Valencia, Spain

Another post on Spain trip again ;p


After spending 5days in Barcelona, we went to another city in Spain - Valencia.

We strolled around the city centre on the first day.

Make no mistake, there is no gold to be collected on the grass. Oh, maybe yes.

Answer : They were trying to clean the shits stained on their shoes!

Hahaha, so funny. Three of them kena dog shits! They thought they were so smart to walk on the grass. Lucky me, I did not follow their trail. I walked on the road shoulder instead :)

We went to visit the cathedral and castle but I have only vague memory on these places. They are not so special after all comparing to those in Barca. However the city centre itself and the ambience are very cosy and neat dotted with many classical buildings.

Merry Christmas! Ok, that was last year. Tee-hee -_-"

The next day, we went to the popular City of Arts and Sciences! The buildings itself at this area are eye-catching enough.

My first time seeing Beluga Whale!

The centre is HUGE! There are a Science Museum, Oceangraphic Park, Imax Cinema, Arts Centre etc etc. See, the area is so photogenic.

We went to Oceangraphic Park. The park is huge, we couldn't finish visiting it and treasured our stay there until the last minute before closure. They closed at 5.30pm because it was Christmas session.

Sigh, that will never happen in M'sia! Public holidays and weekends are the best day for business, ok!

I was so sad because I have not finished visiting the centre! The entrance ticket is not cheap though - 25euro ler.

The world is BIG with so many more places to visit and I don't think we would go back to the same place again!

Anyway, the City of Arts and Sciences is really a good place for family outing!

Happy Birthday to YOU!!!

I know you read my blog! ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Yes, it's you!



Dear Father-in-law,

May all your wishes come true! Nel and I are looking forward for your visit to Ireland and Europe :)


P.S Mother-in-law..we are looking forward to travel with you too.

Forgetful

I forgot to bring my keys today!!!


I reached my apartment doorstep at 6pm and longed to rest at home soon. Who knows??? I forgot to bring the keys. I have used another hand bag this morning and forgot to take the keys.


Damn it!


So I went to the nearby supermarket and strolled around. I bought some useless snacks :p

Thinking that hubby would reach home at around 6.30pm which he usually does, I called him to locate him; he was still in the office.


Why were I so "lucky"?

Then I sat on the corridor outside my apartment and played games(mobile phone) while waiting for hubby. I waited for a good 30mins!


Nobody to blame but myself. Mom always scolds me for being forgetful :p

I don't pay to clean!

I'm pissed off today! The story goes like this. During one of my regular work out session, I left the weight-lifting machine after I have done. Surprisingly one of the ang moh (b*tch) chased after me and asked me to clean it after use!


Why just me? I don't understand! Every gym member would leave the machine without wiping it after use. Ok, maybe some of them do use their towel to wipe a little bit but even if they don't, I won't chase after them and ask them to clean. In fact I have one incident like this before here.

Well, I accept that I may have sweated and the bench was slightly wet but who doesn't sweat after exercise? You tell me!


Ok, I went back and wanted to clean it. Guess what? Someone was already using the same machine and the b*tch asked her to get up so that I could clean it. That someone said "Oh, really? I did not realised it at all!"


See! That someone also did not realised it!

That b*tch really pissed me off. Nevertheless I used my towel to wipe slightly. Still, she was not satisfied. WTF? She asked me to clean the handle too. WTF! WTF! WTF!


I told her there is nothing on the handle!!! Then she showed me her b*tch look! Who cares, I just walked away!


I pay to GYM and not to CLEAN. You b*tch!


You know what? I have an idea. If you are so hygienic, set up your private gym centre and gym on your own if you're that rich. Nobody would ever sweat at your gym machine except your own's.

Spanish Food

Since day one we arrived at Spain, we wanted to try some authentic Spanish food. Somehow, Alan and Kher Xin were not very keen on it!

Day One, they suggested to have KFC for our dinner!

Day Two, we had lunch at a chinese restaurant nearby our hotel and we had chinese food too for dinner -_-"

Day Three, we had lunch at the same chinese restaurant that is nearby our hotel again -__-"

That night, hubby couldn't stand anymore and suggested we should try some Spanish food.

What I do not understand is why don't they try other cuisines other than Chinese's. Wherever they go, they would surely look for chinese restaurants.

Anyway, we eventually managed to persuade them to try some Spanish food that night.

~Paella~

It's a flavoured rice dish cooked with an assortment of seafood and meat served in a huge frying pan.

I wouldn't say it's awesome nevertheless it tastes pretty good. The rice is a bit sticky. Once the paella was served on our table, it looked so yummy-li-cious and we couldn't help but started eating it until I forgot to snap a proper photo. 70% of it was already in our stomach. Tee-hee.

~Sangria~

We tried the popular Sangria too - it's Spanish wine punch. And it mean "bleeding" in Spanish. I wonder why whoever invented it named the drink as bleeding? Could it be the colour? But all red wine are red too.

~Tapas~

The chic Spanish food which we love most!!! By saying "we", I mean Nel and I ok.

It's an appetizer or could be served as side dishes. They may be cold or warm.

Originally, tapas were just slices of bread used to cover the wine glass between sips. The purpose was to prevent flies hovering around the wine.



However, it has evolved to be an appetizer to Spanish over the years. We went into a bar and the tapas were presented and arranged neatly on the bar counter. It's as if they were luring me to bring them home (my stomach, ha-ha). It's like food heaven to me :D I forgot to snap a proper picture again. Hehe... Eat first, think later ;)

They are served like "buffet style" and you just have to get a plate and select whichever you like. Yummy!!!

Beware of how many you take, it costs around 2-4 euro each and the amount of bill could be ended up sky-high. It's like having "lok-lok" in M'sia.

~Norway Lobster~

Alright, this is not really Spanish food but to avoid Alan from suggesting Chinese food again, we quickly suggested we should try seafood on one of the days while we were in Spain. We were all craving for seafood!!!!!

There's a lot of seafood restaurants along a stretch of street by the seafront boulevard and we went into this one. All in BLUE theme!

We wanted to order 2 sets of seafood plater (as it's written in the menu that each plate serves 2) but the friendly waiter seemed shock. Although we did not understand what he try to say most of the time, we guessed he was trying to indicate that the 2 portions are too much for us.

He even tried to chat with us. Bla bla bla bla Sa-grrra-da Familia bla bla bla....

The only word we understood was Sagrada Familia. Others? Not a single one! Again, sign language is the best communication tool. Basically, we guessed he was saying when the metro (underground train) passes by Sagrada Familia, the church would be shaking and he even moved his body left-right to show us. Hahaha. Not funny! But good try!

He was right. The portion was H.U.G.E!!! Luckily we only ordered 1set! The portion was so heavy man...I think it weighted 4-5kg easily. Don't play play :p

Let me think...there were 4 Norway lobsters, 4 big fish fillets, 4 huge portion of giant squids, lots of lots of mussel and countless prawn!!!!!!!

Four of us spent 2hours just to finish that seafood plater.

This was probably the only mutually-consent dinner we have had so far for the trip ..ha-ha

The rest of the days, no matter where we were, be it in Madrid or Valencia. They always try to suggest Chinese Food.

Remember I mentioned that it's quite hard to communicate in Spain because most of them only speak Spanish?

Perhaps the only word Alan learnt and remembered is "Where is CHINO RESTAURANTE"???

Hahaha!!!!!

To go or not to go?

We are going to have a long weekend this week because it's bank holiday next Monday *Hurray*

Hubby suggest we should go for a day tour. I'm so happy when I heard it at that moment. Then I felt like I'm falling from heaven to hell when he said we should visit Newgrange.

Sigh! Tak minatlah, abang!!!!!

I know! I know! It's older than Stonhenge but it's just a tomb! I know nothing about the history and have no interest at all.

It's All About Gaudi

It's gonna be all about Antoni Gaudi when traveling to Barcelona. His landmarks scatter all around Barcelona and beyond.

1. Sagrade Familia

It is originally designed by Antoni Gaudi. Make sure you do some reading before you go to this Europe's most unconventional church. Or, you could go for a guided tour - like me (the lazy style), to know more about the history of it. It is absolutely worth it.




We went for the guided tour and the meaning behind all of the facades and sculptures in this church are just marvellous. There are reasons and meanings for every single detail decorating the interior and exterior of the church!



From what I remember the church has three facades! Emmm....google it...

"The Passion Facade, the Nativity Facade and the Glory Facade. Each facade has three portals representing the virtues of Faith, Hope and Love"



And there is a story of each facade.

Like this one, the square number which look like sodoku is actually represents the age of the death of Christ - 33yrs old. No matter how you add it up (i.e. horizontally, diagonally & vertically), it would add up to 33.






This is the Nativity Facade on the east side which narrates the birth of Christ.

The Passion Facade on the west side tells the story of the suffering and death of Christ.

The construction of the church started at 1882!!! With the technology of that time, how could they build such a wonderful church?

This is Gaudi's hanging model used to design Sagrade Familia. It is a system of threads represents columns and walls. Sachets with lead shot resemble the weight of small building parts. The purpose is to find the most efficient weight distribution for the building structure. The actual building constructed is actually in the form the hanging model, turned upside down.



Isn't it brilliant?


As you can see from the photos, there are tower cranes hovering over the church. The church is still not completed yet. The church is scheduled to be completed in 2026.

Oh my, by that time I am already an old woman!

By the way, we purposely returned there at night just to snap the night scenes. Nice hor?

2. Casa Mila "La Pededra"

I'm just so curious how Gaudi got the inspiration to build this cliffs-like building. Its wall just like an ocean wave.

On the roof of Casa Mila, there are chunks of weird projection which I could not fathom their existence. Apparently, these are the chimneys, ventilation shafts and the roof of stair wells for Casa Mila. At the early years, Casa Mila was the apartment home of a wealthy businessman.

More weird stuffs. To me, these just looks like a couple of masked knights guarding the roof of Casa Mila.

Bizarre!

3. Parc Guell

Another Gaudi's works. I could not remember much about the history of this. As far as I know, Parc Guell is a public park now.

Nice mosaic decoration at one of the benches in Parc Guell.

The park is quite huge though. I guess we only managed to tour about 50% of the area.

That is a pedestrian bridge constructed by stones! Rather ingenious though.

We snapped tonnes of photos like no tomorrow in Barcelona and I am glad most of them turn out to be quite picturesque.