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

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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

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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….

We sang in this gorgeous chuch called St George’s Church. I featured it in the last post, but since it’s quite a long time already since then.. Let me refresh your memory..

Anyway. I was singing so obviously there’s no picture taken from my side.

Well there’s a photo of us singing in the church attached in this e-mailer though…

Neewayz. Back to the title. Hehe. I ate kebab for the first time in Europe here!

Yummeh! It was served with French Fries and the sauce was garlic. Very dry though, not very good for the voice. But actually most of the food there was so salty and heaty! It was delicious nevertheless!

Jenevieve (the one pictured with me) created this using my camera…

Have I told you I love my camera so much?

We stayed back because UPSA would be having performance. This is the only decent picture I took:

And… that was the end of 23rd of May.

Ok I’m sorry if it’s too short!

To compensate, let me show you the photos of dogs in Poland! Dogs are so popular in Poland I think, every person seems to have one! Enjoy, and stay tune for the next day!

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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 =)
Didn’t take a lot of pictures because was busy performing. Like obviously. Went around and bought some ice cream and nuts. Yes, this ice cream…

Not at the same place (that photo was taken in Gdansk), but same type of ice cream. Tall, creamy, and yummy!
If you’re not convinced…

That’s my friend Joshua. Photo taken by my other friend Jiaqi.

Moving on.. It was a super super sunny day. As hot as Singapore!
You can see..

Hehehe.
I made this with my camera! Cool right? I was so sian (bored) that day. The sun was too sunny so I was lazy to walk around.
However.. The wind.. Sigh.. The freaking chilly wind.. “Don’t be so tropical!” my conductor said.

The lady on the left is the conductor =D

Bonus photos of the sunny Sopot! =D

The original picture of the “postcard”

Cute kiddie rides!

This is St George’s church, where our competition was held =) Since it was so sunny it looks so pretty..


This guy does tap dance everyday with his good friend playing the guitar!
He’s quite hot..

Him with Tracy and Jiaqi

A “pancake” we ordered. Looks more like prata IMO. There was meat and veggies inside. You can see sour cream on top of it.

This is the Monte Cassino street (after parade)! The red building on the right is the St George’s church.

Some restaurant on Monte Cassino..

Heard the UPSA (University of the Philippines Singing Ambassadors) fully performing for the first time. They were DAMN GOOD. I almost cried at the song “You Raise Me Up”. At first I was like, er, duh, you raise me up? It’s like overplayed already. But oh my god….. *speechless*
I present you a video of UPSA singing! Not “You Raise Me Up”, but “Circle of Life”.
Update : If you want to hear “You Raise Me Up”, try this link. =)
Before you begin.. Let me tell you first.. Every sort of sounds you will hear in the video were made by the choir members themselves.
P.S. Pardon the shaking hand.

Circle of Life – UPSA from Sylvia Giacinta on Vimeo.
even a video can’t give a good representation of how good they sing. UPSA, my heart is for you.

Stay tune for the next day – the first day of competition! Whee!

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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~~~!!
Read more to continue..

Sorry, no photos of breakfast today! Heehee.. Was quite sleepy at breakfast and I didn’t bring my camera. Party yesterday, remember? hee..

Ok anyway.. So our guides brought us to this beauuuuutiful beach…

That’s cross of anchors behind. This Kosakowo area is famous for its fishermen (since it’s near the sea). This cross is their protector (if I heard right about it).

Closer look of the cross..

Yes, it’s huge.

As I said.. The sand was soooo soft and we kept sinking. It’s like a whole work out/warm up! Some people decided to walk on the side instead, where the sand is wet and more solid..

Well including me of course.

The view of the sea..

The peninsula was sooooo long. I don’t have any photos of me with the peninsula but I took this picture of Krishna and the peninsula..

Can you see it at the background? The peninsula disappearing into the horizon? It was quite hard to capture. It’s so loooooooooooooooooooooong.

No we didn’t walk until the end of the peninsula. Couldn’t take more of the super soft sand…

Oh and while we were walking on this peninsula there was a large number of annoying little flies! And some of them can stick on your lips! Gross! One of my friends had loads of them on her lips and she didn’t realize it. Lucky she got some tissue and quickly cleaned it off.

Okay after that we were taken to Kosakowo Cultural Centre (if I’m not wrong.. Oh my memory fails me…sighz)
We were thanked and congratulated and all that jazz. Oh and we were given some lollipops. I’m serious.

This is the only picture I took. Flowers outside the centre.. They were just soooo pretty…

And after that we went back to Sopot to do some rehearsal. And after that we went to the longest pier in Europe, Sopot pier!
(I kinda think Europeans like loooooong things)

This is the entrance..

Of course, I must provide an evidence photo.. Here I am!

And me again, looking more emo. My shawl is so dramatic! Haha. The wind was blowing very strong that day. Cooooolllddd..

View of the sea…

Walking along the pier…

Yes the pier was soooooo long. According to Wikipedia it is 515.5 meters long. And it was so windy and chilly so it was basically a torture to walk until the end. But I persevered! Hahaha! I was walking with my friend Zhimin and we talked about a bunch of nonsense so it was still alright.

And finally the end of the pier!
I know, it doesn’t really look that special after all…
I think they should have put some sign or something. Something like “You have reached the end of the longest pier of Europe”? It will be a good photo object.

After that our guide brought us to the biggest mall, as you have read from my pre-typed blogpost. Didn’t take a lot of pictures. What’s to take? Another Zara, Mango? No need… You can find them in Singapore. Except H&M though. Ohhhhhh when will H&M come to Singapore?? Please please please.

This is the only photo I took in Galeria Baltycka..

Found in H&M. After fancying this cute hoodie, I found the label… Made in Indonesia. Doh..

Okay that’s all for 21st of May. Short yeah? Just stay tune for moreeeeee~~~~

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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..

As usual, we started our day with delicious breakfast..

Eggs!
They’re basically hard boiled eggs. With mayonnaise (sometimes ketchup) on top. They were very different from Singapore’s watery half-boiled eggs. They were suuuper tasty. They were my favourite breakfast thing in Poland!

Here are the photos of the school we visited…

This is the Kasubian Culture class if I’m not wrong.

Some cool eagle sculpture. It’s the bird in the national coat of arms of Poland. It is somehow similar to Indonesia’s…

See..

Anyway, here is a supposedly world map..

I said supposedly coz Jakarta and Singapore are both missing from there.

And here’s the performance I told you about!

They were teaching us about Kasubian alphabets! By singing no less! Of course I couldn’t understand anything but yeah..
Anyway, their costumes are very cute, right? =D

Oops! Careful boys!

The second dance. The boys and girls are holding hands and happily dancing around the stage. Cuuuuuuute.

And here’s the third dance. The emcee said that this dance is about fighting for girls. So the pirates teased the girls and the brave villager boys tried to save them. Hahaha. I didn’t really see the story later in the dance coz all they did was spinning and then jumping and then dancing around the stage. Never mind. They were cute.

See? They’re even holding whips!

And these are the pretty girls..

Of course they ended up dancing together!

After this we delivered our performance. It was the Japanese song Sohran Bushi (Japanese fishermen song). After that they juz swarmed to us and asked for our signatures! Like really! That’s what my title came from.. Coz in the signatures book I wrote

[signature]
Sylvia
Indonesia/Singapore

It’s quite confusing, you know? The simple question “Where are you from?” was quite complicated to answer when I was at Poland. Of course I’m from Indonesia but I was there to represent a Singapore school. Thus Indonesia slash Singapore was born.

Aaaaaaanyway.

After that… Eat! They served us Polish food agaaaaaaain. Those beloved sausages! Eggs! Salad! Beer! Beer! Beer! Did I just say beer thrice? Beer!

Note : some photos were taken by Jeremy Tan

So here we were surrounding a long table, seated on small seats (they were the kids’ seats! Hahahaha)

Of course the cans of beer you see were free!! Real free beer =D
Oh yes in case you were wondering the beer was cheap!! It was even kinda cheaper than the best mineral water..
Oh and their mineral water… Somehow they sometimes like it with gas! As in carbonated water.. I got conned several times becuase I couldn’t read Polish… But after some time I learned.. Gazowana is the one with gas, Niegazowana is the one without gas.

I wish I had taken the photos of the wonderful sausages. But I was too busy to eat them and they were gone before I got the chance to photograph them. Hehehehe. I might try to search my choir friends’ facebook album and snatch some sausage photos. I hope they won’t mind. =P
The Polish sausages are very very solid and tasty! You know sometimes we encounter sausages with some holes inside? Polish sausages are nothing like that. They’re very solid, and some kinds are very soft that you can spread it on your bread!

Here is the photo of the other people invited to the dinner..

Oh yes it was dinner!
In case you’re wondering why it was still bright in the pictures… The truth is.. It was always bright in Poland until about 9.30 PM. And after that.. It got bright (as bright as about 7 AM or 8 AM in Singapore) at 4.30 AM. -_-”"”"”"”" It was not once I got awake at 4.30 AM thinking it was already 8 AM or something. Sighz.

We were having dinner together with the resident choir of Kosakowo.. THey’re using their traditional clothes as their choir costumes.. It’s sooooo cute.

See see? And they’re soooo tall and big! That uncle hugging me was very big and his hug was veeeeeeeerrry tight. And that uncle at the most left was surely handsome on his days yea? =D

This is another picture taken by Jeremy..

Now you can see the ladies also! Super cute costumes!

After that…

PARTEEEEEEHHHHHH!!!!
(read : party)

Ok I said I didn’t want to post party pictures but I guess I’ll just post some.. With me inside, sometimes. You can drool over the hawt Polish girls…

(pictures by Jeremy Tan)

The “train”. I think it’s their favourite dance move… Make a “train” and hop all over the place..

There! Some Polish girls! I hope they don’t mind.. Hehehe…

this has me inside.. maybe you’re interested =P

And in case you’re still not sure that we choir geeks can parteeeehhh


hehehehe..

It was awesome. It was just some corridor in our youth hostel and they were just playing their playlist with a speaker and there it was! A dancefloor!

Polish girls are hot yea? (I think they’re Polish though. I might be mistaken…….)
But the boys didn’t dance much! The girls were veeeeery enthusiastic.

Okay and that was the end of May 20th. Stay tune for 21st of May, still in Kosakowo! =D

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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!

Let me start with the captures of the place where we stayed.
As I said, we were staying in a seminary.

And so of course, they have this big cross..

If you see sth clothed in purple and blue… Yes, that’s me. Doing “Titanic” pose. Jenevieve asked me to do it. Hahaha.
Here’s another picture of the huge cross…

This is the church..

And they have this huge statue of Pope John Paul II just in front of the gate.

Pope John Paul II is a very popular figure in Poland. The reason is quite obvious : he was born in Poland. You can see his pictures everywhere in Poland.

Here are some more captures…


Doesn’t it look nice and peaceful?

Pictures below are the view from my room’s balcony.. Yes my room had balcony… Didn’t I tell you i was lucky?


Me and Jenevieve at the balcony..

(in case you didn’t believe we had balcony =P)

We always started our day with this..

Yummy breakfast! We were free to choose anything. They usually gave us some ham and cheese (as shown in the picture), some spreadable sausages (seen in the picture also), about 3 types of breads, jams, butter (the butter was flavoured! One of them was ham-flavoured), and occasionally eggs.

Can’t you see that they look glad? Hehehe.. In the picture you can see the butter, the jam, and the cottage cheese.

After breakfast, it was time to go…

This colorful (and rusty) train was our main transport. Trust me, Singapore has seen better trains than these. Like please. Still want to complain about Singapore MRT? (wait ’til I tell you what metro stations in Paris and Rome are like)

This is the train station! Sopot Kamienny Potok. Only 1 stop away from the city centre of Sopot.
You can see graffiti here. As I traveled around later, I found out that the cities I visited always have graffiti. Maybe it makes the city more “human”. Unlike.. Ahem.. Singapore.

Aaaaaand sooo we reached Gdansk!

This gate is called Golden Gate. It’s the main gate to enter the old city of Gdansk.

This is called the millennium tree. It was to celebrate the millennium birthday of Gdansk (if I’m not wrong).

The main street at Gdansk! Yes it was dark and cloudy that day..

The narrow alley leading to… Somewhere. Look at the brick building in the background. More of that later…

Did I tell you about lody soprano?? =D
Oh and by the way, in case you don’t know, I’m a soprano in choir. So yeah. =P

We got hungry along the way and stopped at this bakery..

Pretty right?
Again, since my Polish is.. well.. insufficient… I just pointed anything I like. Haha.

Guess where we were going to…

It was a post office! No kidding!

And these are some “doves” on the ceiling.

Some buildings at Gdansk..


If you think they look like Amsterdam.. Well.. The guide said that the buildings was designed by Dutch architects.

That is the Neptune Fountain.
I know, bad angle…

And now it’s the time for the superstar!
Remember the narrow alley you saw earlier in this post?
It leads to..

The largest church in the world made of bricks (and only bricks).
St Mary’s Church.

And of course, I need an evidence photo.

This picture below is of a clock..

It’s a very unique clock. You can see it also tells you what zodiac time it is. Very cool.

Those alleys in “Mariacka” area (comes from St Mary church’s name) have a lot of people selling amber stones and jewelries made of amber.

They sell it in an open stall on the street! But actually usually they have their own shops behind..

Oh yah I talked about food didn’t I?
This is what the pancake looked like!

That’s all today… Stay tune!

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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!)

Went to the gate after wandering around various shops in the airport. Saw one pack of Estee Lauder perfume (travel pack) for only $50 something. Contained 5 types of perfumes. But, sigh.. Didn’t buy it…

And of course after the gate we’re going inside the plane!
Here is me inside the plane…

And since it was a long flight.. We had TV!

But it was not working properly…. =( in the end the only thing we could watch was the flight tracker. They also have cockpit camera but it was already night, so who cares anyway?

But anyway, I (and Krishna) were assigned seats just at behind. It was seats of 2 (seats ahead of us were seats of 3), so it’s good that we’re not cramped between unknown people. And our seats were at the back, so it’s very near to the toilet and… Self-service area! Apparently at mid-flight they serve various snacks. We got ourselves some sandwiches, one tub of ice cream, and cup noodles! Helped to warm the body in the freezing cabin. And also they’ve got drinks. I always get thirsty easily, and I was so grateful I could just shuttle to and fro from my seat to get drinks.

After 12 hours of flight, we landed in Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

About 2 hours before our next flight…

CDG airport was wonderful. You might have read my blog post about it.
And here are the pictures to prove the beautiful architecture of CDG airport!




Pretty right?

And so after walking around and around, it’s time to board the plane to Warsaw!

My friends Anjana and Krishna posed before the flight.

Up and go!

Marvelous, right?
Somebody was awed by it too.. (I suppose)

It was just a short flight. 2 hours or so. Well it’s a bit longer than flight from Singapore to Jakarta but considering I was in 12 hour flight, that was seriously short.

In no time, I arrived at Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport.

Yes, now you can see my huge suitcase.

And in no time too, we boarded a coach to go to Sopot.
And this was all we saw during the trip to Sopot….

Yellow fields. Was it canola? I’m not sure..
And moreeee yellow fields.

We stopped by to grab a bite.. And of course I had to take a picture with the yellow field in the background.

This is what I ordered. A hamburger.

I ordered this because it was the only thing I could understand/comprehend from the menu.

This is the coach that brought us to Sopot.

Hmm. Are you wondering why I could take the picture of the coach?
Well, the true story was.. There was a long traffic jam and we got stuck. We got stuck for quite a long time so we decided to go out and get some fresh (cold) air.

And since we were a choir (not that we aren’t now), we sang! In the open field. In the cold air. There’s a video posted on Facebook but I couldn’t embed it here.. =/
And since we were… Erm.. Narcissistic..

And finally the jam looked like it’s moving and we got back into the bus.
And we finally reached the place we’re going to stay in!
It was a church cum seminary.. Up on the hill. More photos of it at the next post

For now.. Let me show you my room there!
I was quite the luckiest girl in the choir (with 3 others.. Hehe). We got this very big room that’s actually more like a studio apartment. Initially I and Jen (my buddy cum my roommate) got the other room, but were offered to move to this bigger room coz there were 2 other girls that’s assigned there and it’s quite a waste if only 2 of them were there. My previous room with Jen was just.. Erm.. Just enough to sleep and move a bit and so we accepted the offer!
Here’s the room!

(photo by Jenevieve Yeo)
this is just a part of it.. In this photo you can see a fireplace, 3 very comfortable sofas (we later found out that the biggest sofa is actually a sofa bed!), wardrobe, and 2 beds for me and Jenevieve.

Here’s the other part of the living room.

Yes! We’ve got TV!
But we can’t watch any of the programmes broadcasted there. Erm.. Actually.. We can’t comprehend anything. There were actually English programmes (like those quiz shows), but they were all dubbed! The unique thing in Poland is.. There’s only 1 dubber for the whole show/movie/whatever. So no matter whether the real person speaking is male or female, it’s always just one dubber! Hahahaha. So we heard a blonde pretty girl speaking with deep hoarse voice of a man! It was soooo funny we LMAO’d.

That door you saw leads to the kitchen…

Juz beside the kitchen was the bathroom (not pictured).

If you wonder where the other two girls were sleeping…

The apartment was actually 2 storeys high! Hahaha..

And so this was the upper loft where the other two girls stayed.

Our room was so big that every night friends will come over to watch TV or some chit-chat.

So we rested that day to get ready for exciting days ahead!
More in the next post…

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Anyway, here’s a video of my choir (SMU Chamber Choir) performing side by side with Camerata Vocal from Brazil.

The song was “Salmo 150″ (Psalm 150) composed by a Brazilian, Ernani Aguiar.

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…

Ah. The packing.
It was quite disastrous. An inexperienced traveller, I want to bring a lot of clothes. The trip was 16 days, so I thought about bringing.. Erm… 8 pairs of sleeping clothes. 1 for 2 days. And I want to bring my dressy tops of course. And then of course I had to bring my choir stuff. In case you all forgot, the initial reason to go to Europe was to participate in Mundus Cantat 2008, an international choir competition. My choir stuff includes a metallic turquoise wrap (which doesn’t fit me very well despite being specially tailored for me and despite the fact I’ve lost weight since the measurement), 1 pair of formal black pants, 2 black camisoles (to be worn inside the wrap), 2 turquoise polo shirts, 1 long sleeves scoopneck top (to be worn inside the polo shirts), 1 choir jacket, and of course one pair of performance shoes. And then I gotta bring some thick outerwear. These include two sweaters and one jacket. And then of course my personal toiletries and make up. Then I initiated to bring some stuff to give to my friend Maegan who I was going to visit in Rome. In short, there was a lot of things. Also I wanted to bring some personal medicine, in case my gastric acts up or headache attacks me, and of course a lot of mint pastilles (I was going to sing!) and candies and also Vitamin C tablets.

Well, within seconds, my medium-sized suitcase looked like it was about to explode and I can’t fit all.

A friend suggested me to buy a bigger suitcase. I agreed. And what a stupid decision it was. A decision I regretted throughout the Europe trip later on.

And so I packed all my stuff, filling all the space I can find inside the big suitcase. Zip it close, make it stand… And..

“Uuurrrggghhhh…”

My boyfriend : “What’s wrong?”
Me : “It’s.. too.. heavy….”
BF : “Let me try”
(he tried to lift it up)
(no words said except that his eyes widened)
BF : “You packed too many things…”
Me : “Really? But I only packed the things I need!”
BF : “You sure…?”

Oh by the way, I took the IKEA weighing scale from outside and tried to weigh the suitcase. It was 25 kg! *suffocates*

And so my boyfriend became the packing police. He began rummaging through my stuff..

“No need to bring so many lah” – to my extra ordinary amount of clothes
“Juz bring a small amount of this” – to my liquid soap. Apparently one bottle (Body Shop bottle) is too much and too heavy. I finally emptied half of it and I still didn’t finish it after 2 weeks
“Do you really need this?” – to.. er.. a lot of things.

After a lot of re-packings (take out some things, weigh the suitcase…), I finally ended up with only 2 sets of sleeping clothes (with one pair of long pants that is soooo warm and comfy.. and a bit heavy), about 3 or 4 tops, some inside clothes (camisoles, tank tops..), and 2 pair of pants (jeans). And of course my choir clothes and toiletries and make up and medicines and the things I bring for Maegan (after cutting out some stuff… Sigh).

Later at the taxi..
Me : “You know, for the amount of things I finally bring, I should have just used the medium sized suitcase. It should fit.”
BF : “…..”

My suitcase on the weighing scale.
19.8 kilos! Whee!

Lesson to take note to everyone travelling.
Please, please travel light.

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