Europe – Upcoming Destination

Wind Mills and Hand Made Chocolates

August 10, 2016 Ngilee Comments 0 Comment

It has been a few busy weeks with the last leg of my Europe trip and U.S. National Parks tour. Here’s a make up post for Netherlands and Belgium.

I went from Munich to Rotterdam overnight on six different trains, it seemed more interesting when I booked the train tickets, the actual travel was a mix of battling sleepiness and hurrying across platforms to catch the next train. I wasn’t the only person doing the complicated transfers, I met a Chinese student who was studying art in Austria, she made the same train schedule twice within three days as she wanted to see Amsterdam over the weekend!

Rotterdam was nearby multiple cities, I went to Amsterdam, Delft, Utretch, the Hague, and Kinderdijk which were all within a couple of hours from Rotterdam. My airbnb host took me on a bike tour to Kinderdkijk to see lots and lots of wind mills. One our way home, we had some traditional dutch food and beers.

Next day, I went to a fashion trade show with my friend Lin Jie. She was studying the fashion industry trade between Netherlands and China and it happened that there was a trade show going on while I was visiting. There were hundreds and hundreds of brands in the convention and it was cool to see the newest European fashion all at once.

Amsterdam was lively and everyone seemed to be busy exploring water channels, art scenes, and coffee shops, I enjoyed Amsterdam, but I preferred the more quite and old fashioned Delft. The famous painter Vermeer was inspired by the streets of Delft and you could quickly see why. The streets were composed of flowers and plants next to water channels with occasional boats passing by. It was a perfect location for some quiet time.

Rotterdam expressed its character through architectures, there were many buildings with unorthodox structures. It was fun seeing these colorful and oddly shaped buildings next to each other. My favorite was the cube houses:

After a few days in Netherlands, I took a train to Antwerp, Belgium. Antwerp was the most diverse city I visited on this trip, it was a melting pot for people coming from all over the world. Besides being diverse, Antwerp was famous for hand made chocolates and being a fashion capital. They also had comic walls sprinkled all over the city, people here loved comics and board games.

One of the highlights of my trip was meeting up with Brendan in Ghent. Con Brio was playing in the Gent Jazz Festival, unfortunately, I had to catch the last train home so I couldn’t stay for the set.

I made my way out to the sculpture garden on my last day in Belgium. There were over 200 pieces of sculptures in the park. It was fun strolling around and spotting random art pieces. Some of them provoked my imagination, but some of them were way to abstract for me to comprehend.

People in Munich

July 15, 2016 Ngilee Comments 3 comments

Munich’s city planning impresses me, the roads and streets are well laid out and connected by the metro. I have been navigating cities with paper maps, and by far Munich has been the easiest.

My airbnb host, Barbara, was wonderful. She was a retiree who traveled all over the world. Every morning she would make me breakfast and give me suggestions on where to visit. Then we would move on to other topics such as Germany’s reunification, environment vs. development, favorite travel spots, and best way to clean fruits.

Barbara collected paintings everywhere she visited, my room was mainly decorated by Australian art:

I was being a tourist for a day where I visited the cathedral, art museums, and the Residenze. Then I realized I overdozed on museums, castles, and cathedrals, so I decided to take a break from sightseeing.

I went to the Tollwood festival which was an eco-summer fest with music, food, and entertainment in the Olympic Park. I had the best chocolate covered strawberries there!

On game days, people congregate in front of the TV screens:

I spent my remaining Munich time in cafes, the English Garden, and by the lake. I was pleasantly surprised to see people surfing the river in the English Garden! The beer halls were also fascinating, strangers sit together on long benches and had food and beer together.

While I was drinking coffee outside the Alpine museum, I was talking to this older gentleman who used to work for the museum. He climbed McKinley (Denali), the highest mountain in North America, at 64!!! I asked him some questions about his climbs and suppressed my urge to ask him a thousand more questions. In return, he asked if I liked travelling alone and I told him I liked the freedom that came along with solo travelling. I always get my wish on where to see, when to wake up, and what to eat.

He then said to me he used to travel alone when he was young and he thought it was a sign of confidence. Then he met his wife and had been travelling with her for the past 20 years. His wife was such a wonderful person that he found the joy of sharing moments with her to be the best thing about travelling. Unfortunately, she passed away recently and he said he couldn’t stand travelling alone now as he couldn’t bear the thought of not sharing his experience with her. I thought about what he said for a long time and knew he had gifted me a piece of his precious wisdom.

The mountains around Salzburg

July 9, 2016 Ngilee Comments 0 Comment

The journey to Salzburg started with me missing my 8am train, luckily, I only had to wait for another couple of hours to catch the next one. That was by far the only (slighty) stressful situation I was in, not bad at all!

Salzburg is the fourth largest city in Austria, most people know it for the Sound of Music and Mozart. The city got its name from producing salt aka “white gold”. I personally like it for the beautiful mountain ranges and its old town feel. From the Fortress, you see the fairy-tale like town.

There was a summerfest going on while I was visitng, and the whole town was out partying. For non-dancing folks, people met in the old town (“Altstadt”) and watched movies together.

Just an hour of train ride away from Salzburg, you can find natural ice caves (Eisriesenwelt) in Werfen. The ice caves are only open in the summer, and it can be reached by hiking and riding a cable car to 1641 meters. Here are pictures of the cave entrance. Since they don’t allow pictures inside the cave, you’ll have to imagine this: A freezing cave with ice growing from the ground and from the ceiling. The thickest slab of ice is 20 meters thick. Climb 700 steps of stairs will bring you to a high point where you can see naturally sculpted ice statues. You end the tour by coming through an ice tunnel. Its worth the trip!

One of my favorite spots in Salzburg is the Hellbrunn Garden commissioned by Markus Sittikus in the 1600’s. The trick fountains next to the palace are clever and intricate. There are not many dry spots in the garden since the fountains ambush people from the most creative angles. All fountains still run by hydraulic power, and each fountain extremely intricate.

Next, I visited Unsterberg which is the highest mountain in the area (1856 meters). Here, I took up the hobby of taking panoramas, but I will only show you two and a picture of a cute dog.

My airbnb host came from Germany, he invited me to watch the Euro Cup with him and his friend. He equipped me with a German scarf and we went to a beer garden to watch the Germany vs. Italy game. Of course we had to drink German beer.

Recommendations: Airbnb is about 45 euros per night, most hotels are way more expensive. For first timers, get the Salzburg card which gives you free public transportation, access to all museums, a boat ride, and a cable car ride. Visit: The Alstadt, the Fortress, HellBrunn, Unsterberg, the Dome quarters, Mozart’s birthplace (and museum), and the ice caves. If you like Sound of Music, you can take a tour to see the film locations.

Baths, Cafes, and Castles- Budapest

July 2, 2016 Ngilee Comments 2 comments

Budapest is the largest city in Hungary and serves as its capital. It is one of those cities which you could get excellent pictures just by holding up your phone and snap pictures without looking. Its natural beauty makes it impossible to take bad pictures. (Below: pictures of the Parliament from afar and up close).

Budapest is an easy city to navigate, the metro system brings you everywhere. The city itself is also compact/well designed as most interesting places are within walking distance. The streets are packed with restaurants, clubs, cafes, and shops. Budapest is a vibrant city to say the least. What impresses me the most is the balance between the old and the new. A lot of the buildings are old (some of them retrofitted), but that doesn’t stop modernly designed cafes, bars, and shops from being adjacent to these old buildings, or even occupying them.

One of my highlights of the trip is meeting up with my friend, Timea, she pampered me and brought me to lunch at Most followed by a few hours of soaking in the Szechenyi Themal Bath. We wrapped it up with desserts at Gerbeaud. Selfie time-

Since you can’t see the thermal pool behind our heads, here is another picture to give you the full view of the outdoors pools of Budapest’s biggest thermal bathhouse with 18 pools. Budapest is famous for its thermal bath houses, some of them feature outdoor pools (Szechenyi), others rooftop pool (Rudas) or art decorated bathhouse (Gellert).

I also love the castle area in the Buda side where the art museum, national museum, the library, and the castle are located. I will spare you from more pictures of buildings, but here is a statue:

Near the church in the castle area, I stumbled across Drakula’s labyrinth. It was 90F during the day and I thought the dungeon caves would be a good break from the heat. Bad idea. The labyrinth which Count Drakula was kept after King Mathias captured him from Transylvanian was creepy, dark, and sparse with visitors. Whoever designed the displays went all out by enhancing the underground tunnel with occasional wax figures dressed in opera costumes and decided to play opera music in the background. Right after I took the following picture, I ran into Dracula’s box.

As one of the visitors put it, the underground cave cooled our outsides, but our insides were boiling with stress from fear. The 30 mins underground felt like eternity.

Anyways, back to the warm and sunny day most suitable for a beer. Ruin pubs is a thing in Budapest where bars are inside rustic/industrial looking buildings. It’s definitely worth a visit!

Other sites I visited: Jewish museum, the opera house, chain bridge, the Basilica, Magaret Island.

Recommendations: I used airbnb and found an $18/night nice apartment in a central location. Everything in Budapest is at least 50% off American price. A typical lunch is about $3-5. You can get a 7 day bus and train pass for ~$15. Beers are $2-4.

Places to eat and drink: Most, Godzu Udvar (Cool food quarters), Gerbeaud, Trofea Grill, Szimpla Kert (ruin pub), Liebling, Vaci ut