I'm Back!!

hello! i'm back from Prague! so fast.. this 10 days have passed so quickly.. Missed my computer.. haha.. so here's a blow by blow account of the trip.

Day 1

Took a long plane trip to Finland then to Prague.. sit until my backside pain.. haha.. didn't get much sleep on the plane.. was entertained by xiao hei.. heh.. when we arrived at Prague we were greeted by the cold weather.. so shiok! the temperature was just right and it was the first time i was breathing smoke out of my mouth! haha.. we then went on a city tour around Prague.. the architecture is very very beautiful there.. we then stopped at a taiwan restaurant for lunch.. i wonder whats the point of coming all the way to Prague to eat chinese food when it is available at home and probably tastes better.. one thing i hate when travelling overseas is feeling at home.. if u feel at home when u're overseas, what's the point of going overseas? after lunch, we went to check in to our hotel then nelson told us to sleep to get energy for practice in the evening.. we got an apartment with Gerald, Cang and Weixian and Cang brought his playstation.. haha i can't believe the ancient TV in the room was able to be connected to the playstation. haha so in the end we didn't get much sleep.. haha.. after that was dinner and choir practice.

Day 2

It's the day of the competition and we had a last combined practice in the hotel before heading to the competition venue.. We sang our songs and then heard the other choirs sing.. some of them were quite good.. but those european choirs have a different sound from ours.. and some of them were pretty good.. after that we walked to Wenceslas Square where we changed our money and had dinner before heading back to the cathedral for the opening concert.. We had dinner at a restaurant but the orders took so long to arrive so we had to takeaway.. then we took the metro back to the cathedral. the opening concert was a performance by this group of Gregorian singers.. they were so Whack! the blend was just perfect.. After that we were all so tired and we went back to the hotel for some sleep..

Day 3

We went for a walking tour of the Charles Bridge, Old Town and the Jewish Quarter.. the buildings are so beautiful.. We had to take a tram to the Charles bridge.. it was very crowded and Nelson got pickpocketed.. Those pickpocketers are so skillful lor.. he put his wallet in the inner pocket of his coat and they still managed to take it.. he had about a thousand Sing dollars in there.. We went for the tour around the place, walking till our legs almost broke.. haha.. then in the Jewish quarter we saw this cemetery which was quite small in area, but it held 100,000 bodies!! Some graves had bodies lying in 12 layers.. Amazing.. We then had a shopping break to shop around Old Town Square... Got quite a lot of shops.. then we slied Miss Choo and wandered into the alleys.. haha.. after that we had some common singing which we didn.t have the scores for and we just stood there breathing in second hand smoke.. haha.. we then went to this expo hall for the award ceremony which was quite sian except for this group 'You Screwballs' which was quite funky but became sian after a while when they performed song after song and we were all so tired waiting for the results... when it finally came.. We won the Petr Eben prize!!! Our hardwork finally paid off! and nelson won the Best conductor prize.. What a nice end to the day..

Day 4

We checked out of our hotel Opatov and proceeded to the hotel Juno to check in.. We then went back to Old Town Square for more shopping.. we spent a lot of time there and I think we are all very familiar with the place liao.. haha.. we went for this lunch at this very classy restaurant where their set lunch only cost 199 Crowns.. thats just over S$10! We bought lots of souvenirs and had good eats too.. heh..

Day 5

We took a 2 hour bus ride to the spa town of Karlovy Vary which had hot springs with water that had supposedly medicinal properties.. but to me it tasted funny.. haha.. then we had chinese food for lunch again.. sian.. we did a bit of shopping where i bought wafers that were their products.. and they were quite cheap.. just over S$1 per box.. We then went back to our hotel for a carolling practice.. halfway through the practice, some British people staying in the hotel came in to listen to us.. one thing i love about these foreigners are that they make a very appreiciative audience..

Day 6

We had a tour of prague castle which is the biggest castle in Europe.. It was very majestic and the architecture was very beautiful.. With a mixture of Roman, Baroque and Renaissance architecture.. After that, we walked to guess where? We're back at Old Town Square! haha.. we did more shopping there, and we also walked the whole of Wenceslas Square.. haha... We are so familiar with the place already next time any of you go there can us ask to be your guides.. haha.. We had a folklore show in the evening together with dinner and we were so shocked that the restaurant was the same one we went to for luch the other day.. haha.. it was pretty entertaining.. the guy playing the fiddle was very good..

Day 7

We went for a tour of this town which was used for silver mining long long ago which we had to pay 10 euros for.. it was rather boring.. but the highlight was this church which was furnished with the bones of 40,000 people.. it had this chandelier which was made up of every bone in the human body.. amazing.. after that, we went back to Old Town Square again for some last minute shopping.. at night, we had our P@P, or Prom @ Prague.. the year ones are so thoughtful, cos we missed our Prom in Singapore and they put a lot of effort into it.. Gerald and Yanqing became prom king and queen.. haha it was very funny.. heh.. after that.. we went back to our rooms and then i went over to gerald's room to play some chess.. then gerald went to the toilet to get some water to boil.. as he came out, he say a foot trailing off at his room door which was left open by us.. the funny thing was the foot was headed towards a wall beside the door and when gerald went out to check who it was, no one was there.. when he told us, we thought he was joking.. UNTIL.................................. I was playing chess and out of the corner of my eye, i saw a figure walk across the doorway towards the wall.. I thought i was imagining things.. then i told the rest for fun.. but Jiren said he also saw it! but no one was there outside the door! We were totally freaked out! Luckily it was the last day at the hotel, or i would have moved out immediately.. before this i was skeptical, but now i believe that ghosts do exist..

Day 8

It's the last day.. everything has passed by so quickly.. we checked out of the hotel and headed for the airport.. our flight got delayed because of fog.. i think we breathed out too much mist in the past few days.. haha.. when we finally got to Helsinki, we were 1-2 hours behind schedule and we started our flsh tour of helsink.. haha.. and for the first time in my life i touched SNOW! it was so cool! but we only stopped at each stop for a few minutes.. after that for dinner we had what.. you said it.. chinese food again.. haha.. After that, we went back to the airport for our flight back to Singapore, bringing many beautiful memories and lots of shopping! haha..