it's been exactly a year

since i left for stockholm.

and it was the best 5 months ever.

not a day passes without some thought, i hate living in the past and i don't think i really am, but it gave me a lifetime of fantastic memories and for that i am grateful.

it's as if stockholm is this secret place in my mind that i retreat to whenever i need a happy thought, because all my exchange-related thoughts are happy.

and if i could relive any day over and over again, it'd be the sunday that we slept in.

mhmmm :) stockholm. i miss being there and being on exchange with a vengeance. it's been 8 months since i got home but the sense of loss and longing is keener than ever.

(almost) annual pilgrimage to HK

was in HK in the beginning of 2006 and because it was a social visit, we stayed in what was, to me, the fanciest hotel ever. met with friends, wine and dined and it was a very comfortable trip.

returned in the middle of 2007 with 15 college friends. this time, the planner sourced us an apartment in hai fong mansion, off nathan road and just opposite tsim sha tsui station. we squeezed into 4 rooms in this misnomer of a building that was anything but a mansion. we'd the dubious honour of sharing a floor with massage parlours, syed baba worship centre, kumon, a karaoke bar and music school. remember sleeping like sardines, sharing a single bed with a girlfriend for 5 nights. shudder. but this particular trip to HK was special to me for two reasons. on our last night, as we sat by victoria harbour looking across the bay, i saw the hotel i stayed at the previous year and i felt a sense of pride surge within me, because i was back in HK on my terms and at my own expense, having ceased to receive parental support soon after high school. i'd brought myself to HK on hard-earned tuition money and the satisfaction was priceless. also, while i'd just 'roughed out' 5 days in less than luxurious conditions, looking across the water, i knew that one day i'd be back at the first hotel, on my own. the second reason is a little more personal, because while i was in my tiny room at hai fong mansion, i sprung awake one night certain that something was amiss and 30 seconds later, my mobile rang. and all it took was one X life-altering phone call and we've not looked back since :)

in summer 2008, we went to HKwith our favourite couple to celebrate his birthday, approximately a year after that significant phone call. this trip was different again, although i did get to revisit some of the haunts i liked from the previous year. this was especially special because we'd just gotten home after 10weeks together in europe. we travelled highlands and iceland (from london to belgium to scotland, drove around the whole of iceland), back to leuven, the it was off on a sand and sea leg (nice, monte carlo, cannes, road trip around corsica, toulon, avignon, marseille, lyon before heading to morocco - casablanca and marrakech). after that we met up with my folks for a mediterranean cruise (athens, kusadasi, ephesus, santorini, sarande, split, venice). he went back to leuven for exams and i solo-tripped to dublin and then amsterdam. when he was done with exams, we flew to prague then his parents came over and we met them in athens (our second time in a month!) and sailed to mykonos, revisited santorini in a more leisurely fashion then explored crete. surprisingly, after 10 weeks of non-stop travel (which concluded his year away), we weren't vacationed out and still made it to HK! being the sentimental sap i am, HK a year on and with him was a poignant reminder of how good the year had been.

skip 2009 and i was back in HK mid-2010, back at the first (fancy) hotel. sadly, it wasn't as fancy this time as i remembered it. semi-concerned that i've grown increasingly discerning (he says spoilt) but it was good to be back in my old stomping ground yet at a different stage all together :)

chillaxing in hong kong

busy busy as the weekend was, we managed to make the most out of our room

what i really like about HK are the gopher trails that allow you to criss-cross from one building to the next without hitting ground level, or getting wet. it's like this little network of elevated pathways and oh-so-convenient to get around on, with a/c at regular intervals hehe.

and when it got too hot, it was off to the infinity pool for a dip.

view across victoria harbour to kowloon

the indoor jacuzzi before the jets came on. the steel rod-structure is for lying on, like a submerged deck chair. pretty nifty, eh? :)

more HK reflections to come!

hong kong and the magic pots

apart from collecting my bag, hong kong was a happy blur of gluttony and excess. i've come to expect no less than that from a trip with my granduncle and grandaunt. they've some firm friends in HK who pulled out all the hospitality stops. from fetching and sending us everywhere, to booking us into the hong kong jockey club and arranging for one exquisite meal after another. they made me feel like royalty! happily allowed myself to be stuffed with the best bo lo bao and dimsum of every kind. when asked to pick a favourite, i really couldn't! it was all so yummy :) and, i popped my goose web cherry (disgusting as it sounds) and within minutes of being cajoled into trying the webs, i was sucking on the bits of bone and spitting like the churlish champ i am! yay me for being adventurous and up for anything...

haha.

also, while i didn't shop at all, save a flouncy blue dress i'm going to wear to all three weddings i'm attending this national day long weekend, i did come home with 10kg of cookware because a friend sells some pretty darn amazing pots!

"It should be an interesting evening of friendship mixed with sharing our mutual interest in' health care' that our Health & Lifestyle Channel www.hlctv.net  promotes and broadcast to Asia with a good Lineup of TV Programs with my vision for HLC to serve our people. In line with the 'health care' theme we are promoting 'safe cooking' with 'Blanc' the world's first white nano ceramic cookware - Introduction: -http://www.blancwok.com/en/blanctv/blanc-knowledge / www.blancwok.com . Blanc is non-toxic cookware unlike Teflon cookware that is very toxic." excerpt from friend's email

who'd have thought! not me, as i lugged my stash to the concierge in the middle of the night and plaintively asked them to tape the boxes up for me. and then i bumped into my very attractive neighbour who raised an eyebrow and no amount of explaining could convince him that i'm usually not that aunty in real life. note to self: when in nice hotel in HK with cute boys in the vicinity, don't go anywhere looking / acting like his mother. sigh :(

p/s an overzealous science tutor told me at 11 that teflon was the devil and i believed her. a decade later, turns out that she was right and i'm so glad to have a pot that gives me the benefit of non-stick cooking without the toxins from teflon. incidentally, betcha didn't know that teflon is originally white but has been dyed black so as to mask the flaws as the material disintegrates with heat onto the pot / pan!

hong kong

hopped to HK for the weekend to pick up my bag. it somehow felt as close to the adoption process as i can currently imagine. no, not knocking adoption or belittling it by likening it to collecting a bag (people and possessions are two very different things). but to me, at this point, that's how it felt.

defensive disclaimer aside, i'd been romancing this bag for years and after finally mustering up enough courage to ask for one, it all happened so quickly. thank god for fairy god-aunties who know people who know people, how they conjured exactly what i wanted within a fortnight (especially after i walked into the store cold and was snootily told to return in four years) is beyond me. but i am ever grateful :)

as i was unwrapping my bag in the hotel, not knowing whether it was inner or outer stitch i.e. soft or hard, i imagined that's what having a child would be like. like you want a child, but you don't know if it's a boy or a girl. and you don't really mind as long as it's a child but at the back of your mind there's a preference. so, rather embarrassingly, i shrieked when i felt the firm outline. it was outer stitch and suddenly all was very right with the world.

of course, there was more to HK then picking up my bag, so more on the food tomorrow.

saigon day 3

today was my lazybones day. the rest went on a day trip to the cu chi tunnels and i opted to remain in my air-conditioned, non-claustrophobic comfort. when they were historied out, we went in search of french food and found this little gem through the combined powers of too many guidebooks to name. after solo trippin for a good few weeks, finally being sheep-like and following the leader was a welcomed relief :) the guys were awesome. they read up, they planned, they hailed taxis, they navigated, they were on hand to be size models and provide style advice... it was like HK all over again  in summer 07 when i suddenly found myself with 20kg of shopping (no exaggeration) and it was Y to the rescue as he gallantly brought my big construction worker plastic bag (the type they use to carry bricks) all the way to the airport. and by brought, i mean CARRIED because the dratted bag had no wheels!

day 38

tuesday 15 june aix-en-provence to paris

took the afternoon flight to paris and ended where i began 38 days before. it was good to be back with the Bs. at this point, i was incredibly grateful to have had 38 delightful days in europe without any mishap that well-meaning friends had cautioned me. i'd travelled alone for the most part and made it through spain without being pickpocketed, just flashed. haha. i hadn't misplaced anything along the way, i hadn't missed any connections, i'd made friends, and i'd eaten way better than anticipated. did i tell you that i was defensive eating before my solo leg? just in case i wasted away. absolutely unnecessary in retrospect, seeing as to how well-fed i was, but a girl can't be too careful, can she?

a recurring theme this holiday was impeccable, european hospitality. from the Bs in paris, to my friends in stockholm who let me invade their space, to C, grandfatherly lawyer supreme who introduced me to too many contacts to list, to J in valencia - who'd have thought our chance meeting at the nam hai in hoi ann in april would amount to a wonderful visit, and of course, J and her family were top class hosts in aix. 

i was ready to come home, and just in time for my grandfather's 88th.

thanks for reading, and for reliving my graduation trip with me. it's been fun!

p/s stay tuned for the saigon series. while in aix, i'd already planned my next getaway. had gramp's birthday on the 17th of june, and my grandmother's on the 27th. which gave me a 10 day window to play with and i skipped to saigon for a week. 

day 37

monday 14 june 2010 salon-de-provence

mama M took a sick day to bring us to the next town :) it was semi-ironic because she's a senior nurse in the school health department and she went to see a doctor with a headache to be excused from work. then J drove like the wind and got us to st remy in record time for our lunch reservation at la place (the square). mama M is a bona fide foodie who takes food very seriously and a professional chef friend of hers had recommended this little gem tucked away in the countryside, near the road the revolutionaries marched. the food did not disappoint! constantly amazed how the french can take something as simple as fresh fish and safron and whip it into a magical creation.

and the desserts were so good i wish i'd three servings, one of each! i'd chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream,

J had mango sorbet with rice in cream

and mama M had raspeberry macarons that looked too pretty to eat!

after lunch we ambled over to "the box", a disused stone quarry that has been converted into an indoor theatre. this year's exhibition was on australia and with projectors and clever lighting, the light show transported us to the aboriginal dream time.

day 36

sunday 13 june 2010

nothing made me feel more welcomed than being included in the family fold. mama M had all her children back that weekend (J's brother and his family were visiting from munich) and she went to great lengths to ensure that everyone was well fed. she spent hours preparing the feast and by early afternoon, we were nicely settled in the pool house sipping chilled rose and tucking into the armenian skewers she served. mhmmm! just thinking about the (not) shish kebabs makes my mouth water...

happy campers in the pool house - mama M commented that she had an international family, and she really did! i try not to play the nationality card but i must admit i find people from unusual backgrounds extremely exotic so bear with me in my ignorance. papa M's armenian, mama M's was born in algeria and her parents were from a country that no longer exists. J and her brothers are french. big brother's married to a beautiful spanish lady and they live in munich with their son. middle brother's going out with a lebanese lady. also at lunch, were J's aunt and cousin and his +1. so J's aunt (mama M's sister-in-law) was the only one who was 100% french at lunch. her son's +1, incidentally, is sardinian and a (james) bond girl. teehee. 

isn't their home beautiful?

i could see the cezanne mountain from my room!

oh and after the very satisfying lunch, J and i went to watch sex and the city 2! had a brief flashback to summer 08 when i'd wanted so desperately to watch SATC the movie in lyon but it was dubbed in french. that was actually what sparked my desire to learn the language. fast forward 2 years, i was very blessed to be back in france, staying with a french family, immersed in french (although they very graciously spoke anglais to include me) and watching SATC 2. life has a funny way of turning out :)

day 35

saturday 12 june 2010 aix-en-provence

left madrid bright and early and was in southern france in no time. my inner francophile almost imploded with glee. france is beautiful, and i personally am a huge fan of the south, having spent two glorious weeks along the riveria in summer 2008. we began in nice, day tripped to monte carlo for F1, cannes for the film festival then took an overnight ferry to corsica. in corsica, we drove all around (and across!) the island and fell in love with bonifacio. after our island getaway, it was back to the mainland and we made our way from toulon to avignon, marseilles and lyon. but i digress!

aix-en-provence welcomed me in all her summer glory and i was thrilled to finally be in the 'heartbreakingly beautiful' city that i'd heard so much about. J often mentioned her home town while we were in stockholm, and to finally put faces to the names i'd begun to recognise was nothing short of sentimental. provence is so charming it hurts, and aix was no exception. P had once described aix to me as, "a small town trying to be a big city" and he's right, in the kindest sense of the phrase. aix had every modern amenity imaginable (hello? hermes, anyone?) and yet maintained an old world air of majestic nostalgia about it.

spent the afternoon touring the city with J and we visited her friend for pre-dinner drinks that lasted past midnight. the elasticity of time in summer is one of my favourite things about the season. we sat on C's terrace, somehow made our way through 4 bottles of rose, ate a little too much tapenade (so cliche but so good!) and  played silly drinking games as evening turned to night and finally to dusk. long daylight hours. woot!

aix was a dream, and staying with J and being the beneficiary of incredibly warm armenian-french hospitality was a bonus. i was spoilt rotten, and i'm so so grateful :)

day 34

friday 11 june 2010 madrid

finally hit zara after admirable restraint the past week. had recced while in barca but it didn't make sense to lug all my shopping with me as i bus-ed across spain. my patience was rewarded and i shopped till i dropped. thank goodness i was able to detax! and, even without sales (they're at the end of the year), the EUR40 blazers i bought retail for S$130 back home. teeeheehee :)

met friends for lunch at el tigre tapas bar. amazing atmosphere, everyone crammed into this tiny hole in the wall and with orders of sangria, we were plied with plates of complimentary tapas. tapas is great by itself, but free tapas with an order of EUR4 sangria is even better. so for EUR4 (yes, i can't get over it) i'd an entire meal.

after lunch and slightly inebriated, i went in search of iberico to bring as gifts for when i visited J in aix and the Bs whom i was staying with in Paris on my last night.

when i was done, i bought a stack of postcards, sat in the park and wrote to my heart's content. 

day 33

thursday 10 june 2010 madrid

the world is so small.

bumped into a high school friend and his buddies in the same hostel, and into some college friends on the free walking tour later on. unexpected catch ups are always fun :) and english weather aside, the walking tour was a good call.

in the afternoon, the hostel dude sent me on a wild goose chase to non-existent outlet malls on the outskirts of madrid (1h train ride one-way away). 1 x unhappy camper after that, but nothing churros con chocolate can't solve.

day 31

tuesday 8 june 2010 valencia

Y and i wore the customised shirts that J gave us (they said "we love bofis" and had his handsome face on them!) and attracted more stares than desirable around the city. incidentally, J, a finalist in the pilot season of the spanish version of peking express, is a reality tv star in his own right. we found EUR3 paella outside the market and aimlessly moseyed around, walking to the edge of the city in search of meringues :) when Y left in the evening, i made my way to J's and he horrified me with gaga's alejandro video. one of the catchiest tunes this summer, by far, but the video was repulsive on so many levels. interestingly, despite my personal apprehension, i think it's a great video nonetheless. visionary, even. hah. so take that! 

J had a surprise up his sleeve and he booked us for dinner at valencia's best restaurant for paella. i say it's a surprise because i knew we'd be doing a paella dinner, and real paella, but i didn't expect it to be at the granny-sanctioned best restaurant in valencia! entrusted the ordering to J and was so so pleased with dinner. by far one of my best meals on the trip and truly 'the best or nothing'. we began with iberico ham (i'm drooling at the memory) and calamari, and then came the paella.

BEST. PAELLA. EVER. 

CANNOT. EAT. ANY. OTHER. PAELLA. EVER. AGAIN.

yep - that was for 2 people! and J eats less than i do!

(but we still licked the platter clean)

after dinner and quite a few digestifs, we visited C at the bar he works at and he gave me a G&T with the best gin i've ever had. hendricks ftw. C was busy working so we hung with his beautiful girlfriend and a former colleague before heading back to J's to watch the french version of the peking express. 

crossing the bridge on the way home

day 30

monday 7 june 2010 valencia

because we were so wiped out the day before, J and his incredible hospitality had to wait till valencia day 2. we arranged to meet for lunch near the hostel and J brought us to this cute curbside cafe where we'd all the local delicacies we'd space for. one of the drawbacks of being well fed is that i've not enjoyed the sensation of a brand new taste in awhile. you know that feeling, like when you try something for the very first time and it's like nothing you've ever had before. the best thing i can think of is my first taste of uni (sea urchin).  it's become a bit of a personal quest for me to experience a new taste at every opportunity, which has been harder than anticipated. at lunch with J, however, i tried tomato jam for the first time. the consistency was familiar, after all, who hasn't had preserve of some sort or other before. but tomato, sweet as it may be off the vine, gave the dish a whole new element. combined with some local goat cheese and i was in gastronomical heaven. good stuff! and a great sensory memory.

after lunch, J invited us back to his terrace for coffee and, um, we accidentally stayed for 12hours, only leaving at 3am. such was his legendary hospitality, and the lure of his housemate, C's fanstastic cooking. 

meet lao! J has the cutest sharpei :)

coffee turned into dinner as C insisted that we stayed for a home-cooked meal. we whiled the afternoon away soaking up the summer sun on the terrace and i was very proud of Y, my crabby patty friend, for being at her amiable best ;) C is an excellent chef and we made believe it was restaurant night, all fancy schmancy on their terrace. this was by far one of my best days this summer - just sitting on the terrace, hanging loose with Y and our new friends. nobody had anything more pressing to do, which was very much part of the pleasure. Y and i were done with exams, C was on holiday and anticipating going to lisboa on erasmus, and J was enjoying his last few weeks in valencia before moving to mumbai alone and indefinitely. pretty awesome, huh.

and after dinner, the gents had some friends over and we got to meet even more friendly locals. really interesting characters and such fun to get to know. when we reluctantly left at 3, their dentist friend offered to walk us back but we were too macho to accept his chivalrous offer. bad idea.

and ladies and gents, i present the only lowlight my entire holiday. 

as Y and i were walking back at 3am, a burly man passed us and called out, "japan japan?". we ignored him. he tried again, "korea korea?" and we looked away. "china china?" this time we picked up speed and hurried towards the hostel. the man then took a left and was soon out of sight. whew, we sighed in relief.

suddenly, out of one of the side streets, we saw an oddly shaped shadow. as we got closer, we saw that said man had dropped his pants and was PLAYING WITH HIMSELF. this time, no amount of flasher 101 so deliberately indoctrinated in us over years of being in an all girls' school* could prepare us for an actual flasher. too scared to run (you know how you're not supposed to run away from a mad dog because he'll chase...) we walked as fast as we could and none too soon, arrived unscathed but shaken at our hostel.

thankfully he was a harmless perv with an asian fetish (or so we inferred) but that was definitely too close for comfort. 

and i still say today was one of the best the whole trip, flashing incident notwithstanding. that's just how much we enjoyed J and C's company and hospitality, they even made up for the loco local.

*whack it with a brolly / laugh and exclaim, 'so small!' / take photo and lodge police report

day 29

sunday 6 june 2010 valencia

left barca bright and early and took the bus to valencia. 5h and EUR25 later (it's still half the price of the 3h long train ride), i made stumbled out of the bus station and somehow managed to make my way across the old river bed and into the historic centre of the city.ok, take 'stumbled' back. i'm actually a huge far of bus rides. love overland travel and my innate ability to space out comes in very handy for long bus rides. the kiasu singaporean in me usually tries to get a seat near the front so i've a good view, and as the country rumbles by, my mind wanders and it's a very pleasant experience. poor person's high, perhaps.

met Y at maccas (i know, very historic) and she'd already plotted our route to the hostel. woot! yay to my all-time favourite travel buddy. we'd done brunei together 8 years ago, and i'd gone with her family to bangkok the year after but this was our first time travelling together sans parentals. she'd just finished her exams and was sweet enough to join me for an all too short 2 nights in valencia. plus, she'd done her research and knew everything about valencia, right down to us arriving on the day of the rockers.

unfortunately, i'm as culturally obtuse as Y is savvy, and we'd a field day with our minor miscommunication. she'd really sold the idea of the 'rocker parade' to me and i was all excited about watching rock stars tour and perform around the city. it was after much confusion, however, that i found out that rockers were not ageing rockstars like i'd imagined but what the locals called their floats. nonetheless, a parade is a parade and no one was going to rain on ours! 

so Y and i headed to another historical institution (101 flavours of tapas, J, my born-and-bred valencian friend rolled his eyes when i told him i'd liked it) and ordered enough food for 4. the waitress tried to warn us that it was too much food for 2 people but we remained unmoved. the 2 of us proceeded to demolish this baby (below) and eagerly went to get curb-side seats of the parade.

before the parade, here's a photo of my bed in our double room. it was pretty insane. when we first opened the door and i saw this huge bed, i sighed inwardly, thinking they'd gotten our twin booking wrong. split second later, that sigh turned into elation as i spied from the corner of my eye that we actually had a king sized bed EACH and our room, psychedelic colour scheme aside, was HUGE. by far the most spacious hostel i've ever stayed in :) we couldn't believe our luck. 

a rocker getting ready to roll

the people dangle what looked like table runners from their window to add to the festive feel. it's a competition, according to J, and the best window display wins a prize! fascinating how the community is involved.

after the rocker parade, we were so wiped out (Y'd been on the go since 3am) that we surrendered to the fatigue and had an early night. 

day 28

saturday 5 june 2010 barcelona

i climbed a mountain!

Day 3
Montjuic (1 metro ticket gets you to the metro and the adjacent funicular to montjuic) not to be confused with the cable car up to the castle €9. if you save € and walk up instead, it's only 15min and gradual incline.

Nice views from castle. Worth a visit.

well, not quite. but you get the drift. and when i reached the top, this is what i saw! i couldn't believe my eyes. it's no secret that i'm a big crystal cruise fan, and have been blessed to have gone on a baltic cruise in summer '06 (just before starting freshman year) and a mediterranean cruise in summer '08 (half-way through college). so technically, the timing would've been perfect for a summer 2010 graduation cruise but noooo, the parentals chose to go on a riverboat up the seine instead :( ok, really shouldn't complain. the seine cruise was awesome in its own right. but being the big fat softie i am, i sat on my little perch and watched the ship the entire afternoon, thinking about happy memories spent on board her perfectly polished decks. have countless memories of time with my family, and subsequently time with my family and with him on the crystal serenity that it was nice walking down memory lane at this particular juncture of being done with school. plus my friends were on board (also most coincidentally) and i was waiting for them to wave at me. haha. the things we do!

after some much-needed decompressing and me-time down-time on montjuic, i met up with some high school friends who happened to be passing through barca. like i said, so much for solo trippin'. being the text fanatic that i am, i'd sent out a mass text updating my nearest and dearest of my whereabouts and little did i know that Y would overlap with me in barca! along with S and 2 of their friends. again, the big softie in me was mega nostalgic because the first ever trip i did without 'adults' was with Y, S and some of our high school friends when we were fresh out of high school and applying to college. we took the overnight train to KL and it was such an adventure. we later met up in bangkok the night of the new years eve bomb blasts (new year '07) and saw the new year in together, after making sure we'd all our limbs with us. 7 months later, we went to phuket with more high school friends. so to meet up with Y and S in barca on my grad trip, unplanned as it was, felt as if we'd gone full circle. from clueless 18year olds, to slightly savvier 23year olds. i'm done with college, they'll be doctors next year. gee :)

oh yes so we crossed the bridge for some tapas then had the best sangria back at their hostel bar :)

day 27

friday 4 june 2010 barcelona

day 2

spent the morning at la sagrada familia. go early (before 11am) to avoid queuing for over an hour. i went at 10am and the queue was as long as my iberico sandwich (about 15min, but that's because i'm a slow eater).

After lunch, walk up Carrer de verdi towards parc guell. before that Lunch at plaza de grace (shadiest) plaza del sel and pl de la revolucio de Septembre

Walk up Verdi all the way until you see escalators on the right. Ride them to parc guell! Spend the afternoon wandering around parc guell.

i'd never have made it up without the magical escalators that just appeared out of nowhere and whisked me away. it was surreal! there i was huffing and puffing up the hill, cursing and swearing at the sun and my own poor choice of footwear (havis, way to go.) when suddenly, i saw 6 flights of escalators on my right. i thought it was a mirage! but i rode them, and at the very top i was gently placed on level with the parc entrance. who'd have guessed!

spent the afternoon wandering around parc guell and am very proud that i walked all the way there and back to the hostel. no public transport for me!

view from the rooftop bar of the majestic hotel

following up on the previous day's chance meeting, the very lovely L family invited me to join them in satiating their local food craving. they've gotta be mind-readers or something because by this time i was pushing 4 weeks without home food and about to implode in self-deprivation. had the best nasi goreng ever at the mandarin oriental along passeig de gracia. was initially debating between ordering pad thai (upon learning the chef was thai) and nasi goreng but went with the later and was well-rewarded for that leap of faith.

the rice came in a keropok boat so big it must've been on crack!