Day 7: Flying back

SATURDAY MARCH 28 2009

Today is bad.... Spent 15 hours in total either in the airport or flying. But I reached home to rainy Chicago safe and sound. =)

Day 6: Amsterdam, Holland

FRIDAY MARCH 27, 2009

The weather is better today. Time for tulips! I followed a four hour tour to Keukenhof. It is the largest flower garden in the world! This is a spring garden and it only opens three months every year. So good timing again! It is quite early in spring, and not all the flowers are blooming.


The garden was absolutely amazing. It was very peaceful and serene. I could not ask for more. =)


More pictures of the garden.




The garden gave me the opportunity to showcase my photography skills (if I have any) =p
There were so many beautiful flowers, for those who know me really well, they should know that tulip is my favorite flower. There were so many tulips there, I was in heaven! I took many pictures, but I am not posting all of them here, or else it would be endless... =p



OK, you get the idea of how my favorite flower looks like. More of other flowers.








Besides flowers, there are some weird looking trees as well. Hehe...



OK... Enough about flowers and trees. Time to show food! I had croquette. It was wonderful. After eating one croquette, I was not satisfied and got another croquette! Haha... It is made of mashed potatoes, some peas and shredded chicken. Rolled and fried into this magical, yummy croquette bar. =)


The Keukenhof trip ended and I joined another four hour trip, this time to the Windmill village, Zaanse Schans, then to the fishing village, Volendam and Marken.

Zaanse Schans

Volendam. Fishing village.

My work of art. I call it the solitude chair. =p

At Volendam, I had the most amazing pancake! It was gooey in the inside, but I asure you that the pancake is thoroughly cooked! I had strawberry syrup and powder sugar on top of my pancake. =) Yummy... I really missed the pancake!

Yummy mini pancake.

We also stopped by a cheese farm. We were showed how cheese was made and also we had a tasting session. =) More food! The cheese was good. I bought some home too! =)

Cheeeessseeeee...

Came back to Amsterdam city center and I saw the Scottish Invasion!

The National Monument with Scottish flag around it. Haha...

Holland will be playing Scotland in a football match on Saturday. That is why there were so many Scottish men in skirts around town. Very good eye candy for me. Can see men in skrits with their belly and mou mou leg. Haha... What a sight!
I had a wonderful day today... It was amazing! =)

Day 5: Amsterdam, Holland

THURSDAY MARCH 26, 2009

It was raining today. Not very convenient. Not very fun either. Today I walked around the city. I walked to the flower market. Here they sold tulip bulbs. So many stalls. All the stalls sold only flowers, nothing but flowers. Haha...

Flower market.

Then went to 2 art museums. Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum. Saw many paintings, learned about the various painters and their life. Did not take many pictures because I was too absorbed by the paintings.

I also went to the Anne Frank house. It was really a sad story. She did not survive to see the liberation that she was hoping for. But I think this house really does send a message to us all. To enjoy the freedom that we have.

After the rain subsided, I took the canal cruise. It was fun. They showed us various bridges that connects the streets and also some popular buildings in Amsterdam. Among the bridges was this bridge. The Skinny Bridge. Really that is the name of this bridge.

Skinny Bridge.

For dinner, I ate at Boom Chicago, a stand up comedy place. I have been to Second City here in Chicago, and Boom Chicago in Amsterdam is their sister production. I had a great time there. The jokes were funny and I was part of their skit too! OMG! It was really embarrassing, but I got a free drink on the house. Is it worth it? I guess the experience is good enough. Haha... I had my five minutes of fame. =)

Night ended great and I headed back to Hotel Mozart for a good night rest.

Day 4: Brussels, Belgium

WEDNESDAY: MARCH 25, 2009

Started the day taking picture of the cathedral that was near my hotel. St. Catherine Cathedral.

St. Catherine Cathedral.

Then walked to another cathedral. Diana said it was beautiful and I should not miss it, so I decided to get there before heading off to Amsterdam.

The Kathedrale.

Indeed it was beautiful. Met another Malaysian there. She helped me take a photo of me and the cathedral. =)

By noon, I was in the Central Station, ready to take the Intercity train to my next stop. Amsterdam!

Random Street.

First things first, checking in at my hotel. Hotel Mozart. Then, Red Light District. I was at first scared to be there alone, but then I realized it was OK. It was only 7pm and there are some 'girls' already ready for work. No pictures allowed, so this is the best that I can do. The name Red Light District came from the red or rose(as they called it) colored lighting to indicate the 'special' shops.

Shops with the red lights are 'special'.

After that, I walked around and stumbled upon Chinatown in Amsterdam! Yippie...

Street name translated into Chinese. =)

Saw their National Monument.

National Monument.

For dinner, I bought KFC! =)

This is my room with my KFC dinner. =)

Day 3: Brussels, Belgium

TUESDAY: MARCH 24, 2009

Woke up at 9am today and had my complimentary breakfast at the hotel. I had all the pastries I never had here in Chicago there. =) Happiness. After breakfast, headed out to the The Grand Place.

The Grand Place.

After taking enough pictures, I headed to Manneken Pis. There are many stories related to this famous statue of Brussels, I have no idea which one is betul. Haha...

Manneken Pis

Then, it was time to go for museums! I went to this museum which was built on an old palace. So, basically there was another world underneath the roads and buildings on top. The best part is, we can go to the undergrounds to see the remains of the old palace.

This is the ceiling of the old palace, underneath the museum.

This place is scary and dark. I went down there alone and I got scared, that I would get lost down there and nobody would save me. So I went back up, to the museum and waited for someone to go down with. Along came Diana, and I asked her if I could walk with her down there. Diana is from Columbia and she is also traveling alone, like me! =)

We ended up spending the day, sightseeing together. I got to know more about her. Miss Diana is a student, studying psychology. Right now, she is studying English in London.

After the scary underground walk(which was not scary anymore thanks to Diana), we visited the Museum of Music Instruments together. =) I saw so many pianos!

The white and black keys are switched!

Piano with drawing.

We went to the Royal Palace. And I saw the guard change! Happy... My timing was great. Not that I planned for it. =)

Royal Palace.

In Brussels, every building looks like this.

Some random building by the street.

It was really beautiful. Also, on some designated walls, comic strip mural was painted. There are many comic murals throughout the city, but I did not get to see all of them.

Comic mural

We came across some parks and took many pictures.

Random park.

At the end of the day, we had dinner together. This is where we had dinner. There were so many restaurants here. It was crazy. We did not know which restaurant to go to. Also to make things worse, the menu were similar. Makes it even harder to choose.

Street with lots of restaurants.

And for dessert, we had the famous Belgian waffle! It tastes so good. I have no idea what they put in it, but it was great. So yummy! I want more. =(

Waffle with strawberries, whipped cream and caramel.

It was already 8pm, and we ended our journey together at the Grand Place.

This is how it looks at night.

That was the end of Day 3. Was indeed a very very happy day.

Day 2: Dublin. Ireland

MONDAY: 23 MARCH, 2009

After a very good night sleep, I was suppose to go to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. It is a book written in the 6th century about the Gospel. D-loh could not wake up in time so I ended up going alone. Cacat punya d-loh. Haha... No pictures were allowed in there. =(

The first thing you see when you enter Trinity College.

After Book of Kells, met up with d-loh, Hatim and Craig to makan lunch. Good hearty Irish lunch. After that I am off to the airport to Brussels. Arrived in Brussels and checked-in at my hotel. Les Ecrins Residence. This is how it looks like. I like the window. Too bad it was raining, didn't get to see stars while I am lying on my bed.

Me with Mini.

So, that was the end of Day 2, not very eventful.

Day 1: Dublin, Ireland

SUNDAY: 22 MARCH 2009

Touched down in Dublin at 6:45 am! By 7:15 am, I was already on the shuttle bus to the city center. I was the only person on the bus. Felt like some kinda celebrity, had the whole bus to myself. Haha… Too bad it was not a limo. By 7: 35 am, I was at the city center.

First mission was to check in at my hotel. Abbey Hotel. This is me with Mini and my Lonely Planet guide book.

Pretty good hotel with nice, big bed. =)

Next up, jalan-jalan around town. It was only 8:00 am and there was absolutely nobody in town. Really. NOBODY. My guess was people was either in bed or IN BED. The shops are all closed but the public transport were running. There was sunlight and the weather was perfect. Picture time! Since there was no human being around, I took some really nice pictures, like this.

This is Bachelor's Walk and River Liffey on the left. Nobody except me, at Bachelor's Walk.

Continued walking alone and this is the Post Office. This is a historical site because the 1916 Easter Rising happened here, amongst some other buildings.

Absolutely good picture, not ruined by other tourists trying to take pictures because I was the only tourist there at that time. =p

As I was walking on O' Connell Street I stumbled upon this.

Pulau Pinang in Ireland?

I did not eat at this restaurant. I didn't go all the way to Dublin for Malaysian food. Anyways, I think I can cook some pretty decent Malaysian dishes myself. =)

As soon as it was 9:30am, I took bus No. 78 to:

Translation: Kilmainham Jail.

The jail was situated on top of a hill. This is for air ventilation, important for good sanitation. Back in the days, there was no heat or electricity there and I could imagine how terrible the condition was. Cold cement walls and cold stone floors. I followed the guided tour in the jail. The tour guide told stories of the famous prisoners and the conditions in the jail. It was really cold in the jail. And the rooms were really small. I did not take any pictures of the individual rooms because I was in a somber mood. The tour ended with the tour guide showing us where the leaders for the 1916 Easter Rising were shot. Again I did not take any pictures. Just to respect the place, although photography was allowed. I only took three pictures in the jail. One of them is this.

Victorian Wing of the jail.

Alright, enough about the jail. Next up, met up with d-loh to follow a walking tour about the history of Ireland. It was really worth it and I would recommend it to anyone who visits Dublin. I learnt a lot about the history of Ireland's independence from both the walking tour and the jail tour. It was during this walking tour that my jetlag decided to kick in. I felt terribly tired and all I could think of was bed!

However, we had more in our itinerary. Bus No. 78 again to Guinness Storehouse. We learnt the 5 important ingredients in Guinness. Barley, malt, water from Wicklow Mountain, yeast and Arthur Guinness himself. Haha... That is funny. But it is what they said.

Fun Fact

I like this poster. See how the birds serve Guinness using their beaks? Hillarious. I hate birds by the way.

Our Guinness experience ended with a pint of Guinness in Gravity Bar, on top floor of the building. Jetlag+Guinness=Best Sleep Medicine Ever.

Had dinner in Temple Bar area with d-loh then called it a day and headed separate ways. Pictures in Temple Bar area still with d-loh who is in London at this moment. Will update pictures when d-loh gets back.