In Spain!

On Timeline: 17-22 Nov 2007

Well guys, I'm in Spain now! Have one more day in this sunny warm place (compared to the rest of Europe which is pretty much experiencing winter) before I return to cold/wet Eindhoven with loads of work to do! (grr...)

Well I thought it would be good for me to blog something about my Spanish trip since I have some time now...the free wireless Internet does help muhahaha. The 2 main cities covered in this trip to the warm sunny country near the Mediterranean are Madrid and Barcelona, the 2 biggest cities in Spain!

This post will be more of a summary of the places I went, and well, it should help anyone who is planning to go to Spain for a visit or so. On top of the 2 cities I've gone, I would recommend that you go to are: Toledo (Historic city of Toldeo is a UNESCO Heritage Site), El Escorial (The Escorial Monastery and Site of El Escorial is another UNESCO Heritage site, both near Madrid), Cordoba (for its stunning labyrinth of columns and the greatest Islamic masterpiece in the Western world) and Seville (for the Alcazar, and the gothic Catedral de Sevilla).

Madrid, the capital of Spain, is a very interesting city. Puerta del Sol is the center of Madrid, and the point where Spain's center is (i.e. it's coordinate 0 on Spanish maps.) Plaza Mayor is another lively hub in Madrid, and it's history is as rich as the country itself. The nearby Convento de las Descalzas Reales is a haven of tranquility with discounted entry for students, but u have to prepare to queue a long time as they take in only groups of about 20 at a time.

On top of that, Madrid is famous for its various museums, such as the Museo del Prado, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia and Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum - all these accessible from Atocha main station. In fact, u can spend the whole Sunday just going into these 3 museums, as there is free entry for the latter 2 in the morning till early afternoon before 2, and Prado's free from 5 to 8pm!

And how can u forget the Santiago Bernabeu, home of Real Madrid, crowned the World's greatest football club by FIFA.

My plane to Madrid!


Bear and the Madroño Tree, heraldic symbol of Madrid


Me in Puerta del Sol!


Chocolate Churros


Inside the Santiago Bernabeu - Spain vs Sweden match!


Ministerio de Agricultura


Outside Museo del Prado


Monumento a Alfonso XII


Santiago Bernabeu!

And 2 places which I would recommend for day trips from Madrid are Segovia and Avila. These 2 are places which can be accessible via bus from Principle Pio, and you would have to get out of the station, cross the road, locate a hotel and the unit next to the hotel is the bus station, holed in the entire stretch of houses. A pretty small and dark place to be in.

But the bus takes u direct to where you wanna be, the center of Segovia, with its Old Town and Aqueduct being part of the list of UNESCO Heritage Sites. Avila, on the other hand, is famous for its old city walls, and the many archways, as well as the Convento de Santa Teresa. I even located a factory outlet selling North Face products on the cheap!!!


The Aqueduct of Segovia - UNESCO World Heritage Site


Juan Bravo Monument


Alcázar de Segovia

Barcelona next, and well it is famous for the architect/designer Gaudi. His works of architecture dot the landscape of Barcelona, such as Park Guell, Casa Mila, Sagrada Familia and Casa Vicens. Definitely places which you would like to go visit! Other places within Barcelona which are definitely a must-visit are Las Ramblas (day and night!), Poble Espanyol (recreated Spanish village), Barceloneta, Gothic Quarter and the castle near the Olympic Stadium!


Casa Batlló


Fundació Antoni Tàpies


“La Pedrera” or Casa Milà - by Antoni Gaudí


Sagrada Familia - the structure is HUGE!


Day trips away from Barcelona would include Tarragona, Montserrat and Sitges, but I would highly recommend Tarragona if you have just one day to spare, as it is a wonderful place which has Roman and pre-Roman ruins there, with various different architecture in the old town. In fact, it is so interesting to see how the city walls blend with the buildings.


Coast of Tarragona. Leads to the Mediterranean Sea!

The indivdual places will be in more detail! Wait for them! Meanwhile, I've to finish up my homework...aHHHHH. And there's the Switzerland trip which wasnt blogged. Owww... :x

Current Music: Guang Liang - Xiang Jian Ni

Fuhong & Weixian's visit!

On Timeline: 7-12 Nov 2007

Panorama of Nieuwe Maas

Well well, weeks after Felix and Hong Keat came over to my place for the stayover to go to East Europe, and me going over to Peiyu's for a short trip, this time round I've got 2 friends from Sweden who came over to explore the Netherlands - Fuhong and Weixian.

Incidentally, I met Weixian in one of the U-Bahns in Berlin whilst I was on my Berlin-Switzerland trip. And I still remember how I went up to him and his friends...

"Heys, you must be from Singapore right? 'Cos of the Goretex jacket..."

Ok and after that, I thought he was very familiar, but I did not remember where I met him before...and it was only when Jacqueline Fu added me to a conversation between her and him that I realised I met him in the Engin Camp this year! Gosh. What a coincidence!

And so, I found another friend living in Europe for this period of time. hurhurhur.

Ok I digressed, but the 2 of them arrived in Eindhoven late in the afternoon. Went to pick them up at the Glaslaan stop near my place, and we made our way to my place to put down the stuff, and then to the nearby C1000 to get some groceries for their trip the next day.

Of course, as every student (or almost every) on exchange would do, we cook our dinner...and this time round I decided to do something...uhhh....special :P


Nasi Goreng (first batch!)


Weixian cooking the nasi goreng


Mix and mix...


Fuhong the server.


The dishes to go along with the *ahem* rice.


Pork floss rocks! w00t!

Yeaps! We cooked up nasi goreng with the rice I bought. A pity the Euroshopper rice aint as great as the normal Jasmine rice we use in SG, so it turned out to be pretty...uhhh...mushy?!?! But I think the pork floss and marinated meat helped to save some of our appetite.

Then again, 3 hungry boys who've been through Army...nothing can be worse than combat rations right?!

And well, the next day I was off to Hanau whilst the 2 of them went up to Utrecht and Amsterdam, thus I will jump straight to the weekend, where I met up with the 2 of them again to go to Felix's place at Delft and then to Rotterdam the next day.

I was supposed to meet them at 3pm in Delft, and after getting my groceries and stuff from the open market (having to wait due to the morning downpour), I made my way down to Delft, but unfortunately the train stopped at Breda and I had to take a 45 minute bus ride to the outskirts of Rotterdam! That totally made me late and I finally reached Delft at 4.30pm. Geez. But luckily Felix was there to pick us up, so we made our way to his place, not forgetting to stop by Aldi *cough*cheapest supermarket u can find*cough* on the way there.


I'm in Singapore!


Felix cooking up a meal for the hungry people


Dinner @ Felix's

Well, slept late as we guys just sat up to slowly talk and cook dinner, and after that the 3 of us (except Felix) went to Den Haag, and tried to get to Scheveningen, but it was a failure as we had not enough stripes on our strippenkart, and the shops selling the card closed on me! Damn! So we just walked around Den Haag at night (nothing much also), and we chanced upon this group of (apparently) drunk Dutch ladies who went "你好!" and high-fiving your hands...and thinking that we're from China (as usual, the link...) Well, talked a bit, but realising they're probably high and would not remember what we said, we just left after the short chat, and promptly took the midnight train back to Delft.

And we woke up late the next morning to go to Rotterdam. Sunlight peeked through the windows and we soon woke up.


I'm back in Singapore..............NOT.


Look at the array of satellite dishes!


River in Delft

And Rotterdam is like 10 minutes away from Delft, so soon after we managed to figure out how the entire bag deposit system works, we went out of the station....into Rotterdam!

Well Rotterdam is famous for its world class port, in fact I think it is ranked among the top in the world, handling millions of tons of cargo yearly. And being a port city, it's also famous for its bridges, skyscrapers and its many museums dotting the city-scape.




Kiss & Ride??? lol!


A rare sight in Europe - Skyscrapers.


Before (left) and After (right)


Elephants in Rotterdam!


Me and the giant Gnome with an even larger ice cream cone??


Ideas?


Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Panorama


Talk about a cliff-hanger office.


To where har??


Erasmusbrug


Walking up Erasmusbrug




Erasmusbrug as viewed from another angle


Villa Zebra


De Hef!


Willemsbrug


Up Willemsbrug


Erasmusbrug stands out in the horizon


That's the place where Jackie Chan did his sliding action in a movie...


Kijkkubus

And of course...I had to introduce them to some of the 'delicacies' which Netherlands has to offer, and I was in luck...there was a weekend market in Rotterdam! (It's a Sunday, that's why I was quite surprised!)


Weixian and Fuhong having the Frikandel


Eating the herring, Dutch style


Fish with mayonaise. NICEEEE~


Poffertjes - close up look


The making of the Poffertjes (reminds me of takopachi)

Introduced them to Frikandel and the herring, and taught them how to eat it Dutch style, which was to grab it by the tail and swallow it together with chopped onions into one's mouth. Well you can read more on the herring and it's rich history here.

And we chanced upon a shop selling Poffertjes, which was a type of Dutch pancakes, served over powdered sugar. (Ok I personally loved the sugar icing. Simply amazing!!!)


Evening time at Schouwburgplein


Tents in the middle of the square??

After leaving Rotterdam, we had to take a train ride from Rotterdam to Utrecht, then change to the train towards Eindhoven. Well apparently Weixian read about the Glow Festival, and I, being a resident in Eindhoven, did not know much about it. Walking about in the rain, I chanced upon the Glow festival exhibition centre and we went in to have a look at how light can manifest itself in...art!


Before (top) and After (bottom)


Lights...the wonder of it.


The Perfect Metaphor


See the words?


Weixian taking a rest in the Garbage cushioned seat


Glow

And finally, after a long day without a proper lunch, we went home and got ourselves into the business of cooking...Bak Kut Teh!!! I had too much meat, so we cooked some Char Siew at the same time with the pork ribs I got from the weekend market!


The handling of the meat...


Chefs at work!


Bak Kut Teh (top) and Char Siew (bottom)


The finished products!


I thought the Bak Kut Teh was simply wonderful! 2 packet thrown in for good measure with about 4.5 slabs of ribs, and loads of garlic too! Man...I miss the Bak Kut Teh in Singapore already >.< It's...simply Singapore!

Just wanna say that: Sorry guys for not being such a good host...especially on the 2nd day after your arrival. But nonetheless, I hope u guys had fun here in Netherlands, and enjoyed the places u've visited thoroughly! (despite the lack of daylight...geez)

Food links: Dutch food and eating habits

Spain beckons...Will be away for 5 days dudes!!

Current Music: Troy & Gabriella - Breaking Free