Things to do in Southern Europe: Day 3

Day 3

Andora La Velle -> Marseille 

I finally left Barcelona. Till we meet again Barcelona! 

So, I continued travelling to Andora La Velle that took me 3 hours ride by coach. 

If you are wondering about what's Andora La Velle?

Andora La Velle is a city between France and Spain. The city is small and calm, but there's nothing in there. That's why I didn't spent much time in that city. 

I only went for lunch in one of the restaurant in Andora and I remember that I ate the traditional lasagne that time. 

After I had my lunch, I immediately continued my journey to Marseille. So, it took me 3 hours to reached Marseille. However, something was happening along the street, so we had to passed another alternative road that took much more longer time to reached Marseille. 

Guess how many more hours we need sat inside the coach?  

It's NOT 3 hours anymore but, it's 6 HOURS! 

Everyone was so dissapointed of the accident that was happening:(

I was so sad because by the time I reached Marsaille everything was close down except cafes and bars. 

So, I rushed to the hotel to had our dinner immediately.

As I was staying at Marseille for only one night, I couldn't enjoy anything much:( 

If you're wondering where's Marseille...

Marseille is the a city that's located in between France and Paris. It's the second largest city in France after Paris and the center of the third largest metropolitan area in France after Paris and Lyon.

I hope this helps for those who doesn't know about this city.

Scrolll & scroll down for more photos that I took at Marseille :)

These 2 photos were taken from the main street. And there's nothing much we could enjoy from these location except like cafes.. 

From my prespective, there's nothing much at Marseille. So, yeah don't spend too much time staying there. But, overall if you want to know how the city looks like, you could come and stay for a night. 

Thanks for reading and see yo next time. Enjoy!

Things to do in Southern Europe: Day 2

Day 2 

Barcelona 

Montserrat Monastary Basilicia & La Ramblas 

Still, the sight and sounds in Barcelona really took my breath away. 

Naturally pretty yet amazing!

We took a coach from our hotel to Montserrat for half an hour. Then, we decided not wasting time and took a cablecar to reached the Montserrat. It was much faster that getting on a coach!

The nice street from inside of the coach. 

This view was taken from the Cablecar station. Belive it or not all the rocks was naturally arranged by themselves. The rocks looked clean and huge from the bottom. 

It's me with the view from the Cablecar station before headed up to the monastary. It took me around 15 minutes by Cablecar to reached the hill and another 15 minutes walked to reached the monastary. 

Again, it was HOT! 

Me & my brother's took a picture after we reached the other Cablecar station! You can spot the huge rocks at the back! The rocks each's shape was different. 

And finally after 15 minutes walked, we reached the Montserrat Monastary Basilicia. It was pretty tiring as we need to hiked up to reached the monastary. But that was okay!

And finally we reached the monastary YAY! So, me and my mom immediately took a photo from the outside of the monastary with those rocks view as well! From the outside area, the monastary wasn't crowded as compared to the inside of the monastary. 

If you guyd wondering what's Montserrat Monastary Basilicia? 

Montserrat - serrated mountain that plays a vital role in the cultural and spiritual life of Catalonia. As it's Catalonia most important religious retreat and group of young people from Barcelona makes a hight at least once in their life to watch sunrise from the top 

Basilicia - the name of the church at Montserrat. Most people visit Montserrat its because the gotchic building of architechture significance. Also, it houses what is arguably Montserrat's most important feature - the statue of the Black Madona

Scroll, Scroll & Scroll to see more pictures! 

Me & my family was standing at the front of the monastary's door. Really like their wall! Looks very majestic LOL! All of their floor was made up from a marble.

How beatiful it is! The had a church service - silent mode that time so, I wasn't able to snap lots of picture. 

That's some of the pictures that I managed to snapped from the right area of the church. Evnthough it's not much, I hope those pictures inspires you to visit this church :)

Finally, I had to lined up from the outside to get to see the Black Madona Statue. It took me around 30 minutes wait outside to see the statute. They will just open their door once their church service is done so it will not get disturbed. 

And, I had to queued for another 15 minutes inside to get to see the statute. Because the corridor was small, so people must walked closely and in a silent manner. 

Oh btw, the photos that I snapped previously was taken along the corridor before I got the chance to see the Black Madona statue. 

And finally, here we go. Black Madona Statue

What do you think about this statue? Each person must see it individually because the space was too small. We could pray and touch the statue for couple of minutes too. 

That's was our visit to the monastary and we was waiting outside for the other group member.

We had our lunch nearby the monastery, then we headed back to the city to have a walked at 

La Ramblas!

La Ramblas is the centre street in Barcelona that's popular with tourists and locals too. Its popularity with tourist has affected the character of the street, with a move to pavement cafes and souvenir kiosks. Branded boutiques such as LV and others as well as normal boutiques such as H&M, Zara, Stardivarius and others could be found along the street. 

This street has also suffered from the attention of pickpockets

I ended my night by watching the Flamenco Show and also had dinner at the same time. It a traditional show. But, I didn't really like it and it was wasting time LOL. 

Thank you Barcelona, I am beginning to fall in love with you. 

See you on the next blog & thanks for reading! 

Things to do in Southern Europe: Day 1

It's been quite a while since I finally travelled out of Asia because I was studying at Melbourne. But,  am super happy to finally get to travel again with my family. 

I went to Western Europe couple of years ago. It's completely different from what I saw especially the scenary and the atmoshphere. I couldn't be more thankful that I choosen this destination.

So in this post, I'm going to share about my day 1 of stay at Southern Europe trip and hoping that everyone would enjoy it :) I was 10 days travelling and I joined a tour - Karmel Tour and Travel from Surabaya for this trip. So, they had already prepared everything for my trip including hotel, transportation, foods and destionations. 

First, whenever in Europe, you must be very careful with pickpocker / it is known as "copet" in Indonesia. They are just anywhere around the corner; it could be a child, man/women that's goodlooking and doens't looks like they're a pickpocker. They are very smart and have a trick on how to take our important stuffs without us realizing it. 

Therefore, it's better for us to apply an insurance as we could claim the money back if something's happening. Because, one of my mom's friend money was stolen that time and surprisingly she could claim her money back. 

Getting the SIM card at the airport was easy and wasn't that expensive. But, I didnt't getting any SIM card because my tour leader told me that WiFi could be found anywhere and also always available in the hotel. 

And yeah, that's TRUE!

Most places close at 19:00 if I am not wrong. However, restaurants, cafes and supermarkets opens till later time.

Bad experience that I had with this trip was the time when I didn't realize that it was summer over there :( So, yea I was patiently beared with the hot and quite humid weather. 

It reached till 40 degree celcius, DAMN! 

Day 1 - Barcelona, Spain

So, my first destination was to Camp Nou Stadium. It cost me 23,00€ to purchased this tour ticket.     I was inside the stadium for one and a half hour and being able to discovered the huge stadium and FC Barcelona Museum. I'm not a big fan of any soccer club, but yeah I was okay when I have to visited a soccer stadium. It's was a great experience for me as that time was my first time visited a soccer stadium

Can you spot me? LOL!

 I looked really small standing in front of the soccer field. Eventhough, it was really scorching hot under the sun, but the huge fan that's standing around the corner helped to cooled me down. 

I really like the soccer field as it was super duper clean - the grass looked really fresh and green too. 

This is a closer look of me with the soccer field and this photo was taken near by the audience seat. I couldn't stepped to the soccer field because there was no access to get to the soccer field. 

Sadly, I didn't snapped any of the museum photos but my brother has it in his camera. 

Sagrada Familia Church

Me and my brother took a photo from the back of the church because it enabled us to took picture cleatly as compared from the front of the church. The back part of the church wasn't as crowded as compared to the front of the church. 

This church is a large Roman Catholic Church in Barcelona, Spain. Although its incomplete, it looks really sturdy, luxury and beautiful inside and outside. 

Here's the inside look of the church! The building itself looks really majestic lol! Antoni Gaudi - the architect must be very creative till he was able to came up with an idea of the construction of this church. I don't know how the workers built everything back then. No wonder, it took them a very long time to construct this church. I'm not sure how many more years they need to complete the inside and outside of this church's construction. 

Harbour view on top of the hill

I finally took a photo on top of the Barcelona's hill. YAY!! Being able to saw the beauty scenery of the Barcelona - the harbour view. I enjoyed the view as it really took my breath away. The city looked really clean and has a great pattern from the top. 

oH I remember that I was wearing the wrong clothes that time. I was wearing a long blouse and jeans and it was really hot for me. Are you guys wondering why? Because, I just landed from Singapore that day, so I straight away had my city tour.

I passed by Plazza Espana, Plazza Reial, Gothic Square, and others. But, I the photos're not with me that's why I couldn't show it here. Sorry.. 

I just have to end this post and will be posting my other day 2 at Barcelona soon. 

Hope you enjoyed my day 1 post!:)