Pretty Prague

I'm into my final leg of my travels in Poland after Czech Republic and I am actually hyped up about finally getting back to Singapore. It has been one hell of a journey!

Prague was a really pretty city and me and Edwin spent a very relaxed 4 nights over there. Well it kept raining (48 hours of non-stop rain which brought the temperature down about 20 degrees!), so we pretty much just went out for a few hours each days to see the sights and then back to the hostel.

Luckily we had the best sunny weather on the first day to take the best photos of Prague! All the castle like and medieval style buildings made the place look like a fairyland. With lots of chinese tourist in it :P

Prague!

Town square

Must See #1: Charles Bridge

Must See #2: Astronomical Clock

Must See #3: Prague Castle

Must See #4: Jewish Quarter

On one of the days we made a day trip (rainy day trip actually) to the town of Kutna Horna which is famous for its Bone Chapel and its Cathedrals and the medieval town. The Bone Chapel was quite small but still quite impressive.

Bones everywhere!

St Barbara Cathedral

Inside St Barbara Cathedral from behind the pipe organs

 The reason why we stayed so long in Prague was because my friend Sandy was doing her Summer Programme at Charles University and she would be arriving only on the 26th, hence I extended so that I can meet up with her that day. Its always nice to see your friends in another part of the world :) So on our last day we tag along with the whole bunch of NUS students who just arrived and checked into their hostel and brought Sandy and a few of her friends around town for a bit before we took the night bus to Wroclaw, our next destination in Poland!

1 out of like 15 girls is a guy...LOL arts faculty indeed!

Medieval Festives in Cesky Krumlov!

It is raining continuously for the second day counting in Prague so I decided to work on the video on Cesky Krumlov instead of walking out in my shoes that were still quite damp and into the rain...

As you can see, Cesky Krumlov is not a very huge town. But we managed to spend 2 days there as the 5 Petaled Rose Festival was held during the time we were there. My first medieval festival ever! I had always want to go to one and here was my dream come true...

With craftsmen, artists, musicians all around and local people all dressed up in medieval costumes, it was as if I travelled back to the medieval ages! Festivities that include fencing plays, knight tournament, wedding reenactment, dance performances, juggling, folk theatre and comedy, etc. take place at the castle, courtyards, square, local park and the river bank. It was really enjoyable to just soak up in the festival mood.

Enjoy the video!!!

Viva la Vienna!

From Budapest we head onwards to Vienna!

Historically Vienna is the center of Central Europe with all the most talented artist like Beethoven, Mozart came to play their music. It was a metropolitan city with a diverse mix of culture and people and the buildings that is left behind today reminds us of those golden ages. (You will never NOT have enough photos to take!)  Today, it feels like a German city that still has a lot to offer but it is not what it used to be.

I had 2 group of friends in Vienna but one was in Rome travelling. Luckily the other had just finished their exams and I could spend time with them! Boating in the Denube River because it was so hot, cooking at their apartment because it is expensive to eat out, and swimming at the swimming pool because again it was so hot.

Vienna is also famous for its morbid culture (likes death; there is a very big cemetery for all sorts of religion of people like catholics, buddhism, islam, orthodox church, etc. called Zentralfriedhof where graves are shared by the family and also famous musicians like beethoven, schubert, etc. can be found here)

An observation in Vienna is that people in Europe do not use fans or air-con much! Its so crazy especially when a heat wave passes and everyone seems to be dying...well luckily it doesn't happen very often phew! (Singaporeans in Vienna all complaining).

In the end even though Vienna is supposed to be the most expensive city, I ended up spending one of the least as I ate with my friends and just spend the day walking around the city which is really a piece of art itself. NEXT STOP: CZECH REPUBLIC!!!

St Stephen Church

Watching FREE live opera outside the opera house. Can't understand anything haha

Musician Wonderland!

There are 2 of these each facing each other. Both housing a different museum.

Useless but nice rome style building.

Their parliament house i think

Emerging from the trees is Rathaus or the city hall...my picture did 1% justice of how nice it looks.

Vortivkurche - I refuse to take the front view photo as there is a huge billboard in the middle.

Along the danube river is a very hippy stretch of canal with lots of grafitti and beach bars and people hanging out!

Vienna at night!

Another thing famous in Vienna is its coffee culture!

My hands shielding from the glare that is Beethoven's grave

Belvedere is like a small Versailles

The so called stairways to heaven...

A replica of Sigmund Freud (who was from Vienna) famous lounge chair

The famous Hotel Sacher cake...taste like a good chocolate cake.

Boating is fun. Boat is very slow.

Swimming to beat off the heat!

Budapest (pronounced Budapesht) Wonderland!

After Brasov, our next stop is the AMAZING BUDAPEST!!!!!

Gosh, it is amazing in this place but what was more amazing was the heat that was more than in Singapore! (I will mention this all the way to Prague where it got cooler so bear with me haha)

People all around tell me how much they enjoy being in Budapest and YES I AGREE.

Its a eastern european country that many western europeans love to go to because of the parties and the cheaper lifestyle and of course the baths!

Of all the countries that used to be in the communist bloc, it is said that Budapest is the happy bloc, if that is possible at all. But indeed because of showing that they are not people who will stand down so easily, they got the chance to drink Coca Cola, wear jeans and a couple more rights that you may find trivial but means a lot to the people back then. In fact the older people reminiscence about the communist times as they had a simpler and cheaper lifestyle and even had 3 weeks of paid holidays a year(travelling is limited to the communist bloc though). LOL!

Hungarians are pretty proud of their own culture. For example their language is without influence from the rest of Europe as their origins lies more in Central Asia. It is notoriously difficult to learn and I hear that it had been used as an Alien language in the movie Blade Runner and also Yoda from Star Wars uses Hungarian Syntax. They also really like their food, ghoulash soup, etc.

Budapest is a really nice place to chill and have a holiday. The city has history, cheap operas/ballet, ruin bars,  caving, and baths and above all everyone seems so relaxed and friendly. My favourite Eastern European city so far!

Szechenyi Chain Bridge

The parliament house looks like Westminster if you take away the red dome!

Freaking hot!

So we had to go to Szechenyi baths to cool ourselves down at night!

Matthias church which is said to inspired all the rest of mosaic tiled roofs in churches in vienna, prague, etc.

Watching last performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarf ballet at the Hungarian State Opera. Damn Cheap!

House of Terror showing the horrible things during the communist rule.

Heroes Square

Szempla Ruins Bar. Voted 3rd best bar in the world.

Its time to go caving.

Tying my shoelaces so that I would have a hell of a time getting out from the other side.

Brasov! Vampire Land!

Its been a long time since I last post haha. And Oh Boy the weather that I felt over the past week or so has been really unbearable... even hotter than Singapore I would say and the Europeans don't use air con (not even fan!) as much as we do back home.

So first we went to Brasov in Transylvannia, Home of Dracula legends...

In the middle of mountains, the first thing that you notice when you get to Brasov is their Hollywood style sign. And that was where we got to first thing after we got to our Hostel which was just at the bottom of the hills through a cable car and we walked down a loooong winding path that was so slippery that got me grumbling and cursing all the way.

The town of Brasov is not as interesting as most of the other places I went. Churches and fortification walls like any medieval towns and the usual westernized restaurants and shops to suck all the tourist money. Near the town there were 3 castles which are very popular for a 1 day tour which we did. Bran Castle also known as Dracula castle even though he did not live in it or maybe for a few days as a prisoner (tourist traps everywhere!), Rasnov fortress which is a nice ruin on top of a hill, and the Peles Castle. The last castle was the best!!! It is a modern castle of less than 150 years old so it had very modern fittings like electricity, heater, even a lift! And the interiors were so beautiful inside! The best thing is that it is not too big that it overwhelms you like in Versailles and you will feel that it is fitting for a King and not that the King is spending too much money on himself.

At the sign!

The aerial view of Brasov

Rasnov Fortress

Aerial view of the town of Rasnov

Bran Castle (outside)

Bran Castle (inside)

Langos (like hum ji peng)

My favourite Peles Castle!