PALERMO

We thought Palermo, the capital of Sicily, is a vibrant city with an unbeatable sandy shoreline, glistening water and half-naked people strutting around the streets. We were quite wrong yo. Palermo city has no beach to boast of and its shore is dominated by a huge not-so-pretty port. Nevertheless, we had a fantastic time at Mondello, thanks to the great beach and...the bestest seafood pasta I've even had!Speghetti Presidente from Ristorante Poldo 2 on Mondello Beach

Teatro Politeama: A stunning entrance with the quadriga on the stone arch. Teatro Massimo
The Duomo: By far the most amazing architecture in Palermo. The entire cathedral is in this natural honey colour, yet it is so subtly beautiful. It was built in Catalan-gothic style, and the interior in neoclassical.San Giovanni: Just one of the many Arab-Norman architectures in Palermo. They all have the unique red domes on top.Beer has become part of our lives. Trying out the Birra Moretti from Italy.Mondello!

Mondello beach is just a half-hour bus ride from Palermo central. It's more popular with locals than most tourists who like to venture further to Cefalu (amazingly beautiful fishing village cum beach). Squeezed into a rowdy-teenagers-packed bus and caught the beautiful view of Monte Pelligrino (ya the mineral water brand!)along the way.If only Sentosa has such clear blue water, where you can see right across the horizon, the seamless separation of sky and water, and not Indonesia in the distance.

23rd May was a very special day. As you can see the pics below, we actually opened a bottle of Sicilian chardonnay. It was...

... the Champions League final between Liverpool and AC Milan!

YA! like sooo important right? Jem swears a Liverpool fan cannot miss the match if Pool is in the Champions League final. SO, we sniffed out which pub shows the match, arrived there 1hour 45min early and waited. and waited.

It's our first time doing such atas stuff like opening a bottle of wine haha. When the waiter came with the fancy cooler and apperitives, we were so excited. Then felt so suaku for taking pictures :)

Admiring the sunrise as we rush off to the Palermo airport...

CIAO for now!

NAPLES

Naples, what an experience! We've never been so scared for our lives on any of our travels. The capital of Campania is rumoured to the most dangerous city of Italy! (which is already quite dangerous) As my trusted Wiki says, "The character and culture of Napoli is immense; the dirt and grime has more flavour than any other city. This is the Italian recipe for reality and fun!"
Check out Giovanni's map: Our hostel owner kindly warned us to stay away from the purple-shaded areas. Dude, that's like 1/3 of Naples!

Pompeii: The next day we headed to Pompeii, the famous city buried by Mt Versuvius' vulcanic ash. Entering the ruins... The rocks that remain unscathedJust 1 of the many pictures on the wall of the best brothel in Pompeii! The purpose? For people to 'seek insipiration'.Pizzaria Sorbillo: THE best pizzaria in town (ok there's another famous one called Da Michele). See the 'Where Pizza was born' sign?? Drool at my hugomongous calzone :)

Gino Sorbillo's grandfather invented the calzone!Galleria Umberto: Exactly the same as the one in Milan? It's by the same designer!Castel NuovoWhy are there so few picture of Naples? It's not safe to take out the camera! You have to see all the dodgy alleys and dubious-looking people to believe it. We'd rather not risk it :)

Ferry to Palermo: The overnight ferry to Palermo was, on hindsight, a bargain. 60euros each got us a nice cabin and smoothly to our destination.

Great view from the ferry too!

Leaving Naples behind us...

Sunrise at Palermo!

CAPRI

Yoohoo! We are back from our longest trip yet: Naples, Palermo, Munich and Stuttgart!

I am too excited to blog about Capri, so Naples shall wait...

Capri is a breathtakingly beautiful island paradise, a 45min ferry ride from Naples. Rumoured to be populated with holidaying celebrities (and paparazzi), this postcard-perfect place is a must-go! Just because everything in Capri are of wallet-slimming prices doesn't mean that budget travellers like us can't have fun there. We only spent 28euros that day: ferry to/from Naples(8x2), chair lift(7), rowboat(5). Pack a sandwich or starve!

At the Marina GrandeLa Grotta Azzura: The blue grotto is a seacave with a tiny entrance that only small rowboats can enter. It used to be a private swimming pool for the kings!What a beautiful day :)People fishing from above the grotto...The flurocent blue water inside!
View from San MicheleThe piece of land on the top left is Sorrento!Chair lift up Monte Solaro
Chair lift was fun!The view from Monte Solaro!
The stacks Faraglioni Convertible cab: In such a glitzy island you gotta have a more glam taxi yo. Sawing off the roof of a comfy SUV may just be the answer!

Byebye Capri :)

BERLIN

A very late entry on Berlin, where we went a week before Amsterdam. Berlin was a place we enjoyed not for the fun and famous nightlife, but more for the fantastic history lesson that we had. Berlin is a place where a shoestring traveller cant just walk around with a guidebook to fully appreciate its history. We couldn't have learnt so much if not for the 10 thumbs-up Sandeman's Free Berlin Tour. So if anyone is heading for Berlin anytime soon, be sure to catch it! It's FREE :) But i guarantee that by the end of the tour you are sooo impressed by the fantastic guides that you will fork out 6 euro tip each like we did. (eh alot ok?)We started our tour at the Brandenburg Gate. The statue you see up there is Victoria, the Goddess of Victory (holding the victory stick with a bird) riding the 4-horse chariot into the city gates. A long time ago, the statue was actually Irina, the goddess of peace. Instead of the victory stick, Irina holds a golden leave. When Napolean came to Berlin, he demanded that Irina be brought back to France. So they dragged Irina down and it stood on the Arc right in front of the Lourve in Paris. When Germany attacked France a decade or so later, it defeated France and pulled down Irina again to return to Berlin. This time round, they replaced Irina with Victoria and named the square Pariser Platz, i.e. victory over the french. An even more interesting fact it that Victoria is looking down towards the left, exactly on the present-day French embassy!This story was so intriguing that I digged up my Paris photos and there we have the REPLICA Irina at the arc! Hitler's bunker: He committed suicide at the bunker below this innocent-looking patch of grass.Berlin Wall: This is the place where an uncountable number of East Germans were shot dead, while failing to escape to what could be a much brighter future in West Germany. Checkpoint Charlie The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe: This is located a 5min walk from Brandenburg gate, a prime location with a high amount of human traffice. This space was specially picked for this reason, to constantly remind people of the atrocity that was commited and to remember the innocent lives perished.As we walk through the paths surrounded by these stone blocks, it gets colder and darker as we approach the center, where the blocks are the highest. It makes you experience the immense fear that the Jews felt, not knowing what will jump out in front or behind you, and feeling the Nazis standing so high above you like the stone blocks, terrorizing you.The Book-burning square: This square is surrounded by beautiful buildings, one being the Law School of Humboldt University. HU is famous for the many Nobel Prize winners who graduated from here, and also cos Albert Einstein taught here before!Bebelplatz Memorial: It was to remember book-burning event when books with "un-German" ideas were burnt. Through this glass, you can see a huge room surrounded by empty bookshelves, shelves that could have contained all 25000+ books burnt that day. You can also see the reflection of yourself, which serves as a reminder of how we should reflect and learn from this event. Beside it lies a plaque with a quote by German-Jewist author Heinrich Heinethat, whose book written years ago, was also burnt that night. "That was merely a prelude. Wherever they burn books, eventually they will burn people too" He was so right.

Berliner Dom: What a magnificent architecture!Schloss Charlottenburg, a summer palaceA nice pic snapped by Nicole while we were strolling in the palace.The Reichstag: It is famous for its glass dome, which signifies its openess and its willingness to be transparent to its people. The glass dome is open to visitors everyday and from up there, you can see right to the plastic blue seats of the parliament! Kaiser Wilhelm Church Berlin Ring Olympic StadiumSachsenhausen concentration camp: You can't see a single drop of blood or a hint of the atrocities that were committed here just 70 years ago, yet the compound sent chills down our spines as we listen to the stories our guide told the group solemnly.
Below, Chris explains the 'Death March'. As the Russians approach towards the end of the war, the Nazis moved the inmates from Sachsenhausen to death camps, their purpose: if they don't die from exhaustion along the way, they just die in the death camps."Work Makes You Free": A common misconception is that concentration camps were places where the 'Enemies of the state' get killed systematically, with horrible things like gas chambers. NO, inmates are brought here to WORK, sooo hard that over 100,000 died from exhaustion, disease, malnutrition or pneumonia. There were of course those who died as the result of brutal 'medical' experimentation. Concentration camps are at the outskirts of the city, because the Nazis obviously didn't want any of their own people to see the uglier side of their ruling. Death camps, where the primary function was genocide, are located outside Germany, most in Poland.
A pillar with inverted red triangles, a symbol of communists, erected after the Russian took over the camp.
Just 1 of the many torture method used: Prisoner's hands are tied behind his back, lifted up to hang with their backs against the pole. So imagine, the guard lets go of him and his weight to pull him down, thereby ripping his arms out of his shoulder sockets. It's sad.



?Did you know? It is illegal to do the 'Hail Hitler' salute in Germany. Not only will whoever you insult as 'Nazi' get extremely offended, if he decide to report you to the police, you will be arrested. Our guide had the experience of reporting 2 drunk girls, aged 18 and 19, to the local police because they were doing the Nazi march, singing the Nazi song and above all, scolding his tour group "F you foreigner, get out of Germany" (smtg like that), which ended up in a tussle with one of the tour member. The older girl, tried as an adult, ended up with a jailterm of 10 years. Just so you know.

I think the biggest lesson we can take away from this tour of Berlin is how the Germans face up to their mistakes. They admit to and regret the atrocities their ancestors had committed, educate their future generations what they should learn from it. No lies, nothing to hide. And I can tell you honestly that the Germans are ashamed of their past. Take that Japan, the world awaits the day when you truly feel remorseful about your past.