23 March 2014

Paris 2014

My teacher one day decided to join some classes that studied french in my school, 
and go casually visit Paris for a weekend.

I'm going to start off by showing you Day1 lunch:

Carrots, rice, veggies and nuggets.
I basically ate all the vegetables, tried the nuggets and did not touch the rice.
This is what you can eat in a youth hostel.

The next lunches were better, as we went to cafes and restaurants.
Also, we survived on chips and coffee the rest of the time.

Our big group, well (or not so well) fed, visited the Notre Dame cathedral. This is the back view.

Front door

Front again

Full view of the Notre Dame cathedral.

Next, we went to see the Eiffel Tower:

It's there!

The weather was not great, so the pictures tend to look .. not so pretty.



I love the details.


Then we boarded a Bateau Mouche, a narrow and long boat that travels the river Seine and has 'audio phones' where you can listen to the stories of the different buildings and bridges you cross.




On Day2:



The love bridge with all the locks.

So much love <3




After a short walk we arrived at the Louvre, this is the main entrance:


Yes, it's a glass pyramid!
You get in, and then down, to a huge hall and then you get directed up again to the different rooms.

We had a tour guide to explain us some of the paintings.
The stories were interesting, but the details on how the paint is displayed etc etc was boring...


Huge paintings!



And one of the most famous...


Hey there Mona.

Somewhere outside, 3 cute pyramids...

As I said before, we basically fuelled ourselves with coffee, and there was a Starbucks at every corner of the city...


Coffee by day, Alcohol by night.
Catching the Happy Hour for mojitos, margaritas, sex on the beach and all these yum cocktails.




Day 3 we left early, but we visited a museum and we went for a walk:

Morning next to the river Seine.


Then, we went to the Musee d'Orsay. More art.

The clock seen from inside.

Well known paintings were displayed there.

The building itself is very artistic.


Details of the roof.



We went to visit Montmartre, a really pleasant neighbourhood... were Moulin Rouge is found !
The weather was fantastic, the sun cheered me up.
We found the wall of Love. The phrase ''I love you'' is written in almost (if not all) the languages of the world.





Did you spot 'i love you' in your language??

The last picture is this one. A cafe viennois (whipped creammmm)

I did not take too many pictures, and did not take pictures of my food...
Paris is a city i've visited so many times that does not feel so strange and new as it did.

I don't have much to say overall, we stayed in a youth hostel (very clean and good location)
and we traveled by bus all over the place. Also, we visited the city by night, which I had not done before. 

I cannot say it was the best trip , but many more (exciting trips) are about to come!

15 February 2014

Milan 2014

My first time in Milan, Italy. Spent 48 hours there.
This picture shows the Duomo, the cathedral, which is the main attraction in Milan.

DAY 1


 We visited the city centre.
There is a big square beneath the Duomo, and you can find big shops all around it!
Like La Rinascente. 
 The square with many many people.


The entrance to the Corso Vittorio Emmanuelle. 
More shops!

Inside the Gallerie.


Uh Hello.

On one side of the Duomo you could see they are working on it, and to 'cover' the works they displayed a huge DKNY advertisement... Italians know how to make money.

We flew in the morning to Milan, then walked from our rooms (not even hotel) to the city center and then back. Took us more than an hour in total but it was worth it!
As you can see I was very tired...

Day 2

My yummy breakfast at BAR BLIX, viale bligny,Milano. Here you have great address. 
The owner was very nice to us, who we, tried to talk good italian (and probably made mistakes)
 Okey, what is a Bahbohh post without food eh?
I'm not showing in the picture, but we had a latte machiatto and an espresso. EACH.
I took a donut out of greed...its pink okey? And my greed led me to be disappointed as it was filled with some ultra sweet strawberry syrup. The muffin was amazing. It had chocolate in the middle all the way through and nuts. Nuts help the brain work.

Why do I want my brain working?
Well, the point of the trip was for me to take a test at the Bocconi University.
This is an aptitude test (very similar to the SAT test, but its only for 90 minutes) which is very recommended if you wish to enter the university.
I believe I did a good job...maybe the maths were not as easy and anyways I had 90 questions in 90 minutes so some questions were left unanswered. 

Anyhow, after the test, some unorganised italian people managed to show us the residences for the students. The residences were alright, but one of them had a fitness+game place and a rooftop, which i'd love to use. After the visit to the University, we were hungry, and needy for food from Milan.

We found the most original place, very well decorated and FULL with italians. That's the place to go.
It is called Amici Miei, located at Viale Bligny,42,Milano.  (passing there? eat there)
It serves typical food from Lombardia, the region were Milan is found.

 We chose the daily menu, the first plate was soup.
We needed to warm up!
This soup had lentils and other legumes. Very tasty.

Second plate. I was already feeling full...and then saw this Cottoletta Milanese overflowing the plate.
Like literally, one third of it is outside the plate. Huge. I skipped the salad and decided to full my stomach with a special plate from Milan. It was so good. I could not stop. But I stopped because I was already eating more than what my stomach allows me to...
We ended our meal with an espresso machiatto. Delicious. 
Did I mention that both plates, a bottle of water and the coffee cost only 10 euros?
Like crazy cheap and enough food to feed me for an entire day.

Later, in the evening, my dad (yes, he is the other person in the 'we' )
wanted to visit a beer bar. But not any beer place, this place, produces its OWN beer.
My dad, as an artisan beer enthusiast decided we should go there have a beer.
We took a bus to arrive there, and then we almost got lost in the neighbourhood.


We finally found the street.

A scent between hops and marihuana came to my nose...

We went inside the Birrificio Lambrate. (another great address)
It was full of people. We found a table with some stools near the counter. On a blackboard there were written the names of the beers available at the moment.

The right one was mine, a blond one, quite light, with a sweet aroma.
The left one was stronger, and had an intense hops smell.
After this, my dad had a second beer and we took two paninis to have some kind of dinner.
I was so full from the previous meal I gave my panino to my dad.
Also, we met a very interesting guy, Manlio, who knew everything about politics,economics and anything related to human culture.

Next day we had breakfast at Bar blix again and then got ready to go to the airport. To which we took the metro and then a 50minute bus ride.
Milan is a beautiful city, it has its sunny days as well as rainy ones.
People are very welcoming and will be delighted to talk to you.
A little tip: learn some italian, they prefer italian to english.

Random picture of the day:

This is the beginning of my candy crush costume!
I made these with felt, fabric glue, fluff, and scissors (also, i used real Smarties for the brown candy)

I cut myself from the Videogame group picture.
I clipped the candy plashes on to an old grey dress and wore red leggings to match the jelly beans.

Okey That's it for today !
I've some posts coming up...as I'm probably going to travel for a few days to France. 
Stay tuned!