we have the facts and we're voting yes
Honestly, I don't even know when or where to begin. The last 16 days in Europe has certainly been a whirlwind of an adventure, filled with danger and crazy escapades. Now that I think of it, I guess there isn't really a proper or complete way to tell the whole story, thus, in the spirit of Eurotrip 2, the events presented would be in total randomness and spontaneity; in short, whatever my brain conjures up while I'm typing.
On the first leg of our journey towards Manchester, we had a transit at Doha, Qatar. Honestly, I felt quite excited at the prospect of visiting the middle east, since I'd never been there before. You know how the media plays up the whole middle eastern region as being 'troubled' and all, and there was this element of danger that stayed within. When we landed there, we walked down the sheltered exit towards the ground. And I saw a whole mass of nothing. Immediately, there was only one phrase that came into my head.
Welcome to the suck.
It was desert, and more desert all around. Nothing at all in the vicinity except sand, some tar roads, and the silhouette of some buildings in the distant. The scene from Jarhead when the marines first landed in Kuwait was playing like a broken recorder in my mind. I think it was safe to say that Alvyn and I got the shock of our lives.
Needless to say, we were so glad that our transit was almost instant, and we got to go onto the next plane to Manchester. I watched Bee Movie on that flight. For the previous one, Alvyn and I were too tired, so we fell asleep. Upon reaching Manchester, we made a bee line to the immigrations counter, and all was well - until we saw the queue to the counter. To put things into perspective, think of Singaporeans in the GSS. We were worried because it was nearing 3 plus, and the Manchester United store closed at 6. We got onto the train towards the later half of 3, changed to the tram (which ran through the city like those you see in San Francisco, so cool!), walked from Old Trafford station, got lost, went to the police station to ask for directions, and finally got to our first hotel of the trip. All this while, we had time to look like 2 retarded Asian kids dragging their luggage across the secluded roads and pavements of Old Trafford. Oh and did I mention, Alvyn's luggage was showing attitude, which would last throughout the trip.
One of the highlights of our trip was to see the MUFC football grounds. It was magnificent, full of history and passion for the love of the sport and the team. Unfortunately, there were no more tours for that day, and the next day, being Sunday, had no tours as well. Therefore, we were sad. The megastore did help to cheer us up a little. If I were rich I would go back there again to buy some of the more expensive things I couldn't afford; like the Solskjaer framed picture or the 1999 winning goal.
I had a strange dream, that night at the Old Trafford Hotel. Ok before that, the hotel looks quite old and rustic, kinda like something you would see in a Jane Austen book-to-film picture. Anyway, I dreamt that the hotel used to be owned by 3 Victorian era sisters, and the eldest of them was beckoning me to follow her and for me to ask her her name. But for some reason I refused to. Then, she led me down the hallways of the hotel, and after that I woke up. I left the next morning (hello yes, because our booking was only for one night, not because...yeah you get it).
As I was sitting down at the train station waiting for the train to Liverpool, eating my first of countless sandwiches, I started to notice some trends, cliques in particular. People of the same racial group tended to hang out more with each other. Not once, or rarely did I see a mix of races in any one same group walk past.
Upon reaching Liverpool, the Manchester-Wigan match (later we found out that Wigan was actually VERY close to Liverpool and we almost killed ourselves) had already started. Thank God the hotel was just 2 minutes from the train station. We got our keys, rushed up 3 floors with our 48398kg luggage, dumped it, and ran down to the bar in time to catch the 4th minute of the match. In the second half, this anti MU guy came to sit at our couch, and after the win when we were walking along the streets, we saw him lying drunk at the corner of some pavement. Liverpool was so much nicer than Manchester, in terms of city landscape, the number of sites to see, and the city centre (not to mention the shopping!). On the 2nd morning, we went to Anfield, which looked nice as well, but only thing was that it looked quite cramped. Went to their megastore and bought many items which bade me to speak to my conscience (I was buying them for people not me, honestly!).
The most depressing point of our whole trip was waiting for us in London, in an quiet little corner called Manor House, in an deceivingly trixie hotel called Spring Park Hotel. When Alvyn and I opened the doors, there was silence. A moment of disbelief. Stunned and shell shocked. It was small, cramped, dirty, and had some friends always waiting for us in the night (flies). Every 5 minutes, you could hear a police car siren zoom by. We soon got down to our battle plan. Leave early in the morning, and come back only very late at night. I guess this would explain the chill out session at Trafalgar and the night theatre performance of The Woman In Black. As always, the Imperial War Museum did not disappoint, and Alvyn and I spent more than 3 hours there! My camera died on me in the museum (but it was alright because we were at our last exhibit, which was the holocaust one, and they did not allow photography inside). Thus, we decided to dedicate the afternoon to shopping! We went back to memory lane, in the form of Oxford, Bond and Regent Street.
The third, and last, soccer stadium that we visited (we rode past Wembley on the train to London and past the City of Manchester Stadium on the train to Manchester) was the Emirates Stadium. To me, it was structurally the nicest one of them all. It was majestic, no doubt, and the stadium grounds were huge! Too bad their team has not lived up to their true potential.
Walking past Green Park towards Buckingham Palace, we suddenly heard some parade sounds, and we thought that the change of guard had already started. Alvyn and I immediately started running towards the palace, laughing all the way for some reason. Upon reaching there at 11am, we realised that the change of guard would only start at 11.30am. At least we got a good work out (food was making us fat).
We made a polish friend, among many other friends of other nationalities from both England and France, in London. He was a waiter at one of the restaurants we were eating at on the last day. During that meal, Alvyn and I had a 8/10 emo conversation. Being a Singaporean, I took many many postcards from the restaurant (free) to write on them as the trip progressed. Another waiter friend we made in London was during the second time we were there, when we talked about soccer (it was the FA cup final that night).
Birghton was, to me, the nicest town among all that we had visited, and were going to visit. The sea side was beautiful. Everytime I looked out at the ocean, I thoughts of the Battle of the Atlantic, and sometimes, the Battle of Trafalgar, and I found myself whispering "please, tell me your stories". I found myself doing that quite often throughout the trip with many of the historical monuments, especially in Normandy. I'm a sucker for military history. To show you the extent of this madness, I was talking to Napolean's tomb. Anyway, the shopping in Brighton was by far the best as well, with many indie shops lining the streets. The prices there were cheaper as well.
In Brighton, Alvyn and I almost died. Okay, maybe that was a bit too over dramatic. But yeah, we almost got into a fight. These two punks knocked into us and were screaming vulgarities and explicits on us, expecting us to fight back. But because we were much more gentlemanly and smaller (weak.) than them, we decided to shut up and walk away. To improve our strategy (cowardice), Alvyn and I walked into a store and began browsing through the clothes (hide there).
Kelvin was here!!! Upon reaching London from Brighton, Kelvin joined us, and we made our way to the Hyde Park Suites, which Kelvin had booked. I thought it was the most lavish and spacious among all the hotels that we stayed in, and for a reasonable price too! Without wasting any time, no wait, actually Kelvin went to bathe first, we went to for our dinner, and then to the London Eye. There, Kelvin gave away 2 of his AA batteries to this unknown person who needed them. Then, we went on a tour of the city again, because now Kelvin was with us!
I think one of the highlights of the trip for him was going to Wimbeldon. And just now, as I was watching the French Open, I'm glad that I actually went on the tour of the grounds. Think when Wimbeldon 08 starts, I'm gonna get all nostalgic again. I guess the only regret was that centre court was closed for construction, so we only got to see court 1, but my oh my was it grand. The grounds were really beautiful and scenic, but the anxious security guy kept pushing us forward such that we didn't have much time for photos. I mean, then what the hell is the tour for?
Ok guys, if you have read until here (which I doubt so unless you're Alvyn or Kelvin), take a 5 minute rest. After the commercial, Vive La France!
Commercial
Like what you've read here? Think that Alvyn, Kelvin and Shane had an awesome Eurotrip 2? Want to see them go again? Call now to sponsor them for Eurotrip 3! Call 1900-EUROTRIP.
Ah France, the land of Au Revious, Madames, Mademoiselles, Miseurs, Merci Beaucoups and Louis Vuitton. I think I enjoyed Paris much more this time round, compared to 2004. There was more to see, more freedom to explore, but of course, the same great company. Think one of the first things I'd noticed were flowers and dogs. The flowers were in full bloom and so beautiful. The dogs were so cute and all over the place. The next thing that hit me was the map of the metro. Literally, I was dizzy from seeing it. Thank God Kelvin was there to see us through it. He's a map wizard I tell you. There were many places we couldn't never have gotten to without him. Sometimes, I felt so indebted to him because I really couldn't do what he did.
Speaking of Kelvin, he made a new best friend at our hotel, Hotel Utrillo. There was this particular guy who had the night shift at the reception counter. The first night, Kelvin kept asking things from him. Then they began to chit chat about the places we could visit. Then on the 3nd night, Kelvin was sitting with him chatting while Alvyn and I were at the bar watching the Champions League finals. Super funny man.
Speaking of, the Champions League final was the best night of my soccer life. Enough said.
In Normandy, we stayed with this family in their manor. The husband was Francois, the wife, Isabella, and the daughter, Anne-Charlotte. I think that was the most entertaining 2 days of the whole trip, and I guess even if I were to describe everything here, it wouldn't really be funny for someone who has not seen Francois, Isabella, or the haunted manor. That, and there are some embarrassing stuff which I don't think I'll put here :p Just know that Francois and Isabella were trying to eat us.
Another big highlight for me on the trip was the D-Day sites. It felt so real, as Francois was explaining to us step by step (literally) of how the battle was played out. I could see soldiers rushing onto the battle fields, trying to destroy the gun batteries. I could see the slaughter of their brothers on the beaches as German fire rained down upon them. I could see an endless stream of battleships and transport craft as I stared out into the ocean. On the beach, everything faded into a monochrome, and I saw the pureness of red blood tinted with tears.
I couldn't have asked for anything better on this trip. There are many more stories, retarded conversations, sights and sounds that I have not mentioned here. There were too many, but if there's one thing I glad for, I'm glad I got to do it with Alvyn and Kelvin. They mean the world to me, and with them, the three of us, we're on top of the world.
On the first leg of our journey towards Manchester, we had a transit at Doha, Qatar. Honestly, I felt quite excited at the prospect of visiting the middle east, since I'd never been there before. You know how the media plays up the whole middle eastern region as being 'troubled' and all, and there was this element of danger that stayed within. When we landed there, we walked down the sheltered exit towards the ground. And I saw a whole mass of nothing. Immediately, there was only one phrase that came into my head.
Welcome to the suck.
It was desert, and more desert all around. Nothing at all in the vicinity except sand, some tar roads, and the silhouette of some buildings in the distant. The scene from Jarhead when the marines first landed in Kuwait was playing like a broken recorder in my mind. I think it was safe to say that Alvyn and I got the shock of our lives.
Needless to say, we were so glad that our transit was almost instant, and we got to go onto the next plane to Manchester. I watched Bee Movie on that flight. For the previous one, Alvyn and I were too tired, so we fell asleep. Upon reaching Manchester, we made a bee line to the immigrations counter, and all was well - until we saw the queue to the counter. To put things into perspective, think of Singaporeans in the GSS. We were worried because it was nearing 3 plus, and the Manchester United store closed at 6. We got onto the train towards the later half of 3, changed to the tram (which ran through the city like those you see in San Francisco, so cool!), walked from Old Trafford station, got lost, went to the police station to ask for directions, and finally got to our first hotel of the trip. All this while, we had time to look like 2 retarded Asian kids dragging their luggage across the secluded roads and pavements of Old Trafford. Oh and did I mention, Alvyn's luggage was showing attitude, which would last throughout the trip.
One of the highlights of our trip was to see the MUFC football grounds. It was magnificent, full of history and passion for the love of the sport and the team. Unfortunately, there were no more tours for that day, and the next day, being Sunday, had no tours as well. Therefore, we were sad. The megastore did help to cheer us up a little. If I were rich I would go back there again to buy some of the more expensive things I couldn't afford; like the Solskjaer framed picture or the 1999 winning goal.
I had a strange dream, that night at the Old Trafford Hotel. Ok before that, the hotel looks quite old and rustic, kinda like something you would see in a Jane Austen book-to-film picture. Anyway, I dreamt that the hotel used to be owned by 3 Victorian era sisters, and the eldest of them was beckoning me to follow her and for me to ask her her name. But for some reason I refused to. Then, she led me down the hallways of the hotel, and after that I woke up. I left the next morning (hello yes, because our booking was only for one night, not because...yeah you get it).
As I was sitting down at the train station waiting for the train to Liverpool, eating my first of countless sandwiches, I started to notice some trends, cliques in particular. People of the same racial group tended to hang out more with each other. Not once, or rarely did I see a mix of races in any one same group walk past.
Upon reaching Liverpool, the Manchester-Wigan match (later we found out that Wigan was actually VERY close to Liverpool and we almost killed ourselves) had already started. Thank God the hotel was just 2 minutes from the train station. We got our keys, rushed up 3 floors with our 48398kg luggage, dumped it, and ran down to the bar in time to catch the 4th minute of the match. In the second half, this anti MU guy came to sit at our couch, and after the win when we were walking along the streets, we saw him lying drunk at the corner of some pavement. Liverpool was so much nicer than Manchester, in terms of city landscape, the number of sites to see, and the city centre (not to mention the shopping!). On the 2nd morning, we went to Anfield, which looked nice as well, but only thing was that it looked quite cramped. Went to their megastore and bought many items which bade me to speak to my conscience (I was buying them for people not me, honestly!).
The most depressing point of our whole trip was waiting for us in London, in an quiet little corner called Manor House, in an deceivingly trixie hotel called Spring Park Hotel. When Alvyn and I opened the doors, there was silence. A moment of disbelief. Stunned and shell shocked. It was small, cramped, dirty, and had some friends always waiting for us in the night (flies). Every 5 minutes, you could hear a police car siren zoom by. We soon got down to our battle plan. Leave early in the morning, and come back only very late at night. I guess this would explain the chill out session at Trafalgar and the night theatre performance of The Woman In Black. As always, the Imperial War Museum did not disappoint, and Alvyn and I spent more than 3 hours there! My camera died on me in the museum (but it was alright because we were at our last exhibit, which was the holocaust one, and they did not allow photography inside). Thus, we decided to dedicate the afternoon to shopping! We went back to memory lane, in the form of Oxford, Bond and Regent Street.
The third, and last, soccer stadium that we visited (we rode past Wembley on the train to London and past the City of Manchester Stadium on the train to Manchester) was the Emirates Stadium. To me, it was structurally the nicest one of them all. It was majestic, no doubt, and the stadium grounds were huge! Too bad their team has not lived up to their true potential.
Walking past Green Park towards Buckingham Palace, we suddenly heard some parade sounds, and we thought that the change of guard had already started. Alvyn and I immediately started running towards the palace, laughing all the way for some reason. Upon reaching there at 11am, we realised that the change of guard would only start at 11.30am. At least we got a good work out (food was making us fat).
We made a polish friend, among many other friends of other nationalities from both England and France, in London. He was a waiter at one of the restaurants we were eating at on the last day. During that meal, Alvyn and I had a 8/10 emo conversation. Being a Singaporean, I took many many postcards from the restaurant (free) to write on them as the trip progressed. Another waiter friend we made in London was during the second time we were there, when we talked about soccer (it was the FA cup final that night).
Birghton was, to me, the nicest town among all that we had visited, and were going to visit. The sea side was beautiful. Everytime I looked out at the ocean, I thoughts of the Battle of the Atlantic, and sometimes, the Battle of Trafalgar, and I found myself whispering "please, tell me your stories". I found myself doing that quite often throughout the trip with many of the historical monuments, especially in Normandy. I'm a sucker for military history. To show you the extent of this madness, I was talking to Napolean's tomb. Anyway, the shopping in Brighton was by far the best as well, with many indie shops lining the streets. The prices there were cheaper as well.
In Brighton, Alvyn and I almost died. Okay, maybe that was a bit too over dramatic. But yeah, we almost got into a fight. These two punks knocked into us and were screaming vulgarities and explicits on us, expecting us to fight back. But because we were much more gentlemanly and smaller (weak.) than them, we decided to shut up and walk away. To improve our strategy (cowardice), Alvyn and I walked into a store and began browsing through the clothes (hide there).
Kelvin was here!!! Upon reaching London from Brighton, Kelvin joined us, and we made our way to the Hyde Park Suites, which Kelvin had booked. I thought it was the most lavish and spacious among all the hotels that we stayed in, and for a reasonable price too! Without wasting any time, no wait, actually Kelvin went to bathe first, we went to for our dinner, and then to the London Eye. There, Kelvin gave away 2 of his AA batteries to this unknown person who needed them. Then, we went on a tour of the city again, because now Kelvin was with us!
I think one of the highlights of the trip for him was going to Wimbeldon. And just now, as I was watching the French Open, I'm glad that I actually went on the tour of the grounds. Think when Wimbeldon 08 starts, I'm gonna get all nostalgic again. I guess the only regret was that centre court was closed for construction, so we only got to see court 1, but my oh my was it grand. The grounds were really beautiful and scenic, but the anxious security guy kept pushing us forward such that we didn't have much time for photos. I mean, then what the hell is the tour for?
Ok guys, if you have read until here (which I doubt so unless you're Alvyn or Kelvin), take a 5 minute rest. After the commercial, Vive La France!
Commercial
Like what you've read here? Think that Alvyn, Kelvin and Shane had an awesome Eurotrip 2? Want to see them go again? Call now to sponsor them for Eurotrip 3! Call 1900-EUROTRIP.
Ah France, the land of Au Revious, Madames, Mademoiselles, Miseurs, Merci Beaucoups and Louis Vuitton. I think I enjoyed Paris much more this time round, compared to 2004. There was more to see, more freedom to explore, but of course, the same great company. Think one of the first things I'd noticed were flowers and dogs. The flowers were in full bloom and so beautiful. The dogs were so cute and all over the place. The next thing that hit me was the map of the metro. Literally, I was dizzy from seeing it. Thank God Kelvin was there to see us through it. He's a map wizard I tell you. There were many places we couldn't never have gotten to without him. Sometimes, I felt so indebted to him because I really couldn't do what he did.
Speaking of Kelvin, he made a new best friend at our hotel, Hotel Utrillo. There was this particular guy who had the night shift at the reception counter. The first night, Kelvin kept asking things from him. Then they began to chit chat about the places we could visit. Then on the 3nd night, Kelvin was sitting with him chatting while Alvyn and I were at the bar watching the Champions League finals. Super funny man.
Speaking of, the Champions League final was the best night of my soccer life. Enough said.
In Normandy, we stayed with this family in their manor. The husband was Francois, the wife, Isabella, and the daughter, Anne-Charlotte. I think that was the most entertaining 2 days of the whole trip, and I guess even if I were to describe everything here, it wouldn't really be funny for someone who has not seen Francois, Isabella, or the haunted manor. That, and there are some embarrassing stuff which I don't think I'll put here :p Just know that Francois and Isabella were trying to eat us.
Another big highlight for me on the trip was the D-Day sites. It felt so real, as Francois was explaining to us step by step (literally) of how the battle was played out. I could see soldiers rushing onto the battle fields, trying to destroy the gun batteries. I could see the slaughter of their brothers on the beaches as German fire rained down upon them. I could see an endless stream of battleships and transport craft as I stared out into the ocean. On the beach, everything faded into a monochrome, and I saw the pureness of red blood tinted with tears.
I couldn't have asked for anything better on this trip. There are many more stories, retarded conversations, sights and sounds that I have not mentioned here. There were too many, but if there's one thing I glad for, I'm glad I got to do it with Alvyn and Kelvin. They mean the world to me, and with them, the three of us, we're on top of the world.
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