Day 14: 23 October 2009, Friday This morning, we went to King’s Cross Station with one mission in mind…to look for Platform 9¾ and board the Hogwarts Express to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! Of course, the Hogwarts Express exists only in the books and movies created by JK Rowling, but as a […]
Category: Europe
Day 12: 21 October 2009, Wednesday Day 12, and it’s back to just the two of us, KP and I, as our travelling companion for the past week, TH, had returned to Coventry to work. At 9am, KP and I went to St. Paul’s Cathedral and bought our tickets (£1/S$25.85) to visit the cathedral and […]
Day 11: 20 October 2009, Tuesday Our first agenda for today was to pay a visit to Abbey Road Studios, one of the most famous recording studios in the world. Abbey Road is most closely associated with The Beatles, who recorded 190 of their 210 songs at the studio. To get there, we took the […]
Day 10: 19 October 2009, Monday We were in London again, having spent less than 24 hours here on Day 1 before leaving for Paris, Coventry, Manchester, Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon before circling back. We had the next five full days here so there was plenty of time to explore all of London’s sights. For today, […]
England | Europe | This Was It Europe 2009
This Was It Europe 2009 – Day 9 (Stratford-upon-Avon / Oxford)
Day 9: 18 October 2009, Sunday After the high of yesterday’s visit to Manchester, we had a much more relaxed day today. At about 9:20am, we set off from TH’s place in Coventry and made the short drive southwest to Stratford-upon-Avon, a small town famous for being the birthplace and final resting place of English […]
Day 8: 17 October 2009, Saturday We set off bright and early today because we had a very exciting day ahead of us. At about 8:20am, we hopped in to TH’s Ford car and set off from Coventry, journeying northwards towards Manchester. The drive was very scenic and enjoyable, especially for me since I was […]
England | Europe | France | This Was It Europe 2009
This Was It Europe 2009 – Day 7 (Paris / London / Coventry)
Day 7: 16 October 2009, Friday For our final day in Paris, we had the morning and afternoon free to explore what’s left of the French capital, before catching our evening train ride back to London. At about 10:30am, KP, TH and I headed over to Musée d’Orsay, located along the left bank of the […]
Day 6: 15 October 2009, Thursday It was Day 6, our last full day in Paris. Over the past few days, we had pretty much covered everything that we wanted to see, so our main objective for today was straightforward – a visit to Musée du Louvre. The Louvre is the world’s largest art museum, […]
Day 5: 14 October 2009, Wednesday Today would be an exciting day as another member would soon be joining us in Paris. Our mutual friend TH was working at Coventry in England at the time and he managed to take a few days’ leave to travel with us. He would be coming to Paris by […]
Day 4: 13 October 2009, Tuesday For our third day in Paris, we made a trip to Château de Versailles, or the Palace of Versailles. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the most-visited monuments in Paris, coming only behind the Louvre, according to 2017 visitorship numbers. The Palace is located about 20 kilometres […]
Day 3: 12 October 2009, Monday Today, it was just KP and I exploring Paris on our own as QM had to work. For our first stop, we paid a visit to Notre-Dame de Paris, or Notre-Dame Cathedral. This grand, old cathedral is certainly one of the must-visit sites in Paris. The first stone was […]
England | Europe | France | This Was It Europe 2009
This Was It Europe 2009 – Day 2 (London / Paris)
Day 2: 11 October 2009, Sunday After a good night’s sleep, I adjusted well to the seven hours’ time difference and woke up full of energy and anticipation. It was an exciting day ahead because KP and I were making the trip across the English Channel to Paris! I deposited my big suitcase with the […]
England | Europe | France | This Was It Europe 2009
This Was It Europe 2009 – How It All Began / Day 1 (Singapore / London)
How It All Began It’s time to turn back the clocks again and revisit my maiden trip to Europe from 10 to 24 October 2009. This trip was very special for a number of reasons: it was my first time visiting Europe, it was the furthest I had travelled away from home, and it was […]
Europe | Russia | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 60 to 62 – Trans-Mongolian Railway (Part 2)
29 to 30 June 2018, Friday & Saturday The next two days of the Trans-Mongolian Railway journey were pretty much the same as the first day. We made stops at major cities like Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Omsk, Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk. At every stop, I took the opportunity to sneak out of the train to take a […]
Europe | Russia | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 59 – Trans-Mongolian Railway (Part 1)
28 June 2018, Thursday After the late night yesterday, I slept only for about two hours before I was roused awake by my alarm clock at 4:15am this morning. After washing up and checking out of my hostel, I booked an Uber car at 4:45am to take me to Nizhny Novgorod railway station. Luckily, I […]
Europe | Russia | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 58 – Russia (Moscow / Nizhny Novgorod)
27 June 2018, Wednesday It was an early start to the day as I checked out of Godzillas Hostel at about 6:15am and booked an Uber car to go to Moscow Kurskaya railway station. The Uber ride took only around 10 minutes and it cost 318 RUB (S$7.40). I arrived in good time and made […]
26 June 2018, Tuesday The day I had been eagerly waiting for was finally here. It was match day! I would be watching my first FIFA World Cup match between Denmark and France at the Luzhniki Stadium later at 5pm. But first, there was more exploring to be done. I woke up at around 8am, […]
25 June 2018, Monday It was my second last day in Moscow, and I had three objectives to achieve today. First was to visit the Kremlin Museums, second was to collect my Trans-Mongolian train ticket from the Real Russia office, and third was to go to the FIFA Fan Fest early to catch the Russia […]
24 June 2018, Sunday After the late night out yesterday, I did not set my alarm clock and just slept in today. In any case, staying in a dormitory, you are bound to wake up naturally by the other “alarm clocks” – your bunk mates who happen to snore loudly, flip over and cause the […]
23 June 2018, Saturday After an almost 8-hour train ride from St. Petersburg, I arrived at Moscow’s Leningradsky station at 6:42am. From the railway station, I walked to the connecting Metro station, Komsomolskaya, and bought a three-day travel pass for 415 RUB (S$9.65). I thought it would make sense to get the three-day pass because […]