Riang Ria Raya 2016!

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and good day!

Due to this being the hottest news, so I'll be holding off my Italy trip saga for a later post and write about this first. It's another Eidulfitri being here in London!!! Three years in a row now, weehuuu!!

Despite being abroad, celebrating Eid here is as good as being at home, minus the loved ones of course. But as long as you have great friends and company, your Eid will never be lonely nor sad. =D

This year is the best one yet...because my parents are here along with my uncle and aunt!!! Triple woohoo OOO!!

They arrived just two days before Eid, enough to experience the long days of fasting. I was a bit sad because I couldn't really take them anywhere myself because I'm so slumped with my labwork. Luckily, my parents have been here enough times to know their way around. Plus, because of the long hours of fasting, they didn't really have the energy to go to a lot of places. Mostly shopping.

So on the day of Eid, we woke up bright and early, get ready and head off for the Eid prayer. 

As the previous years, we went to Malaysian High Commission at Belgrave Square, near Hyde Park Corner. Cutting it close again this time (we blame the tube =P), but luckily we managed to pray along. 

So many people as usual, but loving the atmosphere. This year, they hand out packed Nasi Lemak to the congregation because the commissioner's open house will be held on Saturday. 

I just love meeting all my friends and acquaintances. This was last few years' celebrations: 2014 and 2015.

We took as much as photos as we could before beginning our journey.

Since this is my uncle and aunt's first time in London, of course, I had to bring them to the most important and iconic sights. 

The first place that we went to is Hyde Park since it's the nearest. 

Then we took the tube to go to the Buckingham Palace. 

At first I though we had missed the change of guards since we arrived around 10am. It turned out the change of guards starts at 11.30am. Lucky!!! So we decided to stay and wait since it's not a common thing to see.

Since we arrived early, we managed to get a good spot in front to have a great view when the guards marched. 

There were so many people here as we waited.

We ate the Nasi Lemak that they gave us while waiting. It was quite hot that day. Now they know how it really feels like being hot in London. It's no joke, man!

These are the few videos I managed to get during the change of guards. It was mine and my bestie's first time too!!

We even managed to catch them when they made their turn back to the palace. =D

Then we head off to Westminster. We walked across St. James Park. 

The lovely couple

Tadaa....the iconic Big Ben and Houses of Parliament.

They weren't really that interested in the Westminster Abbey...huhu...and of course the London Eye!!!

While we were walking here, I suddenly felt someone touched the zipper of my bag pack. Luckily I quickly turned. Didn't see the perp, but I asked my bestie to check. They managed to open almost half of the zipper, but didn't get to take anything, probably because I noticed before they get the chance to. My uncle's zipper was also open, but he didn't put any valuables in his bag. So be extra careful when you are at the tourists attractions. There are so many pickpockets at work there. 

Since we arrived at Westminster around noon (perfectly calculated...huhu), we stopped at St. Thomas hospital for prayer. 

My sis said when my dad wore his jacket, he looked like a doctor on duty. So I took this picture to make it look more legit. hahaha...even those Baju Melayu of his kind of looked like scrubs that surgeons wear. LOL

After freshening up, we went to visit my aunt (previously she had a cafe at Chinatown, now moved to Waterloo) at her cafe which located at a bar called Lounge 34, near Lower Marsh Market Street. Very near the hospital and Waterloo station. 

After that, we walked to Trafalgar Square. After taking some brief pictures, we took the old number 15 bus to go to the Tower Bridge. It's a whole London experience. This bus is the old bus, still in good condition and fully used. There's no announcer like the other London buses and there's a conductor that will check your tickets when you board, rather than having to touch at the reader as you get in. 

We made a stop at St. Paul's Cathedral, went to the rooftop of One New Change and see the rooftop view of London. I first found out about this place from K. As, my friend who has been working here for more than 5 years. She was the one that took me and K. Zada (her school friend that introduced us) around London on foot!!

Then, we took the tube to go to Tower Hill, and see the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. We didn't stay very long since everyone is very tired already. 

The day is not over yet since we need to visit a friend of mine. She invited all of us to her house for some makan2. Of course, previous years, that's exactly what my bestie and I would do. We even would hunt for places where we can visit and eat! But because I'm with my family and I'm taking them sightseeing around London, there's only room for one house to visit. 

My friend's house is at Wimbledon. Since it was during the Wimbledon match, I decided to take my family there, to at least get to see the festivities even though we didn't get a chance to see the match.

It has been such an eventful day. Thank you to K. Sara and her family for inviting us. I had such a fun day taking my family around London. 

The itinerary that we used is the one I usually give to those that want to make a day trip to London. Just email me if you want the details (such as which public transport to take, the best places to eat etc).

Until next time...

Italy: Pisa

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and good day!

I just realised I've had this in draft for so long. hahaha... Sorry peeps. Here you go.

After all the hustle and sight-seeings in Florence, we were off to Pisa. 

Taking the train in Italy is slightly different than in UK. The tickets is quite big, and you need to validate the tickets on a machine at the platform before you board or you'll be fined. Being noob as we are, we didn't know until the announcer told us, which was literally a minute before the train departs. We asked other passenger, and when we found out we needed to get off the train, I volunteered to run. Luckily, I saw an attendant on board and went to him instead. He told me to get back on the train and validated the tickets for us. Phew~~~

The train ride to Pisa was smooth as a sailor. We stopped at Pisa Centrale. From there, we needed to take a bus to go to the leaning tower. I don't remember which bus though, you need to google it.

It didn't take long to go to the leaning tower from the train station. Roughly around 10 minutes. We placed our bags at a luggage hold at the station. The rate was quite expensive for me. maybe because compared to Rome and Amsterdam, Italy is quite pricey. They charge per luggage, and there's no holding for short period of time. Only 12 and 24 hours are available. 

When we arrive at the leaning tower, there weren't many people there since it was still very early in the morning. 

There's three things located together with the leaning tower. The first one is this, the baptistery. 

Then the cathedral.

and last..the main attraction...the leaning tower.

We bought tickets to go up the tower in advance (when we were in Florence). The tickets costs €23.66...I think..haha...most of the info from this trip I've forgotten already. =P

Anywho...we went to the ticket counter to validate the tickets we bought, there's a locker service here (if we knew, we would've brought along our luggage. It's free too! You need to put all your belongings in the locker. You're only allowed a camera, a phone, or any other hand held devices. There's a security check at the entrance of the tower. They will even wand you. 

The tower consists of 300 steps!! 

The tower itself is made out of sparkling white marble and stone. Even the steps. So you can see the indented part where people has been stepping on it for more than 200 years!!

Yo can feel the tower lean as you go up. 

Not even close to the top yet

Running out of breath

Finally made it!!!

I don't know what is it with Italy and climbing buildings. haha...It seems that is all we've been doing since we've got here.

The leaning tower is also called as the bell tower for the cathedral. Hence, the many bells on top.

The bell will rang every hour. It rang when we were up there, luckily I wasn't really that close to it. But it still made me jump. 

After we went down, we wanted to take some iconic shots with the tower before the area gets crowded.

My bestie couldn't get a good picture of me. This was the 100th time we tried, hence the facial expression.

After that, we wanted to go inside the cathedral, but hasn't been opened yet.

So we decided to go to the building next to it.

This building is actually a cemetery. Don't believe me? See it for yourself. 

It's called Camposanto which means holy field. It also refers to as monumental cemetery. These are actual graves of actual people. Since a very long time ago. They even have a display of coffins that were used in the old days. Maybe the body inside already decayed and nothing was left. But still...ugh..

There's even new arrivals being buried here. This one was recently added on 2009. The only grave with flowers on them. Must be someone important. 

The middle was an open plan with an empty grass area. 

After feeling gloomy from all the dead people, we went to the baptistery. This is the largest baptistry in Italy.

 

While we were busy taking pictures, suddenly the guard kept shooshing the touring group of kids and other people who were making noises inside the baptistery. At first I thought it was just to remind them that this is a place of worship and certain conduct needs to be addressed. 

 Suddenly we heard this sound (from the video). It turned out, they have a calling for prayer too. We didn't know at first, but we asked the guard afterwards and he told us (with the limited english that we understood from him) that the call was to tell people of midday and for prayer.

 

However, I didn't find more information about this in the net. Maybe any christian orthodox that read this can tell us more.

 

And now to the cathedral.

 

This is the prayer hall inside the cathedral. The rope is to close that part from visitors and only be open during mass.  While we were in there, there's this one tour group that's always near us, so we get the chance to have some additional info. 

The guide said this cathedral have a lot of Ottoman empire influence in its architectural design. See the pillars? You can see the same design in Mezquita in Cordoba too (I haven't written a post about it yet...huhu).

 

Well, while we're here, might as well take more pictures with the leaning tower. Who cares how ridiculous you'll look. 

 

Join in the fun like these people. hahahaha...it's fun just watching them.

 

 The last part that we went to is the museum. Let me just tell you upfront, it's boring. LOL

 

We watched the 3D virtual tour of the museums and buildings here.

 

Most of them are ruins of paintings and sculptures that they find.

 

More pictures of the leaning tower before we left.

 

The Tuscany alley. Couldn't get enough of it.

 

After Pisa, we were off to Rome, our last destination of the trip. We already bought the bus tickets earlier on. However, the bus that we need to take is not that near to the attractions. It's a 15 minutes bus ride. 

 

The place where we need to wait for our bus is a parking lot and used to be a resting stop with a lot of stores. However, they are no longer in business, kind of like an abandoned cowboy town. Then there's this shuttle train-bus to take tourists that parked their car here to the Leaning Tower. We waited for 2 hours for our bus because we arrived too early.

 

The bus that we rode is called flexibus. It is the most comfy bus I've ridden in all of europe. The price is affordable too!!

 

The bus was almost empty, so we can do what we want. hahaha...We ended up sleeping the whole way.

Until next time...in Rome. =D