NOW, we blog about Austria. Time now is 1816, let's see how long I take to finish this first post on days 1 and 2. Brace yourselves, 'tis gonna be a really lengthy post.


Days 1 & 2- 7th/8th July 2008

I reached Changi Airport's Terminal 1 at 2300+ on 7th July. Supposed to meet at 0000 but well, I was early. The first group was there being briefed by Mrs Teo and they went off after a while. Mrs Tan went with them.

Then people from the second group started streaming in with the luggages and all. For me, it was 全家出动 to come and send me off. Leng and Liak ran off to take the skytrain to T2 or T3 to see see look look and they kept staring at the huge huge board which had all the boarding/departure timings for various airlines to various places.

Got our passports and at around 0000, checked in our luggage. Mine weighed about 14kg I think? Then we had the same briefing by Mrs Teo. She gave jellybeans to Mr Mac and Ms Lim and Ms Goh. Yup the briefing was about how we should behave and all that, conduct, how to keep safe and stuff, and how we're going there not as ourselves, not as Nanyang Girls' High School, but as Singapore. At that instant I really felt quite proud of that fact, that we were representing Singapore in this international competition against 93 nations and 441 choirs. Well, my perspective sort of changed after the trip, but that's another matter.

So we got to say our last goodbyes to our parents for 10 days. Then we went to the departure gate and we got to walk around the place for a while. Decided to sit down and eat a bit because we were getting hungry. Jia Yu bought this huge box of California Rolls for about S$10+ I think? The rolls were huge and they were cold and nice. They gave nice soy sauce and I ate it from the packet quite to everyone's horror.

Went to somewhere near the other end of the airport, gate C26. I forgot what time it was. They had a few computers there with free internet for us to use, so some people were using it to blog and send emails all that.


Gate C26

We had quite some time to boarding, so people were reading (and some attempting to study),

This is how shu2 nv3s should sit.

others were talking, stoning, slacking...

Nope, I'm not there.

and of course, sleeping.

Meet my roommate. I wonder how she can sleep in such a position.


O.o



Aww, the pres and vice pres, haha!


After sleeping, you play! =D

Finally boarded the plane at around 0300. 7-hour flight to Dubai on Emirates. I nearly died of boredom, and I was sitting in the middle; no window and no pretty view!

I don't know what time it was, but we had breakfast at some unearthly hour I guess.


Sunrise? I'm not sure. Credits to Xenia!

The plane was cold. We reached Dubai International Airport in the morning (Dubai time). I forgot what time it was. 0630? It was quite the bright, like our 8am or something, and really really hot. Took a little bus to the airport. It's cute.

Dubai Airport is huge, and really busy. They sell about everything there. Handphones to MP3s to cameras, loads of wine, lots of food, jewellary, things from Dubai...The crowd's quite intimidating.

People mountain people see sea

They've quite some rooms in the airport. There was the Quiet Room, for people to sleep while waiting for their next flight, and they had the Smoking Room, in which smokers were supposed to smoke. But it was really useless. Some people go into the room, but the door's left wide open. Then you have people standing outside and holding their cigarette inside the room, which really doesn't make any difference at all. Air pollution. We're all going to die from being second-hand smokers.


View from the Quiet Room.

Adeline T and I were attempting Math and we nearly died. The sec 1s were being quite noisy singing songs and well, people got irritated. Did I mention that you can see people sleeping everywhere in Dubai Airport? Yup, really everywhere. On the chairs along the travellators, on the floor, sometimes with mats and blankets. Long flights are tiring and irritating. We were supposed to sleep at least 3 hours but I could only make myself sleep 1-2 hours at most.



I realised I forgot my calculator. That was the stupidest thing on earth.



Then we took the bus to another plane, after chionging like mad because we were almost late and the gate was underground in an ant tunnel. Minutes after boarding the bus, Jia Yu realised she left her hand carry bag in the Quiet Room. Good thing it didn't really contain any valuables because they were in a pouch round her waist. But it had her electric toothbrush, and 1 and a half year's worth of Chemistry notes. She told Mr Mac, who tried to get the airport people to look for it but they couldn't find it then. Flight was delayed by a while 'cause of us, and they said they'd send it to our Vienna hotel if they found it.

After that, we were on our way to Vienna. Dubai has really long, endless roads that seem to lead to nowhere. Really really longgggggg.


I think this is Vienna from the top. Looks like kueh lapis from the plane, but it's not clear here.

There was jiu3 ceng2 gao1 and all the nyonya kueh. It's quite amusing.

I found out the screen thing on the plane's a touch screen! It's so cool man.

We reached Vienna Airport. Almost didn't get my passport stamped at the customs. The lady there just flipped through my passport then gave it back to me. Ms Lim and someone else too. So shocking.

Got our baggage, bought 2 bottles of water per section from the airport, and went out to board the coach that would take us to Graz. First step out of the airport was so O: O: O: O: O: because the air is so cool and crisp and it was breezy. Lovely. Everyone was like WOAHHHHH, hahahaha. And everyone started drinking water because we were all dying of thirst. Didn't have much water to drink on the plane.

Loaded our luggage onto the bus, which was really high, and got on. On the right side of the bus. Driver's on the left. So off to Graz.

Really long drive, 2 and a half hours at least. But the scenery made up for it. Oh yeah, you'd want to know that inside the bus is warmer than outside, unlike in Singapore.


Lots and lots and lots of pretty trees.


Windmills! Or wind turbines. Pretty all the same :D


Sunflowers!!

We drove past a whole field of sunflowers. It was so pretty but the bus was going fast and we couldn't get a clear picture. Well you can always Google 'sunflowers' or something (:

Their skies are just- I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.






Long way to go...


Pretty buildings along the way.


I was intending to take a picture of the signboard that said 'Graz' or something like that, but missed and a pretty picture magically appeared.


Just before we entered Graz.


Haha, check out the number of cars.


Our home for the first few days, Mercure Hotel.

I forgot to take pictures of the room before Jia Yu and I messed it up.


The room, after one night of sleep. It's a double bed with 2 blankets instead of 1 big one. Some people got twin beds.


Dangerous TV. You've to pay for some channels, so we didn't dare to turn it on.


This is the cool remote that we didn't know how to operate. Anyhow turn and set the fan thing to 1, then it wasn't really cool, but that's ok.


The side shelf on my side of the bed, after one day.


Door has no peephole, toilet has no lock.

On top of that, no kettle and no safe. My pao4 mian4 ):


View from the balcony. View from the other side of the hotel is a really pretty graveyard. The tombstones are really pretty and they've really nice flowers.


This is my zuo3 lin2. I didn't take my you4 she4, because the next room had, um, undies hanging out to dry on a chair in the balcony...


Toilet. Only provided with shampoo, bath gel, soap, 3-in-1 soap (by the side of the mirror) for hand, hair and body, and glasses for brushing. And a soccer duck. The popular bag's Jia Yu's.

I forgot what we did. Lunch at Macs and dinner and debrief and sleep? Something like that.


...I really forgot. -.-

One more of the sky.



Pictures? Ask me :D!

Time now is 2023. -.-

Labels: WCG Graz 2008