Of Bells and Stairs

I thought I'd better make full use of the Internet access while I have one. Not sure if I would have the luxury of Wi-fi while I am in Berlin *sigh*

Ever since I left KLIA, I have been walking sooooooooo MUCH! Sometimes I wonder if it is really a coincidence that my boarding gates are always the furthest, what a nightmare sometimes when I think about dragging my luggages (30kg in total) from one end to another. I deserve it of course, I decided on this in the first place.

Sevilla
Feria de Abril was really nice, though I must say that it was not all that I have expected. Seriously, unless you happen to know Sevillanos that own a nice private caseta, you'd probably be well off somewhere else, than to go to the Feria. It is amazing though, to see so many local Sevillanas dressed in nice colourful trajes with elaborate cloths and some with polkadots but after a while you get bored if you don't take part. Mind you it is not cheap to own a dress like that. It can cost up to 1,000 euros, or more, and imagine owning more than one! (girls are not gonna wear the same dress for 7 days in a row, of course!). On the first day, I went to a caseta publica, and then the next few days I was invited to a caseta that belonged to Antonio's friend, Pedro. It was fun and I joined in the Sevillana dance, even though I only knew la primera :P Though I had some Sevillanas lessons almost a year back, and I just couldn't recall anything. During the weekdays, the Feria would be filled with people up till 5 or 6am, though it officially ends about 3am, where the lights of the main Puerta would be switched off. That whole week, I drank lots of Rebujitos i.e. a combination of Manzanilla (a type of white wine) & 7up.

Eindhoven
The second day after I arrived Eindhoven, I went bicycling with Ineke. Well....actually, she was doing all the work while I sat behind, just like the movie 甜蜜蜜. Of course, if Ineke was Tom Cruise, it would have been a dream come true, but I loved the ride all the same. We went looking for a place to do ice skating, only to find out that it is only open during winter.... hehehe.... the ride was certainly worthwhile, I get to see almost half of Eindhoven on a bicycle! We got hungry and decided to have a picnic by the park. Bought some nice bread, chips, salad, juices, then plomp our big fat butt on the grass. Occasionally the wind would bring some unpleasant smell, and we thought it was just probably the smell of fertiliser. It was fertiliser alright!!! As we were just about to finish our lunch, there we noticed, less than 8 metres away from us was the dog poo.....Yuckkkkk and DOUBLE yyUUccckkKK!!

Den Bosch/Delft
Irene is the best tourist guide I can get. From trips to Den Bosch, and to Delft, she explained every single thing in detail :) She even got me to try the apple pie and savoury crepes in Delft.....ooohh...they were SOOOOOOO goooood! I could drool just thinking about it. We saw the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), where William of Orange was buried. Then we've also seen houses with roofs that looked like a bell, or stairs, and some, like a neck. In the evening, we had a nice dinner with Mirte (Irene's daughter) and her boyfriend. It was Mirte's birthday! ;) We were very lucky as the weather was perfect, nice and windy, and not too cold. Unfortunately, when we were about to return to Eindhoven in the evening, we weren't so lucky. There was a fire at one of the stations, so the trains had some delay and a change of route. We had to make 3 train changes in order to get back to Eindhoven. During our rush, Irene left her handbag in the train from Rotterdam-Utrecth and only realised it as we boarded the next train to Eindhoven. Thank goodness there was a nice handsome (ehem) conductor around, to help spread the message to track the bag, and it was finally found just minutes before we reached Eindhoven *phew*.

More adventures when I go to Keukenhof tomorrow for tulips!

Meanwhile, here are some of the photos taken so far in my trip :) Check this album often for updates.