I love bed

After 1.5 days of no bed, I'm finally lying down ready for a long snooze in my very own bed in our Belgian hotel. 

Today was a busy day! We got to Amsterdam early in the morning and waited in the airport for three hours in which we then boarded our train headed for Brussels. The train experience was awful and made us all quite pissed off. We were lugging a billion bags weighing half our weight and with limited hands to promptly put them on the train and off. It was stressful. That aside, I guess I forgot about the other side of the train experience. The train experience reached a new direction as it opened us to the picturesque countrysides of Amsterdam and Belgium. The sight was relaxing and we we're quite in awe, and we were also perplexed that we were actually basking in the presence of the great Europe! 

The train took us to Brussels and two taxis took us and our oversized bags to quite a cool and urban brewery turned hotel. It was nice but I definitely felt out
of place. We were a family in a hotel sprawling of young travellers of the like! I wish I was them and even vowed to myself that if I ever were to return to Brussels with friends, I'd stay here!

Check in was at 3 and we reached there at 2:30 so we had time to spare. Our first thought was to eat of course so we made our first walk into town to eat an Italian feast for afternoon tea. The restaurant was typically Italian with a very quaint European charm. We ordered two pizzas which contently became our first Belgian meal. We also encountered our first Italian friend who owned the restaurant, cooked and served us, and spoke to us in his thick Italian accent which we were somehow able to decipher enough to hold a conversation.

We checked in at 3 and headed to our hotel room which again was nice. My sister and I had our very own bunk bed and our room had a huge portal for a window which we were able to enjoy a nice scene of Brussels.

To finish the day we made an excursion to the Grand Place while stopping here and there for photos against beautiful European backdrops. But the thing is... They weren't fake.. They were real. And it was so surreal! 

We visited quaint steets made of cobble and shops that stood alongside it. We had our very first authentic Belgian chocolate and hot chocolate.

Grand place was absolutely beautiful and honestly tear jerking. We were surrounded in a square of amazing, history rich buildings and to top off this "blatant" site, it was covered with music and colour as it came to life with a laser light show. 

The last stop was a restaurant close by. Nothing special, very expensive!

I love Belgium and I'm so excited to spend more time here tomorrow even if it's just a bit. 

Until tomorrow! X

First stop, Amsterdam!

HELLO UK & EUROPE!

The long awaited day has come! Today we finally took the first steps of our grand adventure to the UK and Europe. 

My family and I on the plane with big smiles excited to take off for Europe! 

I'm currently sitting at my boarding gate in Kuala Lumpur Airport, Malaysia. My family and I are waiting patiently (or trying to) for our delayed trip to Amsterdam. I for one am feeling very drained and restless, and judging by the long faces and silence of my parents and sister, I'm positive they're feeling the same way. 

For me, the past two days have been such a blur. Yesterday, the day before the trip, I was rushing around the house trying to clean my room and finalise my packing. I went to the shops because I had a long list of things I needed to buy only to come out with nothing. I also decided I'd have a little catch up with friends the night before our flight even though I wasn't close to feeling at peace with my preparation for the trip.   

I stayed up all night that day (even after a few hours of sleep the night before) because I had to finish my surprise itinerary. Morning came and I finished it with a bit of relief but I felt like a massive zombie. Although I finished that stressful part of my long to do list, it was not the end. I rushed to office works at 10:10am as I needed to print it. I couldn't take the long line to wait for printing. I felt so fidgety and surely very impatient. The lady that processed my printing saw my printing and asked me if I was heading to Europe today. I felt crazy because it was 10:40am and I was still in town doing things (and had to do more things) in preparation for my trip. The trip I had to be home at 11am for may I add... I finished there at 10:40am. I still had to do my eyebrows and buy some necessities so I went ahead and vigorously power walked my way. I got home at 11:45am frantic because I thought my family would be angry at me and because I knew we would be late. 

Ideally, we were suppose to leave our house at 11:30am, get to the airport at 12:30pm to check in 3 hours before our 3:30pm plane. After showering and finalising my packing, and doing last minute cleaning, we left the house at 12:30pm and got to the airport at 1:30pm. We checked in and everything was a blur from then till the moment we got to our boarding gate feeling relieved. We grabbed food in the airport which I ate on the plane before we took off and we we practically ran to our gate that I was dripping with sweat.

Looking back on it, it was fun and all in a days work! But we missed out on the airport experience which is one of the first things I most enjoy on any trip. I love going to the airport and feeling like a worldly traveller. I enjoy strolling through duty free and grabbing a bite to eat at Krispy Kreme. I missed out on a photo with the iconic departures sign of Sydney international airport which I was definitely sad about. I felt a defining moment of the trip had been lost just because we didn't take that photo. This is what I could get...

To cut this post short, our flight was okay. I slept on and off for 5 hours and watched one movie for 2 hours. The food was also yum!

Weird yet surprising treat!

We got to KLA, had a little look around, ate Malaysian street food at a restaurant and waited... Waited a lot (as you can tell by the length and boringness of this post)....

Snaps of KL Airport, Malaysia

It's currently 12:15am Malaysian time,  3:15am Australian time and I am just so tired and should be contently sleeping in my own bed. Instead my arms are hurting as I type this on my iPhone (because I am left with no other choice but to do this as time passes) and listening to the angelic screams and whines of babies and excited little kids running around. I'm sorry for this boring and very choppy post. I don't have the patience to think too much. I am so restless right now and our flight is still an hour away! Yay! All I want to do is sleep in my bed.. A bed... Just any bed! But that's 13 hours + 3 hours + 2 hours away. After we arrive in Amsterdam, we have to wait several hours for our train to Belgium, then we get to sit a two hour train ride. 

See you tomorrow, Europe! En route to Amsterdam! X

Scary thought

It's me again. 4:45 and I'm wide awake. A big flew on my face right near my nose and I immediately slapped it off only to slap myself. My nose hurts. Anyway, I just had the scariest thought. What if I went to Europe and felt nothing? What if I saw the Eiffel Tower or the Swiss Alps and I didn't feel in awe? I'm scared because these last few months especially, I have been stalking photos and blogs of travellers who've had their taste of Europe and each photo makes me hyperventilate and think, "oh my goodness, that will be me so soon! I am so excited!"

But this thought is draining me and it's making me scared. Will I appreciate the experience enough? 

Maybe it's just my mind telling me it's time to sleep? I'm feeling a bit euphoric. I think I'm just really tired... And scared... because if i'm tired now, i'll be tired the whole trip and half dazed each day. 

I also think I'm feeling a bit edgy because I still cannot accept the fact that our trip is quite short. I'm quite certain a month is not enough for a once in a life time trip with the family. Although the trip hasn't even begun, I can already feel the sadness in returning and it really makes my poor soul sink. I'm scared that the trip will go so fast and it'll be over before we know it. I'm just pleading for my mind not to fall into that trap. The only thing that gives me reassurance and closes that episode is the idea that I will return. Maybe not with my family as I would like more than anything in the world, but just me on my own travels. I believe it won't be as great as it will be experiencing it with my family (and that thought just really saddened me and brought tears to my eyes), but it makes me feel much more sane and it makes me believe that this trip can be slightly imperfect as much as I want it to be perfect.

3 FREAKEN DAYS

It's 1:20am on January 2, 2014. I just checked my countdown app on my iPhone and I almost experienced yet another heart/anxiety/over-excitement attack as the number three hit the screen. I absolutely cannot believe how quickly time is passing. In just three days we'll be gone! It's quite bittersweet. Although I am excited for the actual journey, the best thing next to it is the lead up. All the preparation, stress and excitement was not entirely great as it caused a few heated fights and tears here and there, but it was memorable. It was an integral part of the whole trip! And to think that in just three days, all that will be faded in the back of our minds and soon enough... so will the actual adventure in itself. I dread the day we come back to Australia and the precise moment we step foot out of the airport. I will be utterly devastated and i'm not even trying to be dramatic here...

I am bipolar. I'm trying to stay positive because this trip will be amazing. But I can't think about leaving it. I am nowhere close to finishing my packing and we don't even have a set itinerary for some parts of the trip and I'm already experiencing PHD, Post Holiday Depression. When the holiday is actually over, I will feel much so so so so much worse I can feel it.

Exactly a week till we leave

Cannot contain my excitement 

Preliminary packing

It's 12:24 and I am dead tired from all the stress in packing my stuff for Europe. A week  The physical part of packing was no problem at all, but the mental part was draining. It's hard to fit it all into one small suitcase. Like any vacation, it's hard to decide on what to bring because if you don't bring it, you miss out on wearing something nice or needed for example. That one luggage you bring will be your life for a whole month and I am a very high maintinence human!

Our tour is very silly because they have a 20kg limit on luggage without consideration for their passengers who are braving harsh winter conditions. They know we're coming in winter! What do they expect us to bring with 20kg? It's bloody winter I repeat! 

There's a little over a week to go and I am beyond stoked! But this packing business has definitely been weighing me down. I'm so stupid to stress over it, but I want this holiday to be easy and breezy! 

This is our packing room! It's completely dedicated to our trip so we've stored all our luggage and everything we will need to bring. 

This is a first for me... Packing a week before the trip... not a few hours before our flight. I'm hoping I don't have to pull an all nighter like I always do. I'm also hoping to be completely organised so I can go on the trip feeling relaxed, well-rested and positive-minded.