Going back to Paris in a very short while... goodbye Riomaggiore!
It's been so relaxing... we hiked between the villages of Cinque Terre, ate perfectly cooked pasta & pizza for our country & jumped into the sea whenever we couldnt take the heat. Then we sunned ourselves dry & talked till night fell & the stars came out.
The company you have is always the most important when on holiday... Sadly this will be my last holiday for some time to come :(
While i rush to finish school stuff, my best friend will continue on to Marrakech (luckyyyy) & then she will stay with me for a week in Paris! Yippeeeee i cant wait to share parts of my new life with her!
And of course every vacation must be accompanied by a song... the song that brings u right back to that special place... Hope you like this one xx
There's nowhere quite like Milan, this familiar city which is a delightful mix of Piaggios, noise, Italian hotties, dirt & ridiculously expensive cafes...
But of course... there's also nothing like doing some shopping along Via Della Spiga too.. tomorrow we're off to the coast.. to a small apartment perched on the cliffs facing the Mediterranean. Bliss xx
Mr Chokri, who owns a third-generation bread shop in the ancient medina. He still uses the same wood fire oven like his grandfather did.
This little boy peeped thru his window n gave me a shy smile. When i smiled back & pointed to my camera, he popped out & gave me a big toothy grin.
Curious traveller... & a curious group of young girls who were excited to use the spanish learnt in school with a foreigner aka my sister.
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T h e p l a c e s .
Outside a mosque.. i felt bad after taking this picture because i meant to do it secretly but realised only later that the little girl had her hand over her face. It is true that when you are down & out, the last thing u want is to be captured in that state. :(
Women going about their business in one of the big plazas while below, a labyrinth of little winding streets make up the old medina.
a traditional bakery selling sweets & diabetes-inducing pastries... & a walk to the ancient high walls of the Kasbah leads to a view over the Mediterranean & neighbouring Spain.
my only souvenir.. a pair of handmade leather shoes from the souk... which i'm wearing to death everyday.
My only impression of Tangier came from the films Inception & The Bourne ultimatum - messy, colorful, dangerous.
Happy to report that it is true. Men would pester us the whole day, wanting to bring us around (for a fee of course). The men were mostly rough in their demeanour, women wary & inconspicuous. Didnt help that being Asian means u stick out like a sore thumb during calltimes to prayer when men would SURGE to the mosques while we tried not to get in their way.
The old town was in ruins, many young men sewing clothes in hole-in-the-wall shops. (If u realise, alot of clothes we wear from high street labels like Zara are made in Morocco.) Despite that, Tangier is a city on the cusp of rapid economic development & modernization; you could feel in the air, a sense of anticipation & optimism among the younger Moroccans. Would love to go to Marrakech next time, who knows, maybe they will shoot a part of The Bourne Legacy there.. xxx
Zahara de la Sierra, one of the white hill towns we drove past along the road. Magnifique! Just like how I imagined rural Spain to be.
We also came across large sunflower fields... it was a beautiful summery sea of yellow & blue & green, all of them were taller than me & their faces almost as big as mine! Seeing is believing >
Andalucia is a region dotted with nice little 'white villages' as most of the houses in these towns are white. The tiny roads are so narrow we had to step into doorways when cars drove past us on the streets & forget about using your side-view mirrors cos they have to stay folded in. We spent the night at Arcos de la Frontera, a pretty little town with amazing views everywhere.
We walked around this town built atop a ridge, & peeped into houses, alleyways while dodging cars & bikes. The 16th century church of San Pedro sits high up above everything else while birds soared in the valley.
Charming arches we meandered thru, but they stand testament to centuries of Christian fighting against the Moors & forcing them slowly down south; Arcos de la Frontera was one such town on the frontline.
In front of the church of San Pedro, a local told me that during the Spanish Inquisition, the Spanish used to exorcise Muslims in front of this church & forced them to convert to Christianity. He spoke to me in halting french since he didnt speak english so I hope he exaggerated the story a little. It sounds so cruel!
Two Spanish neighbours chatting in the heat of the afternoon, while we lost our way in the maze of quaint cobblestoned streets & roasted ourselves brownnnnn.
Stopping for a rest & taking in the views. We noticed little dried snails stuck along a wall. Ahh the joys of country living.
We also stayed at Ronda, another of the white towns situated on cliffs with a gorge in between. If someone wanted to jump off one of the balconies, he would surely die a spectacular death.
The Puente Nevo (New bridge) was built in 1751 to link the cliffs. It really is quite a sight to behold. Of course Elmo wanted his picture in front of it too.
Have a great weekend, i'll share some Morocco pictures next week xx
It's always nice to come back from a great adventure & share the memories, but this time, I took so many pictures that I would never have time to put them all up. So I decided to tell a few stories everyday about the pictures that touched me the most.
In the Great Mosque of Cordoba in Andalusia, a Unesco world heritage site & rightfully so.The amazing thing about almost everything in Andalusia is the Moorish influence, apparent in the architecture, crafts & centuries-old ruins. The Moors were darker-skinned people like Muslims, Arabs & Berbers.This region was a Muslim kingdom for nearly 800 years before the Christians took over, & the Islamic influence is still found everywhere. I never knew that before coming to Spain, did you?
Standing in an old monument, I find it hard to believe that it has seen centuries pass, wars fought, peace restored & now curious people trying in vain to understand their history.
This was a Holy week procession in Seville. They started in the afternoon from the main cathedral & continued into the smaller streets until midnight. I never saw anything like that before in my life. The elaborate float of a young Jesus making its way to the parish church, loud solemn band music, & thousands of people. There must have been about 50 men supporting the float, sweating like mad, & stopping every few minutes to let in air & drink water. Then they would hoist the wooden float on their heads in 1 fluid movement & continue on slowly.
We bumped into them again, still going strong in the night along the little winding streets! Pretty amazing sight. Sometimes young Jesus would pass right underneath the balconies.. if u were living there, u could probably reach out & touch him.
And I had one of my favorite travel companions... my mum! She's funny, doesnt ever get car-sick & packs luggage really well.
We were walking along the street in Seville, when this man comes out of a little nondescript chapel tucked away in a corner & shakes his head. Lookin at us, he said, you guys have to go in, muy bonito! Out of curiousity, we stepped in & it was like stepping into a piece of antique art so intricate we just breathed WOW.
No picture could ever do it justice because it seemed like the altar was carved into the wall like a cave of very very intricate baroque figurines & ornaments. Service had just started, and the locals seemed disturbed that tourists like us had chanced upon their little chapel. I have seen so many churches in my life but this is one of the prettiest for sure. If ever you find yourself in Seville one day, this would be a little gem worth seeing to believe.
1130pm & the city comes alive. In the streets after we watched the most amazing, intimate flamenco in a little courtyard. 3 rows of wooden chairs surrounding a small wooden stage, we sat down & were transported to another world. My mum clutched my arm, i had goosebumps & my sis declared it the best travel experience she ever had. No frills & loud music here, just a guitar, passionate singing, & a dance that was feminine yet strong. No photos & videos were allowed, but they did dance around for fun after the performance so I took a little video. Could not take my eyes off her hands.
The Alhambra in Granada, the last of the Moorish palaces from the 14th century. Another Unesco world heritage site we had the pleasure of seeing. We bought tickets for the Nasrid Palace a month in advance as only limited numbers of people can visit it at any one time. The prettiest patio in this palace was the Court of the Myrtles, a vestige of Muslim art which withstood centuries of war & modernization.
No trip to Spain is complete without seeing a bull-ring... and this one is the oldest in Spain. Though i was glad we missed the bull fights. It is a terrible sport & an extremely unfair fight. No bulls means my red friend can visit in peace ;)
more to come while I take a cappuccino break... I leave you with my favorite breakfast in Spain... churros con chocolate.. a kind of Spanish doughnut freshly fried & then dipped into hot thick chocolate... Mmmm!
Before lunchtime, off the road, a lioness devouring her dead prey. She was closing her eyes and panting hard.
We realised when she stood up... she was pregnant & the hunt plus pigging out must have tired her out.
We reversed the car & were shocked. The skin of the zebra were flapping desolately in the wind. The rangers we spoke to back at our camp said the kill happened around daybreak & they had been there the whole morning.
We came across this scene just after daybreak on the third day in Etosha National Park. I was so affected by it that I couldnt stomach breakfast after that.
First we saw a herd of impala scuttle across the road at great speed. Another car was opposite us along the road so we both stopped. I turned & saw a lone impala lying on the ground, then he got up & limped across the road, with a herd of 10 jackals nipping at his hind legs. They bit the bloody legs and circled him while he continued limping slowly, trying to escape. The 2 cars were just facing them & we couldnt do anything.
I was screaming at F who insisted we couldnt interfere with nature. "Please horn! Frighten the jackals away!" Finally he pressed but the jackals stopped for a moment, then continued at the impala's heels. Eventually he collapsed in the grass, while the jackals surrounded him and probably ate him alive.
That's nature for us i guess.. I just wish it could be easier?
This is a part of the world we live in, something which happens everyday, as sure as the sun rises. It made me realise once again, how insignificant our battles & gripes can be, compared to the vastness of our earth and its inhabitants.
4 in the afternoon - first thing you notice as you step out of the airport is how unbelievably clean the air smells. It was what i remembered from a holiday there 15 years ago, and it still smells the same.
Sunset prelude... if only i could share all the beauty in the world with those who matter. Gossip is cruel but in our world of me and you, it's all blue skies & nothing else xx
