Lisbon, Portugal Day 1

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and good day!

Continuing from this post.

After we changed our clothes, we walked towards a nearby park since the friend we met at the mosque suggested it.

The park is gorgeous! It's called the Gulbenkian park.

There's a lovely stream...

Loads of ducks...and turtles! Hardly see any turtle in a park.

There's also this black crowned heron.

Poor little guy. He was trying to get a fish, but the ducks kept messing it up.

After the park, we took an Uber to Belem. In Lisbon, we mostly used Uber to go from one place to another since we only have two days to see everything, which is never enough. Uber in Lisbon is super cheap! It takes around 18 minutes to go to the Belem Tower from the park (12.2 km) and it costs just above €12. If you take the train, it takes about 42 minutes, which is a huge difference. The driver was super nice too. He told us the history of Lisbon as we passed some monuments, such as the aqueduto (aquaduct).

As we arrived at the tower, the driver offered us tours that he did. But because we are pressed for time and we wanted to be free to make our own choices as we go, we had to decline.

Next to the Belem Tower is the maritime museum.

This is the Belem Tower. The queue was super long, so we decided not to enter.

This is the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, which is a monument on the northern bank of the Tagus River estuary, in the civil parish of Santa Maria de Belém, Lisbon.

The monument celebrates the Portuguese Age of Discovery (or Age of Exploration) during the 15th and 16th centuries, which includes Malaysia (or known as Tanah Melayu back then)

Mom...I'm Back in Malaysia!!! 

Part of my country's history.

The Jerónimos Monastery or Hieronymites Monastery, is a former monastery of the Order of Saint Jerome near the Tagus river in the parish of Belém, in the Lisbon Municipality, Portugal.

Another tourist attraction transport around here are the tuktuk, just like the one in Thailand.

They say it's beautiful in the monastery. We didn't enter this one as well as time is limited.

Inside the maritime museum, they are holding the vikings exhibition. Vikings were not part of the Portuguese though. 

The main purpose of going to Belem is this, the patisserie (Pateis de Belem). 

It is the go to place if you want to find the famous Portuguese egg tart (pastel de nata).

This place is so famous, it is packed. They have over 40 seatings, there are two take away queues outside. But the queue moves very quickly,that's how efficient they are. 

The pastel de nata were still hot as they serve them!

Near the monument, there's this guy that makes these crafts from coins. When he saw us, he asked where we were from. When we said Malaysia, he immediately looked around for something, and he took out the 20 cents from Malaysia!! He said that one is his. He can make any shapes that you want for €20-30. 

The last place to visit is the monument of Alfonso de Albuquerque. He's the guy that lead the colonisation in Asia. The guy that made it his mission to combat the spread of Islam in Asia.

After our time in Belem, we get a move on to Cascais, the seafood paradise. 

You definitely need to visit the Hell's mouth (Boca do Inferno).

The ocean is clear green and blue. So beautiful!!!

This is the Palace of Cascais Citadel (Palácio da Cidadela de Cascais). I have no idea who this guy is.

There are stalls selling all kinds of Portuguese product. One of the interesting thing they sell is made out of cork. My bestie bought two purses that are made from cork.

We walked towards the beach.

This was the purpose!! I wanted to swim at an European beach for a very long time.

It was awesome!!!

Another thing I wanted to eat here is this! It is called Percebes in Portuguese. I know they look ugly as hell, but it tastes kind of nice. It's a snail by the way. We ate it raw. It has s little bit of the ocean taste.

O Mastro is the place to get this. The price was decent too. We bought a grilled fish (which include salad and potatoes), the percebes and some chips for €25 total. There's another must eat dish in Portugal. I will tell you in the next post.

We tried catching the sunset to go to the Amoreiras for a 360° panoramic view of Lisbon.

Amoreiras is the tallest point in Lisbon. It only costs €5 to get to the 360° view! Remember to bring thick clothing like a jacket because the wind is so strong. The view was gorgeous!! If you can see the bridge there, that is an identical bridge as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Not only it was made by the same company, they even used the same materials and colour!

Enjoy this time lapse.

Until next time.

Riang Ria Raya 2017

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and good day!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish Eid mubarak to all muslim out there. كل عام و انتم بخير

Let's take a break from my NYC trip for a while.

 

This year, my bestie and I spent our eid in Lisbon, Portugal because she has a course there and I am not about to spend eid by myself. 

 

On the morning of Eid, we made our way to Lisbon Central mosque. We took an uber because the bus was taking too long to arrive. It only costs us less than €4! We arrived just before 10am for the second prayer.

 

People were still arriving as we did. Everyone wore their best clothes that day. It was such a beautiful scene.

 

The mosque was quite big.

 

 

It has two levels. The ground floor is for men.

 

the second floor is for women. The placed was packed, I couldn't sit and get a space until everyone got up for prayer. Even then, I had to squeeze around.

 

The funny thing was, the imam gave instructions in Portuguese. I knew how people in Malaysia performed Eid prayer, so I thought it would be the same. Why wouldn't it, right? But in their prayers, they did three takbeer in the first rakaat, and the second set of takbeer was after reciting al-Fatihah and surah. So on the second rakaat, I mistakenly ruku' when the imam said Allahuakbar, when he actually meant the three takbeer before ruku'. A lot of people made the same mistake, and some even proceeded until sujud and tahiyyat, even my bestie..hahaha.... It was an interesting experience. 

 

We met some awesome people when we were there. This nice young lady helped us a lot with our itinerary. She gave us many suggestions of places to visit, the must see and do.

 

After prayer, we went outside and took a bunch of pictures until there were hardly any people around.  

I have a few 360° view of the places I've been to here.

We changed our clothes afterwards in the mosque so we can walk with ease and comfort.

I'll continue about the sightseeing in a later post.

Until next time...

The Big Apple Day 1

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and good day!

Where is the place so good, they have to name it twice. That's right. It's the high rise..it's New York, New York!

I had the pleasure of visiting Manhattan, New York earlier this month. I came here for a conference at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. While I'm there, of course I have to spare some time to visit the place I've been dreaming to go to.

My bestie sent me off at the airport that morning. She was quite worried since I was going by myself. Yes, to the big city all on my own. Another adventure to embark. 

     

I took the American Airline (it was quite a wonderful journey) to JFK. There was a little mishap since I bought a BA ticket. It turns out, a few of BA flights are provided by AA. 

Took a cab (the iconic yellow cab). The rate from JFK to Manhattan is a flat rate of $52, but if you add up the tax and the tip (it's a must to give out tip in the States), it'll be around $82.50 in total. I booked to stay for one night at the Grand Hyatt. 

It's an expensive hotel, but it is convenient since the Grand Central Station is next to it. There's a bit of story about this hotel. I'll show you a video about it later on.

On my first night here, I've already had a plan of going to a Yankees game. Yankees is one of New York's baseball team, one of the famous one, I guess. There's also the Mets, and Brooklyn's team.

The Grand Central Station during peak hour. It is situated beside the Grand Hyatt Hotel. See the walkthrough here.

I was lucky that the day I arrived, there was a game because after that, there were no more games held at the Yankees stadium after the 2nd of May.

To go to the Yankees Stadium, I only need to take one Subway from the Grand Central Station (the M train) that takes about 15 minutes to arrive.

The New York subway system is kind of like London Underground tube. They are messy and complicated.

As I was going that afternoon, I can see a lot of Yankees and Blue Jays fans going to the Stadium, so I can just follow those who are wearing caps or jerseys, 

Mind you, I was the only hijabis there. But thankfully, everybody welcomed me so warmly. They were very nice and friendly.

Everyone that I encountered will wish a great game or enjoy the game. 

The stadium was huge. There weren't a long queue, but there were already quite a number of people inside the stadium. There were many vendors selling food, drinks, snacks and merchandises. 

There are time limits to when you can go down near the front row seats; meaning that if 2 hours before the game, you can go until the front row, 1 hour before the game, only to where I was standing, 30 minutes before the game, only at the grand stand, which is where I was seating at.

This is the view from my seat.

It was a great game!

do the YMCA!! 

Although Yankees lost horribly to the Blue Jays (quite disappointed with Yankees suckiness) 1-7, I did enjoy my very first baseball game. 

On the way back, I followed the others, which made me feel a bit safe. 

This is the view of The Grand Central Station after midnight. Still quite a number of people around in the city that never sleeps.

Continue next time... 

Enjoy this 10-minute Video.