We're Halfway There!

Hanie and I are currently in Doha as that is our transit point. Flying on Qatar Airways was rather pleasant.

Hanie in the plane before our take-off.

Thank God no one else was seated next to us coz I need to go to the toilet a lot (having small bladder sucks! hahaha!). The food served on the flight was alright. Well, you can't exactly expect fine dining on commercial flights anyway :P

Glass noodle salad with sweet citrus vinaigrette, pan-fried butter fish with creamy dill sauce, potato wedges, carrots and broccoli and pistachio mousse cake.

What's worst than not being able to sleep? Well, I think having your sleep interrupted sucks big time. Now, I feel stoned and not in a good way :( It's 3am at the moment in Doha. Our flight out to Frankfurt is at 7.40am.... so that gives us another 4 hrs of... NOTHING. Hahaha!

Now I'm kinda regretting not taking some kind of alcoholic drink in the plane though. Perhaps that would've help me sleep better *sigh*

There isn't much to do in Doha Airport. Both Hanie and I agree that this place looks more like a hospital than an airport because of the white walls and white fluorescent lighting ;)

Anyways, we're HALFWAY to Europe! Yay! And soon the group will be complete once we meet up with Nora in Frankfurt :)

SnOooooOOoow

This is the current state of Europe right now. Ok at least in the northern and eastern regions. This was taken at a rest stop somewhere in Sweden on my way back to Germany.

So it looks like Hanie and Lydia will get to see snow after all! I imagine they are in transit in Doha right now with 7 hours to kill before their connecting flight to Frankfurt. It's 9pm in Dortmund, where I am, and I just got back after a 20 hour bus ride from Stockholm. currently doing my last load of laundry and will start reorganizing my suitcase, a transition from work-mode to fun-mode ;)

I'll have to catch the 10am ICE train to the airport in the morning to meet my travel mates when our journey will truly start!!! More stories to come... ...
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My BF is so Cool!

Ok, this may not quite fit into the travel blog per se, but it does make my trip to Europe a little bit more comfortable.

My mom just flew in from Kuching to see me off before my trip (I know, I know, my mom still thinks I'm 10 and having the size of a 10 yr old certainly doesn't help her think of me as an adult :P). Anyway, she brought a gift from my bf, which was meant to be our 4-year anniversary/Valentine's gift from him.

I'd half expected chocolates, or a soft toy or some cheesy cliche gift from him (coz he does get a kick out of making me cringe). But turns out the gift will be pretty handy for my trip.

It's a contact lens cleaner! Wooots!!!

Ok, so maybe it isn't much for the rest of you folks. But for someone like me who's obsessive compulsive, this is HUGE.  

It comes with a lens holder too, so I won't need to use my fingers when I put on my contact lenses. And going on trips like this, God knows what kind of stuff I'd be touching! Ngahahahaha!

p/s: I wonder if I'll be getting any sleep tonight. I'm just too excited, I can feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins... geez, I wish I could channel all that excitement into my packing. I hate, hate, HATE packing! >.<

I REALLY should be doing work but I'm having..

...Pre-trip jitters: I am so nervous and excited now that I can poop butterflies. Seriously. Don't think I can get any sleep tonight...

2 days+ to go!!

I have two more shows to do in Sweden and Norway and then I'll be heading back to Germany, where I will meet up with Hanie and Lydd!!

Finally.

It is almost surreal that this is finally happening. It feels like it was only yesterday when we were talking about making this EU trip a reality and here we are just 3 days shy from rendezvousing at Frankfurt Airport!!! Two months ago we were at one point so sure that this trip in February will not happen because, among many things, flights were too expensive, and it was all just too short notice to collect sufficient funds for our 'close-to-a-dream' travel.

Lo and behold we managed to conquer the minor and major details and are now pretty much prepared and all over ecstatic about this trip! All goes to say that if you think you can, you ultimately... CAN!! ;-)

Have a safe flight over and I'll see you girls so very sooooon!!!!!

Glorious food, or in this case sweeeties!!!

One thing you always look forward to when traveling abroad is the amount of new food and desserts that await your coming. We already have a list of must-try food items on our list and armed with our Google maps we shall make our way to places pretty close to heaven in Europe. Perhaps that is saying too much, but that is never saying a lot when it comes to indulging yourself in gold equivalent food!! Right?

Main dishes aside, I'm going to focus on the 'sweet things' we will be ravishing this time, presented here in full color.

Sachertorte

Where? Cafe Sacher, Vienna
Why? 2 layers of not too sweet chocolate cake with a layer of jam in between, served with whipped cream!!!
Anticipation Level (!) (!) (!) (!) (!)

Macarons

Where? Laduree, Champs Elysee in Paris
Why? Personally, I have never had one of these little sinful things before because their colors throw me off. They look too sweet to me ^^;;, but being in Paris is a definite excuse to dine as princesses do, so I'll give this first grade Whoopie Pie a try!!
Anticipation Level (!) (!) (!) (!)

Gelato

Where? Old Town, Prague
Why? When I was last there, our guide showed me a store that supposedly has the best gelato in all of Czech Republic, so I am gamed. The fact that it is winter is dampening my enthusiam for ice-cold yummies but it'll be a challenge.
Anticipation Level (!) (!) (!)

Kaiserschmarrn

Where? Edelweiss Restaurant, Frankfurt
Why? I had this once before in Munich, though this is an Austrian and Bavarian delicacy, after much googling, I found a restaurant in Frankfurt that serves it for lunch. I take a lot of pleasure in feeding people this mashed up pancake dish, a real good warm dessert to kill the chill in winter time. Bah, it's just good to put into your mouth anytime all year round!
Anticipation Level (!) (!) (!) (!) (!)

Well, that's that and I am sure there are more that we will want to try as we hit cheese shops and bakeries. Is that a shiver I feel running up and down my spine? Is that loud thump reverberating in me, my heart beating? Feels like it. A few more days to go before we stuff ourselves with wholesome goodness.

BONUS:
Here is something I am going to have to have when we are Paris. I've had Paninis all over the world now but nothing beats having one of these in Paris. I have no idea if it is the air that adds oomphh to it, or if the stares you get devouring it as you make your way around town that heightens the experience and the way your taste receptors react to every bite but this is a must have when in Paris!! Oooh yeah.

Slowly Getting There..

With slightly more than a week to go, I am suddenly overwhelmed with the amount of little details that I have yet to deal with in order to make everything run smoothly.

I'm having a great time reading tips offered by my would-be fellow travelers as they are most practical and handy for someone as scatterbrained as me! This condition is usually heightened by extreme excitement and anticipation so I hope I can keep it together as to not unravel completely as an unabashed gawking clumsy oafish nerdy tourist in Europe, because that would not be a sight you'd like to see, believe you me.

This is not my first time travelling to a foreign country, but as it is for me the anticipation is as exciting and nerve-wracking as it had been the first time (I usually get butterflies in my stomach for weeks before the trip, which will only dissipate once I'm on the plane).

I remember my trip to America about 4 years ago. It was a first in many ways: My very first time being so far away from home and everything that I deem to be familiar, my very first time having to sit in a plane for more than 12 hours, my very first time travelling such long distance with friends, my very first time taking responsibility over myself and of my travelling companions (we took care of each other - in unfamiliar places, your friends will be your family) for the duration of the trip.

I took a lot of photos then. It is a natural reaction, I supposed, when surrounded and immersed in something completely different that we want to capture as much of the experience as we can lest the memory should fade and be lost.

But sometimes in the frenzy of capturing those memories, I find myself not living the moment that I had frantically tried to keep to be looked at later! There's that fragile fraction of a second in which things happen, and I look at it through the lens of a camera and click away, and in that moment it was all gone and I am left with pictures that has no story nor heart behind them.

I made 2 more trips in the subsequent years, and I still took photos, though significantly less in those times around. Call me crazy but I'd rather just bask in the experience, letting it all seep in through the pores of my existence. But I do make sure each and everyone of those pictures count (proof for skeptics, something to show your friends and family, bragging rights! ). And that I had lived the moment before capturing them.

Sometimes it feels good to just sit back, take it all in, and let your heart take a picture.