Post Florence... pre Porto

Wow, didn't have time to update this blog for so long. I feel so bad..

Florence - SO... I was too cheapskate to pay 10 euros to see the real David sculpture by Michaelangelo, I just saw the replica which was supposedly exactly like the real thing. Ha.

Venice - Celine and I got to Venice on the 21st June. The hostel turned out to be almost like a hotel, but the vibe wasn't as cool as Archi Rossi in Florence. But given it's a cheap option, it's quite good nonetheless. We walked for a bit in the evening and had Jewish meal for dinner. A little pricey because it was by the canal, but it was a good meal. Everything in Venice is expensive! The stupid transport card to take the vaporetti (water buses) were so expensive but we had to get it anyway. The view at the bell tower in Santa Marco was awesome. Given the clear skies, we should have been able to see Croatia from the tower, except we didn't know which direction to look at. We then went to Murano, an island slightly further away to see glass being molded into different ornaments. Yeap, didn't get anything or mama sure scold. The useless glass candies will only accumulate dust. We met up with Mitch and Sandra for dinner, but we ate at some horrible bar. It was the cheaper option and I didn't have time to look for better alternative. Then I caught the overnight train to Vienna.

Vienna - After a gruelling 10 or 12hr train, I finally arrived in cold cold Vienna. It was drizzling and it just wouldn't stop! It's like Vienna was out to show me the melancholic side of Austria, totally erasing the idea of bright sunshine over rolling hills like those in the Sound of Music! I stayed with Cain, the art director of Invisible Children, and we went around Vienna having overpriced coffee and desserts at different cafes. He was nice enough to visit Freud Museum with me even though it was quite crap. The rainy weather made me not want to go many places unfortunately. The next day we went to a castle slightly further out from the city centre. It was huge and the gardens were amazing! There was a huge arch on top of a slope where we could see the entire city. It was breathtaking.. until it started raining again. A few hours later, I was on the overnight train back to Venice.

Travelling day.. 25th June.. I arrived in Venice at 8.30am, caught a nice train to Milan, arrived at 1.30pm. Then took the afternoon train from Milan at 3pm to Nice, arrived at 8pm. Got to the hostel around 9pm. Gosh.. I must have been on the train for a good 20+ hours. The next day, I went to Monaco and Eze Village. Monaco is quite beautiful, except everything's so bloody expensive. I feel underdressed even walking around! The yachts parked at the harbour are huge and gorgeous. But I wasn't very interested in exploring, I just wanted to rest because I was really tired from the train rides.. I went to Eze village which is along the way back to Nice. It's a small medieval village and I could see the French Riviera along the way. It's SO beautiful, more than Liguria! Cote d'Azur is really out of the world. The coastline is lined with beaches, rock formations and beautiful buildings. The clear blue skies blend into the mediterranean sea in the horizons and the view just makes me want to stand still and not move.

Onwards to BARCELONA!~The next morning I left early to get to Montpellier by 12pm. I met up with Aurelie and Sarah for lunch there. The girls brought me to a nice square where baskers played music and everyone was having lunch al fresco. It's a really nice atmosphere and they bought me lunch at a nice cafe/restaurant. I had foie gras salad and duck meat on the side. It's AMAZING. I thought I didn't like foie gras in large quantity but the salad changed my opinion totally. After lunch, I caught the 3pm train to Barcelona... in a crappy train..

I arrived in Barcelona at around 8pm. Kuba came to pick me up and we walked back to his apartment. It's a small apartment but it was in a prime location. Barceloneta. It's 50m away from the beach and walkable to La Rambla, the main centre. 2 hours later, Jerry arrived and I picked him up from the metro station. The next three days, we went around visiting museums, churches and exploring nice and cheap eating places. We went to La Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, Picasso museum and hung out at Placa reial, walked about la rambla, watched the pride festival and the beautiful musical fountains at Montjuic hills. Barcelona was nothing less than expected, in fact it is much more. I couldn't bear to leave after 3 days but we had to. SO we left in the most stylish way, the Trenhotel, a super nice overnight train to Granada.

Granada is in the south of Spain, it's in the Andalusian region where Flamenco, Tapas and bullfighting are renown. Granada has two main attractions, Albayzin which is the arabic quarters and Alhambra which is a moorish castle/fortress. We explored Albayzin the first day and caught a beautiful view from San Nicolas Mirador. Then in the evening, we went to watch an awesome Flamenco show which we enjoyed tremendously. The next day we went to Alhambra, explored the castles, towers and gardens. It was really interesting because the architecture is very much influenced by Islam and there's a sense of familarity there.

We left Granada on the 3rd and we arrived in Seville several hours later. The temperature was scorching at around 38 degrees and we couldn't leave the hostel because it was too hot. Plus it was siesta time and all the shops are closed. So I soaked in the rooftop pool of the hostel, while Jerry edited photos on his computer. That evening we bought ingredients to make dinner. We had tacos and it turned out pretty decent. Then we went to a bar called La Carboneira which had free flamenco shows, but we were interested in the Tapas. Too bad, no more tapas, ended up with a glass of Sangria each. Weak weak alcohol, but enough to turn both of us red. The next day we went to the Cathedral which is the largest gothic cathedral in Europe. It's quite impressive in there, and Christopher Columbus is buried in there! Then we went back to the hostel, and made ourselves a nice lunch while the rest of Seville goes into siesta again. I too had a siesta. We woke up at 6-7 and had dinner at 8 at this nice Tapas place called Coloniales. It was cheap and delicious! for 6euros each, we had 4 tapas to share and drinks too. We then walked to the bullfighting ring and explored areas around the bridges nearby. Gorgeous views. I realised there are several places and things I didn't get to do in Seville, and I wished I had more time there.
The next morning, Jerry went to Amsterdam, and I left for Lisbon.

Sweet beautiful lisbon - I arrived at 10pm in Lisbon yesterday and I met up with Kuba's friend. He showed me around Bairro Alto but everything's closed on Sunday unfortunately. So we went back to rest. This morning, I went out, took a tram to explore the city. Lisbon is nothing less than gorgeous. It reminds me of Prague, but with more sunshine, more hills and smaller roads. the cobblestone paths and tramways just make this city so beautiful in some way. The long sunset dribbled over the rivers and meandering corners made the city shine like no others. Today Jakub and his friend drove to Costa, a nearby beach and I tagged along. The beach is exposed to the waters of the Atlantic. I was lying in the fine sandy shores under the comfortable sunshine, feeling the salty breeze brushing against my skin for a good 3-4hours! In front of me were countless kite surfers yet the beach was not too crowded. Good thing it's a monday afternoon, we managed to avoid the crowd. Now I'm back in the hostel waiting for a local chef to whip up a meat and veg pie for dinner plus a chocolate mousse for dessert! Can't wait!