Barcelona Part III - Gaudi's Wonders

(Excuse how I write it. Kejap macam kat Barca, kejap cam ... whatever. Huhuhu... Enjoy reading!)

Good morning, Sunshine! Day 2 in Barcelona, Spain and so far, so G-R-E-A-T! :) After long walk yesterday, a doner kebab for dinner (Alhamdulillah for the small restaurant just 50 m away from the hotel) and a good night sleep; we are ready for more excavation of the city. Two things that we have already identified to do are:

1. To check out Barca's Market
2. To enter Casa Battlo

So, let's go :)

This is the Mercat de la Boqueria, Barcelona. It is situated about half way walk from the start of La Rambla but the Metro station (Liceu) where we were from is quite near the market. We were quite early, many of the shopkeepers were busy setting up.

The first two lots in front of the market sell 'Jamon' and not to our surprise, many other lots sell the same thing inside... Jamon in various forms! :) There's also butchers that sell the inner parts. Everything except the meat! The skinless sheep whole heads (Terkezut!), tongues, livers, etc.

Vegetables and fruits lots were very interesting too. Not many were unknown kind to me, thanks to Food Network and AFC but they look so colorful, fresh and 'gemuk-gemuk'! Many of them sell fresh fruit juices too! Mixed-fruit juices pun ada. We can't resist, I bought a red one (I think it was a mixed Strawberry and some other fruit) while Zukry had a yellow one (Pineapple+Orange, something like that) and they were YUMMY! With no added sugar ~

OK, bye-bye La Boqueria - Let's find a decent breakfast. There's this coffee house with long lines, we thought maybe they have the best coffee. We joined in the line and ordered our usual breakfast, cafe latte and croissants :) The Arab couple behind us ordered Tuna and cheese sandwiches with tea (Kenapa nak kena bagitau? Biasalah, busybody - It was just interesting to know what sort of food the other Muslim in the cafe chose. Saya dan wife mamat Arab tu je yang bertudung)

Burp! Alhamdulillah...

Next agenda, Antoni Gaudi's wondrous building - the first one: Casa Battlo. The house of the Battlo family. The building is open to everyone for a fee. We were given a guide that looks like a telephone. Every important corners was marked with a number, so we could listen to its description via the guide. No description was planted onto the wall, doors, floor - so in order to understand how Gaudi's mind work when he created this amazing house, listen! :)

Every single thing was given a really deep detailing what were both exquisite and as the guide said, ERGONOMIC! The handrail of the stairs, the corners of the doors, the window frame and handle, the ceilings - every corner, there is something we can enjoy looking, touching, testing. I love how we can independently wander with our telephone-like-guide. It may seem silly but everybody is doing it, so it's alright. Both of us had our mind blown off with the reasons why things are put at certain ways! Gaudi is really an architectural genius...

Zukry's digging it. Look at the gate! Gaudi can't accept straight boxy gate? :P

  

The dragon-like roof

The tiles were arranged such that the lower the wall, the lighter the blue color is. Why? Because it is a light well. Google about it!

I think we were there for about 2 hours. Snapping pictures, sharing our thoughts on how we could adopt Gaudi's idea into our future home :)

*** Reference to other buildings that we didn't enter:
1. There are many other Gaudi's creation we visited. Another house was Casa Mila. We didn't enter but you can check out Maria Elena's post about it. She went in :)

2. Another magnificent but not yet finished building is Sagradia Familia (the Basilica I Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia) There's this post about the building from inside, you go check a post from the style guru, Andy of StyleScrapbook.

From what we saw outside the Sagradia Familia, OMG - our jaws fall to the floor! There's so much detail put onto it. The roofs, all the statues that seem to have stories behind it, even the gate! You have to know that this building is still under construction and its target to finish is on 2026, 100 years after Gaudi's death! So, there were still cranes in between the towers. We went around the building to see the front, back and the sides of it.

After what feels like a thousand snaps of pic, we went to find nearest halal restaurant and saw an Instanbul Restaurant (quite a usual sight at La Rambla's too) We ordered Seafood Paella, it's a quite popular menu - Paella. When it came, it looked like 'bubur nasi kunyit' with prawns, mussels and squids. Since I have that in mind, it somehow tasted like how nasi kunyit should taste; but we managed to finish it off - the seafood, not all :P We left feeling unsatisfied. Should have ordered real NASI with MEAT :) Gedik2 nak test konon - ptuihh! Hehe.

Burp! Alhamdulillah...

OK, let's go to the next Gaudi's creation. This time it's not a single building but a PARK. It is named Park Guell (after a count, Count Eusebi Guell) Exiting the Metro, I thought a few hundreds meter walk; we could have arrived at the park... Seribu kali sayang, from where we stopped - not only we had to walk, we also had to climb a hill so steep, they actually installed escalators! I've never seen escalator totally outside a building! :) Our entrance was not the main entrance (Apparently we went out of the park from the main one. Hehe)

Enjoy the pictures :) 

That's the main entrance BTW :)

B-E-A-U-TIFUL View.

Look at that piece of ceiling art. Can you see? They are chipped cups, saucers, plates!

The stones that make everything seems so fascinating, they were from the excavation of the site itself.

Look how high we had to climb. Thank God for escalator!

Here's a view for the top of Park Guell. You can see Sagradia Familia from here.

The end of day 2 in Barca. We are heading to Camp Nou next, and boarding the Trainhotel :) to Paris, France. Stay tune!

Barcelona Part II - The City

So, we are now in Barcelona baybeh! As usual, I get nervous when I'm in a train station. Well, another strange place - we need to learn the system but most of the time, they are the same. Duh! Hehehe.

First thing, let's find our hotel - Hotel Coronado! To tell you the truth, I forced myself to lower my expectation. We've had an OK time in Rome, we love Ferretti Hotel in Florence and Antonio's extra bedroom because he got a plus point for free laundry, and OMG - we survived Madrid's hostel; I got to get ready for this next one :)

Just like previous locations, we just got to turn left when right is clearly the RIGHT way! So, 20 minutes finding our ways, jumpa - Hotel Coronado. Located just about 5 minute walk from the subway! (Sabar jelah...)

Picture cropped from their website but they don't have it in English. So, please google translate yourself. Hehehe...

Here's what the subway looks like. Just a random photo. I don't know, for some reason I was really just happy and have forgotten about Madrid. 

The Room :)

This is how the room looks like. Excuse my tudung bawal. It needs that much of space cause I didn't get to iron any scarves all the while! I highly recommends tudung bawal and a pashmina (for that glam/switch up moment you may have) while backpacking for these reasons:

1. I iron them hard before packing, requires no extra ironing for the whole 10 days! I swear ;)
2. They clean and dry very quickly. Remember, rainy rome excavation? Hehehe.
3. Dressing it up takes at least 5 mins. Don't I look good in most of the pictures. No, you may not answer "You didn't"! Sorry, naik lori :P

So back to the room, we have 2 double beds to ourselves and that is luxurious :) Free wifi in the room, so Hotel Coronado - BIG FAT POINT for that! That means; FACETIME time with family in Ampang!

Jom, we gotta leave the room and check out Barcelona! I'm not sure what was our first station - I need to check with Zukry. He is my mobile map (His iphone & ipad were a lot of help. Thank you, Apple!) But it was the same stretch of road as La Rambla - the famous walk. We found Casa Battlo and Casa Mila - more about these magnificent Gaudi's wonders later!

Casa Battlo

Casa Mila

But you know; to my despair, all luxurious brand boutiques were closed. It's not like I'm gonna buy anything, but it was a Sunday! Shopping time, kot... Huhu. Well, the good thing was; I get to gawk really closely at bags I have my eyes on. Well, those on display lah - The YSL Chyc especially :) Apparently the only shops / boutiques open were Hard Rock Cafe and a shopping complex on a small island just 1 KM walk from a square nearby.

Kids enjoying the birds. This is quite usual picture. These pigeons were everywhere! Hehe

Mad Hatter, having tea with I don't know who. He actually looked like Johnny Depp with all those make-up

Big sized Ice Lemon Tea. Ice Lemon Tea is like Teh Botol in Indonesia. We have them in bottles, cup, small, big, that's  our go-to drink. Besides cafe latte in the morning.
La Rambla~

So, we strolled along the whole stretch of La Rambla. There were a lot of people! A sea of what I can see most; tourist. Too many souvenir stores that we didn't care to check out (yet!) and suddenly, we came across a store named 'Kuala Lumpur' - extremely surprised! (Maktam whatsapp me two days after about this shop! There was an article about it in the newspaper - how the owner visited KL and liked 'Kuala Lumpur' then, named her store 'Kuala Lumpur'! Huhu) The store sells clothes and others. We didn't check it out.

I'm in front of Kuala Lumpur!

I love this picture. A few minutes hanging out time isn't complete without a nice picture.

After a brief stop at the shopping complex (I think we had Fish Burger at Burger King), we think we have enough time to check out the 'Nude Beach'. Hehehe... So off we went but the long and wide beach was empty (almost) The feeling was 'relieved-noone-was-naked-but-bummer,-did-not-get-to-experience-something-random-like-that-too' - ha, cane tu? Hihi. Since no one was around, the stroll was really just between Zukry and I. That was intimate. The beach reminded us about Yuna's Decorate videoclip. So, we made one :P

Cantik kan? :)

Fixed benches. 

Obviously Happy :)

The End for Part II

I feel like this Part 1 is too long :) We'll continue in another post. 

Next up, Antoni Gaudi.

Barcelona Part I - RENFE, First Class

Ola! Let's continue the journey to another part of Spain, very famous vacation spot - Barcelona. I was excited to get out off Madrid. I have marked that place - I have no plus points to give. But that was just me... We went straight to Madrid Puerta De Atocha, we were just 2 stations away from our hostel. Sometimes, while we were in the train - street performer would sing for money. One time, the famous 'kopi dangdut' was on and Zukry took video. I would like to think that the song originated there...

Our gate was not open when we arrived, so we decided to have breakfast (at this time, we didn't know what sort of condiments we would get from the train trolley) The usual breakfast, plain croissant / choc au pain with cafe latte at a 24 hours joint in the station - of course we chose that place for its free wifi!

Less than 20 minutes wait, time to board - RENFE first class baybeh! As usual, we were the casually dressed with heavy bag-packs on while the rest except for another one or two; looking sharp in suits. The first 30 minutes ride, we stopped at a few stations for more passengers and by this time, we noticed - we have stewards!

Among the views we get to enjoy :) 

The first thing they provided was earphones in a cute pouch. For watching TV. No, no individual screen - just the usual screen like what we had in our bus. Patrick Damsey movie was on - the one about who's robbing the bank?

The steward came again, handing out menu for breakfast! I was excited, this feels like Qatar Airways again :) They were serving potato which looked like popiah, scramble egg with carrots and another menu that came with sausages. So, the potato and egg lah. Then, they came with trolley that filled with choices of bread, among others. I had to order cafe latte! Tiny bottle of olive oil, jam and butter accompanied my choice, croissant (panas lagi - yum!) and a hard weirdly shaped bun. Huhu.

There were a few more trolley goodies!
- refilled coffee :)
- newspaper
- Biscuits
- Lindt milk chocolate

We were thrilled, we thought it was the greatest train ride so far!!! We paid zilch for the service we thought was awesome. Well, we paid for the ticket - probably it was already included but ahhh, whatever!

Barcelona, we have arrived. After the goodbyes - to the stewards (BTW, they were in their 40s, neatly dressed. Bukan muda-mudi), we headed straight to our hotel. A hotel! Oh yeah ~

Madrid, Spain

A dull face to start of. It took us a while to get to this stadium. Zukry bought the tickets but we were supposed to claim the actual tickets at a La Caixa machine (sort of like an ATM) We found two machines but failed to retrieve any. (Select "english" but the machine still worked in "spanish". Duh!)

After 3 flights of stairs, we were up on and in The Estadio Santiago Bernabeu! Real Madrid, La Liga 2011-2012 Champion home ground~

Merajuk, biasalah - jadi muka camtu. Maafkan :P

These were taken inside its museum. You just gotta take a pic with the trophy, no? Of course! All the while, I was the most mithali wife - I was made to be the photographer of the entire stadium tour :)

Warning, more pictures of us inside the stadium! No one was playing on the ground - obviously. Nothing was happening whatsoever inside the stadium except for visitors like us making rounds of tour.

The happy couple on Real Madrid turf. A football enthusiast - ask Zukry how to make this happen. I can only gawk at his effort. Hehehe...

Nah, all blue.

Takcukup atas kerusi, bersila pulak. There was this guy who tried to touch the grass - itupun, kena whistled! Mahal rumput tu~

Tukar setting B&W plak. Takde kerja lain dah...

There she goes! Hartini from Malaysia ready to take on the field. Hehehe...

The green against the blue. Perfect color combination. I'm not sure if this works on clothing choice. Too bold for blocking? Don't think it would work. (caption super unrelated to the stadium tour! Hehehe)

Can't help to think that Cristiano Ronaldo must have taken a dip or two inside this jacuzzi. Hehehe.

The happy couple again. Excuse us. This was taken inside the  dressing room. We were guided only by signs with a map. Free to roam anywhere allowed. I think at this stadium, we spent many Euro for a entah-berapa-R size photo.  Ke kat Camp Nou? Ntah pape :P

I think this was after the visit to the estadio. We just want to make sure where to go for our train to Barcelona the very next day. Since the train leave in the morning, we wanted to make sure we knew our routes. That was my only T-shirt for the trip. Bought in KK, before Zukry's 10 KM run aritu. Hehehe (perlu ke gtau? suka hatilah...)

So, I was still unsettled. I feel very secured the entire time we were inside the stadium. But as we walked out of it, I can't help but felt extremely nervous about everyone. I snuggled my sling bag so tightly. Zukry did not give up on Madrid and he tried to make sure I didn't miss out anything good from this place. 

We explored a little bit of the city. We went to see what Retiro Park has to offer. I could only think about my bag at the time, there were so many people - I can not miss anyone that has their eyes on these obvious tourists. 

Look how I tucked my bag under my arm so tightly. It's Longchamp, not a Berkin :P

People watching at Retiro Park. Ada one couple ni, the guy paddled their boat to a 'air pancut' near where we sat. It was such a romantic comedy moment. All laughed and cheered on. The girl basah kuyup, nak turun boat takleh ~

The line to ride on this was really long but people waited, patiently for their turn. Buat kat Titiwangsa ajelah... ada ke?

After about 30 minutes walking and hanging around the lake, Zukry said we have to see Madrid's famous square. We were at Sol - just a few stations away. Mak datuk, lagilah ramai orang! 

There's this picket anti-bull fighting. Relevant, I didn't even think of bull fighting until I saw them. We were in Spain, for god's sake! Huhuhu...

To end our Madrid trip, I bought a belt from Mango. Hehehe. Sempat lagi! Berjaya redah a sea of people, safely :) Toodles Madrid, Ola Barca!

Of Being Sick

So far, October is not as welcoming. It didn't start of great for me... The first day, I had to go to the clinic for my cough and sore throat. I was put on MC the very next day.

Just yesterday, I was up and ready for work. I sneezed hard and pulled a muscle or two. The pain was intense, I can't move properly without hurting... I already by then, started my car; tried really hard to get in but I knew I couldn't drive at that state.

A muscle relaxant and painkiller were prescribed, but it didn't went off immediately. For a day; sitting, picking things, whatever feels normal were a challenge for me. Ya Allah, sembuhkanlah... I'm meeting the doctor again today. Pray that I'll be on my toes again insyaAllah. 

Let's update the blog in the mean time, eh? (",)