ohkayy here's my epic day-to day account of our adventures in Europe...enjoyy. Pictures to come soon once we finish sorting out all the blurred shots, duplicates and such.... ( yess i reallly tried to keep the daily entries short )

DAY 1 - 26th March : Departure

Daaaaymn that was close - almost missed our evening flight out to Vienna from Heathrow due to Malaysian timing and tube delays. Ended up running with our check in luggage to our boarding gate and having to deal with irate check in and immigration staff. Not a very good start.

Not very pleasant weather in Vienna upon arrival and through the next day - nasty nasty sleet. Very impressed with the airport/city centre train - a double decker with futuristic decor that makes the Heathrow express look like a tattered "Bas Mini". Very nice underground ( in europe its the U- Bahn) - runs on the honour system though - muwahaha. Our accomodations in Vienna were at the Wombat Hostel , west-ish of the town centre - the area looked kinda seedy at night though. Decent ensuite room with 3 double decker beds. Slept rather late on our first night after supper at a nearby quintisentially Austrian old-fashioned eatery.

DAY 2 - 27th March : Hellooo Vienna

Everyone rolled outta bed and got kinda ready around 11-ish. First thing on our list today was the Vienna town centre - Stephansplatz(*giggle*). Impressive, old, gothic cathedral in the centre of town. We then started exploring in a random pattern outwards from the town centre. The main shopping streets were quite nice with the odd touch of imperial architecture - quite a few chain stores that were irritatingly abundant back in London too like H&M, MNG etc. Slightly further out we had the museums and other historic buildings - very nice, very grand but we didn't actually have the time to check 'em out from the inside. Had afternoon tea at a pastry cafe and tried some of the local specialities - sachertorte(moist chocolate cake with apricot jam ), strudels and fruit teas - veeery nice. Also wandered into something like a farmer's market in the center of town. Loads of authentic austrian fare and crafts - nice. Had delicious deer goulash. Later on the others started on their sausage rampage - first off : kasekreiners - cheese filled sausages - didn't join them as i was still a bit wary of sausages ( "are you suuure its *beef*?") - the smell alone was driving me mental - arrrgh!!

After the evening snack of sausages we went back to the hostel to catch a nap before dinner. Slept like logs till the middle of the night. Something funny happened a bit later though. Our happy - couple-to-be got up first, and assuming we were all asleep they had a little private chat and then quietly sneaked out to *buy postcards*. As soon as they left 3 of us guys on the top bunks simultenously got up and realised that we all have been listening to them while pretending to be asleep for a whole half hour - had a good laugh about that. Soha was still nicely snoring though. Had another late supper at the same place later on when they got back.

DAY 3 - 28th March : Castle Schonberg

Barely woke up in time to wash up before we had to check out. The couple had woken up earlier to catch the Vienna Boys Choir at Sunday Mass and we had arranged to meet them again at the town centre at noon. Left our stuff at the hostel and had breakfast at a local coffee shop where we picked up a little more German out of necessity. Met up with Charlotte and Lionel later to do a spot of souvenir shopping and a little more sightseeing in town ( yaay another cathedral- woooooo). Returned mid-afternoon to chill out at the hostel and set out again on foot to the castle of Emperor Franz Josef in the south-west corner of town.

15- minute walk my ass - we took the better part of 45 mins getting to the castle. It was freaking huge. Not pretty or gilded like most european castles - just huuge. The central plaza alone could fit a domestic airport. The gardens were even bigger - had a natural pool, fountains, a maze garden, a lot of arches and a slope with more arches- again, the gardens were freaking huuuge!! Must've been good to be emperor. There was a small marketplace in the central plaze as well - probably an easter thing as they were selling loads of painted eggs and shit. Went crazy on the local food again - massive pretzels and *noodles* in cheese and onions..mmm. Bought a coupla more souvenirs and almost everybody bough some fruit teas (probably had something to do with the really cute tea-girl ). Went back to town to pick up our stuff and catch our 9.00 pm overnight train to zurich.

DAY 4 - 29th March : All things Swiss.....

Rolled into Zurich at 6am. Didn't really sleep too well - wasn't expecting much comfort from sleeping in 3 tiered bunks in a room barely bigger than a toilet that rocks and sways. Got some Swiss Francs at the station( pretty pretty notes) and everyone took turns freshening up at the very nice ( albeit expensive) washrooms at the station. Had some time before our afternoon train to Interlaken so we left our stuff in lockers and spent the better part of the day wandering around Zurich. The whole was very nice and very clean - clear sapphire river and bright, beautiful buildings. Explored the old shopping streets on the slopes and checked out another cathedral ( *snoore*) .The marina area was especially scenic.Shame everything's ridiculously expensive in Switzerland.

The train ride to Interlaken was quite scenic. Lots of lakes and snow capped vistas. The town itself was quite nice and small, but kinda touristy. Loads of asian restaurants and japanese signs for a small swiss village. We stayed at Backpackers Villa, probably the nicest hostel on our whole trip. Cheap, big and clean rooms with a huge decked out common kitchen and a tv/foosball room. Nice. Went around town in the evening - old-school scenic rural town. Most of the others decided to look for a place to have authentic swiss fondue but got turned off by the prices. Ended up having dinner at McD's instead. Bummer.

DAY 5 - 30th March : Off to the slopes!!

Group decision made last night to go skiing today. Our timing was kinda on today. After breakfast, getting our ski gear ( yeeks - about 130 francs for rentals and a half day ski pass) and getting to the train station where the trams to the skiing areas were, we got to Lauterbrunnen just to make the most of our half day passes. The slow scenic ride up the beautiful pristine slopes was slightly marred by the fact that i fucking forgot to take along the fucking batteries for my fucking camera - fuck!

After a coupla trams and lots of plodding around in ski boots we got to the start of the main skiiing area. Nice slopes and mountaincaps all around. Lionel and Darren taught us first-timers some of the basics to skiing (while little kids in their little skis whizzed circles around us). Luckily i picked it up kinda fast. After a coupla hours of whizzing up and down the kiddie slopes ( mental note : do not dress OVERLY warmly - it can get pretty hot up there with no clouds and you sweating under all those layers) we decided to give one of the beginner slopes a shot despite the other 3 not being very confident about it - big mistake. I got about 3 rounds up and down the slope ( fun!!! ski lifts were fun too!!) and lionel and darren got about 2 rounds down - on the third they decided to stick with the others who were kinda stuck early on while i decided to finish one more round and meet up with them on another run. By the time i got back up i was told that the ski lifts were closing and that the rangers would normally bring down any stragglers to the next lower station - grindenwald - so i caught the next train there to wait for them.

Waited till 6 but they still werent there. So i decided to hop on the train back to town to pick up everyone's shoes and stuff the left at the ski shop. Barely made it there at 6.30 when they were closing. Met up with them around 7-ish at the Interlaken East station. Apparently missed quite a bit. Darren screwed up his right ankle pretty badly( it was his first time snowboarding) and Soha skiid right into a shallow ravine and need rescuing by lionel and darren. Later they were picked up on snowmobiles by the rangers and brought back up to the peak station. Pushed darren back to the hostel on a train station trolley. Before everyone K-Oed we managed to have dinner at Hooters ( obviously not the ladies' first choice and yes, we know its NOT very Swiss ). Skiing is fun but murder on the body but even falling gets fun after a while - when you're going downhill really really fast and fall you tumble like a ragdoll and your skis and poles , like, scatter.

DAY 6 - 31th March : Germany

Woke up aching everywhere - literally - pushing darren( he picked up a nice walking stick of fallen pine - henceforth known as the stick of Darren ) back on the trolley to the train station first thing in the morning didn't really help. The pain made travelling for the next 14 hours all the more fun. Barely made it on the early train back to Zurich, bought some lunch there and boarded another 6 hour train to Munich, Germany ( plain clothes immigration officers - scaryy). Our plan to try and get accomodation in Munich at the last minute fizzled because of some random carnival in town, so instead of going on a day trip to Fuussen tomorrow we decided to gamble and take the train there and stay the night. Luckily we found a B&B there. Pulled into Fuussen around 1000 pm and made our way to "Suzzanne's B&B". Very nice and cozy. We got the attic room- Everyone, especially alex was soo happy to get cozy, comfy single beds. Group decision to make the couple sleep on the remaining two beds in the landing outside the attic - hee hee hee. Hoping to see something *interesting* happen at Castle Neuchschwanstein tomorrow.....

DAY 7 - 1st April : Return to Castle Wolfe...err...Neuschwanstein

After a nice homely breakfast we made our way to the hill where King Ludwig's castles stood. The plan was to take a tour of the most famous one - Neuschwanstein. Turned out to be a veeery touristy place. It was swarming with damn asian tourists - noisy, pug faced old people with cameras that weigh a ton. Coughed up 5 Euros each for a (dissapointingly boring - and smelly ) horse carriage ride up the slope to the castle - we could have walked faster though.

The castle was disappointingly small - well it was alright since it was only really meant for Ludwig himself and a coupla servants. Took the rather brief "english" spoken tour. The interiors of the castle were kinda plain and vanilla except for a LOT of religious imagery and the odd swan motif here and there. Despite photography being forbidden in the castle alex and soha managed to steal a few shots. Huge souvenir store in the castle. Later had a nice quintesentially bavarian lunch back down at the foot of the hill.

Later on we took a train back to Munich- we had much earlier secured accomodations for the next coupla days. It was a looong 45 minute walk from the train station to the "International House" - especially carrying all our gear. The place turned out to be very much like a international student hall/hostel with a lot of weird rules ( in bad english) . The rooms were kinda dingy and full of graffiti. Kinda noisy too. Darren was really falling sick and i was still bloody aching.

DAY 8 - 2nd April : Around Munich

As usual we started in the town centre and worked our way around from there to nearby landmarks. Saw a couple Catholic churches( schema - get in, picture of altar, picture of organ, fall asleep in pews) , the town hall and some other nice landmarks. Found a nice big market area not too far from the town center - lots of smells and colours...niiiice. At Darrens behest we trundled along to look for the "English Gardens" while it was still sunny ( Germans sunbathing - hint hint hint ) The garden was kinda reminiscent of Hyde Park, but *certain* aspects of the view were dissappointing - sorry Darren. Had another typically Bavarian meal at the huuge beergarden in the park while enjoying the very very sunny weather - there was also live traditional Bavarian music. Supplemented our skiing tan with a ..err..um....sitting-down-and-eating-in-the-sun tan. Later on a couple of us laid back and enjoyed the sun as well. Did a little more sightseeing and shopping into the night and had a takeaway supper of McD's and strawberries.

DAY 9 - 3rd April : Berlin

Got on a long afternoon train to Berlin. Not as seedy as Munich but still kinda drab. Didn't see much signs of the city being the much touted "clubbing capital of Europe". Stayed at a nice huuuge room at the Club House Hostel ( so named because of the multiple clubs below it) Had a Thai dinner( too bad Darren was still ill and resting back at the room ) of all things at a cheap place back at the train station. Went back to see a very big ( and strangely old ) crowd back at the hostel - no wonder - the club was having an ABBA thing that night. Spent the remainder of the night playing cards and planning tomorrow's route.

DAY 10 - 4th April : Wandering around..

Didn't make a very good call going to Treptower Park - didn't find the Soviet War memorial ( well it probably wasnt within walking distance anyway) and my second idea of going to a nearby flea market wasnt too good either - very dogdy and dingy place that sold utter rubbish - old tv remotes and mostly other random rubbish that you'd normally throw away. So much for old antiques and actually useful stuff. Later on did the normal town center stuff, saw a few more cathedrals( znngkk..*snore*). Stopped by at a mall near the TV tower to get some chocolates( they went mental on the discounted after-eights)and drinks after having lunch at another small market/fair thingy nearby and walked all the way back to our hostel. Actually came across quite a few very historic places on the way back - Humbolt University, the book burning square and a conveniently enough a huge souvenir shop. Later on had a nice dinner at a Vietnamese place nearby( we were probably really tired of german food) and surprise surprise, played more cards when we got back. So much for work. Nodded off early while the other kept playing cards. Apparently they had a little noodle party later with a local later in the wee hours.

DAY 11 - 5th April : A walking history lesson...

We originally meant to take a walking tour around the historical sites, but kinda ditched the plan when it started raining after breakfast. We decided to wait it out playing cards ( what else) and planned our own walking route to cover some of the places. The happy couple ditched us to get a head start on the sightseeing - who cares about rain when you got your own private bubble, eyy? ( *boiyoing*). The remaining four of us set out a little later - our first stop was the Reichstag - the parliament building. Very huge and imposing. We meant to take the tour inside and check out the view from the huge glass dome at the center but the queue was just too freakin long so we jsut took some pictures and walked down the street to the famous Brandenburg Gate. Lots of history behind it - very nice structure too. Made our way further down to see the Topography of Terror - a 200m section of the original Berlin Wall and a very long exhibition about the dark side of the German AND the Soviet regime there - too bad it was all in German except for the odd bit. Lastly we managed to stop by another important cold-war landmark -Checkpoint Charlie where wall-era east-west traffic had to go through Soviet and American control.

Everybody met up later at the town center again to look for a supposedly good local restaurant recommended to us by the hostel. Bad luck - it was full. Ended up eating back at the town centre at a cheapo franchise restaurant. Went back late to see the Brandenburg Gate lit up at night - niice.

DAY 12 - 6th April : Hamburg

We were really early for our afternoon train to Hamburg, which was strangely out of fashion of us. Anyway, that gave some time for Charlotte and Lionel to check out another bit of the wall nearby the train station. A quick train ride later we were in Hamburg - another typically German city. Our hotel may have been in a slightly seedy, immigrant-overrun part of town, but it was a schweet 4 star hotel - a far cry at the other places we've been staying at for the whole trip. Quite reticent to leave our very comfy room, but decided to check out a seasonal fair which happened to be on now. It was huuge, but pretty typical - rides, food, win-a-huge-fluffy-toy booths and the like. A coupla of us tried one of the shooting games, but nobody won anything...hahaha. In the end we just tanked up on candy, and a little more German food after a round of bumper cars. Back at the hotel- more surrealness - drinking tea and eating candy and talking about the weather over nasty german porn( which crafty, horny darren managed to get for free with a little trick with the remote). Nuff said. Soha can't be having that much fun being dumped in the other room( it was 3 to a room) so we had problems getting her to go back. In the end we slept at around 5-ish after talking more rubbish, and more porn ( ein, zwei, drei, OLE!)

DAY 13 - 7rd April : das Enden

Had some time to burn before our 7.50pm flight, so after breakfast we went off early to the train station, stashed our stuff in lockers and explored the town center - same ol, same ol. Only difference was we spent a disturbing amount of time in a Lego store and almost everybody walked out with something. There was an entire shop devoted to maggi stuff as well - well not the maggi stuff that we know, anyway.

Caught the airport express bus from the train station to the airport - not taking any chances this time and went really early. Well in the end we didn't have THAT much time to spare - security at the airport was , like, really tight - Darren had problems with The Stick ( had to be checked in as oversize baggage) and a quill pen i bought as a souvenir caused a little bit of alarm at the boarding scan. Felt soo good to be on the plane back. Felt even better to actually be back. Now if only i can get started with tht studying.....