Lifesaver Jacket (part 1)

Back. I have just found out that Louis Chong is in my class. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, who cares? Back from my trip to Shanghai. I haven't uploaded the photos yet so I'll just share and remember the moments of my Europe trip.

30/11/04

This is Mount Titlis, the first place we visited in Europe. This mountain is located in Switzerland and is part of the Alps. This is also the fateful place where I coincidentially met Kok Yu Kane with his family. His dad was there on some business trip.....or at least I think that's what I remembered. It was really cold outside.....the temperature still remains a mystery as I wasn't that attentive last time. I think it was below 0 degree celcius. My father said we were lucky as most of the time, the weather was terrible up there and we won't be allowed to go outside. My mother vomited on the bus while we were on the way to the mountain. The tour guide mentioned that we Malaysians only FIX our stuff once we encounter problems. The Europeans MAINTAIN their stuff. The cable car up to Mount Titlis is consistently maintained every 2 months. It was just maintained the day before we arrived there(29/11/04). Our first meal there was rather plain. The sausages were nothing like Malaysian sausages. They were big....REALLY BIG. The taste was different. Apart from the sausages, I kind of forgotten the other dishes, though I am very sure that there were only 3 dishes. I remembered that we had to go through 3 cable car rides before we reached the peak.
I have completely forgotten what this lion represents. I think it has something to do with protecting the city or something......no....that sounds more like China.....At night, we stayed at....darn...I forgot. My memory is failing me.........precious moments lost!!!!!At night, I walked out with my first aunt. Until now I still can't believe that I actually walked with my jacket open!!! There were many smart cars around. At that time, we Malaysians were still outdated and so smart cars never existed to us yet. The smart cars only came out in our country in the beginning of year 2005. We saw it in advance. Muahahahahaha. A few days later, we would also get to see the smart motorbike, which "doesn't exist" in Malaysia until now.

1/12/04

We are currently in Germany now.This is the Rhine Falls. The water here is very little and shallow now. Tour guide says that during the summer, around June to July, the water flows the most. I think we saw ducks.....can't remember. We went to the Black Forest after this. It snowed there. At first, everyone thought it was dust.....it was really so small you just couldn't even see it. Fortunately for me, my eyesight was perfect at that time. Everyone was on their way to the restaurant for lunch and didn't stop to notice the small flakes. The snowflakes kept getting bigger and bigger. After lunch, the flakes were as big as 20 cent coins. We didn't take any pictures though...which was a waste....nobody took pictures of the snow....sad... Anyway, we tried out the famous German Black Forest cake. It's not like ours here. They put in generous chunks of blueberry in it. (Left): A very dark picture of our (black) meal. We saw 2 German ladies after that. They had the same breed of dogs, the Puli. They were so big that at first, I thought they reared bears. One was black and the other was white. After that, we also visited the clock-making factory.

2/12/04

I can't believe I actually forgotten this place!!!!!!! I remembered I had gastric here. This is so infuriating!!!!! To think that I had actually NOT remembered this place!!!!!!!!Let's see....Switz, Germ, !!!!@#!@%@#$^%@$!@#$!!!!!!, Ams, Belg, Par, Lon. WHAT THE!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?...it's already 6 known countries....I travelled 6 countries- I remember this one!. Oh well then....this is still Germany. Or at least I THINK it is...the one on

the right is DEFINITELY Netherlands, or more commonly known as Holland. I bought a blue coloured candy here and I haven't eaten it until now. It was thrown away years ago...We visited the cheesemakers...my favourite part of the journey here.=P. Those people made shoes too (Holland's famous wooden clogs)....the pic below shows the inner part of the cathedral. It's so colourful right? On the outside, it looks black. Right now I can't remember the dates already, so now everything is timeless. (pic above was taken on the 3/12/04)

(4/12/04)

The picture was taken in Brussels. They use nuclear power as their power source and since it is so powerful, the Belgians don't need to off their streetlights in the daytime. My aunt in the pic above stimulated everyone in the tour to buy chocolates here in Brussels and nearly got everyone into trouble. The tour guide mentioned not to buy chocolates in Brussels as buying them in Brugge the following day would be nicer and cheaper.

5/12/04

This is Brugge, Belgium. This is the actual place where so-called "FRENCH FRIES" were born. Actually, the Belgian people created these fries. During World War 2, the Americans tried out the fries. They thought the Belgian people were French, therefore the name of the fries became French Fries. The American got the recipe from them and went back to their country to try it out. The Belgian Fries taste different and are SOOOOOOOOOOO tasty. The fries are so crispy on the outside but on the inside, it's so soft....like real potato!!!!! It goes with sauce, either mayonnaise or tomato. Then, we took a ride

along the canal. We went to a diamond shop within the canal. We had to take a boat there since it was a "river shop".We went to Paris after that. A lot of drama took place there. The birds in Paris were not afraid of humans at all. I chased the pigeons everywhere and they just would NOT fly away. They just run away quickly and if they're not fast enough, they fly a short distance away....still withink your reach. I managed to catch a pigeon. =). The two kids' father caught 2 pigeons. The pic below is what I call pigeon garden. This garden is located in front of the Louvre art museum. The Arc de Tromph (Arch Of Triumph) is opposite the Louvre and is the "entrance" to this garden.

The pic on the left is a group photo of my tour. We're standing in front of the Eiffel Tower (surely you know this!!!). We went up to only the first floor of the tower, as my tour guide said that that place was very scenic. We were told to wonder off anywhere we like within the first floor but one lady went off to the second floor (the lady in orange). That's when the problem starts....we were told to be back at a certain time, but the lady was late by 2 minutes (her watch was off-time). We were really punctual and set off at exactly the time given. Since the lady travelled alone, nobody noticed that she had not arrived yet. We left the Eiffel Tower to take a ride in the canal surrounding Paris (it was a wide circle). When the lady came down, she panicked and looked around to found the tour group, which was not in sight anymore. Then she caught sight of a bright blue jacket among the crowd (my aunt's jacket). She locked her eyes on my aunt's jacket and followed it. That was how she got back to the tour...otherwise she would be stuck in Paris. After that, my aunt's jacket earned it's reputation as the "Lifesaver Jacket".