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| Tuesday, 29-Aug-2006 21:35 |
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Summer eurotrip 2006 :: Venice, Italy
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petang tu dari rome naik train italia ke venice. sampai sana dah kul 11 malam dan waktu tu hujan. nasib baik teksi air ada. jadi terus ke BB hostel kat kawasan rialto bridge, rehat2 dan terus tido.
esok awal-awal pagi explore venice. tgk pasar dia jual ikan, lalu rialto bridge, gi piazza san marco, tgk puppet show dan macam2 lagi. mmg penat la jugak. nasib baik venice tak besar sgt
kat hostel berkenalan dgn taisse yang br abis belajar kat german, pun travel sorang diri. jadi kitorg decide utk jalan sama-sama.
 
venice cukup istimewa sbb ni satu-satunya bandar atas dunia ni yang dibina tgh-tengah laut. tempat pun cantik, tapi kalau nak kembali ke sini mungkin bila dah kawin nanti 
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| Sunday, 27-Aug-2006 08:37 |
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Summer eurotrip 2006 :: Rome, Italy
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rome, ibu kota itali. mmg dah lama teringin nak pergi. akhirnya sampai jugak tapi sebelum sampai rome terpaksa naik feri dari patras, greece ke bari, italy. satu malam atas feri. mmg bes ar, feri dia mcm feri superstar leo tu. siap ada swimming pool atas tu. sampai2 kat bari terus amik train italia ke rome.
esoknya gi jejalan ke colosseum, piazza consolazione, piazza venezia, tgk trevi fountain ngan pantheon. berkenalan dgn eileen dari china (tgh wat phd kat holland), jadi sbb dia pun travel sorang kitorg decide utk jalan sama2.
hari ketiga kat rome gi vatican city dan piazza navona. makan2 sekejap, gi trevi fountain ngan pantheon skali lagi sebelum balik. petang tu amik train ke venice. rome mmg hebat, kalau ada rezeki insyaAllah nak gi lagi 
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| Thursday, 24-Aug-2006 22:19 |
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Summer eurotrip 2006 :: Athens, Greece
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dari istanbul gerak ke greece naik keretapi 15 jam ke thessaloniki. sampai ke kat thessaloniki kena transit 2 jam baru dapat naik keretapi ke athens. sepanjang jalan tu mmg leh nampak gunung2 yang jadi tempat kediaman dewa-dewi greek.
petang tu just rehat kat hostel remo. berkenalan ngan traveler dari argentina ngan german. esoknya baru jalan-jalan kat sekitar athens. naik acropolis tgk parthenon, temple of athena nike, erectheion ngan memacam lagi monumen lama. mmg tinggalan yang cukup bersejarah
 
dah puas jalan kat athens, naik keretapi ke patras. dari patras nanti nak naik feri ke italy. sepanjang jalan tu dapat tgk pemandangan cantik laut ionian 
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| Monday, 21-Aug-2006 12:00 |
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Summer eurotrip 2006 :: Istanbul, Turkey
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finally made it to istanbul  . it is a splendid, magnificent city, once ruled by the christians and the other time by muslims, and has a long history stretching more than 2000 years.
it was 23 hours journey from bucharest, but this time it was much better since i reserved a sleeping cabin  . finally arrived in istanbul sirkechi station at 12.40pm, and took a taxi to the hostel in sultanahmet. i took a little time to rest, and in the evening just walked around the infamous blue mosque and hagia sophia
 
  
blue mosque was built by the muslim emperor and still be used as a mosque, while hagia sophia was built as a church, but then turned into mosque and today it is a museum.
then i spent a little time in the evening and night along golden horn and seen the night view of istanbul.
on the bridge i got robbed by two shoecleaners, but fought back to get my 30 lira. but they have taken my RON 60 
the next day i went to the museum of hagia sophia and to the grand bazaar, the oldest and largest covered market in the world. didn't buy anything though, just looking around . in the evening just have a good time at the park in front of the blue mosque and hagia sophia. that night i went back early and have my prayer in the blue mosque.
on my last day i've been to the dolmabahçe palace in the morning and then joined the tour group for bosphorus cruise. we cruised all the way from golden horn to bosphorus, seen both european and asian side of istanbul, seen the great mosques, palaces and not to forget the dolphins 
it was a great experience in istanbul. i will definitely gonna come back here in the future
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| Sunday, 20-Aug-2006 03:50 |
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Summer eurotrip 2006 :: Bucharest, Romania
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"be careful in bucharest" that was the word of advice i got from two romanian. they said i have to be very careful with my belongings because the gypseys might steal them. i didnt really know if that was true, and in fact i didnt want any bad impression on romanian people.
bucharest was my point stop before another long journey to istanbul, turkey. 14 hours train ride from budapest was tiring, and upon arrival i was welcomed by hot weather with temperature reaching almost 40C, but that did not stop me from having a short time to take a look around bucharest
 
since i was there for only 4 hrs transit, i didnt really have time to explore every part of bucharest, but i did noticed that the oldies buildings were just everywhere. it was a great city with long history.
o yeah, i found cheapest McD here. fishmac meal was only RON 3.50 (about US$1.60). if only i could eat here everyday
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| Thursday, 17-Aug-2006 01:25 |
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Summer eurotrip 2006 :: Budapest, Hungary
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my journey continued with the next city, budapest. the journey from vienna took about 5 hours and arrived in keleti station at about 4.30 pm. then went straight away to the hostel in the buda site. took a good rest and the next day i just walked around the city.
budapest, the capital city of hungary was truly an enchanting city in europe. bdapest and vienna used to be under austro-hungarian empire (1867 to 1918) before budapest fallen into communist power. so there were lots of similarities between these two cities .
budapest was basically divided into two parts, the buda on the left site and pest on the right site of river danube (or duna). buda was the old site, the administrative center while pest was the bustling commercial town.
that morning i've been to ferenciek tere in pest site and went to heroes square and vajdahunyad castle later in the evening. then walked along duna river to see buda royal palace, chain bridge, fisherman's bastion, matthias churh, the parliament and many other attractions
things that i liked here were the views and the environment. budapest was undoubtedly very beautiful. and the hungarian they were very soft spoken and friendly. that's why i felt very comfortable and welcomed here .
credits to nadiah http://nadiahlepak.fotopages.com/, a friend of mine for her fotopages journal on her vienna-budapest trip which was really informative and inspiring. i learned a lot from it
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| Tuesday, 15-Aug-2006 18:52 |
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Summer eurotrip 2006 :: Vienna, Austria
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i heard lots about this great city. so my next stop; vienna, the capital city of austria. departed from prague at about 6.15pm and arrived in wien sudbanhof at 10.50pm. that night i had to stay in the prinze hotel (for not reserving a hostel earlier  ), just a few meters walking from the train station.
the next day, put my stuffs in the locker in the train station, and took a walk around the city
later in the evening i accidentally spotted the malaysian flag at one of the buildings. it was the malaysian embassy in vienna. so i made a short visit and been introduced to en. nor azam, pn jawariah and the others. of course it was great to meet malaysian
 
that day, i was actually not feeling very well  after walking in the rain in prague, so pn.jawariah kindly let me stay in her apartment for a night and gave me the appropriate medicine. the next day i felt a little better. been to the embassy again in the morning and belvedere palace in the afternoon before taking train for my next stop to budapest, hungary
p/s: special thanks to all ambassadors in vienna for their great hospitality. i will surely never forget them all
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| Monday, 14-Aug-2006 07:59 |
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Summer eurotrip 2006 :: Prague, Czech Republic
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from berlin to prague
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houses along elbe river
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schöna - frontier between germany and czech
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Berlin was great, but there were still many places to see. so I moved south to prague, the capital city of czech republic. the journey with train took about 4 and half hour, and there i've seen the beautiful scenary where the houses were built at the foothill along the elbe river.
Prague, or the locals called it Praha, was among the most beautiful cities in europe i ever visited. it was very well preserved, the arts and the culture, and the buildings in the feudal and medieval can still be seen everywhere.
the castle and church at the top of the hill, and charles bridge were among the main attraction that i could not take my eyes off
 
and the view of prague just got even more beautiful at night. i could not ask anymore of prague. prague was just beautiful
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| Saturday, 12-Aug-2006 22:25 |
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Summer eurotrip 2006 :: Berlin, Germany
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i wished i was here earlier when the world cup 2006 being hosted in germany. but i could not do anything. was taking summer class, and the flight ticket to europe was so expensive at that time . well, it's ok i should be thankful that i managed to come here finally.
from hamburg i took ice train and arrived in berlin hbf at about 9am. then took the u-bahn (subway) to the riverside lodge, the hostel where i would stay. jutta, the owner of the hostel was already expecting me, and she welcomed me and prepared some breakfast for me. took my first shower after three days  , it felt really good. i thought i would want to rest because i was so tired, but considering the very nice weather in berlin, i thought it worth going out.
there i met bill and chris, both american and they have been travelling to stockholm and copenhagen before berlin. we decided to take a walk together in berlin
 
berlin was a really big city. in alexanderplatz alone you can find the television tower (fernsehturm), st marien kirche, neptunbrunnen, rotes rathaus and many other attractions. i could not finish touring in just one day. there were still olympic stadium, berlin wall, schloss charlottenburg that i missed to visit.
i walked around till late night and suddenly two punks stopped me and they tried to trade marijuana with me  . i asked them to speak in english but they could not, and because we have misunderstanding, they let me go. phewww thank god
the next day it was raining in the morning so i just rest in the hostel. went to alexanderplatz in the evening and took some pictures of berliner dome and altes museum at night
 
i guess the funny thing happened here was everytime i asked for direction, the people would reply in german and i pretended that i understood. in the end just smile and said danke (thank you)
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| Thursday, 10-Aug-2006 18:40 |
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Summer eurotrip 2006
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fadhli, ja, me and fifi
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iceland language. what the vikings spoke
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muslim meal in flight
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What would you think and do if you are to travel all alone in europe? well, that would be awesome, for me at least, because traveling alone is something i have been looking for, and the experience you gain is much much greater than when you are traveling with a person or more. everything you have to decide yourself, and you will test your planning skills, time management, communication skills and so on - that's what makes solo traveling a maximum satisfaction
Of course I was a little nervous at first , but the excitement exceeded everything. Inspired by a book "the great cities of the world" i planned to go to 12 eastern european countries. it was just the original plan, and I would love to see how far I can go.
so my flight with icelandair from minneapolis was on aug 10 at 7.00pm. the news of terrorists' attempt to blow the flight in london put every scheduled flight in the US on hold. the flight was delayed for about half an hour, but that was still ok compared to some other flights being delayed for more than 5 hours. i arrived in keflavik int airport in reykjavik iceland at about 6am local time, approximately 6 hrs journey from minneapolis. and from reykjavik it took another 3 hrs to copenhagen.
copenhagen main train station
 
copenhagen was where i put my first step in european continent. i was so excited that my dream to go to travel in europe has become a reality. from copenhagen i bought the train ticket to berlin which would be a 7 hrs journey.
the train stopped in hamburg and i have to change to the ice (intercity express) train to berlin. i went to buy some foods at the upper level and when i came back the train to berlin has left. i missed the train for just 2 minutes, and i was surprised they were very punctual!.
hamburg hauptbanhof
since the next train to berlin was at 5.55 am the next day, i used the time i have to take a look at the hamburg city. while i was taking a picture someone grabbed my backpack and tried to take it away  . i chased him and fought back to get my backpack. thank god, i cannot lose the bag, it has the I-20 which if i lose it i cannot get back to the US.
and i spent the whole night sleeping at McD. it was awesome, a memorable one
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Mujur ko selamat dalam semua perkara..Lucky guy eah?..
