Your ideal country/place to visit (in the next few years).
-
-
-
-
-
-
Clock tower of Cardiff City Hall.
-
-
Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales and is Great Britain's highest mountain south of the Scottish Highlands. It has been described as "probably the busiest mountain in Britain." It is located in Snowdonia National Park in Gwynedd. The summit is known as Yr Wyddfa and lies at an altitude of 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level. As the highest peak in Wales, Snowdon is one of three mountains climbed as part of the National Three Peaks Challenge.
-
-
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west. At the time of the 2001 UK Census, its population was 1,685,000, constituting about 30% of the island's total population and about 3% of the population of the United Kingdom.
-
City Hall
-
-
-
As I promised earlier, will share wif you all Eastern Europe, and Central Europe... Part of it
-
yes please bro.. you want to start doing it.. or I can do the opening for you... like getting country info from wikipedia.
-
Originally posted by Just_do_it_lah:
yes please bro.. you want to start doing it.. or I can do the opening for you... like getting country info from wikipedia.
no no no...
HAHAHAHI do myself can liao
-
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The territory of Germany covers 357,021 square kilometers (137,847 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants in 2010, it has the largest population among member states of the European Union, and it is home to the third-largest number of international migrants worldwide.
Germany is a federal parliamentary republic of sixteen states. The capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, G8, G20 and the OECD. It is a major power with the world's fourth largest economy by nominal GDP and the fifth largest in purchasing power parity. It is the second largest exporter and third largest importer of goods. In absolute terms, Germany allocates the second biggest annual budget of development aid in the world, while its military expenditure ranked seventh. The country has developed a high standard of living and established a comprehensive system of social security. It holds a key position in European affairs and maintains a multitude of close partnerships on a global level. Germany is recognised as a scientific and technological leader in several fields
-
ok.. the rest is all yours... thanks... cheers.
take your time... and thanks for sharing...
-
I left Singapore on the 9th Sept(local time) at 11.40p.m at T3 on SQ334 to Paris(CDG).
It was dark at that time, so I couldn't take many pictures...
It was a 11hour 45 min flight to Paris and I spent the first few hours watching KrisWorld, as I couldn't get myself to sleep... It was also a full flight by the way. I took an aisle seat at the upper deck of the A380.
By the time the photos were taken, I was somewhere over Europe... But it was still dark.
My SQ Econ Class Menu...
I went with the Singapore Fried Carrot Cake... Wonder why there were shrimp in it
... Overall a great catered meal on this
flight... I can't help but notice that the meals
on flights to
places like Tokyo(NRT), Hong Kong(HKG),
Paris(CDG) and
Frankfurt(FRA) always seem to be better than
others to places like
Seoul(INC), Manila(MNL) and even Beijing(PEK)...Here comes the food, piping hot...
My sumptous breakfast
We landed in CDG at 6.40a.m local time...
The initial part of the landing was so smooth... We were like "gliding", and the pilots turned down the engine so the approach wouldn't be so loud(it was still dark).But all of a sudden, barely 10m or so above the runway, the plane simply "dropped" like a rock... All awhile it was so smooth, and this sudden drop was such an anticlimax...
I walked from the subterminal to clear immigration at CDG and to collect my luggage...
My initial surprise was that(I was carrying my huge backpack with me) there were many Africans there and Vietnamese who could speak fluent French... I was epic-ly stunned. And many of them were French(apparently EU, coz they took the EU channel of immigration)...
It took me a crazy hour through immigration, and my troubles were not at an end. CDG looks and IS dilapidated, something like from the 70's... Their interior needs a lot of work.
I walked up the "escalator" to the the place to collect luggage from the baggage carousel. I pitied the other pax who had luggage that was actually "stuck" on the carousel. You see, the machine that they had was like so old and ancient that if your luggage had any small protrusion, it would get stuck on the baggage carousel. So hard to explain but it is true!
Suites and Business Class passengers had a belt all to themselves, and the 399 pax in Econ had to tolerate with one belt that was churning out bags so slowly...
In the end, my backpack was the last to come out of the belt(luckily it didn't get stuck). It took 1hour through Immigration, and another 2hours to get my bag. All in all, it took 3hours for the bag to appear on the belt. Speaks very well for French efficiency(or rather, inefficiency)...
I came out of the restricted zone of CDG at around 11a.m local time.
And I happened to see this...
My first Gabon Airlines B767-200 picture
I went to the Tourism Board desk and waited in queue for another hour(and there were only 3 people in front of me)... Oh well.
I bought myself a ticket on the RER train to downtown Paris and a one day ticket on the L'OpenTour Bus.
Sorry no pictures of the RER, but it sure was as hell a train(metal body) from the 1960s omg~... It took about 40 minutes to St-Michel Notre-Dame Station on the RER B.
I took a leisurely stroll(with my 10kg backpack omg), to this place, the famous Notre Dame Cathedral...
And the next picture is one taken right outside the Cathedral.
I then took the L'OpenTour Bus to Place De La Concorde, where I snapped the following pictures...
That is cool, they engraved gold into stone...You can see Champs Elysees Clemenceau from here...
And the Eiffel Tower...
Last picture of Concorde...
I then took a half hour walk from Concorde to Champs Elysees Clemenceau, briefly pausing along the way...
When I reached, the scene was spectacular~!
The proclaimation of the creation of the French Republic.The eternal flame that would burn...
The view of the Eiffel Tower from Champs Elysees Clemenceau...
... with the Paris traffic
I hopped on the bus again and dropped off at the Lourve Museum. I didn't go in as the rates to enter were exorbitant, and I was carrying my backpack so it would be inconvenient...
The glass pyramid there~...After that, I took the Paris Metro(changed many different lines) till I got to Marie de Clichy, some 40 minutes out of downtown Paris... It is like a small town.
I checked into my hostel there... And this is the room they gave me~
How uninviting
My bed for tonite...
Views of Marie de Clichy from my room...
And from the street below...
And the bus there
Took the metro again, it was about 6p.m then...
There are actually vending machines on the platform that sells drinks and chips omg~! You can legally eat and drink on the train
And their trains, even the metro ones, are double deck(well, at least some of them are...)~
Eiffel Tower from the train.
Out of the station Champs de Mars Tour Eiffel, and the Eiffel Tower is just outside...
I wanted to wait for the sky to darken. Apparently at around 8p.m local time, it is when the Eiffel Tower looks the most beautiful. But first I had to find a location
The River Seine... Polluted as it is~...
I then walked to find a good spot to take the Eiffel Tower in its full glory. Minding the temperature which was hitting 16 deg C and the wind that was blowing quite strongly(I had only summer wear, and thin clothing), I hurried across the bridge...
Crossed the bridge, and the sun was setting. It was 6p.m local time btw.
While on the bridge, I took the next few photos...
I know it is a weird angle, but that is how the picture turned out...
I crossed the bridge and went to Alma Marceau...
Here I waited about 2 hours till the point I wanted finally appeared
What an epic end to my first night in Europe. I then proceeded back to Marie de Clichy...
-
-Continued from above-
-------------------------------------
I woke up the second morning in Paris Marie de Clichy a little late, so I decided to tour the sights and sounds of Paris that I have not covered yet on the first day.
I decided to go to Varenne, where there is a museum that houses Rodin's sculptor, "The Thinker"...
The replica inside the station...And the real one~>...
I walked out of the museum and took a picture of a "petrol kiosk"
And that is it!
The petrol kiosk is just like that omg!I then took the metro once more...
And caught the Eiffel Tower again...
I alighted at Pont de I'Alma, near the street where Princess Diana died in a car crash... There was a memorial there, but I was roundly disappointed when I reached there...
That is it~...I then took the train to the Paris Opera House...
And that was the L'OpenTour Bus I took around Paris yesterday...I lazed around a cafe in the afternoon till 5p.m, where I had to go to Paris Gare de I'Est(East Railway Station) to catch my overnight train to Berlin.
Gare I'Est Station from the outside..
A TGV train bound for another city in Northern France...
The one on the left was the powercar for my train to Berlin...
Yup, that one...
One last photo of the interior of Gare I'Est and Paris before I left for Berlin...
This was my sleeper compartment... It would take us about 13hours(overnight) to get from Paris Gare I'Est to Berlin Hauptbahnhof(Central Train Station)...
I had the topmost bunk... The compartment had 6 beds.
My flimsy bed...It was an uneventful night and I managed to sleep throughout, despite the bed rocking whenever there was a change of tracks...
At around 9.05a.m local time in Berlin, we arrived into the Hauptbahnhof there...
That is the train car I came out from... Second class couche...
CityNightLine operated by DB(Deutsche Bahn).
-
-Continued from above-
-------------------------------------
I took a S-Bahn(Metro) train to Alexanderplatz station, which was one stop away from the Berlin Hauptbahnhof.
The first thing I saw when I came out of Alexanderplatz station was this...
So tall and near that I could take a full shot of itI then walked down to Alexanderplatz in the direction of Hackescher Market to my hostel, lugging my backpack... I checked in and shoved my backpack into the hostel safe. It was barely 10a.m then and I decided to use the Internet there for two hours before deciding to go look around Berlin.
At 1p.m, I took a rudimentary bag and shoved all my essentials in. Some sights in Berlin...
I was surprised to see Madame Tussauds in Berlin
I then took bus 100 from there to the city centre, where I passed by the Bundestag(German parliament)...
Then I walked to the Brandenburg Gate, the site where US President Reagan made his famous speech to General Secretary Gorbachev of the Soviet Union...
“ General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! ”
It was about 4p.m local time, and I decided to go to Checkpoint Charlie, the last(if not one of the last) remnants of the Cold War era artifacts in Berlin.
Kochstraße literally means Cock Street lol!
The Checkpoint...
I ended off the day in Berlin with a photo of Marienkirche(St Mary's Church).
My hostel in Berlin was nothing spectacular, something like the one in Paris. Sorry there were no pictures for that
... -
-Continued from above-
-------------------------------------
The next morning, I woke up early to go to Berlin Hauptbahnhof to take my morning train to the German Far East... Dresden.
My train was pulling into Dresden Hauptbahnhof...
The train that I was in actually started in Hamburg and continues to Vienna...
Passing the Elbe River...
Finally in Dresden Hbf, only Platform(Gleis) 3...
Dresden has one of the longest trams in the world and they are proud of it...
I reached Dresden at noon and proceeded to the city center where most of the tourist sights were centred in...
I left my stuff in the A&O Hostel and Hotel Dresden which is near to the Hauptbahnhof and took the local transport to the Zwinger Palace...
Inside the Zwinger Palace...
The beautiful garden...
I like the gold top
One of the more photographed sites in Dresden is here in the Zwinger Palace. It is the bridge at the Kronentor(Crowned Gate)...
It was getting really dark and cloudy...I took this again...
... to the Hofkirche... and then to the Frauenkirche...
But I passed by a street bazaar... I couldn't resist not eating a Frankfurter
The tribute to Emperor Friedrich August II, as evident from the plaque.
The Dresden Frauenkirche...
Which is dedicated to Martin Luther...
Then, all of a sudden, it started pouring(rain)... And the wind made it worse... Not to mention that they was a sudden cold spell in Eastern Europe at that time and unusual as it is for early autumn, the temperature hit a blitzy 12 deg C.
I hurried to my hostel and got my room.
I was shell-shocked.
Instead of normal bunk beds in hostels, I had a whole room with two beds to myself, not to mention that they were absolutely comfortable!
And unusual for hostels, this had an attached bathroom and another showerroom! OMFG!
It was absolute luxury! For only 15 Euros! Compared to that lousy shit I had in Paris for more than 20 Euros...
And oh did I mention that they had hot running water(which is uncommon there) too?! WOOTS!
And this was the lounge they had downstairs where I used the internet to log into SGF during my stay there
I totally recommend any person coming to Dresden for a short 2 day night trip to stay at the...
THUMBS UP! My best sleep ever~
The next morning, I had to proceed to München(Munich) via Nürnberg(Nuremburg)...
-To Be Continued-
-
-Continued from above-
-------------------------------------
I reached Dresden Hauptbahnhof at 8a.m and hastily boarded my train for Nürnberg(Nuremburg)...
It was an InterRegio-Express... Something like a semi-regional fast train... Oh well...
The driver's compartment...And of coz the second class compartment of the IRE train...
The train did look quite modern and it was a comfortable ride to Nürnberg(Nuremburg) Hauptbahnhof.
Thanks to the speed of the train...Arrived at Nürnberg(Nuremburg) Hauptbahnhof and changed to the train on the adjacent platform to München(Munich) Hauptbahnhof. This train is an InterCityExpress hi-speed train which can hit a top speed of 300kmph on this routing. However the most it hit on this ride was 200kmph.
My ICE hi-speed train on the platform...
And the speedometer...
The display screen at the side of the train...
And I reached München(Munich) Hauptbahnhof~! Yay!
I reached in the mid-afternoon, so you could say that I had half a day wasted just like that. I tried to make the best use of the remaining time for that day, but the weather wasn't helping and it was drizzling.
I put my backpack in my hostel room, and went out to the Hauptbahnhof to take the S-Bahn to the Marienplatz of Munich.
Then there was the Mariensäule overlooking the Marienplatz...
The Frauenkirche... Or rather, the St. Peter's Church.
I decided to end the day like that.
I stayed in the Wombat City Hostel just outside the Hauptbahnhof, which was a great location as it was just a mere 10mins stroll to the station.
-
-Continued from above-
-------------------------------------
A few more pictures around the heart of Munich...
I then decided to go to Fussen, home to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles, which is also just right at the Austrian-German border... The Neuschwanstein Castle is the, yes the, castle you see when all Disney movies start. Remember that castle where fireworks light from the background before your movie airs?
Arriving at the Fussen Bahnhof(trainstation)...
And taking a bus to the base of the Neuschwanstein Castle...
I took a minibus up to the Castle while I walked down...
Some photos below of the great view up there of scenic Bavaria...
We see another castle below us... And the lake wow!
The castle's stone facade...
A once in a lifetime experience(provided you don't go there again
)...
I didn't go in as I didn't want to pay the exorbitant entrance fee for a Castle which had its interior stripped out...
Luckily the sky cleared up a bit...
Wanted to take the horse ride down, but it was slower than walking zomg... So I walked down the hill trek, with the forest on both sides
Apparently the water is from a Natural Spring up the mountains and is fit for drinking, the people at the base of the mountain use it actually...
Back at the base of the mountain... Behold the jewel of Bavaria~!
I took the train from Fussen back to Munich where I was to spend another night there. The next day I was to go to a place with a more tattered history, a blemish on the face of the German Republic, the Dachau Concentration Camp, located just out of Munich.
-
-Continued from above-
-------------------------------------
The next day I woke up early and went with this guy from Brazil, who was Jewish to Dachau Concentration Camp. He was one of many numerous bunkmates in the hostel.
We took the U-8(or was it S-8) train to Dachau where we had to take a bus to the actual site itself...
I'll let the photos speak for itself.
When I walked into the actual site, I realised just a little over 60 years ago, millions of people were killed at the site itself. Though I have read about it from history book, being there physically gave me a sense of disgust at the lack of humanity of the Nazi German regime.
The Death Railway, so name because it brought millions of Jewish and other people to meet their end.
Twisted words... Arbeit Macht Frei = Work makes you free... We all know that wasn't true...
The courtyard of death... The so-called execution ground... The Brazil guy was singing Ha Tikva(the Jewish state's national anthem)... I was freaking out by then. If you haven't heard it before, go to youtube and search the anthem... *shivers*
And then inside the museum...
The crematorium... It not only burned the dead who were tortured to death at Dachau, but also the living, even pregnant women with unborn children as I was told...
Dachau really lives up to its infamy, after Auschwitz in Poland...
The barbed fence of Dachau Concentration Camp...
After visiting the Dachau Concentration Camp, I was to go to Vienna. That Brazillian guy who was visiting Europe had no itinerary(unlike mine, I had a semi-fixed one which could be altered at my whim and fancy, but he really had no agenda there)...
He tagged along with me to go to Vienna from Munich...
I took the OBB Railjet, the hi-speed train of the Austrian Railways... And it was one of the best rail experiences I've ever had, and this was in second class...
Arrived into Vienna Westbahnhof(West Train Station) and walked over to my hostel, which was about 15mins walk from the station itself... Nice hostel, even had a piano at the bar lolx~...
Some photos of the spanking new train(at least it looks to be)...
