For love of travel and food

While in Barcelona, my friend and I joined a half day tour to Montserrat Monastery, located in the mountain area. This was the first half day trip during my vacation, so it was pretty exciting to join a tour. After we arrived at Montserrat, our tour guide brought us around. We were first brought to a museum where we watched a movie about Montserrat. We were also taken into the Basilica. The main attraction to Montserrat is the Virgin of Montserrat statue. There is a separate line for people to line up to view the statue. There are some hiking trails for Montserrat as well. I didn't hike up a trail since my tour was a half day, and there probably wouldn't have been enough time. Behind this section is a trail that'll eventually lead to the top of the mountain The Basilica Montserrat is also known for the boys choir. My friend and I went back to the Basilica to listen to two songs. From the ground floor of the Basilica, you can view the Virgin statue that is on...

During our trip in Madrid, we joined a tour to go to Toledo. Toledo was the former capital of Spain. From what I recall from the tour, Toledo was growing and they eventually relocated the capital to Madrid. Toledo is the first city that I was part of a tour where I visited a mosque, church and synagogue. Interesting thing about walking through Toledo is seeing the Christian, Muslim and Jewish influences in the buildings. We were told by our guide that the religions were able to coexist in Toledo. Toledo is also surrounded by water, which would have helped during invasions but would have limited the expansion of the city. Within Toledo, you can see symbols from each of the religions. It is to symbolize that they had coexisted together Places of interest during the tour Catedral Primada Toledo Iglesia de San IIdefonso Jesuitas Iglesia de Santo Tom é  - famous painting called The Burial of the Count of Orgaz Mosque of Christ of the Light - former mosque which was changed...

The last part of my Portugal trip, my friend and I booked a day trip to Sintra through Expedia. We went on December 30, 2015. We woke up early to meet our tour guide at the Hard Rock Cafe entrance before 9:00 am. It seems that for many tours leaving from Lisbon, everyone meets at this Hard Rock Cafe and the tour guide will come over and call out the tour type. Then they will also check you name. The day seemed clear in Lisbon but since we were going up to the mountain area, there was more moisture. Our tour guide had said that it almost always rains in the area in the mountains. It's rare to not have rain. Before arriving in the centre town of Sintra, we stopped by a nearby cafe to try the Sintra tart. Our tour guide had stopped here to get some coffee and it was just a break for the rest of us to try out the tart or coffee if we were interested. I bought Starbucks earlier (they have different flavours in Lisbon and I wanted to try), so I only bought the tart. It is a cheese fi...

During our time in Lisbon, my friend and I went to Belem. It was close enough to Lisbon, about a 15-20 minute local bus ride from Lisbon. I bought metro day pass for about 6 Euros (I really can't remember if it was 6 or 9 Euros). I visited Belem on December 29, 2015. We arrived early to Belem because I wanted to have breakfast at a famous place I had looked up on Tripadvisor. It is called Pasteis de Belem. The reviews stated that there would be long line ups around the block, so I was hoping to go there earlier to avoid the line. First we got there at about 8:30am and there was no line up. In fact, we were able to find any table inside very easily. The famous pasteis de nata were delicious. I would say those are the best I have ever had in my entire life. The main reason is the crust. The crust was crispy and light. The filling had more content of egg compared to the one we bought at a bakery in Lisbon. I had two pasteis de nata and a custard croissant for breakfast. That custard...

After visiting Madrid, my friend and I went to Lisbon. We took the midnight train from Madrid to Lisbon. We paid 24.20 Euros each. So it was not expensive. The train I took was an old train, and the seats can change direction. The thing is, since it was so old, the seat shock during the ride. Or the person behind us would kick and you can definitely feel it. I can usually sleep on public transportation pretty well, but I couldn't sleep well on this train. The time on the overnight train is pretty significant. From 21:50 until 7:20 the next day. There was also no real announcements (or it could be due to the age of the train I couldn't hear). So we basically had to know the timing of the expected arrival to get off. Another thing about the train is, you can smell the toilet from the cart. I just think it was an older train and these are discount rides. Found a spot in Alfama to oversee Lisbon We arrived in Lisbon and took the train to the station where we were staying. We...

After Barcelona, we took a train to Madrid. The train ride was smooth, and it took a few hours. I fell asleep during the ride. There were a lot of tunnels. Plaza Mayor during Christmas Madrid is completely different from Barcelona. Barcelona felt more like a relaxed city near the sea, and Madrid is the country capital, not surrounded by water. There is a good mix of old and new buildings. I arrived on the 23rd of December, so Christmas preparations were underway. Since I am a tourist, I was mainly near Plaza Mayor. On Christmas Eve, everything closed early afternoon. Things remained closed on Christmas until the afternoon. The Plaza Mayor had a Christmas Market from the time I was there, so it was great to see everyone outside and enjoying themselves in the square. I also noticed that children really love to play with crackers (where they throw it onto the ground and it cracks). This was also popular in Peru, when I visited the Christmas before. Aside from Pla...

I booked my trip to Spain sometime in August. The flight was not cheap because it was during Christmas. However, there was really no other place that my friend and I could agree on, and I've always wanted to visit Spain, so this was the chance. Museu Nacional d'art de catalunya                                                                  I didn't do much planning before going to be honest. My friend had arranged a lot of the lodging and I just reviewed and agreed to stay wherever she found. All I did was look up on Trip Advisor what were the top sights to see. I also didn't buy a tourist book for my trip. Which is something I usually do. ...

I've been meaning to start a travel blog and I guess I'm going to start with my New York City for New Year's Eve trip. Let me start with my own story and hopefully something can be learned out of my experience.  So my friend and I wanted to participate in New Year's Eve in New York City, it was kind of her on her list of to do's in life.  I knew by 1:00pm that Times Square was getting pretty crowded but I didn't want to be in the thick of things so we decided to leave a little later. We left at 4:30pm.  We were living around 31st Street and 5th Ave., so we were walking toward 43rd and 7th.  While we got to 43rd and 5th, the barriers were blocking all the flow to get into Times Square by NYPD.  So it was basically like this until 59th.  We were told by the NYPD to go to 59th and see if we could make our way down. By the time we went to 59th, the NYPD office wasn't letting us in, so we walked back to 58th, and they let us in there.  There's...