Willy Wonka's Chocolate

It was a cold and wet morning. Yes, i wake up in the mornings now. Anyways, it's been cold and wet for a few days now. What happened to summer?? Where's the sun?? Damn British weather.

Ok, so where was i? Oh ya, it was a cold and wet morning and i didn't feel like going out. Not like there's anywhere to go. The weather is perfect for curling up on your bed with a good book with snacks of course.

So i decided to try one of those Willy Wonka chocolates i bought from Jackson's. Actually, i didn't know about the chocs until i saw my parents buying some. Woohoo~

Yummy...but it goes straight to the arse!

There's another flavour, but forgot what it's called. Very nice and..erm..chocolaty. The Nutty Crunch Surprise has no nuts in it. That's the surprise. Yeah. Surprised? Anyways, i think it's nicer than the Whipple Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight. Phew, what mouthful. And i didn't find a Golden Ticket! Suppose to have 5 Golden Tickets and winners get to tour a US chocolate factory. Dang...or maybe i should just buy more chocolates. Hmmm...

See the fudgemallow?

Ok, i got way to much free time. I'm going to Italy on Thursday! Gonna take pics with the Pope! Heh, fat chance.

Phew, what a month!

I'm back! Done holidaying and graduating! Hmm..where shall i begin? Ok, so I was in London and Paris with my parents. Kinda scary with the bombs and all. I thought it wouldn't happen again after the first time. Mana tau, a copy of it happened! Luckily, we weren't there at those times, but between them.

Ok, so we went to London to stay for a night before heading to Paris. When we reached London, we walked from Victoria Station to Piccadilly Circus where we were staying. On the way, we passed Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square. I went to those places before the last time I had a 4 hour stop-over there, but it was winter then so the fountains at Trafalgar Square were off and the water had a layer of ice. This time around, it was much nicer and there were many pigeons! We stop here and there to take a few photos and then straight to the hotel.

Later in the evening, we met up with my cousin who is working in London. She'll be having her graduation also, a day earlier than mine in Liverpool. She brought us to see the Marble Arch (cause it was near her workplace), Tower Bridge and the London Eye. I was expecting to see the London Eye all lit up, but then when we reached there were hardly any lights on. Bummer. So we walked by the river then headed back to the hotel.

Woke up a few hours later to catch the Eurostar to Paris. Throughout the journey, i slept. End of story. Upon reaching, we went to the hotel, dumped our stuff and went to the Eiffel Tower! Had to stand in line for about an hour to get tickets to go up, but was worth it. At first, the top floor wasn't open, then when we were about to reach the front, it opened! Woohoo. Had a good view from the top.

That's it for the first day in Paris, the next day we went to Disneyland!! It was about 1/2 hour journey from the city by train. We got to upgrade our tickets by 10Euro to enter both the park and studio. We went to park first. It was very big. I went in search for the most scariest ride to take. Ended up at the Indiana Jones ride and another indoor ride called 'Space Mission 2' if i'm not mistaken. The indoor one was nice, the whole place pitch black and it had loops. :D After a spot of lunch, we went to Disneyland Studios. Again, went in search for the best ride and I found it! Rock&Roll rollercoaster!! Also an indoor one, with multiple loops. Cooool. My parents also went on the ride. I think they didn't know it was a rollercoaster till it was too late. Haha. Poor mom. She was terrified. Ah well, there's always a first time.

Later that night, we went to see fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. It was Bastille Day, celebrated every 14th of July. It marks the end of the monarchy and the beginning of the First Republic (okok, so i copied that sentence from somewhere).

Nice leh? It was worth going all the way there, squeezing into the metro and all.

The next day we went to The Louvre and Arc De Triomphe. A must see in Paris. As usual, went to see the Mona Lisa. It was very crowded at the area. Had to line up to take her picture! Talk about celebrity status.

After 3 nights in Paris, it was off to London again for another 2 nights. In London, we went to the British Museum and Madame Tussaud's. Took photos with all the wax figures and all.

Had a nice week away, but i got sick after coming back. Heck, i'm still sick. But during my graduation, i was fine. It was very windy that day. Quite hard when it came to taking pictures. And my, a whole lot of pictures we took! And there were a few photographers as well. So now I have lots of photos containing the same people, same background in different angles. -_-''

My parents have left. Will be busy recuperating (from my sickness not my parent's visit) the next few days. *cough cough*

Off again!

Yeah, mum and dad are here. Reached Manchester Airport last nite. My dad told me beforehand that they were landing at Terminal 1. So i waited there. For about an hour. Waited and waited, till i heard an announcement asking ME to go to the information counter. I rushed there, and there was my parents. They landed in Terminal 2. -_-'' Apparently the agent told them the wrong information. Ha. But nevermind, they reached safely that's all that matters.

Took sometime to reach back to Bradford. We tried to catch an earlier bus, but there weren't any! So we had some food at the airport while waiting for the bus. By the time we reached back to my hall, it was 11.30p.m. We organised my room, moved some stuff here and there, took turns taking showers and went off to bed at 12.30.

I thought since they were tired, they wouldn't be waking up so early. But nooOooo....they woke up by 6.30. Being a light sleeper, their movements woke me up though they were trying hard not to make much noise. >_< So i woke up, had breakfast with them and took them around campus. A short campus tour in the fresh morning air. After that we headed off to the city centre. Looking around, buying some fruits and I found a pair of black shoes for my graduation. After that, we came back to my room and i prepared lunch. Spaghetti. Easy. Heh.

Will be going off to London tomorrow and then Paris the following day. The bombings last week really scared us, but we still had to go to Paris from London. Anyways, we'll be alright. I got faith. I'll be away for another week.

I just got my results...was quite good. But i'm not satisfied. Well, what to do, i'm hard to please.
Oh well, can't do anything bout it. Off to eat french fries and toast! Bye~

Spain

I'm back from Spain!! Anyone missed me? Anyone? At all? Fine!

Anyways, it was nice and sunny in Spain. A lil toooo sunny. It was 38 degrees in Seville!! I got burned on my shoulders, on my second day there. Ok, so where should i start? I flew to Barcelona and then took trains to Madrid, Seville and Valencia and then flew back to UK. My mission?
1. Zara
2. Mango
3. Drool at sexy Spanish guys
4. Nude beaches Get high on Sangria

I completed my mission, though the Sangria only gave me rashes. Always happens when i drink too much anyways. Ok, so here goes.

Barcelona

The day started early in the morning. Ok, so maybe not that early. We went to LeedsBradford Airport to catch our 2.00p.m. flight to Barcelona. It was a 2 hour flight, so we reached at 4.00p.m UK time but Spain is an hour faster so that makes it 5.00p.m. Upon reaching, we hopped on the metro and sped off to the city centre. We got a lil lost looking for our hotel, but what caught my eyes were Mango and Zara. 0_0

We were staying at Las Ramblas street, which was conveniently the MOST happening street in Barcelona. It was one long stretch of road until the waterfront. The street was lined with stalls selling from chickens to flowers, restaurants, and street artisans. At the waterfront there's a Christopher Columbus column, with him pointing to the sea.

Maybe he saw some mermaids or something.

The most common food we could find here were tapas (seafood, meant as a snack) and paella (something like fried rice with seafood). Oh, and the famous Spanish alcoholic drink, Sangria. Sangria comes in 2 versions, white and red wine. It's mixed with brandy and fruits. But it tasted like wine plus ice to me. This is the white wine version, the red wine version looks the same only in red la.


This is paella:

This is a type of tapa:


Nice leh. Jealous or not? Muahahha...

Ok, enough about food. When in Barcelona you must know this name 'Antoni Gaudi'. He's a designer, architect and an engineering genius here. He designed the famous Sagrada Familia. A must see before you die building, according to Lonely Planet la. He also designed Parc Guell and Casa Mila among other buildings.

The Sagrada Familia. Still under construction. Since 1882.

We mostly visited those places by Gaudi. Yeah, that's about it. Next stop, Madrid!

Madrid

Ok, i didn't find Madrid as fun as Barcelona. But i happen to come across something that was INTERESTING. will talk about it later.

It took us about 4 hours to Madrid by train. ( Note: If you wanna travel cheaper get inter-rail tickets. It let's u travel around Europe cheaper). We stayed in this hostel called Cat's Hostel. It's the nice place, a World Heritage building. It's cheaper to stay in hostels. This one had air-con in the rooms, free breakfast and free internet! And the people staying there were nice to hangout with. Made friends with those from US, Australia, Denmark and more. We stayed there for 2 nights. The second night there, the hostel was celebrating its 1st year anniversary. There was a flamenco dance performance and free paella. Forget about paella, it was FREE Flamenco Dance, baby! And i had a sit right in front!! I was called up by the guy to dance a few steps. Damn shy man, but heck, it was a nice experience.

Damn ganas rite? I have a few videos. Anyone interested?

In Madrid i didn't do much. I went to the Prado Museum. Yes, yet another museum. We were heading to the museum and guess what was happening on the street right in front of it? Gay Parade! Woohoo. Saw a lot of naked butts. Sorry, was looking at the guys ones only. But i saw some women walking with their tops of. Anyways, back to the guys. There was one dancing naked but holding a cloth to cover his privates. Teasing the crowd by moving the cloth around. Like wanna show, don't want to show like that. Haha. The whole street was filled with trucks and busses with gays and lesbians dancing on them. Damn happening. When we got there, it was just starting so we went into the museum first, but when we came out the whole street was jam packed with ppl!! And they were handing out freebies. Those rainbow flags, gay magazine, free facial/body products, etc. Here's one of the buses.

If you want more photos, contact me. :D All i can say is, why are gay men so damn leng chai!

That's all the memories i have of Madrid. We didn't go much places because we went to Toledo. A town 1 hour away from Madrid. It used to be the capital of Spain and it's one of the top countries that produces swords. It's a nice small town, surrounded by walls and it has old spanish buildings. Nice. Reminds me of Zorro. But it still has Zara, Lacoste and Mango there. :P

Seville

After 2 days in Madrid, we went to Seville. A small town at the south. Damn hot weather. 38 degrees. When we reached there, we went straight to visit the Cathedral and Alcazar. Free on that day. Muahahah. Ok, i'm beginning to make us sound like cheapos. But really, got to save all we can so we can spend more on Booze food.

The Cathedral is one of the biggest in the world. It was really damn huge! And next to it was the Alcazar which used to be the residence of Muslim & Christian royalty. It's also damn huge! It has nice decor and even had a small park inside the compound. We could hear lots of owls as well. Here's one, the security guard was carrying it around:

Cute lil bugger with big creepy eyes eh?

There were lots of Orange Trees around ( the fruit not the colour). If you plucked it, you supposedly could be arrested. Or so they say. My friend tried the orange and said it was too sour to be eaten.

Ok, that's it for Seville. Unless you want to here my shopping escapades? No? Really? Oklor..

Valencia

Last stop, Valencia. Travelled 8 hours from Seville. Boring ride. Half of the journey was spent trying to communicate with a Spanish woman who knew little English.

Valencia was quite cool. I mean the weather. A nice refreshing change from Seville. Valencia is the 3rd biggest city in Spain. We stayed in another hostel. Called 'Home Hostel'. It's also like the one we stayed in Madrid, just minus the air-con, free internet and breakfast. Bleh. But they had a kitchen we could use to cook and the ppl were nice.

Visited the Central Market, another museum, and the beach! No nudist though. It was a nice town, something like Barcelona with less ppl. We flew back to UK after that. Ppl were putting on their jackets upon reaching the airport! So that's it. My summary of Spain. Bought loads of postcards, a small sword, clothes, and Jamon ( a spanish type of pork, pronounce as Hamon). And i got to watch The Incredibles, Shark Tale, and Sky Captain.... in Spanish!

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Sorry can't write more. I'm in a hurry anway. My parents will be here tomorrow, so that means i can't blog. And then we're heading to Paris then head back for my graduation. Don't even know my results yet! *sweat sweat* Wish me luck!