Money Money Money

One thing I love about travelling is that I get to collect some of the weird and different currencies around the world. Yes..indeed I can get these from the money change but certain currencies such as those from Romania and Eastern Europe is tough to get from Malaysia. Most money changer here doesnt really have those stocks.

Some of the major currencies that I have collected so far:-

Romanian Leu


Romanian Lei


Jordanian Dinar (20 Dinar)


Jordanian 5 Dinar


Egyptian Pound


Danish Kroner


Swedish Kroner


Turkish Lira



Hungarian Forint


Czech Kroner

I have some Peruvian Sols and Icelandic Kroner which I think I have misplaced

Budapest, Hungary (14-15 Aug 2009)

Budapest, also known as the Pearl of the Danube, is one of the most beautiful cities in Eastern Europe. Although they are still using their own currencies, no doubt, Budapest is fast becoming a major tourist attractions.

We took a overnight train from Brasov into Budapest and reach the city early morning. Budapest is quite large but easy to travel around using their metro. We rented a hostel on the Pest side. Budapest is divided into two parts whereby one side is called Buda and the otheris called Pest. It was divided by the Danube river.

the Parliament at Pest side








trying to jump off






view from Castle hill






Fisherman Bastion




Mathias church

Main attractions on the Pest side is the gothic parliament. Connecting between Buda and Pest is the famous Charles bridge. On the Buda side, towards the Castle Hill, there are the famous Royal Palace, Fisherman's Bastion and the Mathias church.

We loitered around the Buda and the Pest side before getting our dinner and continue with the night sightseeing along the river Danube. The Charles bridge brightly lit up at night was definately one the highlight of Budapest.

Sadly, the next day, we missed the flight back to London as we slept in the train journey to the airport. I also dont know how the hell both of us can fall asleep while the journey from the town center to the airport was a mere 15 minutes. Because of that, we missed the Military Tatoo back in Edinburgh on the 15th. We had to catch an overnight bus from London back to Edinburgh..:(

view of Charles bridge at night






view of parliament at night

Sinaia, Romania (13 Aug 2009)

From Brasov, we took a day trip to the nearby town called Sinaia. Sinaia is famous for the residence home for summer for King Charles of Romania. It is here that he built Peles Castle, the famous landmark for this town. The place is easy to get to via train from either Brasov or Bucharest (it's an almost 4 hour train journey from Bucharest to Brasov, which Sinaia is in between this two places).

After using some sign language to get our tickets and checking the train back to Brasov, we managed to reach Sinaia in the afternoon. We took s short hike up the hill to the famous castle and managed to catch the last English tour into the castle. Since we need to pay extra for taking photos inside the castle, me being a very kiasu auditor decided not to pay and not to take any photos of the interior of the castle.

However, the exterior of the castle was enough to feed my photographer's thirst and indeed the castle is an amazing architecture. Peles castle was considered by many as one of the most beautiful castle in Europe.

I love the paintings on the wall








A storm is clouding over