T.A.P.: Eurotrip 2007 Part 1

So I'm back from my nine day trip to two European countries; United Kingdom and Czech Republic. It was definitely hectic but it's my first time in Europe so it's to be expected. Well let's see if I'm able to recapture my entire trip on this little blog entry, here goes the journey:

Day after arrival. Partying at Club Punk after surreal experience at Mag party and Marc Jacobs show. L: Tet, Ro and me & R: Lily, Chris, Tristan (Yum) and me ;)

My journey really started on Wednesday since I left for StL right after work. I got in, met up with Dave and later had dinner with Dwan. The next day, I had to get up by 3:45am to go get Dave by 4 and made it into Lambert at 4:30am! I thought the airport would be dead at that time but it was actually very busy. I barely had enough time to make it to my gate. I checked in my bag and I got charged $25 (damn AA, I got charged going but not coming back, doesn't make no sense!). Anyway my flight to Heathrow went very smoothly. I got in on time at 10:35pm and met up with my Aunt. It's been almost 8 years since I saw her and she looks very much the same! That night I stayed up just chatting with my cousin about everything under the sun. It was good bonding time but unfortunately he was involved in a play so we didn't get to spend much time together except for the late night chatting.

CNY dinner with my Aunt and Family! My first CNY "reunion" dinner in 10 years!!

The next day, Friday, I got up went out for lunch with my Aunt at the Malaysian place where I had some roti canai and chap fan and later took the tube down to South Kensington to meet up with Tet. He picked me up in his Mercedes SUV and had apparently just had lunch with a designer whose special guest so happen to be Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson. Right from that moment, things got a little surreal. We picked up this Swiss photographer, Frederick, and we all went to a magazine party at some swanky hotel. It was all very impressive; free flowing champagne, snacks, fancy water, designers and photographers were all at this party. It was all about fashion and being the only engineer, I felt a little out of place. After the party we headed for the Marc Jacobs show for the closing of London Fashion Week. Tet waltz right in, while Frederick and me tried to get in using photographer passes but we got denied so we just hung around outside checking out the line of journalists and paparazzi. It was like straight out of channel E! After about 15 mins, the show ended and people started coming out and I saw Naomi Campbell and Sofia Coppola, like I said, totally surreal. After the show, we went to this bar, Punk, where Tet's tesco disco had an event. Had a pretty good time and met Lily, Chris and this total hottie Tristan. Later had supper at HK diner and crashed at Tet's.

Day after CNY we went to Oxford. L: In front of Ashmolean Museum with Aunt&Uncle R: Atop the Church of St Mary the Virgin, see below for the view from atop the church

View from the top of the Church of St Mary the Virgin.

The next day, Saturday, we had dim sum on Baker St with Tet and his wife, Ro, and his photographer, Nick. Dim sum was very good and I later took the train back in time for the pre-CNY dinner with Aunt+family. Got back around 6pm and met my cousin's bf, Jake. He was a nice and polite guy. Dinner was fun, since I haven't done a CNY dinner like this in almost 10 years! Dinner conversations were the usual, politics and the economy. Doesn't matter which continent one's on but the dinner conversation's always the same ;) Dinner lasted till almost 11:30pm and later just chilled out with my cousin and Jake where we talked and played some Wii.

More pics at Oxford. L: Lunch at one of the oldest pubs R: Inside the courtyard of one of the many colleges in Oxford.

Sunday, Feb 18, was Chinese New Year! GONG XI FA CAI! I got an ang pau from my aunt, totally unexpected, again I have not celebrated CNY in almost 10 years! We didn't waste any time and headed out to Oxford, the oldest university in the english-speaking world. It was about a 40 minute drive from London. The strange thing I learned about Oxford was how it was made up of 39 separate colleges. Cambridge is apparently the same way, but most other Unis followed the traditional one campus style. We also toured the biggest book store, pitt rivers museum, ashmolean museum and we also climbed the spiralling stairs of the Church of St Mary the Virgin. We came home pretty late on Sunday after spending all day in Oxford. Uncle Glenn unfortunately got a ticket as we were illegally parked in Oxford (all day! so it made up for parking fees ;)