JYG'S URBAN ADVENTURES

The Golden Triangle Part II - Glamping & the Pink City

2016-03-27T22:51:00.003-04:00

Hey guys! This is Part II of my G Adventures India Tour. You can find Part I here

Happy Easter Weekend everyone!!

So where did we leave off? After seeing majestic Taj Mahal, it was time for a change of pace. We go for a brief "camping" experience in the Indian countryside. After a restful night in a super nice "tent" where we had running water, electricity and nice beds, it was time for a hike at sunrise.

We actually started a bit after the sun rose which was good since this was an unmarked, unlit path in the Indian countryside with lots of loose gravel.

After about half an hour of hiking, we were at the top!

Gorgeous!

At the time, there were some riots in the countryside disturbing our itinerary so we went back to one of the oldest stepwells in India that we had missed the day before.

Apparently, this was how people used to get water in the desert since water was such a scarce resource and the stepwells made it easier for lots of people to access the water. It's interesting since they've also made the place a temple and a place of learning as well.

I love how well built and preserved it was. Ancient people are so smart ^^.

Jaipur

Finally, we get to the 3rd destination- Jaipur, also known as the Pink City since there's a terracotta wall surrounding the old city. According to my friends, Jaipur is an important historic city where you can find more of the traditional Indian crafts. And this was also the place for spotting huge nose rings!!!! So I have to let you guys in on a secret...ever since I saw Shreya's nose ring at the wedding , and I found out that she ONLY wore a "small" version with much larger and more elaborate ones worn by people in everyday situations...I was obsessed with seeing one in real life. And I was told that Jaipur was the place to find such ...sights. Unfortunately, I didn't see anyone sporting a giant one like this :(

Driving into the city, you get greeted by the traditional buildings everywhere. What a lovely site to behold...

Everything is so cute!

We spent a day touring the city sites and I actually saw a snake charmer in real life! I had always thought that this was something that was fake but I was surprised to learn that it is a traditional craft here! Although, the snake wasn't so much dancing to the music when the guy was playing...it was still a cool sight to see.

The working city palace was a delightful place to visit and I loved all the elaborate decorations.

Overall, I had a blast in India! From getting to see my friend get married to seeing such amazing cultural sites, I hope you've enjoyed looking at my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. Now that I've had a small taste of the country, I want to go back to see other parts like Goa, Varanasi and maybe celebrating Holi? We'll see where adventure will take me next... Have a great week!!

The Golden Triangle Pt I - Madness in Delhi & Gems in Agra

2016-03-16T21:29:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! This is a continuation of my trip to India. You can find the first part of my time in India here.

I will be giving a brief summary of my trip with G Adventure's Golden Triangle tour in India. This was my first G Adventure tour and I had a blast! I look forward to doing other tours with them in the future.

After we leave the relative comfort and safety in Shreya's, Esther and I hopped on a plane and arrived in Delhi , greeted by a scene like this...

This was pretty calm already but traffic was soooo intense

There were so many people, tuk tuks, rickshaws and cars everywhere! It was probably the most chaotic place I've ever been in. There was beeping everywhere and people drove ridiculously close to you. Yet, despite it all, people still got to places and everything... worked. Later on in the day, we were wandering in the markets near our hotel and we found a McDonald's!

OK so at this point, I have a not-so-secret confession to make. I love going into different McDonald's in different places to see what's different on their menus! They have a regional specialty and if I can, I usually try it out. I know a lot of people hate McDonald's and their business practices worldwide. But I don't know, something about how they adapt in each region to embrace the local taste just seems so... fascinating to me. Anyways, so for years, I have been hearing about the Maharaja mac at McDonald's in India which uses chicken in the patty, rather than beef and I finally got to witness it for myself!

Also a vegetarian version available

They also had a bunch of vegetarian wraps on the menu which I thought was pretty cool. Unfortunately, I had Delhi belly at the time and didn't eat much that day so I didn't try it but it was still a cool thing to see!

The next day was the official start of the tour where we went to see some landmarks around Delhi. The one I thought was most interesting was the Jama Mosque in Old Delhi, where a lot of muslims still lived.

You had to wear a robe to get in

The place was well preserved, and architecturally interesting. It was built a few hundred years ago and still functions today as a mosque so people can come in to pray. The fact that this mosques still functions today after oh-so-many years shows me how different religions are tolerated and respected in India and that is something I have an immense amount of respect for. I 'm so thankful we live in a place that is so diverse like Toronto and sometimes I forget that when I go abroad.

To get back to our tour bus, we got to ride in a rickshaw!

Look ma! No hands!

I was really surprised at how fast we were going, considering the rickshaw driver seemed very skinny and the traffic was crazy. But it was a lot of fun!

Agra

So the next day was the main event (for me) of the trip (other than the wedding). We went to see the Taj Mahal!

OK, here's my 2nd not-so-secret confession to make... the whole reason I picked this tour was because I wanted to see the Taj Mahal. Given the fact that India is a huge country and I pretty much know nothing about it... I figured I should go see its most famous landmark.

If you didn't know, the Taj Mahal was built in 1632 by the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan for his second wife Mumtaz. She died giving birth to their 14th child. It is mausoleum and a monument to their love. It's a sad story but sometimes, I can't help but feel sorry for the first wife. The second wife gets the guy and the love monument... what does the first wife get? But I guess life is unfair sometimes eh?

Anyways... the Taj did not disappoint! It was awe-inspiring to see the structure up close in real life and so much fun to explore the expansive grounds! I'm truly amazed by the amount of thought they put into the design and construction of the monument. There is a west facing mosque to the side of the main structure, and an identical building to the east to preserve the symmetry! And since I work in plant design...I know the amount of things that can potentially go wrong during execution...which makes me appreciate this place even more!

According to the guide, the structure on the outside is actually an imperfect octagon while the inside is a perfect octagon.

Still very cool

In the afternoon, we visited the Baby Taj, Mumtaz's parents' tomb, which was an inspiration for the Taj Mahal.

Here, you can see more clearly the details of the gem inlaid in marble that is present in the Taj Mahal. The colour you see below is NOT paint but some kind of gemstone. I'm so impressed by this ancient technology... I only wish there were better conservation efforts at these sites :(.

Anyways, I hope you have enjoyed my little write up of the first part of my trip. Have a great week!

A Wedding in India, Pt II- The Wedding

2016-03-10T22:43:00.000-05:00

Hey! This is the second part of my time in India, you can find part 1 here

So where did we leave off in the story? Ah, I believe we had just finished the Sangeet, where the two families celebrated with dancing and gifts. After countless prayers, ceremonies, and rituals, it was finally, finally time to get married.

But first, we must be dressed for the occasion. It was time for Esther and I to wear the sarees that Shreya had bought for us. This was my first time wearing traditional Indian garb and boy, was it tough to figure out.

Our beautiful sarees hanging on the rack

The saree as you can see, comes in three parts. The top, a hidden petticoat and the giant 6 foot long scarf. The two of us were able to put on the top and the petticoat with no issues, but wrapping the scarf was another problem. Apparently, it was considered inappropriate to run around with just the top and the petticoat and since we were alone in our room, we hastily wrapped the scarf around us and dashed off to find someone to help. I swear if someone saw us, the probably thought we had just stolen the sarees from a saree shop since it was so horribly wrapped.

Thankfully, one of Shreya's many aunties helped us and here's the final product.

ta-da!

Once we were done with our outfits, we hung around with Shreya and the others in case they needed help. I was bored so I started photographing some of her jewelry.

Gorgeous

Finally, it was time for the groom and his family to arrive. And what an entrance he made. There was a big dance party, a marching band to announce his appearance and he arrived on a horse and carriage! At this point though, I have to say, I 'm a little disappointed that he was not on an elephant given all the pomp and circumstance I had witnessed up to this point. But I guess we'll have to save that sight for the next wedding in India I suppose.

still super fancy though

All of Shreya's family was ready to welcome them with flowers.

Kind of feels like the Oscars

The actual wedding ceremony itself was something very different. The priest read an entire book of prayers after which the bride and groom walked over the sacred fire four times. I believe each rotation was supposed to symbolize a promise/vow? I guess this is the Hindu version of vows??

Finally they were married! Of course we had to take a group pic with the happy couple.

The last ceremony that day was the long, sad send off, where the bride officially goes away. I have to admit that I did shed many tears since it was such a touching moment. I think Shreya's family probably had a good laugh though since I technically lived the closest to her and will have the most opportunity to see her, so really, I should not be the one crying.

Stay tuned for the next leg of my journey in Delhi where I leave the comfort and safety of Shreya's family and begin to explore the ancient sights of India.

Have a great week guys!

A Wedding In India- Pt I

2016-03-06T00:38:00.000-05:00

As some of you know, I have just returned after two weeks in India for a friend's wedding. It was my first time to India and it was, in many ways, a trip of a lifetime. Not only was it my first time ever in India, which can be a very overwhelming place filled with culture shock, it was an experience to see my friend get married , and it was a university reunion since Shreya (Bride), Esther and I had met in first year in undergrad, and don't get to see each other often. I want to re-cap my time there, and to share with all of you my thoughts from this trip.

The trip can be broken down into two segments. The wedding and then a tour of some of India's famous landmarks. I spent 5 days in my friend's hometown Vadodara ( aka Baroda) before going on a weeklong tour. I'm kind of really glad we did it this way since I felt like I got to see more of India , and got to go outside of the touristy parts. You can see the approximate locations in the map below.

Arrival

My journey began when I met up with Esther in Frankfurt and the two of us flew into Mumbai together. I actually got somewhat "scammed" on our first day while transferring airports in Mumbai. There were these guys "helping" out with the luggage and demanding tips from unaware tourists. Since they asked me for a tip, I gave them 10 ruppees, which was apparently not enough. But in my mind, since they didn't do much in the first place, they don't deserve much of a tip.

Thankfully, we managed to make it to Shreya's house without anymore hassles after that, and good thing too because there were lots to do. One thing that I was taken back by was the number of ceremonies, prayers, activities, and gifts that had to be prepared for the wedding. It really takes a village to get married and it seemed like her whole family came to help out. On my first day, I was mostly helping out with making some of the gifts to guests. Shreya's mom made some homemade chocolates.

They look so professionally done :)

And we were responsible for wrapping the chocolates with custom wrappers for guests.

There were lots of gifts to be made, which Shreya's aunts and cousins helped make. I really have to say that I had a great time making the gifts and getting to know her family. They really made me feel so welcomed and even though we had a short time together, I somehow felt like I, too was a long lost cousin.

Henna Day

Another important event was getting henna on your hands. A team of ladies came in and did such lovely designs for everyone.

This was pretty much a full day event since you couldn't touch anything until after the henna had dried and started flaking off. The longer you leave it on, the darker the colour would be the next day. The drying process took up to 3 hours, and even after that, you were not supposed to wash your hands until the next day. Poor Shreya had to keep it on for six hours to let the colour get even darker.

The bride's lovely henna details

The bride gets extra henna on her feet

Sangeet

Before the wedding, it's customary to hold a big party known as the Sangeet. Shreya's family went all out and rented a part of the local palace as the venue.

So grand.

They had catering outside which served fresh dosas and other Indian delicacies which were really good.

Speaking of food, I was on a vegetarian diet for my entire trip. I did sneak in some beef jerky into the country for the trip since I thought I would miss meat but surprisingly, I was not craving meat at all!

A typical meal

I hope you've enjoyed the first part of my adventures in India. Stayed tune for the next part - the Big Day.

Winter Getaway

2016-01-31T23:18:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! Happy 2016! Hope it has been a good year for you so far :). I haven't been blogging as much , mostly because I've been lazy. I have been trying new recipes but I just haven't found the time to talk about it here.

I've always loved road trips as a kid but I have not gone on too many as an adult. This is mostly due to the fact that I don't drive and most of my friends prefer not having to drive on their off days. So when my friends proposed the idea of driving to St.Catherine's and renting a place for the weekend for some "Winter Fun", I said yes right away. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't co-operating so there was nearly no snow, and the ground was very muddy but we ended up having a blast and that's what matters.

One of our main objectives were to go hiking and we chose Short Hill Provincial Park as our destination. It started off pretty good and we saw their half-frozen waterfall.

Flow rate is low and frozen!

It was just nice to walk about in the forest and for the most part, it wasn't too difficult.

Crossing a stream-no big deal

We were just being our derpy selves and taking lots of selfies.

Apparently Christina and Annie have been doing some mad reps at the gym.

It was just really nice to walk around in a quiet place and be amongst friends.

But soon, our adventure took a wrong turn and now we're slipping down this horrible mud hill. Thank god I had my walking stick there since it was so slippery.

The brilliant Ameele who first picked up the stick

We did eventually made it out of there alive and decided we should try some wines to reward ourselves. It was super crowded at the winery though and nobody really tried anything at all. Eventually, we got super hungry and visited a local restaurant in wine country.

The food turned out to be super amazing despite it being a toursity spot!

We all had something different from the menu and I must say it was one of the best pizzas I've had in a really long time.

Annie's burger looked super amazing as well.

For dinner that night, we decided to make our own tacos. We prepped all the shells and the ingredients so we can make our own customized tacos. I must say Christina did an excellent job at the prep work since it's hard to work with a dull knife.

Ready ...set....Taco!

Someone even made a salad bowl...Chipotle style.

We ended the night with some pampering and face masks.

Even the boys got into it! Here's Ameele, ready for his first face mask experience.

He wanted the caviar mask

Look at the two of them pondering life with their masks on....

We even got a group selfie!

Check out Lucas' scary face in the middle...very horror movie worthy

Overall, I'd say this was a great weekend and I can't wait till we go away again! Have a good week everyone!

Thanksgiving Croi-nut-za

2015-10-12T15:44:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! I know it's been a while since I've posted but I'm back with another post...this time on something that I ( we) made! I actually I have a post from the summer that I haven't put up yet because I 've been kind of busy. I hope you're all having a lovely Thanksgiving so far :).

For the past 6 months, we've been holding Friday swim nights at my place. This has also turned into cooking night as well. So Annie posted this video from BuzzFeedFood on my wall the other day and we decided to try it on our Friday swim/cook nights.

So why did we call it the Croi-nut-za? It's croissants in the shape of a donut that's actually a pizza. Clever right ?:D

We started out with 2 Pillsbury croissant tubes and laid it out as shown in the video.

Then we laid on the sauce in a ring and put on our desired toppings. In this case, mushrooms, cheese and pepperoni.

Then we wrapped the whole thing up.

After baking for 30 min at 375F, it comes out looking like this!

We decided to make another one with a hole in the middle like the video shows.

It turns out the pastry fills up the hole so it doesn't really matter anyways.

the second croinutza

We used a pizza cutter to cut into it.

Here's our masterpiece!

Would I make it again?

I'm going to say no :(. The recipe was easy to follow but due to how thick the pie was, the bottom didn't cook well so we were kind of sick from eating the uncooked dough :(. With a regular pie, you tend to cook the pie crust first before you put in the fillings and bake it, but you don't get the opportunity to do that in here. However, if you ignore that part, the rest of the croinutza was delicious and it was fun and easy to try the recipe.

Have a great week everyone!

Mysterious Istanbul

2015-07-12T22:29:00.001-04:00

Hey Guys! This is the last of my 4 part series on my trip to Central Europe this year.

Part 1 , part 2 and part 3 in case you need to catch up.

Sorry if I've been sitting on this post for a while, I feel like I had so much to say, yet I wasn't sure how to convey everything nor what to show and what not to show so it's taken me a while to put everything up.

Istanbul was an amazing experience, it was a place unlike any other which I had visited in my life. There were so many people and the sights, sounds and smells were all so different to what I was used to! I really had an eye-opening visiting to this city but I don't think I'll be back in the near future. It was very over-whelming and the next visit will probably be in a long long time.

The Sights

There were so many mosques and historic sights to see, since we were only there for a short time, we visited the most famous Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.

The first stop of the day was the Blue Mosque.

What a beautiful day

We had to take off our shoes and me and Annie had to wrap our heads in scarves before we got to go inside since it was still an operating mosque. The inside does not disappoint with the soaring domes and intricately carved interior.

We didn't really stay long at the mosque since there were lots of people milling about. We moved on to the next monument, the Hagia Sophia, a church that turned into a mosque that turned into a museum.

I was even more impressed by the soaring ceilings and impressive architecture. It was the world's largest building for nearly a thousand years before being displace by another church. It was very awe-inspiring to walk inside. Fun fact: the g in Hagia is not silent! I was so surprised when I heard the official tour soundtrack pronounce it!

Our hotel had a very good view of both the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. Here they are at sunset with the Bosphorus in the background. So beautiful.

Blue Mosque

Hagia Sophia

And here they are side by side. So awesome!

The Shopping

Istanbul is also a city famous for its shops. You can literally by anything in this city and someone will be here to sell it to you and haggle with you. I found the Grand Bazaar, the most famous of the Istanbul Bazaar to be too overwhelming. There were sooo many people everywhere, all trying to get your attention and sell you something. Shopping became a whole new level of intense.

On the bright side (no pun intended), the turkish lamps sold were gorgeous!

Should've brought one back!

There were also these fun decorative dishes everywhere as well! My mom told me I should've brought one back for her. (oops!)

Story time: while we were at the Grand Bazaar, Rowan needed to go to the bathroom so Annie and I decided to stand in one place to wait for him. BAD IDEA! These two Turkish gentlemen quickly came over and introduced themselves and insisted that I take their picture. They then proceeded to ask about our relationship status as well as how they were "rich and single Turkish men" .

Needless to say, Annie and I put away our cameras after that and did not stay in one place anymore for Rowan's next bathroom break.

The Food

Turkey is also famous for their food. I'll be honest and say that I didn't really like the kebobs that I was eating. I did have to say that I really enjoyed the other things that I tried.

I'm a really big fan of seafood, and streetfoods in general. However, usually the combination of the two means a nasty trip to the bathroom. I did get up the courage to try these stuffed mussels though. They were stuffed with a cooked rice and mussels stuffing and served with a squeeze of lemon. Yumm!

Along the same stretch of the harbour, we found fresh grilled fish! Except you eat it with bread like a sandwich!

It was actually really good since the fish was so fresh and moist. I wish we had these in Canada!!

The other thing I really loved about Istanbul was that there were fresh, roasted chestnuts everywhere, selling for peanuts (or chestnuts??)! I pretty much grabbed a bag of them every time I saw them. So fresh, so good.

Since Istanbul was a city surrounded by water, fish and seafood is in abundance. The turks are really good at grilling fish so I had a lot of fish on the trip.

Since we were in Istanbul, we had to get some Turkish delight for home. There were many shops specializing in Turkish delights since it's a tourist favourite. The candy was actually not bad and the amount of variety was very refreshing.

Finally, I had a sip of Turkish coffee and not pictured, tea. I have to say that I was not fond of either. The coffee had a lot more grounds then what I was used to and the tea was not my cup of tea either. :\ I do like how the Turks serve the coffee with a bit of Turkish delight since they know it'll be more bitter due to the extra grounds.

Finally I leave you with this image of the Blue Mosque at night. I hope you enjoyed my jam-packed trip to Istanbul. There were other things we did that was not mentioned but this post is already long enough. Enjoy your week!

Beautiful Budapest

2015-06-21T00:13:00.001-04:00

Hey guys! It's been a while since I did my last post. Things have been interesting lately but I'm ready to continue sharing our trip with you. So to continue the story, we took another 8 hr train from Poland and got to Budapest early in the morning. On the agenda that day was checking out the chamber music performance at the Opera house and just exploring the city.

The setting for the chamber music was really nice, it was a small room but you can see and hear the musicians perfectly. We got to sit at the front so I had a perfect view of the performers. The best part was that they chose to perform music from Hungarian composers so that was extra nice :D.

Impressive grand piano

I wish I got to go on the tour for the opera house, it seemed like a really cool place with lots of history. Here's another glimpse of the inside.

Budapest is often referred to as the Paris of the East. I can see why since the city is very well preserved and has its own beautiful, romantic charm.

The city used to be two different cities, Buda and Pest, divided by the Danube River.

Here's a rare picture with the three of us all together :)

Definitely one of my favs

Afternoon Tea

So there are lots caves near Budapest and since I'm not really a caving kind of girl, I decided to skip out on the caving adventure that Annie and Rowan went on and take the opportunity to wander around town.

It was such a beautiful day, with the perfect weather. I decided to wander down to the Parliament area to check out the largest Parliament building in the world.

Streetcars were everywhere too!

The area was really nice and since Parliament was in session that day, nobody was allowed in and the place was quite serene.

After that, I decided to take a stroll along the Danube River and I stumbled upon one of the most famous exhibits in Budapest, the Shoes on the Danube.

This permanent exhibit was to commemorate an event that occurred in World War II where the Jews were killed by Hungarian fascists. The victims were forced to strip off their clothes and shoes and shot from behind so that they would fall into the river and the river would carry their body away. It was very moving to see all the shoes as a reminder of the event.

I had a bit more time so I decided to go and have Afternoon Tea at the Four Seasons. This particular location was a converted historical building and they used beautiful Herringbone china so it was an amazing experience.

All the pieces were hand painted and amazingly delicate.

The finger sandwiches and pastries were delicious too!

We ended up taking three baths in the three days that we were there. I'll leave you a photo of the largest and oldest of the three baths: Széchenyi Baths

Have a great weekend you guys! Look out for the next post as we explore Istanbul, the link between Europe and Asia.

Bikes & Perogis- Krakow

2015-05-30T00:36:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! Hope everybody had a good week. Don't worry, I didn't forget about the blog, I'm just taking my sweet time. Partly because I'm lazy, partly because I'm working on becoming a real engineer (P.Eng experience application).

So where were we? Oh yes, the morning after the train ride. We got to Krakow at around 8 AM in the morning at the train station and funnily enough, it was quite difficult to find someone who spoke english and hail a taxi. At the end, a friendly local helped us get ride to the hotel. Of course, it was too early for check-in so time for some wandering...

Old-Town Krakow is actually a UNESCO protected site. The area is beautifully preserved and includes old-town square, picturesque little houses and churches.

We climbed up the clock tower and got a beautiful view of the surrounding area.

Wieliczka Salt Mine

This was one of the oldest salt mines in the world and was something that I really wanted to come to Krakow and see. As most of you know, I work in the mining industry and in particular, processing so mining and mining related topics are something near and dear to my heart. The mine has been operating continuously since the 13th century until it shut down in 2007 when tourism revenues brought in more money than table salt. Many of the miner throughout the ages left their mark on the mine and carved statues out of the rock like the one below.

I work with a few geologists so I hope other fellow rock lovers would enjoy this photo of the rock crystals. You could actually lick the walls ( not statutes though) and I believe each visitor gets to lick/take away 3 kg of salt from the ground if they really wanted to.

The mine itself contained many chapels and places of worship and was unlike any mine I had ever heard of.

Took 3 people 67 years to carve this chapel

The chandeliers itself was made of salt too! This was truly a world class deposit.

Exquisite

Wawel Castle

We took a trip to the nearby Wawel Castle compound by the Vistula river. This was where for centuries, the kings of Poland lived. The grounds were very very impressive and extensive.

An overview

The Tower

Rowan was helping me and Annie take pictures, I know he doesn't like it but he does get into it.

Gotta get the best angle

He eventually took one or two pictures of the scenery himself.

Awesome shot :D

The symbol of Krakow is the dragon so there's a statue of a dragon that breathes fire!

Roar!!!!

It was a beautiful day and we ended up renting some bikes to go along the river! So much fun ^^.

The Food

Of course Poland is famous for their perogis so we did try a lot of that in Krakow. Did you know that the usual potato/cheese stuffed perogi at home that we have are known as Russian perogis there? Also, it was nice to find different variety of stuffings, especially game in the perogis. They were boiled, fried and usually served with sour cream.

Since we are not that far from central Europe, I was able to find pig's feet on the menu. My boss told me to try it so I reluctantly ordered a plate. The meat was actually quite tender and flavourful, it wasn't bad. I would eat it again. They sold it by the 100g, the foot below was only 39g!

Kinda felt like more than 39 g to me

Large sausages seemed quite common too. They were pretty good :)

Alright, hope you liked this entry. I really enjoyed my time in Krakow. The place and people were really nice and given a chance, I would love to go back and explore different parts of Poland. Our next stop will be in Budapest. Enjoy your weekend!

Central Europe 2015: Prague

2015-05-24T01:08:00.004-04:00

As most of you know, I went on a spring trip in Central Europe. After finally unpacking and getting over jetlag, I thought it's time to start blogging about our trip. :)

A bit of background: originally, I had planned this as a rail only trip since this would be my last year to purchase a EuroRail pass, but after doing the math , it turned out that buying the tickets individually was even cheaper and logistically it only made sense to take the train for certain segments of the trip. We ended up going to Prague, Krakow, Budapest, and Istanbul. I know, it's not "really" Central Europe, since we were in Poland and Turkey is barely in Europe but I'm not really sure what to call it so I'll stick with that for now.

You can check out the map below, the blue line indicating a train trip and red line for flying:

The entire trip lasted for 17 days and I went to some of the most picturesque places in Central Europe with my best friend and my boyfriend, it was an absolutely amazing experience!

I start my trip in picturesque Prague, Czech Republic. The old town is amazingly preserved and everywhere you turn, it's a beautiful scene out of a post card.

It seems like Spring has arrived a little earlier in the Czech Republic and everywhere I turned, flowers were in bloom.

Prague is quite the touristy little town. Everywhere you go, there are tourists and tourism activities. We decided to try out a Segway tour as a way to see the town since one side of the Vlata river seemed quite hilly. This turned out to be a great idea since the Prague Castle was situated at the top of a large hill and the Segways were excellent at hill climbing.

All of us in our dorky Segway glory!

To be honest, this was my first time being on a Segway and I have to say I had a lot of fun. They were fast, responsive and able to handle many different terrains. In a way, I'm kind of surprised they are not more widely used given how versatile they can be. However, I would say the biggest drawback is that the user is constantly standing while operating the machine. There are a lot of people who may have difficulty with that, especially over a long period of time. But I'm glad I tried it out and I can't wait till I can do it again :D.

The castle was really fun to explore and you get a spectacular view of old town Prague.

They even have traditional guards who perform a changing of the guards ceremony once a day! Kind of reminds me of London all over again.

The Food

Unfortunately I didn't quite document all of my meals but I will share with you one of the more "Czech" styled meals I had.

Overall the Czechs enjoyed their game, bread and sausages. They seemed to be influenced by the Germans so I saw many places serving sausages as well as the Hungarians since goulash soup was popular as well.

I started my meal with a cup of coffee and it was excellent! Just really really yummy coffee that I can't find at home.

We shared a goulash soup in a bread bowl. It was quite nice but I wish there was more soup.

Annie tried their roast pig meal and it was delicious! This particular restaurant roasts their own pig daily and I was quite fond of how juicy and flavourful the meat was.

Night Time

While in Prague, we saw one opera performance ( Aida) at the National Opera House and one ballet performance (Krabat) . I have to say, I really enjoyed the ballet and I would love to go back. As for the opera, it was my first time watching opera, and I did not enjoy it as much. Thankfully there were subtitles during the performance to let you know what's going on, overall the experience was not as simulating. Each of the places were quite unique and it was the place where locals came to see and be seen, especially the opera house. Annie and I sat in the dress circle at the opera house and most of the people around us were extremely well dressed. All of the men were in suits while women wore expensive evening gowns.

Overall, I would say one can really get a sense of how grand everything used to be when you visit the insides of these historic buildings. It's a nice glimpse into the past.

Extras:

We had a layover in Zurich on the way to Prague. Annie and I found giant Lindt chocolate bars!

I spent a lot of time playing around with night photography and light streaks.

Pretty~~~

I took a picture of our cramped sleeping quarters on the train to Krakow. It fits 3 people (plus luggage) and there was a sink for washing your face!

You can barely stand 3 people in the space!

Have a good night everyone! See you in Poland!

Hello Spring!

2015-04-13T00:09:00.001-04:00

Spring is finally here in the city! The snow 's been gone for a few weeks and the trees are starting to bud. It's one of my favourite time of the year, walking around outside with a light breeze in the air. For the past few weeks, I've been trying different things so I just wanted to share them with you here.

PaintNite

So me and my friend bought a Groupon for Paintnite in 2014 and we never got around to using it. Well finally the Groupon was about to expire so we decided to try it out this weekend. It was my 1st time doing this and really, painting for the first time in about a decade.

All ready with our blank canvas

It started off simple enough, paint the 1st half yellow and the second half a teal colour. Easy peasy right?

Well it turns out that since we chose an abstract painting, the brushwork to make the swirls were really really hard! I spent most of my night trying to fix my mistakes and make it look more "abstract". Half way through the night, we realized that as two people with type-A personalities, we should really not be painting any abstract art. Here's my finished product.

Tada!

I still really like how it turned out and I'm definitely going to find a spot to hang it in my apartment.

New Bike

I had been thinking of getting a new bike for ages and finally picked up one last month at the Toronto Bike show! I got my new bike from Gallant Bicycles, a Toronto shop that does costume paint jobs on bikes. I had originally wanted to get a city cruiser of some kind but after trying it out at the show, none of them really did anything for me. I've been riding my new ride around town for the last few weeks and I really love it! It's really practical, handles well and best of it, it's super cute!

The Next Adventure

So now that Spring is here, I'm itching to go travel to the next destination. The next trip will be an Eastern European city tour. I'm pretty excited about it since this will be my first time taking an overnight train. The trip is coming up soon, so I'm busy getting everything ready. Fun fact- none of these cities use the Euro! Look forward to my trip updates!

Did you have any special plans for Spring? Have a great week everyone!

Adventures in the Azores-Part III - Hot Springs and the Ocean

2014-11-15T01:39:00.001-05:00

Hey guys! This is part III of my time in the Azores, you can check out part I and part II.

I just want to polish off the 3 part series before 2014 is over. The rest of the year looks like it'll be very busy with lots of friends coming to town so I probably won't get to do as much blogging.

The final stop in our Azores trip was to a spa by the ocean, in a place called Ferreira. I haven't been to many spas in my life but I thought this one was special since it was right by the ocean and the pools in the spa use the natural hot spring water. The best part is that there's a hot spring right at the beach, that's accessible to anyone. The water gets really hot to ~50 C , but there's also the cold atlantic water coming in to the area. The locals really enjoy the contrast between the hot and cold and many will come in the summer.

The little red roof is where the spa is located

The waves were high and dangerous that day. The water levels were very high so it was not suitable for swimming. And the reality was, with the water so high up, it's very difficult to feel the hot spring waters contrasted with the cold ocean waves since the pool is filled with cold water.

I ended up not going into the natural pool and just got a massage at the spa instead. In general, the spa was located in a beautiful area and it was fantastic to use their facilities that had the same mineralized waters that was pumped from underground. Here's a few shots of the views at the spa.

This ends the 3 part series on the Azores. I also did a highlight reel if you are interested.

Have a good weekend!

Memories of the Azores

2014-11-15T01:32:00.000-05:00

This is a highlight reel of my time in the Azores, you can check out parts I-III here

I was originally going to include this section in Part III but I felt like I needed to do it justice and not clutter up the Part III post.

I had an amazing time during my trip to the Azores and to be honest, I didn't expect myself to like this place so much. It was a beautiful and scenic place with very warm and friendly locals and I can't wait to go back and explore the other islands and drink more milk!

Things I will miss from the Azores

1) Sunrises

I've never been an early riser but because the sun rose around 8 AM everyday, I did get to catch many beautiful sunrises without having to be up too early.

2) The Food

I think I've talked at length about how much I love their dairy. I also loved a lot of the other foods found on the island, like the fresh fish, and the salty chorizo! I liked the chorizo so much that I bought some at Loblaws to make at home.

flaming chorizo

There's a lot of ice cream cones/ popsicles that are not available in North America as well, this one had a chocolate shell with nuts and a chocolate center.

3) The Landscape

There were rolling hills and cliffs with steep drops everywhere. I loved the variation in the landscape. And of course, the hot spring and spa was amazing!

Trying not to fall off the edge

4) The Plants

There were many hydrangeas and other flowers on the island while I was there. I kind of wish I can go back in the summer time just to see everything blooming.

The endemic moss that's in a heart shape S2

5) The Pineapples!

There were pineapples everywhere that were super fresh! I wish it was like that in North America. But, its probably a good thing since their juice is basically a meat tenderizer and my tongue got really numb from eating all that pineapple on the trip.

I hope you've enjoyed my series on the Azores, I know I did :)

Have a good weekend!

Adventures in the Azores-Part II - Sunshine & Pineapples

2014-10-27T23:15:00.000-04:00

This is part II of my time in the Azores, you can check out part I here.

Another day, another sunrise. It's really really nice to get to see the sun rise up over the mountain and the ocean. This place is perfect :).

Ah~~~~~

We decided to do another tour to check out the other side of the island. The first stop of the day is Lagoa do Fogo , one of the craters on the island. The fresh waters are a clear, crystal blue and you can go canoeing in the lake. This was also one of the first days where the sun is finally shining through the clouds.

You can see for miles and miles across the island from this point.

Here's another view of the lake from further down, sorry for the warped angle, it was an odd place to take a picture.

Such pretty waters~~~

Our next stop of the day was at Caldeira Velha, where you can take a dip in the thermal pools.

This is where the water comes out, too hot to bathe in though.

You can see people taking a nice dip in the pool, seems like fun.

Our next stop was another waterfall. Really really quiet and serene. :)

Our tour guide Jose showed us a local moss that captures some of the misty water.

It's super spongy too!!

We then stopped off at Sete Cidades, a village at the bottom of another volcanic crater, Do you notice how the two lakes are a different colour? The one closer to us is a more green colour, reflecting the green nearby while the further away one is a blue-ish hue, a reflection of the sky. A guide said that the local legend tells the tale of a princess and her lover, a young shepherd, who had to part from each other. The tears they shed at their farewell became the two lakes, with the water coloured like their eyes. As an engineer, and also a girly-girl at heart, I'm not sure which version of the explanation I prefer more...

Love, love, love

As we drive down the hills, you can see how different the landscape can be around the island. You can have steep cliffs with the rolling farm hills all over the island.

Pineapple Plantation

One of the things the Azores is famous for is growing pineapples,. This was also one of the reasons why I decided to visit the islands in the first place, because I love pineapples so much! According to the local guide, they can half the growth time for pineapples here because they are grown in green houses.

We got to see pineapples throughout their growth stages. They start out as little bushes.

You then get a flower on the plant which eventually becomes the pineapple fruit.

Such a pretty flower!

Here's a baby pineapple...

So cute!

They smoke the plant after it flowers with CO2 to make it think it's in danger so that the fruit is produced faster.

After about 1.5 years of growing, you get this beautiful, delicious, pineapple! Notice how the top stem is much shorter than the pineapples we get at home?

Overall, this was an amazing day to see the island in the sun. The weather was still unpredictable but it was just so awesome to be able to see the pineapples growing! I hope you have enjoyed part II of my adventures. Stayed tune next week for part III and have a great week!

Adventures in the Azores-Part I

2014-10-19T16:18:00.002-04:00

So for the week of Thanksgiving, I decided to take the week off and visit somewhere different, the Azores! If you've never heard of the Azores, try to think of them as the Hawaii of the Atlantic. They're a set of nine islands in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, formed by volcanic activity. They're an autonomous region of Portugal and the official language is Portuguese. During the lean years, many of the locals move to Canada/America so most people on the island speak perfect english. I will do a 3-part series documenting my time there. For my trip, I visited the largest of the islands, Sao Miguel and stayed in the capital, Ponta Delgada.

Our hotel room had the most amazing view of sunrise in the morning. On a not-so-cloudy day, you can see the most gorgeous sunrises at ~8AM. What a way to start the day :).

Driving is a must if you want to see all the points on the island so I decided to go on a local taxi tour to see the place. The first one covered the north-eastern portion of the islands as well as the village Furnas where they did a traditional Portuguese stew cooked with geothermal heat.

The island is mostly grasslands with really rugged landscapes that made for really nice pictures. The Portuguese settlers cleared most of the island when they settled a few hundred years ago so there are not many endemic plants left.

One of the stops of the day was at this waterfall, accessible by cars. You can hop around the stones and go up to the top of the waterfall.

There were beautiful hydrangeas in bloom everywhere I went. The most amazing part was that they were different coloured flowers on one bush. I remembered in science class that hydrangeas were one of those plants that respond to the pH of the soil. So depending if its acidic/basic, they will be pink/blue, so it was just amazing to see them have different colours all in one bush. If I had visited earlier, there would be even more flowers in bloom.

waterfalls everywhere

The weather was very unpredictable though. One minute fog, one minute rain, next minute t-shirt weather.

You can see the cloud starting to move in in this picture.

I just looove all the flowers on the island!

There were also lots of dairy cows everywhere! According to the tourguide, there are more cows than people on the island and they graze all over eating the grass. And I have to say, the milk and fresh cheese was so good! Maybe its the fact that the cows eat grass or they're always moving, but the milk has this yummy smell to it and tastes so sweet. The butter was smooth and sweet. It was all somehow...better and I don't even like milk or dairy! Perhaps this is what organic dairy is like? I gotta try some at home and compare.

cow does not look too friendly :(

There's geothermal activity all over the place and in the village of Furnas, the locals use it to cook a traditional stew.

Check out the bubbles from the spring! Every time I tried to take a video, the wind would shift and blow the steam in my face. You can smell the sulfur everywhere in this area!

I did try the traditional stew but I think the place we went to didn't do it correctly. The food I had was quite dry and there was no broth to go along with it. You can taste the sulfur in the food since it was cooked for 6-7 hours in the geothermal holes. Perhaps one day I'll find another place that cooks it right and try it again.

Our last stop of the day was in Villa Franca do Campo, a town on the other side of the island, close to where the first Portuguese settlers found it. I really love the look of the red clay roofs and the white walls against the contrast of the lush, green land. The white houses are the tops of green houses where they grow the local pineapples. The rock you see off the coast is also a diving spot.

For dinner that night, we went to Boca de Cena, where the chef is also the waiter ,who is also the host. For a one-man show, he was actually pretty quick. I didn't really bring my camera out for dinner so no pictures guys. They had lots of different fish on the menu that I've never heard of, things like pig fish and daffodils. Overall, everything was really fresh and delicious.

So this ends the first part of my tale, I hope you liked it and I'm glad you made it to the end! For the second part, I'll show you a different side of the island as well as more of the local landscape. Have a good week!

Under the Sea at Ripley's Aquarium

2014-06-08T23:15:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone! This weekend was my little sister's 16th birthday and since our parents are out of town, she came and spent the weekend with me. :) We decided to check out the new aquarium by the waterfront and it was so much fun! Check out some of our photos below.

Here's my lovely lil sis, Joyce.

There were lots of little exhibits with fish from all over the world.

The best part of the Aquarium was the tunnel where the fish swim around you. We found a sea turtle swimming ahead.

Lots of huge sharks swimming up close and personal to us. It was amazing!

There's a special section for sting rays and it was so much fun to see them swim lazily about. They're really graceful looking creatures.

You can even touch one too!

I believe these were hard shelled rays

The exhibit continues with more tropical fish and coral display. So pretty and vibrant.

The last two sections of the aquarium was for sharks and jelly fishes. Here's Joyce being eaten by a huge shark.

This is probably one of my favourites :D

Here's Joyce touching the inside of a shark...not good I guess

The jelly fish exhibit was probably my favourite in the whole place. It felt really surreal and just nice to see them laze about. :)

We left the Aquarium around 12:30 and headed for sushi since all the fish watching made me crave some sashimi.

A look at the train tracks around Union

Overall, it was a great trip even though the admission was a bit pricey (34 dollars/person). I had a lot of fun spending time with my little sister and it was nice to see the fishes!

Have a good week everyone!

Date Night at Nota Bene

2014-05-20T21:59:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone! Just wanted to recap what happened over the May Long weekend. I hope you guys all had a very relaxing and happy time off. The weather was a bit cold though for this time of year but at least the sun was shining ( for the most part). I will apologize in advance for all the cellphone photos today. I forgot to take my camera out with me for the past few days!

My weekend started with date night at Nota Bene on University and Queen. I had always walked by I've never actually gone in so it was awesome to finally try their food.

My boyfriend got the onion rings to start and they were probably the best onion rings I've ever had. The batter was very thin and the sauce was really flavourful.

I don't like onion rings but I loved these ones

For the main course, I tried their pulled pork tostada with a pineapple salsa. The pulled pork was quite flavourful but I did find the dish to be a bit sour over all.

My boyfriend got the ravioli and he said they were really good even though I thought the portion size was a bit on the smaller end.

I'm not sure if I would be full...

Overall, it was nice dinner out and I did enjoy the food at Nota Bene. This was more of a fancy place and the menu was a little pricier so I would recommend this place for more special occasions.

On Monday night, I got to see one of my best friends and we got to catch up over coffee. It was a really nice day to walk around outside and I took this picture while waiting for her to get tokens.

The Canada Life building is one of my favourite ones in downtown Toronto. My boss's window faces this building and I can honestly say I never get tired of the view. It's a high rise, yet it has so much character and the inside is really pretty too! The best part is that you can use the lights at the top to know what the weather will be like in the upcoming 24 hrs.

We ended up getting Korean BBQ at a local Korean restaurant. It was a called a "pot lid" and it seemed like enough food for 4 people (the menu specified it for 2 people).

The two of us had enough leftovers for lunch the next day!

Extras: Goggles bought on Ebay

As some of you will know, I used to be a really avid swimmer, I'd go maybe 2-3 times a week. However I stopped swimming in the last 2-3 months since I lost my goggles and I find it really uncomfortable to be in the water without them. Since I can be really lazy and cheap, I decided to get my replacement on Ebay (~6 dollars) and they finally came after 2 weeks!

So fancy! Comes with a case too!

These are actually a lot more fancy then the last pair that I had from Speedo. I like how they come with a protective hard plastic case. Maybe I won't lose them as easily in the future...

I've tried them on and so far they seem to provide really good suction at the eyes. I'll test them out when I go for a swim this weekend with my dad.

Anyways, thanks for reading everyone, have a great week!

Goodbye Grad School!

2014-05-17T01:41:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone! Seems like it's been another while since I've had the chance to post. I hope you guys are all doing well :). As for me, I've just been busy living the post grad life and enjoying my "free-time".

For this particular post, me and the two awesome people who helped me on my M.Eng project went out for a post-project celebratory dinner. I really couldn't have done it without either of their help in my project. Plus, it was also nice to catch up over the last few weeks.

We ended up going to one of my favourite restaurant in Toronto, Bannock, part of the Oliver + Bonnacini chain on Queen and Bay. I just feel like the food here is so good and the atmosphere is really nice yet the prices are still reasonable for the downtown core.

Everyone's casually dressed and you can see into the Bay!

On this particular trip, I got a salad and I tried the Piri Piri chicken.

Normal salad, nice presentation though

Yummy chicken!

I had first tried this particular dish at Nando's, a chain from the UK that recently expanded into Canada and I just loved the spices and how juicy the chicken was, even though it was grilled. In my experience, I usually find grilled food to be more dry. I found the Bannock version a slight bit drier but the spices were still very flavourful.

Lawrence, the PhD student got the steak on my recommendation.

Not the best presentation Bannock

Jeffrey, who's starting his master's got the burger and I got a side of the sweet potato fries to share :D
.

I try to get the fries everytime I go

The burger was too big so Jeffrey ended up eating it with a knife and fork lol.

I would probably have done the same

Overall, it was a great night out with friends and hopefully we'll get to do this again before the summer is over. So happy that I'm all done my M.Eng now and it's mostly thanks to these two awesome guys! So a humongous thank you to the two of you if you happen to be reading :).

Extras: Godzilla

On my way down to the restaurant, I passed by the Godzilla set/ad on Yonge and Elm. The subway car looked like it was coming out of the ground and the whole set was really well done!

If you din't know better, you really thought something came and did some serious damage to the subway( except that subways don't run on Elm St.).

Upon closer inspection though, you can see that the subway car was cut at an angle to make it seem like the car was coming out. Very clever!

So thanks for stopping by you guys! It's been a great week and I'll try to post some stuff from the upcoming long weekend. Now that I'm done my M.Eng, I feel like I should try out another hobby...or something. Any ideas/suggestions?

Anyways, bed time for me, as usual, thanks for reading and have a great day!

Good Friday Brunch at Mad Dog Cafe

2014-04-21T22:08:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone! It's been a long, long time since I've had a chance to update this blog and it feels so nice to be back! I hope you guys have had a lovely 2014 so far and staying happy and warm wherever you are :)

Over the past Easter weekend, I got to see some of my besties that I haven't seen in a few months and we all had brunch at Mad Dog Cafe, a small cozy place on the east side of town.

I started my day off with a nice Americano, pretty good and best of all, it was not burnt like the Starbucks version.

There were three different sizes to their breakfast menu, suitable for appetites of all sizes and shapes. There was the Mini Dog.

Mini Dog: Good for people who dislike beans

The Mad Dog

Mad Dog: regular sized for regular people

And the Big Dog

Big Dog: for the meat lover in all of us

Overall, it was a great day to get to spend some time with my friends and relax for the long weekend. The food itself was OK, I would drop by if I was in the area but I wouldn't go out of my way for brunch here.

Extras

A few weekends ago, I got to go to my first ever wedding as a guest and it was so much fun! My friend from university was getting married and it was great to be able to see old friends and catch up once again :). It's hard to believe that just yesterday, we were anxiously finishing our projects and nervously thinking about our exams ahead. And here we are, with her getting married! I must say, I'm excited to enter this next stage of life with wedding rings and babies appearing everywhere :).

This was my first southeast asian wedding and I was so blown away by all the beautiful decor and delicious food!

Stage for the Bride and Groom

I was struck by how many rituals the reception contained and the reception itself was split into three days to properly celebrate the wedding. Everything was so elaborately decorated and everyone seemed so nice. I had such a blast and I'm so glad that we got invited :). Check out the henna and bangles on her hands!

Have a great week everyone and I hope to update more often as we finally come out of this deep, long winter :).

Bright lights and Glamour in Hong Kong and Macau

2014-02-09T10:57:00.001-05:00

Hey guys! This will be my last post on my Asia trip! Thanks for sticking with me so far!

Our last leg of the trip was in Hong Kong and Macau. I had previously been to Hong Kong before, to catch my one way flight to Canada so I don't remember much from my trip oh so many years ago. Overall, it's truly a city that never sleeps and probably the best shopping experience I've ever had. The bright lights and the crowds are one of a kind and there's something for everyone in this city.

Our trip started with a view of Tai Peng Peak, one of the best places to see Victoria Harbour from above.

Very foggy though

At night we visited the Mong Kok district where the locals like to shop. I had never seen this many people and shops all concentrated in one spot. Very cool, very busy.

Hong Kong is famous for its local delicacies and I was so excited to try all the foods! One of my favourites was the wonton soup that I had. Everything just tasted that much better in Hong Kong. I think what I liked about it more then anything was just how all the components in the soup worked together to make something better.

The wontons were so good!

There's also lots of street food available and these little egg cakes smelled really good!

Tsim Sha Chui is one of the best spots to view the brights lights of the harbour at night. With the live music, the bright lights and a light sea breeze, it's a nice way to spend the night.

Macau

The next day we took a tour to Macau to check out the island. This is the biggest gambling spot in Asia, taking in more profit then even Las Vegas for the last few years. We got really lucky with the weather since the island usually experiences very foggy weather year-round.

I believe there are over 30 casinos on the island, enough to suit any gambler's appetite for gambling. Macau is also famous for its Portuguese tarts.

I've had one of these in Toronto before but of course the Macau ones were so much better! They were fresh, there wasn't too much crust and it was just sweet enough.

Our guide was kind enough to take us on a walking tour of old Macau. It started at the ruins of St. Paul's church, a local landmark.

From here, we took a walk down Largo do Senado and found this beautiful, Mexican styled church.

There were lots of faithful inside the church

Outside, the streets were filled with people and the pre-Chinese New Year decorations were already up.

We got a glimpse of the gambling culture in Macau with the huge stream of Chinese gamblers coming to gamble and views of Stanley Ho's casinos throughout the city.

The shape of the building had to do with Feng Shui

We only got to visit one casino on this trip, which was the Emperor Casino, owned in part by Jackie Chan. There were 88 gold bars in the lobby, another Feng Shui idea. I really understood how superstitious some of these people were when I was trying to take a photo of the gold bars. There was a manager at the lobby to prevent people from bending down to take a photo since it was "bad luck". There was another piece at the side just for photography purposes.

Iphone sized gold bar

Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Hong Kong and Macau and I would love to come back. This was a trip of a lifetime, and thank you for coming along with me. Have a great week!

The Temple of Heaven and Blue Skies at the Summer Palace

2014-01-28T21:05:00.001-05:00

Hey guys! This will be the last part of the series in Beijing. I'm almost done my trip, thanks for hanging on with me!

After visiting the Forbidden City, we then went to Beijing's other very famous landmark, the Temple of Heaven. As you know, Chinese people can be very superstitious and back in the day, the Emperor ( link to God) would try to appease the gods in many ways, including worshipping at this temple every year.

Of course before we went in, we stopped at a Chinese Bakery for some eats. God the food was so good and cute!

Almost makes me not want to eat them

Apparently the Temple of Heaven is a local hangout and all the seniors come here to chill with their friends.

The most iconic building in this area was the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, with its triple decked roof.

The inside of the circular building was absolutely gorgeous. I think I almost like it better then the Forbidden City.

Ancient Chinese Door-knocker

Summer Palace

For our last day in Beijing, we went to the Summer Palace, unfortunately, since we were visiting in Winter, the sights weren't as great as they could be. But luckily we finally saw the clear blue sky for the first time since we were in China.

We got to walk through the Long Corridor where each beam and overhead area is hand painted.

As far as the eye can see

We found a guy selling sugar art, where you take malt candy and blow different shapes into to make edible art.

We each got a candy figure :D

The Summer Palace was a great place to visit and it probably would've been better if we had came in the summer time.

We got to try the famous Beijing Tanghulu before we left the city. This is a snack that has candied hawthorn berries on a bamboo stick and I've been seeing these on TVB dramas ever since I was little. We got a modern version with candied fruits too and it was so much better then I expected! Not too sweet, not too tangy and the texture was so nice and crunchy! 10/10 would try again :)

Thanks so much for reading everyone!

Into the Forbidden City and Peking Ducks

2014-01-23T21:05:00.001-05:00

Our next adventure in Beijing was dedicated to going to the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. However, due to the large number of photos I took, I've decided to split the posts into two so you guys won't be overwhelmed ( or be here forever while the pictures load). But I will say that today's post will be very photo heavy.

The Forbidden City, if you didn't know was the home of the Chinese emporer for the last 500 years (spanning the Ming and Qing Dynasty). I believe it is one of the largest wooden palaces in the world and only a small part of it is open to the public.

We started the day with another Beijing specialty, almost a salty crepe with meat and vegetables. So fresh, so good ^^.

Yum!

The weather was starting to cooperate and you could almost see the blue sky!

This photo makes it seem like the place is empty...it's not

Each of the halls inside have a plaque stating the name of the hall and elaborately decorated roofs and support beams.

Smile!

They had water spouts in the shape of dragons to prevent flooding when it rained.

The halls ranged from places the Emperor conducted his affairs with his ministers, to his office to places he hung out. You can't go in but you can try and look from the outside to get an idea of how it looked back then.

Love the throne chair!

There were these giant urns outside that had gold scratch marks on them. According to Chrissy's relative, that was leftover from when the English and French raided the palace and evidence of their attempt to scratch off all the gold.

They did a pretty good job with getting most of it off

The entrance to each of the halls had a middle section that was sectioned off since that used to be exclusively used by the Emperor.

Dragons everywhere

The palace grounds were so large that sometimes you feel like you're just walking around and around in a circle.

Found a few stragglers outside

On our way out we went to Jinshan Hill, one of the highest points within Beijing. The view of the Forbidden City was breathtaking.

This was another nice view of the city from the outside. Interesting how the moat has frozen over.

At night, we tried another famous Beijing dish, the Peking duck! I've tried this dish many times before in Toronto but of course, I had to try it again in Beijing. The skin was much more crispy and the duck meat was really tender. The best part was that the duck didn't feel fatty at all.

I'm so hungry

Overall, I loved visiting the Forbidden City and I'm glad I had the chance to do so.

Thanks for reading everyone!

Hiking on the Great Wall of China

2014-01-14T00:13:00.000-05:00

I've now completed the Shanghai portion of the trip and we left for Beijing on a nine hour train from Shanghai.

I must say that the train station in Shanghai was one of the nicest and newest train stations I've ever seen. Everything was really modern and clean. The trains were comfortable, and the seats had lots of legroom. It was much better then I had imagined.

Train platform in Shanghai

Comfy for the ride

Our first stop in Beijing was to visit the Great Wall of China.

A lot of tourists will typically go to Badaling, a section of the Great Wall that’s closest to Beijing but luckily we had Auntie Janet's cousin bring us to a more interesting part of the wall where we were free to explore on our own. Jinshanling is a part of the wall that has appeared in numerous films and TV sequences. The first part of the wall was very well maintained but soon, we begin to see more imperfect parts of the wall.

Lots of crumbled walls and incomplete sections

But it was great to get away from the crowds of Beijing and really spend some time exploring the Great Wall of China.

On a clear day, you can see for miles

It was quite dangerous climbing the wall since there were many high and uneven steps and it began to snow while we started climbing.

Broken, jagged, slippery steps

The climb itself wasn't too physically taxing, there were lots of flat-ish sections for us to walk. Going down was more awful since it was so slippery.

Of course since this is China, you can get food everywhere. I found a local selling coffee, tea and snacks on the Great Wall.

Good selection of items too

Of course I had to try a cup of coffee!

Good way to stay warm too

On our way back, we met another local farmer who was selling souvenirs on the wall. She was extremely fit for a 60 year old and even helped some of us come down on the more steep parts.

Here's a picture of her trying to give us directions

Overall, it was an amazing experience to get to climb the Great Wall of China. I'm happy to say this is another item off of the bucket list.

Gotta leave my mark on the wall :)

Thanks for reading everyone!

Crab Eating in Suzhou

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On my next leg of the trip, we stopped in Suzhou to visit a five hundred year old home built in the Ming Dynasty by one of the designers of the Forbidden City.

The home was beautifully preserved with the original furnishings and a well manicured garden.

Serene

The museum was very interactive and you got to walk around as if you were the owner of the home.

Oh, hello there :D!

Nice place for photos too :D

Crabs from Tai Lake

Tai Lake is one of the largest fresh water lakes in China. The crabs from this lake are world famous for their taste and meat texture and are highly desired each year during the fall and winter when they taste the best. My mom told me that my great-grandmother tried the steamed crab from the lake once and remembered the taste for the rest of her life. So of course I had to try one while I'm in the area to see what all the fuss is about :D.

They come bound like this after being steamed. Steaming is the preferred method of cooking since it retains the original crab flavours the best.

Looks like a normal crab, but the legs are smaller

There is a big difference between the male and female crabs and I typically prefer the taste of the female crabs. This is how you tell which is which.

Male crab example:

Narrow flap at the back means it's a male

Female crab example:

See how the flap here is nice and broad? It's a female

This is the inside of the male crab once you lift the outer shell.

For this type of crab, I actually prefered eating the male crab. As for the taste and was it as good as my great-grandmother suggested? Meh, it was OK. I prefer the ones we eat at home in Canada.

Thanks for reading everyone! Stay tuned for my adventures in Beijing!

Green Tea and Paying Respect in Nanjing

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For this part of the trip, we got to visit a tea farm in Hanzhou before we left for Nanjing, where the best Dragon Well green tea in China is produced. It was a really quaint little place and we got to sample some of the tea.

Beautiful example of an old Chinese farm

The area maintained a lot of the olden structures and decorations, red lanterns can be seen everywhere.

The leaves of the tea were edible and had a nice crunchy texture to them.

It was strange eating dried eating tea leaves, but the taste was OK

Afterwards, we drove for four hours to the ancient capital of Nanjing where we visited the tomb of Dr. Sun-Yat Sen. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen was the founding father of the Republic of China. He was the first president in China and helped overthrow the Qing Dynasty. Even though there were lots of people there that day, the experience was still intimate and interesting.

If you notice from the photo above, it's quite rare to see a Chinese styled building to have a blue tiled roof. The designer of the memorial area wanted to use the colours of the flag of the Chinese Democratic Party that Dr. Sun founded.

Overall, the memorial was beautiful and I'm really happy the Chinese government decided to keep the place despite their political differences.

Thanks for reading everyone!