Spain makes you crazy!

Spain is a very crazy country!They make you do crazy things! First, they make you run with the bulls, then they throw tomatoes at each other and then they make us miss our bus to our farm! Yup... we actually miss our bus to our farm because of some bicycles that we rent! (This happen a week ago while we are still in Valencia)

The story goes like this:

25th August: We rented 2 folding bicycle from this shop called Good Bikes. We were suppose to return it the next day, and the owner is going on holiday, the owner sister agreed to be at the shop the next day around 6.30pm to collect the bicycle.

Good Bike... so good, they let us cycle for free and caused us missed our bus!

So we happily cycle around Valencia, even brought it to Bunol for the Tomato fight (But didn't get to cycle much cos it's damn bloody hilly! Fun going down hills, cursing madly when going up!! So don't bother bringing a bicycle to Bunol if any of you planning a trip there! Get a scooter instead!).

At the train station, with the bicycles folded up waiting to go Bunol for La Tomatina

Bunol

26th August: After the tomato fight in Bunol, we went to the shop straight wanting to return the bicycle as tomorrow, we have a 10am bus to catch. Arrived at the shop, it's still closed, so we call her mobile number, the operator speaks in Spanish pulak! We are guessing that she can't answer the phone, so we called the shop number, no answer. Repeated the process a few times and decided that we should head back to the hotel first to get clean (At that time, there's still tomato pieces in my ears, on my feet... not very comfortable!) Reached the hotel, called the mobile again and this time, asked the receptionist to explain to us what the operator is blabbing about. She explained that it's 'leave a message' thing. So we did. 12 midnight, still no return phone call. So we decided to head out early, hoping to return the bike and catch the bus in time!

27th August: 8am, cycle to the metro station with a backpack is not fun! Especially you've only learn the art to cycle straight! 8.30am, still no sign of the metro coming... panic... 9.15am, the metro finally arrived. 9.45am, arrived at right metro station, got out and I was assigned the task to find the bus station, while he is responsible to bring the 2 bikes back. She still haven't return our calls. Asking for direction in Spanish is easy, trying to understand them is tricky! I can only guess by sign language if I'm in the right direction or not. The best part is, they showed me to the wrong bus station!!!!! Apalah! SOoo... by the time I found the right bus station and the platform, it's 10.16am... bye bye bus.... bye bye £30 per person...
We just could not believe that we actually miss our bus! For the very first time in our life!!! haha..
we spend half an hour, laughing at ourselves, still constantly checking if there's any chance that the bus might be delayed and at the same time, wondered what the hell are we going to do for the whole day!

not very happy...

In the end, we chucked our bag into a locker in the bus station, went back to the bicycle shop and took the bicycle and continue cycling around in Valencia. We went to the beach, eat some Paella, freshen up by the beach and then cycled around the park...

putting things in the gigantic locker

Some nice grafities

We were too stingy to spend on another night accomodation, so we decided to sleep in the park... bad choice! It's kinda creepy cos there's this man, constantly walking pass us... so we can't really sleep... then we moved to another spot, the bloody sprinkle went on!! Wonderful timing!

berus gigi di taman

28th August: 5am, we cycled back to the shop again and this time we know why she hasn't return our calls.... We got the wrong mobile number!!!! who to blame? Do we really care? neah...
Well, at least we have the experience of missing our bus and sleeping in the park, which both are not pleasant, but have always wondered how's it like... so... there you go....
10.00am, paid another £30 for the bus ticket, jump into it and slept like a baby!

Amsterdam

For a moment, my blog title is in Spanish! Luckily, after refreshing it, it came back as English! Phew..

Anyway, we just finished our 3 days trip in Amsterdam and now in Spain. Pretty tired because didn't really get to sleep. We took a 12.30midnite bus from Amsterdam to Germany's Airport to catch our flight to Valencia, Spain. We arrived at the airport at 4am, our flight was at 6am. Arrived Valencia at 8.20am. The taxi driver have no clue at all where the hell is our hotel, so round and round we went on numerous roundabouts, U-turn here and there and she finally decided to call and ask a friend. After half an hour of seeing the same road sign, we finally arrived at our hotel, and found out that it's actually in the middle of industrial zone! cham lar!

Nevermind about that... Amsterdam is really a pretty place with canal system right in the heart of the city. And guess what... we actually stay in a boat!! the room is not the greatest and not the biggest you can get, but how often can you actually say that you've stayed on a boat.. in Amsterdam! Wicked ler..

We went round Amsterdam on rented bicycles. Good practice for me! A couple of falls during the ride, minor accident with other cyclist but no major injury.. so I consider myself pass as a cyclist! hehe... It's actually very safe to cycle round Amsterdam because it has bicycle lane almost everywhere! So you don't have to worry cycling next to a speeding car on the highway and knock you down!

Anyway, check out my facebook for pics!

To run or to fight?

If you are planning to go to Spain next year or even any time soon and wonder which one is nicer to watch, I can definitely recommend the bull run! It's so much more exciting than anything else!

For the bullrun, It's like you are hoping that nothing bad will happen to anyone but at the same time secretly hoping that something will happen (nothing major of course!) during the run to spice it up! I know I'm a bit mean here... but I'm pretty sure most people feels that way too! =D

If you watch the video, you'll notice that there's a man that was stampede by the bulls... ouch.. Just glad that it wasn't me there!



However, if you are watching the bull fight... well, to be honest, bull fight is only fun to watch during the 1st match or even the 2nd match, by the 3rd match, you'll secretly hope that the bull will smarten up and attack the Matador instead of chasing after the dress cape... Again, I may sound mean, but trust me, you'll feel the same if you see what they did to the poor bull!

1st, they make the bull tired by fooling around with it.
2nd, a picador on horseback will stab the bull twice
3rd, 3 banderilleros will stab the bull again with 2 razor like stick each to wound the bull even more
then only finally, the Matador will kill the bull by stabbing it with a sword between the shoulder blades and through the aorta or heart (after at least 15 minutes of fooling around with the wounded bull!)
That's when you secretly hope that the bull will charge and attack him!




This video was taken after the 10th million times I press 'stop & record' in order to capture the Matador maneuvering the cape, putting the sword into the bull and slowly watching the bull dies..

One thing about bullfight that you will like is that the bull fight arena is divide to 2 section. Sol & Sombre (shaded & not shaded) Not shaded one is the one that no one really pays attention to the bull fight, instead, they squirt Sangria with watergun on everyone (ESPECIALLY TOURISTS!!!), throw fruits at you.. making sure that you are soaking wet with Sangria! They mean no harm but plenty of fun! haha.. after that, they offer you very nice and refreshing home made Sangria! Yum!!
The shaded area are for experts that analysis the bull fight...
You won't miss them as they are the one, sitting guai guai at their seat with clean clothings and dry hair!

Sangria stained shirt & wet hair with drunken look & 3 cups of Sangria.. what more can i say?

I love Spain! Next, we'll be at Valencia for the La Tomatina... will update you guys if we can get decent internet connection! :)

Why I like...

I like Paris because branded or high class stuff in Malaysia is just normal regular stuff there. I discovered that the Segafredo that Malaysian worship so highly is actually just a lousy kopitiam in Paris... haha..

Doesn't it reminds you of kopitiam with the plastic chairs? =D

today is good!

Today is a great day for me...

My best friend from secondary school finally proposed to his gf.. the girl he tries to date since Form 4 and only was given the chance in Uni time... Well done! :)

My ex-boss from Dell has finally proposed to his gf too after countless time of us asking him when is he gonna propose...

So excited for them!!!!

today is a good day... wonder who's going to propose next? =D

Malaysian Boleh?!

After spending 3 days of planning & re-planning, the room is in a mess and paper work everywhere, we've finally slowly have a plan for the next 3 months to come...

We'll be flying off from Manchester on the 21st August to Amsterdam and spend 2 days sleeping on a boat. hehe... it's actually a hostel but it's in a boat rather than the conventional 4 wall building.. cool ya?!

Then, we'll take a flight to Valencia for... FOOD FIGHT!!! La Tomatina! If you've never heard of it before, it's basically an event that the Spaniard celebrate every year by throwing tomatoes for a solid 1 hour! No body knows the actual origin of this fight, but some people say that it started with people throwing tomatoes at unpopular politician while some say that it was a street brawl near a fruit store. Anyhow, this fight happens every year on the forth Wednesday in August!

tomato fight!!

So, we are going there to collect some tomatoes, some bruises and maybe lose some clothings (Hopefully not!!!!)... and then we will start our farm work in Andujar from the 27th August onwards!

It all sounds so exciting... until our piggy bank screams for our attention... After breaking a few calculators, we realised that we've only got £1000 or less to spend from now till the end of December, traveling from here to Amsterdam to 3 different county in Spain, to Portugal, to Italy, to Greece & finally to Turkey...

Question: Bolehkah?????!!!!!!

Last day

Today is the last in little Austwick! yahoo!
Well... I think we'll probably miss this place soon... not for now... but maybe when we go back home, we'll think about the peacefulness, the tranquility & the sheep that scattered all across the hill!

We'll miss our colleagues and friends that helped to make our life here better.. simply by being our friends... thanks guys...


Today is the last in little Austwick! yahoo!
Well... I think we'll probably miss this place soon... not for now... but maybe when we go back home, we'll think about the peacefulness, the tranquility & the sheep that scattered all across the hill!

We'll miss our colleagues and friends that helped to make our life here better.. simply by being our friends... thanks guys...

Next up, we would like to meet up with CY & FH, but this time round, the train fare is freaking expensive!!!!!! :( now trying to see if we can meet half way.. if not, have to IOU de lor.. :(

Then, we'll take an overnight ferry to Amsterdam and spend few days there, then head down to Spain again, this time to Valencia for La Tomatina. So far, the hostels there are fully booked, left those overly expensive hotels... so we might just take our chance by arriving there without any accommodation and then ask around the locals for a spare room to zzz... wicked ya? hehe.. otherwise, train station or bus station shall be our shelter.. :s

After that, hopefully we'll be able to confirm our placement for organic farming in either Spain or Portugal. We are hoping to go whale watching while we are in Portugal! =D

Then, hopefully, we can organise our placement in France, Italy, Greece then finally Turkey before head back to UK to meet up with Dom's brother, spend Christmas in Southport and then plan to travel again!

Oh, Ling, I know that you are interested to travel abit in the Europe but not wanting to spend too much (like us), this website might be helpful. www.helpx.net
It allows travellers to volunteer in exchange for food & accomodation. It not only involve farm work, some has horse ranches, hostel work or even just giving the local a hand in repairing their house.. so it's more versatile compare to WWoof.com.uk (which only list out organic farm work). Helpx membership fee is £18 for 2 years for all over the world where as Wwoof is about £20 per country per year...

Lesson learnt from the recent trip

During our 12 days trip to London, Pamplona, Barcelona, Paris & Brussels, we learned a few things and would like to share it with everyone.

1. Plan your daily activities carefully. On our last day in Pamplona, we chose to watch the bull fight. In the bull ring arena, there are 2 section: the serious section and the party section. We chose the party section. Right choice at the wrong time! The moment we stepped into the arena, the locals splash us with Sangria & throw fruits at us. It's nothing rude but just part of how they will behave in the bull fight arena. So before the bull fight actually start, we were soaked in sangria, dirty & sticky... on the day that we are taking the night bus to Barcelona. As we have already checked out from the camp, there's no where that we can actually clean ourself properly! Imagine sweet red wine on your hair, shirt, pants and on your body... you'll be able to imagine how uncomfortable I am!

sangria stained-pants

2. Sleep is very important! I say this because we took a 1am bus from Pamplona to Barcelona, thinking that if we arrive early in Barcelona, we'll have a full day to explore the place. But we were wrong. We arrived at Barcelona at 7am, tired, lack of sleep, dirty and sticky and last but not least, lost! It took us awhile to focus and find our way to the hostel. After a long zombie walk, passing by lots of beautiful buildings that we didn't even bother to take pictures, we finally arrived at the hostel. Can't check in but he allow us to use the shower room.. Thank God for that! It seriously feels soo good to be clean! Dom says that the water actually comes out greyish! I was half asleep when I shower so I didn't notice it. Anyway, we wasted half the day wondering around, too tired to enjoy anything. It's only later, when we get our bed and got some decent sleep that we get to enjoy the scene around... so yes... sleep is very very important!

swleepy!

3. Location of your accomodation. The first 2 nights of our hostel is a nightmare! our room is right next to a railway track! every 5 minutes, the screeching sound of the rail track gives me goosebumps! Oh well, at least I know that there's a train coming every 5 minutes and I have goosebumps every 5 minutes too! hehe.. So unless you can sleep through that, research on the location of the place you'll be staying especially if you'll be spending few nights there. Don't worry about staying slightly away from tourist attraction, especially in a city centre because most of the times, you can use local transportation like Metro or bus to get to those places at quite a reasonable price.

shadow of Eiffel Tower

4. sarong is bloody useful! I used it as blanket in the bus, in hostel that don't provide blankets, a changing place at the campsite, as a mat that you can sit on at the beach!

5. The tourist Hop-on Hop-off bus is only good, if you have patient to sit through the bus ride and listen to the history of all the places. If you are slightly more adventurous and your legs itching to explore some place new, get a 1 day pass and hop off at any stop and explore the place without all the tourists! We discovered a nice park and a modest Paris University building when we got bored of Paris touristy stuff!

market in Paris (Things in the market are extremely cheap! Eg: 2KG of grapes at only 1.50Euro!)

Lastly, just relax and enjoy your trip... it doesn't matter if you didn't get to see that famous sight, you are on a holiday to enjoy and to experience the cultural differences! Not to rush through everything, just to see everything!

one of the many cute fountain in Brussels

new house

we finally give our resignation notice to the boss! Yahoo!!
so what's next?
well Spain trip is coming soon.. can't wait for the Pamplona Bull run!

just wanted to show you guys our new place... well, it's a staff house, where there's 5 of us sharing the house.

a bird house.. just right next to our bedroom window!

back garden

kitchen

view from our window

view from our window 2

We are still not sure our plan for the next few months yet... after our work here... he's still trying to arrange for some volunteering job in Greece... otherwise, we might just get some part time job while we travel...

a new laptop & more blabbling

we finally got a new laptop... this time we only got 1 to share cos... expensive lar... our new laptop is Asus Eee PC 10.2" screen in white! :) very chic... hehhe


and I'm glad that those Ireland photos are still in the camera when our laptops got stolen.. so very soon I'll resume normal postings of my Ireland trip... good thing they didn't take the camera with them.... if not... hmm.... I'll hunt them down!!!!!

I'm slowly receiving all my new debit & credit cards... but still haven't found a proper purse to keep it... can you imagine that we shop the whole and can't find a single purse for me?!! It's either too big or too small or too canggih as in, on the purse it self, it has way too many zips.... we don't really need that much zip right? the one that is really nice is just too expensive... :(
sponsor me please, anyone?

anyway, I need to get some zzz now cos I did something stupid just now... I actually went to a walk-in fridge wanting to take table clothes! :s not very smart eh...

stolen

right... for something more serious... yes... both our laptops were stolen yesterday while we were at Manchester China town....

So, please do expect a slow update on my blog... sorry...

This is to whoever that took it... You can keep the laptop... but why took our clothings bag??? why in the world do you want someone's dirty underwears & dirty socks? Do you know that you have taken my most valuable thing? MY PILLOW!!!!b It's something money can't buy ok?! And you've taken my Malaysian ID card & driving license... so if you'll be kind enough to send these back to me... it's not valuable to you anyway....

my address is:
The Austwick Traddock
Austwick via Lancaster
LA2 8BY North Yorkshire

Thank you kindly...

gone forever

I'm mourning now....
our laptops was stolen yesterday....
My purse & handbag was taken too...
my toiletries was taken away too...
so are our dirty laundries...
worst is... they took my beloved smelly pillow...
the one I had for years....
Is now gone....FOREVER....

Ireland Trip Part II

Day II - Drogheda - Newgrange - Knowth - Belfast - Giant's Causeway

The alarm goes off at 8.15am on our second day in Ireland... "Oh bugger!" My fingers wonder around the fridge top for my phone and then switched the alarm off, and continue to sleep... or at least tries to sleep...

Both of us tried to be hero last night and thought that we'll be fine without pillow, but looks like pillows are crucial for a good night sleep... oh well... we learned our lesson...

doing my facial routine in the van...hehe

Our first breakfast is instant noodle! hahaha... what??! sedap dan cepat mar... ok.. we'll skip the boring part of eating & cleaning up and move on to our next journey which is to Newgrange & Knowth.

Newgrange & Knowth is actually tombsite.... before you call us 'siau' to fly over to Ireland to visit someone's tombsite.... Look at the pics below and tell me if it looks like your ordinary tombsite at any part of Malaysia that you can find...

visitor visiting the visitor centre

The tombsite we visit is special one ok.... It's round in shape and made by the stone age people thousand years ago....erm... quite a bad way to describe it ya...hehe.. Well, both Newgrange & Knowth is known as Megalithic Passage Tomb and are all surrounded by kerbstones... stones soo big, it's quite hard to imagine how normal human can carry it from other place to the top of the hill to built the tombs. Looking at the stones, I can't help but to imagine that all these stone age construction might be done by giants...who knows right? I mean, in the Bible, it talks about giants... so I'm sure giants do exist at that time...

the round round thing that looks like a mould is the tombs lor.. And the lady is our tour guide.

see... i told you the stone is huge! And it's all around the mould

more tombs

Dom & ju-on

Newgrange Passage tomb
people queing to see the passage and the chamber inside

Newgrange from afar

The passage tomb in Newgrange is built in such a way that the passage and the chamber are lighted up by the winter solstice sunrise. A shaft of sunlight shines through the roof box over the entrance and penetrates the passage to light up the chamber. The dramatic event lasts for 17 minutes at dawn on the Winter Solstice and for a few mornings either side of the Winter Solstice. cool right? The tour guide illustrate it by using a torchlight and it already looks magical... Surely the real things looks much much better!

the passage way to the chamber

Anyway, after spending few hours at the tombsite, facing strong hurricane-like wind, we drove to Belfast to get our much deserved pillows! =D Belfast is quite similiar to Dublin... If you want me to describe Ireland... I'll stay it's a combination of UK & Malaysia... some houses look like Malaysia house with UK sceneries. The road is like Penang or Kuching's road (lots of potholes & unevan!!! hehe), drivers are like KL drivers... rude & impatient! haha... but maybe that's just how city people drive... :p But Dom says he feels at home driving in KL style again.. haha..

the eye of Belfast?

Belfast

That night, we found an abondon harbour, called Ballingtoy Harbour, just slight off the Giant's causeway. The wind is hauling so strong and we can feel the van being blown by the wind... Again.. I didn't sleep well that night because I was so worried that the wind is going to blow the van into the Atlantic sea... I mean... seriously... the last thing that we need is to wake up the next morning in the middle of the sea! :s And with the wind draft, it makes the van feels like a freezer! I sleep with a long john, my jeans & sarong on.. with sleeping bag as blanket and yet... it's not enough to keep warm....

So.. that's the end of our 2nd day in Ireland... be patient as there's more... hopefully will have the time & a good internet connection to post those pics up for you guys.. :)

the way to Giant's Causeway

dinner for that night is steak with rice! hehe..

or is it rice.. plenty of rice with steak? o.O

sunset

New look

I decided to change the outlook of my blog... what do u think? Do you guys like it or prefer the old look? hehe...

Ireland trip Part 1

Just got back from Ireland yesterday and the campervan trip is awesome! :) Be patient and I will slowly update & post some pics as well about our 5 days 4 nights journey.

Day 1: Dublin - Drogheda
At 6.20am I have to drag my lazy bum and my sleepy head out of my comfy bed to jump into shower. It's not a pleasant shower cos it's just too cold and too early to shower.. :(
anyway, seeing that I have a train and a plane to catch, so I hurried up.

The train took us from Settle (a little town next to the village we stayed) straight to Manchester Airport and the journey took a good 2 1/2 hours.

Talking about the train, can you believe that we actually pay more for our train tickets than our flight tickets!!! Our return flight from Manchester to Dublin is only GBP35 for 2 of us whereas the return train ticket is GBP65!! cilaka!! expensive nya!!

Breakfast in Manchester Airport

At about 3.15pm, we finally arrived at Dublin airport. This is when the interesting part begin. We actually need to pick up the campervan by 4pm because that's when they close. As Dom dealt with the campervan company all these while, so he's in charge of getting in touch with them to arrange for pick up. First attempt, the screen shows number error. We thought that it might be the country code. 2nd attempt, it shows the same, so we decided to ask the reception at the tourist information counter. He said the country code is correct so we give it a try again. We kinda starts to panic at that moment as the clock is showing 3.30pm... great... looks like we'll be spending the first night in dublin airport! Then after numerous attempts, walking in and out of the arrival hall, we finally find out what when wrong... My dear friend saved the wrong number!!! And he said he already double check the number.... >_<

Dublin Airport

Aaanyway...... we finally get to see our van cum hotel cum kitchen. It's quite nice actually, with a small sink, 2 gas hob and 2 seating place that can be converted to a double bed. That's where we will be spending our next 5 days 4 nights in.

The back of the van: the seat cum bed & sink & gas hob

gas hob & the sink

So after picking up the campervan, we head to Dublin city for a quick stroll and did some food shooping.

one of the bridge that connect Iffey river

Street performers. Very talented! But the lady that looks like she's dancing is actually drunk! She later puke into the guitar case... ewww!!

One of the many bars in Temple Bar, the famous bar street in Dublin

Sorry about the look, a bit stoned here... Maklum lah... tak cukup tidur!

For the first night, we drove to a little town called Drogheda, about 45mins away from Dublin city. We stopped there as it's nearer to our first visit the next day. Our first night campsite is by the road side near some bushes with river at the back. It's kinda creepy for me, but he loved it as it's more quiet. Both of us are very different. I'm afraid of the dark, but to him, the darker the better, pitch dark is the best for him...

Cooking in that particular campervan is interesting! As it's a van, so we have to half stand half bend to do the cooking... and we've knocked our head countless time on the van ceiling... wonder if our head has gone slightly bigger! :s

professional chef cooking 3 course meals.. :p

Getting ready to sleep... without any pillows.. :(

That night, we only get to sleep at about 1.30am... :(
Did we have a good night sleep? read Part II , coming soon...