Ok, I lied. I got over jetlag a day after I got back, but procrastination and laziness got in the way. So anyway, there's a quite a few photos so I'm splitting them up two posts, in a sorta-chronological order in between my rambling narratives.
This was my first time venturing out for such a distance on my own, and not surpisingly, my parents were worried sick. But things pretty much went well. As the plane was arriving in the Frankfurt airport (around 6.15 am there), I was caught off-guard by the pilot's announcement that the local temperature was 8 degrees! Yikes. Landed on the erm, open landing (?) area, which was noticably windy and cold, before a bus took us to the airport. Inside the temperature is bit more tolerable.
It was a 6-hour transit, and man was things expensive there. A bottle of mineral water (500 ml) was around 2-3 euros (1 euro = RM4.8)! On the plus sight, coffee's widely available and cheaper there, relative to mineral water of course. So anyways, with my jakun-ness and all, I walked around the airport and took some pics. If you look real close at this departure information display, you can make out my flight - (Orange box), LH 4454 Barcelona.
No matter where you go in the world, you can always look forward to a warm, comfortable cup of coffee. A grande Caramel Macchiato here is 4 euros.
Cool to see some green steps taken by the airport. All the waste bins are like this:
Lots of shops there selling different kinds of shops - including this one which I'm not entirely sure but I think Fea and Alia would probably go ga-ga over:
Somehow, I find it amusing that travellers will just pop in and decide to buy an extremely (overpriced) crystals as they are about to board the plane:
Arrived in Barcelona airport around 1 pm. Took a cab to the hostel - La Residencia Campus del Mar. About 30 minutes ride, and the fare came up to 25 euros! (Double yikes). The rooms are really nice though, if a bit pricey:
Outside view of the hostel:
The hostel is actually within a residential neighbourhood, which is sandwiched between a large (assumably corporate) building and a park. It's also less than 10 minutes of walking distance away from the research institute where I would be heading to. It was really cool to walk around, as the weather there is really chilly, I'd say around 10 degrees in the morning, and bout 15 degrees later in the day. The daytime hours seemed to stretch longer too - 6.30 am over there is kinda like 8.00 am here, while 8.30 pm is kinda like 6 pm here.
I started out a bit earlier on Monday morning, and it was cool to see lots of kids walking around with their parents, presumably to school:
There also seemed to be lots of people cycling around, and later I saw people lugging their folded up bikes into buildings. I spotted many rows of bicycles, I kinda think they're sorta like a rent-a-bicycle service:
More pics and ramblings in the next post!
This was my first time venturing out for such a distance on my own, and not surpisingly, my parents were worried sick. But things pretty much went well. As the plane was arriving in the Frankfurt airport (around 6.15 am there), I was caught off-guard by the pilot's announcement that the local temperature was 8 degrees! Yikes. Landed on the erm, open landing (?) area, which was noticably windy and cold, before a bus took us to the airport. Inside the temperature is bit more tolerable.
It was a 6-hour transit, and man was things expensive there. A bottle of mineral water (500 ml) was around 2-3 euros (1 euro = RM4.8)! On the plus sight, coffee's widely available and cheaper there, relative to mineral water of course. So anyways, with my jakun-ness and all, I walked around the airport and took some pics. If you look real close at this departure information display, you can make out my flight - (Orange box), LH 4454 Barcelona.
No matter where you go in the world, you can always look forward to a warm, comfortable cup of coffee. A grande Caramel Macchiato here is 4 euros.
Cool to see some green steps taken by the airport. All the waste bins are like this:
Lots of shops there selling different kinds of shops - including this one which I'm not entirely sure but I think Fea and Alia would probably go ga-ga over:
Somehow, I find it amusing that travellers will just pop in and decide to buy an extremely (overpriced) crystals as they are about to board the plane:
Arrived in Barcelona airport around 1 pm. Took a cab to the hostel - La Residencia Campus del Mar. About 30 minutes ride, and the fare came up to 25 euros! (Double yikes). The rooms are really nice though, if a bit pricey:
Outside view of the hostel:
The hostel is actually within a residential neighbourhood, which is sandwiched between a large (assumably corporate) building and a park. It's also less than 10 minutes of walking distance away from the research institute where I would be heading to. It was really cool to walk around, as the weather there is really chilly, I'd say around 10 degrees in the morning, and bout 15 degrees later in the day. The daytime hours seemed to stretch longer too - 6.30 am over there is kinda like 8.00 am here, while 8.30 pm is kinda like 6 pm here.
I started out a bit earlier on Monday morning, and it was cool to see lots of kids walking around with their parents, presumably to school:
There also seemed to be lots of people cycling around, and later I saw people lugging their folded up bikes into buildings. I spotted many rows of bicycles, I kinda think they're sorta like a rent-a-bicycle service:
More pics and ramblings in the next post!
Cool. One question that i'm really curious. I heard about this rent-a-bicycle service, it happens in Rome where it's supposed to encourage tourists to use them. But I wonder what makes them think they're going to get their bikes back after renting to customers
ReplyDeleteDan-yel: Good question. I don't know much bout it, but here are my thoughts-
ReplyDelete1. Basic trust and goodwill. Like how you tell the mamak dude what you ordered and pay up.
2. It's quite troublesome to lug a bicycle around, even folded up. And the value of a bicycle relative to a motorbike or car just kinda drives down any incentive of stealing.
Other info I came across:
1. Some companies have trackers on the bikes, and also registered users. The users have like a debit card thingie, which tracks how long the user uses the bike. The bikes can be picked up / dropped off at various points across the city.
2. Sometimes a deposit is required, while not equal to the price of the bike, but kinda drives down the incentive to steal it.