Pisa

again, so sorry for not posting anything for so long. i seem to be apologising on this blog a lot lately ^^;

i've finished 2 exams & but i still have one more exam next week, but since i've finished 2/3 of my exam, i feel much lighter edi, & not so guilty abt posting here ^^ it's like, i feel guilty about wanting to blog, but at the same time i feel guilty for not blogging, what's with that haih

so i gave in haha, & decided to post. and instead of ranting about my exams, or how stressed i am, i'm gonna post something that makes me happy ;-) because i'm the kinda person who pushes unpleasant things to the back of my mind & focuses on the happy things only. of course, that doesn't mean that i'm not studying, but well... yeah, i'm not gonna talk about that ;-P

will juz be posting some pics on Pisa, cos i really liked those buildings there. so white & so nice *___* lol

when we came in through the gates, the view was sth like this - awesome XD & i know it's not obvious in the pic, but in real life the buildings looked huge & it was really breathtaking ^__^

the 1st building

the gates surrounding the building. an example of people resting on their day off. if i lived in that kinda place, i'd be lying on the grass too ;-(

2nd building. i think the 3rd building behind it is a cathedral

tower of pisa!!! ^___^

dunno whether it's obvious, but all those faces are different ;-D

random

lastly, another closer shot on the tower of pisa XD i felt quite stupid cos i only realised this when we left pisa, my family & i didn't go closer to the tower, even though i wanted to, you know, for fun, cos you're not supposed to go near in case it starts sinking hehehe. but this was probably the closest i was ;-( still not so bad, but it would've been better to go right to those bars there lol or even that trash can

i'm not sure whether i mentioned this earlier, but this trip was a tour, not free and easy, so we had a very limited time there, like one to two hours only T_T so no, there wasn't enough time to go in the tower of pisa, & i think there was a waiting list kinda thing, so yeah, definitely can't go. still good enough to see it up close anyway ^^

i din post up a picture of the cathedral cos i didn't have any good shots on it ^^; and i posted less than 10 pics haha so it feels not so bad ;-D this post didn't take much of my time~ ;-D

altho i obviously din finish, i'm gonna stop posting pics from my trip bcos i feel like i'm not really writing anything meaningful, & when i do this, my mind feels kinda blank cos i'm not thinking of wat to blog next, cos it's easy to juz post pics only (juz time consuming).

so i'll try to write more meaningful things after my exam, or at least not put pics for a while, if tt's possible ^^; if i really hv nth to blog, i'll resort to my pics again. cos i din talk abt my trip fr japan at all, i think i wld like to do tt at least, even if i went to japan in 2008 ^^;

but after my exam, i plan to do one last post of pics on venice, because that was the part i enjoyed the most on my trip, & i took lots of pics tt day ^__^ so be prepared to be bombarded with pics for the next post! by the end of this month, i should think ;-D

Rome

so sorry for the late update ^^; been really busy & stuff, & wasted my time on some stupid power point presentation, but it's over now! XD dun really wanna talk abt things tt I dislike, so let's get back to italy lol ^__^

so after Vatican, we went back to Rome. 1st thing we saw was the Colosseum XD the only thing I knew about Rome & therefore the one only thing I was looking forward to seeing in Rome

but before that, a few pictures of scenic view along the way...<

I think this is the parliament building. anyway, I think it looks quite nice, but that's cos it's all white, & I like the statues of horses at the top of the building ^__^

it seems to be normal to see ruins in between modern buildings in Rome *envious*

it's too bad we didn't go closer to those ruins. actually they reminded me of Jordan

the Colosseum! XD did I mention that it was the only place that I knew about, & was looking forward to going to in Rome? lol

I forgot how much it cost, but mainly because there was only an allocated of time allowed to spend there, we didn't go in ;-( & because there's a really long line, & lots of people. so we decided to go round the outside of the whole Colosseum instead lol XD I don't think anyone else in the group did that, but maybe they did, because then what else could they have been doing? *puzzled*

so you can see why these bars are in the pic. obviously only poor people would take pic of the inside from the outside lol but it was fine, kinda fun anyway

this pic was taken with my hand through the bars. couldn't help wondering why I didn't think of it earlier, or more importantly, why the hell did I still take pic of the bars if I could put my hand through the bars?!? >_>

this shows the underground level of the Colosseum. they actually had a sorta contraption like an elevator to bring up the animals (cos the animals were in the dungeons underground) to the battle grounds. AWESOME XD XD

juz some graves of some poor, unfortunate gladiators

see? the cross shows we went one whole round, or rather, to the other side of the Colosseum, & the cross seems to be somewhere in the center

these are the ruins around the Colosseum. but if you ask me what they are, I have no idea

another view of the Colosseum ^^ I envy those people up there in the Colosseum

if you're wondering why the Colosseum looks like they have two layers, it's cos the outer one is the new layer. I think it's because the old layer is breaking down, sth like that ^^;

after that, we went to see the Travis fountain & the Spanish steps. Turned out we went to see the steps first because it was more convenient.

these are the steps. nope, nothing special about them. juz that the Spanish govt sponsored them, or something like that

I took a pic of the steps anyway, since they're so special. the coloured stuff are the confetti. kids are throwing it all around, there was a celebration of some sort (I think)

the view when walking down the steps. the other pic was when looking back upwards

I must seem like an idiot, but I've never seen water chestnuts looking like that (as in, on a vine)

we were left to walk around a bit before going to the Travis fountain, so this is kinda what it looked like after going down the steps

this is another church that we found while walking around. all the churches have very nice decoration

a great king who did a lotta good stuff. so they drew a halo on his head lol

can you see it now? XD

jesus when he was 12 years old (presumably)

this made me laugh, so I took a pic. it's a confession box! hehe ;-D

CREPES *______* juz had to try one. you wouldn't believe how excited I was. & if you didn't know that I juz absolutely love crepe, well, you haven't been in my company very much

wtf look at all that nutella

bought the nutella crepe. wasn't that great, juz nutella ;-(

I prefer the kind with whipped cream, & maybe caramel XD

later on, we also ate ice cream lol but forgot to take picture

an obelisk from egypt. not sure whether real or not

Travis fountain XD I liked it a lot

you were supposed to try a coin backwards over your left shoulder with your right hand. or was it your right shoulder with your left hand? either way, I forgot, but I did it, & it felt damn awkward. I swear, I nearly hit somebody with the coin lol

a convenience store, so I took a few pics

CHEESE ^__^

this made me laugh too

& this ;-D

that's about it. now for the dinner pics lol. juz wanted to say, I'm not the kinda person who puts food pics in my blog. but for italy & austria, I'm willing to make an exception ;-D only gonna put in the pizza pics though

freaking huge >_> but I like lol XD

that's all. hope I can post again soon ^__^ if not, then... well, sorry about that ^^;