Archive for the 'Travel' category
Splendid Vatican
Vatican is splendid. I couldn’t hold my breath when I first entered the Vatican. It’s unbelievable magnificent and splendid.
It was a long queues waiting at securities before I got in the Piazza San Pietro (St Peter’s Square). It took more than 30 mins to wait until I got into the Basilica of St Peter’s. Inside St Peter’s there are many huge magnificent statue. Michelangelo’s Pieta’ is one of the Vatican’s best known artworks. I was so amazed when I saw it. A sculpture I always wanted to see in my past 20 years, and it came true in my eyes today.
The rest of scenes inside St Peter’s Basilica.
I waited in another long queue for the entry of dome of St Peter’s. I climbed up to the very top, and took a great picture of view of the keyhole-shaped square from the dome of St Peter’s. There are uncountable gorgeous artworks inside the dome. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I had my lunch break nearby before I went to the Vatican Museum.
Fell in love with pasta and sparkling water
Pasta is definitely fantastic here. The seafood pasta I had tonight was extremely delicious. I went in this local restaurant on Via del Corso without second thought. It looked decent and traditional. Most of people here were tourists but the atmosphere wasn’t so “tourists”.
The seafood was fresh in taste with strong flavour of pepper. The seasoning was very well used. The pasta was crunchy, and dry. It tasted great! The sparkling water was amazingly good. I found that the sparkling water here all tastes “something”. It is something to make you keep drinking and drinking. More I drink, more I feel thirsty, and the feeling is just great. I drank sparkling water for my entire trip, as long as I had time to sit down. I fell in love with pasta and sparkling water here indeed.
No commentsThe Colosseum
I walked to Colosseum from my hotel. It was about half and hour walk the hotel staff told me. The best of my hotel is that it’s situated in a very convenient location. The metro entrance was right in front of the hotel front door. It was great!
It was exotic hot to walk under such weather for 30 mins though it wasn’t a long distance. I was so thirsty and quite hungry as I didn’t eat anything on the plane today. I stopped by a restaurant on my way to the Colosseum. It was a small restaurant, and the pasta was tasty. And Of Course! The sparkling mineral water was gorgeous!
It took me 45 mins to wait for the entry of Colosseum. There were hundreds of tourists waiting, and most were Americans. I heard American accent every corner included the people who stood around as local tourist guides. I think those guides were Americans.
I got in eventually, and browsed around with all the tourists. Everyone kept taking photos.
I walked, walked and walked. I walked up to the Capitoline Hill and saw the Forum. It was an amazing scene, but the heat was exotic dry. I was so exhausted after I went through the major spots of everything in this area.
I was thinking to walk to the Via del Corso, where is the major shopping district of Rome but I couldn’t walk anymore as my feet were very sore and in pain. The facts was that I woke up early, walked a lot under the exotic heat. I couldn’t find any seat or cafe around where I could have a little rest. No wonder my travel book stated “There are very few choices for food and drink between the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus, so consider packing a snack and a bottle of water for the first part of the walk.”
I was on the taxi stand. A driver asked me where I was going, and once I told him my destination. He said “Euro 16″. I said “No way!” Then another driver asked me to get on another taxi, and it would count by taxi meter. I got in, and when I got off. It was “Euro 9″. Well, I knew it. I learned from the book. It happened in Rome. The tourists might get rid off by taxi drivers, so I wouldn’t get in any one without promising of using taxi meter.
I browsed around in Via del Corso, a nice street with many nice shops around. It was sales in here. 
I walked around a little as most shops closed at 8pm. I went into a pizza fast food chain as I just desperately needed a seat and ate something. The pizza was in huge size. The cashier offered me a children meal, and that only cost Euro 2 included chips, a medium size of pizza and a coke as well as a piece of candy. It wasn’t a very delicious meal, but I could rest a little before I continued to shop.
I bought a pair of sunglasses because my beloved Ray Ban was blown away by the wave in the sea when I was on the Barceloneta beach. What a lost! I loved my pair of Ray Ban, that fit me very well, but very unfortunate I couldn’t run in time when the big wave came along.I couldn’t walk around here without sunglasses even I did wear a hat. The sun was too strong, and it hurt my eyes.
This was the first day of my Roman Holiday!
No commentsRoman Holiday
Italy is somewhere I have been long to go, somewhere I adore for its culture, history, spirit, art, architecture, sculptures and food.
So I conducted my ROMAN HOLIDAY without second thought in the summer of 2010!!!!
Here I am in Roman, on my Roman Holiday! Everyone! It’s extremely hot here, hotter than in Spain. 37 or 38C
I stayed in a hotel nearby the Termini Station, called Hotel Napoleon. My dance teacher introduced me as she was on her holiday here a month ago. She highly recommended it. It is a family run hotel with very friendly staffs. They were very helpful. It is a hotel situated in a 18th century building. It’s common here in Rome. Most of the hotels are very old and historical. Furniture of the room could be over 60 years of history.
The room was small, but decent. Very clean and classic. I liked it.
Time passed quick, time to start my Roman Holiday!
I left Barcelona for Rome this morning by the flight at 9:45am via Vueling. It is a EU budget airline, which sell cheap air tickets online. My ticket cost Euro50, but ended up Euro70 when I paid. Well, you have to pay for the check in luggage as well as any particular request such as seat selection, seat by the window, etc. You also need to pay for any kind of service on the plane such as Euro2 for a cup of tea, etc.Overall, service was fine. I enjoyed it. I also loved to shop at the airport of Barcelona though didn’t buy anything.
I could book my flight from Barcelona to Rome through CX, which was what I flew with in this trip from H.K. transitted in London, to Barcelona, and returned from Rome to H.K. However, the only available flight was the one flew from Barcelona to Madrid, and from Madrid to Rome, the whole journey took 4 hours. The cost is the same as what I paid for Vueling. Of course, I chose to fly direct from Barcelona to Rome, and only took 1.5 hours. I arrived in Rome before 12:00.
Here is the landing video in Rome.
Museu Picasso and Dali Gallery
You cannot miss these two major museums and galleries when you are in Barcelona.
The Picasso museum is not with too many paintings as the Picasso gallery in Paris. I am not surprise. In fact, I doubt that if you could say Picasso can represent one of the artists in Barcelona. He was a Spanish, but moved from the town of La Coruna to Barcelona, where blossomed as an artist. Picasso actually became the real star when he was in Paris.
Dali Gallery really worths seeing as you can see all the artworks of Dali in here. It was a great experience.
A great meal of the day!
Be honest, I lost the name card of the restaurant. It was the local restaurant in the residential area, which was introduced by the Segway tour guide. He said it is a very good restaurant with delicious tapas and Spanish cuisine, and somewhere not expensive.
It’s located in a residential area, actually around the government public estate residential area. It looks local and original in my eyes, at least, it is not a typical restaurant for tourists, which I don’t like.
Food was wonderful needless to say. They had variety of shell type of seafood for choice. I loved all of them. The Black squid ink Paella was fantastic though the ink totally dyed your teeth in black, you still couldn’t resist its fantastic taste. It was a really delicious meal of the day.
Black ink Paella
Segway tour
It was an activity totally new to me. I was a bit worried if I could do it, and surprisingly I made it. Segway tour in Barcelona! Segway personal transporter is a self balancing electric vehicle. We joined the tour for 2.5 hours. There was only three of us plus a tour guide who guided us around the city, but mainly we stayed around in the old Gothic area and by the Barceloneta. The feature of this trip was to guide the visitors how to tour around the city with Segway PT.
I did a bit of practice before I decided to go for it. It was ok, and I was a bit nervous. In the end, I found it great fun, and would love to do it again if there is such as chance. It’s not cheap indeed for once. It cost me Euro 50, as we paid in cash. It costs Euro 60 if we paid by credit card. I heard that it is much more expensive in Northern Europe, and that costs Euro 90 per trip. Geee!!
Here you are some videos and photos of our tour.
The most interesting thing is that we saw a naked man walking on the pedestrian area by Barceloneta. He was completely naked but with a tattoo on his back and the front. People looked at him far away, would think he was wearing a short!! The guide told us there are three such men in Barcelona, who don’t wear clothes at all. Accidentally, I saw two out of three in this trip. My friend, who lives in Barcelona for 6 years, has never seen one. I saw two in 6 days. How amazing!!
Here is the video too, my friend took. Pretty funny! I know I am naughty!
La Rambla and Mercat de La Boqueria
La Rambla is a pedestrian area filled with sprayed painted human statues stand motionless among the passing crowds; buskers croon crowd-pleasing classics; caricaturists deftly sketch faces; bustling stalls create an open-air market of bright bouquets and chattering parakeets; and round-the-clock kiosks sell everything from newspaper, flowers, leather goods to porn videos.
Mercat de La Boqueria – Barcelona’s most famous food market is located on La Rambla. Shoppers are absolutely spoiled in this market for choice with hundreds of stalls selling everything from tomatoes, fresh fruit juice, candy, cheese to seafood, which you can eat by a tapas bar.
Enjoy all these fantastic photos! They certainly make you mouth water I guarantee.
Parc Guell
Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, a park is full of Gaudi’s works included trencadis tiling, a serpentine bench, fairy-tale pavilions, Gothic archways, and the columned Sala Hipostila.
The Trencadis-tiled lizard, one of the most well known Gaudi’s works in Parc Guell
