Of hope and love

This trip to Germany is my first abroad the UK. It is a spontaneous and random one because I was a bit clueless about organising vacations. Thanks to a senior from college days, ZZ who sort of collaborated the entire trip with other friends. When people ask me where was I going for Christmas, I replied..

“Fried.. rich.. something something.”

It was only during the trip that I learnt that ‘hafen’ meant port.

Our flight was 7am in the morning. So we spent the entire night yakking away while waiting for the night bus to Victoria to catch the coach to Stansted Airport.

It was definitely interesting because this is a completely budget trip. I have to admit it.. I wasn’t totally ‘into’ this trip a few days prior to it because I had so much work undone and I had to crack my head to settle a few issues. Furthermore, I was told that it would colder in Germany. Brrr..

However, everything changed when I met the crazy people who never fail to make us laugh. Glad that the trip turned out great. I am very touched at the hospitality and the many friends we met. We saved a lot on accommodation thanks to wonderful friends who hosted us. We stayed in Mannheim, Karlsruhe and Konstanz.

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I missed the Winter Wonderland German Christmas market in Hyde Park but I told myself I shall visit the authentic Christmas markets when I am there. True enough, we visited every Christmas market in every town we visited. There was this glühwein which is a traditional warm, spiced wine drank during winter which helped a lot when you are feeling so cold.

Other than that, it is all porky and beer-y! People think I am alcoholic but I really am not. Heh hehe.

I would say this a simple trip sprinkled with loads of laughter and lame jokes. It was awfully cold the first couple of days. But the sceneries were breathtaking!

It was snowing quite a bit the day we went to the Heidelberg Castle. A monkey and a hazelnut were snowfighting all the way that we actually forgot to build the classic snowman.

The next day, we headed to France.

No snow but truly lovely. Picturesque.

If you think going to France was cool, this is even cooler..

Yes, we walked to Switzerland for brunch!

I learnt a few words in German and still gets really fascinated when I see my friends speak so fluently when they converse with the locals there. I am really impressed!

After a 4-night German experience, we came back to London in time for Christmas. Noisette and I walked to St Helen’s at Bishopgate for the Christmas service. We were joined by HC who is Noisette’s boyfriend’s bestfriend. After church, we walked along Thames. Beautiful..

Christmas meals were very chinese, though. They were homey and nice! We even had tong sui (made of the white fungus and tang yuen). Not forgetting white wine and Shloer.