Sunday, October 14, 2007

09 April - Brest, Oceanopolis (Day 81)

At 630am, I shot up from bed when the alarm went off. Damn! So fast? I only remembered that I had just closed my eyes and it was already morning. Hope I wouldn’t feel too sleepy later at the Oceanopolis. I left for the train station and got my tickets there. While waiting at the platform, I saw many people with luggage boarding and alighting from the train. It reminded me of my first day in Paris with all those cumbersome luggage. I would have to do that again in June when I go down to Grenoble. And it would be a lot more crowded I guess. The train ride was more than 2 hrs and I slept for half of the journey. When I reached the train station in Brest, I went to look at the locality map and found out that the Oceanopolis was 3km away. Not knowing which direction I should take, I just followed the signs and soon I was lost.

I went to a couple who were having their morning stroll and asked for direction. They said they had not heard of Oceanopolis because they do not actually live here. Hence I moved on and saw 2 young men and asked again. They told me to walk further down and I did. While I was walking, the sea was on my right but it was blocked from my view by the chemical plants, factories, shipyards, etc; like those in Jurong. I came to a junction and beyond that there were no more signs for the Oceanopolis. I turned back and saw some middle aged men walking towards me and I wanted to ask them for direction. Before I could open my mouth, they started to ask me where the Oceanopolis was. Great, getting lost together with a bunch of old men. In the end we decided to walk further on and stopped at a bus station. It seemed like we had to take a bus. But I had walked so far now and probably the Oceanopolis was just a few hundred metres away. The bus came and I boarded it with the guys and luckily I made the right decision because the Oceanopolis was still quite a distance away. When we reached there, the men alighted and when they saw that the price was 15 euros per entry, they dropped the idea and boarded the bus again back to the city centre. For me, I didn’t care because I had already spent that much taking the train here. From now on, any place that is more than 1km away from the train station, I would find out what bus to take to reach there. I had wasted 40min in the morning just on walking.

The Oceanopolis was by the sea, far away from the town centre. At the entrance, I paid only 10.5 euros because I had a student card. I realized that it is very advantages to be under 25 in Europe as you will get a lot of reductions for visits. I wonder is it the same in SG. Previously I thought of visiting Europe after I have graduated and started working. Now I must say that the best time to visit Europe is when you are young, under 25 and still a student. You definitely would save up a lot more. I think I would visit Europe again for my graduation tour because that would be the last chance I could enjoy the reductions. Anyway, I went into the complex and there were 3 pavilions; Tropical, Polar and Tempere (which I had no idea what it was). The first pavilion I went to was Tropical and the first section was on sharks. There were various kinds of shark and of course the famous Big White Shark. For a large complex like this, I would say it was almost empty. Unlike the Underwater World in SG which is always packed with tourists. I tried taking pictures of the sharks but found that it was quite impossible because they were swimming too fast. Hence I took some videos with my camera.

The visit would be more meaningful and educational for me if the audio explanations were in English. The texts displayed were limited; for a page of French, only a paragraph was dedicated for English. And I saw a funny notice in English: “Flashlights from camera are not prohibited” and then there was a picture of a camera with the flash struck out by a cross. So am I allowed to use flashlights or not? In the end I didn’t because no one inside did. After the shark section, I came to the general fish area where I found Nemo, Dorothy, Lionfish and some hideous looking fishes. My dad used to have an aquarium with all these kinds of seawater fishes, including the poisonous lionfish and puffers. And he had Nemo (which was not famous then), seahorses, zebra fish, and various corals. I really find them beautiful. Now as he is getting old, he doesn’t have the energy to take care of fishes and keeps only goldfish. I always thought rearing fishes as pets is boring because they would just swim here and there and can’t even make a sound. At least the dog can bark, the cat can meow and even hamsters can squeak. But I think I would have an aquarium of seawater fish after I start to work. It is a very costly hobby.

The tropical pavilion ended outside the complex, with an artificial rainforest built there. There was a tank there full of tetras, and I can’t believe they were featured specifically here because my brother has 100 of them back at home. Luckily I didn’t see any guppies because that would really be an anti climax. To the Europeans, these tropical fishes perhaps are unique. But not for me as I see them everyday at home. Next I went on to the Polar Pavilion and there was this Omnitheatre screening about the life in Antarctica. The show was in 3D. There was no language barrier for me because there was just music and no narration. Only penguins and seals were featured. At the end of the show, the wall on the side began drawing up automatically and behind it was a glass window through which we were greeted by cute penguins! They were like soldiers standing in a straight line looking at us. I saw how they swam and damn they were fast. Just like fish. And when they needed to get back on the land, they would shoot up from the bottom like rockets and hopped onto the ice sheets. The next section was on the seals but disappointingly there were just a few there.

After that, I went back to the Tropical Pavilion again because I didn’t remember being really “under water” or had any experience of that sort. All I saw was through fish tanks. I had not been to the Underwater World in Sentosa (or perhaps I did but I could have forgotten) but I had an impression that they have conveyer belts transporting visitors around. And all the while they would be underwater, with fishes swimming above them. That was the experience that I wanted to have. Then I saw an elevator which had a notice saying that it was a new feature which would bring visitors underwater. Yes! That was the one that I was looking for! I entered the huge elevator with some other tourists and soon it began to descend very slowly. The walls of the elevator were made of glass and we could see the fishes through them. But this wasn’t what I wanted! The elevator did bring me to the bottom of the sea but I wanted to be surrounded by fishes! To me, it still looked like looking into a huge fish tank. I left the Pavilion feeling cheated and went to the last one, Tempere which I had no idea what it was. And there was nothing there except an auditorium which I didn’t want to go because I wouldn’t be able to understand the show. Hence I went to a gift shop and bought some more souvenirs. With all these souvenirs that I am collecting now, I think I would have a hard time bringing them back to SG. I think I would put them in one big plastic bag (find those nice looking ones) and hand carry them up the plane. Although only one hand carry luggage is allowed (which would be my backpack), I saw many people carrying more than one up the plane.

Overall, it was an enjoyable trip and a refreshing feeling especially after all those previous visits to other medieval towns. I used to feel that modern technologies or places are not as appealing to me as things with rich historical values. But really, I am kind of tired of cathedrals and castles by now. Hence, perhaps a good replacement for the Loire Valley trip (which seems to be quite infeasible) would be Amsterdam which I had ruled out initially because there aren’t much historical sites there. Will discuss this with hui. The Oceanopolis was not as good as the one we had in SG in my opinion and the penguins in the Polar Pavilion were too few, incomparable to the one in Bird Park. And the seals were less lively than those in the Mandai Zoo. Therefore, I would visit some of these places of interest in SG when I returned. I told this to my sup when he was driving me back home after the soccer game. He said that is what one would think when he is traveling. But when he gets back home, he would turn on the TV and stay at home. Wah. I hope I wouldn’t be like that. Until this point, it is only half of my trip in Brest. I could have stayed there for the entire day but instead I stayed for 2.5 hrs, half an hour more than what the guide recommended. The guide is so good that it even gives you a rough idea how much time you should spend on some locations.

I left the Oceanopolis and went to the coast. I couldn’t take a good picture of the place because there was no way I could captured the entire panorama. There is a function in my camera that allows user to take multiple pictures and join them together to form one big picture and the function is called “panorama” specifically for this effect. I will try to find out how to use this function before I visit Cap Frehel which is a beautiful coast in the North. At the edge of the cliff, I saw some people canoeing and I really felt like joining them. There were a lot of people windsurfing and sailing too. This place was a bonus for the Oceanopolis trip and I realised that Brittany indeed has the most beautiful coastlines in France as what my colleagues had told me. After spending awhile there, I took the bus back to the town centre for the 2nd half of my trip.

The train station was not within the town centre and so I didn’t get off the bus when the bus passed by it. I just let the bus bring me further on and alighted when I saw a lot of people alighting. From there, I found my way to the Maritime Museum which is an offshoot of a bigger one in Paris. Brest is near the Atlantic Ocean and it plays an important role in coordinating Naval forces in this region. The museum was housed inside the castle, the only thing that had some historical values of Brest. Everything else in the town was destroyed during WWII after the town suffered heavy bombardments by the allies when the Germans were here. Part of the castle was used as the Naval Command Post of the region since 1953 until now. The castle was built by the Romans about 1000 years ago. The English took over it in the 14C but between the time when the Romans left and the taking over by the English, nothing was knew about the castle. Thereafter, the French took over the castle and there was a series of sieges which was known as the Religion War. The French Protestants defended the castle from the constant bombardment by the local Catholics with the help of Spanish Catholics. After the war, from 18C onwards, huge transformation was made to the castle. The towers were of no use with the introduction of gunpowder and they had cannons and artillery added on the ramparts.

The first part of the Museum was on modern warships and speaking about them, it was really interesting to see warships docked at the river in front of the castle. And across the river is the largest drawbridge in Europe. I didn’t feel that the bridge was very large but since the guide said that it is the largest, I guess it should be. Anyway, while looking at those models of warship, it reminded me of the times when I was doing model making. I wonder how is Nakamoto now, the Japanese who taught us how to make models. He is probably making lots of money because we find him a rather shrewd businessman. And I thought of Jon too who is a Navy officer and whose father is also an officer in the Navy. And both of them have the serious, stern, no joke kind of character. After the warship section, I came to the section that featured on the crafts used between the 17C and 19C. The ships had sails, cannons and were made of wood. I couldn’t help but to think of the movie “Master and Commander, Far Side of the World” which I watched with hui. There was a video showing how the ships were constructed but too bad it was in French. I could still understand a bit when it comes to reading but when it comes to listening, I would learn zero. What interest me most were the sculptures displayed in that section. In the past, the ships had sculptures at the front and normally it would be a female. The final section was an art gallery displaying the work of a Breton artist who likes to draw scenery of the sea, coasts and islands in Brittany. Even though his strokes were messy, but when assembled together as a picture, it was very artistic. Especially the way he drew the choppy sea with waves crashing against the cliff on which stands the lighthouse. And the broken clouds above the sea from which the sun’s rays try to squeeze through.


I was taking my own sweet time touring the museum and reading the texts which were all in French and so needed a lot more time. Then I realised that it was past 530pm and I had to catch the train at 631pm. I was not that worried because I knew the train station was 1 km away from the town centre and I had a rough idea the general direction that I should take since the bus did pass by it before. I was following the signs for most of the time and when there were no signs, I would go to the bus station and look at the map. It was pretty tiring especially I had spent 40 min in the morning trying to walk to the Oceanopolis. And also because of Thursday soccer game and I felt my hamstring pulling tight. Then it came a point where there were no bus stations for a long time. I didn’t want to backtrack as I felt that I still had time to explore on my own. At 610pm, I found myself running. It wasn’t that kind of half jog half brisk walk. I was practically just running along the street. I stopped a young man and asked him where the Gare (train station) was. He told me (in French) to go to Place Liberte down the road. Thereafter I had to turn left and I couldn’t understand the following instructions. Seeing that I still looked uncertain, he tried to explain again the part after the turning left portion. But it was 615pm then and I had no time. I thanked him and started running again. I decided to ask another person again after I had turned left from Place Liberte.

I was really panicky while running because I had bought the return ticket back and didn’t want to miss the train. But what worried me most was the train was the last one for the day. In my previous trips I had such incidents of almost late for the train but never this frightful. At that time I knew exactly where the train station was but was just a little bit short of time. Now, I had no idea where it was and had even shorter time. I decided to make a bold decision by turning left before reaching Place Liberte because it really seemed very far. I was hoping I would in this way found a short cut. So I turned left and ran up to this man with his daughter. I asked the father where is the train station. By now I was panting and I completely dropped the politeness. Previously I would ask “excuzay-moi monsieur. Est-ce que vous savez ou est le Gare?” (excuse me Mister. Do you know where is the Gare?) Now I just said excuse me and where is the Gare. I had no time for courtesy. He said just down the road and I would see it. I thanked him and ran again. When I reached the end of the road there was a T junction and I had to make a choice between turning left and right. Freak. It was almost 625pm by then. I saw a tower on my right which I guessed could be the Gare. I didn’t take a good look at the train station when I first came here. But I hoped it wasn’t the Gare because it was about 1km away and I had slightly more than 5 min left. I wanted to turn left even though there was nothing there. I was thinking perhaps I would stumble upon the Gare suddenly. But if I made the wrong decision, I would have gone further away from the Gare and any chance of catching the train would be gone. If I had the time, I would definitely turn left and explore. But I didn’t.

An old lady walked past me and I asked her where is the Gare. She pointed at the tower and said that’s the one. Shit. It really was. 5 more minutes. I made a 100m dash to the station although it was more like 800m. By the time I reached the station, I had to find out from the screen which platform to go to and had to punch my ticket using the machine. I turned back and double checked the screen again because I didn’t want to end up boarding the wrong train because of rushing. I boarded the train with a sigh of relief and just after I had sat down, the controller blew the whistle and the train started to move. I was panting and sweating then and my legs were burning like hell. But I was just glad I was on my way home again. This was the closest encounter of missing the train I ever had and I told myself don’t play play on the next trip again.

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