Europe 2nd Trip - Zurich, Switzerland (Day 15)

8th Nov 2013, Friday, Sunny

Swiss Army Knives

Today is our last day in Zurich and we are going back to Singapore tonight...sadz sadz....So we got up a bit late and then we got ourselves prepared. I had to go down to a Swatch shop and get my new watch to change cos the winder was spolit and it would come off if apply with some strength. So after breakfast, we went down the shops near the train station to check out but the shop was not the official shop. So we had to walk to the branch in the main station, luckily i was able to change a new one in the branch in the train station. We went to a souvenir shop called EdelWeiss Shop and had some shopping. After that, we went and took a bus down to the place for our cruise along Zurich Lake. Once we found the boarding place for the cruise, it was crowded with people. Then the boat (for a shorter route) came and we boarded. There was no seats outside, we managed to get a place to sit in the boat inside. OMG, it was so hot with my jacket on (it's 4 layers of clothes) and the boat was super slow.....I really sat until i was going to fall asleep on the boat ride, even the dog sitting under the table opposite us also hid and was making itself comfortable to sleep.

Fish & Chips (Nordsee)

Finally, there was some free seats at the outside, so we went out to have some wind blow. After the cruise, we saw swans and black birds around and went and take some photos on them. There were people sitting around having sandwiches too. After that, it was time for us to go back to our hotel and head out to the airport. We went to the bus stop and hopped on our bus to go back to the main train station.  We had our lunch at a restaurant, named Nordsee. It mainly sells seafood and i ordered a Fish & Chips. It costs $7.90 swiss franc and it tasted nice...i like it...kekeke...Once we were back in the hotel room, we took our stuffs that needed to go through tax refund. Then we got the hotel staff to help us weigh our luggage, so that we can roughly know how heavy. Amazingly, mine was the heaviest, which i was shocked...But anyway, we went down to Zurich main train station to catch the train to Zurich Airport, which was like 10 mins or so journey. We just stood near the train door until we reached our stop. Then we dragged ourselves to the airline counter and printed our boarding pass. After that, we went and find a place to lighted our luggage and keep our jackets too. After all this, we went down to check whether we can check in our luggage. Fortunately, the counters were open and we checked in our luggage and then we went walking around the airport, at the same time, trying to find the tax refund office to do our refund.

Passport Stamps

When we reached the tax refund office, there was a Singaporean couple who also came and wanted to do their tax refund. But they had checked in all the stuffs they bought with their luggage, and the husband was making a fuss that the shops staffs didn't inform them that they were required to show the stuffs to the officer when doing tax refund. The officer still insisted that they show the stuffs and the wife (think she doesn't want any trouble) tried to calm her husband and then they left the office. Then we went and showed our stuffs to the officer and done with the tax refund. After everything was done, we went and look for the airport lounge. It was so weird, we actually need to get our passport stamp to get to the lounge we wanted to go (it means we had exited Swiss...kekeke..). Me and another friend went to take food to eat while another one went to take a shower. It wasn't much choice but at least the food wasn't that bad to eat. We stayed in the lounge until it was time for it to close. Then we took our time to walk to our boarding gate, which we had to pass through the customs (which we got another stamp again). And then, i thought the custom officer had stamped the date as 9/11/2013 on my passport..hohoho...scared me when it turned out it was stamped with the correct date correctly. Then we had our passports stamped again, indication that we left Swiss, so in total we had 4 stamps for the whole trip. We had to take a tram to our gate and we also had some last-minute shopping before we reached our gate.

It was finally time to board the plane, i think i just fell asleep when the plane had started to fly. Super tired....this was the first time i actually slept the most on the plane. Luckily, this time, the guy who sat beside me was an Indian-looking guy and wasn't so big and i had my backpack placed on top. So i was having much space for my legs.....didn't get cramped this time...hahaha....We landed in Singapore on 9th Nov 2013. And so it marked the end of my Europe Trip (my only trip this year)......

Europe 2nd Trip - Bern & Zurich, Switzerland (Day 14)

7th Nov 2013, Thursday, Sunny

Cute Kittens

Today is just a shopping day for us, so we got up a bit late and got ourselves ready to start the day. We went down to the streets we went yesterday for shopping. I got to buy Nespresso capsules when i finally saw one Nespresso shop. We then stopped by at Läderach to get some chocolate, they sells their chocolate by grams, and the staffs had to break the chocolates accordingly to the size of what the customers want. There were a lot of different flavors to choose from, i just got some small teddy bear chocolates (they were so cute to resist...kekeke). We also kept a lookout for watches to buy..hahahhaa...i got myself a swatch watch, which costs $120 swiss franc and it was a design for this year's collection and a cute swiss knife (with picture on it). We then walked to the train station to shop, my friend got a new watch (swiss military hanowa brand) there. The staff gave us some bags with the train logo on it...hohoho..She wanted to give us more. After the shopping, we had to go back to the hotel to collect our luggage and head down to the train station. 

Rositi Fries

After the check-out, we headed back down to the train station. We got ourselves a hotdog bread at the station, it was so long but it was nice. It costs $1.50 swiss franc each and there were 3 sauces you can choose from (Tomato, Chilli & Mustard). After that, we headed to the train platform and waited for the train to come. It was a 1 hour plus ride, and i got sleepy on the train. I wanted to take a nap but the sun was shinning brightly onto me and my friend was like emoing that our trip was going to end soon...hohohoho....(I also don't feel like coming back so soon, was enjoying the scenery, food and i totally forgot about work..hahaha). Finally, we reached Zurich train station, and so we walked and dragged our luggage to try to find the hotel. We did managed to find the hotel with some help from Google map and checked in with our luggage. The hotel name was Bistrol Hotel.The room wasn't too small, it was quite ok for the three of us. After some resting time, then we headed out to walk the streets of Zurich. It was shopping again....hohohooo...There were so many shops to explore and there were so many things to see too. In the end, i got myself another 2 more watches... @_@...one watch was a Richelieu brand and another was Tissot brand. After all the shopping, we went to have McDonald's for dinner. There was self-service machine to place orders and pay using credit card. We tried to order from it but it wasn't successful. So we went to order from the counter. The Rositi Fries were yummy and there were different sauces to choose. After the dinner, we went back to our hotel.

Hotel Stayed:
Bistrol Hotel

Europe 2nd Trip - Bern, Switzerland (Day 13)

6th Nov 2013, Wednesday, Rainy

Rainy Day

Ahhh...raining today, cold cold. Today, we are going to Bern, another town along the Bernina Express route. And there was no hot water for shower too...so i showered slightly longer today (cannot shower with cold water...hahhaa). We all got up and packed our stuffs and went to have our breakfast. Took the chocolate powder home too... :P...and we saw the colored eggs too, my friends were curious on why the eggs were colored, so she asked the staff on why the eggs are being colored. The staff said it was to differentiate them between the normal eggs, the colored eggs were cooked hard-boiled eggs. They were colored so that people will know which were cooked and which were not. After the breakfast, we went back to our room to collect our luggage and went down to do the check out. It was still raining when we left the hotel, but we still walked to the train station.

Rainbow outside the hotel

Not able to take photos during the train ride, cos not able to open the windows and raining too. So we just sat around in the train, there were a lot of people on the train too. Once we reached Bern station, we went up to get a cab to go down to the hotel. It was a short distance from the train station, the hotel name is called Innere Enge. We were given to Room No 1, the room was quite big and there were photos, music scores and music awards hang on the wall. The toilet was also big and it had a big bathtub on the other side of the toilet. Once settled down, we ate up the instant creme brulee and rested for a while. Then, we headed out and explore the city of Bern. Just outside the hotel, i saw a rainbow opposite as the rain had stopped and the sun had came out. So nice to see a rainbow.... :).... Then we took the bus back down to the train station to start our self-guided walk (from Rick Steve's book). From the starting point, there was the Church of Holy Ghosts. Then across the street, was the shopping streets and there were a lot of shops. Some shops were located underground, there was a staircase for people to walk down to the shops. And there were also display galleries showcasing the shop's stuffs to attract customers to go their shops. And in the middle of the road, there were cars and trams passing and there were fountains too.The first one we saw was the Bagpiper fountain, these fountains are Bern's trademark from the 16th century and these were built to brighten the city and to show off the town's wealth...kekee....

View from behind of Parliament Building

After walking for some distance along the streets, we saw the Prison Tower, There was a clock on the tower too, with the hand on the clock is really a hand-shape. Then we walked to the left side, where we saw the Dutch Tower. It was a tower used by Swiss soldiers during war times, to hide inside and smoke secretly (as smoking was forbidden in Bern at that time). Then we walked further down the road, we saw the super mossy fountain standing. It doesn't look good-looking...hohoho...but it was made in 1983 and it symbolizes growth and life. And opposite the fountain, it is the Police Station building. As we were walking away from the mossy fountain, we saw some people playing chess. The board was on the ground and the chips were large size. 2 elderly people were playing on it. And suddenly there was a group of 3 young girls, who just ran towards us and tried to take photos with my 2 friends (so weird..hohohoho...). We then walked to the other side of the streets to see the Parliament and Swiss National Bank buildings. Both the buildings were very large and there was a empty square (which was having half the Swiss gold buried under it) in front of them....hohohoho....After taking photos here, we walked to the back of the Parliament building and we were greeted with a nice view over Aare River. The view was super cool, and from far, the peaks of Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau can been seen. Luckily for us, the sky was very clear and blue, clouds floating and the sun was out too. We managed to get some nice shots here. After the nice view, we continued our walk down, hahaa...we walked towards the wrong way. We had crossed over a bridge and actually, it was nice to cross over the bridge too. The wind was blowing strong and you got another different view to see the city...kekeke.....Anyway, we walked back again once we realized we had walked the wrong direction. Then there was Bern's Casino building (which wasn't a real Casino, it was the home of Bern's Symphony Orchestra), and then we reached Bern's famous clock tower - Zytgogge-Turm. It was so nice to look at, there were people just standing there, watching and taking photos of it. And we waited for some time, for the clock to ring. Then we continued our walk along the streets, more shops were there, on the lower and the ground level, until to a bus stop at Nydegg Bridge.

Brown Bear

We took a bus to Bern's bear park, which was 1 stop away...hohoho.....Once we alighted, we went to see the bears. There were 2 bears, 1 dark brown colored. and the other light brown colored. The dark brown colored bear was walking around, looking for food and the light brown colored bear just sat at the corner, under a tree. It doesn't really move much, don't know is it too hungry to move around. So we just spent some time around the place, see the bear walking to and fro, taking photos of the bears and the view. Then we went in to the souvenir shop but it was closed, there was a restaurant there too. After watching the bear, we sat down and see where we were going to have our dinner. So we decided to go a restaurant which was up on a hill, which was having a nice view over Bern. The restaurant name was Rosengarten. It was really up a hill, we had to walk up a super steep road to get the restaurant and there wasn't much street light around. By the time we reached the top, we were like panting...hahahaa....and we saw the night view over Bern city from there. The food list on the menu was really limited, my friends ordered spaghetti and i ordered a Thai Chicken Curry with rice. I like the thai chicken curry, it was nice (but it was expensive... >_<). After the dinner, we walked back down the steep road and went for some shopping in the shops along the way. There were some interesting shops, like one, there was cute cute white rats as display in the shop. And we also passed by a cinema, chocolate shop (Läderach). After all the walking, we took a bus back to our hotel to rest for the day.

Hotel Stayed:
Innere Enge

Places Saw:
Church of Holy Ghosts
Prison Tower
Dutch Tower
Mossy Fountain
Police Station
Parliament
Swiss National Bank
Casino
Zytgogge-Turm
Bear Park

Europe 2nd Trip - St. Moritz & Chur, Switzerland (Day 12)

5th Nov 2013, Tuesday, Sunny

Hot Chocolate

Today we are heading out to Chur, another town along the bernina express route. We got up at around 6 am and got our luggage packed. I had to stuff 2 packs of creme brulee and a box of grapes which we had bought from the super market yesterday. After with the packing, we went down to have our brekfast. The breakfast was quite sadz for the piece of $15 swiss franc, there wasn't much food, just breads, crossiants, ham, cereals and orange juices. The croissants was not as nice as the one we had in Tirano hotel but the ham was still good. And we had hot chocolate too, and we got a nice view in front of us too....which really brighten our day (already long forgotten about work....hahahaaa). After the breakfast, mi and my friend went to the playroom, there were some arcade machines and vending machines. There was even a TV room and an exercise room for yoga. Then we went back to out room to pick up our luggage and left the hotel, we made our way to the same train station again. This time, we were catching the train to go to St. Moritz for a half a day walk.

St. Moritz

When we reached St. Moritz station, we went to put our luggage in the deposit lockers. There wasn't many people around and it was windy too. So we slowly walked towards St. Moritz Lake, the sun was shinning brightly too. And it really feels good taking a stroll down the lake in the morning, and behind was snow mountains and there were ducks and swans too. The sky was blue and a lot of clouds floating in the sky (really is 蓝天白云). After a while, i just sat on one of the benches and started eating the grapes (so heavy...carrying them around....). Then my friends came and joined me after they were done with their photo-takings. We even went and fed the ducks and some black birds...hahahaha....the ducks chased us for the food when we stopped feeding them...we ran off when they kept trying to come near us.....it was so fun....After the walk there, we walked towards to the town area. We walked towards the post office and my friends managed to get themselves data cards just before the office closed for lunch. We spent some time outside the office cos they were getting their data up. After they were done with the data, we made our way down to explore other places. We went to the restroom there, it was lighted with blue light..which was kind of weird...hahaha...Then we walked to take more photos of St. Moritz Lake. After that, we walked to see their shops but most of the shops were not even opened. As there was nothing much to walk around St. Moritz, we decided to head down to Chur, where we will be staying for the night.

Roasted Chestnuts Stall in Chur

It was around 3 or 4 plus when we reached Chur....i saw a triangular bread which costs around $3 swiss franc at the station, so i got 1 (intention to share it but my friend wanted it to eat the whole....hohoho...). Luckily, i saw roasted chestnuts stall just outside the station and it was selling 200g for around $6.90 swiss franc. So we decided to buy a bag (if not, mi and the other friend won't have anything to eat in the hotel...hahahaaa....). The roasted chestnuts really smells nice and they were big too (like the ones in italy), hope it tastes good. And so, we walked our way to the hotel. The hotel we were staying was called Comfort Hotel Post. The hotel lobby was quite small and the lift wasn't big too. We went up to our room after getting the key. The room quite big, there were 2 single beds placed side by side and 1 single bed placed in another corner. After checking the room, we started to have some snacks first before venturing out. The roasted chestnuts were really nice, it was sweet and it doesn't has the burnt taste and it wasn't too dried too. And after the snacks, we went out to walk around the town. We wanted to go to a recommended restaurant for dinner but it wasn't opened for the day when we got there. Then, we went shopping around, there was a sausage stall which was having a sausage icon on top of the stall. Hahahaa...both my friends thought it was a banana.....anyway, we can't resist the yummy smell of the sausage (even with the fact it costs $6.90 swiss franc) and i was also getting hungry. We ended up buying 1 to share, luckily it was still quite a long piece, that we were able to share among us. Tried their mustard sauce too, it wasn't choky and spicy, it tasted kind of sweet. 

Daily Catch of The Day (Cod Fish)

We continued our shopping walk, and other some time, we decided to have dinner. We walked back to the 1st restaurant area and went to the restaurant which was opposite it. It was a restaurant in a hotel, called Hotel Stern. The restaurant name was called Veltliner Weinstube. It looked high class too, and it was definitely a fine dinning place. Hahahaa..there was 1 guy who kept looking in our direction cos he was sitting in this direction and my friend felt uncomfortable about it...luckily, he was already on his desserts, which meant he will be going off soon. We ordered 4 dishes, cod fish (daily catch), rositi, maluns and a dessert. And we got a free appetizer, which was a type of fish placed on top of black beans. Hahahaa...so funny, we thought it was the daily catch dish, which costs $36 swiss francs and the portion was only 1 mouth size. The food was good, the rositi was crispy too and the cod fish..wooo...nice (the skin was crispy and the meat QQ too)!! We spent $98.30 for this meal, happy meal for us. After the splendid dinner, we made our way back to the hotel. Hahahaa....i realised the heater for hot water wasn't working when i was taking the shower (everything was good about this hotel, except no hot water!..-_-"). I came out and just told one of my friends about it cos i knew she baths with warm water too. The other friend who went in after mi was screaming from inside the toilet that why there wasn't hot water? Hahahaa....so funny....and i always thought she baths with cold water as like a polar bear....kekeke...and so like that, we ended our day. 

Hotel Stayed:

Comfort Hotel Post

Places Visited:

St. Moritz

Chur

Europe 2nd Trip - Bernina Express & Celerina, Switzerland (Day 11)

4th Nov 2013, Monday, Sunny

My Breakfast

Today is the day we are going to take the Bernina Express Train to go into Switzerland from Italy. Tirano is the starting place where the train starts and the train will cross the Swiss Alps along the way. We had planned to take the 1st train out from Tirano, so we got up early and went down to the Swiss Train Station to check whether we need to get reservation for the train. The station was damn empty, only 1 or 2 people were inside the counter. As it was a Monday, so no reservation is required. So we went back to the hotel to have our breakfast, oooo!! The croissants were soo good, there was sugar on top and i took a few nutella so that can have them on the train. My friends took some fruits along. I finally had hot chocolate too, hahaaa, i used the espresso cup to fill the hot chocolate and it over-spilled cos the cup was too small. After breakfast, we went up to our room to collect our luggage and took turns to go down to the lobby. Hahaha....when we were paying for the hotel stay, i took out swiss franc currency to try to pay for the hotel (blur blur, i forgot we were still in Italy land....hahahaa). Then my friend looked at me shocked and reminded mi that we need euros, not swiss franc....hahahaha....really blur sotong....

Inner of Bernina Express Train

After the "乌龙" i made, we went to the Swiss Train Station for our scenic train journey for the day. We got on the regional train instead and we got the whole coach to ourselves, and we could open the windows (the bernina express train doesn't allow windows to be opened). At 8.50 am, the train started to leave, and we were off to Celerina (where we will be staying for the night and its the most awaiting hotel we were eager to stay in. Cos it was a like apartment, which was having 2-Storey in it). But first, we need to take the train until St. Moritz station, which was the last station of that line. Inside the coach, the train map was printed on the mini table around the seats and basically, we went running around the coach, from left to right and front to back. The train also went through towns and we were so close to the buildings (those with big lens camera needs to be extra careful, not to get hit by the objects when the train passes and the train is moving at high speed too). We also passed a lot of stations, the train doesn't stop for all stations, some, was stopped upon request. There was a stop button in each coach for people to press if they want the train to stop. Ohhh...Swiss trains timings are more accurate than Italy trains. They are always on the dot, come on time and leave on time, unlike Italy trains, which can delayed until crazy. Along the way, you can see snow mountains, lakes, towns, stations, and the road (for cars) are just beside the train. (See my photo album for the scenery photos during the ride).

One of the lakes saw along the journey

We reached St. Moritz at around 11 pm plus, so we need to make our way to another platform as to catch another train to go to Celerina. We had to spend some time at the station as the train leaves at 12.02 pm. After the wait, the train finally left the station, so it was a few minutes ride to Celerina. So it didn't take us too long to reach. After we alighted from the train, we tried to find our way to the hotel. It was like a long way from the station to the hotel, luckily it wasn't hot there (in fact, it was cold....hahahaa). Finally, we reached the hotel, it was called All in One Hotel Inn Lodge. We went up to see our room after we were done with the check in. The lift was big enough to fit the 3 of us, plus our luggage...kekeke....and the lift buttons were all touch buttons. When we got in to our room, it was really big, really with 2 levels...1 sofa bed downstairs and 2 single on the upper level. There's even a stove beside the sofa bed. The toilet doesn't look small too, no bathtub though.After the exploration of the room, we headed out to Diavolezza for our snow mountain visit. This was the only mountain opened for this period. When we got to the lobby, the hotel staff stopped us to get us pay for our payment first as they said their system will be down tomorrow, so they won't be able to access it. So we made the payment and my friend checked with them on how to go Diavolezza. They told us there was another train station opposite the hotel street that we can take the train to get to the place directly. So we walked to that station instead of the one we alighted earlier, and got on the train. As this station is not a main station, so we had to actually flag the train to stop (as to catch the driver's attention). Hohoho...it was fun....

Smiley Face (drew by me)

The train was empty too when we boarded and we were at the first coach, we could see the controls of the train and the 2 drivers were in control. After a few mins, we reached Diavolezza station, it started to snow....and we went in to buy our cable cars tickets. There was a guy in front of us, who kept asking questions to the staff (only see the staff had to make calls and then answer him), that caused to miss the cable car. In the end, we had to wait for the next car to come by the time we got our tickets ($30 swiss franc return trip per pax). Luckily, it wasn't a long wait (like about 5 to 10 mins). And so we went up to the cable car, it was those big type and we were going to the top of the mountain. Too bad, it was snowing outside and we wasn't able to see the outside view clearly. We played in the snow for some time when we reached, i tried to make snowballs and threw at my friends...hahahaa....It was soo cold, my ears were pain from the coldness (luckily i was wearing my friend's down jacket-her "rubbish bag"..hohoho...). After all the fun in the snow, we went in to see the souvenirs. As we were looking around, 2 of the staffs came over and asked us where we were from. One of them started to sing a song about Singapore when they heard about it. The guy just came to mi and gestured to take a photo..and so the other staff took a photo with mi....-_-".....they were so friendly...the one who took a photo with mi still joked by asking me $5 for the photo....i was like "i didn't ask for photo-taking".....After shopping, we had to take the cable car down as it was getting late. 

Potato Chips

After we came down from the mountain, we made our way out to the same platform to take the train to Pontresina. It wasn't a long ride too, we tried to find our dinner place as we were all hungry. We started walking in and it was a long way to the dinner place. By the time we walked in, the sky was getting dark. We stopped at a supermarket and grabbed snacks, drinks and even food for our dinner...hahahaa...There were coloured eggs too, which made us curious as why the eggs were coloured and for what purposes. We done with our shopping after spending half an hour or so inside...Then we made our way back again to the train station, as it was still early, we went in to a heater room to keep away from the cold and we had our potato chips first. It was nice, i like the potato chips (should buy some back). Then it was time for our train, so we made our way to the platform to go back to Celerina. Oooo..it was so dark when we alighted, there was not street lamps, we had to use torchlight as guide so that we can walk back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel, we had our shower and i boiled some hot water for our milo and instant cup noodles (brought by my friend). It felt so good to have some hot food in such a cold weather....And so, my day ended for today...yeah!!

Hotel Stayed:

All in One Hotel Inn Lodge

Places Went:

Celerina

Diavolezza

Pontresina

Europe 2nd Trip - Venice, Italy (Day 10)

3rd Nov 2013, Sunday, Rainy

High Tide

Today, i had planned a free day in Venice before we take our train down to Tirano. But because of the customs stamp for the tax refund, we wanted to head down to the train station first to see whether we can change to the earlier train to go Milan first (can't change reservations online too). So we woke up and got ourselves prepared and had breakfast. Then we went and do the check-out and asked for a water taxi (the ride back to the train station costs euro $70... @_@). There was heavy rain in the morning too and there was high tide at the Grand Canal. The water was already up to the pavement, and the ground wet everywhere. We had to go to another corner to wait for the water taxi, which was guided by the hotel staff who also pushed our luggage there. At the waiting place, i saw a tower, which was actually leaning (like the Leaning Tower of Pisa). The water taxi came after like 10 mins later, then the hotel staff helped us to take our luggage up to the taxi and i gave a small tip to the hotel staff to thank him and bid him good bye. Again, we had a good ride on the water taxi, we even had to bend ourselves down when going under the bridges (as the bridges were too low)...hohohoho....But after some time, we found ourselves got into a unfamiliar area, and it looked like the port of Venice, which worried us. So i went up to the taxi driver to tell him again that we wanted to go to the train station. And i think he said ya, ok. Then later he let us off at a stop different from the place we took the water taxi yesterday, which was not in front of the train station. So i went up again and asked him, he explained by saying due to high tide, he cannot drive in, so had to let us off here. He told us to just walk in the road and the train station will be there. So i got no choice and we got off (cos the driver had already stopped his boat), and he got our luggage off his boat. Then we tried to follow the road and walked in, luckily there was signs indication to the trains. But after walking a distance, i realised my shoulders doesn't have any weight sitting on them, i wasn't carrying my backpack!! i turned and asked my friend where's my backpack...and then i just ran off back to the place where the taxi had stopped. He had just started to leave, so i shouted to get his attention. Luckily, he still heard my shout, despite he was still on the phone and he threw mi my backpack....

A Nice Building saw @ Accademia Area

After i got back my backpack, i ran back to the train station and went off to the train reservation office. There was a queue and we were trying to get on the next train which was like leaving in less than 5 mins. When i got my turn, i was told that all the trains for the day was fully booked, there's no way we can change our reservation. So after discussion, we decided to forget about the tax refund, and continued our walk in Venice (anyway, it was really a risk going to that station to get custom stamps, cos by the time we could get there, there was no train back to Tirano). So we went to deposit our luggage at the train station and went to take the water bus to Accademia stop to find gelato. Along the way, we bought some postcards and souvenirs from a stall on the road (i told the owner with the stamps too). But again, we were unable to find the recommended gelato shop there and didn't manage to take gondola ride too (as it was raining). So we just walked around and enjoyed the views. The rain was also weird, it can be raining heavily in 5 mins, and it will stop after that. Then, we just went in to a restaurant there to have our lunch. The restaurant name is Terrazza del Casin dei Nobili. We ordered a clams & mussels bowl and my friends ordered seafood risotto (i didn't order any main course as i was not hungry and just now had a shock. Wondered was it that i used up all my luck to help block my friend' bad luck, and so now i not having good luck myself......hahahaaa).

Clams & Mussels Bowl

The clams & mussels bowl was not bad, and even the risotto was full of seafood, you can taste the seafood in every mouth. I tried one mouth, it wasn't salty and it tasted yummy. My 2 friends were enjoying the risotto and after the good lunch, we paid and made our way back to the train station. Then i realised the stall owner where we bought the postcards didn't include the stamps in...arghhh.....we went to look for stamps once we reached the train station, but no luck. Luckily, there was a shop in the train station that sells stamps, so my friend got her stamps and we went off to take our train to Milan. It was a 2 hours train journey, and we had to take another regional train to get to Tirano. And it was kind of scary, as it will be the last train out from Milan. If we didn't get on this last train, we will be struck in Milan for the night. So my friend decided to try get the train tickets for that regional train first, luckily we still managed to get the tickets. Because the stupid train was late, by the time we reached Milan, it was like less than 5 mins for our connecting train to leave. We had to make a mad rush to the platform to get on that train. I went off running to try see the board for the platform number, with no luck. So i went to ask the staff at another platform, and got to know where is it. Apparently, my friends already knew and got on the train and so i went up. I tried to move coach by coach to meet up with my friends....so tiring to carry and push my luggage along the super small walkway in the train...cos other people were also having their luggage near to their seats (One of the passengers still had to help me carry my luggage over, cos their was blocking the way and there's no way to move them). At 1 point, i had to stop cos there was a family with 2 young kids standing at one of the door and they didn't have the intention of letting mi pass across to the door of the next coach. They were just talking and letting the 2 kids jumping around, i just sat down and rested first. Anyway we had data, so i just texted my friends that i took a break first, continued to move in later. After that family got off, i tried to move in again, then i just stopped and sit near the train door. I started to sweat, and my arms were really tired from the pushing. At least there was wind coming in near the door.

After a lot of stops (don't know how many), the train seems to be more free up, and there were lesser people on the train. I tried to move again, finally i caught up to the coach where my friends were seated at. But there was still no empty seats, so i sat at the previous coach. Later then i moved up to sit beside my friends in the same coach. And later it turned out the train was delayed too, so we reached Tirano later than expected. But i'm just glad we reached Tirano and we found the hotel. The name was Hotel Bernina, it was the most recommended hotel which was located near the Tirano Train Station (Italy) and Tirano Train Station (Swiss). We had to go in from the hotel restaurant to get to the hotel lobby. There was a cupboard beside, where all the room keys are placed...kind of interesting....Then the hotel staff gave us our room key...and we took turns to go up to the room. You can see the outside street when taking the lift, too bad it was facing a construction site. And when we opened our room door, hahaha....the room was so small, not to what we expected. There was 2 single beds placed side by side and a bunk bed opposite the 2 single beds. And there was only 1 window, so we opened to let some wind blow in to cool the room. So it was decided i sleep the bunk bed, as i was the lightest. Me and one of my friends went downstairs to buy a bottle of mineral water...thirsty thirsty.....hahaa...did i mentioned, one of my friends was putting yoko yoko every night before she went to bed....luckily i was almost asleep by the time she was putting it....and i was sharing beds with her for the whole trip. Oh well, this is how i passed my day today...up and down....and exercised too much...hahaa...

I will definitely come back to visit Venice again, if i get a second chance (need to save $ first). It is worth the visit and there are still many places i didn't get to see this time and i will make sure i eat the gelato here and take a ride on the gondola boat.

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Bernina, Tirano

Europe 2nd Trip - Venice, Italy (Day 9)

2nd Nov 2013, Saturday, Cloudy

Florence Train Station

Today, we are going to Venice and we had reserved our train at 9 am plus. So we got up early again and prepared ourselves, packed our luggage too. Then i went to check on the fallen plank, and tried to put it back to the door frame (hope it doesn't fall again...hohohoo). After that, we went for our breakfast. The same breakfast was the same as yesterday, we didn't have much. After the breakfast, we went back to our room to collect our luggage and we had to carry our heavy luggage down the staircase...hahaha....Then we went and do our check out, and asked the hotel owner to call a cab for us. Then my friends went down first while i settled the hotel taxes and so, we made our way down to the main train station. It was still early when we reached the train station, luckily we had already made our train reservation, so we were just sitting around to wait for the board to show us the platform number of our train. I just ended up napping again...hahahaa....Finally, we boarded our train and i just slept almost all the way to Venice (sooooooo tired and sleepy....), and the journey was 2 hours long.

Our Hotel Room

Finally, we reached Venice. From inside of the train station, it looked normal. But once we stepped out the train station, the grand canal was just in front and it was crowded with people. And across the canal, was another street and in front of the train station, you can see water taxi stand and the water buses stops. I originally planned to take a water bus to the hotel. But when we saw the crowd at the water buses stops, it was like madness. It was soo crowded with people, that's like no way we can squeeze up the buses with our luggage. So we went for water taxi, and it required euro $60 to reach the hotel. Anyway we went ahead, which was way better. We were the only 3 people on board and we can stand at the back and enjoy the view without being squeezed. It was a nice ride, i enjoyed it and Venice was so beautiful with the buildings on both sides of the canal and is amazing the only transportation for them are boats..... We spent about 20 mins on the boat ride and we reached the port near our hotel. There was a short distance we need to walk from the port to the hotel and there was a lot of people at that area to (It was St. Mark Square area some more). So we dragged our luggage to the hotel (the hotel name was Villa Igea) first, after we did our check-in, the hotel staff brought us to the other hotel which was on another street behind, named Casa Nicolo Priuli Hotel. Apparently, there was 2 more hotels behind the main hotel and we were brought to the one further down. There was a staircase again that we need to carry our luggage up to our room...hahaaa....The room was so artistic, there was a large painting hanging on the wall of the room. It was having a single bed at a corner and a double bed on the other end. And the room was warm enough for me....whhahaa.....There was even a bath tub in the toilet.

St. Mark Square (Campanile)

After settling down in the room, we made our way out for lunch and our adventures in Venice. The streets of Venice can get confusing too..There were so many alleys around, not easy to remember where did you turn or whether you walked before. We walked towards St Mark's Square, there were a lot of shops around, there was masks shops, selling those party masks ( those types that you see in the movies), and many others. We also saw a shop selling cute cute sweets (called Marzipan), they were made to be like mushrooms, fruits, seashells and choclates, etc.We went to the lunch place to have our lunch first, the restaurant is called Trattoria Alla Basilica). They were having a set menu which was selling at euro $14, which was quite worth it. It was having an appetiser, 1st dish and a 2nd dish. As usual, i can't finish the 2 dishes again. :P...After the lunch, we walked back to visit St. Mark's Square. There was a lot of people at the square, can't even see properly on the buildings, and the buildings were under maintenance too (got barriers around them). So we went to take the water bus back down to the train station to start Rick Steve's The Grand Canal Tour (Starting point is from the train station and the end point will be at the St. Mark's Square stop). There were people everywhere...and pigeons, seagulls too. You can see gondola stops near the port too. I went to queue to buy the bus tickets and the tickets were not cheap there (euro $18 for a 12 hours ticket). And 1 thing good of getting bus tickets here in Venice, you don't have to look for tobacco shops to buy, the bus ticket counters are just in front of the water bus stops. Anyway we got the 24 hours tickets and while i was queuing to buy, there was an aunty who kept coughing behind me (so bad cough, like coughed until her lungs were coming out and she was still talking to her son/friend).

Santa Maria della Salute

Anyway, we got on the water bus after we got out tickets, it was easy to understand the water buses direction. You just need to go to the correct water platform with the bus number that you want to take, and see whether it is going to the correct direction that you want to go. There is a board too to display the timings of the buses. So we took bus no.1 back to the train station, which took like about almost an hour. There were a lot of amazing buildings to see, like the House of Gold, their casino, etc. But it was full of people, and the back of the boat which was outdoor, was too small to accommodate the people. We managed to get seats at the back still, as we took the final stop and took the same boat back again. And the boat was slowly moving and stopping at every stop. By the time we went back down to the last stop (Lido), the sun had already setting and it was turning dark. The boat staff got us down too, as they were changing the boat, so we can't take the same boat back to our hotel. So we got off and saw a supermarket (called coop) and since we still need to wait for the next boat, we went inside to shop around. In there, i saw a cute packaging of Nutella (and i don't see it in Singapore), so i decided to get some back. When my friend saw mi taking the nutella, she was asking why would people buy nutella in Venice when Singapore was already selling them? hohohoo....i just said is because the package is cute meh....kekekee... Then i left them and went to look for tea and when i came back to meet them, i saw them each taking 3 bottles of the same nutella i took..hahahaa....they 2 so cute...

My new Shoes!!

After the happy shopping in the supermarket, we went out to take a short walk around the area. There was a modern bridge in front of the water bus stop. It looked new and was definitely not like the other bridges which were with long history (Google Check: It was the 4th bridge over the Grand Canal, called Ponte di Calatrava). After that, we went back to take the water bus back, we alighted at Rialto stop. There, you can see the Rialto Bridge, and it was so packed with people (Why we didn't went and cross the bridge? hohoho....). Anyway, our main aim was to find a gelato shop (named Grom) there but we were unable to find it. We just walked at the streets, really, there were a lot of shops and people. We even went into a Bata shop as one of my friends had her shoes "opened mouth", so she needs to get a new shoes for the rest of the trip. Anyway, i went along to see see too, and saw the Adidas shoes, which were selling half prices and it was Adidas Neo series. So i went and picked 1 for myself...hehehee.....By the time we done with the shopping, it was already 7 pm plus. And so, we made our way back to our hotel. After we reached our hotel, we put our goodies in our room and then went downstairs again to buy water. It was so dark outside and there wasn't much light around. Luckily, there were 2 restaurants which were opposite our hotel still open, as i was getting hungry, i wanted to grab some food to eat (but at the same time, i was very sleepy...hahahaa).

Giant Turbot Fish

We saw a giant fish showing outside of 1 of the restaurants (named Ristorante alla Conchiglia), the waiter was telling us that the fish weighed 1.3kg and it was very good. So we decided to try on that fish for dinner...and we got a mushroom soup too. There was another table behind us, who were making a lot of noise, luckily they went off after some time. We waited quite a long time for the fish, really, can wait until sleep (I never felt that i can actually wait for my food until i almost dozed off on the table...hahahaa). Finally, it came and we finished eating the giant fish (i actually quite like the fish) and the fish itself cost us $82.80, so in total this dinner was the most expensive we had so far. Then we went back to our hotel to zzzz.....Another long day tomorrow....

Hotel Stayed:
Villa Igea

Places Visited:
St Mark's Square
Lido Area
Grand Canal Cruise

Europe 2nd Trip - Florence, Italy (Day 8)

1st Nov 2013, Friday, Sunny

My Breakfast

Today is an important day for one of my friend, as we are going to The Mall for branded goods shopping. But first, for the 1st half of the day, we will be going Galleria dell'Accademia first to see the famous work by Michelangelo, David. And so, we woke up at around 6am, got ready to go for our adventure today. I went out first and told my friend to remember to take the key and so i closed the door behind me. After walking for a short distance, i heard commotion coming out from our room. So i turned back and opened the door again, i saw my friend like in shock, frozen at her spot. Then on the floor, there was a plank-like stick. Hahaha....then my friend started to scream at mi and asked mi what did i do to the door, the plank fell just a few centimeters away from my friend. And the other friend was standing behind her, saw the whole drama. Then we all broke into laughter.....So drama....the door wasn't even closed when i closed it, how the hell the plank will fall down?? (but later when i went to see in the next morning, blue stack was actually used to stick the plank.) After the shock, we went down to have our breakfast. It was a bit sad on the breakfast, nothing nice to eat (i still miss the breakfast in Naples hotel......kekeke)....After we had our breakfast, i went to ask the hotel owner on how to go to bus terminal so that we can take the bus down to The Mall.

David (Taken from Web)

And so, we headed out to the Galleria dell'Accademia first as i had made the reservation at 9.30 am slot. We were required to queue for a while as there was security check required and there were security guards to control the crowd. Then we made our way in and got the admission tickets. As usual, 1 went off on her own and mi and another friend walked together. In there, the main highlight was the super big statue of David by Michelangelo. It was really big and no photography is allowed in the gallery. But i can still see some people had secretly took photos of the amazing statue using their phones. There were some other sculptures (by Michelangelo) and a collection of Renaissance paintings.  Apparently, i got no collection of other sculptures or paintings, except the giant statue of David...hahaha......There was a room of music instruments collection too. For this gallery, it wasn't as big as Vatican Museum or Borghese Gallery, so we ended the tour quite early. After this, we walked towards Florence Cathedral. The whole cathedral was super big, and it was also crowded when we reached there. It was amazing, it was so big and tall that you feel small just by standing in front of it. It was very white and there was lights shinning on it during the night. When i first saw it, i can't help 'wow', it was breathtaking and Baptisterium San Giovanni was beside it......But it was considered a public holiday today in Italy, and so the cathedral was closed. We were unable to enter to see the inner of the Duomo, which was one of the top 10 UNESCO World Heritage in Italy (which is a pity).

Gucci Outlet @ The Mall

So had no choice, we headed down to The Mall instead. We went and took a bus to the main train station and i got lost in the direction, i wasn't able to find the next direction where we need to walk to the bus terminal. So my friends took over and tried to find the direction, well, they managed to find the way to walk to the bus terminal (they are more expert in using google maps..hohohoho). Just as we reached the terminal, the next bus was 10 something, which we needed to catch this bus. If not, we have to wait like an hour for the next bus. Luckily, we did managed to catch the bus and off we went (Ticket costs euro $5 single way, euro $10 return trip). It was an 40 mins or so journey to the outlet, i just napped on the bus (so tired after waking up for so many days). Finally we reached the mall, and we went to the canteen for lunch. It's a bit sad, cos it was like a food court except you need to order first before you can choose your choice of pizza or salads. Anyway, it was a sad lunch, don't like it....After lunch, we started our shopping. First stop, Prada, my friend wanted to go there see see. Haiyo, it was crowded and it was like marketplace. The place was big though and it was 2-storey high, lower level was with bags, wallets and shoes and the upper level was with clothes, jackets, etc. Next stop, Gucci, it was also big with 3 levels and it was not so crowded, quiet. Really can slowly shop and see slowly, and indeed i saw a key pouch that i like the feel of it. So i just bought it...kekeke...my friends were still looking out for theirs. I was the first one to start the ball rolling...hahhaa...Later one of my friend got 2 wallets and 1 got a bag and a coin pouch.

Yummy Gelato

After shopping in Gucci, we went to see other shops. Actually, the place was quite small with not many brands. I was expecting the place would be big and there were a lot of branded shops around, it was smaller than the one i went in Japan. So if you are to visit The Mall in Florence, go only if you want to get stuffs from Prada and Gucci. If not, don't bother making the trip there. There were also branded shops around the streets of Florence, you just need to go the correct place. After all the shopping there, we went to the tax refund office located at the bus stop. As we were not going back from Italy, the officer told us that we need to go to 2 train stations (Chiasso & Domodossola) and get the custom stamps for the tax refund forms before we leave Italy and mail them back. Later on, i went back to check, the train frequency for this 2 stations were not so frequent and we were having a late train to take from Venice to Milan on the last day for Italy. Anyway, we went back to the hotel to put our stuffs first and then we headed to have dinner. Before dinner, we headed to a gelato shop instead, called Gelateria Carab. I got myself a plum gelato...ooohhh....it was so damn nice!! My another friend wanted to try something special and new, so she got a granita. The other friend doesn't want to have it at first, till both of us kept telling it was sooooo nice and i let her try one mouth from my gelato. She dashed back in to the shop and got herself 1 cup. I was the last one to finish it, as usual...the 2 of them had finished their first cup and they went back to have a 2nd cup..hahhaa...The shop owner was friendly too and think he was surprised why we kept going back to his shop.....kekeke....this was the last gelato i ate in Italy....If you are going to Florence, don't miss this small gelato shop. Best!

Inside of the Restaurant

After the nice and yummy gelato, we walked to our dinner place, named Ristorante Paoli. It definitely looked classy, and the interior was very beautiful. Too bad, it was fully booked when we reached there but we still had a bit of luck. We were allowed to take the table outside, so we went with it (cos i think there was one family after us wanted to take the outside table too, if we didn't sit in first). Then we ordered the food and had a nice dinner there. The tomato soup is quite thick and really tasted with tomato (not like those mixed with water and with no taste). The whole dinner costs us euro $60. After the dinner, we made our way to Piazzale Michelangelo. We walked quite a distance before we made it to a bus stop that we could take a bus up to the place. As we were walking, think i saw Ponte Vecchio afar but not sure...could be...hahaha....Oh well, and so we waited the bus for like half an hour or so before it finally came.....After 6 or 7 stops, we reached the piazzale (along the way, the 3 of us were in sleepy mode on the bus ride...hahhaa).

Overview of Florence City (Night View)

At the piazzale, there was a copy of David statue, smaller version and it looked kind of dirty. But when you turn away from the statue, is a good nice overview of Florence city with all the lights shining. There were 3 buildings that stood out from all other buildings, one confirmed was the Duomo (which was in the center), Palazzo Vecchio (i think it is, which was on the left side), and 1 more building on the right side (which i don't know what it was). After spending some time up there taking photos and looking at the view, we made our way to the bus stop. Gosh, the bus required an hour to come and it was the last bus. So we just sat there, stood there to wait for the bus to come. It came at 12.05 pm, my eyes almost wanted to close. We just napped on the bus when we boarded, after we alighted, we still need to walk a short distance back to the hotel. I never got used to the streets in Italy, as in i can't get familiarize with the roads we walked, from the hotel and back to the hotel. It was kind of confusion walking in Italy...hahahaa...but still we managed to walk back to our hotel safe and sound.

There's really much to see in Florence, too bad we had planned our stay too short here. Target myself to come again next time. ^_^

Note: For the tax refund thingy, if you are not leaving from Italy, then be prepare to give up refunding it. The VAT is 8% for minimum euro $150 in a single receipt and as i mentioned earlier, you will need to travel down to Chiasso or Domodossola (it may be different stations depending on where is your last destination, for mi, my last destination was Zurich) to get their customs stamp. If you are ok without the refund, then my advice is just forget it unless the train frequency to the particular station is very often (like every 1 hour), then you can go ahead with it. If not, don't bother about it. It may waste your 1 day just by doing this, so why waste it? Enjoy your holidays!

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Europa

Places Visited:
Galleria dell'Accademia
Florence Cathedral
The Mall
Piazzle Michalengo

Europe 2nd Trip - Pisa, Italy (Day 7)

31st Oct 2013, Thursday, Sunny

Snacks given on Train

Today we are going to move out of Rome and head to Pisa to see the leaning tower. We had the same breakfast again and we make sure that we got all our stuffs in our luggage and went to do the check-out. Then we got the hotel staff to help us get a cab to drive us down to the train station. When we reached the train station, we wanted to take the regional train down to Pisa but when we checked the board, the train was delayed. The first we saw is delayed for 15 mins and there wasn't any platform indicated yet. Then the 2nd time we saw the delayed time had jumped up to 20 mins and it wasn't stopping..it went up to 30 mins. In the end, we went for the high speed train instead, which was to go to Florence first, then take the regional train from Florence to Pisa (which was running hourly). So we decided to head for the hotel first to drop our luggage since we were going to Florence first now. It took us about 1 hour plus to reach Florence, so we just rested on the train for the time being. During the ride, when we were about to reach Florence, i got up to unlock our luggage. Then suddenly i heard a commotion behind and heard one of my friends saying 'Oh My God!'. Then i turned around and saw one of my friends had orange juice spilled onto her pants and there was a lady carrying a very big and heavy backpack and she was holding some metal poles/sticks. Apparently, she had lost her balance when the train was moving and had fell on our table and the cup of orange juice was spilled onto my friend. I think she can't really speak English but she kept telling us she was sorry....hohohoho..Luckily, we were heading to Florence hotel first, at least my friend can have a change of pants before heading to Pisa. Hahahhaa....We also made fun of her by saying she had become orange-flavoured after the spill too.

Main Entrance of the Hotel Building

Once we arrived in Florence, we headed out to take a cab to go the hotel. Once we reached the hotel building, the building lift was also the same as the one in Rome - with cage, just that the spring door wasn't springing in Florence.....hahhaa...as usual, we need to go up 1 by 1 cos the lift was too small for the 3 of us plus luggage. The hotel we booked was Hotel Europa, it was a nice comfy hotel and it is a family-run hotel. The hotel owner gave us our key and showed us our room, which was at the 2nd level (need to climb a small staircase up). She even helped us to carry my friends' luggage up, i carried mine up myself (think she was also panting carrying both my friends' ones..their are bigger size and more heavier). The room was really big for the 3 of us, the biggest room we had so far. There was a walkway towards the toilet, then on the right side was the room with 2 beds (1 single and 1 double). And the window was made of wood. After we settled everything, we headed out for lunch and to take the next train to Pisa.

Mango Gelato (From La Bottega del Gelato)

We walked to a self-service restaurant, called Self Service Leonardo. The place was like a canteen where you pick the food you want and pay at the cashier. So we got our lunch there and eat, it was ok. The drumstick we got was a bit dry and i still find the food salty. After the lunch, we headed down to the train station by walking and took a train to Pisa, which was about an hour journey. We reached Pisa at around 3 plus, then we started the self-guided walk by Rick Steve's book (as the starting point was from the main train station). So we just followed and walked towards the leaning tower of Pisa. Along the way, there were much to see and even managed to get ourselves a nice gelato from La Bottega del Gelato, just after we crossed the bridge over Arno River. (I had read about it on the web when doing the research, i wanted to try it). Both my friends got 2 flavours on 1 cone and i only got 1 flavour on top, which was mango (I love mango..^_^). It was really really nice...If you are going to Pisa, don't miss this gelato shop. You will not regret it. And it only costs euro $1.50 for the small cone, if i remember correctly, this applies to 2 flavours too, as long as it is on the small cone. I enjoyed the gelato very much and we continued our way while eating. Basically the walk took us 30 mins to reach the fields of Miracles where the Duomo, Campanile, Baptistry and the Campo Santo stood. Actually, when we were walking along the road, i didn't even see the top of those buildings (as an indication that we were about to reach). It was like you walked out until the end of the road, then you will see the famous buildings standing just in front of us and you will just like say 'wow' to yourself.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

So we got ourselves snapping photos away on the leaning tower, on the Duomo, on the Bastistry (don't think we saw the Campo Santo cos it was behind the Duomo and we didn't went to the back). Both my friends were trying to make the photos like they were holding the tower, pushing it, picking it up using camera angles. There were a lot of people trying to do the same thing too and we hung around until it was dark (anyway, it was already dark by 5pm plus). Then one of my friends was asking the other friend to help her take photos, i went behind her to make some funny faces (anyway, it was Halloween night today)......hahhaa...think she didn't even realised it till she found the 2 of us was laughing on something. After this, i was dying to look for the restroom, so i went ahead in to find the restroom while both my friends sat at the fountain to wait for me. But the restroom was closed for the day...argh!! No choice, i headed back to find my friends and we decided to go back Florence and have dinner. We walked our way back again and did some souvenir shopping whenever we saw the shops selling souvenirs. I got a collar pin and postcards for myself, my friend got t-shirts for her niece and nephew and another 1 got a cute pinocchio puppet which costs like euro $11. The shop uncle was showing us on how to operate the puppet, it was so cute. He controlled the puppet so well that the puppet was alive itself. He used the puppet to walk and even to kiss him on his check. After all the shopping, we walked down to see whether we can find any tobacco shop opened so as to buy bus tickets. It took us a distance to find 1 that was still open and once we got our bus tickets, there was no bus coming!! So we waited at the bus stop for like half an hour or more than that.....saw some kids dressed up for Halloween too and were running around the streets to have fun (but it wasn't what i expected. I thought it would be a big event and a lot of people would be outside the streets to celebrate). It was quite quiet that night....hahaha....

Finally the bus came and we boarded to head back to the train station. We got on the 7 pm plus train and reached Florence at about 8 plus. By then, we were all tired, so we got ourselves some snacks and headed to McDonald's to grab a fast dinner....The chicken nuggets there were much tender than Singapore and they were not dried. Then we ended up walking back to the hotel to rest for the day.

Hotel Stayed:

Hotel Europa, Florence

Places Saw:

Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II

Corso Italia (where a circa-1960 wall map of Pisa with a steam train was on a wall of a bar)

Ponte di Mezzo (Bridge that we crossed over Arno River)

Piazza Garibaldi (Where the gelato shop was located)

Borgo Stretto (Pisa' main shopping street)

Piazza delle Vettivaglie (Pisa's historic market square)

Leaning Tower of Pisa (Campanile)

Duomo, Pisa

Batisery, Pisa

Europe 2nd Trip - Rome, Italy (Day 6)

30th Oct 2013, Wednesday, Sunny

Borghese Gallery

Today, we are going to see the Borghese Gallery and the reservation made to enter the gallery was on 11 am. So i got to wake up a bit later, and the breakfast was delivered at around 7.30 am. The same breakfast was served, but we got 3 additional pastry that we bought last night. Out of 3, only the tiramisu tasted better..hahaha....After the breakfast, we just rested in the room until the time was ripe to make our way down to the gallery. Then we went to take the metro down to the station near the gallery, then we still need to walk a 10 to 15 mins distance to the Borghese Gardens. As we were walking to the gardens, we saw the road cleaning truck and it was like mini size too. And i asked the stupid question by saying that even the cleaning truck was mini size in Italy. My friend just suan mi saying that the roads in Italy were small, so their vehicles need to be small too. If too big, how to drive around? -_-"...When we reached the garden, it was very big, so we took a stroll slowly while making our way to the gallery.It was so nice to walk in the park, as it was windy and wasn't hot. There was even a playground, i just ran towards to the swing to play for awhile... ^_^..... After this, we continued our way up to the gallery. Once we reached the gallery, it was still early before we can enter. So we walked outside the gallery and waited for the time to be up. There was a choo choo train too, to let people take around the park and there was even security officers riding horses patrolling around. Finally, it's time to go in the gallery, we went and deposited our bags and got the audio guide, then we made our way to the entrance. But we still need to wait for like 10 mins, cos the staff were still asking the people from the earlier slot to leave the gallery before we can enter.

Apollo & Daphne (Taken from Web)

The gallery has a large private collection of arts by Cardinal Scipione Borghese and has 2-storey high of paintings and sculptures. Photography was not allowed in the gallery, but it really had a few highlight paintings and sculptures worth to take a look. The gallery was so big and we were limited to 2 hours in the gallery....Didn't managed to finish the whole audio guide too....left a part behind when the announcement came to inform that the time is up (sadz.....). There was even 1 structure that was displayed on the wall....It was showing Marcus Curtius throwing himself into a chasm. On the 1st room we went into, up at the corner of the ceiling, the paintings was painted like 3D (as in you thought they were sculptures up in the ceiling, but actually they were all paintings which painted to look like 3D). After that, we went in rooms after rooms, there were a few highlighted sculptures to see. One of the highlights was Pauline Bonaparte, it was a beautiful lady sitting on a couch and the whole sculpture looked like it was real. You can even see the folds of the cloth and how the couch was pressed when the lady was laid on it. Another main highlight was the sculpture of Apollo and Daphne. It was very interesting when listening to the explanation from the audio guide, and you can see how Daphne was going to be transform into a tree by seeing her feet and hands as branches as she tried to flee from Apollo. 

Rape of Proserpina (Postcard)

The next one i like was the sculpture of Rape of Proserpina. You can actually see the firm grip of Pluto (powerful god of Underworld) on Proserpina (daughter of Ceres). It was so beautiful looking at all the sculptures. There was a sculpture on David, which was by Gian Lorenzo Bernini too but it was a smaller version (The super big version is at Galleria dell'Accademia, in Florence). There were also famous paintings displayed inside, like The Last Supper (by Jacopo Bassano), Deposition (by Raphael), Sacred and Profane Love (by Titian), and many more.

Time was up and we had to leave the gallery after 2 hours, then we went back down to return the audio guides and collected our bags. We got some postcards showing the masterpieces at the shop and then we had sandwiches for lunch at the cafe there, don't know why i can't even finish the sandwich....so big piece...-_-".....After the lunch, we made our way down to Colosseum. We took a super long way to the metro station, there were shops along the way too but they were all closed. We reached the Colosseum at around 2 plus and there was a lot of visitors too. Then we headed in to see the interior. As usual, 1 friend went off on her own to listen to Rick Steve's audio guide and mi and the other friend went ahead on our own without audio guide. Mi and my other friend were just snapping photos away of Colosseum, it was so nice to look at and the sky was very blue today too.

Colosseum (From inside)

It was a really big amphitheater and this was once where naval games and gladiators fighting held. But too bad, only this was what left after devastating earthquakes and stone-robbers...How nice would it be if the whole place was still intact (Maybe still can hold some events there). After walking the whole round of Colosseum, we made our way opposite to go to the Roman Forum. Just outside the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine was there but half of it was under maintenance. But when we reached there, it was already closed but there was a side road where we can walk up and take a peek on the ruins of Forum. So we walked up to that road till we reached a small church. We just went in to take a rest. After the rest, we headed downhill as we need to go have dinner and get ready for our segway tour. Just about we reached the gate of the road, one of my friend tripped onto the gate stopper and landed my other friend a '熊掌' (bear slap) on her back...hahhaaa...so funny, the one got hit was ouching her way and even sent messages to our another friend (in Singapore) to complain. She was complaining it was painful...hahhaa....we all had a good laughter at that time but luckily, all was well, no fall no injuries (the road was made of stones, not so friendly) except a '熊掌'.

Theatre of Marcellus

After the laugh, we tried to make our way down to the tour agency for our segway tour. As we ended up arriving early there, we told the guide we are going for our dinner first. The guide was very friendly and he was ok with it. He even asked us to take our time. From the street of the agency, there was a square where there were a lot of restaurants. So we ended up with 1 that sells sandwiches and pastry, as to get a quick bite (named Clubkave). I had a sad dry ham and cheese sandwich, it wasn't very nice and it was quite dry. So I didn't finished it. After dinner, we went toilet and made our way back to the agency. It turned out we were the only 3 person on the tour, so the guide told us to leave our bags in his office and after he locked his office, he took us to the tree where he parked the segway. One of my friends had been very nervous on riding the segway, as she only rode it once. So the guide told her to keep calm and stay close to him, he will take care of her...hohohoo....After a 5 mins warm-up, we were off to start our tour, so the guide told us to stay in a single line, the guide as first person and i as the last person. And so we started our 3 hour ride, riding on the segways, we had fun riding from places to places around Rome city. One of my friend had her camera len cap dropped while riding and she even hit on an expensive brand motorbike and fell off from her segway (After that, she got a big blue-back bruise on her knee). After that, it was a smooth ride until the end of the tour. Some of the places we went were places we went on Monday and during the day, but just this time we had some explanation and story-telling from the guide. We had some group photos taken around the places too. At 1 point, when we were crossing the road, there was a car dashing out from the traffic light and i was crossing the road. Luckily, i crossed the road fast enough before the car came near mi. It was fun riding the segway around Rome and seeing the city in night view. The guide also brought us to a higher level, so that we can see Rome city from the top, and from far, the dome of St Peter's Basilica was seen clearly. And he also told us how pizza margherita came about and it resembled the Italian flag (it was amazing how the pizza was only with just 3 ingredients: red (tomato), green (basil), and white (mozzarella) and it can taste so good).

Trevi Fountain

On our way back, the guide showed us a fountain which was named Fontana delleTartarughe (also known as The Turtle Fountain). There were turtles on top of the fountain, like crawling in the water and there were dolphins too, at the lower part of the fountain. The guide told us that the one of the turtles was being stolen and so the other turtles was being replaced by copies now..haha...After this, we went back to the agency which ended our tour. We had a friendly chat with the guide and took photos with him too. After this, we decided to make our way down to Trevi Fountain (which i am glad that i went, although i was super tired).  On the way, we passed some souvenir shops and one of my friends got a gelato (euro $2.50) and we also got a crepe (euro $4,50) from Blue Ice. As usual, there were a lot of people when we reached there. I tried to take as much photos as possible on the Fountain, and then just sat down and looked at it. It was so big and grand, it really looked very beautiful. You can hear the water gushing down the fountain and it just feels so good sitting there looking at it. We even went down and tossed a coin into the fountain (A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain, they are destined to return to Rome. To do: You need to take the coin in your right hand and toss over your left shoulder into the fountain). But i think i threw it over my right shoulder....so guessed might not be able to return Rome again...hahahaa......After the tossing, we went off to head back to our hotel, halfway, we passed by a McDonald's and we went in and got a Happy Meal (because of the Minion Toys). Then we went to the bus stop and waited for almost an hour for the bus to come. Finally, the bus came and we can go back to the hotel to rest for the day. Phew.....

Places missed to visit:

Spanish Steps

Roman Forum

Pantheon

Hotel Stayed:

Target Inn

Places Visited:
Borghese Gallery
Colosseum
Arch of Constantine
Roman Forum
Trevi Fountain (Italian: Fontana di Trevi)