aaaahhh finally i'm baaack!! and i'm sooo glad for it!! ^^ blame all the gsm networks providers in europe (except orange f, swisscom, and nl kpn--at last) for having me ended being away from writing in here. hey, what makes it so difficult for them to provide gprs access for their overseas roamers??? uuuuggh...

anyway, i just came back from my winter-to-new-year holiday about 5 days ago. started in netherland--to meet my long-lost big-fat-bandit cat,of course!!--where we spent our first night in one of my parent's friend's lovely dovey three-storey house in den haag. it wasn't a very big house, but it's nice, warm, and furnished with antiques--and i loooove antiques! especially the piano and candle stick!! ^^ me and my bandit cat were given a place in the garret room, it was small, cozy, and simply nice. there's a lovely garret-window facing the sideyard of the house, just exactly a window i've ever wanted long time ago for my own bedroom, but somehow it wasn't done as i want it to be :p

we arrived in schiphol at 6.30am, it was still dark outside, and we could feel the chillness outside as we stepped out from the plane. it's winter, i know, but i've never expected before that winter and its -4 degrees temperature was like that!! >,< snow was rare in sight, but at every tip of leaves, all over the grass, and in every cars outside the morning dews getting freeze into ice. imagine a greeny waft grass sprinkled with powder all over. it was simply beautiful. beautiful beautiful beautiful. even when we went to volendam to make that classic dutch-like family portrait, the beachwave foam was turned into white powdery ice! it was cold, for sure, not forgetting that netherlands was such a windy country... so it doubles the coldness especially if we don't cover up our face ;p

we had our dinner in a chinese restaurant called "oriental city", it wasn't a very big restaurant, but they cooked the crispiest peking duck with the tastiest sauce i've ever eat!! it's sooo yummy... unfortunately i don't have 2 gasters or longer intestine, or else i'll finished up that duck all by myself ;9~~~

the next morning we drove away to paris through belgium, and stopped in brussel having our meal. that lil' maneken pis?? ahhh just forget that lil' creature, i'm craving for souvenirs and chocolates more than that ;9
arrived in paris around 8pm, we directly checked-in in our hotel with just a bit sneak peek to the eiffel tower--which lights was changed to ocean blue with sparkling dimmed flashes in every hour for around 5 mins... cute!! ^^ and i'm pretty sure i had a very goodnight sleep with eiffel  outside my window...

we're all a bit excited when we found out that paris was a bit warmer than netherland, oh well... moving on from minus 4-6 degrees to 2-3 degrees could make myself grateful, and the most important is... it's not windy at all!! so at least i finally could rolled down my shawl a bit lower than usual, and looked nice in some of the pics taken... teehee ;)

...but not until we arrived in versailles castle, it was december 31st, and there was an extremely loooong queue to enter--and to make it even worse--in a freezy temperature, zero degree at that time, and horrible wind >,< so that after taking some pics--and tried my hardest to hold on the freezy wind as long as possible--we turned around back to the eiffel. oh well... no wind in paris, but there's one in versailles ;p

there was a huge crowd in eiffel, with a long queue to get on the top of the tower, but we'd rather walk a bit and taking some pics. besides, we've  been there before--the top of eiffel--at 2001. and for me, there's nothing special 'bout it. then we drove to napoleon bonaparte's mausoleum, oooh how i loooooove those classic european architecture!! i wonder how they could be sooo perfect in every details of pillars, walls, and carves. it's just gorgeous, from every point of view ^^ the egyptian obelisk was our next stop, there's a small carnival with a merry-go-round near by. cute... ^^ but now it's time for our stomachs to be filled in with a bowl of vietnamese rice noodles with extra slices of beef. hmm...

we're already tired that evening, but somehow the bling-bling eiffel still attracts us to be there at the countdown. but what can i say?? i'd rather had my countdown in ancol beach, jakarta, rather than in eiffel! you see... no fireworks, no music, no trumpets, none at all!! aaaggghh... is it expensive to give all the crowd something beautiful to see? i'm soooo disappointed i'd rather be inside my blanket than freezingly stand outside waiting for nothing! >:p

the road trip to lucerne, switzerland, the next day was a chance for me to have a nice dream sleep along the way. sophisticated 2-stars hotel (and it's cheap, oooh i love online booking!) to stay n super-super-suuuuuperrr wide bedroom for 4 of us. early in the next morning we drove up to mount titlis, and it was snow all over!!! ^^ i can't believe my eyes seeing that sparkled wet snow here and there. and i'm soooo speechless i'd better let you have a look on these photos.