Freedom that i wished for...

Thursday, March 26, 2009

& it's just miie and...

Continued from previous post...
Next day morning we had a full breakfast at the Mexican restaurant. I enjoyed it a lot. The restaurant was crowded and really lively. The waiters and waitresses were very forthcoming and friendly as well. We had like croissants, wheat toasts with jam, scrambled egg (which was peculiarly served with a fresh orange slice, and they called it a garnish). Then, we took a stroll to the Disneyland, which was about 15 to 20 minutes walk.

The thing is that Disneyland actually has two attractions: One, Disneyland itself and the other, California Adventures. Since people told us that the latter took less than a day to cover, we explored Disneyland 1st. They had many smaller ‘towns’ there, like Toontown, Adventure land, Frontierland, etc. There were so many sights to see and rides to ride and each one had its own looooooong queue. Anyhow, we queued and we had our turn and it was truly gratifying. I loved everything about Disneyland. The Indiana Jones ride was the most entertaining although I’m not a huge, no no, not even a fan of the movie. We also managed to take some photos with Pooh bear, Eeyore and Tigger. But the queue for Goofy was too long, let alone the one for the 7 princesses, the waiting time was 2 hrs! We had lunch at this restaurant which served this porridge like thing in a bowl or bread. And we had bread to dip into it and eat. It was really cool, a bowl made of bread! Actually, its called sourdough or sth like that and it was filling enough.

Just arrived at Disneyland! Cheese!

The biggest sheep I've seen. It was so woolly and soft.

Donkey

I went to rub his bubbly belly:)

We could only cover so much within the 1st day and my stamina wasn’t good enough to carry me any further too. It was alr 8 plus by then and people started gathering in front of the Castle as early as 7.30 pm. When we passed by one of them who was having some home made snacks and settled on a picnic mat then, he said that ppl do that to get a good view; of what you may wonder...of the GReAt fireworks of course! ( which only starts at 9.30 pm) That made me realise that Singaporeans are not the only kiasu ones after all.

Anyway, at 8 plus, we sat directly opposite the Castle, which was a very good view too and waited...and waited. The night was getting colder and nastier. I could no longer withstand the chill and put on my gloves when I was the only one doing so in the vicinity. Haha. What do you expect when I’m from a tropical city. I just had to get a popcorn, thinking that somehow if my blood sugar rises a little, I’d feel a little better. But the popcorn turned out to be salted, they didn’t have any sweet popcorn. There goes my money and my attempt to keep myself warmer, by not even a few degrees.

Then came the announcement that “ Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, due to inappropriate wind conditions there may not be a display of the fireworks today..” And the audience go”Aaaaaaaaaaaaaw!” The announcement continues “...However, remember, Dreams come true if you believe in them.” And I was all so disappointed. I mean, I can’t come all the way from Singapore just to catch the fireworks again! Anyway, the announcement was played again and I lost hope.

Then, at 9.30 pm sharp, the deep voice sounded again. “ Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, we thank you for your patience. We now present you with the Disney..(sth)” I was too delighted to hear what else the voice said, especially over the noise of the cheering crowd.

The fireworks display were spectacular. Tinklebell came from the cliff and the castle was casting different colured lights and the continuous sparks of coloured fire in the sky was all too much to take in at the time. I was so thrilled and blissful at that time. The exhaustion seemed to have lifted off me.

It was a totally different and enticing experience for me. We then bought souveniers from the World of Disney shop and headed back to the hotel. Next morning was the same big breakfast with chocolate milk this time cuz it’s the closest substitute to milo. I just expected a simple glass of chocolate milk but no, it was served with whipping cream and on top of that Hershey’s chocolate sauce. All too heavy for me and as expected, I couldn’t finish the dring although I didn’t even take a sip of the whipping cream. That was the last breakfast we had at the delightful Mexican restaurant and then we packed our luggage, checked out and went to complete our venture at Disneyland. At about 3 plus we went to California Adventures and to my surprise, there was High School Musical performing! I was very entertained by the high level of spirits and enthusiasm that the performers had. The roller coaster ride was way too scary with the loop and all, not to mention that the falling lift...I didn’t even dare to look at the people riding it. It’s sooooooooooo scary, they just drop suddenly from a gReAt height again and again. I can’t take it, you know...the feeling like your stomach just flipped or sth. Ugh!

Then, we got a few more souveneirs and headed back to catch our flight back to San Francisco. There, we booked onto an airport hotel called Sheraton Four Points and checked out early next morning to fly back HOME! The journey back was not as bad as I expected and the air stewards and stewardesses really took good care of me whilst my brother was fast asleep.

All in all, thanks to my brother for the unforgettable experience once again and indeed this time round it was a very special experience.

Indeed Dreams come true if you for those who Believe.

LOVE,

NisA

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12:30 AM Y

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

& it's just miie and...

I assure you that that though I’m blogging after a long time, this will be one of my longest posts. So, sit back and relax. :)

I just came back from a week’s holiday to San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, USA. It came as a surprise to me as well when my brother told me that he booked a ticket for me too. He happened to get a good offer for accumulating some points at a membership with some airlines, so he called me along since I was having me holidays too.

The flight we took stopped over at Seoul, Korea for an hour and thankfully, we could get off the plane. It was a pleasant surprise to me to come to know that they actually had a surau, what we call a prayer room at Seoul! I mean, ya, I know that Muslims are spread out worldwide (more coming up later), but, a prayer room there was really unexpected and really nice to know. :) This was about 6 hrs of journey. After which we took the same flight to San Francisco which was roughly about 12 hours. All in all, the journey took us about 19-20 hours which was the longest flight I ever took. Fortunately, they had some of the latest movies and songs that we could entertain ourselves with. The food looked nice, but not appealing enough to me as I really can’t take flight food. The only things that I felt comfortable munching on were bread and jam, my favourites, and fruits.

When we landed in San Francisco, I was really glad that the flight journey was finally over. Long awaited that moment. Then, we took a train, what they called the BART system to Powell station, closest to the hotel we reserved and managed to find our way there. Not till we left the BART station did we realise the intensity of the coldness in San Francisco. It was really chilly. The coldest temperature I’ve ever experienced since my trip to Greece. Even the jackets we bought just a day ago felt a little too thin to keep us completely warm. Finally, we reached the hotel and had a good nap. We only left around 9pm at night when most of the city shops were closed but had a good look at the Union Square, the centre of the city which was nearby. It is like their Orchard Road.

Union square

Me and my bro in what they called a cable car, isn't it poles apart from what we call one. haha.

Goodbye to Serannon Hotel

Me with the other beauties apart from me at the Wax Museum, Fisherman's Wharf

The comedians

I knew that I'll regret if I don't take this pic. He's really handsome.

If you guessed that this is one of my fav photos, you guessed right! It's Mr. Obama!

Anyway, next morning we had one of the ready-to-eat foods we brought there for breakfast and we set out to visit the famous Golden Gateway bridge. Why I was really excited to even see the bridge was only because it was featured and given a lot of emphasis in the X-Men 3 movie. Not to mention that I’m really a huge fan of X-Men. Haha. Then, we went to visit Alcatraz, a famous prison in California (CA) for holding prisoners since war time but we couldn’t get the tickets. At least we caught a glimpse of the island. What makes it so cool is that it is on a spate island in the middle of the sea and visitors are cruised to the island to view Alcatraz. Even though it is so isolated, prisoners still attempt to escape it, only to get caught eventually or drown in the sea or disappear. It seems that anyone who attempts to escape and is caught again will have an iron ball attached to his leg and his hands cuffed with iron handcuffs as well. Might as well be a good kid. But from the pictures we saw at the bay, prisoners sort of had their own room, like they had bookshelf, a bed and even a night lamp!

Then, we checked out of our hotel, took the BART and left to the airport to catch our plane to Los Angeles (LA). Actually, this Warwick Regis Hotel, which was the 2nd hotel we stayed in is the most memorable hotel for me cuz the girl at the concierge was extremely helpful and very sweet.

I couldn't stop taking pics of the bridge cuz I still can't believe that I walked across it, where the X-Men once did!

She's the good soul I mentioned about

That's the Coit Tower in the background

I know that this is random, but since I alr uploaded it: This was at Seoul airport

Aren't the pelicans cute!

That's my brother, he's feeding the pelicans which is why the bay was sudden;y flooded by them

I think that our stay at LA was the most enjoyable as we visited Disneyland there! Wow. Never had I imagined that cuz I’ve never been to any Disneyland before, only my 2nd sis has. I was really excited. By the time we booked into Hilton was about 12 plus in the morning. So, we just washed up and slept well. In the morning, we had a buffet breakfast which was not worth the money cuz I didn’t really fancy the food there. No wonder it seemed deserted. Sigh. Anyway, we headed of to Universal Studios and Hollywood. It was gReAt! We watched a few 4D and 3D shows, there was a tour around the studios, there was a horror mansion and many more. We took some shots with Shrek, the donkey from Shrek, this Dracula from Frankenstein, I think. It was cool.

That evening we went to Hollywood and walked along the Hollywood walk of fame where the stars names are printed on star shapes on the ground. The whole area there was very lively and I just felt like it was Christmas season. We had dinner at McDonalds there. Yaay. Filet-o-Fish as usual, I mean, what else could we eat right. That was a really, really, really exhausting day. Once we reached the hotel, we gathered our luggage and took a car to Anaheim. Why we had to go there was because that was where Disneyland is and everyone advised us to stay at a hotel there instead as they are walking distances from Disneyland and we’ll be needing at least 2 days there. My lens was dry and I had a feeling they would just pop out any moment. Once we reached the chalet-look-a-like Mexican hotel, I lay flat, face-down on the hotel bed ( of course I removed my lens before that and thank goodness I got myself the daily lens this time around, I can’t imagine if I still had to take them out, put them in the box, pour the solution, blah-blah!).

At Hilton Hotel, LA

"I'll be coming for you tonight" were the words the Dracula whispered in my ear

The black car is one of the 2 cars that performed a 'dance' for us. Yup! They are controlled by machines, of course, but it seemed so natural. They are used in the upcoming movie Fast and Furious 4.

Yaba-daba-doo!

Ok that’s it for now, I got to go. I think I’ll update about my stay at LA in my next post. :)

Love,

NisA

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12:27 AM Y