Day 12-United Kingdom,Conventry

This is where I get my first taste of British hospitality. Which was awesome really.

Conventry is nothing like London at all. Except its still very cold. We took it easy for this day. with Ryan's two cousins taking us to the car museum. Apparently conventry used to be a huge car manufacturing complex. Now with the Japanese and other countries taking a monopoly of the market, its no surprise that the factories were shut down for cheaper labour. After that, we headed to the Cathedral that offered the bird's eye view of the City. Didnt do much after that. Just headed back home. For some reason, ryan and I were really really tired. At dinner though, I had the most fantastic meal i had since Amsterdam. Chicken casserol(obviously spelt wrongly but i cant be bothered), and puddings! Typical British dinner i guess. IT WAS FABULOUS! YUM YUM. Too bad i didnt take any pictures.

Anyway, my mum wants me to stay like a week more in Europe. To help her do some paper work. Damn.

Day 11- United Kingdom- Coventry

Our Day started early due to the fact that we had to check out at 1000. We did just that at about 0940-ish. Anyway, since our train was only leaving at 1343, was did some last min sightseeing. So we headed over to see, very quickly now, Trafalgar Square, No. 10 Downing Street(where the british prime minister is), the Big Ben and the London Eye (Singapore flyer equivalent). We the rushed back to our hostel to grab our bags to catch the train. We did have to run for it. Just over an hour, we were at Conventry, where Ryan has family. Its a very very nice place, very very quiet compared to London. We hung around a little, chatted with the family, walked through town to have some curry with reminded me of Mdm Kours restaurant. You will realise that I'm typing shorter and shorter sentences. Well, the reason's simple. Jonny tired. Ryan's tired too. He's snoring like a molested zebra or something like that as I type this. I guess travelling around is taking a toll on us.

Day 10- United Kingdom-London

London, as I imagined, would be a gloomy, cold, wet and unfriendly place. Well, London was in fact a very very pretty nice city to be in! There were quite a few noticeable changes in the environment we were in. And the biggest change of all? WE COULD READ ALL THE SIGNS AND UNDERSTAND ALL THE ANNOUNCEMENTS BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS IN ENGLISH! Absolute bliss. It was just like being back in a familiar environment again! But the place is damn cold. BRRRR. We took a 10 pound tour around London. Ore of the Old parts of London cause we missed the complete one in the morning due to the fact that we were on the train from Paris. I like London. London nice. Paris not so nice. Dunno why. Oh well. Tomorrow were headed to Coventry where Ryan has family there. No much to say left, so I’ll just the pictures do the talking. However, you’ll realise that I’m taking lesser and lesser pictures. Well, laziness is part of the reason, but the main reason is because the place is so cold that I’m very reluctant to take my hand out of the pockets because its so cold!

Day 9- French Republic, Paris

We decided to take it easy for our last day in France so that we would not be too exhausted for our journey to London the next day. So we decided to just visit a few attractions before calling it a day. Got off to a slow start that day, looking for the catacombs. Ryan wanted to see it. I was rather reluctant though. The sound of it sort of creeps me out. Anyway, we got lost trying to find the place. Secretly, I was rather pleased that we couldn't find the place, but we eventually found it. As it turned out, we walked past it several times without realising it because the entrance wasn't very obvious. Well, nothing much about the place, except that the place used to be a quarry until it was abandoned. then the french authorities realised,:"Hey! pre-dug graves!" SO they decided to exhume all the graves and relocate the bones over there so that the city could expand. We basically, the entire trip was spent on going down the stairs into the catacombs, walking through the tunnels, looking at stacks upon stacks of bones and the going up again. 83 steps I remembered. After that, Ryan sort of made it up too me by going to the muesee de armee, or army museum which he somehow knew that I was absolutely enjoy myself, which I did! He got bored though. But then, the place closed early, so I didnt get to finish looking at everything.=( Once we left the museum, it started to rain heavily, so we decided to head back to the hostel to slack. Then dinner afters. That wrapped up our French tour. London next!

Day 8- French Republic- Paris

Well, I'm into the second week of my European trip, and i must say I'm starting to miss home. Either that or I'm bored of Ryan. Hmmm.

Day 2 in Paris!I must say my opinion of it has changed. Somewhat. Paris is a very very very old city with loads of old history around. Amazing. Gives a very rustic feel. Perhaps this is the reason why it has the romance factor in it. We went on a free guided walking tour which we tipped the guide 20€. Hmmm. But she was pretty good though. Then after the tour we headed straight for the Effiel tower and CLIMBED it even though they had lifts. Travelling on the cheap apparently. Then we headed for the supposively famous Lourve museum. Not a very smart idea seeing that we're dead tired after the climb and museums would mean plenty of walking around. Headed back to the hostel after deciding that we're too tired to do anything else. I won't post any pictures up here not because I've not taken any, but because the Internet here is USELESS! My lappy is struggling to connect as i type this post. Oh well. Maybe London.

Day 7- French Republic- Paris

Bonjour! Paris is a 3hr 50min train ride from Amsterdam. You know, after a day of walking around Paris aimlessly, I must say that I preferred Amsterdam. Still, its only the first day, so I'll reserve my judgement till later. Ryan enjoyed himself immensively though. All the pretty French girls he saw. I did seem to notice any. Maybe i do prefer asian girls. HAHA. Didnt take many pictures today, and wont upload any cuz the wireless here is quite crappy. heh. Maybe when i'm back in amsterdam or something.

Starting to miss home now....

Day 6- The Kingdom of the Netherlands- Reigerbos

*In Hongkong Accent*

Today no picture. We bummed around the entire day, going out only to get food. And more food. Well, to put it nicely, we were resting for our trip to Paris the next day. Wouldn't want to get ourselves worned out.

Well, I'm not sure if i can get wireless in Paris, London and scotland. You'll know when you see a new update. So, i'll see you lot in 8 days time!

Day 5- The Kingdom of the Netherlands- Keukenhof

The theme this year was- "From Russia with love". Sounds very James Bond-ish. Film festival? Nah. We went to a flower "theme park". Very Pretty very pretty. But we sort of came too early though. Not all the flowers were in full bloom yet. Imagine if all of them were to be... WOW. Nothing much to say here. Just pictures. Loads of them!

YAY! BIG WHOOP!

After a day at Keukenhof which i would blog about later, i got a fairly pleasant surprise.

NAPFA Test Results

Student ID

0761598

Name

YU YOW HANG JONATHAN

Test Date:	11/03/10	Valid Score:	Y
Test Time:	9:30 AM	Best Score:	Y
Status:	Participated	Test Venue:	Singapore Polytechnic
Weight on Test Date:	0 kg	Date of Birth:	26/05/90
Height on Test Date:	0 cm	Age on Test Date:	19
Body Mass Index:	0	Age-Gender Category:	19 year-old males

	Raw Score	Grade	Points
Bent Knee Sit Ups:	43	A	5
Standing Broad Jump:	232 cm	C	3
Sit and Reach:	48 cm	B	4
Pull Ups/Inclined Pull Ups:	8	C	3
Shuttle Run:	10.2 seconds	B	4
2.4km Run/Walk:	12.30 minutes	D	2

Total Points:

21

Award:

SILVER

SILVER! YAY! NO FAT CAMP FOR ME!!!!

Day 4- The Kingdom of the Netherlands- Den Haag

If you didn't know, although Amsterdam is the capital of Netherlands, the Queen does not reside in the capital. Rather, Den Haag is the residence of the Queen. Very much unlike the British where the Queen stays at the Buckingham palace in London and the President stays at the White House at Washington D.C. Hmmm. So off to Den Haag we went!

Set off a little late cuz we slept in. Heh. We went to this "theme park" in Den Haag called Maruodam. Its not really a theme park. Its actually a miniature city of the more important places in the Netherlands. I had memories of this place about 10 years ago. Beautiful place. the pcitures say it all. I didnt put up all the pictures i took. IT WOULD TAKE FOREVER!

Pretty plastic Flowers. My first attempt at perspective photography.

After a couple of hours at the miniature city, we headed off to the all famous (i think) scheveningen beach. It rained kinda hard right after we left the miniature city, so when we arrived at the beach, it was really really cold and because of the fact that we were right next to the sea, the wind was really cold and strong. We had fun though. Enjoyed the sights, getting very windswept as you can see.

Beautiful eh? This is made by God.

Anyway, i dont usually talk about my journeys to and from the various attractions cuz they are usually boring with nothing to talk about. BUT! this one back from Den Haag was terrible. We were sitting on the train next to this young dutch couple. Then this young punk was jabbering away non stop that it was so damn irritating. Like :"hgvkjhwvkehjvwkjvhb,sdvjvb,jbvjbvk"(okay. i cant speak dutch, but you get what i mean) of the entire trip which was about an hour long. I felt like slapping him or something. But then, he was about 2 times my size so i thought better not mess with him. Irritating ass. Spoil my image of the nice dutch people.