Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here
HOKAY PEOPLE. I am almost packed and ready for ABU DHABS. I actually borrowed a guide book on Dubai and Abu Dhabs last week and got well excited at the prospect of the desert safaris and gambolling on beaches at Jumeirah. Except, we are arriving in the midst of Ramadan. Well, it be interesting to see how that's like in a Middle Eastern country.
Heehee. In prep for the flight, I have transferrred CANDIDE back to my itouch, in case the selections at the inflight is really terrible (as previously). Though, I can't see any movie topping two plus hours of KCheno and the Patti LP awesome really. Anyway, I love taking planes; love when they take off, ain't it weird? I am well excited.
Anyway, I have kinda decided not to go to New York next summer :( :( :( :( because:
1. I have no money
2. I will probably go to the States in 09/10 and I can't keep going to New York (although I really should)
3. I want to see the last bits of Europe which I haven't yet seen - Italy, Greece, Croatia, Hungary and Amsterdam.
Yeaps. Sobs. But oh well, eyes on the prize. At least, I get to tour Europe cheaply (thank you Ryanair love) from London. You know, I've been to quite a number of places in Europe and for me, but I don't exactly remember where which attraction is. I'll be hard pressed to name one attraction in Vienna. And I don't believe in seeing everything either, or seeing the most famous landmarks. I like taking pictures of random intricately carved street lamps, I really love admiring statues on the street and especially the baroque architecture of random buildings. And I really really like taking photos of citizens sitting around at the town squares or piazzas, even if they are doing random stuff, like eating ice cream.
Photos don't really remind me of a place, but the memories I had of each place is vivid.
Like, the "Heaven on Earth Number One Tourist Destination Must Totally See before you die place" SIGULDA in Latvia, which let me assure you is a swamp, a swamp and a muddy one with plastic bags in it at that. And it apparently has 'OLD CASTLE RUINS", which let me also assure you, looks nothing more than an abandoned factory. And to get to this Heaven on Earth, you have to take this cable car, which has ONE CAR! that goes back and forth on ONE LINE! and to summon it we had to use our face mirrors to reflect the sunlight to show that THERE WERE PEOPLE THIS SIDE, like zomg. And now that I have started, I might as well mention CESKY, which is like, IDK, some town where they act like they have never seen Asians before (perhaps they haven't) and I don't know why we ended up there, I only know we never planned what to do in Latvia and Estonia and we ended up in Cesky. And then there was the "You are so gay" incident in Estonia with some teenager trash and the constant eating at Lido. LOL LOL LOL. Hokay, I should totes stop bitching about Latvia and Estonia.
And of roadtrip in Jan 07, after skiing in the Alps (when I nearly went off a cliff, but that's another story), which Sens, Senpai Coles travelled the north of UK. Like, the time when I opened my eyes after dozing off and we were headed for the road divider. And how we tried to go up some 60 deg slope in Scarborough on gear 2 and the car threatened to roll back into the sea. And how we drove around the deserted carpark in York and I stalled the car a gabazillion times. Fun times.
And of the legendary summer 07 trip with M and Babies, when we travelled Krakow, Warsaw, Prague, Vienna and Salzburg in two weeks and we didnt stop at Cesky Krumlow like wth. Like, the forgetting to set to Poland time fiasco and the Auschwitz bus people came to wake us up and we rushed onto the bus and I didn't have mine _____ on. Like, Babies' amazing bargaining skills at the Krakow Market Fair. M's incessant complaining about Warsaw being the most horrible place on earth (it's awesome I tell you). And how Babies went back for her MP3 player left at the hostel and came back without her wallet (and her mp3 player). And the horrendous Slasher hostel, which I assure you, looks haunted, is housing slashers and resembles a dungeon. I was so convinced we were going to die there. And my disgusting German when trying to explain our predicament to the bus driver about having lost our bus tickets. DREI TICKETEN STEALEN, anyone? And Vienna, which i don't remember anything but standing for three hours to watch Romeo and Juliet, running through a lightning storm and nearly dying from heat exhaustion. Oh, and CAMBRIDGE GENIUS M finding out she topped the law cohort and that she got like a hundred million pounds in prizes (that merits a separate story). AND THE AUSCHWITZ HOSTEL in Salzburg. yuckyuckyuck. Six bunks in a tiny room, no ladder to the bunks, 0.5m of walkable floor space. Think concentration camp. Except we voluntarily chose to be there. AND HOW CAN I FORGET, THAT FLIGHT DELAY AT SALZBURG FOR A FAWESOME TWENTY FOUR HOURS zomg. What with M filling my head with stories about Langolas, me lying down with my rj hoody covering my face and ten thousand flies resting on me, horrifying all passerbys; and M putting me on a trolley as we sped down the corridors of the airport. And we missed our flight to amsterdam, FANNOYING.
And of Berlin, which I totes have no recollection, except for going to this pub crawl and club which was super noisy ( I dislike) and eating a fload of currywurst.
And ooh yeah SPAIN PORTUGAL which was really really really awesome, mainly cos of Senpai Coles and J. And the amazing times we had in Lisbon, eating the egg tarts, sitting outside the closed attraction and singing DEFYING GRAVITY at the top of our voices. in the cold at that. Getting slightly wasted on the Faro beach on port wine. TAKING THREE HOURS to find the stupid Taylor brewery. Nearly dying from climbing the hills of Porto. The crazy bus rides and that 1 pound flight from Spain to Portugal. The lovely Barcelona and that yucky Madrid (which I am convinced we did nothing but used the internet there). AND OF COURSE being stranded at Real Zaragoza because of a hailstorm. Like, seriously man.
And Housing Outing Paris 08, for 40 pounds Eurostar return. STEAL. And us Philistines just heading for THE TOTALLY UNDERWHELMING MONA LISA at the Lourve. Don't blame us, there were signs every inch of the way. And the famazing boat ride along the Seine. Ah, good times.
Of course, NEW YORK CITY!!!!!! A thousand kinds of awesome. The late night viewing from top of Empire State. Being totes underage but still getting access to the greatest MARGARITE EVER. And who can forget K's "Aiyah, half my fries are on the table." episode. And getting THE AMAZING LIFECHANGING ITOUCH from Apple Flagship. The really noisy and dark Abercrombie and Fitch. Srsly, Abercrombie, I swear your sales will go up 100% if you switched on the lights so I can actually see what I'm buying and have your staff help me find my size. And no, saying "I think you wear size 00 not size 0 and I think you can find it on those shelves there at the bottom" IS NOT considered helping me find the items I want, k thanks. And of course, WASHINGTON and that hostel in the middle of gangsta's paradise. LOL, I was expecting like a drive by anytime. HAHA and the METRO WOMAN. "Can I keep the card?" "No." "But can I keep the card?" "No." "I know, but can I like KEEP the card?" "No." LOL. ANDD Broadway. Nuff said.
Man, I love my holidays.
Wheee. Anyways, the last few days have been spent being thoroughly idle, although I did manage to WATCH MAMMA MIA!!!!. Can I just join in the chorus echoing how horrible Pierce Brosnan was? His SOS, zomg zomg let me die now. And I realised the Mammia OST I have did not include SOS, so I was totes unprepared for his terrible singing. Ah well. God does not give with both hands. And I'm lacking Voulez Vous as well hrmphs. But the Meryl awesome - THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL. How famazing was THAT? Although, overall I didn't think it was a GREAT GREAT movie - poor character development (can't be helped I suppose) and very CAMPY. And sometimes I felt the dialogue was rather incongruous, mainly cos they had to try to fit in an ABBA song suddenly. But it was undeniable, the upbeatness of the movie, although it was a pretty wth moment at the end when Donna and the Dynamos were sort of "performing" and Meryl shouted like "Do you WANT some more?!!!" And of course, the AMK HUB CATHAY MONDAY NIGHT SNEAK PREVIEW AUDIENCE were all like ----------silence-------------. Yeap. But oh well, at least there was even an AMK HUB CATHAY MONDAY NIGHT SNEAK PREVIEW audience for Mamma Mia to begin with.
What else did I do? I went to the DENTIST. And she removed all the tartar and whatever that's between your teeth from my teeth and now my teeth feels naked, cold and has the sensation of having ice cubes on it THE ENTIRE DAY. Not good, I tell you. I don't understand that dentist really. She spent like 10 minutes teaching me how to floss my teeth, and how it was so much more important than using mouthwash or brushing and then afterwards, prescribed me MOUTHWASH. Instead of dental floss. And I would have used the mouthwash if it didnt look like it was made in some sweatshop backyard clinic, with nothing but a poorly pasted on label on it, which says like, DO NOT SWALLOW. Wisdom for the ages.
HOKAY, I NEED TO FINISH PACKING.