[ Living In The Fairytale ]

Friday, March 31, 2006

Spring Flowers in UW

I'm going for the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival with FIUTs tomorrow! In the meantime, feast your eyes upon the lovely blooms in UW:

Most daffodils are solid yellow, but these are pale yellow with inner orange petals. (Okay these were taken outside the University Presbyterian Church, not in UW.=P)

Rows of cherry blossoms

Cherry blossoms close-up

Red rose! (Now I know roses grow on trees..I always thought they grow on bushes. Haha.)

No idea what these are, but they look like mini lilies.

A pair of ducks foraging for food.

My favourite - a pink rose!

Tons of morning glory.

Dandelion

Do you see the squirrel?

Black...berries?

In The Fairyland On|9:41 PM|

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Signs of Spring

Flowers of all varieties are blooming voraciously throughout the whole of Washington state (well at least in UW and Fred Hutch haha) and it's so pretty! I intend to take my camera out with me tomorrow and do a few macro shots of the beautiful flowers, especially the cherry blossoms along Savery Hall in UW. I heard that cherry blossoms don't last very long; let's just hope I can still catch them tomorrow.

4 days into Spring Quarter and everything's been going fine so far. I've managed to enroll myself in some interesting classes this time, and I'll be able to do some 'fun courses' like philosophy (disguised as a pharmacy module), speech, epidemiology and nutrition. I'm basically not doing any biology-related courses this quarter as most of the biology courses are too difficult and I don't have the required background, or I've already done these courses in NTU. Well all the better - if I take more relaxing courses I'll have more time to get out more and know more people! =)

There's a tulip festival at Mount Vernon from April 1 - 30, and I hope I'll be able to go and see the vast fields of tulips! The situation is rather bleak though: the FIUTS trip is full already, and it costs $45 to go by the Clipper Vacations tour. Hmm.

In The Fairyland On|7:41 PM|

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Last Day of Spring Break

Originally intended to eat dim sum at the International District (Chinatown) today, but changed our minds and went shopping at Downtown instead. And finally, I got to eat at the Cheesecake Factory! The main course wasn't expensive but the dessert was, so each person's bill came up to about $20. Had the California Cheesesteak and Factory Mudpie..simply yummy!

Well I guess it's back to school again tomorrow. Time really flies when you're enjoying yourself.

In The Fairyland On|10:24 PM|

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Spring Break Trip to Canada

I took a 7 day, 6 nights tour to Vancouver and Victoria and stayed 3 nights at each place. The trip was fantastic although it was a low budget tour - spent about US$370 in total.

Warning: Long blog entry ahead!

Vancouver - 1st day
Originally I thought that I had booked the train from Seattle to Vancouver by Amtrak, and I was really looking forward to the train ride as I had never sat on a train before (with the exception of the unglamourous MRT). Imagine my surprise when we got to King St station and found out that we had booked a bus instead. Darn. Now I know why the website said it was a "throughway bus" - I realised that they really meant it was a bus and not a train. Haha. The weather in Vancouver was good, lots of bright sunshine and less windy compared to Seattle. (I think I even got a slight tan at the end of the trip.)

Dragged my noisy luggage from one end of Main street to the other to try to get to our hostel on Powell Street in Gastown. We stayed at Grand Trunk Hostel - there was nothing grand about it and it was a dingy and dirty place. But well that's budget travel for you. The hostel was hard to identify as it had only a miserable flimsy sign, the rooms were cramped, the floor littered with bugs and the building was even slanted and gave us a sense of vertigo. Very miserable indeed.

"Why did we choose to stay here?!"

Bug-ridden floor

The rest of the day was spent wandering around Chinatown, Robson street and Gastown. It was kind of a wasted day as we were just orientating ourselves and finding out things.

Gateway to Chinatown

Jack "Gassy" Deighton, founder of Gastown.

Some unknown fountain in Gastown.

Vancouver - 2nd day
Started off the day with a tour around Gastown and Chinatown in the morning, where we visited the steam clock and the Storyeum attraction in Gastown. The steam clock is really powered by steam and is supposed to chime every 15 minutes, but it didn't seem to be working when we got there. Trust it to break down just when I visit. =P

Steam clock

In front of Storyeum

Storyeum was a pretty cool attraction - we joined the "BC Live Underground tour", a theatrical musical that portrayed British Columbia's 400 years of history from the time of the First Nation (the natives) to the arrival of European explorers, the gold rush era, and finally Confederation and the completion of the national railway in Vancouver. It was all very interactive and fun! We were really brought underground for the musical by the "Spiralift", a large round lift that could hold 200 people. The show had quite a few witty bits (though nobody really laughed at them, I wonder why), and I especially liked the parody of Queen Victoria.

My favourite quote in Storyeum

We also had dim sum in Chinatown, which was quite cheap and tasty. It's been so long since I last had dim sum! Haha. We ordered quite a lot of dishes but the bill came up to only about CAD$8 per person.

Savouring my century egg with pork porridge. =)

After the dim sum we visited the Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden, which I vaguely remember having gone to the last time I went to Canada. It was a rather small and nondescript garden and there was nothing much to see. We didn't spend a lot of time there.

Vancouver Centennial Police Museum

After that we walked along Water St to the Waterfront Harbour and Convention Centre, where we had a great view of the harbour and its surrounding mountain ridges (one of which was Grouse mountain, I think). We even managed to catch a halijet departing from the waters near the harbour.

Our first (and only) photo together in Vancouver. That's one downside to travelling with only one friend.

Magnificient view from the harbour

The sails on top of the convention centre.

The sails at night.

Me mimicking the bear (a tourism symbol of welcome in Vancouver)

Headed to Robson St after that for some retail therapy! Bought a whole bag of souvenirs comprising maple syrup chocolates, maple shortbread cookies, maple syrup candies and ice wine chocolates. Didn't buy any clothes at all because the tax in Canada is crazy. Apart from 7% GST, they also have an additional 7% PST (provincial services tax), which adds up to a total of 14% tax! The shops along Robson St were all rather upmarket and I felt things there were much too overpriced. In fact, I rarely shopped at all in Canada and I only bought souvenirs. That's strange seeing what an inverterate shopper I am. =)

The McDonald's sign in Canada has a maple leaf in the middle!

The famous shopping district in Vancouver - Robson St.

ROOTS - an upmarket Canadian brand

In front of my favourite shop.

Vancouver - 3rd day

The two places on our itinerary today were Stanley Park and Granville Island Public Market. Spent the better half of the day at Stanley Park, which we had to take a VERY VERY long walk from Robson St and Lagoon Drive to get to. After 3 full days of constant walking, my feet were really starting to feel the strain.

The walk was well worth it when we reached the "Lost Lagoon" in Stanley Park. It was really scenic looking at the blue expanse of waters with mandarin ducks, swans, geese, pigeons and seagulls nesting, fighting for food or grooming themselves. Huishan tried to touch one of the grooming swans but it made a terrible noise and looked ready to attack her, so we backed off hurriedly. Hehe.

Frolicking on the swing! (Ok kinda odd expression, I know.)

We walked to the English Bay Beach area where I did a little sketching in my sketchbook. The beach was simply fantastic, much better than Bondi beach in my opinion.

English Bay Beach

I decided to go the Vancouver Aquarium while Huishan went to explore the east area of Stanley Park (the part with the totem poles). This aquarium was quite different from the other commercialised ones like Seaworld, it focused more on conservation rather than entertainment. Hence the shows were more educational rather than gimmicky with lots of tricks. My favourite was the Beluga whales show. The Beluga whales live in the Arctic, they can hold their breath underwater up to 20 minutes and they're also able to go into shallow waters and thus to the beach during summer!

The beluga in shallow waters

The dolphin show was terribly lacklustre and quite a disappointment, consisting of mostly repeated routines.

The rest of the aquarium was superb - the most amazing must have been the Amazon fishes, some of which are longer than my arm! I also saw a huge Arowana fish there.

Amazon fishes, not sharks!

This school of fishes was floating in synchrony with the ebbing seaweed.

The Hagfish - Bio science students will recognise this. =)

An orange sea pen - looks like an underwater quill to me.

The stellar sea lion (got splashed by it)

The cute sea otter - it swims on its back!

Took a languorous walk across the Granville St Bridge, only to find that the Public Market was closed. Apparently it doesn't open on Mondays. -_- So we shopped a little at Pacific Center and I ate my Salmon Teriyaki at Nikko Japanese Restaurant. (My mantra is that the 2 things you must do in Canada is: 1. Eat salmon; 2. Taste the ice wine.) Kind of a strange twist for me to eat the same thing at the same restaurant 4 years later. Haha.

Victoria - 1st day
For the sake of saving money, we decided to take public transport to Victoria. Thus began our 5 hour journey via bus 98, 620, then the BC Ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay and lastly, bus 70 to downtown Victoria. The ferry was akin to a luxury cruise liner, complete with arcade, cafeteria, buffet, viewing decks and a gift shop.

Cafeteria

Reclining in comfort

Victoria had a rustic beauty and quaint feel to it, which was a respite from the bustling and noisy city of Vancouver. The pace there was much slower but there were more interesting attractions and historic buildings to see. The inner harbour, surrounded by the Parliament House and the Empress Hotel, is the heart of Victoria.

The Fairmont Empress Hotel - the oldest hotel in Victoria.

Along Inner Harbour

Parliament House at night (nice lights!)

We stayed in Turtles Refuge Backpacker's Hostel, a pretty funky place with good service and 24 hour internet access (but only 1 computer). It had much better facilities and most importantly, it was CLEAN. The only problem we had was a run-in with a mentally unstable woman who lived in the same room as us - she thought that we had shifted her stuff when in actual fact she was the one who shifted them herself. She also stole my maple syrup candies (which I didn't realise till I got back to Seattle) and Huishan's soap. =( I'm never going to stay in a hostel again man. Next time I'll just spend more money to stay in a hotel. Hmph.

Had time for a little shopping at the Bay Centre, the largest shopping centre in downtown Victoria. Bought a nice 2 piece top, which came with a free chocolate bar. Hehe. There was nothing much to do after that as all the shops and attractions close pretty early (even most of the restaurants). Even the Chinatown at night was like ghost town.

Marble fountain outside the Bay Centre.

Roger's Chocolates - famous in Victoria.

The bright lights of Chinatown.

Victoria - 2nd day
Went to "Miniature World" in the Empress Hotel, which featured miniatures of scenes from history, fairytales, dollhouses (my absolute favourite), the circus and outer space. The dollhouses were really elaborate and pretty. The Titania's Palace exhibit was fantastic too. The most amazing one was the miniature lumbermill, in which almost everything was constructed from scratch and it actually works! Some of the exhibits had buttons for us to press to make a train/bus move, so it was kind of interactive too. I think this is a place my sister would enjoy. =)

Battle scene - World War 2 in Normandy

The castle exhibit

The old woman who lived in a shoe.

Titania's Palace

Titania and Oberon

Sleeping Beauty

Buckingham palace and Queen Victoria monument.

Dollhouses!

Thereafter we went to the Royal London Wax Museum, where the figures were apparently crafted by Madame Tussaud. The wax figures looked lifelike, but not all looked like the original person. They had the usual entourage of royalty (Prince Charles, Princess Diana etc but no Prince William), Eistein, Elizabeth Taylor and also Disney characters like Pinocchio (which was wooden by the way, not wax). They also had a chamber of horrors (which I quickly exited from hehe) and a "Frozen in Time" exhibit chronicling Sir John Franklin and his men who tried to find a Northwest passage through the Arctic but never returned. The last exhibit was kind of creepy because they kept talking about the men's spirits being "frozen in time".

The Queen Mother

George Bush!

Einstein

Elizabeth Taylor

Took a photo with an Essex policeman outside the wax museum. An absolute gentleman. Haha.

After that we had to make haste to Craigdarroch Castle, which was pretty far away from the harbour and also closes at 4.30 pm. We thought that we wouldn't have enough time to finish exploring, but it was quite the contrary and we managed to finish it in under an hour. The castle looked more like a huge mansion, but it was exquisitely furnished. It had not yet been fully restored to its former glory though, so some parts were rather disappointing. What struck me about that place was that it had 2 antique Steinways (very expensive pianos for those who don't know) and at least 2 pianos or organs per level!

The way to Craigdarroch

The library

The 1898 Steinway in the Drawing Room

I'm playing the 1878 Steinway! (yeah right haha)

Their breakfast room (which is actually a separate room from the dining room)

Had dinner at "Old Vic's Fish and Chips", which served traditional English style fish and chips. My first time trying the chips with malt vinegar, which is highly recommended!

Huishan loves her fish and chips.

Tucking in!

Victoria - 3rd day
Butchart Gardens! The one place that you must not miss if you go to Victoria! The entrance fee was an exhorbitant $21 for the little flowers that we saw, but if they're anything to go by, it means that in summer the gardens will be splendid (and even more expensive). The best part of the gardens was the "Sunken Garden", which had tulips, crocuses, heathers, chrysanthemums...

The Butchart Gardens were not as large as I envisioned, and we managed to finish everything at a leisurely pace in 2 hours. Throughout the entire tour in Butchart Gardens, the bees kept encircling my head and buzzing around me, forcing me to wear my hood to prevent them from coming near my hair. A bee even banged into Huishan's head when we were taking photos. And the strange thing is, none of the other visitors seemed to have a problem with the bees. So why were they bugging us?!

Sunken Garden

Ross Fountain

(more photos on Butchart will be up soon)

Anyway we had afternoon tea at the Dining Room in Butchart after our tour. The food was fabulous and I felt like I was "living the Life" as I sat there sipping my tea and nibbling on the exquisite cakes and sandwiches. Haha.

The menu consisted of:
Fresh seasonal fruit cup with yoghurt citrus dressing
Shrimp and Gruyere quiche and a savoury homemade sausage roll with imported mustard (on the lowest level)
Smoked salmon with maple Dijon cream cheese sandwich roll
Egg salad and watercress sandwich
Mango curry chicken salad with toasted cashews sandwich
Smoked ham with sweet grainy mustard sandwich
Cucumber with fresh ginger cream cheese sandwich
Chocolate Grand Marnier truffle
Orange apricot loaf
Chocolate brandy Napoleon slice
Almond shortbread cookie with raspberry jam
Fresh fruit tart
Candied ginger scone and blackcurrant scone with strawberry jam and Devonshire whipped cream

All that for $25!

Tried to catch the "Live Dive Show" at the Pacific Undersea Gardens after that but was in time for only the last 5 minutes of the last show. Was quite sad but one of the staff gave me 3 rainchecks for free admission the next time, so my family will be able to enter for free when they go to Victoria in June. Not too bad eh?

In The Fairyland On|1:45 PM|