Land of the Gold...

Am leaving to Dubai in less than 12 hours. Isn't that exciting???

I want to do so much things there, especially camping under the million stars in Sahara desert! I could picture myself riding a camel, sand boarding, lying under the darkest night with the brightest start, and how cold and windy the night is, a night where one goes back to the arms of mother nature and and night to dealt yourself into the many tales of the Arabian nights! Isn't tat exciting?

Well too bad i could only imagine all those. KC will be working and he thinks that it will not be safe for me to follow an overnight trip to the Sahara on my own and i have to agree on that with him. So i guess there will be another time?!

Anyways, i heard that Dubai is the land of gold, the real ones and the fake ones ( the glittering sands) too. Chance to visit the only 7 stars hotel in the world and also the tallest building in the world too! Plus, shopping is aplenty there. The only thing worries me is that i do not have the money to shop. Haha. Anyways, since everything is tax free there, i will be going bag shopping! Yeah, but not for me, just for my friends. So i guess that is me having the experience and the thrills without spending. Sounds great huh?

One thing i am still contemplating if i should bring my lappy along. Will be staying in Hyatt Dubai. It states in their website that there is wired internet but i wonder if it will be free?

Help me out folk! Please!!!!!

Let's Do Madrid Again!

Nope, not going Madrid again, just revisiting it - blogging style.

Is this the recent World Cup trophy??? ( A lady stopped and look upon where i pointed when KC took this picture. So everyone is a "ge boh" by nature!)

Like i mentioned earlier, I will never forget Madrid due to what happened. Besides the unfortunate event of loosing the luggage and the broken camera, we did not really enjoy Madrid because we had walked a little too much. My shoes were too tight and i ended up having blisters and every step i took was like a deep cut and pain to my heart. Poor KC had the same fate too. Maybe we are getting old....

Anyways on the last day of the trip, we decided it was time to take the metro and the public buses to places we wanted because the mentioned of "just a short 10 minutes walk" chilled us to our spines! There are a lot of art galleries in Madrid, one of the must go is the museum where the arts of Van Gor are stored. But, being us, we are not really into arts and sad to say that we do not know how to appreciate them, we decided to go to the Alexander exhibition instead. Yep, Alexander the Great!

It was fun. Too bad we could not take any photos inside. There are even guards in the exhibition to ensure that no one takes any picture.

I should say the bag i was carrying is really heavy but pretty. Thanks to Jessy!

After that we decided to take a short trip to the Real Madrid stadium. Now, before we went there, KC was all slumber about not really wanting to go there and that he was really not that keen. But boy when we reached there, he went crazy snapping pictures of the stadium and the logo over and over again. Sheesh..so much of being humble huh?

Look, here's one fake "real" fan!

Perhaps we were overwhelmed by the incidents the days before. We didnt even bother to take a walk into the Real Madrid museum. Instead, i just took a sneak peek into the stadium.

Peeking beyond the grill...

I love this shot. I felt like a paparazzi using the zoom lens.

Well after that it was lunch of course.He went wild when we reached the Adidas shop where you could get all the Real Madrid merchandises you could imagine! At the end, i ended up having a Real Madrid jersey and he went for the full top and bottom gears, as well as a scarf and even a ashtray. Total spending?? Lots!!! Thank god for the 17% tax refund.

KC with his pork ribs, yummy! (By the way, hat - Mango 12 euro, tee - Hard Rock 28 Euro)

And 5 mini burgers for me too!

It was during lunch that we got to know that our bag was delivered back to the hotel...yada yada.... It turned out that it was a wrong bag and we decided to go back to the airport to settle the mess once and for all. we went back to the airport, got our bag and i felt bored. By the time we reached the hotel, i was exhausted. So the next best thing to do is to just have a simple dinner and off to bed. I guess that is all for Madrid. Not having a blast but it was eventful. 

Flower dispenser machines with real flowers for sale at the airport. I wouldn't mind to get one when i land. They are cheap too, ranging from bottom (mixed bunch) 8 euros to roses and lilies 15 euros.

McDonald's chicken burger with bacon cubes in the bread. This is definitely yummilicious.

One thing though, i will remember that it is in Madrid that we are starting our Hard Rock tees collection. People went crazy in the shop. I think they wanted to buy the whole shop. Seriously, there are more customers at the merchandises shop than the restaurant. The serveurs didnt even bother to ask if we need a table when we pushed open the door. I guess they are used to people just going in for the tess. 

Are we ever gonna get a second one for ourselves? Well that we will know when we visit Dubai next week.

Okay, Shakira loves this...what about you?

When In Madrid, Eat Like the Locals - Tapas!

So Spain is famous for its gourmet availability and one of the must try there is Tapas. I was told to just pop into any pubs and order tapas of varieties. Skip the main course at all times because there are just so much different tapas to try.

For our very first meal in Madrid, we did just as was told. From the hotel, we made a left turn at the corner and just pop into the nearest pub we saw.

Most pubs are small and you are expected to eat while standing. Tapas are the best way to have a great lunch or dinner together with a glass of wine. There are just so many types of them that we do not know how and which to order. Besides, the menu is in Spanish too. Hence the best way to go about this is to ask the chef to recommend. It was good!

First, we have salmon with caviars! Yummy!

Secondly, cheese baked oyster. Meat was so tender and juicy.

Next come the must try recommendation from the internet. This is the local spanish soup with an eye, bread, onions and pork. Having a hot plate of soup during a cold windy day is always a blessing.

Sweet juicy piece of lamb on top of a well toasted bread.

And then came the hero of the whole meal - the dried pork. It is said that it takes approximately 3 years for this meat. Hence this type of pork is always sliced thin and eaten with its original taste. It was really yummy. Meat was tender but well marinated with salt. Normally the thighs are hang around the pub and taken down to slice whenever there is an order for it.

By now, i was already stuffed. I was also busy snapping away. Although the chef was not fluent in English, he wanted to help just take a photo. Happily we let him do it. And i must say thanks to him, this is the only couple photo we had for this trip. haha

And lastly, we had the crisp fried  fish with grilled pepper and bread. I love this the most! The fish was so fresh and juicy. Eaten together with the pepper, it was superb!

Before wrapping up the meal, the chef handed us a plate of sweets and on the house. Thanks so much. I think it was made of mango mixed flour and eaten together with icing. It was the perfect note to end the meal with.

And thus, we have a very happy and stuffed customer smiling into the camera!

Being Real in Madrid

Madrid is a very nice and modern city. The flight from Algiers to Madrid takes only 90 minutes and viola, you are back to the world of civilization with skyscrapers, beautiful buildings, people dressed to the latest trend and most importantly, you are instantly greeted in English!

The moment English is seen or heard, it's like music to the ears and calming to the souls.

Another best point of Madrid is how convenient and cheap the transportations systems are. Our hotel is situated in the middle of Madrid. Normally which ever airport in the world you go to, you first feel the pinch in your wallet by paying the costly transportations you have to take in order to get to the city.

In this case, the metros are so conveniently connected and so easy to follow, it took us only 20 minutes to reach our destination. That was not the best part just yet. It cost only 2 euro per person! And within 20 minutes, you will have this before your eyes.

Madrid is vibrant. People are not as snobbish as the French and they are normally very helpful. Somehow even though Spain is a country that practices French but they prefer to speak either Spanish or English. And another great thing about Madrid is having scenes and scenes of our best buddies walking along the street, but i would say they didnt really behave themselves very well..

We booked ourselves in to Hotel Lusso. Like i said the hotel situated right in the centre of the city and from the metro station, it was just a mere 300m walking distance. And guess why i chose Hotel Lusso amongst all that were available?

Simply because Starbucks is just right opposite of the hotel! Hooray! Hahaha well not really. Mainly is because the hotel was having a really good promotion and it is in the area where pubs and cafes are aplenty. And the most interesting fact is that this area had somehow turned into a gay districts over the year! Wooo... that will be really good experience for us. Well we did had a fair share of views, from two same sexes holding hands to passionately kissing on the mouth. Not sure if there were tongues involved but let's not go there shall we?

Once we checked in, we explained the situation to the front desk. He is very helpful and made sure that he got all the information needed. Throughout the next 2 days, he was helping us looking out for our bag and making calls to the airport. It is just too bad that at the end we had to go to the airport personally to retrieve the bag ourselves. When we came back with the bag, he was shaking his head but smiling and telling us "Finally!" with a rather sorry look on his face too. Nice guy.

After all the hassle, next stop, of course to have a nice lunch at any of the cafe. Tapas lunch! Spain famous and most try gourmet! And so we walked out of the hotel, made a corner turn and decided to venture into just any restaurant. 

I know i should continue showing off the delicious food but i am a little lazy now. Plus, i need to sink myself into Bones. They are finally getting together!! More tomorrow folks! Miss ya all and love ya all too!

It comes in 3!

Yep back from a short trip to Madrid and i am just exhausted. I think i need a break from the break i had.

Madrid was memorable! Indeed it will be the most memorable trip i ever had to date. Well, not because of Madrid as a city by itself but because of the whole experience i had.

Come to think of it, besides being fatigue as i am now, it was rather "fun" in a weird way.

We landed in Madrid happily and then proceeded trough all the custom checking and immigration as usual. Then happily we saw our luggage came out real quick and we grabbed it. After that, thinking that we had all the time in the world, we casually spent our time at the airport refreshing ourselves while planning what to do next.

And for some reason, KC thought that our bag looked rather suspicious and decided to open the lock just to be sure. Who knew, he was right! We got the wrong bag!!! The bag that we took was exactly the same bag that we have - color, size and brand. What makes it irony was that the bag was originated from Algeria to Madrid and flew on the same airlines as we were too! What are the odds of that right?? It was like in the movie where things happened in the most bazaar and most "coincidental" ways that it could be ever!

And at this point, i cant help but laughed out loud. It was hilarious! I have always heard stories about missing luggage but only watched about mistaking of luggages from movie! Apparently the same passenger on our flight named Christ took our luggage! So for the next 40 minutes, we were busy speaking to the lost and found people, writing down our particulars while figuring what were there in the bag that were "lost".

Anyways the airline promised to call us once they received any information of our lost luggage. Once we reached the hotel, we told the front dest what happened and what to expect from the airlines and straight away we went ahead for some shopping on stuffs that we will be needing for the first night at least.

I should say i am not complaining about this part because which girl will complain about shopping right? Moreover, now i have the most legit reason to do so! hahah So we went and had a great time shopping at some of the 2 most famous local brands - Mango and Zara etc....and happily went back to the hotel.

The next morning, we woke up with hopes that Christ had finally realized the mistaken bag and had return it to the airport. With anticipation, KC called the airlines and was told that indeed Christ took the bag back to the airport yesterday. Somehow the airlines thought that it was no rush for them to return the bag to us?! And to make the matter worst, the airlines said that now they have to look for the bag because they could not recall where the bag is placed. OMG! Anyways they promised to call once they got hold of the bag.

And we waited....and waited.... after awhile (6 hours later) we decided to call the airlines instead. Good news! They found the bag and it had already arrived in our hotel! And back to the hotel we went.

Guess what we found in the room?

We were speechless! For a moment, i asked myself if we had took a different bag for this journey rather than the blue one we thought. I thought i was hallucinating! This is exactly the bag i have but i am sure that it lies at the top of the cupboard in Algeria. Did we take a wrong bag really?? The color, the size and the brand is exactly the same! And it is from Algeria to Madrid too!

And thus we checked the label and the receipt again. The stupid airlines had made a HUGE mistake! How could they sent us a bag with a different reference number? Furios, KC called the airlines and gave them an ear full. Then he demanded that the airlines to come pick up the bag from the hotel.

At this point, i really find the whole situation extremely funny! What are the odds really?? 2 similar bags in a roll and both are the wrong bags. hhahaha

KC decided to go personally to the airport to check out. When we reached the office, we were told that the airlines had to now reopen another case because our case was "closed". They asked us to go to belt 13 to collect the bag, only to be diverted to belt 9 again.....finally we got the bag but is was already the last night of our trip in Madrid.

Oh ya, i said it comes in 3 right? For "IT" i am referring to bad luck here. On the 2nd day of the trip, just after we knew that our bag was sent back to the hotel, another bad luck stroke. KC dropped the camera on the floor. As a result, the filter was broken. The irony of this was just right before the incident, i was warning him against dropping the camera and he said proudly that he WILL NEVER allow that to happen. Within an hour, i heard "bang" and the camera was there, lying death on the floor! Check out the crakes on the filter and on the pictures....sob sob

Well, i hope that will ends the strings of bad luck...

p/s: I guess i must be the bad luck bearer! I came back with a "death" toe nail hanging at the edge of peeling off... and i just got burnt by cooking oil! WTF!!! I think i need a flower bath to cleanse my luck!