Europe (2017): Warsaw's Attractions & Sightseeing

Rise and shine, Warsaw! 

As usual, I woke up earlier than the rest for another adventures around the capital city of Poland. Normally, I got up from the bed before the sunrise but then not because I want to chase the sunrise but in order to capture photos without being photobombed - like they said, the early bird catches the worm. 

WARSAW'S ATTRACTIONS & SIGHTSEEING

As I only have one whole day in Warsaw before leaving, I just selected few best places of interest to visit. 

Warsaw's Old Town (Stare Miasto)

The oldest part of the capital city. It is one of the most prominent tourist hubs with cobblestone alley and medieval buildings reconstructed after the WWII such as the city walls, the Barbican and St. John's Cathedral. Right in the heart of the area is the Old Market Place which consists restaurants, cafes and shops. 

#1: Warsaw's Old Town, the finest and most picturesque part of the city. 

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Europe (2017): From Krakow to Warsaw & It's Like Hell Day For Me

It was raining by the time I arrived Krakow.
And when I was about to leave, it was drizzling and miserably cold too.

Well, at least the weather was pretty good to me the day before so that I could managed to cover several notable attractions and popular landmarks around Krakow before leaving. 

I left the hostel right after had the free breakfast provided and walked to the bus station which not far away - less than 10 minutes walk perhaps. This time around, I carried additional thing with me which is the newly bought luggage bag from the shopping mall nearby. In case you're wondering, I actually travel without any baggage throughout my solo trip around Europe for almost three weeks cause the luggage I packed before the trip went missing somewhere in Dubai - not sure whether it's Malaysia Airlines or Emirates's fault (will blog more about this incident in upcoming post) but then always think of a bright side, it's not bad to travel light somehow. 

#1: One World Hostel of Krakow is smack right in between the main market/square and railway/bus station.

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Europe (2017): 3D2N in Krakow, Poland

After experiencing more than 8 hours in the overnight sleeper train from Prague, the train finally arrived in Krakow Glowny, the Central Train Station in Krakow. The first thing I done right after I came out from the train station is directly look for the hostel I booked beforehand. One thing I love about Krakow is the train station and the old town are located just side by side, without have to travel far away. 

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Europe (2017): Overnight Train From Prague To Krakow

After spending more than 24 hours in the beautiful city of Prague, I proceeded to the next country which I never been before - Poland. Poland is a country in Eastern Europe with a rich and eventful history which situated next to Czech Republic. After did my research, I decided to take overnight train from Prague to Krakow. Well, it's not my first time to experience overnight train as I experienced this before in Norway last two years (until now I haven't blog anything about my Northern Light experience yet) but then the difference is, I'm taking alone for this round. It's wise to book everything beforehand than purchase on the spot.

WHERE I BOUGHT MY OVERNIGHT TRAIN TICKET FROM & HOW

Almost majority of my transportation tickets I bought online and for this overnight train from Prague to Krakow, I purchased directly from this particular website - the Czech Railways (CD) website www.cd.cz. It's pretty simple and straightforward to book from this website, just like how you purchase your airticket from AirAsia or Malaysia Airlines website. The train booking normally opens 90 days ahead, or even 60 days for certain routes in Eastern Europe. As I plan to overnight in the train, I chosen the sleeper with 3-berth compartment instead of couchette. Of course then, my choice would be slightly higher in term of the cost but I rather sleep comfortably so that I can have the energy to continue my adventure on the following day. Curious how this train looks like? Watch the video I uploaded at the bottom.

#1: Praha Hlavni nadrazi, the largest and main railway station in Prague which provides international railway connections. 

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How To Get To Everland Resort?

Due to the pouring rain on the second day of our South Korea trip, hence we immediately checked what's the weather forecast for our third day. After confirmed that that it was pretty fine weather, we came into a conclusion that our trip for the day is to Everland Resort.

There are few alternatives route to one of this best amusement theme park of South Korea.

One of the easiest way is grab a taxi and you'll reach Everland easily but I will not choose this if I were you cause it definitely cost a bomb since the journey from Seoul to Everland is 1 hour plus away. Hence, if you are budget traveller just like me, the best way but at the same time it is more cost-saving would be travel by public transportation; both subway and public bus at the same time.

We started our journey from Myeong-Dong, the station which just few stones away from our guest house.

Even by public transportation, there are 3 ways. Here I shared with you 2 of the ways of going to Everland using public transportation.

First Way To Everland

#1. Take a train to Sadang Station of Subway Line 2 or 4. Then heading to Exit 2 or 3.

#2. Once come out from the station, heading to the bus station and take bus 1500-2 to Everland. The travel time takes 80 minutes.

We did used this route at the first place, but somehow when we hopped on to the 1500-2 bus, the bus driver told us that he was not going to Everland. Therefore, without thinking too much, immediately we changed to our second route.

Second Way To Everland

(I more prefer and recommended to take this route instead)

#1. Take a train to Gangnam Station for Subway Line 2. After that, heading to Exit 6.

#2. Once out from the subway, walking straight for about 3 minutes until you see this shop on your left-hand side. There's where the bus station to Everland located on the right-hand side.

#3. Hop on to the 5002 bus which cost 1,800 won per single journey and there it goes all the way to Everland until you reach the final stop.

#4. The journey hasn't end here yet as you need to take another shuttle bus in order to reach Everland itself and no worries, this shuttle bus is free.

Finally! Tadaa.... Here we are at Everland.

Wanna know more and the interesting things of Everland? Stay tune for my upcoming blog which I think might overloaded with tons of photos. 

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Floral World at Taipei Flora Explo 2010

Date of Visited: 25th December 2010

I think among all the places that I went around Taiwan (Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung), I guess this is the main highlighted on the trip - Taipei International Flora Expo 2010.

It opened for almost half year, start onwards from 6th November 2010 and run until 25th April 2011. Besides served as the garden festival, the purpose of Taipei International Flora Expo being held is for horticulture exposition. It is Taiwan's first time experience to held this internationally recognised exposition.

We started to venture around the Global Garden Area. Seriously, this exhibition is so massive and need to take a ride on their shuttle bus to visit the other area. So sad that we won't able to cover all the other area within 2 hours.

Now, shall us let the photo do the talking (some I able to identify their country):

#1: Malaysia

Come from Malaysia and visited the Malaysia area. End up with disappointment. They didn't contribute much in order to promote Malaysia's flora.

#2

#3

#4: Palau, not Pulau

#5 Hong Kong

#6 Hawaii

#7

#8

#9 Thailand

#10 Indonesia

#11

#12 Netherlands - I thought they famous with tulip but they use board to display their flowers. Unable to import to Taiwan because the location is too far??

What an unique exhibitions around the world.
So among all the photo above, which you prefer the most?

Without realising, for just 1 area of the exhibition it can consume 1 hour plus. So, my family and I are kinda in hurry in order to cover the most that we can.

The Flower Landscape - They will feature different type of flora in once a month and this time around (December), this area featuring the poinsettias.

Gosh! Don't you think it's awesome and fascinating with all these colourful flowers?

Although I am those type that not really into flowers much except for lily, but this exhibition really impressed me. It was fairly interesting and worth seeing with lot of flowers on display over the vast area of Taipei that the Flora Expo covers. Unfortunate for me was visit this exhibition for less than 2 hours is totally not-so-awesome as there are many things to see and worst case ever was crowded all over the area.

Really wish that I get the chance to visit the other kind of Expo in the nearest time.

P/S - I even missed out the Shanghai Expo which eventually my dad purposely went for that and he told me that it was awesome too.

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Japan Transportation & My Last Day in Japan

Attractions? Checked. Accommodation? Checked. Foods? Checked. And now end my final post on my adventurous autumn Japan trip by sharing a bit regarding Japan railway and public transportation network.

Frankly to say that the actual period I had in Japan was actually 7 days, not 8 days because Nicole and I spend our last day mostly on the Shinkansen and Kansai International Airport.

What is Shinkansen by the way? Shinkansen, the first bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Running at the speeds of up to 300 km/h, Shinkansen is known for punctuality and it will depart exactly on the scheduled time. So ,don't expect for Shinkansen to wait for you.

Aerodynamic nose of the fabled Shinkansen



The journey from Tokyo to Kansai International Airport took us 3 hours by Shinkansen

The number on Shinkansen indicates whether the truck is reserved or non-reserved.

Similar to airplanes, most of the Shinkansen offer seats in two different type of classes; ordinary or enocomic class and business class or known as green car class. Due to Nicole and I are Japan Rail Pass holders (will talk about this later), we can only reserved the ordinary class. However, no matter what class it was, for me the seat is so comfortable and so spacious compare to the airplanes. Hey what! I'm almost forgot that everytime I on board, I had no problem with the tight legroom space because I am shortie by the way. Anyway, it is not a bad sign to have the Japan Rail Pass because we can reserve the seat for free.

Look at the picture at the upper right, Shinkansen offer a generous amount of foot space. Even their number are being numbered and lettered in the same style as on airplanes.

The safety guideline.

We knew that we were almost reach airport when we saw Hep Town.



Finally reached Kansai International Airport, which closer to the city of Osaka.

Japan's public transportation network leades the world in terms of efficiency, safety and comfort. Most of the places especially the attractions can be reached by taking the public transportation including Mount Fuji. However, when seriously look into their railway line, it is awesomely so complicated and complexity. On the first day we arrived, we were almost lost and confused for 10-20 minutes when we plan to buy ticket to the guest house from Kansai International Airport by using their ticket machine. At the end, we gave up and we went to the ticket office to buy the ticket instead of using the ticket machine.

Don't believe? Look at the map of the railway line on the top of the ticket machines below.

Not only one

But there are two. Really makes both of us scratched our head.

Talking about that Japan Rail Pass, Nicole recommended to buy it as we plan to visit more than one region of Japan. If you plan to visit Kyoto, Kobe, Nara and even Osaka besides Tokyo, then you need this as it offers an incredibly economical way to travel throughout Japan. This pass gives an unlimited travel on almost all trains of the nationwide network of JR lines, including the Shinkansen as well as on many JR bus lines. We can simply travel at anytime we want without reserve any ticket and like what I said before, we can even reserve the seat for free.

However, this Pass can only be purchased outside of Japan before the visit. It is not for sale inside Japan itself. Nicole bought this pass from Singapore by the way. There are two types of Japan Rail Pass and each of these types is available for either 7 days, 14 days or 21 days.

My name and details on Japan Rail Pass

We spend our last at Kansai International Airport, Japan's second largest airport.

For this trip, we took Jetstar where departed from Singapore and transit to Taiwan before reach Japan.

Not WELCOME but it's GOODBYE TO JAPAN!

Finally, that's the end of my Autumn Adventurous Japan trip with my university housemate, Nicole. It was really one of the amazing and wonderful trip I had. Before this, both of us had been travelled many places during our further study in Sheffield, United Kingdom including the trip of 20 days around Europe. It was a sudden invitation from her to ask me to go Japan. Honestly to say, that moment Japan was not in my current travel list but I am truly not regret on the decision I'd made to travel with her. Lots of exciting experience I had including lost in the middle while try to find the locations and not forgeting too the language barrier we encountered.

Hereby I would like to thanks to Nicole for the invitation and thanks to for doing all the planning and booking the accommodation. Well, she is the host for this trip. THANKS NICOLE!! Can't wait for our next trip.

[Credit to: Japan-Guide.com, Japan Rail Pass homepage and Wikipedia]

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