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harith ami & muhriz

My darling husband turned 26 on Wednesday(16.12)!!

God gives me the gift of love and it's you,hubby!
Happy Birthday abg,may all your wishes come true.


p/s: i have so many things to write here(Barcelona day 3,our friends visit,hubby's birthday celebration) but a housewife can be very busy too.Till later,enjoy the long weekend guys!
I'm going to load this entry with photos,just bare with me ok! ;p
And a little sharing about visiting
Spain and other EU countries.Spain is a member of Schengen union,in which the visa holder can travel to any of its member countries using one single visa.And being a Malaysian is even more fortunate as the Malaysian passport serves as the Schengen visa itself.If you are visiting Schengen countries for less than 3 month,you do not have to apply for separate visa,guna passport jer.So flight from DE to Spain can be considered "domestic" and does not have to pass through immigration control at all(at departure/arrival gates),except that Ryan-air requires the non-EU passport holders to verify their passport at the check-in counter and get a stamp on the boarding pass and you're good to go.
I also forgot to note this in the previous post.On the first day,i brought dinner all the way from Augsburg,gigih tak?hahaha sebab dah survey online there's no halal eateries nearby our hotel and sampai pon dah ptg kan,might as well bawak jer. You can download the halal/mosque directory on your GPS from zabihah.com,and believe me,it comes handy,danke zabihah.com!

Since it's winter and the day starts late(subuh habis 8:05am),we started our day quite late too,around 830am.Like most of the EU countries,most shops are closed on Sundays in Spain.The opening hours for shops and offices in Spain is rather funny,according to what i read,on weekdays,they are closed from 1pm-4pm,lame gile lunch break!But large cities and major tourist attractions may not follow these schedule,some shops like supermarket,souvenir stores and of course restaurants in Barcelona are still open on Sunday.Spaniards are also known for eating lunch and dinner so late(lunch is between 2-4pm and dinner is between 9-11pm).weird huhh?

Ok back to the trip,our initial plan was to have breakfast at one of the cafes in Placa Catalunya.But it was 845am and there were still no cafe opened!Apa daa,the only one yg dah bukak was McDonald's,so we had no choice,pancake die tak sedap giler huhu.Tourist center opened at 9am and we dropped by to get a bus map but they said it's not possible as the only map available was the one posted at the bus stop,huhu.Fine lah,we just take the metro or walk!Hihi kalau tourist bus hop on hop off tue i tak pernah naik,i would rather take the public transport,unless pegi sehari jer ker.

Placa Catalunya
A visit to Barcelona is not complete without visiting Gaudi's buildings.Gaudi is one brilliant architect who built buildings without a single straight line.His work was greatly influenced by forms of nature and adorned with beautifully colored tiles.So Sunday was the day to honor and explore his most celebrated works: Casa Mila(La Pedrera),Casa Batillo,Park Guell and the unfinished cathedral,the Sagrada Familia.
First stop was Casa Batillo which resembles a dragon,no?We decided not to tour the interior as we did not have enough time and i was more interested to see the other building at end of the Passeig de Gracia,Casa Mila or better known as La Pedrera.

Casa Batillo

The construction of Casa Mila was completed in 1910 and is said to be the best example of Gaudi's concept of nature.Gaudi made everything flows and swirls that none of the walls in this building are straight.Most famous and my favorite too are the rooftop with bizarre shaped chimneys,looking like medieval soldiers helmets. There's exhibition inside the building where we could see Gaudi's work up close like how he designed the building and typical hubby did not want to miss any of this that we we spent more than 2 hours here hahaha.
Segrada Familia from the rooftop of Casa MilaAliens attack! ;p
Soldier's helmet cum alien chimneys


us

About 800m from Casa Mila is the renowed symbol of Barcelona,the Segrada Familia.Most cities have their own distinctive monuments,London with Big Ben,the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Barcelona has this Gaudi's Segrada Familia.This is Gaudi's final and most devoted project.It was unfinished when he died in 1926 and the construction work is still on going today and i read somewhere it is expected to be completed in 2026,a long way to go.This cathedral is massive and packed with cranes.Some critics believe it's best to leave the temple as it is.My personal take on this building?If you look closely,the melting effect of the cylindrical towers looks rather err hideous?But he was surely a genius person,who could have construct this in early 1900? Close to the Segrada Familia was the Hospital De La Santa Creu,not by Gaudi but it was also declared as a World Cultural Heritage.The architecture defies the design of the Eixample by aligning the building to the streets.It's the most adorned hospital i have ever seen!
Time for lunch and i told hubby earlier that i would like to sample marisco(seafood)meals since i heard great things about seafood in Barcelona.We asked for mr google's help and found this busy but highly recommended restaurant.There's 3 Paradetas in Barcelona and we went to the one in Sagrada as we were already in that neighborhood.The food was excellent!The fresh seafood was displayed on the counter and i got to pick out what i wanted to eat.Got them weighted and priced(the prices depend on the weight like in markets and seafood restaurants in Msia),let them know how i'd like it to be cooked,paid ,found a table and waited to be called.Once the meal was ready,they called our number(in Spanish).So if you plan to dine here,make sure you know how does your number sounds in Spanish.The seafood was cooked very simply,no paella,masak 3 rasa;p whatsoever,it's either broiled,fried or steamed,we got ours broiled and fried.Most importantly,the price was so affordable,what we had below was Euro40.Considering it's Spain where people believe is one of the best place to have seafood,and considering it's Barcelona where a medium sized pizza costs Euro14,we think this place is so worth it.Locals and tourists love this restaurant so we went 10 minutes before the opening time(as suggested on the net) and there was a queue even then.But we did not have to wait long as we were number 8(Ocho in Spanish).The place is nothing posh,it's just a simple self service restaurant,yet can be very exciting experience.If there's another trip to Barca,we would surely dine here again!But if you prefer a more formal dining,try one of the seafood restaurants in the area of Barceloneta(near Barcelona’s beach). We had oysters,gambas(prawns),squids and razor clams.Fish selection was limited but we're totally fine without fish.Did i ever mention that hubby dislike fish? ;p



I particularly enjoyed the razor clam and gambas! Hubby macam biasa la,squids and nothing else.
After lunch,we headed back to hotel utk solat,rehat kejap and walked up the hill to the Park Guell.Park Guell is Gaudi's enchanted hilltop park which was completed in 1914.
The park's main entrance
The grand stairways and the multi-colored dragon fountain.Everybody wants a picture of him or herself next to the dragon,so these are the best i could come out with.
Forest of pillars.These pillars support the rooftop plaza below.I love this part!Looking like a fairy-tale garden isn't it?
Rooftop plaza with colorful winding banks
We went back to the hotel after Park Guell and went out again to Port Vell and Port Olympic.I was quite exhausted at this point,so i had no mood to take photos.Shame to admit but,i am no good with night mode ;p Had pizza for dinner,balik hotel pengsan!Tak sure si hubby tido bila,nie malas kalau hotel tue ade sport channel aiyooo.
Holla!
Alhamdulillah,Barcelona trip was awesome!Excellent weather,wonderful architectures,the whole atmosphere was just special and we had a blast! We left for Memmingen airport on Saturday morning and the local temperature was below 0!Duhh tak pasal2 kene pakai bubble jacket.Anyway the 1.5 hours flight journey was smooth and the view while crossing the Alps was breathtaking,i will share the photo later.Hubby forced me to put up his GPS photos nie,ntah ape-ape abg nie,800km/hr,go figure!

Arrived Girona airport at 230pm.I was surprised to see the number of flights traveling to Girona,almost dari semua ryanair destinations.But there's only one coach service going to Barcelona,so you will not miss it.Girona is 1.5 hours bus ride from the center of Barcelona,pretty much as far as Memmingen to Augsburg.The metro station(L1:Arc de Triomf) is in close vicinity to the coach terminal so that helped .Barcelona is divided into several districts and our hotel is in Gracia,3 stops away from the main hub,Catalunya.I'm glad that we're pretty much organized and orientated this time,byk benda i sempat survey before going,including which metro tickets to purchase.Those visiting this city,pay particular attention at the metro stations as they are hot spots for pickpockets.The thieves will be watching where you put your purse after you have paid your tickets so "looking lost" leaves you as an easy-victim.We had witnessed an incident at one of the stations,i'll talk about it later too.

Since maghrib dah awal,515pm,lepas maghrib baru keluar.First stop was the Camp Nou,the home of FC Barcelona and is claimed as the largest stadium in Europe.Hubby is a football nut and crazy about Liverpool that he refuses to visit any other stadium besides Liverpool's( kat London dulu,stamford's bridge yg less than 1 mile from my place pon die tanak pegi).Tapi he's into Barca and Rome club too,so die nak tgk Camp Nou,but i did not expect he was interested to tour the stadium so i did not care about the stadium opening hour hahaha.I'm always the travel manager;preparing itineraries,schedules,to-dos and of course lah packing.But he couldnot blame me for missing this one as he just said"make sure kite pegi Camp Nou" ;p
So sampai-sampai tgk dah tutup,tgkla
muka hubby hahaha. But i assured him that there must be club stores at the city center that we could drop by. Kalau pasal football,donot play-play with him ok hahaha,takooottt.
After Camp Nou,we headed to Placa de Espanya to see the Font Magica,a spectacular display of light,music and water acrobatics.

The water games ended our first day.




1 more day to Barca hihi.It's going to be a very short trip,but i couldnot ask for more,hubby ade paper to submit before the christmas break,so this is good enough.So let see...

Boarding pass-printed
Hotel-confirmed,booking slip-printed
trip itinerary-ready
airport transfer-checked
public transport-metro map studied and printed
GPS and halal directory-ready
City map-still waiting for the guide(from UK),mane nih
weather forecast-checked
waktu solat,kiblat,mosque-checked
english-spain-catalan dictionary-ready
ipod-charged and synced

so tinggal nak pack jer.Since we are staying and traveling in EU,currency is not a problem.Hopefully spain nie murah la sket dari DE nie huhu.Our friends keep reminding us to safeguard our personal belongings as pick pocketing and bag snatching is a real problem in Barca.Read about a friend's experience on losing her bag in McDonalds.She put the bag down at her feet,only to learn it was gone few minutes later.So hubby got himself a neck pouch to be
worn under his shirt.Hopefully we're going to have a safe trip.I will come back in a few days with loads of photos ok,tschuss,schoenes Wochenende!

Salam all,

I need some opinions.I'm coming back in exactly a month and will be traveling a lot between Kota Bharu,Jerantut,KL and Kuantan.I am the one who can't live without internet but definitely boleh survive without ASTRO hehe.So kami tgh survey mobile broadband.Hmm why on earth maxis nie tak ada yg flatrate?kalau nak skype one whole nite habis la.Yerp i did that quite often, whenever hubby was not around,i would ask him to turn on the skype video until i fall asleep,kate penakot ya rabbi ;p.My siblings are all using and recommending Celcom since that seems the only one offering unlimited quota with reasonable speed.P1 Wimax is out of the list because of the very very limited coverage it has(I'm talking about outside of Klang Valley here ya).Haihh i hate the slow internet back home,tapi ape nak buat.So it looks like Celcom's advance package is the winnter;RM98/mth for unlimited usage(with 5GB fair usage policy) and speed up to 3.6Mbps.Tapi kan,yg lucu nye,when we tried to check the coverage page,the link is broken,apakah?huhu.So anyone care to share?Danke danke.
Salam All,
Eid Mubarak to you!
Rindunya kelate!Selalunya right after ambil daging,my ma terus goreng,bakar,buat soup,singgang,mkn perut,paru,sedap la haiwan nie ;p.This year alhamdulillah beraya with hubby but basically macam tak raya lah.Abg needs to be in lab dari pagi sampai late afternoon esok,5pm pon ade meeting lagi.Owh well,my arms still sakit sebab main Wii melampau,so i have all the excuses to serve simple meal esok.Roti jala jer kot,kalau tak larat,roti+kari hihi.

Aidil Adha 2006-Hubby and BIL in action