Berlin

On Timeline: 28-29 Sep 2007

I must say...Berlin is too big to be explored in a day...or 2. In fact, you should plan for at least 3 days there! And do visit Potsdam! Shall blog on that another day

Anyway, this post follows the previous one here. So shall not go into detail on how I got there.

Berlin is a definite place YOU MUST GO! Gosh. Super nice place. The food is good, and I lived in a superb hostel which provided *gasp* buffet styled dinner and breakfast!!! Woohoo! No more lunch for me! (And that explains why I wake up damn early for the bfast? lol!)

Managed to explore Berlin for a day only, and coupled with limited battery life and the need to catch a night train to Zurich, I had to complete as much as possible in a short period of time. Having the 1-day travel card in Berlin was useful that day, because there were many road diversions due to the Berlin Marathon, spread over 2 days. Therefore, had to take the S-Bahn and U-Bahn a lot to get from place to place, as the buses were all diverted from the city centre.

But luckily, the marathon started in the afternoon, and I started my journey early, so I managed to cover quite a lot of places, for example the Fernsehturm am Alexanderplatz (or TV Tower), the Rotes Rathaus (Red City Hall), Nikolaiviertel (Nikolai Quarter) and even a small Anne Frank museum here in Berlin! Gosh. I have to go to the one in Amsterdam already!

Red City Hall


Fruits!


Daggers used by the SA


Anne Frank's first book - published by her father after her death


Huge German sausage! Rostbratwurst!


Me and the Berliner Dom


Contemplation


Statue and Nikolai Quarter in the background


Inside of the Nikolai Church


Bears outside the Nikolai Church


TV Tower


Berliner Holocaust-Mahnmal


A walk into the past...


Holocaust Mahnmal, and the new buildings all around it in the background


Brandenburger Tor


Currywurst!


Cold wet day...currywurst comes in to save the day! :)


Reichstag Panorama


Star Trek??


The Cupola (viewing platform of the Reichstag Building)

Contemplated whether to queue for the Reichstag Building tour, but since it is free, why not?! The problem I had was that I had a train to catch (kinda unsure of the time at that moment), and it was raining and windy (basically, COLD). Geez. Luckily I managed to get in in just over an hour.


Siegessaule (Victory Column) Panorama


The view of the Victory Column was amazing. Due to the marathon, traffic was stopped, so I could walk all the way to just near the column AND take pictures WITHOUT any cars! How cool was that?! I made sure I took a lotta pictures so that I can delete the lousier ones...but I guess this is it! It now enters my favourite pictures 'cos I doubt I can get such a great picture again. Pity...the weather was not that great.


Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche


Child turning the machine to get a medal of the church

And that sums up my entire day in Berlin. Pity I did not have time to go to the Schloss Charlottenburg, heard it was pretty beautiful! Guess I'll have to do that another time.

And maybe, just maybe...I'll return to Berlin, again :)

Current Mood: Happy

Eindhoven Marathon

Gosh...It was the first time I participated in a run overseas...and I must admit, European races are DEFINITELY more expensive than the Asian ones. I guess Singapore's races are pretty cheap compared to here! Paid €21.50 for the half marathon (21km) and it was almost €1 for 1km ran! Gosh. In Singapore, it IS definitely cheaper (thinks AHM, SCSM)

Anyway...the race ended. Back home. Totally shagged. Weather was GREAT! Cool, not humid, and there was the sun because it was a 2pm race (compare that to SG??) Think ave temp is probably 22 deg or so. Occasional winds which really made my hands feel cold, which I am very adverse to.

Did not have much time to train prior and I had strained muscles in the right thigh prior to the race due to a training course I was undertaking in the school sports centre - called outdoors (think Army haha)

I would say that the "people" part of the race was absolutely excellent! Gosh. There were people cheering u everywhere along the 21km route!!! Some cheered, and some brought out their bbqs and had outdoor bbq there and then, watching the race. Others, brought out their sofas and sipped beer/wine and had a great time chatting whilst enjoying the race! On top of that, there are live bands playing from those huge container trucks (they served as stages), and there was ample water, energy drink resupply every 5km, and even oranges every 10km! These are things which u don't see in Singapore, I'll bet!

The glitch was that there was probably 15K people running the 21km race, and maybe even more for the 42km run! Gosh. It was slow to start, and when it ended, they ensured that everyone went through a certain route to get the 'freebies' - race medal, some advertisement material, energy drinks, water etc.

The bag holding area was the most interesting. Situated in an underground carpark (someone use the Esplanade carpark pls?), there were ample signs to direct u to the station to place ur bag, and there were plastic bags to store ur items, and hooks to hook them up on the mobile fences placed behind the counter. Very interesting. And being a relatively large carpark, there were a lot of space for people to change, benches were provided to allow people to sit down! Now that's what I call thoughtful organisation.

All in all, it was really an eye-opener to me. Though I completed it, it was not my fastest as I started off relatively slow and I had problems with my strained legs, but made it through nonetheless. Guess I need to train more huh? Timing was approx 2:10 I think...or lesser as it took me some time to reach the start point!

Some pictures from the event:

The start point!


Crowds...


The setup for the stage and other stalls for the marathon event.


The changing/locker area!


Runner's Medal!


Yay...me and my medal!


There's a person in the silver foil. Apparently dehydration and suffering from cold. I think.


There were more of these on the run!


The stage set up


Leaving the place...all shag!


Interesting race...but I gonna train up more!!! But first...I think I need a shoe upgrade. It's dying!!! And more badminton and outdoor activities to come!

Current Mood: Exhausted

Current Music: Hairspray Cast - You Can't Stop the Beat

F1 - Brazil

Final Battle ground for the winner of this season's F1? A 3 way championship battle.

Gonna be a super interesting race in Brazil now :)

Who will you root for?

80 million years without sex?

And here I wonder how many can last just a year without sex. Oops.

Note to all readers: This is a serious topic I'm discussing, not a topic from some bored guy who's doing his readings and just happened to click on "Latest Headlines" on the Firefox links.

From: BBC

"The mystery of how an animal has survived for 80 million years without sex has been solved by UK scientists.

A Cambridge team says the creature owes its existence to a genetic quirk that offers some recompense for prolonged celibacy."

And please read on yea?

Basically...this asexual animal has managed to live for 80 million years without having SEX! Gosh. That's really interesting! I mean, it's like telling a couple not to have sex from marriage to death (o.O)

Ok that might be POSSIBLE but....

Being humans and therefore sexual creatures, sex is the way (or should I say, the ONLY? let's drop the subject of cloning yea?) to reproduce, and over time, allows us to adapt to changes in our environment and thus allowing us to evolve.

And here we see, a creature known as a bdelloid rotifer (a single-celled invertebrate) actually manages to evolve and survive through these 80 million years WITHOUT dying out because of its ability to make two separate proteins from two different copies of a key gene!

And that, my friends, is an interesting discovery for us. :)

When there was Me & You

Nice song, nice movie, nice musical... =)

Army Boot Camp?

Went for a course organised by the Students Sports Centre in Eindhoven, called Outdoors. Well, I thought since I was getting fat and having less of a workout (except on backpacking trips where I've to lug my whole bag with me the whole day), I should sign up for a (belated) student sports card and get some activities under my belt.

And being from Rovers Adventure Club, I thought it would be fun if the course was something similar to ours, or maybe it would be like Scouting? Who knows?

And I went with enthusiasm and in high spirits.

Apparently, it was totally different. Well, not quite TOTALLY, but it's a kind of surreal feeling which I get from the training. It seemed like an Army Boot Camp, or ABC for short.

Why do I say so?

The trainings were not just about the woods, it included obstacle courses, like climbing the rope and doing a roll-over above, as well as moving the logs from one place to another, and good 'ol all-terrain running in the woods.

Well terrain running for me would be good if I knew what surface to expect, had better shoes, and was dressed for it.

Apparently I should've gotten myself a pair of running tights, the ones which are full length and protect ur legs from scratches by the tall grass in the woods near TU/e. And it would serve to be useful whilst climbing the ropes, as I've now battle-scars to prove that I've gone through all that without any long pants. Damn.

And above all, it felt like Army because the obstacle clearing really seemed like SOC to me. Hurhur. Just that the obstacles are bigger, higher and wider. Not to mention, more interesting and innovative?!

But it was fun. Had a great work out and there was hardly sweat broken out. Might consider going for the course again...who knows?

But they do have similarities with Rovers...they do various outdoor stuff aside from the trainings, for example rafting, abseiling and hiking up mountains! Now that's cool! Would love to join people to go up mountains! *happy*

Current Mood: Sore

Supposed to sleep but...

...a f**ker is smoking outside my room.

WTF.

I'm blogging because I've nowhere else to vent my frustration.

And I hate my room mate more cos her boyfriend stays over, puts his stuff all around (that's still fine u know) and SMOKES.

F**king SMOKE.

And he SMOKES outside my room and at the window, thinking I would not get a whiff of it. That's plain absurd since I've a balcony and now my clothes are having a taste of his ciggy SMOKE.

Really...I can't stand people who smoke. And now I'm sorta confined in my room BECAUSE of the SMOKE and I cannot have fresh air from the balcony OR the doorway.

What a great day. And he's staying till Thursday.

I've a strong urge to go over and knock on her door to tell him to stop it...but I think I'll leave it till tomorrow. If the situation worsens, I'll have to take action.

And I really mean it.

Current Mood: Super freakin' PISSED

Quote of the day

“I can only conclude that, worse than hunger or thirst, worse than being unemployed, unhappy in love or defeated and in despair, far worse than any or all of those things, is feeling that no one, absolutely no one, cares about us.”

(Paulo Coelho, Like the Flowing River)

How true...

To all of my friends out there, I still care, despite the distance ;)

Life in Switzerland - Good yet expensive

On Timeline: 30 Sep - 07 Oct 2007

Why would one say that?

Probably because most of the time if you intend to grab a bite along the cafes, food costs from 16 sFr and up for just a simple meal, and it is hard to get a decent warm meal at a cheap price.

Gosh.

And I could not locate the supermarkets (which sucks) and therefore I'm down with the food (read: BREAD) which I had painstakingly brought from Eindhoven to Dusseldorf to Berlin and to Switzerland.

Anyway, just to carry on with the entire trip outline, it was a fun trip to Switzerland, famous for its part of the Alps (which are split between 4 countries). I would say that it was nature at its best, and Switzerland is indeed a good place for trekking/hiking, whether in the forest, on rock trails, on steep slopes, or on snow along the mountain ridges. More on that, later.

Went down from Berlin to Zürich via night train (12hrs OMG) by CNL and I think the train ride was simply amazing. Met up with a couple, Tino and D, and they were telling me how nice Freisburg was, with the Black Forest and everything.
When I exited the train station, it was all peaceful and quiet, with little pedestrians, being a Sunday morning. And in that peace and quiet morning, I managed to take in the sights of Zürich in the morning. A walk around the Lake Zürich showed many interesting sights and sounds, for example the wonderful (but smaller version of the one in Genevé) water fountain, the amazing churches and the huge mountain range in the backdrop of Lake Zürich.

As I’ve reached Zürich pretty early, I covered the main town area on foot (and it was easy to cover on foot with just a day pack as I had stored my Tatonka in the lockers), and went up to the nearby Uetliberg, which is south-west of Zürich and is reached in 15 mins. The best part of this trip up the mountain is that the railway brings you up to 840m and you climb about 10 mins to the summit, following which you can climb this tower of 170 steps and have a 360° unobstructed view of Zürich, the Alps and even the Black Forest! Moreover, the place was quite popular with the locals and even the tourists. Many, with children in tow, scale the peak gamely, and it was quite a sight! The best part was, there was a restaurant up there, so one could get food and beer up there!

After the short trip to Uetliberg, I made my way to Luzern, which is a nice city near all the mountains like Pilatus and Rigi. With the intention to stay for 2 nights, I walked covered the sights in the city in the evening, and having nothing to eat for dinner and no luck in locating the supermarkets, I had to depend on the dinner from the hostel, which sucked. Ugh. The Luzern youth hostel was only so-so and the Internet terminal must have been the worst I've used! The keyboard was all metal, which made typing very very difficult, and I had to use a very funny setup for the keyboard too! The Internet was also expensive - 1 sFr for 10 mins!!!

However, the stay was more than made up for by the fact that I had some nice guys to talk to in the dorm which I was in, with people like Gabriel (Brazil), Rickey (Germany), and Alexander (Germany). Nice people to talk to and share some trip information too!

Luzern was a nice city, with the Transport Museum as one of the most interesting museums around, and the various bridges along the entire river in Luzern city. On top of that, I found time for a hike up Burgenstock (and all the hotels, except 1, were closed!) and took the world's steepest cog railway up to Pilatus (48% at some stretches!). I was hesitant to pay money for the train ride, but I was thinking, since I'm already here in Switzerland, what makes me so sure that I'll return again to try the rides? Besides, it would be an experience to go up the mountain too!

And sure it did.

Me at the foot of Pilatus


Up the steep slope and into the tunnel!


I'm above the resthouse! Woohoo!


View from Mt Pilatus


I lurve the mountains! =)


Bottoms up view of Pilatus


It's super steep...and it felt so easy to go down :S


Another view from the top!

Meanwhile, I've not uploaded other photos...so possibly it'll take some time.

Moving on for this fast update, I went off from Luzern to Grindelwald, where I managed to find the hostel without any directions (save for 1 sign which just pointed where to head...THAT'S ALL OMG) and climbing a 20% slope, with my bags and all, in the middle of the night. Gosh. I was so hungry that I gratefully accepted the leftover chocolate cream (dunno wad that is) the reception had.

Jungfraujoch mountain was next to come, and I can truly say that I'm at the Top of Europe! It is above the clouds, so the glare from the sun is truly amazing, and the sunburn u get is almost 100% (save for the ozone layer...that is) On top of that, there is snow everywhere - more like permafrost. And it's nice to play in that type of terrain (well different from snow I guess, this you could just grab it, it's not wet, and mould it into the shapes you want). View from up there, truly unbelievable. Even Mt KK and Mt Rinjani pale in comparison.

After a day at Jungfraujoch, I missed the train to Geneva, so I had to stay on another night at Grindelwald (which is super expensive compared to the ones in Geneva and Berlin. Geez). It rained the whole night, which allowed me to move on to Geneva without much contemplation as I could not hike anymore trails in the Grindelwald region. Got a lift out of the hostel by an Australian family who had rented a car, and I was really grateful as it meant that I could get on the train on time, as well as not walk in the rain!!!

From Grindelwald, I travelled to Geneva, making stops at Interlaken, Interlaken West and Bern. Basically I just took my time, spent a couple of hours at each location, before arriving in Geneva.

And of course, this update is from Geneva...land of peace? It's super near the French border, with Mt Saleve (climbable!) in the French territory as well as some parks, the UN HQ and much more. The people here speak French instead of German (in Zurich, Luzern etc). Somehow, I'd prefer the Germans. Dun ask me why. lol.

Updating more later...Internet's expensive here too!


I love the mountains, I don't know why.
A sense of peace and calm just flows by.

Current Mood: Happy