off to PARIS

just got back from our Rome-Florence-Pisa trip last night and we're off to Paris tonight!
updates soon!
meanwhile, check our the photo album www.eleczor.multiply.com

Tschüs!

PORTO

Haven't even finished updating on Porto and we were off to central Italy. so now that we're back, let's wrap up on Portugal!

Arrived in Porto's lovely Sao Bento station at 9+pm. It doesn't just serve its purpose as Porto's city station, but houses some of the most beautiful traditional white-tiles-with-blue-paintings walls.

La buena vista de noche!

City hall in the day and the night

The Se Cathedral
View from the cathedral The Riberia riverfront was gorgeous. View atop the iron bridge...There's actually a story to the bridge. The designer of the bridge was also the one who designed the Eiffel Tower in Paris! He won the competition to design a bridge across the Duoro River. Do you spot the similarity?


Having learnt our lesson from the previous mishaps, this time around we decided to be damn early for the morning flight, just in case. Took the first train to the airport and chilled there.
Sunrise at the Porto Airport...

Portugal is a reeeally lovely country, in case our rushed blog entries have under-justified its true beauty. Go visit it!

Travel advice for our exchange pals:

Fly into Porto -> Train to Lisbon -> Train/Bus to the Algarves (beach area in the south! must-go: Lagos!) -> fly out from Faro. That way you can save a lot by not flying through Lisbon, and savour the entire Portugal from North to South!

LISBON

Adios España, Bom dia Portugal!

With only 1 day in Lisbon (cos of the bus incident), we woke up at 5.30am, determined to utilize every single minute to soak up the sights of beautiful Lisbon.

Lisbon town center: Praça do Comercio
Belém (That egg tart place!)



You've got to remember this place! Pasteis de Belém, the most famous eggtart cafe in Portugal supposedly.










Monument of the DiscoveriesMosteiro dos Jeronimos: A World Heritage site

Torre do Belém: Another World Heritage site

Sintra

Highly recommended by my Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring guide, this was the place where the author proposed to his wife. Ahh, so romantic.

Sintra National Palace

Pena Palace

The not-so-romantic part: hiking up the hill for 30min to see the Pena Palace. The view from the top was stunning though.

This city is really sooooo enjoyable, if we have the chance, we would have spend 3 days here instead.

SEVILLA

Arrived in Sevilla pretty late and we were lucky(ya like finally) to have met a local who was real helpful. Found out from him that Sevilla FC are the current leaders of La Liga (impressed!) and we should catch the Real Betis game the next day. First thing we did after putting down our backpacks in the hostel was to rush to a pub to catch the HUGE Barca-Real Madrid game. Cheap beer (1euro!) and the fantastic football (3-3 scoreline) lifted our spirits up a little :)

Sightseeing wise, Sevilla scores 150/100. Really.

The Alcazares:

A magnificent fortress palace with a mix of Islam and Christian influences. You'll be surprised at how this 2 religions has synergised to produce such an amazing architecture.

?Did you know? A large part of Southern Spain, especially the state of Andalucia, is Muslim.

The Cathedral & Giralda:

4 out of 5 postcards we bought featured these. The 31-storey climb up the Giralda was well worth the aerial view of the city. Whether in day or the night, the cathedral looks just as beautiful.

Plaza de España:

It is a HUGE semicircle brick-red structure, with a beautiful fountain in front. There are uniquely-designed bridges running over the little canal/moat in front of the building, which adds to the romatic-ness of it all.

We like it so much we came back again at night! Lovely night view...Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza/Bullfighting ring:

Bullfighting is a famous tradition, and this venue can be considered as the most prominent stage in the country. The bullfighting season is from April to July yearly and this 'sport' still has a large legion of fans. Our tour inside was fascinating, even though it felt strange to be stepping into a place where lives were lost so regularly. Football fever:

We went to catch the Real Betis-Real Zaragoza match at the Betis stadium, just 10min bus from the city center. On the way there, another backpacker warned us it's dangerous to watch football at the stadiums, with bottle-throwing, spitting and all. So to protect ourselves, we bought the Real Betis scarve! Haha the 10euro scarve was more like an investment for our safety, and we wrapped it around us like it was a holy armour.A pretty packed stadium saw the home team drew 1-1 with Zaragoza. And Jem pretends to be a Balompie fan.Parc Maria Lucia:

This beautiful park is the home of the Plaza de España and also some of the nicest buildings around!

Torre de Oro: A symbol of Sevilla along the Guadalquivir River. And then, it was time to embark on a 7-hour overnight bus ride to Lisbon. We were early, patiently waiting for some instruction/announcement/anything. And the freaking bus just left quietly 1 storey below in the near-empthy bus station with 1 staff who was too busy making out with her whoever. The rest are best forgotten, except that left us 70euro poorer and arriving in Lisbon 1 entire day later than schedule.

Sunset on the bus to Lisbon...

BARCELONA

Hola! Como estas?
Our9-day trip to Barcelona, Sevilla, Lisbon and Porto was fantasticcc!
But it wasn't all fun and no booboos. So much shit happened to us we can talk forever. In summary, we 1) missed a flight, 2) missed a bus, 3) ran after a plane/a train twice the 'Amazing Race' style, 4) had a rollercoaster-ish experience on our flight back. Phew. Despite all these, these 2 countries left us such an amazing experience, we want to go back now :)

BARCELONA - the highlights:

1. Nou Camp
Definitely an eye-opening experience for us soccer fans. Biggest football stadium in Europe, pride of the Catalans. The sheer size could intimidate the away team, not to mention the crazzzzy Barca fans. A pity we couldn't catch the Barca-Real showdown there (cos we were in Sevilla by then). We both had the persistent impulse to buy the Barca jerseys, to be part of the proud Barca fanatics. Sadly, we had to remind outselves to live up to a true budget traveller. Budget budget la. 2. La Rambla & the waterfront
The most famous street of Barcelona truly lived up to its hype. It's the street of action (also a tourist trap)! Artists + baskers + human statues galore, sandwiched by more than 20 Indian-owned souvenir shops (?). Thanks to the brilliant weather, our stroll along the waterfront was awesome. The sight of the uncountable number of yachts parked at Port Vell and thr seamingly endless sea was truly breathtaking.

La Rambla

The shopping street: Passeig de GraciaPort Vell The view from atop the Tower of Colombus 3. Parc Guell & Parc Montjuic
Parc Guell is located at the north of the city, perched on a hill that overlooks the entrie city right up to the sea. The famous lizard statue made with little colourful tiles is there too. Parc Montjuic is at the south, so the view from there was quite different. We took a funivular up and continue up the hill by foot. By the time we were so freaking tired and every bit of leg muscle was aching, we were rewarded with the magnificent Palau Nacional. The view from the top of Parc Guell, with the sea and the sky merged as one. Reaching the Palau Nacional at sunset... 4. The works of Gaudi and the arty-fartiness of this city

Gaudi was a religious architect, probably the most famous name in Barcelona (ya like about the same level as Ronaldinho heh). His works can be found all over the city, from cathedrals to towers to lamp posts. I particularly like the Batllo House, which resembles an underwater palace. Pretty eccentric, both.

This is the mostest most famous sight: La Sangrada Familia, designed by GaudiOther sights!
Arc de Triomf San Paul Hospital: it's a real hospital (saw some patients and doctors walking around)!

The beach of Barcelona (somewhat like Sentosa actually..)

The university (beside the shopping street!)Every of the 3 days we spent in Barcelona, there is a demonstration. This is one held outside the parliament.
With highlights, there are of course the lowlights. Now, we come to our first crisis.

As the brilliant 2 days in Barcelona came to an end, lucky us, we had Sevilla to look forward to. We've got the tickets all paid online, got the info to take the train to the airport, got our luggages all packed. And then, we had to miss the flight cos we took the wrong train. By the time the conductor informed us, the next stop was some 45min away. Got help from some realllly nice passengers and the conductors to throw us off the train from the emergency exit. Then, we had the big problem of getting a cab cos too ulu. The race to get a taxi to catch the plane gets your adrenaline pumping when you watch Amazing Race? Try doing the real thing. Backpacks bobbing up and down, sweat seeping through our longsleeved tops, we were running as fast as our already damn tired legs could take us. Ahhh no taxi. 20min later we werecatching our breaths on a taxi heading to the airport, getting the driver to go as rapido as possible. But but but, we still missed the flight by 15min. So, we bought 2 new tickets for 45euros each(rescue price, the airline calls it) and arrived in Sevilla 2 hours later. Coming up, SEVILLA, the cradle of bullfighting...