Cepat eh masa berlalu?

Feels like just yesterday I was counting down to my Eastern Europe holiday?! Sekarang dah pun masuk the last entry for my Eastern Europe blog series.

If you've been living bawah your mother's katil and have no idea what I'm talking about, you can click on the links below to read about my whole Europe holiday before completing the rest of this entry:

❤ Click Here to Read Blog Entry about Prague
❤ Click Here to Read Blog Entry about Berlin
❤ Click Here to Read Blog Entry about Poznan & Krakow
❤ Click Here to Read Blog Entry about Krakow
❤ Click Here to Read Blog Entry about Budapest
❤ Click Here to Read Blog Entry about Vienna
❤ Click Here to Read Blog Entry about Salzburg & Munich
❤ Click Here to Read Blog Entry on the Airport & Flight Experiences

Alternatively, you can watch our holiday video (done by my lovely sister!) below:

Hello Khronicles Goes to Eastern Europe 2014 by fazmals on Vimeo.

Click on 'HD' for best viewing. The video footage was taken on our Canon G16.

Our Travel Dates:

7th May 2014 (Wednesday) to 21th May 2014 (Wednesday)

Flight Itinerary & Journey Duration:

From Singapore to Prague

Singapore to Dubai via Emirates on 7 May 2014
Duration of Flight: Approximately 7++ hours

Dubai to Prague via Emirates on 8 May 2014
Duration of Flight: Approximately 6++ hours

From Munich to Singapore

Munich to Dubai via Emirates on 21 May 2014
Duration of Flight: Approximately 6++ hours

Dubai to Singapore via Emirates on 21 May 2014
Duration of Flight: Approximately 7++ hours

You can read more about our flight experience here.

Time Difference:

Europe is 6 hours behind Singapore.

Currency Used:

Prague - Czech Crown (CZK)
Berlin - Euro (€)
Krakow - Zloty (PLN)
Budapest -  Forint (HUF)
Vienna - Euro (€)

Note: We were able to use both Euro and local currencies throughout our journey, but we were told that local currencies are always preferred over Euro. From experience, the shops returned our change in local currency even when we paid in Euro - unfortunately, the currency rate may not be the best in such cases.

Weather & Climate During Our Stay:

We decided to travel in May because it is one of the best months to travel to Europe:

(1) We get to enjoy the comfortable spring-to-summer weather (not too cold, not too hot)

(2) We get to avoid the summer crowds due in June and July

(3) May is my birthday month so it is the most awesome month in the whole wide world LOLZ

I gotta admit, the weather was colder than I anticipated! Which is why I didn't bring enough clothes to layer up lololol aku ada hati bawak baju meant for casual wear in Singapore.

That said, the weather was absolutely ~dreamy~ on most days! Temperatures ranged from 10°C to 18°Cs so the air was cool and blissful and perfect, which explains why we were decked in layers even when the sun was in our faces. IF ONLY WE COULD TAPAO THE WEATHER TO SINGAPORE AND STAY IN IT FOREVER!

Why we chose to travel to Eastern Europe:

My husband and I both love reading and discussing history so we were drawn to eastern Europe's rich history and strong cultural background. It was always about visiting historical sites and absorbing the city's culture when we booked this holiday, and shopping was belakang cerita.

Of course, as history has it, shopping accidentally became our cerita paling depan by the time we reached Vienna LOL

Thoughts on the Cities Visited

Out of all the cities we visited, Saliheen and I agree that Prague (Czech Republic) and Budapest (Hungary) were our absolute favourites. We found their raw old school charm very attractive somehow, and we were awed by everything we saw, including their people!!! 

Case in point: We saw the most gorgeous modelesque girls selling hotdogs at a standing food booth in Prague and gawked like nobody's business!!! Tapi yang buat lepak was the minute we passed by their booth, their radio blared out the iconic line from Alicia Keys' Girl on Fire - "THIS GURL IS ON FIYAHHHHH"and my husband couldn't help but quip "Oh, you girls are on fire, alright" HAHAHAHAHA I couldn't stop laughing wtf. 

Kelakar kan laki aku. Tapi lagi kelakar this girl yang literally on fire HAHAHAHAHAHA

The next closest one that I personally love was Krakow (Poland) - mainly because of Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp and the Wieliczka Salt Mine, which were two of the many places I want to visit before I kick the bucket. Still feels surreal and I'm still reeling over it!

We didn't have much impression of the German cities we visited - Dresden, Berlin and Munich. Sure, we loved the historical sites we visited and standing in front of the Berlin Wall was an absolutely breathtaking for us but other than that, the "pull" wasn't as strong as Prague or Budapest for us. Maybe we didn't go to the right places or didn't stay longer to appreciate, I don't know.

As for Vienna and Salzburg (Austria), unfortunately we didn't enjoy them as much as we did for the other destinations, although there is a special place in my heart for the Schonbrunn Palace!!!

I think it's because we weren't as invested in their history as compared to the others? Don't get me wrong - Vienna and Salzburg are great cities to visit! But I guess it'd make more sense for someone who is interested in musical history to visit Vienna and Salzburg and to be able to appreciate and enjoy them. Personally, we're glad to have visited Vienna and Salzburg but unlikely to return in the near future.

Which hotels did we stay at and which tourist attractions did we visit:

You can read my blog entries (links mentioned above) or you can refer to my list which I've uploaded here.

Availability of Halal Food

It's not super easy, but also not as difficult as we thought it'd be! I don't know whether it was just our luck but most of the hotels we stayed at had halal kebab stalls nearby and a few of the tourist attractions we visited had halal kebab stalls nearby as well. Cuma we had to keep our eyes wide open because some were located at belakang areas and needed some maneuvering.

As for the meals provided in the package, Muslim customers are usually served fish and vegetarian options in designated restaurants. Some people might rasa was was because the meals are served in non-halal establishments so if that's an area of concern, you might want to bring extra money for your own food. (We spent about SGD10 to SGD15 per person whenever we bought food from halal stalls)

Souveniers to Buy

We were spoilt for choice when it came to buying souveniers and couldn't decide where and what to buy! Hur hur. We ended up buying stuff like chocolates, soaps, coasters, spices, pencils for our friends and colleagues, and teeshirts, bags and shawls for our family.

Oh, and if anyone is travelling to Budapest and planning to visit St Stephen's Basilica, can I just warn you to NOT buy your souveniers at the souvenier shop which is in front of it?!?! Because mahal nak mampos peh rip off lor!!!!!

I wanted to borong souveniers there but Saliheen didn't bring along enough cash (our cash was in the tour bus, didn't want to bawak lebih because the area we were at is known for pickpockets) so I only picked out a few items. We later went to another area and discovered that the souveniers there were way, way cheaper!!!!! Nang bo tinang. Depan korang punya tempat sembahyang, korang buat gini eh. Kena laknat nanti tau. 

Pros & Cons of Booking a Holiday Package with A Travel Agency

We initially planned to DIY the trip but after some pain and suffering when we tried to get the best flights, accommodations and transfers, we decided we were more suited for a guided tour than a DIY holiday in Eastern Europe. You can read our reasons here.

But now that we have gotten our virgin experience of travelling with a tour group organized by a tour agency, we've identified the pros and cons of doing so:-

Pros

- We didn't have to sweat over details because everything was prepared for us! Fuss free!
- We travelled on a dedicated tour bus = minimal chance of us getting lost or too exhausted.
- It was much cheaper to travel with a tour agency for the itinerary we wanted.
- We had free time to ourselves at some of the locations.

Cons

- We had to travel with 20 other strangers (We made secret nicknames for some, but made friends with others so it wasn't so bad in the end haha)

- We couldn't move around as we please - there were times when we would have liked to spend more time in a museum or bask longer in the atmosphere but because we were with a tour group, we had to leave when the stipulated time was over. We also had to go to some locations which we wouldn't have even gone to if we were on own and had a choice e.g. beer factory, monastery, etc.

- We couldn't choose the flight seats or hotels as we pleased (But to be fair, the tour agency did try their best to accommodate to our requests and book 4-star hotels with reasonable standards.)

Overall review of EU Holidays: 

We were pretty satisfied with the service we got from EU Holidays and our appointed tour manager! Certain types of people might find our tour manager a little too lax but for us, he was the perfect tour manager. He didn't 'baby' us sampai we felt limited during the journey and knew what to say or how to help when we did consult him throughout the journey. You can read about how we came to book our holiday package with EU Holidays here.

Would we return to Eastern Europe for a holiday:

Yes, if we have rezeki, insya Allah!

But we'll probably only return to Prague and Budapest so we can cover more museums and sites for longer periods + we'll DIY the trip since we've already covered the main historical sites we want in Eastern Europe and it'll be easier to DIY just two cities the next time round. Might even add in Warsaw? We didn't get to visit Warsaw this time round because it wasn't part of the tour itinerary :( 

The Total Expenditure:

It was approximately SGD3600++ per person for the Eastern Europe holiday package, which includes flights, transfers, 4-star accommodation and meals. We also brought along SGD2500 for other additional things e.g. fees for optional tours like Danube River Cruise and Wieliczka Salt Mine, own meals (halal kebab suppers and desserts), souveniers and other miscellaneous things as well as a separate amount for own shopping.

Okay korang, kita sudah pun sampai ke penghujung cerita!!! Macam dah penat eh asyik cakap pasal this holiday??? Haha. Can't wait for our Bali and Gili New Year holiday trip end of this year, lepas tu baru boleh start berangan our next travel destination!!! 

I'm thinking of a Santorini getaway, he's thinking of a Scandinavian holiday, and then recently we started looking at US tours padahal we initially wanted to go South Korea??? Macam semua tempat ah kita nak jejak. Tapi as usual... tengoklah rezeki macam mana ye.

Eastern Europe Holiday Series - Part 7: Hello Salzburg & Munich!

After saying our goodbyes to Vienna, we made our way to see the Belvedere which is this super pretty historic building complex surrounded by an equally pretty garden landscape!!!

Imagine living here for the rest of your life?! Lumayan siol hidup. Bila boring je golek golek kat garden.

Headed over to Salzburg after that and upon arrival, we visited the Mirabell Palace and Mirabell Gardens - super pretty stuff! You know how in Singapore, if you go to the gardens or parks (the Botanic Park, for example), it can get quite humid and you will feel rimas and melekit after awhile? Nothing of that sort here, because the weather was chilly and lovely, and absolutely perfect for a day out in the gardens ❤

Also perfect to film a Bollywood inspired dancing scene, where you golek golek down the rumput and main cak cak behind the trees hehehehehe

We then walked towards the place where Mozart used to stay at during his lifetime, then crossed over a bridge to get to the old town to see where Mozart was born:

Where Mozart used to stay.

Love locks at the bridge connected to the old town.

Where Mozart was born - No. 9 Getridegasse

Kat bawah ada supermarket and rows of shops selling souveniers, snacks, trinkets, clothes and stuff and this area is known as the Pedestrian Street of Getridegasse. 

We also had some free time to jalan jalan at the Old Town and explore the Pedestrian Street of Getridegasse by ourselves, and our first activity of the day was to try the coffee and cakes at Cafe Tomaselli, as recommended by our tour manager. 

I'm not a coffee lover but I thought their signature coffee was very aromatic and sedap! The cakes were nice as well, but what I especially like about it was the ordering process.

You don't need to wait in line to order cakes at the counter or anything like that  - you can just sit down, order coffee from the male waiter, and then there will be female waitresses moving around the cafe with trays of cakes which you can directly choose from. Easy! We should have this in Singapore for lazy buggers like me!

 

After our few hours of free time was over, our tour bus took us to our next hotel, which turned out to be.....

..... the dodgiest hotel we stayed at during the trip hahahahaha

Also known as Neutor Schwaerzler Hotel. Which should really be known as Hotel 81 Salzburg hahahahaha

The lobby was very, very old with super tired furniture, the lift was small gila, the room looked and smelled bloody ancient and there was no air-conditioning in the rooms!!! To add to that, we also found out the hotel receptionist doubles up as the bar waitress hahahahaha we didn't ask whether she triples up as the chambermaid too because that would have been so hilarz.

But we were more amused than anything else lah so we just giggled at everything and hey, turns out we didn't need the air-conditioning because the night was cool enough for us to sleep comfortably, anyway. Lagipun it was for a night only so..... #YOLO

Next day - me being silly and wearing my "It's a Communist Party!" teeshirt out hehehe

Okay kita dah sampai to our next location! Which is the top of these snowy mountains in Salzburg!!! Penat tau naik benda ni!!!

LOLOLOLOLOLOL I'm kidding, of course. Siapa mau layan trek up icy mountains segala?! Kitaorang punya tour groupmates ada umur dah setengah abad seh! Jangan cakap yang tua ah, dengan aku sekali boleh cardiac arrest siol kalau nak trek naik ini benda.

Sebenarnya these icy mountains were surrounding our actual location......

... which was the Swarovski Crytsal World! This is how it looks like kat depan before the entrance:

Not sure what's the significance of this structure to Swarovski. Mungkin it is to represent all the husbands who were forced to buy crystals for their wives sampai muntah darah hahahahahaha

No pictures of the inside because it's just a normal showroom which sells Swarovski items lah, and we only bought a few items as souveniers because Saliheen tak nak layan my request for him to buy me this as a gift:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

WEAK AH YOU B, KAN ISTERI KENA NAMPAK CANTIK UNTUK SUAMI. LOLOLOL

We left for Innsbruck after that to see a "famous golden roof", or at least that's what our tour manager said. We didn't find it that interesting, but we did find yummy and cheap gelato while we were there:

2 gelato cones for 2 Euros. SGD3.30 only!!! Tak dapat ah this kind of price in Singapore.

Anyway, as you can see, itinerary dah start mendak from hereon because we were just travelling to sampai Munich - which is where we will take our flights home from, and our next stop for the trip.

We arrived at a shopping area in Munich but didn't do much because we didn't want to shop (the sales weren't very attractive) so we ended up gorging on halal kebab (too much sauce and veg so not as nice as the one we had in Vienna) and chilling out at a quaint little cafe called Lady Tigella, which served moist chocolate brownie with mascarpone cream and peppermint herbal tea. Mmmmmmm.

Damn. Wish I can have this right now in Singapore.

Had our dinner after that, and then it was time to check in to the last hotel for our Europe trip! I half expected it to be as bad as the one in Salzburg but it turned out pretty okay. At least ada aircon lolz.

The location was pretty shitty though, we were surrounded by office buildings and there were no makan places or convenience stores nearby. And so far away from the airport!

We found out later there was a miscommunication at the tour agency during booking, so we ended up with a hotel situated one freaking hour away from Munich. Pretty damn stupid if you ask me - we should have stayed in a hotel in Munich since we were departing from Munich Airport the next day but... oh well, what to do kan? Dunia ni memang gitu, ada je orang bodoh tak boleh harap.

Our accommodation was Tyrp Hotel Rosenheim - small but decent... and honestly, after our experience at the hotel in Salzburg, anything else will seem like a freaking palace lololol

The next day, we packed up our stuff for the last time for that trip and we prepared to wrap up our holiday after 15 days of travelling, walking tours and making memories. Bittersweet!

Eastern Europe Holiday Series - Part 6: Hello Vienna!

After breakfast at our hotel in Budapest, we set out for the next destination which was Austria!

We first arrived at the McArthur Glen Designer Outlet Pandorf which is a shopping outlet where you can buy stuff at slashed prices! We were interested to see what was available for sale but to be honest, we weren't really excited *excited* because shopping was not something we specifically looked forward to for this trip.

And then, this happened:

We looked at the store directory that was given to us in a goodie bag (which came with discount coupons zomg!), marked the ones we were interested in and started exploring the place. By the time we arrived at our hotel.....

(Cute Gucci and Burberry baby stuff for our good friends Nani & Poji and Aisyah & Sham's baby girls!)

Holyshitballz. Dah macam borong kat pasar malam siolz lolz

THE PRICES WERE FREAKING CRAY CRAY, YOU GAIZE!!!!!!!!!!!

Example: I bought a Furla Candy Bag for only S$160 when the usual price is almost S$400?!?!??? This was after store discount + after 10% discount coupon + after tax refund. MENGGILA KAN!!!!! We kept gasping every time we flipped the pricetags or when we saw the price posters because everything was going for cheap! Especially after you minus off the tax refunds! Seriously eh that bloody shopping outlet was SO PUAKA GET OUT OF MY FACE PLS

Okay let's not talk about tempat puaka anymore because my jantung starting to beat very fast already lol

Tapi excited pasal shopping loot macam mana pun, jangan lupa tunjuk y'all gambar bilik:

Stayed at Renaissance Wien Hotel for two nights in Vienna! Very nice and cosy hotel too, we didn't mind the twin beds, and we really liked where it was located because of three things:

There was a cigarette vending machine at the hotel lobby...

 

There was a halal supermarket right next to the hotel... (Everything in there came with halal logo and it is owned by a Turkish Muslim dude)

 

... and there was a halal kebab makan place five minutes away from our hotel! 

But it was not just any other halal kebab makan place k guys. It was a halal kebab makan place which sold bloody sedap kebab!!!!! Out of alllll the kebabs we bought in all the different countries we visited on this trip, the one in Vienna was the one we loved the most! The meat was so flavourful, thick and generous and the veg was fresh!!! Sedap siak. Tido malam boleh bawak ke mimpi kind.

Malam dah mimpi pasal kebab, next morning bangun and Facetime with my family pulak (haha takde link):

I was already starting to miss my family at this point so that Facetime chat helped :)

So after that short chat and having our breakfast at the hotel, we went out to start our day in Vienna... and one of our first stops was the gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous Schonbrunn Palace!!!!!

Might not look like much from the outside but the palace interiors were absolutely stunning, you guys!!! Everything was so grand and so magnificent and the rooms were crazy massive. Very, very atas stuff.

Probably explains why we were strictly NOT allowed to take pictures pfft. One of our tour groupmates only did as much as fiddle with his camera,and the security officer who was lurking behind our group already stepped up to him and told him to put his camera down :/

Okay, maybe I'll include some pictures off the internet so you can have an idea on what's inside:

(Photo Source: Trek Earth by Krzysztof Dera)

Don't ask me why some people have pictures of the interiors k. Maybe they're James Bond in real life. Maybe they have a crew ala Ocean's Twelve. I don't really know.

After our Schronbrunn Palace tour, we passed through the Ringstraße, the State Opera House, the Parliament Building, the City Hall, the Hofburg Imperial Palace and visited St Stephen Cathedral. No pictures of these places (except the last one) because we were on the bus during the tour and I couldn't get clear shots. Meh.

And this is the St Stephen Cathedral - where Mozart got married, y'all! 

And by Mozart, I mean Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, that well-known influential composer from the 1700s.

I kept imaging how his wedding would have been like while I was there! But when I Googled to read about his wedding and marriage later on, I realized that his wedding had been a quickly arranged one and his marriage to his wife was not ~entirely~ approved by their families.

You can read about it here - sounds like something that can still happen to a young reckless couple ridiculously in love in this day and age, yes? I can totally imagine Iklim's Bukan Aku Tak Cinta being the soundtrack of their love lives if they were a young Malay couple whose union was opposed by their parents in the 1990s lol)

We had some free time after lunch so after exploring the place and buying souveniers, my husband and I decided to lepak at a cafe pointed out by our tour guide before she left - the Aida Cafe, which is apparently very popular in Austria.

(Well, obviously. I mean... how can a cafe chain not be popular when it has freaking cute pink decor, cute pink furniture, cute pink packaging and serves barang yang menghairahkan seperti ice cream strudel and cheese strudel??? Of course, it's popular, darling!)

We sat there enjoying our treats and people-watching (cool hipster hijabis sashaying down the street alert!) before we left to go to another tourist attraction known as  the Seegrotte which is, according to Wiki, "an underground cave system with a large grotto located under a former gypsum mine." Oookay.

We were supposed to ride on the boats to explore the underground caves but the management stopped operations just before we arrived! There was some rain earlier in the day and apparently they couldn't let us go for the boat ride due to some safety issue with regards to the water level. How suay is that?! I was quite disappointed lah because I love these kind of stuff haha but safety precautions are safety precautions lah hor?

Tak kelakar seh kalau mati tenggelam inside an underground cave while on holiday. Takkan nak letak  'Seegrotte Underground Caves, Austria' as the place of death in the death certificate kan.....

Since we couldn't take the boats, we walked through the underground caves via foot. It wasn't particularly interesting for me personally, although the tour guide sparked my interest when he mentioned the Germans used to store their war aircraft in the underground lakes (as they did with the Wieliczka salt mine). Oh, and that this was the place where 'The Three Musketeers' filmed.

We went back to our hotel, ate more yummy kebab (are you even surprised?) and rested for the next day.

"No matter where or why you travel, there's always something wonderfully new to be found" - Lightboard at the entrance of Renaissance Wien Hotel, Vienna, Austria.

In your case, Vienna, we most definitely found something wonderfully new in you... 

... LIKE YOUR YUMMY HALAL KEBAB LOLZ

Okay, enough with the yummy kebab in Vienna already, because we're travelling to Salzburg next, which is the second last stop of our Europe trip! 

Is it just me, or am I totally pushing out all my Europe blog entries before Raya like I said I will? :P