A climb up the United Kingdom's highest peak (Ben Nevis)

I promised I would share snippets of my UK exchange experience, and since I did recall of several memorable moments, I thought this was probably the most significant. A climb up the UK's highest peak would be an achievement I would like to take away from my exchange, something worthy to add to the already awesome SEP experience so far.

It was May 2013, our exams had just ended and we took advantage of the short week to make time for a road trip, just before we would have to start to part ways. It was so sad it reminded us that all good things eventually come to an end, but we are determined not to let it end with a whimper.

The road trip took us to many parts of Scottish Highlands, i.e. the Wallace Monument, Loch Ness, Inverness, Loch Lomond and many others. It was my idea to include the Ben Nevis climb as part of the road trip itinerary, and I was relishing the chance to scale UK's highest peak. However, the weather threatened the night before, and because UK is well known for their gloomy overcast weather with frequent bouts of rain, I was pretty worried that we might not be able to make the climb. Fortunately, by the following day, it was a beautiful warm summer day, with clear blue skies!

Off we go!

The climb was a challenging one, with the terrain changing from dirt tracks to snow, the going got harder and progress was slow towards the top. Here are some of the many shots I took on the ascent to the summit.

Hikers on the way down Ben Nevis

The beautiful view when I looked back

Almost there...

The summit? Apparently not..

While I took a picture of this very dangerous cliff, I could already imagine myself stepping on a pile of snow that just gives way, with me falling into the abyss below. My hands are already sweating while typing and recalling this moment...

WOAHH, this is the furthest I dared step up to...

And finally, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you.. THE SUMMIT!

Some house-looking thing at the summit

Cheap Tesco baked beans for lunch at the summit!

Place we rested for lunch

While we rested, all the heat generated from the sweaty climb up disappeared and the cold wind is beginning to remind us of our inadequate clothing. It was time to head back down..

Fresh Mountain Water to refill our empty bottles

Bumping into some sheep on the way down

And so, we went from sweaty bodies to freezing bodies and back to sweaty bodies back at the bottom. But its definitely a "cool" experience, away from the summer heat at sea level. More exchanging stories, soon to come. (:

My Easter Trip, exactly 2 years ago..

Well, I had allowed Facebook to remind me of events that happened on the same date as today and it has been much to reminisce about these days. It just so happened that exactly 2 years ago, I was still Europe-trotting during the month long Easter break common to European universities. We as exchange students grabbed this opportunity to pick up our backpacks and head to the neighbouring countries which were all waiting to be discovered!

So the day was 9th of April 2013, I was in the last destination of my month long Easter trip, right in the heart of the Netherlands, Amsterdam!

Venice of the West

A Venice of the West, the only place in the world to legalise drugs, the red-light district, the land of the bicycles, the city which goes by so many names is such a unique destination I just could not afford to miss!

We stayed at this place called Lucky Lake Hostel, I had rigorously checked the reviews and prices of the accommodation using easy to use hostel booking websites like hostelworld and hostelbookers. My personal favourite was to use hostelbookers which I am more familiar with having previously made bookings with them as well as their no booking fee guarantee.

Lucky Lake Hostel

And so we finally got to our very own cabin/caravan, which was so cool because it was a step outside the conventional norm of hostels being a boring old building with simple dorms of decker beds.

Our cute pink cabin

And here is what is inside, a comfortable cosy little room for us to stay in for the next 2 days!

Our cosy corner

After taking some time to relax our tired legs in the room and overcoming the huge inertia to get out of out comfy room, we finally went back into the city after paying 2 euros for the private van which goes out from our hostel once arranged with the reception. And yes, the only drawback of Lucky Lake Hostel was that it was located quite a distance away from the Amsterdam city centre. But it wasn't as bad as it seemed for us as we would soon find out in the next few days there.

Outside the Anne Frank Museum

The first stop we went to was the Anne Frank Musuem, yeah how can we miss this monumental piece of history here, also the fact that my buddy and I are history buffs, missing this would be like missing our breakfasts..

Wow, not dark at 8pm!!

We kind of lost track of time as we went from place to place until we came to this clock tower which told us it was already 8pm. YES, we could not believe 8pm could ever be this bright. Call us a frog in a well or "sua ku" (mountain tortoise), but growing up in Singapore, we had never experienced daylight at 8pm. This is why we can so easily lose track of time here, but sure enough it eventually got darker and it was time to go back.

And that wrapped up the first day in Amsterdam, well I actually have more pictures, but the other days were mainly spent on free tours, shopping and eating. After looking through, I realised the best pictures came from day 1. (:

They say money can't buy you happiness, but it just amazing money can buy you such vivid experiences to last a lifetime!

Starting my student exchange programme with a BANG

And so I did say I was to share with all of you my exchange experience which I think its a little way too belated, hahaha sorry for the extended delay but its better than not sharing at all right (:

It was about more than 2 years back, I embarked on one of the most endearing experience I had ever experienced in my life with another university mate. We had planned a fantastic New Year's Eve in London, unfortunately no photos to show, perhaps paranoia got the better of me about the state of pickpockets and the horror stories of mugging cases in Europe. And so I didn't even bring a camera with me at all, only an Oyster card just in case we missed the last free train back to our hotel. Yes, you are not hearing wrong, they do have free train rides specially for the New Year festivities, running from 11:45pm to 4:30pm, so we didn't have to pay a cent for an awesome atmosphere in London.

For an idea of what the atmosphere was like, I have attached a video from youtube. Enjoy!!