New Years with New Friends!

Didn’t have any plans for New Year’s Eve so had a very impromptu dinner at home with Shean and Ah Mui. Cooked a very simple dinner and chilled out dinner….so chilled out that we didn’t even take any photos! Played chor dai di with Shean’s XXL deck of card which was so hilarious….cards the size of A3 was tiring and at the same time so funny…..shuffling and dealing the cards was so funny, couldn’t stop laughing. after a few rounds, we gave up to small regular sized deck of cards which made everything so much easier. We tried to watch a movie but we were all so comatosed from the dinner that we couldn’t even concentrate so we decided to continue to play chor dai di.

Midnight came and went with hugs and the traditional Auld Lang Syne. It didn’t really feel that it was already a new year and still can’t believe that the year has zoomed passed sooooo quickly. Not long after 12am, all of us were ready to retire to bed. Shean and Ah mui left and I did some tiding and packing as I was heading down to Warwick on New years day.

Woke up early and got ready for the journey down south. It was snowing the whole night and there was at least 1 1/2 inch of snow. Praying hard that my train will not be affected by the snow. The journey down was smooth and I arrived Coventry station at about 1450hrs. Ask at the customer service counter which was the easiest way to the University where the UK National Youth Conference was being held. The guy said that the bus 12 was the best (I even asked whether it was running since it was New Years, he said Yes). However, I was standing in the cold for about 20 minutes before deciding with a few other so share a cab to the Uni. Realised that 2 from those waiting for the bus was also going to the Youth Conference so was lucky.

The conference was a very inspiring one, filled with motivated youth. Made new friends and being around 346 youth for a weekend was really rejuvenating. The conference was all about the action that we need to make as youth for the advancement of the world civilization. As cliche as it sounds, youth are the future. We need to work hard in molding the next generation. We were called to action in making sure that children and young youth become tools to “contribute to the well-being of society”.  I will definitely reflect on it and try my best to do something. I know that I’ve taken a back seat but now I know I need to work out something to contribute!

Here are some of the photos….

                         

                            

                           

                                                                  

The Christmas that was London

My friend Shean and I headed down to London on the 23rd December to meet up with our dear friend Eugene for Xmas. Took the train down to London and was greeted by the busy London!!!

This picture was taken at the tube station. It was an ad for holiday and the picture for New Delhi was the amazing Baha’i Temple!!!

This is me waiting to eat after the train…we had dinner at this place called May Flower with another friend from Newcastle, Farhan….the food there was yummilicious… lobster noodle and grilled honey eel….so yummy!

    Eugene surprised us by telling us that we weren’t actually going over to his place in Reading (which was the initial plan) and instead we had his sister’s place to ourselves (sister and her hubby went back to Malaysia for Xmas) for the whole entire time we were there right smack in the heart of London! Thanks you Eugene’s sister and bro-in-law!!!! Lovely house and amazing location made Shean and I go $_$…

The next day (Xmas Eve), we made our way to this restaurant called Cha Cha Moon for lunch on Carnaby Street. Char Kuay Teow was gooood.!

After lunch and a bit of walking around, we headed to Hyde Park to the Winter Wonderland. It is a fun fair with Christmas and snow-themed rides and different kinds of food. Below are some of the photo snapped!

     

                            

                 

I love this photo of the boys!

   

this is the other ride we went on besides the ferris wheel, called the black hole….it was fast, very dark and very quick.

On Xmas Eve, we had extra company, Eugene’s friend Jia Ping to join us for the festivity.

Settlers of Catan to pass time!

Midnight, open present time……Pressies all the way from Miri!!! Thank you Elmo!

Christmas we had roasted chicken, and roasted potatoes and carrots…which we comatose immediately after lunch!

On Boxing day, we went to the all famous boxing day shopping!! It was too crowded for my liking but managed to get at least somethings. After shopping and dimsum lunch, we headed home to rest for a bit. After resting for a bit, we headed off to Waterloo for Avatar at the IMAX 3D cinema!! All 3 of us were so excited!!!!

After the amazing movie (please go and watch it) with our 3D glasses which sadly we had to return. Please go and watch the movie for a fantastic experience…if you watch it in 3D its even BETTER!

                                 

The next day we headed to Kings Cross and got on platform 9 3/4! Sadly not to Hogwarts but back to Newcastle!

Holiday

In the beginning, this one week holiday had no plans.....it was just me chilling back taking time off work....but now.........my sister and her kids are visiting on Thursday....am I excited or what?

Time to think of where to bring them!!!

Lake District

I know that I went to the Lake District before my Europe tour but i totally forgot to blog about it until recently, i had to make a mental note "to blog about Lake District"!!

So yeah, the next day after my parents arrived from Malaysia, we headed off to my cousin's place in Preston. Since she was only about 1 1/2 hours away from Lake District, it was convenient to drop over her place. So we took the bus to Preston from London and arrived there almost 10 and stayed over her place.

The next day, we went up to Lake District. The view there was wonderful and I really enjoyed the scenery. However, the weather was not the best. It kept on raining and stopping and raining again. Pictures taken were not that beautiful compared to if there was beautiful sun!

The lakes and hills were so beautiful, makes you wanna build a small little cottage up there and wake up every morning to the magnificient view!

We spent the whole afternoon there, driving pass hills and lakes and stopping for lunch/dinner. This area is huge and having only a day there sure wasn't enough. I hope to go back and see more of the area!!

Got home almost around 9 and everyone was already exhausted. Since the next day we were going to drive up to Newcastle for my graduation, we headed to bed early for an early start in the morning

Day 6-8 Paris

Day 6-8 of the European Sampler

Left Switzerland early in the morning for Paris and it was definitely a VERY LOOONG drive at it was already evening when we arrived there in Paris. Stayed in this hotel called the Kyraid Hotel which was a tiny hotel compared to the one in Amsterdam (it was true what the tour guide had said about the rooms becoming smaller as we went on with our tour). However, the hotel was located in a place which was very convenient. The metro stations were just 5 minutes walk away and they had tonnes of Cafe's and Restaurants there.

Got ready for dinner had chinese there, since my aunt couldn't stand the western food anymore. So had chinese and after that we went off to see the Eiffel Tower in the night. This was not part of the tour and it was all on our own. Took the train map and figure how to get there. Thankfully the metro system was easy. So managed to find Eiffel Tower and took pictures. By the time we got there, lights were alright out and it was really amazing. I never thought that this day would come, me being in Paris because since young, you always see thousands and thousands of pictures of it but never saw yourself being there. But I guess this was it. There were sooo many people there and the queue was incredibly long. My parents didnt see the need to queue and go up so we took the pics all around it, trying to get the best angle.

After photo taking, it was already around 10.30, so we said that we better head back before it really gets dark. So we took the train back to the hotel and called it a night.

The next day, we had a city tour. Went to Notre Dame first. The tour guide said that the buildings in Paris were just cleaned so Notre Dame was really relatively white looking compared to the usual greyish dirty looking. If you've watched Hunchback of Notre Dame, this is where the story was pictured. It is still a church that people go to and the architecture in it makes you feel so spiritual the moment you step in it. I know I've been to churches back in Malaysia but this one just makes your hair down your spine raise up in awe.

After all the snap snap of pictures, we hit the road again for some more siteseeing. Pass the city town and the famous Arc de Triomph. and we reached this place to take pictures of the Eiffel Tower. Managed to take some fun pictures there (if you have my facebook, you'll see all the jumping photos), and some family pictures too. I wish my whole family was there to have a picture taken!!!

After that, we were on our own. The bus dropped us somewhere near the The Lourve and we were on our own for the rest of the day. So walked around The Lourve, didnt go in because mom and dad were not that interested to go in and the group of friends that were with us were also not interested. So we just took pictures of the famous pyramid that is there and left for Sacre Ceour, another church. This church was on a hill and the view that we were able to see was fantastic.... It was pretty packed and people were not exactly in the church but around the church just chilling!

After the church, we split with the group of friends and we went on our own. Mom wanted to find this market where they had all the painters and artist. So we went in search high and low, and finally when we found out where it was, it was up on the hill on the otherside of the church. By this time, we had already come down from the hill. So imagine this, we went up this hill (quite high okay) to see the hill and then came down thinking that the market was not on this hill. Then we went up the hill again (this time on the other side) to find the market. This definitely tire my parents and my mom out, even i could my legs shaking already with the amount of steps that we had to climb. The artist there was really nice to see and watch too bad some of them put up notice that photos were not allow to be taken. I guess its all about copyright :P

After walking around the market, they were already tired and was thinking of going home. But told them that it would be a waste to go back to the hotel so early (it was only 4pm). So we said we would go to the Arc de Triomph to take some more pictures, since we only passed it and didn't manage to take any good pictures. Reach there and the amount of people there was crazy. I guess its the craziest site to see being that it is actually a roundabout. Another crazy part of this site or maybe the roundabout is that the people on the roundabout must give way to the people coming into the the roundabout. What madness is this? So means that there is constantly cars coming into the roundabout, and it is not like there is only 4 exits to this round about. i think it was more that 4 (maybe 5) and constantly giving into the people coming in is going to give the person on the roundabout a headache! I think I would be killed trying to cross that street!

We then walked down the town just to have a look. Found LV shop which was rediculously expensive yet still there were so many people in there. I personally never liked LV because of its LV being printed all OVER their items.... to just let you in how much things were, just imagine a keychain that has a small little LED on it cost 150 euros (thats about RM 650). We just went in to show my aunt how much things can cost and she got a shock and kinda hint that she wanted to leave the place. Walked around some more after that, into Toyota shop, some other car show. It was really nice. Paris is definitely a very nice place. Even when everyone goes on about how rude people there are, we were lucky enough that we didnt come across any! People that we ask directions for were nice and friendly, which definitely changed my view on them as being rude.

After the walk, we headed back to the hotel and had a very nice dinner and retired all early to bed. It was still so early (i think it was only 10.30pm) that i couldn't sleep since it was still bright outside so i just flicked through channels till i dozed off...

Morning came and it was time for us to head back to the UK. Some of the tour members were going to leave from Paris back to their respective homes so it was kinda sad that we were all going to part ways. Friendships were definitely made and with the power of Facebook, it would be easier to find each other. After breakfast, we headed to Calais again, go through passport check and back to Dover again. Reached London around 5 and everyone was hungry. Brought them to Kaisu (the place that i went with my friends) and it was good!! At last 2 ko enjoyed her food....:S

Anyway, that marks the end of the European Sampler. Sorry it took so long for me to update the last part of this tour. But there you go!!! Enjoy the pictures....

Day 4-6 Lucerne

Day 4-6 of the European Sampler

We are now on our way to switzerland....sceneries changing...hills come to view!!

As we make our way to Lucerne, it becomes hilly and mountains are visible. Didn't see much as i was sleeping in the bus...very typical of me to be sleeping in a moving vehicle...I'm sure my sister can agree with me!

Arrived at the hotel just in time for dinner and a stroll around the area after that. Being the summer, the sun sets very late, so when its around 9+ the sun will only start setting. The hotel that we were staying overlooks Mount Pilatus and it was really beautiful.

The next day, we went to the Lion Monument, which was done to remember the Swiss soldiers that died during the French Revolution guarding Louis the-dunno-number-what, King of France. It was such as sad monument as the face of the Lion was so sad, it was already near death, looking all defeated.

After the monument, we were brought to this small town to look at some Swiss knives and watches. World famous right? yeah, but they are not cheap, especially the watches... the knives were still okay but the watches...hmmm....no money how to buy?

Finishing to what was suppose to be shopping, we went on a additional excursion on a river cruise, which allowed us to see all the beautiful sceneries. It was so beautiful that it made you wanna go " The hills are alive, with the sound of music, the songs they've sung for a thousand years"...seriously...no kidding!! I know i might not be in the correct country being that the movie was filmed in Austria, but I definitely had that feeling.

Going up Mount Titlis was next in the additional excursion. We were expecting that it was going to be cold (Switzerland immediately sounds cold to you, what more up in the mountian full of ice), equipped with our winter jackets, we went up the mount by cable car. We went on the cable car that was the world first rotating cable car. The floor of the cable car turns, which allows you to see 360 degrees of the mountain, which was good, because they squeeze as many people in the cable car as possible that you are not able to move so the cable car moving was the only thing that allowed you to see the whole view.

When at the top, it was warm!! the only thing that was cold was the snow/ice that was there. Still a lot of snow for snow fights and also snow man but who wants to do that when you have this amazing view right in front of you? You felt like you were on top of the world and it was so breath-taking. You really felt that you were on top of the world because you were so high that clouds were below you! The summer sun made it warm enough to sit out the bench to have lunch, which was so relaxing. Makes you wish that you had a house there for the summer, because I dont think that you'd wanna stay there during the winter (chills down my spine just thinking about the winter there).

Headed back into town again after that to do more shopping. Went around town and in the end managed to buy a Swatch watch, that was the only swiss watch that was affordable and Dad bought it for me! Thanks Dad...I've NEVER had a branded watch in my life (you all must go like, you're kidding right?), so I was really happy and I love my watch very much!!

This ended the day and everyone headed back to the hotel. Some headed to a folklore dinner to hear some yoddling but we stayed in and had an early night for we were heading to Paris in the morning!!!

Day 3-4 Cologne