Rome

I can’t make up my mind whether to like or dislike Rome.

The food there is great! I enjoyed my every meal in Rome. I had been having lots of Spaghetti alle Vongle veraci (at the same restaurant) cos the food there is just so good!! The gelato is great too!

Shopping is good too but it can be quite expensive! I just realised that I spent SGD525 on a jacket!! OMG! It didn’t seem that much when it’s £172! Husband told me to chill because he said it’s alright to pay for something that is of good quality. (He prefers me to get a few good quality stuff and not lots of cheap stuff!!) We also got a couple of flatcaps from La Coppola Storta. (I have been wanting to get a flatcap for a long time but can never find one that fits my small head!) La Coppola Storta has so many flatcaps and they have them in Small size too! I wasn’t keen on getting it at first because of the price (€50/£35/S$105!!) but the sales person was so good we had to buy it! The guy was so funny. He let me try on lots of flatcaps and suggested what colours would look good etc. When we decided to get it (after lots of haggling but not much success! The boss is a Jew apparently!) he pinched our cheeks and said we made a good choice! LOL! I wish I’ve taken a photo with him!

Now.. what do I dislike about Rome?

The traffic is bad, it’s hard to get around in Rome. The metro doesn’t run everywhere! The bus takes a long time to come and doesn’t really bring you to where you want to go so walking is the best mode of transport.. but not when you have been walking for an average of 13km a day! The city is full of graffiti. The train on the metro line B is covered in graffiti.. sometimes on the inside too! Not very nice i think and the metro stations have a funny smell to it.. very dingy.

And i got really annoyed when I made my way to the Palantino only to find it close due to some union meeting! And so was the Colosseum! Luckily I went to the Colosseum the day before so i wasn’t that bothered! (The Colosseum is amazing!!!!!) We tried to go to the Vatican City… joined the queue like everyone else and was then told that we were all in the wrong queue and had to join the other queue which was more than a mile! We couldn’t even see the end of it. Husband got so fedup and we decided to have some retail therapy and go back in the afternoon when it’s not so crowded. But of course, we never did cos it take ages to go anywhere in Rome!

Yeah we’re now thinking if we ever want to go back to Rome to do the list of things that we didn’t have time to do.. ie. Vatican City.. Pompeii… We’re thinking of bringing Father-in-law there during the off peak season.. or maybe to Milan and Florence which apparently according to Husband is not like Rome – a 3rd world country that happens to be very rich and very lucky to have so many attractions.

Dim Sum, Spit and Chaotic Traffic

That’s how I’ll remember Guangzhou.

The best thing about Guangzhou is the food..and that’s about it for me. It’s just too messy over there and people spit too much… I think it’s the bad air. The pollution is terrible.. and so is the traffic. It’s too dangerous to be a pedestrian in GZ too. Even when the man is green, the buses and cars would not stop! They didn’t even bother to slow down! It’s total chaos!

“Getting a cab there is a bit of an extreme sport” so says the boyfriend in an email to his mum. It’s quite stressful really to try get a cab especially during the peak hours. Everyone runs after the same cab!! I was quite annoyed when i got a cab and this chinese man refused to let me have it because he said he told the driver where he was going first! Bastard! And one of the taxi drivers was constantly talking on his mobile while driving and swerving lanes at the same time!!!!! I’m glad we got out alive!

We did meet some friendly people too… though not a lot. (And in our 4 days at GZ, only one person said “Excuse me” to us! The rest just pushed their way through!)  The ladies who sold us the paintings were nice..so was the lady who sold snacks by the side of the road.

I also got some rude stares because I’m a chinese girl going out with a big hairy gwailo. It annoys me when people look at me… not once but twice and then from top to bottom! Enough already! See one time enough lor! Must see so many times is it??? It happened today too while i was waiting for the lift (in Singapore) and this stupid uncle just kept turning his head back to look at me and the gwailo next to me. Grrrr. Me no like this…

Anyway, I’d definitely would love to go back to China again … but not for another 20yrs or so.

Almost there!!

In about 5 hours I’ll be in the plane on my way back to Singapore! I can’t wait to meet my family and friends! Very excited about having all the yummy food too!

I’m all packed and ready to go! Feeling quite tired and sleepy now but that’s good cos that means the chances of me falling asleep during the flight is very high! Let’s just hope there’s no crying babies, noisy and smelly people to spoil it for me!!