originally posted on Fri, 19 July 2002
~~~~
supposed to have started my dissertation in the 1st week of july, but decided to do that after results were out. alas, it's still in limbo at the moment! july came and suddenly the weather got chillier. chilly? in july? onlyif you're in england! but thankfully, the weather has improved somewhat. slowly getting there i guess. spring was definitely more gorgeous. but as my friend pointed out, it's ideal weather for dissertation. except that i can't seem to get started no matter the weather! finally couldn't stand it anymore and decided on the spur of the moment to go to barcelona.
was there for 4 nights. a very beautiful city. got back fr barcelona wed midnight. it was hot there, as hot askl! 27C tapi terik! but it was windy there cos of the location and nowhere as humid as KL. i went alone cos i've despaired of ever finding anyone to go with. almost everyone else needs visa [schengen visa]. that was fine, i was alone but not lonely. i heard many stories abt ppl being 'attacked'/robbed in broad daylight, there's even a website detailing all the horror stories one experienced there but alhamdulillah nothing happened to me. and unlike prague where when i went back to my room i felt lonely, at BCN, my hotel room has a tv so it was fine.
overall: barcelona was a good place to visit. i'm glad i chose it over madrid. abt barcelona, since i didn't bring proper walking shoes, i was looking high and low for a suitable pair of footwear there. and you'd think that since spain exports good shoes that i'd be able to find good shoes easily right?!wrong! [well maybe i'm just a bit choosy...] must have walked miles every day and in those footwears i brought, there were times i felt like abandoning them! and what is it abt duty-free shops? why do they call them tax-free or duty-free when they're actually more expensive? i found this pair of sandals which i really love but not in the colour i want and in a bigger size. at the airport, they cost £20 more! i'll just look for a pair in notts or london... didn't go to any of those museums, nor the olympic village. the local architect [now dead for decades], gaudi, has some works on buildings and a park. went to some of thebuildings he designed but didn't enter. went to sagrada familia, still under construction, it's like the landmark of barcelona. it's a cathedral actually and i don't normally take pixes of cathedrals or yg sejenis dgnnya but i took quite a few there bcos of the unique architecture touch. they sell a lot of handheld fans - handmade they claim. prob bcos of the weather, they're quite handy. and they also sell a lot of those plates with ukiran. some of them look like they hv the arabic touch, not surprising if you consider the history. i discovered too late that i could've bargained for some of the things i bought.
the only wide street at the heart of the city was La Rambla, an old stream whose name derives from the Arabic "ramla" meaning "sandy ground". la rambla has a central sidewalkwith kiosks where you can buy newspapers (24 hours a day), nice flowers, birds and small pets. most of the souvenir shopkeepers along la rambla are indians. the girls of barcelona are beautiful and the men, some of them, are goodlooking. they vary in their looks, from fair to dark. some even look like malays except for their complexion, not exactly fair but not dark either, especially if they have black hair. they smoke a lot too, everywhere, even at places where people are normally not allowed to smoke like at stations, airports and malls. didn't even go eat the local tapas or whatever, anyway kat KL kan berlambak! i basically ate at vegetarian restaurants [that was another thing that required me to walk]. as i mentioned earlier, my hotel room has a TV and they translate most stuff back into the catalan language. adala CNN and BBC world and that's where i got my daily dosage of news. funny, even here i don't really watch news, i just listen to news update on the radio!
i heard it's the durian season in m'sia. hai rindu pulak. the other day i was craving for sambal petai...right, GTG. take care everyone. wish me luck for my dissertation...
"Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis." --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)"
~~~~
supposed to have started my dissertation in the 1st week of july, but decided to do that after results were out. alas, it's still in limbo at the moment! july came and suddenly the weather got chillier. chilly? in july? onlyif you're in england! but thankfully, the weather has improved somewhat. slowly getting there i guess. spring was definitely more gorgeous. but as my friend pointed out, it's ideal weather for dissertation. except that i can't seem to get started no matter the weather! finally couldn't stand it anymore and decided on the spur of the moment to go to barcelona.
was there for 4 nights. a very beautiful city. got back fr barcelona wed midnight. it was hot there, as hot askl! 27C tapi terik! but it was windy there cos of the location and nowhere as humid as KL. i went alone cos i've despaired of ever finding anyone to go with. almost everyone else needs visa [schengen visa]. that was fine, i was alone but not lonely. i heard many stories abt ppl being 'attacked'/robbed in broad daylight, there's even a website detailing all the horror stories one experienced there but alhamdulillah nothing happened to me. and unlike prague where when i went back to my room i felt lonely, at BCN, my hotel room has a tv so it was fine.
overall: barcelona was a good place to visit. i'm glad i chose it over madrid. abt barcelona, since i didn't bring proper walking shoes, i was looking high and low for a suitable pair of footwear there. and you'd think that since spain exports good shoes that i'd be able to find good shoes easily right?!wrong! [well maybe i'm just a bit choosy...] must have walked miles every day and in those footwears i brought, there were times i felt like abandoning them! and what is it abt duty-free shops? why do they call them tax-free or duty-free when they're actually more expensive? i found this pair of sandals which i really love but not in the colour i want and in a bigger size. at the airport, they cost £20 more! i'll just look for a pair in notts or london... didn't go to any of those museums, nor the olympic village. the local architect [now dead for decades], gaudi, has some works on buildings and a park. went to some of thebuildings he designed but didn't enter. went to sagrada familia, still under construction, it's like the landmark of barcelona. it's a cathedral actually and i don't normally take pixes of cathedrals or yg sejenis dgnnya but i took quite a few there bcos of the unique architecture touch. they sell a lot of handheld fans - handmade they claim. prob bcos of the weather, they're quite handy. and they also sell a lot of those plates with ukiran. some of them look like they hv the arabic touch, not surprising if you consider the history. i discovered too late that i could've bargained for some of the things i bought.
the only wide street at the heart of the city was La Rambla, an old stream whose name derives from the Arabic "ramla" meaning "sandy ground". la rambla has a central sidewalkwith kiosks where you can buy newspapers (24 hours a day), nice flowers, birds and small pets. most of the souvenir shopkeepers along la rambla are indians. the girls of barcelona are beautiful and the men, some of them, are goodlooking. they vary in their looks, from fair to dark. some even look like malays except for their complexion, not exactly fair but not dark either, especially if they have black hair. they smoke a lot too, everywhere, even at places where people are normally not allowed to smoke like at stations, airports and malls. didn't even go eat the local tapas or whatever, anyway kat KL kan berlambak! i basically ate at vegetarian restaurants [that was another thing that required me to walk]. as i mentioned earlier, my hotel room has a TV and they translate most stuff back into the catalan language. adala CNN and BBC world and that's where i got my daily dosage of news. funny, even here i don't really watch news, i just listen to news update on the radio!
i heard it's the durian season in m'sia. hai rindu pulak. the other day i was craving for sambal petai...right, GTG. take care everyone. wish me luck for my dissertation...
"Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis." --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)"
