Berlin

Since almost everyone has been to Berlin before and had recommended me the places of interest there, I'll just give a short summary of our Berlin trip. Initially, it was planned that me and Grace go to Berlin for 2 nights by trying "Mitfahrer", that is something like hitch hiking system in an organised manner.


The Berlin Train Station

Then I found that Jun Ming, my hall kaki, gonna visit me around that period. So, I recommended him to join us. So, he took a train trip himself, since both me and Grace had the hitchhiker trip already.

We stayed at A&O hostel. Not the central 1 but the Eastern side. Where the communist East Berlin used to be. It was an experience to see another side of Berlin. Runned down buildings. Cheap kebabs. Cheap breakfast. Urine smell everywhere. But, the main reason I chose that location was the happening night spots are in this area.

First day

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag(Parliment building), Walked along the 17th June Street without my jacket, explored the night spots in the east Berlin(instead of doing a Pub crawl, we walked around instead)

Second day

Checkpoint Charlie- It's pretty hot inside and lots of exhibits to read. Many interesting ways of escaping the East side were displayed. Tons of fun like watching Prison Break. Besides climbing the Berlin wall, theres digging tunnels, using diving gears, hot air balloon, ramming the wall with a bulletproof truck, hiding oneself in suitcases and etc. Was supposed to be a place where you feel sorry for the Berliners. But, I had to applaud the escapees or those who failed. The best part was about this guy who escaped to the prosperous West side by tunnelling and 20 years later he became a successful physicist and went to space. That was the only part that touched me.

Jewish Museum- Clearly after a nasty holocaust, anti-semitism awareness was important in this museum. Mel Gibson should pay a visit inside too. Okler, it's the most modern looking museum Ive ever visited.


Thats Jun Ming in Sony Center. Where IMAX theatere is.

Then we were looking for clubs in Berlin. However, most of the famous ones we visited were having gay and lesbian night. I thought Cologne is already the gay capital of Germany. But, later I found out that there was a homosexual parade the day before. In the end we found 1 near our hostel and clubbed until 5 am. Nice atmosphere, but the music was lousy.

Third day
Jun Ming flew off to Paris early in the morning. Our driver sets off at 6 pm. So, we tried to explore the rest of Berlin as much as possible. Like, the Berlin cathedral, a shopping district of Berlin, and the vicinity of Zoological Gardens. Then finally our trip was over.

Now I know why so many people recommended me Berlin. It has the interesting architecture and history. Though it's not as prosperous as Munich, Berlin will be a force to be reckoned with in time to come. More cosmopolitan than Munich that I could speak English most of the time. I'm sure Berlin will top London in the next ten years with its excitement. But right now, Berlin can still be improved.

I O U

Dear Diary,

I'm deeply deeply sorry for my lack of attention and affection for you lately. Many things have happened lately, especially the free-falling of your visiting rates. This may seem hard on you, but I have some other issues to attend to this time. So, please don't let anyone question my commitment towards you.

I hate to admit that I won't be updating you for the next few days once again. Tomorrow I'll be expecting another Singaporean visitor, who will bunk over at my place for 2 nights. He's Jun Ming. I was digging through my old photo album for a picture of him. This is what I found.

2 years ago. Haha.. I miss my Shisha actually. It was accidentally dropped while I was cleaning my room.

So, I'll be owing you few posts once I return from Berlin this coming weekend. Till then, stay online always!

Yours truly,
Ian Han
Your sad and busy blogger

Muenster Revisited

We rented a car once again. Only 100 Euros for 1 whole weekend with GPS included. But, this time, it was a 1.3 Daihatsu Sirion. So, Autobahn thrills were severely limited.

But driving on the Autobahn wasnt the main test. It was finally time I drove manual car independently around the streets of Europe, where traffic lights and pedestrians are everywhere. Wilson gave Grace and I the honor to be the drivers of this trip. Everyones safety was in my hands which had no experience with manual cars except during driving lesson 5 years ago.

Luckily, in Europe, when the traffic lights turned from red to green, the yellow light will flash first. So, I could start doing the balancing trick of the clutch before it turns green, or I had more time to start my engine if the engine died.

Grace drove initially. I think she didnt make the engine died once. That is because, she just passed her driving test few months ago.


As for me, I had to admit I can't count the number of times my engine died. But, I think it was only 3 times that the car behind horned me in traffic lights. There were some other problems when I tried to reverse the car. Demoralised, I felt like pasting the "P" (probation) sign on the car at that point.


The only thing I'm proud of during this driving trip.


Even Wilson was excited.

Look at the sheer ecstasy in him.


Check out his super saiya hairstyle after that. Hohoho.

We visited Eagles Nest and Cologne along the way. Then we finally reached Muenster, where I used to stay for 3.5 weeks last year during immersion program.

I visited my host mother whom I looked forward to see her again. The feeling was great. It was like homecoming. The memories of a small town was still intact. I still remembered the tour guides we had around the small town last year. So, being a "tour guide" for the Wilson, Kat and Grace was no problem.


My second best trip after the swiss cycling trip definitely. I got to see familiar places like Go-Parc, Aasee, Christiane's home, the churches and cathedrals, the Promenade, and even the nice graveyard next to Aasee once again. I bet my other immersion program mates can't disagree.

Short update

My stomach's feeling upset now after eating too much chilli back to back for lunch and dinner yesterday. Hopefully I can finish this post before I have to storm into the toilet again.

Good news is... my imersion host mother, Christiane Pott replied to me really fast this morning. I'll be driving up to Koln and at the same time return to Muenster, where I once stayed there for 3.5 weeks last year. Talking about killing 2 birds with a stone in this trip.

That's us. To the right is Boon Song, another NUS student friend who I stayed with during imersion. We were under the same host family. Feeling excited now.

Now back to my road trip. We didn't do much in Zurich, apart from shopping there. Most clothes there are slightly cheaper than the same ones in Germany. So, we took the chance to shop for summer clothing. So far, these are the clothes I bought...

Guess what she's doing..

It's a special device innovated by the Germans to communicate with someone else by just a hanging string.

Noler, its just her smelling some sample of coffee beans inside the sphere in the coffee museum in Zurich. Quite interesting especially when they feature some commercials for coffee from the 50s to present day. Still remember the classic Nescafe theme song? Good old days.

Next post is about Hiking up of the hills near Jungfrau(means Virgin) Mountains.

Remainder of road trip

**** This is my first backdated update, it has been 4 weeks. So, remembering what happened is pretty hard now****

After our mediciore trip to Zurich, Kat drove us to 1 of the mountain region of the Alps, called Jungfrau. That's where Interlaken city is, which I didn't know where was that even after this trip. Which was a great thing, because we drove straight up to a small town, Grindelwald, which is much nearer to where the action is. Interlaken is where the nearest train station is. So, the car rental was a great idea after all.

Driving up these mountains towards Grindelwald was a new awesome experience for Kat definitely. Even if I didnt get to drive that day, checking out sceneries was also an awesome experience.


Halfway up there, we stopped by to take some pictures after we couldnt bear to miss such scenery.

We learnt not to worry so much about that.
The best sceneries are all up there.


Real reflection. No photoshop. Too bad I wasnt there though. Only Kat witnessed this marvel, while the we guys were struggling up the mountains with our bikes.


Nice little houses by the mountains


I guess more pictures will bore readers more. So, I'll proceed to the best part of the trip.

1 highlight has to be scaling up the high mountains by 3 forms of transportation.
First was driving up without my license. I guess their mountain ranger wouldnt pick on us there.

Amazing.. notice that the GPS is still functioning for a remote area like this.

Second was cycling up around 1000m of height to a small town above from Grindelwald, when we rented a bike for 40 Swiss Francs a day. I dare say that even with a trip to Muenster and Berlin after that, this has to be the best moment in my exchange life.


Third form of transport was walking up there after 75% of the journey, when my legs began to take its toll.


Hee... that's not me though. It was Theodore who gave up only after 2% of the journey. Not because he's unfit, but one needs to know how to use the gears of the bicycle well. They don't call a mountain bike for nothing in this case. But, I had the same problem later in the journey. While Wilson being determined to cycle all the way up, I was pushing my bike the rest of the journey.


This was how high we cycled. The area where the houses are below was our starting point.


Even the cows lazing grazing around made me feel that life's is not about pushing hard so much. So, I sat and enjoyed the breeze and scenery.

Truth is.. my legs and butt were killing me! Pleasure cycle has turned to a freaking marathon for me now.

I spotted this guys who had a punctured tyre. I think my situation is much worse than him now.

I was determined to finish this even 3 hours had already passed. Before we set off trip actually, we asked a tourist information girl about this trip initially. According to her, she cycle this route last year and it took her only 1 hour 40 minutes! Thats half of my duration! Those Swiss are darn healthy la. I had few motivation and words of encouragement by some old people or ladies who cycled past me. Was it motivation or just himulation?

Anyway, after almost 3 hours and 40 minutes and world class sceneries, I saw the MOST BEAUTIFUL SIGHT ever...

Finishing point! Theodore reached first cos he took a bus up to the 2nd last stop and continued. Wilson finished 15 mins later. I reached half an hour later.


Could be the best meal in my life. I was so hungry pushing the bicycle up the slope. Finest Swiss Rosti. Much better than Marche's. Max the carbohydrate. Max the ommph.

Later after replenishing our energy, we cycled back using a different route hoping to meet Kat who is hiking down along the way.



Unfortunately, there were still upslopes on our way down, cos we needed to cross over to the otherside of the mountain. So, we didnt meet Kat along the way.

That long stretch of pass lagged us for another 1 hour. But the rest of the downward slope was fun and dangerous. Luckily, my brakes were disc brakes. There was 1 point, Theodore locked his brakes on steep gravel road, that he almost crashed into the doors of the cable car station. We were laughing our asses off, the whole scene looks damn funny.


Wanna know how fun downslope is? From the top of the portion of the hill in this picture to the spot we took this shot, it took us less than 5 minutes.

We actually scheduled to leave this place on the same day evening. But, due to exhaustion, we stayed another night. Clearly, the main reason was we were quite attached to this place already. Definitely a 5/5 rating trip for me!

Road Trip part 2

Just a short update, because I'll have a mini German test later. Wish me luck!
If the post is too short for you, here's my updated photo album to keep you entertained. Please do check out Jungfrau Mountain album and my cycling photos.


Back from the last post. The rental may be cheap (140 euros for 5 days that is), but we had to pay 145 Euros total for petrol. Well, I'm not complaining, but that's how it is when driving outside Malaysia.

So overall, we paid 71.40 Euros per person. That's really worth it, considering how many Swiss towns we visited. We even drove up the mountain top instead of taking cable car that costs around 7 Euros a time.

1 thing interesting is that based on car rental policy, every returning cars must be pumped with full tank. so, when we acquired the car, the car was already full tank. Not like, in Langkawi, when we rented cars there, we had to rush to a nearest petrol kiosk before the car runs dry. it's because some kiasu people would make full use of the petrol before returning.


So, we stopped by Freiburg, which is near the Swiss border. Look. Their longkang(drain) is so nice. They even have a saying that, if you accidentally step into it, you'll marry a Freiburger. How sweet.

That's why they don't need steel covers like in KL. Maybe DBKL or MBPJ can come up with this kind of crappy story, so they won't receive so many letters of complaints when someone or even a car falls into an exposed longkang.


We stopped by Schafhausen, in Switzerland. My second time there and I have not blog about it yet. I guess I don't have to blog about the first 1 anymore. =)

Only landmark there is Rhine Falls. Not a really big waterfall. Just that it has the proximity of it for tourists. Look how close was I to the waterfall.

I saw some Indians who bathing by the waterfall also. Suddenly, I felt this place has Hindu blessings.


Stayed over in Zurich. Tried to enquire the cheapest accomodation, but we didn't know that we need to bring tents to pitch. It's a camping spot! So, we had to settle for a hotel in the end and the idea of sleeping in the car didn't materialise after all.

Road Trip

That's us. From left, me, Theodore (a Greek, not Spartan), Kat, and Wilson.

Just came back from our 4 Day road trip. It was from Munich-Freiburg-Schaffhausen-Zurich-Grindelwald(somewhere in the Alps)-Bern-Basel-Karlsruhe-Munich.

This explains why our car rental is so cheap. No, not only the 28 euros sticker, but the amount of "advertising" services we did for their company. We surely did a great advertising for the rental company across Germany and Switzerland. Even some local approached us and asked us whether he can rent this car from us.

An ugly car topped with ugly stickers all around. So unglam.

If there were a suggestion box inside the rented car. I would suggest to them to improve their layout of stickers to something like this.

Decals! Surely a win-win situation. Make their advertisement sporty and impressive for advertising. Also can make customers satisfied.

Anyway, that car we rented is an Opel Meriva 1.6 Liter. If the Meriva sounds familiar to you, here it is.

So our car was once affiliated with the current European Champions. So it's quite a branded car leh. =)

But best fact has to be that it was the first time me sitting inside a CAR since i'm in Germany. That is 2 months not in a car! So, I was worried that I might not be used to its claustrophobic experience or excessive carbon monoxide or something like that.

Best of all.. the car is in manual transmission.

My first time using a GPS! Just choose a specific address in anywhere of Germany or Switzerland, then a nice woman voice will tell you where to go. *Turn left now* *Be prepared to turn 'half-right'*. Even there's *Please notice the speed limit* as a reminder.


Yup, 160 kmh.. even its a small little Meriva, this could be done easily in Autobahn (Germany's highway which there's no speed limit). The car reached to 180kmh once, but I couldn't take a good shot while the whole car was shaky. There is a cool feature in the car that automatically raises the radio volume proportionally to the speed of the car to counter the wind sounds when we tried to break the sound barrier along the Autobahn. =)

Only Wilson drove along the Autobahn. While I missed the chance to do so, cos I left my drivers license in Malaysia. Doh'. I conveniently discarded my license at home, thinking that I wouldn't drive in Germany.

Well, nothings all lost, when I still can find time to take good scenery photos from the moving car.

I may bore you all or not with more of these photos in the upcoming posts, but being the best trip I had this semester so far allows me some bragging rights for next few posts. =)

On a sidenote, special thanks to my Dad who helped to send my license by DHL. I may expect it to arrive 2 days time. Hopefully, I can lose my Autobahn virginity soon!

Another thing is.. before I forget... after checking Yahoogroups. Here are the belated birthday wishes that I missed throughout my absence in my road trip.

To Jit Wei (Beside me). My exclassmate since Form 3.

Alex Chen. Who is still in Melbourne researching on ways to improve men's libido. =) All the best there! My classmate neighbour from form 3 to form 5.

To Yoong Yit. Who just finished NUS recently. My exclassmate for 2 years.

and Siew Ching. My classmate since form 2. Sorry that I can't go to London again this year. Europe is still pretty huge to explore.

Happy 23rd Birthday!