We spent the morning at the Cours Selaya market in the old town. Several websites described it as a combination of a flower market and flea market, and maybe we were in the wrong place or something, but we only saw the flea market. I’m not sure what people find enticing about a flea market because to me it’s as if the stuff that people are selling at the market is old antiques they’ve kept in their basement for decades. Occasionally, there were vendors selling art, but it was mostly antiques.

The vegetation here is very Mediterranean. It’s not temperate at all. There are palm trees everywhere, olive trees, and green spiny heat resistance shrubs.

For lunch, we visited a local Michelin star restaurant, L’eau de Vie. I’d say it was good, but not Michelin star good…

Later in the day, we visited the Marc Chagall Museum. Marc Chagall was an artist who live in Nice for some time. I’m not huge on art, but visited the museum upon the insistence of my travel partner. While the work was beautiful, it was difficult for me to appreciate it in more depth due to my lack of literacy in the fine arts. On top of that, the main theme of the art in the museum seemed to be scenes from the bible, which I’m not too familiar with either.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the city seeing other landmarks like the Hotel Negresco, and the Saint Nicholas Cathedral. The Hotel Negresco is considered a landmark in the city and appears on many postcards. It’s essentially a really fancy hotel with its own private beach for its guests. The interesting part of the Saint Nicholas Cathedral is that it’s Russian Orthodox. This raises the question of why there’s a Russian Orthodox cathedral so far away from Russia. By the end of the 19th century, there was a sizable Russian diaspora living in Nice, partly owing to the good relations built up by the Russian nobility. Another cool fact is that the cathedral belongs to the Russian Federation.

An unfortunate consequence of all the time spent outside resulted in many mosquito bites. I was honestly surprised and how relentless they were considering it was the middle of the day. I’ve only remembered them showing up at dusk.

Eventually we made it back to Place Garibaldi, the main city square in Nice. The great thing about European cities is the massive public spaces that are pedestrian only. It reduces the amount of car exhaust so much and gives ample space for restaurant patios. It’s nice to just sit at the patio and enjoy the colour scenery all around, from the colours of the buildings, the windows, the balconies, or just simply people watch.

We ended the day with a fantastic lobster dinner. It was even topped up with a flambé of Jack Daniel’s. It’s not the best whiskey in the world, but a flambé is cool, especially on a lobster. I wish I could remember what the sauce was made of…

That’s it for day 2 of our trip! Our packed itinerary only allowed us to have a short two day stay in Nice. Tomorrow we head elsewhere!

More photos of Nice here

Interesting way to paddle a barge…

Outside the Thien Tru Pagoda in the rain.

I think this was the first time I ever went to a Buddhist temple in Asia.

I think this was the place where the monks are buried.

Next, we hiked up a mountain to get to Huong Tich Cave. The cave itself is also a religious site.

Pretty amazing how the cave formed naturally over time.

Outside the entrance to the cave.

To go back, we took the same boat paddled by the same lady. Along the way, we came across a man fishing in the river. It’s just so different here compared to the lives we are used to in North America.

Link to photo album: here

The first destination for the day was Rockefeller Center. This is the place where a giant Christmas tree is placed during the holiday season. The front of it, by the fountain with the statue of Prometheus, would also be a giant ice rink. During the summer, an outdoor restaurant takes its place.

There is also an observation deck at the top known as the “Top of the Rock” that we didn’t go to. They advertise that from up there, people can see an unobstructed view of the whole city.

The inside looks quite nice too!

I guess the designers of Rockefeller Center really like mythological characters because apart from the fountain with Prometheus, there’s also a statue of Atlas.

Beside Rockefeller Center is Radio City Music Hall, an entertainment venue that, for a time, was a really popular tourist destination. It is said that the hydraulics used for their stage were so advanced for its time, that the US Navy used the same hydraulics when constructing aircraft carriers during WWII.

Also beside Rockefeller Center is St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I always thought everything in NYC was really modern, so I didn’t expect such historical architecture.

It happened to be a Sunday that day, so the inside was filled with people attending church.

Our next destination in the afternoon was the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. That place was so interesting for me that it would make this post super long, so I think I’ll save it for a separate post.

More photos here

Flight to Barcelona

I woke up at around 3:30am to get ready for the flight to Barcelona.  I had slept at around 10:30pm the night before in order to not feel absolutely terrible in the morning.  We took the first train out to the airport at 4:40am and got there about an hour before our departure at 6:45am.  While going through security, I forgot to take of my belt and because of that, the security personnel checked me with the metal detector wand all over the place.  For some reason, he seemed to also have a huge suspicion that I was hiding something in my pants.  Once he let me go, we were on our way.  On the plane ride there, I tried by my best to take a nap, but this little kid cried for the whole duration.

Sagrada Familia

After dropping off our stuff at the hostel, w went to the Sagrada Familia, an unfinished church that began construction in 1882.  When I saw it, I thought it was really weird that the construction crew used modern cranes to build architecture of the old style.  We tried to go inside, but there was a huge line up.

After wandering around town a little bit, we came across this market that sold all sorts of things.  Apart from pretty normal items like clothing, vendors there sold N64’s, used power tools and even military regalia.  A lot of that stuff was probably stolen.  We walked around some more and then headed down to the beach.

Barceloneta

The area we were in, the Barceloneta, was a stretch of beach coastline looking into the Mediterranean Sea.  It had the nicest beach water and sand – even better than what I saw in Volos.  Looking around the beach, I learned that it was legal for women to sunbathe topless. It was actually quite prominent.  The weather was really hot too – perfect beach weather I suppose. 

I lay down under an umbrella on a beach towel while the others went for a swim.  I ended up falling asleep.  I suppose that made up for not having a good sleep on the plane.  After spending about an hour and a half at the beach, we went on a walking tour.

The Walking Tour

The first destination in the tour was in the Gothic Quarter.  We reached the memorial for Eulalia of Barcelona, a 13 year old girl that was brutally subjected to torture from the Romans for refusing to give up Christianity.  She died from the 13th and final torture that involved her being put inside a barrel with blades shoved inside it and then having that barrel rolled down in incline.  It is said that a dove flew out of her dead body as she ascended to Heaven.

The next destination was the oldest synagogue in Europe (as opposed to the one in Prague, which is the oldest active synagogue).  From the outside, it doesn’t look anything like a synagogue.  It just blends in perfectly with the buildings around it and the building itself doesn’t have any valuable looking ornaments or decorations either.  The only things that separate it from the other buildings is sign in Hebrew on the doorway and some signs for tourists to know that it’s there.  In this Jewish district, the tour guide mentioned the expulsion of Jews during the Spanish Inquisition.  I thought it was kind of amusing when I was caught by surprise at the mention of it – kind of like that quote from Monty Python.

Afterward, we went to Plaza de Sant Felip Neri.  The significance of this place was that the plaza was the site of a air attack from Italian bombers during the Spanish Civil War.  Shrapnel damage from the bombs still scar the walls of the plaza.  On another side of the plaza, the bomb damaged was repaired but one can still see the slight difference in colour between the bricks which shows how much of the wall had been destroyed.

One thing about the streets in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona is that a lot of them are really narrow – probably only about 10 feet wide.  We walked through these streets for most of the tour.  In one of those streets, we came across a mosaic of Space Invaders.  Apparently, there is an artist who goes all over the world putting them up.

The next destination was the Placa Nova, which used to be the location of the city gates back when the Romans lived in Barcelona.  The remnants of the gate and the aqueduct still exists.  Across from the gate is the City Architecture School, which has a joke drawing by Picasso splattered over it.

After walking some more we saw the Barcelona Cathedral which housed the tomb of Eulalia of Barcelona and also the Placa del Rei, the historical location where Christopher Columbus reported his discovery of the Americas to the Spanish royalty.  We also saw some Roman ruins after climbing a mountain with a height of 16.9 meters (that’s what a plaque actually said) as well as the Placa de San Jaume, the political center of Cataluña (the area of Spain that Barcelona belongs to).

The tour guide also talked about the origins of the flag of Catalonia (Cataluña is the name in Catalan).  It is said that a great warrior Wilfred the Hairy, after being wounded in battle, drew stripes along a copper shield with his blood-stained fingers, hence the four prominent red stripes on the Catalan flag.

We also walked along La Rambla, a popular tourist street in the city.  The tour guide also showed us a city square that featured some of buildings designed by an architect named Gaudi.  Apparently, his designs are all over the city.

Next was the Placa George Orwell.  As a memorial to him (he was involved during the Spanish Civil War), the city named a city square after him.  Ironically enough, this plaza used to be under 24 hour surveillance kind of like Big Brother in his book “1984”.

We finished the tour at a bar and socialized with other people in the tour group for a little bit and drank Sangria.  I got to talk to these people who used to work at the same hostel we stayed at in Hamburg.  It was such a coincidence.

Barcelona’s Skateboarding Fame

After that, we walked around the city to look for the skateboarding spots that Barcelona was so famous for among skateboarders.  I’m not a fan, so I could not recognize the place from skateboarding videos, but it was cool to see a lot of skateboarders in one place showing off their tricks.

Tapas

For dinner, we tried Tapas, a Spanish delicacy.  Tapas are basically a small appetizer dish, but patrons generally order a few of them for a full meal.  Along with Tapas, Paellas are another Spanish delicacy that’s also really delicious.

Sangria is Evil

That night, we spent a little bit of time at the hostel bar.  We all drank Sangria and the thing about that drink is that it tastes a lot like juice, which means it is really easy to drink too much.  And that’s what I did.  I puked a bunch and got a pretty bad hangover the next morning.  I never intended to drink that much in the first place.

While we were drinking, we talked with this black dude and he always had racist jokes to say.  He went on about how white people could never get away with saying racist comments, which was so true. 

Park Güell

I spent the next morning puking too which sucked a lot.  We went to the beach again that morning, but I felt so bad at that time that I decided to go back to the hostel to rest up a bit before doing anything.  I felt a lot better in the evening and so we all continued sightseeing and went to Park Güell.

Park Güell was basically a park that featured a lot of Gaudi’s architectural exploits.  Since he hated the use of right angles in his work, much of the design had curvy edges.  Spanish architecture here was so different from the architecture I’d seen everywhere else.  It was really distinct and unique.

A Less Intense Night (at Least for Me)

After visiting the park, we went to the hostel bar like the night before.  Except this time, I didn’t do any crazy drinking.  We met the same black dude from the night before again and this time he went on about how much he loved eating fried chicken, which just made me crack up so hard.  He perpetuated that stereotype.  Once the hostel bar quieted down, my friends went out for clubbing while I stayed at the hostel and went to sleep.

Mini-Sandwiches

I found out later that they returned at around 6 am.  Two of them were really high on weed apparently when they came back too (weed is legal in Barcelona so long as one possesses less than 50g).  They missed the hostel breakfast that morning and slept in until 12pm.  Once we all got ready, we went out for lunch at a mini-sandwich restaurant. 

The place had so many varieties of mini sandwiches and they all looked and tasted delicious.  I wanted to try all of them, but I was pretty certain that I couldn’t eat that much since I wasn’t hungry for lunch yet.

Montjuïc

After eating, we went up to Montjuïc.  The mountain had a lot of really nice architecture, just like a lot of places in the city.  Also on the mountain was the site of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.  We walked around the Olympic stadium and got a really good view of the city.

We walked further up the mountain and reached the fortress at the top.  At the time, we didn’t know there was a gondola that took us up there, so we walked the whole way, which was super tiring in the intense heat that day.  Fortunately, seeing the fortress was worth it.  From there, we got a really good view of the entire city, all the way around. 

After walking around so much, we all got really hungry and took the gondola back down and looked for a place to eat.

Paellas

After trying Tapas on the first day, we decided to try Paellas this time around.  Paellas are basically a rice dish and consists of either vegetables, seafood, or different varieties of meat depending on the type.  We ordered one with seafood and chicken in it. 

Being able to pick meat off bones and peeling the shell off of shrimp was so satisfying.  It was totally unlike the German dishes that involve none of that peeling whatsoever.

Writing at the Beach

We spent the rest of the night at the beach to get one last look at it before leaving the next morning.  When we got there, the sun was already setting so it was quite comfortable at the beach without the sun constantly cooking us. 

As the sun set, it actually got really cold.  While sitting at the beach, I started writing bits of this blog entry in my notebook.  Writing on the beach was really satisfying.

My Joint-Rolling Experience

When we got back to the hostel, two of the people I went with wanted to use up the rest of the weed that they bought.  I refused to do any weed when they offered it to me – even if it was legal here, but I did want to try rolling a joint.  They passed me some of the weed and rolling paper and then taught me how to do it.  In the end, I rolled a better joint than both of them and it was only my first try too.  They called me a “stoner prodigy” and said how I’d be a really good stoner if I ever did weed.  No way I’m going to smoke it for real though even if rolling a joint was an interesting experience.  When the others started smoking the rest of the weed, I returned to the hostel and went to bed.

Flying Back

The next morning we all woke up at 6 am to get to the airport for our flight back to Stuttgart.  For pretty much the entire trip home, our whole group barely talked.  We all had this zombie look on our faces from waking up way too early and not sleeping enough.  It took a few hours for us to return back to our normal state.  We all felt it was a good trip – except for the part where I had too much Sangria.

More photos here

The seats on an airplane definitely aren’t the best.  If your height is anything like 5’8”, your legs will probably be digging into the seat in front of you.  I am taller than 5’8”, so it definitely did not feel very comfortable to me.

During the flight to London, I had the unfortunate seating arrangement which put me right in between the window seat and the aisle seat.  If I sat in the aisle seat, then I could stretch out my legs every now and then.  I could potentially get up and walk around.  The problem was, the person sitting was always sleeping.  I felt incredibly rude to wake up the person just so I could get up.  The only thing I could do was to wait until that person got up to go to the washroom.  I waited for that golden opportunity, and the moment it happened, I immediately got up and walked around.

However, this freedom was not meant to last.  Eventually, I would have to sit back down.  I tried to forget about how cramped I felt by watching a few movies or trying to go to sleep.  It was a long 10 hours.  Although, I did manage to stretch my legs underneath the seat in front of me as much as I could.  That was better than nothing.

Luckily on the flight from London to Stuttgart, the plane I sat in had an enormous amount of leg room.  Too bad it was only a one hour flight.  I didn’t get enough time to enjoy that freedom.

The food on the other hand, was better than I expected.  I thought I would be eating a rock hard piece of bread.  To my surprise, the bread tasted quite alright.  I mean, it was on a plane, so I didn’t expect something fantastic, but it wasn’t terrible.

With airplane food, there is always something about it that doesn’t make it quite right.  It’s probably the fact that the food has been stored on the plane, and reheated for people to eat.  I’m no chef, but maybe that’s what makes the food seem to be a little strange.

The worst part about the flight was definitely the cramped seats.  Unfortunately, its quite the norm, except for that rare occasion.  The food was alright, nothing to really complain about except maybe that the portions were too small!