imagine this scene: a group of choir members scattered around one small room, busy talking among themselves. a pianist playing a keyboard. a guitarist with his instrument. a few aunties cutting a big chocolate birthday cake and distributing it at the same time. a conductor trying to get everyone's attention to eventually start the song. stack of scores being passed around. a handful of children playing at the corner of the room. a small boy playing with purple baloon. people coming into the room to place some items on top of the cupboard. a few months old baby crawling on the floor and sometimes stood up to grab a piece of the chocolate cake from people's plates. a big sister running around to help his baby brother wipe his mouth clean. and people's singing, and conductor correcting. repeat.

one word: hectic.

this scene repeats itself almost every week during choir practice. the chocolate cake can be substituted with a packet of sweets or any other tidbits brought from different parts of the world. it's just amazing.

had dinner at orange lantern at harbourfront yesterday evening. had a tough time deciding on what to order from the array of vietnamese cuisines they served. finally chose stir-fried noodle with beef and grilled chicken with vermicelli. chicken with vermicelli was great, served with sweet clear sauce to mix with the plain vermicelli. however the stir-fried noodle turned out to be a bit bland and tasteless. maybe it's just because I ordered it to be cooked without chilli. but still, the flavor can not be only from chilli, right? anyway, instead of vietnamese fried noodle, I'd say give me thai fried noodle anytime!

went to batu aji, batam today together with a group from the company for the batam build project under habitat for humanity int'l.

I started this day super early by waking up at 5am. meeting point was at harborfront ferry terminal, 6.45am. the 7.50am ferry was so crowded they changed the vessel into a bigger one and yet it was still so packed. luckily the sea was really calm.

arrived at sekupang jetty in 40 minutes time. met up with the rep from habitat and then went to the work site by minibus provided by harris.

the house that we helped to construct today had walls and roof already done, but the rest was still untouched. our agenda today: levelling the floor, bending & tying wire for column, and mixing cement. we started the day by bending & tying wires for column, while some of the guys did the levelling of the floor. cement mixing and pouring was done in the afternoon.

we made square-shaped rings from the thick metal sticks provided, put some of them around other 4 metal sticks (about 25 cm apart) and tied them using wires. these columns were then used as skeleton of the outermost layer of the floor. cement was then mixed with water and gravel - this was one really tough work - and poured on top of the columns before being left to harden.

columns making and cement mixing were done outside under the sweltering heat of the sun. floor leveling and cement pouring were done inside the stuffy house. my goodness, it was like having a sauna while baking a cake (cement as the mixture). hot, hot, hot!

lunch box was provided, consisted of rice, mixed vegetables, chicken, fried fish fillet, prawn cracker and banana. I had my breakfast before leaving home, and then had another muffin in harborfront, but was already hungry way before normal lunchtime.

finished our work at 3pm local time, and went to waterfront jetty for return trip to singapore. harris had again demonstrated their professionalism by helping me taking care of my tax clearance, and even filling out my departure/arrival card nicely. superb service!

bought 1 litre box of teh sosro, fish crackers (krupuk bangka) and a few packets of indomie with new flavour I haven't seen before (soto medan).

all in all, it has been a tiring but yet enriching day. literally doing construction work was an eye opener to all of us, although frankly speaking, the amount of construction work a group of inexperienced, physically unfit people could accomplish in less than 1 day was really not much.

you don't need to be rude to say no.

presenting.. flowers found in singapore's roadsides. I didn't especially go to public gardens or flower exhibitions for these. some of them I've already had it in my collection, some of them were just snapped in office building vicinity, at the roadsides. yes, squatting there like it's nobody's business :)

I guess the most commonly found flowers are ixora and bougenville. but at a closer look, there are quite a number of interesting species. it's just a matter of taking time to smell the roses.

the million dollar question: how many times is the 'beep' sound played to announce the closing of MRT doors? I'm referring to this announcement in north south line (red) and east west line (green): "doors are closing.. beep beep beep beep...."

I counted the beeping sound a long time back, satisfied and convinced with the result. asked my friend this afternoon, he was adamant in his belief that it beeps 10 times. I asked him to count again when he's inside the train. he texted me saying that it's actually 5.. then soon after he texted again saying that it's 9...

I'm still convinced by my own count, though.. there are 13 beeps. what say you?

read a good review on paddy's the australian concept in one local magazine and decided to give it a try. since we were in the west area, we went to its branch at northpoint shopping mall. the stall was located at one corner of the food court. we ordered fish & calamari, and fish coated with cheese. both came with chunky potato wedges and salad.

the salad was actually just shredded lettuce with one slice of tomato. the chunky potato wedges was almost tasteless, luckily they provided tartar and chili sauce. their dory fish fillet was good, we could choose if we wanted it crumbed or battered. calamari was great too. the fish coated with cheese was a bit strange, though.. I could smell the cheese but I could not taste it, it's like eating omelette with fish meat.

I guess the main store at tanglin mall offers more variety with different kind of fish people can choose, and wine, too.

...and it's done! yay!
I guess I need a break after this voluntary gig.

the incredible hulk was quite an entertaining movie, managed to catch it with a few friends. it's been a long time since we last went to lido for movies.

conversation of the day. background story: I was inquiring the price of singapore-jakarta return ticket via phone to one big, leading travel agent in town.

me: "is there any cheaper alternative?"
customer service: .... (busy searching)
me: "how about lufthansa?"
customer service: ... (busy searching)
customer service: "oh, you have to fly via frankfurt to get to jakarta."
me: ?????

online search in the airline website offers better service, not to mention the special price tag. too bad nowadays the tax and surcharges are ridiculously high, resulting in expensive grand total.

instead of being bitter on why the good things ceased to exist, why is it so difficult to cherish and be grateful that good things had come our way?

today's summary: breakfast at kopi buangkok. church wedding and reception at thomson rd baptist church. housewarming cum baby first month celebration at sembawang. shopping at suntec city.

I need my beauty sleep now, zzzzz...

[Europe Trip] On flowers

I truly enjoyed strolling in the parks and beaches while feasting on the wonderful scenery and the pretty flowers. Picture tells a thousand words.

[Europe Trip] On city transports

London tube system was complicated with 14 color-coded lines. But the tubes ran very fast, it took about 2 minutes in average from one station to the next. The seats were comfortable too, with space in the aisle just enough to fit one row of people.

The oyster card in London worked just like Singapore's EZ link card where passengers needed to tap the card when getting in and getting out of the station, as the charge might be different depending on the distance traveled. It's using contactless card as well. Upon purchase the oyster card was given with a complementary jacket from Ikea.

Metro map in Rome was quite simple, there're only two lines, linea A and linea B. Linea C was still under construction, to be ready in 2015. Trains serving linea A were fine, they looked brand new and clean. However, trains serving linea B looked very old with various graffiti scribbled all over it, sometimes even in the inside. The metro stations were dirty too.

Rome's metro ticket was not contactless. It's using a thick paper, printed by the machine upon purchase. The maximum length for which the ticket was valid was one week. Therefore it was easy to spot dumped metro tickets on public spaces. The same ticket could be used for buses as well.

Waiting for buses in Rome was troublesome. If there were several buses stopping at the same stop, the bus numbers and routes were displayed in several sign boards distributed along the stop area, one sign board could only display 3 buses. So if you were not familiar with the route, you would have to run here and there to check on the sign boards. By the time you're sure that's the bus you need to take, it would have been gone.

The worst of all was metro in Paris. Such a complicated metro map. They had a total of 199 km of track and 15 lines. There were 368 stations (not including regional train stations - RER), 87 of which were interchanges between lines.

Prior to the trip, we'd normally check first what the nearest metro to our destination was and the name of the metro station we were currently at. Next, we found those two names in the map, while figuring out the most convenient route between the two - with minimum travel time and minimum number of transfer. When getting into the metro, we also needed to make sure that we got in to the correct entrance, to ensure minimum headache in the tunnels. The metro station looked like a maze too, a sharp turn with signage could be easily missed. The metro (short of Metropolitain) was first opened in 1900, that explained why some station looked so ancient.

To add to the complication, there was also regional line called RER (Reseau Express Regional/Regional Express Network). It's built to integrate the city-centre subway with the pre-existing regional lines. It had 5 lines as of now with 258 stops, 587km of track.

Metro ticket in Paris was not the usual credit card size. It was smaller, made of paper. I especially am not fond of the entrance to Paris' metro station. When entering, passengers have to slot in the ticket, then at the same time they have to take the ticket back while passing through a turnstile and pushing another metal bar door in front of the turnstile. In addition, the space was small I don't think a fat person could go through. Imagine going through those while carrying heavy, bulky bags!

Metro in Rome and Italy were using flat rate fare, though. So tap out was not required for exit, and mostly the exit doors were automatic, no more handle to turn or door to push. I also noticed that there was no restriction on eating and drinking in the station and on board the train. I even saw some people eating their dinner while seating on the platform waiting for train's arrival. Trash bins could be easily found inside the station and on the platforms. Maybe it was due to the type of the food also.

Sandwiches were fine, but I could not imagine eating laksa or chicken rice on the train or platform :)
People in London, Rome and Paris would wait patiently for alighting passengers before rushing into the train. They would also obediently stay at one side of the escalator - London, Rome and Paris are all on the right. If you stand still on the left side in London tubes' escalator, you would immediately find it out as other passengers would shove you by. In Rome and Paris it wasn't that bad.

After taking the subway in London, Rome and Paris, and in Hong Kong too - sometime back, I think I can now safely say that Singapore's MRT is indeed, world class.. although sometimes I still complain when squeezed like canned sardines inside MRT trains :)

[Europe Trip] On food

There was nothing special to eat in London and its surrounding areas. My favourite shop was Pret A Manger, a chain shops that could be easily found in the cities. It's like a McDonalds in Singapore, you'll bump into one every few kilometres, sometimes from one branch you can already see another branch. They claimed to sell healthy and environment friendly food: various sandwiches, pastries, snacks and cakes.

Another popular chain in London was of course Marks & Spencer. They had specialized stores selling only food-related stuff. They even sold whole chicken and other meats. Also ready-to-eat food products, all sorts of salads and cakes and beverages and snacks. It's not that easy to find a Marks & Spencer department store, but M&S food stores were aplenty.

Italian food that I targeted to try out in Italy were pasta, pizza, risotto, lasagna and gelato. Mission was accomplished! Outstanding result: risotto and gelato. Their pasta, pizza and lasagna were so-so. Or was it because I didn't buy them from restaurants? Hmm... Some shops sell their pizza and pastry by the kilos. So I really had no idea how much I would have to pay until they served the food.

For pizza, they normally did not mix the toppings. It's pizza with only salami, pizza with only tuna, pizza with only olives. When they mix it's just a few toppings and there're still some bare patches with no toppings at all. I think I still like pizza hut's pizzas better.

I love Italian gelato. The average price was €1 per scoop. Some vendors sold it at €2 for 2 scoops so it's about the same and you got the reason to eat more ;) we ate gelato almost every day when we were in Italy. There were so many flavours to choose we're spoilt of choice.. We just couldn't get enough of gelato. Yum yum.

In popular tourist haunts in Rome, it was usually easy to spot this small car that looked exactly like a box. Once it's open for business, it looked like a normal snack stalls selling overpriced gelato, sandwiches and drinks. Gelato was sold for €4 per scoop here.

In Nice, there were quite a number of chinese fast food restaurant. They're commonly sold as separate dishes to share, for example soy sauce chicken and sweet & sour fish fillet. Extremely expensive when compared to Singapore's food, but so were other food. The most affordable ones were fried rice and fried noodles, €3 or less per plate. They also sold snacks and cakes.

Most cafes and restaurants in Italy and France put their outdoor seats facing the street. So I guess to talk face to face you have to sit inside, not outside the restaurant. Maybe people there enjoyed people-watching so much? It did look like they're watching a performance taking place on the street.
Most common food found all over Europe was of course sandwich. All sorts of them. In fact I got tired at eating sandwiches, fried rice from chinese fast food restaurant was always a welcome break. But I really could not enjoy eating baguette, except when it's heated until it's crispy. Even the hotdog we bought in Paris was translated into sausages sitting on a loaf of baguette.

Another thing, wine was really cheap in Europe. Since we are a mere social drinker, we didn't really take advantage of the opportunity of buying wine at cheaper price than water. Even orange juice was cheaper than water, I couldn't believe that. Evian water was so common in France it's like Aqua in Indonesia.

[Europe Trip] On Lodging

Prior to departure, we made reservations to 7 hotels/hostels/B&Bs in London, Amsterdam, Munich, Venice, Rome, Nice and Paris. Luckily we didn't have any problems with the reservations, as in there was no case of overbooking or anything. Probably it was due to the off-peak season too. Reservation was made either via online form or through emails.

The sources of the targetted accomodations were the travel guide books and search engine. Three main things that we normally checked were the price, the location and the review. If the price was within our budget and there's room available, we would then check its location using google earth just to find out if it's not in some remote areas. the closer the place was to the city centre and train station, the better it was. and it would be a plus if good reviews were given.

According to the trip's budget, most rooms that we stayed at were with shared toilet. 2 of them were hostels with bunk beds although they're private rooms for two. We did not have any problem with that as it helped to save quite a significant amount, anyway we stayed there just for a few nights, all of the time tired after the long day.

Hostels were good, as they include breakfast as well in the price. They usually provide lockers as well as internet for rent. I think the reputable hostels that have chains in other countries are reliable. We stayed in Stay OK hostel Amsterdam and Euro Youth Hostel in Munich. We're really satisfied with the condition.

B&B are normally asking for higher rate compared to hostel, but they're still cheaper than hotel. And there's a privacy issue to as it means sharing a house with a stranger.

For hotels, the worst room that we had was in London. It is small with little space for movement and to put our bags and stuff. It fit one queen-size bed, one tv mounted on the wall, a sink, a cupboard and a small table. But for the pristine location (although it seemed that no one knows where the street was) near King's Cross-St.Pancras station and the breakfast for that price, we could not complain.

For even cheaper alternatives, of course there is the option for staying at friends' place or the newly known couch surfing project. I don't really like staying with friends for fear of disturbing them, unless I'm close enough. Couch surfing looks promising, too bad I only found this out after I return.

my culinary tour today: northern thai food for lunch (pineapple rice, beef kway teow and fried toufu), toast with cheese dip for tea break and indonesian nasi tumpeng for dinner. the last time I had a complete nasi tumpeng meal was also during housewarming at a friend's house. the set came with perkedel kentang, fried chicken, eggs with petai (smelly bean), serundeng, urap and kering tempe. yum!

according to the vitality compass, my biological age is 25.7 years, my life expectancy is 88.8 years (what a lucky number!), and I could gain extra 7.9 years of life if I optimized my lifestyle.

[Europe Trip] On visiting Disneyland Park Paris

The park was located outside of Paris, and we went there by the RER train, stopping at the last station, Marne la Vallée - Chessy. After baggage checks and ticket checks, we went pass the entrance and straight to Main Street USA.

We spent 8.5 hours in the Disneyland park, taking a total of 14 attractions: roller coasters, maze and themed train rides. The most impressive roller coaster was Space Mountain, of course, as it was super fast and it was enclosed in a darkened dome you couldn't anticipate the next turns. I bet the tracks would look really scary, if it could be seen. The seat was so cramped and the protection bar was so tight we kept banging our ears against it. Finished the ride feeling all the adrenalin rush with the red ears, haha. The adrenalin-pumping moment was started when the train was halted midway on its way up, and then there was a voice counting 1,2,3, the train shot up and then was brought immediately downwards, followed by unexpected turns and twists. It was so fast I couldn't even lift my head up.

Two other roller coasters were the Big Thunder Mountain in Frontierland and Indiana Jones in Adventureland. Indiana Jones was more scary as we could see the track and heard the scream while queueing. But I enjoyed Big Thunder Mountain more.

The rest of the rides are mostly train rides with a theme for the surrounding designs, like snow white, pinochio, peter pan (great effect as if we were flying, as the track was up above our heads), phantom's manor. My favourite was Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast. We went around in a train equipped with 'laser' gun to help buzz light year shooting at the marked targets while the scores were accumulated.

We also saw a small parade of disney characters, although not everyone was present. I guess they work in shift, haha..

We had cheeseburger and grilled chicken for lunch. And then we had ice cream, toffee apple and chilli nachos for snacks. Toffee apple tasted blah! It looked so tempting with the glistering toffee sauce, but it was hard and sticky on the teeth. It's a struggle to finish it.

Alice's Curious Labyrinth was nice, too. Too bad Tower of Terror, another favourite ride of mine was located in Walt Disney Studio and not Disneyland Park. There's also disney village comprising of various restaurants including Planet Hollywood.

They had a fastpass system which allowed visitors to secure their ride in advance. The tickets were distributed at the park's entrance. Near each attraction that had the 'FP' symbol, there were additional machines installed for the booking. Another ticket was then printed, indicating the return time on which visitors may come back for the ride. Separate entrances were provided for those having the fastpass tickets, therefore allowing them to skip the long queue. We used our tickets for Peter Pan's Flight and Big Thunder Mountain.

All in all, I think I prefer Disneyworld in Florida to Disneyland Park Paris. There's always a kid in everyone, that's why disney parks are forever crowded.

Three words for Disneyland: fun, fun, fun!

[Europe Trip] On visiting Paris

Arrived in Paris Gare de Lyon at 3.30pm. Went to the tourism office at the station to get a map, a guide book and to buy 3-day pass for metro and buses. Took metro to the next station and checked in to our hotel.

First landmark that we visited in Paris was the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. It's a nice church, although it's a bit bleak and expensive. The candle itself costed €2. The church was special since it was located on top of the hill. It's quite an exercise to climb up to its entrance, therefore we chose to forgo the chance to do another climb to its cupola. From the church entrance area visitors could have a good view at the city.

Next, we visited Eiffel Tower. Finally saw it with my own eyes! :) First glimpse was from Trocadero Palace, where a lot of people gathered for whatever reasons.. the most common one was of course to pose with the tower. I saw a guy doing the pisa-tower-pose (i.e. pushing the tower) on eiffel.. weird.

Queued for tickets and took the lift up to 2nd level, then next to the 3rd floor. First floor was occupied by a restaurant, for which booking was mandatory. The queue was quite long, for the ticket and for taking the lifts, but it's all done in orderly manner. Visitors could choose to buy tickets all the way to 3rd level or just to 2nd level. But since you were there, why didn't you choose to go all the way up, right? There's also an option to climb to 2nd level by stairs, of course it's cheaper. We had a nice view of Paris from up there!

Walked along Champs de Mars with occassional glance towards the illuminated Eiffel tower on our back. Beautiful sight, indeed.

We were too absorbed in indulging in the city's beauty we forgot it was past dinner time. Blamed the sun for setting down so late, haha.. in the end we purchased some snacks from a kiosk at central train station.

On our last day, we went to Louvre museum just to pay a visit to Monalisa, how crazy was that, haha.. Went around to see some other paintings as well like Madonna on the Rocks, greek statues and the medieval Louvre for 1 hour before we headed to the next destination. Louvre was really big with fascinating details and relief carved into its walls and ceilings. It housed numerous collections from paintings, sculptures, statues, and much more. Everywhere there were big posters and banners telling people where Monalisa painting was located, while actually the painting itself was small. It was covered by a glass pane, and surrounded by low barriers to allow more visitors to have a look at the same time.

Next destinations were Musée des Arts et Métiers, Hôtel de Ville and Village St-Paul. Among the many interesting collection in Musée des Arts et Métiers, there's Foucault pendulum, which in 1851 gave evidence that earth rotates. Hôtel de Ville (meaning 'city hall') was the Paris administration building. Every winter they constructed a free outdoor ice skating rink here.

Village St-Paul is a small alcove with pretty buildings, shops and cafes. A hidden find. Had a quick look at Jardin de Tuileries when it started raining intermittently. Then we went to Champs-Élysées , Square du Vart-Galant and Pont Neuf at Ile de la Cite.

Avenue des Champs-Élysées was so much like Orchard Road, except for its wide pavements. Surprisingly I didn't find anything I liked, so I didn't shop much, except for a few souvenirs.

In Paris there're a lot of grass-covered fields, and people would just sit there enjoying themselves, both groups and couples alike. Feasting on the clear blue sky, or the illuminated buildings at night. Paris is always associated with romance, and a friend told me that Paris is actually far from romantic, it's just another big city. But after a closer look, what I think is, it's all in your mind. It is romantic when you think it is.

Trinity Sunday mass was at Notre Dame de Paris.. The mass was celebrated of course in French, with some hymns sung in Latin. The Gothic-style church was tall with chandeliers hanging on the aisles. It looked depressing to me, and the altar wasn't that special, too. The distinguishing piece was the stained-glass windows on the left and right wings.

On the square in front of the cathedral, a bronze star was imprinted on the pavement with wordings 'zero kilometre' inscribed on it, indicating the centre of the country in terms of travelling distances.

Three words for Paris: glamorous, complicated, fascinating

[Europe Trip] On visiting Nice and Monte Carlo

Arrived in Nice on late evening 8.45pm, walked to our B&B. The room was nice and homey. The building looked horrible, though, with elevator as small as a cupboard, I'd never seen an elevator as small as this before. It should fit 4 skinny people or 2 skinny people with large bags. I didn't think fat people could get in. We arrived there wearing our backpacks and inside the elevator we could not turn around to face the door.. when we walked in forward to the lift, we had to walk backward to get out, haha..

On the next day we went to the tourist center beside Gare de Nice to get a city map. Walked along Avenue Jean Medecin and then strolled along the beach until we reached Notre Dame du Port. Nice was, well,... really nice! Lovely beach with sailing boats and people lazying around. Big pavements for jogging, cycling or walking the dogs.

Initially we plan to catch the bus no 100 to Menton from there to get to Monte Carlo, but the buses were always full. So we took a bus back to Gare de Nice and boarded the train to Monte Carlo instead. It took only 20 minutes to get to Monte Carlo.

We walked up the hill to Monte Carlo casino and terraces. Beautiful city with pretty gardens all over it. Took lots of photos of the flowers and of course the red & white flag :) It's the only country whose flag is the same as Indonesia's.

This city was full of luxury cars roaming the streets: ferrari, alfa romeo, mercedes, bmw, etc. You name it, they had it. They were preparing for Grand Prix at the end of May, therefore fences had been put up at the sides of the main roads, making it difficult to navigate the way.

Went to Exotic Garden by bus no.2. It's a lovely garden with a lot of cactus, bridges, flowers and a huge grotto called observatory caves. I didn't know what to observe inside there, though, except for the rocks that made up the caves. The rocks were covered with some kind of sediments, looked like layer of fat to me, but it was solid. The tour to the caves lasted 40 minutes. They said it was 18.5 degrees inside, but we didn't feel cold, probably due to the continuous climbing of stairs. It's a unique experience. But the tour guide was speaking in French so we just busied ourselves by taking photos. There was also an antropology museum inside the garden complex. Nothing much there, though, that explained why there was no other visitor there except us.

The garden itself was exceptional, with stunning view overlooking the sea, the port, sailing boats, cruise ships and the hilly city. Absolutely breathtaking. The toilet I went to in that garden was toilet with the best view I've ever been to, haha.. The postcard-worthy view could all be seen from the window.

Monte Carlo is definitely one of my favourite cities.

Next, we visited Monaco Cathedral. It's beautiful with grey pillars made of stone, but not much relief. It was of different style with churches in Italy. Monaco and Vatican flags were displayed prominently above the nave.

Walked further to Oceanographic museum and aquarium. This museum contained remarkable collection of marine fauna. Its basement housed aquariums with thousands of species of fish, eels and other sea creatures. The upper level displayed some whale fossils, preserved sea creatures skeletons in bottles, model of the first submarine and Santa Maria ship, etc.

Three words for Monte Carlo: gorgeous, impressive, well-maintained.

[Europe Trip] On visiting Pisa

We had only 3 hours in Pisa. Upon arrival at 9.31am, we put our backpacks in the deposito bagagli area at the station, bought a city map and headed straight away to the Pisa tower. The amusing thing was that we didn't get lost in Venice, but we got lost in Pisa! heheheh.. blame it to the misleading map and the small tower that we couldn't spot from afar.

Finally managed to find the tower after a detour. Realized that we have gone passed the Pisa Cathedral but didn't know that's the one we're trying to find as we did not see the tower then. Tsk!

Purchased the next available ticket to climb the leaning tower at 11.40am, one hour in advance. Ticket was expensive at €15, just to climb the leaning tower in less than half an hour (yes, it's timed). And the surrounding buildings like the baptistry and the cathedral imposed their own entrance fee as well. Wah, wondering how much they can increase the price until tourists don't feel like entering anymore. I wondered how much they get each day from tickets alone. Due to time constraint we only visited the tower.

We went around the complex, bought some postcards and took photos with the lame poses of 'pushing' and 'holding' the tower, hahaha.. so many tourists were doing it, it's fun to watch them and take photos of people taking photos of others posing ;)

We entered the tower at 11.40am and was chased out at 12.05pm. On 12 noon the bells rang. It's a nice view from the top of the tower. Although the stairs were made of stone, it was clearly visible that the middle part of each step was uneven, due to the weight it carried every time someone stepped on them.

Once out from the tower, we rushed back to Pisa Centrale train station. Ran there, queued to collect our backpacks, grabbed pizzas for lunch on the train. Managed to reach the platform just before the scheduled time and found out that the train was delayed for 25 minutes! grrrr... after 25 minutes it was again delayed for another 5 minutes. We shall keep in mind for next trip that a 3-hour stop for a city is not enough, except for just loitering around the station.

I didn't give any labels for Pisa as it was too brief of a visit, I was too busy running around, didn't make enough observations.

[Europe Trip] On visiting Rome and Vatican City

Trip to Rome started early on 8.43am from Venezia Santa Lucia, and arrived at Roma Termini station on 1.05pm. Headed to the metro station, and purchased the 3-day pass for metro and buses. Our B&B was located 1 metro station away from Roma Termini. I felt a bit cheated by the 3-day pass, because we bought it on 10 May 1pm, and it expired on 12 May 11:59pm. So it's not really a 3-day duration and we lost half a day.

Our B&B room was comfy and quirky with lots of framed old posters covering the bedroom walls. The shower and toilet was attached to the room. Although it called itself a bed & breakfast establishment, the breakfast was pathetic. Each person was entitled to only one package of pathetic pastry and one boxed peach drink, served in a basket on top of a small table in the room. They provided expresso as well with coffee-maker in the common room but we're not coffee drinkers. Italy must be heaven for coffee-lovers as their standard cup is expresso. Even the cups provided were all small, fit for one expresso shot, I guess. We used the plastic cup to drink our orange juice, hahaha..

Had lasagna and pizza for lunch at one cafe near the hotel. Quite nice but not hot enough. Walked through Vittorio Emanuele II park and then all the way to Colosseo. Queued for tickets at Colosseo and went in to explore and took photos of the ruin for about an hour. The ruin was big, it was majestic, and to think about how the Romans were really using this building...

Continued our visit to Palatino, it was included in the tickets we purchased in Colosseo. A tip worth remembering: it's better to purchase your tickets at Palatino as the queue there is much much shorter than the one in Colosseo. Tickets are valid for both attractions. Only cash is accepted.

Palatino was a huge ancient ruin site, all hilly and dusty. We went in to the small Museo Palatino as well, went pass Foro Romana, Casa de Agustin and all other ruins. It was great and I stood in awe at the beginning. But after a while I got tired of seeing ruins. It was ruins everywhere. Took a lot of nice shoots, though.

On our way back we went pass Campidoglio and Piazza Venezia. Gigantic monuments and fountains! Difficult to capture in photos unless we stood far enough. Returned to B&B to rest our sore feet.

The first time we went to Vatican City, we actually planned to arrive early to avoid the queue at Vatican Museum. But we woke up late and so we just rushed for Sunday mass at St.Peter Basilica. We thought it would be a normal mass in one section of the basilica at 9am. We got in after the long queue at 5 minutes before 9am. The huge number of crowd was seated in the nave, instead of the chapel, and the mass didn't start until 10am. The surprising explanation: the Pentecost Sunday mass was celebrated by the Pope! We were like.. wow, we're so lucky, we didn't even know he's gonna be in Vatican that Sunday.

We waited for more than one hour. And the mass did not start on time, it was late by a few minutes. And the entourage was super long.. altar boys, cardinals, and I didn't know who else, security, maybe. By the time the entourage started marching in, the congregation was already standing on their toes, on top of their chairs, anticipating to see the Pope, all busy holding on to their cameras and handycams! Wah, it was really the sight of a lifetime. And finally he entered, waving to the congregation, people clapping, snapping photos and taking videos. He's more than a celebrity.

Mass booklets were distributed at the entrance, and I took mine home as souvenir :) The mass was basically in Latin, but the readings and prayers were in various languages: English, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, etc. Everything had its translation to Italian. The sermon was delivered in Latin. The hymns were in Latin as well. Fortunately we had our binoculars to watch closely what happened in the altar.

After the mass we had a brief tour in St. Peter Basilica, as the security guards were busy chasing people out from the church, regardless who you are. They chased everybody out, lay men, priests and sisters alike. Once outside, we appreciated the opportunity to attend the mass seated inside the basilica. So many other people were standing outside the nave, and a lot more were gathered in St. Peter Square, waiting for the public blessing given at noon from his window in the papal study. It was super crowded.

After mass, we had sandwiches and gelato for lunch at a nearby cafe, then continued our Rome city tour. Our route: Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps) - Trinita Dei Monti - Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain) - Colonna Tower - Basilica S. Ignazio - Pantheon/Basilica S. Maria Ad Martyrees - Chiesa S. Luigi Dei Francesi - Piazza Navona - Basilica S. Andrea Della Valle - Basilica di S. Maria Maggiore.

Spanish Step, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona and Pantheon were really, really full of people. Maybe it's because it was Sunday.

After a while, all churches started to look similar to me. Most of them had domes, shaped like a cross, had detailed relief on the walls and pillars, had small fancy chapels on its left and right wing, choir seats were normally in front of the altar, long candles placed on the altar. The church that's different was Pantheon (Basilica S. Maria Ad Martyrees), due to its circular shape. Some churches have flat ceilings instead of domes, like S. Maria Maggiore, S. John Lateran and S. Paul Basilica.

All churches in Italy were with free entrance policy, and photograph taking without flash was allowed, with one exception of S. Pietro church in Venice which imposed €3 per entry.

On our last day in Rome, we went back to Vatican City. Started our day early by waking up at 6am and started queueing in front of the closed Vatican Museum entrance at 7.30am. And how the queue grew. It was drizzling so I had to put on the poncho. Spent the time by playing Sudoku found in the free newspaper distributed around town. It looked like Sudoku in a free newspaper was everywhere, it did help to kill the time.

The Vatican Museum was opened at 8.30am. We spent a total of 4 hrs in there, including a visit to Sistine Chapel and lunch at its cafe. Sistine Chapel was impressively decorated with paintings by Michaelangelo and some other artists, the most famous painting was called 'the last judgement'.

However, the visit was less enjoyable due to the crowd, and some areas were closed as well, either for renovation or clean-up. Entry was expensive at €14 and audio guide was at €6. Horrible. Phototaking was allowed in the museum everywhere, except in the Sistine Chapel. But the chapel was so crowded people could just snap some photos silently. Some times the guards made some 'sssshhh' noise an announced that phototaking was not allowed. No peace at all.

At the end of our visit, we bought postcards and stamps from the Vatican post office and sent it to ourselves! haha..

The stairs leading to the museum exit was special. It's shaped in double helix and it has the images of the Popes carved on it.

Next, we went in to Vatican City again from St. Peter Square (that's the only entrance), queued up, scanned our bags (queue was long as scan was required) and went to the Papal Tombs. They had the tombs of St. Peter and the late Pope John Paul II in there. We skipped the Cupola due to its long queue.
Then we went back to Rome city, visited Basilica of St. John Lateran and Basilica of St. Paul. St. Paul Basilica was grand. It had the tomb of St. Paul underneath the altar. The church's inner wall was painted with portrait of the Popes and images from life of St. Paul. Marble statues of the 12 apostles were also displayed behind the huge marble pillars that surrounded the nave. A big statue of St. Paul was put at the garden near the church entrance. The church looked a bit different since it has a fence and colorful paintings on top of the entrance which could be seen from outside.

Went to Terme di Caracalla just to find it closed early on Mondays. Took a few shoots, though. It looked much more ancient and ruined than the bath in Bath, England. We were too lazy to walk to Circo Massimo, although initially planned to do so, so we headed back to metro station and stopped by Roma Termini for dinner. Had spinach risotto and strawberry pie.
Three words for Rome: ancient, majestic, historical