escapades of the elusive kat

oh boy, it's been awhile I am so sorry, but life has been so busy!

I've finally won a war!

I got the building management to fix our common-use exterior drainpipe. Long story short, an exterior drainpipe was blocked... if not 10 years ago then 8 years ago, or around so. At the time when we raised the issue, homeowners association had asked us to "cooperate and work with them and just not wash our varandah for a while, because scaffolding is expensive." But the thing is, it wasn't a private drainpipe, it was common use. The floors above us would have their drains flow through to this drainpipe. We were nice and complied, and never washed our dogs outside anymore, if we needed to wash the varandah then we actually MOPPED the verandah instead of the easy flush with power hose, and we watered the plants with a watering can, being very careful not to spill too much water.

One time another drainpipe had burst and they fixed it immediately, because it burst at a very low level where they could have accessed with just a ladder. Our drainpipe would have to be accessed with a scaffolding.

A few months ago, I noticed a posted notice saying the HOA was going to use X amount of money from the building repair funds to fix another drainpipe that was constantly gushing water out. I asked the management company "what gives?" and he said because someone complained. Huh. The HOA president that told us to "cooperate" 8 years ago has passed away earlier this year. So? I told the family, there's no need to keep that promise anymore, and we just washed the varandah every day, watered the plants with the hose directly. Let the water flow.

The thing is, that other drainpipe they are going to fix? The water flowed to a dead-end area of the building. The drainpipe that was on our side? it's right above the motorcycle parking. Yes. Bikes got wet. I don't know if they know that the water is possibly doggy pee water either, but, I'm past the point of caring.

TODAY they've changed the notice. They are going to erect scaffolding to fix 2 drainpipes. Ha! I win!

Random photo dump with some captions if I feel like it!

My Sai Lup 2.0 Planter is done! And there's an obvious improvedment since my first version. And the phone screen capture is for another announcement...

It was time to upgrade my phone, so, since the new iPhone had an Orange option and I just so happen to have an Orange theme going on (to be fair, I also have a Purple theme and a Blue theme going on in other parts of my life!)

I can't ruin the phone by having some other colored case, so... I just had to get a transparent case, and since recently there's this new fad with those hanging slips that go inside your case and stuff, that was a nice way to make a subtle customization without covering the orange.

Frankie has been visiting very a many different places now. I have to limit his walks to at the very most 1 hour (usually 30 mins or so) as he can't really walk too much. But it's winter right now, so stretching it to an hour is fine on most days as well. Worst case I can just carry him home. BUT HE JUST DOESN'T WANT TO TURN BACK AND HEAD HOME!

Ah, I made a plate thingy. Since my planters are all animals, I use most the browns and beiges and black and white colours. I wanted to make something that I could use the other colours, so I made the plate. ButI didn't expect it to get so bright and sharp after the transparent glaze.

It was the handicraft and art fair the other week. Went ahead and did some small shopping.

These are also shots from the Frankie walks but there be no Frankie here. The right side photo below is actually a flipped image. The lake happened to be quite calm, though you can still see the ripples.

My workplace lunch restaurant has a new menu and the Japanese style curry is great. I really love it, it's cheesy too! Dad also made bread dumplins the other day.

One of the cafes at my work place has made this amazing gingerbread house but why is the Santa so... contorted? And apparently it must be some ready-made bought sugar dolls because a colleague said another hotel has a same style Santa.

I had an artist from China do this needle felting doll thing of Sai-Lup and they said it's being sent. So I shall await its arrival.

The dog and cats are getting pretty comfortable with us LOL. I'm also terrified of Kitty, who now will explore the apartment since Sai Lup is gone. I still think she got a very very bad first impression of Sai Lup that caused her to never come out.

oh, and what have I been so busy with? Chinese class, running and workouts. Preparing for my Mt. Fuji run! I'm still not sure about my gear, but I tested a neck warmer thing and I think it's good to keep it. I should feel more excited about my upcoming trip but I still couldn't quite muster up the right excitement.

So on Sunday, I went to Hong Kong on my own to attend a concert of a Japanese singer that I was a really big fan of when I was younger. I had just been to her concert in Guangzhou and saw some fans gifting gifts to her and then had the idea to make her something too - one of my flower pot cats, and of her cat!

All kitted out with her previous merchandise. The waters were pretty calm so I managed to get a good bit of reading done while on the ferry.

However, the organizer had a very weird schedule of 2pm opening the merch/goods counter, but the concert being 6.30pm. I had nothing better to do and wanted to drop off the gift so I didn't have to lug it around. In order to make time to 2pm, I first went on a hunt for my 2026 Hobonichi weeks. I did get it, but apparently international partner stores do not include the freebie pen. But... this thing cost me roughly HKD $300, and if I bought it online, the shipping is like... $150.... in the end I decided, $150 for the extra pen isn't worth it. I had also wanted to get another 2 empty "Day-Free" notebooks, but they didn't have it? But it was OK, I'm in the process of moving offices again and in my packing I found the 2 "Day-free"s I bought previously.

There wasn't any particular interesting and localized merch except for this little card, which I'll use as a bookmark. There's also an acrylic stand thing of the singer... but it's just something to collect dust, I'm not going to get it, despite me being a fan.

There was still A LOT of time until 6.30pm, so I hopped back out to Mongkok area and saw the HK Starbucks had a matcha mochi muffing thing that doesn't exist in Macau. So I got it. Also had a wander around Sino Center, which brought beck memories. This used to be the place for anime fans to lurk.

At around 4.30pm I figured I should start heading back to the concert place (Diamond Hill) and went to the tube station. I was near Langham Place, so went in too and saw their beautiful flower displays.

Back in the venue, we waited... long-ish, but the concert was punctual, all things considered. The set list was amazing, it was totally my cup of tea, because I mainly like her songs from way before (the anime songs) and this is what was included in the concert on this day. Oh yeah, fangirl me had received a letter from her and I've held onto it.

Official photo, I am right there (I had a better location in the Guangzhou concert)

And then she posted that she received these gifts, so I know she got my box. After the concert, I rushed back to the ferry terminal, but still missed the 9.30pm ferry. I thought there would be a 10pm ferry, but alas no, there was only the 11pm ferry after 9.30pm. Ooops.

Had to go to the Chinese doctor yesterday because I couldn't lift up my arm since Saturday. She did more guasha and also cupping. I have a particularly dark spot now. They say it's because that's the problem area. Well, believe it or not, after the night, I could totally move my arm the following day!

And my Sis was driving my first car (my baby!) and she had an accident today. A bus crashed into her. Person's fine, car a little dented now. Wonder if my mechanic will want to fix this, this IS a pretty old car (21 years). On the one hand, he might not be able to find spare parts and instead need to weld/hammer the thing by hand, but on the other hand, it's the bus' fault (traffic police confirmed) so we're not going to have to pay a dime for it, so might as well get it all fixed up.

Oh boy, time indeed flies. April's coming up!

Lookie! It's flowering! It's been a year and it's the first time this African Violet is flowering, so I had no idea this would be such a pretty pink. I also decided to get this acrylic stand thing for all my stones. The light won't always be on (it'll discolor the stones)
A colleague of mine went to a chinese medicine doctor and she said she got the worst most horrible herbal tea ever, so I decided to challenge. I got this very cinnamon-y herbal tea and when I compared my "herb list recipe" with hers, apparently we got different concoctions, so I still couldn't try that worst tea she had.
Was going to an Andrea Bocelli show and so had to accessorize for a night. These are stick-ons and I can feel they are coming off already... it's been... 1 night only. I probably have the wrong glue, but I also don't want to use a too-strong glue.
Went to have lunch with a friend and the Burmese Coconut Chicken noodles was highly recommended. It was damn good indeed! But the coconut milk messed with me. I had an almost-accident going home, then actually had an accident when I was walking the dog. Toilet-related accident, enough said!
So at the concert venue, while we were waiting for the show to start, a friend sent me this photo. I knew she was going, and we bought same-price tickets, but I managed to get a middle section. She said "you're being supervised!"
Jokes' on her, I caught her back LOL.
Amazing show, I liked the Pavarotti duet (sang with a recording of Pavarotti singing)
I personally found it amusing they left "Time to Say Goodbye" as the encore LOL.
And here are the cats being cats!
How chummy!

Technically, there's still around 10 days of it. The actual public holidays run for the first 3 days though. So, there's still this festive air around.

The thing going on in Instagram and TikTok (or whateer short video platform now) about whether it's Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year or what... look, since my birth, all these new years that I've experienced have been called the Chinese New Year. There may be other new years, but those aren't what I've experienced. We give out Lai See (Hongbao). I know the holiday as Chinese New Year, also Lunar New Year. Also know it's called Spring Festival as well. In other words, for those who does celebrate this festival, we don't really care.

So. With these 5 days off, what did I accomplish?

A bit.

I started off strong. I did a chapter of my German course. I read a few chapters of the books I lined up. And then it all went down the drain when the gaming bug bit me, and I've been on the Nintendo Switch ever since.

I didn't totally do nothing really though.

On the third day of the CNY 年初三, it is believed that it's the day of arguments. Longer story is, during the CNY, people are expected to visit friends and family. Usually, the first day is for the home family. Then over the 2 weeks you visit other families, I guess.... it's like Thanksgiving? Anyway, it is believed that the third day is a no-no day for visits. And it is for this exact reason that my friends and I would always come out for a lunch or dinner gathering on the third day of CNY. Yes, we are itching for a fight. We've been doing this for many years, and so far no big arguments yet.

First, I went to work to see the Lion Dance.

Then, for lunch I went to the Vivienne Westwodd Cafe in my workplace to meet my friends for lunch. I have no idea why we have the one sole Papa Smurf in the middle of the supermarket and deli floor. Is it going to be a future crossover? No idea.

The food at the Vivienne Westwood... wasn't bad, but wasn't something to write home about either. Portion sizes on the small side as well, so we decided to skip the dessert there and go to have dessert in the cafe that had the Snoopy thing going on. But we didn't go right away. We walked around a bit to have a look at the CNY installations around.

There's Sam the Chicken in a cat suit (WTFLOL) and they changed the costumes on the Sam the Chicken wall.

Finally went to the cafe for the Snoopy food.

And then because our final bill reached a certain amount, so we could get a token to take those photo-booth photos. So, we did that LOL.

On CNY day 4, my Sis and I took the dogs out to Coloane village for a bit. I figured since Sai Lup is always just laying at home, and we had some time, so we made a trip out of it. Of course he tired out pretty soon, but I guess he had fun.

So many trees to sniff.

Wanted to support my workplace, so we went to our "Cafe Street" that allowed dogs to go too.

Since we sat down for coffee, we played on some Pokemon Go and came with this funny photo.

Then we went home, had lunch. Early afternoon we decided to go down to the city central, which was a very bad idea, because it's over-tourismed, seriously. But then we went to look for a toilet, went to a shopping centre, then thought "hey, maybe let's go to Toys'R Us here to have a look" and then we found out the Toys'R Us in that location has closed down and instead it's got a... Orchid and orchid painting exhibition gallery thing going on...

And... the holidays are over, back to work tomorrow. Meh.

Oh, and it seems like this time around, LJ is not extending my paid account. I guess my days with LJ are numbered.... or maybe I won't mind the basic account ads so much... we'll see!

It's a series of holidays these days, but surprisingly we aren't exactly as busy as previous Christmas. Friday was the "Macau Handover" so it was a holiday. I made a quick trip to Hong Kong to pick up my running pack for the half marathon next month. I'm a bit nervous as I'm seriously under-prepared. But we'll see. December 20th is also Frankie's Adoptedversary! Five years now!

Saturday was Winter Solstice so the ceramics workshop was closed. Took the chance to get to China to get a manicure.

After the quick trip and lunch in China, I got back to Macau and after I got my car parked and had a roam around.

Some weird installations around town now. We have a night light show kind of thing... Festival of Lights.
Apparently the Snoopy thing is now far and wide. I forgot to upload the photos but there were Snoopys in the Ferry. And here's Snoopy hiding above the building LOL.
Still have a couple days off and I'll have to wrap the presents sooner or later. I don't want to wrap the presents too early because THE CAT. LOL. She destroys everything haha.

My workplace is now having a Peanuts crossover. The whole property is full of.... Woodstocks! LOL! Not Snoopy!  Yes, we have a few Snoopys here and there, in the lobby(ies), and one or two on the outside fountain and signage.

But on every indoor plant is a Woodstock sitting atop. So I firmly believe we are bombarded by Woodstock, and not Snoopy.

Of course we also have the usual suspects. This lounge even has a Peanuts menu.

I got assigned a nice Snoopy table LOL.

I haven't had time to try all the individual menu items, only this... egg-katsu-cutlet rice thing. I mean, it's nothing to write home about, but it also wasn't bad per se. So. Basically just IG-stock, I suppose.

Oh wow sorry, I messed up with Flickr's embed settings now the photos are huge. I'll have to fix them post-copy-posting.

Day 12

Still in Graz, we went to the other side first, to see Schloss Eggenberg (I've never been here). We found a random place for breakfast.
Apparently there was going to be something going on in 2025 so half the Schloss was under renovation.

We were first given a tour of a special state room and whatnot, no photos throughout the tour. After that we were allowed to roam anywhere (except for the toured rooms, which are card-access only)

There was a long corridor with a lot of artowrks.

We meandered back to those off-limits area, and still decided to snag a photo through the windows. They say it's some special design, the first in the time to refer to the Calendar, Time, Astrology, and stuff. (52 windows, 12 rooms, 24 somethings, zodiacs, etc.)

I was very well behaved and did not buy crap LOL.

Peacocks were hanging around!

I find Austria in general to be a very gung-ho or laissez-faire place. If this were Macau, there would be a kazillion signs and a barrier to say off limits to the bird.

Roamed the gardens.

Apparently this garden outside was also special as it was divided into 4 seasons and whatnot.

There were fighting ducks.

There was this.. i forget... geology museum or something. I quite liked this exhibit where there were a few fixed images of certain time periods, then there were other loose magnet pieces that you could move around and say where they were on the map. Again I forget exactly what, but there was one thing about Macau there. Forgot what it was though.

More roaming.

Eventually, it was time to go.

Another place I had researched before. So we all know about the Wiener Schnitzel which is the Viennese Schnitzel, here in Graz, Styria, of course we need the Steirisches Schnitzel! Basically the same thing but the bread crust has pumpkin seeds on it. This was the second best Schnitzel we had in all of Austria (first being in Salmzat, the place no one can read the menu in Vienna).

Sort of got lost when we were looking for a hipster-ish area. Oh I don't have the photos here, but we also went to that restaurant "island" in the middle of the river (Murinsel?).

Eventually found it.

We had a similar issue with not knowing what to do for dinner and decided to take a break from Western food again and went to a Vietnamese place. Had to go a bit far off, and after dinner we were lucky to have found the tram to get back to the hotel.

Day 13

Wanting to make sure I will be meeting with family later at night, I decided to brave it and call my Onkel Richard. Cousin Michael picked up. So I asked if they were going to meet me as per my message a few days ago, and he said they didn't receive any messages. So I told them my plans for the night and they said they'll be there.

So the next thing, MARKET DAY!

We had wanted to eat something right from the market, but nothing really caught our eyes and we didn't want to eat standing up, so we found a bakery with sitting, and went there.

We went up the mountain on this morning!

A tad boring for me since I've been here before already.

Don't know what the lions are fighting about.

Now the museum here I didn't see before, so it was a rather informative visit. I read about how the city came to be (something to do with a deal with the devil).

This TV thing is some interesting technology. You can pan the view to one area, then there are options on-screen and you can "zoom in" to see that area now (I guess it's just a recording) or see that spot in some previous time period (say 1920s, or 1880s, etc).

Because some guy was there busking with that... wok-like instrument, nobody dared to walk through the pavilion.

Just before I took this photo, there was a loud siren, I guess the type before an air attack or some kind of disaster? We don't know why, we don't know for what, but we were freaked for a moment. But since nobody reacted, we... forgot about it.

This was a funny selfie, so I'm leaving it in this large size.

Accidentally cosplayed the clock tower.

This is again something new! Slide down the mountain!

So we slid down this thing! (My original plan was to walk down, but hey!)

Interesting but did not buy.

Got lured into this restaurant by this sign, but service was horrendous. Food was not bad though. I know you must be busy, but don't treat customers like a nuisance, then be so thick skinned and say "tip is not included." I come from tipping-is-not-really-a-thing-land, so I'll tip when I think you deserve it.

We then made our way back to the hotel, picked up our bags, and left for the train to Vienna, where we went to have dinner with my family. So from left to middle to right, Cousin Michael, Onkel Richard, Cousin Barbara, Barbara's husban Marco, Tante Rosemary, Me, and... the waiter that night, because my friend wanted to first take a family photo of us, and the waiter told her to sit with us, but she insisted, so he joined us, LOL. Apparently, on my Onkel's phone, it did show a message came in from me, but the message body was empty. Then I asked Michael if he has whatsapp, and he just answered me yes, which I think... in normal people thinking, if I'm asked "do you have whatsapp?" my automatic reaction would be to take out my phone and say "yes, let's scan each other's contacts!" but no, cousin Michael is a special kind of awkward LOL. Tante Rosemary didn't drink a drop of liquid despite my asking her to get something to drink.

I was feeling a bit weird when Marco was getting refill for drinks, but since he refilled, I asked for refill too, and got my friend refill, heck, I refilled the table. Then, again, when I went to the washroom, I paid the bill, and Marco seemed annoyed. It seemed like he wanted to pay. He gave off "Big man, macho man" vibes (this is my first time meeting him). Like everything must be his way or the highway.

Sorry, I'm a passively-contradicting person. I paid the bill. pffffffffftttttttt.

Day 14

Bratislava! We originally had 11am tickets, but this time, the train changes were to our favor because our 11am-only ticket became valid whole day tickets because of the changes, so we hopped on the 10am bus (replacement service), and rode to some mid-way point then got on the train to Bratislava.

I was a little worried at first, because it was a Sunday, but in a way, thank whoever that Slovakia is not a very advanced country. So, shops and stuff are open on Sundays!

This was an interesting cafe, we said we'd come back to this but never did.

Town square and a manhole shoes shot again.

This was the... I forgot. Town Council museum or something. We got to climb up up up.

Several kids hanging around doing these instant photos.

A real manhole artpiece!

This lunch place also got on my nerves. So we ordered that... i forgot the name, but it's something like a wet spatzle pasta with bacon. We didn't know what it was, because language. It was recommended by the server. When he served, there was no bacon and he said, "So this is the *name of dish*, without bacon!" Because I faintly remember seeing something like bacon bits on the menu explanation, I queried, "without bacon?" and he was, I don't know, being cocky or what, said "Do you see bacon?" and that immediatelly made me mad. "Does it come with bacon? I didn't say no bacon?" and only then he was like, "oh, so you want bacon" as if I had originally asked for it without bacon, wtf?

We then went up another hill to see the palace museum. This is where I dropped my camera and bye-bye lens!

Braved the tram network and went to the other side of town to see the Blue Church. By the time we got there it was closed and was going to start a mass. So just some outside photos and we left.

We took the ferry back to Vienna, along the Danube! Weird the ferry didn't play Blue Danube along the way.

From there we actually went to my Onkel Wolfgang's place. Barbara came over to mediate/translate for us. Again conversation was a bit weird. Onkel Wolfgang was very focused on me being considered "a foreigner" here in Macau. I'm like. wut? I'm more local than a local local would be. But anyway. Language barriers. It was also here that I found out Barbara actually has a son (I knew she has a daughter, didn't know about the son though). It was an awkward exchange LOL. By midnight we decided we should go as we were worried about transport.

Day 15

Final morning! We left early to get our last souvenirs (Sacher cakes; which weren't even that good so next time don't rush for it) and had a quick breakfast. Our spiffy "day card" had expired by the return trip to the hotel... we thought for a bit and decided to brave it. So yeah. We schwarz-fahren-ed one trip LOL. Then back to the hotel to pack up and left for the airport.
No drama there. But I thought I should post this final photo of what I usually tell people (be it in English or Chinese) when they seem to be thinking of Australia.

Flight to Taipei was uneventful. It was a full flight.

This time around the plane change in Taipei we had more time. And there was a Sanrio Pop up going on! We had a quick breakfast in the food court, had bubble tea, and bought some Taiwan snacks for souvenirs.

Isn't it true! Planning a trip is indeed the best part! It's always so exciting to plan a trip and "counting down" to the trip day! But, by the time I'm actually on the trip, I'm just "counting down" to coming back.

Day 7

So we got the Salzburge 2-day card thingamajig and we just had to find expensive enough locations to recoup the cost of that LOL (the Asian in me shines brightly). So... the Salzburg Zoo. The weather itself was a bit dreadful though.
Nothing much to say. There was a smal petting area but basically the animals aren't in full enclosures. There was also a fully enclosed space with a prop-cabinet and the animals inside were.... field rats! That was a cute exhibit.
Anyway, more random photos until we left around mid-day.
There was an exhibit of that (forgot which country) prayer wheel.
Needed an ice cream upon our departure!
The next expensive thing was another bus ride away to the Cable Car Untersberg. Well, due to the poor weather, we didn't get to see much.
But we got to see snow! So we went up the cable car with some other people. When we were up, there was a Chinese couple, man and woman. So the man was walking far enough "meh, it's just snow!" and the woman was like, "it's so steep! it's snow! I can't walk up!" Now. That hill was just half covered in snow, as you can see me there. The lady was walking in the snow complaining that it's slippery. I walked in the rubble practically next to her and it was an easy way up. I also muttered in a low voice that "you can just walk to the side."

It got pretty foggy the further we went up, so my friend and I decided to walk back and get a hot chocolate. The Chinese couple continued on, and an Indian couple also continued on. When we finished with our hot chocolate, we saw the Indian couple coming back. We went back down the cable car, Chinese couple not in sight. It wasn't the last ride downhill, but we were a bit concerned for them.
We took the long bus ride back into town and it was like some 20 minutes before 5pm... we decided we could squeeze in the Toy Museum (make use of that card).
He had a quick snack at one of the cafes (Tomaselli I think)
Well, this photo reminds me, it was THIS night we went to the Asian restaurant. So the other night we went Indian! The funning thing here was, Sriracha has a Chinese name that's basically an assimilated sounding "Si-Lai-Cha". But my friend read the characters the other way (as in books, right to left), she read it "Cha-Lai"Si" and asked me what sauce it was. I was like... er......... Si Lai Cha ya?
Day 8

Another super early day because it was a 3-hour train ride and we just went to Klagenfurt and dropped off our bags in the Hotel. Which. Made me so confused. I said I wanted to leave our bags. The lady said ok. I took out my passport, she says I can't check in now. I said I don't need to check in, but in order to leave my bags, she would have to confirm that I have a booking there, right? But she refused to take my passport. ???????????????

I don't get it. Am I living in another... dimension?
We rushed rushed rushed to a castle, HochOsterwitz. My Dad kept sendning me videos and articles about this place, so I decided I would go. There's only 3 scheduled busses a day from the train station to the castle, and none of the times seem to fit. So we walked.
It was a nice walk. 20 minutes or so.
Hochosterwitz!
It actually got to be a bit boring LOL
There was a roadsign saying "pedestrian this way" and it was like... forest road. I really wanted to walk out to the car-road (asphalt road?)
So we got a ticket to go up the cable car, but I later find out something.
I thought the castle itself was a bit bland. There was an exhibition room, and then a restaurant, and just views...
Food wasn't bad either.
Only as we left did we realize, the visit was supposed to be a walk up the hill because there's like 14 gates along the way going up, and THESE were the sights.

But ah, I think we were good, going up by the lift then walking down.

I thought that no dog poopy sign was funny.

More random photos.

After a final rush to the correct train platform, we returned to Klagenfurt. I found out I had another issue with the train ticket going to Leoben, and this time, FINALLY the lady at Oebb here in Klagenfurt acted like a normal human being. She was very helpful. Information came readily (not like pulling teeth).
I sort of suspect Klagenfurt has some Asian (Japanese maybe) people in their marketing team. There's a lot of IP/dragon(wyvern?)-related merchandize and marketing.

The restaurant had the dragon (or... wyvern?).

And of course the town square.

Oh yeah, some time in the afternoon when we arrived back and before dinner, we did ask about bicycle rentals and bicycle routes and were recommended a route, which basically was what I researched about. So... the next day would be our bike day!

Day 3: Linz

We had some issue with our train tickets because of the heavy rains the previous week. The service agent I had to talk to in Vienna just... had me at my wits' ends. I don't recall exactly what it was though (good thing I forget about the bad things LOL), but it was like, because I bought the sparscheine ticket, it was only valid for that one particular train. But due to the cancellations, my ticket got turned into a "super"-ticket and was good for any train on that day. So I went to ask what I had to do, and the service agent just said, "it's valid for the day." "But WHAT do I have to do?" "You don't have to do anything! It's valid!" "But what does it mean? Do I need a paper that says my ticket is valid? So I can hop on any other train today? WHAT does it mean?" ugh. That was a conversation.

Once we reached Linz, we first headed to our hotel to drop off our bags. This was a weird hotel LOL. It's under renovation, I guess renovating to make it all cute. It's fine. But. The areas being renovated are not closed off, so we had to walk through a renovating corridor, wtf? And our room too, the... Trunking? Cladding? was still all open (where they drill a recess into the wall for the cabling/pipes/whatever).

My friend was the one and only Asian I saw on that day in Linz, haha!

After asking at the tourist info point, we got up the Postlingberg and had a quick bite with excellent views!

And very soon a bee came flying about our seat and we had to wave it off.

I wasn't exactly sure what the Grottenbahn was, I only knew it was some sort of train ride?

So we go look.

So it's a fairy tale train thingamajig.

The train made 3 round around that tunnel. First round the lights on the left wall was on, second round the lights on the right wall was on, and the last round all the lights went on.

After the train ride, we had to go down into a huge room, with small rooms that had displays of fairy tales.

Some fairy tales I sort of knew about, some I outright knew that Disney has "prettified" them... but there were also some weird fairy tales that just made me go WTF.

I know German fairy tales are usually dark but HEY! WHAT IS THE PRINCE DOING MARRYING THE TWO SISTERS???????????????????????? (I have never heard of this Snow-white and Rose-red)

We then just walked around a bit the Postlingberg. Going up, the train track was still under maintenance, so we were lucky by the time we left that the train track to fixed. The other weird thing is, there's no staff there, so who nobody really knew when the train would have come.

Back down in the Hauptplatz, we walked around and visited a few places I had marked.

We first saw this pedestrian green light but didn't notice, but apparently, there's quite a few LGBT(whatever else) pedestrian lights around.

Dinner location. Food wasn't bad.

We started to actually look at the traffic lights LOL

Day 4: Linz > Salzburg

I forgot to shoot a photo, but while the hotel itself was in a weird state due to the renovations, the hotel served EXCELLENT breakfast. I loved it. Thinking about it and I'm hungry again. After breakfast, we decided to explore a little more of the city, since our 24-hour card was still valid. But then we took a wrong turn and sort of got lost, then we had to rush back to the hotel to get our bags and onwards to our train towards Salzburg!

Once again, I booked a hotel right next to the train station, so it was just dropping them off, then off we went to hunt for lunch.

Found this place "Baerenwirt" where the internets say they serve great fried chicken, and wowzers they served GREAT FRIED CHICKEN. It was delivious!

OMG I want to eat that chicken again.

Christmas shops!

We got to Salzburg old town and since I've been here already and know more or less, I decided to skip this, while my friend went in to see.

So I just meandered around. I bought a St Christopher keychain, I remembered I did not have any St Christopher thing in my new car, so figured I might as well get that. (There's a follow up story to this key chain later back in Macau)

Had to hide in churches and shops as it was still drizzly.

Made our way back to the hotel as we had to get changed.

We virtually bought every brand of Mozartkugel that we saw (except for Mirabel)

We had an Opera Dinner at St Peter Stiftskulinarium. Food was okay. It's really more of a gimmick anyway.

Weird decor in this part of the restaurant.

What did I say, we were looking!

yes yes, sorry. I meant to sort out the travel photos, but I haven't done that yet. But on a positive note, I've sorted out the lens of my camera! So I was expecting to spend HKD2500 on a new standard basic (16-50mm) lens for my camera. On Saturday, I went for lunch with my friend J (photos later) and after lunch, walked past an old but well-known local camera shop, so I figured I'd step in there to ask. So I managed to get an authentic lens, but it being a "parallel import" (had to google how to explain 水貨) it was just under HKD1000 with a UV filter attachment. Yay. And although the new lense has a black body (my previous one had a silver body), it's all cosmetic, so I'm happy I got a working camera again.

So on Saturday being All Soul's Day, it was cemetery day again. Went the usual few plots. (Photo is a random spot though). So most of our families' plots are now "in the drawers" but the most recent Uncle that passed is in a plot. The way it goes here is: you can either get cremated then go in the "drawer" right away, or your can "rent" a plot (land) for ground burial for 7 years. End of 7 years you get dug up, if you've degraded enough, bones get washed up and grinded and go in an urn and into the "drawer". If you've still not degraded enough, they put you back into the grave for 1 extra year, so by 8th year you're coming up.

After the cemetery visit, I went for lunch with J. She found a Russian Restaurant and she wanted to try. Though I think it's really just "attempted Russian"... but I haven't had authentic Russian so I don't know what we had was authentic or not.

Beetroot soup, beetroot and salmon salad

Russian dumplings, some kind of sour fish

BBQ Ribs (I don't think this is Russian at all, tastes standard, honey glaze)

And after lunch as we walked towards our respective bus stops, I saw the camera shop and that's when I got the lens.

I also got into a new side-hobby LOL. I got a loom! I was all for getting one of those automatic one where you spin the handle and it goes on its own, but I was worried I would just use it once and forget about it, so instead of a MOP160 purchase, I went for a MOP10 purchase of that green thing you see LOL. I also was not expected that one ball of yarn to last so long, so I got 4 balls of that, but it seems as if 1 would be enough LOL.

And you see! That was just in 1 night! This was super fast! This was a simple knit. Since I have so much yarn now, I will next try another knit which looks so difficult to finish. Even in actual knitting, I can knit, but I don't know how to close out the knit. So it's going to be an interesting process when it's time to close it.

And then Sunday the usual dog-beach-walk. I noticed that Sai-Lup now doesn't quite know how to walk. The way he moves his legs (but he's on his wheel-chair-wagon-thing) looks very similar to another old neighbourhood dog "Bobby". Legs moved very slowly, every step unsure, etc. I guess the acupuncture sessions are not helping much.