Well Preserved Spain

We all know that Spain is a really old country. It's where we get stories of kings and queens, knights and castles. Not the fairy tale ones with fairies and witches but real ones.
Hence, there are lots of priceless historical structures especially castles.

And the Spanish people, they really appreciate their history and have preserved their heritage really really well. How well?? It's so well that they're still using the building up till today.

This is one example that I have captured while working. It's in Llagostera; a small town but really rich in heritage. There're lot's of old buildings which have been transformed into homes for the local people.

And the pictures below are images of a small castle building at the top of the hill.

That's a small tower of the castle. I'm within the castle area at the moment

I like the view of the clouds and it's the first time it rained like cats and dogs since the day I arrived. Made me miss Kuching all of a sudden..

This is what you have when you see from below..it's the same tower

That's the main remnant of the castle... probably it's the castle

The building is like Madonna... still looked really good despite the age. Probably lots of concrete botox and beauty treatments


That's the entrance into the building. Today I was lucky because the door is open so I went in.

And here you go... the interior of the building

Who would ever know that it's the interior of a very old building if you enter the building blindfolded. I was so amazed by the beauty of the designs. For your information, it's the town people's church.. Duh.. obviously!! It's much nicer in 3D. =D

What they've done to their heritage made me got interested in their history all of a sudden. Probably that's their tactic. When I got in, I felt like Nicholas Cage in National Treasure. I was thinking if there're dungeons or hidden chambers with clues or treasures. Really wanted to explore but they had some kind of events so I had to leave. And I was halfway working too. Lol..

Compared to our very famous Fort Margherita?? Our fort definitely is much younger than the castle. It looks nice exteriorly but only foreigners visit the fort. To us locals, it's a haunted building. Well.. that's the difference we've got.

FOOD FOOD FOOD!!!

I've been trying different restaurants 5 days a week. It's just impossible for me to post one restaurant one by one at a time.. that's just ridiculous. So, I've compiled two of the regular restaurants together. The food in both restaurants, like usual are delicious. It's a restaurant for goodness sake so there's no really terrible food. The most terrible food in a restaurant is still edible. Of course there are some which are below my expectations so there's no use posting those food.

The FIRST restaurant

Another type of paella. This one has no seafood but has all sorts of sausages and meat

This one was the starter... It's baked eggplant with cheese and bolognese sauce equivalent. I love this one..

Like I always said. There are three kinds of drinks all the time. Water, Carbonated water, and Wine... ALWAYS!!

The SECOND Restaurant

This is Flam.. It's the local traditional caramel pudding

Traditional homemade ice cream. If i'm not mistaken the main ingredients are egg whites and milk.

And these baked beans with three layer pork... Presentation wise is not nice but when you put in your mouth you'll never stop until the plate's empty..

And this is grilled monkfish from one very random restaurant. No trace of where and when but I'm pretty sure it's in Spain because we cannot find this fish in Malaysia.. Go and search in google what this fish is and I bet you'll not wanna eat them. Only food lovers like me will try good food.. =D

Obviously I'm a really greedy person. Hmmmm... why do I enjoy food so much?? But of course I'll watch my health and weight (Trying to bulk up here.. but only the face radius seem to fluctuate)

Till then....

Beach in Torredembarra

In Spain, or even the rest of the countries in Europe, beaches are a very big thing. Europeans just love beaches. Especially during the summer, all the beaches would be packed.

This was the very first beach I've visited in Spain. IAESTE is not just about technical training but also hanging out with different friends from all over the world.

It's a beautiful beach. I like how the water is blue and not brown.

At first I thought it would be like the normal beaches in Malaysia but I forgot I was in Europe. I was surprised when I see nude women running around in the beaches but then I remembered... I was in Spain and it's a normal thing here. Took me a while not to stare...



I just love the clear blue water.

with the rest of the IAESTE members

Then in the evening we had dinner at the beach.

It's me with my very long sausage. Well, the sausage I ordered. It goes from the left of my shoulder to the right. That's how long it is.


We were at the beach for almost the whole day and I missed the train back to Girona. So, I ended up continuing to hang out with the group until almost 3 in the morning... Drinking and drinking and dancing. Not me though.. I just watched..

The late night public transport wasn't that good in Spain. I ended up walking with my friend to his place for almost an hour in the middle of no where. At adventure really and I only slept at six in the morning.

Andreu in La Roca

Well, here comes another Spanish food post again. This time, it's something which cannot be found in Australia or Malaysia. Just Spain.

So, we went to this place called the La Roca Village. It's actually a Direct Factory Outlet where you can find lots of French buying stuff from this place.


A few shops away from the entrance, you'll find a restaurant called Andreu.

This restaurant serves nothing else but HAM and CHEESE. Every dish has got either ham or cheese. So if you don't like to eat ham, then it's not recommended.

However, it's not exactly the ham that you can find in the supermarket. It's really high quality ham. The pigs are like the "kampung chicken" which runs freely and they are only fed corn and not waste which human cannot finish eating.

The ham legs for sell. It's really expensive. 85 pounds for one leg.
I can actually buy a return ticket to Germany or London

Of course, the ham has this price for a reason. It's just awesomely delicious. And the texture of the ham is fantastico!!

The menu of the Restaurant. It's either you order something with ham or with cheese. Anything else then maybe you'll have to go to Restaurant Asiatic Nou Wok.. =D

The starter of my meal. It's sheep's cheese with tomato marmalade (Not tomato sauce ok... tomato marmalade.. sweet stuff). It's my first time eating this and like usual, I like it. It's more elastic compared to the regular cow's cheese.

Then I have the Ilberian ham with Brie cheese served on pizza bread. This is the best ham sandwich I've ever tasted. So good. It's almost like silk, the meat.

I wasn't full, so I decided to go for another round. This one is Pork Loin Fillet with Brie. This one is not bad but it wasn't as good as the first one. This one is a little bit tougher which I don't really prefer.

Then, my dessert is cheese cake. It's ok but wasn't the type I yearned for. I wanted the really heavy and rich cheesecake which they don't have.

However, overall, it's really a must visit restaurant if you visit Catalunya. After trying this, you'll feel the difference in the ham here and the ones available in the supermarket.

Till then

Greetings in Spain

Spanish people, like I always boast, are very friendly. That's real. Not all of them but most especially those you have to meet most of the time. But what I admire most in Spain is the greeting culture of the Spanish people. No matter how many times you meet in a day, they'll always greet every time they see you. And if they're going out, they'll surely say "hasta luego" or "adios". Then when they return, it'll be "hola" or "buenas". And it's not just among colleagues, even the boss greets you. There are a few times when my big boss greets me first before I greet him. It's rather peculiar because I don't suppose this will ever happen in Malaysia.

And sometimes when we have lunch, my lunch mates will even say "adios" to the people sitting near our table before leaving even though they don't know each other.

I'm not used to greeting people either back in Malaysia or Australia. Mostly, I would just smile or say hello for the first time we meet during the day. But now, I have to adapt to their culture. I'm learning to always greet as well and is getting used to it which I like.

Restaurant Asiatic Nou Wok

This is another restaurant which I've visited. I forgot where it is but I know it's at a really touristy place with lots of foreigners coming to the beaches and there's also a water theme park somewhere near. I think it's Llorets if I'm not mistaken.

Well, from the name of the restaurant, obviously you'll know it's an Asian restaurant. This is the first Asian restaurant I've visited in Spain and it's different from the rest of the restaurants. Not because it's Asian but it's BUFFET style.

Yepp, having buffet for lunch during a working day. That's life. Especially for a food addict like me.


All the workers in the restaurant are Chinese. So, for the first time I get to order myself. But it's a buffet restaurant so I didn't exactly order anything. All I said was "Coca-Cola" and therefore it's like the rest of the restaurants... Sigh..

There are many sections of food in the restaurant.

There is the fresh seafood and poultry section where you get whatever you want and the chef will cook for you

here. This is where I get to talk to the workers and found out they were migrants from China. They are "own people" (in Chinese) so I felt rather good.

And there's multicultural section I call it because they've got from western fries to eastern satay.
By the way, in Spain, fries is not a popular food here like the rest of the world. In fact, it's so rare that my supervisor find it weird eating deep fried potatoes (which we call chips in Australia).

Then, there's another seafood section. There's sushi, sashimi, prawns and snails... Yummm


And another section. The regular section where you find fried chicken, prawns, squid, octopus, duck.. I took so many rounds of food from here.

I really liked this place. Despite going for so many rounds, I haven't got enough of it. I so wanna go to this restaurant again.

First Restaurant Visited in Catalunya

One of the best privileges I get from the company I'm working for is free lunches. And it's not those kind lunches that you get from lousy cafeterias. I get to eat wherever I want and then claim from the company. So, my supervisor has been taking me to different restaurants everyday to try different food. This I should say would be the best opportunity.

I get to do what I like which is to eat and try all the local food and I don't have to pay a single cent. =D. It's like those guys who do food documentaries where they get to try all the different food for free.

So, this is my very first restaurant that I went to during the first day of work. It's an antique restaurant. Well, at least the building as it used to be a train station.

The restaurant building. It's taken from the x - railway line

The interior of the restaurant

In Catalunya (I shouldn't say Spain because the Catalans want to be recognised as the Catalans),
Most meals in Spain (or Catalunya) have three courses: starter, main and dessert. I guess it's the traditional European culture for meals. And of course, there are two main types of drinks. Water or wine.

This is my very first eat-out meal in Spain. It wasn't that extravagant but because it was my very first, it has a different memory.

Starter: Pasta Carbonara (I ordered this because it was the most recognisable name in the menu)

Main: Baked Fish with baked beans

Dessert: Rice with milk and cinnamon

The starter and the main was rather normal but the dessert, for me is new. I've been eating rice prepared in different ways but this is my first time I have it with milk. It's good though. Sweet.. and the cinnamon really goes well with it.

And this one, it's from another restaurant the next day. This is the really really local Spanish food. It's called Palla (paya). It's actually baked rice with seafood. The sauce has really complicated flavour as it has all kinds of seafood stock in it. But I love it.

Well, these are just two of the restaurants that I've visited. There are like ten other restaurants which I'll post slowly when I have the time. Working from 8 to 8 five days a week and then going out during the weekends doesn't really give me the time to blog.

More to come!!