Wrote this on 3 Apr 2011 based on some rough notes - it was tough remembering things!! And unfortunately, photos are very limited to what I scanned from hardcopies many years back..
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
My very first trip! While most freshers went back to Singapore for winter, I packed up my bags and embarked on a one-month extravaganza with KF and KP!
Here is a brief summary of the cities visited:
Lyon Avignon Marseille Cannes Nice Monaco Monte-Carlo Venice Florence Pisa Rome Siena Paris
6 Dec 1999 - Lyon
We took a nauseating ship ride from London Dover across the English Channel to Calais in France before catching a train to Lyon. Why? I don't know!!
KP and KF planned most of the trip, and tempted this fresher to go along with them. More people, greater economy of scale. And I jumped on - my first trip! :)
Lyon was tough; too much walking for a first timer! There happened to be a town hall festival - Festival of Lights. We walked/stood for such a long time that I fell and a big angmoh helped me up otherwise I might have become mince already! Memory is dim now but we also visited a rose park somehow. In winter. Think dead roses.
But as I moved on to other cities, I finally felt more energetic.
8 Dec 1999 - Avignon
Avignon was on the way and we spent a day at the Palais des Papes - The Popes' Palace - built in those days when there were popes in France. I remember St Benezet Bridge, a broken bridge. A couple of years later, a Swedish girl sang the song associated with the bridge for me! :)
Somehow, I remember the pensione in Avignon. Perhaps cos that's the first time I stayed in a hotel! We stayed at KF's friend's friend while in Lyon. I still feel stupid for carrying a sleeping bag for a month just for those two nights of free accommodation!
We booked our hotels for only Rome and Paris in advance given the holiday season. For the rest, we called one stop ahead or looked for lobangs at the train stations! And the options were quite good - we changed hotels in Rome from the prebooked one to a random one that was cheaper and better.
9 Dec 1999 - Marseilles
I remember spending a lot of time walking along the coastline of Marseilles to the top of a fortress and singing along the way!
11 Dec 1999 - Cannes
We went to the this island where the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned. I could only remember the toilet in the cell *.*
12 Dec 1999 - Nice and about
Nice was nice. =) Part of the beach was full of pebbles and pebbles only. All of us rolled up our jeans and played in the Mediterranean! And I even got a *taste* of it! All thanks to the guys...
We took a day trip out to Monaco Monte Carlo on 14 Dec 1999, just walking around the Grand Prix area and the casinos. But no we didn't go in :p
15 Dec 1999 - Venice and about
It took them a night train to get to Venice but it was all worth it. In the famous square San Marco, they played with pigeons - thousands of them! - and visited the palace grounds, walked through the original Bridge of Sighs and went on a gondola ride.
We took a day trip to Vicenza on 18 Dec 1999 but I don't remember anything about it today *.*
19 Dec 1999 - Florence and about
It was getting cold as it was winter and it got worse in Florence. We were roaming about this square of statues, like Piazza della Signoria. Then it snowed while we were on a day trip to Fiesole! It was light but still, it was my first snow!! :)
KF and I took a day trip to Pisa on 21 Dec 1999 while KP went to the Uffizi. Later, like 2005 or so, when I became more interested in museums, I regretted not going to the Uffizi then!!
The next day, we were supposed to go to San Gimignano but ended up on the highway *.* So we headed for Siena instead but there wasn't much time to look around..
23 Dec 1999 - Rome
The reason for being in Rome was to hang out at the Holy See during Christmas! And because it was Christmas eve, there was no entrance fee for the Sistine Chapel. And because it was free, it was very crowded *.* We walked slowly for quite a while, passing from room to room until we reached the Sistine Chapel. It was tough looking up all the time man! But it was good.
Then we were in St Peter's Basilica, admiring the gold columns, amid other things of course!
And finally, we stood out there in St Peter's Square and listened to the Pope, then John Paul II, for two hours as he blessed the crowd in many many languages! We even took the holy communion with the rest - I had no idea what people were queuing for so I went along and when I found out later, I was like, what were we three non-Christians doing?!
I should note that there was no more public transport by 2 am so we walked back to our hostel!
This was outside the Colosseum:
We ate at this nameless pizzaria and hit it off with the Italian owners!
We later went to Tiberian island - there was nothing but a hospital on it, as become widely known after the 2003 Dan Brown novel! But we knew someone born there! And we were free, very free :p
And we were at the Trevi Fountain of course. But I found the Fountain of Neptune to be more memorable - I still remember it more than 10 years on!!
I remember we saw Michelangelo's statue of Moses, so it must be San Pietro in Vincoli. We heard a tour guide say that after the artist finished the statue, he found it so real that he hit it with his hammer and asked, "Why don't you speak?" !!! Hence the chip at one knee of the statue!
Somehow I remember liking the Spanish Steps very much though no image remains in my wee head!
27 Dec 1999 - Siena
We were deciding on the timing, I think, on getting to Paris. And after some hesitation by KF, we decided to go for this train for Paris but missed it. And KP lost his temper at KF! But KF thought he was kidding *.*
Anyway, since we'd checked out and we'd missed the Paris train, we headed to Siena. Yes, again!
28 Dec 1999 - Paris!
After Christmas is NEW YEAR! Yay! And we spent it in Paris! We met up with QX while KF left us to stay with an uncle in Paris.
Went to the usual places, Arc de Triomphe..
And the Lourve!
On the eve, we joined the crowds around Eiffel Tower as the clock chimed down to midnight and the fireworks flared beautifully into the sky... and then onto us as ashes!! And so we crossed into the next millennium, and the first thing we did was to walk two hours back to our little hotel! It was quite fun along the way - it wasn't too cold and we were singing along the way and walking with many many others!
I proclaimed my love for this city as we trodded through shopping routes and slogged (ok, only I slogged) up slopes. But strangely, today, I don't feel the same about Paris :p I mean, it's lovely but after my last trip there in 2008, I find it more melancholy than romantic..
The next two days were spent in the city area and the Basilique de Sacre Coeur. The city was pretty dead since it was new year, duh.. But we had the place to ourselves! Just roamed around..
The church was more fun. The area was full of activity and each of us had someone draw a portrait of ourselves! They thought I looked Vietnamese in the portrait somehow *.*
Me and my artist:
Sighs, so when will I return to Rome??
Update 9 Jul 2012
Found a list of my train travels during this trip while sorting out my memorabilia. I wrote it out back then as I sent in my Europass booklet for a free gift... So on this day, five days shy of my EDD, I've compulsively typed out everything here!
| Date | Time | From | To | Train |
| 6 Dec 1999 | 1811 | Calais-ville | Paris Gare du Nord | |
| 6 Dec | 2200 | Paris Gare de Lyon | Lyon | TGV |
| 9 Dec | 0734 | Lyon | Avignon | |
| 10 Dec | 0828 | Avignon | Marseille-St Charles | TGV 801 |
| 12 Dec | 0720 | Marseille-St Charles | Cannes | |
| 13 Dec | 0823 | Cannes | Nice-ville | 56925 |
| 15 Dec | 1044 | Nice-ville | Monaco Monte Carlo | |
| 15 Dec | 1751 | Monaco Monte Carlo | Nice-ville | |
| 15 Dec | 2100 | Nice-ville | Ventimiglia | |
| 15 Dec | 2205 | Ventimiglia | Venezia-St Lucia | |
| 18 Dec | 0958 | Venezia-St Lucia | Vicenza | |
| 18 Dec | 1504 | Vicenza | Venezia-St Lucia | 00037 |
| 18 Dec | 2332 | Venezia-St Lucia | Roma Tibutina | 00843 |
| 19 Dec | 0731 | Roma Tibutina | Roma Termini | |
| 19 Dec | 0805 | Roma Termini | Firenze-Santa Maria Novella | |
| 20 Dec | Firenze | Fiesoli | Bus | |
| 20 Dec | Fiesoli | Firenze | Bus | |
| 21 Dec | Firenze-Santa Maria Novella | Pisa | ||
| 21 Dec | Pisa | Firenze-Santa Maria Novelle | ||
| 22 Dec | 0915 | Firenze-Santa Maria Novelle | Poggibonsi-San Gimignano | |
| 22 Dec | 1440 | Poggibonsi-San Gimignano | Siena | |
| 22 Dec | 1740 | Siena | Empoli | |
| 22 Dec | 1858 | Empoli | Firenze-Santa Maria Novelle | |
| 22 Dec | 2152 | Firenze-Santa Maria Novelle | Bologna Centrale | |
| 23 Dec | 0232 | Bologna Centrale | Roma Tibutina | |
| 23 Dec | 0731 | Roma Tibutina | Roma Termini | |
| 27 Dec | 0621 | Roma Termini | Chiusi Chianciano Terme | |
| 27 Dec | 0821 | Chiusi Chianciano Terme | Siena | Autobus |
| 27 Dec | 1556 | Siena | Chiusi Chianciano Terme | |
| 27 Dec | 1800 | Chiusi Chianciano Terme | Roma Termini | |
| 27 Dec | 2315 | Roma Termini | Nice-ville | |
| 28 Dec | 1015 | Nice-ville | Marseille-St Charles | |
| 28 Dec | 1448 | Marseille-St Charles | Paris Gare de Lyon | TGV |
| 3 Jan 2000 | 0925 | Paris Gare du Nord | Calais-ville |
