Shall restore it back soon. =(

LONDON, united kingdom

Victor woke up early today to bid us goodbye! Because we will be gone by the time he came back from his France trip which he is leaving for tomorrow. It was almost a teary goodbye. By the end of the 2hour plane ride, we were hungry because we didn’t had breakfast before. And we only had 10minutes to gobble down our £5breakfast before our bus leaves to go to central London.

chicken and mushroom pie with chips

KahMeng commented that this is probably the only country where we will be able to understand all signs, all conversations on the street, and communicate with people without much difficulties because this was afterall England. But hell was he wrong; it got some effort getting used to the sing-song tone that even the old lady spoke with. But we managed well.

When we were at the customs at London Luton airport, the immigration officer wouldn’t allow KahMeng to pass through. He looked at the Schengen visa that we had, which stated that it was going to expire on 03 February 2010, which was tomorrow. He asked where we came from, and for what purpose we were in London. He then put forth the idea that we were in London to escape the expiry of the Schengen visa, which was ridiculous, and called to CIA to check about it, while KahMeng stood behind the yellow line waiting. -_-’” I didn’t have much problem though, the immigration officer just asked when I would be returning back to Singapore. *shrugs*

crossing-the-road lesson for everyone young and old!

these were painted on the road before the curb

And with so much ‘instructions’ on how to cross the road, you would expect the Londoners to be the most law abiding citizen who will wait for the green man to appear before crossing! But no, and I quote Sid, “Jaywalking is a necessity in London”.

the famous RED TELEPHONE BOX

If you couldn’t see the picture clearly, KahMeng was in the phonebox posing with his handphone in his hand.

London Eye, red bus, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey

HOLE IN THE WALL!! haha

Big Ben!

Big Ben with the Houses of Parliament

nope, this is not the SINGAPORE FLYER, it's the LONDON EYE

the famous RED LETTERBOX

There were many souvenirs on sale that imitated the red bus, the red letter box, and the red telephone booth, in the form of sharperners, teapot, keychains and magnets. But the whole idea was, you would expect the souvenirs shops to be really red, where they displayed all these items.

Walked over from the South Bank of Thames to Soho near Leicester Square, where it was CHINATOWN!!! Red lanterns were already hanging for decorative purposes for Chinese New Year, which is about two weeks away now.

CHENGZHI! I'm waiting for these

Looking at the chef with tall hats pulling the Ramen, the many crispy roasted ducks and char siew hanging on the bars in the cases, and people enjoying hot wanton soup in the restaurant, my saliva couldn’t stop flowing out of my mouth. It was the right time to visit Chinatown, just about one week before I returned to Singapore, because then I could just subdue the craving for one more week before enjoying these delicious food at home at a much cheaper price! Imagine eating a plate of duck rice for £7, which would be about S$16. Siao ah.

And to end the day, we saw these 2 policewomen on horsebacks ‘patrolling’ the streets! How efficient if they have to chase after someone, I wonder.

busy like a BEE

Back from Krakow trip on Saturday night, but have since been very very busy. A trip with 12 people leaves me with almost no time to blog about everyday’s activity at night, because it was more important to interact with everybody! Although there were some things that happened along the trip, but I guess everybody went home without a bad taste in the mouth, I can’t say for sure, but at least for me, this was one of my best trip away from Prague.

Wawel Castle, snowboarding in Zakopane (and proceeding to the intermediate slopes in 2days!), and Auschwitz Jewish Concentration Camp, those were the highlights of the trip. And now that I’m back in Prague, I should pack today because I’ve gotta check out of the dormitory soon, go to London tomorrow to meet Sid, Bung, and Mr Woo. Time is running out! And people are leaving. This 5 months dream is coming to an end.

POLAND, the cold land

What started out originally as a road trip to Krakow amongst a few friends, became a 13 people trip on the night train. A road trip would have been perfect for the new experience, but because it was snowing, weather was unpredictable, and the HUGE number of ‘participants’, we took the night train instead. I like to consider the rest as ‘participants’, like any other ODAC trip, because only the few of us was the ones organising it, buying train tickets, looking for information on where to go, and the rest just followed. We split into 2 groups to get there because some could only make it only on the 26th night. But the rest of us (me, Victor, Domingo, KahMeng    ) who could afford more time, wanted more in Krakow, to explore the city. So we left on the 24th night.

2 Spanish + 2 Singaporeans

Got there 15 minutes before our train was scheduled to leave, and was waiting anxiously in front of the departure board for the platform number. But as the minute hand slowly ticked, we checked with disappointment that our train had been delayed. First it was delayed for 15minutes, then 20, then 30, 40, 55…

the stranded travellers

Turo Rudi from Hungary as dessert

on the really cramped upper deck in the night cabin of the train

the BIG guy in the small bed

hot vapour from my breath

We played card games for almost 2hours, and were surprised that we had almost similar games in Spain and in Singapore, like Dai-dee and Bluff. Looks like human beings are not so creative. And half way through our sleep, the heater broke down, and we were freezing in our beds. With the atmospheric temperature at -21 degree Celsius, who wouldn’t? Especially when the trains were made of metal.

how to survive hungary with 30,000 FORINTS.

I wanted to cover the flea market, the central market, and Heroes square today before leaving on the bus back to Prague at 4pm, but I only managed time for the first two. It took me almost one hour on the cold bus to get to the flea market. And it didn’t help much that the flea market was open air. I wanted to see if I could get anything interesting in Ecseri Flea Market. But with only 700Ft left in my pocket (because of the two gypsies musicians), I was sure I wouldn’t be able to buy anything.

chain and ball? maybe we can use this for FOC fright night!

a wall decoration made with many pins and multi-coloured threads

these monkeys know SPEAK NO EVIL, SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL too

How can I not taste the Langose when I am in Hungary? Although I first tasted it in Wencesles Square in Prague, but these Langose are a typical Hungarian food. So it was Langose with sour cream, which wasn’t an option in Prague. In Prague, there was just either with Nutella, or with tomato sauce, garlic sauce and cheese.

Budapest's mini Eiffel Tower

visited Cukrászda for delicious cake!

Dobos torta szelet

Traubisoda - Hungarians' sprite

After trying to find Traubisoda for 3days, I finally found it in Tesco! Haha.. I just wanted to try what it tasted like because it was said to be white grape soda, but in the end, all I got was the taste of Sprite.

The Central Market Hall

This was where people of Budapest came to do their groceries shopping and to eat typical Hungarian food! The guide from the walking tour reccommended to go there if we wanted cheap and good food.

inside the market

paprika, their widely-used spice

Palacsintak Dios (Pancake with walnut)

interesting sign! each passenger is only entitled 2 luggages!

On my way to the bus stop, this Chinese guy on the street was a little lost. So he started testing if I could speak Chinese, by greeting me “??”. And of course I replied back in Chinese. So then he heaved a sigh of relief and said it was really good to meet fellow travellers from China. But I told him that I’m not from China. He looked so shocked, as if wondering which other country I could come from, since I knew how to speak Chinese and looked Chinese. I look like ah tiong!

And so that concluded my 4day solo trip to Budapest, Hungary. Well, this time round, travelling alone gave a different feeling. Maybe it was because my last trip was almost six weeks ago, and now I felt a little lost?

my first professional CAVING experience

I was in luck because caving at the longest cave of Budapest; the 20.1 km long Pál-völgyi-Mátyás-hegyi cave system located in the Duna-Ipoly National Park, was only held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And since I only arrived on Wednesday afternoon, Friday was the only possibility! So in the morning, I went to Széchenyi hegy, a hill where it was popular with Hungarian families to go for picnics, and winter sledging. But when I was there, I guess it was too cold since there was not a soul there. I think the park would be a really pretty place in spring/summer/autumn time.

on the way there

cogwheel railway, also known as the children's railway

the only trees that still had green leaves

if you concentrate hard enough, you can see some icicles, which mean some snow melted but froze to ice again

It was so cold I could only stand to be in the open for not more than 2hours. =/ The highlight of the day – CAVING!! It was interesting because since been in ODAC from JC years, I have never officially been on a caving trip, never to Batu Caves before! The only one which probably could count towards one was in Krabi, Thailand, where we explored the cave on our own, not knowing if there was a through way out of the cave. We finally emerged from the other side of the cave after 1hour or so, with bat shits all over our hair and our shirts smeared with mud and dirt all over. So as you can tell, I was really excited for this. We were provided with overalls, helmets, headlamps, and no previous caving experience was needed!

BEFORE (with my clean overall)

really HAPPY

entrance through which we entered the cave

we first had to climb down this ladder

zi pai all the way

that was how low we were supposed to go pass in some parts of the cave

he looks like he's NEMO stuck in the anemone

they provided suana services for people too!

The temperature in the cave was approximately 10 degree Celsius, and it was said that this temperature maintains throughout the whole year. I’m not sure why though.

an AUSTRALIAN who was at the walking tour with me yesterday

this uncle trying to act cool

We were on our asses sliding, on our stomach leopard crawling, on our knees crawling like babies! It was really not for the weak-hearted. And the air in the caves was so pure and fresh that it was said that they have some therapeautic purposes to people who have respiratory problems! And we finally reached to the biggest room that was in the whole cave system. It was named the theatre, and the guide pointed to us where the audience, the back exit, the curtains, the stage platform was. It was quite funny!

ghost face with the deep eyes, sharp nose and protuding chin

the elephant!

it was supposed to keep the temperature in the cave constant, i don't know how it works though

our guide decided to do a stunt! look how small the hole is!

he joked that if ever he gets a family already, he will stop getting into this hole, lest he gets stuck in it.

this other guide climbed up like a monkey

on the way back already. after 3hours in the cave.

Pál-völgyi-Mátyás-hegyi

Paprikas csirke (chicken in paprika sauce)

Paprika is widely used in Hungarian food. Though it didn’t originate from Hungary (it came from South America in fact), but the Turks introduced it to Hungary during the Turkish occupation, and it was there to stay.

the two gypsies musicians playing Hungarian music

OK, basically when I asked this guide yesterday where to get typical Hungarian food, good and cheap, she reccommended this restaurant to me, saying there will be live HUngarian music too! Sounds like quite a good deal right? So when I was there, I looked at the menu, WOW, 2000Ft for a meal! hmms. I thought ok, maybe that’s what you pay for the music as well. But when these 2 old man came walking in with a violin and a guitar, most patrons at the restaurants just continued talking loudly, and I should have already suspected something. Stupid me said “I would like some music” when they asked me. So they happily started playing their ‘Hungarian’ style music, and I didn’t realise about the note that was stuck under the chord of the violin, until after 3minutes or so. And the fatter man behind was staring at me so hard, to will me to start digging into my pockets for some tips for them, else they would never stop their music.

BUDA+PEST (pronounced bu-da-phesh)

Day 2 in Budapest started with a tour in the Parliament House. This is the largest and tallest (together with St. Stephen’s Basilica at 96m) building in the whole of Budapest. There is a law in Budapest that any other buildings cannot exceed 96m in height! ATTENTION all European students! Guided tour in the Parliament House is free for you, whereas any other students would have to pay 1600Ft for a 30minute tour. The tour was informative and very beautiful, but I feel it wasn’t worth 1600Ft. This Japanese couple that was in the tour with me shared the same sentiments! Hahas..

Everything is white now, when the sky was supposed to be blue, the grass green, and the building greyish brown

A model of the Parliament House made only from matchsticks

This model was produced by a HUngarian family as a gift to the King then, but after completion, the model was so big, that it could not go through the doors of the house. Thus, to move it here, they demolished one side of the house just so that this model could be taken out. -_-’”

The main and grandest staircase

The dome which was in the centre of the Parliament House.

The chandelier attached to it was the biggest as well, with 205 lightbulbs attached to it. And because it is fixed (i.e. it cannot be lowered down), it is seldom switched on, because if any bulbs blow, the electrician would have to climb up and replace them. -_-’” X 2

Guards which are there to keep a look out on the coronation jewels of the King

4 items used during the coronation process

the largest HANDMADE carpet measuring 7X21m

But this is not the original carpet, because the original one was destroyed during World War II; this is just a replica.

cigar holder just outside the conference room.

In the past, people were smoking cigars instead of cigarettes, so these holders were there because Members of the Parliament could come out of the conference if the speaker was boring. The numbers were for easy reference. The length of the ash on the tray behind it was an indicator of how interesting the speakers were!

That's the conference room. Hungary has one prime minister, and 15 other minister of various ministry, none of which are woman

These gold paints were applyed with the technique of brushing the brush against one’s cheek to create static, and then putting it near the gold powder to collect them up. Almost 11000 layers of these paints would only be 1mm thick. This means they rust very soon also, so every 30 years they have to be reapplied.

The tour guide also rattered on about the statistics of the Parliament House, like how many statues there are, how many staircases, how many pillars. I was just amazed at the power of her brain memory, because she was almost 3 times my age, but I guessed she probably started being a guide at my age!

Next, Margaret Island! It was meant to be a sports island, but now that it’s winter, everything outdoor is white, only some crazy locals jogging in their tights and one jacket when it’s -6 degree Celcius.

Margit híd

at the children's playground

a very dirty snowman

clear meat soup with vermicilli

Typical Hungarian food: Beef Goulash with Noodles

The ‘noodles’ was not really noodles, just some dough made to look like deformed macaroni. Hahas.. After lunch, went for the FREE Budapest walking tour. Our guide started with explaining how the FREE tour system work, I guess she was afraid she would return empty-pocket.

the guide

lions on the Chain Bridge

So before this, I actually read about the story of the lions and their sculptor a million times, on the magazine, on XueTing’s blog, and on the website. What happened was that the sculptor proudly proclaimed to all present at the inauguration ceremony of Chain Bridge, that these lions (there were 4) are perfect, and if anybody could find any fault with them, he would jump into the Danube river. Of course, people were trying to find some imperfections with the lions, and one small boy pointed out that, the lions had no tongues! This sculptor was wet in his pants when he heard that, but quickly thought of an excuse saying that he went to the Zoo to do some research and that when lions are in this sitting-lying position, their tongues tend to roll back. So he narrowly escaped the jump into the river, and from then on, was much more humble in his words.

Buda tunnel

This tunnel is as long as the Chain Bridge. A popular story that older people would tell to young children was that it had to be that long because in case River Danube flooded, they had to keep Chain Bridge in the tunnel so that it would not be destroyed! Haha.

After that, we walked to the Office and Residence of the President of Hungary. To our amazement, the building was not at all grand, and there was just one guard outside. The guide said that it was because the President was more a well-liked man than the Prime Minister, because he doesn’t really has much say in the politics of the country, hence less assasins. Haha.

model of Matthias church and the Fisherman Bastion

escaped into a Cukrászda to hide from the cold

Cukrászda are confectionery shops which usually sell cakes and coffees, and this one is really small. There was only one table in it! Hahas..

Rétes - Hungarian strudel with poppy seeds

one of the seven Fisherman Bastion

the other 3 statues opposite these were faceless, probably destroyed by some vandals

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5 fast facts about Hungary:
1) Budapest was a result of joining Buda, Pest and 20 other smaller districts.
2) River Danube (which separates Buda and Pest) is the river that runs through the most numbers of capitals. It passes through Budapest, Bratislava, Belgrade and Vienna.
3) The Rubik’s cube was invented by a Hungarian and the man is still alive now!
4) Hungarian scientist were the ones who discovered how to transmit messages through telecommunication lines as well!
5) About 3.5million Hungarians live outside Hungary.

HUNGaRY makes me hungry

Woke up at 5 in the morning, when I subconciously recall that Ajda came back only at 4am. I didn’t want history to repeat itself (see story of how I miss my Munich trip), so I set 3 alarms on my phone and got Mummy to send me SMS too! So I finally managed to drag myself out of bed, though I was almost dozing off while waiting for the screen at Florenc bus terminal to flash “Boarding”. I spent most of the 7hours on the bus sleeping, while they were showed two movies and two episodes of “FRIENDS” on the small TV screen at the front of the bus.

the most beautiful view from my seat when I was awake. HAHA

Reaching a city at 2pm is a bad choice. You see, by the time you orientate yourself, buy some transport tickets (because the metro company employs so many staffs to stand at the entrances of EACH station, I had no choice but to buy the tickets), find the hostel and settle down, it’s already 4pm. Sky turns black, all attractions closed, nothing much to do. BLEAHS.

this is a 7-bed-dorm! (though you saw only 2 in this picture)

From morning till then, I only had one sandwich, so you can imagine, I was starving (thus the title of this post). Went for some hummus just downstairs of the hostel! BTW, hummus is chickpea cream! And I don’t really like it. Falafels are made from chickpeas too. In case some of you are wondering what chickpeas are, they are those you can find in kacang puteh, dried, or sometimes in pasar malam, where they steam it; like green peas, but yellow in colour.

Hummus on a plate with mushrooms and pita bread

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people

If you can dream it, you can do it

And I reluctantly exited the warm cosy HummusBar, to go out to the cold and snowing streets. Budapest is one city where you can find statues every 10metres on the street. OK, not 10metres, that was way too exaggerating.

HOUSE OF TERROR, but I look the least bit terrorised

literally: THE IRON CURTAIN

this is the architecture style of Budapest's iconic Metro Line 1

Budapest proudly holds the title for the oldest underground metro in continental Europe, and these fairytale themed metro stations are a queer sight! The speakers near to the doors emit this loud shrill, so loud that I swear it’s at least 100 decibels. HAHA. The metro system is probably blind-friendly, because they don’t have any textscreen saying which station the train is currently at, just some husky male voice saying it in Hungarian accent, which makes it totally hard to figure out where I am.

St Stephen's Basilica

It was really eerie to be walking inside this cold church alone at night. Other than the people who are doing their sentry duties inside the church, it was otherwise, empty. Light was scarce and the only ones present was just shining dimly at the statues near the pillar. And just as I was looking intensely at one of the wall drawings, this announcement came through the speakers which startled me, because it came so suddenly and I didn’t understand a single bit of it. And I figured it was probably an hourly prayer or something along that line.

this was how dark the Basilica was

Elizabeth's bridge

So this particularly Elizabeth was in fact the wife of a Austrian king, during the times of the Austrian-Hungarian monachy. Queen Elizabeth was very fond of Hungary, and always visited Budapest. Stories were of that probably it was done in order to spite her mother-in-law, who didn’t quite like Hungarians. Anyway, there were many monuments in Budapest that are named after her.

snowman built by some joker

Széchenyi lánchíd - Chain Bridge

0km stone (at the West end of Chain Bridge), the place from which distance to any other places is measured from

the very INFLEXIBLE people

STORY 1

Bedsheets changing was supposed to be from 8 to 9am this morning, where we are supposed to take our sheets to this particular room on the ground floor to change for cleanly pressed ones. And so I overslept my alarm and woke up at 9am instead, so rushing like a scurry-hurried mouse, I yanked my sheets away from my bed, and the covers from my blanket and pillow. Ran down but found the door to the room closed already. The evil lady must be so glad to punctually close the doors at 9am. So I tried queuing up at the office, where she would be collecting the rent, (and maybe happily putting some in her pockets also!). Pointed at my sheets and said ‘Prosimmm’ but it was useless, she just blabbered one whole chunk of Czech words and kept pointing to her watch, so I imagined this was what she said “I was there waiting until 9am, now you are late, so you will have to wait until tomorrow. If everybody came looking for me like this, I will be so so busy, so it’s your fault you didn’t come earlier! I cannot do anything.” Yea, if I can go change the sheets tomorrow, I wouldn’t disregard my face to go plead with you, (but I’m going Budapest tomorrow!). BLEAHS. I think she’s racist, and just would try to be hard towards me, everytime I go to pay the rent, she blabbers and blabbers like some vulgarities machine.

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STORY 2 

And so, for my FOUNDATION exams, we had to complete allll our seminar examples before we could sit for the exams, else the results would be annulled and you’ve gotta take the exams at another sitting. BUT, I know that this particular professor allowed some european students to take the exams, even though he didn’t ‘OK’ all their examples, just saying to them to show the corrected examples to him after the exams. What is this! The difference in reaction when it’s entirely the same situation, other then the difference in skin colour maybe. OK, so previously I told my friends there wasn’t racism here in Europe, but well, I think I’ve gotta change that sentence now. Or maybe giving the Czechs the benifit of the doubt, they are just strict in their rules.