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 Day 1 FLY FLY FLY
As promised, here's the update
The start of my Europe trip blog + review
✈️ SG - ISTANBUL - ROME
We were at the airport at around 9+ (kiasu la. Flight at midnight reach so early) so we waited for a while and met with our tour leader, Karlina. (While waiting we found our luggage to be overweight haha. First time seh. So repack lor. Lucky changi airport got weighing machine. Extra weight damn expensive seh. Fly from SG to Rome extra 1kg = 20euro seh)
So we were at T1 and entered gate D40 to board the plane. Flight was suppose to be at 0030 but there was a delay because the plane came late. So we ended up boarding at around 0130.
So the flight was around 12hours to Istanbul
We went to Istanbul for a 2 hour transit ( which is not much time actually. Had to go through customs and queue to go into the gate again)
Finally after another 2h flight, we arrived in Rome.
Turkish Airlines
Food:
The food on the plane was quite good for me.
  
Have to say that it's quite ok. But i still prefer SQ meals
Seating:
For the 12 hour flight, it was quite squeeze. There was not much leg room and luckily for me I was seating in thr center area. The air conditioning on the plane was quite weird. It was really warm and suddenly it gets cold and then next thing i know, i was sweating.
For the transit flight, the area is much bigger and it was more comfortable. It was also much cooler but still warm.
In-flight Entertainment:
For the long haul flight, the entertainment was fine. (I managed to watch 3 movies and slept through pretty much the rest of the flight.) There was also so albums. However, they were pretty outdated. ( the only chinese album they had was Jay Chou's Capricon. Like seriously that's old)
As for the transit flight, there were lesser options but i did manage to find a movie to watch during the 2 hour flight.
Service:
I have to say, I'm not really find of their service. It was more of a self-service thing and I really couldn't understand what they were saying. Also, some of the crew were quite unfriendly but majority were fine. (As compared to SQ and Cathay, it's still far far away)
As a whole, the flying was quite bearable for me this time round. So that's about all for day 1. For more, check out the post for the rest of the days.
Labels: city, Europe, Flight, Food, holiday, Plane, review, Turkish Airline Europe Updates ☺
Finally I'm back online !!!!
It's Day 4 of my trip and finally, I get free internet!
So here's some updates about my trip now.
Weather:
Surprisingly, in the WINTER it's NOT snowing, it's NOT cold and
it's so not what I expected. I was expecting like heavy snow fall and like
sub-zero temperatures, but nope. It's actually quite sunny here.
For the past few days, I've been to Rome, Florence, Siena and now
I'm in Venice. The weather so far has been quite warm for me (around 10-5
degree Celsius) and it's been quite sunny actually.
As a whole, I guess this winter will be quite a warm one (or at
least until we get back to Singapore)
(Note to photographers: Take note of your camera battery, you can
take it but not your camera haha. My flash was going crazy because of the cold
and it wouldn't work at times)
Food:
Food so far has been quite plain. For breakfast , it's just lots
and lots of BREAD!!!!!! (and this morning there was yoghurt, and some more
BREAD). I would say that the food here (if you're joining a tour group) will
not be suitable for those picky eaters. The food is quite simple and the
portion is quite little actually, expect the Tuscan dinner which gave us HUGE
steaks. The food is generally spaghetti, steak and dessert. (Tiramisu here is
awesome though I always choke on the powder) Oh, and also, the food here is
quite salty and there is seriously a lack of water (the plain water here is
quite expensive) Beer and wine is super cheap (really want to get some, but
I'll get drunk haha)
For me the food here is quite okay, but it's just too salty and
I'm a water buffalo, I need a lot of WATER!!!!
Sights:
I have only one word to describe the sights here...
WOW!!!!
It's really incredible how the artists and sculptors actually
design and build the churches here. The design is really really nice and the
way they construct the place is really incredible. The Vatican City was really
an eye opening experience. The church was just toooooo beautiful. (Note to
photographers: The churches and architecture here in Europe really requires
wide angle lens. My lens wasn't wide enough to cover the entire scene.)
Lodging:
So far, the hotels have not really been up to expectations. (We’ve
been staying in 4-star hotels but they are of the Italian standard and not
really like what we would expect.)
I have to say that the rooms so far are quite small. (it's quite
troublesome for us to fit in 3 adults and like plentiful of luggage) Also, the
room don't provide some amenities that would expect to have (By law, the hotels
are not allowed to provide kettles so we had to bring our own traveler’s
kettle. In a similar vein, there is seriously a lack of sockets in the room.
There are only 2 power points in the rooms that we stayed in)
Since tonight is the first night I have internet, I'll post more
some other day.
Ciao
Labels: Christmas, Europe, family, fun, holiday, Life, review X'mas in the City (Singapore Edition)
It's CHRISTMAS!!!
Was down at Orchard Road last weekend to take some pictures.
I've always been visiting Orchard during the Christmas period and I can't help but notice that the decorations are getting worse over the years. I remember when I was younger, there would be like awesome decorations in the shopping malls with all those Disney and what not characters. The outside of the buildings would be brightly lit and very colourful. Recently however, things are becoming more dull. Like this year, the main colours are just white and blue, unlike previous years where there would be a variety of colours and the different segments of roads would be in different colour schemes. (It's suppose to be "safe" colours for the drivers so that they won't mistake the decorations for traffic lights, but I guess the lack of colours defeat the purpose of even having decorations)
In the past, my favourite would be Centre Point Mall. Before it renovated, there used to be an area outside the building where there would be really nice decorations (like there was once it was M&Ms) After the renovation, it's just plain and boring.
All in all, I just feel like Christmas is no longer as colourful as it used to be and it's quite sad that the younger generation will not be able to enjoy the past.
Labels: Christmas, City Life, Holidays, photo shoot outing, review, singapore EOY: Cosplay Event
So tired after a long long day!
Went to End of Year Festival (EOY) today.
Don't even know why I was there but i decided to go and take a look at the cosplay.
Location.
Have to say that the Marina Barrage though it being a nice place and all with the awesome view, isn't the best place to hold a cosplay event.
It was so got this afternoon I bet all those cosplayers were sweating in their costumes and wigs. (I was in t-shirt and jeans and was sweating like mad already)
It started to rain in the evening and being in a open space isn't the best place either. Most cosplayers left when they saw the looming clouds and heard thunder.
In conclusion, there have got to be better places to hold such an event which would be more suitable and convenient as well (saw many cosplayers in their costumes taking the bus and trying to leave before the rain came )
Organization.
It was not that bad. There were many stores selling Japanese goods and the ice-cream store sure was a hit in the hot afternoon sun. The performance were great as well.
It was generally well organized and quite orderly.
No trouble makers this time.
Cosplays.
Most of the people there were at AFA'13 as well (recognized a few people) and many were dressing up as the same character.
As compared to AFA'13, there is a lack of variety and many sophisticated cosplayers were not there ( didn't see those robots/huge monster things )
I have to say that these cosplayers really put in a lot of effort in their costumes and make-up. (Kudos to the effort put in by everyone! )                      
In general, the event was a success with a great turn up. Lookig forward to the next cosplay event in 2014!
Signing off
Sam
Labels: Cosplay, EOY'13, photo shoot outing, random, review |
