Weekend goes as fast as it comes..

How I wish time can freeze so I can keep savoring every crumb of the weekend's languid, idle pace of life. Surely, it is impossible but it seems to make the mode transition is far more impossible. And less than 9 hours, lecture will start as usual, life will be back to "normal".* Sigh..* Or at least I can try to be optimistic hoping this week will be a good one (just to motivate myself)

Hope everyone too will have a good week ahead =)

UK and Istanbul trip - part 2

Salam and hey everyone..

Friday comes again. The day I think everyone who call themselves a college student really like; the day when books and any homework/assignment for a while could be put aside, even though test/quiz will come on the following Monday. Yes, what else to do rather than having party like there's no tomorrow. Plus, with Halloween is just around the corner, tonight's party must be added with some extra kicks.

Me? prefer to stay at home; laying back on my cozy couch, watching my favorite sitcom/movie, making phone call to family who is 14763km away, chatting with friends (and updating this blog of course). Call me loser or whatever, but I am looking forward every week to doing all these things which I consider as my own version of TGIF.

Ok, back to topic. After spending the whole one day in the lovely Cambridge, we headed back to London. We spent two days in this great city. The only drawback here is weather. Unlike the glorious sunny day in Cambridge, London is pretty much gloomy and showered most of the time. And it is unpredictable too. You may hear the weatherman broadcasting it's bright 23 degree sunny in the morning, and all the sudden it was raining in afternoon.

Basically there were 4 major touristy activities we did during our 2 days stays in London. By "major" I mean the one that you need to purchase ticket for entry admission. And they are all interim, being filled up with   free-things-to-do which is the city major attraction sight-seeing. So, the 2 days in my opinion were worth and wisely spent.

The tickets for 4 major attractions were bought in combo online. That way, we saved up quite significant of quid compared to if bought separately. If you want to come to London and visit these 4 attractions, I highly suggest you to do the same thing; buy ticket in combo, in advance, and  online.

My stay in London was also accompanied by another friend who came all the way from Newcastle which is 5 hours journey by bus. It was great to get to meet him up after such a long time.

We began our day visiting the 1st major attraction; London Dungeon. Basically, London Dungeon is like a mix of haunted house with live actors and some rides. But unlike the cheap Halloween haunted house that has no other purposes or educational values but only to  make you scream, London Dungeon interactively creates and tells historical horrific events that took place in London city long time ago such as Great Fire of London, Sweeney Todd, Jack the Ripper, Bloody Marry: Killer Queen and many more. (Google them all if you have no idea what they are)

One thing I love about London Dungeon is the way the actors engaged with the visitors interactively. And they are all experienced actors. Plus, all the rides and the special effect are SUPERB! Have I told you that they even have 5D ride called Vengeance 5D? Or you being treated as criminal who is gonna be hung; you are taken to a ride which elevates you towards the ceiling and models of judges and an executioner reading the charges. A noose drops in front and as the hangman pulls the gallows lever, and you drop down in the dark? It was A-MAYY-ZINGGG!!! 

Unfortunately, it was dark most of the time inside. So, I could not snap many photos. Plus, London Dungeon is a place where you have no time snapping pictures around but to enjoy the experiences offered. Am I right?

In Subway station waiting for the tubes

The main entrance: "Enter at Your Own Peril"

Did I tell you how dark it is? 

This photo was taken by the studio camera.
That tells you in case you're wondering why the image is sharp

Continued...

p/s I just have no idea for an appropriate closing =)

UK and Istanbul trip - part 1

Salam and hey everyone,

I am currently in the midst of exams season. So most of my time has been spent on my study desk, even having my lunch and dinner over my books and study notes. So, nothing exciting happened lately to be shared in this blog. 

I even missed the Haunted House held in Memorial Union tonight. If not because of the quiz tomorrow, I would definitely have let my adrenaline rushed to the max by crawling in the dark labyrinth, being snarled by all the hidden "ghosts" instead of sitting in front of my laptop and squeezing every inch of my nerve cells. (actuarial science is not an easy course I tell you)

So, just to keep the blog updated, I decided to share some pictures of my not-so-recent trip in UK and Istanbul last summer.To sum up, it was a very nice trip..and memorable one too. I think the joyousness of the trip is deeply felt mostly because I did it with my best friends.

We began our trip in Cambridge on the day I arrived London. Fortunately, I did not experience any jet lag. Just to fuel up energy, we decided to head for lunch in Malaysian Hall cafe. I love all the food there. You can get any Malaysian food you can imagine. How I wish a similar cafe exist in Madison. 

These 2 guys were my tour-guides during my stay in UK. The one on the left is from Leicester
and the other is from Sheffield. Really appreciate their hospitality.

I did not look as I just had a  long flight, didn't I?

On the way to Malaysia Hall, London

Malaysia Hall is a walking distance to Queensway and Bayswater subway station.
Pretty convenient to get around from here.

The 10 pounds lunch (bottom right of the picture)

Only one thing that turned me off - the PRICE!! I had a plate of white rice with one piece of fried chicken, some sambal tumis udang (I counted that were only 4-5 shrimps) and some vege. It costs me 10 pounds!! My friends said the high price was because of the shrimp. Basically, he said seafood in London cost you more than chicken and meat. Limited supply I guess.

Then, we headed to Cambridge by train. It took us about 2 hours to reach the city.

A breath-taking scenery along the journey

Cambridge is a university town and administrative center of county Cambridgeshire. Just like Madison, the population was mostly made up of students who attend the University of Cambridge. 

In front of Cambridge train station

We took a hop-on-hop-off bus to tour the town center which covers most of the campus area. The tour also provided you with head-phone which you can plug in and listen to city's tour-guide. But, because, the upper deck of the bus was not filled up with anyone but us, we thought it was a chance of a life time to do cam-whoring on a open roof-less, moving bus. With the air rushing against our faces and hair, we did all the posts we could imagine. So yes, we kept our head-phone aside. What an "eduactional" trip eh.

Spot the cows

Few minutes later few folks hopped on. But their presence did not stop us from continuing our cam-whoring activities at the back. Plus, they didn't seem to bother anyway.

You can tell how "excited" we were

Cool moment (thanks to the photographer aka yours-truly)

Because it was an open upper deck, one of my friend was hit by the twig while cam-whoring. It was so hilarious. If only I was at the right time to snap the picture of him being hit by the twig. Haha

Then, we got off the bus and did punting. I love this punting activity so much. Not only, you can enjoy the beautiful and picturesque setting of the campus from the river, you can also listen to the punter telling you about the history and interesting trivia of this great university. I guess that was a great make-up for the educational part of the tour that we missed after having so much fun on the bus. Hehe

This is the public toilet where I lost my shades..pfttt

We were told that these college students had just finished exams and so they
jumped into the lake to release tension. Give me idea to do the same thing
here in Lake Mendota  =)

My friend here only did the post..not actual punting.
It looks easy but you know once you tried doing it.

Yes..actually all of us tried doing the punting.
But all FAILED!

On the way back, we did little walk around the town. But, it was already late afternoon, so we didn't have much time to explore the whole town

It is beautiful right? Cambridge is very nice little town. You can spend one whole day here and get to explore pretty much all the must-visit attractions. We wished that we could have got there a bit earlier so we would have all the time needed for a complete sight-seeing.

And believe me, all the photos above do not do justice to its reality. I wished I already owned a DSLR at that time. At least, the photos quality would be better and render the reality much closer. I think that's all for now. Part 2 will be up anytime soon. Ok, bye =)