My Trip To Spain & Portugal (Part II)

Well, people, my sincere apologies if I have been lagging in publishing my posts since Christmas night, but I was recovering from jet-lag which I suffered from as a result of the long flight from Spain back to home. It's ok, there's nothing wrong with suffering from jet-lag as a result of a long holiday, it usually happens for first-time long-distance travellers. Jet lag is defined as a condition where some suffers from extreme tiredness and disorientation, but is nonetheless able to sleep as a result of being unable to cope with the time-frame after returning from a particular country to which they travelled to far away. Reason being for my condition with jet-lag is due to the large time difference between Singapore and Spain, Spain being 7 hours behind Singapore time. Additionally, I've also been lagging in this post for too long already, so I thought now's the time I publish it.

Anyway, allow me to elaborate on part II of my trip to Spain & Portugal.

Day 7(Dec 18, 2008): Today, we left my great-uncle and great-aunt's Portugal home in Lagos to head off for our next destination, the Spanish capital of Madrid, located further north of Barcelona. Firstly, my great-uncle drove us across the Spanish-Portuguese border back to a Spanish town(can't remember the name), from where we found us a bus terminal and a bus ride to take on the way. Hitching a bus ride, we travelled on a one and a half hour bus trip from the bus terminal to Seville and reached a train station to have a train take us to Madrid. From the train station, we bought our tickets and hitched a train ride to Madrid. It was quite a long distance, clocking at approximately two and a half hours. Nonetheless, a movie called "What Happens in Vegas" was played in the train to keep us a little occupied throughout the trip. Though the movie was quite hilarious, it wasn't really my type of movie. Anyway, once we reached the Madrid train station, we took a taxi to our rental apartment in Gran Via, a city just right smack in the middle of Madrid. Once we reached our rental apartment, we took a small rest, following which my father and I took an Underground Metro train to Plaza Mayor, where we searched for the tourist information centre, in search of more info about the city we are staying in for the next two days. We didn't have the time to go to the wax museum for today due to time constraints.

Day 8(Dec 19, 2008): Today family and I went to another art museum in Madrid called Prado museum, if memory serves. We visited the art museum and yet, it was another really amazing spectacle right before my eyes. A lot of works of art in this museum are delighting to the public eye

Day 9(Dec 20, 2008): Today was the most wonderful and exciting day of my stay in Madrid. My family and I took a train to travel to Warner Brothers Madrid, somewhere on the outskirts of Madrid. This theme park is similar to the Warner Brothers theme park I went to in Brisbane back in 2004. I initially expected it to be a long train ride to there, but it turns out, I reached there at scarcely about 10.45am or so. After purchasing tickets to enter the theme park, we went to take an initial walk around until the rides were mostly open. The first ride my father and I went on was this Lex Luthor ride, it was a ride which really kind of blew my mind sky high. The thrill of being thrusted up, down and upside down on the ride really staggered and scared me, but was nonetheless, the ride was still quite a fun one. Next ride we went on was the Superman ride, and guess what? This ride gave me a scare like no other compared to the rides I have riden on back in Brisbane. The starting part of the ride nearly felt like as if I was going to simply fall off the roller-coaster and plummet to my death, LOL! Nonetheless, the ride was exceptionally super-fun and it would be something I would not forget about my Spain trip. The next thrilling ride was a Batman ride, which I had a sense of deja vu upon experiencing; it was strikingly similar to the "Lethal Weapon" ride which I rode on back in the Brisbane Warner Brothers theme park, instead of appearing like a typical roller-coaster cart, instead we dangle from the seat, sorry, I do not know how to describe it in words. But anyway, as we progressed for the day, the next ride we took was a Batman simulation ride, which is exactly the same one I rode in back in Brisbane, where Batman fights three villains, Joker, Catwoman and Mr. Freeze, who are all part of the same scheme, stuff like that, except the main difference is that the ride's language is all in Spanish. Following that, I went on the ride with my younger bro for a second time, all thanks to his fascination with the ride. Following that, we went to have lunch, and then when on some of the kiddy-kiddy rides, just to keep my younger bro and mum occupied, LOL. Anyway after that, to close up for the day, my sis, dad and I went for a second round on the Superman ride, 'cause it was still so fun! LOL! After that, we headed back to the train station, where we took the train, and then headed back to our apartment.

Day 10(Dec 21, 2008): Today was honestly, nothing much of a day. We did a little bit of last-minute stuff packing and headed off to the train station to hitch a train ride back to Barcelona at about 10.45am at reached there at about say, 1 or 2 plus and then we checked in to our old apartment where we stayed in some days ago. After that, we went out for a while and then just did some walking around for the day.

Day 11(Dec 22, 2008): Today, it was another cultural day, where we went to visit the Gaudi museum nearby. Another public spectacle, this does not focus anything on art. Instead, the main topic of this museum is some of the wonderful facades of the insides of the building as well as the roof of the building. Man, it was just amazing to see such beautiful facades to catch my eye. I even took some photos of the facades at the museum for both remembrance and probably, inspiration for school work. Even mum helped me take some pics for inspiration. LOL, seems like she became aware of my school work. After having lunch following the visit, we just went around shopping since there are no more interesting museums. & oh yes, in the midst of that, dad and I took a taxi and went to Nou Camp, the homeground of Barcelona F.C.. Dad and I went into the stadium, which started off with us watching a 3-D film about the history of Barcelona F.C., and then we went around exploring the museum, seeing the various achievements made by Barcelona F.C. in the past years, their history, their various past and present players, stuff like that. Anyway after that, we went to the shop nearby and went to look around the shop, browsing through the various soccer merchandise such as t-shirts, caps and all other soccer-related stuff. After our Camp Nou visit, we simply headed back to our apartment.

Day 12(Dec 23, 2008): Today, we headed off to another art museum called the Picasso museum in the morning. This amazing Renaissance genius has appealed to me the most, as I saw boards of his biography among some of his most recognisable artworks. Anyway, following the visit, my mum and sis went on an all-shopping spree, purchasiing souvenirs, clothes, bags and all those typical kind of stuff. Well, as for me and my bro, we just stayed in the apartment for the whole afternoon, while my dad just went out to walk around the malls. I had to tolerate with my younger bro's watching of Disney channel on TV, though he actually doesn't understand, 'cause every channel on TV is in Spanish, LOL. But anyway, good thing was, at night, he(my bro), dad and I went to a nearby shopping centre to purchase for me some clothes which I could use. Other than that, that ends for the day.

Day 13(Dec 24, 2008): Today, we woke up at about 6 plus and then did some last minute packing and cleaning up, following which we took a taxi and headed for the Barcelona airport, checked in, waited until the boarding gate opened and then headed of for home sweet home. Of course it wasn't a direct flight, an hour and a half later, we "pit-stopped" at the Milan airport, and after about an hour, we continued on our flight to home. I was kind of bored on the flight, just watching movies on the TV screen at the back of passenger seats and stuff, and the most troubling thing is, I could hardly sleep; I slept for about only 2 hours throughout the whole flight. That's probably why I received jet lag as a result of the flight, I don't know. Anyway, we reached Changi Airport at about 7 plus, S'pore time. Then, as usual, we got our bags, took a taxi home, and then finally, home sweet home! :)

Overall, my trip to Spain and Portugal has been an unforgettable and exceptionally exciting experience, despite the main negative effect of my trip which was none other than the jet lag. Now I am going to get right back to prepare for my e-Learning school work next week. Seems like the rains and thunderstorms of stress are going to engulf me in flames again, damn. All I had to do for the week was simply the MMP1 sketchbook and Zoho entries as well as my CMSK3 report draft and APA test practice. It seems that my work, I realised, wasn't that stressful this week, LOL. Anyway this will end the post for now. Cheers.

My Spain & Portugal Family Trip (Part 1) / Merry Christmas Everyone and Happy Birthday Rashad!

It was a bright Christmas morning where I just landed at the Singapore Changi airport, having returned from my long holiday trip to Spain and Portugal. It was a pretty long flight from there and back, at an estimate of about 13 to 14 hours total. It was such an unforgettable experience in my first trip to Europe, with a lot of exotic locations and different cultures of people.

Well, what more can I say, this holiday trip was an awesome one for my family and I! Spain was a beautiful, glorious country with a lot of tourist attractions such as the museums, shopping centres and so much more! The My family scarcely visited Portugal for the sole purpose of visiting my great-uncle who has been living there for decades. Now, I will elaborate on what we have done during our trip.

Note before reading: This post will only encompass the first 6 days of my family trip, the next 6 days will be posted very soon.

Day 1(Dec 12, 2008): Well, first day was actually nothing much really, LOL. All my family did was just checked in at the airport, boarded our plane at about midnight, and we were in a flash headed off for our trip to Spain.

Day 2(Dec 13, 2008): Finally, we reached Barcelona airport at Barcelona after 13 long hours of flying. After landing and checking in at the airport, we had some hot drinks at the airport cafe, following which we hitched a taxi ride from Barcelona airport to our rental apartment, but not before we obtained our apartment keys from the reception building. To my discovery, the temperature in Spain is at quite an extreme low, hitting about 5 degrees celsius to the minimum. I almost felt like freezing to death upon experiencing temperatures this low. Our rental apartment was quite comfortable to stay in and it was nothing like I thought a usual apartment would be. There was a kitchen for my mum to cook for us meals, and there was a large living room. What I noticed about the TV in the living room is that all of the channels featured in the TV are in Spanish and none were in English. Nonetheless, I still appreciated it and got used to it. Following which, in the afternoon, my dad and I went to a nearby McDonalds outlet to get some meals for lunch, and since the meat made here is not halal, we instead ordered fishburger meals. What surprised me was that I noticed that beer is even sold at McDonalds outlets in Spain. LOL. But never mind about that, it's part of their sales in Europe that every European McDonalds outlet sells beer. Anyway, after having lunch in our apartment, we went to the Underground Metro Station to see the sights of Montjuic, a mountainous attraction in Barcelona. The Metro Station system in Spain is somewhat similar to that of the MRT station system we have here in Singapore, except that the Spanish Metro system is a little more intricate. After having reached the station we were to stop at, we took a cable car to the summit of Montjuic, where we saw a large castle and experienced the sights of Barcelona from higher ground. The view was amazing from the summit of the hill, and I gazed in awe at the sight of the city from the summit. There were also quite several war relics surrounding the castle, such as cannons and other artillery equipment. It must have been a very long time since any army have inhabited this castle, and I noticed it has somewhat turned into a restaurant. Anyway, this spectacle is an amazing one for me, as I get to experience the medieval times of Spain. After experiencing the summit of Montjuic, we walked down the hill to reach Fundacio Joan Miro to see some of the famous works by the famous Catalan painter Joan Miro. His works were one of the creme de la cremes of Barcelona, and his paintings were very exquisite. This made me view Miro as a genius of art as I gazed in awe at some of the works displayed at the museum. It was a really amazing spectacle there at Miro's art museum. Later in the evening, after we had dinner back at our apartment, we went to see the magic fountain of Montjuic. It was yet another amazing spectacle as we saw how the fountain's water flows changed patterns and colours, in synchronisation with various classic songs being played, ranging from Disney animated film songs to movie themes and even a song called Barcelona sung by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe.

Day 3(Dec 14, 2008): Today, we went to take a walk down La Rambla somewhere in Place de Catalunya, where along the way we saw quite a number of flamboyant street performers and street painters, in which at the end we saw the massive monument of Columbus, the famous Spanish voyager who founded America. The murals surrounding the monument appeared to be depicting a story of Columbus' voyage, as evidently seen. It was also quite a pretty tall monument standing at about 50 feet tall or more. Following which, we went on a one and a half hour boat trip on Les Golondrines. It was amazing that we get to see the coast and the sights of the city of Barcelona from the boat, despite the chilly climate we experienced on the boat. Nonetheless, we still had a good time on the boat ride. Following that, we had lunch at a Turkish kebab restaurant in one of the La Rambla alleys, and what more can I say? The food there was delicious and finally, I get to consume some meat after a whole day of just seafood and vegetarian meals. Anyway, sometime in the evening, we went to visit the Aquarium, which was yet another spectacular sight, as we saw the various exhibits of sea creatures on display at the Aquarium, and other interactive stuff like gift shops etc.

Day 4(Dec 15, 2008): Today, we went to walk around Passeig De Gracia to explore the various shops, and went by metro train to Sagrada Familia, the landmark building of Barcelona. It is actually kind of a large church with a chapel and various exhibits relating to Catholicism, and we had an audio guide to guide us through the building. There were also quite several statues around the building depicting Jesus Christ, which actually all tell stories of his life. This was yet another great experience as we get to visit the landmark building of Barcelona. Following our visit to Sagrada Familia, we visited Casa Mila, a building designed by famous Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi. It was very interesting with a beautiful facade and a lot of various designs inside the museum itself. Later, in the evening, we went back to our apartment to pack up and prepare for our flight to Seville the following morning. This flight is part of our journey to the residence of my great-uncle and great-aunt who are living in the Portuguese town of Lagos. This visit to them was part of our trip and it is considered a display of respect by the family to do so. My great-uncle and great-aunt have been coming from Portugal to our home once a month every year, and we thought that if he had done it, then by all means we have to do it for him this time.

Day 5(Dec 16, 2008): Today, we left our Barcelona apartment and headed for the airport for our flight to Seville. After reaching Seville airport and checking in at the airport customs, we met my great-uncle and great-aunt, both of whom took us for a drive across Seville and we crossed the Spanish-Portuguese border to their hometown of Lagos. We arrived at their house and for a brief moment I had a wee bit of a sense of deja vu when I saw their house. It reminded me of when I went to Perth way back in June 2000, where I visited one of my aunts who was living there as an expatriate for a short period of time. Their house was huge with several rooms and it was very nice. Following that, we went out for lunch at a nearby seafood restaurant, and then we took a walk on the docks situated next to the restaurant, following which we just took a small drive around the town to see the sights, took a walk on the nice beaches, and finally we ended the drive for the day with a small shopping gig at a nearby shopping centre.

Day 6(Dec 17, 2008): Today was nothing much for me to say, really. We just took another drive around Lagos and Faro to see the shores and high cliffs by the seaside. The cliffs were really very high, and I nearly felt as if I was about to fall down by just taking one small peek down. Following that, we took another drive around the mountains of Lagos, which led us to having lunch somewhere in a restaurant situated in the mountains. Once again, we had a nice meal of seafood for lunch, LOL. Anyway, after lunch, we went back to my great uncle's house to settle in for the night once again.

Well, this is what I can elaborate for this post at the moment, I'll elaborate the second part of my Spain and Portugal trip very soon. To be continued...

Additionally, it so happens that today is my younger brother Rashad's 5th birthday. Nice to be a Christmas baby huh, Rashad? LOL! Happy birthday to you Rashad! Hope you will enjoy it!

P.S.: I would love to wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hope all of you enjoyed the holiday! :)

Term Test Week & My Soon To Come Departure For Spain & Portugal

Whew, what a week it's been for me. On Monday, I woke up early at about 6.50 plus to do my morning prayers followed by which I went to the mosque to do my Hari Raya Haji prayers, followed by which after returning, my family and I went to visit my grandparents on both sides as respect, and that was about it, we went home soon after visiting just two houses, LOL.

Anyway, the next day, on Tuesday, I went to school to sit for my OOPG term test. I found the paper to border between easy and difficult, particularly the theory at which I was kind of lost at. Other than that, the program codes writing was fairly alright for me.

Next day, on Wednesday, was CMaths2 term test. It was quite alright, though I have thoughts that I may have been careless in the test. Other than that, the test was fine. Later that day, some time after lunch, I went to ComforDelGro Driving Centre to do my e-trial tests in order to prepare for the Basic Theory Test(BTT) on Thursday. I took small peeks at the questions and I was like, ok, seems like the test is not easy to pass after all. Because of that, I practised like crazy for the BTT and read through the handbook thoroughly.

Next thing, it was Thursday, and time for the BTT. I was doing the test and I managed to memorise most of the answers as most of them were from the e-trial tests the day before. But it turns out, I did not manage to meet the 90% passing criterion for the BTT :(. Seems like I am going to have to practise more for the BTT in order to achieve that bloody high BTT passing criterion. I initially felt let down by the outcome of the BTT, but I eventually learnt that not everyone passes the test with a 90% result on their first tries. This gave me relief, and I have to wait for another suitable day where I can sit for the BTT again.

Today, well, there was nothing much interesting for me, other than I was doing some last-minute packing for my family Spain & Portugal trip. I am anticipating this trip to be an exciting one, as it is my first trip to Europe :). Later in the evening, I went to ComforDelGro again to attend my third driving lesson, and guess what?

This driving lesson was far more fun than expected from last week!:) I was able to pick up my pace much faster in my driving, and this week, I learnt the steering wheel controls, how to navigate around sharp bends etc. Not to mention my driving instructor for this week's lesson is more fun to learn from and had a much greater sense of humour. Everytime I successfully navigate around a sharp bend, he would repeatedly say "It's soooo simple", LOL! Following the end of the lesson, I thanked my driving instructor gratefully for the fun lesson we had for today.

Well, I really apologise to say this, but I will not be making any posts next week, because I will be on my trip to Spain and Portugal until Christmas Eve, where I will be leaving Spain, and I will be back in Singapore right on Christmas morning. LOL, seems like I will be back home just in time for Christmas, hahas. Anyway, I will elaborate more on my Spain & Portugal trip when I return. Cheers and take care! :)

P.S.: I will be bringing my laptop on the trip, so that I can hopefully continue my school work over there. I will try my best to secure a wi-fi connection there, so that I can get the Internet and MSN running. Then hopefully I would be able to keep in touch with all you guys.

Other than that, cheers to all! Take care at home here and God bless! :)

What's Been Up Lately

I understand it's been like so damn long since I have published my last post, my sincere apologies. It's just that I have been quite on a busy schedule lately, which explains why my blog has been down in the dumps for so long already. But anyway, other than that, everything has been fine for me. Let me just elaborate what's been up with me lately.

To keep everything short and sweet first, for the past few weeks, all I have been doing is simply keeping myself busy with assignment submissions. My assignment submissions include my DTAT first assignment, my CMSK3 report portfolio and my IDES exercises 1, 2 and 3. My DTAT first assignment was actually quite alright for me, and I think I have done quite a satisfactory job on it, though I could have taken more pictures which could have be good for pulling up my assignment grade.

In the case of my CMSK3 portfolio, I have to admit I discovered I was a little careless, which resulted in me not getting a very good grade. But other than that, I still have my full report and oral presentation to pull me up, which should not be a problem if I would not be too careless.

IDES exercise 1, 2 and 3 served as both a pushover and a brick wall for me, as I found them to be manageable but quite tedious. 1 and 2 did not serve as problems for me, as I was able to download the Macromedia Freehand software from the Internet through the C213 blog, and insert my ideas from my sketchbook into Freehand. What I disliked about Freehand is that it continuously lags everything on my laptop. Other than that, I was able to complete both exercises 1 and 2 on time. Exercise 3 was quite a doozy, as I did not have the Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver softwares on my laptop, and it caused me to do the exercise at the very last minute. As a result, I submitted all my 3 IDES exercises late but on the same day. Luckily, my lecturer gave me a second chance at punctuality for my IDES project which will be due some weeks after the term break.

Well, the best piece of news of all these school stuff is, I can't believe I scored an A for my French listening and writing tests altogether! This was really quite an unexpected moment for me, as I have initally expected less, but discovered that because of my regular attendance, I managed to be among the 4 people in my tutorial group who scored an A for the listening and writing tests, which makes up 40% of my grade for French. Well, contrary to what some of you readers may think, I was actually the third highest for the tests. The highest was my good buddy Joe, excellent job to you man. You've earned it. Hope you'll keep up the good job for the rest of the semester. Well, the slightly bitter part of it is, I only scored 7 out of 10 for my first culture quiz, but no worries, there will be another culture quiz after term break, and I just hope for the best for the next culture quiz.

On another good piece of news, guess what? I just started my driving lessons last Friday at the ComforDelGro Driving Centre somewhere at Ubi. The first lesson last Friday was quite a blur for me, as I learnt the functions of the accelerator, brake and clutch, since I am learning manual instead of auto. And additionally, I just had my second lesson this Friday, this time there was some improvement in my car movement, though I really need to improve on my braking. Gosh, how I wished I could not have been so careless over my braking. But well, at least I wasn't too careless, or else I would have my car turned into nothing more than a mere pile of scrap metal. Other than that, my driving lessons have been going fine, I just need to prepare for my E-trial test next Wednesday, my Basic Theory Test for next Thursday and my next driving lesson next Friday.

Yesterday, I went out with my cousin Sufri once again to play King of Jurassic at Pasir Ris White Sands. We are so in to this game, and I seriously can't believe he is even planning to purchase more dinosaur cards when he goes to Korea for a family trip in about a couple of weeks' time or so. Well, next Friday, some time after my driving lesson, I will be heading of for my 12-day trip to Spain and Portugal! Well, this is going to be an unforgettable experience for me, as this is my first trip to Europe. My family and I will be going to Spain for 10 days for holiday and Portugal for 2 days to visit my great-uncle living there. We're leaving on next Friday and will be returning on Christmas morning, local time. Great huh? I'll be back home just in time for Christmas, LOL. Because of this trip, I am going to have to bring all my school stuff along with me on the trip, including my laptop, so that I can continue with my school work there. I'll elaborate more when I return from there.

For today, I went to VivoCity in the morning with my family to have breakfast at McDonalds there, and then, following which, we went to watch Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. It was quite a fun and hilarious movie, and laughter echoed throughout and filled the cinema to the fullest. Even I myself was laughing my ass of for a majority of the film. The movie features the voice talents of the cast of the original film, which include Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen and Cedric the Entertainer. The new cast additions include Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas, Alec Baldwin and, in a posthumous role, Bernie Mac. It has been a few months since good old Bernie has passed, and this film has been dedicated in loving memory of him. R.I.P. Bernie Mac, we all will miss you. Following the movie, we went to have lunch at Swensens, and then came back home.

That's it for the moment and this post, and I'll elaborate more soon enough. Cheers to all out there, and peace out. ;)