Bucharest: Capital of Romania

After a long journey that includes a train from oban to glasgow, an overnight bus from glasgow to london (with a snoring passenger beside me OMG) and a train to luton airport to catch a 3 hour flight to henri coanda airport (plus sleeping in the airport till the first bus at 530am), it is finally welcome to Eastern Europe and Bucharest, Romania.

A lot of my european friends wonder what I am doing in Romania as it is not a common destination for people to go on holiday. Well I am not exactly on holiday, I am a traveller and it is my duty to not just go to the most touristy places in Europe but to also travel the off beaten track and see the different faces of Europe.

Romania, unlike the rest of western Europe is less developed and you can see that the roads are less well paved and the outskirts resemble certain parts of South East Asia (not Singapore). And being in the capital that says a lot.

The city centre is more build up and is a mix of new and old buildings and you can see that there has been so many developments over the years. There are some communist style, a lot of french influences (Bucharest was once called the little Paris), the financial centre has German influence and even American influence. With a dictator ruling the country just over 20 years ago, a lot of buildings were destroyed or moved entirely by lifting it up and putting it on rails and pushed to the new location to mold the city to his ideal.

It wasn't doing very well until recently when it joined the EU and things has been improving they say since then:)

Well food is cheap here:) 5SGD for a two course meal? 2SGD for a 500ml beer? One night hostel for 12SGD? Welcome again to Bucharest.

Looks like a poor asian country

Village museum with all the outdoor exhibits - here is a peasant church

The houses they live in

The interior

Using the waterwheel to do work

A swing for children to play

just like the one in Paris but smaller

Many people making a pilgrimage to the church on tuesday to pray for miracles

'dracula' ruled from Bucharest not from his castle!

Now it feels like any normal western European country

The iconic statue of Bucharest and ugliest statue i have ever seen haha

 

he did his best for his country but the communist won...

Favourite meeting place - potato on a stick (actually it represents democracy the monument piecing through the cage that represents communism

Roman Atheneum - Concert hall for symphony music. One of the biggest pride of Romania

Inside the Roman Atheneum

Second biggest government building in the world after pentagon - built by crazy dictatot

biggest playground I have ever seen - now that is a sight to see

Beef Ghoulash - kinda like curry chicken without the spice

Spicy pan but not spicy at all

Mushroom and chicken in white sauce with polenta

Pancakes with raisin and cheese 

Beef and pickle in white sauce and mashed potatoes and sausage with serbian rice

Polenta with cabbage and rolled chicken? i think

Chilling in Bucharest!

Last times in Scotland Part 2: Oban

At the point when I am writing this post, I still in my hostel waiting for the train timing to arrive in Oban.

These few days in Oban, it was always blue skies and sunshine and calm seas, the most wonderful weather you can ever get in the world!

Seafood Capital it is!

Climbed Dunnollie Castle for a good view!

Mini Colloseum - McCraig Tower

Isle Hopping: Mull - Lunga - Staffa - Iona

The largest of ternish Islands - Lunga

Love the bluebell fields!

The sea is just too glorious

PUFFIN SEASON!

I took like a million photos of these puffins and it was so amazing that they were just one metre in front of me!

The next island is Staffa where the fingal cave lies.

It has these unique rock formation that is simply a sight to behold.

Just chilling at the beach in Iona

Next day - wildlifewatching!!! We say birds of prey, seals, lots of porpoise, deers and other birds. But its hard to take any nice pictures with my digital camera. So just imagine haha!

Off we go!

One of the major attractions of the area was the Corrywreckan whirlpools which was very weak at the current tide. Only certain days the whirlpool will be really strong and spectacular

On the final day we just decide to chill and walk around town and hike up to McCraig Tower to catch a paranormic view of Oban.

Seafood Capital how can dun eat seafood!

We had a lot of fun in Oban and spend a lot of money also...boat trips don't come cheap! The weather plays such a huge difference in our adventures. What a Bang to end this Scottish journey on!

So Long Scotland! Eastern Europe here we come! (it is currently flooding at the moment so in contrast the worst weather ever...let's keep our fingers crossed :P)

Last times in Scotland Part 1: Elgin

This is my last week in Scotland and it has been a wonderful journey here for the past 5 months.

In this last week the scenery of Scotland decided to give me a last hurrah and show the best of it to me after laying in dormant from January to May. From Orkney to Speyside to Oban, the sun and the greenery was in constant full blast that the weather felt like back home in Singapore than the usual Scotland. (Its considered weird weather in the UK)

ELGIN

Elgin is the whisky capital because there are so many distilleries around it. We went to a cooperage where they make or repair the bourbon or sherry cask where the whisky matures for many years to give it unique aroma. You can see how they work swiftly to repair or expand the size of the cask and conduct testing. It is something that you do not see at other distilleries (which mainly show the same thing as all whisky making processes are the same)

Basically whisky cask are all made from Oak trees either American (grows straighter so its more economical as a larger proportion can be harvested) or Spanish. The american oaks are used to contain bourbons for a couple of years before they are emptied and filled with whisky whereas the spanish oaks are filled with sherry for the same process.

I made this cask myself from the individual pieces of wood! I can be a cooper!

We went to the distillery of Glenfiddich as well. It is the most awarded whisky in the world and has a 50 year old whisky (not the age but the time it has been mature in a cask)!! While I find the the taste of their whisky a little too spicy and strong, it is a free tour with 3 free drams of whisky to try, so its definitely worth going! As I said all whisky tours are more or less the same but if you compare this to the Highland Park distillery that I went to in Orkney, you will notice the difference in production scale of the distilleries as this one is so much bigger (The fact that they can give free tours with 3 free drams of whisky shows how much they are rolling it in. They also bought the surrounding catchment area for their water supply LOL)

To give a summarized process of whisky distilling:
First get your Barley (buying it or growing it) and malt it (soak it in Water for a few hours to start the germination process) and then you dry it by lighting a kiln under it.
Next you grind it into a flour called grist and you dissolve it in water to form wort.
The fermentation process comes after with the addition of Yeast and it becomes like a beer like fluid.
Subsequently we have to distill it (at least twice) to make it clear and the alcohol stronger.
With the correct percentage of alcohol in the spirit (about 67%-70%), you can then start to age the whisky in  the sherry or bourbon oak cask to give it the flavour you desire. After many years (Scotch whisky need at least 3 years to be considered one and are more commonly 10-18 years), they can then be bottled and sold.

Post Exams: Orkney Adventures

Hi everyone again, its been a while! I finished my exams last Friday!!! HURRAY!

And I have just return from my 2 day Orkney Island trip which is an 8 hour ferry ride from Aberdeen Harbour.



Went there with a bicycle and left without one. Adventure of Epicness.

Day 1

We arrive at 1130pm and initially wanted to sleep at the harbour but the terminal does not operate 24 hours so we got kicked out. With nowhere to go and the sky never getting dark throughout the night, we decide to start out 40 miles cycling journey. At Midnight! And it was one of the best scenery in Scotland so far thanks to the wonderful weather!

We took almost 17 hours to reach our destination at Stromness because our bicycles were not the best for climbing and we had to dismount to walk up the numerous slopes and hills in Orkney. I must have dismounted 100 times on Day 1 LOL! We also stopped to eat some food to refuel ourselves, to see the archaelogical sites and to say HELLO to the cows, horse and sheep. Orkney is good for raising farm animals... its like New Zealand!

Maybe its because I get to breathe in the fresh air or we are in control of our destiny (or maybe just movement) that I feel so in touch with nature! Compared to the bus trips like to Isle of Skye or Cliffs of Moher, I felt so much more alive this trip!!!

Day 2

Could I still cycle on day 2 after the huge journey of Day 1? Of course!
But as fate would strike on me to have a freak incident where my rusty and old gear of my bicycle to slip a notch and my leg to fly into the front wheel and break the spokes of wheel, rendering it useless. I had to dump my trusty old bike and Edwin's too as no bus wanted to send us to town with our bikes and we couldn't get a hitchhike too.

We went to a distillery instead and went for a whisky tour and bought some nice whisky for friends and families back home. We also met a friend who coincidentally was in Orkney and was going back the same night also, so we had some dinner together. The ferry was delayed by 3 hours but we got some free chips, chocolates and drinks in return. It was really nice of the terminal crew!

Injury counts: Scraped 4 fingers and a right knee, loss a bicycle and a pair of gloves and bicycle lock...but it was one hell of a trip!