Sunday, 30 March 2008

viva la espana

its amazing how fast time flies... less than a year ago, i was in gold coast soaking up the sun and stuffing myself up with different type of hamburgers... and less than a few days ago, i was out in the sunny beach of malaga.. soaking up the sun again, no hamburgers involved this time though.. just loads of seafood and loads and loads of tinto verano...

In the words of sugat and just about every thai person on this earth: same same... but different.

Spain was absolutely wonderful.. its a very different holiday compared to the one i had in gold coast! very different.. i guess both holidays was amazing, each has its different highlights.. but all in all.. i have to say spain was just that much better...

It was a totally new experience for me.. going on holiday to a different country! kinda weird to actually be in a place where very few people speak english. Special mention to Yara for being our translator throughout the trip even though she doesnt really speak spanish, she was still the best out of all of us at understanding it and trying to string random words together to make other people understand what we are trying to get at...

It was a great change.. to actually see the sun for once.. to actually feel the warmth! utterly amazing..

It was great company... was kinda scared at first that people might not get along ( it was 5 of us in total for barcelona, and 4 of us for the rest of the trip, problem is, im the only one who knew everyone and everyone didnt quite know each other couz they were friends from either basketball, my residential hall or IH.. ) im really grateful that everyone got together really really fast.. the reason why i knew everyone started getting along well is when you start talking shit and insulting each other.... perfect way of knowing that they are getting along just fine!!

For photos... click here


Barcelona


the apartment we got was really nice.. apart from the dodgy entrance and the tiny lift that only fit 3 people... it was really nice and it was just about smack in the city centre! It was even better as it was at the outskirts of the main part(la ramblas) so it was rather quiet at nite... ooh.. did i mention that we were in the 'arabville' of barcelona.. with heaps of kebab shops below us.. also.. i think i should mention that we were right by the whore street.. i kid you not! it was the prostitution area and we literally walked past it everytime we went into the city centre... and no.. i did not get one myself!!!

Have to say that i managed to do a lot in barcelona.. did some touristy thingi.. went to montjuric.. beach.. la ramblas... cathedral.. saw the gaudi house.. and last but not least.. the sagrada familia.. its amazing to look at the architecture in barcelona.. everything is so colourful.. so lively.. the architecture is just absolutely amazing.. the city streets, the window shutters, the buildings.. the mini lanes.. just wonderful.. aint going to go on and on about it.. but.. if you look at the photos.. you will understand why!

One of the highlights of the trip has to be me and sugat renting a bike.. cyclin up to the sagrada..! absolutely amazing.. just cycling through the many mini streets and lanes of barcelona itself is such a feat! Apart from that, we decided to rent the bikes for the whole night as well.. and after a few drinks at the bar. we went for a night run!!! in a word... weave

the food in spain in general was amazing(apart from the token chinese restaurant visit and the random tapas place in malaga) the food is absolutely amazing! its funny how they have siesta, where EVERYONE.. EVERYONE take a rest.. close their shops from around 2 to 4.. to have their lunch, to chill, have a couple of drinks and have a mini nap before they get back to their work!.. how cool is that!

food: in one word.. tapas! tapas is like.. yum cha..just in a spanish way.. many little dishes.. but once you pile em up.. it feels like a full meal. Paella definitely needs a mention too, its like.. seafood fried rice.. but different.. haha.. dont really know how to explain it.. but im sure most of you know it already...

Awesome restaurant.. a meal to remember.. and im sure everyone who went on the trip will agree with me.. La Rita! its sorta like a fine dining restaurant.. just not so expensive.. i was quite shocked myself as i thought it was going to be expensive as... but turns out alrite.. i paid.. 27 euros.. and i basically had a appetizer.. 1 and a half main course( i shared one with sugat), dessert, coffee. oooh.. wine too! absolutely delightful meal.. really filling as well!

fun stuff worth mentioning.. we found a famous roast chicken place. and me and sugat decided to have it ... though we could not take it back to the apartment since no one was there(there was only 2 keys) , so we bought the chicken.. took it to KFC and ate it there...

it was really good.. the drinks.. the food.. the bonding session on the first night between me, sugat and yara! hahaha.. and we started naming different looks.. me and sugat started telling our stories from IH days.. and everyone started catching on to our ridiculous humour..

Madrid

To be honest, i didnt fancy madrid as much... really didnt.. im really guessing it has something to do with the weather as it was pretty cold when we were there, i got sick.. but that didnt quite stop me from drinking drinking drinkin...

Nice nice sangria at SESAMO... we got to try really nice peruvian food, and yara went salsa dancing even though me hiro and sugat opted out of it since the place was just a bit too smoky for out liking... me and sugat then ended up in the hostel finishing the 1/3 remainder of the whiskey that he bought duty free....

Went to the prado museum.. which is one of the best galleries in europe.. it was rather interesting, the artwork, the statues of men with their penis chopped off(still have no idea why though), the disturbing paintings of GOYA's Black paintings collection... find it quite scary how someone can paint wonderful photos , and then painting disturbing photos of saturn eating its kids... apparently that was after he went deaf.. hmm many many other nice paintings in there.. but. me and sugat were never the arty type of people.. so we browsed through about...2/3rds of the gallery and just walked off couz i felt my brain was overloading.. we only spent about 2 hours in there where a friend of mine, hiro literally spent.. 5 hours ish in there.. crazy!

Went on the bus tour.. managed to see most of madrid i have to say! it is really nice.. its city centre is bigger than barcelona i think.. bit more modern... more upper class.. yet i didnt like it as much as it just seemed like any other capitals around the world...

Point to note: me and sugat were cravin some good chinese food as he has some... hmm.. indigestion problems.. basicaly.. he couldnt shit.. and we figured the only way to do so is through chinese food.. wonton soup in particular.. so we asked the receptionist of the hostel where is a good place to eat chinese food.. ( it didnt seem like the best idea then asking a spanish girl where to eat chinese but it was out only choice) and she said.. you go to plaza espana.. get off the tube... you will see a stairs going down... and there you will find a nice chinese restaurant.. and its cheap as well!.. so me and sugat decided to follow her instructions.. couz we didnt know any other chinese place to eat.. that and also.. couz she mentioned it was CHEAP.. that definitely sold the idea to us.. we went to plaza espana station.. looked around. and i saw some stairs going down.. but it had a P(parking) sign on it.. so i was thinking.. no way..its that one.. but we asked this guy with a lil tabacs(tobacco) shop where is the chinese restaurant where it is.. and he pointed to the stairs with the parking lot sign..

Me and sugat decided to take a look.. and we couldnt believe it.. it was like..china town in madrid.. well.. not really china town.. but.. sorta like it.. they had 2 chinese travel agencies and a mini chinese groceries.. and the chinese lil restaurant.. we were like.. wth.. chinese restaurant.. in the middle of no where.. it had to be good.. and it was.. simple.. but good.. the menu only consisted of a couple of dishes.. noodles and fried rice in particular.. but it was good. and of course... we had wonton soup... weird though. lil china town in the middle of no where, underground somemore.. as for sugat.. he didnt quite shit as much as he wanted too.. considering he didnt shit the past 2 days.. but he did managed 2 lil poops.. i guess thats better than nothing..

Did a lot of souvenir shopping for my family.. not cheap i have to say. not cheap at all. but.. i guess its touristy area.. and they know stupid people like me will buy souvenirs no matter what the price.. man.. i got sucked into it badly eh.. ah well. shit happens..

other nice sites in madrid includes the palacio real(palace) .. really huge.. has 2800 rooms. and the king doesnt even live there.. its used mostly for tourist to look at some 53 rooms out of 2800 rooms and its always open to the public unless there are formal state events, dinners held in there... The palace was amazing. one of the nicest ones.. one of the best preserved palace in europes.. and apaprently it was burnt down and reconstructed and stuff like that.. dont ask me for the details.. cant quite remember already... but yeah.. really really nice.. didnt manage to go in though as the queue to get into the palace was literally 2 blocks long.. around.. 250 metres long im guessin.. and im not kidding about this..

Another thing to see in madrid.. is plaza major! really nice square built back in the day! used to be a place for bull fights and all.. but not anymore.. its now just filled with random basking people(including the annoying HALO robot wannabe... which i cant stand) and lots of little random cafes where people can have their cuppa at!
Malaga:

After being a 'jap tourist' in madrid, me, sugat and yara decided it is enough, and it was now time to kick back and relax for the remainder of the holidays.... what better a place to be at than malaga, where the sun is shining, there are no clouds above you and wonderful wonderful sea to look at!

Malaga is a really nice town.. small but not too small. big but not too big.. you get what i mean! We managed to stay in a very nice hostel called hostal el nogal and it was literally a minute walk from the beach!

I reckon malaga would be a place where sheanee and joanna would absolutely go nuts! You wanna know why.. one word: food! because its by the sea.., the fish is so fresh. and rather cheap as well! during the day time you can see all the restaurants by the beach are open, and all of them have a little boat on the sand where they hire a man to light up some firewood and to grill your fresh fish to perfection, with nothing more than salt as its marinade.. and all you need after that is to pinch some lemon juice.. PERFECTION!

another reason to love malaga.. TINTO DE VERANO... its like sangria..but different.. i dont think anyone in malaga serves sangria ... but they serve tinto de verano which literally translates into red wine of the summer in english.. really good stuff!

Nice beach.. hot girls along the beach.. nice little bars with cool summer ish drinks.. good good seafood.. what else can you ask for .. really.. what else can you ask for.. just absolutely sublime!

So yeah.. that sorta rounds up the trip for me.. i really really enjoyed it.. and after spending the 2 weeks before the trip with a routine like waking up at 630pm.. having dinner, shower and heading to the library at 830pm, staying there till 10am in the morning, coming back to shower and then go to class till 4.. coming back to sleep till 630pm and the routine starts again.. trust me.. this is all i could ask for.. for a nice break from everything!

All in all.. it was great..good food.. good relaxation, good culture difference, good place to be, good drinks, awesome cocktails, and last ... but definitely, definitely not least.. great company

For all of you who didnt come for the trip.. you can stop reading now as the rest of this is dedicated to those who tagged along!

Just want to say thanks to all of you peeps out there.. for making it such a lovely trip. it was what i needed.. it was really really good! I was sorta worried at the start that everyone might not click together, boy was i wrong.. all of you got along well so fast.. and yeah.. im sure everyone did manage to have a good time.
Would also like to apologies if i have pissed off anyone during the trip. AS much as i dont think i have ...but just in case that i have.. i apologies

Now comes the highlights...

After watching rocky III, IV and V today.. im so inspired to write up this thing..

da da daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....da da daaaaaaaaaa*climbs up stairs*

Im going to try to remember all the highlights of the trip..but if i do forget any of them.. well... sue me.. i highly doubt i can remember everything.. after all. im sure that all the alcohol i consumed during the trip has definitely killed quite a lot of my brain cells.. here goes:

Best part of the trip... Yara getting into the water....! that i will not..and possibly forever wont forget.. the look on everyones face.. of her screaming and jumping about.. kudos for sugat 'acting cool' in the water for 5 minutes to try to lure yara into the water! Nevertheless, yara did manage to pick up a spanish dude.. CARLOS!!!

good moment that yara missed out on... hiro nakamura! In the words of yara 'i told you so!' How in the world can someone actually mistake hiro for hiro nakamura from heroes? man... seriously...

the crazee spanish peeps that we met in malaga.... beautiful mannnnnnnnnnnn

Yara's lovely photo of her/himself... love the short hair!

Sugat's finishing skills.... which later was somehow... caught on by yara

Yara's amazing ability to wake up with a new/different/unknown bruise somewhere on her body

Sugat's inability to succeed in the toilet bowl... thought he didnt stop trying (which was good cause he would then read out the guide book to me in the cubicle next door)

Hiro's sense of direction (wrong to the point that he is so convinced that he was right, resulting in him coming back an hour later)

Abe's fetish with playing around with little clams and mussels, dissecting the shit out of it.

Bike runs... lots of bike runs... never ending bike runs.. and.. never ending weaves!

Bike runs with passenger at the back... especially if yara is on.. cause she will scream the shit out of herself

Sugat farting under the blanket at 8am in the morning whilst i was sharing a bed with him, thus sharing the same blanket... it became funnier when he realised i was still awake as i started giggling.. which he then followed.. and this just went on for quite a while..

Me and sugat's inability to order an appropriate amount of food.. resulting in us stuffing ourselves.. whilst resulting in a greater bill than expected...

me getting shat on...TWICE (ok.. not me, my camera bag) within the 1st 4 hours of my stay in barcelona...

Sugat's ability to be asked whether he wants any marijuana, coccaine or any such drugs... also.. his ability to get picked on by the x-ray security people

Us(well.. i sorta started it) giving each other skill sets!

Yara would always be known for SAT NAV skills!! austrian SAT NAV being the best of them all... spanish understanding and speaking skills, going into cold water skills! hooking up with random people skills!!making stupid look 6(wasted) skills... drinking skills.. etc

Sugat... Worst SAT NAV skills(thank goodness we took a cab) , finishing skills,
rocky skills... dreadlock skills... weaving skills.. bike locking skills... asian glow skills

Hiro.. might not have that many skills.. but the one skill that he possesses.. was so important for the trip... wait for it.. wait for it... Japanese tourist guide book to choose restaurant skills!

ok..thats it.. wont go on and one no more.. think i went on and on too much already! so yeha.. cant be bothered! hahaha..so this is it.. this is SPAIN basicaly.. awesome place! awesome people.. awesome drinks.. awesome weather... cant really ask for much more now can i ?

for some photos of my trip to spain... click here

2 comments:

Cleverkiwibird said...

amazing !

Soliloquy said...

Eddie! your trip sounds absolutely amazing!! can't wait to go in Dec !! but it'll be so coldd yeah :( and you and Sugat sound a bit gay! Lol.. All those lil stares, laughs, concern bout each other shitting habits... ahem ahem.. Anyway get well soon !! HUGS*