London Bridge is Falling down, falling down, falling down......

Left early morning again for London. The flight from Dublin to London took approx 1 hr. Again, the landing was crap.

I had to draw some money out of the ATM machine but it didnt work! luckily it worked for Liyin's card. took a bus from the Luton airport to downtown London and took the Tube to where our hostel is, Elephant & Castle. Initially when Moo said we're stopping at that, liyin n i tot he was joking or we simply cant understand what he was saying. but Moo was right, it's Elephant & Castle station for us. Left our bags in the hostel which was a 100 yrs old. So the owner said we have to be really careful when we're handling the furnishes. -.-

 by this time, it was already about 3pm, went to a Market in Liverpool St first. it looks like a Pasar Malam, stuff they had really really cheap stuff which are really ugly and also bugis stuff. haha clothes yeaps. came across this food stall selling fried seafood, smelt and looked delicious, but it taste ganz ok. im looking for the Chippies stall which we have in raffles city. but i cant seem to find it =(

The market was boring, not what i expected actually. Next, we headed over to the St Paul's Cathedral which was a few stops away on the Tube. it's a pretty white church, huge and magnificent in size. Photos are not allowed in the Church, sorry no pictures! interior of the church is somewhat like the rest i've seen, so it wasnt as interesting. utility level for churches are dropping real fast, only stayed in there for 10 mins and we're out.

dann, we took a stroll towards the Thames river where all the major landmarks were. Along the way, the night view of the city was absolutely stunning. This was taken using my old red sony camera. Not bad huh. well done Sony! u nv let me down =P

 Towards London Bridge and Thames Bridge and the Millennium Bridge. We walked along the river Thames, and the weather is super duper good. not too cold or hot. but the walk there was a really long one. The Millennium Bridge isnt that special a bridge, because we have one in Singapore too, well in the future, which links Marina South to the city hall area. Next comes the Thames Bridge, a really huge one. There it is! haha we took like a million photos of it from every single angle and distant. haha

somehow, we couldnt find the London Bridge. the london bridge in the nursery rhymes seem missing, walked quite a distant away from the Thames bridge in search of that well known London Bridge. London bridge is falling down falling down falling down.....only to realize, after asking a local that the bridge is actually in between the Thames and Millennium bridge. haha it was just a normal, non eye-catching bridge which was lit in red. hahaha.

Dinner time and Moo wanted chinese food so we went to London Chinatown. According to Soowon, this is the most expensive district in London because it's in the heart of the big city. 2 rows of chinese restaurant lined the main street. we chose the one that the korean hostel recommanded. it's called Mayflower. haah what a name. but i must admit, and liyin agrees too, this was the best meal we ever had in months! and guess what we met singaporeans there tooo! one from the other table and the rest are waiters working in the restaurant. so weird to be working as waiters over there. hmmmz because we're singaporeans, the managers gave us free dessert leh! haha =P yummy yummy

 =)

Of lapricons & green gold

Rainy morning in Dublin today and I had to find my way to the hostel which was not very near to the bus station. Checked in early and they were kind enough to give us free breakfast at the church hall. Gosh I'm starving!

While we wait for soowon to arrive in Dublin, moo, Liyin and I went on a free walking historic city tour. They brought us to many places & told us many stories of Dublin. The guide was really passionate about the tour & it was fun! We went pass many sites including the Christ church cathedral where the song haleluia(wrong spelling I know)debuted.

This piece of monument is real funny because, according to our tour guide, it wasnt meant to be there. Father Pat Noise doesnt exist at all, he is basically a fictional figure. One day, some prankster decided to place this memorial on the bridge, claiming that Father Pat Noise sacrificed his life and jumped into the river and drowned. his body was never fold. The town council didnt even notice this on the bridge at all until after 2 years. They wanted to remove it but people started putting flowers on it, to commemorate Father Pat Noise. and the idea was scraped.

Main highlight of the day was of course the Guinness storehouse! Met soowon there and off we go inside where guinness was first produced.

The 11 euro ticket included a glass of stout. And our journey starts here. Where it all began.....

The pint of Stout taste YUCKKKKKie. But for moo n soowon it was great. Being the singaporean, i 'kopped' the glass hehehe. The rest of the building was kinda boring. I expected too much, it was kinda disappointing because there wasn't much to see other than that free cup of stout.

The original Harp that was used on the label and everything else Guinness.

The place where they stored all their barrels of beer.

 So exhausted from the previous night that I can't wait to get into bed! So the night ended early in Dublin.

An interesting place to visit. Though many say that there aren't anything to see. however, i feel is an air of quirkiness to the place which draws my attention. And best of all they speak English! Menus are in English! Signs in English too :) haha and the people are friendly and helpful to us tourist. It wasn't an expensive place to visit as well. Which was great, after the chapter in Paris=p

Photos will be posted up later when I'm home :)

With happy butterflies in your tummy (:
Iphoned

Ryanair

Arrived early morning in moody cloud covered Ireland Dublin with little or no sleep at all. First time on a ryanair plane & i made a few blunders here & there. First our boarding pass didn't get through because I copy n paste it from the web to word doc. So the bar code was missing! How on earth would I know I cannot do that! Thank goodness they reprinted it for us for free. Secondly, it's free seating! We didn't know that and so we were one of the last few to enter the plane, leaving us with shitty seats.

The entire ride was fine except the seats are so crammed up with little space to move or stretch. The crowd in the plane was rowdy too, with people shouting here and there. Landing was a terrible one! The impact was so hard and after the landing they even played a victory song. Lol

Private note<3 press on love



With happy butterflies in your tummy (:
Iphoned

What it takes to get to Dublin & London

They say there's a first to everything.

Tonight is the first time I'm camping out in the budget air terminal. Sitting on 2 chairs, one opposite of the other, with my blown up pillow given by my dear Liz:) handy little inflatable pillow.



With happy butterflies in your tummy (:
Iphoned

My loots from Sinful Paris

haha there you go, 3 big bags of stuff that i lunged back from Paris.bought quite a number of stuff and i managed to keep within my budget. =)) haha see i'm quite in control of my spending power. so proud of myself

a huge paper bag from Longchamp with 12 Longchamp bags in them. haha 2 of it is mine. i bought a Papier coloured Longchamp bag that has an Eiffel tower print on it. exclusively in Paris =)) which makes me even happier. exclusive. and another smaller bag which is in Graphite colour. new colour of the season *woootsmy Burberry i got using my angbao money from my Birthday. Simple tote bag, which doesnt scream Designer. has a different patchwork design on different sides. Adjustable handles. Cloth fabric. Last but not least, my Louis Vitton clutch which has a glossy finish. Pictures doesnt do justice to this baby. I bought the greenish-blue one, because mommy say i cant carry red. booo hoooo according to feng shui -.- nevertheless, i love this one! unique colour. im sure lots of people will buy the red one(because i think it's damn nice!) but oh well.Being a perfume bottle collector, im not gonna let this one slip my hands! pretty pretty classic pump bottled perfume! oh-so-girly scent that comes with it smells so deliciousssly pretty! heeeee im so happy! =)))I ♥ Paris Golf balls for Dad. haha i've got the t-shirt which says the same thing too! hehe but it's still wet from laundry. =)

i ♥ paris

paris ♥ my wallet

Shopping is a girl's best friend

Early in the morning again we go, to the train station to secure the train home. Yesterday when we checked, the trains were all full! eeeks only 1 left which leaves Paris at 5pm and reaching Wiesbaden station at 12am. Problem was, the last train to Oestrich Winkel leaves at 11.46pm! and the next one is at 5am. Called our dear friend Hoang, who has a car, to do us a favor of

picking us up from the train station. and he without a question said yes =) thanks a million

last day in Paris, we had 2 objectives to fulfill:

1. to visit the Arc de Triomphe

This monument was commisioned by the Napoleon to commemorate his victories. there is also a body of an unknown soldier from WWII buried under it. once again, we're allowed to go to the top of the monument which was 284 steps up. wasnt as bad as the Notre Dame's narrow steps.

the view from the top was spectacular. but it was a little foggy, the eiffel tower was half covered in the clouds. looking down from the Arc, u can see the dozen of boulevards radiating out from this square. it's was our Urban RE module come alive.

2. Shopping!

finally! my longchamp bag! wanting to get one since a really long time ago. and now finally im in it's birthplace Paris. it's so so so much cheaper than buying it back home! go crazy in the store =P of course im not the only one who's buying, i've got a shopping list from my mom, dad, cousin and kelly!

couldnt get all their orders in 1 longchamp store. and i had to walk like 20mins to the next one. all together i went to 3 longchamp stores. and i've bought a total of 12Longchamp bags, 2 of which is mine.

next stop next stop! Louis Vitton =)) my very very very first designer bag! haha im soo happpy. it's so expensive to buy LV in Singapore. for example, i wanted to get this LV wallet a few months ago in singapore which cost exactly 1000 SGD. guess how much they're selling it for over there? 220Euros which is like approx 440SGD. Less than half ! luckily it was out of stock in Singapore at that time, if not i'll feel very depressed.

the boutique was filled with guess whom?! Singaporeans! soo many of them, basically the whole store. of my stay here in Europe, the only Singaporeans i've met are those 2 at Salzburg, but here, it feels like im home in singapore, people speaking Singlish at each other.

ended up with 3 huge bags of stuff, and it was so damn heavy! everyone was like staring at me & liyin as we walked to the train station. it's actually kinda scary, i tot they wants to steal my bags from me. wearily, we quickly grab dinner and off to the train where we didnt even dare to sleep.

only to feel safe when we got into Hoang's car and back home.

Royal chic

Not too far away from Paris, lies the suburb of Versailles. Took a 30mins train there using my Eurail pass from Musee Lourve.

France's grandest Chateau built by Louis XVI during his reign as the Sun king. it's a huge palace, 580m long structure and a magnificantly huge garden behind. the garden seems to stretch miles! with beautiful fountain at the rear end. Picturesque.

that's King Louis XVI sitting on the horse, the place was filled with tourist once again, the queue was really long, prolly because everyone wants to take advantage of the 1/2 price promotion that goes on after 3pm. the interior of the chateau, similar to the other ones i've visited has gold as their main colour theme. gold for royalty. huge halls and large furnitures in the rooms. and exquisite tables and cabinets were on display in the palace but no touch. the gorgeous garden where the royalties use to spend their free time in centuries ago is still intact and pretty at the same time. like i said, it's a huge huge piece of land. seems like the whole suburb is used for this palace and it's garden. luxurious life indeed. ended the evening with dinner at the nearby Mcdonalds. French mcdonalds. hehe they serve Royal-o-fish which is just the normal fish burger with added tomatos n lettuce. i had this amazingly delicious mc sundae which has strawberry fudge and crumble on it. YUMMMY!

a month of sugary delights
=)