The Grand Canal.. not like you wouldn’t already know!

We were lucky in that Alberto, a dear friend of mine in London, is in fact.. Venetian. So I timed the trip to coincide with his visit home.. hehe.

We arrived early on a Friday morning. The bus from Venice Marco Polo Airport costs €6 one way and stops at Piazzale Roma, a kind of ‘square’ where lots of buses stop. Alby’s house was about a ten-minute walk from there.

I remember standing there with Amy on that sunshiney day thinking, ‘Oooooh woooowwww this place is so beautiful it’s like MAGIC!’.

I consider myself quite well-travelled within Europe and I’ve seen many a pretty-looking city, but it’s that special feeling you get whenever you meet a place you’ve never been before that fills me with a sort of joyous energy and happiness that keeps me wanting MORE.

I ‘fall in love’ with nearly every place I travel to, and Venice was definitely no exception.

The first thing we did after dumping our bags was lunch.

Spaghetti Alla Buzzara (scampi and shrimp) at La Dona Onesta. Only tastes freaking amazing!

The food pic was copied from my Instagram..  Unfortunately, a few days after returning from Venice, my iPhone was stolen and so the bazillion (very interesting) photos I’d taken using it were GONE. But at least I made it a point to use my Olympus camera sometimes 🙂

Me with Amy at the Grand Canal

We did SO MUCH walking that day. Alby was naturally and erm.. extremely excited to show us around his hometown – the church he used to go to when he was little, his school, the library, his friend’s shop, his friend’s bar, his friend’s cafe, and so on. He had so many friends there that throughout the day he was ‘Ciao’-ing all these random people along the streets.

We arrived at the masquerade shop near Alby’s house.

The one with the gigantic beak noise is part of the Il Medico Della Peste costume, i.e. The Plague Doctor, as it’s modelled after the masks worn by doctors during the Black Death plague centuries ago when people believed that disease was spread through ‘bad air’ or through smell! This is known as the Miasma Theory.

Doctors wore these masks to prevent the ‘bad air’ from reaching and infecting them, so a variety of items – such as herbs, flowers, spices, and vinegar – would be stuffed into the beak of the mask.

I WAS VERY FASCINATED BY THIS MASK.

Outside the store stood a model of The Plague Doctor, complete with brimmed hat and erm.. ‘stick’, which clearly you must NOT touch. OR ELSE!!!

I love that sunflower brollie! 🙂

Alby was SUCH a fantastic guide. He shared with us so many interesting bits of information about the city and its history, including the gondolier trade. It was fun to hear it from someone who had grown up and lived there.

I brought my little Icelandic lamb with me.

In a city like Venice, I guess the sunset HAD to be beautiful. OR ELSE!!! Haha.

When it got dark, we decided it was time to load up on the Aperol spritz (looove).. not that we hadn’t already during the daytime.. >.<

Italian bar snacks.

Sadly, most of the pics of the infamous Piazza San Marco were in my stolen iPhone and I only have this one from Amy to show you! But oh well, there wasn’t much to do there after sundown anyway.

We headed back to the house in the evening to have some homemade Italian polenta and delicious pasta with pesto, courtesy of Alby.  Again.. most pics were on my phone -_-

We were so stuffed! The rest of the night was spent drinking countless glasses of Spritz. Hehe.

Here are a couple of pics I salvaged from Instagram:

Taken when we first arrived –  by the canal next to Piazzale Roma

A rather chilled-out gondolier (had to be, ’twas about 5 degrees anyway)

View from the plane – flying above the alps! 🙂

If you’ve been to Venice before, what was your favourite part about it? Did you go in the summer or winter?

x

The post Venice in Winter – Canal Grande & City Walk appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

Sólheimajökull is an outlet glacier on Katla, a large, very active volcano in southern Iceland. They say that the last violent eruption from Katla was 95 years ago but that there were probably a couple of eruptions more recently that didn’t manage to break the thick ice cover – these are called subglacial eruptions. The famous Eyjafjallajökull volcano that caused the giant ash cloud in 2010 is smaller than Katla.

What really fascinates me is that Eyjafjallajökull has had three recorded eruptions in the last 1000 years, and each one was followed by a Katla eruption! True to tradition, apparently Katla had a small eruption in 2011, producing a subglacial meltwater flood that destroyed a road bridge along the Ring Road.

Can you tell that volcanoes excite me?
[read about my experience climbing a volcano and watching it erupt]

I booked the five of us onto a 3-4 hour hiking tour of Sólheimajökull Glacier (called Blue Ice) via Arctic Adventures for about ISK22,000 per person. That’s about 125 Euros or 170 USD. Yes, Iceland can be rather pricey! The price includes transfers from Reykjavik, but since we had our own car (thanks SADcars!) and were staying nearby, we didn’t need it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean you get to pay less.

I did contemplate doing the hike on Vatnajökull at Skaftafell National Park instead (it’s the largest glacial mass in the whole of Europe), but thought against it as it’s much farther east and didn’t fit in with my winter driving itinerary very well. It was tough trying to do so many things in only 7-8 days!

The meeting time was 11.20am at the foot of the glacial tongue. It’s about 5 minutes in through a gravelly path after you turn off the main road (Ring Road). After a delicious breakfast of smoked lamb (hangikjöt), bread, cereal etc, we set off early enough to stop and take some pictures in the barren-land beauty. But too bad it was so cloudy that morning that most of the photos turned out rubbish!

I actually have a video of the drive (before turning off the main road):

We ended up being the first to arrive at the meeting point, but within minutes of waiting, other participants started turning up and so did our guide, Óskar (seen in orange above).

Each person was provided with a harness, a helmet, crampons, and an ice pick. The crampons are fitted to your shoes on the ground before the hike begins, from which time you’ll have to carry them with your hands until you reach the ice.

I was already having the time of my life just holding that ice pick. I’d never held one before.

^^ in the far distance beyond the white in this photo is where our car was parked, a.k.a the starting point. The water you see is a glacial lake formed by the retreating ice due to climate change.

Before we reached the ice, Óskar had everyone stop to put on their crampons, following his instructions. I remember it started to RAIN as we sat down but instead of dampening my spirits, it made me even more excited because I could SMELL the adventure!

My backpack was drenched and I had to stuff my camera into my jacket. But I snuck a photo anyhow.

We were given advice on how to walk confidently with the crampons and how to put the ice pick down without it slipping and sliding away. I thought it was really fun to stamp your foot down to get a good grip with each step.

Once I got used to it, I sped ahead of the group and trailed Óskar. I like to be in front. ;p

Óskar gave us some interesting pieces of information about the glacier – how it’s formed, the surrounding volcanoes, etc.

In the video below, he talks about British school children coming to Iceland and doing all sorts of excursions.

Yes I admit.. I wasn’t paying attention for a while >.<

I often had one glove off…. so I could use my iPhone to snap some pics. HMM.

Óskar led us to a small stream of glacial water flowing through the ice. We were encouraged to lean in and have a taste.. which of COURSE I did (and enjoyed). Jason did one better and ice-picked a piece of ice and crunched away.

Apparently the ‘blue ice’ taste the best since they’re more pure in the sense that they have no air bubbles trapped inside.

Now I’ll let the pictures do the talking:

Yes I HAD to do a jump when walking on a glacier with crampons on! 😉

I love this photo of Jason being a goon.

^^My flutterpony and Linda’s Icelandic Puffin (she had bought it at the tourist centre in Geysir).

I loved the sound of the metal cleats digging into the ice with each step I took. This was my second time visiting a glacier, the first being the Pasterze Glacier in Austria, but I’d never got to use crampons before. I loved running on the ice with them! It was especially fun when the terrain was uneven or when you had to cross over crevasses.

NEXT UP: More Sólheimajökull – Ice Climbing and a Double Rainbow

*For more Iceland posts, please see my Travel Log*

The post Iceland Day 3 – Sólheimajökull Glacier Hike appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

+ + + + + + + + +

Hair by Ming.

Anyway, during the last 12 months or so I haven’t really been sharing much about what I wear.. I think I can partially blame Instagram. Also laziness and preoccupation with other FUN things hehe. I hope to get back into what-I’m-wearing posts this year.. so here are a couple of pics I took the other day on the way to work, with the help of my camera timer and some shamelessness (people were looking at me).

I didn’t have a place to put it (my camera) so I just balanced it atop my handbag on the ground.. hence the strange angle/giant legs, haha. Sorry about my face!

I dress practically for the winter, so on top of this ensemble I wore a cardigan plus my trusty faux fur coat. I’m also wearing ANOTHER pair of wool tights under the red ones!

Chocolates

Thank you to Millennium Hotels for sending through this package of chocolates for me to try. Incidentally, I received them on the day I wore the outfit above.

The package included an Eton Mess Slab, Billionaire’s Shortbread Selector, Salted Caramel Selector, Gemstones, and most awesomely, a Milk Smiley Lick.

You’ll notice that the Gemstones, which are meant to be like little pebbles of marbled white + dark chocolate, are missing. That’s because my flatmate, unbeknownst to me, had eaten them before I got to them. I guess it’s my fault for leaving the package in the kitchen!

The Eton Mess Slab is a mixture of strawberry and vanilla chocolate topped with bits of cookies, dried strawberry, and meringue. I wasn’t too keen on this (too sweet).. I think the problem is that the bits of strawberry etc are only on the TOP of the slab rather than all over the insides as well.

Salted Caramels above – nothing much to explain really. Once you bit into it, salted caramel oozes out of it. The point is to get it on your fingers and lick it off.. tastes better that way. Haha.

Billionaire’s Shortbread is basically a smooth praline and caramel centre covered in chocolate and topped with bits of shortbread. I liked this more than the salted caramels.. BUT I wished the shortbread content in each piece was a lot higher. I love shortbread!

Don’t die of shock, but I’m not actually a chocolate lover at all. I’m not one of those people who sneak chocolates at work or crave for them.. I.. don’t.. erm.. care..much…for chocolate……. >.<

But if I did have it, I like my chocolate smooth and unbedazzled. Just plain ol’ milk chocolate. So out of everything in the package, my favourite is the Smiley Milk Chocolate Lolly thing! I think it’s just great because it’s so cute and happy as well. Also, quite importantly, it was so so convenient to eat – no melted chocolate on your fingers 😉

I shared the goodies with a friend at work whose blood made of chocolate I’m sure, and he says his favourite is the Billionaire’s Shortbread.

Thanks again Millennium Hotels.. speaking of which I never knew they had so many locations, including one in Kuala Lumpur (my home city!). My favourite one is probably the one at Bay of Islands in New Zealand, as it’s right on the waterfront. In the UK, my favourite one has to be the hotel in Knightsbridge since it’s close to the shops, to Hyde Park, and I can party all night in Mayfair nearby.. :p

The post Nerdy Outfit and.. Chocolates! appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

On the Friday, I did some (lots of) research and booked a room at a B&B plus train tickets to… Peaslake. I hadn’t even HEARD of this place before. I then learnt that this tiny village had a population of less than 1500. It has one resident-run school, one shop, and no public transport. How perfect!

Situated between Guildford and Woking (south-west London), the nearest train station was Gomshall. Upon arriving at the station on Saturday afternoon, I also learnt that there were no cab companies there to take us to Peaslake and the buses only run once every 1-2 hours. Was still in high spirits though, and laughed so much while goofing around the ONE street that pretty much made up Gomshall.

It’s true that people in small towns are simply more friendly and helpful – we were in the local pub enquiring about cabs when a lady there got up and firmly said “I’ll drive you, it’ll only take me about five minutes”. Thank you Fionna from The Compassess Inn, it was much, much appreciated!

There is only one place to stay at Peaslake, which is The Hurtwood Inn Hotel.

I LOVED that hotel.. It’s so cute and cosy and warm and pretty! Got the best room (because all the cheaper ones were fully booked, haha) – front-facing and on the first floor.

The first day was so much fun in anticipation of the snow.

The temperature was low and the air was icy cold and crisp. Took a walk up to the forest nearby. The area is popular amongst cyclists/mountain bikers so we saw many of them there.

Found a pond and guess what! It was frozen SOLID. That got me so ridiculously excited that I jumped on and did some tap-dancing on it. I was getting more and more certain that snow was on its way.. it was only a matter of time, yessssssss.

At sunset, we paid the local store a visit and bought banana cake, a chocolate slice, some cheese, and a bottle of wine to keep in the room.

Walking back into the hotel.. it began to snow. I was SO HAPPY and spent the next hour in the room observing the growing whiteness outside, willing and encouraging the snowfall with my mind.

 

Dinner was had at the hotel restaurant downstairs, which was excellent.
Had salmon fishcakes, some shredded duck.. thing (crap, I forgot.. probably because this was the most tasty thing we ordered and all I could think of was to eat it), pasta, and a roast.

Our waiter was a Polish guy called Peter, who so kindly gave us a lift back to the station the next evening – Thank you so much Peter!!

As we were having dinner…… it really began to pelt down outside. Thick flakes were furiously falling to the ground. I watched smugly through the window like a proud evil villain whose plan to take over the world was materialising.

I ate quickly, because I was dying to go out and PLAY! I could already hear kids’ voices outside.. *impatient*

THE NEXT DAY

I was so PLEASED.
Had a quick breakfast in the dining room – smoked salmon and scrambled eggs – and then it was time for a day out in the snowwwwwww

 

 

So that was my snow weekend (a big WIN)

I definitely recommend Peaslake for a quick getaway from London if you want one. It’s only a 40+ min train ride from Waterloo and it has a big, beautiful forest and lots of open space.

Stay at The Hurtwood Inn Hotel (you don’t have much of a choice, but really it’s great!) from £59 per night.

The post Snow Getaway in Peaslake appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.