3BT: Random Days

1. Yesterday I managed to book plane tickets for my mom. WHOOOOPPPEEE!!! Very impressed with KLM customer service on FB, since they have quick response and they help me out very promptly. I hope my mom stays healthy and everything goes out well. I've ordered wheelchair assistance for her since she's had some knee problem and it's her first time travelling solo. Plus she only speaks basic English. EXCITTTINNNGGG!!! 

Thank you as well to Juliana who's advised me to get this type of wheelchair assistance for my mom to make things more easily for her.

2. We had a lovely winter holiday in Prague. The weather wasn't that hot yet, but it enabled us to walk a lot every day. One day we even covered 18 km.

3. Here are some views of Prague as well as some silly photos of me in Madame Tussaud museum he he he...

Mdina/Rabat Area

Okay, let's continue with the Malta trip photos, shall we? Before I started, though, I'd like to say that because there were four of us, we decided to use the Airport Transfer facility to get to our hotel. After we arrived, we found the Airport Transfer desk easily, so we booked the two-way transfers right away. Then we were told to wait outside (there was another Airport Transfer desk near the waiting area outside). Unfortunately, we had to wait for over 30 minutes (after 30 minutes, I came back to the desk to complain and even then we still had to wait some more) as apparently there weren't anybody else (yet) leaving to the same direction. The other four or five groups (who stayed in a different area) could leave the airport within 15 minutes already. Thankfully it was already over 8 pm, so it wasn't scorching hot to wait outside, but we were worried that MIL would've been way too tired already. 

R2 and I both agree that the airport transfer in Malta wasn't as effective as the one we used in Budapest. However, at least we didn't have to wait too long for our car back to the airport (only 10 minutes after the appointed time). Oh yeah, we paid €10 per person for the two-way airport transfer. 

Okay, now on to the photos. One day we decided to go to Mdina/Rabat area. We actually decided to go there the day before, BUT turned out the bus going there only left every hour. Although there were three different bus who go to that direction at different times (every hour for each of them), but still when we missed the first bus, we had to wait for a long time. That's why we decided to go elsewhere that day and we made sure we were in time to catch the first bus to Mdina the next day. We were a bit worried that there would be no seats left as the journey would take around 70 minutes. Luckily for us, though, there were plenty of seats. Phew!

Actually, even for shorter distances, a lot of bus drivers in Malta were a bit crazy whenever they hit the brake to stop their buses and it was tough for MIL who has bad legs. One time the bus was totally full, so we had to stand up. A woman with her son were sitting on the front seats and she immediately got up to give MIL her seat and she had to stand up for the rest of the journey (30 minutes). Very thankful for passengers like her! 

When it was time for us to leave Mdina, we were SO lucky that when we got to the bus stop, 20 seconds later a bus arrived and again we found seats. :-D After all, it was such a hot day and we were tired already. Since we didn't buy any bus card, we had to pay €2 bus fare per person for each trip.

Here are some photos taken in Mdina/Rabat area. We went to a church, a museum, and a catacomb (which was rather tricky to find) since we bought the Combo Ticket.

The lovely church floor tile.

The next few photos were taken from the museum. 

The giant squid and my hand. OK, OK, to be fair, my hand is more like a kiddo's hand in size (probably a 10-year-old kid LOL), but the squid is close to 1 metre long.

The photo below was taken in St. Paul's Catacomb. In some places it was so dark that R2 had to use his mobile's light to guide the way. The steps in some parts were rather tricky/slippery as well, so we had to be careful. It was a fascinating place, though.

 One of the many colourful windows/doors in Malta.

Last photo: a funny toilet notice we found somewhere. Mind you, the toilets were quite low, especially for men he he he...

Back From Malta

This lazy blogger has just noticed that this year she's written so few posts compared to previous years. Work has been busier this year and I've also taken a lot of time off from using the computer to rest my mouse hand. Anyway, we went to Malta for our summer holiday this year and my throat is sore now. Hopefully it's only a sore throat and nothing much. 

Malta is such a beautiful place to visit. The temperature was around 24-32'C. We were lucky enough not to have caught any rain. When we stopped by at a bar to have some drinks (we stopped a lot of times as it was hot and we got thirsty easily), the UK owner told us that the previous week had seen some rain as well as tornado. It actually got hotter and hotter the longer we stayed there as the first two days there was some cooler/stronger wind blowing. What I love about Malta is the local buses with air-con that come on schedule and there are plenty of signs everywhere. The people speak English very well and there are lots of public toilets, too. Lots of places to see, eat, drink, shop that are still cheaper than those in Finland. Oh, and let's not forget the many Japanese/Asian restaurants and massage places here and there too! LOL!!!

As we were travelling with MIL who has problems with her knees and a cousin, we took it easy and didn't visit too many places, though we did take plenty of photos. Here are the first batch of photos from Malta. Some of them were taken by mobile phone and some were taken by R2. R2 and his cousin went on a free boat ride along the coast. I didn't go because I have really bad sea sickness. They got the boat ride for free as we had taken a hop on and hop off bus tour the previous day.

The first photo was taken in a posh marina area. Lots of shiny yachts and boats there. The building on the far left side of the background is Hilton Hotel. 

The second photo is St. Julian's Bay.

Below is a photo of St. George's Bay, the beach we went to twice. Malta has plenty more rocky beaches compared to sandy ones. We paid €20 for a full-day use of the sun loungers with parasols, the toilet, the shower and the price included a towel, too. Very handy! Plus there's a bar and restaurant on the left side. The right side (that has no sun loungers) is free to use, but there's no parasol there so you have to bring your own if you want to. 
 

Below is a photo of a 5-star hotel somewhere. 

Beautiful views from around the coast. Lots of historical and old buildings still in many places.

The dusk. :-)

I don't know what this is for, but this HUGE banner was seen as we were roaming around in Sliema area he he...

The vertical white figures on the mast were people graduating from some kind of marine school or something. 

OK, I shall end this here and I'll share some more photos in another post. Let's just hope I don't get sick. Otherwise when you lose a momentum to write, sometimes it's hard to go back to the swing of things.  

3BT: Random Days

1. Hubby found himself in an old video (he only appeared for a few seconds), but it was great fun for me to watch his younger self (thinner with more hair LOL!) in the video he he...

2. My period finally arrived before my summer holiday officially started, so that means I'll be period-free on my summer holiday. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!!!

3. I didn't have to cook today as hubby had promised to buy some pizza. :-D

4. Went to a bookstore on a (rare) sunny day, found an acquaintance from Indo visiting this place, had a nice chit-chat with him, then I found a very interesting book on a discount (only €2).

5. I was looking for some dance songs to do some exercise at home and then I found this. And yes, I did follow the movements and had a blast HA HA HA HA HA HA...



6. And yes, you've guessed correctly! I did try out the other videos as well (some can be pretty tough for me, but still I had fun trying them out and I got really sweaty LOL!!!). These videos are great for a change compared to other exercise videos he he...

7. Watching funniest moments in Family Feud show in youtube. Some of the answers are hilarious! 

Impromptu Trip: Two Operas

Apologies for the neglect, my beloved blog. I was so busy with work, then I got sick enough that made me choose to take antibiotics as I had already booked an impromptu trip and when I got better, I only had time to prepare for my trip. I went to London for a few days to meet some friends and to watch an opera. I ended up watching two operas instead of one.

One of my long-term goals had been to watch The Phantom of the Opera. I first fell in love with it when I saw the movie on TV (not a musical). Then I found the CDs of the opera (London cast with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman) and I bought and read the book and fell all the more in love with it. I then saw the newer version of the movie with Gerard Butler in it, but I thought he still looked far too handsome to be The Phantom LOL!!! 

I must say that I was a bit afraid of having too much expectations, so I tried my best to not have any expectations at all. The movie with Gerard Butler is actually pretty similar to the opera version, but the difference is that in the opera show, any mistake can be seen right away. My friend who accompanied me to the opera then commented afterwards that some of the props were too old and they were a bit wobbly he he he he...I did notice it during the show, but I was much too immersed in all the drama and intensity of the show.

To cut the story short, I enjoyed the show. It was really dramatic and intense. I love the wardrobe and the props and the singing was perfect, as well. I can't help imagine how difficult it would be to sing, act, and move the heart of the audience. At the end of the show, it was so climactic that I couldn't help crying. The way the Phantom sang his heart out was just so heartbreaking. And yes, I did sing along (silently) with many of the songs he he he he he...

I wasn't exactly planning ahead to watch the second opera, but friends of mine had recommended it to me and because I still had some fund left for it (it's not that cheap to watch the opera if you want a pretty decent seat), I went to buy the ticket a few hours before the show started. This second opera is called the War Horse. I paid around £47 (around €65) for each ticket.

I had seen the genius artwork of the War Horse puppetry through youtube prior to watching the opera. Here goes in case you have never heard of it:



I got a seat at the very back, middle part of the stalls area and I was hoping that nobody would block my view as I'm pretty short. When people started sitting down, I felt a bit deflated when a couple came in and the guy sat in front of me. The guy was rather tall (almost a head taller than the woman) and he was blocking my view. I was almost tempted to ask them to switch seats, you know? LOL!!! But I decided to wait. Luckily for me, turned out there were two empty seats next to that man and next to me, so I moved to an empty seat next to me and it was the best seat ever! Because there were nobody right in front of me, I could get a clear view of the whole stage! WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!! 

As usual, just like Phantom, the first act (before the break) is the build-up for the second act and the climax. Again I cried during the climax of the show. Very very moving. Both operas are different in how they use the stage. In War Horse, they use less 3D props/backgrounds/costumes, but they make more use of the space between the stage and the audience sitting in the front row, so I saw some of the actors running around in between the stage and the paths behind the audience in the front row. That's why I said I had the best seat ever! I could see everything clearly from the back. In Phantom, none of the actors ran in between the audience.

The Horse puppet and the puppet masters in War Horse were just superb. Brilliant! They really mastered the horses' movements and could manipulate the horse puppets in a realistic way. I also love the guy who played the duck puppet. Very entertaining! 

All in all I think both shows are on par with each other (though I'm a bit biased when it comes to Phantom LOL!!!). I don't know if I want to watch the both of them again next time I visit cities that have opera houses, but not because I don't want to. It's more because of the money restriction and because I want to watch other shows, as well.

Additional note: Almost forgot to write that the guy who sat next to me (who was then one seat away from me after I moved) actually started snoring about 15 minutes into the first act. Crazy! It was OK to sleep, but his snoring bothered the couple in front of him. His friend kept on having to tap his shoulder to wake him up. After the break, he never came back! I couldn't help thinking of the wasted money! Oh well...his loss! 

Anyway, I'm very thankful that I got very lucky with the weather during my London trip. It rained the first evening I was there, but the days after only got warmer and warmer. The last full day I was there, it was 22'C during the day and the sun was shining brightly. People were sitting outside and sunbathing. 

I'll write more about my London trip later, but here's a pic of my ice-cream and the River Thames at the back (yes, it was hot enough to sit in the shade) and a pic of me with Big Ben he he he he...The bad thing about travelling on your own without having a selfie stick is that you have lots of pics of the different places you've seen, but very few pics of yourself LOL!!!!  

Lisbon Trip #4: Pena Palace, Sintra

OK, let's continue with the trip, shall we? On Monday we went to Sintra by train (I thought Monday would be good because most museums in Lisbon are closed on Mondays). We bought the train tickets the day before so that we didn't have to queue at the ticket office. The tickets had no date on them (could be used like using metro tickets, no conductor on the train) and could be used any day. We arrived at the platform 10 minutes before the next train was leaving, so we didn't have to wait too long. I think on workdays there's a train to Sintra every 30 minutes. The round-trip ticket cost €4,30/person and the journey lasts 40 minutes.

Here's a pic of R2 on the train on the way back to Sintra.

When we left Lisbon that morning, it was sunny and gorgeous. But alas, it got cloudy as we got closer to Sintra. Here's what I saw right when we went out of the train station:

When we arrived at Sintra, the cold wind was blowing and I chose the wrong bus for us to board. I had read online that we could take the 434 (or was it 343?) bus to go to the tourist attractions because it was a hilly area. Instead we found a hop on and hop off tour bus, so we boarded that one. I was thinking of visiting two places at the very least, but I wanted to wait until the weather got better, so I took the hop on and hop off bus that went around the coast (it meant it would take us at least 1 hour before getting to one of the two places I'd like us to visit). Nobody actually stopped anywhere on any of the stops on the tour bus, though the driver did let us out for a little while on two stops to take photos.

Here is one of the stops where the bus driver let us get off for a few minutes to take some photos. It was crazy crazy cold wind!

We actually decided to only stop at Pena Palace (there was a stop before Pena where we were supposed to drop off, but due to my hunger and my need of toilet, we figured it'd be best to go straight to Pena instead). It was all in all a nice bus trip as we got to see many different areas of Sintra. It's definitely a beautiful place that's worth visiting on its own. Lots of lovely little houses here and there and palaces.

The ticket to visit Pena Palace and park (yes, there's a HUGE park around Pena Palace) was €11,50/person, but we also bought a bus ticket that cost €3/person to go from the entrance of the park to the Palace (it was an uphill walk - normally we don't mind walking, but it was SOOOOO cold that we'd rather take the bus instead).

The bus dropped us off right in front of the palace area. Here's a view of the crowd going inside the palace (yes, it was still cloudy at that time as the sun only came up later):

As I needed to go to the toilet and I was hungry, instead of going into the palace, we went to the restaurant right away HA HA HA HA HA HA...I had a duck quiche whereas hubby had a ham and cheese quiche with salad and I ordered a chocolate cake as well. I had hot tea, whereas hubby had coffee. They were very delicious and not too expensive, either. And boy, did it feel good to hold a hot cup of tea to warm up my hands! Here's what it looks like inside the restaurant:

The gift store is located below the restaurant, so we decided to buy some hoodie (the only thing available) there to keep us warm before roaming the palace. Here are some views of the palace and yes, thankfully the sun started to shine, though the wind was still VERY VERY cold and it could be VERY strong at times (it's very rare for the wind to be that strong in Sodankylä, so it took me off guard!).

Here are some photos of the Pena Palace (some photos were taken by mobile):

And here's a video clip I made of Pena Palace (the view of the palace from two different angles).


Here are some photos taken from inside the palace as we got to see different rooms in there. Plus I took some photos of the history, as well.

The last photo above is actually the King's bed if I remember correctly. I find this bed weird because even for a short person like me it feels so short (the length, I mean).

Anyway, after roaming the palace, we decided to skip going to the other place and wait for the bus back to the train station instead. We had to wait for about half an hour. Maybe next time we can visit Sintra again to check out the other places of interest there, but that day we were so cold and tired already, so we decided to go back to Lisbon instead.