Ochen Priyatna

Part 3 of my Europe trip involved travelling to the Berlin which was a landmark city in modern history having been through both world wars and Cold War. The picture above depicts whatever was remaining of the Berlin Wall separating East and West Germany. History aside, another association that comes to mind when Germany is mentioned would be their biergartens, amazing beer and beer food. Without further ado, let's dive straight into the next 3 words depicting my Europe trip (7 months back)!

7. Transportation
As time was a constraint during this trip, we flew between the countries mostly and intermittently we took the train, buses or trams to get around the city. Since we visited Europe during the Xmas New Year period, London's public transport was down for Christmas and we found ourselves cycling around London using the Londonbikes that were available for loan and multiple locations.


The bikes are free for the first 15 mins and 1 pound for the next 30 minutes. Naturally, being the AZN we are, we found a way to hack the system to pay the least - ride for 15min to the nearest bike kiosk, switch bikes, and continue hahahaha. Meaning from our place near UOL to the Big Ben, we had to alight and switch bike at a station in between. So glad that Obike came back to Singapore so we may experience bike sharing as well but the weather makes it a pain to ride around boo







8. Outdoor markets - great place to grab gluwhein







9. Dining in

In the previous posts where we mention Michelin starred restaurants and showcased all the pasta we ate throughout the trip, there may be a misconception that we are extremely affluent and able to afford anything under the sun. Truth is, I'm just starting out in my first job and jj is still schooling = broke af actually. Hence, to hedge against our pricier experiences in restaurants, we dined in substantially or bought in meals from the local market/supermart and dined in our airbnbs/hotels.

Couldn't find a picture but almost all our breakfasts were settled in minimarts or convenience stores in various locations. In London, we dropped by Saintsbury and Waitrose for breakfast sandwiches or teatime snacks. Amsterdam had this local mart - Albert Heijn - where we bought our snacks and juices (to pump up our vitamins & hey it's cheap). Germany & Munich was dominated by Aldi (cheapcheapcheap) and mostly local open marts whereas Paris was Carrefour.

This 5-part post is taking a loooong time and I'm glad I'm finally making some headway on it phew 2nd place we visited was Amsterdam and here goes the post that had nothing to do with the intro picture but everything to do with the title
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4. Michelin (star restaurants) - in Paris and Amsterdam
The associations that come with the word Michelin includes unreachable and expensive. That being said, since I was at the part of the world that first started the elusive Michelin Star, I couldn't help but check out one or two of these creations. Thankfully, I managed to find a 1-star Michelin star restaurant near Montmartre (kudos to Tripadvisor!) that was 1 star in it's pricing!



There were two set courses available and we took one each. The meal started with an amazing Beetroot soup in this oriental-looking witch pot. The beetroot came together beautifully with the cheese, onion, croutons, assorted herbs to create a perfect concoction of blood-red soup. Yumz.
Next up, I had a starter with a sous-vide egg and Brussels sprouts with some smoked salmon while jj's were those 4 oysters done in 4 ways.
For our mains, I had the pan-fried salmon while he had the stewed beef. Both mains were so-so but the mashed potatoes stole the show with the wonderful blend of herbs within.
Dessert was mango pudding for me and a sort of custard for him. Those crispy bits were on both dishes (toasted lentils? oats?) and they added a different texture to the otherwise one-dimensional dish (Y)

5. Tripadvisor (life saviour in providing very sensible food choices as well as tourist attractions recommendations)

Since we had limited tummy space and time spent in Europe, we had to optimise its utility (and maximise our satisfaction) by ensuring we're always having a decently good meal. With that at the back of our minds, Tripadvisor was a great tool to help us hunt around for the best food in each town/city. The peer reviewing function as well as the budget indication helped us plan around our meals to ensure we are getting the best foods at the price point we desire.
Excellent meals followed thereafter!














6. Museums (Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, almost every city we plowed the museums with the exception of London)


This is probably the most touristy word of 'em all. Most cities had a pass that meant us going for museum-hopping and I've probably seen more art/painting in this trip than my entire life combined. It was intriguing and overwhelming at times but I'm almost certain after the trip that I do not have the concentration and focus to fully appreciate or interpret an art piece. I wouldn't recommend going to the major art museums if you do not have a liking for arts as admission is pretty pricey and they tend to be very crowded.

Instead, you may choose to visit the smaller scale boutique museums instead with more hands-on interactive exhibitions - e.g. Diamant museum or Heineken experience in AMS

  

Over the festive period last winter, I flew over to Europe for the first time ever and visited 6 states in 5 countries over a period of 18 days. Hectic as it sounded, I felt like I sufficiently touched base with all the cities I visited in the capacity of a tourist and barely felt the rush - besides perhaps dragging the 20kg luggage everywhere. It has been 3 months 6 months since and my memory is failing me as usual...,
Recently I've been driving bits and pieces of my memories through words/phrases so I thought this was a perfect way of remembering and recalling my experiences.

1. Cold (weather, defo not the people)