Venice 28th-30th May

Last 12 Hours

6 months ago, 6 months seemed like a long time. 3 months later, time seemed to have past rather quickly, but there's still 3 months left. Soon there was 6 weeks left and suddenly I realized that there's not enough time. 1 week, and u know that it's virtually the end. Eventually, I have 12 more hours. I don't have anything to do, but I just want to stay up all night and wait for the hours to pass. It's really scary when I think how I always thought that there's lots of time to do whatever I want, but time literally flashes by and before I know it, 6 months has just past. I am so glad that I came for this SEP. I enjoyed living alone, although sometimes I complain about all the nitty gritty administrative issues I have to settle. The 2 biggest things which I got out of this exchange is the friends I made and the experiences from my cycling trip. I wished I had done more, especially in the first 3 months which I now feel that I could have been more active in engaging people, travelling etc etc.

Things I wished I had done:

1) Engage more people
2) Travel to Barcelona
3) Ski in the alps
4) See the Northern lights
5) Kayak in the archipelago

Now I know the preciousness of time. So when I return to Singapore, I m going to exercise, eat well, read more, catch up with friends and family, n most importantly, BRUSH UP ON MY MANDARIN!

Sad to leave...Happy to go home...

Made it! 28 days, 6 countries and 2145km

Finally...a long overdued post from me.

Arrived in Trafalgar Square in London at 1540 on 29th June 2007 after 28 days and 2145km. I was unimaginably, extremely happy, relieved, fulfilled. I always told myself that I could do it if I set my mind on it. Convincing myself was easy, but when issues/problems were actually coming up, it sometimes took a lot of effort to get round it and it was really tempting to just give it all up and take the easy way out. I didn't fortunately, managed to find the strength to carry out what I had set out to do. Like Churchill said 'Never, never, never give up.' Though I might have suffered quite a lot, probably as much as I did enjoy myself, the feeling of having completed it just overwrites it all. I just feel like now I can do anything I want. Nothing's impossible if I want it bad enough.

I'm too tired to update the past 2 months of my life right now. It's also my last 36 hours here and I want to make the most out of it. Will do it once I have gone through my gourmet foodlist in Singapore. It will take a while I guess. The list is long...

What I WILL do before I leave...

31st April - Bike to Uppsala.
1st May - Bike back to Stockholm.
3-5 May - Excursion to Helsinki. Because it's free!
6th-23rd May - Exams, deadlines, presentations, planning, preparation and training for the ride.
24th-25th May - Kayaking in Stockholm Archipelago.
26th May - In Stockholm.
27th-30th May - Rome n Venice because I want to go Venice so bad!
31st May - Moving out of Lappis.
1st June-2nd July - Stockholm to London via Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France...by bike and sometimes boat.
3rd July - Fly back to Stockholm from London.
4th-5th July - Last 2 days in Stockholm, lotsa photography definitely, shopping maybe.
6th July - Leave Stockholm.
7th July- Home, the sweetest home.

A Little Milestone...

Yesterday marks the day where I reached my first milestone of my dream to cycle in Europe. I finally bought my bicycle that is going to take me across the continent. It's an 8 year old, purple (very dark purple that it looks black) Merida Dakar 690 SX mountain bike with front suspension that costed me the princely sum of 1500SEK or S$340. It came with 2 lights, a lock and mud guards (albeit the front one had cracked and the back one is a little out shape). It has a 21 shift gear system with gripshifts which I liked very much. There are 3 small tears on the leather of the seat as well. It's definitely not a top class Ferrari, but it's like an old trusty Volvo which is going to get me to London somehow. Anyway, I brought it for a test ride today to school, then to the city centre and back to Lappis to get accustomed to it and the road conditions here. Everything went well except I got lost in the woods on the way to school. But somehow I managed to emerge from the amongst the trees onto the big main road. Next destination is Uppsala this coming weekend. It's only 90km to Uppsala compared with 2000km to London. But a chinese saying comes to mind 'thousand li journey starts with one small step'.

Easter@Berlin-Prague-Vienna-Bratislava

Berlin 29th March - 2nd April

Prague 2nd-5th April

Vienna 5th-8th April

Bratislava 8th-10th April