Bits and Pieces

I take photos all the time and there are photos that I love but never got the chance to upload them anywhere. So I guess blog is the best place to share them.

1. The John Rylands Library, Manchester, UK.

2. A random photos of men walking down the street.

3. Today's sunset. Too bad, the camera didn't do the justice to its beauty and the bin photobombed perfectly.

4. Walking around in Nottingham city center.

5. My Thai, York. The place serves good (spicy!) Thai foods which kept me coming back for more.

6. Madrid, Spain at night from up above the sky.

Photos taken using iPhone 6

The Hunger Games Inspired

"Arts enables us to find ourselves

and lose ourselves 

at the same time"

I do arts occasionally, maybe once a month or whenever I'm in the mood. I used to use pens or pencils to draw and sketch but lately I've been into using watercolors. I don't know why. Maybe because I love the feeling that I get when I'm lost in the process, when I'm in my own world, when it's just me and my passion and nothing else. I'm addicted to that feeling, I think. 

Anyway, this one is The Hunger Games, Effie Trinket inspired with some taburan bunga as usual ;)

Watercolor brand: Winsor Newton

Paper: 300gsm Canson Watercolor Paper

Travelogue | Spain - Cordoba, Granada and Barcelona

"And then I realized,
adventures 
are the best way
to learn"

Honestly I don't feel like writing separate posts for my Spain trip, so I'll just conclude everything in this post! We only went to Cordoba, Granada and Barcelona since we were really on a budget, so we had to choose which cities that were really worth a visit. We crossed out Madrid off the list because based on my friends' experience, the city was a bit plain. Probably a day trip visit would do, but nevermind. We wanted to go to Sevilla, Malaga, Cordoba, Granada and Barcelona but reconsidering our limited time, we had to cross out Malaga and Sevilla as well. In the end we managed to spend only around £280 for this trip inclusive of flight tickets. I was actually a bit proud of myself for this achievement! Hehe

How was Spain? One word; AMAZING. 

So let's start with our first stop, Cordoba. Our main reason for visiting this city was its Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba. It used to be a cathedral that was dedicated to Virgin Mary, but when Muslims conquered Spain in 711, they turned the place into a mosque and rebuilt everything. Then when Islam went lost during Reconquest period, they turned the place back into a cathedral, until today. Sad, right? Anyway, you probably want to avoid visiting it on Sunday like we did. Apparently the Christians held their religious event on every Sunday, obviously. But we totally forgot about that. So it was only opened from 3pm-6pm to public and yes, that place was swarmed by a lot of people. I repeat, a lot. But it was still a great experience though. And bear in mind that we muslims are not allowed to pray in that place. The guards will always have their eyes on us which was a bit uncomfortable. I actually saw a non-muslim woman was kneeling because she wanted to take photos, and she was asked to stand up immediately. And I was like, okay..

So next stop was Granada and this place was my personal favorite (I think it's everyone's favorite). The main attraction was of course the palace, Al Hambra where all the detailed carvings was done by hands, and I was just like wow. Amazing. You have to buy the tickets beforehand by the way, so that it'll be easier. Oh and I loved their Moroccan Market! If it wasn't because of our budget, I would've splurged my money on those beautiful  lamps, painted tapestries, harem pants and other things-that-i-know-i-would-not-even-use. I've always I had a thing for Morrocan decorations, so everything just happened to look so appealing. But, I managed to calm down and suppress my inner shopaholic. Though in the I ended up buying not one but two harem pants that cost me €20, and I almost bought a tapestry to hang on my bedroom wall haha

Our final stop was Barceola. We spent a day and a half in this city. Now, we didn't manage to go to Montserrat (bummer) but it was still a great experience. And again, you have to pay to go inside most of the attractions. So make sure you bought the tickets beforehand especially for Parc Guell, just in case it was sold out on the day of your visit. Talking about Parc Guell, I personally loved it. Did you know that that place was supposed to be a residential area for the borguoise people back in 1900s? But it was unfinished, so years after that the place became city property. One of the things that amused me about this place was that the stone benches was actually comfortable, like really. So I was impressed with Gaudi's architecture. 

Anyway as usual, scroll down for photos :)

Photos taken using Nikon D3200 and iPhone 6

Thank you for reading! :)