Saturday, September 30, 2006

venezian gelati, among other things

Huzzah! We've been invited to a 'surprise' party organised by some of the management students from Bath on the 6th of Oct. Guess that's my birthday celebration sorted eh? A day early but can't complain with freebies...

Bought a cushion for my study chair at Roseby's this afternoon. I love it! I can sit for ages in front of my lappie now. Later on will have to handwash some of my more fragile clothes, and for a strange reason I'm looking forward to that chore. I guess 'cos I know at the end of it I'll have some fresh and clean clothes to wear!

Been binge eating McVities' digestive biscuits, the one covered with milk choc. They are so darn yummy I ate them for breakfast and supper, as a result been using the bathroom more often. Haha. Digestive indeed!

Enough random babbling from me. Here are Venice photos y'all!

------------------------------------------------------

VENICE PHOTOS WITH MINIMAL GELATO

This is our hostel room in Venice. Which was darn cheap! For three nights each of us only had to pay a total of 45 euros each. Plus we get Internet access and free laundry service (the host helped us use the laundry machine). Venice Rooms is awesome!

AND our ensuite bathroom had a skylight yo!

The B&B sign was rather small though... That's why we got lost the night that we arrived in Venice.

Was very sunny in Venice. Taken while waiting for the free bus (yeah we kinda cheated... never validated bus tix 'cos we saw no locals doing it) from Mestre to Venice.

Piazzale di Roma, where the Mestre bus dropped us off. From here, we take the waterbus down to Rialto and St Marco.

View from the waterbus!

View from the waterbus #2!

View from the waterbus #3! Until now I don't know why the metallic purple sculpture was there, or even WHAT it is.

So then we arrived at St Mark's Square, a favourite for both tourists and pigeons alike.

And the tourists and pigeons love each other.

We were hungry so we grabbed some pizza!

You can see half of my pizza at the bottom of the pic.

Queueing up to go into St Mark's basilica. I think Yang's rather tired of churches at this point in time...

This particular basilica's famous for its mosaic-ed walls.

Pretty cool eh?

View from the basilica roof.

View from roof #2.

Artsy fartsy picture taken by Yang. I was looking at a can of detergent leaning against the window of an opposite building.

Does anyone remember how to read Roman numerals?

OMG! It's a gondola!!! And the charming elderly man's singing. He looked so cute!

One of Venice's lovely canals.

Sunset view...

Chilling out with my sweet spritz. Yang opted for bitter spritz and decided to dilute it! I tried his drink and honestly, it was superbly bitter.

On the bus to look for a dinner place. Basically the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere (some interchange I suppose?) for 10 minutes and we were just sitting in there quietly waiting for it to move again!

Hungry people.

My spaghetti vongole!

Second day! Some square. This was the day of Walking Around Aimlessly.

Took this picture as an excuse to capture the cute guy on the right.

Posing with my yummy yoghurt/berry gelato before it dropped.

Wish I'd known it'd pop out of the cone! Then I'd have eaten it faster. Sob.

Me and Zhi on our last day in Venice. Taken during our last walk around Piazzale di Roma. Ciao Venezia!

mon has bin bad at 4:37:00 AM

Friday, September 29, 2006

rome pictures and further melancholic chatter

Today we went to campus again to collect our library card, which acts like a student card. Also bought some bus tickets and filled up this form for early vacancy of our rooms (in the hope that the Accomodation Office would be able to re-let the room and refund us a portion of the amount we paid). Also walked around the city center and looked at some shops.

Insert pregnant pause here.

I'm just rather depressed that there don't seem to be any Zara, Mango or H&M... I've checked out the winter coats in these shops and found some that were worth the money. Now I'll have to search all over again and the days in Bath are getting colder.

But that's just a small niggle in a bigger world of niggles.

Basically we went up to Sainsbury's to stock up on some food. Zhi and Yang wanted to cook pasta but I wasn't in the mood for starch so I bought a ready meal. But that's beside the point. The point is... after I've eaten my meal and retreated to my room, I felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness.

I don't know what's the matter with me. It's just that... I realize that if I logged on to MSN at this time (9 pm) I'll find next to nobody online. The silence of my room seems to echo and reverberate and strikes me back when I least expect it. I don't know what to do, and I don't know who to talk to. I could only survey my room in dismay. All that awaits me are chores and more chores and I'm fine with that (feel a sense of achievement after I've completed 'em). But then there's nothing else.

Sometimes I look at Zhi and Yang and find myself at a loss of words. Maybe we've just been seeing too much of each other, 'cos all I feel is depression. Each of us has different agendas that we want to follow, and it's just... hard.

I have a bad feeling that my birthday this year will be a sad affair.

Oh well, sorry for throwing yet another wet blanket. Here are more cheerful pictures from Rome.

------------------------------------------------------

CHEERFUL PICTURES FROM ROME

My boarding pass to Rome was numbered 7! My fave number!

We went to Villa Borghese (Borghese Park) on the first day and found... nothing.

Trevi fountain, where you're supposed to throw coins over your shoulder for your wish to be granted.

So I threw 3!

A road between Trevi and Pantheon.

The Pantheon in all its grandeur.

Inside the Pantheon.

A nice pic of me and Yang in the Pantheon. Looks a bit couply eh?

Wanted to do a Roman pose next to this broken pillar but couldn't think of anything.

Rome isn't all ha-ha-hee-hee. Felt the sight of the woman begging was rather sad.

We then walked to Piazza Navona. This is the fountain at the centre of it, called the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi.

Each September, artists gather to peddle their skills at the Piazza.

A drinking fountain at Campo de Fiori. The place looks dirty from the remains of a morning market.

Chilling and photowhoring at a nearby cafe (in Rome, cafes and bars serve mostly the same drinks - coffee and alcohol!)

Some random scary-looking fountain.

This is the Tiber river! Like out of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar!

A nice picture of us all posing by the river.

Rome = Vespa city!

As we attempted to walk home, we found Via Nazionale to be a very long stretch of road indeed.

Along it there were shops with rather weird names.

Voila! The Colosseum!

Proof that we WERE there.

And we got in free 'cos it was an European Heritage day. Haha. Saved us 12 Euros! In fact, we got in free for all the sights in Rome, including the Vatican!