Whee.. I'm currently in Europe for my holiday. A bit difficult to set aside time for blogging but I will do so when it's possible. It has been quite an eye-opener so far. Previously, I always went overseas with a group of friends and I will just follow blindly. This time I am mostly traveling with my sister but I still consider this as more independent than my previous trips. More importantly, this is my first time stepping to Europe. Honestly, it feels kinda scary to be a minority. Not sure if I will stand out, get weird looks, or invite criminals. Lol.
Unfortunately, right from the beginning, I'm not too excited to travel with sister or any family members. with only 3 days on the go, I have decided that this will be my first and only time to travel with them. Call it different personality, different preferences, or simply me being selfish, I don't care! As the days gone by, I develop my own "rules"for travelling.
Rule #1: I do not want to travel with someone with poor photography skill
I am not a pro but I consider myself to be pretty good in taking photos. And because of my narcisstic and perfectionist nature, I expect others can take good pictures of me too. My sister sucks. My previous complaints were slanted tower, chopped legs, unclear focus of the image. Now the list just got longer. I hate it when she took so long to take a picture and then the result is disappointing. I hate having strangers in my photos and this is almost impossible when I am visiting touristy areas. However, opportunities do come and the time window when the crowd clears is very limited. Thanks to her, these opportunities were always missed and that made me very angry. Worse, I had to stand there and smile like an idiot while waiting for her to get the right angle etc.. Bah!!
Not to boast but I managed to get her picture alone with the Peeing Boy statue in Brussels. For such a place of interest, it is almost impossible to get a picture with no other tourist inside. The rare chance came and I grabbed it. It was not reciprocated for my own pics and that drove me mad. Grrr...
Rule #2: I do not want to travel with someone whose purpose is shopping
My interest is always going to nice touristy landmarks. I prefer natural sceneries (higher chance of able to have no crowd in my pics) but I am fine with cities. What I don't like is when people will walk here and there to look for items to shop. Worse: to specially come back to a place repeatedly to finally buy the item. That is simply waiting my time. Yesterday, she made me return to the same place for the third time. I was already upset over shitty photos, rain, and the additional walking trip simply burst my anger meter.
Tomorrow will be another challenging day as she wants to play in Disneyland while I prefer taking photos and watching shows. You can ride the damn roller coaster at any theme parks but you can only take photos with Mickey and friends in Disneyland. That's my reasoning!
Rule #3: I do not want to travel with people who don't plan
My sister went to Europe before and I expected her to know things as we are going to places she visited before. I simply trust her memory and experience. It was the biggest mistake I made for the trip. Today we travelled by train from Amsterdam to Paris. We brought a combined luggage which was pretty oversized. She should know that the bloody luggage is too big to fit into the luggage compartment!! She said nothing.. and the best part: she quickly ran to search for her seat -___-"
Carrying the bloody luggage through Paris subway system was really nightmare. The weight was fine but because of the crazily big size, I had to carry the luggage higher and that was zapping extra energy. I simply exploded when we could not find the hotel. Before we exited, I asked whether she knew which exit to take. She could not remember. She saidnjust climb up and see the road. She could not really remember the road. Sigh.. she then admitted that during the previous trip, she just followed my aunt blindly and did not remember things. OMGWTFBBQ!!! If that is so, say it earlier so at least I can check out maps etc for the trip. Bleah..
We went to Sacre Cour and was kinda lost. Again right from the start she kept saying "last time it was not like this". So what's next? My aunt recommended to exit from Abessess station. If outside the station is not the same as my sister's memory, then what? She wants to go around until she find a place that she can remember? I saw road signs pointing to the place so naturally I rather to follow those signs. After a few hundred metres, the place was still unfamiliar to her. She wanted to go back. I wanted to continue because I still saw sign pointing towards the place. We reached the place eventually.. but from the back.. the ladt time my sister came, it was from the front and it was from another train stop -_-" faint liao.. I gotta start planning for Zurich and Vienna.. Simply can't trust her memory and no planning at all.
3 days.. and 3 rules.. I wonder if I will "learn" something new each day..
By the way, for the trip itself, here is the list:
Day 1: Amsterdam (Dam Square), Volendam, Marken, Zaanse Schans, Delft
Day 2: Brussels (Manneken Pis, Grote Markt)
Day 3: Paris (Chateau de Vincennes, Basilica of the Sacre Coure, Rue de Bac Chapel of Our Lady of Miraculous Medal)
Details of each day will be on individual posts and I hope I can avoid the angst haha..
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