Germany - Frankfurt

22nd December 2014

Can't believe it took me 4 months in Germany to finally come to Frankfurt, especially since it's only 30 minutes away from Mannheim! We checked out of Ulmenweg in the afternoon, and only got to Frankfurt when the sun had already set. We booked a hotel at Frankfurt East. After depositing all our stupidly heavy luggage there, we took the train to the city centre for dinner. We found this nice little bar nearby, which I forgot to record its name unfortunately, because it served great pork knuckle. The mussels were nice too. We shared a glass of apple beer (I think), which tasted awful :P

We bought our mums a bottle of Yves Rocher cream each, since it was at a discount, plus we got 3 euros back from VAT refund :P

We looked around for the Christmas Market and it was by the river! It covered quite a long stretch, and 2 of the stalls that attracted my attention the most were: the sausage stall, which had a big bunch of sausages on charcoal grill; the fries with many flavours to choose from! I was quite sad that I was too full to try them ;(

The market was pretty nicely decorated, and there was a merry-go-round in the middle of it.

We took a stroll along the river, but it was really cold, so we didn't stay long! As we had to wake up early the next day to catch our flight, we decided to go back earlier for a good rest.

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I'm really glad that I decided to come to Europe for exchange. Of course, thanks to my mum's support, both emotionally and financially :P I think the places I enjoyed the most were Italy, Switzerland, and Greece. Hope I'll get to go UK the next time I'm in Europe! Spain, Portugal, Iceland, Norway, and a good France trip are also top on my bucket list :D

Germany - Cologne

19th December 2014

Lc came back to Mannheim on 18th after his exam :) I went to the hauptbahnhof to pick him up at abt 9pm, and I was like half asleep (after helping C pack her luggage), and while walking from the bus stop into the station, my legs just suddenly turned into jelly and I fell on both knees -.- And everyone stared at moi. T.T Waited pretty long for him since we weren't quite sure which train he could catch, and some of the trains were delayed for 50+min!

On the morning of the 19th, we headed to Cologne! It was drizzling when we arrived, way colder than expected. The famous cathedral was right outside the train station, so we quickly snapped a few pictures before leaving for our apartment. There was a Christmas tree and some festive deco, but we didn't see the Christmas market (which was on the other side of the cathedral).

We found a cozy apartment at Cologne South on airbnb. It was slightly far from town, but not too troublesome, and quite reasonably priced. There were also quite a lot of shops/cafes around, so pretty great for tourists who want to save some money! We napped till 6pm since we were both exhausted.

We wanted to take a tram to the city centre (cathedral), but ended up alighting at Neumarkt Christmas Market to satisfy our growling stomachs. We ate a looottttttt. The food was quite expensive, although cheaper than Munich Christmas Market, mostly around 4-6€ per serving.

So we had fried fish fillets first (which was great!!!), then this even-better salmon sandwich! The salmon was roasted using charcoal and tasted really tender and juicy and yummy. Lc also had a steak burger, and we shared a cup of glühwein. After allll that food, we were still craving for more, so lc had a waffle (which was lousy), and I had this bowl of mushrooms. I loved it!! There was a variety of mushrooms cooked in this nice I-don't-know-how-to-describe sauce with onions.

It was a really great meal, but we spent about 25-30€ altogether, which is quite expensive, considering we ate this out in the open! But the atmosphere was great and the food was fantastic. Worth every cent!

We headed to the cathedral for some night views. We crossed over to the other side of the bridge, but unfortunately it was quite dark and scary over there, so I quickly snapped some pictures and went back to the train station.

That concluded our first day in Cologne.

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20th December 2014

We woke up late again! We planned to see the Schloss Drachenburg at Königswinter that day, but first, we went to the city to get some perfume as gift for my mum and some other people.

4711 is one of the oldest and most famous brands that you can only find in Cologne (or very difficult to get elsewhere)! A lot of the scents were too exotic for me, but I managed to find a really nice female one, and another reasonably nice male one. The prices were so low! Typically about 20€ for 100ml. I definitely recommend it to everyone who's traveling to Cologne. On a side note, it's cheaper to buy from 4711 shops than souvenir shops.

We arrived at Königswinter really late. I didn't really expect the city to be so abandoned lol. We almost didn't meet anyone there. The hike up the mountain was a bit longer than expected, but we got there after about half an hour! Sadly, the castle was closed for maintenance T.T Well, at least we got some great exercise and nice views of the city along the way.

It was a gloomy day, but the sun finally greeted us when we arrived at the castle!

Slow tortoise :P

Look at that! Rhine is awesome.

We had to wait quite a while for the train, so we had a short walk around the city.
Everything was closed! Guess it was Chrismas time and everyone was gone?

Back in Cologne, we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant that we had been eyeing since we arrived. We had a plate of Peking Duck (which was actually just roast duck to our disappointment) and 回锅肉.

Afterwards, we visited the main Christmas Market at the cathedral. I didn't really think it was better than the one at Neumarkt. I liked the atmosphere at Neumarkt more!

We were too full for any food, but we got a packet of cathedral shaped butter cookies that had a tinge of cinnamon taste. I liked it even though I hate cinnamon, but it was too pricey!

We also got some chocolates for our friends in Singapore. And trust me, THIS IS THE BEST CHOCOLATE EVER. The Ragusa Blond with caramel is really... too good to be true. I'm not a fan of chocolates (or sweet stuff), but this chocolate is not overly sweet, smooth, and melts in your mouth. 3 bars for 10€. My friends also loved them! :)

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21st December 2014

Time to head home again :( Last 2 days in Germany!

Germany - Ludwisghafen

18th December 2014

Last day of exams for C, and we met up for a final meal before the end of exchange at the Chinese restaurant recommended by S at Ludwigshafen. Y came too! It was pretty crazy that none of us had been to Ludwigshafen when it was just a bridge away from our school... We ordered way too much food and ended up packing some for takeaway. Super greedy and desperate after 4 months in Europe :P

We went over to C's apartment to help her pack her stuff as she was leaving the following day for London! This girl ah... Bought tooooooooooooo many things. We threw away a lot, and I squeezed the remaining stuff into her 2 huge suitcases like crazy, and eventually settled everything at about 7pm.

The best thing that happened during exchange was meeting her haha :) We first met during the Strat Mag intensive seminar on 15 Sept. A group of us were going for lunch together at Mensa, and somehow we ended up sitting together after buying food (and lost the rest lol). Coincidentally, we were sort of 老乡s and are both very 宅, so we became each other's one of the few friends there.

有缘千里来相会 :)

Goodbyes are always hard, but our friendship will definitely be remembered and continued.

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21st December 2014

Back from Cologne, I brought lc to the same restaurant to have dinner so as to avoid pizzas and pastas.

After dinner, we strolled to the Weihnachtsmarkt and enjoyed some last breaths of the chilly air in Germany :(

Germany - Metzingen

16th Dec 2014

So I'd finished all my exams and headed to Metzingen OutletCity to shop for MK bags upon my mum's request :P It was a cold, cold day. I bought the Baden-Württemberg-Ticket and realised (after 4 months in Europe) that it didn't cover IC trains. Haha! So my plan was disrupted and I only arrived at Metzingen at 4+pm after a 3-hour long ride, when my phone was running out of batt and the sky was already turning dark. I initially wanted to visit Tübingen as well, since it was only 10 min away by train, but unfortunately there wasn't enough time :(

The outlets were not far from the train station, just a few minutes away by foot. And I walked pretty damn fast because it was freezing! I couldn't use the Google Maps as my phone was out of batt, so I just randomly walked (tried to consult a local map but couldn't really figure out the right direction) and fortunately went the correct way!

I headed straight to the Tommy Hilfiger shop to get a polo for lc as gift since he always wanted one and claims it's too expensive :P Took a while to decide which one to get, because all the colours had 50% discount (35€ only) except white and black which were 50€. White is really nice, and I was quite tempted to buy it, but 1) the material seemed to have black cloth fibres stuck on it and I was afraid that after washing it in the washing machine it'd just get ruined 2) I wasn't sure if the size would fit, so I thought it wasn't really worth the extra 15€! Anyway, after the purchase, I surprisingly realised that I could still get a 3€ tax refund :P

It took me another 10 min or so to find the Michael Kors shop. It was quite big, but didn't have many new designs. The outlet prices were in general 80-120€ cheaper than retail prices. Good deal! I think I spent 1 hr in the shop, trying to decide what bags to buy because my mum wanted me to get some as gifts for my cousins. So in the end I bought 3 wallets (all 99€ each) and 4 bags (ranging from 159€ to 279€), including 1 wallet and 1 bag for myself :D I think the shop assistants thought I was some typical China 土豪 lol. Got a tax refund of 123€ from an expenditure of almost 1100€. Not bad?

The bags were a lot heavier than expected, and it was late so I was ready to head home. On the way, I saw Triumph, so I went in to get some bras. Haha. I got 3 in the end, 27€ each. That's S$30 cheaper than in Singapore!

Finally, I grabbed my dinner at Macs and headed to the train station to wait for the train. I don't know why, but there was this chicken box at that specific Macs which was super awesome. I think it had 10 pieces of nuggets and 6 wings, and you can choose 3 different types of sauces to go with it, and it only cost 7 or 8€! Best deal ever. And I greedily devoured everything because I didn't have lunch haha!

I got home at 11+pm and I just trembled the whole way T.T I almost didn't get off at Heidelberg to change train because I fell asleep. There was this woman on the train who was talking so loudly on the phone and I was extremely annoyed by her because I was trying so hard to sleep, but eventually she woke me up with her volume at the exact moment when the train stopped at the Heidelberg station. So... I guess I had to thank her instead lol.

I think the outlets at Metzingen were okay, but a lot of people told me they couldn't find anything nice there. I guess if you're just going there to get some basic or classic designs then you'll be fine, but don't expect to find new designs there!

Slovakia - Bratislava

16th November 2014

Leaving Budapest, we took a 3-hour ride to Bratislava. It was a really bad day for me, as it was raining (freezing) and I had cramps. The weather was really depressing, and we skipped the city tour as usual. I was just desperate to find somewhere nice and warm to sit down and rest.

We found a really great Chinese restaurant while walking downhill towards the Old Town. We had a lot of food, like soups, duck, black pepper beef, 土豆丝, and there was even 毛血旺!! I was quite surprised to find this in Europe. We ordered way too much food, but we kind of finished everything, so I was ultra bloated. Even the boss was shocked at our great appetites... Hahaha. The meal wasn't cheap, about 19€ per person, but I'm guessing it was because we ordered too much and the 毛血旺 was probably quite expensive. Nevertheless, I thought the money was well spent and I was super satisfied with the meal.

We continued walking towards the Old Town. It wasn't far, just across the small bridge.

A good view of the city from uphill, but the entire city was veiled by a thick layer of fog. 

If you go up the slope from here, you'll find great cafés.

The Old Town.

Somehow, this reminds me of China in the 90s.

The thing you see on the bridge is called UFO! There is a nice restaurant 85m above ground level, and an observation deck 10m up from the restaurant. The entrance fee was 4.35€ for students, and we took a lift up. The lift seemed similar to the one at the Eiffel Tower, since it went up in a slanted path. In the UFO, we often felt vibrations due to the movement of the lift and the wind! Pretty scary at first.

Nice ambience.

View from the deck. Still foggy!

We stayed there till 7pm! LOL. We got so comfortable up there, plus there was Wi-Fi. So you could imagine :P I ordered a Cappuccino and a huge waffle, which C and Y promised to help me eat but they didn't!!! I stuffed the whole thing down even though I was still full from lunch. It was a great waffle (with cream, bananas, strawberries) so how could I resist :P

The most prominent modern building in the vicinity!

I went up to the deck to get some night views of the city, hoping that it would help to redeem itself as the capital city. Well, the view wasn't too bad, but not very impressive either. I guess the city doesn't really have many iconic buildings to begin with, so the views just seemed a bit mediocre.

We headed to the huge shopping centre (the modern building above) just across the bridge. It was really quite big and nice inside. Reminds me of ION! Best news for us was that there was KFC inside! Haha! The KFC there was really really cheap, like you could get 20 wings for about 10€ (can't remember exactly but about there). On the same level, there were Subway and other fast food restaurants that had really cheap stuff.

After dinner, we went to a café to get free Wi-Fi and continued derping till 9pm when we headed back to the castle to assemble and go home. The bus was half an hour late again and I really wanted to punch them.

Bratislava has a really strange mix of old and modern architecture. When we first entered the outskirts of the city, there were a lot of colourful buildings that looked like HDB flats! Even surrounding the Old Town, there were some relatively modern buildings alternating amongst the remnants of the medieval town.

I was quite surprised to find out that there are actually a lot of tour groups that go to Bratislava (as we heard from the Chinese restaurant boss). I haven't heard of Bratislava before, to be honest. I know Slovakia, but what's the capital city? No idea. It was still a good experience I guess. It's rare that travellers like us could get to see something so vastly different from the usual elegance and magnificence of popular tourist destinations in Europe.

Hungary - Budapest

14th November 2014

The drive from Vienna to Budapest was supposed to be 2.5 hours, and there was a pubcrawl at about 9.30pm, but everything got delayed. The bus ride took 4 hours, again, because of traffic problems, and the bus couldn't go through some tunnels/bridges because of its height, and the driver got lost again. We arrived really late at the hostel and still had to check-in. By the time we could settle down on our beds, it was half past midnight. Fortunately we didn't buy the tickets to pubcrawl. A lot of those who did ended up not going because it was way too late. 

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15th November 2014

We woke up really late, at about 10.30pm. We were quite annoyed by our room mates, because they woke up earlier and started talking at normal volume. The girl below me was even blowing her hair while some of us were still sleeping. So damn inconsiderate. The night before, C and I bathed last, because we thought they were going to the pubcrawl so they should bathe first. It turned out that nobody went, so by the time we bathed, they had slept. We had already tried to keep our volumes down and I even considered not blowing my hair since it would be way too noisy (but fortunately the bathrooms had power plugs so I could do it in the bathroom), but the girl below me was still visibly pissed. And C turned on her lamp for a while to get ready for bed, but the girl just asked her to turn off the lights. Like hello, it's just one lamp, upstairs. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't stop you from falling asleep. Seriously, they were damn rude. And they probably were just biased against Asians. But whatever, who the hell do they think they were? And their actions just proved that they were obviously ill-bred. We should be the ones looking down on them.

Anyway, we left the hostel at about 11.30am, changed money downstairs, and had a piece of pizza at the market opposite our hostel. It was very cheap, only 1€ per person :D

I was quite surprised that Budapest was so beautiful and relatively clean. The weather was really kind too! The name of Budapest is actually the combination of Buda and Pest, which are separated by the Danube River. The river bank with the Buda Castle is of course Buda, and the other one with the Parliament is Pest.

We headed to the river to see the Buda Castle.

The Chain Bridge and Buda Castle.

Before that though, of course, we had lunch first hahaha. The beer was awesome! Goulash was good, but the portion was way too small for the price. Tiramisu was great too :D

The Buda Castle is really big. There's a funicular railway that could take you up there, or you could just walk up. We walked, and it wasn't very difficult to climb. Along the way, you could see the chain bridge, the Pest coast, and the Parliament.

Up on the castle, we could see the city very well. There are quite a lot of buildings in Budapest! And most of them looked like residential areas. Budapest is the 8th most populated city in the European Union with about 1.7 million people!

We played archery for a while. 5 shots for 2€. It was quite difficult!! I managed to hit the board but I guess I didn't use enough strength so the arrow dropped onto the floor :P

There was a small stall selling funnel cakes and it smelled so good!!! Despite being very full, we bought one to try, and immediately regretted not buying more. The queue was really long! Guess everyone was drawn to it by the fragrance in the air :D It's only about 2.30€ so you definitely have to try it!!

We came across a couple getting their wedding shots there. So romantic and beautiful :) Really envy Europeans!! For us, we could only make do with Sentosa lol.

The sky gradually turned dark and the city started to light up. This is probably one of the best night views ever.

We walked down the castle and across the Chain Bridge to the Pest bank to see the Parliament. We then had dinner at a Hungarian restaurant that was pretty expensive and the quality of food was not very high. Walking back to the hostel, we passed by a Chinese restaurant, and I was really craving for Chinese food, so I bought a box of 虾饺 and C bought a fried noodle. They tasted pretty nice!

C got an apartment near the river to stay for the night, because we were pretty disappointed with the hostel and our room mates. We moved our stuff over there, and joined the group to the boat party. It was a 2-hour party on the boat while it cruised the river, and then there was an after-party at the largest club in Budapest.

The boat party wasn't as fun as I had imagined, and a lot of people actually just sat on the upper deck the entire time and didn't party at all. I wonder what they were doing there... We wanted to get home earlier so we didn't plan to go to the after-party. Our guide told us that there would be a bus after the boat party that would take us to the club, which is near our hostel. So we boarded the bus without hesitation after getting off the boat. BUT the guide lied!!! Idiot. The bus took us way out of town and across the river, where we could only leave via a cab. So we didn't have a choice and got onto a cab. We didn't even bring money out, and only had 1500Ft left with us. The driver was nice enough to drive us back and wait for us to get our money. It cost us 25€ when it was supposed to be about 10€, so I guess the driver wasn't very honest... Nevertheless, we were glad to be home finally. It was already almost 2am! We had to wake up at 8am to get ready and check out.

I liked Budapest a lot. I think the architecture is amazing - the Castle and Parliament are huge and beautiful. We didn't have a chance to go inside, but I will be back :P At the right places, food is cheaper. The streets are quite clean and surprisingly a lot of people can speak English well.