Madrid, Spain (17-19 May 2009)

the matador in action

the picadores

flagmens


the white cows

Bullfights, a custom often associated with the Spaniards, though cruel but interesting to watch. Dont get me wrong, I am definately not an advocate for animal cruelty but since this one of the culture of Spain, I went and watch anyway. And I actually had to plan so that we travelled to Madrid when there was bullfight since the fights were only weekly. They had more frequent bullfights during the summer and one of the more famous bullfight ring is located in Plaza De Toros De Madrid.

Every summer, bullfight match will be held frequently almost every week. In a bullfight match, the matador is not only the person killing the bull (yes..the bull will have to die in the end or else it's consider an embarrasment to the matador if the bull could not even die properly). Bullfight is divided into 4 major parts. There will be 3 matadors with 2 bull each, so 6 bulls will be killed in the process. The matadors are assisted by picadores who ride on horseback and also flagmens.

Ok..all this information I actually eavesdropped on these American girls talking to a Spanish dude, who surprisingly speak fluent English. The Spanish dude was explaining to the girls how watch the fight and what was going on. That's the reason I can understand what is going on during the fight including when there was a time where white cows were released into the ring to lead the male bull back. It seems this happen when the bull is incompetent to fight..but at least the bull is safe from slaughter

outside Plaza Del Toros

inside the bullfight ring

When the bull is let into the ring, the matador will first test the bull. Then the picadores will enter the ring to weakened the bull. The horse that the picadores riding will be shield and blindfolded. Next, the flagmen will go into the ring to further weakened the bull with more stabs. Finally the 'hero', the matador will enter the ring and show his skils. For information, we purchased the bullfight tickets online from this website and since we were in a budget, we bought the cheapest ticket costing about 11 Euros, which was directly facing the sun.

After the bull match, we travel around Madrid which is also the capital of Spain. There were nothing much of sightseeing around Madrid except some trademark Bear licking the strawberry tree and the palace. The next two days in Madrid is spend day tripping to Segovia and Toledo.

The Palace and courtyard

the Bear and the Strawberry tree

Valencia, Spain (16 May 2009)

Finally managed to catch the train to Valencia, a town famous for the paella (a seafood cooked rice) which is amazingly extra delicious when we ate it here. Spanish has a custom whereby they only have their dinner late, as in 9-10pm where for Malaysia, it's already mamak time

We had basically half a day to explore the place as our schedule train tomorrow to Madrid was in the morning (we had to resort to getting the regional slow train as all fast train was sold out).

 

After our dinner, we bump into some couples taking their wedding photos at the old town square.

Bomb Scare in my Office

Yes..there is a bomb scare in my office building just two days ago

Barcelona, Spain (15-16 May 2009)

Next stop: Barca!

I've heard lots of people telling me that Barca cant be covered in 2 days and we had like 1 and half days to cover the major spots of Barca. We took the train from Avignon and travel down south to the Spanish border and into Barcelona, the first pit of 8 days around Spain.
we checked into this small backpackers around the corner of the metro in the city. It was walking distance to the Casa Batlo and Sagrada Familia, the famous unfinished church, temple, worshipping place...

After we dump our luggage, we took the bus up to Park Guell, another famous landmark by the famous Gaudi. In Barca, basically, one can see many trails of Gaudi famous works including the unique design and claims that his architecture reflects the human body well.

We walked back down from the park and took the metro to Casa Batlo, another famous works by Gaudi. This attraction is considered one of the most expensive but seriously worth the price. The interior was gorgeous plus with the audio guide, one could understand why certain structures are build that way.

At night we took the opportunity to see Sagrada Familia lit up with lights. True to be told, it does looks like bones under that graze of the stars

The next day, we head to the Sagrada Familia to see the interior before leaving for Valencia in the afternoon, which sadly we miss the train and need to take the next one. Anyway, it's not the first time I miss train so it's kind of normal to me but my travel mate a bit stress up :)
The interior was amazing with incredible structure.In fact, after this Barca trip, I fall in love with
all Gaudi works!

Hot AirBalloon Festival in Putrajaya ( 20 March 2010 )

Went to the hot airballoon festival in Putrajaya with 2 colleagues of mine. By the time we reached there, it was packed with people and cars. Had to resort to illegal parking at the roadside due to the massive jam into the balloon area.

The day or rather the night was not as clear with haze lingering around. Just manage to capture a few night photos. Really wanted to hit myself for forgetting to lug my tripod together when I brought my camera up.

On the way back from Putrajaya to Cheras, lost my way and almost reach Sban thanks to my GPS setting of Home - which refers to home as in Seremban and not home in CHeras..haiya!!

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