Winter Europe Honeymoon (22 Dec-8 Jan)
I would wished to go into detail and have different parts describing each experience clearly. But here are some brief daily descriptions...
Dec 22 - Landed in London
Technically, we only had 10hrs to spend on London and had to leave for Paris the next day. I had changed 100pounds and only ended up using 10pounds for food.
Dec 24 - Rainy Christmas Eve in Paris
We spent 2 days in Paris visiting Louvre Museum, River Seine Cruise, Eiffel Tower, Versailles Museum, Notredame Cathedral, Galleries Lafayette.
Dec 25 - Christmas Day in Switzerland
Although most of the shops were closed due to the festive season but being anywhere with Dearie is always the most enjoyable. The tour guide was so kind to give everyone a Santa hat!
It rained & snowed throughout the different cities we were at in Switzerland with temperature ranging around zero degree - probably lower at suburb or mountain ranges. It was -18 degrees on our way to Mt Titlis at Engelberg. So many snow sights!!!!
We finally reached the summit of Mt Titlis after taking 3 cable car rides with skiiers & snowboarders. It was really freezing cold till my fingers went numb. I was wearing knit gloves so when I touched the snow, my gloves turned wet instead :( But the view up there was absolutely beautiful!!!
Blue sky, white snow, sunny golden rays, super freezing temperature but it's all worth it!!!
If you're ever thinking of visiting Switzerland, JUST VISIT MT TITLIS ALREADY!!! It's so beautiful!!! It doesn't matter if you don't know how to ski or snowboard. Just go there to see the view, play with the snow!
Dec 31 - New Year's Eve in Rome
After Switzerland, the rest of our time were spent in different cities of Italy. To be perfectly honest, I didn't like the experience being in Italy at all because Italians are just so stuck up, arrogant, proud freaks! I don't know how come they can be so damn guai lan? Where's there to be hao lian about? They don't give a fuck for anything at all - give you sian face, even towards their own ppl.
I had a few bad experience in Italy (Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome) that I can say safely say that there isn't a single friendly Italian around. The treatment that we had gotten really spoil the traveling experience in this country. And I couldn't wait to get out of the country as soon as I can.
I didn't post any photos of us in Italy on Instagram cos most of the time I am just sian while I'm there. But here are some I gotten from a fellow travel mate.
When Dearie & I took a budget airline (Ryan Air) to fly from Rome to Budapest to meet Ah Mian, we were the ONLY TWO ASIANS on the flight. We didn't want to queue up with the rest cos while checking in, we get dirty looks from those si ang moh, chao ang moh. So we gladly, graciously queued at the back of the line and got up the very squeezy plan. As we boarded last, we couldn't choose seats and we ended up sitting separately beside large noisy ang mohs.
After this Europe trip, my impression of Italians was just bad. They can't hold a candle to ang mohs from US, NZ, Aus. I didn't spend enough time in London to form impression but I get a feeling that British may as well still feel superior over other races/ethnicity. Sorry, I know I shouldn't base on a bad traveling experience and stereotype Italians like that but really, it was awful.
Jan 1 - New Year's Day in Budapest
Ah Mian actually had landed & checked in the hostel we had book in the afternoon. Dearie & I only landed at Budapest at 8pm on New Year's Eve and made our way to the city centre via airport transfer. Once at the city centre, we still have to walk to the nearest metro in order to get to the hostel. We actually got lost :( and had to trouble Ah Mian to come out to get us.
After settling at our accommodation, we went out again to the city centre to see how happening it was on New Year's Eve but was disappointed with shitty experience with crazy ppl on the streets, in the metro. Ate a shitty dinner n almost having risk our lives with sudden fireworks at our direction/paths.
Jan 2 - Vienna
It seems like I had posted a lot of pics with my sister but I also have a lot of pics taken with Dearie too just that haha... the focus of this one-week backpack trip was more towards seeing my sister & visiting other parts of Eastern Europe!
We set off from Budapest early in the morning and took a 3-hour bus and reached the Vienna. Next we needed to figure out how to get to our Vienna accomodation. We took the metro THEN a bus and by the time we settled our luggage, it was almost noon. We were hungry but we still tahan until we get to visit the Schonbrunn Palace. It's basically Austria's version of Versailles.
Unfortunately, unlike Versailles, it's forbidden to take pics inside. So the 1-hour self-audio tour we took, we couldn't take a single pictures. Fortunately, the garden was free to take pictures.
It was only about 3pm+ and the sun was about to set liao. However, we didn't have time and had to rush back to the city to see what views we can catch!
The sky got dark really fast. We did get to view most of the buildings but some pictures didn't turn out too well. We roamed around the Ringstrausse road and decided to settle on a Viennese meal that seemed pretty western to me.
After having 'western food' for 2 weeks, I could feel that my throat is almost going sore... Have to tahan a few more days before I could return back to SG to eat SG food!!!! As there will be a lot of traveling for tomorrow so after dinner, we bought snacks, food, bread, water to prepare us during the journey before heading back to the hostel.
Jan 3 - Hallstatt
This location wasn't part of my planned itinerary until very much later because it was strongly recommended by other backpackers visiting Austria. And it certain looked amazing from what I researched online! Hallstatt is a village between Vienna & Salzburg. It doesn't have a lot of population and not flooded with tourist yet due to the ulu location.
We basically get up really early everyday before daylight and had to take a 3.5-hour train ride to this place call Bad Ishl. Once we get there, we had to find lockers to squeeze 3 luggage inside before waiting for another bus to get to Hallstatt G, after which we still have to take a shuttle van to finally get to our location!
We had lunch at some atas restaurant. We wanted a window table but they were all taken and it seems stupid to specially wait for it. The food was not bad - consider atas & ex. 3 ppl add up to almost 100 euro including tips. SCARY!
I think these ppl are really fortunate to have a backyard that has all these fantastic views. There is also a Salt Mine and an observatory tower but because it's during the winter season, all these other attractions in Hallstatt were closed. So we could only admire the peaceful view and feel relaxed before it was time to catch our coach to Salzburg for the night.
Although it was near Salzburg station but that place was under construction so we had difficulty moving around with our bulky luggage. Had to carry our luggage up the stairs for a few times. Gosh! We finally checked into our 4-bedroom and one of the beds was already occupied. So we had a roommate.
As we were tired traveling for the day, we settled our dinner with what we purchased at a nearby groceries. However, Dearie & my throat were barely surviving so we asked the grocery owner if there are any pharmacy that was still open. He was kind enough to give us instructions but unfortunately it wasn't open anymore, so we went back to our room and pleasant to meet our room mate, a solo female Korean traveler who was going Europe ON HER OWN! How amazing is that! We wished to chat more but it was time for bed!
Jan 4 - Salzburg
The hostel served pretty good free flow breakfast for 3euro! After having our fill, our first destination was Mount Untersberg! And then we realised that our Korean roommate was also on board the same bus as us and was just in front of our queue for the cable up to the snow mountain! So somehow we got to travel together!!!! It's quite amazing just to meet other travelers and travel together!
After lunch, we visited Mirabell Garden! It was supposed to be Mozart's home/recital concert hall? I'm not really sure but there was a statue of him. This place was also the filming location of Sound of Music where Maria brought the kids out for an excursion and taught them how to sing Do Re Mi!
Our last destination for the day before it got dark was Old Town and the funicular to the High Fortress!
After taking these few shots that overlooked Old Town, it grew dark.One thing sad about visiting European countries during the winter time is that daylight is really limited. Sunrise would be 7ish or 8am and sunset would be around 4pm. We usually won't start our day until about 9 or 10 and there's only so much to do within 6 hours which includes traveling time which is A LOT OF TIME spent on the roads and getting around to place and taking lunch breaks.
We had Korean dinner with our Korean roomie who recommended us a nice Korean restaurant! Even though both Dearie & my throats were on the verge of gone but we still ate spicy meat! COS TOO DEPRIVED of Asian food!!!
It was a great day spent at Salzburg as we put on another night at Yoho Hostel and had to leave after breakfast the next morning for Innsbruck. Our Korean roomie was so kind to give us some cold/cough medicine! SO SWEET!!!
She gave us like 7-8 servings of pills. Those were a lot of pills but she said it was effective! Thanks to meeting her we get to eat nice Korean food and had our cold subsided a bit and we get to practice our rusty Korean as well! We exchanged contact and chatted a bit before we turn in as we will be leaving quite early.
Jan 5 - Innsbruck
Left Salzburg at 9ish and reached Innsbruck around 11ish. Weather wasn't looking good, it was foggy & raining. The journey to our lodging in Innsbruck wasn't easy to find either. When we finally checked in, it was already 12 noon. But we were tired and rested a bit and ate the snacks we always replenish.
We made way to take the funicular up to see a snow mountain but.... it was snowing heavily and everything was just white.
It was quite an experience to be taking cable car into NOTHINGNESS!!! Totally can't see shit! There were also other travelers who, probably, like us, wanted to see some pretty views but unable to because of the weather. Sigh.... I regretted not staying one more day in case of bad weather plans.
Since there wasn't much to see, we didn't stay there too long and quickly move on to our next destination. The Hofburg (Palace) of Innsbruck.
It seems like every state, there's a palace/government. But by the time we went in, it was about 2pm+. We got the palace ticket first but we were really hungry so we ate at this atas restaurant inside the palace.
The palace closed at 4pm but at 3pm, we decided against visiting as we wanted to use the remaining daylight to visit the pretty Old Town before it got dark. Every city seemed to have an Old Town hehe
We only bought snacks (usually bread, apple, banana, cereal) to eat as dinner and went back to rest in the hotel and had to pack all our luggage as we would be returning back to Budapest on a 9-hour journey. We had to get up really early the next day to catch our 7am train. By the time we reached Budapest was 3 or 4+ and I would be catching the 5pm flight from Budapest > Frankfurt > SG while Ah Mian would be taking the 8pm flight from Budapest > Stockholm.
Jan 7 - Back in SG
Was back at home and experienced serious withdrawal symptoms cos of the lovely views in Switzerland & Austria. I most definitely wanted to go back to Austria again! 1 day per city is not enough!!!!
After spending 3 weeks of mainly eating western food and experiencing the cold winter, Dearie & I had finally gotten a bad cold and had to visit the Dr and spending the rest of the time recuperating till we get back to work.
Dec 22 - Landed in London
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| After 15 hours of flight, arriving at 7am London time... |
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| London telephone booth! SO PRETTY! |
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| BigBen with cui us without enough sleep :P |
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| 老公的艺术照 |
我的装可爱自拍照
Dec 24 - Rainy Christmas Eve in Paris
We spent 2 days in Paris visiting Louvre Museum, River Seine Cruise, Eiffel Tower, Versailles Museum, Notredame Cathedral, Galleries Lafayette.
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| The famous pyramid in Paris |
Dec 25 - Christmas Day in Switzerland
Although most of the shops were closed due to the festive season but being anywhere with Dearie is always the most enjoyable. The tour guide was so kind to give everyone a Santa hat!
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| Hot choco taste like milo gao |
It rained & snowed throughout the different cities we were at in Switzerland with temperature ranging around zero degree - probably lower at suburb or mountain ranges. It was -18 degrees on our way to Mt Titlis at Engelberg. So many snow sights!!!!
We finally reached the summit of Mt Titlis after taking 3 cable car rides with skiiers & snowboarders. It was really freezing cold till my fingers went numb. I was wearing knit gloves so when I touched the snow, my gloves turned wet instead :( But the view up there was absolutely beautiful!!!
Blue sky, white snow, sunny golden rays, super freezing temperature but it's all worth it!!!
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| Ah Xiang wrote this! Xiang loves En! |
If you're ever thinking of visiting Switzerland, JUST VISIT MT TITLIS ALREADY!!! It's so beautiful!!! It doesn't matter if you don't know how to ski or snowboard. Just go there to see the view, play with the snow!
Dec 31 - New Year's Eve in Rome
After Switzerland, the rest of our time were spent in different cities of Italy. To be perfectly honest, I didn't like the experience being in Italy at all because Italians are just so stuck up, arrogant, proud freaks! I don't know how come they can be so damn guai lan? Where's there to be hao lian about? They don't give a fuck for anything at all - give you sian face, even towards their own ppl.
I had a few bad experience in Italy (Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome) that I can say safely say that there isn't a single friendly Italian around. The treatment that we had gotten really spoil the traveling experience in this country. And I couldn't wait to get out of the country as soon as I can.
I didn't post any photos of us in Italy on Instagram cos most of the time I am just sian while I'm there. But here are some I gotten from a fellow travel mate.
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| Trying to take selfie in front of Leaning Tower of Pisa |
Chillax at some bridge in Venice
Yes, we took the freaking ex gondola
 Another honeymoon couple was on this tour as well. To be honest, the ancient/famous architecture & buildings & history of Italy are really hype la. They're dirty & smelly & never been maintained. Those Italians do not look like they care to entertain tourists as well cos they probably know tourists will still keep pouring in and spend money in Italian tourism.... |
When Dearie & I took a budget airline (Ryan Air) to fly from Rome to Budapest to meet Ah Mian, we were the ONLY TWO ASIANS on the flight. We didn't want to queue up with the rest cos while checking in, we get dirty looks from those si ang moh, chao ang moh. So we gladly, graciously queued at the back of the line and got up the very squeezy plan. As we boarded last, we couldn't choose seats and we ended up sitting separately beside large noisy ang mohs.
After this Europe trip, my impression of Italians was just bad. They can't hold a candle to ang mohs from US, NZ, Aus. I didn't spend enough time in London to form impression but I get a feeling that British may as well still feel superior over other races/ethnicity. Sorry, I know I shouldn't base on a bad traveling experience and stereotype Italians like that but really, it was awful.
Jan 1 - New Year's Day in Budapest
Ah Mian actually had landed & checked in the hostel we had book in the afternoon. Dearie & I only landed at Budapest at 8pm on New Year's Eve and made our way to the city centre via airport transfer. Once at the city centre, we still have to walk to the nearest metro in order to get to the hostel. We actually got lost :( and had to trouble Ah Mian to come out to get us.
After settling at our accommodation, we went out again to the city centre to see how happening it was on New Year's Eve but was disappointed with shitty experience with crazy ppl on the streets, in the metro. Ate a shitty dinner n almost having risk our lives with sudden fireworks at our direction/paths.
Next morning we also miss our bus cos of wrong directions by locals who probably didn't have good understanding of English? But at least the English standards of Hungarians are, I would say, better than Italians. Although we didn't have a good New Year's Eve but the touring experience on New Year's Day was so much better! We saw all the main spots including Buda Castle, Mathias Church, Fisherman Bastion.
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| I was removing gloves for Ah Mian lol |
We joined a free walking tour in the afternoon to Heroes square, City park, St Stephen Basilica, Opera House n learnt more abt Hungarian history n culture!
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| Lady with ear muffs is our guide. |
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| Collect pamplets of Budapest inside Opera House. |
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| Pretty street lights at night! |
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| Ended the day with nice Vietnamese pho! |
It seems like I had posted a lot of pics with my sister but I also have a lot of pics taken with Dearie too just that haha... the focus of this one-week backpack trip was more towards seeing my sister & visiting other parts of Eastern Europe!
We set off from Budapest early in the morning and took a 3-hour bus and reached the Vienna. Next we needed to figure out how to get to our Vienna accomodation. We took the metro THEN a bus and by the time we settled our luggage, it was almost noon. We were hungry but we still tahan until we get to visit the Schonbrunn Palace. It's basically Austria's version of Versailles.
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| It's easy to get around with the Austrian Metro. |
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| Mandatory tourist shot right in front of the palace |
It was only about 3pm+ and the sun was about to set liao. However, we didn't have time and had to rush back to the city to see what views we can catch!
The sky got dark really fast. We did get to view most of the buildings but some pictures didn't turn out too well. We roamed around the Ringstrausse road and decided to settle on a Viennese meal that seemed pretty western to me.
After having 'western food' for 2 weeks, I could feel that my throat is almost going sore... Have to tahan a few more days before I could return back to SG to eat SG food!!!! As there will be a lot of traveling for tomorrow so after dinner, we bought snacks, food, bread, water to prepare us during the journey before heading back to the hostel.
Jan 3 - Hallstatt
This location wasn't part of my planned itinerary until very much later because it was strongly recommended by other backpackers visiting Austria. And it certain looked amazing from what I researched online! Hallstatt is a village between Vienna & Salzburg. It doesn't have a lot of population and not flooded with tourist yet due to the ulu location.
We basically get up really early everyday before daylight and had to take a 3.5-hour train ride to this place call Bad Ishl. Once we get there, we had to find lockers to squeeze 3 luggage inside before waiting for another bus to get to Hallstatt G, after which we still have to take a shuttle van to finally get to our location!
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| It's worth every effort of spending a grand total of 5hours to get here! |
We had lunch at some atas restaurant. We wanted a window table but they were all taken and it seems stupid to specially wait for it. The food was not bad - consider atas & ex. 3 ppl add up to almost 100 euro including tips. SCARY!
I think these ppl are really fortunate to have a backyard that has all these fantastic views. There is also a Salt Mine and an observatory tower but because it's during the winter season, all these other attractions in Hallstatt were closed. So we could only admire the peaceful view and feel relaxed before it was time to catch our coach to Salzburg for the night.
Although it was near Salzburg station but that place was under construction so we had difficulty moving around with our bulky luggage. Had to carry our luggage up the stairs for a few times. Gosh! We finally checked into our 4-bedroom and one of the beds was already occupied. So we had a roommate.
As we were tired traveling for the day, we settled our dinner with what we purchased at a nearby groceries. However, Dearie & my throat were barely surviving so we asked the grocery owner if there are any pharmacy that was still open. He was kind enough to give us instructions but unfortunately it wasn't open anymore, so we went back to our room and pleasant to meet our room mate, a solo female Korean traveler who was going Europe ON HER OWN! How amazing is that! We wished to chat more but it was time for bed!
Jan 4 - Salzburg
The hostel served pretty good free flow breakfast for 3euro! After having our fill, our first destination was Mount Untersberg! And then we realised that our Korean roommate was also on board the same bus as us and was just in front of our queue for the cable up to the snow mountain! So somehow we got to travel together!!!! It's quite amazing just to meet other travelers and travel together!
We gave up walking to the top because it was super slippery and we feared for our lives. And there weren't safety railings! All of us slipped a few times on the snow that had already turned to ice!! We ended up sliding down the slopes instead of walking in small steps lol It was a fun(ny) experience.
Now far away from Mount Untersberg was a Sound of Music location. It was the VonTrapp's house! Or rather it was the outside of their house. The location is some music academy and of course we couldn't enter. But better than nothing!
The next location was also supposedly another part of VonTrapp's house. We spent quite long looking for this place cos it wasn't situated along the main road. We eventually found it but couldn't enter.
It was supposed to be a luxurious hotel but why isn't it open to public visitors? I later found out that it was under maintenance/renovation?
After lunch, we visited Mirabell Garden! It was supposed to be Mozart's home/recital concert hall? I'm not really sure but there was a statue of him. This place was also the filming location of Sound of Music where Maria brought the kids out for an excursion and taught them how to sing Do Re Mi!
Our last destination for the day before it got dark was Old Town and the funicular to the High Fortress!
After taking these few shots that overlooked Old Town, it grew dark.One thing sad about visiting European countries during the winter time is that daylight is really limited. Sunrise would be 7ish or 8am and sunset would be around 4pm. We usually won't start our day until about 9 or 10 and there's only so much to do within 6 hours which includes traveling time which is A LOT OF TIME spent on the roads and getting around to place and taking lunch breaks.
We had Korean dinner with our Korean roomie who recommended us a nice Korean restaurant! Even though both Dearie & my throats were on the verge of gone but we still ate spicy meat! COS TOO DEPRIVED of Asian food!!!
It was a great day spent at Salzburg as we put on another night at Yoho Hostel and had to leave after breakfast the next morning for Innsbruck. Our Korean roomie was so kind to give us some cold/cough medicine! SO SWEET!!!
She gave us like 7-8 servings of pills. Those were a lot of pills but she said it was effective! Thanks to meeting her we get to eat nice Korean food and had our cold subsided a bit and we get to practice our rusty Korean as well! We exchanged contact and chatted a bit before we turn in as we will be leaving quite early.
Jan 5 - Innsbruck
Left Salzburg at 9ish and reached Innsbruck around 11ish. Weather wasn't looking good, it was foggy & raining. The journey to our lodging in Innsbruck wasn't easy to find either. When we finally checked in, it was already 12 noon. But we were tired and rested a bit and ate the snacks we always replenish.
We made way to take the funicular up to see a snow mountain but.... it was snowing heavily and everything was just white.
It seems like every state, there's a palace/government. But by the time we went in, it was about 2pm+. We got the palace ticket first but we were really hungry so we ate at this atas restaurant inside the palace.
The palace closed at 4pm but at 3pm, we decided against visiting as we wanted to use the remaining daylight to visit the pretty Old Town before it got dark. Every city seemed to have an Old Town hehe
We only bought snacks (usually bread, apple, banana, cereal) to eat as dinner and went back to rest in the hotel and had to pack all our luggage as we would be returning back to Budapest on a 9-hour journey. We had to get up really early the next day to catch our 7am train. By the time we reached Budapest was 3 or 4+ and I would be catching the 5pm flight from Budapest > Frankfurt > SG while Ah Mian would be taking the 8pm flight from Budapest > Stockholm.
Jan 7 - Back in SG
Was back at home and experienced serious withdrawal symptoms cos of the lovely views in Switzerland & Austria. I most definitely wanted to go back to Austria again! 1 day per city is not enough!!!!
After spending 3 weeks of mainly eating western food and experiencing the cold winter, Dearie & I had finally gotten a bad cold and had to visit the Dr and spending the rest of the time recuperating till we get back to work.
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