Triangel

Triangel

Two writeup in a day..hmmm just feel like writting this since I am actually hooked on watching this TVB re-run series on Astro entitled 'Triumph in the Skies' which was a story on pilots and they had many scenes in Rome and Hokaiddo.

In fact, the reason I wanted to go to Rome so much during my first Europe trip back in 2008 was because of this show. And my brother even went gaga over a Triangel (a doll made popular in the series which initially belong to Flora Chan). We saw one of these 'angels'/dolls while walking around in Venice and bought one home. I still think the Triangel in the series looks much better.

Triangel doll symbolize as a Guardian of Love. Got this story off the internet

The Triangel originated from a famous Italian allusion. In the times of ancient Rome, there was a kindhearted lady falling in love with a young man who was witched to be indifferent to the lady. The lady was so depressed and sit in front of the window crying day and night. Finally, her love had touched the Gods. They sent the Triangel to the lady which could make the witch appear in front of the young man. The young man realized that his true love was the lady and they had fallen in love again!

Now, in Italy, girls like to place their Triangels in their rooms and let the Triangels bless them.

venetian mask

magnets and miniature Colosseum from Roma

A Fairytale Land

Neuschwanstein from Marienbruke bridge

And where is this place? It's located nearby Fussen at a small town called Hohenschwangau whereby the world famous Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle is inspired. There are two castles, one which King Ludwig II grown up in and another castle where he spend quite a fortune to built on based on his favourite opera singer, Wagner called the Neuschwanstein. We are not allowed to take any photos inside the castle and hence just pictures on the exterior. The whole place looks more like a fairytale out from the Disney's animated world where princes and princesses meet and live happily after.

To reach the castle, one could take a local train from Munich and stopped by a town called Fussen. From there, take bus no 73 or 78 (if unsure, just follow the tourist crowd) to the castles. Visiting of the castles start from Hohenschwangau and then Neuschwanstein which also called the Swan Castle or Mother of all castle. Personally, I think the name fits the castle very well with very fairytale like location. You can take either the horse carriage up the Swan Castle or a bus or a hike up. Since the horse carriage was quite expensive, we hike up. The fare to go in both castles was 17 euros back then (I went there in 2008, so the current fare might change).

the pretty lake


Hohenschwangau




view of Hohenschwangau from far








Marienbruke bridge

We walked from Hohenschwangau to Neuschwanstein and pass by the most beautiful lake ever. To sum it up, it's the most beautiful castle I ever seen before and although I had seen many castles subsequently, Neuschwanstein is and always will be the prettiest and fits the name of Mother of all castles!!

we were greeted by Neuschwanstein once we stepped out from the bus

looks familiar? it's the Sleeping beauty castle in Disneyland

Photos of the interior of the castle were taken from internet as phototaking is prohibited inside.

singer's hall


dining hall



dressing room


throne hall

Fireworks

Another video found inside my laptop, a fireworks scene captured from the Disney World Florida during the New Year. Enjoy!

The Pyramid of Giza

Pyramids and camels


view of the gigantic pyramid




Sphinx

Pyramid of Giza, one of the ancient seven wonder of the world located at the heart of Cairo town. And currently, Egypt is the center of attention due to the political turmoil concerning the president. Well, I am not gonna dwell much on the political news but glad that I had a chance to visit this wonder two years ago. In fact, if you thought you need to drive miles and miles to visit the pyramids, you are definately wrong. Giza is located at the center of Cairo town and surrounded by many modern buildings and residential area.

View from our hotel room
Can you see the pyramid top? (middle right)


A lady resting at the pyramid stones


view from the pyramid




first take, kind of ugly jump


second try, this one looks better

One of my very first sight when I saw Egypt from the flight was that it looks like a sandbox from top. Kind of scary!but excited at the same time. My very first visit to the African continent. I followed a tour which cheated quite a huge amount of money from us. The guide cheat us for the camel ride as well as the Abu Simbel tour. Seriously, this gives us such a bad first impression of Egypt and we find Cairo chaotic but the pyramids mysterious.

So from the cheated camel ride, we rode to view the nine pyramids. It's my first camel ride and it's kind of scary, fun, hot and sweaty. Yea..I want to save some money and decided to go Egypt during the peak of summer during the month of June. Almost fainted from the heat and it's about 45 - 50C. But then we got less tourists to fight with to take photos.

kid on camel


the camel that I rode on and got cheated

New Year Countdown 2009 @ Disney Hollywood Studios

Just found this video from my laptop and decided to share it. We recorded the Mexican wave..wohooo..during the new year countdown at Disneyland back in 2009 while we were waiting for the show to start! If I am not mistaken, the show is Fantasia..

Disney World Epcot @ Florida

the famous golf ball in Epcot

I had a chance to visit Florida's Disney World during the New Year back in 2009. Yea..I know it's 2 years ago, havent really got the time to blog bout that but to visit Disneyworld, the largest of all Disneyland in the world during the new year's eve was surreal. Imagine thousands and thousands of people counting down together in the magical world. Besides that, we also wanted to escape the winter cold in Chicago which was in minus degrees..so instead of freezing my butt off in Illinois, would rather spend the winter holidays in the warm Florida.

I had also visited another Disneyland in California back in 2007 but that was only Magic Kingdom and Disney World in Florida has 4 parks altogether; Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. So this was like a second visit to Disneyland.

belle


snow white


mushu

We went to Hollywood Studios park on the first day while the second day, we went for 3 parks. Of the 3 parks, Disney Epcot is the place where you can see many familiar landmarks around the world such as St Mark's square in Venice, Trevi Fountain in Rome, Hampton court in UK and many more. We went around looking for the Disney mascot for the photos and had to fight with small kids to take photo with Mushu from Mulan, Belle from Beauty and the Beast and Snow White.

Hampton court


Germany


inside the Morrocon village






Venice


clock tower @ Venice


china




mexico