Sunday, April 29, 2007

Animal Post

We went to the Helsinki zoo today! It wasn't a great weather but luckily it didn't rain... Had lots of fun looking at animals. The zoo is located itself on an island, and so we had to cross this bridge to get over. This is going to be a long post filled with animal photos!

Zoo entrance

The big beak bird. Toucan

Some red birds... pretty.

Can u spot the stick insect?


Leaf cutting ants! Can really see them moving the leaves. Omg...


Mongoose

Elephant + Mouse =
shorted eared elephant shew


A "crocodile ride"

Emu

Karhu - bear in Finnish


HUGE camels


?


3 owls sitting together. Didn't know they were sleeping until I saw this photo!


Reindeer! Its horns are funny. Too thick as compared to others!


My fav little cub. Its soooo cute. It was rubbing against the glass wall, playing with a kid when i saw it. Looks like Kiara (Simba's daughter!)


Meiqing threw a twig at the sleeping lion and it reacted real fast. It stood right up and roared at us. CoolZ. And that is how we had this nice photo! Beautiful isn't it?


BIG YawnZzzz
Supposed to study for my Finnish exam in 2 days time, but I just run out to play again today... Heh. It was a worthwhile trip though, I enjoyed myself...

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Mashed Potato

Its really easy to make mashed potatoes like these:


Our meal today. Pork with some veg and mashed potatos which we made from real potatoes. Doesn't look tempting right? haha... The potato was quite nice, I am happy with it!

I have concluded that lectures here are the "don't need to go" type. Each time i go, I feel like I wasted so much time... I don't learn and I don't know what is going on most of the time. Suddenly miss the type of lectures I go to in nus... those "never attend will die" type. (hahaha.. you must think that i'm crazy)

Some lousy things bothering me these few days while I'm at home... luckily I have morwenna to "cry" to.. Thanks girl. I appreciate it!

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Chocolate-Crazy woman

My chocolate collection from every country I visited!

From the top, the red packaging is from Holland. It's just a house brand, nb, from Holland. Pure chocolate.
To the left are 3 RitterSport from Germany.
The bottom right is Studentska from CZ.
The one on its left is a special chunk of chocolate, Fassbender & Rausch from Germany. I bought it from the place where there were chocolate statues and a volcano of chocolate (see Berlin's photos).
Then to its left bottom, looking like a bar of soap, is a bar of milk chocolate, Cote d'Or from Belgium.
The one on top is Orion, made in CZ.
Milka from Austria.
The four bars on top are from Belgium, Cote d'Or, the elephant brand.
To their left, chocolates from Germany, Coppeneur (the most expensive ones, one of them is 100% kakao!).
The bottom left is from Austria.. dark chocolate with pumpkinseeds with sheep's milk, Choco Lina.
And lastly, the 2 next to it are also from Germany, Feodora - Champagne Truffel, Hachez - milk chocolate with almond pieces.
Bought Sweden's chocolate from Finland (cheaper and can buy from here so no point buying it during the trip :P).

For all the countries I visited, I enjoyed myself in Prague most.. because of the easter market, and the prettiness of the place. Germany was very hitorical-fied, Vienna is photographic-fied, Amsterdam is very lively but there is a part of it I didn't like (see post on Amsterdam), spent the least time in Brussels and Stockholm.

It was a great trip. But my jeans really stinked by the last 4 days of the trip. Don't understand why also... is my butt that smelly? hah. Tiring, cause walked alot, but it's really quite good exercise. Helped me slim a little from all the weight i put on in Finland but i'm back to Finland again. Most hostels were fine, each had its own little faults but I could deal and live with them for a few days each. Overall, a successful trip - cause we didn't miss any flights or anything terrible. Yeap, so i'm really looking forward to the end trip (more chocs!! haha) and going home!

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Easter Hols Part 6 - Berlin, Germany

12, 13, 14, 15 Apr 2007

We arrived at night and went to our "three little pigs" hostel. Too bad we forgot to take a photo at the hostel, spoilt our collection. :( The next morning, we sent pinxiu to the train station and then started our Berlin tour. We joined a free walking tour but then its not really free cause the tourguide earns money by tips so we have to give some money.

Brandenburg Gate


Berlin Cathedral


Altes Museum


Can you spot a big and beautiful rainbow? Its really pretty!


Neue Wache, a war memorial


Humbodt university



The Staatsbibliothek





Gendarmenmarkt


Chocolate!! Look at the next pic

The bombed remains of Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche.


A volcano of choc!!


Checkpoint Charlie


Berlin Wall





2nd day
Took a long walk to
KaDeWe, shopping place


Currywurst - hotdog with curry ketchup and curry powder.. popular in Germany

Flea Market


The Siegessäule


Soviet War Memorial


A longlonglong walk all the way back to...


Reichstag!!


In the reichstag roof... the transparent roof on top!! We could see many sights from the rooftop. Its really great.



Holocaust
, memorial for Jews




3rd day - Sachsenhausen concentration camp

After serious flooding with history for a long day, we went to a very nice area where there were currywurst and kebab! The kebab that we ate here were the very BEeeest that i have ever tried!!! I was so tempted to eat one more for supper!


Just look at it!! so much ingredients.. and there was hot sauce which was hOT... yuM!!


Daryl selling Kebab to earn more money cause we spent so much! haha.. Joking! The kebab guy was so kind and asked daryl to go in so that i can take a good photo... cool rite.

Yup, that was about all for Berlin... Long post. Berlin is very historical, and they have buildings with alot of symbols and meanings in them. And there are alot of "united buddy bears" of different colours all ard the city. If you love history, this is the place to visit...