054/365

It's the little things you do that never fails to put a smile across my face. :-') 

043/365

“Beautiful things come out of horrible situations. I know for a fact. Out of sadness you get a new found wisdom on how the world can look with a haze of gray clouds, how people can be senseless, how you can see the whole universe in a whole new way. And that may be hard to handle, hard to cope, hard to accept, but it is so damn beautiful if you really take the chance to realize. Out of anger, you can feel your heart beat race, with every beat it is shaking your whole being and not only the heavy steps you take. It is when you, your whole self and some power is telling you that you are alive. And that is amazing in every angle. Out of anything there is something in there that makes it incredible. Something that makes it shine. Whatever you feel is potent and it is such a blessing to be able to feel what you feel. You just have to think about it.”

Europe 2015

Call me overly attached but it's only been 6 days of him in Tekong and I'm still sad... hahaha, am hoping things would go rlly well for him in there can't fucking wait for the 18th!!!!!!!!

Been working every single day to keep my mind off and busy myself to distract the ~loneliness~ but yeah work only takes up like 5 hours of my day so here am I, not being lazy and excuses filled, churning out an entry about ma Europe trip which lasted for about 12 days? Yep.

(Ok I fell asleep and here I am back after a few days HAHAHA)

The accommodation for our trip throughout London -> Paris -> Amsterdam -> London was booked under AIRBNB! Much more worth than booking a hotel there, it's rlly rlly expensive.

Sign up under my name here (www.airbnb.com.sg/c/achua148?s=8) and you'll get $34 off your first booking via Airbnb! :-)

13/01 - London

We arrived at 5pm at London Heathrow and by the time we took the underground to our host's house it was close to 7pm!! So we went to a nearby Turkish restaurant to have dinner and then popped by Sainsbury's (hugeass supermarket) to settle our breakfast for the next few days :-) 

 Diyarbakir Restaurant

 (Turkish)

Address: Grand Parade, 69 Green Lanes, Haringey, London N4 1DU, United Kingdom

Contact no: +44 20 8809 2777

14/01 - London

London room: https://www.airbnb.com.sg/rooms/884185

($83/night for 2 pax)

Woke up, and first off to Borough Market!! :-) We had the seafood paella, bbq pulled pork burger, oysters and salted beef burger!!! Ok before that we went passed London Bridge that was overlooking Tower Bridge and the view was lovely *_* Hehehe esp with the breezy weather ahhhhhh would give anything to go back again!!!!

Borough Market!! Hehehe, definitely recommend the BBQ pulled pork burger, oysters and scallops from there! Don't get the salted beef burger it's super super salty...

BBQ PULLED PORK BURGER I WORSHIP YOU

Please eat in moderation (to prevent food poisoning)

This is the pulled beef burger which is super salty!!!!

Borough Market

(nearest underground station: London Bridge)

Opening hours: 10am - 5pm

But do go early!! The other time we went at 3pm most of the stalls were closed alrdy thus no more BBQ pulled pork burger :-'(

Headed to Oxford Circus after that for some immediate damage HAAHAH

4 floors Niketown this is paradise

 

 Had dinner at one of the best restaurants in London hands down, freshest seafood ever?!?!??!

Bonnie Gull Seafood Shack

(we were their first customer HAHA at 6pm sharp)

Address: 21A Foley Street, London W1W 6DS, United Kingdom

Opening hours: Lunch from 12pm and dinner from 6pm daily

Their menu's planned according to their catch of the day!!! :-)

 15/01 - London

Off we went to Camden Lock Market!

 (Nearest underground: Camden Town)

Off we go to Covent Garden for lunch :-)

At Shake Shack burger!! :-)

Address:  24, Market Building, The Piazza, Covent Garden, London WC2E 8RD, United Kingdom

Opening hours: 11am - 11pm

Then we went off to Oxford Street again but this time towards Picadilly Circus / Regent Street area :-)

 Shopping at Hollister checked with 20% associate's discount hehhh

16/01 - Paris
(Pardon our sleepy faces our train was scheduled at 5.40am we woke up at 3.45am)

Visited the Louvre, Eiffel and a few other places basically we crammed everything in a day because we only had 1 day 1 night here and the next morning was off to Amsterdam!

Paris room: https://www.airbnb.com.sg/rooms/717943
($105/night for 2 person)

View from outside our apartment! It's a roof room concept hehe.

Somehow Lucas reminds me of the Spirited Away black dude HAHAHAH

So when I got back to Singapore I was wondering why I had mini keys in my coin compartment.... Then it hit me that we locked our lock on the bridge BUT WE DIDNT THROW THE KEYS INTO THE RIVER HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAH dots dots

Settled for Italian dinner at night and it was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 10000/10000 **

L'Epicerie

Address: 30 Rue Montorgueil, 75001 Paris, France

Opening hours: 12pm - 3pm, 6.30pm - 12am

THE POTATOES WERE THE BEST!!!!! Ok the salmon too. Everything was amazing!!!! DELICIOUS!!!!!! BON APPETIT INDEED :-)

17/01 - Amsterdam

Amsterdam room: https://www.airbnb.com.sg/rooms/1197874

($93/night for 2 pax)

Flight from Paris to Amsterdam at 11.40am HAHAHA Lucas hates me for choosing all the early timings but yeah we slept through every train journey be it 2 hour or 5 hour ride HAHA

 Bagels and Beans's really good do visit it when you are in Amsterdam :-)

 Some free tulips day thingum so we went to pick tulips for free :-)

Ristorante Italia Oggi

Address: Binnen Bantammerstraat 11, 1011 CH Amsterdam, Netherlands
Opening hours: 5.30pm - 11pm

Italian for dinner again it was so good my pasta..... HAHHAHA super good but couldn't finish it cuz it was a huge portion!! Seafood was rlly fresh too :-)

 Oh yes you can find Bagels and Beans basically everywhere in Amsterdam :--))

 Got some handmade macarons from a shop along Harlemmerstraat which were super good too :-)) Red velvet, strawberry cheesecake and cookies and cream!

Shopping at H&M cuz the currency's to our advantage heh.

 Had dinner at one at the best place for steak/ribs in Amsterdam near the red light district recommended by my sister! 

Barbeque Castell

Address: Lijnbaansgracht 252-253-254, 1017 RK Amsterdam, Netherlands

Opening hours: 5pm - 1am/2am (Q can stretch till really long, do go early!) 

 It started to fog up on our second and third day there :-(

 Suffering from asian food deficit so we settled for thai for lunch! 

Jasmine Thai Cruisine

Address: Zeedijk 119, 1012 AW Amsterdam, Netherlands

Opening hours: 12pm - 12am

Authentic thai food and really fast service (ok maybe cuz we were the only customer there but lovely thai owners hehe) but we realized we're the only ones who settle our lunches and dinners damn early? The locals actually have their dinner only 7pm onwards and lunch 2pm ish??

It was so foggy we barely took any pictures for the rest of our 2 days there. Witnessed how the red light district (literally) functions and also walked around the whole area basically because everywhere is so accessible and google map in Europe is super advanced!!! 

Footlocker, Size?, Urban Outfitters etc etc can all be found along Dam Square along this stretch of road called Nieuwendijk where they sell lots of shoes and streetwear stuff!

Had sushi buffet for our last dinner in Amsterdam before braving the cold (esp the wind) where the fog was so bad we could barely see a thing?

20/01 - London

London house: https://www.airbnb.com.sg/rooms/349631

($71/person per night) We booked the entire home unlike the previous where we booked rooms only because Alison was joining us :-)

Got attracted by the arcade........... So we spent the next 1 hour trying to win the softtoy at the kiapping machine HAHAAHAH to no avail....

 Had Flat Iron for dinner!! :-) Good steak for value it cost only 10 pounds thats SGD 20 (honestly tough to find steak that's cheap and good in London where COL is high!!!)

Flat Iron

Address: 17 Beak Street, Soho, London W1F 9RW, United Kingdom

Opening hours: 12pm - 11pm 

Had my very first LUSH bath bomb in the shower!!!!!!!! But guess what my phone died just as I was about to take a picture of the bomb in the water so yeah I couldn't wait for it to revive, the toilet was freezing the hot water was attracting me so yeah..

21/01 - Exeter

Impromptu visit to Exeter which was 4 hours away by bus!! To visit the bestie hehehehe and also there was a slumber party theme at the club that night - best outfit ever!!

 Brunch the next day!! :-)

22/01 - London

Back to London with Al the next day and Lucas was down with food poisoning which we came up with the verdict that the oysters caused it. So we had a quick dinner at Bayswater before heading back to our place to rest!

Next day off we went to the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour at Walford Junction!!

 Then we had Burgers and Lobsters for dinner which was really satisfying :-)) (despite the 45 min queue)

Burgers and Lobsters

Address:  36 Dean Street, London W1D 4PS, England (Soho) 

Opening hours: 12pm - 10pm/10.30pm/11pm

We each ordered one from the menu cuz there were only 3 choices: lobster, lobster roll and beef burger!!!!

 The next day Lucas slept in cuz he spent the whole night in the toilet suffering from the bouts of food poisoning still so we went ahead to town to do some last minute shopping before he woke up and joined us in the evening! 

Settled for dinner at Shoryu Ramen along Regent Street and it was rlly good hahahaha I suck at describing food but yeah it was awesome that Lucas had 2 bowls of it and I forgot to take a picture of it and went straight to eating it...

Shoryu Ramen

Address: 9 Regent Street, London SW1Y 4LR, United Kingdom

Opening hours: 11.15am - 12am

Next day was just home sweet home :-(

Spent the whole evening doing this post up but there's really nothing much and mostly pictures haahha but I've learnt a lot from this trip which I'm really glad everything fell into place and we came back safe and sound! Gonna go get some sleep now there's work tmrw and so for the next 3 days I need all the sleep I can will get to updating other recent events soon!!! x

Thanks for reading even tho my blog's been really dead and rusty recently!!! Have a good week you all x