The Unintended Trip Part 1 (Brussels, Belgium)

Before going on exchange, it has never ever crossed my mind that I would be visiting Belgium, Iceland and Denmark. They all sounded too cold for me. But life is all about surprises and ad – hoc decisions 🙂 so here I am, overloaded with Belgian chocolates and missing Icelandic water, recalling my 12 days trip to these wonderful places.

Embarked for Brussels on Feb 20th, 4pm, we got off the shuttle bus at 3:35pm. Thank GOODNESS we made it. Upon arrival, we saw several of these ugly hearts and I wonder what sin did this person commit… The next day we woke up and we saw this huge protest from people wearing Red, Blue and Green respectively. (Research has shown that it was one of the biggest Anti-Austerity Protest)

Brussels was cold, I couldn’t bring my hands out to take more photos but here I saw some wooden llamas and color-coated bottles so I had to take a photo of it.

There was a gallery featuring Hong Kong photos and I suddenly miss home, and the vita soy, and the BBQ pork, and Japanese Food.

This is our lunch place! It was really good money for value. That was our first meal of deep fried food…Brussselians LOVE fried food… Did you know French fries were invented here?

1) Gueze Beer. They say it tastes like vomit, but I actually liked the sourness of it. We also visited a beer brewing factory and had a taste of lambac and cherry gueze beer. (NEVER try cherry, one way or another they taste like meds)

Perhaps I just wasn’t a big science person nor a beer fan, that’s why bottling and labeling was the only processes that I understood 😛

Those brownish mushy stuff right there was how it all started. It smells so warm and good, like ovaltine. (And I’m not short, the boxes were just stacked high :P)

2) Pissing statue… I simply didn’t understand their fascination with pissing stuff. There’s this pissing dog, and then the manneken pis…which is supposed to be THE tourist place, but I.T. W.A.S T.I.N.Y. NOW I am pissed.

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3) Of course there were the lovely waffles too ❤ I must have had fries and waffles as many times as I tripped/stepped on poop because of concentrating on the map.

4) The Tin Tin and the graffitis, they were all over the streets! You just got to be super eagle eye to spot them 😉

5) CHOCOLATES !!! This was basically why I even took notice of Brussels, not because it is the Capital of EU. There was a street with ALL kind of chocolates, and of course I didn’t buy any Godiva. AND WE HAD CAKE FOR DINNER :O

Mary’s is my favorite one 🙂

V: (pointing to a 60 year old lady) Hey the sales lady over there looks like the owner, you think she is Mary?

ME: (pointing under the logo) The shop was established in 1919, do you think she looks 94?

Dinner in the hostel common area , girls eating Salad.

V: Look at them eating salad…OUR dinner looks so much more delicious!

ME: Yea, that’s also why they are thinner…

Well who cares 🙂 The cake and chocolates were heavenly. It was chocolate mousse with creme brulee filling. The bottom crust was ALSO CHOCOLATE. aaah god.

Erm… we also went to a flea market…after it was over. Apparently the owners just leave whatever they don’t want anymore for free. And my dear friend and I started searching for treasure/trash, along with the hobos… yea it was fun. She got her Discs for I-Don’t-know-what

Note to self: MAKE SURE you go to these markets in the MOOOoooorning.

At night we arrived a square thingy (which all looks the same everywhere, in Madrid, or Bordeaux) and IT REALLY WAS FREEZING. I couldn’t stand it anymore and called it a day.

Please note that we did ALL THOSE, in one day. Thank you very much. (Yes you might say that on day 1 walking 10 hours is normal, but do note that I have been walking for at least 6 hours a day for 8 days right before the trip… It was just such a huge challenge for me but I made it alive and enjoyed every bit of me, except some of the hostel but we will get to that 🙂

Sweet water? Dolceacqua, Italy

After seeing all the ancient villages in France, let’s move on to their close neighbor, Italy! How wonderful, in just 2 hours train you find yourself on the land of ITALY.

Ventimiglia has an overrated friday market, but their cheese and ham was already worth it.

The store owner might look fierce here, but he was actually really nice! He kept urging that I eat more of his cheese and gave me a discount 🙂 The reggiano was really good especially when it goes with the parma ham ❤ (I forgot how many pieces I “tried”)

Then we were done here. Moving on to another random destination, with the sweetest name – Dolceacqua, even though I know not Italian, I could make out that it means “sweet(it can mean fresh too) water” 🙂 Now, you might think you have seen all of the Lord-of-the-Ring-villages, but THIS! This blew my mind away. This is the place with the least tourists amongst all other old villages I have been to. People actually still live here!

The weather was flawless. The clouds has finally decided to cooperate with us and the sun worked seamlessly with the river to create the spotless mirror under the bridges.

On a side note, this has got to be the sunniest day which I forgot to put on sunscreen -,-

If I were alone, I doubt that I would have the courage to walk under…

Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.

The dwarves of yore made mightly spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep,
In hollow halls beneath the fells.

Then we saw this old lady, stumbling her way up the steep slope, resting every once in awhile. It made me sad to see how she was dragging herself while we were skipping along so effortlessly. How great to be young was my first thought, but my second was, what if I become old and weak? Then I realized there is no doubt that one day I WILL become old. The least I can do is make myself healthy so as to prolong the days of traveling and eating whatever I want 😥 Time is ridiculously ruthless.

This angry cat suddenly disrupted my thoughts with its meowing. Well little tiger, what are you starring at?

As we hiked up the village, we came across a choice, the 5 mins walk and the 45 mins walk. Guess which one we took? Well to the left it is 🙂

Indeed to see great views, one must climb the hills.

Despite of the inappropriate shoes, the heavy cheese and ham in our bags and our way too warm clothing, we made it there!

This is exactly the scene that Monet saw and painted in 1884. Unbelievable how some things can last hundreds of years. When the world changes, this picturesque village just seem to remain as it has always been. As if nothing sad has ever happened, and no one ever grew old or die young.

As we hiked down, all restaurants were closed and I started feeling dizzy either because of the heat, the lack of food or the daunting thoughts of growing old. It probably was the lack of food because we only had gelato all morning… (CREMA gelato, whatever that is, was the best one I have ever had and so cheap 3.8 euros for 3 scoops ❤ Can’t wait to actually go to REAL Italy 😛 , sorry Ventimiglia, you are too close to me to be labelled “real” Italy.

How I wish you were, Missing Puzzle Piece, you would have loved it. At least you got the postcard this time finally 🙂

The aromatic city – Grasse

I started to think I am a natural in traveling for day trips near home. Not only am I good at matching suitable point of interests with my friends, I am also good at planning.

On the day to Grasse, the town of Perfume, we changed bus so seamlessly: the moment we got off bus 200, the bus to Grasse was just right behind. It was the exact same situation on the return bus ride 😉 OH what a genius I am. (done with boasting mode, moving on!) There are 3 major perfumeries in Grasse, but they all kind of sound alike just to confuse us. So first on Fragonard, there was an art collection museum and traditional jewelry and clothing museum (for free) that was quite nice to visit. (There were CCTV everywhere so I could not snatch a photo of the beautiful necklaces and keychains)

Apart from shopping for perfumes, each perfumery provides free guided tour in English. Or at least they claimed so. When we were at Molinard, they said there were no English tours for that day. 😦

Just when we were about to leave with a disappointed heart, I saw a group of tourists speaking alien language (I assumed it was french) and I thought, oh well it’s free, might as well spend 30 minutes to see what’s inside!)

So we followed the crowd and proceeded with the tour. Midway I realized it was an Italian guided tour and I could not stop laughing at my stupidity. We nodded as if we understood fully.

Thank god there were occasionally written english descriptions on the methods of making perfume. We got to test our sense by smelling different scents and guessing what it was.

At the end – the highlight of our tour! Making customized perfume! I was never a perfume person, but I am definitely in for anything that I can play around with.

For 45 euros you get 2 hours to mess around with 80 different fragrances, a bottle of self-made 100 ml perfume with your own label, your own formula number and a certificate ❤

First you choose 3 scents from several categories and/or vanilla. Then you pick 3 fond notes from the categories you previously picked. 6 scents of the heart notes were then added into the cylinder.

Every time you add a new scent, you have to pour it out and back in so it is mixed thoroughly. Then you dip in the perfume paper and smell the new scent through it to check if they are compatible.

Oddly enough, some scents smells extremely terrible on their own, but surprisingly pleasant along with other scents while some just stinks one way or another.

Lastly 5 peak notes were selected and your bottle was removed and labeled with the name you picked. The lady in lab coat explained to us how to test whether the scents go well together and all in all was a special experience. I think my nose was numb afterwards.

To my pleasant surprise, no bottles were broken and not even a single drop of perfume was spilled. Skillful me. (Very unlike my usual self)

VOILA, here is the end product. 🙂

Festivals!

For some reasons, there seems to always be some kind of festivals happening in a certain part of the South. Apart from the circus festival in Monaco in January, there was a small scaled festival on love, chocolate and pastry in Antibes. And yes of course there was free tasting.

Then there was the Nice Carnival. To be honest, I was not quite sure why everyone was so excited about ugly humongous cartoon characters being all over the city, but perhaps French people really like parades that much.

Traditional specialty snack – Socca. Actually only the crispy layer on the outside taste good. The middle felt like it was not cooked through.

Another festival was rather random – Menton Lemon Festival. They made use of lemons and oranges to build landmarks from “Around the World in 80 days.”

No wonder it was so expensive to buy lemons around here (sigh) They must have used millions of it to create all the displays. It might sound boring but actually the atmosphere was quite enjoyable 🙂

There were live performances in accordance with the display, such as fire dancing near the Japanese temple, saxophone performance at the entrance, french comedy show, indian dancing and last but not least, fake Beatles performance at the UK section.

Actually the whole festival was rather hilarious… The crepe maker asked me to take a photo of him with the hat on.

Poor baby, frozen and did not understand what was going on.

Perhaps the idea here is that when you love life, anything or any day can be a celebration or a festival.

Once upon a time…

Amidst the rather “famous” cities in Southern France such as Cannes and Nice, there lies several captivating small villages that are really worth going. They might all look kind of similar at first glance, but to actually be there you can feel the subtle differences amongst the lay out of the village, the pavements, the twists and turns between the alleys.

Saint Paul de Vence

Traveling back to Medieval Ages, the entire village was erected back in the 14th-15th century but amongst the old fortress and cottages, the place was painted with a modernistic aura.

Right above the tourism office is a free art gallery. (With random black and white rocks that I have no clue about…)

Although art is not my thing, it really added a special coating to the entire village. Art galleries of different themes and styles were on every corner, each with a beautifully crafted sign hanging from the top.

Then there were always random art pieces, sculptures just lying all over the village, blending in. (Or standing out) Art is inextricably linked to the village, not a single piece can be left out.

It was as if I were in the Middle Earth of Lord of the Rings.

I know.. photos overload, but it was just hard to describe with words! See for yourself 🙂

Have a nice day! More on other villages tomorrow.

Eze

Now heading towards Monaco/Italy, there lies an even smaller village all the way up the top of a mountain – Eze. It is famous for even Nietzsche found the truth of life while hiking up the hill top. Of course I just took the bus up for I am no philosopher… I thought I could just go to one of the two and I would have seen it all, but the truth is, the view up Eze is very different.

From the top you can have a gorgeous view of the ocean (the weather was not perfect unfortunately…) and on one side you see the old clock tower.

Eze feels even older, and less touristic. There were so few stores (or perhaps it’s off season) and the style is slightly more reserved.

There were also metal giraffes in a hotel! (I love giraffes for reasons that I am not quite sure of) It’s like how I felt towards stars and chocolates and all other adorable things.

Arcachon (Bordeaux Finale)

Last day in Bordeaux! I was annoyed by mosquito at 3 am… and my leg decided to protest against the non-stop walking by having cramps at 5 am 😛 But of course, those small incidents did not stop me from taking the morning train to Arcachon! The only thing there really, is the largest sand dune in Europe! (500 m wide and almost 200 m tall O.O)

I was so lucky to have met another student who is studying abroad in Germany at the tiny bus – stop.

If not I could have fell from the sand dune, rolled down, broke my ribs, got stab by branches straight down my throat and no one would notice… (I wouldn’t look like this if that happened… somehow extremely windy that day, but also sunny so I will not complain 😛 at least it didn’t rain!)

But we were not the only ones, there was a group of high schoolers from Dublin for a French study trip. The teachers were really nice, and they made me missed high school. So much.

The sand dune was situated between a huge forest and the ocean. I did not understand how it just build up there but apparently it has been there for thousands of years. Another thing that I have learnt from my exchange in Europe is how magnificent and absolutely gorgeous nature is. I was so proud that I made it up and came back down without falling/tumbling/rolling.

After the girl left for her train, I scrolled around the “winter town” which was just local homes painted for tourists with random names like Mona Lisa.

I managed to arrive a park by looking at the map and an old lady approached me. She could only speak french but to my understanding, she wanted me to follow her to a nicer area. Once we left, she told me that park was not safe and dangerous people go there. (again, I tried my best to interpret her, we could not communicate verbally AT ALL). Her kindness however, shinned through our language barrier:) She showed me the way back down and I was disappointed to find the boat rides were all cancelled.

I still had some time before the next train so I went into a local supermarket and FOUND THE LINDT CHOCOLATE at a cheaper price so I bought 7 packs. When I checked out, the old man behind me asked if I like chocolates 😛 and then he asked if I am Russian… I wondered what happened to the way I look 😛

After huge effort to clear out the sand from my shoes, bags, jacket’s pockets and HAIR, I took the train home.

The last dinner at Bordeaux was completed in a “Michelin” recommended restaurant that is good value for money 🙂 It really was worth every euro I paid. If only I live here, I will come every week to try their menu.

When we arrived at 7:30pm, I was disappointed that there were nobody.

Menu in French, the lady was so kind to translate everything for us 🙂

Pumkin Puree Cold Soup

Appetizer A: it’s actually just ham and cheese on pastry but they managed to make it taste good

Appetizer B: Mushroom Soup with random delicious stuff in the middle. 😛

Main Course A: Baby cow.

Main Course B: (what my mom would get, so I got this) FISH the sauce was really good I loved my main course most

Main Course C: Knuckles!

Side dishes

Dessert A: Quite self explanatory I think, it’s simply impossible for anything chocolate to taste bad.

Dessert B: Cheesecake (It was really fluid, kind of like a sweet cheese soup but with peach at the bottom so the flavor is balanced out 😉

Dessert C: I can’t remember what this is but the top was definitely ice cream 🙂

By the time we were about to leave, the restaurant was bustled with hungry people.

Bordeaux Day 3 & 4

It is day 3, and it is a SUNDAY! While most things are closed on sundays in Europe, markets are still happening. That is where everyone goes with their family to scroll around, bond and enjoy some quality time together. So with that in mind, we started walking along the harbor and passed by the first “touristy” place, Place des Quinconces, which is one of the largest square in the whole of Europe.

Right in front of us was already the port! It was finally sunny and the market welcomed me with bustling chatters from the excited crowd. Food were fresh and they smelled good.

Oyster, Seafood grill and a chocolate cake for lunch.

There was also a street skating area – FOR KIDS. They were just so adorable. They fell, cried, got up and rolled again. They made mistakes, and they moved on and tried again.

What is it about growing up that made us lose this ability to look past things and carry on? When did I lose the courage to learn from trial and error?

Then we walked through the grand bridge and there were basically nothing on the other side…just like the dead city from I Am Legend. Walking back to Saint Michel church, I saw cheap but pretty strawberries again 🙂 1 euro for the whole bucket of edible flower. (my cousin used to think strawberries are flowers…)

At night my friend’s roommate cooked delicious Chinese food dinner that I haven’t had in the past month! 2 bowls of rice and my crave for Chinese food was still not quite satisfied. After dinner, I captured Bordeaux under the veil of the night. The lamp posts were green and pink, they even changed colors. The city was so different from where I used to live (Juan Les Pins) and the fusion of old and new was rather impressive.

After a good night’s sleep, I was awaken by the colored sunlight shinning subtly through the tinted glasses on the ceiling. Then I thought a nice brunch is the way to start my day.

Swiftly I scooped myself out of my blanket and left home in 15 minutes. Bordeaux said bonjour to me with drizzles and I found the cafe I had in mind. I figured a high sugar content meal is called for a cold, gloomy day, so I ordered a grande caramel macchiato with cookies, and crepes with cream and Nutella. Then I sat outside and wrapped myself in one of the green blankets they had there. The cream was divine, foamy and milky. One lick and I am emotionally soothed. Some of the cookie melted inside and some I just ate them. The crepes was generously filled with Nutella. It swirled down my throat and the smooth and thick Nutella entered my system. Such a fattening and comforting brunch. Just sitting here and listening to the sound of people passing by, the heels, the chatter, the rain drops, the sound of greeting kisses on the cheek…I think I found inner peace 🙂

No one to report to, no time constraints, it is just me and freedom. And a full stomach.

Then I headed off to shop! I haven’t seen any shopping malls in my town and I was so jealous at my friend’s place with such a central location. I managed to walk through one of the longest, and also most confusing shopping lane in Europe. Rue Ste Catherine, and arrived home safe. We cooked failed dinner, sort of burnt eggs and rice that was too soft, but it was still edible and the conversation distracted the quality of food.

Bordeaux Day 2

After a really nice long sleep, we woke up realizing that we have overslept. We had to run like crazy to the train station and made it on time, to Saint Emilion, YET another UNESCO!

I was greeted by some really interesting people but due to privacy, I should not get into more details. 😉

Turned out the train dropped us in the middle of nowhere, but thanks to GPS, we passed by a million empty vineyards and finally arrived a really old town.

The village of Saint Emilion. The weather was unfortunately quite cloudy at first …

Due to the rush in the morning, we did not have much time for a full breakfast, so the first thing we did was have lunch. Beef and Chateau Lacoste.

A caramel colored fluffy cat apparently wanted to join our little lunch. He was so nice to touch. There was a constant shifting of sunlight through the windows during our lunch.

Although we came when the sky was cloudy; when we left we all had to put on sunglasses! O;O 🙂

The initial planning of wine tasting didn’t work out so we went to a Church, built in 11th century, that was carved out of stone instead. It was an underground church with baby corpses. Extremely creepy, there were human bones, skeletons on the ground, which I dare not take a photo…

There was another part of the church that’s rather interesting. The paintings on the ceiling was so well preserved because they were making certain chemicals for the war back then. The black fume covered up and protected the paintings and after hundred of years, people scrapped the black stuff out and found beautiful and historic paintings underneath.

It is kind of like life, sometimes things turn out unpredictably better than you thought, just when you think certain things are unfortunate, life might just swirl it around and change everything for the better 🙂 – Stay Optimistic but be alert and count your blessings.

The next thing worth noting is the convertible BMW 😛 and the nice cup of coffee with chocolate (Leonidas, 3.3 euros for 82g!) while the boys have cigars.

As for dinner, we whipped up some quick food but of acceptable quality, and continued my planning… (remember how there is no break in between traveling, friends coming and schooling? x)

Bordeaux Day 1

After the enriching week in Spain, the only part of my body that was still functioning properly is my hair, all other pieces were either bruised, sore, fatigued or ALL OF THE ABOVE. Obviously, I have never taken into account resting time in between all the traveling, guests visiting and schooling and I am not the most robust person out there…Hopefully I will still be in one piece by the end of May, after all initial plans to visit 13-14 countries.

At night I had no choice but to sleepover at Nice airport. Though it was dimmer with more comfortable chairs to sleep on, there was also a hobo who slept around that area. It was mildly intimidating but hey, life is all about facing your fears and becoming braver!

After a long night and a delay due to captain’s sickness, I finally landed into the very different landscape of Bordeaux. From above, you could see the winding meanders stretching all across the green canvas of agricultural land. I did not see any oxbow lake though 😉

The world’s largest urban area to be named a UNESCO world heritage site welcomed me with pouring rain. During this whole trip in Bordeaux, I got more rainy days than my entire month in the South.

It was easy to find my way out to the city (perhaps I was getting better? 😉 unfortunately plan A of meeting my friend there failed. Thank god we do have a plan B.

Problem solving time: stay calm, don’t panic, look helpless and harmless.

I asked around and people were so nice to help me out with their google maps and I finally stumbled upon their fascinating apartment.

Note to self: ALWAYS have more than one plan at least for important matters. I mean it’s not like you have to carry a fire extinguisher around or anything, but just be well prepared.

Sadly, my plan B was flawed as I forgot to ask which floor or room number it was. so I just had to ring all bells and got replies like we no speak English…then finally I heard footsteps; the door opened and my friend was there! I don’t think I have ever been that happy to see him :p

After a hot long lovely shower, I was refreshed again. Yay, I’m getting more sturdy now: 3 hours sleep + coffee and food and shower and I am good to go. (Perhaps I will no longer be tofu by the end of exchange 😉

My friend has an Interesting house. It was old, wobbly and it was as if the entire mansion was falling apart, but it was different in a good way. The key, the door knob, the middle outdoor space, the fireplace, the irregular shaped kitchen all seemed very French to me.

The house is also in a ridiculous central location. I walked 5 minutes and I am at the Saint Andre church. It was definitely one of the most crippled church I have seen. But I liked it, it smelled and felt different. This church seemed to contain more stories with the greyish, peeled off pillars.

Then I also walked passed another random church. Seriously though, they are just everywhere. They are like the Starbucks in Hong Kong. I mean in terms of quantity.

I saw many lovely small shops that sell toys and children books etc that was really adorable.

I discovered a free musee d Aquitaine but it was just super horrifying. I didn’t get the purpose or the theme of it. I was practically the only one there and the atmosphere freaked me out.

At the end, the trading of slaves part was a bit heart twitching. Do you know only those slaves who were packed tightly in the ship has only 25% survival rate? Less than 3 people survive out of 10 slaves 😦

Then randomly I arrived at Plaza Victoire (Vic TUA) 😛

Bordeaux is just such a big city with big, wide roads. I almost got lost when I was finding my way home. I thought I just have to find back the church, and I will be home, but turned out I recognized the wrong side of it… The wind was ridiculously strong too like it wanted to blow me away. My tiny umbrella became useless and I decided to walk back, French style – with just a hat on.

For Dinner we went out to a black and white restaurant and had beef and duck with lots of salad and delicious fries 🙂 It was such an interesting restaurant, all they sell are beef/fish/duck + salad and fries, with JUST ONE SAUCE. But it was good, may be that’s why people kept coming still despite the limited choices.

The strong wind and rain wide kept hinting not so subtly that we should go back home so we finally gave up and called it a day. Well 4 more days, plenty of time left!

Barcelona Day 5

As our flight was in late noon, we planned to go to camp nou to shop for souvenirs for my dear brothers (NOT LOL) but we got carried away by the shops and wet market nearby and went back to check out late! Good that the staff was so nice he still returned our deposits and offered to store our luggage for free.

For brunch I had cafe con leche (latte, I could finally not add sugar to my coffee :O does that make me a grown up now?!), a slice of honey cheese cake and croissant xocolat.

The moment I sat down with my tray of food. It hit me…this is the end of my first trip in Europe. I know I shouldn’t be sentimental, I am only 19 and there is plenty of time for me to come back. But rationally thinking, when will I afford this amount of time to come all the way to Spain? Life is an ongoing wheel and once something has happened, the next moment it is gone and you are still moving forward and forward. All that’s left is the tracks of shadow

I bought boots and ham and struggled to fit them all in my backpack. At the end I resorted to wearing most jackets on myself.

After that I had to adios Spain and bonzoir France again 😦 I will miss everything in Spain and the casual culture of eating whenever and however you want.

The next day I dealt with housing insurance, groceries, laundry, homework AND internship application. Then at night I embarked on another journey to BORDEAUX. 🙂

Who knows exchange actually made me worked more efficiently than back home? I am as busy as before, but this is the delightful kind of busy.

It also marked 1/5 of my exchange O.o what the heck?!

Miss Tofu

My journey in life

Category: Travel