London - The Beginning of the Journey

Thanks to the kindness of friends and cousins who put me up for a few days before I headed for my Italian trip. I was in London for about 2-3 days, living in a Chinese restaurant and therefore I was able to save quite abit on food and lodging there.

Day 1:
Like playing a game of Monopoly, I started my day at Trafalgar Square. The monument within the square celebrates Nelson's victory over Napoleon in the Battle of Trafalgar.


Went to the biggest Chinatown in Europe


Walked from there to St James Park, and headed straight to the Buckingham Palace. I happened to see the changing of guard, but there were so many people there, I could not get a good shot of the palace itself. Honestly, the exterior of the palace is very boring looking. It is not grand, or intricate or extravagant. It is huge though. I was there in Summer and the State Rooms of the Palace was opened to the public, but the queue was much too long and not moving at all, so I took off to the next location.


The Big Ben. Maybe I have seen it too often in photos, in real life, Big Ben .. is just a clock.. But sadly, because I was covering everything alone, I hardly have any photos of myself with any of the sights.


Walked along the river..


HMS Belfast - Part of the Imperial War Museum

Tower Bridge. Unfortunately, it wasn't the real London Bridge as we sing in our nursery rhymes. The one that we sung about is actually in United States. "Why?" You might ask, the old bridge was under such disrepair, the British decided to get rid of it and the bridge was sold to a businessman in the US. Currently, the London Bridge is in Arizona, USA. *long silent pause*

While crossing the bridge on foot, there was this huge party of motorbikes going through. HUGE. In order for the whole convoy to pass through, it took them a good 10-15 minutes. I took some photos, but it was a fun experience.


After exploring the south side of the city, which I liked quite abit, the whole chill out atmosphere and little shops. I had limited time in London and made my way to the Tower of London.

The Tower of London was built in the 11th century by William I and used as a royal palace, armory, prison, place of execution and a jewel house. Jewel house ! I paid 12 pounds to check out the British Crown Jewels. I never knew that diamonds could come in the size of an egg. A very large egg. I could not take photos, but it was worth the trip. The rest of the sites were so-so, in fact, I found them to be pretty boring(i'm not a big fan of medieval weaponry) .


Next stop : - Soho! Where I came across a Gay Festival going on, my trip to London has been pretty lucky.




Day 2:-
Headed to the British Museum. The collection was so wide and detailed, covering a multitude of areas. I was so overwhelmed.


The Crystal skull !


Next stop was the National Gallery, where I spent the reminder of my day. I loved the National Gallery so much that I went back during the following day as well.


Day 3:-
National Gallery in the morning.. Headed to Harrods ! In the afternoon.

Spotted inside Harrods, really goofy statue of Diana and the deceased Harrods heir

Baker Street.. for a touch of Holmes

Selfridge.. another British shopping institution

Hamley's the world's biggest toystore



Ended the day seeing a film crew filming in the streets of London


I'm going to head back to London on the 20th Dec and will be there for 2 weeks. Hopefully, I will be able to cover all of the museums by then.

Very Grouchy Person Hitting Venice

The last stretch of my Italy trip ~ Honestly, now that I'm reflecting back and trying to write down the details. I find myself forgetting what I actually did in Venice. It came to the point in which i was thinking, "was that me?", "was it that day?"

Day 1: -

We took the night train over to Venice, but due to the changing of trains in the middle of the night and the waiting, we did not manage to get much sleep at all. Therefore, two every grouchy and sleep deprived people hit Venice. Me, being my usual brilliant, Pollyanna self, embraced Venice and its unusually freezing cold. My other friend was grouchy, tired and irritable. Naturally, if you don't sleep for 8 hours, keep waking up in the middle of the night, depart from a nice, warm seaside village to a place that feels like it is 8 degrees lower. Oh, did I mention that we haven't showered for like 20 hours.


We dropped off our stuff at the hostel, tried to freshen up in the toilets and decided to get lost in Venice. After breakfast and coffee, I felt abit more like an actual person. Spotted some street markets..

Venetian Masks

The Rialto Bridge

Gondolas

and arrived at St Mark's Basilica. The most famous of Venice’s churches, an example of Byzantine architecture. It used to be the chapel for Venice's rulers but now it is the seat for the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice. I might be all-churched out from my earlier travels, St Mark's still made an incredible impression on me. Due to the queue, I went past this place rather quickly and came back later to visit the interiors. The ceilings are mosaic, but again, photos are not allowed inside, so I can only say, it was amazing. I know, I have used this word, One too many times. Please google-image search this. It's worth it.


My next stop was actually the Galleria dell’Accademia di Venezia, but when I was there, it was closed for the day. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to go back there again.

Headed for the Peggy Guggenheim Museum round the corner. A museum for modern art, I really liked Max Ernst's works inside. There were also Picasso, Dali and Pollock. This was my first modern art museum inside Italy and it was truly different from the rest of the museums that I had visited in Italy. But after going there, I was abit closer to understanding what the modern art movement was about and after Paris, I had a fresh respect for these artists and what they were trying to achieve.



My friend revitalized in the evening and had a friend at the Venice Film Festival. Yes, I WENT TO THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL at Lido(an island off Venice)!!!

Spotted Natalie Portman. AHHHHHHHH. We bought tickets for a movie to the Venice Film Festival for the next day.

Took the night boat back ..


Day 2:

Took the boat back to Lido to watch Below Sea Level (Italy / USA, Director Gianfranco ROSI)

The director was inside the auditorium but the introduction was in Italian. -l- So i couldn't understand what was happening. Anyway, the movie/documentary was so-so. But I watched a movie at the Venice Film Festival. WOAH ! We came out, explored the island a bit and went Island-hopping.


Next on our island hopping tour, we went to Murano. The island where the famed Murano glass came from, the shopping urge called out to me and I got Murano glass earrings and a big-ass glass ring.


I vaguely remember ending the day at a cafe by the canal reading a book and having dessert. It was meringue pie and strawberry tart. The book that I was reading came from our hostel which kindly had a bookshelf for its customers. But the book was Twilight, the new teen flick that is showing right now.

Day 3:
Our last day in Italy and the end of our trip, as much as I liked Italy, I was looking forward to having a warm meal, good bed and clean showers.


Started the day at a coffee shop, we couldn't miss it. The moment you stepped in, the strong scent of coffee would have grabbed you by the neck and shook you from your slumber.



Walked around more markets and tried the local Berlini cocktail in a bottle.


Flew back to London afterwards...

Shall write about London next !

Cinque Terre brought me to my knees

If you have been following my last few posts, you would have realized that I had spent more than just a few days on the road in Italy. By the time I arrived in Cinque Terre, a good part of my Italian tour would have ended and I was quite relieved. For one, I was totally burnt out from traveling, for two, dirty + crowded + shared toilets, for three, living off supermarket food like bread and frozen ham, I can only survive on these factors for only so long.

We only stayed the night in Pisa and decided not to do the Tower of Pisa again in the morning. Once morning came, we took the train and took off to Cinque Terre. This place was recommended by one of our Spanish classmates and upon researching it, I was initially quite against coming to this place. Hey, I come from Singapore ! Surrounded by some of the best beaches in the world in Malaysia & Thailand. Why come to Italy to go to a beach ?

Boy was I wrong...


Once we arrived, Cinque Terre brought me to my knees. Cinque Terre is actually a coastal area made up for five seaside villages linked together by train. We headed to our hostel first at Manarola.

I made a mistake with the booking and we had no rooms when we arrived. We headed to the only hostel in Cinque Terre to find that it will only open 3 hours later.


Anyway, the hostel was full, a fact that we found out after WAITING FOR 3 DAMN Hours. Luckily, during the 3 hours period, me and my friend were taking turns to look after our bags and explore the village. I found this agency that managed to help us locate a private room in Manarola at hostel prices. At that point of time, it was close to 4-5pm, the sun was setting, we had no place to go to, we were DESPERATE. When they managed to pull off that tiny miracle, I really hugged and thanked them from the bottom of my heart. Loving Cinque Terre already..




The next 2 days, we spent in Cinque Terre chilling out and exploring the five villages. Each village was pretty small and can be covered within 30 mins. We could hike from one village to another. The prices and the food in Cinque Terre were so much cheaper than the other places in Italy I was at. The atmosphere was relaxing. I really left my heart at Cinque Terre. Each night, me and my friend will buy a bottle of wine, drink and chill out under the night sky. We had dinner as well, with fresh mussels, fish and ingredients like pesto locally grown in the region.