For memory’s sake

A nice trip with nice companies in a nice group.

Arrived in Warsaw on a moody late afternoon, I felt a bit down and not so energetic for the trip ahead. Fortunately, that’s only the beginning. Subsequent activities were interesting enough to keep me flow excitedly.

A walk along the main street with shopping centres and The Palace of Culture and Science, a gift from Stalin to Poland and a shame to most Polish since it reminds them of Russian occupation time.

The walk was followed by a delicious dinner at a Polish restaurant. The place was cozy and traditional enough for us to sense the Polish-ness. I love all the dishes, especially Polish dumplings. They offered grandpa and grandma portions (9 and 11 dumplings respectively).

On the way back, we shopped for groceries. Got myself 1kg of grapes and some chocolate,  mem mem…

The main agenda of the trip is Auschwitz concerntration camp on the following day. Departed at 5am, we reached Kraków at 10am. The tour guide did not forget to depress us with a long documentary film about Nazi and the Jews in the camp. The entire group felt weaken after watching those depressing stuff.

Throughout the 5 hours touring the camp, none of us wanted to take a photo of ourselves and at no time could a smile be found. Too depressed.

The main gate. “Arbeit Match Frei”(“work makes (one) free”).

Gas chamber, where millions of people were mass killed, mainly the Jews.

The railway to the death.

65 years ago, I wouldn’t be able to get out of this entrance once I’d entered.

The lovely tour guide, btw.

We recovered from depression quite fast upon reaching the city center with the amazing town. It’s happening though it’s an old town. Rolling along the street and you’ll get to see a typical Europe central square with church, palace, big fountain. Further there’ll be more churches, museums, souvinirs shops, and restaurants.

The main church, one of Kraków’s symbols.

Horse carriage, I want to be a princess leaving one shoe behind…

But this is all I have…

Wonderful palace. Would it be mine? Hopefully my prince is roaming inside.

Or maybe I should be satisfied with this…

Ladies of the trip.

We made our way to the recommended restaurant. Trust me, the salad sucks.

After that, we caught the night train going back to Warsaw. By the time we settled in the hostel, it’s already 11pm, time for a rest and get prepared for another tour the day after. Our last full day in Poland was filled with palaces and world heritage sites.

Summer palace.

I think I love bushes.

On the way to the palace on the water. The garden of my dream. So romantic, so relaxing, I want to come back with…

There you go, the back of the palace.

Here comes the front.

A beautiful lake with beautiful birds and beautiful visitor.

There were lots of peacocks around, none of them were dancing though.

Next stop, old town of Warsaw, the world’s heritage site.

Both the Royal palace (left) and the column (right) are newly built after WWII since Warsaw was 80% destroyed by the war. These are replica of the same palace and column, symbols of Warsaw.

Guys of the day.

Another old church.

Another square with the Warsaw symbolic mermaid.

After that, we just continued our trip to the New Town, not modern town. Everything still looks old to me though. I noticed several buskers along the street playing different instruments. They played for hours, disregarding the rainfall and the cold.

This is one of them.

Life is tough.

Pack and leave, bye Poland with lovely streets, beautiful palaces, nice food and not to forget, the history woes.

I’ll tell  my kid:

True value lies in what matters to you, not what deems to be important to others.

Happiness is when you don’t have to tell yourself  I’m happy.

Sorrow is where you learn about yourself, so don’t rush over it.

Experiences are not meant to be shown, but to be thought about.

Money is not the ruler of  life, but how you approach it measures your height.

Love is for you to discover, not an extra property to exhibit.

I did not grant you a life, I count on you to shape it. For that, I’m always proud of you.

First thing first, I like 5-hour exam with 2-hour workload.

My first paper in KTH, I’m not sure about other modules but for this one (SF2950-Advanced Maths), students are supposed to sit 5 hours for the exam, which I thought people wouldn’t stay till the end since 300mins is just far beyond human’s tolerance. Yet, to my surprise, most students, including me, struggled till the last second. There’re pros and cons though.

Pros: relax, 5 questions for 5 hours, take your time, think carefully and write. You don’t have to stress yourself and write without thinking like what NUSers do. Time is not at the essence, hence you can eat, drink, think, go toilet, fantasize of bf/gf as much as you want. In fact many ppl come to exam hall with fruits, yogurt, snack, chocolate, coke, candies, water. Such an interesting view.

Cons: horrible, after thinking and reconsidering too much, I got confused and blur and headache and backache and hungry and… Just absolutely horrible.

Hopeless!