Back in the sweetest Home...

Hey peeps, sorry for the long long overdued updates.. just got back to S'pore a couple of days ago after nearly 3 weeks of travelling and a week of nuaing in my Swedish Home.. still busy meeting up with ppl whom i havent seen for the past 6 mths and of course spending quality time with my loved ones. So stay tuned and check back in a week's time.. Hopefully the updates for my June trip will be up by then. =P

Belgium's BIG 5 (28th Apr to 2nd May)

There are top 5 things that you MUST try when you come to Belgium.. the chocs, the beer, the waffles, the fries and the mussels. Well, a pity for me, i only managed to try 4 outta 5 of them.. missed out on the mussels.. not too bad for the record i thought.. Anyway, this was promised to be a chillax trip (as Celest would call it) and indeed we had the best 4 days just relaxing, catching up and talking cock... It was really enriching indeed and i've learnt alot through this trip! Thanks Celest for the excellent hosting and for showing me around!

Bruges (29th Apr)

Bruges has gotta be the prettiest city in Belgium, albeit a lil' too touristy.. It has most of its medieval architecture intact.. you could see red-bricked buildings and many majestic cathedrals... AND of course not to forget the chocolate and waffle shops that filled the cobbled streets.. You can also find many ornaments and doll shops around.. a very old and nosltagic kinda feeling..

Red-bricked buildings lining up the cobbled streets.The market square, aint it colourful?The City Hall. The Belfry - a medieval bell tower, regulating the lives of the city dwellers.
This is where the holy blood was rumoured to be kept.

Michelangelo's famous statue of the Madonna and Child in the Church of Our Lady.This is really interesting... this man just feeds the notes into the instrument and turns it to produce nice soothing music.Conquest 1: RICH belgium chocs!SUCKERS for chocs: Me and celest absolutely delighted with our purchase.Conquest 2: Iced-cold beer on a hot sunny day.

Antwerp (30th Apr)
After visiting Bruges, Antwerp gave me a stark contrasting feeling.. A metropolitan city with lotsa foreign influences, the typical shopping kinda city.. but well, it does have the most awesome-looking train station in Belgium. Everything in this city felt really modern, unlike the old-town Bruges feeling.

Antwerp train station.The Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of our Lady) at the Handschoenmarktis the largest cathedral and remains the tallest building in the city.Antwerp City Hall.

Conquest 3: Currywurst with sizzling hot fries!

AND on top of that... we found the best hot chocolate in Belgium!

Leuven (1st May)

Leuven, in essence, is a small student city which my friend Celest happened to be living in.. so well, it aint an exciting place to start off with but yet the serenity of the town makes it a really nice place to live in. With a student population of 5000 exchange students, one has ample opportunities to find ppl from all over the world here.

Town Hall of Leuven, they all look similar dont they? But i think i like this the best.
Bars, Cafes and Pubs lining up the Oude Markt.Conquest 4: Simmering hot honey-coated waffles!And of course the host couldnt resist the temptation.. Uniquely Leuven.5 euros for this, not a bad deal eh?

Brussels (2nd May)

To end it off, i shall bring on the MOST BORING city in Belgium.. Brussels, being the capital city, was disappointingly boring and i completed touring the main attractions within just 2 hours.. No wonder everyone has been complaining about Brussels.. and i totally share their sentiments... so just "enjoy" the few snapshots of this city.

Jinxed at Poland (18th to 23rd Apr)

This has gotta be the most unlucky trip that i've been on so far.. 2 encounters each with train conductors and the police respectively within the span of just 2 days in Warsaw spells out everything.. but before i go into that, i shall touch on the more happening part of my trip at Krakow.

Krakow (18th to 20th Apr)

Krakow was the former capital of Poland before it was moved to Warsaw in 1791. It is one of the oldest and largest city in Poland. We arrived at Krakow after a 3-hour train ride from Warsaw.. but had difficulties navigating to our hostel.. Luckily for us, there was this kind Polish couple who offered to give us a free ride, together with another American whom the wife had met at Warsaw, to our hostel.. absolutely grateful man.. Anyway our hostel was really cheap but excellent in terms of its location, facilities and receptionists.

Right after dumping our stuff, we headed to the Old Town which contains most of the attractions.. On our way there, we were busy hunting down restaurants which served great food.. The prices of the food were stunningly cheap not to mention how huge the portions were.. We had a preview of the Market Square which is a 200 metres square, arguably one of the world's most beautiful plazas. On it stood several attractions such as the Cloth Hall, Town Hall Tower, Church of St. Mary etc. Once again, this city is a major centre of local and international tourism, attracting seven million visitors per year.

Our first dinner at a Georgian Restaurant near the Market Square. The food you get here is superb at affordable prices. It's no wonder that they have several outlets around the Square.The Cloth Hall, by day and night.. once a major centre of trade, now it houses numerous souvenir shops and is still a popular landmark in Krakow. Other landmarks include: (clockwise from top left) Remnants of the City Wall, a two-mile-long walls with 39 towers and 8 gates in the medieval times; Church of St. Mary's, famous for its unmatched giant Gothic altarpiece carved by great Veit Stoss between 1477 and 1489; Town Hall Tower, a gothic tower that stands at 70m.

Knonicza Street, the most scenic street in Krakow, where John Paul II lived as a priest & bishop. (1951 - 1963)

Wawel Royal Castle, home to three dynasties of Poland's monarchs.

Strangely, you do not spot hotdog stands along the streets of Krakow. Instead, they have bagel stands flooding the entire Market Square.

Another Nazi Concentration Campsite.. the Auschwitz.. kinda depressing to learn about the treatment of the prisoners then.. May world peace prevail. Auschwitz I:Auschwitz II:

Warsaw (20th to 23rd Apr)

Okie.. on to the jinxed city i was talking about.. on our way to take the metro on the first day, we were checked by conductors and realised that we had bought the wrong 3-day passes by genuine mistake.. we were entitled to only 48% discount instead of 50% for polish students.. but well, the difference was just 20cents zloty (~10cents sgd) so the conductors let us off and told us not to repeat the offence in the future.. then came nightfall, we ran into another conductor.. this time round, he refused to budge and even told us we should be buying a 100% priced tic and had no choice but to pay the fine of 86zlotys (~45sgd).. when we tried to reason out with him and plead for leniency, he directed us to the police instead and threatened to detain us till morning.. After an hour or so of explanation, they refused to let us off so we had no choice but to pay the fine..

Then came the second day, 2 policemen came up to us at a traffic light junction, accusing us of apparently jay-walking on a road that was under construction! C.R.A.P! anyway they checked our ID and just when we thought we were going to kena fined again.. they were activated to report somewhere else.. haha..

So moral of the story? dont bother buying a discounted ticket in poland since things are so cheap and dont ever jay walk here.. you dont know who's watching you!

okie.. now for the post proper.. Basically there's nothing much in Warsaw compared to Krakow.. visited the old town, a humongous flea-market and a couple of museums that's about it.. so if you guys have time to choose just 1 city, take Krakow anytime!

So-called Russian flea-market but all we see are vietnamese vendors. Weird!

Stalls surrounding an abandoned stadium.

Old Town Market Place, bustling with visitors on a bright, sunny Sunday morning.

Royal Palace.

Warsaw Uprising Museum, built in 2004 to commemorate the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.

The museum caretaker teaching us to play a typical prisoners' game.. Boy he's darn good at it!Warsaw's most hated building.. the Palace of Culture and Science.. a gift from the Soviet Union.

Among the sins, we have: Polish styled soup, Polish dumplings, Pork knuckles, Pork ribs, Pork shoulder steak, Grilled catfish, Apple crumbles, Chocolate cakes, Polish donuts etc etc.

Okie that sums up my "adventures" in Poland.. absolutely enriching experience i must say.. and not to forget meng for his excellent hosting and planning for the past 3 days! Thanks meng!