i will be updating my blog more often

cos facebook blocked again @ work -_-"

was in kuching the last weekend...just came back late last night

i think i'm turning into a malaysian version rebecca bloomwood (shopaholic) buying loads of junk. you don't wanna know the stuffs i got in kuching - let's just say inclusive of a really rodeo cowboy hat and 4 flowers hats... about 30 necklaces/bracelets...a really cute white pearl necklace... 12 bamboo table runners... a few cool bamboo bags... 4 batiks... some cool spoons, and the list goes on. don't even ask how much i spent - =P my room looked pretty stacked up with things at the moment... HEY it's my christmas shopping!!! =)

Chapter 2: Taormina, Sicilia

Actually Taormina is around the same area as Etna wan...But never mind lah...Still considered different area, but they are adik-beradik lah. as I prepare to blog this I kept thinking about the lovely times in Italy. Yes there was some point when I was traveling that I said to myself "This is getting ridiculously time wasting. I can't wait to get home and start earning money!!!" Actually when that thought occurred me, I must've been out of my mind. How could working be nicer than traveling??? Mind you...now I have just started working 4 days only...Itupun without doing anything productive..when the workload starts piling up...ho ho ho. sure tension giler wan.

and you know what, the 1.5 months i'm back here, I have not touched my digital camera. Don't know where I threw it already lor...wait...got...the other day 08.08.08 me and my xiaoyi got take the camera to capture some shots of us in the new house. shortlasting happiness lah. didn't get to fully enjoy the comfort of the new house, have to come KL work d...now living in a mini-room at Uncle's place.

Okla dont want to talk about sad things d...So this is Taormina, with the famous Teatro Greco...it's quite high up so you could get a really amazing view of Mt.Etna, its surroundings, the sea...amazing scenery from the greek theatre.

Teatro greco

Well teatre would mean that during the ancient times (I'm not sure how ancient lah) the greeks used to use thi s a teather for performances etc. Note the green field on the top right picture...not field..its like rows of seats lor

Then after that we went to the centro storico (apparently all the touristy italian cities have their centro storici/historic centers like the center where all the churches are lo. This one is really lovely...very...Sicilian feeling...We did capture a video, which one has to see to fully menghayati this city. It was pretty packed with tourists...and the alleys have those cute restaurants selling their sicilian specialties. Sicilians pride on their cuisine, using lots of spices like cinnamon and citrus fruits in their dishes. They are, after all, no 1 producer for citrus fruits like oranges and lemons in Italy. They have so many types of them...but when we went it was practically summer so there weren't many types..cos oranges are like, winter fruits.

Centro storico in Taormina
We took the chance to try one of their local specialties, Arancino. It's like a fried rice ball stuffed with ragù, meat, peas and mozzarella. Yummy!

After that we discovered something more yummy than the Arancini, the waiters selling the Arancini *wink wink. Remember I said that Sicilians were the cutest??? there are countless numbers of this type looking of guys in Sicilia heeheheh

Next would be Chapters for Siracusa and Catania and Isola d'Ortigia....eh btw, not I approach the guys to take pics wan k...oklah not they approach me to take pics also wan...but my friend Selina go ask them to take pictures together...then I just tumpang bahagia...weiiii got Italians ask me to take pictures with them also ok...next chapter only show you the picture hahaha

ilham sudah datang..chapter 1: Etna, Sicilia

Finally I am starting to post my traveling chronicles...I was traveling quite some bit in Europe/Italy, but it was pretty hectic going from a place to one, then arranging the pictures, getting the pix from the rest, and the rearranging..deleting redundant ones, deleting the ones I looked ugly...then ones I looked fat...the ones with irrelevant people yada yada yada in the end I just give up and keep looking at the pictures and deleting them. Finally I have finished with the ones with Sicily so voila...!!!!!

Recap a bit 1st...I was in Sicily (Sicilia) from 1st May- 4th May..almost 3 months ago d...FYI, Sicily is an island located on the south of Italy, its biggest island and arguably the prettiest. in my humble opinion lah. due to one MAJOR factor and one that I really have to stress on:

SICILIANS ARE THE CUTEST ITALIANS IN ITALY!!!!

Serious wan!!! No kidding...I mean generally Italians are good looking, I swear that even the tukang buang sampah also lengzai wan...but the ones from Sicily are even cuter than average Italians...according to my teacher, Sicily used to be dominated by Arabs, Spanish yada yada...so they have some Arabic features..tanned skin...and clear eyes..dark hair...*sighing blissfully...and they are very vain wan...very dressed up. absolutely to die for. I personally only know one Sicilian but to me he is relatively cute adi (the one who was in my post for my farewell party, Francesco is Sicilian)...hehe...so girls...u all know where to go lah when u visit italy...and guys...u know where to avoid lah to not terasa kedudukan tergugat...haha.

So...I shall start with Mt.Etna. It is the largest active volcano in Europe...We went there like, 1 week before the latest eruption. Lucky also lah when we went tarak eruption...if not now I will be a bbq hooiching d...but Mount Etna was amazing, treading our way up to some of the craters...but quite windy lah. anyway click on the hyperlink to know more about Mt.Etna lah. =) Here are some pics of Mount Etna!~
(please click to enlarge the images)






And as promised I got do my yoga ok...at least at most locations lah when I travel hehehe. I went to this trip with a busload of my university mates (the 210Euro 4 day trip organizzed by my university)...but basically we are always in a group of four. Me, Selina (my Chinese housemate), Mariana (my Mexican classmate later turned into my travelmate to Florence, Liverpool, Sardenia, Pisa, Naples, Gubbio haha) and Kasia (my super stylish and drama queen Polish classmate who is just absolutely classy and gorgeous)... =)

This is the 1st volcano that I ever stepped my foot on...Last time when I went Bali, I did go to see Mt. Batur...but from the restaurant nia wor...this one different..sumore get to climb up...and posing here and there...not many climbed up lah cos quite slippery...and cable car damn expensive and long Q...but whatever it is, the view was amazing and plain worthed it. But of course...it was high up in the 1st place, so the bus took us up till the peak of the mountain la, then we only climbed the craters... =)

Hopefully I will continue my chronicles every nite b4 I sleep lah...tiring u know working at my grandpa's kopitiam...knowing how "lucrative" my job is. haha. but now my aunt pulih d the penyakit...so I can sleep till 11.30am..then help till 4pm-5pm like that...probably start my new job 11th august kut...nite nite...

In dubai now

9 months ago on 15th October blogged this post...from KL-Rome...now the other way..just took a 5 hour flight from Rome to Dubai..in another 7 hours will be in KL liaoooooooo

Sicily, here I come!

Tomorrow morning I will be parting for Sicily (Sicilia)…! Yay…you know, Palermo? Basically I didn’t know the existence of Sicily before…well…Italy. Well the trip costs me an arm for a 4 day trip, in which I will have to spend 11 hours (or more!) on the bus to reach Sicily from Perugia…and also another 11 hours (or more!) to go home…As I was saying, the trip costs about RM1k (210Euro)…aihs. I also tension that it’s so expensive, and being in Italy sumore. I remembered that last time when I backpacking in Thailand for 2 weeks with Fred and Jit Shiong, it costed like, total of RM1.6k… But then again, this is Europe…I don’t even want to start on how much I spent in Paris, Berlin and Barcelona.

I was supposed to be planning another Europe getaway on the limited budget that I have at the moment…initially I wanted to go London-Liverpool-Budapest (Hungary)-Prague (Czech Republic)… already checked out the tickets sumore d…planned out the dates nicely…etc etc…but I would have to travel alone, as I did for Barcelona…It’s not like travelling alone was not fun, but just that travelling with someone would be even ‘funner’, no? So I asked a friend if she’d like to go with me, a Mexican girl, but she had to wait for her friend that was supposed to visit so that she could decide, yada yada. So in the end, I offered to wait cos I really think that she’s nice and it’d be great fun to travel with her. In the end, things didn’t really work out so when I went to the airline’s website again…tension giler to see the price of the tickets increasing two-fold…so there goes my hopes! So bummed out…so now have to plan for a later date, and to see if there is any more offers etc…but they say that the price of the flight tickets tend to get quite pricey in Europe during summer…

Btw, my Greek lengzai entah dah mati kat mana, sudah berkurun abad takde berita drpd dia. Jadi sudah habis my cerita ngan dia. Maklumlah dia pun 6 tahun lebih muda dari I… =P Mesti cari target baru sekarang! Hehe. Maybe I will find cute Sicilians on my trip... =P
Now that I’ve got only 2 months left in Italy, I’m feeling kinda bummed out and depressed lah…cos the weather is getting kinda good now…and I love sunbathing on the balcony outside my apartment…and I realized that I can actually cook quite well! I made curry chicken last week, which IMHO was the best ever that I’ve made, and then fried tofu (the tofu costs a lot here!)…and even fried pork ribs. Ahhhh… but how also can’t cook my Laksa, nor can I find a shop that sells it!

Oh, as I’ve promised, some pics of Barcelona…Janice I’m sure you are looking forward to this! And you’ve probably been to all the places that I’ve been…If not, even more! Hehe…Well, I met these 2 Korean guys during my trip to Barcelona. We lived in the same hostel, and since I was alone, I asked if I could tag along with them…I think how also travelling with Asians is better than with Europeans (I mean if they’re strangers…Europeans macam very wild and most of the time drunk…I mean, of those that I’ve met lah so far, and anyway, they’re not so, well, accepting of Asians anyway)…So these 2 guys, Won and Sung were really nice and fun to be with, we even went to watch the flamenco together and tried the Spanish specialty paella.(which IMHO our nasi goreng kampong is much better) …Viva Malaysian food!
Here are the Part I of the pics in Barcelona…sleepy ade, caught flu liao..so today must sleep early a bit…but based on the pics, can see the fact that I have been slowly but significantly gaining weight LOR! haha

From top right, clockwise: The Labyrinth Park, Palau de Mar, Gothic Quarter and beach in Barceloneta
Camp Nou!!!

P/S: I'm pretty bummed out today...cos my scholarship applications to pursue Masters sudah terkandas. so must go back malaysia d loH

Republic of San Marino and San Leo

As always I find the life in Perugia very relaxing. One does nothing…there is nothing much to think about, just that I have to think what to eat everyday…The past week, the weather had been very bad. It rained non-stop for about one week…thank God we had the sun during the past weekend! I spent the whole weekend by the balcony, just basking in the sun, sitting on the couch. And cooking, and eating. But not eating so much adi lah. Kena shoot teruk by my housemates whenever I mention the word ‘Diet’. Haihs. And I have such absolute weakness for fattening stuffs…eg. Pasta, Chocolates, cakes. I swear I’ve never eaten so many chocolates for the past 10 years where I’ve eaten here in 6 months. I consume an average of 3 chocolate bars/week. Today I promise to start on diet (as I’ve did for the past 4 months).

Ahhhh…back to the good weather…we had 22deg on Sat and 25deg on Sun. I hated the sun when I was in Malaysia, but now like damn ecstatic when I see a teeny weeny bit of sun. So of course I had sunbathed with all the layers of bakyius (meat) with my housemate. =P My greek lengzai sudah balik kampong for 10 hari…but the past 3 days had been raining cats and dogs..tension...

Ahhh…the excitement of my life here -_-“ In fact, it was so exciting to see my housemates argue last week. As LB said before, the Italians could argue even over garbage. Aiyaya last week me and my housemate Nadia went to shop for some groceries, and there were only 4 boxes of nuggets left which were in offer. We beat the other housemate, Milena to it…so she like damn behsyok la. When she came home, she accused us of being immature for running to buy the nuggets that we knew she wanted or something. (We had to run to the supermarket coz Nadia’s guest was coming to our house mar…so Milena was like, damn perasan that we purposely went to the supermarket to spite her) Damn lawak and mentensionkan the scene. In the end they started screaming at each other and one starting crying. Aihs…but after 6 month of living together with them, I also damn biasa d of them exaggerating and amplifying the graveness of the situation.

But anyway, of course I had my yoga poses when I was in Berlin! Hehehe. Oh and here are some pics of when I went to Republic of San Marino 1++ month ago. San Marino is a very small and adorable republic in Italy...and it snowed the day before, so the republic was covered with snow when we arrived...so is San Leo! =) I went to these places with my B2 coursemates - Uksana (Ukraine), Jiji (China), Konstantinos (Greece), Domenico (Korea) and Lili (Malaysia)...oh well...malas aku nak continue d...here are the pics...lunch time anyway

This is in Berlin, near the Arch of Triumph and the Palace

Apparently all my yoga poses are the same

These are the pics taken in Republic of San Marino and the San Leo castle lah. The one which is the most lengzai is my Greek lengzai lor. haha. Anyways.... =P I dreamt of Malaysia so often lately!...Family...friends...and esp Malaysian food..hahaha