Madrid day 2

Like I mentioned before, Madrid Day 1 was rainy and snowy. Boooo. Major dislike! The royal palace in Madrid looks so forlorn when the sun isn't out...

Second day in Madrid was so much better! Quote Siang-ee: The sun makes your spirits go up! Gotta agree with him on this. I felt so much happier as I stepped out despite the cold wind.

Madrid was so cold that a thin layer of ice was forming under the tree. What is becoming of the world eh? Before I left Philly, there was a major snowstorm which gave us 20 inches of snow. With the snow shovelled onto both sides of the road, the pile was as high as I am. Then, when I first landed in London, it started snowing again. Rumour has it that it will be the coldest of London in 100 years. Then as I began my holiday in Madrid, it started snowing as well. WHAT IS THIS?! 5 layers of clothes and 2 layers of bottoms did not make me feel warm at all. Almost got frostbite la.

At the Retiro Rose Garden. No flowers blooming during the winter though.

With Siang-ee in front of the Crsytal Palace at the Retiro Gardens.

Notice the massive waves (ok, not so massive, but it's huge for a small lake). The wind was the culprit again. I could barely move forward with it blowing straight-on like that.

Ice forming on the flowers. Now I finally understand why my mum was so against me travelling during the winter in parts of Europe. I guess she's right about the weather!

Did I also mention that we walked from 8am-6pm in the evening. Siang-ee often consulted the street maps and made a face for this picture. "Damn, still go so far to walk!". Not kidding. I think he googled the total distance we covered and if I'm not wrong, it was 15km. Waaaaaaaah.

We stopped briefly at the bullfighting arena and it was closed already. So we decided to come back on another day. Took some pictures there.

I like I like I like this picture. The buildings in Spain are all like that.

We hiked up a small hill and watched the sunset from there.

Spanish family staring at the sunset. I thought it was a funny sight.

Egyptian temple during sunset.

Couple kissing for a close half an hour - typical sight in Spain. Mind you, it's not really weird, but I've always wanted to take pictures of kissing couples so here you go!

Meat and Cheese shop.

Madrid is lovely in the evening. At Plaza del Sol where I was staying for the past 5 days, it's always filled with throngs of people no matter the weather. I liked how people rushed past me! While we were there, we also chanced upon the inaugration of the Spanish President =)

Ola, jo no intiendo Espanol!

Hello! I don´t understand Spanish! People have been blabbing Spanish to me all day long even though I told them I don´t understand a single thing. On the side note, Europeans have a different keyboards with more keys. I have to type really slowly in order to get the keys right.

 

Madrid day 1 was a flop. Both Siang-ee and I wanted to do a walking tour around Madrid but it started to rain and snow at the same time. The strong wind didn´t make it any better. At first, I insisted that we walk instead of going to the museums, but after visiting the Royal Palace, I finally gave in and went shopping instead while Siang-ee went on to visit his art musuems.

 

Day 2 Madrid was bright and sunny. Love it! We started at 930am, and walked around till 6pm. We managed to cover most of the major sights, but the bullfighting ring was closed by the time we reached there. Spanish people take way too many siesta, but I guess it´s good for citizen´s health not to overwork eh? Madrid is actually not bad la - Xiu Wen scared me a little because she warned me that Madrid is not that nice as Barcelona and questioned my decision to stay here for 5 days. Oh wells, I want to say that my trip in Madrid so far has been great! Not so relaxing but I´ve been liking the things that I´ve been doing so far. We went to the Egyptian Temple before rounding up the day. Sunset there is awesome! I realize the Spanish have way better illustration than the Egyptian themselves in explaining the ruins. Hmmm. Egypt has a lot to learn in terms of tourism! We saw a couple kissing while I was attempting to take my sunset picture, so I surreptitiously crept up and pretended to take my sunset picture which included them. Hehehe. I haven´t been taking a lot of pictures with me in it, because I´ve gotten tired of posing for pictures.

 

Day 3 of Madrid. We went to Toledo for a daytrip. I think it used to be the capital of Spain during the olden days. I took way too many pictures of the buildings there. Siang-ee´s mum made a realy funny comment, which I found to be ironically true. Well, technically, older travellers are the ones who are supposed to know how to appreciate the different architecture around the world, but she can´t understand what both Siang-ee and I have been looking and admiring the entire day! HAHA. Siang-ee´s mum is so cute. I´ve been observing and realize that there are actually a lot of Chinese around here in Madrid. Chinese seem to be everywhere! In fact, when I was shopping for my boots the other day, I actually went into a shop runned by Chinese and as per usual, they asked me if I were from China.

 

One more day till I head back to London. Can I quit school and travel professionally?

 

Madrid

I arrived at Madrid today. Actually I started making my way to the airport yesterday night for fear that I would miss my early flight. I didn´t sleep the entire night even though I attempted to catch forty winks. The guy beside me was snoring away, and you know how snoring people can be annoying in public. Grrrrrrrr.

So I wandered around, and found myself at the cosmestic section. Honestly, I don´t know what has gotten into my head, but I went straight up to the lady at the Clinique counter and told her I wanted a moisturizer cum non-oil-based foundation. Then she tried it on my skin and I proceeded to pay the non-taxed price. Grand total of 16.50 pounds for 30 ml of products. If I don´t curb my shopping needs and slow down the rate of my purchases, I will turn into a shopoholic. To make matters worse, my hostel at Madrid right now is at Central Sol, which is the shopping district. Zara is right opposite my hostel, plus the fact that Zara is a Spanish company, I would presume that the price should be cheaper here. DIEEEEEEEEE.

Thank goodness I have Siang-ee with me right now. I know he doesn´t shop like I do, so there´s actually a deterrant here. HAHA.

Bed time now! Walking tour around Madrid tomorrow!

Oxford

We went to Oxford for the day. Once again, I woke up early at 8am to meet Xiu Wen, Clara and Wei Zhao at Paddington Station at 9am. I almost overslept since my alarm clock did not go off at the preset time. Thank goodness for my biological alarm clock and the sun shining through my window :)

We arrived at Oxford at about 10am, took a free map and we started exploring the place. The map is honestly deceiving as the entire place looked bigger than it actually is. We chanced upon this extremely neat pathway along Christchurch College at Oxford, and we decided to do our jumping poses. Xiu Wen was a little against the idea since it was -1 celsius and all she had on her legs were a black stocking and boots. Jumping on hard cold ground felt like having pins and needles to her. I was smart enough to wear two layers of socks but my feet was freezing cold nevertheless. I wonder why can't all human beings enjoy a mild summer all year round no matter where they are? I used to think about the four seasons as a kid and loved seeing snow in the TV and seeing pretty girls dolling up in nice big comfy fury coats. Little did I realize that snow comes at a heavy price - extremely cold temperatures that would make u freeze your ass off! =p

We walked and walked and came to this tiny gate which led to a tiny backyard. The sun was shining through the tunnel and my creative juices flowed immediately. Clara then took over my camera and started snapping pictures of yours sincerely, aka the model. Haha. I really tried to be emo already, and these are the best pictures we could take.

Hungry stomachs call for absolutely the best food in town. Jamie's Italian restaurants serve the best italian food in town. Jamie's actually a talk host of a cooking show on TV. His restaurants serve the most rustic, traditional Italian food. Yum yum! I had carbonara because I decided to stick back to conventional choices.

After lunch, we kept walking, which helped with digestion. Well, we went into this bookstore mainly to escape from the cold. It's rare that bookstores make it to tourist guides, but Blackwell bookstore at Oxford is not just any bookstore because it is so huge that it has a spot for people to take pictures of the bookstore. Both Xiu Wen and I are actually hiding in this picture. Try spotting us!

here are oxford's dinosaurs' giant footprints.

Junghans came out for dinner with us in the evening at O Neil's - pub food. I kinda like pub food actually. Affordable and nice. Not bad at all! We talked and caught up with each other's lives, especially since the last time I saw Josie was like 1.5 years ago. Feels great to meet up with friends at the other side of the world!

We went for a quick round of drinks at Duke @ Cambridge after dinner for happy hour specials. Fancy place for drinking eh? We each picked our own drinks, but I liked Clara's creamy After Eight drink. I think I will have that in the future no matter what. Josie's one with the black forest chocolate was a little bitter and Wei Zhao's Tai Mai was like fruit juice. Hmmm, a drink or two in this kind of weather is always nice to have. It's funny how exactly 2 years ago, I still refused to touch any drinks with any sort of alcohol content in them, but now I have gained much more appreciation for drinking. Things change all the time, and you never know, I might dislike drinking again in the future! =p

845pm - we brisk-walked to the train station to catch our train. Came back home and so that's the end of my day trip to Oxford!

Poser Vi

Poser Vi likes to take pictures in London.

We stumbled upon this statue outside St Paul's Cathedral. I used to dislike statues because camwhorish me couldn't really take nice pictures with them, but I'm way past that phase and I like taking queer pictures now. I don't really care if on-lookers are laughing at me because I want to be able to leaf through my pictures in the future and reminisce about my foolishness in the past and have a good time.

Doing the jumping stunt on the Millenia Bridge on our way to Tate Modern. I was half-afraid that the bridge would collapse if I landed like an elephant on it, but my logical side kept reassuring the silly me that the bridge can take way more force than that!

London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down.

Heavy egg. Everything about London is so amazing! We actually walked around aimlessly and there's so much for u to see if u just take your time and soak in your surroundings.

Posing in front of Tower Bridge enroute to Tower London. This was when Justin claimed that he has better photography skills than I do. Hmm...

And finally in front of another statue at the memorial park.

Today I also did some shopping at Oxford Street and Regent Street. I finally bought a cardigan from MNG! I've been eye-ing it for so long and I'm so glad that I have it now... Purchased my sheets, duvet, 3 more tops (hehe) and UK handphone today. Omg, everything in London is so expensive! At the rate I'm going, I don't think I will have enough money supply to last me for the rest of the 5 months. Yet, I love the thrill it gives me. Justin and GuangHao both commented that I am the fastest female shopper that they have ever seen. I went into the handphone shop, looked around for 1 minute, pointed towards the LG phone, and then told the salesgirl that I want that plus 20 pounds top-up. Chop chop and we were on our way out of the shop in 5 minutes. After 30 minutes of walking along Oxford Street, I finally realized why I love shopping in London. That's because Oxford Street looks like Orchard Street. The christmas and new years lightning makes me feels like I'm back home (well, minus the cold weather). I love brushing past the crowd filled with Asian, American, European and British faces. This entire place feels so cosmopolitan, just like Singapore! :) Most importantly, the underground tube system is so efficient like the MRT in LionPura Land. Everyone's so close to each other, and I love listening to the melodic British accents around me. Do you think I will go back to the US with a British accent after 5 months?

London is simply wonderful :)

You call yourself a world traveller?!

I insisted that we took a picture to start off the day at Picadilly Circus Line. That's Justin and I btw. Justin has a terrible sense of direction (well, not as terrible as mine actually!). We were heading towards the wrong direction for about 30 mins before we realized that we were walking further away from our destination.

Along the way, we realized that there was a long line outside this store at 930am. We went to check it out and realized that it was for the Abercrombie and Fitch store. I wonder if they were having a massive sale? Justin told me that the Prada at Dublin was emptied (literally) on Boxing Day. No kidding. By shopoholics I guess?

Then we stumbled upon the changing of guards outside the Victoria Memorial Gardens. Now there, I had previously read from the guidebook that the changing of guards ceremony would go on at 1130am, and it was only 11am, so I scratched my head really furiously and wondered aloud, this might be the beginning of the parade... so both Justin and I waited patiently outside this unglam-looking building, thinking that it was the back of the Buckingham Palace. We were really confused, like seriously, but we didn't want to ask anyone if it were really the palace? Then I told Justin, erm, I don't think this is it, since it would have a big massive gate, and we wouldn't be allowed to stand in the backyard of the castle, right? Manz, that's when we laughed out loud, you call yourself a world traveller?!

So we continued walking along Westminster and found the parliament buildings. Pretty neat architecture they have there.

And finally we reached the Buckingham Palace after walking through St James Gardens.

Justin: I can't believe we walked that far! beware, u think that's far? hehe. wait till u hear our next destination : Bayswater!

Look what I found - Malaysia and Singapore!

Oh and this would be the official changing of guards parade outside the Buckingham Palace. LOL. With all my brain power, I wished for the policeman to step aside so I could take a nice picture of the guards, but it didn't work. Sigh. So much for positive thinking eh?

So after Buckingham Palace, we proceeded to walk to Bayswater for lunch. Bayswater is famous for their Chinese roasted duck, and walking there didn't help at all because 1) I was super hungry 2) the distance on the map was deceiving 3) we stumbled upon so many ducks on the pond and we almost killed one of them to eat . When we asked for directions to walk towards Knightsbridge (which was the halfway point between Palace and Bayswater), the police officer warned us that "it would be a great hike there", but we didn't really heed his advice, and we insisted on walking around Hyde Park, and that took us more than an hour to reach our destination =p

Nevertheless, both Justin and I were still earlier than Guang Hao who joined us later for lunch.

Lunch with roasted duck, mixed vegetables and prawn with satay sauce was delicious! London is simply awesome :)

After our meal, we hiked through Kensington Park to the other side again and that's when we decided to camwhore near the pond. hehe.

Guang Hao and I...

Getting excited about something from afar...

Anyway, I got tired taking pictures, so I took buildings instead. Here's the Natural History Musuem at night with natural colors as the setting.

Then with effects. So pretty. hehe.

Bye. I'm tired. time for bed!

Taking the long way around this small world...

Today was Jan 1st, 2010. It feels so weird, now that it's the new year and such. Due to jetlag, I began this day much later since I woke up at 12pm. I jumped out of bed, as I had promised Justin earlier yesterday that I would be online to discuss about our plans for today. I caught him on MSN. If I were 5 minutes late, he would have offlined and gone out and about with his original plans, but I managed to have a quick chat with him and we then agreed to meet outside the tube station at 1pm for the Picadilly parade. I scrambled to dress up, grabbed a quick bite and headed to the train station.

While we were happily chatting away on the tube, I turned my head slightly sideways, and guess who I saw?!?! JOHN ANG FROM NEW YORK UNIVERSITY. boy oh boy. What a small world! and guess who he was gonna meet. Leong Guang Hao for lunch! Manz. So I told him, I would go for the parade with Justin, then I will spring a special surprise at the restaurant. Hehe.

When I went to the restaurant, there was even more people than I expected. Aik Hui and Melvin were there as well! Oh my freaking goodness. This is London, yet I bumped into so many Singaporeans. If only I woke up at 1205pm, evreything would have been different. I wouldn't have gone out with Justin, then I wouldn't have bumped into John, who led me to my other friends.

Perhaps, when I said that I am taking the long way around, this is a long way around a small world eh?

With Melvin, Aik Hui, John and Guang Hao at Chinatown, London. Justin was the cameraman.

Now with the man himself, Justin along Thames River. He is also my travelling partner for the next few days. I had so much fun just catching up with everyone and sitting at good old Angel, sipping our beers and talking about anything under the sun!

London is beautiful. My first day of the year and my first day here started off on the right note and I can't wait for more adventures ahead of me! Yering, would u agree with me? hehe.