1. Je vais dormir et manger bien

2. Je vais voyager à 9 autres pays

3. Je vais étudier plus

4. Je vais parler le francais plus

5. Je vais voir la neige

Anyway things could be worse and I’m glad 2011 was doing quite okay! Happy new year!

P.S.: I will need to finalize my resolutions anyway.

Fireworks in London:

We weren’t trying to be really ambitious when we got back to Vienna, and we decided only Belvedere Palace and Vienna State Opera that we really wanted to visit.

Belvedere Castle apparently had its own Kerstmarkt but things were more expensive I guess than other Kerstmarkt.

State Opera House was not really accessible except when you bought the ticket so we could only grab some pictures outside. The interesting, even surprising, thing was that there were lots of ticket scalper trying to sell the Christmas Concert tickets for the Vienna grand opera of course with higher price, just in front of the Opera house instead. And according to them, police wouldn’t bother about this activity and it’s totally fine to do this. In fact they tried to buy the ticket as many as possible so the ticket would run out.

For the last day dinner, we went to a restaurant called Wiener Wald in the central of Vienna. Price was quite expensive and taste wasn’t that great except for the Apple Crème.

Vienna State Park was my very last destination on the last day but since it was winter, it wasn’t that interesting except for some pictures of composers and also the Grass Clock.

This would be the final part of the vacation. Central Europe was really interesting and somewhat different than the Western Europe. I would probably travel again to clear out the missing cities and countries next time!

1. Rejected a scholarship from Dongguk University, South Korea

I was kinda devastated initially honestly with my own decision at the first time and thinking if I did dire mistakes. But on second thought, I guess if you always have better plan in mind, you can always mend it, if you try hard enough. Too bad, I was almost being in the same university with few Korean celebs (one of them the member of Wondergirls).

2. Quitted my first job in Aug 2011.

I was lying that if I wasn’t feeling melancholic about it. It has been a memorable time with great people. But people move on to allow another good thing to happen.

3. Going back to the University in Leuven, Belgium

I was nearly jumping when I got the admission letter in May but soon enough I became anxious if I made the right choice, if it’s worth all the trouble, would I be able to make friends. But so far things have been good. It was rowdy at first with difficulty to find place but now I have enough close people that I can rely, too bad some of them are leaving pretty soon. I also think I do quite well in maintaining contacts with people I left back in Singapore and Indonesia.

The weirdest feeling probably I had was that you no longer receive paycheck at the end of the month but you rely on your own accord. And for me, who self-support myself, this is sorta hurting haha. But I guess it’s necessary pain to pay to relieve my ego, that I would try not to bother my parents financially if possible.

4. Visited another 9 countries, eight of them within less than 3 months.

South Korea, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Austria, Slovakia,  and Czech Republic.

5. Visited Bali for the second time and didn’t quite like it.

Too touristy and commercial now.

6. First time spending my birthday on a vacation

At the world capital of music, Vienna,

7. Almost got drunk for the first time in my early birthday celebration

Nuff said, close, tipsy, but wasn’t.

8. Met more people within 3 months than the people I’ve met during the course of 3 years I was working

Sure they came in and out fast unlike the people during the working time when you become attach and loyal to them. But it’s such a great feeling that somehow you become younger, talking to much younger people and the best, mostly without any prejudice and secret mission. We’re all students anyway

9. Fun things that I did: Paintball and 4WD Car at Ciater, Surfboarding at Bali

Kutna Hora is an hour plus by train from Prague and it only costs around EUR 7-8 (200 CEK) for return trip and group ticket was available. Walking around the town would take sometimes and you would pass many empty field. Kostnice Sedlec or Sedlec Ossuary, was our first and only destination in the town. We arrived there pretty late and decided to gave any other destinations a miss but it was very fulfilling.

Sedlec Ossuary is a church that contains human bones of 40,000 – 70,000 people that are artistically decorated. Even the chandelier and coat of arms were constructed by the human bones. It was the most amazing but probably unethical place you could visit. It’s probably similar to the Catacombs in Paris.

If you happen to be in Prague and has any little bit of any extra time. Then don’t give it a miss!

We got there pretty late in the afternoon and it was pretty dark so we decided only to stroll around the new quarter of the city and went to the few Christmas markets, one on the Wencelas Square, . The Prague townhall itself proved very interesting view with Prague Astronomical clock nearby and Christmas market in the background.

On second day, we started our grand tour crossing the Charles Bridge (Karluv Most), all the way from the Prague Old Quarter climbing up to the Prague castle, its church and square. From the Prague castle, you could get a very spectacular view of the Prague skyline, really a must climb!

The food in Prague has got no shorter than great.

Beef Gulash with Bread Dumpling | Roastbeef with Carlsbad dumpling

"Spanish bird" with rice | Super Yummy Duck Rice – Restaurance po Sečuánsku

Shichuanese Fried Rice – Restaurance po Sečuánsku | Prague 1 EUR burger, Vacklavske Namesti street vendor

Verdict, yes you really should go to Prague!! The city is very beautiful. Food is great and far cheaper comparing to nearby European countries, probably because they decided to opt-out from EUR and keep their local currency CEK. And shops even stay open far later than in Western Europe. Your world tour will never be complete without Prague!

We departed from Vienna pretty late around noon, Dec 12, 2011, from the temporary Sudbanhof station in Vienna (major stations in Vienna were under construction in the noon. We purchased a day-return ticket called EURegiothat costed €14 and also enabled to use all public transportation in the city. Around 1 PM plus we were already in the Bratislava Hlavni Stanica (the central station).

The first impression of the station that it was pretty rundown for the station of a capital city of a country. Things were proven when we entered the city by bus (num 93 going inwards the city). The city was pretty much old and preserved. The inner city looked very old and doesn’t seem to have been face lifted, you could see even graffiti’s there. The tram that ran through the city was far from modern. But the city itself was from intimidating, instead we felt very safe travelling around it. The dominant feature of the city itself was probably the view of the Bratislava Castle on top of the hill from the inner city.

We decided to climb the hill towards the Bratislava Castle, later which we decided just to settle on the foot. En route, behind the Ibis Hotel, we had a very nice lunch at a restaurant called “Business Pub”. Recommended! Especially we loved the ambience and hommy feeling inside. They also have the “Gulash”, originally from Hungary, a very ubiquitous and famous food in the Austro-Hungary region.

The Bratislava castle itself from close up not that amazing but it offered a great skybird view to the city.

We went on to visit the inner city at night. We hit the Christmas market and it was my most favourite Christmas market so far in terms of the feeling once you got there. They played very cheerful Christmas music which was audible in the entire market. The market itself wasn’t big and easy to navigate but had lots of local delicacies you could try, namely one of them “Loksa” (see picture).

The best thing probably about Bratislava itself was people really nice, they would try to talk to you and even offer you help to take picture without you chasing them for help. I’m not sure if it’s ingrained or because they rarely see tourists especially those from Asia. The food and things were pretty cheap, you could quite decent with much less than what you paid in Vienna while the currency of trading remained as Euro. If you would like a get-away to even less busier and older Europe, this could be it.

Note: And Slovakia is my country number 15 to visit!

As the opening of my central European tour, I arrived in Vienna, or Wien by its German name, with high expectation especially after the 15 hours Euroline bus trip which doesn’t come pretty cheap actually compared to flying (if I had a chance to book it earlier). After all, it’s the most livable city in the world by many ranking. It used to be the glorious capital of the glorious Austro-Hungary kingdom and also known as the capital of (classical) music.

My bus touched down in Vienna Erdberg International bus station at 7:00 AM in the morning on Saturday, December 10 2011. The place looked pretty deserted in Saturday morning. Since I needed to fetch more incoming group from far east, I took a bus to the airport which costed EUR 5 for <30 mins trip, pretty expensive I thought. I already got a feeling that the most livable city came with high cost of living – which proved right later. The Vienna Airport – Schwechat was honestly a bit disappointing in terms of the looks and feel, but it’s got FREE Wifi whose the connection was really good and it did what it needed to do but really I couldn’t imagine spending night there.

Afterwards, we took a bus down back to the city, to the Schwedenplatz which costed EUR 7 from the airport for another 30 mins trip. And from there we moved to our booked hostel, Vienna City Hostel, in the Keplerplatz area by its metro. The metro ticket itself cost like EUR 1.80 for a single trip for EUR 5 for a full day ticket (you could also buy two days, three days and seven days pass which gave you better discount). As with most metro in Europe, there’s no flapping door into the metro and the security was pretty lapse. I haven’t met anyone during my entire trip that checked my ticket. The metro itself was very efficient and hardly ever full. The train came in very fast and the system had six lines for only a city of 1 million plus inhabitants, which was amazing! The trains were a bit old but acceptable. Overall, I was very happy with the public transportation system in Vienna.

After check-in, we took a rest and we didn’t really go much that day aside than exploring the Christmas market and the surrounding of the Karlsplatz area. There were pretty many Christmas markets in Vienna – we encountered at least another three in Belvedere, Naturhistoriches Museum, and probably the biggest at Rathaus – Cityhall).

The second day, Sunday December 11, 2011, we pretty much explored the city central area, gong all the way from Schewedenplatz bypassing the Danobe River, and then went on to the city center, the Cathedral of Vienna, Spanische Hofreitschule, Hofburg Palace, Twin Historiches Museum buildings, Parliament building and finally to the Rathaus. At the Rathaus itself, there was a choir of continuous few hours attended by many tourists. At night, we did some birthday celebration for myself in the Nordsee chain restaurant in Vienna and then went on the Zanoni Zanoni café.

Group pose with Johnson, an Indonesian we happened to meet accidentally twice down the road (once from the airport to the city, the other time when we were strolling near the Xmas market of Historical Museum. Finally he took us sightseeing around the previous sites he had encountered before.

The third day to the sixth day, we left Vienna and went to Bratislava and Prague, and only be back on the seventh day, I will talk about the rest of the trip journal on different posts.

Nordsee Restaurant, Vienna

Talking about contemplation, I think my points were still pretty much about what I mentioned in a different post nearly two months ago. As usual, I would like to put in some resolutions for my birthday which also happens to be very close to the new year hence I can use them for both purposes, which is why I would save it for my usual end of year self review.

Zanoni Zanoni, Vienna

In Leuven, Belgium, the city that I’ve lived for the past three months, my very nice university friends also held an early birthday celebration for me on December 7, 2011. Thanks, it was really meaningful and it was when I was so close to getting drunk for the first time in my life, not great.

De Wereelt, Leuven

Thanks to the special people that made my birthday celebration happened by travelling miles away from the far east. I may still be green but I believe there’ll come a day when I’m ready to move on. Till then, I guess, I will stick with exploring new things and staying as young as I can at heart!

Rathaus, Vienna

I’m amazed by how things are really bureaucratic here in Belgium and how slow official things can get – something that has not only caused discomfort for alien residents but also irritated the local people (based on conversation to some Belgian friends).

Anyway, time to fly my wings further (first of all I will need to recover from the damage from the last trip, and of course fulfill my primary duty here: studying).