Friday, April 28, 2006
EstoniaWe eventually got onto the bus and we were on our way to Estonia. The land of very beautiful people. It's about the only thing you hear from people when they mention Estonia. They were right!! =) Anyways we got in closer to dinner and were famished! The hotel receptionist recommended we had dinner at this chill out restaurant-bar.
The food is really good here. And the presentation was perfect. They had these little plates and all which we slanted inwards, so that the food were literally facing you. Everything was great except for the music. What's with Baltic music anyway? Can't seem to get it right huh! There was this guy using a MAC, churning out techno sounds which sounded HORRIBLE.
Okay so this was hilarious. It's not quite what it seems, but at first glance - come on, you've gotta admit that it's quite funny right? I think it's a musuem about some Estonian heritage. Not quite sure. =O)
We visited the Occupational Musuem which was really good! Probably the best of sights we've been. Spent a few hours in there watching the videos which showed Estonia under the Communist rule. A very painful time for the Estonians. Well, to show our distaste for communism, especially my learned friend, Mr Jonny Boy, here are some stoopid photos of Lenin.
We had some really good authentic Estonian food as well. We had dinner at this place which served fantastic MEATS. Much to Susian's displeasure! But I had the Pork Knuckles. So GOOD and so FAT. Biting into the skin was like drinking oil. Imagine it - SO GOOD. We went over to have some drinks after, which were, admittedly, quite horrible. One of the rare times where Jon orders a bad drink. Haha!
Posted by Musicshen at 11:41 AM
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Wednesday, April 26, 2006
In the Ghetto - RigaWell no offence to the Latvians, but Riga's really really old and dilapidated. We were all a little worried when we first crossed the border over from Lithuania into Latvia. The problem was that for a good half hour of the journey in Latvia towards Riga, it was just housing sheds after housing sheds!
Riga, admittedly, was slightly better. We ended up in this hotel called Albert's Hotel. Yeah the whole hotel was designed to the famous Albert Einstein. Not bad huh? Except that it was the most posh looking building in the vicinity. Good thing we were meant to be there for 2 days only!
We basically did a nice city tour of the place, following a map which stated all the places of interest. And for once, don't ask me why, I decided that Yanxuan would be our nice little navigator. Of course when things go wrong, I can only blame myself of being lazy right? So she managed to convincingly confuse the poor taxi driver by saying that we wanted to go to the Parliament house, and pointed to the Bank on the map. He eventually gave up, and we all thought that it was just a communication breakdown, UNTIL we realised that our navigator had been leading us the wrong way!!
I must say that the places of interest were a little dogdy. We were desperately looking for this Cat Museum, which was meant to be really famous for something - well at least CATS or something to do with CATS right? Haha!! That was it!! We couldn't go in!! And we never knew what it was all about!
This was probably the best part of the city tour. The Arsenal Musuem was fairly interesting. It featured weapons used during the world wars, kept very old uniforms worn by the generals and planes and ships that fought during those times. Quite an experience actually!
We stopped for coffee after, and here it is, presenting to you the best coffee house in the world - DOUBLE COFFEE!!!! The cool part about this place is that it has fantastic finger food, great meals, a wide selection of coffees and alcohol! All combined in one place. The only problem: The music sucks big time. Seriously, for someone who's pretty open to all sorts, Double Coffee really needs some help with their selection.
We stopped by a Freemason church which was kinda strange. Well thanks to Jon who explained the history behind the cult, it made it a little easier to appreciate the internal architecture. We paid some money to go to the top where we had a nice view of Riga. Yeah I guess the highlight was the frozen lake!
So we were terribly exhausted after a whole day of walking around, headed back to the hotel and lounged around at the bar. It's really pretty with nice drinks. Think we were getting bored lahh, whilst waiting to leave the next day, we got some coffee and chilled there as well. Of course, us being us, we found ways to entertain ourselves - The Mud Tour by our very own Jonny boy ....
Posted by Musicshen at 7:45 PM
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Tuesday, April 25, 2006
TrakaiTrakai is the next biggest city in Lithuania. It was really nice of Amb Dainius to drive us all the way! The journey itself took about 45 mins. Then funniest part about it was when he stopped us literally right in front of the castle AND we couldn't see it!! It was so foggy that when he pointed straight ahead, all we saw was fog and more fog. And it wasn't even one of those things where you squint your eyes and go "Oohh there it is!". We just couldn't see it!!
Anyways the lake separating us from the castle was totally frozen. It was really very beautiful!! =) Wells, we walked along this bridge that led to another, and as we got closer, the grandeur of the castle became more and more evident! It was bright red!! (Well not quite BRIGHT red but something to that extent lahh)
This photo was taken by a Japanese tourist. The MOST perfect picture. We were all saying that if it's anyone who can take photos, it's gotta be the Japanese. It's their gift, ESPECIALLY if they're tourists!! He even gave us instructions to move so that it'll be nice. What more can you ask for?! He commented that Jon's 5.0 Ixus was a "little" small. Haha!
We were a little early and the castle hadn't open yet. So some random photos. =)
Jon insisted that we took this photo. And Yanxuan insisted that she chopped him. I tell you, she really really wants to do that. She's really mean to Jon you know? Poor guy.
We headed back to Vilnius after that, totally knocked out on the bus. So tired!! We roamed the streets for the rest of the evening before having a superb dinner at this place called Pizza Jazz. The food's fantastic!! Too bad no photos to tempt you guys. Agne had booked a table for us at this "supposedly" jazz bar . Think we got there a little late, and ended up having to listen to some funny mambo techno music. Hmmm. It was nice drinking though!!
The bus ride to Riga was long and quite scary ......
Posted by Musicshen at 2:08 AM
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Monday, April 24, 2006
Lithuania.Okay the next few posts (including the last one!) are supposed to be dated back at the start of the month, but for some reason, the stoopid blogger.com doesn't allow me to do that! Anyways, we eventually GOT to Lithuania, Vilnius!! *clap clap* We did face some problems at the immigration, and the immigration officers didn't want to let us thru' because we didn't have the appropriate health insurance as per required by the country. I think what pissed us off more (or rather, pissed Jon off!) was the fact that we specifically bought insurance that same morning which stated that it applied to Lithuania at all.
So we thought that they were trying to cheat us. Hmmm, perhaps a few of us STILL think that it was part of their dirty money making scam! But anyways, the Ambassador of Lithuania came to pick us up (He's a really really nice guy) and got us out of the situation. We did have to pay like 3 quid over the insurance but oh wells, Jon still insisted that it was a matter of principle!
Agne, Amb Dainius' daughter took us round for the later part of the evening. We strolled thru' the Old Town. Very quaint and beautiful.
To be fair, the Old Town was actually quite developed. Looking at the picture, you probably couldn't tell if you were in Rome or Paris or any major city for that matter. We took a nice climb up the Vilnius Tower (not too sure if it was a castle. The place was closed when we got there, so couldn't get in!)
Getting up there was quite fun. Firstly, we didn't have the appropriate shoes. The girls were a little smarter, Xuan wore SUPER POWER boots and Suz had her Dr Martins. I had my not-too-bad Hush Puppies and Jon had his really lousy Levis. Yes, the road up was tedious. It was a mixture of snow, melting snow and streaming water PLUS it was steep!
We spent some time up there admiring the paranomic view of the country. It's these things that make you think and stay amazed at the wonders of God!
St John's Church was just up the road. It's this HUGE church that is in the middle of some sort of parade square. Very very grand in a modern way. =)
Xuan and I at the parade square. The weather was fantastic, unlike the hurling winds and foggy skies the day before. Today the sun shone brightly and we had a nice 15 degrees.
We ended the day relatively early. Got up early to visit Trakai ........
Posted by Musicshen at 11:03 PM
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Sunday, April 23, 2006
The Baltic States.It was definitely an interesting experience. It's like going back into time. We were just commenting how the music and clothes were like ten years ago. Just imagine the good old times back in secondary school where Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys were the IN thing, and the clothes - straight from Far East Plaza . No offence do those who shop there!! =O)
The trip started out a little funny actually. We got up at an unearthly hour to drive to Gatwick. It was quite pretty I must say, having the sun rising in the horizon and three snoring pigs with me. But ANYWAYS, we got there in time and actually had some time to shop and all.
So we were within the air boundaries of Lithuania when the pilot said that it was a little too foggy to land the plane. He would circle to skies to await an appropriate time to land, but of course that never happened AND guess what? We ended up in Warsaw, Poland. We stuck in the plane waiting for the airline company to decide what to do next.
This is the screwed up part. And when I mean "screw up", I refer to the four of us. NEVER EVER put four lawyers together. Whilst the rest of the plane were in a frenzy, some individuals screaming that they absolutely needed to be in Lithuania by a certain time, the four of us were trying to work out the amount of compensation we would be receiving for the screw up. <-- Here I mean, landing in the wrong place!
So BA decided that flying ALL THE WAY back to Gatwick, London would be the best alternative. I suppose that didn't quite leave us with much of a choice. I mean, why on earth would we want to be left stranded in Poland? It's a harsh land, we don't speak the language, we want to be in Lithuania, and we wanted compensation. We stayed on the plane whilst others left, munching on our M&Ms and laughing at the state of affairs. So hilarious!
We got a free night's stay at the Hilton back in London, with a complimentary buffet dinner AND brekky the next morning. We got a room each too! I suppose that's not too much to ask considering that we had just spent the last 9 hours on the plane, a little more and we could be back in Singapore! Oh wells, will carry on with the story tmrw. =)
Posted by Musicshen at 11:56 AM
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