Post-Travel Depression :(

I think i am suffering from the Post-Travel Depression. Looking at the pics i took from the trip just made it worst. :( Now i am back to my old life. My savings account balance is at an all time low plus more bills are coming. Woooo :~(

Wish i can live in Europe or Asia sometimes, cuz ppl there can fly to another country within an hour or so, I can only go down to the States @_@ , which is really no different than Canada. So what's the point of going to a place that's so similar to your home base? I think living in North America is so depressing sometimes (in a traveller's point of view at least). Maybe I should really think about moving away for a while. :(

Anyways, to cheer myself up, i already have some travel plans going for 2006. Hehe. I guess i will be leaving again as soon as i clear my debt for this trip. Hopefully I can travel outside of North America every year. For 2006 I'd like to go to the following places:

1. Japan - I've heard this saying that going to Japan is addictive and i totally agree! There's so much to see every time i go there and there's a lot of good food too. (Ummmm Ramen at Ichiran :D !!!) Seriously things are surprisingly cheap there and you are almost guarantee to get good quality stuff. Would love to go to Hiroshima and while I'm in Tokyo i'd like to go to Yokohama (didnt have time on my last trip!).

2. Egypt - That was one of our choices when we got to pick where we'd wanna go last Xmas (and we picked Sri Lanka/India instead!). It's still kinda dangerous to go there now but hopefully Ada & Ringo are not going there this year (then i might be able to go with them!)

3. Silk Road (China) - I dont really wanna go to China cuz of the bird flu, but i know how they maintain those heritage sites in China! (Crappy!) So, before they all get destroyed by those naive visitors i'd like to take a look.

4. Cambodia - I am sure i will get in trouble if my parents finds out i am going there, but ... again this was one of the few places we wanted to go to last year and Ringo went without me this Spring. :( Not sure if it's safe to go myself so i'd ask around to see if anyone's interested.

5. Taiwan - I always wanted to go to Taiwan, hehe to practice my Mandarin and go to KTV :D It's quite easy to go to Taiwan so it's not a priority.

6. Hong Kong - Hmm i will stop by HK for sure if i am in Asia, that's almost certain. I mainly miss my friends and the food there.

Now if i can find a travel buddy!

Back to Reality!

I woke up at 4:20 this morning (!!!) and was ready to leave by aroud 4:40. Left the flat with Olivia's help and said goodbye to my great travel buddy for the last 10 days :( (Bo was still asleep!) The taxi ride only costed Euro 19.10 (exclude tips) and the driver was quite friendly and chatty. I got to the airport quite early, around 5:15? I was surprise to see so many ppl there so early! The lineup wasnt that bad, and the whole check-in process was fast.

When i arrived at the departure gate, a Chinese lady approached me and started talking to me. She is from Taiwan and her husband is a doctor attending a conference in Dublin; He went back to Taiwan early for work while she continued her journey to visit her daughter in Edinburgh. She was really nice and friendly and offered me (who was like starving, cuz no restaurants were opened at that time) this Pineapple "so" (it's a famous snack from Taiwan and it's kinda like Fig Newton except in Pineapple favor). I was flattered as she asked me if I was in High school and if I am in college yet. :D Hehe ... When i told her that i am already working she said that i didnt look that old. :P . Btw i had no trouble communicating with her, so i am convinced that the Mandarin i learnt was the Taiwan accent and therefore my Mandarin is not as bad as i first thought :P. Spent a few hours at the Heathrow terminal and i managed to pick up a Paddington Bear! It's still on sale and i picked the one wearing a red raincoat. Oh he's so cute! :D I will take good care of him for sure. I also spent some $ at Virgin Megastore on CDs (Goldfrapp's Supernature, which is not available in North America until Spring 2006), a Traveller's converter and some books/mags.

Trip back to Calgary felt soooo long, as I was just dead tired but couldnt fall asleep. Air Canada sucked as usual (STILL NO personal tv screens!), but i do feel that I am back in Canada once i got in the boarding area. You can just tell that most of the people on the plane are Canadians; everyone was nice, polite and friendly. And of course you can see everyone's carrying a MEC backpack! It's a good way to spot the Canucks!. Didn't wait too long at the Customs Booth once i arrived and luckily didnt get search by them. Dad was there to pick me up at the airport. I felt kinda sad that the trip ended but at the same time I was glad that i could sleep in my bed again! I so miss my bed!!!

Dublin Day 3

My last day in Dublin started quite late since we stayed up so late the night before. We went to Kilmainham Gaol; It was a jail that was built in 1796, and it was used to lock up political prisoners during the revolutionary days. There were many civil war fought in the country, as a result, many of these political leaders were locked up there, and some were executed! Good thing that we went to this prison on a sunny day. I can imagine the place being a bit spooky and i will definitely not go at night. The guided tour (i was able to get in by student fare again, hehe!) was very informative and the museum had loads of information. It will take me a whole afternoon if i try to look at every single item. The info were quite well preserved and complete btw! Too bad we were pressed for time and i only got to look at the artifacts briefly, but i did gained a better understanding on how the Irish got their independance. Really cant imagine being locked up in this run-down jail, and it's probably haunted cuz many people were executed there, which kinda creeped me out. @_@

After we finished touring the Kilmainham Gaol, it was kind of late to go to the countryside (?) of Dublin as originally planned. :( We ended up going back to the city centre again. On the bus ride to city centre, Olivia had a conversation with Bo:

"Bo, we just got out of the jail" .... "No, we spent a lot of time there .... " It totally cracked me up for some reason, i wonder what the other people around us were thinking :D (yes i am stupid, i laugh about stupid things)

We stopped at a grocery store on our way home, we had to prepare food for our Hot Pot dinner, so we grabbed some beef, veggies, shrimps, and a bag of rice (heavy!). Bo said before i leave we have to have a nice big meal to round up the trip! Hehe thanks guys! I was surprise to know that Bo & Olivia don't use a soup base for their hot pot, but the taste was actually quite good even without it. It's probably healthier cuz there is less sodium. I had a brief chat with one of the flatmates, Tim, who is the only flatmate that speaks fluent English and therefore the only one i can fully communicate with. I thought my Mandarin was pretty good until i met B & O's flatmates here; it's probably got to do with the fact that a) they speak very fast and b) they got some kind of accent i am unfamilar with. Anyways, Tim is a student from Shanghai studying in Dublin. He's a very nice guy! It's kinda funny cuz i've never really had a conversation with a person from mainland China before, so it's interesting to know what he thinks of living in Dublin vs. China.

After the huge dinner we had, it was time to go to bed cuz i gotta get up at 4:00 the next morning!!!

Dublin Day 2

Bo took a day off work today to show us around Dublin (although i suspect that his main objective was to test out his new toy! ;) Danny and Dai Pang, who are B & O's (sorry, takes too long to type out ur full names) flatmates, joined us today. Our first stop was Trinity College, which is located in the heart of the city centre. The college's been around since 1592 and has a beautiful campus surrounded by a bunch of old, historical buildings! I just wish UofC is like that! We walked around the campus and snapped some pictures. We even stopped for a bit to watch a football match. What a beautiful campus! Olivia bumped into her friend Riley in front of the Book of Kells entrance, it was quite timely as students can get their friends in for free! Too bad that I only had a chance to look at everything inside briefly, as I didn't wanna hold up the group. :( The old library building was amazing because it housed many old books dating back to hundreds of years ago. I've seen these old libraries in movies, so it was almost kinda surreal when i saw these old bookcases lining up neatly in front of my eyes. We did more walking around the campus afterwards. Riley tried to show us this Harry Potter style cafeteria :) but too bad the doors were locked. :( Btw Riley is Olivia's friend from Calgary. He's a student studying Dentistry at Trinity College. He was backpacking in Asia for a few months this year and shared some interesting stories with us. I love these travel stories and hope i can go on a backpacking trip next year!

After our tour around Trinity College we took a bus down to the Dundrum area. The shopping mall there is the largest in Ireland, but it's probably no bigger than SouthCentre mall here. Didn't have much time to shop around, but it's probably a good thing because things in Ireland are so bloody expensive! I've started to appreciate Canada more after my trips around the world; like how cheap things are in Canada compared to the rest of the world.

In the evening we made it back to the city centre again and had dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I've heard Olivia complained about the bad Chinese food in Dublin so i didnt have much expectation, but the food turned out to be quite good! I was later told that the restaurant we went to was the only acceptable Cantonese restaurant in town! After dinner we followed Riley to an Irish Pub. I guess my trip to Ireland will not be complete without a visit to an Irish pub! (Thanks guys!) All the pubs were quite full on a Saturday night but we managed to find one that's quite dead after walking around for a bit. Turns out that Olivia had never been to an Irish pub either, so we had our first half pint of Guinness there! ^_^ The taste is actually not too bad, and I'd say it's better than some of the beer that I've tasted in North America. We were there until closing and got back to the flat by around 1:00. Since it was late and Bo had to work the next day, i went to bed without a shower for the first time in many many many many many many years! I felt quite uncomfortable (sorry, i am a bit of a neat freak) but then it's something I have overcome especially if I want to become a real traveller!

Dublin Day 1

Today was my first full day in Ireland. Woke up quite late, at around 10:45 because i was up in the middle of the night putting on extra layers of clothes (i think 5 layers in total)/scarf/socks. It got quite cold at night and i almost got frostbites! I so miss central heating! After the huge breakfast/lunch prepared by Olivia, we dropped off our laundry to this shop across the street and headed out at around 13:30. Christ Church was our first stop. It was just another church to me but there might be more to it than that. We walked around the City Centre, took pictures with "The Tart with the Cart". Then we walked to the Dublin Castle nearby. Olivia and I joined a guided tour (they charged me student fare, haha!) and had a crash course about the Irish history. The tour ended at around 16:00 and we headed down to the shopping district. Did a bit of browsing at the shops, went to the GPO (The Gerneral Post Office of Dublin) for another lesson in the History of Ireland and headed home with groceries.

Olivia prepared dinner again and made pasta for the night. We stayed in the flat for the rest of the night and watched Die Hard 3. What a way to waste a night overseas! But then the past few day's been pretty hectic and I needed time to unwind.

Last day in Amsterdam

Today was our last day in Amsterdam. We wasted some time yesterday wandering around so I was determined to not let this happen again. Since the time we spent at the Van Gogh Museum was much longer than expected, I allotted more time for the Anne Frank House today. Breakfast was called at 9:00 again, and by 10:00ish we checked out of the houseboat. First we headed to the Central Station to drop off our bags at the locker, and then we went straight to the Canal Boat dock. The boat ride lasted about 45min to an hour. It was just another Tourist thing we had to do, but it was well worth it since it was the perfect way to do an express tour of Amsterdam in 45 minutes!

As soon as we hopped off the boat, we wasted no time to catch a tram to the Anne Frank House. I read about the Anne Frank House while organizing the trip and it instantly became one of the must-see places on my list (the other one, was actually Atomium!)! For those of you who are not familiar with the story of Anne Frank, please Click Here. It was quite an experience being in the actual house, and it's hard to imagine being trapped in there and living in fear for such a long period of time!!! I am so glad that i was there, and i am glad that these sites are being preserved. It was quite a moving experience, so don't miss it if you are in Amsterdam!!!

It was around 14:00 when we finished touring the Anne Frank House. We decided to save some money and walked back to the Dam Square area. I seriously needed that break just to clear my head from the thoughts i had after seeing Anne Frank House. Along the way we passed by some interesting buildings and streets. After a 15-20 min walk, we were in the Dam Square shopping district again. We went back to H&M because we didnt spent enough time there the day before. A lot of things in the store were on sale and Olivia and I both picked up some more clothes ^_^. (Ya just the perfect activitiy to keep my mind off Anne Frank, etc) We were there until 16:30 and it was time to leave Amsterdam. Went back to the Central Station to pick up our bags, somehow we couldnt get our locker open and for a while I thought our contents got stolen, but finally we got help and got the door open. We proceeded to the airport by train (3.80 Euro for a 10 minutes train ride, bloodly expensive!) and made it to the airport just in time, the airport was huge and we barely made it to the departure gate around the boarding time. (I will be screaming if I miss my flight again!) The plane was pretty booked up, so by the time we got on the plane all the overhead bins around us were full! Since we sat in the front row, Olivia and I had to walk all the way to the back to store our bags. It was quite a challenge to walk back to the front of the plane since there were still people getting on the plane!!!! It took us forever to get back to our seats! Same thing after the plane landed, we had to wait for everyone to get off first before we can walk to the back to retrieve our bags! What an annoying experience! When we got to the Customs area, i realized my passport was gone!!! Arrrh!!! I left my passport bag in my seat, so i ran the fastest i could back to the plane to get it. Arrrh first i missed my flight, and then i almost lost my passport! I swear, i am usually more careful than that! What was wrong with me?

And finally, my last destination of the trip, Dublin!

The airport bus dropped us off at O’Connell Street. It’s a wide street and is probably Dublin’s main thoroughfare. The street reminded me of Kings Street in Hong Kong so much, because it’s so busy, full of people and it’s full of Double-Decker buses! Even though I’ve heard Olivia complaining about Dublin being old, kinda dirty and rotten I must say I like it! I guess I was pretty much brain washed when I lived in Hong Kong; yes call me a traiter, i do prefer the British ruling HK. Anyways, Ireland is no longer under British rules, but since it still has close ties to the UK, the two countries still shares a lot of similarities.

We only stayed in the city centre area for like 10 minutes, waiting for the bus. We finally got on a bus and headed to Olivia and Bo's flat. Had a quick dinner and went to bed early since Bo had to work the next day.

Van Gogh Museum and etc

The bed at on board the Maria Alberta boat was surprisingly comfortable, and this morning we slept in until around 9:00 when breakfast was called. At the breakfast table, Olivia and I met Wendy & Andre from LA. Wendy is involved in a theatre production (Midsummer Night Dream I think?) in Berlin and Andre is a Special Ed. Teacher visiting his girlfriend. Very nice people and they are so much nicer than some of these American Tourists I’ve met. (Sorry, might sound a bit bias, but I’ve met some rude Americans tourists in the past) Andre was nice enough to offer us a map and helped me locate a few "Coffee Shops" in his Lonely Planet book (Thrills n Chills, hehe). They also shared some travel tips, which was quite useful. It took Olivia and I quite long to get ready and finally we got out by 11:00. First we went to pick up a few items from H&M; for some reason, the Amsterdam store still had some Stella McCartney stocks, so I grabbed a few items off the rack! :D We ate our lunch at a very nice McD’s (i think the interior is designed by some famous designer) and then to the Yellow Bike Company for our Bike Tour. As we waited at the Bike Shop, we were told there weren't enough people to form a tour and they had to cancel it! They tried so hard to convince us not to go by telling us that the weather was gonna be crappy and stuff, so at last we opt out and got our refund.

Our next destination was Van Gogh Museum and we took the tram there. Without doing any research in the first place, I thought the museum only features some of his paintings. Turned out they have almost the complete collection of paintings he did throughout the different stages of his life. I was quite surprise to see some of his oriental theme paintings, never knew he did them (sorry, but they were kinda ugly). The museum also did a good job on explaining the background information with detail description for each painting. Other than paintings, the museum kept some of the things Van Gogh used like his closet and some of his letters. Overall it was very interesting and it’s a must-see for art fans! I don’t think Olivia is a fan of Van Gogh’s artwork and she looked a little bored there. (Sorry!) We spent quite a while at the museum, and before we left we used the video booth there to send a video message to Bo and my Dad. :D

After the Van Gogh Museum we went back to the restaurant district we were in the night before cuz the food we had the other night was very good! Afterwards we wandered around and ended up on the other side of the Red Light District! I feel bad for the women working there, although their work environment is already a lot safer than in other countries. It’s just a weird feeling seeing them on "display". Walked around the Dam Square for a bit and suddenly it started pouring! Since we ran out of things to do, I talked Olivia into try the hemp lollipop with me! :D Hehe! Too bad the amount of hemp in the lollipop was not enough to get us high, but I did had a good sleep afterwards.

Amsterdam!

Woke up a little earlier this morning since we were able to switch to a room facing the back, and it was much quieter! Be sure to request a room facing the back if you are booking rooms at Hotel Opera in Brussels. It was raining throughout the morning and we had to catch our train at 13:50, so we stayed around the Central Station area after we checked out. We learned that we had to pay extra for the Sunday stay because a weekend rate only applies to Fridays and Saturdays in Brussels (really?)! @_@ First we walked to St. Michael’s Cathedral, which is only a short walk from the Central Station. The church is truly magnificent and the architectural style reminds me of the Notre Dame in Paris. Brought a cross for my new home and two mini rosaries there. Poor Olivia’s been sick since the beginning of the trip and her cold seemed to have gotten worst, so we went to a Pharmacy to get her some medication. We try to act out Olivia's symtoms (such as coughing and sneezing and a stuffy/running nose) to communicate with the pharmacist and it was just funny.

After we had lunch and stocked up for snacks for the train, it was time to leave Brussels. As the train arrived Olivia and I parted ways with Bo and headed to our next destination: Amsterdam!

The train ride to Amsterdam was great! I always love train rides in Europe, because the scenery along the way is peaceful and relaxing! It also gave me some time to unwind a bit because our schedule was kinda hectic for the last 3 days, and the 3 hr ride gave me just enough time to think about the things that happened so far and get ready for what’s ahead. Olivia was very tired after taking her medication and quickly dozed off, so I was able to listen to my Ipod (finally :P) during the ride. I watched the beautiful scenery passing by my window and my Ipod was playing the right songs. It was just fantastic! Just beats a plane ride any day. Why can’t they have more passengers train in Canada?

After 3 hours, we arrived in Amsterdam and Olivia looked sicker than ever! I think the medication had quite an affect on her and made her really tired. We headed straight to the Tourist Office at the train station and booked our Bike Tour for the next day. Spent quite some time walking/finding our place to stay for the next 2 nights: Passenger Ship Maria Alberta. We arrived a bit early and I was surprised that it’s just a boat! Why do they call it a ship when it’s only a houseboat??? There was no one on board, so we headed to the “Nemo”, a ship-shaped green building which is a Science Centre for kids. The guy at the Nemo was extremely nice; he tried to help us and let us use his phone to contact the ship owner.

We were able to get on board at last and we were just a little shocked on how tiny our room was . The room (with the bathroom and etc) was just a little bigger than my bathroom back home! A bigger room with 3 beds was only 9 Euros more, so we jumped to the deal, and later we found out it was well worth the 9 Euros. The upper bed was almost impossible to get on (sorry not a wall climber). Actually attempting to get on the upper bed was a lot of fun and we laughed so hard while doing so. (If you follow that link on the last paragraph, there are some pictures of the boat, and the one on the right is actually a picture of our room!)

Olivia made the smart move of asking the locals on where to eat, as we tried not to fall into tourist traps again. On the way to find food we walked straight into the famous Red Light District without knowing, which was quite a shock at first because the first “Display” we saw was this very very fat woman with little clothes on. @_@ Finally we made it to Chinatown and decided to go into the restaurant with the most Chinese patrons. :D The food was good and it was quite a treat after many days of eating just burgers and fries. Afterwards we went to a supermarket to stocked up on fruit, hoping that the extra Vitamin C can help Olivia fight her cold.

Day 3

Our third day in Brussels was ok. We had a late breakfast (almost missed it again) and we decided to walk around the City Centre (yes again!) in the morning. I had a very healthy lunch: Belguim Fries! They are quite cheap, only 1.50 Euro. We found this booth in the middle of a square in front of a church and the taste of the fries was just AWESOME! It's so crisp and fresh! It's the the best fries i've had! The special sauce that came with the fries was good too! We also found a few Chinese Grocery stores and Olivia brought some pig skins (arrh gross!) . In the afternoon we wanted to make use of our Hop On Hop Off bus ticket and went for another ride around the city. Too bad we couldn't hop off the bus cuz there are only a few buses running during weekdays.

We made it back to Central Station by 18:00 to meet up with Bo's cousin, and then we realized that his cousin actually wanted to meet the next day! Hungry, tired, and afraid of falling into tourist trap again, we decide to make our own dinner by getting food from the supermarket. We ended up buying wine, bread, smoked salmon (very fresh and yummy, hehe kinda like sashimi!) and brought it back to the hotel. The food actually tasted quite good, very filling and cost a lot less than dining out.

Atomium!

We slept in today and almost missed our breakfast (ends at 11:00!) at the hotel. The food was sort of hostel style (no contential breakfast!) but it was ok. Walked to Grand Place again to snap some pictures and went to the tourist centre to grab some info on the Atomium. Knowing that Manneken Pis was just steps away from the Grand Place, we took a short walk to take a look. Manneken Pis is a bronze statue of a peeing boy. @_@ We spotted him surrounded by tourists. I read on the internet that he has around 600 costumes but the day we were there he was naked. Totally overrated indeed but we just have to go see cuz we are tourists! There was this stall across from the statue selling Escargots (Sea Snails)! I first thought it was kinda gross, but since I was curious about how it taste, i tried and it was actually quite good!

As we walked towards central station, a girl approached us and offered Hop On Hop Off bus tickets for a discounted price. As gullible and lazy tourist, we accepted her offer and brought our first Hop On Hop Off ticket ever. It was actually a better idea to take the bus to the Atomium anyway, because if we were to take the Metro, we wont be seeing much underground.

The Hop On Hope Off bus took us around the city, which is truly beautiful, and we hopped off at the Atomium. It's a pity that it's closed for renovation until early 2006 but i still wanted to go there to take a look at the structure and take pictures. I've always like to look at different architecture and this one is truly brilliant! The Atomium was designed for the International Exhibition of Brussels that was held in 1958. It was supposed to be demolished afterwards, but i am glad they didnt! I just love this builiding! The design is based on the magnified molecule of an atom, and there are 9 spheres joined by tubes, made from steel and covered in shiny aluminium. I love it! Hopefully i can go inside next time I am in Brussels! We also took a bunch of silly pictures outside of the Atomium to test out the speed of Bo's new toy!

We returned to the city centre at nite and went to this Japanese restaurant. Ordered a Miso Ramen but i suspected it was just a normal instant ramen with tonkatsu! @_@ The cost: 7.5 Eruo!!!! Before going back to the hotel, i had a chance to email my family to tell them i was still alive and i also brought a waffle! I saw them all over Brussels and i wanted to try one. It was quite good, especially when it's cold at night cuz the waffle is quite hot! However, Bo and I agreed that it's nothing compared to "Chicken Eggs" from HK!

1st night in Brussels

We took the Airport Express to get to Brussels' central station. It was only 2.8 Euro and the duration was about 15 mintues. Spent around half and hour finding our hotel and passed by Grand Place. It's a huge courtyard surrounded by historic buildings. It was just magnificant! Since it was Saturday evening there were a lot of people there. Didnt stay too long cuz the place was close to our hotel and we knew we were gonna be back. Finally we found Hotel Opera on a busy street. The hotel is not too bad except in our room there was this one bed that was obviously smaller than the other 2. Kinda reminded me of Goldie Locks...

As soon as we settled down at the hotel, we headed out to the busy shopping district close by. Went to look for the new Stella McCartney collection at H&M but was already sold out. :( We found an Electronics store and Bo saw this 7xx Euro camera he wanted! I was so tired at the store because of the jet lag and i tried so hard to keep my eyes open. At last Bo decided to get the camera. It became his new toy and he pretty much ignored Olivia and I cuz of it throughout the trip. :P

I forced myself to stay awake to adjust to the local time. This is surely the best way to fight jet lag! Altho it is a really hard thing to do. We walked around the area surrounding Grand Place again to find a decent restaurant to dine in. At last we got quite tired, and when this waiter approached and sweet talked us into going in the restaurant, we went with him cuz we were simply too hungry and too tired to look.

I read somewhere that the restaurants around that area is famous as some sort of tourist trap! >_< but we were just too tired and decided to take a chance, so we fell right into the trap! The food at the restaurant was actually not too too bad, altho i was expecting something better. I ended up ordering mussels and it was actually quite good. Olivia and Bo's salmon was not the best. The biggest rip-off at the restaurant was the bottle of water; they charged us 4 Euro for this flippin' bottle. We checked at a supermarket later and it only cost 0.50 Euro!

At last we were back to our hotel, i took a shower first cuz i was just dead tired and needed to sleep. I always carry a set of clean clothes with me whenever i need to check my bags, and this time around it came in handy! I got this overnight kit from the airport that includes some basic stuff, but it didnt include anything for my face! Arrrh i miss my toiletry kit so bad! It's hard to imagine what will happen if my baggage doesnt arrive the next day!

Had no memory of what happened after my shower cuz I was told that i fell asleep in 2 seconds.

Lost Baggage!

The flight to Frankfurt actually arrived a bit early than expected. So .. there was plenty of time to shop around at the terminal before boarding the plane to Brussels. Great! First thing i did was adjusting my watch according to the computerized billboard that shows the Arrival/Departure time. Went to the ATM and got 300 Euro, thinking that should be enuf cash for the entire trip (will use credit card whenever possible). Wandered around shops and had lunch at McD's (Happy Meal!). When it was time to leave, i went to the departure gate and was told that my flight already left!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :( I checked my watch and realized that the clock i was following was about 40 mins behind! Arrrh~~ How can a computerized clock be wrong????? I swear i saw it refreshing as it updates the different arrivial/departure time! :( Staff at Lufthansa suggested i go to the ticket office to get a ticket for the next flight. At the ticket office, they told me that i need to cough up 300 Euro for the next flight. I told them that it's not my fault that the clocks at the airport was wrong! The lady was kinda mean and screamed "it's not our fault either!". :( She suggested that i go to the Air Canada counter, since they issued the ticket. From the Lufthansa booth, i dashed a few minutes and finally arrived at the Air Canada booth (huge airport!), put onthis innocent face and sort of beg the lady there to help me. The lady there kinda gave me that "gee, how could u???" look but she quickly issued me a 2nd ticket, which was quite nice considering that i was gonna start crying and tell her that i cant afford the 300 Euro Lufthansa wanted me to pay. Finally i boarded the next flight that leaves 1.5hrs after the one i missed. I prayed that Olivia and Bo would still be waiting for me at the arrival gate.

Finally i arrived in Brussels! Waited at the baggage belt for so long but didnt see my baggage coming. Turns out that they pulled my suitcase from the flight i missed, and it didn't make it on the flight i was on. :( Arrh~ Went to the Baggage service at Brussels airport to report my lost suitcase. The guy there was extremely friendly and helpful, but at the same time very slow! I knew Olivia and Bo was gonna wait until 15:45ish but i was afraid of telling the guy to speed up (that'll be kinda mean!). Finally i got out at around 15:30 and spotted my friends! Hehe quite a happy moment. I told them i was gonna arrive in the "Apprentice" style but couldnt without my suitcase. :(

Brussels!

My journey started today! Woke up at 10:00ish to pack my bags. Packing light is the key, as i realize that I often carry too much things with me on trips! I was ready by around 13:00ish. Went out for lunch and ordered WonTon Noodles, knowing that I won't be having any good Chinese food for the next 10 days. Headed down to the airport to check in early, and came out again to buy an umbralla. At the back of my mind i knew i left something behind, and i realized not long before boarding the plane; my Miffy Airplane pillow and Eye Mask from Tokyu Hands! Arrhhhh~~~ Didnt think i'd survive without my plane pillow so i brought one at the airport. Once i boarded the plane i realized my seat was taken, the guy who got my seat had to take care of a lady with an oxygen tank, so i took another seat instead. The baby in front of me was crying her heads off. @_@ Luckily she stopped crying once the plane lifted off. Going to Frankfurt from Calgary is about 8.5hrs and another 50 minutes from Frankfurt to Brussels. Hmm pretty excited about the trip. Can't wait to meet up with Olivia and Bo finally after all the planning and chatting! Let's hope we are still friends after the 10 days. :P