Friday, July 24, 2009
Back in Singapore and busy as a bee
Yes its been 10 days since I landed in Singapore, and a whole lot of other things including an extremely tiring FOC has taken place over the past week. I'll still keep updating this page with all the events that I have yet to elaborate on, but will also be moving back to my old page again, which has been neglected for the past 6 months. Surely it has been the trip of a lifetime, but yes its also time to move on, just taking an ocassional walk down memory lane on everything that has happened in wonderful Europe. Be sure that I will talk alot about what happened in the last month in Amsterdam, which was basically fun, fun and more fun!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Last 2 nights in Amsterdam.. and alot of catching up to do
And so, the time has come.. like all good parties, this party that has been on-going for the past 166 days is drawing to a close as well. I spent the bulk of the past few days doing quite alot of things, like revisiting the touristy places in Amsterdam, visiting places I have never done previously, and sad to say, we did not even get to do some of the things we should have! This includes a canal tour in Amsterdam! But oh well we jumped the canal so that kinda counts!
Seriously, I cannot remember the last time one month felt this short. The month of June 2009 shall go down in GH's record books as the shortest month ever! While it is impossible to detail the happenings over these 30 days given that I will be on the flight back home in 40 hours, I will try to start with my last day in Prins Hendrikkade, where my roommates threw a simple farewell dinner to see me off my 3 weeks in Europe!
Day 134
My Bangladesh flatmate Shameen and his friend Musbashar, studying in Scotland and was visiting Amsterdam cooked up a real feast! As a staunch lover of spicy cuisine, I simply could not have asked for a better dinner! The photos above don't really do justice, but let's just say it was the best meal I had here in Amsterdam that wasn't cooked by myself. :)
Roommates
Flatmates! When I said flatmate, basically Shameen stays in the room opposite mine and Peter's, but our key opens the same door, and 3 of us share one kitchen and one toilet.
Wiki and Seb joined us as well, since they came over to help me carry some of my stuff over to their place, or rather OUR place for the remainder of our stay here in Amsterdam. We had spent the earlier part of the day clearing out my room, packing for the 3 week trip, doing research on places of interest, printing boarding passes, getting back my one month's deposit from DeKey, going to Spui where I bought this really awesome pair of Adidas shoes that was going for an unbelievable price, and buying a host of other things like shirts and what not. I did not know how we managed it. Haha.
Well, a parting shot of the 3 of us. It has been an interesting and wonderful experience to have stayed with a Bengali and Slovak, one of the true cultural exchanges that takes place during one's exchange! I hope to be able to play host to them when they visit Singapore!
After dinner, I helped wash the dishes and walked around the compound for one last time, and said a few goodbyes to the friends who were still around.
Seriously, I think this was the only time my side of the room looked that neat. :S
The letterbox that wasn't opened too many times.
My bicycle parking area.
The view from the rooftop. I only went up there on 2 occassions, once during the introduction dinner, and this time for the photo.
And so, after some final pictures, it was time to say goodbye to Prins Hendrikkade 189 A-52A.
I think I must have been really lucky to have gotten this room. To think I wanted to swop my room for somewhere else! No complaints about the location, the people and the price I paid (considering how expensive accomodation in Amsterdam is!)
Pushed my bicycle to Seb's place, along with the last luggage. What followed was a mad night's rush to find accomodation in Bratislava, Budapest, Vienna and Salzburg, as well as where to go, what to do in these places.
Needless to say, 5 people's worth of belongings that are not packed properly = a very untidy room.
Of course, there was still the ever-ongoing mission of trip planning. The bane of any trips has got to be this process. Behind all those nice, touristy pictures you see on facebook, much preparation has gone into it!
I stayed up the whole night looking for places of attraction and accomodation in Budapest, needless to say, I was deadbeat when we boarded the bus to Brussels. But then again, it was just the beginning of an exhausting but unbelievably fun 21 days!
To be continued
Seriously, I cannot remember the last time one month felt this short. The month of June 2009 shall go down in GH's record books as the shortest month ever! While it is impossible to detail the happenings over these 30 days given that I will be on the flight back home in 40 hours, I will try to start with my last day in Prins Hendrikkade, where my roommates threw a simple farewell dinner to see me off my 3 weeks in Europe!
Day 134
My Bangladesh flatmate Shameen and his friend Musbashar, studying in Scotland and was visiting Amsterdam cooked up a real feast! As a staunch lover of spicy cuisine, I simply could not have asked for a better dinner! The photos above don't really do justice, but let's just say it was the best meal I had here in Amsterdam that wasn't cooked by myself. :)
Roommates
Flatmates! When I said flatmate, basically Shameen stays in the room opposite mine and Peter's, but our key opens the same door, and 3 of us share one kitchen and one toilet.
Wiki and Seb joined us as well, since they came over to help me carry some of my stuff over to their place, or rather OUR place for the remainder of our stay here in Amsterdam. We had spent the earlier part of the day clearing out my room, packing for the 3 week trip, doing research on places of interest, printing boarding passes, getting back my one month's deposit from DeKey, going to Spui where I bought this really awesome pair of Adidas shoes that was going for an unbelievable price, and buying a host of other things like shirts and what not. I did not know how we managed it. Haha.
Well, a parting shot of the 3 of us. It has been an interesting and wonderful experience to have stayed with a Bengali and Slovak, one of the true cultural exchanges that takes place during one's exchange! I hope to be able to play host to them when they visit Singapore!
After dinner, I helped wash the dishes and walked around the compound for one last time, and said a few goodbyes to the friends who were still around.
Seriously, I think this was the only time my side of the room looked that neat. :S
The letterbox that wasn't opened too many times.
My bicycle parking area.
The view from the rooftop. I only went up there on 2 occassions, once during the introduction dinner, and this time for the photo.
And so, after some final pictures, it was time to say goodbye to Prins Hendrikkade 189 A-52A.
I think I must have been really lucky to have gotten this room. To think I wanted to swop my room for somewhere else! No complaints about the location, the people and the price I paid (considering how expensive accomodation in Amsterdam is!)
Pushed my bicycle to Seb's place, along with the last luggage. What followed was a mad night's rush to find accomodation in Bratislava, Budapest, Vienna and Salzburg, as well as where to go, what to do in these places.
Needless to say, 5 people's worth of belongings that are not packed properly = a very untidy room.
Of course, there was still the ever-ongoing mission of trip planning. The bane of any trips has got to be this process. Behind all those nice, touristy pictures you see on facebook, much preparation has gone into it!
I stayed up the whole night looking for places of attraction and accomodation in Budapest, needless to say, I was deadbeat when we boarded the bus to Brussels. But then again, it was just the beginning of an exhausting but unbelievably fun 21 days!
To be continued
Monday, July 6, 2009
Last 9 days in Amsterdam
Hello everyone, its been a while eh? I've successfully ended my 3 week Eurotrip just 4 days ago, and its the drinkings, beach outing, and meetups with friends for possibly the last time (yes it's depressing) that has prevented me from updating. While I'd love to write a 30 page long, detailed process of the events that have unfolded over the past 25 days or so, I'm still pretty much occupied with a ton of other things, including going to places in Amsterdam that I haven't gone to, such as Van Gogh and Heineken brewery; going for the canal tour; packing my luggage... the list goes on!
Well, I hope to update again soon! It gets quite saddening knowing that I'd be leaving this place and all the wonderful memories behind.
Well, I hope to update again soon! It gets quite saddening knowing that I'd be leaving this place and all the wonderful memories behind.
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