Germany: A photo journal

Travel date : June 2 years ago (2005)
Travel sequence : Can't remember due to short term memory loss

Ooops, sorry, that was my room (I'm NOT messy, I was moving out!)
Well, the journey started here.

BERLIN
Berliner Dome, a white and gold church.
What did I say about churches and European countries

Ah, the Berlin.. er... gate? But it's important, I promise!!!

Short hair.. due to some anal hairdresser in Ming's Salon in Megah that cut my hair too short, forcing me to go to Essex in SS2 again to restyle it into a bob cut. That was in Dec. 6 months down the road and my hair barely sweeps my shoulder. I should sue for manslaughter.
But, anyway, the tower behind..

And the tower on the inside: you know what they say about Malaysians being patriotic and all that crap. So be it.

The Marvelous Berlin Wall (or so people believe)

I promise you, the wall outside the Potterow tunnel near my Uni is part of the Berlin wall. And so are some walls in certain parts of KL. Heck, even your house can be made into the Berlin wall. All you need is some spray paint. On top of that, you can sell bits of the wall for as souvenirs and roll in a neat amount of money. Just for spray painted rubble.

Olympic Stadium
Woohoo!

Dachau
Dachau Concentration Camp... where the Nazis tortured the Jews

What it is like behind bars,

and how you'll lie as your body is placed on the stretchers to be cremated.

On a lighter note, all together now... AWWwwwwwwwwww

Rothenburg
A small village that is oh-so-perfect. Like the village in Hot Fuzz (coming soon to Malaysia). So sweet, so perfect..

Famous German Christmas Decorations.. Nutcrackers and what not.

Munich
Neuschwanstein Castle
The castle Disney based their cartoons on. And it is Such a fairytale. I wish I was born a princess and lived in this castle. Not only is in on the hills,
It has it's own watch castle that is just at the foot of the hill (actually for the parents of the King or something like that) alright, alright, my history sux k...still, Neuschwanstein Castle is absolutely...
It's a dream.
100% guranteed taken from my now stolen Konica Minolta camera. Anyone who goes to Germany/Munich, PLEASE PLEASE visit this place.

The castle authorities should start paying me tourism fees

All in all, we went to Hamburg(boring), Berlin, Nuremburg, Rothenburg, Munich(double boring) and finally to Frankfurt. Along the way we meet a few strange characters:

Mr. Man
Mr Lion
Mr. Bear

all found in Germany. Since it is very unfair to my fellow Edinburghans, I will introduce ...

Mr. Cow

*picture comes when i return to edinburgh with my trusty laptop*

Germany:

Worth visiting? Oh yeah, just for Neuschwanstein.

Universiti Hospital

So I accompanied my grandmom to UH yesterday for her heart clinic. My grandmother suffers from a heart condition called 'Unstable Angina' that is insufficient blood supply to her heart, causing central chest pain and is associated with an increased risk of heart attacks. She recently had a pacemaker inserted to correct another heart condition she has - atrial fibrillation.

I was just told by my aunt to accompany her for her check up and being the filial granddaughter I rose to the challenge of waking up at 6.30 am to be there at 7. For the clinic in UH runs by a number system, that is the earlier you get the number, the faster you see the doctor. I was not told of anything but just handed a plastic bag with bits of paper in it by my aunt to bring along.

Upon arrival, I looked about, searching for a signboard to direct me to the cardiology clinic. As expected - nothing to point me the correct way. So hand in hand with my grandma, we walked towards the general direction of where she thought it was at and arrived at a place called 'Makmal Kardiology Diagnostik ECG' aka ECG Diagnostic Cardiology Lab. This is the clinic??? Why? How? It's an ECG lab! But, yeah, I suppose the government thought that it was too expensive to erect a signboard saying 'Cardio Clinic' or expects the general population to understand that a lab is a clinic.

Once inside, I went up to the enquiry desk to hand in the appointment card (that I found after tipping out all the contents in the plastic bag while the woman at the counter tells me to stand aside as she is very busy).

'Ini pacemaker clinic la - kat sana!'
'Eh, not a cardio doctor's appointment?'
'Bukan! Packemaker aje!'

Er, ok.. so i go over to 'kat sana' and hand in the appointment card. I hung around the counter as people bombarded questions at the lone woman at the counter(I'm inclined to say nurse but she was not in a uniform and had this pissy look about her face) with questions etc... and she turns to me irritated:
'Duduk, boleh duduk kah?'

Bitchy toot.

At this time, my grandma says she wants to talk to the doctor and started asking me about her blood test. Me being already pretty confused about her inconclusive packemaker or cardio doctor's appointment began to feel a slight twinge of irritation as she insists that she has to take a blood test to check herINR.(a measure of how safe a drug is in the body when taken for long term) Now, what's the association of INRs with pacemakers? (wasn't aware there was one, but then again, I am still unqualified). Jeez. And what clinic is she supposed to be at? My aunt double confirms that she has to see the doctor but the enquiry woman says packemaker clinic.
So, I head back to the enquiry counter and the woman says as I approach: 'What happen to you?!'
'Er, she needs a cardio doctor's appointment together with her pacemaker check'
'This pacemaker check will have a doctor there!'
'Ok, does she need a blood test?'
'No! No nit!'

So I return to my seat only to be questioned about this 'blood test' again by my poor grandma who is getting pretty agitated that she is not getting one. So I head over to the bitch at the packemaker clinic counter and her answer is:

'Tak tau la. Not sure.' Shrugs and turns away.

What kind of idiot sits at a clinic counter and gives an answer like that?

I return to my seat and decide - that the people here are really useless. Might as well find things out myself. So I go through all the bits of paper in the plastic bag and read all about my grandma's history and heart problem. So, she is on warfarin for her atrial fib and hence needs her INR checked but her INR was checked like last week! I call my aunt for the umpteenth time but she is also woolly about this whole INR blood and cardio/pacemaker clinic business.

#^&*.

Whatever. In the end, we did get to see our doctor though it was hardly a clinic; I had to stand the whole time as the doctor talked to me while I translate with my broken mandarin to my grandma. Just across the room, another woman has her pacemaker checked at the same time by the technician.

What happened to patient confidentiality? Privacy?

At 11.30 am I was itching to get out of the hospital (but before that I had to obviuosly lose my way while trying to get to the pharmacy) and heaved a sigh of relieve as I saw my brother's car approaching.

What with brainless gits who sit at the clinic counters, rude nurses, a lame number system - can't they have a nice little log book with patients booked in at different times - I think the whole system is going to the dogs. Thank God the doctors are nice and professional enough, though the consultation room environment is hardly what I call suitable for a country that plans to hit the developed status in 13 years.

And wait, UH is supposed to be semi private. I can't imagine what KL's General Hospital will be like.

Urgh.

Guest Writer : Nigel

Hello. Rachel decided to pop into my blog and leave a mark. So I decided to do the same and return the favour.

So yes, here I am.

Rachel has just ended her entry after I gave her substantial time to blog so it's my turn now while she keeps me entertained with her stories; if she has any.

My blog here to view her entry.

If you have read her entry, which I have not at this point of time, I assumed she has probably mentioned that the both of us are at Starbucks geeking out with wireless Internet. I wanted to retest my laptop wireless capabilities and see whether it is functioning well anyway. Apparently it is and the connection here is fast. :) Damansara Utama Starbucks is nice. I like.

Starbucks is a geek place. Everyone here practically comes online at Starbucks and I was quite amazed to see the number of Crumpler bags going through the door. I thought Crumplers were a rare-breed. I was wrong. It looks like it is entering the Malaysian lifestyles like the new EastPak or Outdoor or Jansport, whatever. Good thing is, no one has my model but someone has a bag the exact same colours as mine.

I'm hungry.

The cheesecakes look tempting.

I actually have nothing insightful to offer you people in this entry because I am blogging in an area where I can get no focus with my thoughts.

Opposite me there is a couple getting intimate, the sound of spoons, forks, knives and who knows what other stuff falling into the basin and easy listening music over the speakers. It is quite difficult to focus on something specific to write.

I am a certified geek. Because I said only novelists sit in Starbucks and write novels. Now I'm the one sitting down here writing an entry which is sort of a super degraded version of a novel. Great.

Rachel is also a geek. She has been tampering with my mobile phone and hers for the past ten minutes.

I better run. It's getting too silent at the table.

And now she's cam-whoring alone. HAHAHAHAHAHA. I'd better save her from narcissistic oblivion. I'm doing all of you, her friends, a big favour and saving you guys the trouble when Rachel exclaims after a picture is taken, "THIS SHOT NOT NICE, I WANT ANOTHER ANGLE! TAKE AGAIN!".

Bye bye.

Hallux Valgus

So, I'll be sitting for my OSCEs exam come this Wednesday.
OSCEs are those annoying exams (actually crucial) that tests our clinical examination skills and history taking (that is eliciting a proper history of symptoms from a patient), which are in actual fact the bread and butter of our profession. And yes, they have to make an exam out of it, which I again totally understand But It is Still after all, an Exam.

To make sure we absolutely score, and NOT fail as NO one wants to come back to resit the exams when we can all be kicking back and eating char kuey teow in Malaysia while flipping through the twenty plus Astro channels while ordering our maids for another round of grilled satay,
we practice
and practice
and practice
AND practice
on each other.

Which brings us to a few new discoveries. So I've found out that one of my flatmates cannot externally rotate his shoulders. And a friend who lives upstairs has got a fixed flexion deformity of her elbow, which is also called a 'gunshot' deformity (basically means one cannot fully rotate one's wrist when the arm is fully outstretched). A splitting of a friend's 2nd heart sound is also heard (normal sounds should be just lub-dub, and a splitting means lub-d-dub). And of course, I've got a fantastic knee to be examined due to my past surgery but that is really rather old news.

Still, I will be incomplete and totally ostracized if I do not discover something new or rather, medically wrong about myself - and thank God for all the smart alecks and brainy people that exist around me. One single look - zero in and hey! another case to add on to my already expanding portfolio of medical problems that surely points towards the one direction -> AGEING.



I've got hallux valgus. Sounds like some Harry Potter enchantment, no?

A change of direction of my big toe which should normally be straight but is slanted, leaving an empty V in between the big toes of me both feet. Slight, but there all the same. It might be congenital though, or hereditary. And how does it happen? All time popular cause is the usage of heels (that's why women get it and men hardly) but hello, I stay in cobblestone Edinburgh where even walking down the stairs of my flat is treacherous. Not to mention planting my stilletos on the uneven pavement of the city as I walk 2 miles to my destination, precariously mantaining balance while tripping over every other step and ensuring that I still look feminine?
No, I hardly wear heels here!!

But I do have about 7 pairs of high heeled shoes sitting on my shelf now.
So?
Ignorance is bliss. And so is self denial.

Dracunculiasis

Was flipping through my medical book that day looking for a description of "Typhoid Fever" and I just had to chance upon this word.

Dracunculiasis.

Captured my attention almost immediately. Sounds like "Dracula" doesn't it or "Dragon"? Uber cool.

What is it?

1. Is latin for 'little dragon'
2. More commonly known as the Guinea Worm Disease.
3. An infection by the parasite Dracunculus medinensis
4. Life cycle starts from larvae in fresh water, water fleas ingest it and they develop into its infective stage in these microscopic insects.
5. Humans drink the water, and stomach acid kills the water flea but not the larvae. The larvae goes to the intestines and gets into the body cavity.
6. A female worm copulates with a male worm and absorbs the male after he dies.
7. The female grows into 60-100 cm ( 1 bloody metre), looks like a cooked spaghetti noodle and her body cavity is filled with baby larvae.

Right up to now, the progression seems normal (except for the rather disgusting 'absorbing the male' part, hm and also the spaghetti part) . I was about to turn the page away - I mean all living things do mate sometime or other... but it was a good thing I didn't, as IT GETS BETTER.

8. So this female worm in the body now migrates to the cooler area of the body, usually the lower limbs.
9. She/It Ulcerates out of the human skin by causing a blister - which is extremely painful and has a burning sensation. About 24-72 hours later, the worm emerges OUT of the skin

!!@#$%^&*!!! Oh no, no... it doesn't come All the way out.

10. By this time, the human host is hurting and being human, soaks his/her leg in water to ease off the burning sensation and here, the female worm releases a milky white substance into the water, which contains about 100 thousand larvae.
11. By now the blister has become a unrelenting ulcer.

Eurgh!
How Incredibly, Utterly DISGUSTING.

12. The best way to treat is to slowly roll the worm round a stick and let it take its own time to emerge fully, as the least thing you want is for it to break off and leave half of its body in your body. This emerging process can take up to days or even weeks.

P/S: If surgical facilities are available, slice the leg open and get the bugger out immediately.

Shocker. Imagine walking around and living with a horrible worm dangling from your leg.

Like a piece of spaghetti - ahem, I mean, string.

Blood Groups

Blood group O - increased risk of getting H.Pylori infection, i.e. gastric ulcers

Blood group A - increased risk of getting gastric cancer

Which blood group are u?

Time in Eternity

Time passes by. Ever so slowly. And ever so quickly.

Just sitting there, looking into his eyes. The sclera was white when he came in. But now it is slightly red-tinged.

And his dad. His dad looks like how a dad should be. Graying hair, wise eyes. Slim, soft spoken, walking without a stick - a rare sight to see indeed in places like these, places like this where the elderly is usually ravaged with so many complications.

They are planning a holiday to Spain this weekend. A true family holiday. And daddy comes in here to get expert advice.

Daddy wears a sweater. A sweater that holds a lot of secrets. Scars of the past, present, future. Scars that can be seen and that cannot be seen. Clothes hides a body's secrets well. And so can accessories of all kinds. Like him, accessorising his dad. Complimenting each other. The picture of health and happiness.

But once all clothes have come off, once all pretence put down, the dark, ugly monster rears its head. It's obvious. Even to my untrained eyes, it is quite big. But I am inexperienced. Incompetent.
But we have the Expert.

And so daddy puts on his clothes and sits back down next to him. And now the Expert talks. Does not say much. No exact words are mentioned. But the subject is approached apprehensively. Dread fills the room. Trepidation hangs in the air, choking, bitter, unpleasant. Every sound is amplified, fear and hysteria threatens.. just beyond the horizon.

Now, a slight hint of red at the corners of his eyes.

But daddy is still calm. So soft spoken, still keeping his composure. He insists that what he wants is to go on the family holiday. But they need a 'Fit For Travel' note for the insurance company. Daddy refuses any tests. As tests in this place, any test of any kind will tell us things we want to know, information that is essential in our field of study, pieces of the jigsaw to be fitted together. But once the picture is complete, it might be a picture beyond your comprehension, a sliver of the promised future that you will never see, an image of the person you once were, a snapshot of Hades. And sometimes, it is better to throw the pieces away, to keep only the beautiful parts to yourself, where you can stilll harbour hope for the unknown and undefined.

When daddy drew a ragged breath, the redness grow darker. It spreads its firey fingers into his eyes, turning white to blood red.

Still the Expert does not mention it. It is taboo in my field. Daddy asks what he should do but the expert advises daddy to do what he Wants to do. And daddy still says he wants to go on this holiday. So go. Go and do what you want.

Go Go Go.

But be advised, you might not come back.

For the cancer lesion is enormous, the left half of daddy's liver has enlarged to the size of a fist, protruding out of his stomach, obvious to the naked eye. No imaging is needed, the diagnosis is unshakable. Unmovable. Undeniable.

Go and be happy and do what you want, go.

Make an appointment in a months time to see me.

'Will I be around,' asks daddy and my Consultant says 'Just make the appointment.'

But he knows and now we know too - that in 30 days, daddy will not live to see the rising sun, not wake up to the birds' morning call and never will make it to the appointment; not next month, not anymore.

Champions League 2007: AC Milan vs Liverpool

So it's d time of the year again, where all people out there with the XY gene hog the bars and pubs or mamak stalls, where all tv screens are suddenly turn green with miniscule figurines moving about, where money flows in and out due to bets placed on the wrong (or right) team, where tears are shed and voices are yelled hoarse (more visits to the doctor -heh), where beer glasses are smashed and mamak plates are broken/dropped clanking to the floor due to Mister's hand slam show off, and also where eatery merchants and sports shops make their windfall of cash.

The time of the year where the XX earthlings donate money to all the bars/pubs/mamaks just to please that certain someone, where they sigh as they miss their favourite Wah Lai Toi show, where they suffer the endless 'GO GO GO!! AIYO, STUPID LA U!' and the drone of the commentator that could honestly draw all flies, mosquitoes and moths to tv screen.

All in the name of 'football' or 'soccer' (if you please)

Of course, we shall not forget the few people that are off the normal distribution graph, people that belong to the ends of the bell shape graph - those that do not follow the norm. The boys who don't watch football and the girsl who Do watch football.

So what am I? XX who is bang, smack in the middle. Don't watch it if I can help it, but do enjoy it when I am actually absorbed into the game.

Which leads me back to 2 years ago, 2005.

What: Champions League 2005: AC Milan vs Liverpool
Where: In our luxurious apartment in Brussels, Belgium
Who: My friends and I

Watching the final match of the League between AC Milan and Liverpool.

Talk about Deja Vu

Wasting My Life Away

Today.
I got up at 8 am for a 9.30 am class.

And we waited til 9.45 am - no one turned up.

Went to bleep our tutor and she said she forgot. Ok, fine, I mean, I know you are out there saving people's lives and what not... (in actual fact she was on a ward round - a ward round is the time when doctors go around the wards to check on their patients with their whole team) So here said Very Important Tutor asked us to wait til 10 am. Which is perfectly acceptable (since she is doing good for the world and all).

10 am came, a No Show.

But being incredibly understanding medical students, we decided that she is probably intubating that one last poor soul who is close to being braindead due to lack of Oxygen or pushing 3ml of adrenaline into that patient who's heart had just stopped on its own whim and fancy...

But 10.15 am came and still a No Show.

Being the incredibly Knowledgable medical students now, we know that she is Not going to come, Because she just does not want to. I mean, some people cannot handle teaching a group of medical students in fear of finding out that the students knows much much more than them. I so totally understand. But u can still call the ward we are in, where we sit waiting in vain to hear your footsteps and see ur lovely face cos it will bring such light and hope to our lives - you can still Call and let us know you are not coming. There are 100s of telephones littered all over the place, no excuse. Bitch.

And at 10.15 am, there is really no point going home and coming back for a 2 pm class.

So I go to the library to sleep (while managing to appear extremely intelligent with Davidsons Principles and Practice of Medicine in front of me).

2 pm came and went.

And once again, no blardy tutor turned up. People went out to bleep the tutors again, but to no avail.

Should we go?

But we have another tutorial at 2.30pm. Any level headed twit by now would have left the room and never come back.

But being over eager, ambitious and should i say kiasu medical students, we said, 'Ooooh welll, we have another tutorial at 2.30pm. Let's just wait.'

2.30 pm came and went.

That's it. Time to use good old bleeping again. No one answers. I think they are deliberately avoiding us. Like I said, you never want to tutor over smart students.

But as assertive and resourceful medical students, we whip out our new up-to-date mobile phones and attempt to contact our tutors on their mobiles.

And I think we have come to a conclusion that they hate us that much to give us the wrong numbers.

So I came back at only at 4 pm. A good day put to waste. When I can actually be working my way towards 99% in exams.

And I STILL Can't Run to Save My Life

Went to my physiotherapist today and she put me on the Biodex, this humongous machine that measures the strength of all limbs and muscle groups in your body. I was to compare my good leg with my bad leg (for the uninformed, I underwent a knee ligament reconstruction last October) and decide from there whether I could start running again.

The last time I did it , which was 2 months ago, my bad leg lacked in 75% muscle strength compared to my good one. At most, the deficit allowed is 20-25%. SO CANNOT MAKE IT.

Now, 2 months down the road, I did the test again, and Hallelujah! Much Better says my physio. A deficit of *ta-da* 30%!!!

But, according to the graph, my leg muscles (quadriceps) are slow in uptake, meaning they do not reach their maximum strength immediately like my good one.

And the verdict remains - no running.

Not that it really matters, (short of not being able to play sports) but not being able to run is hell Annoying when I see the free shuttle bus that's bring me to the hospital in front of me and I can't run to it. Buses do not wait for people here in the UK and I could probably be in front of the bus door in half a tick should my legs be normal, but NO they bus will be about 100 m in front of me, taking in its last passenger and bam! the doors close and it moves off.

Which means I have to pay 1 pound to take the normal bus. (with 1 pound I can buy something nice from the 1 pound shop ok). I can go on to being very 'sui' on that particular day, encounter the same problem, miss the pay bus, hence making me late for my teaching, leading my tutor to think I am incompetent and lowering my feedback marks considerably. Which matters a lot when you are score 99 and need that one measly mark to get 100.

Appreciate your working limbs folks.

My Roman Holiday 3

RomeThe coliseum in all it's grandeur

The 14.80 euro train ride to the city of Rome was the last leg of our journey. We reached at almost 12 am to our hostel that was situated by the seaside, called Hostel Lido. Your next question should be - "Since when did Rome have a seaside?" And yes, it does not. It was a 30 minute tube ride away from Rome and Whatever you do, DO NOT STAY OUTSIDE OF ROME if you ever travel there.

That aside.

Rome is a busy city with ruins situated all around and in it. Rather weird to be exactly honest but if they took down the ruins, they would run out of business in tourism pronto.

So the essential things to cover would be:

1. The Coliseum
From the Coliseum we walked past the Palantine and Roman ruins to a Food Market where we planned to have lunch. Only when we reached the Food Market, we realised it was like any other Pasar Pagi in Malaysia which sold fruits, vege and not even Kuih that we could buy.

Tomatoes are pretty I know - but I am hungry and it is not proper FOOD!!

As Ven Gee and Daniel consulted our next course of action, Wei Lun decided to steal my bag. Spotted by Darren, he failed miserably in his attempt and instead was banned from eating for the rest of the day.

After lunch we made a start towards the Pantheon but on the way stopped by Piazza Nationale.

One thing about European countries, not only are there churches everywhere, but fountains too

We passed by an artist fair and man, some of them ARE GOOD.

If you look behind Ven Gee.. do you see Angelina Jolie??

Street artists selling their wares

2. The Pantheon

The Pantheon

Met this random guy who was a minister from China or was it South Korea? He gave us his name card. My friends scrambled to be in the picture as you can see and left me out.

But let's not forget our main focus - the Pantheon. That was built in 19-- and has 16 pillars on the outside. On the inside, it has a hole on its dome, built to let in natural sun rays and 28 holes punched into the ground to drain water away when it rains. That is about as much as I can remember about it.

The altar in the Pantheon. All lighting is natural from above.

As Ven Gee and Victoria disappeared to goodness-knows-where (AGAIN), we took advantage of the lighting to make up for the album-cover-quality shots that were lost in my camera.

When the 2 lovebirds finally resurfaced, we went on to try:

3. Italian Coffee
In a place called Sant Eustachio, Italy's oldest coffee parlour, Daniel and I tried it's trademark coffee called.. em.. Cafe Grande, which was a shot of expresso and sugar stirred into almost a paste like consistency. Sweet. Slurps.

The next day, we went off to Camilloni A. S.Eustachio, a cafe just around the corner for Sant Eustachio.

House Coffee this time..

4. Fontana De Trevi
Breathtakingly beautiful. Except for the massive crowds which dropped its appeal down by a notch.

Throwing coins into the fountain. 1st time - ensures your return to Rome. 2nd time - you will fall in love with a Roman. 3rd time - well I am not too sure anymore. However, I have reached the 2nd step, I threw a coin into the fountain about 10 years ago on my first trip to Italy.

Dinner was at Al Picchio, a restaurant that seemed more like a cafeteria. However, the food was fairly priced and it was near the Fountain. Between Daniel, Darren and I, we finished 1 litre of wine that drove us over to the 'tipsy state' that caused Ven Gee, Wei Lun and Victoria to ditch us. Friends indeed..

This is what alcohol does to you.

The best part was Darren tried to get a blonde girl to take a photo with him (Daniel as photographer) outside the restaurant toilet only to be given a resounding 'No' and 'You Must Be Kidding Me' answer. Luckily by then I had already escaped down the stairs only to have both boys running out almost immediately after, yelling 'RUN! WE'VE GOTTA GO!!!'

my 6th gelati:
At San Crispino. The best in my trip! Honey flavour and banana flavour. Honey flavour absolutely rocks.

5. The Palantine and Roman Ruins

Spent about 2 hours just wondering among the ruins and taking pictures. The weather was good, the place was good, aah...

Looks small but the building behind is HUGE.

Ven Gee showing how flexible he is in getting the best angle possible

Towards the end of the day, when Ven Gee gets a bit frisky.

6. The Spanish Steps

Which is really nothing but steps. Loads of designer shops around though.

Victoria and I had this really pretty dessert:

It was a cheese strudel. 6 euros. YUM

We then went to a church near the Trevi Fountain which was filled with human bones. Bones covered the ceiling, the walls, everywhere. I did not know that human bones could be arranged so prettily - it was a mosaic of patterns everywhere. True to our medical studies, we had a rather intellectual time discussing the different bones in the body and we also threw in a Find Me This Bone quiz. Hey, we are medical students after all. And you'd better be nice to me, one day I'll be your doctor. Them lovely bones leaves you with a phrase though: "What you are now we once were, what we are now you will be."

Returned to the San Crispino again for my 7th gelati! Took the Honey flavour (can't get enough of it) and tried Meringue and Chocolate flavour too. Absolutely heavenly.

While walking down the shopping streets of Rome, we chanced upon this street artist. She spray painted the entire picture under 5 minutes, and her performance always ends with a round of applause from the crowd. They are sold for 10 euros per piece. Makes me wonder why I am paying RM 1 mil to study in university when I can just sit by the road side, Wow people with my fantastic talent and earn loads of tax free cash.



7. Don't know what it is called
It is the fortune teller thing you find in shopping malls across Malaysia. So now I know.. the real one is in Rome. and it is barricaded off and certainly does not tell any fortunes at all. I've been cheated my whole life. Not that I have used the fake ones in 1U before BUT...

8. Villa Borghese
A large garden. Situated north of Rome. Pretty indeed. We then decided to rent the 3 seater bike. It was fun. Truly relaxing and enjoyable. That is until we found out that it was extremely difficult trying to cycle up a small incline. Despite 2 people pedalling with all our weight. However, the landscape remained pretty. Until we decided to make a final turn downhill before returning the bike. And found ourselves at the metro station entrance. Which is way, way off from where the garden is. Then things weren't as pretty. We had to push the bike uphill as we cannot, even with all our weights combined, cycle up the slope. And things got uglier as Victoria dropped her shades and it got run over by a car.

Mm. Not pretty at all. But, we survived. And the garden, not us with our sweaty faces, remained as pretty as before.
my 8th and final gelati of the trip!

Of Melon, Tiramisu, and Mango flavour

Vatican

Plan to miss the mile long queues in theVatican : Wake up at 7 am, be out by 8 am and be there by 9 am.

7 am worked, 8 am worked but things stopped working just about there. The bus was late, the train was late and we met an American student who was travelling to the Vatican too and claimed that she knew the way by bus. The latter should be just about better news, as our original plan was to take the metro to San Pietro and find our way from there. But since said American girl mentioned that someone told her the fastest and best way is by bus, us being the submissive Asian followed her to the bus stop. Only to discover she was about as clueless as we were on which bus to take. Upon boarding the bus, we realised that we were going the wrong way a few stops too late, and when we finally reached the Vatican it was 11 am.

So we queued for about 40 minutes in line to enter the Dome only to find out that the Vatican Museum closes at 1.30 pm. Left the line and made our way to the Vatican Museum instead where we stood for 2 hours (I HATE Qs!!!) until we were finally permitted entry.

Absolutely worth it.
You cannot go your own way and pace, the crowd moves as ONE. So do you. We entered countless rooms decked with paintings and drapes etc that were magnificent!! The end of the museum is the Sistine Chapel where Michaelangelo's painting "The Last Judgment" stands. I totally recommend the Vatican Museum after the Louvre in Paris.

Back to the queue to enter the Vatican Dome. The inside was covered in gold. Lots of gold. We even made it for the 5 pm mass.

The inside of the Vatican Dome

The outside of the Vatican