grad trip travels-week 1

Day 0 (May 9th), Singapore
01:00, Singapore
End of FYP and NUS life!
Hello Changi Airport :)

Day 1, Dubai-Prague-Krakow
04:00, Dubai
Hello Dubai airport and mc arabica! :D
Looking out for gifts/souvenirs to buy when returning via Dubai in 24/25 days time! :D

14:30, Prague
Hello rykne airport! Hello Czech republic!
First ATM withdrawal done :)
Czech pple seem to be able to speak pretty decent English :)

21:00, Prague
Finally on the overnight train to krakow! Cabin looks good and pretty safe :) train man's pretty nice.
Explored part of Prague earlier. Seems pretty alright. Lots of pickpockets though. Can see them eyeing you from all corners :( was even stalked by a gypsy :( gotta be careful!

Day 2, Poland
06:00, krakow
Hello krakow! Krakow is beautiful! Feeling safer here :) checkin's good :) side apartment but pretty decent and check in service was great! Loads if recommendations from the counter staff yay!

21:00, krakow
Explored the Jewish quarter and had awesome ziapienka, the polish version of pizza :) everything's really affordable here and it's mad safe :) even money changers here are decent. though we're pretty stand out still cos we're Asians but pple here are friendly and helpful :) also explored wawel castle; the lost wawel, state rooms and dragon's cave. Tried polish dumplings for dinner. Not too bad. Just dry dumplings with different fillings. Tried poppy seed pastries too. They're everywhere! :D old town is beautiful! And I love the horse carriages and parks :)

Day 3, Poland
21:00 Krakow
Visited the famous salt mines! The main chapel was beyond beautiful :D pretty cool experience :) even tried the salt water underground. Tasted like bleaugh but of well we tried :p the people here are really great and helpful! Full marks for Poland thus far :) ran back to main town cos we got special tickets to go visit the new krakow underground museum which is supposedly very difficult to get a chance to go. Not too bad :) pretty insightful though they had a couple of spelling and grammatical errors :x dinner at an underground locals hangout restaurant was a great find! Really food food at decent prices! We're totally coming back :) my wiener schnitzel was awesome max! Beers are damn cheap in this side of the world! Comparable with water prices :) visited church of st peter and paul. checked out krakow galleria too! Great bakery and a supermarket for breakfast tmr :) a beer a day keeps the doctor away :p

Day 4, Poland
21:00, krakow
Breakfasted at our favourite bahery and took a look at the local market :) Took out first tour ever at the auswich-biernkau camps; the famous nazi camps. Extremely good tour guide. Very very knowledgable with good English :) yeah I like :) the scariest part of the campsites were that they looked so ordinary from outside. Who would have guessed the atrocities that had happened inside. And the gas chambers and all... And how they used the human hairs from the gassed humans to make mats socks etc. The nazis are pretty sick pple :s tried fried broccoli from macs. Quite nice. Its served with sour cream. Visited the famous st Mary's church and Followed it up with a nice dinner at the underground restaurant :)

Day 5, Poland
21:00, krakow
woke up with flowers next to me in bed <3 hehe :):):) Poland is cool. At night, one of their trams is converted to a club. Party on wheels around krakow. How cool is that :) had breakfast at the bakery again and shopped at the local market. Damn cheap. ran back to wawel castle to visit the cathedral museum and climbed up to sigmund's bell to make a wish :) also visited the pope john Paul museum there. He's really their favorite boy :) lunched underground again before gg out in search of our souvenirs :) dinner one last time at out fav underground eating place before shopping at krakow galleria :) the gelato there is superb and cheap! :D

Day 6, Poland
10:15, krakow-zakopane
Breakfasted for the last time at our fav bakery :) headed out to take the bus to zakopane. Crazy rain made it too cold for us to take the cable car up to see the border between Poland and Slovakia :( explored zakopane town in the cold :( found a really good flea market and an upside-down but still functional house :p gelato was good as always and dinner was awesome at a grill restaurant :)

Day 7, Poland
21:00, zakopane
Trekked a super cold snow filled route up to lake morsie oko! Great experience with stunning sights! GEW'd love the crazy number of trekking paths they have with widely varying difficulties :) lunched in a small shack by the lake. took a horse carriage down :) coolios! Haven't had a house carriage ride in real terrain before :p headed back to town after all the trekking to defrost :p had our last polish dinner at a polish grill restaurant famous for their grilled trout :p and then it's back to packing for our cross border to Slovakia tmr :p

elections

and so we finally got a chance to vote (except for the tanjong pagar-ians)...

finally a chance to voice our opinions, a chance to do our part to shape the future of Singapore.

however, admist all the elections hypes and fuores, how many can really say that they made clear well grounded well thought through votes?

too many pple just jumping on the bandwagon, voting for candidates because it's cool and everyone's doing it. please think before voting. we're not out there voting for fun. we're voting for our future.

look at the policies. yes you can complain about them. you can always pick out the problems in the plans. there is no perfect plan. do you really think that the government hasn't pre-empted most of these problems already? I'm sure they have, and just like you, they don't have a perfect solution to it either.

so unless you're able to not just pin point problems, but to also start brain storming and coming out with sound ideas, my vote stays put. we need pple with different view points and logical ideas. not just whiners.

and so we welcome ltk, sylvia and csm, but we lost George and chiam in the process. two of the best ministers with the heart and sincerity :( if only we could have them all :(