day 9

monday 17 may 2010 around bibona

you've not had breakfast until you've had a farmhouse breakfast. we'd organic, free-range eggs (from ida's organic, free-range hens) and the yolks were so yellow they made me almost delirious. there was also the freshest, fluffiest apple cake that she baked earlier in the morning. ohmyword, an apple cake like no other (apples from her own trees, of course). i suppose the recurring theme this tuscan holiday was to eat local and save the earth, nevermind the belly. i ate so much local produce that in my head, i was single-handedly offsetting my otherwise giant carbon footprint. green substitutes and the like, you know? like if i ate eggs from ida's hens, i wasn't eating eggs that had been produced by grumpy battery hens and transported millions of miles to my plate. oh no! i was saving the earth by eating. and who can argue with that logic? :) but seriously, local produce is my new religion. it took every ounce of self-restraint to stop me from quitting before i even start and uprooting to live like a hermit farmer in tuscany, sustenance farming and making the extra cent from city slicker tourists who've never seen a vine in their life.

and what's almost better than eating local produce? shopping for local produce to bring home!

day 8

sunday 16 may 2010 paris to pisa

the light's not very good but this is the rolling tuscan landscape we woke to every day, and enjoyed from our terrace every chance. 

left paris bright and early, only to have our easyjet flight delayed by 1h45min. sneaky sneaky, if they'd crossed the 2h mark, we'd have to be assuaged with a EUR4 food voucher. pfft. but our charming agriturismo between bibona and casale maritimo was well worth the wait. stopped for the yummiest seafood lunch in livorno, eventually checked in and spent the rest of the day exploring our new neighbourhood. ida, the proprietress, had painstakingly done her research and tailor-made a driving route for us. she'd listed out where to go, how long to spend, what to buy, where to stay and which roads to take etc such a bonus! we were all set from day 1 :) if you're ever in the region, she's the hostess with the mostess. 

day 7

saturday 15 may 2010 paris

You’ll begin your city tour with a drive up the grand boulevard Champs-Élysées and past the Arc de Triomphe. You’ll stop for a photo opportunity at the Eiffel Tower before continuing to Place Vendôme, Hôtel de Ville, Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Latin Quarter. Then it’s on to Les Invalides, the Louvre courtyard, and the Luxembourg Gardens, where you will see a slice of daily Parisian life—gentleman playing boules and children sailing boats on the glassy pond—as well as view Bartholdi’s model for the Statue of Liberty.


this sounds so spoilt but it was my 4th paris city tour in 6 months. that said, i can't tire of the city and it's always so good to revisit familiar sights, like seeing old friends all over again. we trekked to bofinger from museum d'orsay (OH THE STRAIN) and i can vouch for why it's the one restaurant to eat at in paris if you've only one day. well, not the one but one could do way worse. day 7 was also special because he joined me in paris and it was our first time together in the city. we met at the bastille square and hoofed it to fauchon. now, fauchon was a treat because i'd met a charming grandfather on the cruise and he very excitedly told me about fauchon and how i had had had to go, preferably with lover in tow. so on the last night, he comes up to me after dinner, discreetly slips me some cash and whispers, "tea's on me. knock yourselves out." knock ourselves out we did! how we managed to blow a small fortune on sugar is beyond me...

and fauchon was very conveniently located near where we were meeting the Bs for dinner. the seafood platter at la lorraine (place de ternes) was jaw-dropping and heart-stoppingly BIG. it's no secret that the way to my heart is through good food and shellfish is way up there on my list :) even i'd difficulty finishing the platter, and i've made it my life's mission to outwit, outlast and outeat. 

hearty dinner, heartier company and full tumtum. can anyone say, shellfish sweats? :)

day 6

friday 14 may 2010 vernon (giverny)

Visit Monet’s home in his beloved village of Giverny, where he lived for 43 years, until his death in 1926. You’ll explore Monet’s house, furnished as it was when the leader of the Impressionist school lived here, including his precious collection of Japanese engravings. Strolling the gardens, you’ll see the familiar Japanese bridge and water garden shaded by the weeping willows that so inspired this master’s work. Watch the light play on the pond which is covered with the water lilies reproduced in Monet’s numerous enchanting versions of The Nympheas (The Water Lilies).

my inner impressionista was in watercolour heaven in giverny. it's been awhile since i've seen so much beauty in a place at any one time. felt like walking right into one of monet's masterpieces. curiously, monet had never been to japan but from the world fair (and we thought the shanghai expo was in vogue...), he managed to grasp a relatively authentic visual take of the far east and replicated it in his gardens. sort of like globe-trotting without ever having to leave your front door.

the cruise experience would also be incomplete without mention of the two beauties in the first photo. aunty M is the planner extraordinare, 60 going on 16 and oh-so-youthful. she's brimming with energy and nothing but effervescent joy, single-handedly redefining 'grandmother'. she's got 101 little projects running concurrently, from turning her grand-daughter's nursery into a work of art (irridescent sparkles mixed with paint, lovingly applied with masking taped stripes. just hearing about how she pimped the crib exhausts me!) to deftly sewing me a hat band, improvised from voxbox strap no less, on the bus between sights. WOW. she's amazing, one of the few ladies who leave me feeling 'when i grow up, i want to be just like her!'. not to be outdone, is her daughter N.

N and i met for the first time on the barge itself but it felt like we'd known each other forever. we were roomies for the cruise and it was such a surreal, symbiotic arrangement. we just clicked (being the misanthrope i am, this is a very very rare occurrence, mind you) and seemed to have complementary routines. like she'd wake early to get ready and i'd roll out of bed and straight into the dining room. particularly liked how we were both out like lights by 10pm while the adults would stay up till the wee hours of the morning. no guilt because we 'young 'uns' had to stick together. appreciated N's unassuming, easy-going nature and she was a joy to be with. plus, she brought me the best ever earplugs money can buy, not that i even needed them. but still! such a sweetie :)

so yay to good company and very very likeable travel buddies!

day 5

thursday 13 may 2010 caudebec (honfleur)

After crossing the majestic Normandy Bridge spanning the river delta, travel overland to Honfleur, a charming French harbor town recreated in numerous paintings by such artists as Gustave Courbet and Claude Monet. You’ll be taken on a guided walking tour from the former smuggler’s harbor of Vieux Bassin—the most frequently painted scene in Honfleur, where the fishing village backdrop is seemingly unchanged from over 500 years ago—through the pedestrian streets to St. Catherine’s Church. 

isn't the old port beautiful? honfleur was the prettiest stop and i was very happy to score a straw hat. in fact, i dare say that honfleur looked better than venice from some angles. loved the mix of mom&pop stores and the bigger brands, which in a sense reflected the heritage of the place as if it had been frozen in time. there was this amazing little soap shop that gave out chunks of soap on a stick that was so pretty it looked like a lolly. gives a whole new meaning to washing your mouth with soap, doesn't it! and irresistibly so, we bought over a kilo and within weeks i was instructed to acquire more (while i was still in france). such obsession!

day 4

wednesday 12 may 2010 rouen

Our visit to Rouen will take you to the stunning Gothic cathedral; the haunting Medieval quarter with its half-timbered, slate-tile roofs; and the Gros Horloge, a Renaissance clock tower that arches overhead. The walk ends at Vieux Marche, where Joan of Arc was punished for her defiance.

charming, bustling town with plenty to see and do. had a blast ducking in and out of the many patisseries, sampling a macaron here and a tart there. the joan of arc church felt like the inside of an overturned ship's hull.

day 3

tuesday 11 may 2010 rouen (normandy beaches)

Because of Normandy’s proximity to the sea, it has been the site of many conflicts and battles, including the famous D-Day Invasion by the Allied forces during WWII. Before visiting the beaches of Normandy, you’ll be taken to Bayeux, where you can appreciate the Medieval depiction of the Battle of Hastings on a tapestry dating from the 11th century. Afterward, you will visit places that are haunting reminders of the Allies’ hard fight for freedom—the American Cemetery at Colleville sur Mer, the Allied landing sites at Omaha Beach, and Mulberry Harbor at Arromanches.

the most emotionally heavy-going day of the cruise. i'm the last person to be interested in military history and visiting the DDay beaches were a horrendous eye-opener to the atrocities of war. the tales of wanton sacrifice and indiscriminate killing saddened me to the core. sometimes ignorance is bliss and i wish i could turn back time and remain in oblivion. the soldiers were so young, so unwillingly, and so brutally exterminated. awful awful awful. so we drove 3h to the beaches, and then 3h back. returned to the barge totally drained.

wound down by watching the sunset from the dining room. how novel to be able to tan over dinner!

day 2

monday 10 may 2010 les andelys

Les Andelys was of considerable strategic importance during the Middle Ages, prompting King Richard the Lionheart to build a fortified castle to protect the Duchy of Normandy from the French King Philip II in the 12th century. Walk to the English king's stronghold and admire the remains of the impressive Château Gaillard.

hit the ground running once we docked in les andelys. made the most of the brisk morning and went for a solo  stroll after breakfast while the parentals braved the cold and made away with the barge's bicycles. we gathered for a tour of the chateau and were greeting by an adorable sight in the grounds. a group of school children were re-enacting the battle for history class and the redshirt (no connection to the bangkok protests) were slugging it out with the blueshirts. talk about history coming alive! enjoyed exploring the main street and quaint shops in the afternoon. the adults also went on a quest for local wines, and returned with baskets of the good stuff. don't think our refined, culture-rich cruise down the seine was supposed to be boozy (akin to the infamous scandinavian booze cruises!) but we did have an almost endless supply of very drinkable wine after that ;) yay for resourceful adults!

the travelogue in motion

finally got organised and have written a daily post, albeit retrospectively, of my graduation eurotrip. the posts have been scheduled for 8:05am (GMT+8) every morning and there are 38 posts for europe in total. so if you check back daily, there'll be a fresh story. there's no fixed format, a photo or two and some reflection. if you'd like to know more (eg where did you find this?!) do leave a comment, it'll be nice to hear from you too.

currently in saigon with some friends for the week but the eurotrip travelogue has begun this morning and will continue to run for the next 5+ weeks. will be posting about saigon too once i've gathered my thoughts and am sufficiently decompressed. for now, i'm kicking back and finally letting my guard down. it's so good to be with my oldest and dearest friends from college, to be sheep-like and contentedly follow their lead. it's such a relief not to be solely responsible for my well-being, like i was in europe. they're great company and i'm grateful for the opportunity to prolong the self-indulgence and hedonism, this time in my own backyard.

(pushcart next to my hotel)

day 1

sunday 9 may 2010 paris

landed bright and early in the morning and were whisked straight to the Bs' for a delectable croissant and pain au chocolat breakfast. because the pastries are inherently very rich, they're only enjoyed on weekends. but we were just about to begin the holiday and allowed some wriggle room, intake-wise. breakfast was delightfully followed in quick succession by a stroll around isle st louis and an early lunch. it'd been more than six months since my last steak tartare fix and i was raring to go. we returned to our usual haunt and i gorged on raw beef to my heart's content. once the inner savage was satiated, we walked off lunch by the seine then M very kindly drove us to the quay to board the barge.

a holiday from the holiday

safely back home on 17th june at 0640h with 12h to spare before my grandfather's 88th birthday celebration that night. given a choice, i'd rather have stayed in europe till graduation day but sometimes i do things out of fear of later regret. plus, there's my grandmother's 84th on the 27th which i didn't want to miss either.

that said, it's been a crazy-packed 4 days back home and i feel like i need a holiday from the holiday. so i'm off to ho chi minh city for the week.

as this was intended as a travel blog, i do have a little project in the pipelines. it's shaping up to be a daily travelogue, albeit retrospectively and in 'real time'. so expect a post or two a day, detailing each day of the graduation trip. and maybe the saigon sojourn after, if the eurotrip writes well.

check back soon! and stay tuned :)

midnight churros

i hear that the churros bar is often the site of last-ditch attempts to hook-up after an unsuccessful night out. which's why i went at midnight, instead of 4am. there's something about eating at the witching hour that makes it more fun, even though there's nothing so surreptitious about staying out late. must be a throw-back to enid blyton's mallory towers and st. claires series, where midnight feasts were cause for celebration. like they say, forbidden fruit is always sweeter, especially when it's deep fried and drowned in gooey chocolatey goodness. ooh :)

btw, hola from madrid. have tons to post about barcelona and valencia. stay tuned!

ps bumped into high school friend at the hostel, and a bunch of college friends on the free walking tour. the world is too small and i've company again :)

breakfast of champions

churros con leche for the win.
sorry for lousy photo. taken while half-asleep, and with iphone.

nasi goreng

or nazi goreng, as my dear german friend calls it. it's a bit of an inside joke because i threw a hissy fit and demanded to be placated with chinese food in porto last fall. such was the extent of my cravings! thankfully i've obliging friends and when we found a chinese restaurant, the menu said they served nazi goreng. which caused a ruckus among my little travel group because that literally translates to fried nazis. not like they would've known, but i wasted no time translating, hurhur.

anyway, back to nasi goreng in barca. family L had an asian food craving last night and thank goodness for common cravings! was near delirium when this baby was placed in front of me. haven't had local (sorry, i call it local based on what's local to me) food since leaving home 4 weeks ago and was feeling so deprived until the Ls came along :) also, i'd never seen such a big piece of keropok (prawn cracker) in my life! it was like keropok on crack. and the skewers of meat and plating were oh-so-fancy but nothing like a good ol' nasi goreng. incidentally, this plate of nasi goreng has obliterated all other how-much-would-you-pay-for-familiar-food records. in summer 08, it was EUR15 for pad thai gai in reyjkavik. in winter 09, A bought me a EUR20 plate of pad thai in sofo, stockholm, but last night, ohmyword, EUR27 for nasi goreng (price at zion road hawker centre, possibly EUR2, max.) but worth every cent.

parc guell

walked all the way to parc guell and was just about to throw in the towel and hop onto the metro (which i have valiantly resisted since arriving in barcelona) when suddenly, out of nowhere, appears this magnificent stairway to heaven! well, almost. it was 6 flights of escalators for the final uphill journey and i was more than happy to hop right on. parc guell was better than i'd anticipated, although i maintain that my parents have unintentionally robbed me of any possible appreciation of all things gaudi, because they brought me to tokyo disneysea as a child. so when i saw casa gaudi, all i could think of was 'why did they copy ariel's grotto?'

oh so unfortunate. but it was a fun hike, in retrospect, and as i sat in the cool, cavernous domed bit under the roof (sorry, that doesn't make much sense does it) as a busker played his flute, i felt a serenity like never before.

la sagrada familia

tried to photograph her from the angel with the fewest cranes, although the cranes are probably synonymous with the church by now. ironically, i was told by my well-informed friends that once the construction is completed, they can't charge visitors for entry any more. which begs the question, why would they ever finish when the work-in-progress commands 50million annually from ticket revenue? dollars and cents aside, the queue was as long as my 1/2ft iberico sub. mhmm :) nothing like iberico to go, and then eaten straight up in a queue.

the world is too small

so much for solo trippin'.

just found out that another dear friend, K, will be in barca the same time i am. she's sailing in on the ship that the L family is sailing out on. complicated, much? so when K and the Ls swop places, i have the pleasure of her company, and my two high school girlfriends, although probably not at the same time.

at this rate, there's not going to be any alone time in barca!

such providence :) am feeling truly loved and blessed. had an excellent dinner with the Ls and am very grateful for their graciousness. fantastic restaurant just 2 blocks west from my hostel. what are the chances! sweeet...

hola from barca

(feeding the birds outside the notre dam in paris)

it's been a whirlwind (almost) 3 weeks and every day has been a brand new adventure. not so ambitious as to attempt to recount the trip from day 0, but in a nutshell...

paris 1: boulangerie breakfast with family B in their beautiful penthouse, followed by tour of isle st louis and cites, concluding with steak tartare lunch at my favourite brasserie and berthillion glace for dessert. can't ask for more!

seine cruise: lovely time cruising the seine on the barge, good food, great company. apart from the normandy beaches, which were so very sad, the rest of the trip was all culture and scenery. a highlight was monet's gardens in giverny. it felt like stepping right into one of his masterpieces.

paris 2: tea avec mon petit amis at fauchon, followed in quick succession by the absolute yummiest seafood platter (it was like a regular platter on crack - oh so gigantic!) at la lorraine, courtesy of family B.

tuscany: dream week roadtrippin' and winding through the vineyards big and small. fell in love with brunello wine in montalcino and ate so much fresh, home-made pasta that i don't think i can stomach anything else now. completely spoilt my palate, which is such a bad thing to happen so early on. stayed in agriturismos and one of them even had an infinity pool facing the rolling tuscan hills. talk about unforgetable! we also ended up buying 18kg of wine, olive oil (OHSOFRESH it left a subtle spicy aftertaste) and honey. which also meant that we'd to buy check-in allowance, but it was more than worth it when we saw monsieur et madame B relish the vin.

paris 3: 3 days in paris as family B's guests. good mix of my paris rituals (like breakfast at laduree, more steak tartare) and new parisien adventures courtesy of my resourceful and ever-hungry copain. he brought me to chartier and it fast became a favourite. gotta love belle epoch at its casual best.

stockholm: crazy week of nonstop catching up and revisiting my old haunts. felt surreal to be back in my stomping ground, and to have it all green! it was as if i'd blinked and suddenly it was summer. when i was back in stockholm, it felt like i'd never returned home, and the 6 months i'd spent away did not happen. everything was as i'd remembered, just sorely missing a few of the usual suspects, namely the three musketeers from down under, and mi bellas from italy. had the privilege of staying with the perfect hostesses, A (3 nights), A-san (1 night) and J.Mak (2 nights). nothing like girly h2hs just before the zz monster attacks. was so so good to hang out with them again. and then there was the inevitable goodbye, but i've J.Mak's southern french hospitality to look forward to in a week so that goodbye is still on hold.

barca: so far so good! even though i was planning on being in barca alone, a familly friend hooked me up with his abogado friend in barca, whom i met for tea and am pleased to rely on as a 'responsible adult' while i'm here. coincidentally, two of my high school girlfriends will be in barca tomorrow and we're planning to meet up. i'm a big softie at heart and having gone on my first ever friends-only trip with them (overnight train to KL right after A levels) in january 2006, and then again to bangkok in tandem with the bomb blasts (new years 2007) and another time to phuket in july 2007, to meet them on the great grad trip is going full circle. how far we have come and it's nice to have dear old friends to share the celebration with.

and speaking of celebration, while in stockholm i received a text notifying me that i have, indeed, completed my degree. plus not too shabbily at that, bragbrag, so it's great to finish on a high note, despite it taking me 7 semesters to figure out what works. this 8th semester has been my best (even better than exchange grades!) and i am very very happy. shout out to the kind seniors who sent their fantabulous notes my way. much appreciated!
so there's a not-so-short summary and maybe i'll post more later.

oh! one thing i forgot to add is that i bumped into the lovely L family in zara this morning (of all places! what are the chances? there are SO MANY in barca!) and they have invited me to join them for dinner. yay! grown up food will be a welcomed change. and who ever said i'd get lonely on my own here :)