i'm back! woohoo. the flight back from paris was the best flight i've ever taken. very minimal turbulence, fantastic food (they even gave us ice-cream!) and lots of leg room cuz we requested for the seats behind the kitchen (that's probably not the right term). watched robots,constantine and the wedding date too. was pretty jet lagged when i reached home, so i slept for five straight hours till dinner. still quite zonked out now. lol. but i'm relieved to be home. never thought my flat was spacious till today, and when i went into the bathroom to take a bath i had to orientate myself with the mass of bottles there. -grin-


so i bring u more pictures from the europe trip 2005:

preparing sandwiches for dinner in zj's flat

outside nottingham castle with the statue of robin hood

sign along the lake in notts

on the walls of edinburgh castle

on the national monument, which was never completed

arthur's seat, highest point in edinburgh at 251 metres

causeway to cramond island, edinburgh. where we're sitting is usually underwater during high tide

we had an unpleasant encounter in paris, when two lads came up to us and sprayed us with egg cream. we were at a metro station which wasn't very busy, so maybe that's why they dared to do something like that. it just felt wrong, and with that single incident, our perception of paris changed. like, sure, it's a romantic city and all that, what with the eiffel tower and the river seine and notre-dame. but i suppose the incident reminded us that there's always more than meets the eye. for something to be good, there has to be something bad. yin and yang, day and night, you get the picture.


and it wasn't just paris. in berlin i saw a punk make an aggressive gesture at us and especially in the east (where we lived), we attracted lots of attention. paris we could see the distinction between the races, but at least everyone seemed friendly enough to each other. the germans of course are famous for being xenophobic, and it was all laid out for us to see. i only saw a handful of asians, and when we met this thai lady who runs a bookshop, she was overjoyed.


london was better, greater spectrum of people and it somehow felt safer. in paris and berlin, there was always this uneasiness. we all felt so free in london. perhaps it was the language, but i feel there was something else in london which made us relaxed. notts was a nice change from the capitals, but we saw goths again, though they didn't go all the way as they do in east berlin.


which brings me to edinburgh, which in my humblest of opnions, is my favourite city. the people are open and friendly, the town is picturesque and literally straight out of the storybooks and the air is clean and fresh. however the weather leaves much to be desired. it rained the day we came, and on the day we left. someone commented to us,"welcome to sunny scotland" when we arrived. it was so cold that our breaths condensed into clouds. and it's summer. really wonder how it's like in winter.


am thinking of setting up a website just for this trip. well, thinking.