frutti.gummi

The temples are Buddhist temples while the religion practiced in shrines are called Shinto. It's quite interesting to see how these two religion blend seamlessly into the life of the Japanese people.

Oh and the food....amazing! The plastic ones look so real that I sometimes double check to see if  they are indeed plastic. Hahaha.

I had a great time and it is even better than what I had thought it would be. :D I'm already adding Japan to my list of possible trips for next year. Hehe.

I quite enjoyed this vacation even though it's a little tiring. The best part is the view of the ocean. Been about 5 months since I last laid eyes on a sea and I really miss sitting by the sea. The weather was also excellent being in the 60s and super sunny. I've been told that the southern part of Italy is very different but I never expected it to be such a huge difference. Naples is a big and very densely populated city. The city streets are dirty, with litter everywhere and plenty of dog shit on the sidewalk. It's also the first time I've seen stray dogs and cats on the streets. Above the streets, laundry are hung out from many windows and balconies. Pretty much every inch of the walls are filled with graffiti, even on the ground! People cross the streets whenever they want and young adults zip through the tiny streets in their vespa scooters without wearing helmet. Cars are double/triple parked on the the side, even at bus stops. While we were there, we were told that they found an old WWII bomb while digging for the subway line and everyone in the area had to be evacuated. We spent the day wandering around other parts of the city and since it was a Sunday, almost everything is closed including pizzerias.


The Pompei exavation site is very interesting. I had expected to see just bits of ruins here and there but surprisingly, the entire layout of the city is intact. We spent about 3 hours covering three quarters of the city. The audio guide we rented gave very good commentaries on the buildings. Most of the time, blocks of walls (numbered) lined the streets. These are usually shops or houses. One of the most facinating spot is the brothel. The drawings of various sexual positions are still visible on the walls and some graffiti can be seen in the walls of the rooms.

Took a short vacation to Tuscany during the long weekend. Had a great time visiting the sights and enjoying the food especially gelato. The gelato was invented in Florence and we had gelato from one of the best gelateria in Italy. It was soOOOoo heavenly. After having the best gelato in our lives, we accidently found the best pizza in town. We went back to try it the next night and it was great. The crust is really soft and the toppings are juicy. They only make 3 types of pizza so we tried them all; Margherita, Napoletana, Marinara. Although we arrived only 15 minutes after the pizzeria opened, we had to wait for almost an hour to be seated. The place only has 4 tables and it was all occupied and there were 3 more 4-persons group already waiting outside. The Uffizi musuem has some nice collection but I don't think it's worth the 2 hours queue. If we had bought the tickets online in advanced, we probably wouldn't have to wait so long.

Additional travel note to add is to buy the return ticket in advanced.

I've uploaded some photos onto picasaweb instead coz my free flickr account already has more than 200 photos. Anyone wanna sponsor me a flickr pro account? Hehe. I'll buy a better camera and take nice photos :p

We ordered a pot (2 portions) of typical Bavarian dishes. It consists of sausages, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, knodel dumplings, schweinshaxe (pork meat), and deep fried super crispy something which we think is pork skin; all in rahm sauce. Although I'm not a fan of pork, the food is tasty. However, towards the end of the meal, it starts to taste saltier. I guess that's where the huge mug of beer comes along.

Back from a week long vacation in Munich, Salzburg, Vienna and Budapest. Been very lazy at home since. It's so comfy and cool; don't feel like doing anything at all. But then, I still have 2 more exams next week so have been reminding myself to study. I'll post the travel stories later. Nevertheless, some of the photos have been uploaded to Flickr.

Good sights, excellent food, nice people :D

Vacation was pretty fun and relaxing. The weather was a disappointment though, being wet and gloomy almost every day. And severe wind was predicted for new year's eve and a lot of cities in UK cancelled the celebration. For safety reason, I stayed home and watched the new year's programme on tv and it turned out that it wasn't too bad in London. Sigh! Maybe another year then. I braved through the strong wind and rain with an umbrella the night before new year's eve and still got all soaked while walking across the Millenium Bridge from Tate Modern. Despite the super lousy weather, I managed to see the major sights, shop, eat a lot and met up with friends :)

Upon arrival at the airport, I felt so relieved that I finally can understand the people around me. No more straining the ear to try to understand what people are saying. Stuffs are as expensive as in Germany but the sale items are really a bargain. They have some nice markets too and I find Camden Lock quite similar to the Bangkok markets. After shopping at Harrods, as we were walking around the building, I smell something familiar but couldn't make out what it was. Then, I saw the sign. Krispy Kreme! :D Too bad I couldn't get a dozen coz I was leaving the next day. I was actually planning to watch a movie like every other day coz I miss going to the cinema quite a bit but finally we only managed to catch Happy Feet.

During the first few days, I still tried to work on my paper while waiting for my housemates to wake up. And I felt that I'm wasting a lot of time watching lame old English comedy at home during the night. But I didn't want to seem unfriendly so I stayed in the living room watching whatever programs they were watching. As the week progressed, I managed to relax and not think about how much time is being wasted. Hehe. So, did not get much work done afterall. Now that I'm home, I gotta continue working on my paper and start working on the other assignments. Wish I have one more week before school starts.