http://thefiremice.com/pipi

Well.. not that kind of Black Forrest.

It was Baden-Württemberg!

I must say this place is mysterious and adventurous!!

Thanks to Justin again (my favorite friend) , He made an effort to visit me from London!! can you imagine that?

We traveled mostly by train. Trains in Germany are so affordable and efficient!

We took bus too.. to Feldberg! Feldberg is the highest tip in Black Forest. We were lucky, because it snows! I must say it was a weird and exciting experience because it snows during autumn.

Spotted this lady sleeping in the bus

We can see lot’s of white outside the window, and it just got us excited!!

Scary!

We didn’t prepare ourselves properly.

We are going to take this cable car and ascend to the highest peak of black forest!!

Chill air + Freezing + Justin + excitement = CRAZZYYYY!!!

The wind was terrible!

Snow Ball!!!

I couldn’t feel my face.

Black Forest Museum!!

Serene white + black forest!

Justin wishes to have this long long beard

Next stop!!! Lake Titisee..

Was trying to feel the chill

Guess what happen to Justin?

Nice Titisee Lake

Miss the beer

Justin also,

Voila~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The famous Black Forest Cake in Black Forest! Taste like Black Forest! ( with lotsa alcohol)

Nice walk to Triberg!!

Macho~~~

Entering into the Mysterious Triberg!!

Black Forest is not exactly black!

Justin was stunned

I wish I can peeeeee like that

hehehhe

More…. woooo hooooo

Exciting

Coo-Coo-bird, that’s how they come out with coo-coo clock

TOP

Orange + Yellow + Green = Colorful black forest!

Justin in Dustbin!!!

another lake

House of 1000 coo-Coo clock

a big coo-coo

Buy one coo-coo clock… you will get one ……… for free

Another Black Forest Cake for the road

And it makes me dizzy!!!

This Post is the sequel to Budget trip to Barcelona. Madrid is another city which is expensive for my type of blood. I hope this post will stir more young people to visit Madrid.

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Moving from Barcelona to Madrid

Here’s a thing, Easyjet (the poor man’s planes) doesn’t fly from Barcelona to Madrid. There’s this super fast Rail service that travels from Barcelona to Madrid in a very short amount of time but it is bloody expensive, around Euro 150 – Euro 200 which relatively a few times more expensive than the France-Barcelona flight.

So, instead of travel super fast + costly, we decided to take the midnight train, the trip took more than 9 hours and it cost around Euro 50 per person. By doing this, we can save one night hotel money in Spain. haha…

The economy class was quite ok… if there’s no one else in your unit.

The next day, we arrived Madrid at 7:30, Madrid was really quiet in the morning. As compared to French, I think Spanish are not morning people.

Our first place to visit in Madrid is..

Plaza Mayor

The best known plaza in Madrid, this impressive square is now one of the main stops on any tourist visit. Originally built outside the city walls, this square has played host to bullfights, markets, symphonies, tournaments and executions. The statue of Felipe III sits in the middle across from the beautifully painted Casa de la Panadería, the former headquarters of the bakers guild. One of the access to the square is Arco de Cuchilleros, beautiful stairs down. Near Plaza Mayor, is Mercado San Miguel (Saint Michael Market), built in 1913 and full of a wide range of high quality food.

There’s one interesting new-old market adjacent to Plaza Mayor

MERCADO DE SAN MICUEL

Mercado de San Miguel is a recently refurbished old concept market, it covers a wide variety of groceries and nice delicacies. It was still early when we arrived Mercado de San Miguel. People were setting up their stores.

Lot’s of fresh fruits..

Salty bacon..

and wine..

I set my self a Rebujito, It was my first sip of liquid after the long night in the train. taste like heaven…

Mercado de San Miguel is actually a very interesting place to visit, I will highlight more about this at the latter part of this post.

We came to the Royal Palace of Madrid, but didn’t enter.

Spanish start their meals rather late. I think their daily lifestyle is 2 hours delayed than the rest of the people on earth. You can look for the cheaper food in most of the restaurants if you have early meals.

Somewhere the National Archeology Musuems

and visited Madrid Hard Rock Cafe

Visited the Golden (art) Museum Triangle

I’m not really a art lover, this kind of places will bore you dead… sigh…

Visited the Largest Park of Madrid in El Retiro with nice weather

and nice pic with pipi

People in Madrid don’t need to Sleep at night!

We participated in one of the mega-midnight-ball-fight!

This was the scene before the Ball-Fight started, The balls were prepared and everyone was waiting around the plaza.

Nice Plaza decorated with lot’s of Balls

Then everyone started,

Including Pipi =)

Playgrounds were built in the middle of the most happening street Grand Via in Madrid at Midnight!

With constructions materials…

WIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Hello! hello!

Then….

Morning Market at La Latina!

Can shop for various types of antics

Breakfast at the market!

Interesting performance

A visit to Real Madrid FC =)

The tour was a bit too expensive for us, haha

Pipi was trying to look for Christiano Ronaldo in the shower room

Going back to Mercado de San Miguel in the afternoon definitely open up your appetite!

Lot’s of Spanish seafood,

and Tapas =)

1 Euro per piece yum yum =)

and some nice Sangria in the hot afternoon will cheer you up for sure =)

Some stunning people doing some MTV outside the Catheral

A magnificent view at Templo de Debod in the evening

dinner seafood +  Spanish beer

Enjoyed the so called ” beer-tarik” beer fountains, it utilized the gravity to create the splash and enhance its flavour

Nice Seafood

and nice bread to chew with

Situated in Plaça d’ Espanya

If you are in Europe continent, I would suggest you to take the poor-man‘s flight Easyjet to Barcelona,  like AirAsia, the one back home.

Barcelona is a city located adjacent to a beautiful beach, a panoramic view outside the plane was amazing.

Barcelona is relatively hotter than the rest of other Europe countries. The clear blue sky tells it all..

For a Malaysian to travel from a Cold place to a relative hot one, makes me look like a nut, always appear in places with the wrong attire

Some of hotels here are cheap, we are lucky to find one with air con.

Public transports in Barcelona are very efficient and cheap, basically you are connected to every direction in Barcelona, be it by sea, metro and buses.  With less than 4 euro per day , you can access  to everywhere you want =) But please don’t buy the Barcelona card, although it allows you to visit some of the Museums and interesting places, we regretted to get Barcelona card because as it was not really cheap and the Museums here are not really that impressive. We were frustrated over the location of these Museums.. finding the museums in Barcelona really killed all our patient.

Pipi always check the map

I believe if you travel to any city in Europe, you must visit its Catheral..

I have no idea what was this bullet-like building, can someone please tell me?

Must try their Spanish Paella around 7-8 euro, and a Spanish beer to chill the hot afternoon.

Catalunya and Rambla Street

How should I describe Catalunya and Rambla Street? I think this is something similar to Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur, hence I don’t need to say more.

Pipi killed someone

Catalunya

Some Tapas in Ramble streets

and Sangria

Sunrise at the beach

A emo guy waiting for something

Mirador de Colom

You can climb up to Mirador de Colom

and have a nice Birdview of the entire Barcelona

Olympic Stadium

Ducatiiiiiiiiiiiiiii... can feel the power between my legs

Michael Jordon schoes

Aquarium, didn’t manage to go inside because it is not budget at all

and the famous Sagrada Família

That took more than 120 years to build and still progressing.

depicted natural element

and something modern too

Rhine Falls, the largest plain waterfalls in Europe.

I present you the  waterfalls!

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飞流直下三千尺 疑是银河落九天。。。。。 oh yeah~~

Pardon me, I just humiliated myself.. anyway

I got the opportunity to travel with Pipi =)

Finding Rhine falls is so easy, you just need to drop yourself at Schaffhausen station Switzerland, it is also very near to Germany.

When you reach Schaffhausen, use your ears to guide you to the waterfalls by listening to the marvelous sound of the Waterfalls  ,,,,

until you see this in front of you..

then you will stop and just stare………

water like boiling..

There’s a water mill there, Electricity?

Pipi with mills

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Finally the so called real 飞流直下三千尺 疑是银河落九天。。。。。

Rhine Falls

Rhine Falls

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You can take a boat and reach the tiny peak ..

This Sampan will do the wonders

FireMice to Rhine Falls

you will get wet, including your camera..

Get yourself nearer to the most dangerous spot…

Then find your way up to the peak..

and yay!!!

FireMice on top of the world again!

Pipi too…

Must take all the nice photos before going back~

what an unforgettable experience… now I will think of Rhine Fall every time when I..