other than that… i just realised i haven’t blogged since MUSE! LOL sorry… been quite busy at work and all… sometimes i don’t even tweet as much so blogging has therefore taken a very backkkkk step…

will update more once i’m back from my trip… hee!

gah.

/rattles self…

anyway…

• organized a gathering with my italian classmates – emails flying back and forth and as i was just about to suggest that we go eat at carnivore… one of my classmates said ‘i’m vegetarian’… /facepalms… end up having dinner at brotzeit instead… =P (looking forward to the real deal next year)
• did a mad dash trip to somewhere in malaysia… when i say mad dash.. i meant mad dash… left singapore ard 1-2pm… dasssssshhhhhh… stayed there for one hour max… dassssssshhhh (almost ran out of petrol – quite scary)… reached singapore ard 11pm and was super late for a bbq… lol
• thanks to my classmate’s recommendations, discovered laura pausini’s latest album ‘primavera in anticipo’ – love the single of the same name featuring james blunt!

le stanze di santa croce

things i didn’t know: apparently the priviledge of being one of the beer girls at the festival can be passed down from mother to daughter… righteous!!

i am doing some basic research on how to get to italy from munich (and vice versa) coz i reckoned it’s going to be expensive if i were to fly to munich and then depart from italia at the end of my holiday next year… of course at this moment everything is more or less a semi-not-confirmed stage but i am just curious as to how much it would be…

thanks to google (my best friend…) i found this site (rail europe.sg) where you can check railway ticket prices – yes i’m considering taking the train as well as going by air – and its definitely cheaper for me to travel from milan to munich and vice versa than from rome coz milan is nearer….

however a quick check on air ticket prices from singapore to milan vs singapore to rome also confirms this… which i’m like ‘hrm…’ coz i’m not too sure if i wanna go milan or not (sounds like blasphemy to me… ahhaha) i wan my passport to be chopped with a roma stamp! (but it seems like they don’t do that…?)

More links for reference:

enjoy rome – an independent tourist office located in rome

all roads lead to roma – the author of the site is super familiar with the city so you can be sure it’s filled to the brim with useful info and tips to get around the city…

let’s go: italy – the guidebooks for the budget traveller by budget travellers…

first up is a bed and breakfast place called ‘Bed & Breakfast di Pascucci Luciano‘ (or Pascucci Luciano’s B&B to be exact…)… from the reviews that i’ve read… Signor Luciano seems to be really hospitable, friendly, knows his stuff in Rome etc…

then another is called ‘B&B Giovy’… the reviews for this b&b is equally glowing and positive… =D and i like that there’s prices listed on the site so that i can at least get an idea of how much i would have to spend… plus the website is in italian… great for me to practise… wahahha

well the reason i’m looking for B&Bs to stay in is because they’re generally cheaper… and you can interact with a local of the place (in italian!), get the inside information on where to go and where to eat and experience what it’s like in an italian home (of sorts…) i hope i will be able to get a great b&b to stay in by the time i book my accomodation next year!!

and just by planning these 30 things… i am having to think of the itinerary that i might wanna be doing (and i’m doing this literally one and a half years before the trip… other pple take weeks to plan but i think i’m being super duper kiasu…) which at this moment is still up for debate (in my head that is….) and definitely changes…

nonetheless there are certain areas that i know i will definitely be going… munich in germany and tuscany, florence and rome in italy… obviously if i list every single attraction that i have to go in my list… it’ll go beyond 30 things… so i am goin to have to do a mix of specific places i wanna visit plus generic things i wanna do (eg: eat pasta…) so i’m not like some half-crazed tourist rushing ard everywhere… learnt that when i was in taiwan – nua-ed half my time there which was nice… ahahah

actually i have a million and one things that i wanna do… but of coz realistically i can’t squeeze allllllll of them in two weeks… as such i’m having to consider the regions/cities that i wanna visit very carefully… hrmmm

Links for reference:

3 day itinerary in Rome

Free things to do in Rome

Italian Tourism

Munich Tourist Office

i might be going to oktoberfest (in munich) next year… and italy for sure and hopefully my german fren will be able to accompany me at least for a bit of the italia trip… he said he’s never been to florence, tuscany before so he doesn’t mind going with me (if he can…) around tuscany…

so in the meantime i shall do a bit of reading up and planning on how to get to munich from italia (or vice versa)… i’m thinking of doing a 2 week trip… hopefully that will be enough to cover the major areas of italia… i would love to visit other countries like france (paris!), switzerland (maybe can pass by?), england etc… but i’m not too sure if i am able to take so many days off or save so much money in the time i have as well… ahahahah nonetheless i will do the best that i can and no matter wat… i’m going italia!!

here are some links for my own reference… hee

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/florence

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/tuscany

http://www.discovertuscany.com/

http://wikitravel.org/en/Italy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest

got sent this blog filled wif sooo many lovely quotes about travelling… go read them and see what resonates with you… i’m going to share some of my favs here…

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.
I travel for travels sake.
The great affair is to move.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson ~

Surely it is the right wish that draws us to the right place.
Nothing of importance happens accidentally in our life.
~ Lama Anagarika Govinda – The Way of the White Clouds ~

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
~ Mark Twain ~

Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
~ Helen Keller ~

been back from vegas for many days already… jet lag isn’t as bad as i thought it would (feels like i’ve not enuff sleep that’s all) but definitely missing the weather… but not the casinos there…

the trip there was pretty uneventful… transited at taipei instead of narita so the flight was shorter at four hours… we reached taipei in the wee hours of the evening/morning so there wasn’t many people or shops opened… even the only food stall there closed shortly after we arrived… not that we could eat anything (they love to feed people on planes)…

in any case we were off again in less than an hour… this time it was a much longer flight at 12 hours… i was concerned that i would be fidgety, bored and worse… unable to sleep… but i managed to entertain myself wif a couple of tv shows and short naps… still it was a while before we touched down at rainy cold los angeles airport…

what was surprising at the airport was that we didn’t touch down near the airport terminal.. but in the middle of the ‘plane-park’ and had to take a bus to the main terminal… it sorta made me realise how beeg that airport really is while standing in the dark but warm bus that was trundling towards tom bradley terminal…

the terminal/customs checkpoint was exactly as i imagined to be (too much US tv i suppose…) as it was brown, grey… metal and wood all together… a bit old-ish… i passed thru customs pretty quickly (after a few ‘where r u going… how long are u goin to be here’ type of qns) and spent quite some time waiting for the luggage to appear… in fact i was more worried at losing my luggage than not being able to pass thru customs!!

in any case… the luggage arrived and we managed to clear customs (not after waiting for half an hour for my colleague who filled in the immigration form a bit too honestly…) and make our way to the other terminal to catch the connecting flight to vegas… first class seats leh… kekeke though i was very quiet in my window seat and sat next to an army dude (who sat very straight thruout the flight) but the funny thing was when the plane was somewhat on the tarmac… and the pilot announced that we had missed our timeslot for takeoff… i was like ‘wth… can miss the timeslot one?!’ and had to wait for another ten to 15 mins before we could take off… lol

spent most of the hour’s journey to vegas looking out of the window and seeing patches of lights when we pass by the other cities along the way… trying to take some photos of me wif biggy t (who was on the flights from SG to LA and LA to LV) and of the patches of lights outside…

after a while i caught a glimpse of this MASSIVE lighted city and the pilot then announced that we were nearing LV soon… but it was not till we descended a lot more and i saw the familiar buildings and lights of the strip.. that it hit me… ‘omg vegas is HUGE’… we took some time to descend.. circling around the vegas area before it was our turn to touch down at the airport…

and u know when u are in vegas coz the moment u exit the gate… u see slot machines EVERYWHERE… this was to be a theme that would permeate the whole of our trip there…