Eastern Europe - a tease

Okay, I know I said I wanted to complete the mobile blog section of my E.Eur trip but unfortunately, I got caught up with a ton of things and work hasn't really let up either.

I begin new Japanese classes this week =) and I'm also back to playing games on my NDS again. This time it is Professor Layton who's been sucking up my sleep time on the bus to work. =) Final Fantasy Tactics A2 also got released this week, so I think that may begin to consume some of my time. Although, I may not get it and get hooked on Apollo Justice (thank you again for the gift S) or Touch Detective 2 1/2 which I have but haven't had time to play. And apart from all that and trying to have a life, I'm back to watching TVB again... arrrrggghhh... need fewer obsessions. =)

Anyway, here is a photo from the top of the Astronomical Clock in Prague, Czech Republic. It's one of those panoramic shots which were stitched together in Photoshop CS3. I've several more and would like to put them on the blog too when I get a chance.

This little tease is for those of you who have been bugging me about those photos. =)

enjoy

Eastern europe - flash forward

Hello guys,

Am back from my 15 day trip to E. Europe. I actually flew back into Singapore yesterday evening and had to attend my father's 70th birthday celebration that very night itself and hence, did not try to update the blog to include the rest of Day 13 as well as Days 14 & 15.

I will probably not complete the entries for E. Europe tonight as the main purpose of this particular entry was to let you guys know that I'm back and had a very good time in E. Europe and also that I do intend to complete the missing entries soon.

Would have liked to have continued mobile blogging days 13 - 15 but got too tired and busy travelling to finish it up. I will continue to use the photos from the SE cell phone camera to complete my account of my trip to E. Europe before attempting to tackle the rest of the 100s of photos I took in E. Europe. Of course, as is always the case, please do not hold out your breadth that I will complete the full and proper entries on E. Europe any time soon as I've yet to complete Guizhou and have barely even touched Sichuan and Vietnam. =)

Anyway, the above is a photo of what is the smallest house in Salzburg, Austria. Actually, by the time I took this photo, I was pretty much photographed out and far more interested in doing some retail therapy than photography. It was only because of a request from a friend that I ended up snapping this photo on the cell phone and another better quality shot on the Canon DSLR. These ended up being that last photos I took in Salzburg.

There is a story behind this tiny house that is now a shop and I will get to that another day. I'll leave you with this for now.

cheers =)

Eastern europe day 13

On our way back to vienna, we made an unscheduled stop so that we could try and capture some of the beautiful Salzburg countryside digitally on our cameras. Now we're back on the bus and on our way back to vienna where we'll lunch and some of us will head off to Seegrotte for an optional tour before returning to vienna for some free time and dinner. That's it for now. Later. :-)

Eastern europe day 13

This is the view from the corridor window just outside my hotel room in Salzburg. This hotel was the least nice of all the hotels we're stayed in since our trip began so far and some of my tour mates were unhappy. It didn't help that the weather had been almost unbearably hot and the air-con-less hotel rooms absorbed that heat and reflected it onto some of my tour mates. Sadly, it turned up to be more than a little hic-cup in a near perfect day yesterday. But with that behind us we embarked on our journey back to vienna.

Eastern europe day 12

One of the things Salzburg is known for aside from Mozart and music is the chocolate. I bought some of the well known Mozart chocolate to bring home earlier on. Then during our walking tour, our last stop was just outside a little cafe that still hand makes these traditional sweets. It would not do to not at least try one even though they were more expensive then the ones made by machines. When we entered the shop we realised that Taiwanese model Lin Chilin was in the shop. She was tall and quietly demure. I don't particularly like or dislike her but still must say it was kinda neat to spot an Asian celeb in the most unlikely of places. Although i must say if she was Ada Choi, Matsushima Nanako, Ueto Aya, Amami Yuki or Stefanie Sun, i might be more starry eyed. :-) anyway, back to the chocolate. At the centre of the Mozart chocolate is a piece of marzipan. Now usually i'm not a big fan of marzipan but this chocolate was quite tasty. Btw, before we partook of the chocolate, we had a cold drink, enjoyed the moment and chatted for quite sometime. It was quite relaxing and even though i did not see more of Salzburg and took no more photos for the day, i was quite happy to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the day like other eastern europeans and tourists in the many cafes round the city.

Eastern europe day 12

The temperature in Salzburg was a sweltering 30+ degrees. I think the coolest place in town must certainly be this cathedral. The cathedral is built in the early baroque style. It is naturally cool, there is no air-conditioning in the building but it's actually quite quite cool and was a welcome respite from the heat in the square outside. So, we all took our time in this incredibly beautiful church. The interior of the church is designed to be mostly in black and white except for the paintings of the passion of Christ. The back of the church and the hallway leading to the gorgeous altar is mostly b&w, symbolizing the darkness leading to the light of the altar. There are 5 sets of pipe organs in the cathedral with the largest one at the back. The organs can be played independent from each other and if you're lucky enough to attend one of these performances, you can hear the organists improvise musical answers to each other. This isn't the cathedral's only link to music, Mozart and Joseph Mohr, the man who wrote the lyrics for Silent Night, where both baptized in this cathedral. However, as our tour must go on, we had to tear ourselves from the cool comfort of the cathedral and re-enter the oven outside.

Eastern europe day 12

According to our Salzburg guide, this is the cradle of present Salzburg. The history of Salzburg started with the founding of the monastry of St. Peter's. The building is in the high romanasque style and it's interior is in the Rococo style.

Eastern europe day 12

This is the main shopping street in Salzburg. One of the defining characteristics of this street are it's pretty and innovative store signs. The signs are cast in metal and hang out at at a ninety degree angle from the store front. We walked through this street during our city tour and returned to it later during our free time to do some shopping.

Eastern europe day 12

Salzburg is Mozart's hometown. The above photo is of the family home he stayed in from the age of 17 to 25. It's now a museum but we didn't go in.

Eastern europe day 12

This is another section of the garden outside the palace building. Really pretty, isn't it? Sadly there is some construction work in the distance which spoils the mood somewhat. Maria and the children sang "do a deer" on those steps up there. On the right is the palace building. The original was destroyed by fire except for a staircase and hallway. The rest of the building was rebuilt in a simpler style.

Eastern europe day 12

We began our city tour with a stop at the Palace of Mirabell. This is a garden outside of the palace building. It's a baroque styled garden and the statues that line both sides of the garden depict greek legends and gods like hades and hercules etc. If you look closely, in the distant background, you may be able to spot the castle on the mountain. It might be obstructed by the sculpture of the vase in the foreground but you might still be able to spot bits of it. Linden trees line the side of this garden and if you know your Sound of Music, you might recognise the garden. It is quite pretty.

Eastern europe day 12

We've reached Salzburg. Now at the chinese restaurant for lunch. Not very palatable at the moment.

Eastern europe day 12

We don't have this particular flavour in Singapore which is why i picked it. But i must say it's a bit strange and i'm not v fond of it. I want my magnum. :@

Eastern europe day 12

We just made a rest stop at a petrol station. I've been dying to eat those damn magnums but there were none in this station. Arrrggghhh... so i had to settle for this.

Eastern europe day 12

It's day 12 of our tour and we're currently travelling towards Salzburg which is approximately 260km from Vienna. The meaning for Salzburg is salt city and it's Mozart's hometown. It's also the place where they shot Sound of Music, my favourite musical in my childhood so am looking forward to going there. :-)

Eastern europe day 11

The traffic in Vienna was particularly bad so by the time we got to the restaurant, we only had 20 mins for dinner because 9 of us bought tickets to a performance in Brahms Hall. The above is a photo of the concert hall. Even though it isn't the main hall, it's still pretty opulent, isn't it? Sorry the photo isn't very clear, the light was a little low and i was unable to keep my hand steady. The ticket cost me 49euros and the trip back cost us 7euros each. The performers were dressed in traditional european costumes and it was a mix of symphonic music and opera. I really rather liked this performance. It wasn't the full orchestra but the music was still good and so were the singers. The conductor was loads of fun as he introduced some audience participation my conducting the audience in accompanying the orchestra by clapping along at points. Kinda cool. :-) it's off to salzburg next.

Eastern europe day 11

This is Hero's Square in Vienna, i think. This is the last walking stop on our city tour. By this time i was really quite tired. I think the exertions from all that walking in Prague the previous day were begining to take its toll and i was a unable to absorb a lot of the information that was given out about some of the places we saw after the Schonbrunn. I know that there is some historical WWII importance about this place and will have check up on that later and fill in the blanks. After this stop, it was back on the bus and our city tour continued on the bus. I actually dozed off and before i knew it, we were stuck in traffic, trying to get to this place called Romy, i think, so that we could buy crystal at a discounted price if we wanted to. There wasn't much time as we still needed to make dinner and then for some of us had to rush off to attend a concert at night.

Eastern europe day 11

This is the garden at the back of the Belvederegarten Palace. Quite pretty isn't it? Unfortunately, we had even less time here then we did at the Schonbrunn. Our guide in vienna is quite knowledgeable but i was a little preoccupied by the ducks in the garden and hence missed virtually everything she had to say regarding this garden. :-) Will have to read up about it when i get the chance.

Eastern europe day 11

Next stop is the Belvederegarten Palace. This palace means the beautiful view palace. The view is indeed quite beautiful. The palace is now a museum and we did not enter it.

Eastern europe day 11

Since Schonbrunn means beautiful fountain, it wouldn't do not to have a beautiful fountain in the Palace grounds. I'm not sure if you can see the fountain in the distance but trust me, it's there. :-) this photo, imo, doesn't do the they much justice, the view in reality is stunting. The garden is huge and beautifully kept. Just looking at it from the photo, you can't really tell the magnitude of the garden because the photo isn't able to present the many other side branches to probably other smaller gardens. Unfortunately, we only had 20 mins to spend in the garden and i was unable to explore it fully.