Sintra the fairytale

I blame facebook for making me wanting to visit this place for so long. I saw photos of my friend being at Pena Palace and they were superbly beautiful architecture on top of the hill.

We hired a private tour which brought us around Sintra and Cascais to visit 5 places for €25 per head. The driver, Joao waiter for us outside the attraction places and let us wondering around as long as we wanted.

Moorish Castle is located at the very top of the hill and has amazing view. However, since the dark came early during winter time, we did not really have much time to spent here.

So, we visited Pena Palace instead. The entrance fee is €11 and the transfer is €2. The weather was so breezy and slightly rainy. Every single part of the palace is built with precision, the colours of the wall are attractive and bright that makes the palace the second beautiful after Neuschwanstein Palace in Bavaria, Germany.

Cascais is the most western point of Europe. The wind was so strong that I could not take a picture while standing. People were scared that the wind would blow me away as I was too light. The point is facing the Atlantic Ocean. I wonder if I could ever see America from there. LOL.

We also visited a cliff with houses  in Sintra. During summer time, the water stagnant in a natural pool is used for swimming by the visitors. The view was breathtaking thought it was dark when we arrived at that place.

My second round of Barcelona

Winter 2012 and 2013 are filled with my usual hobby i.e. Travelling. Guess what my destonation is? It is somewhere you can learn about architechture, history, as well as nature no one could ever deny who The Creator is. I'm travelling to Barcelona (Yes, Barcelona for the second time), Lisbon, and Faro. My travel buddy now is Kak Rozi and family; including her husband Abang Shah and her sweet clever daughter, Balqish and a cheeky boy who melts everyone's heart, Arryan, and Ainul. We, together form a group of 4 adults, 1 children and an infant. Why do I stress about the group age? It is because the expenses are different between ages, hence their necessities.

I'm currently in Barcelona whilst writing this and hoping everything will be as smooth as I wish. InsyaAllah...

We started our day at half past 9 in the morning by taking metro to Sagrada Familia. Sagrada Familia is one of the must-go-places in Barcelona. It is built over 100 years and still not yet finished due to less public funds. Basically it is an on-going built of church designed by Antonio Gaudi. The architecture is simply amazing as it involves a highly complicated art. But, obviously as an engineer like me, does not really appreciate anything without practicality. As long as the building has significant function and use to humans, then I have no objection on its building process.

Soon after that, we took the metro to  Collblanc for  Barcelona Stadium tour. I barely made a decision for not going for the tour as I was so clueless about football arena. My ignorance to take part in this men's world thing made me a noob in the tour. Though I had once been for Anfield tour, I did not even remember who and what so ever to be honest. I only took pictures and posed while being photographed as typical Asian girl would always be. I went into the stadium with Abang Shah as the rests did not want to go in. The ticket  (€17) was pretty expensive even after student discount. What made it even more worst was that the tour had no tour guide, except you had to add €5 more for a walkie talkie, which we would not opt. So, Abang Shah was the one who gave a brief explanation to me while touring.

Apparently I just knew Messi and his golden achievement in the career. That was the least I know now. Haha.

Parc Guell was way up on the hill and luckily we were aided by three escalators near to the top. From the monumental area, we could see the city of Barcelona nicely. The price we had to pay for the park was €8. Again, this park is designed by Gaudi in early 1900. He used colourful tiles to enhance the beauty of his architecture including the lizard. I was so excited that I finally went to this place because in my previous trip last year, we did not have the chance to stop by because of an incident.

The tummy was empty. Everyone was less energised. We made a stop for dinner at a restaurant near Lesseps metro station and had seafood paella for €9.50 and seafood pasta for €5.70. The menu was simply delicious and it was obviously due to the great cook and recipes and also our hungriness. I got a red love lollipop as a thank you sweet at the end of the meal which made my day bright.

Say you have a great sense of art, what would you do? Gaudi built two buildings with similar sense of designs. We stopped at Lesseps metro station to go to Casa Battlo, and walked about 6-10 minutes to Casa Mila. The wall of these buildings is not flat. He must be so immensed in wave function that he built such wall. (i'm curious).

So we finished all top 4 Gaudi's architectures in Barcelona. We took the metro to Catalunya to go to Hard Rock Cafe. To be honest, I am not the fan of the collection. (Apa orang kata? Dah ada kehendak, kita turutkan je la). Balqish asked why are we here? I just answered because your parents want to do some shopping.

The last attraction we covered today was Agbar Tower. It is a tower that has colorful lights on it. The tower glows brightly to add the beauty of Barcelona. (Kalah i-city Shah Alam, okey?).

Pisa

Andai di Malaysia, kita ada Menara Condong Teluk Intan, di Itali, kita ada The Leaning Tower Pisa. Ironically, I've been to Pisa which is thousands kilometers far away from my hometown, instead of the one in Perak. Orang kata, jauh perjalanan luas pengetahuan, kan? Mengharap aku yang tak berapa nak tahu asal usul menara condong ni, peribahasa tu agak tak boleh guna kat aku la. Apa yang aku tahu, Pisa Leaning Tower ni pernah menjadi salah satu of seven wonders in the world. Kononnya, walaupun struktur bangunan ni dah lama, keunikannya i.e. kecondongannya tetap utuh dan tak pulak nak roboh saban tahun. Tunggu lah sampai saat nya nanti. Bila dah tersungkur ke bumi, baru la ada orang sibuk nak kaji kenapa, kan...? 

Ada spekulasi yang aku dengar suatu masa di bangku sekolah dulu. Menara condong ini sebenarnya tidak dibina condong. Tapi sebab keadaan tanah di kawasan bangunan itu didirikan, menara ini menyondong sedikit demi sedikit. Hakikat disebalik spekulasi tersebut hanya Yang Maha Mengetahui Allah dan para pengkaji struktur, i.e. arkitek, geologist, peminat/pencinta dan inquirer etc. sahaja yang tau kot. 

Nak dijadikan cerita, pengalaman kitorang menjejakkan kaki di Pisa ini adalah sangat sedikit. Boleh dikatakan, kurang daripada satu jam. Tengok kawasan leaning tower tu pon tak sampai 15 minit. Sebab?

1. Flight yang bawa bagasi kitorang yang dihilangkan syarikat penerbangan rasmi Itali, Alitalia tu delay selama 20 minit. Suppose sampai pukul 1020 pagi. Tapi, tengok-tengok dekat pukul 11 jugak la baru flight tu landing. Dengan nak check ada masalah ke tidak dengan bag (which memang ada di pihak Ammar. Toiletries dia abes semua tumpah and pecah), tunggu bas shuttle airport-city kat Florence etc. Semuanya took time. 
2. Dah la lambat bertolak dari Florence, bas tak de plak on the spot depan Pisa Central, so kitorang terpaksa berjalan mengikut naluri masing-masing ke Pisa Tower tu. Perjalanan dengan 'bas no. 11' ni mengambil masa kira-kira setengah jam di bawah sinaran matahari yang hening. 
3. Terpaksa berkejar ke airport for the next flight to Paris. Dah la tertinggal bag, baru dapat, tak kan nak tertinggal flight pulak kan? So, kitorang pon sekejapan je la kat sini.

Selesai bergambar, kitorang naik je teksi yang memang parking sebelah leaning tower tu and head to the airport. Hanya Tuhan je yang tau betapa kitorang lega dapat bag. Sinar kegembiraan terpancar di muka masing-masing. Semua excited untuk ke Disneyland, nak main hotel pe benda ntah. Tuptup tengok notice board, FLIGHT CANCELLED. Bila tanya kat kaunter pertanyaan, there will be no flight to France for 3 days. Muka berubah. Kita merancang, Allah menentukan, kan?

We tried to find other alternative, i.e. by train. Masa tu, semua tak fikir berapa kena spend more. Nak guna internet pon berbayar. 5 euro for half an hour and kena register guna passport. Macam haram je leceh dia. Memang time tu, segala segi dan elemen emosi teruji la. Tiket train ada, bila nak beli TAK BOLEH BELI. Macam dush!!!! Apparently, tiket habis ke system down, tak ingat. Tapi, memang tak boleh nak proceed checkout la. 

Tak kan nak tersadai 3 hari macam orang bodoh plak kat Pisa tu. So, akhirnya aku pon cakap

Ammar, ada satu je lagi jalan. Itu pon kalau kau mampu la

Apa dia?

You HAVE to drive.

So, aku, Atikah and Ammar pon g kat car hire offices untuk cari kereta sewa. Semua companies tak bagi hire car melepasi sempadan. Kalau boleh pon, ridiculous gila price dia, sampai mencecah ribuan euro kot. Survey punya survey, dalam kelam kelibut tu, Avis berjaya mencari penyelesaian kepada masalah kitorang. Bagaimana? Ni apa yang minah kaunter Avis tu cakap

Drive ke Turin, beli tiket train ke Paris from Turin. Train ke Paris dijangka berlepas pada pukul 11 malam. Letak kunci kat post box office Avis berhampiran station keretapi Turin.

Phewwww. At least macam she gave us a new hope la. Kitorang diberi wifi pocket percuma, so kira boleh tengok jugak la train tiket macam mana kan... Kereta apa kitorang dapat? Black Fiat Punto.

Perjalanan ke Turin mengambil masa 5 jam bak kata mek Garmin. Scenery sepanjang perjalanan tu memang Subhanallah.... cantiknya. Dalam hati, though ada halangan, Allah bagi lebih peluang untuk tengok keindahan alam ciptaan Dia kan? Sempat jugak lah kitorang singgah tukar baju, makan and berehat sebentar bersama coklat Itali kat salah satu hentian rehat dan rawat.

Bila sampai kat Turin, kitorang terus pergi train station. Malangnya, kaunter tiket dah tutup. Bila kitorang tengok kat automatic ticket machine tu, tak de pon option untuk beli cross-border tiket. So, hampa sekejap. Apa yang kitorang lagi pelik, train yang berlepas pukul 11 malam tu tak de pon. Bila check notice board, train ke Paris adalah pada pukul 7.35 pagi on the next day. Kitorang sumpah tak tau nak fikir macam mana.

Semua buntu. Harapan berkecai ala-ala Pelamin Anganku Musnah punya lagu. Untuk tenangkan fikiran, kitorang cari masjid, hopefully boleh la stay kat situ sementara tunggu pagi. Ammar jumpa dengan Pak Imam masjid Turin tu, tapi pak imam kata masjid di kunci and memang lelaki je yang boleh masuk. Kalau tahap kekecewaan itu boleh diukur, walaupun dengar cerita kebab untuk hilangkan lapar pon belum tentu dapat naikkan tahap kegembiraan walaupun sedikit. So, memang super kecewa la. Lagi sekali, aku pon bersuara.

Korang, kita semua sedia maklum France tengah strike. Air traffic controller tak nak kerja,so flight tak boleh masuk France. SCNF train pon menggedik jugak join. So, though memang kebiasaannya ada train ke France setiap pagi, belum tentu lagi train tu ada esok. Kita tak tahu apa lagi yang akan jadi. So, aku suggest, kita batalkan je percutian ke Paris, and move to Como. Ammar pon memang nak g Como kan before ni?

Satu kereta sepi buat beberapa saat sebelum semua memberikah feedback. Aqiedah memang tak de perasaan pon kat Paris, Atikah la paling sedih sebab tak dapat nak pergi Disneyland. Ammar memang neutral je la sebab dia dah pernah sampai pon semua tempat tu. Aku? Gambaran istana Disneyland and Minnie mouse tu tetiba macam mengecil ke nanometer scale. Haaaa exaggerating tak? Over tau!

Untuk ke Como, perjalanan akan mengambil masa selama 5 jam lagi kot kalau tak silap. Bayangkan betapa lama lagi Ammar kena drive. Tempat aku dan Aqiedah bertukar. Now, Aqiedah jadi co-pilot. Aku, duduk belakang tidur. Hehe. Entah apa diorang borak kat depan, aku ngan Atikah tak kesah dah. Penat memikirkan hal dari siang tadi dah cukup memeningkan. Pukul 3 pagi rasanya kot time tu, Ammar berhenti di sebuah RnR. Sempat jugak lah aku test drive kat situ. First time bawak left hand side car, kan... Masuk gear pon tak lepas. Memang fail habis driving skill aku. Duhhh..

Sampai di Como, Ammar tidur tak ingat dunia. Kitorang keluar kereta, duduk ambil gambar tepi tasik, tunggu matahari terbit. Nak naik bot, macam mahal je. So, yang mampu adalah tidur dekat boat station. Nasib baik tak kena halau dengan pak cik kaunter tiket je. Macam-macam style kot semasing tidur. Dari terduduk sampai terbaring. Muka memang tebal je la. 

What happenend in Como? Baca next post lah ye.