Europe – Page 4 – missruslee

Header of the Month: the Holocaust Memorial.

March 19, 2015September 5, 2016 missruslee4 Comments

Trust me, no one has been wanting to see an update on this site as much as I have. Even though my actions don’t speak as loudly as my words, you have to believe me when I say that it has been hectic three weeks of March. A lot of things claimed my attention that I had no choice but to neglect this blog, but I suppose I could summarise all the madness in one word.

German.

I found myself unexpectedly hanging out with a group of Germans and even got myself jokingly offered a PhD programme in Berlin on Statistics (for reasons that I can’t fathom), which I obviously rejected because I am not an academic person like that.

Which is why you may or may not have noticed that I have sneakily slipped in and changed the Header of this blog and left it there without giving any explanation. So now that I finally managed to squeeze in some time to breathe and write, let me introduce you to the Header for March, the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.

The Holocaust Memorial is one of my absolute favourite memorials, although the word ‘favourite’ may not be very appropriate for something that carries such morbid meanings. I mean this whole thing is actually called Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Continue reading “Header of the Month: the Holocaust Memorial.” →

Copenhagen brunches.

February 28, 2015September 5, 2016 missrusleeLeave a comment

In my opinion, Copenhagen is one of the most underrated cities in the world.

From time and again, I still get questioning look from people whenever I say that Copenhagen is one of my favourite cities in the world. Some even go so far as asking, “Where is Copenhagen again? Is it in Europe?”.

That’s how underrated this city, and Denmark is. The city where the famous statue of Little Mermaid is situated. The capital city of where the world renowned writer Hans Kristian Andersen came from. The city where Carlsberg brewery can be found (everyone must have heard of Carlsberg, surely!). The city which hosts the headquarter of Maersk, the biggest shipping company in the world. The capital city where LEGO, the world-renowned toy company, comes from. The city where Noma, the world’s #1 restaurant is! I mean come on people. Either I only care about things that no one else in the world cares about, or most people are simply ignorant, or Denmark has the worst marketing team ever.

And now, I shall add one more thing to the already long list of why Copenhagen is amazing: the city has many cafés with some of the best brunches that I have ever had.

Now, brunches aren’t really my thing, so I wouldn’t call myself a brunch guru. But I have had enough of them, especially in Singapore, where they are simply unimpressive. Brunches are always overpriced for the portion that they serve and most cafés, at least in Singapore, only focus on decorating the place and making the food presentation pretty (so they can charge a premium to it) without paying much attention to how it actually tastes (there are exceptions of course).

But I remember being very impressed with Copenhagen brunches, at least those few that I have tried. Or perhaps I was just being biased about this city as usual. But who cares, here are the list of my favourite brunch cafés in Copenhagen (note: it’s all of them):

Continue reading “Copenhagen brunches.” →

A regret and a keyring.

February 20, 2015March 5, 2015 missruslee2 Comments

People deal with their miseries in different ways.

One of my main sources of miseries is from regret of not doing something that I could have done. It was something I had known right from the start I wanted, but over the years, I got distracted and the possibility of fulfilling that wish seemed a lot more remote than how it had been in reality. I could have visited London 2012 Olympics had I worked hard enough for it, but I had not. So the Olympics came and went and my life is still Olympic-less.

It is so unlike me to dwell in past regrets, especially those that happened a few years ago. But I just finished reading ‘Stardust’, a novel by Neil Gaiman and re-watched the movie subsequently. It was then that I remembered that the end credit of the movie was Take That’s ‘Rule the World’, one of my favourite songs of all time. Naturally, I went to YouTube to search for all the different versions of the song, and this came up:

Continue reading “A regret and a keyring.” →

A blast from the past: 2009 travel memories.

December 20, 2014February 10, 2015 missrusleeLeave a comment

As I have mentioned in passing several times, earlier this month I moved out of the flat I have been staying here in Singapore for the past eight years.

A lot of people warned me that I would hate moving – it’s troublesome, dirty and tiring. While it was definitely not my idea of absolute fun, I found it pretty entertaining. Having stayed put in a place means I collected a lot of memories, as well as mountains of junk and forgotten things. The junk made me question my decision making ability (why would I ever think of buying those things?) while finding the forgotten things felt a bit like treasure hunting.

I will save you from the gory details of what junk I found in my house. Instead I will just show you the sole most important finding through it all:

Continue reading “A blast from the past: 2009 travel memories.” →

Copenhagen architecture.

December 4, 2014December 4, 2014 missrusleeLeave a comment

I’m going to cheat a little again and distract you from the lack of actual posts on the blog.

Just watched this video of Copenhagen, and makes me want to visit again! One of the main reasons is because I am dying to get the chance to stay in this dorm called Tietgenkollegiet, which was designed by award winning architect Lundgaard & Tranberg. You can see the student college shot for a second or so in the video.

Time for a sixth visit?

Header of the Month: Autumn in Oslo.

November 7, 2014November 11, 2014 missrusleeLeave a comment

Even though I live in a single-season country, I have always closely identified November with autumn ever since I visited Oslo in 2009.

It was my first time coming head on with how autumn looks like and feels, walking on leaves-strewn paths in the park, admiring colourful trees that are in the process of shedding their leaves, and of course going around in a trench coat to keep warm from the chilly weather.

I fell in love with autumn then and there.

I visited Oslo very briefly on a cruise trip from Copenhagen. It was something organised by our university, where they would put all of the exchange students on one cruise and shipped us to Oslo for a day trip. Our cruise departed from Copenhagen harbour on a beautiful afternoon.

Continue reading “Header of the Month: Autumn in Oslo.” →

Halloween at Tivoli.

November 1, 2014November 1, 2014 missrusleeLeave a comment

One of my favourite 8-acre areas in the world, Tivoli Gardens, get even better as they light up in orange-and-black lights over the Halloween.

I was there only once, five years ago now, and looking at the pictures posted by a friend of mine on Facebook of the Halloween decoration this year, things don’t seem to have changed much over the years. So I feel less guilty showing you pictures from five years ago and claiming as if I know what is going on in the Garden.

The thing that I like the most about Tivoli is that it is not pretentious. Halloween, for example, is a classic carved pumpkin affair with witches walking around the Garden and smoky giant cauldron that visitors can play with a giant ladle.

tivolihalloween1 — Typical scene of Tivoli main entrance during Halloweens.

tivolihalloween6 — I have never seen Halloween so pretty.

Continue reading “Halloween at Tivoli.” →

Why Bath is beautiful.

October 22, 2014November 11, 2014 missrusleeLeave a comment

Up until two months ago, the city of Bath was a huge mystery to me. Every time I mentioned I was visiting London, everyone would throw in a casual question on whether I would be visiting Bath. And whenever I said I was not going to, they would say that I should since Bath is very beautiful. Now, even though I do agree we live in a beautiful world, ‘beautiful’ to me is the most non descriptive word to describe a place. It tells nothing about how a place looks like. To me, this is what a beautiful place is like.

alaska21 — Denali National Park, Alaska.

And so is this.

So I decided I just had to visit the place myself to see what all the ‘beautiful’ fuss is all about. It was a day when I needed a little break from London, and Bath could not have been more of a perfect place to go and clear my mind. I took the train from London Paddington and arrived slightly less than two hours later. (I missed the original train that I intended to take because I stayed on my bed a little too long). A beautiful sight greeted me. Continue reading “Why Bath is beautiful.” →

Wimbledon, and its little surprises.

September 15, 2014October 22, 2014 missrusleeLeave a comment

In London, even the most quaint of all places hold surprises. And this is one of the reasons why I love the city so much.

This time round, Wimbledon, a suburban district in Southwest London, caught me off guard.

I was fortunate enough to have a really good friend of mine and his lovely family host me at their house in Wimbledon for a week. Apart from being able to get an authentic English experience with all of them (and having delicious traditional English dishes prepared for me by my friend’s mom who is an excellent cook), I also got to explore a new part of London that I have always wanted to visit.

Ever since I was a kid, I only knew Wimbledon as the tennis tournament. It was not until four years ago when I first came to London that I realised it is a name of a place and that the tournament was named after the town.

And Wimbledon is indeed more than just about tennis. It is very residential, away from the hustle and bustle of Central London but has pretty much everything you need in the area. If I were to describe it as anything, it would be that it reminded me of Privet Drive in Harry Potter.

wimbledon1 — Obviously my favourite place in Wimbledon.

Continue reading “Wimbledon, and its little surprises.” →

Look Mum No Hands!

September 2, 2014September 6, 2014 missrusleeLeave a comment

I have a new favourite thing in London: pop-up bars!

They are basically bars, set up temporarily in strategic locations, generally during summer I suppose.

Look mum no hands in itself is a unique coffee-bar. Their permanent outlets can be found in Old Street and Mare Street in London, and it is designed for cyclists. They show films and cycle sports on their big projector screen, and they hold workshops and have mechanics to fix bikes.

The pop-up bar can be found in Southbank, right under Hungerford Bridge. I remember I was walking by the River Thames, weaving through the tourists while ‘My Heart Will Go On’ was being played by the street musician.