Back in tropical Singapore + Last year’s Europe trip photos

Hello guys. Sorry for not updating for so long. I’m safe and secure, back in tropical, very convenient island of Singapore. Seriously, you can’t appreciate Singapore this much until you’ve gone to Russia.

St Petersburg was…. not like anything I’ve experienced. I missed Singapore (and Jakarta) so badly but at the same time was charmed by the city.

I will tell you more in the next posts, but right now I want to finish my last year’s duty : to talk about last year’s Europe trip.

You know I think I’ve found a reason why I’m too lazy to blog about last year’s trip. Because in every photo album I published in Facebook, I always included captions to explain the photos. Blogging about the photos was a redundant process, as a result.

So here I’m gonna give you all the links to my photo albums on Facebook. They’re open for everyone, so you should be able to see them even though you’re not my friend on Facebook. Sorry, no random friend requests will be accepted on my Facebook though

Enjoy, and please sit back for a while before my Russia write up.

Last stuff from Poland

Ship at Gdynia

Poland 24th and 25th of May

Went around Sopot once again and visited Gdynia, a beautiful seaside city

View from my hotel room in paris

Last day in Poland, one night in Paris

A very short album, just a “bridge” to the next days’ photos.

Rome , Italy

Me in Vatican city - amazing ceiling

Rome day 1 part 1 – Vatican City

Met my friend Maegan who was on exchange in Rome. She took me to Vatican City on day 1.

Castel d'Sant Angelo (yes, the one in the Angels and Demons movie)

Rome day 1 part 2 – Vatican City, Castel d’Sant Angelo, awesome dinner.

Still containing photos from Vatican City trip, some of Castel d’Sant Angelo and other buildings around Rome, then I had an awesome dinner with Maegan in a fantastic (cheap!) place called Carlo Menta in Trastevere.

Btw, this is how (authentic) Italian pizza looks like…

Me with Colosseum

Rome day 1 part 3 – Colosseum

Do I really need to explain?

Me at Trevi Fountain, Rome

Rome day 2 part 1 – I Love Fountains

What’s Rome without fountains? Visited the ever so popular Trevi fountain and numerous other fountains. Spanish Steps and Pantheon are inside.

Il Vittoriano

Rome day 2 part 2 – Rome here Rome there

Saw the remaining must-see landmarks in Rome. Cathedral of Rome, Foro Romano (Roman Forum), Il Vittoriano, Aventine Hill.

Rotterdam/Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Me, just arrived at Amsterdam

Rotterdam/Amsterdam

Quirky architectures at Rotterdam. And of course ever so notorious Amsterdam. Amsterdam is actually quite pretty and serene! But then I didn’t come at night, so….

Paris, France

Me in front of Notre Dame church

Paris part 1 – excluding Eiffel Tower

Truth be told, I didn’t really like Paris. To me it’s dodgy, old, and uninteresting (especially area outside the touristy stuff). I much much prefer Rome. But then I visited Louvre and Eiffel Tower – and I’m glad about that! No photos from Louvre, no Mona Lisa photo, because I didn’t bring camera that one fine morning! Krishna asked me to go to a flea market so I didn’t bring my camera. And unexpectedly he brought me to Louvre. Oh wells

Info for anyone planning to go Paris : the first Sunday of every month is always free entry to Louvre! (Yes I got the free entry! )

Lights on Eiffel Tower!

Paris part 2 – Eiffel Tower

How can you ever visit Paris without visiting Eiffel Tower right??

I have a story about the trip to Eiffel Tower. Krishna and I thought that it’s not really far from this area called Chatelet (we were watching a musical in French with Spanish subtitles – needless to say we didn’t understand anything. Visualization was superb though). So we walked along the Seine river. Turned out that… Eiffel Tower is ENORMOUS, so even if it looks near from Chatelet, it’s not. I think we walked for almost half an hour hahahahha.

Then we reached, and we found out that the ticket to the top was out! So we had to be contented with just a visit to the 2nd highest point (2nd floor).

However at 2nd floor we noticed a queue at a box-like room. Turned out it was the ticket machine to buy a ticket to the top! There was a guy inside who tried to buy tickets, but his credit card got rejected. Some others tried too, but rejected as well. Krishna and I finally got to use it, and Krishna’s card got rejected as well. Just for the sake of trying, I pulled out my card and tried to buy 2 tickets to the top. And guess what! It got accepted!

So Krishna and I finally got to the top in the end…

And that’s the end of my Europe trip stories (photos)! Haha. Watch out for Russia trip stories. I promise it won’t take a year. Really.

If you’re my friend on Facebook, jump the queue and take a look at my photos. I’ve posted them all up

A teaser….

St Isaac's Cathedral, St Petersburg

24th of May – The Opera in a Forest

I know it’s been so long! Nevertheless here’s my entry!

24th of May, the last day of our competition

It was the folk music category.. Songs that we sang:

• Sohran Bushi (Japanese)
• Xiao Huang Li Niao/小黄鹂鸟 (Mongolian folk song, sung in Mandarin)
• Mamayog Akun (Philippines)
• Dayung Sampan (Singapore, with melody adapted from a Chinese song)
• Now I Walk in Beauty (Navajo traditional prayer, sung in English)

Pieroghi (dumplings)

Yummmmmmmmmmm

pieroghi!

Okay if you’re wondering.. I did eat two portions of pieroghi!

me and honey vodka

Hehe.. The first “gloomy” photo is my favourite photo of the lot! He even used it for his profile picture once

 

Mwahahahaha. Please don’t kill me, please. It’s just a joke

23rd of May – Sopot, Poland – Sacred Kebab

And thus it was 23rd of May, the first day of the competition.. It was the sacred music category.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures since I was, obviously, singing. My choir’s repertoire for the sacred category..

1. Ave Maria attributed to T. L. de Victoria
2. Exsultate Justi by Lodovico Viadana
3. Dona Nobis Pacem by Urmas Sisask
4. Salmo 150 (Psalm 150) by Ernani Aguiar
5. Didn’t It Rain arranged by Bob Chilcott

Read more to continue….
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Poland – 22nd of May – You Raise Me Up

I’m gonna try different kind of writing. Photos will be now inline with the pre-typed blogpost.

22nd of may

it was the opening ceremony! We were parading down the “hippest” and trendiest street in town, Monte Cassino. Think of it like Singapore’s Clarke Quay, maybe. Or maybe Holland V. Just some street that people will go to hang out and meet friends and all that.
So here is the picture, our choir parading down Monte Cassino!

Oh ya, the choirs had their own flags..


But we didn’t! =( They gave us the Sopot flag instead…

(photo by Tracy Cao-the one in the picture below)

Every choir went up to the stage (just by the pier!) and performed one song. my choir performed “Dayung Sampan”, chosen because it has the word “Singapura” in it, despite the fact that the song was actually based on Chinese folk song melody.
I don’t have the picture of us performing =( nevertheless i will show you the stage!

The MC (second from left) was damn hot… *swoon*
And somehow damn hot people will sound hot. Weird accent became hot. Mwahaha.
Ahem. Anyway.
Read more to continue =)
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Poland – 21st of May – Do you hear the sea calling?

Yesh! Here goes the next day..

As usual.. My pre-typed blogpost…

woke up in the morning and our guides brought us to the beach/sea! there’s this super long beach line. or maybe it’s some peninsula? i dunno what it’s called but it’s long. the sand is very soft so we kept sinking. it was so hard to walk! sigh.. but the view is pretty.. and of course we took picture with the anchor cross. it’s anchors coz this region has many fishermen and this cross is supposedly their protector. after that we went to the center of Sopot and walked through the longest pier in the europe. only about 5 of us made it to the end of the pier, including yours truly, of course. it was super cold. and the wind is even colder. after that we went to a big mall in Gdansk. well, just like any malls, it was full of zara, mango, and the likes. and of course there was H&M! so many discounts here and there so i grabbed a top and a skirt. didn’t take a lot of photos of anything else.
[end of pre-typed post]

Okay so that basically summarized all. Now let’s go to the photos~~~!!
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Poland – 20th of may.. Oh hi, I’m from Indonesia slash Singapore

Full Facebook photo album.

Ok here we go to the next days.. Posted one month after the day itself.. Sorry.. Pardon me for being soooo busy ok?

Ok here goes my pre-typed blogpost…

20th of may

went to Kosakowo to hold some choral workshops in schools. in return the students gave us performances. kosakowo is inside the Kasubian region, so all the performances were the traditional dances/songs unique to that region. had fun meeting the cute children. some of them even ask for autographs. talk about instant celebrity!
after all of the tiring (but fun!) workshops, we went to a church to attend a mass and hold a concert. I haven’t gone to church for quite some time, so I’m happy I can attend a mass (Catholic mass), despite the mass being in Polish. after the mass 3 choirs went on stage and sang nice songs (i can only say nice coz i can’t really understand what they’re singing). and it was our turn! it was sooooo cold i kept shivering. natural vibrato! the audience gave us standing ovation which surprised me coz we were shivering like crazy and didn’t think it sounded so good. but oh well. why should we reject such an appreciation? we gave an encore.

we went back to the hostel we’re staying in aaaand they held a barbeque! lemme tell you, polish sausages are the best i’ve tasted until now (until 20th of may and the place i’ve gone farthest is poland). they grilled it with beer too! so oily and sinful but you juz want more and more. after the barbeque the girls and boys at the hostel were holding a disco. they put on some speakers and started blasting clubbing music. who said choir can’t party? we partied until late night. can’t believe one of the best clubbing session i’ve had so far was in youth hostel at poland with a bunch of polish teenagers. and yes they’re teenagers. I’ve overheard some of them were 16 or something. and they’re really enthusiastic and powerful. i can’t understand how they managed to dance for about another hour after all of us retired to rest.

Here comes the photos~~~!!
(note : I’m not posting my party photos =P you can search for it on facebook, if you’re my friend)
Read more to continue coz there are sooooooooo many photos..

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Poland – May 19th – Gdansk

Full photo album (Facebook)
note : this entry below was handwritten by me on approximately may 19th or may 20th.

In case you want to see the handwriting, here it is.. Hehehe..

May 19th
Went to Gdansk. It was a town that’s completely destroyed at world wars. History noted that it was “owned” by different countries before it decided to be Polish. I guess there’s no wonder why they competed for Gdansk since it’s such a strategic place. Guess Poland government really made a good decision to rebuild it, retaining the old look. Don’t be fooled by the old look though, inside are the hippest shops and bars around.
Ate some pancake with pork meat and some sauce. Dunno what it’s called, but it’s quite salty and heaty. Nice though. As my Polish is nowhere near sufficient, I juz pointed to any food that looks nice. Haha.
We also visited the St Mary’s Church, the biggest church in the world made of brick. It was majestic. How did the people make this kind of church just using bricks? Man, the wonder. The choir sang inside the church. It was Ave Maria (since it’s St Mary’s chuch, you see). We made the tour guide cry. Haha.
We also shopped for amber. Gdansk is famous for its amber. Bought a pair of earrings for 50 zloty (duh! earrings!). Pretty. not to forget this kewl soprano ice cream. Basically it’s called soprano coz it’s sooo tall. Overall, it was a fun day (even though my feet don’t seem to think so).
[end of handwritten entry]

And get ready for photo galore!

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The journey to Sopot – a journey inside a journey

Full photo album : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=6640&l=7fc8e&id=222100453

It’s quite a long way to go to Sopot.. But we have decided, and go we shall.

So of course it began in Changi Airport..

To view the rest of the post.. Please read more to continue.. (too many pictures!)

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