Touchdown, Seoul.

10 – 12 July 2008 – Seoul

Seoul is hot!

First thing we did after checking into our hotel was go shopping, because our hotel is conveniently located right smack bang in the middle of Seoul’s shopping mecca, Myeong Dong. What a coincidence :p

The Lotte department store, located just across the road from us (and, btw, is ginormous!) has many many things that attract the likes of me and Marisa.

We kind of went bananas looking at clothes, bags, shoes…. and bought a few items… but speaking of shoes, that first afternoon of shopping I got separated from Marisa in Lotte, by the time she found me, I was in the shoe department, seated and surrounded by shoes and a shop assistant bringing me more shoes and fitting shoes onto my feet. I felt like Carrie Bradshaw! Gotta love Korean service, such a stark contrast to what I have been receiving in Europe, in particular, France. Yeah, those French snobs can really learn a thing or two from the Koreans. They really know how to make a customer feel like royalty.

That night, we also found out that our hotel has a self-service coin laundry and not only that, but it only costs 2000 won to wash and dry, that’s less than $AU2! I’m so glad we decided against doing our laundry in Amsterdam, cos it was gonna cost us 8.50 euros. We save here, we spend somewhere else.

After shopping, we were a little concerned about not knowing where to have dinner. We really wanted to have something Korean, and something relatively cheap and close by as well as yummy of course.

We were at a complete loss as to where to go, I mean, don’t get me wrong, there were food places all around us, so we were not going to starve. It was just a matter of deciding which one seemed the best choice.

When we wandered around our little area before dinner, we were pleasantly surprised to find the streets had come even more alive in the evenings than during the day. Not only are the shops still open but the roads were closed off and little street stalls had propped up all around the entire area. It was wonderful.

What I have noticed in the first few hours in Seoul is that there is a helluva lot of shops selling glasses. I’m
talking at least every 3^rd shop being a glasses shop. Are there really that many people with vision impairment living in Seoul? I was in Spectacle heaven, frames were cheap as chips and sunnies weren’t too bad either. The great thing was I actually found a pair of sunnies that fitted my face, only problem was, the price was still just that little too out of my range.

Day 2 – Seoul

Our last full day of holidays, I’m so sad.

This morning we’ve booked ourselves onto a half day tour of Seoul which took us to a local temple, drove past the current palace because we’re not allowed to stop in front as it’s viewed as a security risk, we stopped by the old palace and watched the changing of the guards, which is (for obvious reasons) such an amusing difference to the changing of the guards at Monaco palace. We also got to walk through the then Emperor’s sleeping chambers and all the chambers of his wives and concubines. We got to see the Korean history museum and then made an obligatory tourist trap shopping stop. This time, ours was an amethyst factory/ workshop/ retail outlet. Apparently Korea produces the best amethyst stones in the world, even the pope wears Korean amethyst somewhere on him… I’m not exactly sure where, because I’d lost interest the moment they said we were going to an amethyst factory. Talk about B.O.R.I.N.G! Lovely stones though, beautiful colour.

At the end of the tour, they dropped us off at Itaewon, yet another shopping strip… it turned out kind of disappointing really. There wasn’t much to see there, I have been told that this shopping strip once upon a time openly heralded knock-offs of all major brands and labels, and depending on how much you were willing to pay, you can get a pretty decent quality fake Louis Vuitton bag or a Chanel or a whatever takes your fancy thingyameebob. The sellers show you a catalogue of the full-range of bags they can make for you because they cannot openly display their goods, but what amused me no end was that there are different qualities & grades of knock-offs. The more you pay, the better the quality and apparently the top grade stuff is so much like the real thing, most people cannot tell the difference.

The lengths people go to get fakes….

A useful thing I did learn today was that Korean is the only written language in the world with a known creater and time of creation (~1432 I think). Before that, they – like the Japanese – used the Chinese writing. However, as we all should know now, Korean, Japanese & Chinese are very very very different languages, despite the very similar cultural and historical backgrounds. It was created on orders by one of the noblemen, the Emperor had wanted all his people to be able to read and write and so he commissioned a very smart intelligent man to create a written language that could easily be learnt by farmers and the like. Or something to that effect…. We were only allowed to spend 20mins in there, no where near enough time to learn everything or for me, to remember most things.

After we returned to Myeong Dong, we just went on a shopping frenzy because sometimes you just have to spoil yourself and today we did.

For dinner, OMG, we chose a very nice local BBQ restaurant and had delicious bulgolgi beef, authentic style (at least I think it was authentic?) cos we had to take off our shoes and sit on the floor, which was fun for the first 10 mins, after that it just got uncomfortable. Especially if you are wearing a skirt and trying to protect your modesty….

Last day in Seoul

Not really much planned today… I do remember making Marisa walk through, lordy knows how many floors of Lotte to find a dress that I vaguely remember I liked but wasn’t too sure what it looked like, or where I found it or which part of Lotte I saw it in, I just remember it was very cheap.

Speaking of Lotte, this brand is absolutely everywhere in Seoul, I wonder if it’s the same elsewhere in Korea? There is of course, the Lotte department store, Lotte insurance, Lotte castle, Lotte casino, and I even saw a Lotte yoghurt drink, and I think there’s a few more Lotte things I’ve forgotten to take note of. They’re freaking huge and taking over everything in Seoul.

One thing I love about Seoul – bad service is hard to find. I love it love it love it love it!

We should expect great service here in Oz as well, not just good service, but exceptional service everywhere we go. It should be expected. That is my dream.

One of the funnest things I’ve done while in Seoul was try on about a billion pairs of sunglasses, who knew putting on sunnies could be so much fun!

Other memories of Seoul? Hmm... well, Ginseng Grandma - the gorgeous little grandmother who tried so hard to get me to buy some ginseng products... I will always remember her telling me about "ginseng crunchy, ginseng candy" and even "ginseng chocolate" Eeeeewwwwww, ginseng chocolate? she was so adorable I had to buy something from her :)

But ginseng chocolate wasn't the worse that I saw.... the Koreans have kimchi chocolate - yes, KIMCHI Chocolate! disgusting!! They really do have it with every meal. Kimchi is spread across your table for every bloody meal that you are served in Korea. Poor Marisa, I think she became a bit overwhelmed with all the spicy food that we ate.... whereas I rather enjoyed it :) I love Korean food, sweet, spicy and garlicky - yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Anyways, last 3 hours in Seoul and we just sort of wandered around to do some last minute shopping and then picked up our bags and (for me) sadly headed towards the airport…..

*sigh*

Goodbye Seoul, goodbye holidays. This is the end. For now.

Now, onto plans for my next journey….. who’s gonna volunteer to travel with me next time?

___________________________________________________________

Here are some photos of us and food.... other pics will be posted up soon, I promise - I'm just a

Last day in Europe, so sad

Second full day - Amsterdam


Today I am sad, for more reasons than one.

It's our last day/ night in Europe and I really don't want to go yet. I've still got too much I want to see and so much I want to do!

My last day in Europe and the weather sucks. We've had pretty awesome weather up until we reached Amsterdam....

So, what did we do during the last few hours in this gorgeous, wet and windy city? Well, today was designated Museum day. First stop, the RijksMuseum, which is the Dutch National Museum and is full of arts, crafts, paintings that depict the history of the Dutch. I didn't know what to expect from this museum because I can be honest and say that I had no clue what it contained, so what I learned from it was immensely satisfying. I really enjoyed it alot and I learned that porcelain and china artefacts can be very interesting. In the past, any rooms filled with porcelain plates and bowls would have triggered an immediate "I must ignore and avoid" reaction and I usually would have completely bypassed it and moved straight onto more interesting things like the paintings....

However, on this day, something caught my eye... it was a plate of normal size, with what seemed like your standard oriental artwork on it. However, on closer inspection you will find that the "oriental" artwork is not actually oriental of nature, the one that caught my eye in particular had a picture of some young men, holding back another muscular young (naked) man, with another young man pulling at the masculine bits of the naked man being held back.

I thought to myself, no... that's not what I'm seeing! No way will someone draw that on a plate! What the hell were they doing?! It looked really naughty ;p

So of course, I had to find out more and it turns out, this plate was called "the Castration of Uranus"
So yeah, it definitely was a man tugging at the bits of another man.... hmmmzzz, what kind of person will commission such artwork for their dinner plates?!!

Anyways, from there I learn more about the other procelain thingies in that room, fascinating stuff.

Oh, and just in case you didn't know, the RijksMuseum is also the home of the famous painting, the "Night Watch" by Rembrandt. Beautiful painting. We lived around the corner from Rembrandsplein (or Rembrandt's Square) and there you will find a 3D depiction of the "Night Watch" - Full-scale statues of all the people in the painting, it's quite cool.

(Me with the 3D NightWatch, not very military-like... and the 3D Night Watch in all it's glory)

I found another artist, a still-life artist, that absolutely astounded me, unfortunately my nana-like memory means I don't remember the name at the top of my head, but I shall look for my notes, I know I wrote it down somewhere...

The next stop is the Van Gogh Museum. Somewhat interesting, and I even learnt the proper way to pronounce his name, finally! Unfortunately once again, it just does not compare the slightest to the brilliant Picasso Museum in Barcelona. I think all museums dedicated to any particular artist should look and learn from that fabulous museum. That's how a good museum should depict the life of an artist.

On this museum day, I realised that after these wonderful excursions to these amazing museums, and 2 trips to Paris, I have still yet to visit the Musee D'Orsay in Paris. Such a pity. It's probably the one that contains most of the paintings from my favourite artist, Camille Pissarro.... oh well, must plan for another trip to Paris one day :)

After museums, we had some lunch, the mandatory poffertjes, dutch pancakes, and yes yes yes I know we can get them in Melbourne too, but I'm eating dutch pancakes in Amsterdam! We've had pancakes in almost every city we've travelled to, so it was mandatory that we had to have some today. You just won't understand....

(Marisa and I, on our last journey around the city of Amsterdam on the very windy and wet day)

After lunch we headed back to the hotel to freshen up and rest our little tootsies before Marisa went to catch up with some relatives while I went off exploring Amsterdam city on my own.

Up until now, I had just been following Marisa, Sidhi and Amie around because I arrived later than Marisa, so she was pretty much a local by the time I arrived from Belgrade so I had no clue where I was, no idea what the street names were, nor how to find things. I was heavily reliant on poor Marisa to guide us through. So to go exploring this city on my for a few hours was going to be very exciting for me!

I was on a mission to get myself hopelessly and completely lost!

I tried and tried and tried so hard to get lost, I left the hotel without map, I didn't know where anything was, I was clueless as to where I was, I only knew the name of our hotel and Marisa's mobile number, I didn't even know the street name that it was located on. When I began walking, I deliberately did not take any notice of where I was going, I deliberately walked into all sorts of little laneways and did not read any street signs and yet I still found myself turning up in the same 3-4 streets over and over and over again.

I have determined in this experiment that it is impossible to get lost in Amsterdam. The canals just lead you back to where you need to be. The funny thing was, I kept finding myself in front of the same shoe store.... what's that supposed to mean? Was it a sign? Was a higher being trying to tell me I needed more new shoes??

I tried on many pairs but I managed to avoid buying more shoes, damn it! I'm just too good :(

When I returned to the hotel a few hours later, Marisa still hadn't come back yet, so I took the opportunity to take a nice long hot bath - who knows when I will get to have another bath when I get home. Melbourne is in pretty bad shape at the moment - water-wise (yes we all have to be water wise in Oz)

By the time Marisa got back, we were late for a dinner date with Sidhi and Amie... so we grabbed some quick Indonesian take-away from a recommended restaurant nearby and made our way to Sidhi's place.

Speaking of this restaurant, what a wonderful accommodating host! They were so incredibly busy and in most cases, they probably would've turned away any take-away requests, but Marisa being the fantastic social butterfly that she is, sweet-talked this wonderful indo aunty into not only taking our order but also gave us freebies too! Gotta love the greater indo community! They do look out for their own :)

After dinner, Sidhi and Amie took me to the infamous Red Light District. It was very confronting but also quite amusing as well. Not confronting in terms of the sex and sleaze - despite how I appear on the outside, I'm really not that square or prudish. It was confronting in that everything was just so close together, the laneways were very narrow and there were a lot (and I mean, a LOT) of mainly male tourists. It almost looked like the girls were barbie dolls packed in boxes stacked on shelves sitting in a giant toy store. And you all know how much I luuuurve crowded confined spaces :Þ

All these girls, preening and prancing in a tiny little room with a window, on display like dolls with drooling sleazy men (mostly tourists I think) perving... my impressions? Some of the girls were stunningly super hot, others were pretty, others pretty ordinary, some had great bodies but shame about their heads, and others had pretty faces, but shame about the bodies... and some... well, they should just retire....

What intrigued me most was how ordinary this was for them, they do their ordinary business while people watched them like animals. They chat to eachother, they talk on the phone, they put on make-up, they eat dinner, they get changed, the read books, all the while waiting for business....

Me in my naive and sheltered little world, I can't even begin to imagine how one would fall into such a lifestyle. How can prancing around in your undies in full public view in your attempts to attract customers while eating a burger possibly be normal in a person's life? How can you do that night after night after night? It's a little bit degrading, where are the streets with the boys? How come that's not as famous as this part of town?? ;Þ

Some of pimps *ahem* I mean, doormen were offering us 3 ladies some "specials" and a "great life experience" ummm, yeah, ok, sure.... just let me do a round of the street and the canal and I'll come back later for that great life experience you're offering me. One door bitch was kinda cute too, what a pity he sells sex for living....


Day 3 - Final day in Amsterdam

Another take it easy day for us, we really didn't want to do much, some last minute shopping and walked around a little bit to absorb for the final time on this journey, the smells and vibe of this wonderful city.

Marisa took me down to see Amsterdam's smallest house, at 7 Singel Straat. Apparently, 5 families live there... believe or not. I'm not so sure...

(Smallest house, my arm span is wider than the house!)

Thoughts before leaving Europe...

Sometimes, it's nice to have a change and that's when you have to be flexible and change according to how the situations in your life pan out, but sometimes, plans should not be altered at all, sometimes sticking to your plan is the better choice, but how do you know which is the right decision? How do you know when to change and when not to change your plans?

As one wise man said, you can't plan for surprises. Perhaps that's the best way to think about it....

Bikes and Dikes

6 - 9 July 2008 – Amsterdam

By the time I arrived in Amsterdam, I was absolutely positively knackered.

Caught the train from Schipol to Amsterdam Centraal Station. I was very muddled and confused at that stage, so I’m surprised I got on and off the right train at all. This is the brilliance of the Dutch, they make things easy for us stupid tourists.

Everything is pretty simple and easy to follow, but damnit, what is wrong with the Europeans? They have heaps of easy to use ticket machines that only take coins and don’t take notes!!! Who the hell designed these machines? Who the hell approved their use? It’s a simple addition, dagnabbit.

It was a quick train ride, and even though I wasn’t sure whether or not I was getting off at the right stop, I got off anyway because everybody else was getting off. After a lot of time spent traveling you learn that in any major city, most people tend to get on and off at the “Central Station” So if you see lots of movement of people, the chances are high that you are in one of the main stations, if not the main one. I took my chances… fortunately it was the right choice, otherwise I’d be screwed.

Marisa’s friend, Sidhi, was kind enough to meet me at Central Station because Marisa was daytripping in the Hague visiting relatives.

Sidhi and his girlfriend, Amie are wonderful and friendly and even though they don’t know me at all, I was made to feel welcomed in their home. I was pleasantly surprised to find Sidhi’s apartment so big and spacious and not all cramped like how I imagined many Amsterdam apartments to be like (you have to see how the buildings look on the outside!)

The only thing we did that night was watch the Wimbledon final between Nadal and Federer. I don’t know if I was able to do anything else… What an exciting awesome game though, I would’ve been happy for either to win but I do have a soft spot for the Spanish boys ;)

It took my everything to stay awake enough to watch the entire game and have something to eat before crashing like a rock. I slept like a baby.

Day 1 (full) – Amsterdam

While our hosts slept in, and deservedly so, Marisa and I made our way to Anne Frank’s House, a sad and depressing memorial of some of the happenings of the war but a definite worthwhile visit if ever you’re in Amsterdam.

This morning the weather isn’t great, it’s looking rather grey and cold outside. I also notice how pretty the city looks, it’s very cute, almost cartoon like in a way. I guess because of lack of space, many offices are located in the houses and apartments and the ones on the ground floor have windows that face the street, like shop windows. I find this quite awkward, I would hate to work like that, I will feel like a zoo animal on display. I would hate to know that anyone can see what I’m looking at on my computer… especially if I’m in the mood to look up porn *ahem* I mean, shoes….

Then after that, we met up with Sidhi and Amie and we all went on a free bus tour to Volendam, a little “traditional” town just outside of Amsterdam. Shame about the weather, it’s very cold, windy and wet. Feels like Winter more than Summer.

Thing with these sorts of tours is that you spend more time traveling to get where you need to go and not a lot of time actually spent being where you want to be. But I guess, for today it was ok because the weather was just shocking.

Before we get to Volendam, we spent a good half hour at a cheese factory, probably because it’s in an area known as Edam, and I love Edam! So you can be assured that I ate all the free cheese I could get my hands on. It’s a pity that I can’t buy any because there’s no way I could have taken that back to Oz with me.

(Say Cheese?)

Volendam is known for its fishing boats and traditional dutch costumes, the ones that are very recognizable, the ones you see in postcards and travel magazines. It’s a bit like that, I would’ve had a better look around if it wasn’t so windy and wet! All I heard from the guide was that the dutch surrounded a part of the sea and turned it into a huge inland lake, dammed it up to stop the town from flooding (the Netherlands are full of 'dams'), and the built up area is called a dike. People go fishing in this lake…

We then took a boatride to Marken, an even smaller town just near Volendam. A pretty looking place, but we didn’t spend much time there unfortunately.

(See how cold I was, and how dark the sky was, and how cute are those houses?)

Headed home and checked-out of Sidhi’s apartment and checked-in to our hotel and then headed out for dinner.

This city is full of bikes. You cannot imagine how many people cycle in this city. Bicycles everywhere! Where people park their bikes needs to be seen to be believed! And I’m not surprised to learn that people forget where they put their bikes and lose them all the time.

(Bicycle parking lot)

Anyways, Sidhi’s apartment is not too far from our hotel, so we just made our way there using leg power, if only Mother Nature wasn’t such a bitch, she decided to start pouring bucket loads of water on us during our entire journey. We were drenched and soaked by the time we reached the hotel. Fortunately, it was a really nice place to stay. Close to lots of cafes and restaurants, lots of bars and lots of shops, and even lots of “coffee shops” - it’s quite central.

After we dried off and changed, we met up with Sidhi and Amie for dinner at the Tokyo Café for a sushi buffet dinner, Dutch style. Interesting concept really, you order pieces of sushi you want to eat in each round and you get upto 5 pieces per person per round and 8 rounds of order per table - that’s 40 items of food per person, quite a lot if you think about it. Apparently, it’s rare for people to go much more than the 5^th round. And if you’re greedy and order too much, for every piece that you don’t eat, it’ll cost you an extra 1 euro, so it forces people not to be wasteful.

Nice place, I like it.

(Yummy sushi and the two of us enjoying a delectable green tea ice-cream, or "macha")

Early night for us tonight. I’m so buggered, my body clock is really screwed now, I can’t really eat, I can’t sleep regularly and I feel exhausted and weird….

Footprints in Novi Sad

Day 3 – Belgrade/ Jamena/ Novi Sad

After another night of too much talking, this morning I get up at 11am, which isn’t too bad considering I think I went to sleep when the sun was just about to rise. Over the last few days, I’ve discovered something about myself. I have discovered that I don’t actually need a lot of sleep. There is a point of sleepiness that I can surpass and overcome and when I do, I become wide awake again.

So there I was, 11:30am, fresh out of the shower, watching Serbian tv, waiting for my guide to awaken from his slumber…

I think the uncle must’ve felt bad seeing me, a tourist in his country, stuck in his apartment watching tv so he went to wake the sleeping giant.

He was a nice man, and even though he barely knows me from a bar of soap and we didn’t speak the same language, he still tried to be really accommodating and even showed me some photos… I gathered that some of them were of himself as a young man, some of his brothers, his daughter, grandchildren, his wife and his parents. I think those were pretty good guesses considering I spoke absolutely zilch Serbian. In return, I showed him some of my photos... I don't think he knew what I was talking about, I had no family photos to show him...

When the sleeping giant finally showed his face, we were presented with a dish of some kind of bean baked with yoghurt. It didn’t look great but it was rather tasty.

After our feed, it was down to business. First thing’s first, change the flat tyre! Can’t go anywhere without the wheels. After a quick lesson on how to change a car tyre, we were on our way, first stop Jamena.

According to Mr Tour Guide, the journey will only take us 40-45mins… hate to tell him this, but it took us a lot longer than 40mins to get there. Nice drive through the countryside though.

When we arrived in Jamena, it was around dinnertime but still light and it was a great light to see the cute little town. The immediate feeling you get when you first step out of the car is a very relaxing calmness. It’s very laid back and for reasons I’m still not sure of, it made me feel like I was in Apollo Bay, one of my favourite places back home. Jamena is nowhere near the beach and in no way even remotely looks like Apollo Bay, but it made me feel very comfortable.


So comfortable in fact, I went hunting and brought home a pair of souvenirs :)

ok well, so I found these antlers.... but look at the bloody size of them! I don't know if I could shoot an animal, I'm too much of a wuss.

It's a pretty looking place. We didn’t stay very long in this little town, but I liked it there.

We headed back to home again when it started to get dark, because it was time for a little rest and a change of clothes before heading out to the next stop.

Only thing was, it took us a lot longer to get home than it did to get to Jamena because we made a pitstop to grab a not-so-quick bite to eat. Once again, a huge serving of food for a little person to eat… this probably explains why my face looks so much rounder than I remember.

Look at that! Not one, but TWO pieces of chicken, and one big fat hamburger for the boy.

After getting ourselves into a fresh change of clothes, we head towards Novi Sad, another city in Serbia. We arrived around 1am and had trouble finding a place that would sell us a drink because at that hour most bars were nearing closing time (it’s a small city). We finally settled on a place that offered to sell us last drinks before they closed and when they started turning off the lights, we took that as a sign that they wanted to us to leave, so we did. Walking around a bit to see the little city and get a feel for the place, it was nice. What more can I say, it was late (or early, depending on how you see it), it was dark, and there weren’t that many places still open, nor that many people around…. for me, Novi Sad seemed like a very quiet little city, which I’m sure it isn’t during the day. I must see it again properly another day.

After that, we tried to find Petrovaradin Fortress without a map, and surprisingly it wasn’t that difficult to locate. It’s a fortress, it’s huge, it’s kind of hard to miss. This fortress is famous for, amongst other things – the annual Exit Festival (if you want to know what it is, JFGI).

The night we visited, it was 5 days before the Exit Festival so lots of fencing and stages were being set up around the Fortress. We also saw what I think was a rehearsal show for one of the acts, some dance/ techno thingy. Lots of doof doof “music” which is not my thing. That kind of noise just gives me a bloody headache, but all the pretty lights made it look good.

Mr Tour Guide has spoken a lot about this Fortress, which contains amongst its maze of tunnels and walls a number of bars and restaurants, a hotel and an underground nightclub.

No, no clubbing for this girl, wasn’t dressed for it, didn’t feel like it, hate clubbing.

We did one entire round of the Fortress, taking too many silly photos of too many stupid things along the
way, it took us about an hour and by the time we had almost reached where we started from, the sun was beginning to rise…. I don’t think a more perfect photo opportunity could be found. Sunrise behind this stunning fortress setting, how perfect! But of course, things do not always go the way you want it to… after an entire day of being the token snappy-happy-asian tourist and one too many stupid photos, my camera’s battery died just as I was setting it up for one last photo with the awesome sunset. BUGGER!

These were some of the silly photos we took.... ahhh, the memories...

This was the last photo taken before the battery died....

Why couldn’t I just take ONE MORE PHOTO?! Just one more!

So, instead we just watched the sun rise while enjoying some Serbian crepes by the roadside. It could’ve potentially been a very romantic moment, to be remembered for many years to come, if only I was with the right person…

Instead, it will now be remembered for very different reasons. While we were both enjoying this early morning delight (I’m talking about the crepe, of course), when a rather comedic road rage incident unfolded before us. We saw it happen from beginning to end, definitely a story to tell!

It was an interesting day.

Now, time to head back to Belgrade and pack my bags so I can make my move towards Amsterdam. As soon as the car began moving, I was being lulled to sleep and I had a good hour or so of snooze time by the time we arrived back in Belgrade. My poor Serb Guide, he hadn’t had any chance to sleep for well over 24 hours AND he had to chauffer me around, what a trooper.

There was a little rush to get me to the airport on time to catch my 8:30am flight, and I reckon I made it in time to be the last person to check in.

I flew JAT Airlines to Prague, this is the Serbian airline, and even though I enjoyed my time in the country, I hate to say that this airline is only marginally better than Ryanair, and my view on Ryanair is that they are possibly the worst airline I’ve ever flown with.

From Prague, it was Czech Airlines, which was basic but does the job. What I didn’t understand was, the flight landed on time (including the 1 hour delay), but why did it take over 20 mins to park the plane?? I slept for most of the way to Amsterdam, and when I woke, the plane had just landed, and I checked the time. Then the plane just circled the runway for what seemed like eternity, because of the movement of the plane, I fell back to sleep again and when I woke again, people were getting their bags and moving out and I had somehow lost 20 mins of my life.

Rendezvous in Serbia

Sometimes, you just gotta do something a little bit different and a little bit spontaneous, so I made an impulsive decision and did a little unplanned side trip...


3 - 6 July, 2008 - Belgrade/ Jamena/ Novi Sad


Travelling to Belgrade was not part of my original European plans. I had kind of intended to go to Switzerland... just as a little break from Marisa (no offence dear, you're awesome but after 3 weeks travelling together, I think we did need some space) but, at the very last minute I was convinced to change my mind and go to Belgrade instead.

I have learnt over time that quite often, no matter how hard you try to plan for things, plans almost always go awry. You just have to be flexible to change and sometimes, those changes turn out for the better.....

So, I wake at 4:30am to pack and head out at 5:30am (breakfast-less because nothing was open at that hour) to catch my train to the airport in Berlin. What surprised me that morning was the number of people already on the train at that crazy hour! The train was not exactly packed, but it was pretty darn full, why are people going to work so damn early in the morning?!

It turns out, what I had thought was a direct flight from Berlin to Belgrade was not in fact, direct at all. I had to land in Stuttgart Airport, collect my luggage and re-check in at Stuttgart Airport to catch a different flight to Belgrade. It was such a hassle, and Stuttgart Airport was being renovated so finding the check-in counter was a real pain the behind...

I was starting to get nervous, it was early, my mind wasn't quite awake yet, I hadn't had anything to eat and I was lost in an airport that I didn't know I was going to land in and by the time I found the counter, the lady checking me in asked me where my visa was? Well... I was told by an expert that Aussie travellers do not require a visa to enter Serbia, and that's exactly what I said to her - heheh, I wish I did say that but no, I didn't (I'm not that quick in the mornings)... Fortunately she didn't ask me which expert I was referring to, because the answer would've sounded so stupid. I reckon she thought I was from some asian country, until I pointed out that she was in fact holding my AUSTRALIAN passport, which means I don't need a visa - it was at about this point that images of Border Security and asian women weeping on tv were starting to flash across my mind..... silly, I know but when you only have a few hours sleep and find yourself lost in a strange airport, and now someone has put doubt into your mind about your validity to enter a country, I think funny thoughts will cross your mind too.


While waiting for my flight, I bought a 36gm packet of M&Ms to stave off hunger pangs. The only other choice for food was a variety of bread and looking at bread at that time made me feel ill. So, chocolate for breakfast it was and as soon as I got to my seat and the plane started moving, I was out like a light.

Travelling is exhausting and stressful. Belgrade better be worth it.


Note on Germanwings Airline, they were ok, but boy were those seats close together, the seat in front of me was merely millimetres from my knees, and if I found it cramped I can't imagine how ordinary sized human beings will fit.... when we got off the flight, they gave each passenger a bottle of mango & chilli flavoured fizzy water. What a bizarre combination, and to be absolutely honest with you, it didn't taste half bad, however, at that time of day, with very little in my belly, fizzy drinks was the last thing I could stomach.

Another note, just for me to remember... I have never been anywhere in the world where I was the one and only asian person on a flight, and that happened TWICE that morning. On the way to Stuttgart and on the way to Belgrade.

Me.

The sole Asian.

I felt special :)

So, I, the special Asian, arrive at Nikola Tesla Airport, Belgrade and get through customs and immigration with not much drama. I even get my bag pretty darn early too, no waiting for this girl!


Or so I thought....

I had expected an entourage, marching band, waving flags, streamers, cheers and the whole shebang when I stepped out the door, but no. There was nobody. I won't tell you how long I had to wait for my guide to arrive. And he calls himself Mr Reliable.....

To be fair, he did have car trouble a few days prior, and I was surprised to see that the car was even drivable but that's a different story and this is my story, so I get to tell it how I like it and skew it to my advantage :p


So, 2:30pm and I'm in Belgrade.

The city looks beautiful. It's not pretty like Prague but does have a kind of old world charm with lots of new buildings sprouting up here and there. It kind of feels like a growing teenager, quickly developing and changing from the old to the new and just trying to find it's place in life... I think it's at a pretty good place right now, not too big, not too small, with lots of history attached to it but others may beg to differ.

It's not quite what I had expected, much bigger than I had thought it would be. Traffic was terrible! Serb drivers are amongst the craziest I have ever come across. Fortunately, I have my own private tour guide/ driver/ interpreter on hand to show me around.

First thing we did was drop off my bags and before I was whisked away to explore the city. Surprisingly, and a rather pleasant change, was the fact that there wasn't too many tourists around. It was particularly nice not to hear the irritating American accent (they were bloody everywhere in other major European cities), and was really good to not see any photo-snappy-happy Asian tourists.

I was pretty much it. Me: the irritating photo-snappy-happy Australian-Asian tourist. And it felt great being the only tourist in town. Hell, it felt great being the only Asian in town (I don't imagine there would be too many here....)

I felt special :)

We walked along to a few places, Knez Mihailova, or Prince Mikhail Street is a long shopping mall with some beautiful historical buildings and a water fountain that people drink from. This street leads into a big park/ garden area called Kalemegdan which surrounds the historical Belgrade Fortress. We didn't visit the Fortress today, just walked upto the park and turned back but it looked pretty awesome and grand. We also visited a church or two... one of them being the stunning Temple of St Sava, a Serbian Orthodox Church with a magnificent domed roof

Aaahhhh, look how beautiful it is! You should see the inside, even though it is not yet completed, you can already see how amazing it will look when it is finished.

What I saw on this first day in Belgrade is that the Serbs really enjoy the outdoor life, when it gets dark and the weather becomes cooler, the families start coming out of their hiding places for some fresh air and exercise. Many congregate in and around the parks and gardens, like outside this Church and around Kalemegdan and at first, that to a Melbourne girl is so strange to see parks full of people at night whereas the same could not be said in Melbourne. Parks and gardens tend to become eerily quiet when it gets dark and probably not the best place for a girl to go exercising at night.

It's about 7:30pm now and I haven't eaten anything bar the small packet of M&Ms at the airport but I am no longer hungry, I am beyond hungry now. If I eat anything now, it might come back up in a different shape and a different form. I also haven't slept much either, but am too caught up in the excitement of visiting this city and seeing my dear friend to remember that I need some shut-eye.

Just as well, cos I don't think we got any sleep that night... too much talking, not enough sleeping. The same night, I was also introduced to Serbian beer, Jelen Pivo - Deer Beer - now how did the Serbs know it rhymed in English??? A thought for another day. So we stayed up and talked and watched a lot of tv and talked some more and I think I fell asleep around 7:30am the next morning.... and woke again at 11:30am....

Day 2 - Belgrade

Second day in Belgrade started off with 4 hours sleep and about 2 hours of sitting around waiting for the guide to wake up... and only because I was told by his uncle to go wake him.... yeah, smart uncle, get the girl to wake the grumpy guide. So awake the giant becomes, and I have never known a man to take longer to get ready... waiting... the bane of a tourist's life...

Day 2 we visited the Belgrade Fortress. A pretty darn amazing site with awesome views of the city and could be much more awesome when restoration work is complete and they are able to open up a few more of the underground rooms/ tunnels/ chambers or whatever is down there. It was a pleasant experience, nice relaxing walk all around the Fortress and through the Gardens.

We had a late breakfast/ late lunch (it was about 4pm at this stage) at the restaurant at the top of the Fortress and it had some pretty amazing views of its own. Cute restaurant too. Boy do they serve a lot of food.

Look at that! 10 sausages, loads of chips, big salad and all the bread you can eat.... I ain't gonna be able to finish all that! Look at my face, that's one sleepy face.

We walked back down to Knez Mihailova for some souvenir shopping... the thing with Serbia is that, there's not a lot of choice for souvenirs... there are handmade clay thingies, and paintings, and leather shoes, and lace table cloths... and that's pretty much it. Even the postcards didn't have much variety.

But, tourism doesn't appear too big an industry at the moment, good for me, not so good for Serbia. But that's just now, it's only gonna boom in the near future, so I'm glad to have the chance to see it before it all happens.

Anyway, while Mr. Tour Guide was looking at souvenirs, I wandered off ahead on my own and was very suddenly approached by an artist street vendor. He stopped me in my tracks and stood right inside my personal space and intruded into my comfort zone. I wasn't exactly sure what he wanted at first, my first thought was to take a few steps backwards to regain my personal space but he started pointing at my face and saying something in Serbian... ok, so one of them vulture artists again, I must look really gullible....

I figured that he was saying I have a pretty face and he wanted to draw or paint me (whatever is his medium) but then he would ask me for money afterwards.... like the one I encountered in Paris last year. He didn't speak English so he called one of his mates over to translate, so here were 2 weirdos in my personal space. Where the hell is my guide??? Why is never around when I need him?? I need to be saved!

Here I am, each step that I take backwards, he takes one step forwards... you have a beautiful face, he wants to draw you, please go over to see his artwork, you don't have to buy.... I don't have to buy? yeah right.

Not long after, but not soon enough, Mr Tour Guide decides to step in and shoo the weirdo man away. And we make our way home to rest.... it was too much walking for the giant man.

One thing I have noticed about Serb drivers is that the road "rules" seem to be followed very loosely and are so different to any other European city that I've come across. They're traffic signals are confusing, and the lane markings are confusing. And they drive fast! I've been told that I must look both right, then left and then right again before crossing any roads here....

So we get home pretty early for a rest and had planned to go out later that night, perhaps to some bar for a drink or a maybe a late cruise on the river, and this night is one of those times where plans can go awry.

The car got a flat tyre, so we couldn't go anywhere, too dark to change or pump it up so we just went back home and watched tv and talked and watched more tv and talked some more... once again, too much talking and not enough sleeping

Photos?

umm.... heheh, solly solly

I've slept a lot since I got back, I haven't even unpacked yet, but as soon I upload them, you shall all see :)

More time in Berlin needed

29 June – 2 July 2008, Berlin

When we landed in Berlin, we were knackered. Traveling is exhausting. It was really good timing because the Germans were out in force, lots of shouting and chanting for their teams and lots of red yellow and black to be seen everywhere. It was an exciting time to arrive in Berlin. Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof Station is pretty darn amazing. I’ve never come across a train station quite like it, it’s enourmous!

On our way to our hotel, there was an incident on the train. Some crazy weirdo dude decided to attack an elderly man and he almost hit him when a quick thinking super hero jumped to the resuce.

His reactions were so lightening fast, this previously unassuming man just grabbed the crazy weirdo’s hand before he hit the old man and quickly dragged him out of the carriage and then held him in some sort of wrestling grip until the police arrived to take him away. What a good man. All this commotion caused him to miss his train too and I hope his glasses weren’t broken in the fracas. German superhero, I salute you.

Met up with Marisa’s boy, Bard and their friend, Marcus and tried to go to one of those free public viewing areas around Brandenburg Gate to watch the Germans and the hot Spaniards fight it out in the Finals. I don’t think we could’ve time it better to be in Berlin. Right now, the weather is great, the atmosphere is fantastic and everybody is happy.

Unfortunately, even though it was still around 5:30pm, every gate leading to the public viewing areas were being closed off, everywhere we went people were being turned away in droves because it was completely full (gees, what a surprise!)

We were forced to make a choice, either go back to watch the game in our hotel room or find a cozy bar/ café to enjoy the game with other people and soak up the atmosphere. Now, I’m no soccer fan, but even I would choose option #2. Watching the game in a hotel room sounds so dull and boring….

So, we retreated to a nearby café (Berlin Pavillon), and found a good spot in front of their little big screen. This place was making a killing from all the passing trade who could not make it into the public viewing areas.

I must admit, I was a little relieved that we couldn’t get into the public viewing areas because the game didn’t start until 8:45pm, and we were trying to find somewhere from before 5:30pm, I think I would’ve got sick of the sun and heat and crowd after about 15mins so finding this nice little garden oasis with a screen, and shade and food and drinks was a Godsend!

And you will never guess what happened there too. Who should we bump into at the Berlin Pavillon? Sib & Steve! The lovely couple that we met in Prague. What are the chances of that happening! Amongst 500,000 odd people wandering around Berlin that night, of all the different gates we could’ve stopped by, of all the bars and cafes we could’ve chosen, we chose one where we bump into 2 people we met a few days prior. That is fate. It was great to see them again that’s for sure.

When the game was nearly over, I get a tap on my shoulder and this cute guy starts talking to me in German… ummm, sorry, I don’t speak any German I tell him. I thought he wanted to ask if the seat next to me was taken, because it was empty and I had a prime location smack bang in front of the screen and seating was scarce. Turns out, he was trying to chat me up! That’s something I definitely didn’t expect to happen, but what an ego-boosting way to end the night.

He was no more than 18, just a kid but he was cute. What a shame…. Still, I gave him my number if he decides that he can afford international mobile phone rates. Well Silvio, thanks for making my day.

Then drinkies and a sort of “after party” for us at a nearby bar – Germany lost, but our hot Spaniards won, so it was a victory for Marisa and me. I must’ve had the strongest mojito ever made, half alcohol, quarter mint & lime and quarter soda, very powerful. I was only half way through it before feeling somewhat woozy, granted, I don’t drink much to begin with, but it normally takes more than 1 drink to get me happy.

Day 2 – Berlin

We woke up rather late compared to the other days, but considering we didn’t get back to hotel until about 2:30am, I thought that it was pretty amazing we were up before 10am at all!

Today is designated touristy destination day. We met up with the boys, who was staying at a different hotel,
and made our way to the city central. The boys both looked somewhat hungover and/ or tired… possibly both.

So, first stop, Brandenburg Gate, which was fenced off because they were still holding some sort of giant music festival and celebrating/ mourning the defeat of the Germans from the night before. So we couldn’t really get any closer nor could we walk through it…. Oh well, I did get a picture of the line where the wall used to sit in front of Brandenburg. Then we headed to the Reichstag building, which is the traditional seat of German Parliament.

The building itself is pretty awesome, it has an open domed glass roof, which the general public can go in and climb to the top if you so wish. Entrance is free, and you get a pretty amazing view of most of the city so many tourists line up to get in. It took us about an hour to get to the front of the queue (queuing is the bane of a tourist in Europe) and a funny thing happened there. To get into the building, you have to go through a bag check and scan, like at an airport, and when you get to the front of the queue, there is a big sign that clearly says, please do not empty your bags. Keep all the contents and belongings inside your bag. Anyway, immediately after this sign, a man a few metres in front of us decides to duck underneath the barriers and begins to empty his bag of stuff, it looked awfully dodgy, Lordy knows what he was keeping in his backpack that he needed to so desperately empty. Well, of course the security peoples starts to tell him off and there’s some sort of discussion and then he was made to go through the bin (it was not a public bin, I think it was for the staff) and look for the items he threw away. Well, after more discussion, he was made to put his backpack on, and leave the building. So there ya go, after over an hour of lining up in the sun, he only made it 10 metres into the building, but at least he can say he got into the building eh?

It only took another 15 minutes before some police officers came over to check the bin for whatever he threw out. And of course during those 15 mins, anything could’ve happened, what if he had thrown out a bomb?! What about something that released poisonous gas??!! We were standing less than a metre from this bin, if anything had happened it would’ve been bye bye to us. I love how they can choose to be strict about something and not so strict on others. Normally I love the German efficiency. Anyway, turns out he threw out a little fruit knife. He must’ve freaked out when he saw that his bag was gonna be scanned, and he decided to get rid of this knife…. But dumbass, if they caught you with a knife in your bag, just tell them you forgot it was there, flutter your eyelashes a bit, play dumb and tell them that they can throw it out! (it works, I’ve tried it!) Sheesh, why cause such a big commotion and make yourself look so bad for?

Nevermind the dumbass though, we made it inside and up to the top. Despite the open roof, it gets quite warm inside that dome. Nice view, different to seeing it from a tall tower, but it also gave us a history of the place, which was good.

From the Reichstag, we went to the Jewish Memorial, and I really liked that place. It really doesn’t look like much to begin with, just a load of concrete blocks of all different sizes, but as you keep walking through it, the concrete blocks get bigger and bigger and it becomes a maze. Through the giant concrete blocks, it becomes quite cool and a nice sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of the street and heat of the Summer sun. We saw people just huddle in groups, relaxing amongst the pillars. I like the way it’s become a social gathering place, offering peace and rest for more reasons than one.

From there we followed the line of the wall and headed towards Checkpoint Charlie. It took me a little by surprise that they still keep the line of where the wall once sat in the pavement and roads as a reminder of what happened in the past. I think it’s great that they are not trying to forget the miserable past, no matter how awful it must’ve been for them, but using it to move on and form a better future for the next generations to come.

We saw lots of old buildings that still have remnants of the war, bullet holes and broken bits and pieces, we saw statues that have yet to be restored, but there were also lots of buildings that looked quite old yet are not, much of the city has been restored and renewed, so much of the historical old buildings aren’t really the originals anymore. I really like Berlin, it feels so different to the other European cities I’ve been to, I like it almost as much as I love Barcelona. I like the big open spaces, I like the big open streets and roads, I love how things are not cramped here. I like the friendliness of the people, I like how things just work here. It’s just nice.

Checkpoint Charlie is exactly how it looks in pictures, for me it was just another tourist destination to cross off my list, but you should’ve seen how excited Bard was (I think it was a movie-buff thing??) and it’s always nice to see somebody excited about something. We didn’t go inside the museum, I heard it was really depressing, but that’s not the reason we didn’t go in, we were just really knackered by that stage.

It was a lot of walking for one day, so we headed back to our hotel for a little rest before heading out for dinner at a Spanish restaurant, Espana did win the Euro 2008 afterall!

We all had paella and Sangria and lots of conversation. There was a lot of food leftover, but I think Germans serve big big meals. The boys took home the leftovers, I’m not sure if they ended up eating it or not.

We had intended to go bowling after dinner, but by the time we got there, the bowling was closed and so disappointed, we just went back to our hotels for some well-earned rest.

Day 3 – Berlin

Got a few little things done in the morning before we went out to do some more exploring… posted some stuff back home to make space in our luggage for more shopping… did our laundry.

At the Laundromat, all instructions was in German, but we managed to figure out that we needed 4 euros in coins to operate the machines, and somehow we figured out how to choose the right settings to start the machines. We did quite alright for ourselves.

I did have to leave Marisa for 2 minutes to get more change, and when I returned, she had spilt coffee all down the front of her top, creating a massive stain. Oh the irony! Watching your clothes being washed while soiling the one your wearing… sometimes, I can’t take her anywhere. She had done a similar thing in Paris with some chocolate crepes….. there must be a hole in her chin.

So anyways, after our little unavoidable tasks one must do while on holidays, we set out for Tiergarten to see the Victory Statue and took the obligatory cheesy photo or two with her.

Went to some palatial home, I can’t really remember what the significance of it was, it was big and it was pretty and somebody important lived there….

Went to some broken church, a memorial to Kaiser Wilhelm, or perhaps I should call it by it’s proper name, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It was a church that was damaged during the war, and they’ve restored it and kept it looking broken in memory of this Wilhelm dude. We didn’t go into the Church part, just the memorial hall part, but the stained glass windows from the outside looked pretty impressive, and I’m sure it would’ve looked awesome from the inside too.

Then we headed out towards Kurfurstendamm, (Ku’Damm as the locals call it) a long wide strip of shops and hotels, kind of like the Champs Elysees in Paris. Actually, almost exactly like the Champs Elysees in Paris.

Because we were in the former East Berlin side of the city, the traffic signals for pedestrians are different. We finally saw the famous “Ampelmannchen” so cute.

The traffic signal men wears little hats! I wish we had these in Melbourne, makes crossing the road so much more amusing. I love them so much I bought lots of those souvenirs.

Went back to the hotel to farewell Marcus, who was going back home to Frankfurt and work…. Ahhh… work, what is that?!

The 3 remaining us, went out to dinner to my father’s namesake restaurant, Monsieur Vuong’s – yes it is spelt French, and yes we are in Berlin.

It’s a cute little Vietnamese restaurant, very trendy and full of people and that’s always a good sign, and since they don’t take bookings, having a line of people waiting to go in and eat, that’s a great sign! The awesome part of this restaurant is that it is very cheap, and actually serves really good decent Vietnamese food. I honestly didn’t have high hopes for this place, but this was a surprise package. Good service, good food served quickly and efficiently and cheaply. I reckon they’re onto something here. I’m glad we found this gem. Thank you Lonely Planet!

Day 4 – Berlin

We made our way to Schloss Charlottenburg, the largest existing palace in Berlin. Very much like Versailles but on a slightly smaller scale. It even has a gardens area like Versailles. I like this palace better though, it’s not as garish to the eye, but I love the gardens at Versailles, that’s pretty hard to top.

It amazed me that the royals back then were so interested in oriental culture, there is a room dedicated to the China they brought in from, well… China… so here is a room with shelving designed to display all the bowls and saucers and cups and vases they got from China and other asian countries. It’s very funny to me, because my family used to be in the porcelain / China business way back when in Vietnam. Nothing antique or worth any money, but that was what they did, so if my dad saw all these vases and bowls and stuff on display like this in a Berlin palace, I imagine he would just laugh and tell me, hey we used to make this stuff and it was so cheap! These white people so totally got ripped off.

After Charlottenburg, we visited Museum Island, the plan was to visit the Pergamon Museum, but we ended up at the Altes Museum instead. Truthfully, I didn’t think I’d enjoy it very much since I’m really not that into Ancient Egyptian history, nor Ancient Greek history but you can never really know what you do and don’t enjoy because it wasn’t as boring as I thought it might be. The audio guide lady voice thing did drag on a bit with the details of the artefacts sometimes, but it’s better to have too much detail than not enough detail, because I can always fast forward the boring bits (it seems to like telling me about how many layers of linen some cast was made of and what kind of wood it was and how many holes, blah blah blah blah, fast forward)

And to end a long hot day of walking, we went on a cruise of the river. Pleasant and relaxing and nice views along the way.

Got back early to the hotel where we all got take-away for dinner while I packed my stuff and heading to Belgrade bright and early in the morning!

Before I left Berlin, I had really wanted to eat one last sausage. The very famous and humungous ‘Berliner’ – an enormously long, mother of a sausage served in a teensy little bread roll, you need to see it to believe it. I had seen them all over town and just when I craved one, I can’t find a single stall who sold them. The sausage stalls we passed only sold the ordinary snags, or the ‘Curry wurst’ which I didn’t want. I think Marisa and Bard were a bit baffled by me, what kind of sausage does she want? What does she mean that sausage isn’t big enough?

I think asking people “Can I see the size of your sausage?” before I buy one just might seem a little bit wrong……