hullo everyone! taking a breather at the university of nottingham. staying with my friend for the next four days before moving on to our last stop - edinburgh. so far it's been quite a memorable trip, which means that there's both the good and the bad memories. like i mentioned on my other blog, i'll talk about the not-so-nice stuff later.


paris was as romantic as it could get. it was a city always on the move, whether above ground or underground. we saw the eiffel tower at night, the louvre, the basilique of the sacred couer, notre dame, the river seine, st chapelle, and the centre pompidou. got a shock at the metro because we weren't aware that you have to open the doors yourself. queer thing isn't it, germany does it too. we were lucky to have met this malay lady from kl who took the metro to the same station as us, so at least we had someone to show the way in the first one or two hours. pretty scary, cuz there were only two of us, two girls wandering the streets of paris. we had to change accomodation for the second night because our hostel gave our room to someone else. turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we moved to a low cost hotel which was cheaper but was more comfortable than the hostel.


berlin was the odd place, since it had been divided by the wall for nearly half a century. the difference between east and west was stark, and in certain places rather disturbing. watched a greenpeace protest, saw lots of goths hangin' around, nearly had a street fight under our window, and saw two guys kissing passionately across our street. went with the brewer's walking tour and saw the wall, checkpoint charlie and the reichstag, among others. we also went to the sachenhausen concentration camp, where it rained and the wind blew across the huge expanse of the camp, and really added to the gloom of the place. the memorial was huge, but in it's 'heyday', it was at least three times as large. this camp isn't as famous aas dachau or auschwitz because it wasn't meant for the jews, but that doesn't make it any less notorious. in fact, it was also used by the soviets after their 'liberation' of berlin.


went to potsdam the next day, which was a nice change from berlin. postdam's just 24km outside of berlin, and it's very tranquil and scenic, what with the huge palace friederich the great built and the large open spaces with lots and lots of fresh air. i can see why friederich the great decided to move to potsdam from berlin. ;)


london was our next stop, and a very short one at that. had lots of trouble with my luggage, cuz i don't have a rucksack now. had to drag by luggage for nearly one km to our hostel. argh. i will not travel like this again. anyway, met up with the lse people, as well as vic in london, then we went to catch les miz. it was fantastic to see the musical again, i can really never get bored of it at all. first watched it in primary three, and have been listening to the original cast recording very often since then, but as i grew up, i came to appreciate more and more of the story. like at nine years old, i hated javert and really couldn't be bothered with his character. but now, in a twisted sort of way, i feel for him, for his sense of loss in his beliefs that were crushed in an instant. the cast was as good as i remembered the american touring cast that came in 1994, but i loved it nonetheless.


and so...after seeing the tower of london, visiting harrods and going past no. 10 downing street (didn't get a chance to meet tony), i'm here at nottingham to slack for four days in zj's place before going off to edinburgh.


i'll try to upload some pics now...let's hope it works. ;)