Netherlands to Southern Spain

*Okay I've added the pictures, I apologize for the super delay, I was spending my time with my family in the first few week as if I'd never see them again, hahah and then the router smoked crack, and then friends started to ask to go for outings and so on. So, yeah, enjoy the pictures :D

Okay so where were we? Oh Antwerp to Brussels. I was so tired the night i promised to post more updates, the lobby was so noisy with kids (there were like 4 buses of kids who arrived on the same day as us, I think they were having some sort of a summer camp or something) and so I had no choice but to put up my white flag to my sleepiness.

Another white village, this one is a bit huge

Oh wait, I think this is Arcos

This is Seville

From inside the car, at a roundabout

Yesterday was amazing. After a hot tour in Seville or Sevilla in Spanish, (and I was wearing 2 pieces of shirts. Stupido.) I had one of the best evenings ever in my whole life. But Sevilla tour first, we went to some of the main attractions. Firstly, we went to a huge old church which was once a mosque, but after the Christians conquered Sevilla, the mosque was turned into a church. Some of the Islamic attributes and characteristics could still be seen on the structure, except that it has human structures and crosses on top of the dome and towers.

La Giralda Minaret, it's one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, a place for the bilal to call for prayers.


The other side of it


That thing is beautiful


The dome


My jaw dropped when i first saw it

There were also horse carts like in Bruges, but the horses didn’t have like a plastic that’s like attached to the cart and the horse’s ass which would contain their shit whenever they would shit. Thus, Sevilla lost another mark because of that (previously lost mark was because of the weather) cause the absence of the ‘portable toilet bowl’ has caused the whole city to smell like shit (most of the time) cause the carts are all over the place. *sigh*

There was also an old castle, okay to be honest, I think this trip is pretty lengthy I’ve mixed up the names of the places and landmarks. I think the castle that I mentioned just now was called Alcazar, but if I’m not mistaken, alcazar means castle, so any castle would be called alcazar, and there are a lot of castles in Spain! Gosh. People said there’s a garden inside, but the admission fee’s quite expensive and the garden would be quite similar to the one at Granada which we would also visit next. So I decided not to go in there.

It was so hot that day we had to give up early, most shops were also closing down cause it was pass their siesta time, which is the napping time for Spanish people. It’s like a culture there, shops are closed down at around 2pm-6pm for them to take a nap, cause it’s so hot? Sounds like heaven! I miss long sleeps. I’ve had sleeps that were unsatisfactorily long ever since the final exams. And travelling is freaking tiring, I have to admit. Money flows like a river. Oh well…

Okay then I went to the, what’s it called eh? Plaza de España. Yeah hey hey hey. This place is cool. My head suddenly gets stupid, I’ve run out of idea how to describe it, I’ll just show you some pictures. Down here.

The entrance of Alcazar

Like I said, I can't afford to remember all of the names

I think it was like a hotel or something, or maybe just another castle

But I do know this one, this is the Plaza de Espana. This place actually when is looked from the top, forms a half circle but it's so huge it's hard to put the whole thing in whole picture. Itwouldn't show the curve anyways.

And then we headed back to the car and drove to our hotel for the night, and in the evening, aunty asked me if I would like to come with them to find some sunflowers, I was like, naaaak. So we took the car and headed towards a yellow field that we spotted from far away. We then reached this place where nobody would have thought of going to cause the road to that place was kind of hidden.

And it felt like I was in a dream. A huge hilly land of blooming sunflowers. The flowers were all facing the same direction, which was coincidently towards where we came from, so all I saw was sunflowers, thousands of them I bet all smiling at me. Aunty said the flowers are all facing sunrise and yea I think that could be true cause it was almost sunset that time so the sun was right behind those flowers, slowly getting swallowed by the horizon.

Isn't that just breathtaking?

There were so many of them


It's kind of dark because it was sunset


Wish I could jump and land on them, but then I'd probably be chased away...by dogs, if i were lucky enough


*sighs...*

One of the best things that has ever occurred in my life *inhales with a smile*
On the next day, we went to Merida, which houses the oldest Roman city in Spain. There were a lot of roman ruins in the middle of the city. We were like walking around the city and would then unexpectedly found some ruins. And they were like scattered around the city. There was also a roman bridge which has a garden under it. It’s really nice, I like it there. But I don’t really like the hot weather. Hahaha.

I like it

The Roman bridge


Look at this beast, so cool

This is at the square

A bird with its nest spotted on top


One of the ruins in the midst of the town

Still standing



Not far from the ruins


This was taken behind the fence, need to pay to get inside actually


Another view

We then headed to Cordoba and checked in to this camping site called Camping Carlos III. We rented a bungalow for four people, it was really nice. There was a kitchen, 2 bedrooms, a common room and a bathroom. We stayed there for two nights and we would go to this small town to buy foods and groceries. I saw graffiti on a wall in that town and I found it very interesting and very nice to look at.

Cool eh?

And so we went to Cordoba next day. It was uh… let’s just say that I had a bad start of my day, so half of the day was spent with a gloomy aura. I lost my appetite to see new things, and the mezquita failed to attract my attention that day. So, I don’t know, it is undeniably a great architecture that combines Islamic and Christian features. But there were just some facts or words that were used to describe stuff, oh well I was having a bad day already that day, I don’t know it just turned out to be not as great as I thought it’d be like. Just have a look at the pictures la, adeh…

I saw this one shop, it has this carving on it

I love all the details


mezquita cathedral, i guess that's another minaret


The view is really nice but it was so hot


That's how the interior looks like, the red and white stripes

The mihrab, which faces southward which I think is not right


Different influence in the mosque-cathedral (reminds me of physics, wave-particle duality, mosque-cathedral duality, hahaha)


That is just so beautiful I tell you


More stripes

Even ceilings, seriously my neck was about to snap backwards cause I couldn't help myself from looking up there all the time


Another ceiling design, it's so spectacular i feel like want to be an architect


The integration of different elements


It would be an honor to bring this wall home hahaha

And today, phew, this is tiring. I want to sleep! Today, we went out early. Like I mean it, really early. Hahah at around 5.30am cause we didn’t book our ticket for La Alhambra. And when uncle called the people at Alhambra, the earliest booking available is only on Sunday’s afternoon onwards, which is like the day after tomorrow. And we have to catch our flight to Stansted so we can’t go on Sunday! And so we were told to just come by tomorrow and walk-in purchase the tickets. So that explains the early start of our day today.

L a Alhambra, or Alhamra’ if it’s written in Arabic (I have no idea where the ‘b’ comes from, I guess it’s a Spanish thing), is situated on top of Sabika Hill. There are oh well, the typical thing, gardens, gardens gardens and nice beautiful views. Aaaa I need to pack up, and then go to sleep, might not be able to upload lots of pictures tonight. But please check out this entry again later on, will update it again. And I owe you guys the journey from Brussels to Arcos (which is before Seville).

Stay tuned.

(Though I think nobody really reads my blog. Mbahaha. It’s okay, I just love talking to myself)

Adios amigos, Buenas noches.

From Toronto to Amsterdam

*Edited, posted some more pics here

And so I thought my flight was on Monday, but I just found out on Saturday that my flight was actually on Tuesday. So my plan to go to Royal Botanical Garden with Alyssa and Nasri had to be cancelled, cause I need to pack up and all (I’m packing for home too).

Initially I wanted to bring home all my baju kurung cause I want to bring a new one this time. It seemed that I couldn’t fit in clothes that I would need for travelling. So I had to repack and bla bla bla, why am I talking about packing stuff? So lame. It’s just that I have to keep my check-in luggage to be under 15kg *sigh*

Okay so the trip to the first destination, Gatwick airport was quite long. I kept on falling asleep and once the foods reached me, I automatically woke up hehe. I felt, cam best, heheh cause we were served first since we requested for muslim foods. So ape lagi melantak la kan.

Then, when we reached Gatwick, we had to go to the other terminal by bus since the train was not in service. We then took EasyJet flight to Schipol Airport, Holland. There, we waited for a couple of hours for the arrival of Nasri’s parents.

We then took a cab to our hotel in Lisse, The Golden Tulip Hotel. One room for the women and one for the guys. The only expensive hotel of this trip I guess. I think uncle chose this one cause it’s very near to Keukenhof.

By the way, Keukenhof is a dutch word ( I think, I’m pretty sure it is) which means Kitchen’s Garden. I was told by aunty that Keuken means kitchen and hof means place or something like that. It’s called so because the place was initially just a garden where herbs and a few plants were planted and the owner would go to the garden to pick these stuffs for use in the kitchen, thus the name Keukenhof.

Haaa.... so many pictures. For more pictures, check out my facebook or if you're not a friend of mine, then you can't see them, sorry :P

It then expanded and today, there are a lot of sections where each has different exhibitions by different companies. I think there were at least 90 plus exhibitions (sorry if I’m wrong, my memory just sucks) and what’s interesting about this place is that it is only open for 6 weeks, the period which those flowers are in bloom. Main attraction was tulips of course.

If I came down there like, right away after I had my exam, I might get the chance to catch the whole field full of blossoming tulips, each row with different colours T_T, unfortunately I didn’t. Rugiiiiiiiiii waaaaaaa. Maybe I have to come again next time then.

There was like a huge land area right opposite the hotel I was staying at which had the remaining of tulips. The only things missing were the tops. The beautiful flowers. I was lucky that there were still some tulips that were not chopped off yet, if not it would really be a waste to come all the way from Canada. And did I mention the steep admission fee that they were charging us? EU13.50 bhai. Would be happier if I could see all of them.

I read on the internet that they chopped off the tops on purpose to strengthen the bulbs so that next year those flowers would still be healthy and would still bloom, I guess. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Okay I’m writing this while I’m in this hostel in Ronda, Southern Spain. I’m just not sleepy yet, and before I forget everything, I might as well write something on the beginning of my trip. This is one cool hostel, it’s located in a small village (one of the white villages, called Cartajima *pronounced kartahima*) right in the middle of some hilly terrains, amidst trees and huge rocks. The view from here is just spectacular. I’ve never thought I’d step my feet on such a place like this. On my way here, the view was amazing. We took the way which passed the national park which looks something like the scene in Lord of the Rings.

Cartajima's church

Cartajima's restaurant and bar down there

Church's balcony

One of the stairs in Cartajima

Another white village that can be seen from the rooftop of the hostel

Lemons are common

Aunty even said that this place looks similar to New Zealand. Since I’ve never been there yet, I was so stunned with the beautiful view, really, this is like my dream okeyh! I was like thanking God every second in the car (we rented a car by the way) for giving me the chance to see this side of the world.

I saw like a signboard that has a symbol that looked like a cow/ goat and I was like, mane lembunye, I don’t see any. And right after I said that I saw one on a huge rock, looking at the sky. And I spotted another one sitting on the grass, and then another one. And not long after that, there was a herd of them crossing the road!

Rockish

Mbekkk

Jalan raya yang agak menakutkan

Sharp turn

Okay, I’m skipping the days after at Lisse!

Back to day two, we went to Amsterdam on the next day (after Keukenhof) (sorry for the distorting the chronological orders). And so, the place that was popular of two things; legal weed smoking and sale, as well as the red light district.

One of the canals


At the square



Bicycles



Red light district, behind that row of bulding



Bikes bikes bikes


I love the buildings

The night before we had a dinner with uncle’s friend who is a local, and he gave aunty the direction to the Chinatown cause she was eager to go there. And he was like, just walk straight from the central lalalala then you’ll reach the Chinatown. Just keep on walking but don’t walk too further cause you’ll get to the red light district.

Aunty was like, I don’t have a problem with that. And he replied, you don’t but I’m not sure about these kids (pointing at both Nasri and I). We just laughed and grinned. So, the plan was not to get to the red light district. But then, we had a slight change in our plan and we decided to take another path to get back to the hotel.

Aunty was trying to get us out of Chinatown through a shortcut, but we accidentally reached this place where there were girls being displayed through the glass in shop houses, also spotted a signboard that said “sexshop”. So yeah, we accidentally entered the red light district area :D we were like, oopssss :D

It was kind of disappointing. The girls are not that cute or beautiful. Gemok je. Siap ade yang tua da berkedut weh! I was like euw? I read on one of the brochures that taking pictures are not allowed or you’d get into trouble. But with those girls? I wouldn’t even bother to take their pictures la. I don’t know if they keep the hot ones for night time display haha.

Well if you didn’t or couldn’t find the red light district, the whole town itself is already polluted, I personally think. Yea so they don’t really have cars. They have a lot, I mean it, a lot! Of bicycles, it’s their main transportation I guess. The roads are all so narrow, I understand why they wouldn’t even give a damn about owning a car.

Less air pollution you say? Heh. Not really. It’s even worse, weed smoke is like everywhere. I hate it. Smells like, I don’t know, some people describe it like skunk pee. Whatever it is, I just hate the smell. Nice view, nice buildings, lots of canals, though the roads are pretty narrow, but bad air ambience.

Weeeeeed

And the souvenir shops, I don’t know why are they so proud of their red light district. There were like mugs with penis as the handle, keychains that replicate penises, penises are just everywhere. As souvenirs? It’s just so wrong! Hahah.

There was this souvenir shop that sells cannabis lollipops. I wanted to try one so I asked him, how does these taste like? He was like, well, like weed. Duhhhhh? So I asked again, would you get high if you eat it? He said, depends. Some people take two or three of these and then *gestured with his hand*, just fall asleep. So I decided, hmmmmmm no thanks then. I love me. It would be great if they could make them out of some artificial flavour that mimics the taste of cannabis. But come on Linda, that's Amsterdam. Tak main la artificial okeyh.

So then we went back to the hotel, took our bags, and hopped on the bus and train to Antwerp, Belgium. We were greeted by the beautiful central station, and the hostel that we were staying at was just like 5 minute walk from the station. And there was this Indonesian restaurant called Waroeng Ayam Goreng! Quite expensive, for a set of fried halal chicken and white rice cost EU8.50. But there were like 6 pieces of chicken so, yea it was not bad. The best thing that I liked about the restaurant was the sambal. It was phenomenal. Well for sambal lover like me who hasn’t had sambal for quite some time. This one is a killer!

The next day, went around Antwerp or in Dutch, Antwerpen which means something like hands being chopped off? Hahah, I’m not too sure about the history cause I heard the owner of the Indonesian restaurant telling the history of the name of the city, but since I can’t really understand Indonesian when it’s spoken fast, so all I caught was the word Tuhan marah maka dipotongnya tangan, lalalala. Gitu la :D

Antwerp


Uncle was like repeating ten times, this is the first european castle!


Felt like I was lost in the medieval time


The shopping strip, I had to talk myself out of shopping T_T mahal weh


Kudaku lari


A very old church


Adeh... cantek la


the buildings, i just like them all


I guess the hand that was chopped off by god?


Okeh this is funny. There was a group of students who came to us and asked us to write Belgium is a world country in Malay language. And they were like, can we take picture please *excited faces* I felt like a celebrity for 5 minutes :D


I liiiikkkkeeee



Brabo fountain

Cobble stones, old churches, cathedrals with remarkable carvings are typical here. Okeh, ngantok, will continue later!

11:53pm local time Southern Spain GMT+1

*Posted from El Faisan Hotel, Arcos, Southern Spain 10.53pm local time