How to live richly when poor

April is the month we begin our new life, humbled by our bank accounts. Thousand miles away from home, we have become cooks, tenants, accountants, and homemakers. Boy, do we love our adventures, and we treasure the memories of all our visits to exotic places. But as we've painfully learnt, such memories are expensive and our journeys and may I add, mishaps, have zapped our savings in Singapore to zero, and the search for high and lofty experiences in wonderful places must give way to paying the rent, feeding our stomachs and buying course books.

I'm not complaining, don't get me wrong, I still cherish every minute that I have here in Sweden, although I'm keenly aware that our current situation merits a new perspective on lifestyle and creativity in stretching the Swedish Crown. I will see it optimistically, as a personal project to make the most delicious meal with the least amount of money, to find pockets of nature in this little town of Lund to visit, instead of taking an expensive trip to Norway, on the most scenic route in the world.

We have 2 more big adventures to look forward to, lack of money notwithstanding, because we believe in the value of these experiences: 1. Study Tour to Jerusalem. (need I say more, to go to the Holy City and feel the light gentle touch of centuries of history) 2. Planning the trip of our lives for our siblings. (and I must say I think I'm more excited than my sister that she will be taking her first airplane ride when she visits us). It's no fun travelling alone, its more fun to bring suakus along like anthony and esther, that we will feel the joy all the more.

Till May and June, there's April, and April will be the month of living simply, as poor students in a foreign (expensive) land, and so be it, being poor is an experience, a challenge, a project, and why not? a fond memory retrospectively from 2020. ( I hope I'm at least richer than I am now)
An interesting question for you: Would you rather be poor studying in Sweden or rich working your socks off?

And so, without any other exciting adventures to share with you in the immediate days ahead, this post marks the beginning of the series: how to live richly when poor. I will try to chronicle how we get by our daily lives on cheap but good food, and the leisurely activities that we will embark on that are cheap and fun! So stay tuned!

Many many thanks goes out to both our families for lending us that extra finances. It may sound cliche but we can always count on family. Having said that, we will return the debt, in cash AND in kind.

Prague!!

The BOY says:

And finally, our final leg on our 9-day trip through ‘slightly-off-centre-and-to-the-east’ Europe was Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. Having heard horror stories of pickpockets, scam artists and other would-be undesirables, we were on an extra high alert when we got here. However, the city proved surprisingly peaceful and accommodating, something we really needed after a 6-hour train ride.

The Prague Skyline

After a good night’s rest, we embarked on our own walking tour of Prague, trying to take in most of the major sights around the city in an afternoon. We made our way past the Prague National Museum, the famous Wenceslas Square (which is not really a square, just a wide road), under the powder gate, through the Old Town Square, across the St Charles Bridge and finally arriving at the famous Prague Castle. By this time, we were totally beat and gave up trying to do anything else and took the tram back to our hotel where we napped the rest of the afternoon away until it was time for dinner, where we went for a simple Chinese ‘cze-tzar’ meal and retired to our hotel room soon after.

The National Museum of Prague

Wenceslas Square (the museum in the background)

The powder tower

The famous Tyn Church at Old Town Square

The world famous astronomical clock!

St Charles' Bridge

The next day, we went straight to the Prague castle, determined to get a thorough run-down on this attraction on the last day of our trip. Having accidentally alighted at the wrong train stop, we found ourselves outside of our handy map and somewhat lost. Fortunately, Prague castle is big enough of a landmark for us to gravitate towards and we eventually entered the medieval compound through the back door. Here, we saw the actual Royal Palace, St George’s Basilica and the famous St Vitus Cathedral. Once we had taken enough photos, we headed straight back to the Old Town where we signed up for a river cruise on the Vltava River and did our sight-seeing on something other then ‘Bus 11’.

The castle gates

St George's Basilica (one tower is bigger then the other to reflect medieval gender status)

St Vitus' Cathedral

The guide that we registered with for the river cruise told us an interesting fairy-tale story about Sir Bruncvik and his lost sword. Bruncvik was a native Czech who went abroad to seek out adventure. And as how fairy tales go, adventures usually find the protagonist. After numerous adventures, one day Bruncvik stumbled into a forest where he witnessed a cosmic battle between a lion and a 9-headed dragon. Bruncvik decided to help the lion and together they defeated the dragon, chopping off all of its head. From then on, Bruncvik found his best friend in the lion and vice versa and the 2 of them became inseparable. With the lion, Bruncvik came to another kingdom in a strange land who were plagued by demons. Naturally, Bruncvik and his lion made short work of the demons and the Kind awarded Bruncvik with a magical sword that allowed him to chop off the heads of all his enemies just by shouting ‘Off with your heads!” and knighted him Sir Bruncvik. By this time, Bruncvik had grown tired of adventuring and began to make his way home to Prague (naturally encountering many adventures en-route but none a match for his magical sword of course!) where he reunited with his wife and died a ripe old age. Sadly enough, his lion and best friend, died of a broken heart just days after his death. The lion lives on as the 2-tailed lion in the state symbol of the Czech Republic. As for Bruncvik’s sword, it is said to be lost but many believed that it is buried under his statue at the St Charles Bridge and one day, when the Czech Republic is threatened again and lay at the very edge of ruin, the statue of St Wenceslass, patron saint of the Czech Repulic will come to life, uncover Bruncvik’s magic sword and lead the Kinghts of Blanik (knights said to be sleeping in the mountains of Blanik) to battle and slay all of Czech’s enemies and bring peace and prosperity to the land again. As you can see, ‘Praguers’ as they fondly call themselves are either extremely imaginative or very very free.

Sir Bruncvik!

Saint Wenceslas!

The cruise was a novel experience. Immediately upon getting onto the small boat, the crew, all decked out in sailor’s uniform, served us some gingerbread and hot wine. The hot wine was really peculiar at first but in the unrelenting cold, it came in quite handy. Our river guide gave us a quick run-down of all the major sights we could see from the boat and some interesting tidbits about the city as well. Unfortunately, our refreshing ride lasted only for about 30min and that was it.

Our rustic tugboat.

The River Vltava

We took the time to go check out the narrowest street in Prague. This was extremely interesting. In order to avoid people getting stuck in the middle, this alley is actually controlled by a pedestrian crossing light, i.e. only cross when the green man flashes. Following that, we headed back towards Old Town and did our last minute shopping for gifts and souvenirs and as you’d expect of Goon, last minute snacking at the Old Town Square. After which, (since she is never full) we went to have dinner at a somewhat traditional Czech restaurant.

Looks like Goon should lose some weight.... block the whole street!

One of many reasons why Goon is getting fatter.....

Having nothing to do, I persuaded Goon to go on a Ghost Tour with me. Basically, a local guide brought us around the more secluded parts of the city and told us stories of ‘ghosts’ that are rumored to still haunt the area. It was interesting, but not fantastic. The tour company even arranged for someone to dress up as a ghost and burst out of dark alleys suddenly which I found pretty amusing. I caught him twice lurking in the street corner although I must apologetically admit that I kind of ruined his entrance for the third and final time.

And that was about it for Prague and that wraps up our longest trip yet. Not only did the trip take a lot of time, but a lot of money as well and as such, we won’t be traveling anymore until our next major trip which will be to Jerusalem!

Munich!

The BOY says:

We spent rather little time while in Munich, perhaps just over 2 days. We arrived on Sunday night and couldn’t do much but have dinner and retire to our hostel room for ‘Cluedo’…..

The next day however, we took a long expedition (2 hour train ride) out of Munich city to a small town called Fussen in order to get to the famous Neuchwanstein Castle. This was the ‘fairy-tale’ castle built by the ‘Mad’ King of Bavaria, King Ludwig II. Apparently, when Disney was designing their iconic Sleeping Beauty castle, they modeled it after this particular one. Neuchwanstein was truly a sight to behold. Situated on the foothills of the Swiss Alps, it was literally a castle in the clouds. To top off this fairytale experience, the girls were obsessed with taking a horse-drawn carriage up to the gates of the castle to arrive in true Cinderella fashion. “Insert yawn here.” For me, the horses kind of stank, the carriage didn’t really look quite impressive and I could have walked faster then the 2 poor horses that’s been dragging fat tourists uphill all day. We eventually got to the castle gates, albeit somewhat late but managed to pop in just before our dedicated admission time expired for the tour of the castle interior. Though far from complete (due to King Ludwig’s sudden, untimely and somewhat questionable death), the completed sections of the castle interior is one of the most opulent ones in existence. Solid gold decoratives, numerous tapestries and paintings of Wagner’s Operas and even a man-made grotto. This was truly a castle of castles. We were, as many have already guessed, not allowed to take any photos of the castle interior. Is it really because the camera flash damages the paintings? I think they just want monopolize the photos and sell it to tourists like us. It probably wasn't the best day to see the castle cause it was snowing/raining extremely heavily, which explains the somewhat blurry pictures.

Castle Neuchwanstein, a fairy-tale castle in the clouds

The other less famous castle, the Hohenschwangau.

Horse carriages to take you up the hill!

A section of the castle up close

The castle shrouded in the mist, now it looks kind of haunted.

After the tour of the castle, we took a walk to up the mountain trail to Mary’s Bridge, a metal bridge across the mountain valley. This was a nerve-wracking experience crossing the bridge because it was snowing ever so heavily and the metallic bridge was really slippery, and it creaks. After snapping some photos here, we went down to catch a bus back to the train station and thus was the end of our adventure here at the alps.

Goon walking up the mountain trail with a snowball on her head.

Goon and Mary's Bridge.

Goon in the forests, look how tiny she is.

The next day, we went on a free walking tour of the city because firstly, its free and secondly, our train to Prague only departs at 4.44pm in the afternoon. Our Canadian guide brought us to all the major sights within the city area. An especially interesting place is the Frauenkirche or church of our lady, which is rumored to have been built with the help of the devil. Long ago in ancient Bavaria, the people decided to build an extremely grand and impressive place of worship. So they came together and started construction on the Frauenkirche. This naturally angered the devil and he decided to destroy this grand building before anyone could use it as a place of worship. So he walked into the front door of the church ready to raze it to the ground when he realized that there were no windows at all. So he thought to himself, that if this church were completed, it would be a church of darkness and nobody would ever think of using this place. So the devil summoned the architect and promised to help him build it if he would not put any more windows into the building. The architect agreed and the church was built in record time. (I can’t remember how long but it was really quick, hence giving the story credibility) When the church was completed, the devil came back to gloat only this time, he entered through the side door. Lo and behold, he saw streams of light coming in through numerous windows, choirs singing and everyone was happy and joyfully worshipping the Lord. The devil summoned the architect and demanded to know why he went back on his word. To this, the architect calmly led him to the front door and showed him into the church and sure enough, the devil could not see a single window from the front door. (This is really true because the pillars of the church block the windows from view if you look from the front door) The devil, having been outsmarted by a mere human architect was mad with rage and stamped his foot hard on the ground and vanished with a puff of smoke. To this day, the imprint of his foot can be seen at the front door of the church. Nice story?

Frauenkirche

The front door of the Frauenkirche

The devil's footprint?!

Notice that there are no windows?

The Frauenkirche is one of the few buildings still intact after World War II. The church was spared from being bombed by the allies not because of religious reasons but because the twin towers served as a landmark and reference point for the allies to target their bombing missions and thus, the pilots were ordered not to destroy it. Most of Munich’s other sights are recreations after the war but perhaps the most accurate ones in Germany as Hitler had a soft spot for Munich and ordered photos of Munich’s buildings taken before the war in order for reconstructions to be as accurate as possible. He did so as Munich was where he initially rose to power and the birthplace of the Nazi regime.

The Rathaus, the new town hall.

The old town hall

St Mary's Statue

St Peter's Church

The Munich Opera House

After the tour, we quickly went back to collect our luggage and headed to the train station where a 6-hour train ride would take us to our next destination, Prague.

Berlin, Germany!

The BOY says:

Well everyone, it’s been the end of a long journey, the longest trip we’ve done since our time here. It was a whole 9 days and we got to see 3 cities in all, Berlin, Munich and Prague. To condense our 9-day experience in 1 post will take up the whole web page so I’m gonna split it up by city…..

We spent 4 days and 3 nights in Berlin. The city was something very different from European cities that we’ve been accustomed to. Berlin is a very modern looking city with very avant-garde architectural designs all around.

The streets of Berlin

Berlin's Modern Architecture

The Berlin Tower

The first problem we encountered when we first got to Berlin was that the transport company was on strike. Yes, an actual strike. As such, the underground train, the trams and the buses were completely non operational. This bode well for the taxi drivers around town but took a toll on our feet as we had to walk and walk all day round.

Tram tracks with nothing running on it......

Our feet took us to quite some places during our 2 full days here. We visited the Reichstag building, Berlin’s parliamentary building, the famous Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Dom (cathedral) and made our way down to Postdamer Platz, the city’s central district. Here we saw some remnants of what used to be the Berlin Wall. Goon for some inexplicable reason found it exciting to buy a piece of the wall from a local souvenir shop. Maybe it’s just my lack of background in history…….

Goon jumping outside the Reichstag

The Brandenburg Tor

Goon in front of the Berlin Dom

Postdamer Platz

Goon in front of a section of the Berlin Wall

Here, we decided to take a trip to ‘Legoland’. I know what many of you are thinking but there’s nothing wrong with wanting to relive your childhood! (although we were the only people who were NOT accompanied by an adult….) There was a lego factory demo on how lego blocks were made, many lego exhibitions, an extremely slow ride and a 4-D movie. (I shall not ruin the surprise of 4D here....)

Goon and Einstein!

Goon in a lion's jaw

Goon with Harry Potter & Hagrid.

The next day, we also visited the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial on our way to check-out KaDaWe, which is said to be the world’s largest shopping mall. It did turn out to be an enormous departmental store but it just didn’t feel like the largest in the world, or perhaps I was just completely uninterested in walking around.

We took the scenic route...

The Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial.

And well, that’s it for Berlin and we were on to Munich!

Krakow, Poland!!!

The BOY says:

Hey everyone!!!

Despite the long gap in posts, here is our latest post, from POLAND. We went to the city of Krakow last week and just came back yesterday, so here are some pictures and chronicles of our time there!

Our Poland Gang!! (I am of course holding the camera...)

We took a plane from Malmo early in the morning straight to Krakow. As it was in the wee hours of the morning, most of us were still groggy and dazed. However, as our plane was landing, all of us got a VERY timely awakening. As some of you might know, there is a huge hurricane, hurricane Emma right now in Germany. As Poland is right on the east side of Germany, we were hit by the remnant of the hurricane. As our plane was gearing up to land, the turbulence was so heavy that the plane shook extremely violently from left to right. It made numerous long and “stomach flying up to your throat” dips. Just when we were all grabbing onto our seats and praying hard, the emergency exit signs suddenly flashed on. Scenes from the popular TV show “Lost” began flashing across my mind as I begun to think what would I do if the plane suddenly split open. After another 5-10 minutes of the roller coaster ride, the plane slammed into the ground with a loud “THUD” and begun to decelerate. All our friends heaved a sigh of relief while many other passengers at the back began applauding unanimously. With that, we were officially in the city of Krakow.

After passing through the airport customs, which took EXTREMELY long for us non European Union residents, (I thought Singapore was a pretty well known country but the custom officers checked my passport like it might be counterfeit and slowly read through EVERY SINGLE page of it, even when it was obviously a blank page) we took a 2 hour bus ride from the airport and reached the city centre of Krakow. It was an extremely gloomy day, cloudy and drizzling and we had to walk in the rain in order to get to our hostel, where we’ll be staying at for the next 3 nights.

The gloomy streets of Krakow

Everyone scurrying into the underpass and away from the rain...

Trams are a major source of public transport.

One of many public parks.

The hostel, Greg-Tom Hostel was a pleasant surprise. It was definitely not what I expected. The entire place was well furnished and equipped and we had free TV, Internet access, DVD and PS2! The friendly staff there cleared the admin and gave us directions to get around town, pointed us to some of the famous sights and sounds of Krakow and recommended us places to get good Polish food. With that, we set off for a walkabout of Krakow.

Our hostel common living area....

.....TV & Games Room....

.... and of course, our bedroom!

First up, we went to the Jewish quarter of the city. There really was not that much of a difference between the Jewish quarter and the city centre, except perhaps the numerous temples or synagogues. This was pretty interesting for us because most of us, have never SEEN an actual Jewish synagogue, until now. We stopped at a café here for a short break and had some drink and snacks. I ordered a Polish Beet Root Soup and a Panna Cotta (yes I know, it’s not a Polish but Italian Desert, but I like it!) while Goon had a really aromatic and creamy iced coffee. After recharging, we went onwards towards Wawel castle, a local medieval castle built by an ancient Lord to his mistress or something. As it was evening time, it had closed for the day but we could still walk about its perimeter which was a great scenic experience on its own. All this would have been much much better if it had NOT been raining profusely. To make matters worse, I wasn’t wearing anything with a hood on and my head was soaking wet. Photo-taking was a chore was everytime I whipped out the camera, raindrops will hit the lens and thus, BAD blurry pictures. Nevertheless, it was nice to see this quaint town, one that is rather different from Sweden and Denmark which we’ve grown accustomed to.

The Jewish Quarter of Krakow.

One of the many Jewish Synagogues.

Another Jewish temple.

A small Jewish Memorial for those that died during the Holocaust.

A distant view of Wawel castle.

The Wawel Catherdral.

The Sukiennice or Krakow Cloth Hall, the world's oldest shopping mall!

Inside the Sukiennice.

The Basilica of the Virgin Mary, Krakow's principal church.

A town square in Krakow

The ancient city walls of Krakow.

The next day, half of our group went on an organized tour to the local Salt Mine on the outskirts of the city. This was a really fresh experience for Goon and I. Neither of us have EVER been in an actual mine of any sort. The mine is obviously no longer in operation, since 12 years ago when the salt deposits ran out. To start things off, we had to go down over 600 steps or about 56 flights of stairs to get to the “top” level of the mine itself which just happen to be over 100m below ground level! It was both exciting and scary at the same time and definitely NOT for the claustrophobic.

A peek over the railing...

Goon on the stairs!

At the first level, we were told about the mine’s origins. Geologists believe that the mine was actually full of sea water but due to tectonic movements of the earth mantle, the sea water evaporated, leaving behind salt formations. The locals however, have a much more exciting tale of the mine’s beginnings. Legend says that a certain Princess Kinga from another country (I forgot!) was concerned for the well being of the Polish people. As salt was an expensive commodity in the past (hence the nickname, white gold) she wanted to establish a salt mine for the Polish people. Before embarking on her journey, she accidentally dropped her engagement ring into a salt mine in her home country and was greatly saddened. Nevertheless, continued onto Poland. One day, at some obscure village of Wieliczka (which is where the salt mine is right now), she saw some spring water coming out of the ground. On tasting it, she realized it was salty. Seeing this as a sign, she ordered her men to dig a hole in the ground and not surprising, they found some salt deposits. Her men presented her with the salt deposit and lo and behold, embedded in it, was her engagement ring. The salt had followed her from her homeland to Poland and thus, was the origin of the salt in Poland.

A Miner presenting a salt block to the princess. (the glint there is the ring!)

In the mine, there are numerous chapels from the miners in the past. Salt mining was a dangerous job and the miners built chapels to pray for safety and to thank God if they survived at the end of the day. There were also many exhibits of the medieval machinery miners used in the past and also other ornamental statues within the mine. Hardly to anyone’s surprise, all these statues and decorations, were carved from salt.

The dark, dank mine passageways.

One of many chapels.

One of the exhibitions on medieval mining machinery.

A statue of a Polish King instrumental in the development of the mine.

These are medieval steps that miners used in the past.

Lastly, at the deepest levels of the mine, over 130m below the ground, there is a chapel. St. Kinga’s chapel (I think!) is and probably will remain in time to come, the LARGEST underground chapel in the world. What is more surprising, is that until now, the chapel is STILL being used for services, weddings and other religious events! The entire chapel was built over many years as there were only 3 men who worked on carving out the decorations on the wall and of course, carving out the chapel chamber itself. On one side of the wall are numerous carving of Jesus’ childhood while on the other, Jesus’ adult life. Also in the chapel, are numerous chandeliers, with the centre one being the largest chandelier in the world made entirely of salt crystals.

The St Kinga's Chapel, largest underground church in the world!

A nativity scene carved from salt. (the baby Jesus carved from pink salt)

A salt carving of Da Vinci's 'The Last Supper'.

The largest salt crystal chandelier in the world....

..... and the view of it from the bottom up!

After which, we were nearing the end of the tour when we were told that there is a postbox right in the underground mine. Seeing it as a novel experience, Goon bought and sent a postcard to her aunt. We took a quick walk around to see the underground ball room and restaurant, the only ones in the world 125m below ground before proceeding onwards to the elevator that will take us back to daylight. The elevator was a 4-storied elevator, each storey capable of taking 9 people. It was somewhat like a cargo life as it was not enclosed but had sheets of metals with holes as its floors and walls. It was also a rather fast elevator, going at 11km/h, adding to this already nerve-wrecking experience. And that was the end of the tour of the salt mine and we headed back to our hostel to meet up with our other friends for dinner.

A mailbox, 135m below ground!

The world's 'lowest' restaurant.

Fancy a 'down to earth' ball in this ballroom?

On the hostel staff’s recommendation, we went to try this quaint little Polish restaurant nearby and boy were we impressed. The food was excellent and the boss extremely friendly and accommodating. All of us ate till our bellies felt like bursting. There was complimentary bread with some buttery thing and lard. I ordered veal in crème & wine sauce while Goon ordered Pork Casserole. We also shared a Polish wild mushroom soup. It was extremely delicious. It made many of us want to stay in Poland just for the food. We quickly changed our minds on that when the bill arrived. It wasn’t expensive but if we had to pay that much everyday, we would be broke very soon.

The bread, if you can believe is an appetizer on the house...

This definitely beats Campbell's.

Pork Casserole!

Veal with Polish dumplings!

Our motley gang after dinner!

After a good night’s rest, we set off again toward our next destination, Auschwitz Museum or rather the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp which was used by the Nazis to detain and worse, to conduct mass killings of its prisoners, predominantly the Jews in what is now known as the Holocaust. This proved to be another unique experience. It wasn’t a scenic tourist attraction. Neither was it a fun and exciting place to visit. This was a walk through history itself, a re-enactment of the past, a sombre reminder to all about the atrocities of yesterday and a stern warning of how such horrific event might just come to pass again. Here we were shown in details the going-ons within the camp during World War 2 and evidence and remnants of what used to be a living nightmare to its residents. As such, I will comment less and let the pictures do the talking, as a fitting respect to this place. (photos aren't allowed indoors, so only outdoor ones are here.)

The entrance to Auschwitz.

These used to be charged with electricity at extremely high voltages.

The buildings within the camp.

A wall where the Nazis executed their prisoners by firing squad.

The entrance to the crematorium, where the Nazis burnt the dead bodies.

The entrance to Auschwitz II Birkenau, another camp nearby.

The prisoners living quarters, 6 prisoners to a bed.

Toilet for the prisoners, which they were allowed to use only twice a day.

An view of part of the camp.

After returning from Auschwitz, Goon and I took some time off to walk around the city centre and of course, grab souvenirs on our last day here, both around the city centre and the major shopping mall nearby. After that, we joined our friends for dinner at another nearby Polish restaurant. This was much much cheaper but the food paled in comparison to that of the previous night. And that just about wraps up our little tour of Krakow. We left in the morning the next day and headed back home where unfortunately, our term papers were waiting for us............