Europe Trip: 4th stop - Vienna, Austria

The choir's flight on that day was 3:30pm. We think that there are plenty of times before the flight. Therefore, we decided to go to the Schonbrunn which is 1 of the most important culcural monument in Vienna.

Schonbrunn is a very big and nice palace. We visited each room in the palace, it was really grand and nice. There are a lot of painting on the wall of each room. Behind the palace, there is a big and beautiful garden which had a lot of different monument around. We took a lot of nice pictures, not only nice, but crazy as well.

Acting as if we are singing

Posting at the garden

At the rose garden in Schonbrunn

Posting in front of the fountain, we look alike right? hehe

Jump up HIGH!!!

The garden behind us looks nice right?

The choir gathered at 12:30pm because their flight is 3:30pm and they planned to had their lunch in the airport. So, from this time onwards, Davin and me will be travelling on our own. We are backpacking in Austria, yeah!!! I was really excited because this is the 1st time I am travelling so far and with only 1 friend around.

1st of all, we decided to put our luggage at the hostel that we had booked which is in Hutterdolf. The hostel was quite nice, although we need to share with another 3 people for that 2 nights, but it was comfortable. Our "roommates" were nice. After checking in, we walked around the city, taking pictures of the buildings. Coincidently, EURO2008 was at the period. There was a big TV and a lot of facilities had been located at a big garden to let every 1 gathered and watch each of the EURO2008 football competition, it was really cool.

We went to the Naschmarkt and the St. Charles's Church as well. Naschmrkt is 1 of the market in that area. Their market is very different with ours. There are a lot of restaurant and cheese shop in the market. Their fruints and vegetables looks nice, the color is slightly different with what we see here. St. Charles's Church is 1 of the place that you must go if you are travelling in Vienna. It is a very big church with a lot of mural and painting from the bottom to the ceiling of the church. We are allowed to take the lift to the top and see the painting on it. It was amazing.

After that, we went to the St. Stephen's Church once again at 8 something in the evening. Europe's summer is really interesting. The sun rise at about 4 something in the morning and the sun set is about 8 something in the evening. Therefore, we still can see the beautiful sunset in front of the St. Stephen's Church.

Our lunch in Naschmarkt

The tomatoes look so nice!!

Nice lavender at the road side

Nice right?

St. Charles's Church

The inner part of St. Charles's Church

The pipe organ in St. Charles's Church

Nice mural at the ceiling of the church

mural again....

Davin and me...

Art gallery in St. Charles's Church

Another picture1 of the museum that we saw when we jalan jalan in Vienna

EURO 2008!!!

Nice building~~~

They looks very different right?

The next day, Anthony, who left earlier from the choir trip met us is Vienna. He is staying the same hostel as us. After he checked in, we went to the Schonbrunn once again, for the sake of Anthony,haha. We did not spend as much time as the day before, because we didn't enter the musuem that we went the day before. After that, we went to the Mozart's grave that is located quite far from the city area. The grave was nice and simple. After that, we headed to 1 of the theme park in Vienna, for the sake of Davin, haha. Anthony and me din play much in that theme park, we only took a fairy wheels ride (of course, for the sake of Davin). Most of the time, only Davin is the 1 enjoying himself. =P

With ton in SchonbrunnAnother picture with TonNice ice cream at the cafe in SchonbrunnMozart's grave

The place that we went for the sake of Davin

Taking pictures in the theme park

After that, we headed back to the city area and have our dinner. We went to the Cafe Sacher to eat their chocolate cake. This is the place that 1st created the chocolate cake. Now only I knew that chocolate cake was created in Austria,haha. We tried their chocolate cake, apple struddels and cheese struddels, it was really nice. I even ordered a soup for my self, it was nice and creamy. After that, we went to another shop to try their Carbonara, it was really nice. Their spaghetti is so much different with what we have here.

1 of the toilet in their train station

Cheese strudels in Cafe Sacher

Nice apple strudels

The chocolate cake that I mentioned

Forgot he name of the soup, but it was damn nice
Took this picture when we jalan jalan after our dinner

This picture was took by a man who came from LA

After walking around for some times, we headed back to our hostel and get prepared to our next destination the next day. =)

Europe Trip: 3rd Stop - Bratislava,slovakia

The Europe trip pakage that we sign up is also including a 1 day trip in Bratislava, which is the capital of Slovakia. This city is very near to Czech Republic as well as Vienna in Austria. I reached Bratislava around lunch time. Unfortunately, our bus driver was not that good, he do not know some of the places and road in Bratislava. So what he did is stop us some where nearby the restaurant that we are suppose to go and ask us to walk and find our way to the restaurant. And gues what, it was raining at that moment. WTH! Want us to find our own way under the rain,sien~~~

But luckily, our beloved Mr. Yong are quite familiar with the places in Bratislava, so, we found our way to the restaurant easily. After the lunch, while waiting for our tour guide in Bratislava, we were having a lot of fun by "digging" Mr. Yong's history. Every one was laughing throughout the lunch time. When our tour guide came, she introduce about herself and told us some of the nice view in Bratislava, but, we can only understand like about 50% of what she said. OMG, her spoken english is quite bad.

She brought us to 1 of the palace in Bratislava, it was nothing much. After that, she brought us to the city centre of Bratislava. As usual, we don really understand what is she trying to see. Throughout the trip, no one really pay attention on her. And the way that she guide us was not professional as weel. Keep rushing us here and there, want us to walk faster, din give enough time for us to see around, bla bla bla... That's why, we did not giver her as much tips as the tour guide before this and the bus driver. Eugene cut the amount that we are suppose to give into half, haha, blame herself lo.

After she left, we walked around in the city area. Of course, we took a lot of nice and crazy pictures. The ice cream there is nice as well, so creamy, yumm yumm. After a walk in city area, the driver drove us to our hotel to checked in. This is the nicest hotel for the whole competition trip. The room was big and comfortable as well. I like this hotel very much, probably because of I was staying in some where which is not nice before this? Maybe...

After the dinner that evening, we get some rest. After rest, it's celebration time!! We had our post celebration for the choir competition in Ariel's room. We bought some snacks, wine, vodka.. Every one was enjoying themselves. Other than that, we even force Mr. Yong to solo in front of us, hehe... Yup, that's the day that we spent in Bratislava.

In front of the monumentAt the palaceOn top of the palace, nice right?With the altos in front of the fountainNice?In front of the Opera HouseMy shrit match with the windows right? haha...I also donno what we are trying to doGo, kick his asssss....Cheezeeeee.....Jump up HIGH!!!Vegetable soup before the dinnerAnd...Dinner!!!Whie celebrating in Ariel and Siow Wei's room

Europe Trip: The Competition

So, like what I said, the day before the competition, we performed once with our costum. And that night, we watched Victoria School's competition and their performance was shocking, they sounded really nice. We were quite stress and panic after their performance. Of course, that night we doesn't have much practises because Mr. Yong said that we need to rest well and save our voice for the next day, which is our competition. He wanted us to sleep early because our competition is in the morning, which is 9:40am.

Once we reached our room, we prepared the stuffs and the costum that we need to bring quickly because we knew that we doesn't have much time. Melvyn went to Penzion Best that night because the girls need his help on their sarong the next morning. I hardly fall asleep that night, but I still force myself to sleep. I knew that I shouldn't worry about anything, what I need to do is do my best the next day.

We woke up early in the morning the next day. As i remember, it is about 5 something. We had our breakfast and gathered at Penzion Best together with the choir members. That morning was super messy. Every 1 is running here and there, preparing their costum, asking each other to pin their batik(for guys) and sarong(for girls) properly, asking each other whether they looks good, bla bla bla.... We does not have much time because we still need to practise and warm up for the last time before our competition. We also helped the girls to poke their "hair clip". It was really hard to poke in, because once you poke in, you can see how pain is it from their face expression. But no choice, we stil have to POKE~~~~ Pity the girls.

After 1 hour of practise and warm up, we walked to the city hall. I was really gan jiong at that moment, this is the 1st time I went for a international competition. 9:40am, yea, it's our time to be on stage. We entered the folklore category. The 1st song was Pasigin, a Philipino folk song. It's about the "fishing life" in Philipine. The 1st song was great. 2nd song is "Diu Diu Dang Nga", a Taiwanese folk song, which is the song that we did not perform 2 days before this, and surprisingly, we sounded nice as well, because this song is kinda hard to sing. 3rd song was O Inani Keke, an Indonesian folk song, as usual, it sounded nice. Last song was Yamko Rambe, an Indonesian tribal song, and it was disappointed. It was not as good as we expected maybe because we were lack of support (on our diaphragm) throughout the song and some of the notes was not stable enough.

Our Costume

The girls

and the guys...

After our slot, we knew that we shouldn;t worry about anything any more. So, we just enjoyed ourselves and took lots of pictures in front of the monument of "The Trinity". After that, we changed our cloth quickly and rush to the city hall again to watched Victoria School's slot. This time, they was out of our expection. They sounded a bit weird and not as good as the day before. So, does it means that we have a higher chance to get a gold?? Who knows, the result only will be realise at 4pm that day. We watched Puerto Rico Choir's slot as well, which is the choir that sounded extraordinary good. Luckily they are not in the same category as us, or else.....

Pictures time after our slot

some children choir
The Puerto Rican

After that, we walked around, shopped around, ate around... Every thing is over, and it's time to enjoy. The time passed really fast, finally, it''s 4pm. All of us gathered in front of the city hall. The emcee announced all the winners for each category. That waiting moment was really hard to foget. We were so gan jiong, we holding each other hands and really hope that we can get the gold medal. Finally, it's our category, K2 folk songs category. The emcee had announced all the points for other choir, and then the bronze and the silver. She had announced all the choir except Victoria School's choir and ours. What had left is the gold medal and the category champion. For your information, for those choir that had exceed 90% over 100%, they will get a gold medal, and the category champion is the choir that score the highest point in that category. It means that there can be a few groups of choir with gold medal but only ONE choir can get category champion.

"The gold medal goes to Victoria school's Choir with 91%". YES!!!! The emcee announced Victoria School's choir first, means that our points are higher than them! We were shouting here and there, because we knew that the category champion is ours! "The gold medal and the category champion goes to Nanyang Technological University's Choir from Singapore with the score of 95% !!" What?!?! We are the category champion and our score is 95%? I really couldn;t believe it. We were shouting here and there, and i really couldn't control myself, the tear just came out automatically. Guess what, lots of us cried, it's because of we are really happy with the result. We had worked hard for so long, and finally we got a gold medal as well as the category champion!!! We took a lot of pictures once again with the medal and Mr. Yong. And we celebrated in the restaurant during dinner time. Mr. Yong treated each of us a beer. =)

Taking picture with our instructor, Mr. Yong

The beer that Mr. Yong treated us

Gold and Category Champion!!!

The Puerto Rican

We are really happy and satisfied with the result. We are happy for the Puerto Rico's choir as we.. They were the category champion for 3 category, and they even scored 100% over 100% for 1 of the category. Guess what, they are also the grand champion for the whole competition. Cheers to them!!!

That night, we attended the party that the organizing commitee had prepared. Althought it was not many people attended and a bit boring, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We were dancing happily and laugh the whole night. Haha, maybe because of the gold medal and category champion? Hehe....NTU CAC Choir, you guys rocks!!! =p