Solo Trip Day 4 - IBIZA~

Day three was one whole day of travelling - bus from rovinj to zagreb to airport. Flew from Zagreb to Barcelona to Ibiza.

The flight from Zagreb to Barcelona was simply amazing. The twinkling stars that filled up the whole sky looked so near yet so far. They were so brilliant I couldn't take my eyes off them until the flight attendants switched on the lights in the plane again which made them hardly visible due to the reflections of the glass windows. It's a pity my camera was in my luggage and I couldn't take them down. But it was really beautiful it's indescribable. Reached Barcelona at 2am and slept on the airport seats until 6am before taking another flight to Ibiza.

Showered, lazed around, did some research on Ibiza and napped in the hostel till 4pm. I was walking around San Antonio when I saw the Ushuaia Pop-out store and went in to ask about the opening party. The salesperson showed me the video of the party and managed to persuade me to go for the party. She said that it's 40 euros if I can go before 6pm and it was 5pm at that time. So I went back to change and rushed to the bus terminal to take bus there but it was already 6plus by the time and I paid extra 20euros for the entrance fees. :'( Heart pain to the max. The party was a bit awkward at first as I was alone. Then it started drizzling and I wished I was lazing in the hostel. Why did I pay 60 euros for this omg. Thank god soon I met this girl from Laos who said I looked familiar and asked if I'm from Singapore. Apparently common face helps you to make friends? She said she was from Laos and studied in Sg for 6 years before going to Madrid for University. So I danced with her and 2 other German girls after that. But the music was so boring It was really hard to zi-high. It was house music and techno and the dancers on stage were dancing techno I totally couldn't appreciate it. The highlight was that there was this cute American in front of me dancing awkwardly and when I was about to talk to him someone pushed me from behind and I fell onto his back. It sounds so dramatic now that I think of it lol. So I talked to him for awhile and he was complaining about how pissed he was by everyone who kept walking past him on the dance floor and how everyone kept pushing. After that he went to buy some drinks and disappeared. Hmph. I left at 12am as I couldnt stand the music anymore. Luckily I managed to share a cab with 3 other British girls in front of me in the taxi stand. Paid 10euros for cab so total = 70 euros. Not sure if it was a good idea but never try never know I guess?

Blessed

Friends are family you can choose.
I'm really thankful for all the friends I have with me right now.
My sec sch friends, rachel, peiling and uni AG. Love every one of you.
Friends make me happy, very. :D

Just had an awesome bday dinner gathering w the AG tonight for minz's 21st. Haven't seen many of them for 6mths and everyone's the same. Love all the catching up and laughter we had tonight! And also the chilling session from 12am to 3am with adrian and junhao at the playground like some ah beng. Really love these people and catching up. Time with them is time well-spent! :))) #whysoblessed

Solo trip - Day Two in Rovinj, Croatia

My german is deteriorating like mad.

Due to my lazy nature I'm going to make my day 2 post short.

Reached Rovinj early in the morning at 6am after taking an overnight bus. I overheard some Hongkongers speaking in cantonese on the bus and missed home. The airbnb host was very kind and fetched me from the bus stop to his house. I was greeted with a pleasant surprise when i first saw the room as it was quite big with a king size bed for me to roll everywhere and there was even a small kitchen en-suite even though i didn't use it at all.
However, soon i started to dislike it as there was no hot shower and i almost froze to death. Kinda exaggerating here but yea. Also the wifi was kinda weak and I couldn't do any research on places to go so I gave up and went to sleep until 11am before heading to the city centre.
I think there wasn't anything that happened that is worth mentioning as I was just chilling and walking around everywhere with my offline map and walking around in circles and getting lost. I was walking around the city so many times that the waiter/salesman recognised me and said, "You're still walking around? Seen you this morning alone. Where are your friends?" And he gave me the i-am-impressed look when I told him I was travelling alone, just like everyone else did. There was this "con-artist" literally who stopped me to cut out a figure of my silhouette and then asked me to pay for it. I paid him 20 kr, which was about 3euros. To be honest the silhouette was quite ugly sigh. But oh well he entertained me for 3 min while cutting out the silhouette. "Come with your boyfriend next time," he said, handing me two pieces of the paper cut out and saying that one is for my future bf lol.
Something that was worth mentioning was that I got a postcard for free as I didnt have small change to pay for it and the owner didnt have change for my big note and he just said it's a gift for me. Yippee! Hahah. He was so kind. :)))

Chilled at this restaurant for more than an hour using their free wifi. Food wasn't that fantastic but the staff were so funny they kept speaking to me in Japanese and saying bye to me many times when I left.

I love this quaint street of stalls selling souvenirs. :)

I was taking this photo when an Indian guy manning the stall beside it talked to me. He became my direction guide twice after I walked past the same place thrice. #foreveraskingfordirections.

If only someone could help me take an ootd shot here. :( Where are you, Jiarong?

Artificial beach in Rovinj. I love how all these beach chairs are free for everyone. 

I sat behind these people for an hour or so. Wished I had a book with me or something.

This turned out to be my one and only photo of me in Rovinj. So sad. Photo taken by a couple from Luxembourg.

My dinner which I couldn't finish. Heard people speaking in German in the restaurant and felt at home. Germany has really become my second home. :')

Went back to airbnb after dinner and almost couldn't find my way back as it was a terrace house and all the houses looked the same to me. Thank god i bookmarked the place on my offline map and managed to get back safe and sound. :) And with that I survived day 2 of my solo trip although there were three moths in the room who kept attacking me such that I went to sleep early lol. Oh yea the Wifi was really good after that and there was hot shower the next morning.

Solo trip - Day One in Zagreb, Croatia

Ok I think I should stop procrastinating on blogging about my solo trip.

After separating from zh at Zagreb Airport to go to Zagreb city centre, I felt... liberated. The feeling of being able to do what I want and go wherever I like was exhilarating. No longer do I need to accommodate nor listen to someone's nagging and I truly felt the freedom of a bird. Maybe I should thank zh for making me love my solo trip more. Meh.

There were some minor hiccups like attempting to walk to the city centre from Zagreb Bus Terminal but gave up after getting lost for a bit and decided to take the tram instead and I didn't pay heheh. I was having great difficulty trying to carry my luggage up the tram and I was thankful that there were kind souls who helped. A guy even wanted to offer me his seat seeing me with my luggage. The luggage wasn't that big to be honest but maybe in comparison to my size it is. Hmph. Wasn't sure where to alight at first but after seeing this square I was sure I was at the right stop.

So I explored Zagreb, walking around to find food and I chanced upon this long street of restaurants and bars and wished that my exchange friends were with me. :'(

After walking through the street, I saw this Zagreb speciality fried bread balls and I asked the shopkeeper what it is. To my surprise, she gave me one free ball to try. I felt a bit bad for not buying after trying but she was still very friendly and cool about it. :) I went to a restaurant to try some Croat cuisine after that. It was kinda sad as there were no more seats outside and I had to dine in the restaurant alone. Apparently there was no customer inside the restaurant. For some reason the staff were especially nice to me, maybe because I looked lonely with no friends? But I had a really great dinner with some lamb meatballs with goat cheese (and free wifi). I ordered a Croat beer which made me super red, as usual. I love the interior of the restaurant too. :)

After dinner, I walked around Zagreb and ended up at this cathedral. I was never a fan of cathedrals but this time I appreciated it more as it was one of the last few cathedrals I would visit before I leave Europe. I asked two very cute old ladies to take a picture of me. It's really cool that they were travelling on their own in Zagreb at this age. 

For some reason every cathedral or architecture I go is under renovation. Why oh why. 

Went to a square (with free wifi) to people-watch on a bench with a bar opposite playing nice songs before heading back to Zagreb Bus Terminal to wait for the 12.30am bus to Rovinj. 

I was quite lost at the bus terminal as I didn't know where to wait for the bus. A Turkish lady saw me looking blur and asked me if I needed help. She asked her croat friend to help me find my bus stop and he was so kind to help me ask the info counter for me and brought me to the right gate to wait. Always thankful for these kind souls around when travelling. :)

Almost missed my bus after waiting for an hour or so lol. But thank god I went down to check if the bus came at 12.35. Phew. 

Was playing with GIMP and did this lol. It was a spot where I wished someone could help me take a photo during my solo trip at Ibiza.

Throwback of the day - Corfu with my favourite dog! :)

A sneak preview of my next album to be uploaded on fb. ;D
An island with nothing but sunny beaches, clear sky and sea with big loyal dogs. :)

Exchange in Germany

I guess it is time to make a summary of my 5 months of exchange and 6 months of travelling in Europe.

It is true, when people say that exchange is the best time of your life. I mean, when else can you study and live in a foreign country for 6 months, without the stress of achieving As for your modules? When else can you make friends with people all over the world, party with them, travel the whole of Europe together? 

I was looking forward to exchange even before I entered NUS. I even worked to save up for exchange. This is how much I wanted to experience SEP, and I am thankful that my not-so-great CAP in Sem 1 and my dad's finances gave me the opportunity to have this once-in-a-lifetime experience of travelling to countless cities in 14 countries. 

Here are the different stages of exchange for me:

1. Euphoria- whereby every single thing is so pretty and cool and wow you can't believe you're finally in Europe

2. Nice- Getting used to the buildings but still in awe 

3. Meh- Museums and cathedrals again? 

4. Saturation- Let's just skip the museums and go for sightseeing

5. Deja Vu - Basically everything looks the same everywhere. This looks familiar... we teleported! 

6. Shagged - Omg I wish I'm lying on my bed with my laptop now

To others who have yet to experience exchange, exchange may seem so wow and all but it really isn't as great as it seems. Yes I got to travel to many different countries and experience awesome views but sometimes I feel like I'm trying to complete an amazing race in some of the trips whereby you have to complete all the different attractions within that short few days. Maybe others want to experience as much as possible within the short period, but really, what's the point of seeing everything when you don't take time to appreciate each one of them? It's almost like, " Ok took photo of this cathedral. Checked. Next!" It's literally an amazing race where you just have to get to each station and do a task of taking photo to show that you've been there.

Budget is a really important factor in your travel experience. In order to save money on hostels and flights etc, often we have to hobo, take overnight trains, buses, ferries and flights to our destinations. I think I broke my own record in the number of days where I have a good night sleep within the past 6 months. Many a time we choose cheap hostels to stay at and the cheapest I have stayed at was the one in Budapest at only 3 euros per night. Dirt cheap I would say, although the conditions were not that great but it was value-for-money with free breakfast. The worst hostel/campsite I stayed at was the one in Rome. It was so bad we couldn't take it on the first night and started looking for other hostels to stay for the next two nights immediately. It was cold and the toilets were far, beds with only spring and air you can feel it when you sleep on it and also insect eggs-like black dirt on the bed and wifi that is at least 5min walk away from the room in the cold. I feel proud of myself that I actually stayed there for a night. (It was a blessing in disguise though cause we changed to Mr. Rome and it was awesome.) Of course, all these are good stories to tell and good experience that I think everyone should try at least once. Hobo-ing with friends can be quite fun if you have fun friends, which leads me to my next point about travelling buddies. 

Travelling Buddies. You better choose them wisely. Trust me on that. When you travel, you see the worst in people. Literally. Sometimes it's so bad that you wished you traveled alone instead. So to play it safe, travel with people whom you can really click well with, especially if it's within a small group as you'll have a lot of interactions with them which can make you go crazy. My advice? Go for short trial trips. A few days of travelling should be enough to reveal a bit of who they are. ;) Tip: travel with people who shower quick as the last thing you want to do after a long day of travelling is wait for hours to queue for showers.  

I think I am lucky to travel with people with good sense of directions, eg. Jiarong and Bogyeong. Jiarong is officially my best travel buddy because of his good organisation skills and easy going character. He is also very helpful and takes good care of me. As for Bogyeong, I think she is really a genius in terms of street-smartness. Her brain is full of ideas to circumvent any problem and with her you can really sit back and relax as you can count on her to give the best solution. 

Due to my laziness and REALLY bad sense of direction, I always over-rely on friends to lead the way to the extent that I have no idea what the attraction is called and where it is, what it is about. I guess it's the thing I regret while travelling- just follow. I should have at least downloaded an offline guide or something to give me a brief description of the attraction which I did only on my 10th trip in Italy. The offline guide was very useful, for it's the first time I know what I am seeing instead of just "wow, nice." #okcan

Lastly, roommates. Frankly speaking, if given another chance I would have chosen to stay alone instead of a shared apartment. Yes it may be lonely at times, but you have the freedom to do whatever you want and have everything to yourself. Most importantly, you do not have to clean up after others. Trust me, you wouldn't want to stay in a shared apartment with a rooftop where everyone go to for parties. The mess that resulted had costed each of us more than 100 euros by the end of the semester. However, if you can choose, opt for roommates from a similar culture so that there would be less conflicts. 相见好，同住难。

Although there were some "down" parts of exchange, I am really thankful for choosing WHU School of Management in Germany because:

1. Germany has very low cost of living as compared to other European countries with the same standard of living and economy (with ridiculously cheap alcohol)

2. It is really accessible to many different countries i.e. cheap flights to everywhere as it is in the middle of Europe. 

3. Germans are friendly. Contrary to popular beliefs, I have met many friendly Germans who enhanced the exchange experience. 

4. Most of them speak English. Ok I am not too sure about this, at least 50% I think? 

5. WHU is the most happening business school in Germany and they really take good care of the exchange students. The Orientation was the bomb! So many different events organised just to help us get to know each other and have fun. I think almost everyone knows everyone. And there is "Tauschie Tuesday" every week where different countries will prepare their local delights and sell them at the student bar on different weeks to raise funds for the end-of-year Tauschie Party. (Tauschies is the nickname for exchange students in WHU) The Tauschies and some German students would gather for a short chillout session with each other every Tuesday night. And then there's Palais! WHU is so cool they book a club called Palais every Thursday night just for WHU students. Palais is the best club I have ever been. Love the songs, love the people. It's the club where I can get high without alcohol. The best part of it all is the chant, " U-H-WHU say U-H-WHU say H!" in German which is pronounced as " Wu-ha-veh-ha-wu say wu-ha-veh-ha-wu say Ha!" which all WHU students will chant together when a song with a certain rhythm is played. It's so addictive. However, it was a pity that they closed it for 3 months for renovations. 

6. WHU is the best business school in Germany, literally. 

7. Free access to it's almost 24h well-equipped gym with the best sparkling water dispenser ever. I swear they have the most delicious sparkling water I love it so much I think I'm missing it now. Didn't know that the free access to the gym was such a privilege until my friend in another school told me they have to pay a huge sum for the gym membership which is much pricier than that of Singapore. 

8. Vallendar is a really lovely and quaint small student-cum-elderly town. Its residents are all either WHU students or cute elderlys. You see people you know all the time. 

9. There are many supermarkets. Rewe, Lidl, Aldi, Netto. You name it, they have it. In a small town where there is nothing much to do, grocery shopping is my favourite source of entertainment. You just can't stop buying all the cheap food! Ja!, a housebrand of Rewe is my favourite. 

10. It is only 15min bus ride away from Koblenz, a place to shop for everything you need! I go there to shop for clothes, travel essentials and Asian supermarket and withdraw money from Deutsche Bank mostly. The bus ride is not cheap though. (2.75 euros after a 25% off from Bahn card for one way)

11. Last but not least, I really love all the friends I made there. It is them that make me not feel lonely while I was 100000 miles away from home. All the dinner parties that we had, all the crazy nights drinking insane number of shots and getting high and drunk together and all the heart-to-heart talks and gossip sessions. It is really the best memory and experience of exchange. 

Many people think that the best part of exchange is to travel to many different places, but once you've experienced it, you'll realise that it is the exchange itself, going to school, spending time with friends that makes it memorable. You can travel to Europe anytime on your own, but exchange is only this once. So treasure your exchange, spend time in your exchange school with friends and really, make the best out of your exchange life. Bon Voyage! :)

#Ja!Genau!

Yup, so i created this blog to record my exchange life and other random thoughts cause I figured that if I had posted it on tumblr it is most likely going to be flooded with other posts. And tumblr is a place to reblog pretty pictures and not my mundane life. :/