Avignon, France (14 May 2009)

Our next stop is Avignon, a nice sleepy town on the way to the Spanish border. I decided to stop over here after seeing the Palais of Pope in the internet and it looks grand.

At first glance, the whole town seem to exists only due to the Palais which indeed is very very grand. It was so huge and was the major attraction. We went to the counter to get our tickets and there was this cute French guy with the bluest eyes I ever seen serving on the counter until that I keep staring at him that I forgot to answer his questions. After we got our tickets we proceed to tour the Palais and get the view of the town from atop.

 Palais of Pope

We also went to the unfinished bridge Pont D Avignon as the entrance fee was included. It 's just a bridge and nothing much. Spend a few hours there but was surprise to see lots of school children having a field trip. And they even pose for my photos..maybe seeing a big ass camera was something unique.

Pont D Avignon

The children happily posing for pictures

Monaco (13 May 2009)

The circuit

the F1 Grand Prix grandstand

where the F1 cars rest

Monaco is known as one of the most expensive and smallest country in the world. To me , Monaco always been famous for the street F1 racing and that is one of the reason of me going there.
Although the country is small, it was actually tiring to cover on foot plus the city itself has a few levels of street where one can take the elevator to go up from the ground level street to higher level of street which is kind of cool in one way!

We spend our day walking around the F1 circuit, which of course the streets and trying hard to remember which is the famous tunnel.

the church

We went to this Jardin or exotic garden where one can see lots of cactuses and exotic plants. Mind you that those cactuses range from mini to 14 storeys gigantic height. Then we heard towards the famous casinos including Monte Carlo casino.

view from the exotic garden

Mini

Mighty

More tiny cactuses

After a long day walking around, we headed back to Nice as we did a day trip thingy from Nice instead of staying overnight in this expensive city. On the way back to the train station we were lost and even the map could not navigate us back to the station. Finally, we bump into a policewoman and she was nice enough to bring to the train station. Such a luck

the royal palace

winding streets up





F1 Fever. We were a few weeks early for the F1 in Monaco


reflection of the Monte Carlo casino


Monte Carlo Casino


Me

Provence, France (12-14 May 2009)

Provence or southern France has always been on my list of 'to travel' places since it's famous for lavender as well as that's where Cannes and Nice (pronounce as niece) are located. This time around I travel with a classmate from my major and we went right after our final exam in May. There was suppose to be a friend joining us from Malaysia but she kind of ffk after hearing lots and lots and lots of stories on H1N1 which coincidentally started to spread around in April.

viewpoints around cannes

We flew to Nice via EasyJet from Edinburgh and manage to get into our hostel. Then I realised that my credit card could not be used as I either busted my limit or those fellas in RBS locked it upon I swipe in Nice. After some panicking and commotion, managed to finally charge my card but had to rely to my brother to constantly monitor my limit usage. To be fair, how the hell to survive on my trip based on a 300 quid limit...!!

All about boats and sea

Anyway,we proceed to Cannes and when we reached there, then only we realised that the Cannes Film Festival was due to start the next day!! Nevertheless, we took a stroll along the beach and hike up some hill. Not forgetting sighting of Bumblebee do excite me a lot since it was a real gigantic one.

Bumblebeeee

Back in Nice, we didnt venture much out due to the time constraint. Only manage to go to this church with a bit of Russian influence

Copenhagen, Denmark (17-20 April 2009)

Nyhavn

A weekend hopover trip to Copenhagen when my final exam is just a week away. Travelling is too tempting to forgo especially after I gotten my DSLR which is my dream toy, Canon EOS 450D. Plus I told myself that I would spend only 30% on studying and the rest for travelling..so even if it's final exam in a week's time, I couldn't pass this opportunity to travel to my second Scandinavian country.

  Nyhavn at sunset

 
From young, I only know Denmark is famous for two things, Danish puffs and cookies plus Legoland.

But in fact, Denmark has her own share of tale. The little mermaid made famous by Disney was in fact originated from Copenhagen with a twist to the story. There was no happy ever after, only sad and what left was a mermaid longing for her prince.

the town

 

The Little Mermaid waiting by the stone for her death

 

The Palace in the town

We visited the botanic garden as well a day trips to all the castles in Hillerod (Frederiksborg castle) as well as the famous Kronborg castle, the setting for Shakespere Hamlet.

The Botanic garden

 

 Federiskberg castle

 

 

                                                                         Kronborg castle

A Year Has Passed

Can't imagine that I am already completed my mission of conquering the world (or at least Europe) and back to reality.

For the past 1 year in UK studying for my masters, I managed to travel to 17 countries which a great achievement plus I still end up with a Distinction..ok I am a bit masuk bakul angkat sendiri here..amongst the places that I went to includes Peru (Machu Picchu is amazing, beyond description of words), Jordan (seeing Petra was a childhood dream come true- it's all because of Indiana Jones), Turkey (who wouldnt fall for the delicious turkish delight and the blended culture east and west), Greece (I so love those white washed little houses with blue top against the blue blue sky) and not forgetting Spain for the yummylicious Spanish dude who are forever helpful eventhough they dont understand what the hell am I talking about.

Reblogging seems to be a tired task to be carried out these days more so ever I had like tonnes and tonnes of travel photos and stories of travelling to be told. Better late than never!