Euro Trip: Warwick - London(England) - Stamnes (Norway)

The rest of my days in England were more relaxing... but my trip to Norway was a whole different perspective of witnessing the enchanting nature in the Scandinavia earth.
Day 5
I had lunch with Rob, Jayne and Caroline at Pizza Hut where Lewis had been the manager. Lewis was one of my high school mates and had known him for about a year but that was 13 years previous. These Pizzas were a bit contrary contrast to Malaysia's Pizza Hut as Malaysia's Pizza had been modified according to the Malaysians taste but the dessert that Lewis had recommended was luscious and certainly we do not have it in Malaysia. After my goodbye's with Caroline and Jayne, me and Rob head of to University of Warwick where my cousin Haikal was doing his masters in civil engineering . We met Haikal at around 5pm and Rob went back to Leicester as he had to sent Arnie to the vet again. My time in Warwick were mostly loitering around the University with Haikal. He introduced me to some of his brainy buddies. Most of them just love being a student as they were not pressure on working compare to us in Malaysia. adorning all that, me and Haikal did some catching up while playing the Pro evolution Soccer 2009 on the PS3 all night long.
Day 6

Haikal did a mini tour at his University before we left for London at 2.30pm. It was a two and half hour journey with the Megabus as the sun spreads the summer through my seat window. We met Haikal's eldest sister, Melissa and her husband Jason at around 6pm and had settled down at her house. She brought us to a Muslim Pakistani restaurant and we had the tandoori's of London. Haikal brought me to 'Hartamas of London' later that night which was known as the Covent Garden where we had our ice cream and supper at Burger King.

Day 7
I played football with the London lads that Jeff had introduced me. I undergo the verve i had here was a bit unalike because the air was unspoiled for football. In Malaysia, you would get knackered to easily because of the 40C average temperature which made you sweat like a pig, but not here.... you can keep on going to the next level as sweating or dehydration weren't much of a problem. Haikal, Jeff, Raudah (Jeff's girlfriend) and I had a dinner at the MHL Malaysian Hall London. Haikal was happy as he never been here before for the past six years his time in England. The food certainly brought out the flavor of Malaysian dishes. Later that night, I had to pick my younger sister, Doya as we planned to go to Norway together. Met her at Victoria station and brought her to Mel's, we packed our bags and we fled off to bed....

Day 8
Our day begun early in the morning as we had a day journey to reach Stamnes, Norway. We left Mel's at 630 in the morning with Haikal guiding us to DLR station. A change to Circle Line at the tube and we managed to catch the 7.15am Bus to Stansted airport from Victoria station. After breakfast, my sister thought we were late for the flight, hence we dashed our way through with our aggravating hand luggage and just manage to reach on time at the 1055am closing gate. The flight was about a hour and a half and the time difference were a hour ahead. 130pm Norweigian time we reached Haugensaund which was located at the south west of Norway. We took the bus which transported us to the town itself. Norway is comprehended for its seven fjord. Fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides, created in a valley carved by glacial activity. The sea was blue as you can get. It was a bright sunny day but the wind was strong which gave me the chills. Our bus to Bergen was at 4pm. The scenery was indescribable, as we look through the windows of the bus. The best part of the bus journey was the ferry. Everything was a new experience for me and my sister. We reached Bergen about 7.15pm and again we rushed our way for the 730pm train to Dale. 40 minutes later we reached to our destination that is Dale where we met Moiselle. She brought us to their homes in Stamnes where we met the rest of the family, Aunt Nora, Nills, Midora and Maurit. Aunt Nora was my second cousin but was close to my pakcu and makcu. She married Nills, a Norwegian local and she had the three daughters, Moiselle, Midora and Maurit. Moiselle, Doya and I later that evening went to Moiselle uncles place where it would be our sleeping accommodation for the next eight nights as her uncle had a month labor at the ship
Day 9
We woke up late as Nills wanted to send aunt Nora to work at 2pm. We had the aunt Nora's curry for lunch and went on for sight seeing at Kattehol. Neil showed us where the river and lakes where they usually hung out during the summers as the kids like to swim and during the winter where they can skate. Stamnes is a village area within the mountains. The community ranges about 200 -300 people and everybody knows everybody. Moiselle's and Nills driving gave me the creeps as they were masterfully with the small roads edging the mountain sides. Later that evening after Moiselle was done with her kindergarten work, she brought us around Dale, a nearby mini town next to Stamnes. We also visited Nills parents grave. Day 10
I experienced my 1st Christian wedding in Norway. We went for Sigrunn & Kenneths wedding in Bergsdalen. The bride was attractive, the ceremony was fabulous. Kenneth's sister was Moiselles friend which was the strongest lady in Norway. Moiselle also showed us the hydrodam that the citizens of Dale and Stamnes used for electricity. Later that evening we had a BBQ at our cabin and Moissele brought us to the Pub to get a pizza at 12 midnight. The night ranged from 1130pm - 230am which was only three hours and it was not comprehensively dark. Day 11
Neil had brought us for a trip at the peak of the mountains where we had seen one of the greatest sightseeing in Modalen. Nills showed us the longest hand made tunnel which was done about 80 years ago. We visited a close friend of Nills at retirement house for a while before we set off to the mountains. According to Nills, the people around there are millionaires as they produced the electricity from hydrodams and the sands that they have import to Bergen. All in all it was beautiful. I can only express it through my pictures.....Day 12

Today were mostly sleeping and eating. Thank you Aunt Nora for the lovely asam pedas. Thank you Moiselle for the BBQ, the home made cinnamon bun, breakfast, snacks and everything that had kept us warm througout our stay. The food really made us feel homely because of the Malaysian touch that kept us hot especially the sambal belacan.. Thank you again.... Tomorrow Bergen town!!!!!

Euro Trip: London - Leicester, England

Finally, I have my own personal time with the computer. A lot had been done and I'm having a great time so far. Had a few difficulties with sleeping on the 1st few days, but now I'm fine after feeling homely in Leicester.

Day 1
after transiting in Dubai, I arrived at Heathrow airport around 1230pm London time on the 28th June. I went pass the immigration with flying colours (well that’s what I thought), as my dad told me to prepare on what to answer for my trip. The weather was great (still is) and the timing was perfect for me to be here. It's been a while since I had this excitement of travelling. My first mission was to meet my friend at Paddington London. I walked all around in the airport trying to find my way plus the eccentric of wanting to see everything with my 16kg back pack on my back and took the London Connect train which cost me about £7 for my next destination. I met Jeff around 315pm. Jeff was a good old friend of mine in TTDI and he was studying at Imperial College London for the past 4 years. I settled down at his house and soon after, Jeff brought me to the Hyde Park which was a wonderful calming park and he showed me Royal Albert Hall

where Siti Nurhaliza had performed numerous of times. Later that night Jeff introduced me to some of his friends and we had dinner together. We ate at Sukaramai which was a Malay restaurant but to my surprise the cost was expensive (well to me it was since I was in Malaysia a day before). Nasi Ayam £5.70 times 5.6 = about rm30+. I had grilled beef and ice lemon tea which cost me about £8. After dinner I met more of Jeff's friend and we hung out till midnight. I was really knackered since I roughly had about 3hours of sleep for the past 54hours. Went back to Jeff's and had my beauty sleep.

Day 2

I had my lunch at Malaysian Hall, as there were a lot of Malaysians since it’s the cheapest Malay food around. We did our Friday prayers there, as it was one of the only places to do that around here. Jeff had some work to do at his college, so he dropped me off at The National Museum. This place was fantastic, way better than what we have in Malaysia. I was amazed with the Dinosaurs exhibition, with massive gigantic dinosaur bones which were structured to the original size. Imperial College was nearby, so I met Jeff after he had completed his work and he showed me around his intelligent college as I was surrounded with geniuses. Imperial College was ranked no.5 in the World after Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge and MIT.
Jeff brought me to a few interesting places around London by using the underground tube which was £5.6 daily. We stopped at Victoria Station (not the one we have in Malaysia, this was the real station) to go to Buckingham Palace which was a few blocks nearby. Then we went back to Victoria Station to meet up with Jeff's girlfriend which he was very proud off. haha.... she was going to Birmingham to meet her family. Later that evening we took a bus heading to Fulham Broadway and I went to Stamford Bridge just to show my butt at the Chelsea stadium.To my astonishment, as we were heading back to Jeff's place for dinner, I saw two of my TTDI schoolmates Fazly and Muhsin, opposite from where we were standing at the Paddington underground station. So we met up and had Duck rice for dinner at Basewater (It was the only halal one in town). We went to see Big Ben and the London Eye as it was simply beautiful during the night time. Muhsin had invited me to spend a night at his house in Hatfield, Hertfordshire next to London and about 40minutes away by train. We could not sleep early that night as we did a lot of catching up and laughing our head off till the next morning.

Day 3

I only had about an hour or two of sleeping since I still had my jet lag sleeping problem as my body had not yet immune to the night time of England. Initially I was supposed to meet Rob early in the morning but my friends here kept asking me to stay as they wanted to have lunch and watch the FA Cup final together. About 7pm plus we left Hatfield heading back to Jeff's place to pick up my stuff so I can head off to my next destination. We had some problems at the train station as we were trying our cheap way out of everything. I separated from the others at Kings Cross Station as I was in a rush to meet up with Rob because he was picking me up to bring me to Leicester. After running here and there, lost a couple of times, went to Paddington for my stuff and went back to the tube underground and head of to Stanmore station. I was knackered as I didn’t have much sleep. At 10pm I met Robert Mitchell after 13 years.

Day 4
I had the best sleep in England so far as it was homely like in South Wigston, Leicester. I was a temporary resident for 4 years as my mom did her PhD 13 years back. Rob was one of my first friends in Leicester, and since that our family were close, as they had visit Malaysia too. My younger sister in Bristol, Doya kept coming down to Leicester as it was a second home to her.
I woke up, met Jayne (mom), Caroline (sister) and Arnie (Dog) and had my breakfast while chatted with them. Rob drove me around Leicester to show my Parkland Primary school (had about 2 years there), South Wigston (a year there) and University of Leicester (where my mom took her PhD). Then we head down to town to see the changes since I left. There was a new shopping complex connecting to the high cross shopping complex in Leicester town. Besides the new complex, not much has changed except everything was a lot bigger (most probably because I was small back then). We walked around the town, searched for a Leicester city jersey and had sushi. Later that day we went for a BBQ for Mitch (dad) as he entered a bicycle riding from Leicester to Skegness within 12 hours about 100miles all together. It was done for Leukaemia charity. It was a lovely Sunday evening. Jayne had bought me halal meat so I can enjoy the BBQ as well. Met a lot of new people which some of them had met Eidura (my sister). Met Rachel (Rob's girlfriend) and we went to their house nearby and it was still under construction. They estimated of 3 weeks after they can move in. Rob is currently a police in Leicester and he is doing undercover. Rachel works at the Tigers stadium (rugby). They met while working together there 5 years ago. They are lovely together and it kind of sets me off to look for a job, a girlfriend and a house. =>

I’m heading of to Warwick later this evening to meet up with my close cousin, Haikal. I'll try to keep an update whenever I can. Cheers.... =>