If I’d only seen these cuties back when I was still searching for our giveaways for our principal sponsors, I probably would have bought these. Perfect for doll collectors like me :).
Matryoshka salt and pepper shaker. The head of the bigger matryoshka is for the salt while the baby one is for the pepper.
Or you can opt for the measuring cup matryoshka.
Love it! 🙂
Finally, after months of watching out for the right kind of storage box, I found the one I was looking for this afternoon in basement 1 of Colette Mare. Perfect to house our wedding-related stuff and stationeries including the greeting cards and money cards given us as well as the receipts of all the payments we did.
I would have wanted a light colored one so it would lend light on the storage room. But then if you need to store something for a long time, might as well store it in a box that wouldn’t get dirty easily.
It has a cloth lining hence our beloved stuff are protected.
Love the way the strings of the lining are tied at the back.
Bigger one is at 1030 yen whilst the smaller one is at 620 yen.
Ja, time to clean up!
Our search for the John and George Cafe led us to Campanulla – a Tonino Lamborghini restaurant. Goodness, the food in this place is just soooooo good.
Do click and check —> Campanulla in goodfoodhunt
Atsushi and I tried as much as possible to have our lunch and dinner (and sometimes snacks besides) in the restaurants which were highly recommended by Rick Steves in his “Best of Europe 2010” guidebook. Hence whenever lunchtime or dinnertime found us in a particular area, I immediately leaf through the book and check for a recommended restaurant near the area.
Dinner time on our first full day in Praha found us in the famous Charles Bridge (Karlûv most), erected back in 1357. Yep, back in the 14th century. The bridge was named after Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV who was crowned King of Bohemia and Count of Luxemburg on the same year the bridge was constructed.
One of our takes on Charles Bridge albeit it didn’t do justice on the bridge’s beauty. Took this photo of the Charles Bridge the following morning, on the bridge running parallel with Charles Bridge which is much less grander than Charles.
We crossed the bridge from the Old Town side on to the Little or Lesser Quarter which I presume was named “lesser” because it was right below the much grander Castle Quarter. The square right beneath Karluv Most which is part of the Lesser Quarter was pretty nice though. I wouldn’t call it “lesser” at all.
Since we were in the Little Quarter area, there was only one restaurant I was so intent on eating in – The John and George CafĂ© which was (as described in the book) in a little alley right beside the Lennon Wall. So off we went a-hunting for the Lennon Wall.
Of course, when on a trip, even when you have a destination in mind, you should take some time to “smell the flowers” as they say. After all, you went on a trip for sightseeing, right?
This here is the Charles Bridge’ tower on the Little Quarter side.
Charming. That’s the best word that would describe Bohemia.
Took one of our numerous A&M feet shots.
It took longer than expected to find the John Lennon Wall. Lost. And we were brave enough to go to where nobody else wanted to go.
A word to fellow tourist. When you see this poster, you’ll know you’re on the right track.
It’s a harbinger yes for we found ze wall.
This graffiti wall came to be the day John Lennon died. Fans comforted each other in this quiet side of the town and expressed their grief by writing on the wall. Remember, this was 1980 when Czechoslovakia was still under Communist Regime. The authorities would paint the wall clean only to be repainted with new graffiti the following day. It’s still there now so One can easily guess who won. Nowadays though it’s more for the younger generation’s expression for love and peace.
Whew! This came in longer than expected!
Up in next post, the John and George Café filler.
A new neighbor is building a house nearby hence us neighbors got in our mailboxes some sort of construction schedule from the (we suppose) builders of the house – Asahi Kasei.
The owner’s name and exact address of the house was indicated on the flyer. Construction milestones for the next few months were also shown in that I can just imagine the excitement the owner-family has with even just looking at this milestone forecast. And really, Japanese houses get finished in no time at all; only six months based on this plan. Six months of building built-for-earthquake, built-for-winter house. Amazing, especially if you compare it to how fast, or rather how slow, houses are built in Pinas. Mind you though, these houses doesn’t come cheap. Around our area, you need around 60million yen for your house. And that’s just the house. It’s sans interior stuff pa.
Anyways, true to the considerate nature of the Japanese, included in this pamphlet is a notice that should we have questions or complaints as they build in the area, we shouldn’t hesitate to contact Asahi Kasei.
It came with a packet of ziploc which I am happy to get for free.
This is actually our second time to receive this; the first being a couple of days just before we flew to Europe. The packet arrived just in time. They proved really helpful as keepers for toiletries that might later get wet and messy.
Hopefully though, someday, our surname would be in that flyer.
It is said that you’d be welcomed by the smell of the country you’re visiting the moment you got off the plane. I certainly loved Vienna’s welcoming smell when we got off the plane – it’s that of a good smelling soap. This smell lingered the whole time we stayed in Vienna making Vienna my favorite city among the cities we’ve been to in this trip.
Welcome, travelers!
The site of a fellow’s advertisement was a welcome for us indeed.
The luggage carts need euro coins though for them to be usable.
Vienna’s airport was better than Rome’s albeit it was just simple enough.
As is the case with most airports, Vienna’s airport is a bit far from the city center. There are a number of ways to get to the city center but we opted to take the City Air Terminal train as it’s the fastest and reasonably priced way; you’re in the city center already in just 16 minutes or so.
The sight we’ve passed by reminded us of work.
And like how it was in Italy, there were also quite a lot of graffiti welcoming us.
Once we got into the city center, we had to transfer to another train (the s-bahn) to get to the station that’s only walking distance from our hotel. as we were transferring to s-bahn, we saw this movie poster of Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood.
Atsushi purchasing train tickets. One thing amazing with Vienna’s public transportation. It runs on honesty system. There were no station gates checking if you’ve purchased a ticket with the right amount nor were there police waiting in the stations to catch dishonest passengers. No checks whatsoever at all in trains, trams and buses.
After the complexity of Tokyo’s train system, Vienna’s train system was no sweat at all.
This hotel’s backyard confronted us when we got off (the wrong side) of our station.
It looks pretty normal. But the backyard is actually full of nude people sunbathing.
Anyway, we didn’t go to Vienna for the nudists. We went to Vienna for this!
And you bet we’re excited!