Why the heck is it so difficult to have fun nowadays?

Spending Euros

Excerpts from my Memoirs of a Tourist:

Day 1:
Bearable 12 hour flight flew by pleasant enough. 3 movies & lots of sitcoms to numb the ride. Landed in Frankfurt's mini airport with scary brusque immigration officers. One day I'm going to get one of those stylish winter jackets these tall tall women are wearing.

10 degrees Celcius is perfect weather. Highway looked like a horror movie setting with its bare tree branches. Everywhere is Audi, Mercedes & Volkswagen. Ended up in a tiny neighbourhood hotel after passing industrialized areas. Teeny tiny elevators with elevator music. Like those movies where the bad guys listen before they charge out again.

Funky lights in our first hotel room.

Day 2:
Shop shop shop at Wertheim Village's factory outlets. Jay's little crush on Angelica from our tour group. Our bus driver doubles as a translator since our tour guide's a little rusty in this business.

Seems everybody only drinks sparkling water which comes in medium & hard (measure of sparkliness?) but fortunately also in natural. The servers in the little restaurants we eat in all carry cash pouches for coin change. Tried a little light beer with Sprite in it.

Spent the night in a different hotel with ye olden days decor. I suspect the humongous flush buttons in all their loos reduce the mechanical strength needed to press. Petrol kiosk toilets even clean themselves; of course a 50 cent coupon's the fee.

Jaydon has a cruuuush.

Day 3:
Boy, red pants are all the rage. Visit to Tisidee, near the Blackforest, named after its dense dark trees. It rained and hailed ice pellets. Felt the beginnings of frostbite (I exaggerate). Unpredictable weather with sporadic gorgeous snowfall.

Strong winds and pelting ice

Both families bought cuckoo clocks. Dad's are part of our inheritance someday, he says. Butter fish, pork knuckle and venison noodle for lunch rounded off with the bestest, moistest, fluffiest Blackforest cake with a delicious berry on top.

This little guy eats dumplings when the clock strikes the hour. Cuckoo!

Rheinfall in Switzerland, land of Swiss knives, St Bernards and where Dad hoped to meet Roger Federer.

Rheinfall

Lucerne: The first romantic city I've been in. Gorgeous old buildings interconnected by paved alleys. Love how every building is unique. Posh shops.

Streets are empty by 6pm+ in Lucerne

In the center was a square with tents selling really creative art like pretty stained ornaments, recycled tin turned into cutesy toys and wooden carved barns and figurines. The buildings were decorated all over with murals. Water fountains. Sigh.

Pretty painted windows

Day 4:
Switzerland is completely surrounded by snowcapped mountains, like the defining backdrop of the country. Beyond breathtaking. Up Mount Titlis we went.

Cable car base

Got our Rolex spoon at Bucherer. Felt like the awful tourists we were, in and out a 1000 times but no purchases, but they were so nice. Then shopping back at Lucerne streets till the shops shut at 6.30pm. Ended with a family dinner in the hotel rooms with supermarket food.

Day 5:
Visited the King's castle in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.

Followed by Neuschwanstein castle, the New Swan castle that Disney copied. King Ludwig built it as a tribute to Wagner. Poor Ludwig died at 40 after being declared insane. The castle had incredible paintings and a huge mosaic floor but the rooms were mostly unfinished, only 16+ were done by the time of his death.

Went onto the bridge that overlooked the castle, over this deep ravine. Poor Mama huffed and puffed the whole walk up to the castle. Darkness was falling so fast and it rained the whole trip.

Neuschwanstein up close

Down to Innsbruck, Austria. Chinese dinner at a sushi bar run by a Taiwanese lady who was so excited to see fellow Asians who could speak some Mandarin. Local people just kept staring everywhere we went.

Throughout the trip, our bedtime got earlier & earlier. It started at midnight, the next day 11pm, then 10pm up to a point it was 7.30pm and Adelia was already showered and asking if it was time to sleep.

Day 6:
Dad, self proclaimed Reaper of Innsbruck was the hero of the day. Found Jay's Mickey in a trashcan after retracing our entire route few times. He named himself that after roaming the streets last night like a vagrant fisherman.

Posing by the streets in Innsbruck

Got lots of Swarovski jewellery.

Swarovski has some funky landscaping

Got a glimpse of the Olympic ski stadium. Lian-ee made a deal to get a free ticket in with the stadium keeper. He was mighty impressed with her audacity and said, 'I will definitely remember you, Ms Li from Singapore' to which she replied, ' And I will remember YOU from HERE! Hokkaido!', jabbing at his Hokkaido badge.

On to Salzburg, birthplace of Mozart. No time for Sound of Music locations or the saltmines, partly due to our inexperienced tour guide. Back to Munich.

Day 7:
To the old and new town halls in Munich. Gargoyles and other ancient statues in the old building.

Old town hall in Munich

Rothenburg, little old medieval city enclosed by walls. Just one long stretch of road of houses ending in the market square. Huge Christmas ornament shop which Lian-ee spent an hour in while we wandered the streets. Love how they sell you drinks in a mug and you get to keep the mug or refund it.

Day 8:
Heidelberg Christmas market. Little trinkets like every other town but lots of food. Hot wine concoction. Sausages 3 times the length of their buns. Crepes. Yummylicious beef burgers. Awesome fried mushrooms. Lots of different doggies trotting around due to the dog photoshoot. One hugongous dog on all fours was the height of Jaydon. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Xmas market, best place to be during the season!

To Frankfurt where it was packed like Sardines. No snow but freezing. Defrosted in Burger King.

Eurotrip ended a few days later.

I hate change. Change terrifies me and reduces me to the kid who was afraid of bedtime approaching in case she was the only one in the house who couldn't fall asleep.

Change is alright when there's nothing to lose. Then you just steel yourself for the unknown that's coming, and every little friendly approach and thoughtful gesture makes you feel welcome.

But change when everything else is going down the drain feels like you're the only person left in the world and there's nothing familiar to hold on to. Wouldn't it be nice if with every change, you could bring along someone from your old situation? That's why losing a person is the worst change, because that steady part of your life is suddenly gone and no other challenge seems worth braving through.

I am quite afraid. And I'm tired of feeding into this melodrama like it's reality. But it's hard to change who I am.

What a different world it would be, if when we looked at someone, we could see right through them, and see all their goodness radiating outwards. To forget the bad and be captivated by the wonderful.

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It never really goes away. You just suppress it, push it to the back of your mind, and accept its presence like a shadow in your mind. Then one day, you wake up and find something new. And realize that without you noticing, you were letting go all along.

Sound of Silence

It's quite a shame that the harder you try to get someone's attention, the less likely you will get it. Or to put it differently, the more you crave a person's attention, the more difficult it is for you to ever feel fulfilled by anything they have to offer.

Which is why, I find myself at my most charming and effervescent when there is the least expectations of the company I'm with. When in a sense, I don't really care if they do take an interest in what I say, or laugh at my jokes. Ironically, that is when people find me interesting.

And then you compare it with the person you're dying to get a response from. With every word you try so hard to entertain with, it seems to fall on awkward silence or forced amusement. But the moment you stop trying or caring what they think, that's when they're drawn to you.

It seems like in order to be myself, I have to stop placing any significance upon the other person's response. I've to stop caring, full stop. Isn't that just like listening to myself speak?

By swardraws on Flickr

Finally, everyone's let down their hair a bit. At least, enough for a bunch of us to head out to chill at night, like we used to do in Year 1. I'd forgotten how much fun hanging out could be, and with the guys chugging down the alcohol, all the dirty secrets and hopeful ambitions come bubbling out. Exams and dental school can really be the pits, but it makes you treasure the rare night out so much more.

4 budding class couples this year! Looks like matchmakers society is on to seal the deal for some of those romances desperately in need of guidance.

To create good art, one usually needs to be in the throes of some sort of emotion. Then, the feelings just pour into the medium and translate into some form. Otherwise, inspiration is hard to come by.