Barcelona Day 1

Barcelona Day 1
First I have to talk about the hostel, cool and chic in Collblanc. It deserves perfect score. Despite the location, (around 15 mins away from most things) for 8 euros a night, it was beyond worthy.

1) really nice staff, we shopped until 12 but we were to check out at 11 but he still gave us our deposit back :’) and he showed us where to visit and helped us plan.
2) extremely clean and spacious room and toilet
3) full equipped kitchen and common area
4) for FC Barcelona Fans, you are 10 mins away from Camp Nou
5) the neighborhood was safe and there was a fresh market just nearby and many bakeries and stores!

All in all, we had a great time in the hostel.

For lunch we met with Annie and her friend, who happens to also know my friends. And her friend also knows another friend of mine who is on exchange in Pamplona. What a pequeno world 😉

I had salad, paella and dessert for 13 euros and it effectively quenched my desire for good food.

Then we strolled along Passeig de Garcia and visited one of the many Gaudi products: Casa Batillo.

I did not like it at first, but after the detailed description and the visit, I was extremely intrigued by the concept of the house.

Gaudi was greatly inspired by nature, and in the movie Prometheus, there was a quote when they landed on another planet: “god does not built in straight lines.” I wonder if it was a linkage to Gaudi.

There were no straight lines in the mansion and the way it interacted with natural light for both practical and aesthetic purpose was simply magical.

The monster looking mansion is like a living organism itself. It was so practical with all the air holes, use of space and to let light enter, but at the same time so emotional, with the use of distorted glass, flowery decorations, curves and shades of blue…it really moved me, at one point I almost teared up and I never knew architecture can be so overwhelming.

The windows are smallest on top and biggest at the bottom as light travels easiest to the top level. The shades of blue tiles are also darkest on top so the whole wall will look consistent under sunlight.

How can someone possibly be such a genius?

Note to self: make my kids architects

Along the streets there were many funky looking buildings too, like this, with its hair all messed up :p

Then we walked along another market where we shared scoops of Pistachio, kinder bueno n kit kat ice cream for 3.7 euros. 🙂 you could kind of tell I was in ecstasy :p

For dinner, we went to a fresh market and bought clams and champignons for dinner.

(failed capture when I said tres (3) xD)

Spain is such a happy place 🙂

Madrid Day 2

We got up early and started our day with leftover tortilla. With Siu lee, we were finally free from reading maps. (And being lost) Spanish supermarkets made us realize how expensive chez moi is.

Museum del Romanticismo

Another market

Fountain 🙂 and some other things, problem with Spain is most buildings looked like they were meant to be touristic spots…

For lunch we had tapas again at an even cheaper place, 8.5 euros for a mojito, a beer and enough food for 2. I was literally in heaven. It was not just about the price, but the quality of the food the generous portions and sizzling heat. YES I burned my tongue…but the meal was oh so filling both literally and emotionally. My happy level spiked every time I eat in Spain and I was glad that I don’t live here, or else I might end up doubling my size.

Church: we got kicked out by the priest :p and I spilled water… Long story

Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza, we were supposed to go to Prado too, but after 3 hours of seeing arts, I realized that’s just not my thing :p

Well there were tears in my eyes, perhaps the paintings touched my heart, or I was just yawning too much :p

We took a break for churros dipped with chocolate and I could not stop eating them despite how fattening they were. Spain IS heaven.

Then we shopped again and unfortunately men section was either on the top or bottom most floor and Siu lee was pissed off, I quote “so men do not need to wear clothes or shoes, right? They just go around naked.”

Walking for 12 hours straight was exhausting so it was time to go home at 10. But wait we haven’t had dinner! No worries, this is Spain, and we are in one of the largest cities, so after a miracle of fitting all I bought into my backpack, we went for dinner!

Note to all: make sure you come with luggage space, sale is EVERYWHERE and you can always buy ham 🙂

We went out for tapas again and frozen yogurt (I still haven’t seen any in Nice 😦 and since I have been living in a small town, I was so surprised to see so many cars at 12 am and 6 parallel lanes. And most importantly there were no dog shit here.

The next morning, we headed straight to airport, to our next destination – Barcelona! The hostel receptionist was kind enough to escort us to the check out place at 5:30 am 🙂

Feb 1 6:50 am stuck in airport for another 2.5 hours due to captain being sick, at least I got 5 euros free food

Madrid Day 1

After spending a night at Madrid airport, we were off to visit the Madrid Palace and Plaza de Oriente and it welcomed us with windy but sunny weather.

There were kids who saw us and started doing gang nam style dancing … Strange but it happened 4 times in our trip.

We stopped by a library (I managed to recognize biblioteca despite my extremely limited Spanish;)
Then we got kicked out for reasons that I did not understand because the grumpy lady refused to speak English. (Perhaps it’s for playing with their seemingly ancient books? :p)

Then we visited a really warm but rather expensive market, Parque de Retiro, and a nice church. (Well they kind of all looked the same after awhile, but still worth paying a visit 🙂 and I promised a dear friend to visit churches and take photos.

<;;;;

It was already 2 pm and in Spain, that means lunch time! We finally joined my equally food loving friend Annie who is on exchange in Madrid for a Spanish tapas lunch. I had to eat 2 bread because well I wasn’t full with just one. It was 3.2 euros including a beer! I started liking Spain from that precise moment when I dive into the Jamon croissant along with a gulp of bubbly cold beer.

We also passed by Plaza Mayor and Plaza de Sol and witnessed a protest…That was when I realized Madrid is the capital of Spain.

Note to self: improve your poor geography.

The late afternoon was for shopping! Everywhere was rebajas. And I carefully spent just a bit :p
At night Siu lee(with a I can’t recognize him hairstyle) joined us from Valencia and impressed all of us with his Spanish (then we realized there were English on the menu.) xD

OH my the dinner was so good, yet only 10 per person ! We had sangria, oxtail stew, paella mixta, bread and tortilla.

It is really impossible if we were in France… I started to wonder why I forgot to consider food as a factor when I applied for exchange…

Second “country” I visited in Europe

We took 2 hours of bus to Monaco today and was out basically from 7:00-21:00. What a loooooong day of non-stop walking. At least now there is internet at home so I can serve my posts hot 😉

There is actually more to Monaco than Monte Carlo. We toured around the old town, the cathedral, the Palace (unfortunately not open during these cold months), the car collection of a Prince (!!!!!) , stamp and coins museum, Napoleon Museum and 3 churches. OH and we also went to Le Casino for the first time in my life. Good that the age requirement is 18 😉

Monaco is actually not that different from France. It is basically (France – dog poo + more English speaking people + many Ferraris + 3-deck-yachts)/300,000.

We walked a long way uphill to the Palace, to watch the guards change ceremony. Unfortunately the guards did not really allow us to take photos with him. On the other hand, police here are really nice (and good looking! 😉

There were strange big birds surrounding us begging for food the whole time…but we are just poor students so there is no way we are sharing food with them.

We wandered into a Napoleon Museum with interesting bits and pieces from hundreds of years ago. The coins and stamps museum was ok interesting although I did not understand why so many of the stamps of Monaco featured people without clothes.

Then we went to 3 different churches that varies in color and size. It was a peaceful experience. The big one is where Princess Grace Kelly was buried. There were photos of her all over the “country”.

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Then we went to my favorite place of today: Private Car Collection display of a Prince! There were really old Sherlock Holmes kind of motorcars and also awesome cars like old Lotus,Lamborghini, Maserati, Ferrari, RollsRoyce, Benz, and hybrid Lexus etc.

They were beautiful to look at. I mean my largest collection is probably candy wrappers when I was young until someone (probably mom) secretly tossed it away 😦 for fear of breeding cockroaches But this guy has hundred of cars just for himself!

Then we went to visit the famous Hotel de Paris which was really glamorous.

But it is nothing compared to Le Casino! The entrance was surrounded by luxurious cars. I lost count after seeing the 4th Red Ferrari, 3rd Porsche, 2nd Bentley and 3rd RollsRoyce… Then we got into the Casino after being checked 😀 of course they could not believe this young lady in front of him is older than 18. Once we stepped in, everywhere I looked was Gold, Shiny things, Flashing lights, and MORE gold.

Then it is time to head home because it would take another 2 hours. We almost got lost in Nice. But thanks to a traveller’s best friend: LEGS – we ran and caught the bus twice today.

Sometimes I don’t understand why we are exhausted everyday; then I realized if I want to see more, that is the only way to do it. Exhausting but fulfilling.

Finally the first free day tomorrow with nothing planned at all (ok well may be we need milk, eggs and fruits… but we won’t die without it 😉

Random things:

C for Cannes (A for Antibes, B for Biot lol and so on)

Off to Cannes today. Weather not that nice unfortunately but the place is fun nonetheless. There were many Cruella De Vils 😛 (Old ladies in fur with big dogs) and so many nice cars and yachts. (One was called Nonetheless, and one called Knot To Worry)

We arrived at 9 am and just walked around to get the map and figured out where to go. Then we ended up roaming around the old town and the Castle Museum. Free entry for etudiants. I love France.

( I have to post this because I look tall for once 😉

It was donated by several rich aristocrat, rich man’s daughter and a journalist/soldier from many years ago and there were exhibits from Arctic, Latin America, Himalayan and Oceania etc.

This photo below is a currency they used to use to buy WIVES and FINE PIGS in Solomon Islands. YES, wives and pigs. I had to laugh at that. The brighter the color, the higher the value of this currency, so whoever has the sharpest one gets to buy the wife or pig that he desires the most.

There were also paintings from the 19th century and they were just like photographs. The castle itself holds all these exhibits and is a lot of fun to tour around too.

We climbed up 109 stairs to a clock tower that over looked the whole of Cannes. (These are old stairs only for display, thank god haha they have newer ones now)

Too bad the sun was on a strike today (haha french thing) if not the view would be 10 times nicer.

Then we started looking for the marches around (flower and grocery markets) and we passed by so many petit restaurants and shops “SOLDES” (On sale) until we made it there. Then we finally started shopping yay. And then we tried looking for another museum that is unfortunately closed today. It only opens on 2 days a week from 3-6pm. WHAT kind of musee does that? -_-

Anyway we have to come back again to the 2 islands outside of Cannes so we weren’t too disappointed. Then we walked around the port and down the beach for the sunset. Each beach is completely different: the Nice one was black rubbles, the JLP one is whiter and softer sand but this in Cannes, is darker and harder, with many many seagulls. The sound of waves tapping the coast was angelic. The sunset could have been better if the sun wasn’t on strike haha but we will return 🙂

What really touched my heart today was that 2 old couples approached us so genuinely when we were looking at our map-turning-it-constantly-not-sure-where-we-are-lookng-puzzled-and-confused. They spoke to us in French which I could only guess that she meant her husband has some Chinese blood too and she blessed us. Who knows that French people (especially elderlies) are that nice? People’s stereotype and misconceptions should really be reassessed.

One last joke: We can always run and make it to a bus. Even when we see it coming all the way from the other side of the street, we can still catch it for sure.

WHY?

Because more than often, the people boarding the bus are old and they move r-e-a-l-l-y-s-l-o-w. Lucky for us 🙂 And I love old people in France. They are lovely.

Jan 9 9:40pm

Every piece of me is happy, I really am utterly blissful. I wish life can always be like this…and haha today I somehow ended up looking like a cowboy…

Well, Sundays in France means everything closed. Bizarre. Luckily, we still managed to see new things today. We fully explored the beach today and walked along the coastline all the way round Juan Les Pins. The sand was velvety and there were sparkly sun diamonds floating on the vast ocean.

Giggling kids were everywhere and it was just great to feel the sunshine soaking into my skin and hair.

We shopped around and I spent 60 Euros on a jacket and a sweater. (It was NECESSARY!) Then we got lost again but people were always willing to help so we managed to get to Antibes after.

We were just roaming around but ended up in a Noel Carnival that was to end on Jan 6! Of course it was just for kids, but it was nice to see something happening on a DEAD Sunday where most shops were closed.

We also discovered a flea market and we definitely will go back again on a Saturday morning.

Then we just randomly turned and kept walking until we were facing the sea again. There were yachts and castles. The sky was painted in watercolors, rosy pink blue purple all fused together. How can I EVER get tire of this?

Then I tripped… too concentrated on admiring the beauty of the sky; I completely ignored the blockage right in front of me. OUCH >.< My knees are blue now hahaha but at least I did not fall down so it’s all good.

Note to self: try to be less clumsy I beg you… those eyes you have are also for looking out for danger and not just admiring lovely things!

It was already dark at 5:30 so we had to go home and cook dinner. Nights were still very cold despite the warm mornings. We had chopped potatoes, carrots and onions with beef kind of stew and rice cooked by our beloved roommate. It was delicious though I was still only 70% full. At least I was having a healthy diet. May be I will just get a banana and sleep early. Somehow we are not doing much but I am tired at night nonetheless. I planned to wake up earlier to run but the sky is still pitch dark at 7:30 so what choices do I have? OR may be it is a matter of determination?

Tomorrow off to school again and do grown up things like opening bank account and doing residence permit.

Wish me luck!

Jan 6 8:55 PM

A magical place

First week in France is almost over! We finally found a supermarket in Antibes where we can buy food, and we spent around 35 Euros for groceries, meat and chocolat powder. We can now have mashed potato, carbonara or bolognese pasta or hamburger or rice with tomatoes or carrots or eggs and stuff (YES I am trying to eat carrots although I still think they should just be for rabbits…) for 2 weeks.

We settled bus pass and collated all potential bus maps that we might need. Then today we were out for Biot! It’s a town nearby and it’s famous for the making of glass; they said that the perfume bottles from Grasse and oil bottles from Provence are all made in Biot.

We got off like 8 stations early and walked for 45 minutes extra before actually arriving a tourist spot. We walked along highways but luckily, did not get run over.

There were a lot of absolutely gorgeous houses along the way and I thought perhaps one day I can afford one. (I checked! They are only 300,000 Euros!)

I would wake up to a small balcony with elegantly designed black rails and white elongated windows; where sunlight floods into my room and glistens upon my white sheets and fluffy pillows. I would get up and make tea in pretty chinas and have scones with homemade jam and fresh cream for breakfast. I would be reading a fascinating book with small dog Marshy on my lap and patting Mallow the big white dog….Well, enough dreaming. Moving on.

We finally found the first stop, la Verrerie de Biot, where they make glass. It’s unlike the States where everything is purely for presentation and showing off. The 4 old man were working on their respective masterpiece (some makes candle stands and some does wine glasses) in a relaxed but steady pace. They were very absorbed in what they were handling and completely ignored the people surrounding their workstation. It was warm and you could smell the burning of glass. Then we looked at the glassy artwork around it and headed off to our next stop, Biot Vieux Village.

The bus driver said Ni Hao to us and then we arrived the escalated Village. Quoting my roommate from Mexico, the place was just like the town Beauty and the Beast was based on. There were yellow and cream colored houses; outdoor ice-skating rink made with wooden fences; small cafes with petite tables and chairs and small fountains. Oh and there were many mini coopers and alfa romeos.

There was magic in the village. The air was cold but the town warmed my heart. The twinkling lights were glittering and glowing in my eyes. My mind was drunk with the charm of Biot vieux village and all my troubles vanished into the winding alleys.

Jan 5 22:34 pm