frutti.gummi

I'm missing out on all the big summer movies! Spiderman 3, Shrek the 3rd, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and all the ones coming up in June and July. :( I miss watching movies at the cinema. The experience is just not the same at home. It's a lot worse when I've only got my small laptop and puny speakers. Sigh! It usually takes some time for the movies to come out in the cinema here coz they need to dub them first. Chances of finding a cinema here that shows movies in original language is zero. Doubt that Verona (30 minutes by train) has any either. Well thanks to the internet, low quality version is usually available within a week. Either watch that or wait. No other choice, just have to live with it. So far, I've managed to watched a decent quality Spiderman 3 and a not too bad quality (cannot watch in full screen) of Shrek the 3rd. A friend has just downloaded Pirates and hopefully I'll get to watch it this weekend.

It's very true! Even the Italians agree. Hehe.

Took a break from working on projects during the long weekend and went for a day trip to Lake Garda. It's one of the largest lake in Italy and the Trentino side of the lake is surrounded by mountains. It's just beautiful. The weather was nice albeit too windy sometimes. I guess the wind is good for activities like sailing and wind surfing. We went paddling in the lake for an hour, had lunch, and just walked along the lake to the next town. Such a relaxing day! It's nice that it's only 90 minutes away by bus and it's free when you have the yearly transportation pass. It's probably the best 'freebie' we get here. Hehe.

The night train from Bonn to Milan was quite a nice experience. They even served breakfast! Arrived in Milan central station at almost 8am and headed to the tickets counter to buy a ticket to Trento. I was told that there would be a strike that day and trains would not be runnning. Even if I leave with the next train, I might still be stuck in Verona. The girl at the counter asked me to return later in the afternoon to get the latest update. So I decided to walk around the city and checked my luggages into the luggage deposit. Bought a day transport ticket for 3€ and went around the city. It's such a shopping heaven! Anyway, I went back to the train station at 2pm and was told that the next train leaving for Verona would be at 4:30pm. I insisted to buy the ticket anyway coz I didn't want to queue when the train starts to run again as it would be a very very long queue. Plus I know tickets for regional trains are valid for about a month so even if I ended up staying over in Milan, I could still use it the next day.

I went back to the city to continue sightseeing, mostly window shopping as no luggage space and returned to the train staton at 4pm. I checked my luggages out and found a spot to sit and stare at the information board. The board finally updated the platform number for my train and I quickly rushed to get my ticket validated and get on the train. There were already dozens of people on the train. I managed to get my luggages into the luggage compartment and an old gentleman was already sitting there. I stood next to my luggages and more and more people boarded the train. Since it was the first train out to Verona, the whole train was packed. We barely have space to stand and people were standing inside the toilet in the next compartment. When the train finally moved, everyone felt relief. After an hour, the train became less packed and after 2 hours, I finally got to sit but I started to worry that I might be on the wrong train since it shouldn't take so long to get to Verona. Another half an hour went by and I started to see familiar landscapes and I confirmed with a fellow passenger that we were finally in Verona. Got off the train to board the next train to Trento. This time the train was already there and there were plenty of seats. While waiting for the bus home in Trento, I met my friends who also got stuck in Milan. They reminded about strikes on Fridays. Oh, now I'll definately remember to keep that in mind. Well, I finally got home at around 10pm.

My flight from Paris was supposed to depart at 8:40am. There was a long line going through security and I was quite nervous that I might miss the plane. It was 8:45am after I cleared security but still the screen did not display the gate number for the flight yet. About 10 minutes later, there was an announcement in French and German calling passengers of my flight to a certain gate. Then another announcement was made and we were told that the flight was cancelled and we had the option to take the next flight to either Stuttgart or Düsseldorf. Not much information were given out and also lack of coordination between airline crew. When I asked when's the next available flight out to Cologne/Bonn, I was told 4:30pm. So they expect people to wait from 10:30am to 4:30pm in the airport! What if that flight is also not coming? I didn't want to take the chances and I knew there's a train leaving at noon so I went to train station in the next terminal to ask if there are still seats available. By the time I went back to retrieve my checked-in luggage and headed to the counter to purchase the ticket, the express counter was closed. I had to wait in line in the normal queue and I missed the noon train. Luckily, there's another train in an hour and I took that and finally got back to Bonn at about 5pm. The bank was still open and I managed to get my banking matters done. Headed back to my old dorm to my friend's room and started packing my stuff into the luggages. By the time I finished, it was time to leave for the train station again. I didn't have the time to do Asian grocery shopping as planned. Still, managed to grab nuggets from the McD nearby the train station for dinner. :)

The day started with taking the 9:34 am bus to the train station. We forgot to press the bell for the stop but luckily we could still make it on time to take the train from town at 11:05. It's a direct train to Venice. When we arrived in Venice at 14:30, we decided to have some lunch first before heading to the airport. We arrived at the check-in counter at 16:00 and we saw the board showed the expected time at 19:30. Our flight was supposed to depart at 18:10. At first my friend thought it's the time of arrival, which is correct. I was the first to check-in and I asked what the expected time means? The lady said that that's the time the flight is expected to depart. So I said "There is a delay then" and I got a typical Italian reply. "Maybe. We're not sure yet. Could still depart on time" Just great! So we had to hang around the airport instead of walking around Venice town. When it was close to 18:00, there was no call for boarding and no change on the board so we knew for sure the flight was delayed. We continued to wait and 19:30 passed and still no plane in sight. 5 minutes later, there was an announcement and the expected time on the board was updated to 20:30.

The expected time had been updated several times between 20:30 and 23:00 when they announced that the passengers could get refreshments from a cafe. Earlier we heard that the airport in Paris will be closed when we arrive so the flight crew may decide not to fly. Well, they started boarding at 23:30 and told us that the arrival airport will be changed to CDG (north) instead of Orly (south) and a shuttle bus will be provided to take us to Orly. With the airport and subway closed, we were concerned with how/what we are going to do. After all the passengers have boarded the plane, the captain made an announcement explaining the delay and the expected departure time will be 00:30 and arrival in Paris at 02:00. Since the airports are way outside of the city center and taxi fare will be very very expensive, we also asked the stewardess if the shuttle bus can make a stop in the city center. They told us that the company had chatered the bus to Orly only and we have to ask the bus driver ourselves. Sigh! Finally at 00:45, our flight took off.

We arrived in Paris past 2am and found out that there were two busses. One to Orly and one to the city center. We took the bus to the city center. There were night busses running and a couple of us took the bus to head to their hotel. The others didn't have anywhere to go since their hostel check-in was already closed. I only had subway directions to my hotel so I hung around with the rest walking along the almost empty Champs Elysees in the direction of the Eifel Tower. The tower is no longer lit but still barely visible. Past the tower, we decided to walk to the hostel but we kinda got lost with no proper map with us. It was nearly 5am so we decided to go to the nearest underground station. We spent some time in the station deciding what type of tickets to get which will be the cheapest. The guy at the counter was very helpful indeed. I finally got the hotel at 6am and the check-in counter was open and they speak English. :) Got to my room, showered, rest a bit then head out to explore Paris.

Austrian food is delicious! With Germany and Italy as neighbours, culinary influences from both countries are clearly evident. The food that we ordered have more resemblance to German food and luckily it doesn't taste like it. I think maybe they're cooked in the Italian way which makes it taste good.

Good sights, excellent food, nice people :D

Gelato is just so irresistible! Almost everytime I go to town, I'd end up buying a cone with one big scoop. It costs between €1-2. The other day I found a Gelateria that sells 2 scoops for €1.50. Well it's not as good as the more expensive shops but you get 2 flavors! And I just realised this morning that I shouldn't be having ice cream when I have a cough :(

After a month here, I've finally cooked something asian at home. Although there is no chinese grocery store here, there is a thai store which has similar stuff.

For the past month, my shoes have been making squeaking sounds whenever I walked on wet surfaces. At first, I just ignored it since it's seldom wet here. Then on one wet day, I was walking about 10ft behind a couple of guys and my shoes were squeaking so loudly that those guys turned around to see what's making the sound. I pretended I didn't hear anything and started walking much slower. I suspected it's caused by drying them in the dryer earlier. When I moved, I wanted the shoes to be cleaned before I put them into the luggage. So I washed them by hand and had difficulty drying them. At first, I put them on my window ledge but the wind was blowing so strongly that day that I was afraid they'll get blown away. I took them back in and put them on top of the heater. It didn't get any drier so I decided to put them into the dryer for about 25 minutes. It turned out still a bit damp and I left it on the heater overnight. I was quite relieved that they turned out ok. Well, when I checked just now, I found out that some parts of the sole are loose! I guess the some of the glu did have melted under the heat. This is most probably the cause of the squeaking sound. Now I need to find a glu for it and hopefully they sell it in the supermarket.

I have classes starting at 8:30am every day and amazingly, I'm not struggling to get up eventhough I still go to bed around midnight. Wonder if I can keep it up for the rest of the semester. Hehe. The classes here are more technical and some of them involved programming. I have only started installing the necessary development tools and have yet to get my hands dirty. The projects are due in the end of the semester so there's time for me to learn Java and OpenGL again.

It's very inconvenient to do shopping here as the shops are closed in the middle of the day for lunch (usually 3 hours) and then closed for the day at 6pm or 7pm. In addition to being closed on Sundays, the shops are also closed either on a Monday mornings or Wednesday evenings. It's a great place to work! Also, there are no department stores here so it's quite difficult to figure out where to buy stuff and things here are more expensive than Germany.

Food here is nice. Even at the Mensa, you get a complete Italian meal with bread, pasta or riso, meat or fish, salad, fruits or dessert, and water or coffee. After taking lunch at Mensa, I'm still full in the evening so I usually just have bread or fruits for dinner. I haven't been cooking much either. So far, I've only been making pasta and frying up some fish fingers and chicken nuggets at home. I also found instant risotto packets with various flavors that cooks in 15 minutes. There's only one small pan and 2 big pots in the kitchen and it's difficult to cook the stuff that I wanna make with those. I also feel like I need to cook fast since my flatmate would want to cook next. Had a cooking session with a couple of friends for Friday's dinner. My contribution was abc soup and stir-fried veg. Hehe got others who can cook the meat.

Since I don't have internet at home, I think I would be more productive at working with school stuff. Sometimes I would bring my laptop to school for the internet since there's wifi and stay in school till 8pm or until I feel hungry. Luckily the school lab is also open on weekends so if I need internet, I can go back to school. The bus runs every 20 minutes Mon to Sat or can also walk down the hill for about 20 minutes. At first I did thought of getting internet service but found out it's expensive to hook up the service on my own as it'll cost about 50€ a month for both phone and adsl. Without internet, only weekends would be boring if didn't go anywhere. I thought of getting books to read but the bookstores here don't carry English books. I have yet to check out whether it's possible to change the language of the DVDs here to the original English version, not the dubbed Italian version. If possible then can rent some DVDs to watch.

My new room is on the top floor of a 4-story apartment building. The 2-bedroom apartment is shared with 2 other lovely ladies who have been living in the apartment snce last Sept. There's a washing machine in the bathroom so no more paying for laundry :) There's no dryer though and there's a drying rack. Would be nicer if there's mircowave or oven. I quite like my room except for a few things. There's no internet connection at home so I have to go to school for internet. Luckily the school's lab is open during the weekends and there's also wifi. It would also be nice to have a proper window. The only window in my room is the door that leads out to the balcony with a view of neighbor's backyard. They should use glass doors like the German's which can be opened like a door with hinge on the side or opened like a window with the hinge at the bottom. The bed is a bit small but more comfortable than the one in Germany. If my have my furry friends with me, then they would have fallen off the bed when I wake up the next morning.

Home in Bonn -> Colgone/Bonn airpot -> Venice Marco Polo Airport -> Venice train station -> Verona train station -> Trento train station -> Trento bus stop -> Home in Povo.

on the flight from cologne/bonn to venice, you get to look down at the alps. the view is just so amazing!
venice seems very interesting. we dragged and carried our heavy luggages across the streets to get from the bus staton to the train staton across the canal.
if i knew there are so many freaking stairs, i wouldn't have agreed to walking and insisted on taking the boat! we have to cross a few small bridges on the same side to get to the main bridge to cross to the other side. all the bridges are made up of flights of stairs. the small bridges has about 1o steps up and 10 steps down. when we got to the foot of the bigger bridge, we were already quite tired. so took a few minutes break and continued going up the bigger bridge. this bridge is twice the size of the smaller bridge. i only managed to get half way up and i just didn't have the strength anymore. then, a very nice man approached and helped me carry my luggage all the way across the bridge. :D since my friend said there are no more stairs to the train station, i was quite relieved. but when we got to the train station, more stairs! up the stairs to get into the station. when we changed train in verona, the next train was in the other platform so we had to go down the stairs and up agan. there are no escalators and no evelator on sight. actually, even to carry the heavy luggage onto and off the train is difficult because the platform is at the same height as the train's wheels. when we finally got to trento, the last flight of stairs awaits us. it's like one and a half stories high. after we got the keys to our apartment, we took a bus there. when we got off the bus, we still had to walk up the slope to get to the apartment. even pushing/dragging the luggage up the slope is very tiring.

lesson learnt: my luggage was 24kg and i can only lift it up with both hands and only carry it for max 10 steps. the next time i travel, i won't pack luggage until i can't carry it comfortably.

train system compared to germany:
1. in germany, escalators and elevators are availble and can be easily spotted.
2. in germany, the platform is usually at the same height as the floor of the train and the gap is quite small so you can just drag your luggage out.
3. in germany, you know which platform the train will leave and arrive when you buy the ticket. in italy, you have to check the board and wait for it to update. when we were in venice, people are standing in front of the board, waiting for it to update the platform number. when the platform number for our train was updated, the train in that platform was already there in front of us while we were waiting!
4. in germany, they announce the stops and train connections. in italy, you have to look at the time or look out the window. when we changed train in verona, one of us had to run down the platform to check the board which platform for our next train.
5. german trains are nicer and also more expensive

The past few days had been tough. I could't decide what to pack and what to keep and what to throw. Since I only have 20kg, I couldn't bring much with me. Then, I don't really know how heavy 20kg is so I ended up putting in and removing stuff and trying to lift it to get the right 'feel'. Haha. I still feel it's over 20kg, hopefully I'm wrong coz excess baggage costs 7€ per kg. With the remaining stuff, I stuffed as much as I could into my hand luggage which I will leave with a friend and come back to get it. I didn't really wanna leave too much stuff with her coz our room doesn't have much space to start with but I ended up having two extra shopping bags for her. One filled with sweaters (they take up too much space!) and the other a ski jacket and other small items. Also had a hard time throwing out all the rest of stuff especially the bunch of candies I collected from Karneval Rosenmontag last week. I already ate quite a lot and still left with a container full. Well, I'm pretty much packed and ready to fly tomorrow morning :)

I think I spent more than 6 hours on the train today. First it was 2+ hours ride from Bonn to Frankurt. I went to collect my Italy visa. The guy was late so I had to take a later train back. Since I still had some time till the next train, I went back to the japanese store I saw last time. It's not a fancy store though. More like one of those ugly chinese stores in chinatown staffed with japanese. And they make fresh sushi there so I bought some to eat in the train. They are really delicious, especially the salmon. The texture is like the fatty tuna. Yummy! It's so good to have sushi again after four long months. Anyway, the train from Frankfurt departed 10 minutes late due to some technical problems. It kinda managed to catch up to the scheduled time when it reached Bonn so I didn't get off. I thought I could still manage to catch the train to Aachen in Cologne. But from Bonn to Cologne, the train stopped in the middle for some time. So by the time I get to Cologne, I missed the train. Then, I thought I might still make it to the german exam on time if I catch the next train. I waited for a while until it was announced that that train would be about 5 minutes late. I will definately be late then so I decided not to go. I got on to the next train back to Bonn. The train only left the station 20 minutes later than the scheduled time. Seemed like there was some problems with the tracks. Again, the train stopped half way, this time a lot longer. I wasted about one and a half hour betwen Colgone and Bonn.

About the exam, I just wanted to see how the exam is like and what is the level. I know the chance for me to pass is very slim because I didn't have enough hours yet and I also didn't put much effort on my own either. But since we get 3 chances, why not try it?