Happy Valentine’s Day to our little Bobi!

It’s the 2nd day of my 2nd trimester! You heard it right :D We are expecting!!!! The little Bobi bun is slowly baking in my tummy and will be ready on 15th of Aug! :D

We have been keeping this news for a while because the daddy pantang pantang. Now, we have reach to a “safer” stage, I am delighted to mark this event in our mini blog.

Bobi! You made your mummy and daddy the happiest people in the world.. we have not met you, but we already love you dearly. See you in Aug. Meanwhile, hope you feel warm and safe in mummy’s tummy now :)

Surprise birthday dinner

Happy birthday to myself :P Last night Bini brought me out for birthday dinner and she was very secretive about where we were going. She only told me that it is somewhere near King St Wharf and asked me to book the parking.

The evening didn’t start quite well with the traffic and my credit card got stuck in the car park ticketing machine. And she realized the parking I book was quite far away from the intended place. While I had to wait for the attendant to get the card out, she walked by herself to the “place”. After I was done, I called her and she gave me this address which is just on the way. I had to call her again and finally she told me to go inside Tetsuya :P

In case you are wondering why this secretive, Tetsuya is arguably one of Sydney best restaurant and bookings have to be done a few months in advance, or more for weekends! The best always come with a price tag and we used to dream about it only. Tonight, the dream came true :)

I was really surprised and immediately felt that I was too dress down! She did tell me to put on a nicer shirt, but didn’t mention it is this upmarket :P Anyway we had a table by the corner and was immediately attended to by the drink butler. I only ordered a sake to start with. As expected, the wine list is not our usual level :P

Another lady came over and got our preference on the food, e.g. allergy, etc. We were offered bread for a start and my, even the bread tasted amazing with the butter and truffle! Our appetizer started with chilled pea soup, followed by caviar custard, and seafood salad. Three courses down and we were already praising about the quality.

Moving on to the main, the list was ocean trout, veal tenderloin, spatchcock and lamb rack. For dessert, we were served with pear sorbet, apple ice cream and chocolate cake for me and hazelnut custard for Bini. The last dessert Petite Four (meant to be served with coffee) blew our mind off. Four little tiny pastries yet filled with taste you don’t expect!

Overall, the quality was superb. For the price (hint: slightly over $200 per pax), we feel it is actually worthwhile. Nevertheless, it is a place that we probably won’t visit until maybe our 5th wedding anniversary or further :P

Thank you Bini for arranging this and keeping the secret for so long (she had to book it since September)! I really appreciate and love it and you a lot a lot a lot! Muaks =)

Glamping : glamorous camping

Summer is here and we went glamping! Thanks to Bini who arranged this a couple of months back and belanja me ^_^ We departed from home around 11am to have lunch at Bini’s fav Dixon St food court. She had her usual and so did I :P I guess we are too comfortable with this choice. The last time we diverted, result wasn’t great.

Sweet sour fried fishFried tofuKaraage don

After lunch, we took the free shuttle to Circular Quay and had to wait for 50 minutes for the next boat to Cockatoo Island. Weather was playing along very well, in fact a bit too hot. We reached there around 1:30pm and checked in immediately. Our tent was setup (by them) right beside the harbour. With this package, you get double or twin beds, two lounge chairs and an esky cum beside table. Toilet was a short walk away and camper kitchen was pretty well equipped. They even provide refrigerator for perishable stuff, microwave and BBQ utensils.
TicketsArrivalOur tent #3

We put down our stuff and decided on the in-depth trail, which supposedly should take 2-2.5 hours to complete. We did it in 1 hour :P Enough said about the interesting attractions on the island :P You get to see many rundown and abandoned buildings (ship yard, jail, warehouse) but there wasn’t enough display or story to keep you there for a while. Oh beware of the aggressive seagulls! They nest everywhere, so if they suddenly make a lot of noise, walk away quickly!

Convict barracksView from topGoing in!

We had tea time at the canteen but the food was kinda bad. Guess chooser can’t be beggar. Afterwards we had our usual afternoon nap :P Couldn’t sleep for long as the tent got too warm and too noisy with all the yachts and boats and people. So we got up around 6pm and went to Island Bar for dinner. Then we noticed that you could take away the pizza (only food there anyway) so we ordered one, setup the dining ‘table’ and enjoyed our dinner with wonderful view ^_^ The pizza was very delicious and we finished it clean in no time. We went for a sunset walk and sat and chatted at the side before tucking in around 10pm.

Our dinnerSunset @ Cockatoo IslandSunset @ Cockatoo Island

We woke up pretty early the next morning (5:30am!!) and caught the sunrise over Sydney city. Went back to tent to rest and had breakfast before packing up to go before 9am. It was a new experience but don’t think we will come back again :P It would be more fun if there is a big group and would prefer somewhere less noisy :D

Sunrise over SydneySunriseBird at sunrise

Europe – Munich

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Munich, a set on Flickr.

Europe – Salzburg

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Salzburg, a set on Flickr.

Europe – Vienna

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Day 8
9am Bought 3 days pass EU14.50 instead of Vienna card as info centre is not opened yet. Reach Stephenplatz. Beautiful castle but looks like the ones in Prague. Had a big breakfast! Bier had Scandinavian breakfast with salmon and smoke trout. I had brunch bacon eggs and yoghurt muesli meal and a soft boiled egg EU2.50! EU30 (total for both).

Head to Vienna Opera House and wait for the tour (EU6 per pax) Nice 1 hour tour. Shows insight of how the opera operates. Facts were amazing such as need to change the props twice a days! How the stage can be lift up and down. 180,000 costumes were used in one opera. Need containers to transport them daily.

Reach Honsburg palace. Walked around and reach Skammer museum. Bought combi pass EU18 with Neou burg and Kunhistoric. Skammer museum gets to see the national treasures and its a lot to see. Neug burg a lot of amours and musical instrument to see. See until blur. No more strength to walk can’t continue to Kunhistoric. Not open on Sun so can only go back on Monday.

Had noodle, fried rice and sushi maki for lunch (EU20) Okok but good to have asian food after many days of Western.

Went to St Charles church. Beautiful and special church. Manifested and combined design of various culture. Panoramic lift to see Vienna city.

Bought Anker bread at Kaltzplat station. Had them for dinner. Slept at 6pm

Day 9
845am Reached Schbournn Palace. Bought the classic pass EU19 per pax. Audioguide was included in the tour. Saw all 40 rooms of the palace. Nice tour. Proceed to maze farm Lady Labrith. Then proceed to Gloriette to see panaromic view of Vienna. Then Privy Garden crown prince garden private garden for family. went to see how to make apple struddle. Looks pretty easy but need practice.

Went to Naschmarkt. Looks like indian market mostly with restaurants. Not interesting although found nice dried pineapple and mango EU5 and tried the wine leaves greek food EU2 for 5 pieces. Bought a sponge cake EU2.10 but not nice.

Went to have Austrian food snitzel veal and fried chicken for bier. Bought nail clipper coz fingernails were too long :-p Went to see Parlament and Municipal hall.

Go to Grinzing, a small wine town by bus. Had apple struddle and local wine there. Cice and relaxing area. Then shopping at Spar (local supermarket) for some fruits. Cool orange juice machine!

Then to Prater for Ferris wheel dated 1897 year. Used Basilophone for the first time and it worked! Bought souvenier. Then went to buy QuickLee for bier and some bread at Billa for dinner.

Day 10
9am reach swarovski
bought earrings for mum eu90. liked a whale deco black and white but black out of stock..planned to look for other branch if they have stock.

9.45am

Reach Spanish riding school. Watched the morning practise with music. Something we never done before but boring. EU14 per pax. Continued to Kunhistoric. Too many things to see. End of exhibition was overloaded with info.

1pm Rushed to buy swarovski. Walked around but din see any Swarovski. Went to the same one in the morning. Apparently its only limited to that store in vienna and saw a matching cat. Bought that instead :-)

1.30pm Rushed back to hotel to pick up our bags. Had mcd for lunch and played chor tai tee in the train. 4 hours train journey.

6;m Reach Salzburg. Luckily the info centre is still open – almost closing. Bought our salzburg card EU25 per pax for 24 hrs and use only starting tomorrow.

Bought ticket for single way using machine at EU1.90 per pax. Can buy in the bus too at EU2.30. Used bus 1 which is electric bus then change normal bus 21 to our Hotel Blobergerhof. Raining and dark but its quite easy to find. Took shower and had dinner there. Dinner was awesome.

9pm Sleep

Vienna, a set on Flickr.

Europe – Prague

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Day 5: Prague

Bought ticket and transit to Andel (Metro B) from Florence C (Metro C). Reach Aparthotel Hotel and greeted by lovely red hair Kristina. Made  us a not very nice italian coffee. Bier asked for a quiet room and Kristina has arranged for a smaller room at the back of the apartment. In exchange, she gave us free breakfast as compensation. She briefted us about Prague and told us where are the must dos and tips to get around. The room wasn’t small at all! Toilet on one side and bathroom at the other. Furnished with ikea stuffs.

11.40am: Walked towards the city but did not see the city as beautiful as people described it to be. Reached Charles Bridge and it was infested with tourist. Skipped and walked towards the Old Town. It was breathtaking. The monuments are so pretty! Took some photos and had lunch at Lokal. We feasted like nobody’s business (CZ655) was a bargain. Bini had plum spirit  just a shot but it was difficult to swallow. Bier helped out but nagged throughout the whole trip – don’t order hard liquor for lunch! :p

Head to Jewish Quarter. Bought entrance ticket at CZ300 for visiting the Old Quarters. Did not see all of them because it was not interesting but the disturbing part was the cemetery. Hilter killed so many Jews at that time and the bodies beneath was around 12 layers in the area. Went back to Old Town and climbed the tower (CZ105). Breath taking panaromic view on top.

5pm: Waited for Astronomy Clock, it was really unspectacular :p. Starting to rain now and went to Mustek to go back to Andel. Soaked because did not bring umbrella.

Took bath and decided to have a simple meal. Walked to Andel Mall and window shopped a bit. Bought dinner at Tesco, the selection wasn’t as good as Albert Heijn. Slept at 9pm.

 

Day 6: Castle and Mala Strana

8am: Skipped breakfast because it only starts at 8.30am. Left our clothes for laundry service as it’s free! Wased our jackets as well – not smart.

We immediately felt it’s cold when we stepped outside as it’s only 7 degrees but went on anyway. Had breakfast at Kava Kava Kava CZ400). Had apple struddles, berries waffle and bier had sunny side up bacon and bagel.

Took tram 22 to see Loreta. Pretty castle, walked towards the main castle. Awed by it. Walked inside St Vitus without any auto guide. Continued walking around as we bought the short trip ticket (CZ250). St George Basilica was built back in year 900! Very old church. Continued to Golden Lane. Short but colourful lane.

Walked down to Lesser Town (Mala Strana). Had lunch at Malastreno. Waiter wasn’t friendly but soup of the day, salmon confiet and fried chicken & asparagus was nice! Finally tasted white asparagus but it taste the same as its green relative. Main was only ok ok , bini had duck and bier had beef. Bini couldn’t finish because it was too much. CZ567 paid but the waited said okok, without returning the change :s Assumed we give them the tips i think. Strange.

Then went to Petrin Hill. Took the furnicular train. Start to rain a bit. Bini wasn’t confident to walk up therefore too the lift (CZ160) Can see the whole Prague on top but a bit scary because the tower was made of steel, it swayed a bit. Stayed just a while and bini took the lift down whereas bier wanted to be more adventurous, he took the stairs. Itinerary covered for the day!

3.30pm: Took afternoon nap.

7.15pm: Feeling adventurous, decided to have Indian as too much Czeck food already. Went to a secluded area with trams, and had vegetarian menu which cost only CZ400 for 2. Total bill comes out to be CZ600. Selection was good but no green veges as expected. Having trouble in toilet and thought vegetarian food would help. Took tram back and saw our cleaned clothes ready. Packed our bags and slept at 11.30pm.

 

Day 7: Vynehars and Old Town

7.30am: Woke up

8.40am: Breakfast in hotel because Kristina asked us to. Cappuccino was much better than the italian coffee and breakfast selection was standard. Kristina made us the best toastie that we ever had! Salami, ham and heaps of cheese. Yum! She told us about the farmer market only on every Sat. Lucky us! Walked across the railway bridge to Vynehars. Lovely church. Accourding to Kristina, it’s one of the most important place for Czeck as it was the first settlement for Czeck people. CZ30 per entry and went to see the cemetary and was clean and peaceful. Had a good view on top of the hill. Walked down to the farmers market and the experienced the daily local routine. They use baskets to buy stuff like the olden days. Live fishes were killed on the spot when they purchase. Walked towards the Municipal Hall to look for cubist lamp but failed. Wandered around Old Town again and took more photos as weather was much better than a few days ago. Finally walked across the Charles Bridge. Took the tram back and bid goodbye to Kristina. She gave bier a cap for publicity she said. Lovely lady and no wonder it’s voted as the best hotel in Prague!

2.42pm: Took train to Vienna – chor tai tee in train.

7.30pm: Reach Vienna. Bought one way ticket to Praterstern and walked to Ibis Budget Hotel. It was a long walk. Reach hotel and looked modern. Did not sleep well because the sheet was too coarse and aircon was not cold and blanket too thick.