Milan day 1

Posted by ver0n1c4 at 05:14 PM on October 2, 2009.

Almost one month has passed since I chronicled my days in Venice. As you can feel from my entry, I love Venice very much. I am still sad if I remember the fact that the city might "disappear" one day. Anyway life goes on and we moved on to Milan on the following day. We arrived Milan around 3PM in the evening. Since we had planned to stay there for 3 nights, on the journey from Venice to Milan, we planned to upgrade our hotel to the one with air con, whenever possible. So we dropped off from the train at Milano Centrale and quickly fall in love with the city. They have a very nice train station. We get Harry Potter just by being there.

One thing good about travelling by ourselves is we got more confidence in reading map. We don't need to spend so much time to think and ask around. We can quickly find our way. So we headed to the hotel and were happy to found out that we only need EUR7 per night if we want to turn on the air con. Next is to find something to eat. We decided to eat at restaurant nearby who thought us as very weird to ask for meal around that time. Turns out that most restaurant opened during lunck time (around 11 to 2 or 3 at most), closed for siesta (taking a nap), and open again for dinner. The food was fine. The only thing I remember was Merry tried to ask for the bill in Italian, "Il conto, per favore." And the waiter answered in English that we need to go to the counter directly. I can't stop laughing at that time. Even now I am still smiling =P

Next we went to Duomo Subway station as it is said to be the central of the tourist spot. True that the Duomo, which is the biggest church in Milan is there but the Vittorio Emmanuelle Galleria is around there too. And we are a little bit "overdosed" by the churches in previous city. So we literally ignored the church for that reason and also because the shopping mall will close on Sunday but not the Duomo =P (we were there on Friday). We started looking around and found out that the other end of the Galleria leads to Teatro Alla Scala (Theatre Alla Scala). Merry said her book mentioned that it is a shame to miss the show in this theatre while we are in the city. Challenged by this sentence, we headed to the theatre to see the available show. The show for the day was Pink Floyd Ballet show. We then asked around to find out how to get the ticket (It was around 5.40 PM at that day and the show was scheduled at 8PM). We went to the basement store and heard the storekeeper told other tourist that we need to go to subway station to get the ticket for the following day's show. But the counter will only be opened until 6 PM. So we rushed there to try our luck. When we arrived there there was a queue so we joined the queue. Luckily one guy at information counter asked if we were going to watch that night's show and we said yes. He said that the ticket is not sold anymore but we can go back to the theatre and there will be balcony ticket for EUR10 distributed at 6PM and if we were lucky, we will get there in time! So we rushed back to the theatre again, looked around for a while and finally got two queue numbers to get the tickets! It was an exciting experience and it was all because it is a shame to miss the show

So we waited until 6PM when they called our number one by one. While waiting we were thinking if we will have enough time to go back to hotel, get changed, and go back to catch the show in time. We really needed to get change because we both were in shorts! We calculated that we will get the ticket around 6.30PM. From Duomo subway station to the station nearest to our hotel will take 10-15 minutes. From there to the hotel, we need to walk for around 20-25 minutes. So we only have around 10 minutes to get changed! I was thinking would it be better if I just go to some stores and buy decent dress. But this is Milan... no cheap stores! I will be more or less broke if I have to buy new dress. When thinking about that, we finally got our ticket. It was even cheaper... EUR7.5 each. Because we got the seat at balcony 2 ha ha ha. Ok time to rush back to hotel. We walked super fast and found out that it took much faster when we do something with determination =P So we arrived back at the theatre just in time. We even had some time to buy some drinks at McDonald.

   

Our seat turns to be at the top and left most corner =P we can even easily take a picture of the lamp at the center of the hall. Here are some pictures before the show. The ballet was ok for me. Ok to be honest, I can't find a way to appreciate it. I got excited only when Merry said something and I got most excited when she said it finished LOL. So I can't find a way to describe the show here. We then headed home around 9.30PM. The sky was still bright and I can even take some picture in front of the Duomo.

  

xoxo McJuicy

 

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Venice in one day

Posted by ver0n1c4 at 03:37 PM on September 6, 2009.

After 2 days at Florence, we headed to Venice. We finally made a reservation for the train because there is no regional train from Florence SMN to Venice St Lucia. I am not sure if we would have one if we choose to go from other train station nearby but it is easier to go from Florence SMN. So we go from there. Before boarding, we need to validate the ticket, otherwise we might get fined if the officer is checking. The journey was around 3 hours. We alighted at Venice St Lucia and took regional train to Venice Mestre. Our accomodation was in Venice Mestre. Actually the central station is Venice St Lucia. But everything is damn expensive there. We thought they are just being commercialized, but turns out it is one of the ways to decrease tourism rate to the city. For more, you can read National Geographic, August edition about Vanishing Venice.

After checking in, we quickly caught the bus and went back to Venice St Lucia. It is recommended to buy 24 hour pass for Vaporetto (water bus) since it can be used to take normal bus at Venice Mestre as well. It was very expensive EUR 18/ticket. But the minute we hopped on the water bus and enjoying the city, we forgot about how costly it was. I was very excited to see this beautiful and romantic city with beautiful building along the water. I literally can't stop taking pictures of anything I saw ^.^

Few stops from St Lucia, we finally got a chance to sit at the front part of the bus. So now we can take pictures from both left and right side! We were even able to take pictures of ourselved with the water as the background. Really nice! Our first destination was St Marco which was built for Mark. Almost all parts inside the church was covered with gold. Near the church, there was Doge's Palace. Initially we intended to spend some time there but since we don't have enough time, we skipped it.

-Doge's Palace-

The next target was to buy Venezian mask. I was so determined to get it since I saw Bree's from Desperate Housewives =P So we went to Ospidale (bus station's name) because according to Merry's book we can get authentic ones there. Turns out that Ospidale is the word for Hospital. We could even see Water Ambulance nearby. We also passed by the hospital itself which looks more like a museum to me due to its lots of relief inside the building. From the hospital, we walked few blocks before finally arrived at the store... Which turns out to be Chinese painting store -____- Since we were already there, we asked the owner the whereabouts of the Venezian mask store. Before we even mentioned its full name, they have guessed it. They told me that the shop has clossed and recommended another store to us, which according to them, has the same quality as the one we've been looking for. However it was located quite far from where we were at that time. Meanwhile there were some other stores nearby which looked good as well. So we decided to went in to few stores. The first store we went in was operated by a husband and wife who claimed that all the masks there were paper-made, which made it different from just a plastic mask which might be made in China. LOL. Finally we settled at the 3rd store (if I am not wrong) since they have competitive price and nice design. I bought 2 masks, one for me and the other for my dad as souvenir.

With that, I had no other destination. So we just dropped by to Murano hoping that we can watch the glass blowing process. But they have already closed when we reached there. So we just went back to central station and got some dinner nearby. It was nice and cheap, so that we decided to come back to the same store on the following day. After that we hopped on the train to Mestre and headed to our accomodation. Our accomodation was a camping site. We rented a cabin which costed EUR 30 per night. The toilet was a public toilet so we had to take turn in going there. I took a bath first. It was quite dark so I almost went to wrong one. Luckily I saw a teenager brushing her teeth there and smiling politely. LOL. I think everyone there was so understanding since I am not the only one. When Merry went back from the bathroom, she also said that a man made the same mistake. And in the morning, when I brushed my teeth, another uncle did it again and stared at me as if I am the wrong one hahaha. We bet everyone must have thought, "It's ok. I made same mistake on my first day too" =P

After checking out, we got on the bus and headed to Venice St Lucia. We ate breakfast at the same place we had dinner the previous day. I had a nice Panini ^.^ Then we strolled along the road nearby and did some last minute shopping. We found another mask store which was super expensive but they have very nice and unique artworks. If you get a chance to go there and have lots of cash, I think it is worth to buy those masks. Anyway, that's pretty much about our one day at Venice. We took a 11AM train and headed to Milan. Our last train ride in Italy ^.^

xoxo McJuicy

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Fated to Love You

Posted by ver0n1c4 at 09:05 AM on August 27, 2009.

I mentioned before that I only like Jap drama. Short, meaningful, funny, smart, and expressive. But, lately my addiction is Fated to Love You... Taiwanese drama... 24 episodes =P

I started watching it when I was on day shift and just finished watching Heart of Greed from Channel 8 @ 9PM. Then I switched to Channel U and found this drama. What I like is that this drama is animated and not exxagerating. The girl is not crying so much as well. So now I watched this drama everyday @ mysoju.com ^.^

After that I will have to catch up with Heart of Greed from dramacrazy.net. Do you have any other recommendation? Otherwise after I finish these 2 series, I will go back to my Jdorama.

update:

Just watched the drama until episode 17 last night! Feels very sleepy now... Haha but I like Anson, the sissy guy; the Grandma; and XinYi's 2nd sister... so cute ^.^

xoxo McJuicy

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Florence day 1 and 2

Posted by ver0n1c4 at 04:04 PM on August 17, 2009.

We were a bit sad to leave Rome. We were just starting to feel familiar with the city. The road name, the bus, the large Termini session. But it is time to go to Florence. We woke up early because we are still uncertain about which train we need to take. Since we don't have any reservation, we can't just take any train to Florence. So we just went ahead to Termini, bought Panino, and walked to the train platform. Talking to Italian is another challenge because if they don't understand English, they will just walk off and we might think they are offended or angry.

To cut the story short, we manage to find regional train (with symbol R in the timetable). We were happy because that means we don't have to worry about train anymore throughout the journey. As soon as we reached another city we just need to check the timetable to know which train we need to take to another city. The journey to Florence was memorable. While chatting and telling stories, we remembered there was a Ch*na guy sitting in the same wagon. He tried to talk to us because we are Asian but we pretended that we don't understand Chinese. We just kept talking in Indonesian (for time like this, it is lucky to have mother tongue other than English =P). In the middle of 3 hours journey, that guy started listening to Ch*nese song without earphone. And the worst part is, he kept listening to the same song LOL.

Anyway we arrived in Florence, hungry and sleepy. The central terminal in Florence is Santa Maria Novella. No subway in the city. Only bus. So we alighted there, checked the train timetable to Venice, and realized that this time we need to make a reservation because no Regional train to Venice. While waiting for Merry to make a reservation, I am looking around the terminal trying to find a cheap map of the city. Oh I think I skipped the part where we left the Florence guide book in our Rome hotel room (refer to the previous story where Merry read the book before sleeping =P). After that we walked to the hotel. We got a room in level 2 but again we started from level 0, and there was no lift, so we had to climbed the stairs twice.

Florence was a small city. We managed to finish our itinerary within half a day only. After getting some lunch, we went to Santa Maria Novella church. Had to pay EUR 2.50 so we skipped it. I only thought, this church couldn't be better than Sistine Chapel =P so we headed to the Duomo. I think placing Florence after Rome is a but unfair to Florence. The city looks too simple and dull if we compare it with the basrelief and sculpture in Rome. Same thing with Duomo. There is not much to see. We have two options there. Went up to the tower or went in to baptistery. Merry took the first option while I took the other one.

   

Above are the Duomo and Santa Maria Novella.

From there we went to the shopping area. There were so many shoes and leather stall. Merry managed to get new shoes while I got some cute and unique mini wine bottles. Then we went to Piazza della Signoria. We saw the reconstruction of David (not the real one) by Michaelangelo which is said to be the most perfect masterpiece with perfect human body anatomy. There are some other interesting sculptures but too bad we don't know much of the story behind it.

     

We also took a walk by the river all the way to hotel. After that we were just too exhausted. We went to sleep as soon as we finished taking a bath and touched the bed.

The second day was dedicated to Pisa. We took the train to Pisa Centrale, get a seat, and suddenly everything was turned off. Some people started to alight from the train but we didn't really understand of what is going on. Then few middle age woman walked pass our wagon while saying "Uno Parto". The man beside us said it means the train was not departing. Being away from internet and newspaper made us didn't aware of what happened around us. Turned out that there was an explosion the day before. The train consisted of fuel was exploded. It felt out of the rail in the area where the train to Pisa needed to pass by. So all trains to Pisa were not departing that day.

We had few options. Went to Sienna (another small city nearby) or stay in Florence. But what is left to see in Florence was only either Academia or Uffizi Museum. I think our level of arts was not that high to spend the whole day looking at the painting or sculpture =P Then we went to the officer to ask some question. We just said, we wanted to go to Pisa. Then he said that we can take the train to Livorno. I asked, "Is it going to Pisa?" He answered, "Yes, why not?" in high tone. Haha they are just being Italian ^.^

So we took the train to Livorno which eventually went to Pisa. Pisa was even smaller city that we were confident to walk without a map. We just walked straight for around 20-25 minutes and arrived at Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is not that leaning. Turns out that not only the tower which was leaning. All the building nearby were leaning too. Nothing is too spectacular there so that I thought that if it is not leaning, people would surely not going to visit this city. Then we had a lunch and took a train back to Florence.

That day I realized that I am very tired and I had some rashes due to sunburn so I decided to take a nap at the hotel, while Merry was visiting Uffizi. Too bad she can't take any picture there so I have no idea about Uffizi. But according to her, her level of art was upgraded to next level because she can now appreciate paintings hohoho. We met again for dinner at Kebab place. Happy to see rice again ^.^

That was all about Florence. Sorry if any of you have Florence as your favorite city. But to me Florence was not as exciting as Rome. ^.^

xoxo McJuicy

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National Day

Posted by ver0n1c4 at 03:23 PM on August 9, 2009.

Happy National Day! This is the first time I am listening to Majulah Singapura =P

Something nice always happens on National Day

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