Thursday, 21 May 2009

• Holidaying in the Tatras & Paris

  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

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