Hospitals love me.

Really, they do.
Regardless of time and space and destination; I always find myself in one, worryingly more so in recent years.

It is unfortunate the feeling isn't mutual.

So my two months stint of Eastern Europe expedite has come to an abrupt halt, after spending four glorious weeks on the road, I found myself tumbled unglamorously down the stairs. After four hours of stubborn denial, I finally succumbed to alternate means of transportation in a form of the ambulance.


In an ambulance heading to AKH - Vienna General Hospital.

I had to admit I cried a little when the medics in their bright shiny uniforms arrived like knights on gallant horses amidst the indifferent, arrogant and unfriendly Austrians (well, not all of them, but definitely most of them, Viennese particularly). Maybe because of the pain, partly because of relief, but mainly due to the fact that, for the first time, a real sense of loneliness seeped in after realising I was truly in a foreign land, all by myself, helpless.

It took me 20 minutes, after being carried up the steps from the metro in a wheelchair by two young Austrian studs, to realise that one of my medics was rather cute. His outbreak indicated his exceptional youth. Definitely feeling a little paedophilic for a fraction of a second. Yea, just a little. Hold your judgemental thought there.

Four more hours and I was sent home, by another friendly Austrian in his two-door sports (erm, maybe I should reconsider my judgement of Austrians), with a brand new and my very virginal cask.



And had my cask signed for the first time (always wanted to do this, well, not so much of getting a cask), by two really helpful friends I recently met in Vienna - an Italian and an Austrian; thanks guys for helping out when I'm all alone and injured and helpless.


I penned down something too. One for the road.
Sarcasm is something I picked up in Eastern Europe.
The people in this part of the world digs humour this way; can't beat 'em, join 'em.

One more hour till boarding time... I'm currently chilling in the crown lounge of KLM at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam (transiting here from Vienna).



Oh yes, I'm flying Business Class, baby.

This is why you buy insurance when you travel. 

7,300 tonnes of irons. World tallest 3-floor building/structure at 324m high, it is also the world's most visited paid monument.




It was a building most hated by French themselves despite its iconic significance. It represented everything that was not French in its time, or even now. It was tasteless, ugly, non-artistic, tall, boring and steely.

I will quote this from a petition sent to the Minister Works and Commissioner for the 1889 Exposition which the structure was built for and meant to be demolished after:

"We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection…of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years … we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal"
(Source: wiki)








Market near the Eiffel Tower. Lots of good food.


tempting long sausages to make you drool


Palais de Chaillot, opposite Eiffel Tower


Will always be a favourite ride of mine...








Taking the Seine River Cruise in Paris


There are 37 bridges along the river of Seine and legend has it if you kiss every time you pass through underneath a bridge, all 37 of them, your love will be sealed forever.





The cruise is breathtaking at night as it is in the day.
Personally I think Paris at night is more enchanting than it is in the day time.



Don't you think?

Can't believe it's been three weeks into my trip in Eastern Europe. Since arriving in Istanbul, I have not had the chance to pause to rest and it's kinda taking a toll on my mental state.


Train ride from Budapest to Zagreb

I have moved from Turkey, through Romania, Hungary and now finishing up the last leg of my Croatia trip.

It has been such an amazing experience thus far for me but for some reasons because I kept meeting people along the way, I hardly have time for myself to breath, other than these two days which was truly a bliss for me, but also because these two days are the only days I have to myself in Dubrovnik, it's kind of stressful to want to squeeze in some catch up time with my friends and family online and also anything online, like my orders that haven't arrived and payment which were due and more personal problems back home I have to deal with via emails and other means.

And then suddenly I realised I don't even have time for my blog anymore. Normally I say that's a good thing but then blogging has become a sort of extra curricular activity for these few years. It's something I do when I want to relax, so that could only mean I have not enough time to just chill and laze around to even blog.

I did have some time to myself to read though, which was comforting. But even that I find it hard to finish the book because of the time I have in a day to finish up everything.

Tomorrow I have to wake up really early if I want to finish up what I intend to do here in Dubrovnik, like go up the cable car, and then a few museums and then head out to sea to see this little island not far from here.

Which can be proven a challenge considering it's winter now and everything closes too early and the sun sets too early and I can wrap up my days at around 3pm. Which leaves hardly any available time frame for me to do much. And I really dislike sight-seeing in the dark, simply because I can't take much good pictures in that sort of lighting.

Anyway after tomorrow I should be returning to Zagreb and hopefully then I will be able to put some decent postings here before I head off to Vienna, Australia. Looking forward to the best Christmas Market in Europe.

PS// Had the first opera experience a week ago and it was amazing! I loved it!
Hamlet was in play in Zagreb's theatre and I could not emphasize how much I enjoyed the performance. Three hours flew by in a glimpse.


Happily sitting in my box waiting for Hamlet to start

Last month I visited the Epicurious Brunch at Bangsar Shopping Centre which was a gastronomical affair for all foodies. One get to sample all the rare jewels of food in Klang Valley area brought together under one roof and allow patrons to taste and sample each and every different oral orgasmic pleasure in one afternoon.

There were food stalls from Yay! Sammich, Andy's BBQ, Forty Licks, Swich Cafe, Craft Bakers, Hot Shots, Fat Blossom, The Potong, Jason Food Hall and many more, with baking classes, cooking demonstrations and best dressed Halloween costume for kids.




no make up.


Craft Bakers 'finger' sausage rolls


Delicious brownies and salted caramel chocolate cakes from Swich Cafe


the cakes were amazing and rich and I couldn't never refuse a good chocolate delight. If there weren't already so much food to try I would have ordered double for this. The salted caramel was a little bit of a let down, it was more of chocolate cake with a small swirl and caramel and some sea salt sprinkled on top.


But I do love their soft shell crab pizza which was an explosion of flavour. Love it! The salted egg white and salted egg yolk sauce drizzled over the pizza were genius.


French Toasts with Singapore style Chilli Crab sauce were mediocre, in my opinion. Perhaps it was the way it was made for this event, the toasts were like a bed to suck out all the oil from the chilli crab instead.


Then I had some pressed panini with chicken and cranberry sauce from Yay! Sammich, which was a good and safe brunch to have in case you're hungry. The first item I went for in fact because I didn't have any breakfast that morning.





Then I had some pressed buns from Andy's BBQ with beef brisket which was rich and flavourful. The beef was cooked to perfection, tender and juicy.





Moving onto the Paulisima's Kitchen for some tacos, which in my opinion, was small in portion, pale in comparison for taste with the previous two stalls before it, and expensive.




If I'm not mistaken, these two tiny taco was priced at RM14. Four bites and gone. The chicken was too dry. Can't remember much about the other one. Didn't finish it.

Back to Andy's BBQ for some dessert savoury dish, priced rather well at RM10 for two smoky chicken banana pancakes drizzled with gula melaka and served side with one fried egg.




Not wanting to risk forgoing the rest of the desserts to come later, I opted for one pancake just to sample.




I couldn't pen down if this was a savoury dish or a dessert, but the combination was amusing and quite delicious, in a funny but good way.

Took a break between meals with a hot cup of tea with Hot Shots.


Very fascinating tea with a strong flavour of cinnamon and ginger and many other flavours. Not the usual tea you would get in markets but definitely something I can get used it. Brewed with 100 degree Celsius boiling water for a full 3-5 minutes.



The dessert I looked forward the most was the Forty Licks ice cream.



It was such a pity that Earl Grey has ran out but I didn't sample a small teaspoon and it was really nice. Not too sweet and really rich in Earl Grey flavour (my favourite tea). I'm going to order a pint of this one day, when I feel healthy enough to eat this much sin.



So instead I had the Honey with Chocolate, Salted Caramel and Roasted White Chocolate.
Loved all three but the most addictive was the Honey with Chocolate (surprisingly), and one couldn't say no to Salted Caramel (though not as salty as I couldn't have liked it) while white chocolate lover will definitely love the roasted white chocolate ice cream.


Got some cucpcakes from Fat Blossoms, didn't get to try the peanut butter flavour ones cause they were sold out by the time I got to it, so I settled for banoffee flavour and sticky dates.

Ended my amazing epicurious meal with a sparkling pop from The Potong.



Chose 'sunny melon' potong to soak in fruity sparkling juice.




This would be something really refreshing on a hot day. A light dessert and fun to try.

I ended the afternoon with a sweet note at Jason Food Hall, drooling and picking out the exquisite macaroons from the tray.





My favourite of all had to be the Mojito macaroon (the only dual color macaroon presented), it really did taste like mojito, sweet mojito. Yumz~

And the dark green macaroon made with 25 years aged balsamic vinegar was really unforgettable.
I didn't like the caramel with sesame macaroons as much, simply because sesame seeds were never really my thing.
These macaroons were flown in from Pierre Ledent in Brussels, Belgium and cost RM10 per piece. Wow!

Their chocolate selection looked equally beautiful and too expensive to be eaten, I was tempted to try some but at the price of RM199 per box, I hesitated.


Maybe one day, who knows. In the mean time, macaroons would have to do.




Thanks for the amazing experience. I think epicurious should host more of these events and it was one of the most amazing brunch/lunch experiences I have had.