Hola Barcelona! (part 1)

Finally it's time to blog about our 'real' honeymoon.

We've already wanted to visit Europe for a quite long time. But after I do the research on the cost it makes us think twice, should we use our saving only for few days? Is it gonna be really worth it? etc etc. It's now or never. We decided to go for it!

Europe is such a huge continent, I cannot decide which country should I visit. Definitely I want to go to Paris. It's like #1 tourist destination in the world. But if we only visit one country it feels like waste of visa's fee and air ticket right. There are so many options, from Rome, Venice, Madrid, London, Amsterdam, Prague, etc. London is the first country that being listed out, because you'll need separate visa. So I went to ask my boss, because he's been everywhere around Europe. And he suggested that we should go to Barcelona. Sounds interesting, never thought of that before. Ok, i just follow what the expert say.

The first plan is to buy air ticket from Singapore-Paris, Paris-Barcelona and Barcelona-Singapore. At early on January the price for that route is about S$1,300/pax (malaysia airlines, singapore airlines). But we haven't make up our mind, and in the end when we already want to buy the ticket, the price went up to S$1,800/pax. So sad.. But.. but.. I found out that Air France had a promotion. Singapore-Paris 2 ways is only S$1,200/pas. So i quickly buy the ticket. And the plan went to Singapore-Paris-Barcelona-Paris-Singapore. It's like we go back and forth... For Paris-Barcelona we used easyjet. It's like budget airlines between Europe countries. Our ticket for easyjet is around 200sgd/person for 2 ways.

We booked all the hotels via bookings.com. We read some reviews from Tripadvisor before we decided which hotels we want to booked. Important things to choose your hotel:
1. Near metro, so it's convenient for your transportation. Mostly you'll use metro. We didn't even think to take cab because the cab fares is super expensive.
2. Near airport bus' stop. Metro or MRT in Europe isn't like Singapore at all. There's no elevator or lift. All staircases. If you carry big luggage, it will be difficult for you. And taking cab from airport to the city will cost around 80euro, maybe. But if you take the airport bus, it will cost you around 5-10 euro only.

For airport bus in Paris, there are : Roissy Bus and Les Cars Air France. The difference is the destination. Roissy Bus will stop near Opera Metro while Les Cars Air France have several stops around the Etoile (Arc de Triomph)

First destination is Singapore-Paris (16 hrs), then transit at Charles de Gaulle for 6 hours before our next flight to El Prat, Barcelona.

economy class

right after on board, they served dinner with a mini bottle of wine!

his food

view for 16 hours

Two hours before landing, they served breakfast. some cold cuts and croissant

check-in for easyjets. i guess budget airlines everywhere are the same: long queue.

first photo i took in Barcelona. It was at placa espanya.

bed. finally i see u for almost 24-hours

Finally after 16 hours on the plane, 6 hours waiting at the airport, 1,5 hours on plane again We finally reached our first destination : Barcelona.

It was freezing when we came out from the bus. And a bit drizzling. Our hotel was Hotel Reding. It is located near universitat metro. And there is a bus stop nearby for aerobus (airport bus). It cost around 90euros/night if i'm not wrong. The hotel it self is not huge, but the room is quite spacious. The bathroom even has a bath tub. The cost comes with daily buffet breakfast. 

buffet breakfast

Our itinerary for today is to see the Magic Fountain of Monjuic and do a little shopping. We still have plenty of time, so we just walking around the neighborhood and got mesmerized by the surroundings. Everything doesn't looks real. So pretty, really like what I saw in the movie. I cannot believe finally I'm at Europe.

pretty flowers. yes those are real.

la rambla drinking fountain. they said if you drink the water you'll return to barcelona again. i drank a bottle of it.

eventually you'll see this outfit during my entire post in Europe

the arena. it was a place for bull figthing, but now a shopping mall. it's just the opposite of the magic fountain

in front of the magic fountain.

After the fountain show, which is just so-so, we're going to have our dinner. Finally first meal at Barcelona. We decided to go to Tapas24. Be prepared to queue because this is a famous place.

fave food while in Barcelona : Tomato Bread

French Fries with egg and chorizo

mcfoie burger. best food here

croquette, this one also delicious!

bikini cormac, my favourite.

After waiting around 30-40mins. I didn't really count. Too busy to decide what we're gonna order. Super hungry. We sit at the bar counter. After reading some review from other blogs and website, we decided to order their famous food.They are super delicious. Only the fries taste so-so. May favourite was the bikini cormac, somekind of sandwich, when you bite it, the cheese will melt. It's crusty on the outside but melting in the inside. The iberico croquette also super delicious. 2 pieces wasn't enough, but considering this thing is not cheap i just make my self satisfied with one piece of it and enjoying every bite of it.

Sadly there isn't more space for dessert. Wanted to order their 'olive oil with chocolate' because it sounds so interesting. Maybe next time. (the truth is, there is always space for dessert. But their dessert price is not cheap also. 7 or 8 euros. So never mind then)

Ok, it's the end of part one. I will continue with the touristy areas on my next post. Stay tune...

Tapas 24

Carrer de la Diputació, 269

08007 Barcelona, Spain

+34 934 88 09 77

nearest metro : passeig de gracia / catalunya

price around 5-15 euros per dish.prepare to spend bit more money here.

Mad for Garlic @ Suntec

This is a super up to date post. I'm typing this post while waiting for my husband finish the meal. We passed by this restaurant few weeks ago, and finally have the chance to try it today. Mostly they're selling italian food like pizza, pasta, etc. Most of the food contents garlic, obviously.

hidden place, located behind Din Tai Fung

Today we ordered a pizza called Garlic Snowing Pizza and a Lobster Cream Pasta. I still remember exactly the dishes name because right now i'm looking at the menu. Lol. 

Ok let's start with the pizza, since this come first. It is a thin crust pizza with minimalist topping. Just cheese, some prawn, pinneapple, and fried garlic. When the waiter served it, he asked whether we can some cheese or not. And we say yes. Then he gratin a cheese looks like cheddar on top of the pizza, now i know why it's called 'snowing'. The cheese meant to be the snow. The taste? It's quite yummy, unusual. New taste. But the down part is the fried garlic, some a bit hard and it's stick on my teeth.

Garlic Snowing Pizza

yumm...

Second dish is Lobster Creamy Pasta. They put fish roe on it, this ingredients brings the pasta into a different level. Portion of the lobster meat also very generous. One minus thing is this dish a bit tasteless to my taste buds. I requested for chili sauce, but they don't provide it.

Lobster Creamy Pasta

Last is dessert time! There's always space for dessert in my tummy. We had Garlic Berry with Ice Cream. Sounds so interesting, right? It is one scoop of vanilla ice cream with berry sauce which has some garlic bits. Yes, there's garlic on my dessert. I don't know how do they do with the garlic until it has no smell at all. It blends nicely with the berry flavour. Very unique dessert that I've never eat before. Eventhough I don't like vanilla ice cream I can finish it.

Garlic & Berry with Ice Cream

Our Meals

wall full of wines

Mad About Garlic

No 3 Temasek Boulevard
#02-300/301
Suntec City Mall Singapore

Nearest MRT : Esplanade (circle line, yellow color)

Bali Gateway - part 3

Hello, I'm back again... I will end this Bali thingy on this post.

So the next day, we shift hotel to W Retreat & Spa. My brother has a friend who work there, so I contacted her and she gave us free upgrade of the room. Yaaaay! We only booked the cheapest room, which is the garden view. But we got upgraded to the ocean view room. And we got some 'honeymoon present', DIY cocktail, and some stones on the bed and a giant lip pillow, dunno for what...

It was a bit tricky to find this hotel. The entrance is just a small alley. Nobody knows that inside this alley there is a huge property. There were 3 different road, first one is the bamboo road, and then small rocks road and the last is the wooden road. Such a long journey just to go inside. When you already reach the hotel, you just will open your mouth and say wow, this is cool...

They served different drinks at the lobby everyday. And the most important thing is FREE WIFI everywhere.. So I quickly checked-in on my path... LOL, not everyday I can stayed in this kind of hotel.

Once we go inside the room, also we open our mouth widely again and say inside our head, OMG the room is so cool... The bathroom is open concept, with 2 sinks, for her and for him. The best thing is the ocean view, once we open the patio door, quickly we take picture and upload to instagram...

view from our room

bathroom

bath tub with family of squeaky duck

mini bar

the bed

tv is hidden behind that sliding panels, with bose speakers and ipod docks

special present for newlyweds couple, DIY cocktail with candy stirrer

they re-arrange the bed, i like the original arrangement though

better photo from my instagram

mandatory photo spot, checked

I haven't finish yet... The best part during the stay at W is of course the breakfast!! This is a food blog by the way, so the food review will be more dominant... Firstly, when you enter the breakfast place, you have to choose your own cup. There is a wall full of cups, all different designs and sizes. Just choose random lah, it's just a cup anyway... After that you will be offered with coffee or tea like usual, but the unusual thing is the don;t give you just a cup of tea, but a pot of tea! The pot is cute also, but forgot to take picture. Once you settled with your drink, they will handed you with the menu, yes you can choose whatever you want from the menu and they will make it just for you! Of course there's still some buffet options, but not as many as at Ayana. Just a few selections of typical western style breakfast like bread, cereals, fruits, etc. Ignore the buffet, focus on the a la carte menu, because it's wayyy more interesting. You can have steak, foie gras, waffles, pancakes, porridge and so on.. Let's see the pictures so you can understand it better...

wall full with cups. i wanted to choose the big one on the right, but to shy to ask

scrambled egg

waffle and pancakes

fresh honey from the honeycomb

nice display of breads

more breads

my fave breakfast, hash brown with bacon and smoked salmon

foie gras with sunny side

mushroom steak for breakfast, why not

That's our breakfast for 3 days, we ordered almost everything on the menu, even I also ordered the vegetarian menu, which comes out not very nice, but have to eat it anyway, don't waste food!

And for dinner, we visited several place around Seminyak area. There are too many restaurant but not enough time and space on the stomach.. So we only visited some of it :

1. Naughty Nuri's @ Batu Belig

Naughty Nuri's pork ribs, not as nice as people said. Tony Roma's still better. Nuri's one, they don't marinated it long enough, the taste is only on the outside

Naughty Nuri's Fried Duck. The duck is tender and crispy. Recommended!

 2. Ryoshi Sushi, nice sushi with affordable price.

maki sushi, forgot the name, taste normal nothing special

pork katsu, bit too oily but taste as nice as tonkichi

tofu, not nice. too dry

matcha ice cream, my fave

3. Hu'u, near W.
We got hungry in one afternoon, so we just walk from the hotel to random eateries nearby. They sell hi-end indonesian food. The food price almost the same as the drink price. And they didn't provide any ice water. We refused to pay idr18k for a mineral water which we can buy outside for only 2k/bottle. Once a cheapo always a cheapo...

some soto maybe

iga bakar or something, taste very nice

4. Flapjacks
We were still too full, but I die die want to try flapjacks. So we only ordered one sundae and share it.

really nice waffle, must try with empty stomach next time

5. Bubba Gump
Mandatory eating place at Kuta area. The price is bit expensive, but it's worth it. The food is super nice and the atmosphere of the place also different. To save up, just order one appetizer and one main course and then share (cheapo again). The portion is huge you know..

appetizer, this one cost about idr 170k (S$18), this garlic bread is damn nice

mains, grilled fish with potatos which looks like hair

mandatory camwhore location

already pay so expensive must utilized all the photo spots

with the mascot

free prawn crackers

We also went to Ultimo, but didn't manage to take any photo because of the poor lighting. And the food there was ok only. Peppenero still better for italian food.

OK, i will end this post with photos of me camwhoring at Kuta Beach...

act like candid shot but failed

another failed candid shot

Bye... thanx for reading my journey at Bali..