Eastern Europe 2013

  

Shopping at the heart of Frankfurt city, full of people from around the world and it's long q everywhere.

From Kuala Lumpur hot sunshine of 34 d.c, I reached to Frankfurt the next morning it was 10 d.c, so cold that I gotta take out my Winter Jacket to cover my body from the cold Spring in Germany. Germany is well-known for its cold winter season with icy snowy weather to rainy days all around Germany. Frankfurt was raining that morning but thank God the luxury coach was waiting for us just in front of the airport and when we reached Nuremberg, the rain stopped.

Our local Malaysian tour guide said we're kinda lucky as we got to tour around Nuremberg without the rain falls as according to her, she always gotta use the umbrella she brought from Malaysia as Germany tends to rain every time she's here. At times, it rains a little but it's ok as we get to rest and relax at the mall for lunch and trying out the yummy pizza from Patio-one of the famous restaurant here. I really shop till drop here in Nuremberg.

The ancient church with 500 years old clock that's amazing and amusing all of us,
only happens every one hour of the day. We enjoyed Germany's famous clock from
the making of it to its creativity of performing arts of clocks. One of the best wonders
of Germany, no doubt about it.

I love their yummy chocs, no preservatives confirmed for sure and it's really creamy till melt in your memory, not just in your mouth. I've tried out their McD burger also, not bad and it only cost EUD1. Rambo couldn't believe that it's so cheap when I asked him to pay them because Germany usually have very high standard of living almost everywhere. So chocolates and souvenirs usually cost higher than the other European countries but as long it's yummy, it's totally worth the price that you paid for. 

Haha...From Frankfurt city travel to Prague, from Prague moving to Bratislava today and tomorrow will 'Jau Lan'(rush over) to Hungary. Really tiring, I have been walking for 4 hours all around Praha today but it's worthwhile to see beautiful Prague and meet many friendly people here. Laugh a lot today, So far so good! (My FB status in Prague, Free Wi-fi).

The Praha Old Town with old castle, cathedral and the famous bridge that links to the New Town of Prague. 

Prague is the capital of Czech Republic, founded in the 9th century is also the largest city in its country. It boasts of a long history which is linked intrinsically to the history of Europe with artistic architecture, visible almost everywhere from beautiful bridges to majestic buildings. 

The most attractive tourist destination in Prague is the Prague Castle. Having being the largest ancient castle in the world, it's even registered in the Guinness Book of World Records. Inside the castle, tourists can visit several stunning sights of the palaces and museums, as well as the St. Vitus Cathedral, which is all nearby around the area of old town city.

Full of people, mostly tourists from around the world during Spring Season. This is the best time to come and
that's why we're here with the tour agency who organized 2 trips for Eastern Europe tour in May month only.

The Charles Bridge of Prague is an architectural treat, built over the River Vltava, this bridge is aged about 600 years old. It's built in the Gothic style and is lined with baroque statues of 30 religious figures, regarded by many as one of Europe's most charming and beautiful cities. Prague has become the most popular travel destination in Eastern Europe along with Bratislava and Hungary. Millions of tourists visit the city every year. It took us 4 hours long from Old Town Castle walking to New Town(across the bridge) since early in the morning. 

We had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe since Rambo promised to help his malay friends to get the famous Hard Rock T-shirts for them all along our holiday trips and we enjoyed the beautiful sceneries all around Praha for sure. But he had no idea about Prague's history at all so I reminded him on the World Cup 2010 incident where I bought Czech Republic to win against the country my friend 'Datuk Z' bought who lost to me and gave us a treat at Bubba Gumps at The Curve only then he remembers Czech Republic.

I just woke up from my sleep all along the hours of travel from Prague to Bratislava, very tired that's for sure.

Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia, with a population of about 500,000 people. It’s the country’s largest city in southwestern Slovakia occupying both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries. 

I love the architectural designs of the ancient castle on top of the hill, just like the one in Germany but the one in Germany is much more higher and bigger of course. And not to mention the overall buildings around Bratislava. It's in Pink and golden colour, it's kinda rare to see this Pink colour building with such historical story behind the must-visit place here.

The only big 4 star hotel you can find here in Bratislava. The Slovakian Dinner
we had here was not bad with creamy soup, fresh Grilled Fish and yummy dessert.

The history of the city has been strongly influenced by people of different nations and religions like Czech, which they got separated from each other in the year of 1993. Before  that, the two countries was called the CzechoSlovakia. I still remember that but after the tour, I got to learn more interesting stories/history and it's good to know it too. My sis Toto has asked me so many times on the 5 countries I would visit on this trip before I travel to Eastern Europe.

She told me she only knew Austria, Germany and Hungary but not the other two Czech Republic and Slovakia. Haha...can't blame her as she said she never likes History and Geography at all, really no interest to learn it including Rambo himself. They just wana pay and enjoy every happy moments travelling together, esp. to destress and recharged new energy level like a new Energizer Battery. Enjoy to the max is the key word for them!

Hungary is huge with its old castle that's been rebuilt again on the left side of the castle by Hilton Hotel.
A real nice place with captivating views over Buda+Pest(opposite the bridge) city. Kinda relaxing here!   

Hungary is a country situated in the border of Slovakia and Austria to the west, where I visit after the Hungary city tour. The country's capital and largest city is Budapest, the famous city of  Hungary that’s split into two main part on the historical Buda district most famous for its palace complex and the Pest district more on the city side with shopping malls and restaurants. Thats' why I put it as Buda+Pest: Budapest on FB status.

On a romantic Danube River Cruise with Red Wine while enjoying the wondrous places all around Budapest. 

The famous Danube River Cruise, Hungary is famous for the romantic night views here with ship restaurants, night cruise and party along this happening place. But our tour took an evening cruise at 5.30pm, about an hour ride for the spectacular views ever. That's why some prefer Budapest over Prague. But to me, I like both places equally the same share of love as both places are having their own distinctive beauties. 

And both places actually have one common beauty is that their countries owned ancient, beautiful buildings since the 9th century. Just can't describe much about it, even those pictures I shared on my FB never really focused  much on it, you really gotta witness it yourself. I fully recommend Eastern Europe holiday to you if you expect to enjoy an awe-inspiring holiday with your loved ones.

One of the majestic building in Austria, even The Amazing Race show had one of the challenge featured here.

Austria is full of magnificent buildings to visit, not forgetting the famous Schonbrun Palace with the Queen Maria Theresa history who loves Chinese decors so much she actually brought back many of the Chinese arts and decorated her palace with the 'Chinese meets West' kinda concept. It is one of the most beautiful palace built on earth, best kept by the Austrian authority that charged EUD 6.50 for the visit to the palace.

No camera is allowed here, I brought along my ip4 with free wi-fi but I dare not go against the rule by taking any pictures inside the castle although I was so tempted to share it with all of you. It's really beautiful in here, full of exquisite decorations from China and Europe countries. Really impressive and exclusive, simply to fully describe this place. The history story is kinda interesting too, I will share it with you if I can find the time to blog about it. 

Mirabell Gardens, full of blossoming flowers and nicely-sculpted garden. Total freedom to shoot all the 

nice pictures here. It's so hot in Austria but the wind blows real strong till my umbrella can fly like 

a kite, high up in the sky. Haha…not only me, the others as well as I heard them shouted ‘Wow’!

The reason why I chose this Eastern Europe tour mainly because I love watching 'The Sound of Music' and I love singing most of the songs from the movie. I promised myself that I would travel to Austria specially to visit the movie shooting places and I was glad I made it this far just to be here for my favourite movie. When Rambo took pictures for me all around this Von Trapp's house, I was singing along with the tour guide and feeling totally on top of the world. 

After lunch at the Chinese Restaurant that's located at Salzburg Old Town, I did some quick shopping and sight-seeing all around Salzburg. Then, we travel to Innsbruck city which is well known for its Olympic Winter Games and shopping for Swarovski souvenirs. I used to buy many of it but this time, I only bought the limited edition Swarovski fragrance with a pink pouch. Almost the same designs everywhere, so there's really no big deal of it to buy more.

One of the most beautiful castle I have ever seen from afar, close-up and visit. This dangerous bridge is not very
stable actually esp.when the Korean tour members came.Lucky we reached here first for all the nice shots here. 

The fascinating fairytale Neuschwenstein Castle makes us all feel like we're in a fairytale world in a reality world of Germany. Such a wonderful experience and it's for real. I feel so blessed to be here with Rambo as we're both spending really good times with new friends climbing up the high hill after the local bus dropped us at the certain level of height pit stop. It's too high up the mountain area and kinda steep, it can take hours to reach up here if you're walking up here by yourself. 

We're like the new love birds, been lovey-dovey taking our own sweet time snapping many beautiful pictures here. Naturally, we both feel romantically loving in this kinda romantic environment. The fresh crispy air of high mountain surrounding us in tranquil atmosphere. Rambo loves this place, reminded him so much of Jiuzhaigou in China and I felt the same way too. In fact, we're supposed to be travelling to ZhangJiaJie that Spring holiday but we postponed to May but May, China was having the H5N9 virus pulak.  

Fantastic view ever, just like the one we visit in Jiuzhaigou. Clean and serene environment make us feel so
tranquil and transparent like kids here, as there's nothing much to say but feeling overjoyed just to be here.

Such a coincidence, everything happen too fast and I changed the tour to this Eastern Europe. I prefer to travel to China for beautiful scenery but it's kinda lucky this Bavaria Hill in Germany actually fulfilled my expectation of a beautiful holiday destination to be. It's kinda paid up my missed travel to China, or else my heart would be in China but my body is in Europe. Haha...really thank God I enjoyed every moments travelling around 5 countries of Eastern Europe in 9 days. I think this trip is worth every thousands that I paid for after completing my Spring Project in 2013. 

We deserved to have a great holiday to recharge and revived us to better form of motivation to success. My Summer Project is going on already and we're preparing for Autumn Project in next July. The Japanese buyers love to visit Malaysia this year, so I take it as a good sign for 2013. Not only good for us but also for Malaysia as well, as we're bringing the business for Penang, Johor and N.S market provided that they're humble enough and willing to work hard for it. What goes around comes around, you reap what you sow at the end of the day.