Updates...(7th - 20th April)

 Sorry for the late updates.. cant seem to upload my photos here so i put all into my facebook! =D 

7^th April (Tuesday)

Lenny, Lining and Chris arrived in Grenoble. I was so excited to see them as it has been a long time before I met them. Chris was telling me all his “heroic” stories =P

 

8^th April(Wednesday)

Travel around Grenoble. Went to Grenoble city centre and drank coffee. Drew equipments for skiing.

 

9^th April(Thursday)

My 2^nd ski day with Chris, Lining, Lenny!!

 

10^th April(Friday)

Rest

 

11^th April(Saturday) – Barcelona Day 1

We took a long train ride and transited 2 times at Valence TGV and Montpellier before reaching Barcelona. Lenny and I had our first kerbab meal of the journey at montpellier =) Kerbab meals are in fact one of the cheapest food with a good serving of meat in the entire Europe. Food in Europe is expensive which can amount to 5-6 Euros per person and a kerbab cost around 3.50 to 4.50 euros. Most importantly, it is filling!

When we reached Barcelona Franca station, we had to take a metro from Barcelonette to Maria Cristina for our Barcelona match. For the match, FC Barcelona will play against RC Recreativo at Nou Camp. Nou Camp has a capacity of around 98K seats. Our seat costs us 86Euros which is really freaking expensive.

 The Barcelona match starts at 8pm and our train reached Franca at 8pm. Why? Thanks to the match being changed from Sunday to Saturday 1 week before the match itself!! Can u imagine it?? Luckily we still managed to catch half of the match =P

When we reached Maria Cristina station, we ran and walked to Nou Camp, flashed our tickets and rushed for our seats. The atmosphere was indeed awesome and excellent!!

After the match, we walked all the way to our hostel – HostelOneSaints which is not very far away. The hostel was good and beautiful. For the price of the hostel, it is definitely very worthwhile to stay here. The service is also great, free internet and the hostel is safe.

12^th April(Sunday) – Barcelona Day 2

In the early morning, we (Chris, Eunice, Lenny and me!) got a T10 ticket which allows us to travel 10 times by bus or metro. The first stop that we headed to is the Barcelona merchandise stall. I will rate the store as the best football merchandise stall and a must-go. I bought a Barcelona shorts there which cost me around 34.50 Euros. Although it is expensive, it is money well spent as it is nice and comfortable. The whole shop is very nicely decorated, aesthetically pleasing to buy stuff.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the city centre. I had my first 1Euros Mac burger for lunch and a cheap dinner at Bocata. The quote of the day happens to come from Bocata which is: I am having my dinner while all of you are having your supper!! The portion is cheap and rightfully small so we have to find a Kerbab store to top it up.

A side note about Barcelona after I have visited Madrid. Although Madrid is the capital of Spain, it is not as English-friendly as Barcelona, most notably on the train and buses.

 

13^th April(Monday) – Barcelona Day 3

In the early mornings, we walked up one hill. This is the start of my “destructive” photo series which I will post in full =P. After that, we went to another hill. =)

In the evenings, we went to Estacio d’Autobus os Barcelona Nord to wait for our bus to Barcelona Girona Airport. As our flight timing is in the early morning, we need to be there even earlier which means that we must sleep in the airport and at the bus station. It was indeed very pitiful when we slept at the train station as we were chased from one place to another when we were sleeping.

Finally boarded our plane to Madrid!!

 

14^th April(Tuesday) – Madrid

After a 1hr + flight, Chris, Lenny and I reached Madrid in the early mornings. The first thing that we did is to put our luggage at the airport luggage storage. I bet you can guess why we did so right =) Lenny and I tried to call Liverpool to get our tickets but failed. Breakfast at Madrid (Sol) was good! We had an awesome breakfast which is cheap and good! There are churros, purros (The Ang Mo version of you cha kway) and a cup of good coffee. For coffee lovers, a cup of good coffee really makes a different to your day.

It starts to rain now. After our breakfast, we went to the famous Del Prado museum but the entry fee was not worthwhile to go in so we headed to Gan Via which is their city centre to walk around. Frankly, the city was expensive and not very touristic. Luckily, we are only staying for just one day. The shop – Café and Teh is rampant here. Initially we wanted to have the traditional rice here but was really put of with the price – around 12.50 Euros per person and the serving is not big plus it is just mainly rice.

Had a quick dinner of bread + fillet which cost 3Euros and top it up with a 1 Euro croissant with ham and cheese. After which, we took a bus to the Bernabeu stadium – Home of Real Madrid. The merchandise is not as grand as FC Barcelona who even has shops in the city.

After another good Kerbab dinner, we took another bus to the stadium of Athletico Madrid. Have a quick look and head back to the city centre for dinner.

We went to an Irish bar and caught the match between Liverpool and Chelsea – 2^nd leg of the Champion’s League clash. Liverpool must score at least 3 goals to ensure qualification to the semis. It started off well with Liverpool leading 2-0 before we saw the powerful Chelsea rising and chasing the game to 2-3. The eventual score is 4-4.

After the match, we returned to the Madrid airport to get our luggage and prepared to spend our consecutive night in an airport.

 

15^th April(Wednesday) – Lisbon Day 1

For every flight that we have took so far, I concussed immediately when my head touched the seat. The next time when I open my eyes, it is time to get off. This was no different. Opening my eyes, I saw the Lisbon Airport. In Portugal, things are cheaper than Spain, France and definitely, Switzerland.

We took an aerobus to Roccio, which is at the centre of the city centre and walked to our Hostel – Easy Hostel. It looked quite shabby when we walked up the steps to the hostel. However, the surroundings changes when we entered the Easy Hostel. The first thing that captured us are the 3 computers with free internet access. Next, the free breakfast! (Although we are supposed to check in at 1pm, but well..) Had a good talk with the receptionists and after putting our luggage with them, we went to tour around Lisbon!!

For my vacation trip, I will rate Lisbon as the best and must go place. Using our autobus ticket, we headed to Belem and ate the famous MUST-EAT Portuguese tart! Too bad I didn’t eat more than one. It is really awesome -> Max. After that, we reached the other part of Lisbon and went to their famous castle. I bought a banana and strawberry ice cream which is very nice.

Our next highlight is food! After days of Kerbab, it is time to try something different. This meal is called Bifana. You can catch it near the city centre in one of the shops which showed a huge boiling pot of meat. The meat is pork. One bifana cost 1.75 Euros and it has a great serving of 3-4 servings of meat. The chili just makes the entire serving awesome.

Went back to Hostel and concussed at 5pm until the next morning. Although we tried to wake up at 9 to have dinner, in the end, we just continued to sleep! The bed was just too comfortable and we were also just too tired to do anything.

 

16^th April(Thursday) – Lisbon Day 2

We headed to Cascais, a nearby town. The trip there is very cheap and it is really a place with very nice scenary. Before the trip, the owner told us that there are FREE bikes all around Cascais, much to our disbelief. Oh come on! Free?? Who will not be skeptical right? =P But once again, we were proven wrong. The moment we exited Cascais, we found this bicycle stand which we can lend bicycles to cycle around Cascais FOR FREE! Awesome deal~ Took lots of photos here =)

After Cascais, we had a Bifana lunch and topped up with 6 for 5.10 Portuguese tarts from the city centre. The egg tarts were definitely nowhere near the original one.

We walked all the way to Place de Liberature and enjoyed the Portuguese arts and culture. If you noticed their floor tiles, the designs were not painted on the tiles. Instead, they were designed with coloured tiles! How awesome!

We took a walk to Bairo Alto, hoping to catch the vibrant night life there. As we were too early, there were not many night lives around. I did manage to buy some strawberries which cost a cool 0.70Euros for 500 grams.

We had a good dinner of Bacalhau which is the national dish of Portugal – Cord Fish.

 

17^th April(Friday) – Porto Day 1

We took the 11pm train to Porto. There are frequent trains from Lisbon to Porto and we got the tickets when we just arrived in Lisbon. It is a long 3-4 hours ride to Porto.

When we reached there, we checked in to our Rivoli Hostel. It is a cool hostel~ =) On the first day, we cleared their 5 must-go monuments and had their local traditional Franceinhal dish which cost around 6 Euros. The dish tasted strongly of cinnamon which really gave it a unique taste. =)

 

18^th April(Saturday) – Porto Day 2

Early in the morning, I am busy planning for the trip to Liverpool. Horrible! The flights all seemed so expensive I have to do lots of permutations and combinations to find the cheapest flights to and fro to UK. It was raining heavily when we set off. We walked all the way to the lover’s park and I lost my water bottle at the Irish pub which I managed to find it the next day.

We had dinner at Imperial Macdonalds. I had McRoyal Deluxe which cost an awesome 4-5Euros for a meal. It is definitely better than kerbabs =P

We met Karine, who is from SMU and currently on exchange in Spain. We played many games of bridge which were very thrilling =) More games to come when we go back k!

 

19^th April(Sunday) – Porto Day 3

On Sundays, most of the shops are closed. We had pastries lunch and Royal Bacon in Mac.

Lenny and I parted ways with Chris and Karine at the Porto airport. We are leaving for Girona Airport where I will go to Paris Beauvais and Lenny for East Midlands.

 

20^th April(Monday) – Girona Airport, Paris, Lyon, Grenoble!

Len and I met Francesha, a Singaporean who is studying at the University of York at Girona Airport. I also met another Singaporean, Carmen who was on exchange in Paris. It is very nice to meet your fellow countrymen when you are many miles away from home =)

Carmen and I took the same flight to Beauvais airport. I walked for 1hour to Beauvais city centre to catch my TGV. My itinerary back is: Beauvais -> Paris Nord, Paris Gare de Lyon -> Lyon, Lyon -> Grenoble. A super long journey which lasted nearly 24hrs. Shag but fun, Tiring but worthwhile! Next trip: UK!