Proposed 40+ Days Europe Trip
Wednesday, November 30, 2005

The semester in Lund is going to end on the 7th of June. I have planned to return for USC FOC which is around 15-20 July. Let's say I board the home-bound plane on 19th of July; I will have exactly 42 travelling days.
I have planned to cover the Scandinavia during the term:Oslo in Norway; Stockholm, Kiruna, Malmo and some other near-Lund citities in Sweden; Finland (haven't planned where to go); Copenhagen in Denmark.

The rest of Europe will be covered after the academic semester. Here is my itinerary:
Day 1 Arrive in Prague (Czech Republic)
Day 2 Prague
Day 3 Prague
Day 4 Krakow (Poland)
Day 5 Krakow, day trip to Auschwitz (Nazi concentration camp museum) (Poland)
Day 6 Krakov, day trip to Warsaw (Poland)
Day 7 Eger (Hungary)
Day 8 Early to Budapest (Hungary)
Day 9 Budapest
Day 10 Budapest, day trip to Danube Bend (Hungary)
Day 11 To Ljublijana (Slovakia)
Day 12 Ljublijana
Day 13 To Bled (Solvakia)
Day 14 Day trips around Julian Alps
Day 15 To Zagreb (Croatia)
Day 16 Plitvice hike then to Split (Croatia)
Day 17 Split
Day 18 Boat to Korcula (Croatia)
Day 19 Korcula
Day 20 To Dubrovnik
Day 21 Dubrovnik (Croatia)
Day 22 Fly to Venice
Day 23 Venice/Florence
Day 24 Side trip to Siena (Italy)
Day 25 Fly to Rome, Rome
Day 26 Rome
Day 27 Rome
Day 28 Italian Riviera, Cinque Terre, Vernazza
Day 29 Hiking along the Riviera (Or slack; cause by this time I would have been half dead)
Day 30 To the Alps
Day 31 Alps
Day 32 Alps, night train
Day 33 Paris
Day 34 Paris, Versailles
Day 35 Paris, to Amsterdam
Day 36 Amsterdam, stay in Haarlem (Netherlands)
Day 37 Amsterdam
Day 38 To Rhine, Bacharach (Germany)
Day 39 Rheinfels Castle
Day 40 Rothenburg
Day 41 Munich
Day 42 Side trip Munich to Salzburg (Austria)
Day 43 Train back to Copenhagen
Day 44 Settle every thing and come home (Exceeded by two days! May have to skip FOC if need to)

I hope for a travelling partner but till then I will be alone. Wanna join me?
Total cost estimate: SGD 6000 (I am going to exhaust my savings)
Itinerary planned with the help of Rick Steve.

posted byWilliam at 8:11 PM 2 comments  

Dinner @ Sweden Ambassador's Place
Tuesday, November 15, 2005

I was invited by the Embassy of Sweden for a dinner; all Singaporeans going on exchange, had gone for exchange and Swede on exchange were invited. I don't know the place well so took a cab there; the place is near Mediacorp Broadcast Station so the driver had little trouble finding the place.

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The "Tag" @ the Gate

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Mural inside the hall

The hall was already quite crowded when I reached and most of the invited guests were there. Got a beer and joined one of the chatting circle; the deputy Ambassador happened to be there. He was from Lund and told me about the culture there. Lund and Uppsala in Sweden is like Cambridge and Oxford in UK: arch rivals.Ambassador Teppo Tauriainen gave a short introduction to the key staff in his office and the role of the embassy. Dinner was served after the speech. The dinner was simple yet delicious: lettuce salad, potato salad, beef patty and bread. According to my friends who had went on exchange, this type of food are commonly in Sweden.

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Jakob, Me and Erik

Mixed around and settled down with Jakob and Erik, two Swedish exchange students in NUS, for a long chat. They shared their exchange experience through Singapore-Sweden life comparision.

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Eugene, Paul, Ambassador Teppo Tauriainen and Me

Went home @ 2130. Mugging continues...

posted byWilliam at 11:51 PM 0 comments  

Lappy Died
Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Lappy died this morning. She was fine yesterday: watched NUScast, touched up essay, surfed around for useless entertainment... She was still fine tis morning: checked my mail and defrag my drives, until... until I reboot it after defrag... Perhaps, she has already shown sign of her age: her head is broken (the screen flips like a book), she is always breathless (the fan is noisy) and her movements are so slow (takes 5 min to boot). Time for an over-haul operation.

So went to the PC center in the hope of emergency treatment to revive her... it failed. Her mind/brain was failing her (can't even boot-up with the help of technical experts). Was directed to her primary consultant surgeon (the Toshiba PC center), the doctor told me to jog her mind so as to recover my VIP papers inside her. She did her last job fairly well: I was able to recover most of my data. After that, she was sent into the operation room for a brain, head and lung transplant... And it was be till next week that I will be able to see her...

P.S.
It seems like a premonition that is calling me to back-up my data last Sat and Sun. I never really like backing up since it takes such a long time copying and burning data. But somethings drove me to do this task over the weekend (actually I had wanted to postpone it after exam), I don't know what. So lucky loh, all my photos and important e-books are saved. The uncanny thing is that I actually sent in my Instrumental Analysis critique yesternite. Ya, just before Lappy died. To think I had wanted to postpone it till today. So an advice for all: Please back-up your data during important periods like the end of the semester.

posted byWilliam at 12:32 PM 0 comments  

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