Just like any concert, I guess the usual 4-part harmony is not complete without its hiccups and standing ovations, therefore I shall devote this post to the good and bad moments during our 23-day long trip. Regardless, they've all contributed to the lingering fond memories I have of our honeymoon...
One of our scariest encounters was while walking from our hotel in Prague to the train station, ready to head off to Munich. We crossed this rather busy filter lane (there wasn't any traffic lights), onto a narrow pavement that was above anopen-air underpass. It was then that I heard dogs barking. Looking down a saw this lady trying to mellow down her 2 big dogs. I was about to turn back to check up on my dear when I saw a guy in front of her (about 10m away) injecting himself with a syringe. And that was when I saw the most disturbing sight...
2 huge lumps on his left arm, with that guy about to jab himself with a syringe. My gaze lasted no more than 2 secs. I turned back, looked at my dear, realized she was also looking in the same direction, and quickly made sure we passed asap. However, ironically, it was a dead end (wasn't an end per se, but the road was uncrossable with the endless flow of traffic) forcing us to head back where we came from.
By then, the couple were already done, and were in front of us, directly below. I hastened my pace to make sure we didn't cross paths... And thankfully... The underpass didn't cut the top route. *phew!*
Just when we were about to begin commenting to each other about the scene, we came across yet another drug addict hiding out under a shady tree of a park. 2 addicts in a single day! Back to back in less than 10mins!!
This time the guy was alone, acting weird and was seen taking out what looked like a needle from a metal tin... I think. Not sure about his actions, but I was dead sure of he a drug addict as well, as he staggered drowsily (not drunkardly mind you) to another shadier (adjective couldn't be more apt) tree.
1st freak out encounter, check. 2nd one was in Venice when we were lost, carrying all our barang barangs walking around searching for our elusive hotel. I noticed a guy following us. Then he finally started taking to me when we entered a dark and narrow street. He asked where I was going, sensing no aggressive treat but a scheming treat coming my way, I simply shooed him off and walked away... All those while keeping a lookout for him via my peripheral. Luckily for us, he wasn't a persistent stalker.
Check, 2. Many of the "greetings" I received from my colleagues and friends when I got back was whether did I encounter any cons or was I cheated on any way. After announcing to the whole world about how I was snatch-theffed once in Barcelona at Plaza De Catalunya in broad daylight with around 100 people all around me not laying a finger to help me, I was mentally well equipped. Not just this trip, for any others past, and to come.
My death stare kinda worked, I rather be too paranoid, then to expose myself to unnecessary risk. Anyone who came less than a meter from me, I would keep staring at them, till they gave us more "personal space".
I guess the only "con" I unknowingly fell for was paying 1 euro to enter a public toilet at the Prague Castle. In a way, it's not considered a con because I had no choice, when a man'a gotta pee, he has gotta pee, and I "willingly" inserted the coin into the toilet gantry.
In terms of souvenirs, we weren't exactly ripped off, because haggling took such a mammoth effort that most of the cases, it's either take it, or leave it. Owing to the language barrier as well, in the case for Europe, the consumer has less bargaining power than in 3rd world countries desperate to make an extra buck or two.
The Murano's Glass Museum was pretty frightening as well, we were ferried to an ulu part of Murano into what felt like a shady black market setting. There was only one other family with us, who separately went there. The charismatic handsome guide did his sales pitch, escorting us around the "museum", which is actually a huge retail/wholsaler store, and kept telling us there's no obligations, yet reiterating that he could give us a very good price. The prices for the "branded" glasses range from a few hundred euros to thousands, it was insanely costly. His mood changed a bit, more unfriendly just before leaving us in a souvenir shop, their last line of "rip off". We did buy something there, a glass jewellery holder, or plate, which wasn't too cheap either. Well, at least it cost less than 50 euros. We weren't pressured (maybe we subconsciously were), but it turned out to be a good buy because we didnt see anything like that while shopping along the other streets of Murano and Venice itself.
In fact, another pressurizing situation we landed ourselves into was in Sistine Chapel, as much as I hate to say this, but it was "regimental-like" strict. No taking photos I could understand, but no talking? What the? Even those art appreciators would need to discuss about art pieces wouldn't they? Were we in... The National Service?!? Cannot talk, talk must knock it down?!?! Kana guard duty?!?! I'm so disapproving of their "house rules" that it even affects my language... Geeze....
But it wasn't all scares and bottled up frustrations, we came across even more heartwarming encounters, the hospitable host of Cinque Terre's La Scogliera who invited us into his house for coffee, the two friendly artist uncles in Matera who so openly shared their passion of art with us and a random street stall Filipino guy who topped up free Nutella feeling for our plain crepes because I felt a wave of ASEAN love shooting right at us when we struck a more than generic conversation with him.
There were also many genuinely friendly tourists and locals who were an integral part in making our honeymoon whole. The 21 year old couple on board our train to Munich, they were young, and free. They came from New Zealand, but were like nomads town-living in Europe. They would find a job at one place, work for a few months or so, and move to another city when they feel like it. They hardly have any spare cash on them, and lived day by day. The guy even used to drive a tractor on a farm!! Harvesting potatoes! (He showed us some photos on his ipad) That's real freedom for u... And the best part... The couple ain't even married. Too cliche for them I guess, being together is all that mattered (you could argue that there's also no strings attached, but I rather believe that their love for each other will stay genuinely strong).
There was also 2 kiddo boys we came across, yet on another train ride from Milan to La Spezia. The youngest boy started to play with me, and soon, the chain of playfulness extended to peekaboos and a language lesson in Italian. And that was when that cheeky little boy taught me genitalia words... Wanting to even "show" me his mum's ahem* It went all haywired when I realized that, and tried diverting his attention to our yummy gummies (Barenland) which we brought from Munich. It wasn't long before we both konked out and as abruptly as the encounter happened, it was ciao to them.
We too met a real life Captain on board, not a ship but a train, on route to Amalfi. He was everything you would imagine a Captain to look like, actually he's the Captain of a small modest boat according to him, not a Titanic ship, but it was still wide-eyed impressive to us. He had this friendly yet stern mannerism/aura invisibly sailing around him and he openly shared about his family, where he stayed and even pointers to get around in Amalfi. Aye aye captain!
Met a passionate artist who specialised in mosiac-tile art, in his little humble shop near the boat station in Burano, and who also introduced to us Italy's very own 2nd "leaning tower", the Campanile of San Martino Church (in fact there's more than 2 "leaning towers, a wiki search will yield 8 results just in Italy itself). He took so much pride in his work, he spent 13 mins of our 15-min-long conversation introducing his works and not even promoting them for sale! That's passion!
A memorable encounter we had in Munich was while we were queuing up in a Xmas market to try out a hot alcoholic beverage when we met these 2 jovial grannies who shared with us what the drink we were queuing for really was, hot milky hard liquor (not bailey's though). They conversed in articulate English and struck the conversation first because they wanted to "chope" space in the queue and didn't want to have to squeeze through the sardine-packed crowd.
An oblivious German couple cut our queue, and I poked the big-sized gentleman and asked him to join the queue at the back. The 2 grandaunties were very impressed and showed the "good" sign to me. Apparently they haven't been acquainted with many Asians, esp Singaporeans with die-hard no-cutting-queues morals.
A kind hearted Czech local girl helped picked up my Dear's fallen headgear straight after we bought some delis bread from a traditional local confectionary. And all those while I was being "racistly anti-racist" about Europeans, which kinda means I think the majority of them are racist and wouldn't lay a finger to help a fellow Asian in need, guess I was wrong.
I was tremendously touched by her little kind gesture that from then on, everyone were only grouped into 2 categories, dangerous or safe (subjectively cos I wouldn't know would I?)
Krista, recall that we met her at Cinque Terre, was probably the most memorable of tourists we met there - due to the time spent with her. She was this cutesy Canadian girl who pangsehed her Italian boyfriend (or was it the other way round?) to take a short trip to Cinque Terre. She appeared super fit, trekking by herself, appearing from nowhere coming down the mountains of the trail at Cognilia, but she later told us it wasn't intended. She was "duped" to walk the "short trail" by her hotel staff (bet they did that cos they know they won't get to see her again) and not before long she ended up having to walk a 2hr trail along a seemingly endless path.
She dramatized her inner emotions about writing letters to her parents to say goodbye and all that stuff which was adorable and the main reason why I said she was "cutesy" was cos she was so camera shy saying that her makeup was off, her hair was messy when... None of the above was eminent. It was like you know how gals who are not fat who keeps telling you they are? She was this delusionally "unglam" gal.
There were lotsa "Hi"s and "Byes" because we kept bumping into her, to the point we just gave up "parting ways". But of course the "final goodbye" was when she took a train back to the city her boyfriend was in, and so did we, when we made our way to the artsily romantic Firenze (Florence lah!)
One last interesting character we met was this "in-his-own-world" zen shopowner in Matera whose stall we walked into while we were desperately searching for water during the "mee" (opposite of wee hours since it wasn't that late at night) hours of the night and he warmly welcomed us into his basement (his shop is 2 storeys high, level 1 where the main entrance is, and the basement where his wines and goodies are kept). He even let us try a few food tasters which he had prepared for a small tour group and treated us to a glass of wine. We ended up buying his yummily sweet local Matera delicacy (his hearty "ploy" worked), a white wafer-like biscuit with nuts embedded in it. We even used his bathrooms, one for my dear, one for myself! Imagine that! A shop having segregated toilets!
Saw a couple of his old black-and-white photos of his father's band, I supposed, who used his basement as a jamming place. Turned out that the next day when we passed by his shop again, he was actually playing his Trumphet! Probably a semi-pro musician if you ask me, and the black and white photos were probably of him! He gave us a flyer, there was supposedly a nativity parade going on that night, some "Passion of the Christ" parade which we unfortunately had to give a miss because we couldn't afford to spend (not in terms of money but in terms of time) one more night there! Darn!!
Sometimes it's not just the trip, but the people you meet along the way which completes the whole experience. Oh, speaking of which, one more person... a street vendor whom we, bought this stack of 4 blockish acrylic display items from at the Colosseum. He was such a "master" that the "deal" was done entirely in the dark, and didn't leave us much room for inspection. I had to buy it in good faith, hoping that it wouldn't have chipped at the edges. I held back asking for a bigger discount (we did haggle a bit) cos' I was afraid he might have used some sleight of hand black magic to switch out the items. He showed us, packed them at the speed of light, and before we knew it, we dear and I were holding on to separate little boxes. Thankfully, after returning to our hotel and checking them, they turned out to be alright. *phew!!*
Anyways I guess the "bad" ain't that bad afterall, with only one exception, the drug addicts we saw... but other than that I would say my honeymoon, was Manuka Honey UMF 20+ swweeeetttttt.
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| Antonio - Son of master musical-box maker (Sorrento) |
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| Head Chef dunno-what-his-name-is who introed us and prepared delis dishes at a hidden gem in Matera, and also because we were the only ones in the restaurant ^^ |
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