Europe trip (Florence, Italy) (10th day)

Because we spent two days in Austria, we could only spend one day in Florence, which was a waste! Florence is another BF city! Beautiful and Fascinating! :D

Well, we had some difficulty in finding our hotel and ended up wasted quite some time. My bad. I didn't really figure the direction to it. xD

Anyway, we took another train at around 3.30pm from Florence to City of Pisa which is about 1 hour ride. Quite tiring as we had wasted energy in finding hotel with our luggages. But that city is another must-visit place!
I went to Pisa Tower. The sight of that slanted tower is incredible! I guess the slant kind of make the whole tower even more special.



the road towards Pisa tower. real good planning in placing their train station at opposite end of the tower so people must walk through this area!



the overused pose in Pisa, but oh well, i still wanted to do it~ =P

they sold a lot of antiques. mum was like "I want to buy ALL!" but after that, remembered that we only have 8 hands.

They also sell really old newpapers, posters and all of them are really intriguing. When i saw all of these, my mind right away thought about all those detective works i could do if i ever want to investigate about something. I know i watched too much detective movies. =P

ooold newspapers! see the number there? 1955!! COOL!

One thing about European countries, there are a lot of people who bring their dogs around for city walks, to train stations, parks, restaurants everywhere! So, where there are dogs, there are urines and shits too. So sometimes when you pass an area, you'll catch a whiff of those smells. And mind where you place your feet. Everywhere is danger zone, seriously.

cute dogs!



..but sinful act done right in front of me.

 But anyway, i still wish dogs are allowed everywhere in Malaysia. x)

Europe trip (Venice, Italy) (9th day)

Still in Venice for the next day, my mum got semangat-ed to cook in our hotel since we'd a kitchen there! So, we bought ingredients to cook spaghettis!

This was our first round of cooking~

Real yummy! Tried 3 types of spaghettis!

After that, we headed to a few tourist sites. I'll just show the pictures here.

the street in San Marco.

Basilica San Marco

St. Mark's Campanile. Huge..can hear the sound of the bell from far away..

in St. Mark's Square. There were lots of pigeons and this kid in red and white kept chasing them around and around..lol.

on the Rialto bridge.

Went to Lido too, which is a small island right below of the main area of Venice. There they have buses and cars and motorbikes. :) And i was so excited to find out that there is a beach!

Adriatic Sea beyond. Finally seeing other sea other than South China Sea and Selat Melaka!

you can see this type of boats almost everywhere in venice.

a boy mesmerized by the water

So thats about it la in Venice! :)

Europe trip (Venice, Italy) (8th day)

Sorry for the late posts! Had been having some difficulty in onlining but here i am! Now, im actually at my last stop, London! And it is SOOOO COLD because the clothes we brought are not really enough to keep us warm for more than 30 minutes outside. Don't know how to survive till friday night! :/

For the previous days, i was in Italy. After Austria, i took a train down to Venice as known as the City of Water. This is one of the city i've been anticipating for since after watching all those movies filmed there. Well, some of you might know, i was feeling quite insecure with that place one day before i was there. However, thank God, everything was great there. The place didn't turn out as bad as what i'd imagined. The road was not that complicated (but of course a map is very needed). It was really interesting to know and see their main transport is through the river. There're no cars, motors, buses in Venice except in one small island called Lido.

the smaller branch of river

The scenery was amazing in Venice. We traveled around Venice by water bus and feet. The water bus is something like a public bus or ktm. And i guess most of them don't take driving license and their 21st birthday gift from parents will most probably not be cars but boats!

the water bus station.

on the water bus.

Venice is famous for its mask. They call it the Venetian mask. Pretty interesting. Now i know where those masks originate from.




trying on one..lol. there is another type which is just like the joker's mask. Kinda freaky.



another version again. I find this mask...weird. Especially the nose. xD Heard this is also in the Assassin Creed game? haha

At long last, i had my first Italian pizza on the land of Italy! Actually they taste pretty the same la. Just that they have more cheeeeesseeee, so its delicious! I really gained so much weight after all these days in Europe! Like, seriously! I think i've regained back the kgs i lost when was in mission trip and even gained extra dy!

pizzaaaaaaaaass! :D

Didn't really do a lot on the first day in Venice. In the evening, we just sat on the water bus and enjoyed the scenery in Venice during sunset.

Europe trip (Salzburg, Austria) (6th and 7th day)

Initially, we were supposed to go to Innsbruck instead of Salzburg. However, we changed our mind as Salzburg, as we know, is more interesting. This city is famous for just two things. The Sound of Music and Mozart. Sometimes I really feel the older generation contributed and affected the future of the younger ones. Because of these two, and also the creative designs of those old buildings ,  Salzburg is a famous tourists’ site. I would say that to all the European countries! Imagine Kajang is famous for some international stuffs and our nenek moyangs were good in architectural. It’ll be flooded man!

one of the old town streets.

taken from the river area.

I didn’t get to go to all of the places where The Sound of Music was filmed. Only went to the Mirabell Gardens where they sang the “Do-Re-Mi” song and the Nonnberg Abbey.

this is the garden.

For Mozart, I only got to go to his residential area and his birthplace. Not much of it. Even I couldn’t find for his monument! :(

my brother acting a beggar in front of Mozart's living place. =P

I could see many puppets in Austria too. I guess it is famous for this.



they make this puppets a lot there.



One thing I am so not used to here in Austria and also in Switzerland. In Malaysia, when someone wants to cross the road, he or she will have to wait for the road to clear up before they can cross even when using the zebra crossing lines. But here, it seems that the pedestrians have higher authority or placing than the drivers. Even when the driver is driving full speed, he will stop and let the person to cross. The pedestrians here also really abide the law. Even when there’re no cars at all, everyone will choose to wait till the pedestrian light turns green only they cross! Really in awe with their attitude.

Festungsberg! Climbed up the hill for that castle!

the view from above..

Oh yeah, not to be missed! Their pasar area! =P



this one is a huge one! quite interesting also..



how they cut cheese. the cheese there are hugeee!

We stayed one night and the next night, we took a midnight train to Venice, Italy. Had to stay over at the train because we were lack of time.

Stayed in the church for one hour to wait for the night train. It was so cooold inside! This painting at the ceiling caught my eyes. Really beautiful :)

p/s: yes teacher, the things in austria are much cheaper! looks like switzerland is the one with higher price to everything! =P

Europe trip (Lucerne, Switzerland) (5th day)

So here again, updating my 5^th day! Still in Lucerne. Again, one of our mission, or rather my mom’s, is to visit all types of markets. So, we went to a morning market just beside of the lake. Different again from the one in France.

it was beside the lake.

love to see the sight of cheeeeese! kinda cute :)

the flowers there were preeeettty!

buildings lining the lake

 

Again thank God it was sunny that day! We were planning to go up to Mount Pilatus. It is the northernmost branch of Alps. If it was not sunny, with the clothes we brought, I don’t think it would be enough! I wore 5 clothes for the trip to the mountain!

We took a bus to Linde station and then cable car up to the top of the mountain! On top of it, i was simply blown away by the view! I could see the whole Lucerne, the vast lake and the mountains surrounding them! Picturesque indeed! Words simply can't describe how is it even photos!

on the way to the cable car station

my bro and i sneaked away to this field. nice view.

the city of lucerne with the lake!

looking upwards. thats the mountain~

second cable car to ride on.

on top of the mountain~love the view.



Left my ink on top of the mountain. :)



Once my mum took her first bite of her bread, these crows at once flew to her and begging her for food. Lol. They have sharp eyes and ears indeed!

Just playing around with the camera and rocks. Hehe

x)

We stayed on top of the mountain for about 3 hours. Not wanting to leave the place! xD

Peek around in the middle of the mountatin. Saw a church and took a picture with it.

We went back down and simply walked around the other parts of the city we missed earlier. No matter where i turned, i was constantly in awe by the place! We decided to visit this monument called Lion Monument. This monument is to commemorate the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution. Mark Twain, an American writer, praised that sculpture as "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world". Even i felt pretty sad too seeing the that dying lion.

The ducks feel for the monument too. =P

Oh! we saw Bata shop! lol. saw one in paris too =P

Another church. Could see the two towers from far.

A goodbye toast to Switzerland! We'll miss the place. x)

So, that was my trip in Switzerland. :)

p/s: currently am in Salzburg, Austria. Tonight will be taking a train to Venice, Italy. I don't know why but am feeling quite unease with that place. It'll be great if you can pray for us! :)