Aljaferia Palace and More

I'm so not done with Zaragoza yet... so here you go. More stuff about the unique place...

This is Abu Jaffar Al-Muqtadir, the king during the Banu Hud dynasty. Once upon a time, as far as I can recall, I think I had a castle in Zaragoza, built during the late 11th century. Well, it was during the Muslim empire and I was really rich, so I got myself a summer castle. One castle is not enough. One for my wife, my mistresses... damn it.. how many do I have again?? I don't remember.

Well, this is my beloved castle. So so beautiful.. And I'm pleased with the peoples' work of maintenance. It still looked so new.. Wow!! I'm amazed.. Before maintenance, I was told it was a total wreck. Lots of Islamic

Of course, like the typical castle, I have a wide land area of garden surrounding my beautiful castle.

Let us go in..
And here you have...the interior of my castle...

Isn't it lovely? With all the beautiful complicated carvings. I am complicated as people say..

And here.. looking from another view... Wait!! who's that guy over there?? And what's he doing? Oh... now I remember. He's Jordan, my really good friend... But how come he's still so young?? Impossible!!

And here you have... more sophisticated designs...I like sophisticated designs because I'll feel relaxed when I get back from work.. Oh wait... Which one makes us feel relaxed?? Complicated or simple... Now I feel complicated..

And there's more designs... don't be shocked when you see it..

Well, I have great imagination and I added in lots of Muslim architecture. Lots of symbols to represent all kinds of stuff.

Even the ceiling in my castle looks complicated, I just realised.. Really... did I really ask that much?? Well, my architects and construction men sure are geniuses because they manage to make it into reality.

Let's move on..
Huh... who drew on my wall?? Monster house?? Really??

This castle was not only occupied by and my people. It was occupied by the Christian Kings after they reconquered. Don't wanna talk much about that because it was my downfall.

Well, that's basically what I could recall about the castle. So many security guards nowadays and tight opening hours. I didn't know I hired that many. I told them I owned the castle but they laughed. What's so funny about that?? Nevermind..

For more info, visit here.

Well, near my castle, there is a park, called Parque Grande. Beautiful park indeed.

And lovely couples go to beautiful parks... Isn't that nice? East meets West and they're loving each other.. That's how the world unites!!

Oh yea.. did I mention my car as well?? Limousines are everywhere... Normal limousines, Hummer limousines...
I want to be different so I got myself a limousine lorry.. Not bad ehh...

Don't Fool Yourself with Love because It Kills

Love... it sure is a very beautiful word. Just by looking at the word, you can feel something. Well, I'm pretty sure everyone's heard of the phrase, "The power of love". But honestly, is love really that powerful or are humans just too vulnerable to handle it. Talking about a mother sacrificing for her child, yes... that's the power of love. But talking about couple relationships, it's just vulnerability. Let's face it.. in relationships, there are no such thing as "one true love" or "the only one". If it exists, then there won't be break ups, betrayals, or divorce. It'll be just one to one forever and ever. But apparently, there are break ups and betrayals everywhere at every minute. This is REALITY... let's face it.

I believe that in relationships, it's more towards animal instinct. It is in the nature that the girls attract and guys get attracted, and therefore moves from one flower to another. The only reason why couples stay together is because of strong commitment. I'm pretty sure they still get attracted to other people at times. If you just depend on the concept of love alone, things will never work out. Don't fall too much for the ideology of true love.

I just find it ridiculous that some people take it way too seriously. When there's break up, some people cry and cry for days, weeks, months or even years. Some torture themselves and even worse, some take away their own lives. I mean WHY?? Some say that's love...Bullshit! I'll say, how about the love for yourself?? The love for yourself is true love. We won't be able to give love to other people if we don't love ourselves. Like the saying, "Love yourself before you can love others"

In this world, there're more than 7 billion people. Let's assume gender distribution is half-half. That means there will be another 3.5billion people of the opposite sex. Ummm.. I might have to reduce the number because nowadays people fall for the same gender. Reduce to the max... well we still have 2.5 billion people of the opposite sex to choose from. And do you believe that out of the 2.5 billion, only one suits you?? HELL NO!!! It's just the matter of time because we can't meet all the 2.5 billion people.

What I'm trying to emphasise here is, don't fool yourself by saying he or she's the only one for you. When there's a break up, it's not the end of the world!! There're plenty and plenty of others. After each break up, you learn and experience and then you'll find a better one for the next relationship until a point where both parties are loyal to each other. NEVER hide and isolate yourself just because of one break up. That's stupid especially when it's only a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. Another saying, "New ones only come when the old one goes".

Loyalty is of-course very important but when things happen, it happens. ALWAYS LEARN TO LET IT GO!!!

I'm trying to help those who has been suffering because of their relationship problems.

Regards,
Jorzac

Parliament Meeting or Gang Fight??

This is a recent video taken from Youtube. Nowadays, thanks to sites like YouTube and Facebook, we're able to know everything that's happening. Even behind the scenes of the government actions. It's allows us to know what really is happening instead of just being so naive like how the people are in the past.

Sometimes, I just felt ashamed of what has happened to our beloved country. Yes, the main one is the racial issue which has become a hit news these days but honestly, I wasn't so bothered by that. All those issues are mostly focused in the West Malaysia. I live in Sarawak where these matters are not serious at all. Sarawakians are harmonious people. We blend in well with each other, and we do not only focus on the three main races like they always do. Here, in Sarawak, we have many more different aboriginal races like the Dayaks, Ibans, Bidayuhs, Penans... up till 20 different kinds, you name it. It's good that Sarawak is on the other side with Sabah instead of being clustered up with the rest of the states and getting stuck in between the feuds they are having. I can see that we are a much more independent and neutral state. And it's sad that the West Malaysians do not really know Sarawak at all, but who cares.. as long as we know ourselves. That's enough.

But what I am really disappointed here, in the video, is the professionalism of the Malaysian government. If you watch the video, is that a parliament meeting?? or a gang fight?? When I watch that video, it just reminds me of the gang fights which I used to watch back in high school. Pointless shoutings here and there. It's a shame. It makes the parliament look more like a wet market rather than a parliament itself. I know, political parties in every country will definitely have arguments. Spain, Australia, Slovakia... when I talk to friends from different countries about politics, we'll be on the same side. Nobody likes their government. It's true... except maybe Norway and a few more high standard countries because they are satisfied with their country.

The thing is, arguments should be done in a more professional debating manner instead of in a gangstery way. But then again, I have realised that politicians can be anyone. Not all has won debate competitions or taken law degrees. As long as they join a political party. Some might even be a high school gangster in the past. Who knows?? That's why we have such political argument in the parliament. All they do is "Bla.. Bla.. BLA!!!"... "Mia.. Mia, MIA!!" for a few hours and then in the end,

A: "Umm... what have we achieved from the meeting today??"
B: "Let me see...Nothing..But I think I have lost something."
A: "What is that you lose?"
B: "Eerrrrhhhmmmmm....my voice."

Typical..=D

Student cooking: Chicken on Pasta

I've been observing the eating habits of students living overseas. Most of them have BAD eating habits.. I mean MOST (don't get me wrong).. not all. It's either junk food or eat out. McD or Pizza Hut would be the most popular names when it comes to eating. It may be the cheapest among all eat out places but seriously. It's not that cheap when accumulated together. Honestly, sometimes I would have McD too but that's only when I got tempted like a pregnant woman. And when there's cooking, it's INSTANT Noodle.

When I ask this question, "Why don't you cook?" The answer I get mostly is "No time."
HAHA!! To me, "No time" is just a synonym for "LAZY".
I'm a student myself and 90% of my days in overseas, I cooked. And I don't cook in bulk that will last for one week. I always cook and eat on the spot. That's because I want it fresh and I like variety. And I'll try NOT to use the microwave oven. because I'm a health freak.

I understand that cooking, to most students, are time consuming and there're lots of work. Preparing the ingredients, cooking, and washing the utensils. Students can't waste too much time on cooking... they need to use the time to play games and watch movies do their assignments and study.

I'm lazy myself. Those who know me know that I can sit in front of the television the whole day.
When I cook, I'll try to make something that takes the least time and uses the least utensils. But of course, it has to be healhy. After a while, I just got used to it and it actually makes me think a lot for creativity and taste. That's why I'm smart. =D.

So recently, I've given a thought. Maybe I should just share with the rest of the students. I wanna help reduce obesity and definitely I don't want McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC or Maggi to earn so much every year. I'm not cooking luxurious food like the homemakers do. It's just simple food, as long as it's Healthy, Simple and Time efficient.

I'll start of with the Chicken on Pasta one which I've been doing quite a lot in Spain because I finish work late.

How you cook the food really depends on the amount you eat and according to taste. What I'm giving here is according to my taste. I'm just giving ideas. =D.

Ingredients:
2 pieces of Chicken (Thigh, Drum, or Breast from the supermarket)
1 Tomato
Pasta (Preferably angel hair because takes the least time. It's better to break it)


Marinades:
2 tablespoon of Soya Sauce
1 table spoon of Sugar
Pepper
*No use of complicated spices unless you want to add some other stuff yourself. It's creativity



Utensils
2 plates (One for eating and one for marinating)
1 medium size pan (Non stick is the best) (I used this to boil the pasta as well. That's why I break the pasta)
1 knife
1 pair of fork and spoon
1 chopping board (not necessary. Usually I cut the ingredients on the plate. Yepp.. I'm lazy)

Steps:

1. Put water to boil in the pan. When water is boiled, add the pasta and let it cook. Stir once in a while.
2. At the time when you start boiling the water, start de-boning and cutting the chicken into pieces (*cooks much faster because there's more surface area). Then, marinade the chicken. Also, slice the tomato.(*If lazy, buy the readily de-boned chicken)
3. By the time the pasta is cooked, the chicken should be marinated or at least de-boned and cut. If not, just off the fire and continue marinating your chicken.
4. Drain the water from the pasta. (*Because I used pan, there is not much water to drain out. Just pour the water slowly and push back the pasta from dropping out using the fork. With this method, it's impossible to drain out all the water. Just let it be. As long as it looks like there's no water, it's enough.)
5. Put aside the pasta on a plate (*You'll be leaving the pasta for a while so it's good to have a little bit of water so the pasta will not dry out and stick together after you finish cooking the meat)
6. Rinse and dry the pan on fire and start cooking the meat. Remember to make sure there's no water in the pan before adding oil. It's IMPORTANT. Throw everything in including the excessive marinade and tomato (*tomato reduces the sizzling and minimizes the amount of oil droplets from flying everywhere).
7. Once the chicken is cooked, pour onto the pasta and it's READY for eating.

 Time Consumption
Preparing and Cooking (20 - 25 minutes)
Eating (10 minutes)
Washing (5minutes)

Nutrition

Protein and fats (chicken)
Vitamins and fibre (Tomatoes)
Carbohydrates (Pasta)

See... the total time used is only about 40 minutes and that includes eating and washing. Real fast for a healthy meal and much much cheaper. Seriously!! Stop eating junk food and instant noodles. There're other food too, which I'll post from time to time. Enjoy! And one more thing.. who says guys can't multitask??

Goya the Artist

After the tour around The Pilar Basilica, we headed to an exhibition hall which exhibits the works of the world renowned Spanish painter, Francisco José de Goya y Luciente. A long name that is. 21 characters longer than my name..wow

Personally, I don't know him until I came to Zaragoza because I'm not a fan of arts but for those of you who takes art courses then probably you would have read about Goya. Well, he was way before the Picasso generation which is why I don't know him. But I don't really know Picasso as well. I have 0 knowledge about art history. However, in Zaragoza, I've learnt a thing or two about the great Goya. And I even know a few facts which is not available in Wikipedia. First, he's a really expensive portrait painter... money face I should say. According to the tour guide, he was reluctant to paint portraits of ordinary people unless he was being offered something he wants. He preferred engraving more than painting. Painting for him was to earn money and he surely had earned tons as he owned the second most luxurious carriage. The most luxurious carriage belonged to the king. That's how rich he was. And I was told that the Queen was a really ugly person and he was the one who managed to make the queen look beautiful in his painting..He was sort of the first person to invent the concept of Photoshop. HAHA...

Also, I have learnt that for portrait painting during that era, the painter would charge the most to paint a person's hand.

Again, cameras are not allowed in the exhibition hall but with Operation Paparazzi Jordan, it is made possible. It was too hard to take pictures of the portraits but I have managed to take lots of the prints of his engravings. They have the signs in other departments except this room so I suppose it's okay to take pictures. These are just prints of his engravings anyways. The templates are probably kept somewhere much safer from visitors like me. Drawing a picture out of imagination and complete with the shadings are difficult but to engrave the pictures, that's pure talent

So, Goya's engravings are divided into three main themes: People, War, Bullfights. Remember it's not drawing.. it's ENGRAVING

The Exhibtion Room for prints of Goya's Engravings only.. and it is a dark room as you can see.. no lights except the display lights

 Every picture has got its story but I only know some of the meanings behind it

CHARACTERISTICS OF PEOPLE

This one I'm not so sure what it is about

This one is about men. The bird like creatures are men. There's a picture before saying men are free like a bird. But in this picture, it says that women are evil. They attract men, use them and when they are no use, they shoo the men away...hmmm... What do you think??

This one is about vanity. The women looking into the mirror is really old and ugly but the people around her keeps on telling her that she's beautiful, so she believes and kept on thinking of herself as beautiful. This one I agree..

This one I'm not too sure too. My brain is too simple for this. All I see is a woman and a man naked.

This one is about stupidity. Donkey represents stupidity.. and this one shows a stupid person teaching his son. So in the end the son will be as stupid as his father.

 
WAR
Goya, as I was told, was the first person who depicts war as a disaster full with gory and grief instead of victory and celebration of winning as assumed by people in the past.

Regular people being killed

Torture

An even more serious torture...oooouch.. this is real torture

People being treated badly.. as prisoners and slaves during war period

A helpless mother trying to save her daughter from the soldier..

Women braving up to fight in order to protect their family

BULL FIGHT
And of course, it's the tradition of Spain which Goya didn't miss out

This one is cool. It's not just about the bullfight, but look at the distribution of audience. They're all at one side, afraid of too much sun

This one probably is about the dangers during bullfight. Injuries and accidents can occur

Well, after the exhibition, I have learnt a thing or two. Now I know who Goya is and I know how to put more expressions when saying ooooo... or Wowww... after looking at all the paintings. I even know how to fake them.. =D

And here you have two statues created to depict and to appreciate Goya's artwork. Thank you Goya for all the pictures...

Zaragoza: The Pilar Basilica

Of course, one of the main attraction in Zaragoza is the Pilar Basilica. It was the first site we visited in Zaragoza on the second day, or should I say the first day because we reached there the night before. Anyways, I should say no tourist could miss this. Otherwise, there'll be no prove that you've visited Zaragoza. It's a Cathedral and I was told it's the second biggest one in Spain. This building sure has a lot of history, so rich with history that when I got into the cathedral, I felt like I was in another place. Well, literally I am in another place... inside the building instead of outside... but what I mean is it was like a time machine. Again of course, when I was inside, I felt the Da Vinci Code mood.

Exteriorly, the building looks really grand and complicated. Sometimes I just admire how complicated the minds of our ancestors can be. Usually, all the ancient buildings have really complicated designs. And I admire the construction workers even more. They're the ones who make the ideas come to reality. I don't even dare to look at the buildings closely just in case my brain crashes due to complication. So many fine details. Also, my first thought when I see the building was how come it looks like a mosque. Turns out it does have Muslim influence. Zaragoza was once a Muslim city after the Romans, Augustus Caesar.

During the day... I just realise I don't have a zoom up picture of the building during daytime

View at night from a bridge...love this one

Really complicated carving near the main entrance..

 Ok, I'll now bring you into the Cathedral. But first of all, I've to remind you how much effort I've taken to take the pictures inside.

They have big sign boards saying that no cameras are allowed but when I was inside, I still see people taking videos and pictures, so I was like who cares and out comes my camera but secretly. I've got a much better reason to do so considering I'm from the other side of the planet. Hence, don't be disappointed with the quality of the pictures.

So, here you have.. the interior of the Cathedral. First there's the Holy Chapel. I guess this was the main part of the cathedral because most visitors go there. And it's also the place where the Column placed by Virgin Mary is situated. The column has very long history. The location of the Cathedral is in fact determined by the Column of Virgin Mary.

Then, there's the High Altar. There's stories too but I don't remember. All I know is that the altar is unique, beautiful and again complicated

And the Main Choir....

 The designs of the building are not only limited to the walls and the floors but also the ceiling. Each dome ceiling has arts painted by different artists. One of them was Goya. A very well known artist and I'll have a post just for him. This would be the closest to the ones available in the Vatican City.

Painting itself is hard already but painting on a rounded ceiling where you have to look vertically up all the time while painting is really hard.

One more interesting thing in Cathedral Basilica was the story of the bombs. During the war time, two bombs were dropped onto this building but none of the bombs exploded. Amazing right?? There are stories saying that either the soldier was from Zaragoza and he diffused the bomb before dropping them or because Virgin Mary protected the place.

The two bombs that I was saying. Those are real bombs... only that they are being diffused.

And even the holes where the bombs penetrate are still visible. If you see the picture below, there is a hole patched at the bottom right of the painting.

The bottom right of the painting. Look carefully and closely.. It's quite obvious

 This was only the first activity of the day. That day was a really packed day... so stay tuned =D.
If you wanna know more about the Pilar Basilica, please visit this WEB or that WEB.

Trip to Zaragoza: Day 1

6 to 8 August 2010
IAESTE is not just about working and working. It's also about fun... travelling and lots of visiting. All the regions have different IAESTE local commitees so we have sort of like an interchange of visits between the regions. IAESTE Catalunya, especially have been organizing lots of fun stuff. This time I joined a trip to Zaragoza. It's a city in the Aragon region and the people there speak real Spanish and not Catalan.

Zaragoza is located in the middle of the other main provinces like Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, with a distance of approximately 300km from each so it's kind of like in the middle when seen in the map but on land it's in the middle of nowhere. There're many ways of transportation of course.. train, bus and car. Car by far would be the cheapest especially with car pool. Travelling by train is really costly though. At first, my intention was to go there by train and I was confident with the idea. But when I check the price, I nearly choked and immediately changed the idea. The ticket costs around 90+ Euros. Probably it's high speed train considering the distance, but still not worth it. RyanAir would have been much cheaper. So in the end, since there were only four going from Catalunya, we had a car pool and it only costs me 25Euros. Going by car takes around 3 and a half hours but that’s better than spending the money for train.

One the way to Zaragoza, there's this simple arch. I was told it's the Greenwich Arch

And once a while, there'll be large bull figures on the hills. From far it looks really real but in fact that's only a 2D figure

So, we reached at around quarter to 9 at night. Met the Zaragoza local committees at their apartment. Well, when I got into the apartment, the first thing I had in mind was to take pictures.. how typical of me with my camera

Cool alcohol bottle collections. That's the first thing that caught my attention when I got into the apartment.

 And a cool clock on the wall..

Must be really fragile. Would like to have something like that too..

After some introduction and greetings, we headed to Hotel Maza which was our accomodation for the weekend. It's located right at the city centre so it's really convenient. Everything is in walking distance.

Hotel Maza. Don't judge by the looks. It's small but good..

Not exactly the grand type of hotel. But I would give it a 3 stars.. And it only costs me 40 euros for two nights. As long as there's a comfortable bed, I'm in for the offer. And it sure does..

Nice bed.. Even the one in my apartment is not as comfy as this one. Couldn't wake up on time the following day.

 And of course, the toilet is one important point to judge whether it's a good hotel or not. For Hotel Maza, it's good. Definitely worth the money.

The toilet is the most important criteria for me to rate the hotel.

They even have a cool basin. I can actually play toy ship battles in it but I don't have the time to do so

So in Zaragoza, despite being hungry, having dinner was not the first thing we do. Instead we went to this special bar. It's my first time being in this bar and I'm very sure none of my friends in Malaysia or Australia has been to this sort of bar before. It's called El Plata.

It's full of people. I wasn't surprise why there were so many. It's the only picture I manage to take in the bar

And what's so special about this bar?? So special to the point that we have to skip dinner first??
There's a show which we were just in time for. It's a cabaret. A very famous and unique one in Zaragoza. To be exact it's a nude cabaret. Male and female performers literally take everything off. And the performers do not only dance on stage but  also around the whole bar. It's pretty close to the audiences.Wooooohhh... sure is my first time watching such show and I didn't have time to blink my eyes. Spain indeed. I'm finally out from the coconut shell. It's definitely my first time watching this and it's called a 'Cabaret' so now I'm confused with the definition of cabaret, wondering if all the cabarets like the ones in Moulin Rouge are the same or is it just this one that's unique.

Cabaret El Plata as can be seen at 23:00. Can you imagine, it's that late and still no dinner but I wasn't really hungry anymore after the show =D. I'm not a pervert ok!! Just traumatised..

 My camera was totally ready but unfortunately before the show started and during every interval breaks, there's a reminder that NO phototaking or video recording is allowed. So sorry guys, it's only in my memory. NO PHOTOS. And my blog is not for explicit contents either.

As you can see, even the toilet has entertainment. It's a really creative idea though. I tried to use the cubical but I guess I was too "shy" I couldn't release, so I had to use the normal toilet bowl

I didn't know how long the show was but I know it's very late because all the restaurants are closed by the time we came out from the bar. So, we had kebabs at a nearby kebab shop which, luckily was opened. Otherwise we would have to go to bed starving.

After that, we had a short relaxing walk before doing more late night activities.

It's really relaxing to walk at night. Well, this is the quiet part. This is Spain, not Australia, so don't expect such quietness everywhere.

The very famous Cathedral in Zaragoza. I'll talk much more about this later on.

And of course, no matter how late it is, we never miss visiting the bars. This is the definition of Spain.

One of the bars and there were so many people but it's categorized average. There are more than 10 other bars around the corner.

Well, this is day one and it's not even a day. Only a few hours of night and there's so much to talk about. Stay tuned for much much much more. Seriously!! It's only a weekend trip but I've taken hundreds of photos. And it's a really packed weekend. WOW!! I sure love IAESTE.