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| Sunday, 22-Jun-2008 08:49 |
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| Wednesday, 17-Aug-2005 00:00 |
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anim+amin
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hehhe.. aku suka sgt gambor diorg berdua nie... ni aku culik kat http://saifulnang.fotopages.com
sekali lagik.. congrats!!
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| Tuesday, 12-Oct-2004 00:00 |
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| Monday, 11-Oct-2004 00:00 |
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CORDOBA
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on d alsina graells' bus to cordoba
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Mezquita
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one of the main doors of the famous mezquita
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So after the so called TRAGEDY  and pondering over our bad luck over a sumptuos plate of kebab,(yeah tis wus rite after my retail therapy!) we decided to head off to another andalussian city - cordoba. The journey took 3 hours by bus (apparently it is the spanish way to travel ..) and spain ( well granada-cordoba anyway) was well covered with olive trees. The main city centre looked massive ( bus and train station looked like an airport-like they do in kl sentral  ). The old city that interest us were a few miles down the road and after an elaborate sign-langguages exchanged by god-knows-wut answer in spanish, we managed to find the right bus. the driver kindly dropped us off at a tourist'y' area and we managed to find quite cheap ensuite room. again, a bit of history won't do any harm.. rite? 
The city was famous under the moorish invasion after 711 due to its tolerance towards other cultures and religions, allowing the moorish, hebrew and christian to live peacefully side by side. It was interesting to note that special quarters of houses were built for each religions. (we discovered later that our hostel were in the Jewish quarters). cordoba was then converted into capital of andalussia and flourished until it became independent of baghdad. It had magnificient university and libraries and from here many great intellectuals were born.Ibn Hamz (poet), Averroes (philospohers) and Maimonides (Jewish doctor and thinker) were amongst them. more than 1600 mosques were built within the city along with other famouse architectural sites such as medina azahara.
MEDINA AZAHARA
I have to be honest, we didn't know about this place until later on during the day . However we decided not to go (because we had a table booked for the flamengo dance tat nite and didnt want to be late;-)) However, thinking back, i wisehd i've gone and see the excavation site myself.
These ruins were once a palace city intended for al-zahra, first caliph of cordoba's favourite. Taking 25 years to complete, the city commended expertise as far away as from baghdad and constantinople, and marbles column and walls lined with golds were used. it was used as the court and palace, later on as administrative city.The transistion from caliphate system to small taifas (kingdom) led to a weakened state. medina azahara was completely sacked and burnt. cordoba was reconquered by Ferdinand III in 1236.
LA MEZQUITA
the main mosque was slowly converted into a church with pictures of christ etc hanging on the pillars supporting d famous red-cream archways, spoiling the beauty of 'caliphal art'. in 1523 the bishop (with the support of the king) decided to build a lavish cathedral in the very centre of this moorish mosque.This mosque-cathedral complete with minaret (claimed to be the biggest mosque in the western world), covers and area of 24,000mxm, became the landmark of cordoba. It was majestic and huge and very cathedral-like more than a mosque, which refrained me from going inside. Lin was clearly not very happy 0) but we were so hungry by 4 pm and decided to search for some good food.
feeling much better after, we walked down towards the roman bridge (puento viejo) and came across triumph of saint raphael -which is main guardian angel and the symbol of the city. the abolafia mill seen by the river used to channel water (thru an aqueduct) to former palaces, however queen isabella tot it created too much noises and the mill was dismantled. after few years it was finally restored after a fire.
as i said earlier on, we booked a table for a flamenco dance ( which was overpriced i must say ...can't rmmbr xctly how much i paid 0) ) late tat nite after dinner at tablao cardinal, next to the exhibition centre. they were targeting mainly tourists (especially japanese tourists), however i must say d performance were quite outstanding. there wus tis lady, apparently a national award winning dancer who dance really really well. my only criticism wus tat there wus too much solo dance rather than paired up dance. but overall v good indeed.
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| Sunday, 10-Oct-2004 00:00 |
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Granada-The Beginning
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On the overnight train, just before they pulled out the bed!
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This is the bed!
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Snapping pics while quieng up in alhambra
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One of our mission is to visit al-Himra' : red fortress (base org putihnyer al-hambra).
So we took an overnight train towards andalussia. We shared a room with foldable beds+washup basin!! And it is bloody expensive !! Anyway we thought it was a great idea to travel considering of our constricted time factor. So we reached Granada at 9 am and the city itself were packed with both students and tourists.Our first task was to find a place to stay for the night. We set ourselves towards the base of the alhambra hill and luckily we found a room. Next was catching a red 6-seaters minibus which ran up and down the hill every 10 minutes! and there were plenty of them, with alhambra scribbled by each sides of the bus. I do recommend people to take this bus and don't ever2 contemplate on walking up/down this hill! It is not worth it! Anyway we got to the main entrance at 11 am and guess what?? Hundreds and hundreds of people were quieng up to buy the ticket  !! Couldn't believe my eye!! anyway we make a dash and joined the crowd. We waited for hours and just to entertain you guys out there  , let me tell you a bit about this beautiful place  .
Al-Ahmar (Muhammad ibn Yusof ibn Nasr :1232-1273) took an allegiance to King Fernando III and was given Granada to govern.He was a decendent of a tribe of Arabic origin governing in Jaen, and from then on the Nasrid Dynasty was founded (23 sultans lasting for a span of 254 years). They settled down on the albayzin ruins but found the hill across hold more attractions for a kingdom. Initially they built al-cazabar which is a fortress on top of the Sabika Hill (last bit of the famous Sierra Nevada mountains), and next they framed the surroundings of al-himra' with other towers, walkway for the guards and gates.Alhambra went thru a process of evolution under different rulers. Various palaces were built within the grounds after rise and fall of each sultans (such as Comares palace and the palace of the Lions) came the Christian monarchs, few adjustment and alterations were also made (the huge and imposing Charles V Palace which houses the Alhambra museum and the Fine Arts museum, also building of a cathedral next door to the main mosque).
There are still a number of key points that I wanted to tell you all about this lovely place. But let me get back to my first day in Granada. After 2 hours of quieng (and snapping pictures out boredom) they announced that the 8260 tickets for viewing the Comares Palace in a day were completely sold out!! All left were just the ground entry tickets!!.UURRGHHH!!  We were very frustrated and i blamed myself for not booking the ticket beforehand (people...take note: www.alhambratickets.com). So we went to a bank to book our tickets. yupp!! any branches of BBVA bank in Spain are apparently ticket selling agents for alhambra. Unfortunately the closest thing that we could get was 2 late evening tickets on the next 2 days!! aiyyaa!!
It was definetely the lowest point of our journey and I spent the rest of the day in the only fashion I could when Im feeling low - shopping. Managed to buy a very lovely turqoise jumper in Mango (very very very cheapcompared to UK prices!!) , discovered a marketplace and went along a colurful narrow lanes full of eastern (Moorish)and spaninsh products. And I vowed to to myself that I have to find a Zara shop somewhere in spain, specifically in Granada after this so called TRAGEDY. After following people around the city holding the renowned blue paperbag showing ZARA inscription quite literally , we managed to find a huge and jammed packed with people a 2-storey department Zara store. heheh. wut did i tell ya.... i'm a shop-a-holic. tats wut we ppl do in a crisis! oh by the way, buyers were quite ruthless in this Zara shop so watchout! It's like a big jumbo sale when ppl tried to grab everything they could- only there wasn't any sale. just normal price but surprisingly very cheap compared to UK prices!
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| Saturday, 9-Oct-2004 00:00 |
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BEAUTIFUL SPAIN
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barcelona port-background: christopher columbus statue
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port house in barcelona
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me + ice creams.. nyum nyum
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It occured to me on this one day that almost every night for the past weeks I have been dreaming about being in hospital, putting venflon's in ppl's vein and being shouted at by ungrateful patients. That's when i realised i've had enuff of work and badly in need of a decent holiday. after all, i'm sure u all remembered as to wut happened during my last summer holiday .
me + lin - we've been dying to visit spain. so after a last minute confirmation for my leave and spurious phone calls (thanks lin ), we finally set ourselves and embarked on one of the most memorable journey ever.
and we couldn't get lucky enuff. the weather was top notch! it was well beyond our expectation ( well they said its going to be pouring with rain over there and areas of low pressure hitting in bla bla bla... ) and barcelona is seriously G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S!!!
lin (again!!?) managed to book a v nice room in barcelona and come the daylights, we realised it wus just a few feet away from the famous walk: La Rambla and its stunning port!! Spain ... here we come!!
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| Friday, 23-Jul-2004 00:00 |
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"Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such."
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| Thursday, 22-Jul-2004 00:00 |
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| Wednesday, 21-Jul-2004 00:00 |
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ONE RAINY DAY in BRISTOL
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| Tuesday, 20-Jul-2004 00:00 |
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Roath Park
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