burabura » accommodation

Pre-Christmas in Fukuoka

Gloria — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:08:16 +0000

Stuck in Qingdao for two days due to technical problems with the plane to Fukuoka. The airline put us up at the four-star Queens Hotel for a night then took us for a 15 minutes spin in the air early next morning at 730am before returning to Qingdao airport. Reason: plane not fixed.

Can’t be bothered writing the full story because I accidentally deleted my blog’s database last night and I tried to recover it via Google cache. This was one of the pages that I couldn’t recover completely.

Long story short, I got to know Zhao-san, Chinese studying in Fukuoka who brought me for some wicked nomihoudai with free cosplay costumes for rent. Stayed at Kaine Guesthouse, great location and very friendly staff. We even had a nabe Christmas dinner together, along with a mini gift exchange session. I got a cute ceramic, bouncy tiger from an Okinawan guy. Some lady got my 2010 schedule book; boring, I know but it serves the purpose.

All-you-can-drink KTV

Juxtapose

Photo by Yohei-san

IX: I Love London

Gloria — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:53:15 +0000

Hopped onto the Eurostar from Paris to London in 2 hours! The train traveled so fast it made my ears pop! Finally, people who speak English! I was putting up at the London School of Economics, Passfield Hall. Very, very clean and cosy rooms with a fantastic spread of an English breakfast! We’re talking about sausages, scrambled eggs, baked tomatoes, toast and more. One can’t live on cold cuts and croissants everyday, can you?

Les Misérables

Caught the infamous Les Misérables, cheapest seats in the house – Upper Circle £15.00. I recall sitting at the last row of the theatre, the seats were so crammed (I’m about 5′2″ by the way). It was my first time watching a musical. A Korean guy who didn’t speak much English sat next to me. He was a cycling traveler, the first I’ve ever met, and he wore a thin racer costume in the middle of winter.

Transportation is crazy expensive! I was glad I got the London Pass with Travel – “Unlimited journeys on all London Underground, Buses, Trams, Docklands Light Rail and Over-ground Trains within zones 1 – 6, saves you ALOT of money.

Rub in one direction

I had an interesting experience at the London Brass Rubbing Centre taking an elevator down the Crypt and creating my own Christmas art.

The Chelsea FC Stadium tour was really enjoyable with an engaging guide cracking jokes and keeping the kids entertained. Funny, though not surprising, that I was the only girl at the Chelsea FC Stadium Tour, the participants were fathers with their sons and dudes in a group. By the way, I’m not biased towards Chelsea or anything, it came free with the London Pass.

Not in the mood to blog about visiting Harrods, Selfridges, Camden Market or the likes. Grab a free copy of Visit London and TimeOut London instead.

V: Verona – Money isn’t everything

Gloria — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:38:01 +0000

Beautiful Verona

Just for kicks, I booked a night at the Casa Padri Stimmatini del Santuario di Nostra Signora di Lourdes monastery via Monastery Stays. I thought it’d be a good idea since it’s pretty cheap (17.50 EUR a night) and sounded interesting. Well, it would’ve been if I weren’t a noob.

I took a cab to the monastery because according to Google Maps, it’d take me a day to walk there. It was located on top of a hill. I didn’t meet anybody there except a man who shouted out of his window because I was at the wrong block, and another man who checked me in. No nuns, no cafes, no restaurants, nothing.

It was early afternoon but crazy thoughts were already beginning to flood my mind. I called my sister in Singapore and she said, “Jie, I think you better get out of there. Forget about the money (paid for the lodging), just leave!” I packed my stuff and attempted to sneak out quietly but I bumped into the man who checked me in. I froze and my heart stopped. He asked me where I was going and I told him that I was going out to get some food, complete with my backpack and handcarry on the trolley thingy I bought in Rome. He didn’t probe and so I quickly took my leave.

There were no cabs, hardly any cars. I waited and waited for the bus that never came and panicked when I realise I didn’t have a ticket. I decided to walk and so I went downhill, dragging the bag behind me and going ‘ke-bump! ke-bump! ke-bump!’ down the steps and took a photo of Verona. I didn’t have a map, I didn’t know where I was going and there were no strangers to help me. I was lost. I trudged on in the rain till dark and I felt like crying but my head disagreed so I sucked it in and kept going. I finally found civilisation after walking for about 3 hours (not that long now that I’ve verified the time with the train tickets) and took 2 buses and a train back to Florence.

P/S: I was pretty upset about Verona for awhile after that incident and swore not to go there again, but that’s just me being silly. If given another chance, I’d return to the monastery and visit Juliet’s balcony.

IV: Florence and Pisa

Gloria — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:28:46 +0000

Hopped on to the Eurail to Florence from Rome and stayed at Hotel Domus Florentiae. I made a few hotel reservations via venere.com and they’re reliable. The hotel is actually very near Santa Maria Novella (SMN) station but somehow, I walked about in circles as I tried to follow the directions provided by the hotel and it took me awhile to find it, tucked away inconspicuously.

Hotel Domus Florentiae

Lovely way to start the day

Bed and breakfast cost me 113.28 EUR for 2 nights. Apart from a very dark corridor that smelled a little funky and a slightly mouldy mirror, this is a very quaint hotel with clean sheets, decent breakfast and free wifi. There was a vintage wardrobe that came with an antique key that I really liked, and a balcony. I have a thing for balconies because I don’t have one at home (and also because you can smoke there).

Spizzico and Chinese takeout

I couldn’t resist getting some Chinese takeout after 5 days of cold cuts, croissants, pizzas and pasta. If you’re wondering – yes, Spizzico is good and I haven’t had a pizza in Italy that’s not delicious, and no, I didn’t finish everything for dinner. I probably reached the hotel around 7pm, twittered and checked my mail on my trusty iPod Touch, polished off the Chinese takeout and half a pizza, watched some MTV and news in Italian, went to bed, woke up in the wee hours and finished the other half of the pizza. Yes, it was cold. No, I didn’t have a microwave or oven to heat it up. Went back to sleep.

Morning. Hopped on the Eurail again, Firenze SMN to Pisa Centrale. Leaning tower, checked.

Leaning tower of Pisa

Things got more interesting from there on. There was a strike or something on my way back to the Pisa Centrale. I think some of the locals felt irritated when our bus got caught in the traffic but I thought it was rather exciting because we don’t have strikes or riots in Singapore.

Strike in Pisa

While waiting for the train back to Florence, Yukari approached me to help take a photo of her and we became friends on the train. She thought I was Japanese which was quite funny that she couldn’t tell that I’m not. We communicated with what little Japanese I spoke and with the help of her translator. Yukari was on a working holiday in Paris and came to Italy for a short holiday. She was living in a hostel where she got to know Ryota and Kojima. Ryota was a fugu chef who came to learn Tuscan cuisine and Kojima was on his grad trip.

Yukari and Ryota at Michelangelo

Carousel

We walked around till late and I had my first good meal at a restaurant with my new friends. Not sure if it was a Christmas market but there were people dining at this carousel-like structure and there were booths selling wooden toys, fresh herbs and candies. It was about midnight when they walked me back to my hotel and I realised it wasn’t so scary to walk about at night after all.

II: Rome, finally

Gloria — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:52:28 +0000

Roma Termini

I was so relieved when I saw the sign Roma Termini. Didn’t matter if it was slightly wet that morning, I followed the directions and found myself at Yes Hotel. The lift was broken so we had to use another one located at the back of the hotel which turned out to be a vintage elevator, I like! Here’s a really bad video of the machina in action (Mr Tatonka and I, tugging a foldable trolley thingy I bought in Rome to help me with my hand carry):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsvGDIyro_I]

My first meal was at Trattoria I Leoni d’Abruzzo. The staff at Yes Hotel gave me a name card to this trattoria because I was absolutely famished but most places weren’t ready to serve lunch as I arrived 10-ish (I think). They probably have some referral thing going on and you get a discount if you turn up with the name card that has Yes Hotel and -10% Discount stamped on it. I lost the receipt and can’t recall how much my meal cost but I vaguely remember that the food was average.

Trattoria I Leoni d'Abruzzo

Sitting in a restaurant and swaying side to side in my head after 20 hours of train. – Me, via iPod Touch

I booked Yes Hotel through their website and it had the best directions to guide me from Termini Station to their hotel. I wasn’t really on a rough-it-out, stay-in-guesthouses kinda backpacking trip previously and spent 125.90 EUR for two nights. Will definitely recommend this hotel if you’re not on a backpacker’s budget for the excellent location, friendly staff and cozy rooms.

Can’t exactly recall what I did on my first day in Rome but thanks to digitally dated photos, I reckon I must have visited the supermarket.

Supermercato

Meat section

After exploring the area near my hotel, fatigue and first-timer’s-jitters of travelling alone when night falls (awfully early) ushered me to a nearby internet cafe where I e-mailed my friends and checked what time Mr Sun’s getting up the next day so I could catch him at the Colosseum.