16.12.2010

The 101 things to pack

Breakfast was great this morning as there were not only cereals and milk in my bowl, but granolas, dried bananas, raisins and walnuts- everything that could possibly make me have breakfast for lunch and dinner, probably for the next thirty days or more. So I threw in a couple of snacks (taken from the hotel like duh) into my bag; an egg, an apple, two packets of biscuit toast and two Nutella spreads for those, three packets of cereal biscuits and finally, two flavored croissants, in case anyone of us feel hungry at any point of time. My mom gets hungry every 2 hours, my dad can eat anytime and for me, I feel like eating at the most bizarre hour.

Venice, Italy

We cruised over to Venice shortly, to admire the beautiful landscape built by man. The floating city was incredible, and the tiny yet interesting shops that lined its streets make it even more special. Visited the glass factory, fed wild pigeons and explored Piazza San Marco a little before embarking on the Gondola.

The Gondola Ride

Taking the gondola around Venice gave me a completely different view of the city (compared to the previous hour of experiencing it on foot) as we floated down the Grand Canal, turned down inner canals spanned by small bridges, past cafes and hotels and through the lively streetscape. The half hour ride definitely offers the uniquely Venetian experience that one can never ever forget.

Hurray for Sweet Treats

Obviously, one wouldn't miss out the food that Venice has to offer. We popped by a couple of restaurants or eateries; one for coffee (partially for its toilet), another for panini and pizza, and the last one for its ice cream. The almond tart was not warmed up so it didn't taste as fantastic as I wanted it to be. Well, it's hard to communicate to Venetians when you know nuts about their language and they too, could hardly gather the right words to string an English sentence. Lots of body and/or sign language was used to express myself throughout this trip actually. Anyway, I couldn't resist trying out their Pistachio ice cream (or was it a gelato?) as well as their Dark Chocolate and these flavors sure didn't disappoint with its overwhelming yet satisfying richness.

Upon sunset, we bid farewell to Venice and its people, cruised back to the main island and went for dinner. Okay, enough narration, I am beginning to feel as though I have taken up the granny's role in telling an endless story but rest assure this is not a form of complaint for I have so much more to tell. x

15.12.2010

Breakfast and Me

I had cereals soaked in milk almost every day for the past two weeks. Sometimes, with a tiny scoop of scrambled eggs and a slice of ham. And I especially love to exhale through my mouth just to see the amount of smoke that comes out, it's a partially reliable approach to measure the cold temperature.

Sunshine and Nutella

So it wasn't too cold that morning, probably like 7 degrees. The sun was shining and for once, I didn't complain about the extra amount of UV rays. Nutella was everywhere in Europe, it's like Kaya in Singapore. No, not really. But you see it almost everywhere you go- bottles in all sizes, nutella snacks (above), ice cream, chocolates.. it's pretty fascinating (well at least, to me).

Piazza del Duomo

We visited the Cathedral of Pisa as well as the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa in the afternoon. I was expecting the latter to be much bigger, like the Eiffel Tower but that's because I didn't check wiki for its actual size. Anyway, I kindly asked dad to capture a photo me in mid-air in front of both monuments and of course, he did. Apparently, he was equally spontaneous in the five minutes workout but I poorly captured his 'moment' and shamefully blamed the camera (and the height of his leaps) for the poorly taken photograph.

The sky turned dark before five and the temperature plunged to zero. It was freezing but who cares, I still had ice cream! Kinder Bueno was my choice of flavor although I really wanted to try Nutella but I figured it would probably taste like Hazelnut. A tad too sweet for me, maybe cos it's from Kinder Bueno White. More sightseeing, of beautiful churches and christmas lightings, a little shopping before we caught sight of this cute taxi and decided to head home in it. No I was just kidding, we had dinner with the group and went back to our hotel thereafter.

So that pretty summed up a day in Italy, the rest of the photos will be up on FB (real soon). And I'll be back with another update on the following day so stay tuned, x.