Lonely Traveller

July 18

2009-05-25T04:38:00.001-07:00

Salzburg

Arrived in Salzburg and took a stroll in the old city. It's just so pleasant, the weather is beautiful with lots of sunshine and clear blue skies. Musicians serenade passerbys, classical melodies fills the atmosphere; this is truly the birthplace of Wolfgang Mozart.

'Jazz It' is this really cool jazz club which is worth a visit if you're in Salzburg. I was lucky because on that night, Wolfgang Muthspiel one of the most famaous Austrian jazz guitarist was performing. He was part of a quartet consisting of double bass, piano, drums and guitar and the performances was absolutely entertaining and beautiful. So much so that I lost track of time and soon realised that it was already pass midnight. The thing is I had to take a bus for about 20-30 mins to this place and thus had no idea if there was a midnight bus back to my hostel.

Now standing all alone in the dodgy bus station, a mad man shouting and approching me, getting abit agitated now, he's getting nearer but he's not looking at me so that's good. Glanced to the left, a man sitting on the bench with a smirk on his face, not good. Turned right, there and behold a lady is walking towards the station. I shall call her Angel. I walk directly towards Angel, and ask her which bus I'm suppose to take. Thank goodness she speaks English. What? She's waiting for the same bus, Hallelujah! Hahaha so we chatted and waited and waited and chatted and still no sign of the bus. Anyway to cut the long cold night short, there was no direct bus so we had to take one half way and walked the rest of the way. Of course I wasnt familiar with the roads so Angel (I cant believe I forgot to ask her name after talking to her for about an hour or so) walked me back to my hostel. Seriously, she was so nice. To whoever you are THANK YOU so much!

July 17

2009-05-21T04:56:00.000-07:00

Neuschwanstein Castle

It's been raining heavily but I have to see King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein castle, the fairy tale castle adopted by Disney in Sleeping Beauty. Since it was pouring, I decided to take the bus instead of hiking up. I still got soaked, and was so cold. It was pretty misty too so I could hardly see anything! All those photos with the beautiful castle and it's spectacular scenery was absolutely hidden with the thick mist and clouds!

Ok since outside was a letdown,I decided to take the guided tour in the castle. Unfortunately, cameras are prohibited and hence I couldnt capture the magnificient architecture, intricate art works and stupendous structures. Basically all the walls are covered with Richard Wagner's theatre stories (as you can guess King Ludwig was a huge fan of Wagner). There is once part of the castle which was converted into a man made cave to depict one of the operas His Highness watched. The colours and patterns used for the carvings and paintings are very unique, nothing like I've seen before. In a way they are rather vibrant and striking. Anyway this Bavarian king was also known as the Fairy Tale King due to his obsession with theatre and operas. However in later years he began to shy away from the public eye due to a plot to overthrow his reign in the Bavarian Parliment (with the excuse of insanity). Sadly, King Ludwig's death remains a mystery, he was found dead in a lake. Some say he committed suicide while others say he was murdered by an insider. I guess not all fairy tales end with a happy ending.

16th July

2009-05-20T05:35:00.000-07:00

Dachau

Beginning 1933, Germany was beginning to create a new ‘German Society’. The number of political prisoners were increasing and the need rose to place them somewhere thus giving birth to the concept of concentration camps. Dachau is actually the first concentration camp and was used then as a model for others, including Auschwitzs. The initial site of this camp was actually a machinery/weapons factory but after WW1, the Germans were not allowed to produce any of these so some guy known as Heinrich Himmler converted the factory to a concentration camp. However, they wanted to give the impression to outsiders that Dachau was a work camp, where people were rehabilitated so that they can fit into the new German society! (doesn’t this ‘rehabilitation’ concept sound like ISA?). But soon after the war in 1943, many Jewish, Polish and Russian prisoners were also held here and the place became over populated (41000 prisoners died in that 12 years, which is about 9 people per day!)

Anyway the whole history and walking the path of the prisoners was a real eye opener for me. I’ve watched many movies, read books about the sufferings in concentration camps but just standing on the soil where innocent blood was shed is just overwhelming. Many prisoners resulted to committing suicide because it’s the easiest way out.

During the tour, Aleesha and I met other travellers: Chris and Sam from New Mexico (USA) and Steve, Justin and Laureen from Whistler, Canada. We were all depressed after the tour and decided to head to the famous beer gardens to lift our spirits!

After some beer, we headed to the ‘travellers’ campsite, where Laureen suggested we make s’mores (marshmallow burnt lightly until soft, then sandwiched between 2 graham creackers). Sounds mouth watering but it started to rain and the campfire was put to a halt. Instead we went out for ice-cream and played in the rain. After saying our farewells, Aleesha and I left for our hostel. Definitely able to sleep well with all the walking and alcohol.

July 15

2009-05-19T06:22:00.000-07:00

Mimi and the Korean girls accompanied me to the train station, which was very sweet of them. To get to Munich I had to change trains in Zurich. So I decided to leave earlier, which will give me ample time to explore Zurich before railing of to Munchen.

Zurich is like most big European cities. But what really intrigued me was during lunch time, most people head for the parks, bridges and river banks to have their sandwiches. Businessmen in suits sitting by the sidewalk, or along the bridge with their legs daggling off for a relaxing lunch in the sun. How cost efficient and nice!

Well on the train to Munchen I sat beside this gorgeous girl, who was nice enough to help me with my heavy backpack. After about 5 hours or so, I reached Munich. I got totally lost with their mass transportation links. The transportation system is efficient but there are like a zillion lines that it can be a little bit confusing for outsiders.

Welcome to Munchen!

After settling in the dorm, I met Aleesha Moroney (my roomie) from Sydney. She's works like for 6 months to collect enough money, then travel for the following 6 months. And she has a pilot license, and is planning to apply to Qantas when she gets back home. Anyway Aleesha and I have decided to join the Dachau tour tomorrow.

With my roomies Rihanna and Aleesha

14th July

2008-08-05T04:56:00.002-07:00

Switzerland is so beautiful but the crappy weather is spoiling everything. Again I got up and it was raining. I decided to brave the rain to see Lucerne city. Well I spent 10 francs on an umbrella and still got soaking wet , not to mention it’s so difficult to take pictures when you’re holding an umbrella and trying hard not to wet your camera at the same time.

Basically I did a big and I mean big city walk. I refuse to pay for transportation so I did everything by feet. Started of with the Chapel bridge, which is basically a 14th century wooden roofed bridge which is decorated with Swiss historical scenes. However it was burnt down later on and had to be reconstructed, although not all the painting were recovered. Further down from there was the Spreuebruke bridge which is also decorated with eerie scenes Totentanz (Dame of Death) paintings. I like the old town with it’s cobblestones pavements and nice paintings on the walls of the buildings. Eventually I reached the main city walls, climbing up to the top of the tower to get a better view. By now, the weather was beginning to clear and the sun was coming out again so that was good. I headed to see the famous Lion of Lucerne monument before heading back.

Now when I got back, I bumped into Mimi, remember my Korean roommate whom I met in Montreux? What a coincidence! Met her other 2 roommates and spent the evening with them. Later on the 4 of us and another Italian guy went for a walk and we got lost. Our short walk lasted for at least 2 hours I think but it was fun, despite the fact that it started raining again.

13th July

2008-08-05T04:56:00.001-07:00

(12 pm)

It’s raining in Lucerne. This is not good.

(9 pm)

I said, hell with the rain I have to so something. So I went up Mt Titlis, which apparently is covered with snow all year through. It was freezing cold, it was so cloudy I couldn’t see the beautiful glaciers which is the main attraction there. On the bright side I sat on the world’s first rotating aerial cable car and I have not seen so much snow before. I made some snow balls and wanted to throw them at some people, but the only people up there were this elderly Chinese people on a tour. I don’t think they’ll be very happy with some random stranger throwing snowballs at them. Gosh in times like this I wished I was traveling with someone.

12th July

2008-08-05T04:55:00.000-07:00

Bad bad weather. My plans for Jungfrau must be cancelled. Instead I slept in late, went to town to do some souvenir shopping, bought some groceries and just stayed in the hostel, reading and writing in my journal. I’m so disappointed but things like this cant be helped. Although I think the rest is good after 2 weeks of non stop travel.

Will leave for Lucerne tomorrow and am hoping the weather will be good, so at least I can go hiking up Mt Pilatus.

11th July

2008-08-05T04:53:00.000-07:00

Interlaken

Interlaken is breathtaking. I walked out from the train station and the Swiss Alps were there to greet me, still covered in snow at the peak. I was so excited I couldn’t wait to go to the Jungfrau region, the highest peak in Europe. So I quickly rushed to get my stuff sorted but just then, the dark clouds came in and it started to pour. Well no point in going now so I decided to do some outdoor activity.

First choice, sky diving. Where other place better to do then overlooking the Swiss Alps right? But saw the price and said no way, maybe when I’m richer. The cheaper options were canyoning and white water rafting. Thought I can always do rafting in Malaysia so opted for canyoning. Mind you at that time I didn’t know what that was, the pictures looked good the video looked exciting and the receptionist highly recommended it. So in canyoning, you basically do bits of everything like abseiling down cliffs, sliding down natural slides (in the waterfalls) and jumping off rocks into the water. I met Brandon who was also from my hostel and was also traveling alone. That was good, because everyone else was in a big group so I had a buddy to help me along the way. The highlight of this adventure for me at least was jumping off a 20 feet high cliff into the waterfalls. I was so scared I tell you, I thought I would hit the rocks by the side. But I just stood at the edge and did something I shouldn’t have; I looked down. But I still jumped, more because I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of all those people…hahaha. After that, Brandon told me that he thought I wouldn’t jump because my face changed immediately when I looked down, but hey I still did it. After me was a Korean girl, and you know what she didn’t do it!! Anyway after I jumped in, the guide came straight towards me and asked me if I was alright, and I was like yeap. Apparently I landed so close to the rocks that everyone thought I hit against it. Can you imagine that? My biggest fear was hitting that rock and of all people, I was the only one that missed the rock by inches.

In the evening, I went to Schuh Chocolatier, it’a basically a chocolate heaven for chocoholics like myself. Basically it was a tour to show us how they make their chocolates and of course, we get to taste and sample the chocolates. How cool it that . There were all sorts on the table, dark, milk, white, truffles with raspberry filling, peanut butter filling caramelized almonds and all sorts and we got to eat to our hearts delight. I loved it. And then, the chef asked me if I would like to help him make some truffles. Can you imagine that, of all the 30 something people he asked me, ME to be his personal assistant. He probably could see the glint of excitement in my eyes when I was looking at all the chocolate display.

Anyway I hope the weather will be good tomorrow so I can go to the peak of the Jungfrau mountain and admire the beautiful view from up there.

10th July

2008-08-05T04:51:00.000-07:00

Montreux

After a nice hearty breakfast, Mimi and I took a stroll by the lake to Chateau le Challion, an old fortress that was previously used as a prison. The view was spectacular, reminded me of one of those jigsaw puzzle I used to do as a kid. Mimi was so sweet, she accompanied me to train station, and even helped me with my baggage.

Bern

Bern is a UNESCO Heritage City, with the Aare river running through the city. As soon as a reached, I did sort of a city tour because I only had 1 day here. The river is freaking clean man, people actually jump into it from the bridge on hot summer days for a swim. Can you imagine that? People only jump into the Klang river to commit suicide!! Well I’m excited for Interlaken, heard so many good things hope I don’t get disappointed.

9th July

2008-08-05T04:31:00.000-07:00

Montreux

Montreux is lovely lovely. Switzerland is just getting better and better. My hostel is just beside the lake overlooking the majestic mountains in the distance. Since it was the Montreux Jazz Festival, there was a carnival with loads of international food stalls (Thai, Indian, Vietnamese etc), games booth and stalls selling handicrafts, clothes and all kinds of funky stuff. There were locations by the lake where free jazz concerts were going on. Spent the whole afternoon at the carnival and jazz concerts with my Korean roommate, Mimi. Mimi is studying music and came all the way from Seoul just for this festival. The whole atmosphere of the carnival with the feet tapping jazz beat in the background was so awesome. Later that night, there were more rock concerts one from Holland (with a really cute keyboardist) and another one from France, and they sang in French. I was really amused with the crowd here, there were dancing up front during the concerts and seemed like they were having a blast.

Just an observation I have so far, Swiss people are really helpful and friendly. I have not gotten lost so far because random strangers would come up to me and offer help when they see me looking so clusless. Like in Montreux, when I got of the bus a lady walking pass asked me if I was looking fort the Youth Hostel and she even walked with me half way there. She also told me we can get free transportation

Back in London

2008-07-31T15:09:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm finally back in London and still in one piece. I've been terrible at updating this blog! But I actually wrote an entry for each day in my journal, so when I get more time I'll probably post it up. You can read it if you're interested or maybe want to get some travel ideas, otherwise just to let everyone know I made it home safe and sound. Will try to upload some photos as well once I've transfered them all onto my computer.

As for now, going to try to meet up with all those people I might not see again once I leave Londres!

Day 10 Nice - Geneva

2008-07-09T01:58:00.000-07:00

So I'm on the train from Nice to Geneva now. I don't have a place to stay and am contemplating spending the night in the airport (however after a few phone calls I manage to get a bed!!). By the way, the man sitting beside me has terrible BO. It's a 7 hour journey to Geneva, so it's going to be a long ride.
Well I went shopping again before catching the train. Mind you it wasn't souvenir shopping but proper shopping shopping. I'm running out of clothes since all the hostel so far don't have laundry services, it's the sales now and everything is so cheap and it's much easier to get size here. Yeah it's all excuses. But I should really stop or else I will run out of money very soon. I also lost my brand new 10 euro calling card, I think I actually threw it away with my other rubbish. Silly silly me!!
Oh boy, I really cant stand the smell. Actually the reason I'm suffering is my own fault. I was trying to be nice and offered my seat to this girl because her boyfriend was seating beside me. So exchanged seats with her and now I'm stuck with Mr Stinky. And Mr Stinky also has a PINK psp. PINK ok! I have a feeling that maybe Mr Stinky actually understands English and is reading this because he's streching his arms alot now and I think he's purposely doing it to antagonize me. Ok I think I'll just pretend to be asleep now.

Geneva

I like Geneva. It's much cooler here, and clean and I feel so safe. The public transport is so efficient, it's free, and the buses run on electricity. My hostel is super duperly clean, managed to enjoy a nice long hot bath after 2 days in a cockroach infested toilet in Nice. And it's just beside the church Martin Luther used to preach in, and at night you can actually hear priest/bishops/monks (or whatever they are called) chanting prayers. It's so peaceful and even the church bell doesn't annoy me.

Day 9 Monaco

2008-07-09T01:13:00.000-07:00

The hostel in Nice is terrible!!It's in a dodgy area, it's dirty and the toilets have cockroaches. I was so uncomfortable I tried my best to stay out the whole day, which explains most of the blog updates.

Anyway I decided to take a short trip to Monaco. It's a really pretty place with palm trees everywhere and bright colourful buildings. The first place I went to was the Exotic garden and Observatory caves. The garden is filled with hundreds of cactus species and the garden overlooks the stunning view of the harbour. There was a tour guide for the observatory caves but the whole thing was in French. The guide seem to be going on and on so I presume there's a lot of interesting facts I missed about the caves. As long as I have pictures it's oklar. I also met a girl from China, Joanna. She's also studying in the UK. Since she was also travelling alone we decided to visit the places together. Of course we couldnt miss the famaous Monte Carlo Casino. It looks like a mini palace and everything in that area is so expensive and posh. We just sat down at the park nearby watching rich men and women crusing in their Poshers, Ferraris and Lambourginis. Argh....the good life.

Well turns out Joanna is also staying in Nice, just near my hostel so we decided to do some touristy things in Nice together as well. After dinner we took a stroll down the promenade along the beach to see the pretty lights of the hilltop castle. Well this part of Nice is much better than the place where my hostel is located. And Tomasz you were right, Nice is quite dodgy. Random strange men would come up to us, doing the 'pweet weet' , 'bonjour missy' and 'arigato' thing. Although this only happened whenever I'm with Joanna. I experienced none of this when I'm alone! :)
Also in France, French people are coming up to me to ask for directions and favours and what nots. This is rather intersting :) And they continue talking to me in Feench even after I tell them I cant speak French! Also when I was on the train from Spain, an American girl was practically shouting at me asking me 'DO YOU SPEAK INGLES??!!'. As though by shouting at me I'll be able to understand her better (if I didnt speak English). I was so tempted to answer her in Malay or some made up jibbersih and see how she'll respond. Will she give up or try shouting even louder? Hmmm...too late now. But I might try it the next time this happens.

Nice

2008-07-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

Day 8 (6th July)

I'm finally in Nice and updated this blog from day 2 till day 7. This is gonna cost me a bomb (especially with my slow typing speed). Anyway I don't think I'll spend much time in Nice. I plan to go to Switzerland sooner than what I've planned.

Montpellier

2008-07-06T07:31:00.000-07:00

Now day 7 (5th July) was quite a day. I was suppose to reach Barcelona today and take the train from Bracelona - Cerbere (France) - Montpellier - Nice. Now when I reached Cerbere I wanted to buy my tickets from Montpellier to Nice. Unfortunately I couldn't reach Montpellier in time to get the last train to Nice. And I already booked my accomodation in Nice!! Anyway when I arrived in Montpellier it was nearly 7pm so I thought I better just stay here. Once again with my heavy backpack I went looking for a place to stay. I went in the 1st hotel I saw, they had a place and I just took it. It wasnt too bad, looked like those scary looking shop house motels in Malaysia but with a French twist to it :) But Montpellier is actually quite nice, apparently it's an artist town which explains all the dancing and singing in the plaza. I decided to treat myself to a nice dinner after all the walking and heavy luggage (I think I might come back a bit muscular) While waiting for my food, I saw this lady trying to get my attention and when I looked at her, she smiled and nodded at me as if she knew me. She was also dining alone. Is there a 'special code' for lone diners like you have to acknowledge another person who's also dining alone?

Granada

2008-07-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

Day 5

It's already day 8 and am already in France but I'm still updating about Spain. This blog thing is harder than I thought. So from now on, short short post. Well highlight of Granada is of course the Al-Hambra. Wow...beautiful beautiful that's all I can say. In the Palacios Nazarios, the whole place was intricately carved from marble, I wonder how many artist and craftsman they needed to create this place. And the gardens again, when I strike my first million I'm going to invest in a nice garden.
I'm beginning to realise that people here keep speaking to me in Spanish, and Spanish people come up to me to ask for directions, how to use the ticket machines and all sort of things. I'm a foreinger for goodness sake!! And I was thinking why...I dont even look Spanish. Then I went to the Sacromento caves, it's a man build caves where the gypsies used to live. Well there was a brief history and apparently the gypsies came from India. They were the blacksmith and craftmen of the king and eventually settled down there. So maybe they thought I'm a gypsy? Which also explaines why the gypsy ladies didn't harras me to buy their flowers or ballons or henna tattoo.

Day 6

Well on the last day in Granada, I went for an olive oil tour. We were taken to the hillside villages and were shown the olive groves and how the olives are proessed to get the oil. We even had olive oil tasting, it actually felt weird drinking olive oil like water. But for your information if you want to get a good type of olive oil, it must have a blend of fruitiness, pepper-ish after taste and bitterness all in equal composition. After the tour we went to this small village inn/restaurant and had a nice big spanish lunch. By the way the tour guide really remined me of Dr Hernandez!!

Cordoba and Jerez

2008-07-06T06:37:00.000-07:00

Day 2 (30th June)

Took a day trip to Cordoba today. The main attraction is the Mezquita, one of the most important Islamic monument in Western Europe. It has about 900 granite and marble columns that supports hundreds of shaped arches. The intersting thing is that there is a cathedral in the center of the mosque, which was built when the Crusaders conquered Cordoba. And just around the Mezquita is the Judeira, where the Jewish resided. Apparently in those times the Jewish, Muslims and Christians would get together to debate and have dialogue about their faith. Imagine if we had that now, or built a church in a place where a mosque used to be. It would definately be the beginning of blood shed for sure.

Day 3 (1st July)

Today was spent in Jerez la Frontera. Haha...again I got lost in the town. The thing is it's rather small but it's a maze of small alleys and streets and this time I got lost on the way to the tourist information centre. Well it wasn't that bad since I discovered a local market and some high street shops. So I got sort of diverted and started window shopping, and well bought some stuff as well :). Anyway the main idea to go to Jerez was to go to the Jerez' School of Royal Equestrian Art to see the 'dancing horses' performance. Well I missed that (even if I didnt go shopping and didnt get lost I would have missed it, just for your info ok) so I went to one of the many Bodegas to see how sherry and brandy is made.

The bodegas I went to was called Tio Pepe or uncle Pepe and it's one of the oldest running bodegas. It also has a store that can hold 16.5 million barrels or litres, I can't remember of brandy and sherry. Apparently it's the largest and is in the Guiness Book of records. So after the tour we had sherry tasting. I'm not really a wine/sherry or any form of alcohol kind of person but I actually thought the sherry was good; sweet and fruity. But after like 3 glasses I started getting a whee bit dizzy and thought I better make my way home early today.

The night was spent with my new roommates. It's funny but we had alot of similarities. We were all far away from home, one from Brasil and another from NZ, studying in Europe. And we all just finished our studies and am wondering what is the next stage in life from here on. Haha so we got along pretty well.

Day 1 Seville

2008-07-04T08:36:00.000-07:00

Seville was hot hot hot!! Although after visiting a few places in Spain, I like Seville the best. The highlight is of course the Seville Cathedral, built over the site of the Almohad Mosque. Some parts of the mosque is still preserved such as the Moorish entrance and the Giralda (a minaret converted into a bell tower). It´s the 3rd biggest cathedral after St Peter's in the Vatican city and St Paul's in London. Apparently when the people built it, they said "we shall have a church of such a kind that those who see it built will think we were mad" . I guess it's only human nature to want o build the biggest, tallest, longest something. Reminds me of the tower of babylon, wanting to build the tallest tower so it will reach the heavens.
The next stop was el Real Alcazar de Seville, which I liked best. The Alcazar is actually the royal residence of many monarchs since it was built in 913 and is still used by the Spanish king when he visits Seville. The gardens are like an oasis, you feel as though you´ve been transported back to some Arabian nights tale. Too bad my camera batteries died just then!! Well, I just had to absord everything and print it into memory. Dont really want to bore everyone with the history and architecture of the monuments because I have a feeling I might be repeating words such as 'beautiful', 'magnificient' and 'breath-taking' alot due to my somewhat limited vocab :)
At night I went to the Andalusian School of Arts and Performance in barrio de Santa Cruz for a flamenco performance. The performance was absolutely stunning, I think my mouth was wide opened in amazement throughout the show. Just looking at how fast they tap their feet made mine ache. And the singer was so full of emotion. I had no idea what he was singing about but you can get the feel that it´s one of sadness and he´s mourning for a lost lover or something. Yeah it made my hair stand! It was truly truly amazing.
Anyway I have to say that when I reached Seville, I totally forgot to get directions to my hostel. Haha, so I just got on the fisrt bus that stopped, used some of my broken spanish with the bus driver who had no idea what I was saying. He let me in anyway and then I got off at the last stop. Hmm...so where to go from here? It was a Sunday afternoon, so the streets were very much empty. I just walked and walked, all the while praying that I´m walking in the right direction because I really thought I might faint under the heat and my heavy rugsack. And then, out of no where I found the street my hostel was located in!!! In the back of my head I heard the choir of angels singing 'Hallelujah...hallelujah hallelujah' :) So no map, no direction and I found it...now who said I have a bad sense of direction huh? But seriously, thank God.

Europe here I come!

2008-06-06T01:23:00.000-07:00

Hello boys and girls :)

The reason for this blog is for me to jot down my so called adventures while backpacking around Europe. For those who dont already know, I am going to make my way through Europe, starting in Spain, to France, Switz, Germany, Austria, CRepublic and will end my 1 month travel in Hungary. As I will be travelling alone I hope to keep people updated about my whereabouts and just to give a yell once in a while. It'll also be great if I can get some tips/feedback from anyone who have already visited these places! Hope you guys will take this journey with me! Adios amigos :)