My Plauen Journey

Saturday was here. Uncle no need to work. Since uncle owned a car, daddy suggested we explore outskirt by driving.

In Europe, besides travelling by plane, it's a good experience to ride a bus, car or train. Cause the whole journey, you get to capture some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe.

And this is definately one of them. Got lake and yellow planting. I told you before in my 1st prague journey post, that I saw a lot of light green or yellow square square from the plane. Finally the secret is revealed. Daddy said it's 'rapeseed' (seed of rape plants, source of an edible oil). Rapeseed is very widely cultivated throughout the world for the production of animal feed, vegetable oil for human consumption, and biodiesel for powering motor vehicles. Meaning it can be an alternative for fuel. Top rapeseed producers are China, Canada, India, Germany, France, UK, Poland Australia. Rapeseed is gradually a very significant biodiesel and vege oil. Its value is continuously getting higher. The price of rapeseed production is quite high. Never seen this planting before in M'sia. I learnt something new that day.

Rynosaurus is in the town, be cautious. It's actually to attract people to visit praha zoo. We didnt make it as both parents and uncle were not interested.

Shell is worldwide. Filling fuel in Prague is far more expensive than in M'sia. It's better to ride public transport compared to own a car. The expenses of owning a vehicle will be much higher.

Purposely park the car aside, and got ourselves closer to the eye catching scenery.

Dont get it wrong, this is not rape flowers. Just one of the roadside flowers.

Hoho, it's quite surprised to see a big, fat rooster or hen??

Have a look at the housing of outskirt.

See the ponytail? Hmm, I think they aren't pony anymore.

Another type of houses, or shall I call them bungalows?? Nice design and colourful as well.

Passing by a lake. The water is so so so fresh and clean as we can see.

One of my favourite view. I couldnt stop myself capture the rapeseed field.

WOAH~~~ I particularly love this. It looks a bit similar to our paddy field but this one is far more beautiful and smells good too =)

It's definately not easy to get so close to rapeseed field as its usually located quite far from the road. But then we grabbed this chance from...

...filling petrol at a station named 'OMV'. This station is just right beside a huge rapeseed field. I was too excited and rushed to take photo. Know what, local people who were pumping petrol look at us with strange face. For them, its everywhere they can see rapeseed. Alright, I dont care, I wanna get my photo done, I dont wanna regret :) By the way, picture above is a few big branded motorbike such as BMW parking and waiting there. Those riders are aged around fourties and fifties. I guess they enjoy going countryside along with a few companions. They dreesed up like professional riders.

Finally it was our turn to get petrol pumped. When I turn to my left, I was afraid of this freaky looking dog. It's so big size and the way it looks at people is so horrific. Sorry, I'm not really an animal friendly person. And its owner who is a guy, half naked with his underware being seen, long hair tied up, walking around to pump petrol. I was like... okay... no comment...

Well, I just told that we would go outskirt. I didnt really mention what's the name of the place right. Gotto make it clear now, our destination is actually Germany. Not Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt of course, it takes at least 5 hours to reach one of these cities. So it's more possible to make it to a small town named Plauen which is nearby Czech Republic borders. Well, at least to experience how Germany environment is. Photo above shows we were lining up to pass the Germany immigration stop. For Czechs and Germans, they need to show their IC whereas foreigners gotto show the officers their passport. Okay, daddy took out 4 passport to let them check.

Well, we were wondering 'have the officers seen M'sian passport before?' Its actually a small town. Somemore its so rare for foreigners to travel to other countries by driving, but not by plane or train. We started to worry whether they would let us go. Aiks, we were asked to park our car aside. We waited, waited, waited. Many cars were being stopped especially those cars which fully loaded, officers opened their car boot, took out almost everything and checked. It seemed strict. I can understand they may be worrying someone would hide drugs and stuff between the food and groceries. Thought the officers done a great job, so pro. HOWEVER, we saw a freaking officer who's young, fit and nice looking take a few boxes of cigrattes and put them inside his big pockets!! What's this called, my friend? Its very common in our country as well - corruption!! And I realised human being is the same around this world. Neither a specific ethnic nor nationality is more into justice, its all the same, its all down to one's personality. We were so disappointed. Those officers arent being strict, they just spot some target and see whether they can benefit from these innocent travellers. I saw an Asian girl with a white man being taken to somewhere to be questioned. Probably passport got problem. Some cars were asked to enter a place like motor workshop, I guess they wanna digital scan the whole car. One car left following another. We were still there. Okay, that just wasnt our day, daddy and uncle were already prepared their wallet. We didnt bring along any food or cigrattes or wine and stuff. I hoped to have some these kind of stuff too as that time was 2 something in the afternoon. We were hungry like hell. The only thing we had with us was euro, if they want, we've got no choice but to give them. Its their country, we can do nothing. Almost 2 hours passed, it was about 3pm man. They had taken our passport to the office and didnt say a word. We couldnt enter Germany nor we could be back to Prague. Frustrating, exhausting. Four of us sitting inside the car did nothing but to chant so that it could be quickly settled. I was almost drained off. Finally, a guy walked towards our car and returned our passport without stating any comment. Those officers only speak German but very little English. We couldnt communicate. Well, he returned passport meant we could leave. That was the end of story. What an 'extraordinary' experience. I'll never ever forget it.

Unhappy incident had passed. Calm ourselves down and look forward to exploring the town. Nice landscape.

The buildings and houses here look slightly different from Prague. The style and design are not the same.

In European countries, many clock stands can be found at the streets. I found that this is quite useful and convenient.

Passed by probably a school or kindergarden. Looks beautiful.

The town looks very quiet. Seems not many residents living there. Perhaps it was Sunday, most of them had gone to city. It was a bit difficult to find a local person to ask direction. Finally we managed to ask a few people where the shopping centre is. Daddy was smart enough. He said that we must ask youngsters as they must have studied English in school. Normally old folks only speak own native language. True indeed.

Took for memory. Tram is everywhere in Europe.

In food court. Love this picture. This 'grandma' looks kind and cute.

Ohhoo, luckily at 3 something we were still able to find some food. It was like fast food style. The aged waitress who was friendly tried to get our order done. Em, still language is a major obstacle for us to communicate. There was a lot of meat to choose. Most of them were fried or grilled. Looked pretty same. We pointed and asked 'what is this meat?' She said a german word. Of course we didnt get it, she tried her best to explain to us. We roughly understood some. Then when we asked another one, the lady sounded 'ngok ngok', haha, it was so obvious, but my cute daddy said 'oh, it's beef', I gonna 'vomit electricity', 'daddy, obviously it's pork', 'ohhh ya, I didnt realise it'. Okay, though we couldnt really communicate, I wanna especially thank this lady for being so kind and patient to get these few Malaysians' order done. Thank you!! By the way, photo above is the famous german sausage. Must try when we reach Germany.

Fried potatoes, some vege and a layer of 'lunch meat'. And we still had some beef and fish fillet. Not sure whether we were too hungry, but every meal was pretty tasty. Finally filled up our stomach. Nice nice. After eating, we went shopping at the mall. We saw quite a lot different souvenir and items. Quite expensive. Then I passed by a chocolate shop. Woah, almost whole Europe choc can be found here, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, etc. Too many varieties, which to choose?? Hmm, it depends on which design is attractive enough for me to buy it. I chose a few, some for my aunties.

Next, we walked around shops in town. Some shops were close. Saw this poster. Ballack, Kaka, Beckham, Riquelme. Reminded me of while we were coming here, we passed by a football training ground as well. I was not fast enough to capture it. The field is not very big, a group of players who wore training kit playing football there. Daddy joked with me 'maybe Michael Ballack was trained up from here'. I felt at that moment, I was closer to football. I got a rough idea and imagined Stevie was training like that, haha. Perhaps I thought too much. Back to the town, maybe it's quite tiny, hardly any Asians can be seen there. When we were walking around, local people looked at us as we were aliens. Aiks.

Well, time to move on. Gotto be back before it was sunset. What a nice view.

'Country home, take me home'... Feeling like get out of the car, and run towards the colourful houses.

To shop at supermarket is one of my parents' favourite. They wanna see what's new and different from our country. We must be looking for nice choc as well. We discovered 'Ritter Sport Schokowurfel' (German choc) which sold here were extremely cheap. One box costed 1 something euro. We bought 4 boxes. Wished to buy more, but the box was kinda big, would occupy quite large space. After back to M'sia, mum n I were so regret to buy just 4 boxes.

Snapped this photo inside uncle's car. 古色古香教堂

Guess what factory it is. Yea, you are right, its beer. The Royal Brewery of Krušovice is one of the oldest beer breweries in the Czech Republic which was established in 1517. As of 2005, the Royal Brewery of Krušovice is the 5th largest producer of beer in the Czech Republic. The brewery makes both pils and dark beer. Which nationality drinks the most? Czech is seriously one of them along with German, Irish, Belgium, etc. Even some had a beer when having lunch. Besides beer, European likes coke very much. Walking around the street, you may see many youngsters having a bottle of coca cola in thier hands. I prefer 100 plus =) But I never drank soft drinks in Prague, only peach tea and fruit juice.

Sunset!!! Love my brother's camera. Even inside a car, could still capture a scene nicely. I sincerely hope that I have the chance to see sunset every evening ^_^

Few hours journey, finally back to Prague. Uncle was exhausted to drive so long. Dinner time. Daddy treated uncle a good meal to thank him for fetching us. We chose Peking Restaurant. Well, we had not much confidence in local food already. The chefs here are from dunno Hong Kong or Guang Zhou, that's why we were more confident to try it here. Environment was great. Just a bit hot.

Must have paid high to rennovate to this gorgerous Chinese style. This place is even recommended in travel guide book.

Woah, the plate looked like what king using as well, keke. Dragon tim, kua cheong.

It's one set with the tea pot and cup.

Food was served. Looked great. Got curry, beef, pork, vege. Mummy even ordered tom yam soup. Aikz, M'sian cannot live without spicy food. Tom yam soup was just okay, but other meals were delicious. At least we tried some nice Chinese cuisine here.

My parents and uncle. In front of Peking Restaurant.

We actually bought some pastry in German town. Next morning, that was my breakfast. German bread was more tasty than Czech's. Czech's was harder and less choices.

It was Sunday, our plan was to be relaxing and figured out the way to a subway station where we ride eurorail to Vienna on Monday morning. Once again, we climbed up this special subway station and started our survey.

See the graffiti???

Okay, this is how the railway station looks like. A bit old. Some old trains are used in between Czech Republic. While newer looked trains are eurorail which travel between european countries.

Next train was going to Budapest - Hungary's capital. It's very puntual. No delay. It's very common and convenient to travel European countries by train.

Alright, had a rough idea which subway station to stop, where to wait for train, what time we should arrive and stuff. Daddy must have plan before doing anything. So we've got no choice but to follow him. But it has advantage as well. At least we wouldnt be rushing next day. Photo above is souvenier shops in train station. I particularly like the pig head, kaka.

Barbie's sisters??

Time for lunch. Huh, this place looks familar ler. Haahaa, no, your eyes got no problem, not playback also, yea, we went back to Peking Restautant. This time round we tried their noodles and fried rice.

And dumplings as well. Very very nice =) We were lucky to have these in an European country.

Yang Zhou fried rice. Daddy was predicting whether we would go back to this restaurant for the third time. Who knows, hehe. Later, we took tram to go shopping. At night, mummy cooked curry chicken, soya sauce pork, broccoli. Uncle and daddy ate two bowls of rice. They missed M'sian food so so much, keke. Cooking in four seasons country is quite... Hmm, cause the weather is cold, whenever you finished cooking a dish, you must cover it tightly, if not the dish will become cold as well, I mean within few minutes. The same goes to boil water. Quite irritating. Well, had a good rest that night. I was awaiting to travel to the most renowned 'music city' in the world - Vienna =)

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Don't miss out next post. Thanks for reading, my friend ^.^

...to be continued...