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