:)

off to paris and london! seeyoooo in 9 days :)

Sunday best!

My catechism class kids! :)

From left to right:
There's Abigail who's really polite and sweet, Robbie who is amazingly restless, active, dramatic and challenging. Blake -the smart one with all the insights, understanding, quite talkative. aaaand Ludovico -my favourite :) quiet, shy, adorable. Then there's Jessica who's really attentive and absorbs a lot and last of all, Emmanuel who is funny and gives thoughtful answers.

Going up the duomo!

I finally climbed up the duomo with my aunt and uncle who came to milan this week :) The top of the duomo is really impressive, made entirely of white marble and you go up to the top not for the view but the whole architecture! It's the second largest catholic cathedral in the world.




the highest point of the duomo which is a statue of the Madonna (and the only part not made of marble).




the duomo piazza:

at the top of the duomo, long big space where you can just sit, lie and relax :)

Cycling for peace

Mel and I were on our way home from the duomo when we saw this huge jigsaw puzzle laid out by the side with cyclists leaving painted track marks on the jigsaw pieces! We asked if we could take one (cause some people were doing that) and the lady told us we can even help paint it! It's an artwork for peace :)

So we wore the body suit they gave us, plus shoe covers and chose our bicyles -I got blueee but it was really too high for me so I couldn't control it very well. Mel got green! It was tons of funn :D Everyone over there wants your colour on their blank jigsaw piece so when you're cycling, they'll cheer for you to cycle on their pieces, calling out "blue blue blue"!




Us and our masterpiece!

For more info, http://www.areaodeon.it/bybike/BB4P.php

Furniture fashionista!

Another thing Milan is famous for -furniture! It's design week at the moment where everyone congregates in Milan for the biggest designer furniture fair. Went down with irina yesterday to check it out:


a restaurant:



I quite liked this one! A chair and the thing above it the lamp:

Wine glasses / Japanese-style bed / armchairs:




Jacuzzi / Fireplace /Water fountain / Shower area:

Decorative waterfall / Spa / Hot waterbed massager / Toilets!

My camera died halfway so I didn't take that many : ( More soon cause we're gonna check out other areas!

A new dawn,

Somewhere out there someone's saying a prayer

That we'll find one another in that big somewhere out there -

Lake Como,

Milan.

Prague, beautiful night city.

The last leg of our easter break trip! Charles bridge was beautiful but we almost froze standing up there and im not exaggerating!

Nearing sunset, the view from the bridge:

All the statues on the bridge are Saints/Apostles/the Holy Family:

View by night:

The old town square where they had a huge easter market!

TRDLO: This bread was the yummiest bread everr :) I think it's their specialty. Steps to make it:

1. Roll the bread dough into strips and entwine the dough onto the metal rolling pin

2. Fasten the pin onto the wooden piece and roll the bread softly on the sugar and cinammon tray to coat it

3. Flatten the bread strips by rolling it firmly on the table once again.

4. Put in on the grill to bake!

5. Contentment :)

Changing of guards:

We went to prague castle too but it was freezing once again -there were even snow storms where you can see the wind whipping all the snow up, very very scary and cold. So we didn't take any pictures!

Spent our last night in Baro and Books, this really nice bar next to our hostel with really chill ambience! They have another branch in new york which is really popular i think. Ohh and they had a drink with my name in it and it's my favourite cocktail by far :)

God-given sundays are made of these :)

After a whole week of rain and gloom, the weather finally gave way to sunshine yay. Taught catechism on my own for the first time today and it was really nice. I love the kids, they've all got their own individual personalities waiting to bloom.

Met Sister Jo at mass along with her niece, Yen and her two friends, Aunty Catherine and Bernadette -all from Singapore and all really nice! Lunch was full-fledged italian complete with starters, main course, desserts and tea. My seafood pasta was really dee-licious :) They were so generous with the seafood. Now I completely understand why italians only have one full meal a day - I was stuffed!

And guess what? Navigli had a flower festival today! Milan never fails to amaze me -there's always something new happening every week. So despite its initial shortcomings, it's a place I've come to appreciate and enjoy. The flowers were gorgeous, very vivid colours and amazingly fresh, lit up my mood all at once :) Here are the lovelies:

My favourite lavender (top right)!



The colour of the red flowers were soo vivid, it looked odd on my camera.

Navigli: the river that runs all the way down. Found out the other day that this lake was used to transport white marble to build the duomo (which is really grand). That's why it's so famous!

Navigli: It's usually not bustling with activity, only during special occasions like these.

The flower stalls stretched down the entire canal:

The bridges along the canals were all decorated with flowers, really really pretty :) This one had baby chrysanthemums and baby's breathe bouquets hanging under the bridge.

Buskers -particularly liked this trio:

The art gallery in one of Navigli's corners. I wanna live here, lovee their balconies:

Giant loaves of bread!!

Sunshine days :)

Until the dawn it brings,

Another day to sing about the magic that was

you and me.

The Residenz, Munich.

A couple dancing in perfect harmony with their eyes closed, with only soft air for music.

Guten Tag!

Munich was everything at once.

It was freeezing when we were there but I think it'd have made my top 5 places during summertime! The amount of food we had was amazing. It was sooo cold we were huddling indoors half the time eating. I've never eaten so much since I came to Milan but it was ohsogoood! Our foodie trip! :D

Pork's knuckles and beer at Hofbrauhaus -this place is aweesome, good food, live music and nothing above 10 euros. You can even see people decked out in costumes sitting at the tables with HUGEE jugs of beer!!

Alte Pinakothek. The paintings by Peter Paul Reubens weren't really my kind of thing. This painting by another painter caught my eye though. It depicts the life of Mother Mary all in one painting from the Annunciation to Assumption:

Easter at St Benedict's Church. The international community there was really welcoming and friendly! Father gave out colourful easter eggs and they celebrated with food after mass. I really like how they designed the place mass was celebrated at.

ViktualienMarkt: The fresh markets are gorgeous!!!! The food was really fresh and the colours were so vibrant you'd think they were fake! They even had whole chillis which you'll never see in Italy. Ahhh, I was so tempted to buy a whole bunch of chilli and lug it back to Milan but wasn't sure of the airport restrictions.

Frauenkirche (Metropolitan Church of our Lady). This is the church which Pope Benedict XVI (our current Pope) was from! He was archbishop of Munich and Freising. Anyway the special thing about this church is its "windowless" image. The story goes that the architect/builder of this church made a deal with the devil that there would be no windows in the church. The architect built in in such a way that if you stand at a particular spot at the back of the church, you wont be able to see any windows at all (top right picture). When the devil came, he was happy cause he saw no windows but later, he realised he was cheated! Unable to do anything about it, he stomped his feet in anger and left (footprint, bottom left).

Englischer Garten, miles and miles of grassy fields which I happily skipped and twirled around :)

Marienplatz:

Then, there was Dachao, the concentration camp which was so depressing, especially with the weather. It felt wrong to take pictures there -the bunkers, prisons, gas chambers, the place held so much. I felt guilty just being there, reliving all that happened, their suffering like zoo exhibits -made worse with tourists taking pictures and smiling in front of prison hallways. Yet to forget, move on and not have any memorial at all like Dachao would be disregard for all that happened. It was then that the dilemma between forgetting and commemorating came alive for me. Where do we go from here?

Gloomy thoughts aside, we took a day trip to see the Neuschwanstein Castle (aka Walt Disney Castle) where we hiked uphill and braved the snow, rain and wind for 35 minutes! I'll think we'll never forget that walk. My fingers turned purple! I was really happy with the snow though :) :) Thought I'd leave Europe not seeing snow but I did!!

After our brave hike up the mountain, the tour guide brought us to a grand total of 3 rooms! That's cause the castle took really long to build and was never finished. The King lived there only 6 months before he died. The finished rooms are really gorgeous!! Very different from all the other castles we've been to. Too bad pictures inside weren't allowed. Here are pictures!

And more food to end off with! :)