Oops!... I did it again
I was away for the past few weeks to United Kingdom (again!) and Europe as well (not again!)
I booked my flight right after I came back from my trip to Tokyo earlier this year when I happened to stumble upon cheap fare offered by Oman Air. Imagine fly-in London and fly-out Milan for RM1,800 which is definitely so hard to resist this temptation. And so happened Malindo Air was having promo where return flight for Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur for RM225. So in total, the whole fare cost RM2,025. What a great steal!
For this round, I decided to bring along my mom cause she never been to any angmoh (Western) countries before, including Australia due to family commitment. Besides my mom, I also tagged my cousin together. Initially we plan to visit Iceland but I guess Iceland would be slightly boring for my mom, hence I changed my plan to visit Portugal and Spain since I have never been there too.
Here's the quick sneak peek for our 19 days trip around London, Portugal, Spain and Milan:
#1: Hello London once again! I lost count how many times I've been to London cause I studied in United Kingdom before
#2: First time flying with RyanAir and Ola
Portugal!
#3:
Porto turns out to be my favourite one among all the cities I visited for this trip
#4: The famous tram 28 in Lisbon. We almost pickpocketed when arrived Lisbon from Porto but luckily I aware of that.
#5: A day trip to
Sintra from Lisbon merely for this colourful and magnificent
Pena Palace
#6: From Portugal to Spain. A trip to
Barcelona is incomplete without visit any of Gaudi's masterpiece.
#7:
Sagrada Familia - another of Gaudi's unfinished Roman Catholic church. Glad I bought the ticket online or else, I might need to join the long hours queue.
#8:
Madrid, the capital city of Spain and we stayed here for four nights
#9: A day trip to
Segovia from Madrid which takes about half an hour via high-speed train
#10: Another day trip to
Seville which takes approximately 2 and half hour from Madrid but it's really worth it
#11: Ended our trip in
Milan. Unfortunately, it's overrated for me - so crowded and once again, we almost being the target for pickpocket on our way from train station to airport.
For some travellers, they would try to cover as many countries as possible in this almost three weeks trip but for me, I try to slow down my travel pace not just for the sake of my mom but also I dislike rushing my trip lately. I don't feel any sense of enjoyment at all by rushing here and there. Probably this is a sign of aging. Oopsss...
All in nutshell, we explored
4 countries (United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain and Italy), wandered around 9 different cities and experienced 3 new airlines (Oman Air, RyanAir and TAP Air Portugal). I asked my mom whether she would love to return to Europe again, she said Yes! but with one condition - reduce the number of walking in future. Hahaha. Sorry mom for making you to walk more than 10,000 steps everyday. Sometimes, we even walked more than 20,000 in a day. I'm kidding not! But I glad that we survived till the end of the trip.
#12: My virgin experience flying with Oman Air - Not bad. I quite enjoy the in-flight entertainment but the food is so-so only. Still prefer Qatar Airways in-flight meal better.
