r a n d o m

Here's some photos that I've been wanting to upload from my handphone but just got to doing so.. Above is Heisse Schokolade nach Wiener Art. Wiener type of hot chocolate basically.. Really quite nice, especially like the cinammon powder they add.. ;) Ok shoot me for being a cinammon-fanatic..

Had that with Soon last Tue after submitting my application for extending my Visa at the Auslaenderbehoerde (direct translation: foreign countries' authorities haha).. So glad he brought me there, no idea how I would have found it myself, it's like quite a bit from the tram station. And even had help from him and his german colleagues in filling in the longest (and crappiest, they even ask you for your height!) form ever.. In german of course.. Then we had 4-seasons pizza at a Turkish Imbiss place, like the thin crust! =) Then went to Auerbach's Keller, where Faust has a scene in, but didn't bring my camera, so we'll be back again! Ended up in this cafe, apparently it's the oldest in Leipzig, looks rather colonial with elephant heads (not real ones of course) at the entrance.

I've never had so much beverages in a day, everyday somemore.. I have a tea every morning, with milk (with cereals or by itself), then have a coffee during coffee break at work, then have another tea when I get back. Then sometimes I have an apple juice with my dinner too. Guess it's really good to have hot drinks in this cold weather... They never felt this good before haha..

And the previous Tue, after settling stuff at the Stadthaus, I met Agneska for dinner. We went to this really really cool place called Moritz Bastei, a student restaurant/cafe/pub/club thingy. It's like down in the fortress ruins, you can see the bricks at the background of the photo. Cozy place that's surprisingly large and tiny prices -- for a dunkel bier (dark beer) and potato-chicken gratin, I paid a total of 7 euros (inclusive of a bit of tips even)! Love the prices in east germany...

Really glad for all the friends that I've made in this short period of time.. They're making this trip really memorable.. Dunno how I'd survive without them to look forward to... =)

There's this amazingly gigantic flock of crows in the fields at my workplace, BMW Plant Leipzig. Wonder what attracts them, the shiny reflection from the car screens? Quite freaky when they perch all along the building and suddenly take off in a horde like in this photo. This is only about 5-10% of the whole legion, cos I had to take out my phone and start up the camera and even took a few photos before I was satisfied. Reminds me of the crows in Resident Evil 3! Oh dear oh dear... =P

w o c h e n e n d e

On Friday evening, I met Susi, a german gal whom Christoph, the guy who lives in Halle (near Leipzig) but was doing his internship in Singapore and helped me find my current WG, introduced to me, cos she lives in Leipzig. We went to Spizz, this supposedly jazz and live music cafe (haven't seen any live bands for the 2 times I've been so far), for a coffee and chat. Ended up chatting for almost 2 hours, despite my horrid german haha...


Then went to the Asian grocery shops in city centre with Soon and Carsten on Sat morn. Then we cooked Laksa, Ma Po Toufu and stir-fried oyster sauce vege... No laksa leaves though haha.. Still managed to gravy that tastes like laksa, thankfully... Then invited my apartment mates for the singaporean lunch. From the right: Alex (not in the picture, dunno why haha), Carsten, Soon, me, Barbara (kinda blocked, she's not a apartment mate though, just Agneska's friend who was over for the weekend), Agneska and Conni. My other apartment mates, Anja and her boyfriend Axel were in Muenchen, and Daniel was still sleeping when I knocked on his door at about 2pm to invite him to lunch. Weekends are really sleep-in days here... =P


Then went to Tom's place for dinner. Tom is Soon's and Raymond's (the other 2 Singaporeans in Leipzig) friend. Had great fried rice which was supposed to be kinda spicy but of course it hardly tasted so to us Singaporeans hee.. =P And Raymond also made herbal chicken soup.. Mmmm.. Tom's apartment mate, Robert, and his family (from Brazil) joined us for dinner too. Had such a good laugh after dinner over some wines, love conversations with these guys.. They're in English of course..

Went to church on Sunday, then met Soon for museum visiting. Went to the Forum Museum, free entry! Muahaha.. The entrance is deceivingly tiny, didn't even go through the 3rd floor cos we were too hungry by then haha.. Had a salad and coffee at some cafe near Augustusplatz, and low and behold! In comes Raymond.. haha.. He didn't join us at the museums cos he's rushing his presentation, but happened to pop into his favourite cafe for a quick coffee.

The weather was so depressing -- gloomy and windy with a perpetual drizzle -- that we decided not to visit the monument that day. Another time, I guess. Soon's going back to Sg at the end of this week already though. Then we went to the Bach Museum. Tiny little thing beside Thomaskirche (St Thomas' church). The photo above is the church with a statue of Johann Sebastian Bach in front. The famous boys' choir sings here, apparently. Wanna go listen to them someday hee..

And this is his grave, right at the altar haha..

This is what weekends should be about! =D

o r g e l m u s i k

Orgelmusik sonnabends.. Met a new friend, C, whom I've just got to know in Leipzig, for free pipe organ music at Nikolaikirche on Saturday! Himmlisch!! It was quite a full-fledged concert, with 3 pieces, 1 by J.S. Bach (who else? It's leipzig haha...), and lasted for about an hour.. Seems like they have this every week, yet there was quite a number of people there.. And not only was the music and acoustics great, it was in an old church!! oh man oh man.. Haha I should spare you my gushing... =P

That's the pipe organ and the elaborate ceiling and pillar... Quite cool... Not as elaborate as some I've seen during my last trip to Germany though..

That's at 100 Wasser.. Direct translation: hundred water... It's the name of this artist whose work is all colourful and nothing's uniform.. Like the table, some funny shape... Portions are gigantic, couldn't finish my mushrooms, rosti (like hashbrowns haha) and salad dish... Had a Radler with it.. Paid 7 euros in all! For a theme restaurant/kneipe in city centre somemore.. Love the prices in East Germany haha..

s u n d a y

That's Michaeliskirche (St Michael's church), it's like just a few steps away from my place.. Was supposed to go to Popesterei St. Trinitatus, cos it's catholic, but was late haha, so just went to this nearby one.. It's anglican-Lutherisch, but service was quite similar to a catholic mass, other than them having only 1 reading, and holy communion's given out in a circle around the altar and wine is passed around (without wiping! =O so didn't feel comfortable receiving haha)...

Quite a tiny church, but nice and cozy and old nontheless... =P They even had 1 baptism during this service.. It was nothing elaborate though.. The church is so near home, that I hear the bells like every other time of the day haha... Maybe it's times for prayers etc.. Though I saw the pastor leave the church much later, wonder whether he lives on the grounds or only comes for service..

After that, I walked over to Popesterei St Trinitatus, so I won't get lost the next time I go... On the way there, I passed by this gigantic park.. It's just beside the zoo, so you can see some animals just at the edge, from the park, too haha... It was quite sunny, albeit still quite cold, so quite a number of families and couples were spending their Sunday at this park...

This is a close-up of the pond you see in the park above.. See that white bits there? That's ice haha... Only the top layer though, so still can't iceskate..

r o o m

My apartment-mate actually checked his handphone after he reached the train station haha.. Oh well, but he was really nice to wait for me still. This is my writing table, with pentty of photos on the wall and lots of stuff on Malaysia. =P He's currently in KL while I rent his room. The room is super big lah! Was sooo pleasantly surprised when I first saw my room..

That's my cool 4-poster bed that one of the apartment-mates designed it herself! Miss my pillow and most of all, bolster (they don't seem to use it here)!

t o u c h d o w n

Touched down on 12th January 2008, Sat. It was one crazy day. Due to the delay in departure time from Singapore, I arrived in Frankfurt only about 2h later than planned. Was super worried on the plane about my connecting train trip, so I asked the air stewardess. She brought a customer service manager over, who explained to me that they can't do anything about it at that point in time on the plance, but he suggested that I approach the staff on the ground 'after the escalator up' upon arrival and/or email the customer care email address, and 'Qantas will definitely help you'.

So when I approached the staff, one of them only told me to just take any connecting train, and when I asked about how to claim the costs incurred from the new ticket etc, she seemed irritated and brushed me off with a 'go collect your luggage, then if you have more questions, you can ask the man in the luggage collection area.' It didn't seem like I was getting anywhere with these staff, so I went down to the luggage collection. There was no such 'man' there, so while waiting for my luggage, I went to enquire at the only counter there, the lost luggage counter. He said that I could wait for the staff to come down and pass by that area or go to the Qantas counter outside after collecting my luggage. So after collecting my luggage, it was past the time I was supposed to board my train. Went to the Qantas counter, but there were no staff there, though there a few other passengers like me queueing up there already. Nobody came after a long time, so we left and I went to the information counter of Frankfurt Airport. They tried calling whatever Qantas numbers they have, but there was no answer. So they suggested that I buy a train ticket for the next connection then try calling those numbers again or email Qantas with my receipts.

And the train station is not even at Terminal 2 even. So had to take a shuttle bus there. And had no help with my luggage at all. Bought my ticket at the DB counter, went to platform, but realised that the next train was not going to Leipzig after all. Checked my ticket, and realised that the ticket the staff at DB gave me was for the 08:11 train, although I bought the ticket at 08:18. =S Amazing right.. So went all the way back and got it changed, and the next direct train was 2h later. Was feeling really horrid by then already. Then I saw this chinese guy coming up from the train station platforms, who looks rather familiar. Wasn't sure at first, so hesitated for a while, before following him and shouting out his name. Ended up he's really SW! Haha.. My first day in Germany is his last day, and we actually met by chance at the train station.
Was good to meet someone familiar! Felt so much better after telling him my story and he helped me SMS my apartment-mate who was going to fetch me from the train station in Leipzig, but we didn't receive a reply by the time we had to part ways, so he actually passed me his SIM card! And even gave me his sandwich and apple and banana and a few slices of mandarin orange! To eat as lunch on my train trip.. ;) That's the paper bag of all that, that I placed on the seat beside me.

This is me on the train with my paka hanging at the side. Glad I'm finally on my way to Leipzig after all that mess.

That's my luggage in between my seat and the ones in front. Couldn't stretch my legs then. Too much trouble to lift them up and place in the overhead luggage holder. Was lucky to have help carrying them up and down the train, especially since there's a flight of stairs from the train to the platform.

That's the view out of the window.. Had 3h worth of it! Saw some horses grazing even!

d e p a r t u r e

Finally left Singapore soil on Friday, 11th January 2008. My departure time was delayed, so had slightly more time to spend with family and friends, but it brought me much headache too, will elaborate in the next entry..

I really thank everyone who came all the way down to Changi Airport to send me off! =D You guys are the bestest! Missing everyone already..

That's my luggage haha.. Spent so much time trying to pack it to fit for the 2 weeks before my flight.. left some shoes behind in the end.. might not have needed those heat packs too, i'm too lazy to use them haha.. n usually i travel for only short distances before reaching a warm place, so not really useful so far.. Hope my luggage bags survive my entire trip till I get back to Singapore.. =P

new year's eve

Been going out with my dear S almost everyday this hols heez.. =) Bliss.. =P Didn't manage to play the go-kart at Excape Theme Park that day, cos they kept closing the rides due to the intermittent rain, so went to play the Luge at Sentosa heez... Trying to take a photo with my new W850i phone with the merlion as the background, but suppose we're in the shade while the merlion's out in the bright sun, the contrast was quite horrid when we try to take both ourselves and the merlion in the same photo.. =P

So here's the merlion in another photo haha...

Then went to Queen of Peace church for new year's mass.. Passed by this Oliv Restaurant after that and decided to try their Xmas cum New Year's 6-course promotion.. =) Had to wait for seats but some customers who had placed a reservation but were still waiting were saying that the wait is worth it and we should try.. So we did haha..

Salad with scallops.. Scallops were delicious, though vegetables were kinda bitter..
My ribeye steak.. Succulent.. Though I asked for medium, it's one of the reddest steaks I've ever eaten I think haha...

S's cod fish... Crispy on the outside, soft and juicy inside.. Wonderful.. There was also citrus sorbet before this, didn't take a photo though..

S slurping up his mudcake... the 6-course came with a wine too (choice of white or red, we got white to go with the fish), u can just see the glass in the photo.. ;) we couldn't finish the dessert cos we were so full after so much haha..

Then went to East Coast Park, found a spot on a breakwater and watched the fireworks.. =D Could see a bit of the ones at VivoCity even.. Then lots of the high ones at Esplanade.. Plenty of flares and honking of ship horns along the horizon too... Beautiful.. Esp when spent with a special someone heez... ;) Savouring the moment while it lasts...

v i s a

ARggghhhhhh!!!!! i can't believe my luck... I had thought that it was bad enough that most people were getting their visas only on the day they fly. But mine's waaaayy worse...

Was supposed to fly on Sunday but the german embassy in Singapore said they still could not contact the authorities in Leipzig who're supposed to approve my Visa before they can issue it on the Singapore side. And I have to collect it personally in Singapore, so no use flying there 1st either. So I had to change my flight to Friday, thankfully it's free to change flight dates before departure for Qantas =) Phew phew...

However, my train ticket was bought at an offer price, so it's non-refundable nor can I change the date of travel. Can't believe that I was initially praying so hard that they will not strike (strikes for this week by the german rail was impending) so I will not be stranded at the train station, but now I'm praying that they will strike, so I can get a refund or change of date... But just got news from a friend's friend in Leipzig that they're not striking this week after all... Sigh.. So seems like I'll have to forfeit my ticket.. argh.. there goes 80 plus Singapore Dollars... Now I'm wondering whether I should buy my ticket only when I reach, but it could be twice as expensive and run the risk of tickets being sold out.. Heard from a friend that it might be cheaper to buy them last minute, though he's not sure whether it's for the german rail too.

Almost broke down in tears on Friday when I learnt about my Visa stuff... Learnt my lesson that gotta bug and bug them earlier in future.. If there's ever 'in future'... At least my boss is ok with me starting my internship a few days later... Keep feeling this tension in my chest.. Gotta try to let go and look on the bright side that I can spend a bit more time in Singapore with my loved ones and friends..