Europe trip 2006 Spain→ France→ UK

Ko-Shin, Dai-Rong and I spent almost 1 month traveling in Spain, France and the UK. We arrived in London and purchased the tickets of The Phantom of The Opera for July 28 at Her Majesty's Theater on July 10. I like to watch people. Before flying to Barcelona by easyJet flight, we walked around the next morning. After our trip to Barcelona and France, we took the Eurostar from Paris to London (2.5 hrs) on July 28.

Of course, we didn't miss must-eat British foods. English breakfast- eggs, bacon, sausages, bread, mushrooms, baked beans, tomatoes. Fish and Chips- fried fish with French fries.

Westminster Cathedral   

July 12 Barcelona

July 13-17 Cantonigros

Leaving Ko-Shin and Dai-Rong in Barcelona on July 13th morning, I went to join the festival with Taipei Teacher's Choir in Cantonigros, in the north of Barcelona. The good news was we won the 3rd prize in the mixed choirs!

Our conductor, accompanist and I stayed in a friendly and sweet hostfamily during the 4 nights. The host father is an Italian and the host mother is a local. They have 3 adorable children. They prepared wonderful dinner, a party and invited their friends. The backyard was full of laughs every night. What a great time we had together!

In Taiwan, I usually have supper at 6:00-7:00pm. Can you believe people in Spain have supper after 8:00? We had 4 meals a day. We had breakfast at hostfamily. The festival served lunches and suppers in a big tent. Eating with other choirs was fun! And, we had supper again with our hostfamily after coming back from the festival. It's 10:00-11:00! Good for my weight. ^_^

July 17-19 Barcelona

 July 20-28 Tours-Orleans-Paris-Reims-Paris-London

July 28-Aug.4 London-Bath-Oxford-York-Lake District-Edinburgh

Reims, a quiet town

our itinerary: Tours-Orleans-Paris-Reims-Paris-London

Musee National du Louvre is huge!

 

~ July 26 night ~ It's been hot in Europe. Air conditioner isn't common in France. Women like to flirt a fan on the metro or walking around. There's never this kind of picture in Taiwan. Ko-Shin and I sat at the balcony after backing from Louvre. Suddenly, the wind was blowing hard like typhoon, and then it rained and thundered. Hope it'll be cool tomorrow.

We arrived at Louvre at noon. We watched the website of the museum and spent time in the bookstore and shops. The ticket (€6) is cheaper after 18:00 on Wed., so we waited till the moment to go into the museum. There's a numerous collection of works and the palace is so huge that one can spend a couple of days indside! I wonder the king ever got lost?

Tomorrow we'll go to Reims. I'm going to bed. Good night~

The 4th day in Paris-the 16th day in Europe

~ July 25 night ~ We went to Chatrau de Versailles today. Ko-Shin and I spent 2 hours walking in the huge hunting ground! It's pleasant to lie on the grass and look at the sky and the boats on the lake.

People say the French are cold, but we don't think so. Whenever we asked for the directions, we greeted people in French. They tried their best to let us know in French or in poor English, even led us to our destination. How kind and friendly of them! If you can't speak French, the tip is saying an English word to the locals or pointing at the destination on a map, not saying a long sentence.
We walked a lot and sometimes felt tired and hungry. Going to the restaurants is expensive, so we often go to the supermarkets to buy some fruit, bread, vegetables, milk and cans and cook by ourselves. Well, I start to miss Taiwanese food.

Waiting for over 1 hr to have a roast duck at 天廚

Banqiao-Tucheng Line of MRT just started operating on May 31. We got on at Far Eastern Hospital Station to SOGO this afternoon. The escalators of the new station were shaking~
We had dinner at 天廚. The famous restaurant was full of people. We waited for about a half hr for sitting. Finally, it's our turn! We ordered a roast Beijing duck, kidneys, and vegetable stir-fry. But, can you believe we waited for over 1 hr for the duck after finishing the other two dishes?!

It's 20:00 now. When will my duck come??? Finally, a server showed us the whole duck. Before he took it back to fillet, of course we didn't forget to take a picture.

I loved the roast skin! wrap the meat and onion in the crust. yummy~

It's such bad luck

I'm out of luck these 2 days. -_- Elementary school teachers undertake a thankless task nowadays. Those unwise parents spoil their children and regard teachers as cheap babysitters. Well, after undergoing the dash, I'm not angry at the boy and his parents anymore, but I am grateful to them instead.

Rooting for myself

Last Saturday, I made a sudden decision. I couldn't believe it myself!
I've worked in Taipei for 2.5 years. After 1 year, I started to complain that my life was driftless and boring. With time passed year after year, the stress of work and other reason, I was depressed.
Last Saturday, I found the direction. I wish to concentrate on it and make it!

A sunny Saturday

Finally, it cleared up. My bf and I went to 烏來 yesterday. Can you tell the difference between the right picture and others of me? I was wearing glasses and showed my snaggleteeth! My bf asked me to do that.
We're in 公館 in the evening. I bought a high waist blouse on sale and then my bf and his brother went to Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy, so I went to 大世紀戲院 alone on the Roosevelt Rd. $100 for 3 movies. It showed Off Beat, Chronicles of Narnia, and Hwal (Korean). I only saw the former two. I hesitated to buy the ticket at first because it seemed there were few people inside. I was afraid to be in the dark alone. I walked up the staircase to the 3rd story fearfully. When opening the door, I felt relieved. There were many people in the big hall. After the movies at around 23:30, I saw my bf and his brother waiting at the gate. It made me happy.

Another luxurious afternoon

I didn't have breakfast this morning because I woke up late and tried to catch up to an English teaching seminar at 13:00.
I was too starving to concentrate on the seminar, so I decided to quit after an hour and find some food. My bf suggested that we walk to Sheraton to have afternoon tea buffet.

Gosh~ The prices were...

陶板屋 is great!

I'm epicurean these days. I had afternoon tea with my bf on the 45th floor of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in downtown Taipei on Feb.28! Can you believe I was in the sky?! The view was awesome. It's cloudy, though. The buffet was great.
We had dinner at 陶板屋 on March 2. The beef was delicious! I missed it so much, so we went there again the next day! One of the servers still recognized us and remembered which table we used the last evening. She's cute!
I went back home in Taichung March 3 evening. The following day, I had lunch with Ko-Shin and Yali at 斐麗巴黎廳.(Read the article below)

Had fun with my buddies!

I was in Taichung this weekend and just came back to Taipei. Ko-Shin, Yali, and I went to 斐麗巴黎廳 for lunch yesterday. It's a luxurious French vegetarian restaurant. The most economic meal was about $515, including 10% service charge. Ko-Shin found it on the Net. The servers were gracious.

tomato and vegetable soup ... My main course:Bouquetiere lasagne

Piggy and me

We went to 西門町 yesterday afternoon. The cute piggy was munching the fresh vegetable in a tattoo store. I couldn't help stopping to watch it.

哲君's birthday party

Yesterday afternoon we went to 哲君's birthday party in her holiday home in 北投, which is famous for hot spring. These people are the members of Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy. There were 2 special guests from Burkina Faso. Before supper, some of people enjoyed hot spring in the bath of the community. I didn't go with them because I didn't have the nerve to face people stark naked! Before leaving, we sang birthday song in Chinese, Taiwanese, French and German. Everybody had a good time.

Mountain-climbing

My parents, sis, and I went to 北得拉曼 Trail in 尖石鄉 with a group of about 50 members yesterday. It's so hard to wake up at 5:30 during the winter break!
It's a cool Monday. Luxuriant forests made me free from suntan. Birds sang in the trees. Fresh air surrounded me. So comfortable! During the lunch time, we cooked some noodles, ate some fruit, and had tea in the quiet forests. And then, we continued our hiking.