travelstop

2010-10-05T22:45:00.001-07:00

INT270 Assignment 1: Brands, Impressions and Emotions

2009-09-28T10:42:00.001-07:00

Title: Brands, Impressions and Emotions

In today’s world, first impressions are formed through brands. The brand of shoes you wear, the bag your carry, the car you drive and even the school that you go to. People use these brands to shout out their social status or personal identity. Sometimes people use these brands to hide certain insecurities they have about themselves or to portray an image different from their real self.

However, if one considers what all these brands are all about, they are merely name and reputations that has gone through extensive advertising to artificially create their desired image in our heads.

Furthermore, is there a difference of how men and women perceive brands? There may be some men who thinks that spending thousands on a bag is pointless but would be quick to defend why they spend hundreds of thousands on their fast cars.

Objective:
To explore the meaning of brands that people carry and how they personally feel about these brands

Performance:
A single performer will walk down a street decked in branded clothing and make a few stops on the way.

Performers:
Audience and Performer

Setting:
For my performance, I have chosen Orchard Road in Singapore as it is the shopping paradise of Singapore. Major brands are all located there and people visit these places to buy these brands.

Post - Interview:
People are evidently brand conscious and would form an impression on people based on the brands they carry. As most brands are well-publicized, these brands do project a certain image rather quickly. Like one would associate sportiness with Nike or Adidas and being well off with LV or Gucci. One of the interviewee would buy branded goods because she feels that people around her are brand conscious and would be quick to judge, therefore to portray a more professional image, branded items are a must for her. Whereas for another interviewee, she chooses to buy branded goods to signify a monetary achievement such as gains from the stock market.

On the other hand, brands which were viewed once as being exclusive may soon see their brand value erode away. With people’s rising affluence, brands are fast becoming common rather than exclusive. Take for example Rolex; one of the interviewee didn’t feel that exclusive or special wearing a Rolex watch as he felt that it has become too common. It seems such that the more people own a particular brand, the less people value it.

As for my personal experience while being decked out in very outstanding brands, I personally felt more “noticed” and confident. However, this only happened while I was on the train from Pasir Ris. Once I stepped onto Orchard Road, the stares no longer exist as it becomes quite a common to see people decked out in branded clothing and goods.

2009-09-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

Assignment 1 Part 1

Assignment 1 Part 2

2005-06-05T04:37:00.000-07:00

windsor castle

2005-06-05T04:34:00.003-07:00

windsor castle

2005-06-05T04:34:00.002-07:00

Winsor Castle

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guards marching

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Buckingham Palace

2005-06-05T04:33:00.001-07:00

spectacular view

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a view of London

2005-06-05T04:32:00.001-07:00

Big Ben

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the Eye of London

2005-06-05T04:31:00.001-07:00

that's the Tower of London not London Bridge

2005-06-05T04:31:00.000-07:00

Siying and I

2005-06-05T04:18:00.000-07:00

Trafalgar Square

London - Part 1

2005-06-05T02:20:00.000-07:00

The last stop of the trip was London. We had to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to catch our flight and some of us were a little late. When we arrived in London, I felt slightly bored as half of the original group of 31 has been reduced to a mere 13 (because those who have chosen the 13 days package finished their trip in Paris).

The day started with a tour around the city and we had breathtaking photo-stops. London is simply a tourist playground, transport systems are efficient, no language barrier, rich history and a friendly city. Although the currency is ₤1: S$3.12 but the things here are much cheaper than Paris. Clothes are a real bargain too but services are much more expensive like cab fares and tours.

My first night in London was spent watching the musical Chicago which has lots of dark humour in it so my Mum and Aunt couldn’t quite understand the plot. The story tells of female prisoners who killed their unfaithful lovers or husbands and the notoriety they got from the murder case. They all had this same lawyer who tends to use the media to gain sympathy from the jury by distorting and exaggerating facts. Thus, they rose to stardom and some get offered acting contracts therefore the women will tend to try to outdo one another in terms of publicity. Ironically, when the main star of the show was acquitted, she was rather unhappy as news of her case died down and was no longer a “celebrity”. (This kind of reminds me of a recent case on the news but I shall not mention which)

2nd in London was kind of a shopping day so nothing much happened but on the 3rd day, my mum and I went on a full day tour to Windsor castle, Stonehenge and the City of Bath.

Windsor castle was truly a dream come true as I love the medieval times where Kings and Queens rule the land and stories of chivalry of the knights just overwhelms me. Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed within the castle so that experience has been etched in my memory for eternity. It was more of a viewing gallery as the place is still being used by Queen Elizabeth II which she spends most of her private weekends at. What fascinates me the most was Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House. Can you imagine that everything in it is as real as it can get? The food and wine are edible; there is electric lighting, hot and cold running water and even flushing lavatories. It’s simply a masterpiece on its own because everything are real stuff made miniature and it was made quite some time back. The Doll House alone is worth going all the way there to see it. The rest of the castle shows the lavish life of royalty and the humongous state apartments.

Stay tuned for the 2nd part of the London trip which is also the last post up on the blog.

2005-05-30T06:13:00.000-07:00

Champs Elysees is pronounced Sean Se Lei Say

2005-05-30T06:10:00.000-07:00

i am so much taller than the Eiffel Tower (LOL)

2005-05-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

Eiffel Tower

2005-05-30T06:06:00.000-07:00

SY and I

2005-05-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

lourve museum (where mona lisa is)

Paris

2005-05-30T05:21:00.000-07:00

Truthfully, the city tour was horrible! There wasn’t much photo stops so didn’t get really good pictures of Paris (luckily there was an Eiffel Tower photo stop) but and we also stopped by the Fragonard Perfumery to purchase some scents. The scents were pretty strong so I wasn’t really interested. Later the tour bus stopped by the River Seine which some of the members went cruising around. While they were cruising, I bought 2 beautiful paintings of Paris for €28($58) which I am going put one of it in my room. Last stop for the day was SHOPPING at Galleria Lafayette. Things were pretty expensive there, almost one for one but I managed to grab a cheap Zara tank top for just €4 ($8+). That was all for the day now time for some history lesson.

Remember Joan of Arc and Napoleon Bonaparte? They were the pride and joy of France so let me tell you a brief story of them.

During a battle against the British, the French government called for all the men in the country to fight in the war. Joan’s father being old and frail was sure to have a hard time in the army therefore Joan decided to take over his place. She dressed up as a man and went to serve the French army. One day, she was found out by the other soldiers that she was a girl and that made them realized that if a girl can fight so well in battle, so can we thus the French soldiers were highly motivated by this and fought harder.

When the British found out about this, they decided to capture her and humiliate her to dampen the spirits of the French army and they killed her in front of the French army before the battle. (Well, the tour guide ended the story here so I have no idea what happened after that.)

There was once a great warrior called Napoleon who fought very hard in battle because he knew that if he wanted to marry his sweet-heart, he would have to survive all the battles. Soon, he became a great general, proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon and he married his sweet-heart who was his cousin Josephine.

However, she did not bore him any sons so he married another woman who was an Austrian. Later, the Austrian wife gave birth to a son and Napoleon decided to send him to Austria and keep this a secret as he was afraid that the British will kill his only son. Unfortunately, the story leaked out and Napoleon’s son who was 17 years old at that time was killed.

Afterwards, in the great battle of Waterloo, General Nelson led the British army against the French and they managed to capture Napoleon. The British put him in exile in St Helena and later announced that he had died of TB.

P.S i just receive news from my friend,thim ,that the architest jumped to his death because the windows of both side was improportionate. Sorry for the inaccurate info!

2005-05-25T06:51:00.000-07:00

the building which the architect jumped off

2005-05-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

Menekken Pis

Belgium!

2005-05-25T04:40:00.000-07:00

A short stop to Brussels (capital of Belgium) right before we enter Paris, the fashion paradise. What comes to you mind when you think of Belgium? Well excellent chocolates of course! Belgium chocolates are the best in the world therefore it was absolutely necessary to have a shopping spree in Godiva(expensive chocolate brand). I think the shop attendant was pretty shocked when the entire group went in and started buying bars and bars of chocolates because before we entered, it was dead quiet inside. Although I have not tried the chocolates yet (because I want to save the best for last), you can already tell that it was sure to be superb! So people reading this, keep on drooling.

In the market Square, there was the entrance of a Cathedral (I think) and the tour guide asked us, why do you think the architect of this structure jumped down from the top? Bewildered by this question, we gave lame answers and it turns out that that was the answer! So why do you think the architect jumped to his death? The answer will be revealed at the end of the post.

From a short distance of the square, was the mascot of Brussels- Manneken Pis. This is a very widely copied statue all around the world and is often placed in people’s garden. You know the statue of the small boy peeing? Yup that actually came from Brussels.

Here are 2 different stories of Manekken Pis.
1st version: There was an old man who has always longed for a son and one day he finally had a son. He was simply ecstatic by this so he brought his son to the market to show it to everyone. Then, there was a commotion and during that turmoil, the old man had lost his son. Since that day, he has been looking around everywhere for his lost son until he saw this dirty boy who was laughing and peeing and he realized that the boy is none other than his long lost son. Thus he sculpted that statue of a boy peeing happily.

2nd version: During Napolean’s time, there was this unwanted child who happened to see some French soldiers trying to start a massive fire in the square. Once the soldiers left, he immediately went up to pee at the fire to try to put it out. Therefore, for his bravery in saving the square, they made this statue of him.

Now the answer as to why the architect jumped off the building is because he did not build a way to come down so the only way to go back onto the ground was to jump.

2005-05-23T07:09:00.000-07:00

tulips at the keukenhof

2005-05-23T07:07:00.002-07:00

clogs and more clogs

2005-05-23T07:07:00.001-07:00

Stay away!

2005-05-23T07:07:00.000-07:00

diamonds!

2005-05-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

the gothic cathedral

2005-05-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

Amsterdam

Just to let you guys know, Germany came up with the idea of a Cuckoo Clock. Right before going into Amsterdam, we went to Cologne, Germany, to take a picture of the Gothic Cathedral. Can you actually believe that the Cathedral used to be pure white but due to the heavy pollution it has now become black and dirty.

The city of Amsterdam is a real lovely place. (Amsterdam is part of the Netherlands) There are lots of canals, the streets are so clean and the Dutch are a friendly bunch too. Amsterdam is, I think, the most liberal country because drugs and prostitution are legal over there.

If you decide to go there, you must first know the difference between coffee shop and café. Although they may mean the same thing over here but a Coffee shop is where people go to purchase soft drugs while a café is where you get your regular coffee. Over there, Ecstasy cost only €0.70 ($1.50) so many people from the surrounding countries would drive there and have some “fun”.

Anyone knows what a “Fish Tank” is? In Amsterdam, the prostitutes do business by posing in the window of a shop which has a bed in it and whenever there is business, the curtains are drawn to show that she is taken. I have no idea why but they call those shop windows “Fish Tanks”.

Although I didn’t visit the Red Light District, a few fellow tour members told me that several of the prostitutes looked innocent because they wore specs and were decently dressed. Also, I heard the prostitutes weren’t that voluptuous but it was still early when they went so only some “Tanks” were open.

Amsterdam may be liberal in vices but it is still a lovely city to visit so better not miss this place out when you visit Europe!

2005-05-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

heidelberg castle

2005-05-22T08:28:00.000-07:00

original black forest lunch

2005-05-22T08:26:00.000-07:00

black forest

2005-05-22T08:25:00.000-07:00

cheese fondue dinner in switzerland with the folks!

Germany

2005-05-22T08:16:00.000-07:00

Germany

The road to Heidelberg, Germany, was filled with trees, trees and even more trees. Right then, we were passing through the largest forest in Germany and that is the Black Forest. You will never guess it but this Forest was at one time a place for unwanted people and convicts. Due to the Black Forest’s dense forestry, the inside is so dark that Toadstools grew in abundance. Thus whenever anyone was lost in the forest, or those convicts and unwanted people couldn’t take the loneliness anymore; they would do a self-suicidal stunt by poisoning themselves with the Toadstool.

Remember your childhood fairytales, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel & Greta and Snow White and the 7 dwarfs? They originate from Germany and all these stories came about because of the Black Forest. Do you realized that all 3 of these fairytales involve the woods?

According to our tour guide, Hansel & Greta had met this witch who wanted to eat them. Well, he explained that this ‘witch’ was just a normal old woman who just wanted to survive and the only way she could do that was by eating other people. As for Little Red Riding Hood, she could have met a dog instead since the people last time couldn’t differentiate between dogs and wolves. Lastly, for Snow White’s story, the 7 dwarfs could actually be people with deformities ( eg, dwarf people) because last time parents used to dump abnormal children into the forest.

These folklores are actually used to scare the children and tell them not to go anywhere near the Black Forest and in the case of Snow white, it is used to brainwash children into believing that Step-Mothers are evil. At that time divorce is taboo so they used all these stories to brainwash us kids into telling us not to divorce or remarry.

The next story is about the Heidelberg Castle. Long time ago, there was a 25 year-old King named Frederick and the people often wondered why he wasn’t married and always visited Austria. Later, they realized that he was actually in love with this Austrian Princess named Elizabeth Stewart but she was only 12 at that time. (erm…, the middle part of the story I can’t remember. I think Austria allowed Frederick to marry Elizabeth) Anyhow, on Elizabeth’s 16th birthday, Frederick wanted to surprise her with something big. Knowing that his beloved loved Roses, he got people to dig out an entire Rose garden from England and brought it into the Castle’s garden. Later he built a gate for the garden and called it Elizabeth.

We had a original Black Forest lunch and it consisted of pork knuckles( the 2 front legs of a piglet, poor thing), fries and a slice of black forest cake. Truthfully, the pork knuckles tasted awful! It tasted pretty porky and there was a strong smell. However the cake was fabulous! The top layer of cream contained some alcohol but overall it was good and authentic. After that pork knuckles scare, I am going to avoid pork for the moment.

General Info about Germany:
Black forest cake originated from Germany but I shall not tell the story of how it came about as it may bore you.
Germany has the least unemployment in Central Europe as they are the most heavily industrialized country there.
When it rains, there is a high possibility of it being acid rain. ( I was pretty freaked out whenever it rained, luckily while I was there, it only rained when I was in the coach)

2005-05-21T07:43:00.000-07:00

trying to form an angel on the snow but unsuccessful

2005-05-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

spectacular view!

2005-05-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

on the ice-flyer

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at 10 000 ft, we are WAY above the clouds

today we scale Mt Titlis!

2005-05-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

A fantastic day awaits us as we prepare to ascend Mt Titlis and guess what! It’s snowing there! When we arrived at the foot of the mountain, we saw a whole pile of luggage left in the open-air carpark. Apparently, the driver was not happy with them so while the passengers were high up in the mountains, he conveniently unloaded the baggage and left. Luckily, our Italian driver, Macal, didn’t do that to us but his smile ceased after the 8th day of travel. Now back to the mountain. We went to the toilet and put on more clothes, for me, I wore 2 long johns, 1 t-shirt, 1 sweater and 1 winter jacket. Considering that it’s 10,000 ft, I had to wear that much clothing.

After the long cable car rides of about 45 mins, I have finally reached the 10,000 ft marker. The moment I went out into the open, I felt like I was hyperventilating. The air was so thin and the falling snow felt like sand. I found difficulty breathing at first but it got better as we went along. Most of us went on this ice-flyer meant for skiers and we got great shots of the place.

While we were there, I started snow-balling people and my victims ganged up against me and it started raining snowballs! AHH! CY hit me the hardest at my bum. She used a really hard piece of snow. I’m sure that at that point, all of us felt like small kids realizing our dream (of seeing snow of course).

On my way inside, I saw this couple cuddling by the side trying to build a snowman(I assumed since the base was round). So loving of them. Btw, this was the couple who wore matching coloured clothes all the time.

Shall skip history and general knowledge for this post.

2005-05-20T07:05:00.000-07:00

world's smallest house (taken in Salzburg, Austria)

2005-05-20T07:04:00.000-07:00

the bell tower, where the song 'silent night' was first heard (taken in Salzburg, Austria)

2005-05-20T06:58:00.000-07:00

Lake Lucern

2005-05-20T06:56:00.000-07:00

switzerland mountains

2005-05-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

little golden roof

Innbruck(Austria) and Switzerland

2005-05-20T06:33:00.000-07:00

Innbruck/ Vaduz/ Lucern

Since Swarovski Crystals originates from Austria, a stop by the Swarovski Crystal House was necessary. The crystal ornaments there are real cheap but I don’t fancy them so I went out of the shop early. Surprisingly, EVERYONE in the group bought some Swarovskis except me! Even Siying(fellow group mate that is the same age and school as me) bought some Christmas design Swarovski for her friend. (what a lucky friend) Now, I regret not buying… L

Near the shop was this Little Golden Roof. The roof was built by the people because the king of Austria then took quite a while to get married. Since he was such a people’s king, when he got married they decided to pull their resources together and build a golden roof for him. It was made of real gold then but during WW1, people started stealing the gold from the roof, therefore the roof now is just a restored tourist attraction.

Next stop is Vaduz, the capital city of Liechtenstein(part of Switzerland). The guide told us that the stamps there are pretty valuable so I sent a postcard to myself. Pretty weird right but that’s what everyone was doing there.

Coach ride again as we continue our journey to Lucern, Switzerland. The place was really scenic, the clear blue lake of Lucern and snow-capped mountains at the back. Sitting down by the lake, I was enjoying the cooling breeze.

Ok, enough of scenery, now back to history. Switzerland is well-known for their watches. Just to mention some Swiss brands; Rolex, Swatch and Cartier. Swiss watches are highly regarded because of its precision. Now, I am going tell you a story about how precision watch came about in Switzerland. (Precision watches originates from Switzerland)

When Emperor Constantine accepted Christ and they became the Holy Roman Empire, there were 2 kinds of Christians. The Roman Catholics and the Roman protestants. Because the Roman protestants only wanted to live for Christ, they decided to move to somewhere that they can shut the whole world out and that place is Geneva.

When they shut the whole world out, they wanted to be very precise, as they lived there only for Christ and their livelihood. Soon, they came up with precision watches and thus made a name for themselves in the world of watches.

2005-05-20T04:03:00.000-07:00

remember this fountain in the 'sound of music'?

2005-05-20T03:59:00.000-07:00

mozart's birthplace

2005-05-20T03:58:00.001-07:00

i think this is marabelle palace

2005-05-20T03:58:00.000-07:00

some castle in Austria

Salzburg (Austria)

2005-05-19T21:40:00.000-07:00

Today we cross the border and enter Salzburg, Austria. Austria used to be a very rich nation because salt was found in Austria. At the time, salt was extremely valuable that people refer to it as WHITE GOLD because salt was able to preserve food (no refrigeration yet). Thus Austria became rich selling salt.

Salzburg is the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and it was where the “Sound of Music” movie was filmed. Almost half the day was spent on the coach but that can’t be help. It’s normal when you are traveling around Europe because you wouldn’t want to stay in just stay one place; you want to see the whole of it. Well, nothing much happened, more of a photo stop so enjoy the pictures.

Some History about Austria
The King of Rome was very close to the Hasburg family therefore he asked them to help rule the then Austria (Austria used to include Spain). Since the Hasburg family has got 2 sons, the then Austria was split into 2, the now Austria and Spain.

2005-05-19T10:08:00.000-07:00

St Mark Basilica (a cathedral is called a Basilica when an apostle is being buried underneath it)

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a master craftman at work

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a romantic gondola ride

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some building

The sinking city- Venice

2005-05-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

Venice was simply SPECTACULAR. I just love the place because people are friendly and the scenery is beautiful. Now back to the history of Venice.

Before sea faring was known, Venice used to be a place for sick people and outlaws but after people knew how to sail, it became the port of call. Referring to Chpt 6 of SS textbook, Venice had lots of foreign talents so the place is full of buildings of different cultures and remember Marco Polo? He was the only man recorded in the history of China to be allowed into China. When Marco Polo came to China, Genghis Khan was the ruler then, the Chinese didn’t feel threatened by him because he was quite petite so Genghis Khan being ambitious wanted to conquer the west too therefore he gave Marco Polo a pass to enter China whenever he wants on one condition, he wants to know the route to Rome. When Khan got to Rome, he realized that the Roman Empire was too powerful thus he abandoned his plan.

A bit of digression there, now lets get back to Venice. The island of Venice is sinking due to the strong current of the Adriatic Sea which washes away the soil. It’s like the Sea is slowly swallowing up the island. What a pity! Currently, the 1st level of most buildings has been abandoned, that’s how bad it is. One more thing, Venice is the smallest state in the world while Vatican City is the smallest INDEPENDENT state in the world so it’s different.

Most of us went on the romantic Gondola ride and enjoyed the man-powered boat (the water STINKS though) moving into the canal, seeing the Venetian’s way of life. Following that was a tour of the city and our tour guide, Vincent, brought us to the cheapest market there and showed us this special tie perfect for Male bosses. On the outside it looks like a normal everyday tie but when you open up the back of the tie you will see (GASPED) a picture of a voluptuous naked woman. I am not sure if anyone bought it but it sure is a great present for the boss! There was also a glass-blowing demonstration which is Venice's specialty so the Murano glass there is beautiful and cheap.

That’s all for the day.

2005-05-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

signora square. in the bottom are those statues that I mentioned

2005-05-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

leaning tower of pisa

2005-05-19T05:46:00.000-07:00

my aunt, me and my mum (backdrop: Florence)

2nd day in Italy

2005-05-19T05:03:00.000-07:00

2nd day in Italy and we are on our way to Florence. Before reaching the city, we stopped by the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Although the tower’s inclination is very small, it is said that the tower would fall within the next 15 years so you better start saving money to go there and see it. The cause of the leaning tower is actually due to a river under the soil. The water made the top soil soft thus causing the tower to tilt.

The city of Florence is famous of their leather goods because they know the skill on how to make it very soft. At least I bought a leather bag for school over here. We proceeded to Signora Square or Gentlemen Square. You won’t believe what I saw! All R(A) stuff, gory and naked. There were huge statues of naked men with all the fine details ( REALLY fine details) and these statues were portrayed with women in a very demeaning way. The statues of the naked men were holding the woman’s chopped off head or how they stabbed the woman. The purpose of the Square is to show no matter how strong the man is, they will fall under the woman’s charms and the woman will cause his downfall. (What nonsense! So don’t expect any really detailed pictures of the statues.)

While we were taking some pictures, some group members were trying to bargain with a street vendor for some paintings and when nothing came out of the negotiations, the vendors turned slightly hostile.

That night, we had a Tuscany Dinner (Home-cooked Italian Meal) and the lasagna and pasta tasted fantastic.

Some facts about Italy
Italian Leonardo Da Vinci was actually born out of wedlock so he felt pretty unwanted as a child. Often he would be alone so he enjoyed Mother Nature’s company. After he painted the Mona Lisa, he would bring it everywhere he went to and soon it became the most well-known painting in the world. When the King Louis of France heard about this famous piece of art, he asked Leonardo to go over to France to show it to him. Not long after his arrival in France, he died and King Louis declared to the world that Da Vinci has given him the painting. When the Italians heard about this, they were angry as they regarded the painting their National Treasure and they couldn’t believe that Da Vinci gave it to King Louis. Up till today the Mona Lisa is still in France and is being displayed in the Louvre Museum.

2005-05-19T03:11:00.000-07:00

a not to bad looking swiss guard (vatican city is the only state in the world using swiss guards)

2005-05-19T03:09:00.000-07:00

the almighty colosseum!

2005-05-19T03:06:00.000-07:00

trevi fountain- toss a coin if you want to come back to Italy, 2 coins to find someone, 3 coins to divorce someone(LOL)

2005-05-19T03:05:00.000-07:00

i was held captive by this gladiator

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virgin mary holding jesus

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the cathedral

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inside the cathedral

Italy- Rome

2005-05-18T06:48:00.000-07:00

First stop, the eternal city of Italy-ROME.

The entire tour group of about 31 people met up and we were loaded onto the bus ready to learn about the rich history of Rome. We went to visit St Peter's Basilica, the LARGEST Cathedral in the world and ironically it is located in the smallest independent state- Vatican City. Vatican City is just a small part of Rome consisting of the Cathedral and a few other tall buildings so it’s pretty small probably the size of Changi Airport.

Then there it was, the magnificent St Peter’s Basilica, home to all the Popes since it was built. If you are wondering why it was named St Peter, it’s because the first Pope, Peter was being buried under the church and since then all Popes has been buried under the Cathedral. Within the Cathedral are sculptures of all kinds and one in particular was sculptured by Michelangelo when he was just 18! It was a sculpture of Virgin Mary with baby Jesus in her arms.

Next was the Romans’ circus, the Colosseum. Before they became the Holy Roman Empire during King Constantine reign, the Kings regarded themselves as God and anyone claiming to have other Gods will be thrown into the Colosseum and have to battle either a Roman gladiator or a beast. The Romans think that if your so called God is true, you will win the battle.

After all these sight-seeing was SHOPPING around the Spanish Steps. There was LV, Prada, Armani and all the other famous brands but sadly I didn’t buy anythingL.

That was the day’s events.

Some little facts about the Rome

Rome was started by 2 kids and a She-wolf who raised them up.
During Julius Caesar’s time, they have conquered as far as Africa and they did this with 2 battle strategies.

1.When the battle is about to begin, they will provoke the enemy, stir up anger in the enemy against them so that they will be the ones who will charge towards them and strike the first blow. Making the enemy feels threatened; their first blow will naturally be the most powerful and energy draining. Therefore, the Romans will form a “fish scale” defense. (The front soldiers will overlap each other’s shield to form a much bigger shield which looks like a fish scale) Right after the enemy has struck the first blow, the Romans will start to attack. (I think I saw this in Troy)

2.“when there is water, there is civilization”
The Romans treasure water, they know the goodness of it therefore they bath regularly and drink lots of water which prevents sickness and ill health.

Introduction

2005-05-18T06:05:00.000-07:00

Hi there people! This is my first time having a blog and it is going to be a travel blog so don't expect any further updates. Anyway this blog is dedicated to my tour to Central Europe. I spent a total of 18 days there of which 15 days was with Chan Brothers travel and the following 3 days was an extension in London. These are the places I went to in chronological order: Italy- Austria- Switzerland- Germany- Netherlands- Belgium- France- London

Sandra