A + A Eurotrip 2015 ~ United Kingdom (Manchester)

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Of course when you have a husband like mine who is a soccer fanatic and a Manchester United fan, definitely Manchester would be on your travel list!


We stepped out of the plane with me sneezing away! It was toooo darn cold! It was 7degrees in Manchester! It’s Spring they say! We rushed through the customs and finally got a cab! We had exactly an hour to check into our hotel and out for our Manchester United stadium tour!

So we finally made it! Just a tip, if you’re booking for the stadium tour, made sure if you chose any tour time slots after 3pm, please set aside 1.5hrs for the Museum prior to your tour time.

Dominic was the coolest guide ever! He’s very knowledgeable and hilarious! Don’t forget to get your Tour Certificates from the store, its free! Always has a long queue! Definitely do that and if you want to customise your jerseys, do that first! These two lines can be pretty long!

We booked the most affordable lodging nearest to the Stadium! Victoria Warehouse Hotel. If you searched them on TripAdvisor, you’ll get mixed reviews. Most of the rooms are without windows, unless you booked a double deluxe room.

Usually between the both of us, the husband is usually harder to please. But he was pretty impressed with the concept of the hotel. The space was adequate and the bathroom was nice,modern and clean! We are pleased with the room for the price we paid! šŸ™‚

If you’re staying around Old Trafford, you are sure not to miss eating at Harry Ramsden! His fish and chips are beautiful! Definitely a must have! The waitresses are very friendly and accomodating. I did felt slightly embarrassed when she said 7 degrees was considered warm for them! Haha

We were in Manchester for a few days. And since the weather is freezing cold, we decided to spend the day just in the area and visit the Trafford Centre. It reminds us a lot like Chadstone Shopping Centre!

Although we didn’t win the match, the experience at Old Trafford was very memorable! And to be standing at the Stretford End was just amazing! We won’t be here if not for Hana and Kev! Thank you guys!

A+A EuroTrip 2015 ~ Spain (Madrid & Barcelona)

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Finally back from our Europe trip! It has been a wonderful journey yes even with the bitter memories but we gained such an amazing experience! An experience we can never forget and definitely encourage everyone to do it just once in their lifetime! To explore the unknown, to get lost, to venture in a new city and be mesmerised!

After 2 short transits in KL and Dubai, we finally reached Madrid at 8:30PM. It was a very tiring flight, I’ve never had to have a full 5 meals on board an aircraft before. I had to turn down a couple meal services as I was too tired. As mentioned in my previous post, we used Mozio to book for our transportation to our Airbnb Apartment. We had to wait for 30mins as we are sharing the shuttle with a couple of others. Which wasn’t that bad for the price that we pay. For taxis in Madrid, they have a flat fee of ā‚¬30! We paid about AUD$28 for the shuttle.

https://instagram.com/p/17ss2cM5QA/

Our AirBnb apartment was cosy,clean and for the location it was worth the price! We did set a budget of getting anĀ accommodation for AUD$100 a day! We did have a total of 18 nights so definitely budget is quite important in our trip! We had our first tapas for breakfast at Tapas 44 and it was awesome! I think it was the best one.

Tapas 44

Tapas 44

Madrid is a very cultural city with the Palace, the Plazas, the Facades. When you’re in Madrid, have some Churros! Among the places we visit were Puerta De Sol, the Palace, Plaza Mayor. But the weather was cold, rainy and rather gloomy while we were there! So it has been about running seeking shelter and warmth!

And i wonder why we shopped heaps in Zara! Well, definitely hit Zara and Mango when you’re in Spain. Cheap Cheap Cheap! We used Tripomatic app a lot during our holiday trips. It’s great as it features all the must see attractions and restaurants that you need to visit in each city and you can plan your daily itinerary as well! Very useful!

We spend about 4 days in Madrid and another 4 days in Barcelona. We were giving each city ample time just afraid we did get jet lag like we were in New York last September. We spend each day walking throughout our day. Due to the proximity of our apartment to the City, we walked almost every where except to theĀ Santiago BernabĆ©u Stadium.

We cab it to the stadium as it wasĀ starting to rain. The stadium tour was awesome and no doubt it was huge! The hubs had a great time and was in awe! Thank god we head there on a Weekday morning, it was less crowded and look who decided to show up, Mr Sun of course!Ā 

On the fourth day we head to Atocha station to catch the Renfe Train to Barcelona. We got the tickets in February and it was an early bird ticket! So pretty happy to grab bargains of course! The trains were spacious, each carriage had a luggage area for you to store your luggages. If you like to know more, Seat 61 is the best train travel guide!

It was such a great weather in Barcelona! Alhamdulillah, we got upgraded from a 2* Hotel Santa Marta to a 3* Hotel Suizo as the hotel was still under refurbishment. As per TripAdvisor, initially there were heaps of mixed reviews regarding Hotel Santa Marta! So we were a little scared but you know to just accept whatever! Then we were told a week before that we were upgraded to Hotel Suizo! We were so ecstatic because it was located right in Gothic Quarters! Such a great location, close proximity to La Ramblas, 2 train stations within walking Distance and great cafes and Tapas bars within reach! Below is the view from our balcony.

Something about the Hotel bathrooms in Spain and Italy, they have this urinal thing at the side. Which we thought was weird.Ā We stayed here for 3 nights and the hubs couldn’t sleep soundly due to the noises and theres really strong smell in the bathroom which i reckon coming from the separate urinal which we never ever used. But i think for the price and location, we are still grateful. We still think its a great place to be based at.

Ā  The highlights of soccer fans being in Barcelona is to catch their game! Definitely had the best time, front row seats and having Barcelona conquered and dominated the match! It was amazing and of course getting to see your favourite players in real life! It was indeed such a dream come true!

Among the attractions that you definitely need to catch is of course the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Plaza Espana, Montjuic Fountains and Barcelona Beach! These places are amazing! We didn’t go into Sagrada Familia, the line is long and you know w just enjoy the facade really. Park Guell, definitely get tickets online! We had to wait 3 hours for the next available time to enter the park! So definitely lessons learnt there! Montjuic Fountains starts at 9pm so definitely worth checking the times before you go as the time changes as the seasons change!

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Park Guell

Park Guell

Barcelona has been such an amazing city and is definitely our favourite city of the Trip! Halal restaurants are so easy to find in the city too!

Fire chicken with cheese

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Chijeu-buldakĀ ģ¹˜ģ¦ˆė¶ˆė‹­

I might try making this after our EuroTrip! Looks amazing!

buldak with cheese (ģ¹˜ģ¦ˆė¶ˆė‹­)

Ingredients (4 servings)

  • 2 pounds of chicken breast, cut into 3/4 or 1 inch cubes
  • Ā½ cupĀ hot pepper flakes
  • 2 to 3 tablespoonsĀ hot pepper paste
  • 1 tablespoonĀ soy sauce
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable or corn oil
  • Ā½ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • ā…“ cupĀ rice syrupĀ (or corn syrup, sugar, honey)
  • 6 large garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 teaspoons ginger, minced
  • 1 pound mozzarella cheese (optional), cut into small pieces
  • 1 cup ofĀ sliced rice cakeĀ (optional)
  • 1 green onion, chopped
  • Ā¼ cup water

buldak-mozzarella

Directions

  1. Combine hot pepper flakes, hot pepper paste, soy sauce, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, ground black pepper, rice syrup, garlic, and ginger in a bowl. Mix it well into a sweet and spicy paste.
  2. AddĀ the chicken and mix well by hand.
    buldak with cheese (ģ°Øģ¦ˆė¶ˆė‹­)
  3. Heat up a skillet with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Add the sliced rice cakes and fry them for a few minutes. Turn them over with a spatula once or twice until both sides areĀ crispy and light golden brown.
    sliced rice cakes
  4. Place the marinated chicken into a heavy pan, preferably cast iron. Use theĀ water to rinse the bowl and get the last of the sauce into the pan. Cover and cook over medium high heat for 10 minutes. If you use a normal frying pan, it will take 7 to 8 minutes. Be sure not to burn the chicken.
    buldak with cheese (ģ¹˜ģ¦ˆė¶ˆė‹­)buldak with cheese (ģ¹˜ģ¦ˆė¶ˆė‹­)
  5. Uncover, stir and turn over the chicken with a wooden spoon. Add the rice cakes to the top of the chicken.
    buldak with cheese (ģ¹˜ģ¦ˆė¶ˆė‹­)
  6. Turn down the heat very low. Cover and let cook another 10 minutes, until the chicken is fully cooked. If youā€™re using cheese, pre-heat the oven broiler.
  7. When the chicken is cooked, put the cheese over the top. Slip itĀ into the oven for a few minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly.buldak in the oven
  8. Remove and sprinkle with the chopped green onion. Serve hot.
    buldak with cheese (ģ¹˜ģ¦ˆė¶ˆė‹­)buldak with cheese (ģ¹˜ģ¦ˆė¶ˆė‹­)

Insurance āœ“ SIM Card āœ“ Tickets āœ“

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So we packed our bags yesterday. Was quite surprise that I did not overpack this time like how I usually do! Was quite surprise myself! And finally my Ripcurl softcase luggage got to retire! The Ripcurl luggage did lasts me for 8 years!Ā It was just the time to replace. Alhamdulillah,Ā American TouristerĀ was on sale so got the Large Suitcase (75cm) for $160! Really wanted the white one! But I chose practicality over fashion and got the black one instead!

American Tourister Bon Air Spinner

And how great that the Global Gig Sim Card arrives in the mail on time! It’s awesome, so far our research goes, we hardly use text or call credits when we are overseas as we mostly use Skype to call, Whatsapp to text and Social Media. So after comparing a couple of the global sims (which are ridiculously expensive!) We decided to go with GlobalGig! 3Gb for $50/Mth or 5Gb for $70/Mth for anywhere in Europe and USA. I remembered I paid for 3Gb for $40 with AT&T when I went to the US. I purchases the AT&T new sim card from Ebay and just top it up online before I leave! That was great and very convenient! Cuz we needed a US number as soon as we touch down to call our AirBnB Host! Overall the best thing about Global Gig and AT&T you can even use it as a hotspot and share the data with your partner! So you don’t have to get 2 sim cards! Well at least that’s what I did!

I usually use and recommend comparethemarket.com.au for my insurance needs. Be it healthĀ or travel insurance. Indeed they are great and suits every traveller’s budget! So we got the Travel Insuranz Premiere for $136 forĀ us, couple!Ā Ā I can’t default it. It did save us a lot of money. Ā 

It was a nightmare exchanging money in Melbourne. Wanted to head down to KVB as they are trusted to have good rates, however, they ran out of Euros! Booo so I headed to my next trusted and best rates United Currency Exchange! And they ran out of Euros too! Nonetheless, I manage to haggle and negotiate with one of the Stores and got my Euros! So lesson learnt, exchange your money to Euros at least a week before you depart! Guess it was just my luck but Alhamdulillah!

It is definitely going to be a long day at work today. And we are finally leaving tonight! Too excited šŸ™‚

A+A EuroTrip 2015

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The husband was half hearted when i mentioned that we should carry forward our EuroTrip to April instead of September. But Alhamdulillah we did! Since we missed the Europe Travel Expo last November, we were lucky that the Global Travel Expo was on in February. We did thorough research on the prices of flights prior to the Expo and had our minds made up on a budget.

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This was our second flight purchase from the Travel expos that were organised by Flight Centre Group. You do need to look around and know where your budget is. So far the prices were cheaper than what we expected. Europe is by far the trip that scares us the most, the expenses, the people, the language barrier, we just don’t know what to expect!

We got Emirates flight going from MelĀ āœˆļø MadridĀ šŸš† BarcelonaĀ āœˆļø Manchester šŸšŒĀ LondonĀ šŸš† ParisĀ āœˆļø Venice šŸš† Maranello šŸš† Pisa šŸš†Ā RomeĀ āœˆļø Mel. This is definitely going to be interesting! We booked our Trains in Spain (Renfe) and Italy (Trenitalia) in January/February and got really cheap early bird fares! They usually open 120 days prior to your travel dates. However Virgin TrainsĀ andĀ EuroStar opens 90 days in advance! We missed out on Virgin Trains as Manchester – London earlybird train fares was sold out pretty quickly. I guess it was due to the soccer match that weekend! Of course everyone will be rushing to getĀ Ā£15 tickets as compared toĀ Ā£80.60! Oh wells!

I highly recommend the app/website GoEuroĀ to get the cheapest transportation fares in UK and Europe! And what i did was to go on the train/airline/bus website and book it directly. If you book it from GoEuro, you couldn’t choose your seats. We learnt it the hard way! Let’s see if we can negotiate with the train conductor if we can swap seats! lol

Seat 61 will be another website you would want to bookmark!Ā A guide to travelling around Europe/UK (worldwide actually!)Ā by train, including how to buy cheap train tickets! A site worth to visit! Another site worth looking at is Mozio it helps you with Airport transfers! Going to and from Airports is a breeze with Mozio, I’ve got quotes from quite a number of Operators (Cheapest, ā‚¬65)Ā for my transport from Kyriad Disneyland Hotel to Paris Orly Airport early morning. So far Mozio has been the cheapest (ā‚¬51). The sameĀ for our Madrid Airport to AirBNB apartment in Madrid City. Taxi Fares are ā‚¬30. At Mozio, I am paying about ā‚¬21.Ā Well, we shallĀ see how reliable they are in a few days!

Once we got the transportation settled, we started looking at hotels/airbnb! Our budget for accommodations are $100 a day maximum! Alhamdulillah we manage to keep it all under budget! Besides AirBNB, We looked at Hotels combined, Trivago and Expedia. If you found any accommodations listed cheaper (on the sites)Ā as compared to Expedia, they will be able to price match and in return put $50 forward to your next hotel booking! I did that for a couple hotels and its worth it! For hotels in Spain and Italy, you are better off booking directly through the hotel as they do more discounts/freebies as compared to the websites above! Usually, you’ll pay for the rooms upon checkout! So its pretty great!Ā I reckon!

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