Spain (Barcelona) - May 2016

Since I have been flying almost every other months recently (Vienna in February, Ireland in March and Netherlands in April), I have decided not to break the chain of travelling and therefore ended up booking myself a random trip to Barcelona in May! And as the speed of blogging could hardly catch-up with the trips that I am making, therefore a summary format as below could save me plenty of time…lol

Airlines (Vueling for outbound and Norwegian for inbound)

My first experience with Vueling wasn’t a good one because they only offers the option of web check-in to limited countries and nationalities, hence I am forced to join the queue for a long waiting time of 1.5 hours just to get the boarding pass and without any checked baggage. In comparison, the Norwegian Air has good services and a convenient check-in process which allows me to obtain my boarding-pass through the self-service kiosk and I get to crossed over the security within 20 minutes.

The Hotel

Since I wanted a more relaxing and private holiday of my own, I decided to spend slightly more on accommodation and Hotel Urquinaona is where I picked at £198.00 for 3 nights. The location is almost perfect because it is in the central of the city and most of the touristic spots are reachable by foot. Yet my stay was a big disappointment because the room stinks to the utmost! Horrible odour was filling up the room from the draining hole in the shower area making me feels like I am staying in the cesspit and I have to find ways to cover it up during the nights. As the room was facing the street, I can hear all sorts of noises from the outside through the closed windows and I am only able to fall asleep soundly after 1.30am before being awaken again at 7.00am. Even though the breakfast provided by the hotel was rather simple, but the croissants and fruits were delicious and the staffs were friendly and helpful throughout my stay and this somehow pacified my dissatisfaction with the room.

21st May 2016 (Saturday)

This is the first time I thanked myself for the decision of picking the window’s seat because I did fell in love with the city of Barcelona from the sky even before I step onto the ground. The coastline is always attractive since I used to relate beaches to warm and sunny climate (though this is not always true).

Gothic Quarter & Catedral de Barcelona  

The little streets and the medieval alleyways are full of surprises. I just love the random shops that I could find along the way and it will be adventurous if you could shut-down the GPS and start exploring every pathway in that area.

La Boqueria Market (Mercat de La Boqueria)  

I enjoyed the delicious seafood platter at Bar Boquera (€26.00) and I wished I could have eaten more only if my stomach allows the additional inputs. Some vendors in the market would welcome photography by the tourists (free promotion on the web so why not), but some are rejecting pictures on their stuffs in a rude way.

La Rambla Street 

Being the most famous walking street in Barcelona, this 1.2km tree-lined pedestrian mall is an excellent choice during sunny days. You could find stretches of restaurants, souvenir stores and various street performances along the way. Do respect the profession of the street artists and consider contributing some money as a reward for their hard work if what they did brightens your day.

The Raval Cat 

This big fat cat of sculptor Fernando Botero is a piece of public art in Barcelona settling down in the district of Ramblas. It is not far away from the Rambla Street so do drop by for a picture and you will find yourself in love with this funny looking cat.

Magic Fountain of Montjuïc 

Arriving at 7.40pm, I walked around the plaza and in order to get the best and complete view of the fountain, I waited at the terrace for more than an hour before the light show begins at 9.00pm. There were street dance performances in the meantime to kill the boredom of the crowd while everyone is waiting.

22nd May 2016 (Sunday)

L'Aquàrium de Barcelona  

To some of the people, my visit to the Aquarium at €20.00 could be a surprise, but I do love animals and it is not a bad idea at all spending half a relaxing day with the fishes.

Barceloneta
Taking off my socks and my shoes sitting on the sand by the beach, I am just practising the sayings of “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” except that I did not go naked while sunbathing…lol

Dinner – Limosa
A sudden downpour in the evening forces me to hide under a roof for about 30 minutes before I could start looking for a restaurant to pacify my hunger. The first restaurant that I went checking-out wasn’t providing a good service and I just walked off due to the slow and unwelcoming behaviour of the staffs. I then came to Limosa having a portion of Paella and a glass of Pina Colada accompanied by a much better customer service. 

 

23rd May 2016 (Monday)

Sagrada Família Church
Being the famous attraction of all time, Sagrada Familia was surrounded by a multitude of tourist during the start of the day. I gave up on the visit because if I buy the ticket immediately at 11.00am, I could only enter the cathedral earliest at 4.00pm due to the crowd. I would probably need to return again after the completion of this building in year 2028 since it is still under construction for now.

Park Güell

Again, if I buy the ticket immediately at 2.00pm, I will only be allowed to enter to the park at 6.00pm so this attraction is as well kept for my next visit. After spending some time in the public gardens and hiking to the top of the hill for a panoramic city view, I saw this entrance thinking that it is linked directly to Park Guell. But after completing the very short visit then I only realised that this is the Gaudi House Museum and the small 2 levels compound is all that I could visit! So wow…I did spent €5.50 not knowing exactly the place that I am entering!

Casa Batlló
If you love art, then you shouldn’t miss both Casa Milà and Casa Batlló because the artworks of Antoni Gaudi were incredible and no wonder his architectures were integrated into most part of the city.

Lunch - Divinus
Have been walking for hours, it is time for a late lunch and picking a restaurant with the best seat where I could enjoy both the sunshine and watching the people flow leads me to Divinus. I wasn’t too greedy this time and my choices were: Goat Cheese Tapas (quite a good one), Mussels (quit ok..) and Baby Squids (nothing different from the sotong goring in Malaysia?!). 

 

24th May 2016 (Tuesday)

Casa Milà
Struggling between La Pedrera and the Picasso Museum, I finally picked La Pedrera as I’ve been touring Europe for quite sometimes now and I finds museums and cathedrals looks almost the same everywhere hence I would sensibly opt for something different.

Lunch - Txapela
I have been passing by this restaurant a few times witnessing the crowd and on this final afternoon of my trip, I’ve decided to give it a try. I was dazzled by the variety of tapas they offered in the menu and have randomly picked a few from the list. Since I have not been drinking (alcohol) for a long time, one full glass of Sangria makes me feeling dizzy and sick while on my way to the airport. So… lesson learnt and I should not drink before I fly. 

 

Netherlands - April 2016

While staring at the map wondering where I could plan for my next vacation, it suddenly crossed my mind that I should pay a visit to Keukenhof during the tulip season since I have been told a million times by a colleague reassuring that it will be a wonderful life time experience. With just a few scrolls and clicks on the mouse, I managed to complete my flight booking almost instantly. Being an absolute fan of flowers, I wouldn’t want to miss this fantastic opportunity to visit the famous Garden of Europe.

21st April 2016 (Thursday)

The train service to Leiden from the Schiphol Airport is very convenient in just 30 minutes. The Airbnb apartment that I have booked in Leiden was rather cheap at £45 for 2 nights but slightly distance from the station. The apartment isn’t difficult to locate with a GPS but I was surprised to find some creepy dolls that were “nicely” arranged in one corner of the attic room making the atmosphere rather spooky. The eeriness did spoil my first night but luckily I have a better rest on the second night with the lights on.

My day was spent in a relaxing way taking a walk downtown visiting some recommended attractions in Leiden, and of course with my way of relaxation, ice-cream definitely comes into the picture. Failing to locate some good food in between lunch and dinner hours, a set of Filet-O-Fish at McDonalds would be a great choice. After visiting the Castle of Leiden (Burcht van Leiden) and strolling along the streets, I had a very simple dinner grabbing some bread before returning to the apartment and call it a day.


22nd April 2016 (Friday)

Not being well rested the night before, I woke up in a disastrous state having swollen eyes and a floating mind while forcing myself to get up for a quick wash-up before walking to the station. It was in fact a blessing for me to be slothful that morning as my initial plan was to start my day as early at 7.00am, but after much procrastination and arriving at the station later at around 7.40am, I then realised that the bus is only available after 8.10am. I would have struggled in the cold if I did follow my schedule tightly.

With the advance ticket of €24.00, I get to skip the queue and walk straight into the garden. Keukenhof will only be opened from the end of March to Mid of May (for around 8 weeks in a year) hence picking the right time for the visit is crucial. The two main reasons of my selected dates were, firstly the flower parade which falls on the Saturday of week 16 (23rd April), and secondly the end of April is the safest time between the blooming and harvesting of tulips. The different species of tulips displayed in Willem-Alexander Pavilion was spectacular and amazing. At times, I feel like I am walking in the land of the fairy-tales because some sceneries and landscapes were just dreamlike.

After a long 9 hours spent in the garden, I enjoy a great meal in a Japanese restaurant when I am back in Leiden. While on my way walking back to the airbnb apartment, I passed by a small farm and saw a donkey staring at me. After observing it for some moments, it slowly walked towards me but was being hindered by a stream hence remaining a distance away. It was so cute and I am tempted to slightly walk off the track to get nearer to this adorable creature. I get to touch him slightly through the fence and he would turn his head and look at me if I stop following him as if he wanted me to follow his steps while he is slowly moving to the other end of the farm.


23rd April 2016 (Saturday)

I met up with a friend of mine who is working in Belgium early at 8.00am to start our exciting day. The initial plan was to spare at least a few hours cycling the tulip fields but we ended up enjoying our brunch and the Flower Parade until 2.30pm. It took us quite sometimes to find the bicycle rental store and we paid €10.00 each for a short rent until 5.00pm.

The landscapes of the colourful tulips were stunning and the weather was just perfect for outdoors.

For convenience’s sake, we spent a night staying in Hotel Crowne Plaza Schiphol which offers great services and comfortable room as it is close to Amsterdam and the train station. Having seen the sex show in Bangkok previously, both Ms Ooi and I are interested to make a comparison between the Asian and the European version of performance hence we book a visit to Casa Rosso in the red light district. But to our disappointment, the overall set-up of the stage and the performance was rather below expectation.


24th April 2016 (Sunday)

The weather was forecasted to be wet in Amsterdam today and it did rain during the morning. We then made a flexible change to our schedule and visited Zaandam instead of Amsterdam. The well-preserved historic windmills and houses in Zaanse Schans is making it a popular tourist attraction. We enjoyed the breezes (shivering), the hail on our face and body (ouch!), mustard soup (yummy), the clog making (interesting) and cheese tasting (wow).

This is another great trip I have and I do wish to return again during the next tulip season and I will definitely look for an absolutely comfortable hotel so that I could expect a good night rest and some better pictures in the beautiful fields without carrying on my face the obvious puffiness and eye-bags!

Ireland - March 2016

With all the planning and arrangements I’ve done for my recent trips, I begin to feel a little overwhelmed and exhausted both physically and mentally and henceforth imagine it would be a great idea to pay for some local day tour packages this round to experience something new. As most of the scenic destinations and tourist attractions are found to be in the suburbs distance away from the City of Dublin, a guided coach tour will definitely be a convenient and prudent alternative.

I would probably grade this trip as the most challenging journey and below is how the story goes:

20th March 2016 (Sunday)

As usual and not feeling surprised, the flight was somehow delayed due to the congested traffic on the runway in the Gatwick Airport. Not being overly concerned about the delay, I managed to arrive at the Dublin Airport around 3.30pm and after a long wait at the customer service kiosk, I finally found my way getting onto the Airlink Express (€6.00) which has a direct service into the city centre.

My one night’s stopover in The Kinlay Hostel was quite awful despite that this hostel has one of the best locations in town. The general layout of the building is comparable to a labyrinth because in order to get to my room, I needed to pass through at least 7 doors (3 secured and 4 none secured)) plus 4 corridors to get to the other site of the building. The surrounding was rather noisy with all sorts of noises and the furnishing in the room is obviously timeworn. Nonetheless I could not ask for more with the price of €54.00 a night hence everything is acceptable as basics.

Once I’ve completed the check-in, I immediately walked the 40 steps to the Christchurch located very close to the hostel. However it wasn’t my lucky day because the Church was closed exceptionally on that Sunday and therefore I could only admire the exterior of the building from the garden.

Having done some research prior to the trip, I am all excited to track down the famous Murphy’s Sea Salt Ice-Cream in town. My first combination was kind of weird having 3 exotic flavours in one go – Chilly Pepper, Dingle Seasalt and Butterscotch. I couldn’t help myself but to return again later that night with my colleague to enjoy 2 more scoops of the ice-cream as my supper.

I have been wondering in town not knowing what I should have for dinner because majority of the Irish dishes are serving red and white meats which would be too heavy as a meal for my appetite at that moment, I finally decided to go for the Japanese cuisine and gratefully Ukiyo serves delicious sushi in an excellent ambience.

21st March 2016 (Monday)

The breakfast provided by The Kinlay Hostel was absolutely simple having only bread, butter and cereal, and there are all kinds of hilarious sign in the kitchen warning the guests to keep their hands off some shelves and to be cautious not to accidentally consume the foodstuffs that belongs to the other guests.

Since both of us have medium and large suitcases that need to be stored after checking-out from our room, we rented a cage locker at €2.00 before we could hit the town again. While searching for the storage room in the “labyrinth”, we approaches one of the cleaner asking for direction and were told that the storeroom was located at the first floor. Spending almost all our energy dragging the baggage to the first floor, we then discovered that it is actually at the ground floor!

A visit to St. Michan’s Church has been made mandatory in my itinerary after reading some comments that there is a chance for visitors to “shake-hands” with the 800 years old mummy in the crypt and it will be lucky for the person who touches the crusader! But I ended up being very disappointed because there isn’t actually the chance for me to touch them at all! We gave up on The Book of Kells in the Trinity College due to the crowd and went on looking for some local delicacy to appease our hunger. We came to a famous Irish restaurant - The Lotts Café Bar which is highly recommended by Tripadvisor, but unfortunately some famous dishes were not available due to the early hour we arrived before lunch.

After collecting our baggage and checking-in at Hotel Clarion Liffey Valley, I took a 15 minutes’ walk to the shopping mall nearby before meeting up with the other colleagues for dinner. We had our dinner and a long chat in one of the nearby Chinese Restaurant where they serve some Malaysian and Singaporean dishes too.

I just couldn’t wait to return to my room and enjoy a relaxing hot bath before hitting the sack and getting myself ready for the meeting on the next day.


22nd March 2016 (Tuesday)

After spending a long day in the meeting room with participants from different countries and continents, we gather ourselves once more for a group dinner in town at 7.30pm. We visited the famous bar - The Auld Dubliner for some beers and this is indeed the finest pint of Guinness ever! We had our dinner at the Elephant & Castle Restaurant trying out their famous chicken wings before we splited ourselves into 2 groups where one group continues with the drinking sessions and another group heading straight back to the hotel (so which group do you think I am in? Lol…)


23rd March 2016 (Wednesday)

After bidding farewell to all the other colleagues once we’ve ended the full-day's workshop, Ms Liu and I continued our own exciting journey in Ireland. Both of us stayed in different locations and my Airbnb room was surprisingly a value for money. At the price of £166.00, I get to stay in a cosy and comfortable double room for four nights. Not being in the best of my health condition (suffering from sore throat, fever and flu), I simply grabbed some pancakes and muffins from Tesco Express and jump straight into bed praying that I will feel better on the next morning.


24th March 2016 (Thursday)

As expected, my illness is getting worse but I still have to drag my feet 2.3km to the meeting point at 7.30am. Our first stop was to visit the famous and magnificent Cliffs of Moher. The winds were extremely strong and chilly giving us a hard time walking around in the open space. There were no fences or barriers built around the cliffs and out of curiosity, I even searched on the web interested to find out how many cases of accidents were reported in the past years but surprisingly there was almost none!

Next, we make a short visit to The Burren National Park where we walked on the cracked pavement of glacial-era limestone and took some photos before heading to the Galway City. We were given some free time to walk around the Galway City and have our dinner. Being an absolute seafood lover, there is no way for me to resist the idea of having fresh oysters served on the table. While strolling along the high streets, I am so in love with all the eye-catching and adorable souvenirs relating to sheep!


25th March 2016 (Friday)

The journey today took us around 3 hours to arrive at Belfast, and this city looks and feels exactly like any other part of the United Kingdom. The iconic walk in County Antrim - Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge cost us £5.00 each where we get to cross over to the island using the 8 years old rope bridge. The queue was very long and I am quite disappointed with the experience thinking that it would be very adventurous initially. Since we were only given a very limited time before we must return to the coach, both of us were only able to cross the bridge and immediately join into the queue again to return to the main land. A short walk along the coastal footpath is almost killing me with my flu and fever.

The only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Northern Ireland - the Giant’s Causeway is definitely worth a visit. We have to watch our steps carefully on the interlocking basalt columns trying our best not to fall into the water. However the winds were extremely strong and I was literally being blown off my feet, losses balance and fell onto the rock twice. Even the coastal guards were “stuck” onto the wall of limestone struggling to stand against the gales. Being sluggish to return to the visitor centre by foot, we paid €1.00 for a short ride and saving our energy for the next stop. For those fans of the series “Game of Throne”, the last stop at the Dark Hedges will be the perfect ending to the tour (but to me it was just a normal tree tunnel? Hmmp...)

26th March 2016 (Saturday)
 

Since Ms Liu will be departing from Ireland and back to China today, hence I was left alone for this Ring of Kerry tour despite my very ill health. I’ve tried contacting the tour agency but the refund of £85.81 was not possible hence I still have to go on with the excursion. It was unfortunate that the rain wouldn’t stop throughout the journey and we were hiding from the downpour most of the time (and it was even hailing at some point). I enjoyed so much the choice of my lunch having the seafood soup and seafood salad despite that these were rather expensive at €23.00. Being the slowest eater of all time, the limited meal hours posted a great challenge for me because I have to stuff everything into my mouth and swallows them down the throat in haste. This Ring of Kerry tour with train and coach cost me almost double the price as compared to the other tours but it appears to be less convenient and time consuming after all.

27th March 2016 (Sunday)

This is the day Ireland celebrated their 100 years of independent and the roads in Dublin were shut-down completely for the parade. I have therefore experienced a hard time booking a taxi online and getting to the Airport but fortunately I could still make it on time.

There are quite some additional expenses added to this trip such as the cost of the taxi for a few days since I am not able to walk in the cold weather at night. I even break the record of consuming more than 15 paracetamol doses within 3 days trying to cure myself from the virus (knowing that I have not even taken 1 pill in the past few years). Nevertheless, I am so much in love with the sheep and would love to return again to Ireland for a road trip with the opportunity to touch and cuddle them! I do appreciate the companionship of this sweet colleague of mine throughout the journey and yes, I do love this peaceful land of the leprechauns.