Europe 2nd Trip - Vatican City, Italy (Day 5)

29th Oct 2013, Tuesday, Sunny

Our breakfast

Today we are going to visit Vatican City and Vatican Museum. We woke up at around 5 or 6 plus, and our breakfast was delivered to our room at around 7 am. It was a set for 3 persons, we had breads, butter, juices, coffee, hot and cold milk and fruits. There was only 1 table and 1 chair in the room, so 2 of us had to stand around or sit on the bed to eat the breakfast (Anyway, this will be our breakfast again the next day..hahaa...). Then we wrote our postcards and pasted the stamps so that we can send them out from Vatican city.

Mummy Coffin

After the breakfast, we made our way our to Vatican Museum. It was tiring to take the metro, as it really was like taking forever for the train to come and we had to miss 3 trains as they were always packed and nobody was willing to move to let you come in. (Really need to appreciate our SMRT trains...compared to Italy metro). We pushed our way into the next train that come after that, so squeezy...and everyone would just push you out if you are just standing in the way (Noticed that the Italians don't really say 'excuse me' if they want to move past you, they just push their way to get past you). There were a lot of people when we reached the museum (luckily we made reservations online and it was faster) and there was security check too. After we passed through the security check, then we went to get our tickets. Funny thing, there wasn't much sign to indicate how to enter the museum. We saw a sign that indicate it was at the upper level, so we went up and saw some directional signs...and so we parted in 2 ways again (1 friend went on her own with the audio guide, and mi and another friend walked on our own in the other direction). There were so many people walking around the museum (a bit hard to move around too). The first room (Museo Gregoriano Egizio) we went into was an exhibition on Egyptian stuffs. It was soooo big and so many things to see, there even have a real mummy and the coffins displayed there. The whole museum was so big and we kept following the directional signs so that we can make our way up to the Sistine chapel, which was the highlight. The ceilings was also so beautiful with the beautiful color paintings. There was even a room (Galleria degli Arazzi) on tapestries which were woven on textiles, they were so real too. In the next room (Galleria Delle Carte Geografiche) is the gallery of maps, where it displayed all types of maps by paintings. There was also very big walkways with beautiful arts on the ceilings (you really have to go see it yourself, it can blow you away...we don't see them in Singapore...but they are really really beautiful...it will made you wonder how on earth the people can do the arts up in the ceiling...). And so, we kept walking towards Sistine Chapel...it was a long way to there (there were 2 ways to get to the chapel, 1 is the long way and the other is a shorter way...and mi and my friend went on the long way).

A Glass Art

Finally, we reached a room and it was stopped by a long queue. Gosh, the queue wasn't moving much and the room was so hot...we were getting impatient waiting there...and we had no idea why the people in front wasn't moving...After like 15 mins of waiting, we finally able to get our way up to the Sistine Chapel. It was a great hall with a lot of paintings on both sides of the walls and the ceiling. And a lot of people were inside, security guards were also there to control the crowd and to prevent people from taking photos. The Sistine Chapel is the personal chapel for the Pope and the place to select new Pope. The Pope Julius II had approached and even tried to bribe and threaten Michelangelo to help repaint the ceilings of the chapel. Michelangelo had agreed only with the condition that he had the freedom to do it his own way. The whole work was completed from between 1508 and 2 November 1512 (the whole work was on Christianity). All the paintings were so nice to see and looked very like 3D, all by famous painters, like The Creation of Adam (by Michelangelo), The Last Judgement (by Michelangelo), The Last Supper (by Cosimo Rosselli) (it was with a semi-round table instead of a long table and i always thought that it was with a long table, and so when my friend asked mi whether is the painting The Last Supper, i told her no lah...hahaa....then later we realised it was really The Last Supper when we saw all the names of the paintings inside the Sistine Chapel in the garden), etc. After staying in the chapel for 5 to 10 mins, we made our way out, and we still need to walk some more rooms before we can reach the exit. Finally, we made it out to the exit (which was the starting point), but our other friend wasn't done yet. So we rested for awhile and had some snacks, cos it was past 12 or 1 pm in the afternoon (seriously, it really took us a few hours just to cover the museum and not sure whether we covered the whole museum). Then later,we went down to the garden to walk around, there was boards showing all the paintings from the Sistine Chapel. Then we walked around to another exhibition room, which were showing Asian stuffs and then explored to another exhibition showing all the stamps of Vatican City throughout the years while waiting for my other friend.

Old Bridge Gelateria

After some time, my friend was done with her museum tour. Then we walked out to the museum to look for lunch. While walking out, we saw a small gelato shop which was having a long queue. My friend recongised it as a famous gelato shop (Old Bridge Gelateria) which was recommended in her Rick Steve's book. So we headed over to get some gelato (since we were already there, and we didn't regret it...heheee). There was one lady who was trying to ask us whether we were in the queue but she was speaking in Italian, so i didn't answered her. So basically she just went and stood in front of us to queue for her gelato. Anyway, we each got a cone with single scoop each (it costs euro $1.50 each and it was a big scoop)...and i got the mango flavor. It was super nice, i love it when i had the first lick on it (don't think can find the same taste in Singapore). So we were licking the gelato happily, at least for me...until we finished, we decided on our lunch place (I was the last one to finish it, as usual...ahh...so nice..). Later, we went to a restaurant just round the corner for lunch. The restaurant name is called L'Insalata Ricca Ristorante and it was famous for salads and pizzas. But we had ordered spaghetti & pasta instead and it was a mistake. It was plain and had no taste, it was not nice (both my friends ate until very sad for their lunch there....i ordered maltagliati pasta which was slightly better than the spaghetti, at least can taste the tomato flavor in it (but it was too much, can't finish it too). Other than our main course, we ordered the clams & mussels platter as our appetizer. It was nicer than our main course though, but not the best (later, we had much better in other places). When i called for the check, the staff (don't know is it the owner) somehow purposely gave the bill to my friend instead to me...so funny..seems like he was playing with us in a friendly way. Anyway, the lunch costs us euro $36 without the tip and guessed both my friends had a very sad lunch there.....

St. Peter Square

After the sad lunch, we headed down to Vatican City itself. It was a short distance walk to there, but there were chairs placed at the St. Peter Square (for some event the next day), which we can't walk to the center of the square. And there were a ceremony going on too in St. Peter's Basilica, which later blocked out some of the places inside (which we found out later when we were exploring the Basilica). We went into the Basilica, it was very big place, which was built by Michelangelo too. It was packed with people too.Wasn't able to go see the St. Peter tomb as it was blocked out due to the ceremony going on, we were unable to walk near the main altar (which was directly under the dome and St Peter's tomb was under the alter) too. Mi and my another friend walked until we ended up at the museum-treasury but we didn't went in to see cos it needed to buy tickets. So we went out again and looked around the basilica, we saw Michelangelo's work - Pietà which he had created when he was only 20 plus year old (main highlight). There was a lot of statues built around the whole basilica and there were some baby angels around on the walls and pillars. There was a holy door at the right side of the atrium, which was only opened on Holy year (occur every 25 years).  There was even a bronze statue of St. Peter too, somewhere near to the main altar. The body of Pope John XXIII (who was known as "Good Pope John") was also displayed there, in a glass case. He was wearing a red cloak and white grown. After which, we left and spent some time at St. Peter Square for some night view photo-taking. We saw 2 Swiss guards standing outside on the left side of the basilica. Then we sat down to think of our dinner place, it was so dark even though it was like only 5 or 6 pm plus. So we decided to go back to our hotel restaurant to try their food as it was also being recommended in TripAdvisor (and they had a sad lunch, wanted something nice for dinner).

Our dessert

We walked back to the metro station, halfway, we saw a provision-like shop (but it looked like a supermarket but smaller). We got some chocolate powder as there were so many different flavors to choose. We even bought a tiramisu, aragoste clocclato and cannolo back for our next day breakfast. Then we went back to the hotel room first and then went for dinner downstairs at the restaurant, it was named Target Restaurant. We ordered a clams & mussels platter as the appetizer, and i ordered seafood risotto (as i was craving for some rice...hohoho...). The clams & mussels was nice, better than the one we had during our lunch and the risotto was full with seafood (every spoon was with seafood meat). The place was with a good ambiance too, quiet and did i mentioned? The waiting for the food was very long...basically can wait until sleep and Italian people always eat like 3 or 4 courses per meal (Appetizer, 1st dish, 2nd dish and dessert). How can they eat so much per meal and stay skinny? I can't even finish 1 dish...hahhaa......but their food are really healthy, not oily type. This dinner costs a bit more expensive...around euro $84. Ohh..we ordered a dessert too...it was with 3 different desserts.  After the dinner, we were finally going back to the hotel to rest....conscuss right after my bath.

Hotel Stayed:
Target Inn

Places Visited:
Vatican Museum
St Peter's Square
St Peter's Basilica

Europe 2nd Trip - Rome, Italy (Day 4)

28th Oct 2013, Monday, Sunny

Today is the last day in Naples and we are going back to Rome for a 3 days' stay. We woke up at around 6 plus and got ready for the day. We packed our luggage and went upstairs for our breakfast (Still love the croissant and the triangular pantry there - it was known as sfogliatelle...... ^_^....nice nice). After the wonderful breakfast, we made our way back to our room and collected our luggage, later went down to do the check-out. Then we got the hotel staff to help us get us a cab to drive us down to the train station. After 5 to 10 mins, the cab arrived and we said goodbye to the hotel staff (who were all very helpful and pleasant during our stay).

Our Queue Number

When we arrived at the train station, we went to the tickets reservation office to make our train reservation. It was a group of people waiting in the queue too..luckily it wasn't as crowded as in Rome. But we were targeting for the next coming train, so i was left to wait in the office and my friends went to the platform with our luggage first (so once i am done with the reservations, we can just board the train). After a 10 mins wait, i finally got my turn and got the reservations done. I rushed out the platform and caught with my friends and we boarded the train. It was a 1 hour plus ride to Rome. So we just rested on the train while the train left Naples to Rome. We reached Rome train station at 11 plus (we wanted to deposit our luggage at the train station first, but the queue was super long) and then we got on a cab to head down to the hotel (it was like 5 mins ride from the station to hotel). The hotel name is Target Inn and the lift is inside a cage, where you need to open the cage and then go into the lift and the door is with spring, which it will spring back at you. Anyway, the lift is not big too, and so we need to go up separately due to our luggage. Then we deposited our luggage at the hotel as it was still early for check in. After that, we made our way down to see the catacombs. We had to take the metro down and then changed to the bus...oh god, the metro and the bus really took a long time to come. We took the bus to go along the Appian way, and the road was still with rocks and the road was quite small, there wasn't any road for pedestrians to walk with the cars zooming by.

San Sebastiano Catacombs

Finally, we reached the place to see the catacombs, which is along Appian Way. There were 2 catacombs places there, the one we wanted to go is not opened yet, so we went to the smaller one - San Sebastiano Catacombs. We made it for the English guided tour, so we went down to see. It was quite small and dark, and saw some coffins spaces and graves inside. The guide was speaking too fast and the accent was a bit hard to understand..but can still make out some of the things she was explaining. Then she showed us the grave of Sebastian which was later moved away to St. Peter's Basilica. Later we were also shown that there were 3 rooms that were dug further deep in, these can be used for generations to generations if the area were bought. Then she explained on the vases used as urn and the paintings on the ground and the walls. Then she showed us the dinning place inside and told us that the church which was built by Constantine on top of the catacombs. After this, the whole tour is done, which lasted us like 15 to 20 mins inside. The tour ended in the basilica where we were allowed to take photos around, but there was going to be a funeral going on soon, so we were allowed like 5 mins or so walking around. After this, we went to the souvenir shop where we got some postcards and stamps to send back home.

Twin Churches of Rome

After this, we rested for awhile on a bench outside...stupid shoulders aching.....Then we took the bus down to the other catacombs (which is bigger) - Catacombs of San Callisto. When we reached there, the English guided tour is about to start. One of my friend went ahead and bought her ticket first, the other friend doesn't want to go in so i stayed outside with her while we waited for the friend who went in. While waiting, we walked around the catacombs, there was a path towards some private houses. So we just strolled along that road and enjoyed the breeze and blue sky and white clouds...saw some geese at one of the houses too, i went up to try to take some photos of them while my friend was busy texting on her phone...hohoho...We had some chocolate too while waiting, we waited at least half an hour or more, then my friend appeared again. After the wait, we made our way back to the metro station, where we saw the ruins building on Palatine Hill. After that, we took the metro to the start for Doice Vita Stroll and Heart of Rome Walk. But the starting point for Heart of Rome walk was further, so we went ahead with Doice Vita Stroll. When we came out of the metro station, it was just a normal street and when we turned behind a shop, we saw the Piazza del Popolo, it was so grand...really made you 'wow' there....it was so spectacular! There was an Egyptian obelisk standing in the center of the Piazza, and it was brought over from Egypt. And nearby the obelisk, was a fountain with some lion-like statues. But some kids were just sitting on the statues and riding them around. On the far end of both sides of the Piazza, were Fontana del Nettuno and another statue (not sure what is is....). And you can see the twin churches (Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria di Montesanto) standing in front of the Piazza.

Crucifixion of St. Peter (Taken from web)

At the side before we made our way to the Piazza, there stood the church of Santa Maria Del Popolo. It was quite a big church and there were a lot of beautiful paintings inside, and there were 2 great paintings (by an Italian painter - Caravaggio) hidden inside the church, which required to insert coin just to on the light to see them and no photo-taking is allowed. The 2 masterpieces were Crucifixion of St. Peter & Conversion of Saul (St. Paul). We stayed inside for a while, then there was a guy who inserted the coin to light up the 2 masterpieces chamber. Once the coin was inserted, everyone just rushed into the chamber to see the 2 masterpieces. It was super cool...the paintings were so real (almost can see the image popping out)....After the amazing viewing of the 2 grand masterpieces, we headed out to walk over the the Piazza and onto the streets of Rome. There were a lot of shops for shopping and the buses which were going around the streets were small type and it looked cute..hahhaa.....There was even a Ferrari shop around there....(saw a Ferrari F1 car in italy...kekeke).....After some shopping around, we were hungry and then we decided to go down to a 200 years old restaurant - L'Enoteca Antica di Via della Croce.

Tiramisu

The place has a nice ambiance and there was paintings on the walls too. We ordered a lamb shank, spaghetti, cheese platter, cod fish dish and tiramisu as the dessert. The food was nice, i like the lamb shank, the fried potato (as the side) and the cod fish. Most of all, i love the tiramisu!! We ordered their creme brulee at first but they run out of it. So we ordered tiramisu instead, and it was a good choice. I almost wanted to lick the whole plate but cannot...hehehe....but i was using my spoon to lick the remaining.... :P.....It was soooooo nice!!! I had a happy dinner there...hahahaa....and it costs us euro $75 (including the tax and tip). After dinner, we went to the opposite shop which was selling chocolates and gelato. There was a table showing their beautiful packages too, and one of our friend was already snapping her camera away on their food. Mi and my other friend felt kind of bad if we don't buy something from them and the staff was already asking us what do we want to get. So we went ahead and got a small cone of peppermint ice cream. It wasn't so good as expected and it costs euro $2.50 for a single scoop, it was just ok. After this, we continued our way down to the Victor Emmanuel Monument. It was a short walk down the streets, when we reached, we were standing on the opposite of the street, looking at the monument. And in the center, it was a big roundabout for the cars....But it was quite dark when we arrived and i can't see the statues on top of the Emmanuel. It also holds the tomb of the unknown soldier, who was chosen from the among 11 unknown remains from WWI war.

Roman Ancient Forum (Night View)

After the viewing of the Emmanuel, we made our way down to continue the walk.We walked past to a church which doesn't look so grand from the outside (Santa Maria in Aracoeli) with a very high stairs, besides it, was the stairs up to Capitoline Hill. By the time we walked until here, we were all tired from the walking and we still had to climb the stairs up..hohoho.....There were 2 great big statues standing on top of the both sides of the stairs...and opposite the Capitoline hill is the Theatre of Marcellus (which we later knew about during our segway tour) and it was the first amphitheater built before the Colosseum. Anyway, we climbed up the stairs to the Piazza del Campidoglio. My friends took a break on top of the stairs while i went in to explore around. Inside there, stood the statue of the emperor Marcus Aurelius and the statue of She-wolf with the twin brothers, Romulus and Remus (which both were explained by our segway guide too). We were unable to find the grand staircase, which was mentioned in Rick Steve's book. After a short stay there, we made our way down to the bus stop, but the bus we wanted doesn't come and while waiting, we saw 2 tour groups coming and went up to Capitoline Hill too and they seem like doesn't come back down. One of my friend doesn't want to give up looking for the grand staircase, so we went up again. This time, we walked further into the square and at the right side of the Piazza, there was a road downhill (it just looks like a normal road that is going downhill, who will expect at side of the road.....) it would turned out to be the view of the Roman Ancient Forum. It was lighted with few lights, but it was beautiful in the night too (although i will prefer to take the photos of it during the daytime).....

After taking some photos there, we made our way back to the bus stop and stood there and waited for at least an hour for the bus back to hotel. We were so happy the bus came, and were able to go back to the hotel to rest after a long day of walking (we were in need of water this day too....all run out of water...hahhaa).

Hotel Stayed:
Target Inn

Places Visited:
San Sebastiano Catacombs
Catacombs of San Callisto
Piazza del Popolo
Church of Santa Maria Del Popolo
Victor Emmanuel Monument
Capitoline Hill
Roman Ancient Forum

Europe 2nd Trip - Pompeii, Italy (Day 3)

27th Oct 2013, Sunday, Cloudy

Rooftop Garden

Today we are going to visit the city of Pompeii, had to give up hiking Mount Vesuvius cos both of my friends were tired from yesterday's walking. So we woke up at 5 or 6 am plus, then prepared for breakfast. Ooo...the breakfast area was on a rooftop garden, it was so cooling to have breakfast there and can see the blue blue sky. They even have a small area for table tennis. The croissants were great too and there was a cute triangular pantry that we all love it when we had it the first time. I tried the yogurt too, it was apricot flavor. I love the red orange juice too, it was in red color..different from the normal orange color. It was nice!! And the ham was nice to go with the bread.

Metro Tickets

After we had the wonderful breakfast, we made our way out to Pompeii. We had to buy our metro tickets from the ticket machine, which was 'hiding' in a corner. It's a ticket for 90 mins, and gosh, the metro was damn slow..We took like almost an hour just to reach the main train station to take the circumvesuviana train. By the time we reached there and got our tickets, it was like 10 plus to 11 am. There were a lot of people taking the train too, we made our way down to the platform to catch our train. We had to wait for another 15 mins or so for our train. Finally, our train arrived and we all boarded, it was packed with people. There was no available seats, so we stood near to the door. Luckily, there were some seats empty after a few stations, we were able to sit down (legs tired from all the standing...hohoho). Along the way, was able to see Mount Vesuvius, it was so beautiful. After the long ride, we finally reached the station of Pompeii. There was a tourist guide counter just in front of the station and the staff were trying to get people to buy their tickets for their guided walk. We just went in straight to the main counter (which was at the entrance of the city) and got our tickets.

Steep road to enter the city

Here is a brief introduction on Pompeii:
Pompeii was an ancient Roman city that was once prosperous during its time. There were gladiators fighting in the theater and the people were still using horse chariots. But all these were gone after the city was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Now what is left are the ruins that you can see in the visit and try to understand how the people had lived at that time.

When you first passed the entrance, there was this very steep road that you need to walk up to enter the main city (which is the city gate). One of my friends went on her own, listening to the audio guide (which we downloaded from Rick Steve) whereas mi and another friend, we went in walking with the guide taken from the book. The road of the city were all built with big stones (basically, you can see 1 stone and 1 stone as the road, not like our normal road that were built with tar). I had to jump from stone to stone to walk around...hohoho...One of my friends had a fall when we were walking up to enter the city (hurt her ankle but luckily, it wasn't too serious...). Anyway, she continued on her walk, and mi and my another friend continued ours. The road really wasn't easy to walk around, had to jump from rock to rock. The city was super big and amazing....we tried to follow the self guided tour and went and see those highlighted sites. And there was this 3 bigger and higher stones on the road, they were used to let pedestrians to walk around the streets when the streets were filled with water (used for washing the streets). As we walked further in, there was a big main square, where the temple of Jupiter and the city hall stood. Then we went to see the Basilica and the fish and produce market. Inside the fish & produce market, there was a display of plastic molds of Pompeiians who were caught in the disaster. Behind the molds display, was a wall of pictures that was kept preserved. We walked abit further in the market, there was display of actual mummies of the Pompeiians. 

Stoves made of marbles (Fast Food Joint)

After some time, mi and my friend just got tired and hungry. We bought a slice of pizza and ate before we continued our journey again. I saw my friend when we were just continued walking, i asked my friend, "Isn't that person look familiar?"...hohoho....
Next, we continued walking down the streets and saw the fast food joint, where we can see the stoves made out of marble. Then we just continued walking and we ended up on a stairs that lead us to a higher ground that we had a high view of the city of Pompeii. We took some photos there and headed back down to the city again. We ended up at the House of Tragic Poet. Next, we walked till the House of the Faun, this house was the biggest house in the whole city of Pompeii. But 1 side of the house was closed off, there was a big complete picture (which was showing the battle of Alexandra, the original is currently displayed in the National Archeological Museum) on the floor at the courtyard. Then we continued walking on the streets again, we ended up at the theater, which we caught with our friend. We took a moment to sit around at the theater, i climbed all the way up to the top. And from there, you can actually see Mount Vesuvius at the left side. Too bad, it was too cloudy, the clouds were covering the volcano..not able to take a clear shot of it.

Seafood Pasta

Then we left to see the biggest house again (as my friend had not seen it), mi and the other friend tried to find the 2000 years old lead pipes. It was caged at one of back alley, it wasn't very noticeable. But it was definitely old lead pipes..hohohoho....Then my friend brought us to the public bath, the entrance was very dark, as it was getting dark. We went in and take a look, it was dark inside, with no much light. And there was a black dog sleeping inside too, can't even see it. The bath was further inside, it was soooo big. By the time we finished walking, it was already 5 plus and the sun had already set, it was getting dark.So we made our way back to Naples train station. The train back to Naples was also packed with people and while we were on the train, there was a group of teenagers, shouting around the train and were very anxious. Later, we saw some of them were running out the 1st station and some of them were running in to the train. There was like a big commotion but they were all speaking in Italian...don't understand, so got no idea what was happening. When the train reached to the 2nd or 3rd station, we saw the teenagers ran out of the train and some were suddenly got caught by police, who were waiting at the station and they were in full amour. Hahhaa...one of the teenagers was still sitting beside my friend, she kept joked that she seated side by side with a criminal (Forget whether is the one seated beside got caught by the police...hahhaa...). After this commotion, we just waited for our train to reach Naples train station...like long journey back...Then we headed down to a restaurant nearby Naples train station area to have our dinner. The restaurant name is called
La Cantina dei Mille. We had a pizza and pasta (my friend ordered another pasta too cos they were too hungry), free bread were given too..but the bread was hard as rock...hahhaa..my friend knocked the bread on the table, and it sounded like taking a stone and knocking on the table...so funny...

I don't find the food bad, it's just salty for me to accept (the seafood was fresh and the prawns really smell nice). Anyway, i ate a little and as we were paying, the boss gave us his namecard and wanted us to give feedback on tripadvisor...kekeke.....Then we made our way back to hotel. The metro really cannot make it, we had to wait and wait for it to come.
Finally, we reached our hotel and we can rest for the day...yeah!! (Too bad, didn't even have time to shop around the streets near our hotel, there is a Disney store there too...)

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Tolendo

Places Visited:
Pompeii

Europe 2nd Trip - Naples, Italy (Day 1 & Day 2)

25th Oct 2013, Friday, Sunny

Supper on Swiss Air

Finally!!Going to Italy and Swiss...we got the air tickets from January and had waited for 10 months for it.Most of my colleagues and friends had already went for trips and came back...And i waited pretty much too long for it...all my excitement were gone....but finally our turn came...i am going with 2 of my working friends...

I got sick on the day itself and had to see doctor to take mc and rest. We met at the airport at 7.30pm and another friend even turned up with her boyfriend to send us off...hohoho (really surprised but i was happy to see her)....We checked in our lugguage and had dinner at Seafood Paradise before heading in to the gate.
We went in around 9 plus and off we go,to board the plane.It was a long journey to Zurich...i was seated beside one of my colleague and another ang mo..both their legs needs so much space,until i don't even have much space for myself.I had to bring up my legs,after some time,i got legs cramp...hahaa...

We saw a bit of flashing lightnings on the plane,had supper and breakfast too.It was super cold on the plane,i felt my nose was going to drop off already....and i was having blocked nose and coughing too...The guy was bleeding on his nose suddenly when we were having breakfast.He turned to ask me for tissue,i got a shock when he asked with his blood dripping....and then he went to toilet to clean up.Then we just napped for a while before the plane touched down to Zurich airport.

26th Oct 2013, Saturday,Sunny

View from transfer flight

When we arrived at airport,we made our way to take the transfer plane to Rome. We had to pass swiss customs and then to the gate and waited for our plane.It was a short ride from Zurich to Rome.There were lsser people onboard the plane too and was spacious...Anyway,we reached Rome airport.Then we went down to collect our Roma Passes and headed down to Termini train station.We took the airport transfer train...it was about 40 to 45 mins ride...Once we reached,we went to look for the Trenitalia ticket office to make our train reservation.There's alot of people waiting in queue...My advise:Get all your train reservations done at once if you don't to waste time standing outside the office to wait.There was no chairs to sit too,everyone was just standing around waiting for their numbers to be called.

While i was waiting for my turn,my friends went upstairs to get data sim cards (for $20 euro). They also waited for quite some time for their turn. Finally,we got our data sim cards n train reservation done.Then we headed down to the platform to board our train to Naples. When we wanted to board the train,a guy "helped" mi and one of my friends to get our luggage up the train...and he asked for tip from us once he put our luggage down (the other friend went further in the train on her own liao)....so we gt no choice but to give him a $10 as tip (no small change too)...he wasn't going to leave without some $. Then later we know,there are some people just trying to be helpful but they will ask from you $ for their so-called help. Anyway, we just went in with our luggage (as it was placed abit far from our seats) and sat down (my 2 friends helped to carry my luggage up in the upper storage as there was no space near the seats area and mine was the smallest and lightest. hohoho...a lady sitting besides us was laughing at us when both my friends were trying to bring down my luggage when we reached our stop....the 1st class coaches are really comfortable and got free drinks and snacks too (for high speed trains)....better than 2nd class coaches....

We reached Naples at around afternoon, we had to drag our luggage from the train station to the hotel. It was tiring, had to carry them up the stairs and down the stairs again, then dragged them to the hotel and the metro trains are so slow and we had to change 3 times to get to the hotel. We decided that for the rest of the hotels, we will take cab down (too tiring..hahhaaa). Oo...did i mentioned that the metro tickets had to be bought from a tabacci shop? Apparently, these shops are the ones selling metro tickets around italy (except Venice, as far as for the places we went). We managed to reach the hotel safe and sound and did the check-in. The hotel name is Hotel Toledo. The lift was so small and it was in rectangle shape, it can't fit the 3 of us plus our luggage. So the hotel owner told us to go up with 1 of the luggage first and then he will bring up the remaining 2. The room was setup with 2 single beds and 1 slightly bigger bed. The toilet was quite small, and it only allow a person to stand in. So we put down our luggage in our room and rested for awhile.Then we made our way down to the National Archaeological Museum. We chose to walk down from the hotel, and we saw a parade of people doing riot on the street, there was a lot of police standing by. It was a 10 mins walk to the museum from the hotel, there were a lot of shops along the way too. Finally, we reached the museum and got our tickets to go in. It was super big and there were a lot of statues inside (with heads, without heads, etc). 

Farnese Hercules

Above is the famous statue of Farnese Hercules resting on his club and he is holding a golden apple behind his back. The description for this statue is: Hercules is back from all the fighting and the traveling around the world. He is leaning weakly on his club, which is draped with his lion skin and he had returned with his prize, the golden apples of gods (which is shown on his hand behind his back). But after all this, he was told he had to return the golden apples and descend to Hell itself as the final task.

Toro Farnese

And there was another famous large statue called Toro Farnese, which was craved out with 1 whole piece of marble and there was a story on it. This is the story behind it: Once upon an ancient Greek time, there was a King named King Lycus, who was bewitched by a woman called Dirce. He abandoned his wife, Antiope who was pregnant at that time. The wife later gave birth to 2 twin boys, who grew up and killed their dad and tied Dirce to the horns of the bull to be bashed against a mountain.





After the viewing of these famous statues on the ground floor, we went upstairs to see the secret room. The stairs to upper levels were so grand too (those circular shape type), there was a lion statue standing in the middle of the stairs and there were 3 statues standing behind the lower stairs. But before we went to the secret room, we went into the great hall of Sundial with paintings hanging on both sides of the grand hall. It was the home of Farnese Atlante (a statue of Atlas carrying a globe on his shoulders), but at the wall of both sides hang beautiful paintings which are collection from Farnese. They look so real with the colors and there was a round clock at the end of the hall....Then we just sat there and rested for awhile. It was so relaxing to just sit there and watched into the great hall. There's even horoscope icon printed on the ground, like a chart form. It was said that when the sun shines into the hall, it will shine on the horoscope icon (something like that...not sure on the whole function). After this, we walked to the other side of the museum, which contains the pompeiian mosalcs and its ware the secret room is. There were a lot of displays to see (too much to be captured on camera, go for yourself to see them...hohoho..). After seeing the secret room, we went down to the souvenir shop to browse around. After the visit, we made our way down to have some pizza, which is famous in Naples (it was so dark outside and it was only like 5 or 6 plus). 

Pizza Margherita

When we reached there, the restaurant was just getting open for business (lucky us). The restaurant name is Gino Sorbillo. The restaurant was 2-Storey high and we managed to grab a table on the upper level. Everyone was eager to place their orders and the staffs were busy attending to every table. We got the menu and ordered 2 pizzas and soft drinks for us. The pizzas were so big and with thin thin crust (bigger than Singapore ones) and they tasted nice (except i find them salty, if not salty, it will be great for me but my 2 friends they love it.). When I saw the locals there, they all ordered 1 big pizza for 1 pax and they can finish them by themselves (they were not even sharing), and they still look so skinny after the big portion. But for us, we can't even finish the 2 pizzas we ordered (hohoho...wonder whether the staff was laughing at us when we left).

It was packed with people when we left the restaurant and there was a super long queue waiting outside, then we walked back to our hotel to rest for the day. Bought a pack of roasted chestnut back to hotel too (it wasn't that nice, it was dried and had the burnt taste, although the chestnuts are bigger than Singapore type). Tired day with all the dragging and climbing of stairs with luggage and the sweating. Missed to do the self-guided walk mentioned in Rick Steve's book: A Slice of Neapolitan Life.

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Toledo

Places Visited:
National Archaeological Museum, Naples

A visit back to Haw Par Villa

Haw Par Villa

Wah...i remembered the first time i went to Haw Par Villa was like 20 plus years ago. That time, my dad brought mi and my sister there,along with my grandma. What i  remembered clearly was the boat ride that will bring u tour along the 10 levels of Hell and it show you which are the bad deeds and the punishments for each levels (which will really make you chill and make you have nightmares), and at the end of the tour, which was the most exciting part, was the ride down from high level and splash onto the water when it reached the ground (like roller coaster). Now, the boat ride was gone and the park is like a dead town, even the pond looks dirty with algae. But i still find it creepy to just to walk in to see the 10 levels of Hell......

Now the entrance to the Gates of Hell looks like this. Once you walk in, you will see statues of the punishments in each level and there will be explanation to let you know what are the bad deeds done to deserve it. For example: don't think that paying taxes or rent is a small matter, it is also considered one of the bad deeds here and you will be punished in the 5th level. There is even a self-reflection mirror. You can try looking at it to see what you had done in this lifetime.....

10 Levels of Hell Entrance (Ox Head & Horse Face Guards)

Around the park, there are some old statues of characters from Journey to the West and Madam White Snake. And there are also gods statues like Fu Lu Shou, Ji Gong, Eight Immortals.

Madam White Snake

Fu Lu Shou

Master Tripitaka

 

You can also see statues holding with Tiger Palm Oil.

Cute Tiger with Tiger Palm Oil

 There is even a legendary car with a tiger head in front, which was displayed in the garage there.

"Tiger Car"

There are also 4 super big tombstones, which are the graves for the Aw brothers who founded this park and their parents.

One of the Aw memorial

There wasn't no maintenance done on this park too, and it is going to demolish anytime, which is a sad thing. Cos it is a nice place to walk again in the future. Do visit back before it is demolish.....

And remember

The bad will always get its retribution (It's just the matter of when)

Art of Bricks Exhibition

T-Rex made out of Lego Bricks

Had went to see the art of bricks exhibition on 3rd Feb 2013 at MBS. It was an exhibit on arts built using lego bricks by Nathan Saway. There was about 4 or 5 rooms showing different master pieces, they were very impressive. The one i like best is the whole T-Rex skeleton built with the lego bricks, it was soooo nice just by looking at it and in the room, it was projected with other dinosaurs' shadow images. There was even a photo ID booth made of bricks...

This definitely is a exhibition not to be missed. ^_^

2 Days' JB Chi Chi Trip

Kimdo BBQ @ City Square

Went to JB with 2 of my friends from 16th to 17th March 2013 for a yum yum tour. We met up at 11am at Kranji MRT station. Then we queued up for bus 170, it was a super super long queue...we waited for at least half an hour before we can board the bus. Crowded bus..we finally arrived at Woodlands Custom..past through Customs, it was long long queue again for the buses to cross over to JB customs. Can't even see which queue is for which bus, everyone was just queuing in all the lines and it was super hot too. Finally we got to board the bus and travel over to JB customs...At JB customs, everyone was rushing to queue at the counters....After we cleared the customs, we were free to find nice and yummy food around JB. First, i brought my 2 friends to a BBQ stall in City Square, called Kimdo BBQ as starter snacks. It sells nice and good BBQ food, like bbq chicken wings, bbq sotong, mushrooms and many others. After that, they bought some cooling tea from Share Tea. Then we walked around in City Square as we were not hungry yet for lunch.

One of our dishes @ Teck Sing Restaurant

After walking around in City Square, we took a cab down to our destination for lunch - Teck Sing Restaurant at Taman Sentosa, where we had a nice herbal paper baked chicken (whole), a whole fish and a plate of vegetables and each of us had a lime plum drink. The meal only cost us RM$77.30...and the food was nice...the chicken was very tender and the herbal taste was not so good, which i like it..kekeke...After the meal, we walked down to find a cab to go to our hotel for a night's stay - KSL Resort. It was the same hotel we stayed previously, when we came over with a Legoland trip. When we got the hotel lobby, it was packed with people. There was a long queue waiting to check in for individuals and a separate queue for tour group check-in. It was horrible, we noticed that there was some notice at the counters, saying that they were doing some system upgrade and there may be some delay. Ya, some delay...it wasn't a 15 mins delay...it was 2 hours' delay!! We just stood there and waited to check-in..the queue wasn't even moving at all....so I went off to KSL shopping centre to get our movie tixs for the night while my friends waited at the queue. When i came back, they were still queuing...-_-"...And as the check-in queue got longer, people started to get frustrated..people were started to complain...even when they got the turn to check-in, people were shouting angrily...due to the long wait...and some guests who had checked-in came down and scolded the staff, that there were already people checked-in the same room..Finally it's our turn, the staff who attended us took our booking paper and disappeared for at least 10 or 15 mins...the lady beside us was also complaining to us, saying that the staff had told her that there wasn't any room available for her now and will call her once they have the available room for her...She was so angry...after the long wait, the staff still can tell her no room and she had also booked a triple room. (which was same with us)...She told the staff off angrily and asked them to get her a room now.

Our super yummy dinner @ Chez Papa

Finally, the staff who attended us came back..my friend asked him whether he went up the levels to check whether there is available rooms...That guy was still joking with us, saying that there were no rooms for us. I think my friends were going to throw tables at him already...all of us were already tired of standing there...for 2 hours..and he still had the mood to joke with us...Finally we done with our check-in and went up to our room. It was located at the last room of the level, and when we entered, there was no ac...it was like not even on...so we tried to set to the lowest level...but after some time, we still found the ac wasn't strong enough. Anyway, we were all too tired and hot to do anything. We just found ourselves a place to sit and rest, watched tv...kekeke...We sat until it was time for dinner...ohh!!Creme Brulee!!...We took a cab from the hotel down to the resturant - Chez Papa. It was located at Taman Maju Jaya and it was a french restaurant with a nice homely feel. We ordered 2 a dozen escargot, 1 bowl of mushroom soup, Lamb Shank, Chez Papa Sampler, Foie Gras and of course, creme brulee (1 for us each..kekee)...and their baguette which was complimentary was also yummy too!! I had a super nice dinner there, the staffs were also friendly..they had their special dishes written on a white board and they will show it to every table during order taking...So happy to have my dinner there... :P

After the fantastic dinner, we went back to our hotel to rest and shower before our late night movie. When we came back to the hotel, the ac was still not cold enough...so we called up the housekeeping to come help us check..Anyway it doesn't help much...haiz...we just took turns to shower....When it's time for the movie, we made our way down to the cinema in KSL shopping centre...The movie we were going to watch is "Princess and the 7 Kungfu Masters (笑功震武林)"..it was a hongkong movie, released recently. One thing good to watch Hongkong movies in Malaysia (other than is cheap) is the movies are shown in canto, instead of Madarian. We had a super great laugh from the movie...It was a funny show and everyone was laughing so hard while watching it. After a good laugh, we walked back to the hotel and we saw there were people still queuing up to check-in...and it was already like 11 plus...Back to our room, we watched tv and one of my friends entered sleeping first...so mi and another friend continued watching...Later in the night, i heard there was sound coming from my left side and my right side (as i was sleeping in between the 2 of them)...hahahaa...the one sleeping on the same side as mi complained my hands were like ice...hahahaa...Anyway, i didn't sleep much, as usual....and we just slept and nua till 11am plus.....

Shoon Huat Bak Kut Teh

We got up and got ready to go buy some snacks home. We went to walk around in KSL shopping centre and bought alot of snacks back..kekeke...By the time we done our shopping, it was already 1 plus. So we went back to the hotel to do our last packing and checked out the hotel..Again, it was a long wait to do check-out..-_-"....we waited at least half an hour or more, just to get to our turn..During our wait, we saw a lady having conflicts with the manager (looks like)...think there was some dispute on the amount needed to pay...not sure of the whole contents...but the lady got the manager to print at least 3 times on the receipt....luckily it was quite fast for us to do clearance..except for the long wait in queuing...Then we got on a cab to Taman Sentosa again, but this time it was for the famous bak kut teh - Shoon Huat Bak Kut Teh. It was like a 5 mins ride from the hotel to the place, except there was a traffic light which felt like super long. Once reached there, we saw there was a queue that was like out of the place and the staff doesn't even attend to you. Anyhow, i walked in to see whether there was any empty table where we can sit. Luckily we got a empty table after some time. We ordered a 2-pax bak kut teh, 1 salted vegetable, 1 you tiao and a ma you ji...The ma you ji was nice, it would be better with frog's legs...kekeke...Like the sauce too...Don't really find the bak kut teh nice...it was herbal style...but doesn't taste nice (to me lah)....the salted vegetable was nice too...My friends like the ma you chi sauce so much they just put the you tiao in it....hahahaa......

After the meal, we made our way down to City Square to cross over back to Singapore. We took AC-7 bus which ended the ride at Yishun Interchange from Woodlands Checkpoint for a flat ride of RM$2. After we reached Yishun, we went separately back home which ended our JB trip.....Kekeke.....

Places went:
City Square
KSL Shopping Centre
Teck Sing Restaurant
Chez Papa
Shoon Huat Bak Kut Teh

Hotel Stayed:
KSL Resort