yAy...back from spain..and with that, the start of a brand new year...praise to the Lord for a extremly memorable 2003. thinking back, seems to me that all aspects off my life have been fulfilling all in all: christian faith has grown by leaps and bounds and truly enough, He has provided abundantly for me: family - more closly knitted with theatre and movie outings =) + more interaction with aunties, uncles and cousins; friends - happy for a dependable grp of them (you know who you are), health - good health is always a blessing, no major illness/disease; smooth transition of events - from relief teaching in st hilda's and rj (was really lots of fun thinking back) to dsta orientation, to m'sia trip, to china trip, to an overseas education/experience and finally, ending with the spain trip.

SPAIN 28th Dec 2003 - 5th Jan 2004

took a budget airline - ryanair. contrary to horror stories that raymond told me...the flight was surprisingly smooth and enjoyable. touched down early. went through customs with no mishaps.

first problem we encountered was the LANGUAGE BARRIER which proved to be a very bEEg obstacle indeed in the following days to come. we were stuck at the metro station for quite a while trying to decide which particular type of ticket to buy...eventually settling for our own judgement instead of the ticketing officer's recommendation (which turned out to be wrong of course). no worries there though, we were smarter the next time round..heh.

second problem: finding food!!! is there even spanish cuisine?!? took a really long time to decide on where to eat cos nth we found seemed to be mildly satisfying...even the famous tapas turned out disappointing..was expecting something exotic but found out that tapas is actually some kind of appetizer dish that can contain anything from prawns to saussages to vegetables. only consolation came in the form of set menus in the last two days. funny how it seems to be a general trend that good food is usually found towards the end of the holiday only

third problem: personally, i realized that i have been totally lazy and too bo chup to do my homework on spain. should really have done some pre-departure reading up. was a complete idiot when i first arrived. knowledge of spanish = zilch, culture = nil...already with wat little/non existent understanding i have of spain, i have had so much fun. can't imagine what it wld be like with the prior insight. what a waste!

BUT, before you start thinking that mary has had a totally sucky time in spain.....i just have to say that it's been hell of a good time even then =)

Barcelona 28th-29th dec

first day was gloomy like london. raining incessantly. was a bit disillusioned abt spain then. plus it was a sunday and shops and people were scarce...can't really remember wat we did...eh...vaguely remember walking around the city centre where our hostel was and along the famous la rambla street. it's one LONG road with lots of shops and cafeterias along it. bustles with activity and gets really crowded especially on weekday nights. saw quite a few buskers: one was controlling a whole host of human sized puppets while playing some instrument, met the same busker that i saw with kow at covent garden previously....wat a coincidence. went walking along port vell, pass the aquarium, walked across some bridge which was really very pretty....

second day we headed for La Sagrada Familia, which is Gaudi's masterpiece still in the making. construction first started in 1884...and up to now it's still not complete...doubt if we'll get to see the day when it is finally done up. however, the cathedral with all it's intricacies and structure is already majestic enough to amaze me. especially when the sunlight streams in throught the stained glass, the inside of the cathedral is a wonderful mix of colours. *tao jui* pillars inside the structure liken to those of the tree and its branches, a picture of stability indeed. there are two faces to the Sagrada Familia. the first is that of the birth of Jesus, while the second is that of calvary. very contrasting indeed. spent quite some time there that day. the size of it is just overwhelming.

visited the Barcelona Basilican Cathedral together with Kai. apparently spain is a catholic country so they have quite alot of cathedrals around. this one that i visited is probably one of the most zhuang guan in Barcelona. it's really amazing, all the differnt chapels, even with a 'courtyard' with an almost life size display of the nativity scene. it was really very detailed, depicting the stable, the 3 wise men bowing outside, the grapes and vineyard, the shephard boy and his sheep...very very nice. we took the lift up to the clock tower and overlooked barcelona....absolutely breathtaking...

went over to the famous olympic village thereafter...surprisingly bare and deserted....quite a waste of space and resources really...but it was pretty nevertheless....think ee-wen, enxin and me went abit delirious..took alot of crazy shots...haha.

stayed in a youth hostel. somewhat familiar to the room we stayed in perth(challenge stadium) before...a room with 5 double deckers. toilets were clean! woohoo. not bad at all. breakfast was provided together with HOT CHOCOLATE!!! *smacks lips*

Valencia 29th-1st jan

took a coach down to Valencia and the first thing we did when we stepped out of the coach was to shed our jackets and embrace the warmth of the sunshine in just our t-shirts, sth that we definitely can't do in london. the sun is simply glorious. we had great weather for the rest of the trip then on.

Valencia was undoubtably the best duration of the 8 days. the youth hostel we stayed in was very pretty albeit the dim light, although that helped create the setting for the induction of the ya-ya sisterhood and for girl-talk. =)

first day in Valencia we had al fresco dining. was quite funny when zhewei ordered for all of us and the waiter thought that he was going to eat everything. heh. next, walked to a fountain, walked past the plaza ajuntament..which is the big square where apparently most of the city's happening stuff take place. walked to the train station. amused ourselves with a cute kid in overalls while the guys went off to buy tix. walked on down the streets of valencia, went into a candy store where kai bought 'carbon' rock (which is actually juz sugar), went into a fancy dress kind of shop...was really crowded..probably cos most pple buying stuff to wear for the marathon or for new year...was also then when i realized my wallet got stolen..no big loss though, juz some euros and my isic card...just sad that the wallet was stolen cos it was sewn by peishan...got sentimental value one leh. kind of got everybody more guarded after that.

while looking for dinner at night, we happened to 'run' into a whole mass of people doing some kind of run/marathon...probably some kind of annual thing....the number of people running seemed endless....we even spotted number tags of up to 13000..not surprising since people take part in big groups, in families and even with pets! funny thing was that the spaniards actually dressed up for it....dressed up in the funny way....such as wearing wigs, cross dressing, etc etc...and of course doing silly things along the way such as shouting out cheers. we attracted quite a bit of attention as well as we walked down, think someone flashed her boobs, some groups greeted us with 'ni hao' etc...ended the night playing stupid games in a bar....

next day went to the Miguelete which is the cathedral that houses the holy graal. not as majestic as the one in barcelona though. the highlight of it all was the bell tower, where we had to climb 207 steps to the top. had a good view of valencia from up there. realized that singapore is really very small compared to what we saw. went on to the crypt of the jail of saint vincent, then on to an art museum which proved to be overbearing with the vast collection of works....felt mentally strained after that...nevertheless, we walked on and eventually reached a park with many different playgrounds. took a break to relive our childhood and take crazy pictures again. finally, visited the botanical gardens where we spent most of our time looking at cats instead of plants. heh.

new year's eve countdown: there didn't seem to be any hype about it really. no loud decorations, no big screens like those at suntec where they have electronic clocks to mark the time...nothing at all to suggest that there might be a celebration...still, we headed for the square at 1115pm....at that time....the number of people present at an estimate was probably no more than 100...quite sparse really....but at 1145pm....woah....sudden increase in numbers really...wonder where all these people appear from.....spaniards are really last minute pple aren't they....basically..there was no countdown whatsoever cos they didn't have digital clocks....so the 'thres. dos, uno, cero' that we had been rehearsing came to naught....what really happened was just us craning our necks towards the sky watching the clock on the parliament building shift it's minute hand....with the church bell chiming in the background to signal the start of the new year....went 'crazy' for a while, got spurted with wine from excited pple jumping around popping their champagne bottles...more party poppers and streamers....pple eating grapes from wine glasses....we tried to fit into the atmosphere by jumping around...and guess what....2 guys suddenly joined our 'jumping' circle...and they started saying vulgar hokkien words.....*speechless*...well in the name of fun...we juz smiled it off gracefully....headed for a pub...cldn't order proper drinks due to lack of communicatino skills...and the prices of drinks was sky high...crazy...bought a couple...and sat ard playing with balloons whilst wearing party hats....ended with a round of truth 'or dare'.

went off to the beach the next day...had a mini picnic while taking in the sun and its warm rays...had a feel of the mediterranean sea....wasn't as cold as i expected...think the last time we went perth it was really freezing men....tried to challenge the waves...ended up getting wet instead....enxin, ee-wen and aiqi had a fun time picking up pretty stones and seashells. spent some time trying to explain the orange strewn beach....really got alot of oranges leh...still haven't figured it out...went up the spider 'web' (sth like that in pasir ris park)...ended the day with more girl talk.

Alicante 2nd-3rd jan

Alicante is basically a small town of Valencia, and is really just the sun, sand and the sea. As there wasn't much to see, we just had a leisurely stroll around the area for the most of the 2 days there. this time round, we stayed in a hotel which has a really nice spacious toilet. heh...*xin fu*

after leaving our huge backpacks in our rooms, we headed for the restaurants by the beach for lunch. had paella, a spanish cuisine, al fresco style cos the sun was shining real brightly. we ordered seafood paella and black squid paella which was really interesting...paella is somewhat like fried rice where you mix stuff in, but instead of being fried, it's kind of wet with a certain kind of sauce depending on the type you choose...the sauce of the squid one was actually squid ink..so we were eating black rice which was actually very nice cos there was kind of a seafood taste to it. accompanied with guava milk and mango milk =) highlight of the first day was going up the castle del santa barbara...had a free ride up cos the ticketing machine went bonkus...spent most of our afternoon there...taking in the sights of the beach and sea, as well as the mountains around. did crazy stuff at the mountatain top as well such as the hokey pokey and 'if you're happy and you know it ....'

went out at about 9 plus pm trying to catch a glimpse of the nightlife..sadly, there wasn't much to see as pubs were still in the midst of putting out the chairs preparing for the crowds later on in the night. ended up sitting by the harbour front singing sch songs and talking...in the end, settled for a relatively happening pub with nice songs. the bartender was really nice and he can speak english!! yay! had some nice drinks as well. went back to doze for 2 hrs before heading out again to observe the actual nightlife...yet..was greatly disappointed..came to the conclusion that the population in Alicante must be really small...and it prob gets happening only during summer hols. hung around talking until it was too cold...went back for another 2 hours of sleep...

first sunrise i've ever seen..and it's sooooo beautiful!!!! loss for words....the ascent was 'WOW" nice....and the sea birds (dunno what breed) dotted the skyline...simply marvelous...*tao jui* later we went onto the spit and walked on 'treacherous rocks' quite fun actually....sea water was cold...there was actually one old woman who swam in it...pei fu...

had a great set lunch....and a fun time translating and choosing our courses...heh...very fun indeed...then we just walked around...to the colossum, and abandoned castle and did the hokey pokey there too....then it was back to the hotel as everybody was dead beat by then....played some taboo until the cards ran out...zip, zap, boing and finally gong zhu...it's a game similar to hearts but with more 'incentives' as well as fixed partners....turns out to be quite fun really..except towards the end where it got a bit draggy cos the game can only end if one pair gets negative 1000 points....

Barcelona 4th - 5th jan

back to barcelona..stayed in another youth hostel - sea point which was right by the sea! cool. was a sunday so nth much to do as usual, walked around..went to a supposed shopping centre...which was terribly disappointing...amused ourselves at the sweet shop though...walked along the coast back to our hostel....sat ourselves down at some point and started singing songs....from chinese to english to patriotic songs....*sweet* felt a kind of longing for home after that....had a fantastic dinner thereafter with a pleasant waiter(cos he can speak english!) serving us...ended the night talking

last morning in Barcelona spent watching yet another sunrise..this time cos the it was cloudy...we could see the outline of the sun vividly....really like an orange ball. =p

finally.....time to bade farewell to lovely spain...and back to gloomy, rainy london...but somehow....was quite happy and looking forward to it....hao xiang you yi zhong hui dao jia de gan jue....=)