Finally a day to catch my breath. I'm currently back in Nottingham for a grand total of 24 hours before I depart for my second road trip which starts from Italy to Greece and Turkey for a month.

In this 24 hours, I have to do my laundry, repack, shop for essentials in the city, exchange currencies, enquire about my accomodation deposit and hall hoodie which is posing a minor problem, fill the parcel ready to ship back, keep in touch with my family and girlfriend, plan for my Scandinavia trip, upload photos, reload my phone, have a hearty meal, watch the Incredible Hulk and blog.

A tough day indeed.

Maybe a summary of the rest of my first trip.

Munich was fun when we joined the free walking tour to learn abit about the city's history which we never did before. The food especially the sausages and pork were magnificent.

The central Europe countries (ie: Budapest, Prague, Bratislava) were getting easier due to their cheaper currency exchange (still slightly expensive if compared to the ringgit). What is there to ask for when the things are cheap and the scenary and people as pretty?

Had a great time in Vienna thanks to the football fever and experiencing opera and plenty of other bizarre events for the first time. Would go into detail next time with photos.

Great. ~Crosses out blogging from the to-do list.

I have just found the best foreign currency exchange rate ever here in Munich.
 
For just 20 euro, you would be able to exchange millions that would definitely come in handy when you visit the respective place.

So, anybody here interested to go on a holiday to China's Hell?

Will be leaving on a road trip of my life in exactly 3 hours.

Will keep things up to date provided I have the resources at my disposal.

See ya.

Finally, everything is done. After grueling and stressful hours preparing for my exams, it has all come to an end. I must say I should be able to perform better than the previous semester..I hope. It all boils down to the 30 credits Research & Development Project really.

After our last paper Introduction to Management Accounting at the Senate Chamber

When exams are done, it means that my short stint here in the university is over as well. I would be packing my bags and leaving the university in two days time to go places I would never imagine I would be going.

However, the heavy-hearted feeling will remain. I believe I would definitely miss studying here despite the short period I was here for.

We went for some photo taking sessions around university after the last paper to capture our journey as an exchange student.

I would write about it when I have the mood to do so. Now back to packing my bags...

The sound of the ball hitting the post.

The imagery of the man above sobbing his heart out under the pouring rain.

The cheers of the red clad people around me when everything has fallen apart.

Definitely the most heartbreaking football moment I have ever experienced.

However, the bravery of the captain was second to none. To step up to the plate and shoulder the heaviest responsibility at the very tensed moment requires tonnes of courage.

Then came the divine intervention....he slipped.

....and the trophy ended up 2 inches away from the goalpost.

Such is football. Such is lady luck.

Despite everything, he is still the hero, the brave and commited leader in every fans' eyes, no doubt about that.

Chin up. The trophy is waiting for you next time.

So, 2 papers down. The easiest and the toughest one respectively. And, as usual, I did just decent for the easiest and was screwed left, right and centre for the toughest paper. Typical.

Let's continue where we left off.

Notre Dame

Made popular by the novel "Hunchback of Notre Dame", the Notre Dame gothic cathedral belongs in the category of Paris famous landmarks.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Regretfully, it was somewhere near Easter when we were there and the amount of tourists lining up just to go inside the cathedral was unbelievable.

Another view from the south

We decided just to admire from afar, snap a couple of photos and enjoy the street performances nearby...without paying.

Look at the crowd behind

Pantheon

The Pantheon in Paris acts as a burial place for the famous ancient people instead of a temple ala the Pantheon from Rome.

The Pantheon

This is where you will see crypts, tombs, necropolis and stuffs that you normally encounter while slashing demons in the Diablo game.

From the side

However, there was a cancer awareness event going on that day and we didn't enter the Pantheon. Well, it should be well worth visiting the interiors as it seems to look beautiful on the net.

Cancer awareness event

Sacre Coeur Basilica

Located at the highest point in Paris lies proudly the Sacre Coeur Basilica, another famous landmark in Paris.

The Sacre Coeur Basilica

From the side

It took us hours to locate the place as there were too many confusing streets before and the fact that we didn't know the basilica is at the top of the hill makes matter worse. Nonetheless, it was worth it when we finally arrived to behold the skyline of Paris from the top and of course, the majestic basilica itself.

Skyline of Paris

The Sacred Coeur is currently a Roman Catholic church and since entering the church was free, we got to admire the beautiful interiors of the church. Sadly, there are no photos available as I wouldn't want to disturb the peaceful service/prayers with my touristy act.

Thrown out by nuns and rolling down the hill definitely ain't on my things-to-experience list.

Miscellaneous

Other monuments that might be worth having a look at would be the July Column at the Place de la Bastille, where formerly the Bastille prison stood.

The July Column at Place de la Bastille

Or just walking past the Petit Palais musuem, and the Grand Palais exhibition hall.

Petit Palais

Grand Palais

For the avid fan of shopping, you could pay the Galeries Lafayette a visit for a wide range of fashion and designer goods.

For me, all see no touch.

The dome in Lafayettes

Or if designer goods are way out of your budget, you will be glad to know there are some stuff that you can always afford.

Bata in Paris, now this is unexpected

Due to my imminent final year exams, I realised that I'm running out of time and guess what? This is the semester that I SHOULD, MUST do well, as it will decide whether a first class would be a far-fetched dream or not.

Hence, I've decided to summarise the places of interest in Paris into 2 entries itself. I bet nobody would want to read about Paris everytime anyway. Furthermore, I have loads of backdated entries about London, Cork, Edinburgh, Newcastle, etc. that I believe I won't be able to finish anytime soon. I imagine how long would it take for me to write about my tours post summer. ~Shrugs.

So, let's see what else Paris has in store for us.

Arc De Triomphe

The Arc De Triomphe is another Paris famous monument located at the end of the Champ Elysees. 

The arc from Champs Elysses.

I had the privilege of staying near the arc seeing it from many angles every single day and I must say the view of the arc especially during the night is majestic. I'd never thought it was that huge.

Nightview of the arc.

Close up

Apparently, the arc was built to honour the generals who fought for France and beneath the arc lies a tomb of an unknown soldier. Don't ask me why this unknown soldier has a nicer home with thousands of visitors daily compared to other unknown soldiers. Beats me.

The tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Place de la Concorde

The Place de la Concorde is a major square which leads to the Louvre from Champ Elysses.

Place de la Concorde.

Smacked right in the middle of the square, a huge obelisk with Egyptian hieroglyphics was erected.

Egyptian obelisk.

In companion, beautiful fountains within the square wetting unsuspecting tourists who stands too near to them in the name of a photo.

Fountains.

Tuileries Garden

If you enjoy sitting down the bench watching people walking by, baking under the sun, french kissing your other half in an open area, posing for photos, then the Tuileries Garden is the place to be. Of course I'm not guilty of anything above. Ok, except for photo posing.

Pondering beside the pond and radio controlled yatch.

Decided she wanna tag along.

The Tuileries Garden is a huge formal garden with statues, nicely trimmed hedges, a pond with radio controlled yatch, little cafes and loads of people chilling about. Oh yeah, a huge spider to boot too.

Huge spider. One in London too.

There is another statue beside this that shows a kicking motion. I guess this one has fallen down after being kicked I suppose

Mini arc towards the Louvre.

Musee de l'Armee

Fans of Napolean, this is your museum. The Musee de l'Armee houses the tomb of Napolean and various army related artifacts that I couldn't be bothered with.

Why hello Napolean.

Especially since we need to pay to go in. The only thing that interests me was how beautiful the exterior of the museum is.

Golden Dome

Deserves a photo.

Golden dome, nice garden, long corridors and everything. Needless to say, I didn't go into the museum hence have no idea how worth it it is.

The size of the museum.

Seine River

To quote somebody, every beautiful city has a river running through it. London has the Thames, Paris has the Seine River. Obviously that particular person hasn't been in Klang for a very long time.

Walking along the Seine River, you could see plenty of Paris monuments and tourist attractions.

Seine river overlooking the Eiffel Tower.

Statues along the river.

King of the river.

If you are too lazy to walk, there are river taxis available for a charge, of course, to bring you along the Seine River while you ponder upon why you paid for it when you have two perfect legs. Just kidding, I'm sure the river taxis provide a different perspective of Paris entirely.

Water taxis

To be cont...