(another) winter trip

owryt, where should I start..

last fri nite I was just arrived from a short trip to italy and spain

italy trip was initially planned to see a friend from US who's gonna join a marathon race in rome

but then I realized that the race - which is on 20 March - is unfortunately in the middle of my period 4 courses. Looks impossible for me to leave wageningen during that time.

so then I slightly change the plan, do the trip earlier then probably will lose the chance to see the race by doing so

Soooo sorry Andrea :'(

anyway, the trip was all fun. I travelled w/ Sacha and one friend from his class - Sarwar.

when Sacha and I were planning the trip, it was a little bit tricky to find a good deal for flight and hotel, especially because we also did not have much time to discuss due to busy study week and exam before the trip. But finally we ended up w/ a cheap flight from Ryan Air (Eindhoven - Rome and Rome - Barcelona) and EasyJet (Barcelona - Amsterdam). As for the lodging, we got a perfectly situated near city center G&N house and Serenity Apartment.

Sacha and I targeted out the places that we wanted to visit right after I finished my exam for period 3, the night of 28 Jan. Our list was just usual stuff - popular spots and plan the rest to just get lost in the city

The trip began w/ an hour flight by Ryan Air which was for me personally, less than comfort. Too much noise from the running machine of the plane, announcements (both flight-related information and commercial hubble-bubble), and also its rough landing, yes I was half asleep at that time but frankly not in a need of jolt Mr. pilot... (-.-")

Getting to the hotel was quick and painless, thanks to Sacha who managed to prepare all the detail well. Took a bus to Termini station and walk for few minutes to our hotel. Anyway, there's a lot to talk about italian drivers and traffic :p driver speaking on the phone, texting or even pinging on blackberry looks so common there. You also better to always keep the eye on the traffic - not only the traffic light, because pedestrians are not the boss around Rome's street. unlike in holland where drivers definitely respect cyclists and pedestrians.

did not take long time for us to start the trip, after throwing in our stuffs to the hotel, we took a stroll to nearby landmarks and building such as Republica and Santa Maria Maggiore. On the next day, after a quick breakfast we started to follow the list: Colosseum (it's a wow! the construction is amazing, w/ fab maze, etc), Forum Romanum, Palatino Hill, Vittorio Emanuele II Monument (in Piazza Venezia), Pantheon, having famous italian gelatto in Piazza Navona - this piazza is not as wow as I expected but this place is lively w/ lots of people hanging around, lots of restaurants and a nice fountain in the middle (fontana dei quattro fiumi) and close the day in Fontana di Trevi - I threw a coin here and wished to return back to italy some other time (^^,)

One of the things, Sarwar has a problem w/ getting up at the crack of dawn to start the day :) while sacha and I do not want to miss any single minute during the trip by only lazily laying on the bed. He is also not mingled w/ bread and kind of european food, so we had problem to always find a rice-based restaurant for him during meals time. Luckily Sacha is as easy as I am when it comes to food, so we only had one problem (all the time) during the trip. xoxoxo poor Sarwar.

We spent the third day to go to Vatican city w/ St. Peter Basilica church and Castel Sant'Angelo in it. This is the only spot that quite far from our hotel, we had to take a metro for around 30 mins, all the places we visited the day before were within walking distance or 1-2 stops by Metro. This place was great. Enough w/ spending sometime in the church, we took a stroll along the Tibet River (Fiume Tevere), meant to visit the olympic stadium but hardly to find the bus and cancelled to do so.

As I was just so in love w/ Fontana di Trevi, I asked my travel mates if they dont mind to compensate our spare time due to cancellation of olympic stadium visit by going back to Fontana di Trevi. So we headed back to the city center, took different route to Fontana di Trevi so we can pass by the Piazza del Popolo, Campo di Fiorri and Piazza di Spagna. It was just sooo good to me, enjoy the sunset illuminated the water flows in the fountain. love it. am not good at photography, neither have a proper camera, so I could not capture the moment. annnnddd, we officially completed the trip in Rome then. had to catch the flight to barcelona on the next day.

Barcelona was surprisingly super-shiny and tan glows on my skin when we arrived. woo hooo...it's been a while not to see a blazing sun since I came to holland.

We only had two days for barca, spent most of the time in the city, admiring Gaudi's buildings e.g La Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, see some other landmarks such as the Colom statue - the place where Columbus started his expedition, busy street of La Rambla, plaza de espana, Sants Montjuic and always close the day in Barcelonita - the beach front and Port Veill for both two days. Our coffee time and lazy talk in passeig de Gracia was also great.

and bazingaaa...! best thing of barca trip was the visit to FC Barcelona stadium: Nou Camp! spent couple of hours there to see the history of FC barca in its museum, pictures time inside the stadium, whatnots shopping in its store.

Thursday afternoon, time to go home...last day was spent only for coffee, enjoy unhurried breakfast and walking around aimless a little bit before catching up our bus to the airport. ayayayay!

some of the pics are here.....some others are coming up soon, will fetch them from Sacha's camera.

one of the good things traveling w/ Sacha is the fact that he took care of me but doesn't hover though. good company. good time. holiday is over and ready to start new period this monday. bunch of thanks to my travelmate and look fwd for another trip already!