What a busy month June's been!  So busy I haven't had a chance to update my xanga for almost the whole month. And if I haven't come down with a nasty infection, I wouldn't even have noticed.

Let's start where I left off the last time.

Nova Rock, Nickelsdorf

I've always wanted to go check out a music festival in Europe since I heard S talking about it last year. I haven't been to even one of the numerous festivals in Prague, and I was planning to go, when I discovered Nova Rock in Austria.  My friends and I were so impressed with the line-up that we decided to make the almost 5-hour journey to Nickelsdorf about 2 weeks ago for our first taste of an Austrian music festival.

It was hot and dusty on the first day of the festival when we arrived. We heard on the radio on the bus ride to the festival that there would be 150,000 people attending the festival.  The number of tents we saw pitched when we arrived at the festival site was testament to this.

It took us ages to find a suitable spot to pitch our tents, but we had an experienced festival goer in our midst, M, and we totally trusted his judgment in the choice of location ("don't pitch tents near the toilets, stage or footpaths if you wanna sleep at all at night"). 

When the rain started coming down on Saturday, I was relieved that we followed M's advice, as our tent was relatively untouched and far away from the mud pit.  I saw so many tents mangled, toppled and destroyed as people did their utmost to avoid walking in the deep slippery mud on Saturday. It was interesting watching people become creative with their rainwear (garbage bags, anyone?) during the festival. And no, our spirits were not dampened by the uncooperative weather.

Salzburg and Werfen

Ukranian Ice Queen and I decided to take a couple more days off before the festival to see Salzburg and its surrounds.

Festung Hohensalzburg

View of the Austrian Alps

View from Hotel Sacher, the creator of the original Sachertorte

A street entertainer holding Austrian schoolchildren in his thrall

We spent one day roaming around Salzburg city, checking out Festung Hohensalzburg and Altstadt, hiking around Kapuzinerberg, and ending the day gorging ourselves with fine Austrian cuisine. Salzburg is a small, pretty city surrounded by snowcapped alps, and obsessed with being the birthplace of Mozart (there's even chocolate balls covered in Mozart's face) and with being the filming location of the classic movie, The Sound of Music. Many a time when I was hiking up to the Festung and around Kapuzinerberg, I was so moved  by the beautiful scenery that I broke into song, singing my favourite tunes from The Sound of Music at the top of my lungs. It's a pity my travel companions don't know the movie or its soundtrack (the movie wasn't so popular in Europe apparently), so I didn't have a little choir like Maria had with the kids.  This was probably for the best as we'd attract some strange looks from other tourists if we all started singing "Doe a deer".

Festung Hohenwerfen

Scenery on the hike up to Eisriesenwelt

The view from the entrance to the ice caves

We spent day 2 travelling to Werfen en route to Eisriesenwelt (ice world). I first read about Eisriesenwelt, the largest ice caves accessible to man, in Lonely Planet's Austria guide and was immediately enticed to go check it out.

After arriving at Werfen, we took a shuttle bus to the ticket office of Eisriesenwelt. After getting our tickets, we began the 20-minute uphill hike to the cable car. After getting off the cable car, it was another 20-minute hike before we reached the entrance to the ice caves, which are 1641 metres above sea level. Even though the hike was uneventful, reading a warning sign about falling rocks and seeing the rocks accumulated on the shelter on parts of the path unnerved me slightly.  But once inside the ice caves, I forgot about the hike and was mesmerised by the ice formations inside.

Eisriesenwelt was first discovered by 1879 by Anton Posselt, a natural scientist form Salzburg, and was open to visitors in the 1920s. The ice formations in the caves change according to the season and how the stalactites and stalacmites develop over time. There's a formation that looks like an ice palace, one that looks like an elephant (sans head) and one that looks like a bear.  We all carried little oil lamps while inside the cave, which can sometimes be a pain to hold since the temperature inside hovered consistently around the 0 degree Celsius mark.  The guide burnt strings of magnesium to light up the formations for us to see, and explained each formation in both German and English.  As this was my first experience of being inside an ice cave, it was naturally memorable, and is now listed as one of my top 5 experiences of my life. What baffles me is how so few people I've spoken to even knew Eisriesenwelt exists, considering that Lonely Planet has included it in its latest Austrian guide.

Having had no expectations of Austria, I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed my first trip there.  It's amazing how much natural beauty is packed into such a small country.  I'm already looking forward to my next trip there, hopefully to conquer the alps.

It feels like it's been ages since I last updated my xanga.  It doesn't help that the new office server has blocked access to xanga. But I really shouldn't be blogging while at work, so fair enough...

I was hoping to upload pictures and write witty captions for some pictures I took last night at a birthday and farewell party, but Facebook hasn't been cooperating all day. So I guess that's a sign that a xanga update is (over)due. Besides, I'm waiting for my laundry to be done.

The weather in Prague has taken a drastic turn for the worse about 2 weeks ago.  It went from warm, sunny days with temperatures in the mid-twenty degrees, to cold, wet days with temperatures doing a double digit plunge.  This is a real pain especially after one's packed away all one's warm clothing in anticipation of spring/summer-like weather.  This weekend's weather was the most schizophranic, with bright sunshine in the mornings, and rain and grey clouds arriving early afternoon and staying for the rest of the day.  My visitors in Prague were duly confused about the choice of outerwear, and one of them had to borrow my fleece jumper for a day when she realised her denim coat wasn't sufficient for the cold winds.

Sightseeing this weekend was a challenge somewhat, but thank God my visitors were not keen on combing every touristy spot in Prague.  Many a time, we would be found sitting in some restaurant or cafe, so J could satisfy her newfound craving for goulash, while V gushed about the Astronomical Clock.  After months of hanging out with my young friends in Prague (with whom I discuss trips, hiking, partying and alcoholic adventures), it was a refreshing change to be with women closer to my age, discussing girly topics (yes, men was one of them) for a change.

The last leg of my busy weekend was spent meeting a group of amateur photographers over beer, and basically being a photography nerd for a couple of hours or so.  I've become increasingly unhappy about the quality of the pictures I've been taking lately, but feel lost about how to improve my skills.  So it's a real blessing to have met this group of amateur photographers, who gave me many precious tips on equipment, photo editing software, and photography techniques. Now I just need an opportunity to put all the advice to practice.

But first I'll need to take out the laundry and catch up on my beauty sleep.  Let's see if inspiration comes in my dreams...

I apologise for the lack of updates recently. I was understandably distracted by holidays, apartment woes, farewell parties and wrangling with a second hand monitor I bought recently (and intend to return very soon).  Plus xanga is now blocked by my office's firewall, so no more blogging from the office. Boo hoo....

Here are the highlights from my holidays over the last few weeks:

Tatra Mountains, Slovakia

Clockwise from top left: Low Tatras; castle ruins; our rafting leader looking for the raft that tipped; a kayakist navigating the very fast waters.

Slovensky raj (right)

•  A group of 7 of us drove to the Tatras mountains in Slovakia for the May day long weekend for some rafting and hiking in the region. It turned out to be one of the most harrowing and exciting trips I've been on in my life.  And that's no exaggeration.
• The fun and excitement started on the first day, when 4 of us rafted down a part of the river, just so our leader can teach me how to steer a raft.  I ended up falling out of the raft into 4-degree water 3 times, and had to be fished out of the river in the end by some good Samaritans who saw my rafting partner and I were in trouble and waited to help us out.  Thanks to their strong liquor (probably Slivovice) and chocolate bar, I managed to avoid catching pneumonia.  These kind souls even helped us carry the raft to the road, where I met another kind soul who lent me her sleeping bag and let me sit in her car while we waited for our friends to arrive with the car.
• As a result of falling over, and hitting my legs against the rocks in the river bed, I acquired a series of colourful bruises from my thighs to my shins and on my lower back that shocked everyone who saw them.  Some even asked if I were beaten up by someone!  And yes the bruises caused me so much pain that I found it difficult to hike in Slovensky Raj the next day, especially going downhill. But I managed to survive the log bridges and high vertical steps in Slovensky Raj, and I'm proud of it.
• Despite the painful bruises I acquired, I decided to redo the part of the river which caused me all this pain on Sunday.  Yes, I admit I'm insane, but I refused to leave the trip with a fear of rafting.  And I survived the rafting by going down backwards in the raft sometimes, surviving some harrowing turns, and falling only twice into the river this time round.  Perhaps it's because I wasn't steering the raft this time round.  Steering looks really easy, but is the toughest job of all.  I wonder if I'll ever learn how to do it properly.
• Rafting and hiking aside, we passed by some amazing countryside in Moravia and Slovakia, mostly covered in vibrant rape flowers, and cute villages while driving from Prague to the Tatras (a supposedly 7 hour journey that stretched to 12 due to road works and traffic jams).  Hopefully we'll get the chance to return to the different towns and villages to see them all in detail one day.

Paris & Versailles

Souvenirs at the Eiffel Tower; Arc de Triomphe

Denon Wing of the Louvre

Bastille; Cathedrale de Notre Dame

Evening along the Seine;  Metro signage

Fountain in Chateau de Versailles; La vie en rose

• My trip to Paris almost didn't happen due to an attempted break-in into my apartment while I was away in Slovakia. The keyhole to my apartment was vandalised, and even though I managed to enter my apartment on Sunday night, I couldn't extract my key after locking the door on Monday morning.  My futile struggle with the key meant that I couldn't check in on time at the airport for my morning flight to Paris.
• Lucky for me, I decided to call Expedia.com to see if they could get me a last minute cheap flight to Paris. The friendly lady at Expedia.com made my day by helping me find a cheap flight with Smartwings, and I set off about 6 hours later to my destination with a smile on my face. Needless to say, my travel companion, Mr P, was relieved to see me at the hostel in Paris.
• We spent most of our week in Paris doing the touristy things, trekking up the Eiffel Tower, hunting down Mona Lisa in the Louvre, walking along the Seine, visiting the Arc de Triomphe, drinking wine in the Bastille, and shopping on the Avenue de Champs-Elysees and in the Latin Quarter.
• This was a trip to defy all my preconceptions about Paris and Parisians. I hardly saw dog poo on the ground, the metro system was extremely organised and easy to use, and most Parisians were more than happy to speak English with us (probably because my spoken French was too hard on their ears ).  I'm glad I had the chance to visit the city and judge for myself, instead of parroting what others say about Paris and Parisians.
• I was pleased to meet up with R, an ex-flame from Shanghai, and G, someone I met while trekking in Nepal over 3 years ago. It's a surreal experience to spend time with R and G in their home city, especially G whom I've kept in touch on and off via emails and Facebook.  G invited me and Mr P to a party on a boat on Friday night, where we watched the sunset over the Cathedrale de Notre Dame, and chatted with his friends from the US, Australia and England.
• The most unfortunate part of the trip was when I came down with food poisoning on Thursday.  I was so weak that I was stranded in the hostel for the day, and ate and drank almost nothing for most of the day.  Thank God for Mr P, who brought me medication and later food in the evening, when I needed it the most. I honestly don't know what would've become of me if Mr P hadn't been taking care of me that day.  Thank God for him.
• Taking a break from the opulence that's Paris, we spent a day in Versailles checking out the Chateau built by Louis XIV. The beauty and luxury of the Chateau and its garden were as overwhelming as the crowds we had to deal with throughout our visit. Just to get through security at the Chateau, we queued for almost 40 minutes!  At times, it was a fight just to see anything at all in the Chateau, and we were glad to get out of the building for some fresh air in the gardens.
• For our last day in Paris, Mr P and I decided to spend it hunting down authentic Chinese food in Paris' very own Chinatown.  We were eventually rewarded when we found Sinorama, where Mr P enjoyed (surprisingly for me) his drunken chicken and garlic veges, and I savoured my delicious prawn dumpling hofun.

After travelling non-stop for 9 days, I was relieved to have a few days of rest in Prague, doing mundane life for a change. But I'm sure the travel bug will bite soon, and I'll be itching to go somewhere again.

Til then, I need to get some beauty sleep.....preferably on my bed, instead of on my laptop....zzzzzzz

It's been sunny in Prague for 3 weeks in a row, interrupted very occasionally by one or two days of grey skies.

It seems the sunny weather has been affecting Prague residents far and wide. P has taken to waking up before 6 am most days and running outside for 5 km or more.  Our Ukranian Ice Queen has been grinning a little too much, very unwise if she intends to maintain her reputation.  Even the seemingly socially awkward guys in our group of friends are talking much more than before.

My French business associate couldn't stop smiling, and was obviously in a good mood, since he paid for last night's dinner and complimented me profusely over the course of the night.  For a while, I thought he was hitting on me.  He did admit to harbouring such intentions when we first met, but then he's been with his Russian beauty queen of a girlfriend for over 10 years, so he'll have to refrain from acting on these intentions, for now.

Even in Shanghai, I've never seen such drastic transformation in people when the sun decides to come out for an extended period of time.  Granted, there's really not much to see in Shanghai when the sun comes out, since hardly anything green or flowery looking grows unless tended to meticulously.  Whereas in Prague, the countryside comes alive with vibrant colours, as the trees start filling out with leaves, spring flowers bloom, butterflies come out to play, and birds burst out compulsively in song day after day.  I've been tempted many times to sing The Hills Are Alive while hiking and walking around Prague, only to be restrained by my friends' "don't you dare" stares.  They probably saved me from acquiring a reputation as the loonie chanteuse.

So what's the explanation for this mood change? Some people say it's Vitamin D overload, others say it's the warmth of the sun.  I am definitely overjoyed that I don't have to wear heavy coats, hats, gloves, socks and warm shoes when I leave the apartment, at least for another six months.  That's probably why my mood has improved by leaps and bounds since spring finally showed up in Prague.  Things that I used to moan about (ie. job situation, financial crisis, uncertainty about my future, being single at my age) have all diminished in significance, and instead, swimming, hiking, canoeing, travelling, beer gardens, and any other opportunities of taking advantage of sunshine have become my latest obssessions.

This is a good turn of events, no?

Before the sun sets, I'm going to head out for a leisurely stroll home. With a big smile on my face.

I'm flying to Milan and driving to Lake Como tonight.  It will be my first trip to Italy in my life.  I think I'm too excited about this holiday for my own good.

My travel mate on this trip is a high school friend, K, who lives and works in London.  My one and only experience of travelling with K was when he visited me in Prague, and I took him around the sights.  I remember it being a pleasant time, and he said he enjoyed himself immensely.  So let's hope our next holiday together won't be our last.

As I haven't been able to find the weather forecasts in Lake Como or Cinque Terre (our second destination) for this weekend, I've had to rely on the weather forecast in Bergamo when I was packing.  It seems that  there will be scattered showers all weekend in Bergamo (while Prague will be bathed in sunshine, the irony).  This pretty much screwed up my packing plans.

Originally I had planned to air my favourite summer clothing on this trip. But now it seems I'd be stuck in my North Face jacket most of the weekend to protect myself from being soaked to the bone.  I've never been so desperate for the weather forecast to be wrong in my life.

I'd like to think I'm a light packer. And to prove that I am, here's a list of things I've managed to stuff into my 5-litre (approx) backpack:

• 1-litre clear plastic bagfull of facial skincare products - to make sure I get through security without getting into a fight;
• 1-litre clear plastic bagfull of bodycare products - yes, I use different stuff for the rest of my skin, 'tis not a sin I hope;
• a opaque make-up bag of cosmetics - just in case we bump into George Clooney in Como;
• 3 t-shirts of various colours - or was it 4?;
• a pair of three-quarter pants;
• a pair of long cargo pants - just in case it gets cold;
• my Canon 350D digital SLR camera - I'm hoping to capture some gorgeous scenery with this beast of a machine;
• my Canon point-and-shoot - for evenings when I don't feel like lugging the beast around;
• my passport - of course;
• pieces of paper for accommodation, recommendations for places to visit, restaurants to eat at, things to do;
• a DK guidebook with a tiny section on Cinque Terre - I don't know what possessed me to buy this book, other than the fact that it's got some lovely pictures inside;
• my electric toothbrush - I don't think Italians appreciate tourists with bad dental hygiene;
• my face-cleansing brush - it's my new baby, and there's hardly space here for me to sing its praises;
• a tiny clutch - just in case we end up going to some Mitchelin star restaurants, K is a fan of such establishments;
• a pair of hiking sandals;
• my North Face jacket for those forecast rainy days; and last but not least;
• my very precious Ipod - to get me through check-in, flight, and 2 hours waiting time in Milan Bergamo airport for K.

I've done well for a 4-day trip, haven't I?

Despite my best laid plans, I did forget something very very important: a fiction novel to while away spare time.  Best to get it now, rather than suffer the limited selection in the airport.

Everyone else who's travelling over Easter, be safe, and remember our Saviour's sacrifice and victory.