Europhia Epilogue: Return to the East

With that, my Europe trip comes to an end. (Yeah finally!) Took KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) direct flight from Amsterdam to Singapore. The flight was very empty and thus I was able to lie down on three seats in my row by lifting the armrests. Many passengers did the same too. Had the best sleep I ever had on a flight haha. Because of this time passed pretty quickly too. Didn't bother much with the in-flight entertainment, as it pales in comparison to Air France. The self-service snacks were nice to eat though.

*Waves to the other plane*

This must be the best overseas trip I've ever had, and all the extensive planning gave me confidence to plan free & easy trips in the future. But I'm still not prepared to stay overseas for an extended period of time (3 weeks or more).

This trip is the longest time I've spent overseas. This is considered small fry to those who have gone for exchange. But glad and relieved that I didn't meet with any major problems (don't need to claim any insurance hehe).


Ok some statistics:

18 days
11 countries
16 cities
(avg 1.6 days per country, 1.1 days per city, sounds crazily intensive to me haha)

10 hostels
14 accommodations
11 flights (shortest 50 min, longest 13 hrs)
(avg one flight every 1.6 days, I fly more than an air stewardess lor haha)


Time to give out some awards:

Best Accommodation - Rome (large suite, breakfast right at our personal dining table)
Most Budget - Prague (hardly spent there + cheap)
Most Tranquil - Inverness (so quiet, so few people)
Most Touristy - Venice (crowded, exorbitant toilets and gondola rides)
Most Memorable - Edinburgh
Most Friendly People - Switzerland
Best Food - Edinburgh (I want my pasty aka giant curry puff)
Best Scenery - Switzerland (didn't meet expectations but still wins hands down)
Best Architecture - Prague (fairy tale structures)
Best City - Edinburgh

If I were to go for exchange in Europe, I would pick Scotland. The most worrying consideration is the cold weather however. Second choice would be Switzerland, but quite costly though. Similarly if I were to go Europe again, I would want to revisit Switzerland or Scotland. =)


Thanks a lot for reading my travel report for the past 2 months or so. Hope you all enjoyed the pictures. By the time you read this, I would have already gone for another trip. Travelling is addictive haha.

My travel route for this trip.

Europhia Chapter 27: Netherlands - Amsterdam II

Amsterdam city is full of canals, hence often dubbed as 'Venice of the North'. Compared to Venice, Amsterdam has roads, more paths for pedestrians, and its canals are narrower. The canals can be convenient for keeping track walking routes around the streets, but it can get pretty confusing as two parallel streets facing different canals can have the same name.

A common view throughout Amsterdam.

Amsterdam doesn't rely on water transport as much as Venice.

Very 'Holland' architecture indeed.

There are lots of boats, but there are much much more bicycles. Their multi-storey 'bikepark' looks pretty overwhelming (no photos of it unfortunately).

Happened to come across a mass cycling event.

Drawbridge, an icon of Amsterdam.

I used to watch a drama filmed in Amsterdam, where two lovers are separated by the drawbridge as it lifted.

Little Dutch pancake. Very little indeed, considering European appetites.

Main plaza.

Oh no! Don't kill me! *there are police behind you...*

Despite the wide roads and the tram tracks, it's actually pretty easy to jaywalk across, because there are so few cars. You have to look out for the numerous cyclists though.

Indonesian food. Tinge of 家乡味

It's a pity I don't consume alcohol. Europe is 酒鬼's heaven.

Netherlands is a very open country.

Sex symbol Marilyn Monroe. There is a fan below to blow the skirt up.

Erm...

Coffeeshop. In Amsterdam, ‘coffeeshop’ takes a very different meaning as in SG.

At night, the red light district becomes very active. Pictures are inappropriate to show here. Photography is strictly not allowed anyway.

The red light district in the day looks very innocent. Though women can still be seen flaunting their assets at the windows.

Not heap of fabric garbage, but flea market.

Not the entrance of a temple, but flea market.

Famous Belgium fries. Look at the mountain of fries behind!

Vending machine for hot croquettes. Sold slots will be refilled from behind.

Largest pancake I've ever eaten.

Definitely enough for a full meal.

If you ask me, this place is probably more romantic than Paris.

Few chapters ago I mentioned about fare-cheating. This is where my luck comes to an end. I didn't have coins to buy tickets from the ticketing machine (there are no manned ticketing counters), and shops were already closed. Halfway during the journey I spotted the conductor coming. Stood up from the seat and made my way to the train end (pretty obvious to other passengers that I'm avoiding the conductor). Unfortunately there was still a long way to the next station and conductor was approaching quickly.

A few seats away, the conductor stopped and caught a fare-cheater. It took quite a while for him to take down the particulars and stuff. This helped to stall quite a bit of time, as the train was slowly approaching the station. Finally when the conductor was done, and proceeded to the next passenger, we reached the station and alighted in the nick of time. Phew!

Should we get caught, we could always act blur as tourists and cook up some excuses, and hope the conductor will close one eye. But I would rather not take the risk. Don't want any trouble in foreign country. If not for the fellow fare-cheater in front of us, we wouldn't have made it...

Amsterdam also saw the first time my journey to catch a flight was delayed. On the way to the airport, there were technical problems and we had to take a long detour. Was able to check-in on time, fortunately.

I knew my trip won't be so smooth after all, or is it due to a certain person? Haha...

Europhia Chapter 26: Netherlands - Amsterdam

Left the rainy city for Amsterdam.

From my geography lessons, I know that many parts of Holland lie below sea level, hence the need for dike construction and efficient drainage to prevent flooding. Windmills were widely used to pump out seawater, hence they became an icon of Holland.

When we visited this place the air carried a chocolate smell. Turns out that there was a chocolate factory nearby.

Smaller windmills scattered at the plains.

The true Holland Village.

Bread is good okay!

Most of the attractions/shops were closed by the time we got there. =(

I kept seeing this big shoe everywhere. Are there giants living in Holland?

Countryside feel.

Bridge lifted for ships to cross. What happens if someone were to be standing on it when it lifts?

Flower park. There are many kinds of flowers on display, notably tulips.

Get ready for many flower pics.

Doesn't this make you want to pluck some flowers home?

My macro photo taking skills are put to test here, and I think I still suck at it haha.

My favourite.

Flower ball. Tempted to grab it.

This one looks like smiley face.

Why are flowers so colourful?

The flowers may be pretty, but I was rather disappointed with this park actually. Most of the outdoor flowers had been removed. The flowers peak bloom season is around April and at the date we visited this park (mid May), it was just days before the park closes until next year. Perhaps they should have closed the park earlier. There was already nothing much to see. Luckily we paid less than expected for the visit, but still quite expensive.

At most parts of the park we were merely greeted with these 'empty' leaves. The flower bulbs had been cut away.

Must sell off these flowers quickly before they wither.

This is the most disappointing one. This flower field is supposed to be very very colourful.

When I look at these pictures taken from Google, I felt that I had missed out a lot. Note: The below 3 pictures are NOT taken by me.

Bottomline is, if you want to see flowers, be sure to visit during their peak bloom, but you must be prepared to bear with the sheer crowd.