First of all, travelling! After the super exciting 'Lonely-Planet' trip to Berlin, Praha, Wien and Munchen, I took a rest in Rotterdam for 1 and half day and headed straight to Spain!
Our first stop was Barcelona. We reached the city at night and went straight to a Flamenco Dance show we booked online. It was really interesting! The dancers wore a kind of special shoes and make heavy beats to the background music. It is much like a tap dance but with heavier beats and only Spanish guitar and singing as the background music. When the dancers tap with their shoes, all their muscles were vibrating or shaking because of their vigorous movements; you can totally feel the passionate nature of a Spaniard from watching them dance! The Spanish guitar was simply amazing! Nothing like the contemporary ones, it was with much more feeling and played somehow in free-style. The singers..I cant' even find words to describe their singing..It was so different..I am not sure if they even have a fixed tune for the song~ To me, everything was created on the spot according to their current emotions..It was really really different!
The next day, we joined a tour bus! I didnot feel cool when I was on the bus actually..LOL..Felt like a tourist instead of a backpacker XD Nevertheless, the tour bus was good; it took us to all the famous spots and we can hop on and off as we like. In many ways, it s like a transportation that saves you the hassle to figure out the way yourself. We visited several buildings designed by the famous Gaudi, including Cata Batllo and Park Guell.
Casa Batllo
Park Guell
Gaudi likes to use curves and nearly perfect waves in his design. Casa Batllo and Park Guell are something that are so different from all the architectures I've seen before! The striking colour combinations, the never ending waves, the unique building structures, come together perfectly to a make his works master pieces.
My favourite Gaudi work has to be the amazing church - Sagarada Familia.
Sagarada Familia is an enormous church with a design that is like no other! The whole church is in the shape of a cross, and the tallest tower has yet to be built. The church started its construction since 1882 and has YET to be completed. According to our guide, it takes another 20 years before it can be finished!! How ambitious is Gaudi!! The church is in his style - curves, waves and a perfect blend of nature. The exterior of the church was filled with carvings and scriptures related to the Holy Bible; the interior is like in a forest. The pillars are tree trunks and the ceiling is in the shape of countless sunflowers! It is simply breathtaking!! Gaudi drew the curvy shape of the church by hanging small weigh-packs on strings and let them hang there; then took a picture of the strings and inverted the photo! He claimed that he was making use of the natural force - Gravity to create the natural curves! How genius!! :D
Next, we went to the Stadium of F.C Barcelona, where I got souvenirs for my dad who is a Messi-fan! :D After that, we went to the Picasso museum and the Magic Fountain for a night show.
Our next stop was Segovia - a small town near Madrid. It has an amazing church, a huge Roman wall and, more importantly, the SNOW WHITE CASTLE!!! Yes! The Snow White's castle in the Disney motion picture was modelled after the Alcazar castle in Segovia!! This is so surreal..haha..we spent a nice half a day there and head down to Madrid.
Similar to Barcelona, Madrid is a vibrant city with exciting night life. You know how people filled Orchard Road on Weekends' afternoons? That is what happens in Madrid's shopping district EVERY NIGHT after 9pm! People here have dinner at around 10pm!! so the later at night, the more crowded the streets get. Of course, in the day, the streets are very peaceful.. The night in Madrid was simply breathtaking! The lights, the crowds, the SHOPS..everything comes just comes to life!~ For me, it is not so much about the buildings and architectures we were going to see, it is more about breathing and taking in the vibrant and lively atmosphere which filled the whole city!! (well, and of course, the countless Mango and Zara shops and outlets too..lol)
The whole trip to Spain was peaceful, until the 2 friends that I went with almost got their wallets and camera stolen!!!! One of them got her wallet stolen while she was taking a picture and felt a sudden loss of weight from her bag (thank God she has a heavy wallet!), and looked to see a hand taking her wallet away. Thank goodness that she found out on time and stopped the thief. The other friend was cornered by two men when we stepped out of the metro, and was forced to dance with them. We thought they were just drunk guys been friendly to tourists, but as it turned out, the two guys took his camera from his pockets while dancing. He realized that and went to claimed the camera back and almost got into a fight with the thieves. That was truly scary! Warning to guys who like to keep stuff in their POCKETS : It is not a wise action in a city full of pickPOCKETS (think about the literal meaning of their name!)
Ok! after coming back from Spain, I took a week of rest and went to Germany, again, with a Portuguese friend. We stayed with her 2 Portuguese friends in a city called Koblenz. Her two friends are doing exchange in Germany, and according to them, their school is the real life version of 'OC' or 'Gossip Girls'! The school takes in only 180 students per batch, and all students must have straight As to get in there. Most importantly, all students there (except for exchange students) have rich parents! Their parents rent them apartments (not rooms, like me)and they all drive super nice cars too~
Anyway, We stayed there for 4 days, and went to Bonn, Düsseldorf and Cologne/Klon.
Bonn was Beethoven's hometown, a lovely city. we went to Beethoven's house and some museums.
Düsseldorf was our destination for the following day. Nothing interesting there actually..O except the Museum of Gothe! I did not know he was from Düsseldorf!!
My favorite of this trip is definitely Klon! The Cathedral was simply awsome!!!!! It was sssssooooooo huge!!! We climbed all the up to the highest point to see the city and I did not think I could make it! LOL~ the view from the top is just amazing! well, climbing the cathedral took us half a day :P and by the time we get back on the ground it was already afternoon. So we went two 2 museums and the night had already come. So we caught a train and head back to Rotterdam~
It was really fun travelling and staying with Portuguese! They are really outgoing, talkative and welcoming~ They will naturally switch to Portuguese when they were realy into talking about a certain topic, and then realize I was all confused and THEN realize that they were not talking in English! that was really funny~~I had the best time with them and learnt some really really interesting hand gestures, which I think are REALLY cool!!! Shall come back to Singapore and spread that around! You guys are gonna love it!! haha~~
After the Germany trip which ended on Sunday night, came 4 days of school and on Thursday night I went to join Emily and Cheryl in Belgium! It was really great seeing old friends overseas~~ on our first night, we went to a Hip Hop class!! hahaha..I was so nervous cuz it very much reminded me of my failed dance audition in Year 1~~~hahaha..that was so embarrassing! Until now, I still could not believe I actually went to a DANCE audition!! That memory will be part of my afternoon tea story to share and laugh at when I grow old..LOL
Anyway, the instructor was really good, although I did not understand a single word he said (cuz it s all in French!). We learnt some really cool steps (but again, all dance steps to me are cool)~ and I can REMEMBER (note: not DANCE) all of them !!
Cheryl and Emily live in an University town, so everyone was close by and everything was close by, cycling is not needed. Their room has an attic structure, which I think is really nice and spacious~ They got me an air-bed from their friends which is really comfortable :D
The next day, we went to Brussels together and ate A LOT of sweet stuff!! chocolate, waffles, ice cream...omg...and had Mussels with fries for dinner~ It was GOOD!!! Did not do much sightseeing though, given that we woke up in noon and reach Brussles in the late afternoon..LOL~
The second day, Emily and I stayed in the university town to do some study, because I have a test on Monday~ However, we ended up going shopping in the nearby mall...LOL..That was a really productive day! XD
on the third day, we went to Ghent with Cheryl's Singaporean friends studying overseas. Ghent was a beautiful place, with medieval buildings and cute rivers running through the city. Really really liked it~!
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