one final exam

and i'm done.

needless to say, my brain's already gone on holiday.

hurry, tuesday, hurry.

absolutely cannot count

somehow went overboard at the moneychanger and ended up with more SEK than i dare handle.

so, if you're a friend in stockholm and don't mind swapping me SEK for EUR, i'll be more than happy to offload some crowns to you.

and if nobody gives me a hand, then i guess i'll just have to eat my money at matsalen.

(please save me from myself)

JM

à bientôt, ma cherie!

bisous.

(photo credits to S - check out his photoblog if you haven't already!)

A.Mc

she wears the pants, he wears the boyfriend blazer?

and while i'm missing JHD, my swedish sojourn is equally incomplete without stockholm's resident cool cat. the only comfort, however, is that he just might embark on a grand SouthEastAsian adventure (inclusive of moped ride up the peninsular!) and has hinted at paying me a visit back in sunny ol' singers. plus i'm still waiting for my brown paper package tied up with string... mysterious all-explaining parcel :)

JHD

how this hottie manages to hold the same pose, regardless of whether he's trying on vintage wear or hosting the most amazing fredagpunch-es is beyond me. all i know is that i'm mega bummed that he's not going to be in stockholm this time. boo.

:(

the swedish take on asian awkwardness

Hahaha! We all think you're being a bit nut! :-D I mean she'd love to stay there for a night with you! :-) Hehehe...kind of fun to watch the two being so polite to each other not to make the other inconvenienced and uncomfortable and in so doing making everything worse.. ;-)

context: i only wanted to stay in a corridormate's room if she was travelling herself and the room was unoccupied i.e. didn't want to stay with her for fear of being an inconvenience

baby steps

i spent the night sleeping at the bus stop outside cityterminalen (main bus terminal) last november. was taking the first flight out of skavsta (airport for budget air carrier) and so planned to take the first bus out of stockholm (to skavsta). wrongly assumed that cityterminalen would remain open through the night so i took the last train into the city, only to find myself locked out and without a place to go till my 0430h bus. way to go! so i sought refuge at maccas until it, too, closed at 0100h and then huddled at the bus stop trying to keep warm and stay awake till it was time to board the bus. needless to say, it was one of my more memorable nights to date and a pertinent reminder of how blessed i am - to be homeless by choice and not by circumstance.

believe me, i'd tried almost everything to get indoors but there was no where to go. all the hotels in the vicinity were accessed by keycard only. fair enough i suppose, why would they want vagrants in their lobby? later learnt of the all-night kebab shop a few blocks away but having witnessed gang fights with crowbars at medborgaplatsen* in broad daylight, i wasn't about to wander around at night.

so the whole point to this is that i have a 7am flight out of skavsta this summer. however, i counted my pennies and booked myself into the skavsta hotel instead. yes, it's not going to be cold, yes, having survived a night at the bus stop it wasn't half bad, yes, i much rather eat than sleep my SEK505 but i told myself never again. money is meant to be spent, and earned back, anyway.

yay to progress!

*whoever said stockholm is a safe city lied. where i was staying, there were drug-induced fights and convicts hiding in the neighbouring forest. an acquaintance's smoke break at night was once rudely interrupted by a bloodied, battered man begging for help. patrol cars and dogs fanning out across the residence were a common sight. dead bodies in the lake, and we even had a ho killing her pimp in the very next block. not to mention the 'harmless' nonsense like blood poured into the washing machines at night. all true.

p/s oh i feel my love-hate relationship bubbling to the surface now.

hobo no more

and in further procrastination style, i've spent the morning booking my accommodation in barca and madrid! somewhat comforted that they've both got very high ratings and in madrid i even have a 4 bed en suite female dorm for S$40/night. how awesome is that. hopefully that means i'll never be in a situation where i'll be involuntarily privy to certain horizontal activity. fingers crossed! (edit: sorry, silly me forgot that girls are perfectly capable of getting on without boys. sigh. back to the drawing board!)

although my greatest fear of waking up without kidneys goes unassuaged. 4 years since i started staying in hostels and i'm still paranoid about not leaving with bodily integrity. hence in barca i decided on a 8 bed mixed dorm instead of a 4 bed because chances of being stuck with 7 strange men are lower than the probability of being stuck with 3 strange men. or so i pray.

i'm really too big a chicken to be travelling on my own. so much for the bravado of solo trippin' and doing my own thing this summer. relieved that it looks like my oldest, dearest friend (two decades and counting!) is going to join me in valencia and we're going to check ourselves into a lovely little boutique hotel (hello red i hope you're not reading this because i did tell you hostel) or a charming b&b. please hurry and book your flight already! i can't wait to book accommodation. it'll be our first holiday together without our respective parentals, who incidentally gave us the same name because they're unimaginative, mandarin-averse anglophiles who conjured our misnomers out of their misplaced belief that all girls should be dainty and graceful. snort.

aix-en-provence

ripped this beautiful photo off my absolute favourite photographer's blog.

forgive me for failing to mention that after spain i proceed to impose on JM and her gracious provencale hospitality in aix-en-provence. saving the best for the last.

so much for whinging that the level of luxury decreases as the grad trip progresses. incredibly excited and looking forward with such fervour that i might just implode in anticipation :)

oh snap

note to self: never, ever pack without first looking at the weather forecast. my delusions of summer have been sadly dashed. the highest the mercury is going to hit when i'm in france is 18deg. are you kidding me??? byebye dream of flouncing around in flowy skirts and light summer tops and hellooooo cashmere cardi+jeans combos. sigh.

p/s the lovely JM just reminded me that it's exactly a month to stockholm - and mysterymeatballs round2

packing is procrastination

have the first of my 3 sit-in finals tomorrow and in protest i decided to pack for the great graduation trip. am in a wee packing pickle because the grad trip involves three differing segments, and possibly in decreasing level of luxury. oops. should really have organised it the other way round and worked myself up to the good stuff but the timing didn't allow.

so i begin with a week long cruise down the seine with the parentals on a glorified river barge. apparently if (they'd) paid a little more, (we) wouldn't have to row. but i do so hope it's just my father's macabre sense of humour. and this food cruise promises to be luxurious, potential boatwoman threat aside. we're going up the seine from paris to les andelys, rouen, normandy, caudebec (monfleur), vernon (giverny) then back to paris. as the barge docks at each port, the chef and his entourage are supposed to descend on the village and buy fresh local produce that will become breakfast, lunch and dinner. am drooling just thinking about it! the only part i'm not too happy about is that we double back and disembark in paris too. i hate doubling-back. the lack of displacement unsettles me. anyhoos, once back in paris, we meet up with him and have two days all together before the parental go home and we continue to tuscany and the amalfi coast for part 2.

thankfully we enjoy a higher standard of living compared to previous holidays - in fact, am incredibly blessed that we've levelled up every holiday, in tandem with his career. whilst not as upmarket as parent-standard, it's still not too shabby. we end with two days in paris and then he goes home (sense the trend? my constant abandonment. first by parents, then by him. sigh.)

and after he's gone, i proceed with part 3 on my own. this is when reality bites and i've to rough it out on my backpacking budget. am still uncertain where i'll be staying in stocks - living on the edge, eh. from stocks it's on to spain (barca, valencia, madrid) where i also don't know where i'll be staying (eek!) save for valencia where i'll be a house guest. so...

back to the packing dilemma! i don't know what to wear! will probably bring my blue brick for the seine cruise with my backpack inside it. and send the brick and nice clothes home with the parents because i'm limited to 6kg of hand carry on the rest of my time intra-europe. growl. and to choose appropriate attire for all three parts. am tempted to spend the next 5 weeks languishing in boho skirts and flip flops. mhmm :) can't wait to break out the floppy hats, oversized sunnies and scarves. alternatively i just might throw the towel (that i've to carry bleh) and succumb to sloth, instead attempting to pull off dishevelled backpacker distress-chic. unwashed tshrit? check. faded, torn, unwashed jeans? check. dusty sandals? check.

back to stockholm

it's a little surreal but i've managed to scheme my way back to stocks. have booked my flights and it's all systems go! looking forward to a week back in my old stomping ground, staying in the room just opposite mine, and seeing the fantastic friends i made last year. how nice that most of them are still in stockholm on one year eramus (lucky them!) and it'll be great to see everyone one more time before they return to their respective hometowns.

psyched.

so the eurotrip never really ended and being back in sg has been just like exchange, only better. have been to the middle east (dubai, bahrain, riyadh, kuwait) since coming home, phuket, another trip to dubai and just this week to hoi ann. pretty awesome to have been able to keep travelling every month at least, and for leisure each time. and now i'm going to be done with school it's back to europe for 5 weeks. 1 week with family, almost 2 with him, and then 3 by myself.

here's the route - please wish me luck and much summer sunshine!

paris

les andelys

rouen

normandy

caudebec (monfleur)

vernon (giverny)

pisa

tuscany

amalfi coast

stockholm

barcelona

valencia

madrid

marseilles

aix-en-provence

paris