Amsterdam --- Netherlands

This is some real backdating manz....It's January already and I'm still doing blog entry for November. Oh my God!!! Someone gotta motivate me to blog manz...think if ziying hasn't tagged..I would be too lazy to blog liao..lol...

This is about the Amsterdam trip on the 24th Nov 05. We took a cuise from Newcastle port to Ijmuiden. The entire journey was totally horrible. It was a 12 hr journey and the ship was shaking violently throughout the whole journey, making us feel so miserable. Luckily, I managed to get the sea sick pill from the cabin crew. The pill was very effective and immediately put me to sleep. I almost fell off my bed a couple of time at night thanks to the choppy wave.

We reached Amsterdam on Friday afternoon. The first thing that we do is to look for our hostel. We had some difficulties with the tram system as there were so many tram stations all over the area. Well.. I can tell you that it is super dangerous to cross the road in Amsterdam. Besides the cars coming from the opposite direction than those in UK (welcome to left-hand driving system in Europe...), the trams and now gotta watch for the bicycles coming in all directions! Bicycles are favourite form of transport by the Dutch just like in China. Anyway, we managed to find our hostel in the end which is just opposite Hard Rock Cafe! Cool!!! The hostel name is Stayokay...hahaha...hopefully our rooms are in a 'stayokay' condition.

We checked out one of the Dutch museum (forgot the name liao) which lirong recommended. She said that we could get free admission if we told them that we are under 18. Well....apparently it doesn't work out and we gonna pay to get in. What a shame! Anyway, like all the museums, there are alot portraits and drawings about the country's history. Borrr....ing!!! Perhaps, I'm not the kinda art person.... Hahahaa......The night activities are more interesting. We are hearding down to the Red Light District. Wooohooo..... Well.... too bad we are not allowed to take photos in the area, so no pics to show you ppl. Anyway, it's very interesting how the prostitutes operate in the district. They would stand behind a glass panel, skimpily dressed and those interested party would just come up and knock on their glass panel. Then they will negotiate the price before getting into the room and do their 'business'. Besides that, there are alot of sex shows in the area. Yusen, Joanna and Regent went for one of the shows which cost 30 euros!!! Crazy bunch of guys!!!

There are alot of coffeeshops in Amsterdam. These are not those usual kopitiams in S'pore where people sit down and have coffee. These are the ones where you walk in and fly out. Haaahaha... these are the places where you can smoke Marijuana. The smell of Marijuana is so strong and distinct that you can immediately tell it is Marijuana a few metres. It is just so disgusting!!!

The next morning, we visited the 'cleaner' part of Holland -- the outskirt of Amsterdam. We saw alot of windmills in the area -- the icons of Holland and the Dutch ladies of course...hahaa... There is a sense of peacefulness in the outskirt, really a good place for retreat!


Canals are also an important icon in Amsterdam. They are also seen everywhere in the city such that Amsterdam is being described as the second Venice. The last day we took a canal cruise which brought us through all the major canals in Amsterdam. The view is simply awesome!!!

Oslo - Norway....

This is our first trip out of UK and we are going to Norway. Well... we have seen beautiful pictures of Norway, snow capped mountain and copper sulphate blue kinda river. It's a shame that we only have 2 days in Oslo and would not have the time to travel to such places. Anyway, think Oslo will be equally nice, at least it is something different from the usual English cities. We will be flying to Oslo via Ryan air, one of the budget airline. The two way return airfare is only 45 pds! Think even flying from Singapore to KL costs ard $200 plus.

Our flight is at 6.20pm and we reached the airport only like half an hour before. So we have to hurry with the checking in of our baggage and dashing to our departure gate. It was a 1.5hr flight from Newcastle to Oslo. The moment we stepped out of the plane, we can feel the cold norwegian weather hitting hard on us. Luckily, we came prepared and wore our long john plus extra clothings. Well... it's a shame that it will only start snowing on Monday, so we wouldn't be able to see snow during our trip. Nevermind, we shall see snow in Switzerland during Dec! We went to the luggage collection point to retrieve our backpack and only to realise that my backpack is missing. I went to make a lost baggage report and they told me that they can only tell me the outcome on Saturday afternoon. My heart sank as my notes and letter of accomodation in UK are in the backpack. This is supposed to be a fun trip and now it turns out this way.

Well... it's no use worrying about the bag now, gonna cross my fingers and wait until tomorrow afternoon. We then board the bus from the airport to Oslo city. It was already 11pm by the time we reached the city and we have to find our way to the hostel. Fortunately, we met 1 nice staff from 7-eleven and he showed us how to take the tram to our hostel. Eventually, we reached the hostel at 12am.

The next morning, we woke up very early to have our norwegian breakfast. Well.. it was not really that nice. The bread was very hard and the salmon has an extra fishy smell. Nonetheless, we still finished up the breakfast before going to the city centre. We took the tram to the Norsk Folkemuseum. Basically, the tram can take us to all the attractions within Oslo. Tram runs on electricity instead of diesel and is the most convenient transport in the city.

Norsk Folkemuseum is the norwegian museum of cultural history. It showcases the clothing and equiments that the norwegians used during the early days. There are also wooden cottages where the norwegians used to stay. These cottages are located in the open, amist the coniferous trees. There is also a small church at the top of hill. It would really be nice to live in this kinda cottages, away from the busy city.

ZS and I went to the viking ship museum which is just next to the Folkemuseum. There are 3 real size viking ships in the museum of which one of them is in a really bad state. The ships are streamline shaped and engineered to travel at a very high speed. The viking's worksmanship in shipbuilding is really impressive. However, they seems not to be not that smart when it comes to designing land transport. They constructed a cart with wheels that cannot turn and thus the cart can only move straight!

It was only 4.30pm after our tour in the museums but it seems like it is already 7pm. The sky is getting dark. We try to find a norwegian restaurant to have our dinner but the restaurant are too expensive. The cheapest meal you can get is 20 plus pds! In the end, we had our dinner at McDonald's. Think this is definitely the most expensive McDonald meal I ever had in my life. It cost 6pds!

The last day we only had morning to tour the city as our flight back to Newcastle is at 5.15pm and the bus ride from the city to the airport is already 2hrs. We went to Vigeland park which is Norway's main attractions with more than 1 million visitors each year. The unique sculpture park is the work of the sculptor Gustav Vigeland with more 200 sculptures of nude men and women! There is also a tall pillar with sculptures of men and women on it, which is supposed to mean the strive for spiritual excellence.

Finally, it was time for us to go to the airport to catch our flight back to Newcastle. Anyway, I called the airport earlier and they told me that my backpack is in Newcastle. I was so glad that at least my backpack is not lost.

Mission Impossible---Bath/Stonehenge/Cambridge

This weekend we embarked on the most challenging and almost mission impossible trip and that is to travel to Bath/Stonehenge/Cambridge in 2 days! Well... the journey from Bath to Cambridge is already 6 hrs and to think that we are going to 3 places in 2 days! Incredible! We only started preparing for the trip on thursday. It was rather late to do bookings for hostel and transport. Most of the hostels are all full and the single trip train from London to Bath cost 16.50 pds. In the end, instead of doing our assignment, we spent the whole afternoon in computer lab planning our itinerary. We came up with the cheapest and the most time saving method for our trip and that is to take a train to London on Friday afternoon and then transit another train to Bath. We will spent Friday night in Bath and the next day afternoon we will join a half day tour to stonehenge. On sunday morning 6am, we will go back to London and from there to Cambridge again. Sounds like a lot of travelling eh??

We went to the train station immediately after our lessons on Friday to buy the train tickets from London to Bath. But the ticket seller told us that we can only get the tickets at London. When we arrived at London, we were shocked to realise that the train ticket has increased from 16pds to 40 plus pds in just one night. Eventually, we managed to find a bus to Bath at 15 pds. Well.. it kinda expensive for a single trip bus ride but it's the cheapest we can get and we really got no choice at that moment. On the bus, we made phone calls to the hostels for a room but all the hostels are full. We were really disappointed and were about to give up when we found one hostel with vacanies. The staff told us that he will reserve a room for us but when we reached there, he told us that the hostel is full. In the end, we have to continue our search for an accomodation for the night. It was already 11.30pm. All of us were tired after the long journey but thank God, we managed to find a room in YMCA in the end.

We woke up early the next morning to start our tour in Bath. Bath is a beautiful Georgian city with delightful crescents, terraces and architecture. It is very different from the other cities in England that we have been to in a sense that there are Roman buildings in the city. There is a big roundabout, known as the Circus, with continuous stretch of Georgian houses built along the road. According to the local, the buildings are placed in a circular formation to represent the stones that are arranged in the same manner in Stonehenge. Hence, no matter from which exit you stand at the roundabout, the views of the Georgian houses are still the same.

The famous heritage of Bath is the Pulteney Bridge. The bridge has a Palladian design and it is one of only four in the world lined by shops on both sides. It was built for William Pulteney, whose wife had inherited rural Bathwick across the river from Bath. Terraces are cut in the river banks and across the river creating small rapids and parabolic water flow.
We went to Prior Park which is located at the outskirt of Bath. Set in a sweeping valley, we are able to get magnificient views of the city of Bath. It is a really nice and scenic park with a sense of peacefulness. The main highlight of the park is the Palladian bridge. The bridge is one of the only four left in the world and therefore it is under the preservation by the National Trust. The Palladian design is based on the original design by Andrea Palladio, an Italian architect of the Renaissance, for the Rialto Bridge in Venice.

It was already 12.40pm after our visit in the park and we have to get back to the city centre by 1.30pm to join the Stonehenge tour. Well... the city is approximately 40 min walk from the park. So we ended up running all the way back to the city. It seems like running is unavoidable in all our trips like running to the train station to catch the train to Edinburgh and running to catch the bus to Holy Island. But eventually we manage to reach the city on time.

It was a 1hr plus journey to the Stonehenge and we ate lunch on the bus. Lunch was bread and jam that we have packed during our breakfast in the hostel. Kinda pathetic but we have to think of ways to minimise our spendings for every trips. The weather was perfect, bright and sunny just the right day to go to Stonehenge.

By the time we came back to Bath, it was already 5pm. We wanted to go to the Roman Bath but it was already closed. To our delight, someone came out from the back door and we managed to sneak into the museum. The Roman Bath used to be the bath spa for the Romans during their reign in England. The Great Bath is the highlight of the museum. The bath is 1.6 metres deep which is ideal for bathing and has steps leading down on all sides. Statues of Roman soldiers are placed around the Great Bath.

The next morning, we boarded the bus at 6am back to London. The bus fare was incredibly cheap at only 1pd! (How I wish I can get this kinda fare for all my trips) It was a 3hrs journey and the 3 of us slept soundly throughout the bus ride. After sleeping only after 12 am and waking up at 5am this morning, all of us were dead tired. We then took the train at King's Cross to Cambridge and reached there at ard 1pm.

Cambridge, compared to Oxford, is definitely much more quiet. Although both of them are university towns, Oxford is a more cosmopolitan city. There are not many people along the streets in Cambridge whereas in Oxford, it is bustling with people in the city centre during the weekend. On the whole, I would consider Cambridge to have a more conducive environment for studying. Yusen was total mesmerized by the place and was even thinking of doing his masters in Cambridge!

We went to Queens College where the world famous Mathematical Bridge is located. The Mathematical Bridge is part of Cambridge mythology. It has been said that Newton designed it, and that it was so elegantly constructed it needed only mathematical principles, rather than screws or nails, to hold it together. The legend also has it that inquisitive students took it apart to see how it worked and were unable to put it back together. It was, in fact, built by James Essex the Younger in 1749. College records show that coach screws were used to fasten the joints of the original bridge.

Most of the colleges are located along the river. And as we walked along the river, we could see people punting. Well.. punting is the traditional English way of boating. There will be a guy standing at the rear of the boat and trying to move the boat forward by using a long pole to push against the ground of the river. It is a lovely sight, seeing the grand looking colleges, people strolling along the river and punting. We also met some Singaporeans studying in Cambridge and Imperial. Well... we could that they are Singaporeans immediately when they started speaking, all the 'la's and 'lor's, simply the trademarks of Singapore.

The biggest college in Cambridge should the King's college. It has a magnificient chapel just beside the college and a big patch of grass in front of the college. Well... there is a 'Do not step onto the grass' sign and we simply went in to take a better picture of the college. In the end, someone came over and scolded Yusen for walking on the grass. Luckily, Zhen Siong and I came out first.

It was getting late and along our way back to the train station, ZS found 30pds on the ground. At first, we were just thinking of having bread for dinner. In the end, we went to a chinese restaraunt to have a sumptuous meal in London. By the time we reached Newcastle, it was already 2am monday morning and all of us are dead tired.

Mission impossible accomplished! Experience level up!

Brighton....

Jason and I were discussing where to go on Sunday the night before but Brighton is not one of the places in our mind. We were contemplating between Cornwall and Maidstone but Cornwall is too far from London so we bought the bus tickets to Maidstone. The bus is at 9am the next morning and we arrived 5min earlier. Thinking that we still have some time, we went to buy breakfast at a shop which is like a few metres from our departure bay. However, the bus left when we were back. The next bus to maidstone is in the late afternoon and there will not be enough time for us to travel around the place. In the end, we decided to go to Brighton instead since it is highly recommended by Jason's friend.

Brighton is located at the southern coast of England, 2 hr bus ride from London. Well... Brighton is famous for the beach and the long pier which extends up to 1km from the coast. There is also an amusement park on the pier which makes it even more special. During summer, the beach is filled with people, enjoying the sun and doing water sports. Well... today is definitely not a good day to visit Brighton. It is pouring heavily and the wind is blowing very strongly. Jason and I were shivering in the cold weather as we did not wear extra clothings.

We went to the Royal Pavilion first, hoping that the rain will stop by the time we came out. The Royal Pavilion is house to Prince Regent and a very interesting building. The exterior of the Pavilion has an indian look while the interior of the building is decorated with chinese paintings and lamps with dragon carvings. Well.. seems like Prince Regent is heavily influenced by the indian and chinese culture.


It is still drizzling after we finished our tour in the pavilion. We decided to go to the pier despite the strong wind and the rain drops hitting hard on us. Most of the shops on the pier were closed. The amusement park also ceased to operate during this period of time. Seems like it really is a wrong time to come as there is nothing to see on the pier. One thing comforting is the beautiful view when you stand on the pier and look back at the coast. I can imagine that it is a great place during summer with the bustling people on the beach and the pier.

Oxford...

Well.. the weekend is finally here again and this time I'm going to London alone. Woohoo! Quite an exciting one eh? Anyway, Yusen, Zhen Siong and Regent are going to Manchester and Liverpool this saturday but I did not join them as the main purpose of their trip is to visit Old Trafford and Anfield (well.. maybe for Yusen). Zhen Siong was quite relunctant to go but in the end joined them. As for me, being a non-football fan, decided to go to London to find Jason instead and then going to Oxford together.

Boarded the megabus at 3.40pm on Friday evening and this began my solo trip to London. It was a 7.5 hrs journey due to some accidents along the road that caused the bus ride to be delayed by an hour. It was a very long journey. I tried to read some notes to kill time but got kinda dizzy due to the bumpy ride. In the end, I slept throughout most of the journey. Reached London Victoria at 11.30pm and Jason was there to fetch me. We took the tube back to his place. The train was in a massive bad condition and it looks as if it has been running for decades without maintenances and it also made abrupt stops in between stations. Eventually, we reached Jason's place at around 12 plus am.

We woke up early the next morning to board the Oxford-London tube and reached Oxfordshire in 2hrs time. We met up with Jason's army friend, Weihao, who is currently in his third year in Oxford University and majoring in Chemistry. He brought us to his college, Worcester College and it was really beautiful. . It is a nice place to study in, with those traditional English buildings and a pond just beside the building. You can just take a stroll in the park after school and immediately be refreshed. Well.. today is probably the graduation day as we could see students in their graduation attire taking photos with their parents.


Oxford used to be a small university town. But as the influx of tourist to the area increases each year, Oxford soon became a cosmopolitian city and thus lost its peaceful sight compared to Cambridge. However, it's still a place worth visiting as the university colleges remained unchanged and still retained their first look.

We went to Christ Church College after our visit in Weihao's college. Well... Christ Church College is the biggest and richest college in the university. Famous people like Charles Boyle came from that college. The college was made even famous when the dinning area of the college was being used for the filming of Harry Potter. Flock of tourist came to the college just to have a peek at the dinning area and it cost 3.50pd just to get into the college.

Weihao then brought us to the river which is just a few minutes walk from Christ Church College. We could see people rowing in the river. Apparently, rowing is a very popular sport in Oxford University and there is a regatta where the various colleges would compete and try to sink their opponent's boat. Erm....as you can see that the colleges are not really in good terms with one another. There is sort of a rivary just like the halls of residence in NUS.

Finally, we went to one of the museum in the university. Well... this is not one of those museum where they display boring stuffs like old paintings and antiques. This museum is really an interesting one. It is the Biology Museum which showcase the skeletons of the different animal species. They even have a giant dinosaur skeleton in the museum. Pretty impressive eh??

Well.. today is Guy Fawkes Day. It is the celebration of this guy called Guy Fawkes who failed to bomb one of the major building in England. On this day, fireworks will be displayed throughout England. At first, Jason and I wanted to go to River Thames and watch the fireworks but the bus driver refused to let us take the earlier bus back to the London. In the end, we can only watch the firworks display from the windows of our bus. Kinda sad...