random, but my favourite french phrase for the moment has got to be 'Je vais comme-ci, comme-ca'
It sounds so...hokkien.

Gorgeous Views - Split

Hello Split! We walked to the promenade at dusk and a beautiful double rainbow greeted us. The second rainbow isn't visible from my photos. Split looks vastly different from the european cities and this was a really refreshing sight. A fishy smell hung over the area close to the sea so that was a tad unwelcoming. Perhaps it was due to the fish market that closed just before we arrived. Nevertheless, our breaths were taken away by the beauty of this place. I've heard from others that Dubrovnik is more beautiful than Split so that place is next on my must visit list.

En route to Split. Just a side note that Croatia is difficult to get around without a car. We rented one and that inflated our budget a bit. The alternative is to take a bus via plitvice but we decided against it due to a variety of reasons. I wish there are trains linking the different cities. But nevertheless, it was fun going on a road trip, taking detours due to accidents on road, getting lost and going through dilapidated towns that looked frozen in time.

So there, more lovely pictures to capture the beauty of Split from the promenade. I really enjoyed the view from here. We ventured on to the Diocletian palace after dinner. My camera takes poor quality pictures in low light so I dont have any nice ones to share. Most of the shops within the palace compound were closed at night so we didn't get to see much. Due to unforeseen detours enroute, we arrived in time only for dinner in Split which was really a pity. We could have done a day trip or two to Hvar island which is again highly recommended.

Viola, here is our dinner place -Fife, recommended by the lady at our hostel. It was a bustling place, filled with tourists occupying two seating areas. The prices were reasonable but the food wasn't that tasty.

The gnocchi was really tasteless and unappetizing. It was edible when dipped in the sauce from the beef stew below.

This was a good old comforting stewed beef in sauce. 

Here's their mixed fish grill with calamaris for three persons. The fried calamaris were crunchy and salty. A little too salty towards the end. The trout and sea bass was too fishy. All wells, dinner was passable but I wouldn't return to Fife the next time I return to Split.

Lush Solid Perfume - Love

I love my scents, especially a fruity and floral scent mixed together. I picked this up in Hungary. Lush is so expensive outside England really. Priced at 23sgd, I hope this was cheaper than buying in Singapore. I have yet to check the prices. 

According to the saleswoman, Love is one of the popular scents for their solid perfumes. Others being Karma and Lust. Such cute names

.With ingredients like rose absolute, lemongrass, ylang ylang and jasmine; its really hard to resist love's scent. 

Here's is Lush's take on Love:

“Watching my sons fall in and out of love inspired this perfume, and rather like their relationships, it took quite a while to get right. It is for flirts really, but being a flirt is not something everyone wants to be known for. On the other hand, flirting is so much fun. I have tried to make a perfume that will flirt for you while you pretend indifference. Love is an instantly bright and bubbly fragrance with a vivacious green apple fruit scent and sweet citrus innocence. As the initial burst fades, it's replaced with a sugary sweet apple pie note while maintaining a sharp lift.” 

So there, the last few sentences explains the scent in the best possible way.

Its small and compact, convenient enough to be placed into a purse or slipped into a handbag. You apply by rubbing it into your wrists or neck. It leaves a slightly sticky residue that doesn't feel greasy. I am personally unaffected by the residue it leaves and is absorbed after a while.

The scent doesn't lasts long. Plus, for another to smell it, he has to lean in close. Its an alluring scent but definitely a light one. So I kind of feel that this is not worth rebuying. 

Love has an expiry date. I bought it in june this year so I have to use by december. boohoo. 

I've never read cupcakes and cashmere religiously but her recent posts captivated me. Here's a picture of her dancing with her father. Its lovely to know that people on another side of the world dance with their dads on their wedding day. Maybe in my next life I'll be able to do that too.

I love the lace details on the back of her wedding dress, its perfect. My wedding dress will be something like this too. A chiffon dress, mermaid shaped, down to the ankles with a silk lace back.

Picture credits to Cupcakes and Cashmere.

Croatia - Zagreb

We took a train from Hungary to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. It was quite amusing. They say you know you are in EU if you can travel everywhere by trains. Croatia is on its way to joining the EU. Midway through the journey, we had to disembark from our train and transfer to a hot and stuffy bus before being transported to another railway station to continue our journey to Zagreb.

Zagreb is characterised by these blue trams everywhere. They city is small enough to be walkable by foot to most places.

And hello Zagreb at dusk. This city is surprisngly beautiful. It looked drab and dreary when the trains rolled into the main station. Boring industrial buildings, grey and functionalist. It is only when we hit the city centre and explored around did I realise how pretty this place is. 

Its the city with the biggest lounge and yes music filled this place. There was a constant stream of musicians, choirs and bands playing on the stage in the middle of the centre. Europe should be called the continent of music. The talents you can find on the streets are amazing. European cities has this defining vibe that makes them magical and its something I always miss when on returning back home.  I am grateful for the blind busker that strums on his guitar sporadically at the cross streets of tampines junction.

Often, I am amazed by how long the spring/summer days are in europe and how short dusk is. The photo is taken possibly 5 minutes after the one before and the sky is already several shades darker. The   night descends swiftly and so does the chill. I am used to the long evening skies in singapore. It starts getting darker at 6.00pm here. Dusk lasts for at least an hour or more. 

Quaint little houses, the never ending fountains, statutes and imposing cathedrals. What is there not to love about zagreb/europe. However, it around this time, midway through my journey across eastern europe, the cities were melting into a mash of similar landscapes. and so did the food. We ate mixed grill from every country we visited. I got a little sick of bread and yoghurt. And I missed my mother's soup.

One of the best ice cream places in zagreb. They serve a plethora of ice cream. This was yummy, but the one from Vienna is the best.

We visited this really interesting museum in Zagreb. It is a collection of momentos from break ups and broken marriages. There were several stories from Singapore too. The guys found this place really depressing and cracked jokes about having their guy talk if they can't sleep at night. 

There was this cute little cafe called Ivica Marica which translates to Hansel and Gretel. They serve traditional croatian cakes, ice cream and coffee. We didn't fancy their cakes with poppy seeds. 

Photo credit: Tea Mamut

We chanced upon this blogger's desserts selling in Konzum and we had to try it! Her tiramisu are indeed not bad. Better than some in house restaurant tiramisu.

Next onwards to Split!

breakfast

Comfort is drinking traditional Hainanese coffee and eating delicious Viennese wafer biscuits for breakfast. 

I love our local coffee, roasted with margarine and maize. Traditional roasted coffee is so fragrant. I drink my coffee black without sugar or milk. Kopi O Kosong. I often get my coffee names wrong when ordering at coffeeshops. Sometimes I'll end up with Kopi C kosong which is with evaporated milk. Now that sis bought an espresso machine, I have been drinking my coffee at home and sourcing for roasted coffee powder. Its so hard to find a good pack of traditional coffee powder really. Most/All the shops have relocated to industrial sites. Where have all the old coffee trading shops gone? The ones at amoy and victoria street vanished. I now buy my coffee powder from Ya Kun or NTUC. It isn't as fragrant and is expensive. I still wish for a whiff of the fragrance of coffee powder from those old coffee shops.

The best wafer biscuits are from Vienna. Unlike our local wafers, these are dense and packed with flavour. I love the zany taste of the lemon biscuits. Together, these make such a comforting breakfast. Happy weekend!

Pearl of the Danube River - Budapest

We headed further east to the capital of Hungary - Budapest. Prague was really beautiful and the Sanderman Free Tour was great. Budapest paled in comparison in terms of cityscape and guided tours.   We met a really interesting hungarian on the street who spoke chinese to me and recommended that we walk by the danube river at night. And boy, we were blown away. Just look at the pictures below. The night scene was gorgeous and thoroughly befitting of the 'pearl of the danube river' title.

Budapest - made up of two cities Buda and Pest. The Danube River runs in between. Buda is more hilly and Pest is flat as a pancake.

We had one of the most comfortable and cheapest hostel stay in Maverick Hostel at 12 euros a night. Here's a picture of the six bedder dorm we stayed in. I loved their well equipped kitchen and big luxurious toilets. There wasn't any lock on the 'lockers' in the room but we made do by locking our dorm when we left. No theft and it felt really safe there. We had no problems with noise though I thought the walls were relatively porous. The hostel had a really small lift which noone ever bother to use so it was tiring but good exercise to climb 2 storeys with a mezzanine floor in between. Maverick was also within walking distance to Vorosmarty square- the city centre. I had no issues with this hostel really.

Note: Beside Maverick Hostel is a money changer with one of the best rates in town. We couldn't have gotten better rates. It is also situated right beside a 24 hour supermarket which was really convenient. We tried searching for a bigger supermarket like Tesco but none was found within the city centre.

One of the oldest bathhouse in Budapest. We didn't feel like paying the entrance fee for a swim in a crowded swimming pool. Following a tip from the ticketing officer, one could get a good look at the bath house from the back and the picture above is my only view of the exterior bath pool. It smelled and didn't seem that clean so we were glad that we didn't pay to enter.

There are two cafes that you must visit when visiting Budapest. The first one is New York Cafe which is situated in a 5 star hotel. We initially dismissed the cheesy name, thinking that it was possibly an american chain. But boy, we were wrong. New York Cafe was incredible. It was the most opulent cafe    i have ever been to. The wait staff was snooty as expected but their cakes were amazing. I would definitely go back for their black forest cakes and any of their chocolate cakes. Their cheesecake was a  tad weird so pass that.

Situated on the corner of Vorosmarty square, sit outside Cafe Gerbeaud if you want to people watch. It is one of the oldest and most historic cafes in Budapest. Try their layered cakes with a layer of caramelised crust on top. You couldn't get better hungarian cakes anywhere else.

I really enjoyed shopping in Budapest. Zara averaged around 20% off Sg's prices so it was a really good deal. The guys commented that the men's range didn't seem that cheap though. I could however get really good bargains like work dresses for 45sgd that were retailing at 99sgd in sg. Meals on the other hand was pretty expensive. Each meal set us back by around 10 euros. There wasn't any cheap eats around so we cooked quite abit in the end.

Prague - Beer festival

Prague beer festival is one of the fondest memories from my travels. It was situated in an expo like  area away from the city centre. Surprisingly, not too many people on the streets know about it and those who attended were mainly locals. Lucky us! 

We watched the Champions league finals there too. Eric was supporting Bayern Munich and the czechs surrounding us were mostly Chelsea supporters. 

The beer festival had everything to ensure its success. It was free entry (unlike the beer festival in singapore where entry costs a whopping $40.), good live music, fun loving people and lots of good beer. We had to change money to their tokens in order to buy beer. Each beer cost 2 Tolars or 10 crowns or 2sgd. Incredibly affordable. Beer should be matched with sausages and pork knuckle. Each main dish cost 3 tolars and up.

Singer amongst the crowd. The benches was mostly one quarter empty on a saturday evening. The atmosphere was so much better on a friday night. There was alot of dancing infront of the stage. I didn't dance but its my idea of chilling out. Real music and silly dancing beats bobbing around in a club anytime.

The crowd really hammed it up with their sing along. There was some male striptease, snogging and cross dressing going on. Everyone was having good fun and it was enjoyable on the sidelines watching them. We were there on a friday night and saturday evening before leaving for Budapest. No one was rowdy, no fighting or beer mugs crashing. 

Girls in tight red dresses arrived and the men got a little frenzied in taking photos.

I love our waitress in her milkmaid costume. Super friendly and nice. The beer was great. Even the blackest beer wasn't bitter. I always order light beer for myself but I got really fond of dark beer by the end of my stay in Czech. We called it 'Kopi Beer'. Its tasted faintly like coffee and was really easy to drink.

Manufaktura Hand Cream

While travelling, I bought this wine hand cream as a present in Czech Republic for mummy. Honestly, any product that has wine as an ingredient in it would win hearts. Czech is famous for different degrees beer and I wondered why they didn't sell 11 or 12 degrees beer beauty products. Men would have bought them for their wives too. I was looking forward to trying something from their local Manufaktura brand and this wine hand cream looked to be n interesting. 

This cream smells like candy and bubble gum which was a real bummer. The scent may sit well with teenagers but its too sweet and synthetic for me.The consistency of the cream was rather watery though it wasn't greasy and absorbed well. On the whole, this was quite a disappointment for me. I'll be sticking to L'occitane and Crabtree and Evelyn creams for their lovely scents and moisturising abilities.

Prague

Prague is very beautiful I thought switzerland as a country is breathtaking and prague comes next in terms of beauty. Charles bridge is always crowded with tourists, beggers, artists and stall owners. I have never seen such a popular bridge in my travels.

Here are some some photos of the apartment i stayed in prague, taken from the air bnb website - historical centre apartment. I didn't take any photos when staying so these are good to show off what i thought was an awesome apartment. Its a ten minutes slow stroll to charles bridge if you want to enjoy the scenery by vltava river. This apartment comfortably house 6 persons. We loved this place so much.

Take the Sandemans Free Tour when you are in Prague. Our guide Kathryn is the best I've ever encountered. Superbly enthusiastic and animated, she makes history come alive. Listen to stories of how Rolling Stones paid for the lighting of the Prague Castle and how Hitler preserved the museum in Jewish District as a memory of an extinct race. Icing on the cake for Prague.

Have a coffee, breakfast or lunch by the window in Cafe Louvre. This beautiful art nouveau style cafe is worth a visit both for its atmosphere and food. Try their pancakes for breakfast. I had their pancakes with raspberry sauce and it was delicious.

Olomouc

Most people would never think of visiting Olomouc when they visit Czech Republic, Prague and Cesky Krumlov are the more obvious and touristy choices. I wanted something off the beaten route and to visit a city in the state of Moravia. Both Prague and Cesky Krumlov are in Baravia. Brno, the capital of Moravia didn't look that enticing - drab and deary.

A university town, Olomouc has the nicest people and the best and cheapest food. Seriously, we met friendly aunties and professors. Not a single short tempered person. We stayed at Poets Corner which is a nice homely place to stay in but the musty smell gets to me sometimes.

We ate and drank in huge quantities, amazed by the cheap beer and the humongous portions of food.

Pivovars (breweries) to try:

Moritz -

We had the best food here. My portion of pork ribs were huge and divine. Excellent 10,11 (semi-dark) and 12 degrees beer.

 

Moritz's 10 degrees beer. A superb and light beer.

Svatovaclavsky pivovar -

This brewery is easily the most popular place in olomouc. It's the favourite brewery of the owner of Poet's corner. They serve really unique fruity beer like sour cherry and manadarin beer. My sour cherry beer tasted a tad like cough medicine. Honest. But my mates loved their 10 and 12 degrees beer. Try also their half half beer which is half dark and half light beer mixed together. You can actually see the two layers of dark and light beer. Really fun and interesting to drink.

Pricier restuarant, with ambience to boot:

Vila Primavesi - We came here for dinner as it was recommended as the best resraurant in Olomouc. Best retuarant(s) in my opinion must serve great food, with good welcoming atmosphere and be valued for money. This fancy upscale restaurant tucked at the corner of Marianska is one of the pricier restuarants. Every occupied table had a bottle of wine and most were decanting their wines. My mates and I breathed a little harder when we stepped in. Not used to fancy places but thankfully like all restaurants in Olomouc, even this was easy on the pocket by Singapore standards. Grins.

Cafes:

Cafe 87

Their famous choco pie

I have been repeatedly told that Cafe 87 has the best choco pie. Their choco pie was wonderful - chocolately and not overly sweet. Best in this town, but not mind blowing. 

Their carrot cake 

They sell however really good carrot cakes. I would return to this cafe for its laid back, chillax ambience with free wifi (awesome!).

Cafe Sant Angelo -

They serve a plethora of cakes. We had two chocolate ones. I honestly dislike the chocolate cakes in Olomouc. Only Cafe 87 serves reasonable ones. The rest of the cafes have horrible chocolate ones. They are dense and sticky, bland and taste undercooked. It probably has to do with the style of baking in moravia.

One of the cosiest cafes with great ambience. We came here for breakfast on the last day of our trip.

My toasted bacon and cheese sandwich was good. There were bell peppers in it and i am not so fond of them. How wrong can one go with bacon and cheese? Their pancakes lacked lustre. Their scrambled eggs were reported to be good. My mates had different flavours of hot chocolate- normal, nougat and rum. I wouldn't recommend their hot chocolate at all. But if you must try one, go for the normal one.