Travels, in the making

Italia - Sorrento Day 4

7/17/2009 01:55:00 am Genial

July 4th:

We left Capri in the wee early morning and decided to have lunch when we arrive Sorrento instead since things are more reasonable. Had our last yummy breakfast in the garden again before we said our goodbyes to the nice couple. Took the ferry and grabbed our car from the garage. Off we went to search for our next accommodation (cheapest one too)

Hostel name: Camping Village. Mainly for caravans to park their place and for camping. Quite nice area though seeing that there was a swimming pool and another beach to sun bathe.

Headed off to lunch. This was one of the restaurants I like through the trip because the food was reasonable and it was all family owned =)

D and his yummy seafood spaghetti dish

This salad was huge! and it has mozarella cheese, carrots, rocket leaves, lettuce and tomatoes all for 2.50 Euros. Value!

I finally attempt to try parma ham and melon. One of italian's favourite dish. It was YUM. Am beginning to like sweet and savoury in my dish all at once. That way I don't crave for dessert after.

Off to sunbathe (again)!

Check out the amazing view at the back

Cute triplets blowing bubbles near the swimming pool

After shower and change, off to the city centre to makan......heh, ultimate life eh?

This was one of the touristy restaurants that had value set meals for 10 euros (3 course, which is really good)

Lemon farm smack in the city opposite of this restaurant...they are everywhere

After that, we went to check out the night life in Sorrento. D stumbled across a cafe that had a small dull entrance leading into it but after he poked his head, it lead to a huge garden with a gazebo area, open air seats, mini porches and lovely footpath surrounded by flowers! Would have been lovely during the day.

Night lights

View of the road leading to the ferry port

Night market

Italy, Amalfi - Entertainment at Amalfi from Gjin Ow on Vimeo.

Entertainment

Italy, Amalfi - Cuckoo at Amalfi from Gjin Ow on Vimeo.

Check out the clocks!

Open cafe D stumbled into

Lovely breeze while waiting with the ladies

Dessert (Mmmmm)

And that ends our 4th day of our trip :). More pictures click on this album.

Labels: Holiday, Places 0 comments |

Italia - Capri Day 2 & 3

7/15/2009 02:19:00 am Genial

2nd July:

We left Hostel of the Sun to Sorrento. We did quite well seeing that we didn't have a GPS with us and that we were following the directions on the road. Was about lunchtim so we decided to have lunch at Sorrento since it's much cheaper before we took the Ferry for Capri.

Mmm, more pizza. This time in a square shape. Apparently the one on the left was a popular one. With rocket or basil leaves.

After lunch, we walked around the city for a bit before we head to the port where we took the ferry. When we arrived, our hotel manager was ready to pick us up. We stayed in a lovely cottage on the Anacapri side managed by a retired couple.

The van that picked us up

Capri from afar

Front of the cottage

We headed off to check out the blue grotto, where it was a cave in which the bottom of the sea was lit in light blue. Was amazing to dip since the weather was super hot but D came out with 3 slices on his foot! Poor thing.

Outside the cave

How it actually look like if you had a camera

Italy, Capri - Outside the Blue Grotto from Gjin Ow on Vimeo.

Video clip, not sure whether you can hear me hehe

Walking back

What people drive around in these narrow roads

Sunset, heading out to dinner

Dinner by the balcony,watching the sun set

Anacapri at night

We came back to the motel and got a shock of our lives when we turned on the lights...something creepy suddenly crawled into our sheets so fast that we couldn't figure out what it was!! Turned out it was a Cave Centipede, and that it spends its whole life in the dark, hence the swift move to under the sheets. Dave freaked out and he was frantically searching for it and to get rid of it as soon as he sees it. All done but boy,it was one funny sight!

3rd July:

We woke up the next morning to a wonderful breakfast in the garden with fresh home made juice, coffee brewed, hot water for tea, home made cupcakes and bread. T'was simple but wonderful and we had it under the trees...

Yummy

Da group

We then headed out to the top of the hill, where we actually took the chairlift up! Check out the video clip on going up

Italy, Anacapri - Chair Lift to top of Anacapri from Gjin Ow on Vimeo.

Was abit overcast, so we couldn't see much but we explored the area abit and sat down for a rest before we head back down. As we got down, the clouds started to clear

Camouflage lizards, they are everywhere

View from the top

Coming down

Headed to the Capri side after for lunch

Main public transport on the island

Cool taxis with open air roof

We took the cable car up to the church centre where we saw more spectacular views of Capri

Lemoncello...they are everywhere!

My lunch, swordfish (very dense meat) Mmmmmm. Check out the lemon piece next to it!

Oh we bumped into an English couple and they gave us a few pointers on where to eat. We pretty much have to look out for any restaurants with the word 'trattoria' on them as that indicates that it is a family owned restaurant. So prices are more reasonable too.

Off we went sunbathing! Capri is really expensive. We had to pay 18 Euros just to sun bathe at a spot and have a hot shower. Good thing there was free shampoo, hair drying facilities and soap too so we made the most of all the services. It was abit overcast when we arrived but hey, we're on holiday!

Marina Piccolo, located on the other side of Capri, much quieter and less busy

After sunbathing, we headed back to the city and killed time while waiting for dinner to come.

Sun set by the balcony again

Vegetables here are huge!

We then head to another recommended place for dinner but the trip took about half an hour from the main city area. Quite nice restaurant by the cliff, but can't remember what I ate, it was quite dark. Onwards to Sorrento.

Click on the link for 2nd day album and 3rd day album

Labels: Holiday, Places 0 comments |

Buona sera Italia - Naples Day 1

7/14/2009 12:08:00 am Genial

As if I combine from day 1 to day 7, this will be a loooooooooong-as post. I don't even know how in the world I'm going to load the pics and videos up LOL. Perhaps, I'll take my own sweet time for that. In the mean time, hope this is good enough to update all of you about our wacky and wonderful trip. Thought I'd break the post down in bits so that I can post em up steadily and in an organised manner :P

As well as I'm back to normal flickr, I'm back to posting my photos on facebook instead.

Warning: please make sure that you have eaten a decent meal before reading this post as you may feel hungry reading the post :P

1st July:

We left for the airport at like 4.30am! Man, so early so we kinda slept in the plane on the way to Naples. After touchdown, we grabbed the car (Lovely Alfa Romeo hatchback) and it was a challenge for D to drive on the other side of the road, with a manual bikahuna car.

Off we went to look for our accomodation. As we found it, we got stuck in a super tight alley where the gap on each side of the car was less than 5cm. And we were stuck because this old lady didn't want to move her car out. She was constantly yelling at us and creating drama. So this other waiter near the restaurant came out to help. He was a pro. When we drop our stuff and looked for an all night park, we went straight to his restaurant to eat to thank him. I had a nice octopus salad<---- randomly picked because the menu was in italian lol.

Our sexy bulky car for the trip

The alley where the car got stuck

My insalata octopus

After lunch, off to wander Naples. One of our friends was such an enthusiast and suggested we climb all the way to the top of the hill to check out a castle. When we arrive, it was closed. Phooey, but we didn't regret it since we manage to view the city from the top ;)

Main city centre area (much nicer at night)

Naples, very colourful city

Did I mention that the weather through the whole week was between 30-32 with all sun and no rain? Heh.

So we headed back, had a shower, and off we went to look for dinner. Apparently Naples is famous for their cheap pizzas (7 Euro for a large one) and we were recommended to head to this one. But the queue was so long that we gave up and went down the road to the next one.

South Italy is similar to Spain in the sense that they have long lunchbreaks too, so dinner does not normally start till 9pm. By the time we ate, it was about 11pm o.O

Our long awaited dinner, pizzaaaaa

Italy, Naples - Making pizza from Gjin Ow on Vimeo.

This is how they made them...that's what I call real pizza

To view the entire photo album, click here

Labels: Holiday, Places 1 comments |

Hen's do and 10k Weekend

7/13/2009 12:10:00 am Genial

Weekend was quite full on this round. I volunteered to make cupcakes for a Hen's do on Saturday. Had one idea in mind but it was superbly risky, as I was relying on one thing to make everything work. And if it fails, nothing worked.

Royal icing: Wanted to make icing pieces so that I can place them on the cupcakes but alas, it didn't dry on time. I was playing around with the icing too and learnt to make my own pipe bag for writing.

As well as the cupcakes shrunk after baking, and the paper cup that held the cakes together started to come out loose o.O

So on the day itself, I had to come up with a back up plan. Buy decorations to decorate the cupcakes and an shortcut alternatives to decorating the cake.....

And this is how it turned out. Hope that it wasn't too colourful :) . Was quite proud of it though hehe.

The icing pieces that didn't make it :(

The cupcake that didn't stick to the paper

Cover up

Decorating in the kitchen

My handmade pipe bag :P

Ta daaaa

Packing it (Thanks to Ket's nice looking box)

Final suprise layout for the Bride to be

Bride to be, Carrie (small world that she knows my gymnastic friend)

Dinner at an Italian restaurant

Our side of the table

Me and my starters (Beef slices)

Mains (pork with cute mini mushrooms)

Dessert

Did my 10km run today at the London 10k Run. Took flipping one hour to get to the start line (since there were 27,000 doing it this morning). I couldn't bend my left leg when I got to the finish line T_T. I think I'll stick to spin classes and swimming this time round.

But running through the streets of London was enjoyable. Got to actually be in the middle of the road admiring Big Ben, London Eye and not forgetting the people who are so willing to support us all the way. Got a nice printed medal when I finish the line. It's got Tower Bridge engraved to the back.

But the day was fulfilling when we went to the Malaysian Food Hall after to have nasi lemak. Yum.

I shall now start blogging my Italian trip.

Labels: Central London, Events 0 comments |

Watch zees sp4c3

7/12/2009 10:13:00 pm Genial

So many things has been happenig lately. Shall update soon :)

Super brief highlights that happened in the last 10 days was:

Trip to South Italy for 7 days
Making Cupcakes at a Hen's Do
London 10km Run

Till then, will keep you posted!

Labels: Personal 0 comments |

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Italia - Sorrento Day 4

Italia - Capri Day 2 & 3

Buona sera Italia - Naples Day 1

Hen's do and 10k Weekend

Watch zees sp4c3