Europe 2014: Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona is beautiful. With it's whole city being Gaudi's work, it is an artistic city.

We stayed in David's apartment we booked via Airbnb, and I must say it was quite good.
3 bedrooms which was more than enough for the 3 of us. In fact, one bedroom was only used to open our luggages. Spacious indeed the whole apartment.

The living room, the smallish kitchen in the hallway and the bathroom/toilet.

  

And there were the 3 rooms - more than enough for the 3 of us.

Bedroom 1 which had 2 single beds, bedroom 2 with a twin bed, and bedroom 3 with a single bed.

   

Location wise was good as it was in the middle of most of the touristy places. Park Guell, which was the nearest, was just about 10 minutes walk away.
And there were 2 metro stations very near the apartment, Alfonso X and Joaquinn  if I remembered correctly, so it was pretty easy to get around.

Anyway, just some photos of beautiful Barcelona.

Park Guell is a Unesco World Heritage site and is a garden complex with architectural elements, and was designed by Antoni Gaudi and it was the first of his works we saw.
As it was situated on the hill of El Carmel in the Gràcia district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, so be prepared to huff and puff a little.

This was the park entrance and we got ourselves tickets. It was €8 but you could get it a dollar cheaper if you buy the tickets online. We didn't because we needed to specify the time of visit and we wanted a little flexibility for this. Anyway, the queue wasn't long anyway. 

 

The park has some amazing tile mosaics. These were the walls flanking the entry staircase.

 

Not sure if you can see clearly from the pics below, but these tiles were like broken into a thousand pieces, and then re-glued back into their original designs, which I think was such painstaking work!!!!
And they were like 3D, which means they were not flat, but u could see some depth in these tiles. Amazing indeed!

  

  

Gaudi's multicoloured mosaic salamander, popularly known as "el drac" (the dragon), at the main entrance. 

And as we entered the main terrace of the park, this was the view that greeted us. Breathtaking view!

The unique shape of the serpentine bench. The bench was tiled and in order to dry up quickly after it rains, and to stop people from sitting in the wet part of the bench, small bumps were installed by Gaudi.
I tell you this man was brilliant!

The colonnaded footway and pathway where the road projects out from the hillside, with the vaulting forming aretaining wall which curves over to support the road, and transmit the load onto slopping columns. .

  

More of the park. 

  

A beautiful view overlooking the Barcelona city. 

There were many illegal people selling all kinds of things and trinkets, ranging from bracelets, to scarves to earrings and hats and all other kinds of souvenirs. 

I was amazed by their creativity. Most of the sellers displayed their products on a large piece of cloth. And can you see that there is a string at 4 corners of the cloth that meets in the middle, creating an X? Well, from what I saw, as long as these sellers heard news that the officers were coming for a raid or something, they would just pinch the string in the middle and the whole cloth wrapped up as a sack and off they ran! 

As for the earring guy, he displayed all the earrings hooked on an umbrella standing on a tripod. It could even turn for viewing pleasure. And all he needed to do was to close the umbrella and off he ran as long as he hears news of the raid.

Very creative huh?

  

The park was rather too large for us to explore thoroughly to be honest. We got tired after like almost 2 hours there and we still didn't cover the whole park. And thanks to the scorching sun, we were tired and decided that was all. 

So if you are going to the park, please be prepared to wear good walking shoes. Lotsa walking needed. LOTS! 

More of Barcelona. Mostly, if not all, are Gaudi's work.

We walked through the district shopping area, which was very interesting as both sides of the roads were lined with shops and thus we were distracted quite a lot as we went inside Zara, Esprit, and other shops. lol.

This is Casa Milà, another one of Gaudi's work. 

  

This Palau de la Música Catalana is a concert hall in Barcelona. Ok, this one's not from Gaudi, but from some architect called architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner.

This building was rather hidden in some cramped street, and if without the help of this awesome CityMapsToGo app which I mentioned here, we wouldn't have found it. 

 

And then we went to Barcelona Cathedral, another one of Gaudi's work.
It was nice on the exterior, or interior.
To enter this cathedral for free, no bare shoulders or shorts above your knee.
So as I was wearing my shorts jumpsuit, I used my scarf to wrap around my bare legs and they let me in. So always bring a scarf if you plan to enter any religious places.

Interior was amazingly beautiful, Gothic style.

  

And these were the food we ate while in Barcelona. Some of their famous paellas of course, and tapas, and also churros, and many others. 

  

   

  

  

 

Another awesome place we visitied was the The Magic Fountain of Montjuïc, which is a fountain located at the head of Avenida Maria Cristina in the Montjuïc neighborhood of Barcelona.

It was quite far from where we were staying so we took metro there. 

Standing in front of the big fountain before they turned the fountain on.

The light and music performances from May to September take place every Thursday through Sunday every half-hour between 9:00 and 11:00pm.

Entrance is free. 

And behind are more mini fountain behind it.

 

The view of it from atop the hill. The big fountain is behind the four vertical columns. 

And as the time drew nearer to 9pm, crowds started gathering and finding strategic places to sit.
There were some street performers there entertaining the crowd before the show started.

The first show at 9pm was not so spectacular as the day was still bright.
Yes, it was still so bright at 9pm during summer time. Day is very long during summer!

So we decided to stay on and wait for the next few shows when the sun set and the night got darker.

And that how the fountain show looks like as it got darker and darker - more and more impressive. 

Best fountain show ever as the water shot up VERY high!

 

 

 

 

A romantic photo of the 2 of us, but actually we got quite wet from the splash! lol.

The mini fountain behind was quite nice too with the lights and fountain.

Look at the crowd and people as we started to leave the place an hour or two later. 

 

And finally, this was the main reason my sister got us to flew all the way from London down to Barcelona, and then fly up again to Paris - La Sagrada Familia.
Well, I was glad she made us visit Barcelona, and to visit this extraordinary church.

I would say that if you only have time for one sightseeing outing, this should be the one.
La Sagrada Familia inspires awe in its sheer verticality, and also the intricate design as a whole, be it external or internally. As most of the buildings in Barcelona, this one is also Gaudi's design. In fact it was said that it was Antoni Gaudi's all-consuming obsession.
In fact, it is still under construction as of now after more than a 100 years.

The queue to purchase the tickets was ridiculously long. Luckily we bought the tickets online beforehand, because seriously if we didn't, I don't think I would stand in the queue in the scorching sun!

So guys, please purchase tickets online before hand. For this, you need to specify the time of entry (there is a 1/2 hr time pocket for entry) so don't be late as late comers may be denied entry.

Some photos of us while waiting for our time slot. 

And I like this selfie in a selfie photo of me!!! ;)  

 

Just the exterior building of it was soooo impressive. The delicate carvings and the details. 

  

The interior.

  

I love the stained glasses.

 

The ceiling of the main hall. Such intricate designs even when looking up.

  

 

We also bought the Entry to Tower of Nativity Façade.

All backpacks must be kept in lockers provided. 

We took the lift up, and were told to walk down the stairs.  As we walked down, we saw these views. 

  

Very very beautiful views of Barcelona.
As Sagrada Familia is right in the heart of the city, we could see the blocks and blocks of building of Barcelona city. Amazing.

  

This was the narrow stairs we took as we walked down. Not for the faint heared. 

  

Some interesting concept and architectural genius design we saw in the museum area. 

On the other side of the building.

  

 

View from the exterior at another side.

  

As we left the place, we walked across the park and we saw this beautiful view of the building across a small green lake.

 

And this summed up our visit to Barcelona.

p/s - Read more on my Europe trip here. 

Review & Giveaway: Japan's GINO Multi Food Cutter

To tell the truth, I was a bit apprehensive when I was given this for a review. I didn't even really know what a multi food cutter was.
But I was pleasantly surprised and pleased at how a simple product proved to be so useful.

PACKAGING and FIRST IMPRESSIONS

This was what I saw the moment I opened the parcel. 

The plastic packaging was full of photos and instructions in Japanese!

This is because this is a product from Japan.

Although it is in a foreign language (I sure do not know how to read Japanese!), it is actually quite simple to understand the product with the illustrations on the plastic packaging . 

 

Upon tearing off the plastic, inside revealed a hard transparent plastic container. I like that this hard plastic container protects the multi food cutter inside.

I also like that it comes with this container for easy and clean storage.  

This is how it looks like. 

 

The Gino Multi Food Cutter is made of very durable plastic material, with soft and smooth edges on the handling area. It is very evident that it is of a superior quality, and not a flimsy product. 

 

And as what the illustration on the plastic packaging tells us, this Gino Milti Food Cutter is an ingenious scissors with 2 great ways of using it, which is able to cut AND mash different kinds of food easily into bite sizes with ease.  

Source: akiddo.com.my

The photo on the left, with the scissors close, is how you mash and flatten the food.
Just close the scissors and  the flat surface will mash and flatten the food.

And the photo on the right, with the scissors open, is how you cut the food.
Open and close it like how you use a regular scissors and it will cut the food into pieces.

 

This is a few closed up photos to show you how the mouth of this food cutter looks like.
Pretty cool, huh?

 

I also like that there are 4 holes for you to hold the scissors with your fingers. You can hold it anyhow you like as long as you are comfortable and the four holes are certainly enough to provide ease of using it. 

USING IT

Now let's put it to test. 

This is cooked carrot so is pretty soft.

I didn't use it to flatten it as Khye was already having semi-solid food in bigger chunks by then. 

So I just used it as a regular scissors to cut it into smaller pieces. In less than 5 seconds, it was done. I was impressed that it took only less 5 seconds, as it usually takes quite a while longer for me to cut it using a spoon, which I normally did. 

 

 

And here I was again, cutting 3 types of food - steamed carrots and steamed ground nuts, and also the water chestnuts.
The steamed carrots and steamed ground nuts were soft so it was easy and fast.
But the water chestnuts were still very crunchy but this scissors still did the trick! It was easy!

 

  

In just a very short while, my food was all cut up into the sized that I wanted. And I usually served it with rice for Khye. I poured the cut up food into a small bowl of rice with soup.

 

And Khye my fussy eater at that time, ate all up yummily. 

Next on, trying it out with meat.
You know meat is not so soft and easy to cut into smaller pieces.
Usually I would use a small scissors to cut up the meat, or maybe I would use my hands and fingers for easier cutting up.
But now with this Gino Multi Food Cutter, no more using my fingers, and it cut meat so well!

I think this is also a great product especially for babies who are still having mashed food, as it mashes food in seconds!
It is a simple tool which made mashing super easy, especially for mums who need to mash a big amount of food, and don't own a blender. It saves tiring hands!

It is also a good use for the elderly who has not much teeth or with chewing difficulty. This Gino Multi Cutter cuts and mashes easily and very useful for the carer.

I'd tried using it on different food, be it fruits, vegetables and also noodles, and many more.

It is also small enough to chuck it into your diaper bag or even your handbag for that speedy food preparation even when you are outside.
It's dimension is only 133 x 50.5 x 210 mm.

Another thing which I like is that it is sooooo easy to wash. Just rinse it with soap and water. Done.
And if you are really particular, this multi food cutter can be dismantled for thorough washing by twisting the small little knob in the middle and it divides into two. Wash it thoroughly with soap and water and then twist it back.
You can also rinse it with hot water to sterilize it.

And my favourite of all it that I don't have to worry about rust, as there is no metal parts at all! How about that? This multi food cutter is made of high quality ABS plastic.

All in all, I think this Gino Multi Food Cutter is a nice added thing to have to make all mother's life easier. It is of such high quality, and with this price, it is actually a steal!



TO PURCHASE 

You can get this Gino Multi Food Cutter from niceVIN.
You can make a purchase through their Facebook Page, or also through their Website .

GIVEAWAY 

I am pleased to announce that the nice people at niceVIN  is sponsoring 2 pieces of GINO MULTI FOOD CUTTERS  to TWO lucky winners!
Win for yourself, or maybe for your friend. :)

This giveaway is open to my Malaysian readers. (or if you have a Malaysian mailing address!)

Giveaway ends on 20th Aug 2014 (Wednesday) 11.59pm Malaysian time. 

Please fill up the Rafflecopter below to to be eligible for a chance to win this giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

* Disclosure: I received a GINO Multi Food Cutter  for review purpose, but no monetary incentive was received. All text and opinions are of my own and represents my honest opinion of the product(s).

Conversation with Shern - 5 Years 2 Months

Shern: Daddy, please help me to build the tracks for my Lego train.
(Daddy went to help him build, but then later asked Shern to help)
Daddy: Come, let us build together.
Shern: I'm lazy.
Daddy: I'm lazy too.
Shern: Daddy, never ever give up ok. Build halfway already then you must never ever give up.
(Shern went on to sing the Never Ever Give Up song from Thomas & Friends!)
Daddy: "_"

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I took Shern for a haircut at his usual hair salon.
Me: Shern, please look straight so that aunty can see properly and will cut nicely. And also please close your mouth, if not later the hair will go inside your mouth.
Shern: I'm in jail.
Me: What jail?
Shern: Yes, in jail cannot move and talk and my hands are also hidden underneath this big cloth.
Me: lol.


and then 5 mins later....Aunty was holding his ear a little to shave the hair on top of his ear.


Shern: Aunty, that is my ear. Please cut my hair and not my ears. But don't cut me until botak ahh...
Aunty: No botak la, your hair is still here. Will cut the same like Daddy's hair ok?
Shern: Then I will look like daddy.
Aunty: Hair same only, face not same. So won't look like daddy.
Shern: Yes, when I am big then I will look like Daddy with same hair.
Aunty: "_"

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Me: Shern, please don't put your leg up the balcony rails. If you fall down, you will die.
Shern: Mummy, it is ok because I am going up to Heaven when I die.
(oh no, this is not right. Later he thinks that death is something ok. So I need to think of some way to explain to him)
Me: If you do not listen to instructions or do silly things and you die, you will NOT go to Heaven.
Shern: Then I will go to Hell arr?
Me: Yes, if you do not listen to mummy and then climb up and fall down and die, then Heaven is not for naughty children.
(Shern thinks for awhile and then said)
Shern: I know, if I never look right and left, and right again when I cross the road and the car bangs into me, then I will not get to go to heaven.
If I got look right and left, and then right again, and the car bangs me, then I will go to Heaven. Am I right?
Me: Yes, you are right. Because you didn't do silly things.

(Looks like he got the concept alright. Phew. Kids these days ahh.....give me heart attack)

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