Thursday, February 28, 2008
5:56 AM

Cocoon

It's great to have blue, cloudless sky and the sun's ray beating down on the land, warming the air. Then, it's nice to sit outside the library block, overlooking the vineyards and Rhein.

ready...

ebs jump!

posing before the Schloss on campus

again...

Y M C A

Last Saturday
We had dinner at Vapiano which served affordable and delicious pizzas and pastas, and later clubbing at The Cocoon. Europeans call it Discotheque (like my mum), instead of Club, like we do. The music was rather weird, not the kind I could dance to - hard, but rather slow beat, and then tecktonik, which the French love.

Entrance was 15eur, considered quite ex in Europe, while cocktails cost 9eur. I was told we have to "dress to kill" in order to enter, but it seems there were many ah bengs and ah lians here. There were 2 dance floors, the bigger one with hard music, the other one with pop music, but the tempo was just... weird. I still prefer Zouk. I dunno whether it's the day or the taste. Usually I would have danced more, but well, I still had some crazy fun!

cosy seats at Vapiano

on the way to Cocoon on a limousine with Paris Hilton

Cocoon!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008
7:36 AM

UK!

One. London. The morning started at daybreak when we got ready for our train out to Mainz to catch the bus to Frankfurt-Hahn Airport. It was to be our first time taking Ryanair. Airfare could be as cheap at 0.01eur per way, but we only managed to get the 19.99eur one in the end. Of course that’s excluding the taxes, check-in fees and transport fees from town to the airport. The airports are usually situated somewhere in the suburbs, usually out of reach. So Frankfurt-Hahn isn’t exactly in Frankfurt, but somewhere 1 hour bus ride away from Mainz. It doesn’t even look like an airport, and we were shocked to find there are actually 2 terminals side by side, the length of which is walkable in 15 minutes.

There were no computer screens at the check-in counters. The lady looked through the list of names in alphabetical order, crossed out our names and wrote our names on the flight ticket. So that’s how Ryanair survived the cost competition and managed to provide low cost. No printed air tickets to save on ink and paper; no computer screens at counters to save on networking and equipment; no food and drinks provided so less toilets needed; free seating so costs of deconflicting is saved; internet check-in for eligible citizens so less costs and time incurred at check-in; short, continuous flights back-to-back, often leading to delays in flight. But honestly, it’s amazing how this Irish airline can provide such cheap tickets.

We took our time to check in, rearrange the stuff in our humongous backpacks, hoping we could get away with the oversized cabin luggage. And so we did, and were one of the last to board the plane, to realise the number on our ticket is, in fact, not the seat number, but merely indicates that we have free seating. No wonder everyone was rushing to get on the plane. The plane took off, and shortly after, the captain announced the landing. In fact the flight was only 1h 15min, but the bus rides from Mainz and out to London Victoria took longer.

I could just feel the difference (with our little town in Germany) upon setting foot on London Stansted. There were people everywhere. WH Smith sold sandwiches and English papers, people spoke English, and we actually had to queue for the bus out to London Victoria! Drivers drove on the right, which is the way the world should drive, seriously! At Victoria, once again we had to queue for our Oyster card, and so the day began at Blackfriars Bridge, where we visited to much-heard-of Tate Modern Museum. It was free of charge, there was a cloak room for us to deposit our humongous terroristic backpacks and cloak, the art displays were awesome and it was huge! Some were interactive, like the crack in the ground, while others were timeless, such as that of Monet and Picasso’s.

Tate Modern. Look at the crack!

We chanced upon Singling’s office where we passed by Blackfriars’ Bridge, which later we found out had mice. She brought us to eat English food at Canteen, and later a walk along Thames River, visiting the London Eye and Big Ben, and then Chinatown at Leicester Square.

EAT. Nice small ex pack.

Two. London. The next morning we crawled out of bed to get to Buckingham Palace before heading to purchase our tickets for a musical. We so wanted to catch Dirty Dancing or Mamma Mia, but the tickets were going at £60! In the end we decided to catch Billy Elliot which was going at only £21.50.

Buckingham Palace.
In fact I didn't have much expectations of the Palace, but it was not as underwhelming for me as for others who visited it.

The screen that shows which services are delayed and which are good.
Delays are common here.

Which shop calls themselves BIMBO?

It was sad to learn Camden Market was burnt down, and that Old Spitalfields Market, which we were to visit, was under construction. The shops shifted out of the square and so we made do with stalls that were scattered around the square.

Lunch was yummy sandwiches at Pret and yoghurt with muesli before we headed to Tower Bridge to meet Vik. In fact, the reception was so bad in the Underground and even on Tower Bridge we could not tell Vik we were going to be late. So we walked down Tower Bridge, and I saw a guy that looked like Vik, having rather long hair, on the other side of the bridge. And so the screaming-across-the-road began and we were reunited on the Tower Bridge...

Old Spitalfields Market. Fresh oysters.

Funny names they call their pubs.

Yummy sandwiches at Pret.

Yoghurt with muesli.

Indeed, diets are sad.

The trip to London could never be complete without a trip to Oxford Street. The first storey of Topshop was just for accessories, so you could not imagine how paralysed in shock I was. All the shopping held us back a little and I ended up running late to meet Nini for dinner. We went to Wagamama which served fusion Japanese ramen, at cheap rates and big portions (by London’s standard), before we rushed down to Victoria Palace to catch Billy Elliot.

We got our crisps and digestive biscuits here.

Fashionable in winter.

Wagamama with Nini

We had to climb freaking 8 flights of stairs before reaching the top. It didn’t come as a challenge to us, as walking and running around has become part of our travel experience, but I witnessed an old grandmama climb that flight of stairs and panting hard. The price she had to pay to watch Billy Elliot. It is so amazing how these musicals can sustain for so long in London, which in Singapore, only lasted less than 3 months each time.

Billy Elliot at Victoria Palace

The seat we got was at the topmost row, so you could imagine me sitting up straight and leaning forward to catch a glimpse of the stage beyond the bald heads before me. We could even see the backstage and the understage (I dunno what you call that). The props were awesome! Moving walls and rising stage from under were expected. But imagine a platform below a platform. How about a spiralling platform from under. Everything just happened so smoothly. I love the little girls who danced ballet, Billy who had such groove, and the bigger Billy who was such a superb ballet dancer.

Three. Brighton & London.

The sun, the sea, the beach!

We ate fish and chips on the pebble beach,
braving the cold wind at maybe 4 degree celsius.

our horror hotel stupid ride at the amusement park!

Back in London.
Belgo Restaurant.
You could see the chefs cooking at Belgo from the waiting area.

The chefs posed for me during our 1-hour wait.

Weird guy featured on the menu cover page, with sausages round his neck.

Belgo is a Belgium restaurant famous for its mussels.
Maybe mussels got their name from Brussels.
Above is a pot of 1 kilo of mussels cooked in white wine. mmm

Duck meat, well cooked in thai chilli. yums.

Four. Cambridge & London. In fact, I intended to meet Zhengwei for lunch, but he had AGM, so we followed the itinerary that he recommended.

King's College, Cambridge University

Bridge of Sighs.
Replica of the one in Venice leading to the gallows.

St John's College

Punting at the river.

We ate our lunch (Coffee cake from the marketplace) before the beautiful structure. mmm

Enjoying the cool breeze and warm sunshine on the river boat.

our punter

It's interesting how Barclays call ATM the "Hole in the Wall"

Back in London, we ate at Kiasu restaurant, Bayswater.
Serves true blue Singaporean food.
We had Chey Tau Kway, Ngoh Hiong, Orh Luak, Char Kway Tiao, Hokkien Mee, Chilli Crab, Ice Kacang, Pulut Hitam and Bubur Chacha.
Satisfies my craving for Singaporean food and seafood for the next 4 months.

authentic iced lemon tea

Chilli crab. How nice. I don't get to eat seafood in Germany.

Five. London. First thing in the morning, we lugged our humongous bag to Hammersmith to do our shopping at Primark. I thought we would only spend less than an hour there since we were quite broke, and London’s stuff are really not cheap at all. But shoes were going at £4 or £8, prices at which are quite impossible even in Singapore! I grabbed 2 pairs of flats, 1 pair of Spartan-ish slippers, 1 pair of fleece socks, 5 pairs of socks, 1 set of nightwear and 1 cardigan. We were running a little late, so we rushed to Harrods, and my, Harrods was big and posh! We roamed mainly in the food section and got our scones and croissant for lunch. Yums!

Laduree at Harrods

Then came our adventure on our way back to Germany. Guess what! There was a jam on the highway on our bus trip to Stansted, perhaps typical of UK. So we were kind of running late for check in. The queue was horribly long and we opted out of checking our bags which cost us maybe 4€. In the end, we were rejected when we queued to enter the departure hall. So we had to check in our bags, but this time, for free. As the check-in counter was already closed (now it’s 20 min to taking off), we had to check in our bags at the oversized bag counter. We had to requeue to enter the departure hall. Luckily we picked the right queue which moved super fast and we ran to our gate which was quite a distance away. To our shock, the gate was not open yet. Apparently, the plane was held up at Milan and was late for half an hour.

This is truly budget airline. No, in fact Jetstar is not like that. So this is truly Ryanair.