Ootd

I love the graphic prints on this skirt. With a semi casual blazer, this will be fitting for Fridays at work. And perfect for nights out.

Nuts and Bolts on travel and Sydney

Exchanging currencies

Sometimes friends ask me where is the best place to change currencies in Singapore. The answer is Arcade at Raffles Place. It's right next to Change alley. Situated on the second floor of the dark, a tad dreary but bustling Arcade complex is a whole chain of Indian money changers. Walk down the aisle and look for the best rates amongst them. The competition for every penny of traveller's cash keeps the forex rates closer to spot than anywhere else in Singapore. The spread is tight and the commission is little. Another good place is the ground floor of People's Park complex at Chinatown. Depending on convenience, you can go to any of these two locations to get good rates. Do not exchange currencies in Sydney itself. The spreads are shockingly huge. The bid/ask at the money changer was 1.38/1.24. Crazily exorbitant, those bloodsuckers.

Multipasses for getting around

So let's get to Sydney. We got around using a multi ticket that covers on buses, trains and ferries. Sydney is walkable by foot but it's still really big. A walk from central station to glebe just outside the city centre centre is about twenty minutes. A one way train ticket costs around 3 Aud. It's a really good idea to get multi passes. The passes have different prices for each of the 3 zones. Most travellers get the zone 1 ticket which costs roughly 42Aud. We got the 60aud zone 3 pass that covers intercity transport to blue mountains. More on blue mountains later.

Day trips out of Sydney

We visited two places on the outskirts of town- hunter valley and blue mountains. Hunter Valley is without a doubt worth going. Besides wine drinking, they have really good Pesto fetta cheese spread at the Smelly Cheese Shop (and italian gelato, see below) and why not visit the Lavender Gate Farm if its on the way? For the novice, expect slightly spicy Shiraz for reds and crispy smeillon for whites. I would buy both if i had luggage space and extra cash. For the ladies, do not miss out on their verdelho that boasts of mango passionfruit melon aroma. I am lusting for a sip already. Visit boutique wineries and some commercial ones. Spend a night or two if you are more interested in wine drinking. Each winery has it's own flavour and style, so don't regret not buying a bottle back. Visiting hunter valley definitely involve driving. The wineries are pretty spread out from each other. We booked a tour which was pretty worthwhile. You don't have to plan which wineries to visit or be concerned about their opening hours and location.

Blue mountains on the other hand is not worth going with a tour. One can easily take a train to katoomba from central station. The journey is about two hours long and the trains depart every hour. Echo point where the famous three sisters rocks are located are a half hour walk away from katoomba station. Alternatively tour buses that allow hop on and off around the area costs around 20aud. taxis costs 8 aud for a ten minutes ride to echo point.

Sydney

Hello from Sydney, I am alive. Apologies for missing from this blog space for some weeks. Its been an exhausting time for myself. I have grown rather homely over the past month. My spare time is spent  hermitting by reading up on boring valuation, spending time with girlfriends. This Sydney tip has been planned since March.

 I must say, Sydney you are beautiful. Cosmopolitan and a little rugged at the edges, Sydney is expensive to live in but the rewards are plentiful. A culinary capital with amazing international cruisine - Jamie Oliver's, Momofuku, Portengo. There are so many dining places to visit. I'll say upfront that I am saving those places for the future when I am feeling richer. A Taiwanese friend griped that Sydney is too internationalised. It lacks soul and character. Lets say food for example. We couldnt find any local traditional food that cannot be found anywhere else. They have amazing cruisine but none is unique. 

Sydney is dang expensive by the way.

I finally got to see the famous Sydney Opera House. It is beautiful indeed. Too bad for the Danish architect who was ousted from his project midway through the construction. He never got to see it complete and died still bitter about the outcome of the Opera House. What a sad story behind this masterpiece.

The harbour bridge. 6 million rivets hot fastened onto this baby. The Eiffel Tower has only 2 million rivets.

The views from around circular quay are amazing. Take a stroll but remember to wear sunscreen. Even in winter the sun is blinding hot sporaidically. The air is cold but when the sun decides to appear, the rays are almost uncomfortably hot. I can't imagine how summer is like.

Here's a picture of Manly beach. I think Manly is pretty, but i love Cogee the best. The pictures below speak for themselves. 

The sun sets by 5.30pm every day. It makes me feel like sleeping early which is great, but I never did.

Its somewhere along such beautiful trails that I made a major decision. I have been mulling over two choices for the longest time. I enjoyed watching the surfers (crazy people, its friggin cold!) and the waves. There were many joggers along the path. How lovely to jog along the coast.

Smooth, fragrant and strong bodied, the coffee here spoils me. There's a Byron's bay company right on the ground floor of the apartment and I am crazy over their flat white and mocha. Toby's estate is great too. Second after Byron's Bay. Yum. I have a coffee craving right as I am typing this.

A visit to the oldest wine growing region -Hunter Valley, is a must for any traveler. This was the highlight of my trip. We booked a tour with Activity Tours for 110AUD which includes a lunch at Oscars Cafe. I had their smoked salon with multi grain bread and a flat white. Both were uninspiring. Oh wells, at least the wine in Hunter Valley is awesome. Life is about managing expectations right. Our tour guide, a New Zealander who settled in Sydney, he's really funny and entertaining with a multitude of stories. He is really good at having monologues too. 

We visited three wineries. I loved the boutique wineries - Estate Hill Wines and Iron Gate Estates. First Creek is the bigger commerical winery. I wished I got to try Lindelman which is so famous. 

Oak barrels which is used to age wines. It affects the flavour of the wine. These Iron Gate's barrels hail from California and are mighty expensive I heard. Wines in Australia today are often aged in stainless steel cans for economical reasons. These barrels dont last a good number of years. Can you taste the earthy flavour in oaked wine? 

Hunter Valley is famed for their Semillon, Verdelho and their Shiraz. I usually dont drink whites but boy I fell in love with Verdelho on this trip. Medium bodied, its strongly aromatic and slightly crisp. Perfect for a night out with the girls. My favourite Verdelho is from Iron Gates while Estate Hill scores highly on the aroma of its wines.

I bought Estate Hill's Silver Moon dessert wine for family. Its a lovely dandy crowd pleaser. Shiraz is a tad too spicy for me but I suspect I will gradually fall in love as my palate adjusts. I absolutely hate fizzy moscato and overly sweet dessert or rose wine that may be artificially coloured. 

'The purpose of wine is to make people happy.' Everyone was ridiculously happy by the end of this trip. Indeed its great fun to be a little toasty.

A snapshot of the best gelato I've tried on this trip. A light sorbet of rose and hibiscus blended well with creamy lemon sorbet. 6.50aud. Have I not mentioned that most things are exorbitant? Oh but this combination was so good. I went around asking fellow travellers to try my ice cream. Other Singaporeans mentioned that the sorbet tastes like bundung. I beg to differ, it tastes like bundung because of the rose. Only much better. Its not creamy yet has good consistency, its light but not watery, its fragrant and stimulates your senses. A wining combination. 

Hunter Valley Smelly Cheese Shop

2144 Broke Road Pavilion G, Tempus Two Complex
Pokolbin 2320
New South Wales

Lantern Bar, Fullerton Bay Hotel

photo credits to: http://is.asia-city.com

What do you on weekends? I love hanging out at rooftop bars with my mates as much as I love drinking coffee at a comfy cafe. Its drinking with good friends with a view to boot. When conversions dwindle to a lull, you have the view to fill the spaces in between. 

Rooftop bars feel like a new trend. There have been many of such bars sprouting out across the island over the past years- from the CBD area to little india. Lantern bar is seated atop fullerton bay hotel. Right opposite our swanky marina bay sands. Make a reservation for the comfy couches by the edges for an unobstructed view. 

Lantern bar gets too crowded and the music pounds a tad too loud for me. I hope to find my own favourite bar to hang out sometime soon. It will be a moderately crowded bar, with a view and with great music. 

Krokodil

Narco drug trade from Afghanistan to Russia fueling the disintegration of a nation. Krokodil a cheap drug alternative to heroin that eats the body up from the inside. You lose a leg or two. It reduces men into vegetables.

My heart and soul is burdened. What can I do but pray? Help, Lord. Watchman on the wall, keep praying, never ceasing.

Old hainanese coffee, Chin Mei Chin Confectionary

Weekends are lazy affairs, a respite from the mundane workings of life. So there, a trip to an old hainanese shop for coffee and kaya toast satisfies the soul for comfort food.

Black coffee without a hint of sugar or milk. Kopi o kosong. Coffee mixed in with a dash of hot water. 

Soft kaya buns with a thick slab of butter, lightly toasted with their edges slightly burnt. These are served hot and fresh from the grill. The butter melts from the heat of the buns when pressed together. Try taking a bite, the kaya and butter melts into a delicious ooze, splattering haphazardly onto the table. It is impossible to be glamorous when eating such delicious treats.

Its time for some pastries. Luncheon meat in bread, custard bun, egg custard tart and oil luncheon meat puff.  

I call for another kopi o kosong, greedy because its my first time on this turf of joo chiat in a long while. Should I call for another kaya toast? A slight tug at my heartstring and my mouth waters. Eating is such an emotional affair. I rub my tummy and my brain registers fullness. I'll be back here again, I remind myself.

We got up to leave, my tummy is full and my heart is happy. The long queue of people waiting in line turn their heads expectantly towards our seats. 

Chin Mei Chin Confectionary, I'll be back.

random, but my favourite french phrase for the moment has got to be 'Je vais comme-ci, comme-ca'
It sounds so...hokkien.

Gorgeous Views - Split

Hello Split! We walked to the promenade at dusk and a beautiful double rainbow greeted us. The second rainbow isn't visible from my photos. Split looks vastly different from the european cities and this was a really refreshing sight. A fishy smell hung over the area close to the sea so that was a tad unwelcoming. Perhaps it was due to the fish market that closed just before we arrived. Nevertheless, our breaths were taken away by the beauty of this place. I've heard from others that Dubrovnik is more beautiful than Split so that place is next on my must visit list.

En route to Split. Just a side note that Croatia is difficult to get around without a car. We rented one and that inflated our budget a bit. The alternative is to take a bus via plitvice but we decided against it due to a variety of reasons. I wish there are trains linking the different cities. But nevertheless, it was fun going on a road trip, taking detours due to accidents on road, getting lost and going through dilapidated towns that looked frozen in time.

So there, more lovely pictures to capture the beauty of Split from the promenade. I really enjoyed the view from here. We ventured on to the Diocletian palace after dinner. My camera takes poor quality pictures in low light so I dont have any nice ones to share. Most of the shops within the palace compound were closed at night so we didn't get to see much. Due to unforeseen detours enroute, we arrived in time only for dinner in Split which was really a pity. We could have done a day trip or two to Hvar island which is again highly recommended.

Viola, here is our dinner place -Fife, recommended by the lady at our hostel. It was a bustling place, filled with tourists occupying two seating areas. The prices were reasonable but the food wasn't that tasty.

The gnocchi was really tasteless and unappetizing. It was edible when dipped in the sauce from the beef stew below.

This was a good old comforting stewed beef in sauce. 

Here's their mixed fish grill with calamaris for three persons. The fried calamaris were crunchy and salty. A little too salty towards the end. The trout and sea bass was too fishy. All wells, dinner was passable but I wouldn't return to Fife the next time I return to Split.

Lush Solid Perfume - Love

I love my scents, especially a fruity and floral scent mixed together. I picked this up in Hungary. Lush is so expensive outside England really. Priced at 23sgd, I hope this was cheaper than buying in Singapore. I have yet to check the prices. 

According to the saleswoman, Love is one of the popular scents for their solid perfumes. Others being Karma and Lust. Such cute names

.With ingredients like rose absolute, lemongrass, ylang ylang and jasmine; its really hard to resist love's scent. 

Here's is Lush's take on Love:

“Watching my sons fall in and out of love inspired this perfume, and rather like their relationships, it took quite a while to get right. It is for flirts really, but being a flirt is not something everyone wants to be known for. On the other hand, flirting is so much fun. I have tried to make a perfume that will flirt for you while you pretend indifference. Love is an instantly bright and bubbly fragrance with a vivacious green apple fruit scent and sweet citrus innocence. As the initial burst fades, it's replaced with a sugary sweet apple pie note while maintaining a sharp lift.” 

So there, the last few sentences explains the scent in the best possible way.

Its small and compact, convenient enough to be placed into a purse or slipped into a handbag. You apply by rubbing it into your wrists or neck. It leaves a slightly sticky residue that doesn't feel greasy. I am personally unaffected by the residue it leaves and is absorbed after a while.

The scent doesn't lasts long. Plus, for another to smell it, he has to lean in close. Its an alluring scent but definitely a light one. So I kind of feel that this is not worth rebuying. 

Love has an expiry date. I bought it in june this year so I have to use by december. boohoo. 

I've never read cupcakes and cashmere religiously but her recent posts captivated me. Here's a picture of her dancing with her father. Its lovely to know that people on another side of the world dance with their dads on their wedding day. Maybe in my next life I'll be able to do that too.

I love the lace details on the back of her wedding dress, its perfect. My wedding dress will be something like this too. A chiffon dress, mermaid shaped, down to the ankles with a silk lace back.

Picture credits to Cupcakes and Cashmere.

Croatia - Zagreb

We took a train from Hungary to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. It was quite amusing. They say you know you are in EU if you can travel everywhere by trains. Croatia is on its way to joining the EU. Midway through the journey, we had to disembark from our train and transfer to a hot and stuffy bus before being transported to another railway station to continue our journey to Zagreb.

Zagreb is characterised by these blue trams everywhere. They city is small enough to be walkable by foot to most places.

And hello Zagreb at dusk. This city is surprisngly beautiful. It looked drab and dreary when the trains rolled into the main station. Boring industrial buildings, grey and functionalist. It is only when we hit the city centre and explored around did I realise how pretty this place is. 

Its the city with the biggest lounge and yes music filled this place. There was a constant stream of musicians, choirs and bands playing on the stage in the middle of the centre. Europe should be called the continent of music. The talents you can find on the streets are amazing. European cities has this defining vibe that makes them magical and its something I always miss when on returning back home.  I am grateful for the blind busker that strums on his guitar sporadically at the cross streets of tampines junction.

Often, I am amazed by how long the spring/summer days are in europe and how short dusk is. The photo is taken possibly 5 minutes after the one before and the sky is already several shades darker. The   night descends swiftly and so does the chill. I am used to the long evening skies in singapore. It starts getting darker at 6.00pm here. Dusk lasts for at least an hour or more. 

Quaint little houses, the never ending fountains, statutes and imposing cathedrals. What is there not to love about zagreb/europe. However, it around this time, midway through my journey across eastern europe, the cities were melting into a mash of similar landscapes. and so did the food. We ate mixed grill from every country we visited. I got a little sick of bread and yoghurt. And I missed my mother's soup.

One of the best ice cream places in zagreb. They serve a plethora of ice cream. This was yummy, but the one from Vienna is the best.

We visited this really interesting museum in Zagreb. It is a collection of momentos from break ups and broken marriages. There were several stories from Singapore too. The guys found this place really depressing and cracked jokes about having their guy talk if they can't sleep at night. 

There was this cute little cafe called Ivica Marica which translates to Hansel and Gretel. They serve traditional croatian cakes, ice cream and coffee. We didn't fancy their cakes with poppy seeds. 

Photo credit: Tea Mamut

We chanced upon this blogger's desserts selling in Konzum and we had to try it! Her tiramisu are indeed not bad. Better than some in house restaurant tiramisu.

Next onwards to Split!

breakfast

Comfort is drinking traditional Hainanese coffee and eating delicious Viennese wafer biscuits for breakfast. 

I love our local coffee, roasted with margarine and maize. Traditional roasted coffee is so fragrant. I drink my coffee black without sugar or milk. Kopi O Kosong. I often get my coffee names wrong when ordering at coffeeshops. Sometimes I'll end up with Kopi C kosong which is with evaporated milk. Now that sis bought an espresso machine, I have been drinking my coffee at home and sourcing for roasted coffee powder. Its so hard to find a good pack of traditional coffee powder really. Most/All the shops have relocated to industrial sites. Where have all the old coffee trading shops gone? The ones at amoy and victoria street vanished. I now buy my coffee powder from Ya Kun or NTUC. It isn't as fragrant and is expensive. I still wish for a whiff of the fragrance of coffee powder from those old coffee shops.

The best wafer biscuits are from Vienna. Unlike our local wafers, these are dense and packed with flavour. I love the zany taste of the lemon biscuits. Together, these make such a comforting breakfast. Happy weekend!

Pearl of the Danube River - Budapest

We headed further east to the capital of Hungary - Budapest. Prague was really beautiful and the Sanderman Free Tour was great. Budapest paled in comparison in terms of cityscape and guided tours.   We met a really interesting hungarian on the street who spoke chinese to me and recommended that we walk by the danube river at night. And boy, we were blown away. Just look at the pictures below. The night scene was gorgeous and thoroughly befitting of the 'pearl of the danube river' title.

Budapest - made up of two cities Buda and Pest. The Danube River runs in between. Buda is more hilly and Pest is flat as a pancake.

We had one of the most comfortable and cheapest hostel stay in Maverick Hostel at 12 euros a night. Here's a picture of the six bedder dorm we stayed in. I loved their well equipped kitchen and big luxurious toilets. There wasn't any lock on the 'lockers' in the room but we made do by locking our dorm when we left. No theft and it felt really safe there. We had no problems with noise though I thought the walls were relatively porous. The hostel had a really small lift which noone ever bother to use so it was tiring but good exercise to climb 2 storeys with a mezzanine floor in between. Maverick was also within walking distance to Vorosmarty square- the city centre. I had no issues with this hostel really.

Note: Beside Maverick Hostel is a money changer with one of the best rates in town. We couldn't have gotten better rates. It is also situated right beside a 24 hour supermarket which was really convenient. We tried searching for a bigger supermarket like Tesco but none was found within the city centre.

One of the oldest bathhouse in Budapest. We didn't feel like paying the entrance fee for a swim in a crowded swimming pool. Following a tip from the ticketing officer, one could get a good look at the bath house from the back and the picture above is my only view of the exterior bath pool. It smelled and didn't seem that clean so we were glad that we didn't pay to enter.

There are two cafes that you must visit when visiting Budapest. The first one is New York Cafe which is situated in a 5 star hotel. We initially dismissed the cheesy name, thinking that it was possibly an american chain. But boy, we were wrong. New York Cafe was incredible. It was the most opulent cafe    i have ever been to. The wait staff was snooty as expected but their cakes were amazing. I would definitely go back for their black forest cakes and any of their chocolate cakes. Their cheesecake was a  tad weird so pass that.

Situated on the corner of Vorosmarty square, sit outside Cafe Gerbeaud if you want to people watch. It is one of the oldest and most historic cafes in Budapest. Try their layered cakes with a layer of caramelised crust on top. You couldn't get better hungarian cakes anywhere else.

I really enjoyed shopping in Budapest. Zara averaged around 20% off Sg's prices so it was a really good deal. The guys commented that the men's range didn't seem that cheap though. I could however get really good bargains like work dresses for 45sgd that were retailing at 99sgd in sg. Meals on the other hand was pretty expensive. Each meal set us back by around 10 euros. There wasn't any cheap eats around so we cooked quite abit in the end.