Tower
The tower of Pisa is one of those places where tourists flock to and taking a mandatory "here's me holding up the tower" or "here's me kicking it down" - typical touristy shot. And then they lament that there isn't much in the area other than the leaning tower of pisa, and find it very underwhelming. At least that is what i've heard. But here's a different opinion :) I think visiting Pisa solely for the Leaning tower of Pisa would definitely be underwhelming. However, there are so many other things around the area that you could enter and visit. Perfect for a half day trip!Just FYI, I took a train to Pisa from Florence, and spent half a day there.
The interesting thing about the area around the Leaning Tower of Pisa is that everything building in its vicinity seems to be leaning as well. The church, the baptistry, and the cemetery. I had much trouble trying to get my pictures "straight". Jerald's camera came with a level rule and even he had slanted pictures!
So my conclusion is: It is a LEANING PLOT OF LAND.
*Its technically true because the sinking ground is the reason why the tower leans, and continues to lean more.
From my other travel posts, you could probably guess that I enjoy visiting churches and cathedrals. With a combined ticket you could enter all the attractions in the region for a small fee.
The church just beside the leaning tower of Pisa is not big, but still rather impressive. I honestly think it is because I haven't been to many elaborate cathedrals in my life (before coming to Europe) that this fascination exists. Other people would probably be bored of churches and cathedrals by now if they were me.
The entrance to the baptistry is free, but I did not have sufficient time to enter, unfortunately. When I first saw the building, I was intrigued by the different colours of its facade. The dome on top has one colour one side and a different colour on the other. Distinctively split up. So if face it from the church, the dome is one colour but if you face it from the entrance to the area, it is a different colour.
Why and how? Can someone enlighten me?
Makes me wonder if they built half the dome and ran out of materials or if they built one half and then the other - which really doesn't make sense. I doubt it is erosion, nothing erodes that evenly and beautifully!
Other than the church, Jerald and I also went to the cemetery. And there was no one there! There were probably 200 people around the tower of Pisa and 20 people in the other buildings around it. What a waste.
The cemetery was a very peaceful place with interesting statues and tomb like structures. They were mostly sealed, and the ones that were open were empty. I absolutely love the details of the carvings and the paintings no the wall behind it. Part of the wall decoration were faded and some have peeled off but I like to attempt to interpret the missing parts with my own (sometimes ridiculous) links as part of a story.
The cemeteries i've been to in my life, and the churches I've been to are so so different from this. I've never been to cathedrals in asia, I go to church back in Singapore, but churches are NEVER that elaborate! Of course, my idea of a cemetery is never one with white stone statues and detailed carvings. I always thought cemeteries were eerie tombstones lined up side by side or just a wall of plaques with some engravings.
After exploring the other attractions, we headed out to join the 200 other people at the tower of Pisa. As I was walking towards the tower, the engineering brain cells in me went "I bet there is an angle where the tower is straight!" and I told Jerald. Henceforth we began our search for the STRAIGHT Tower of Pisa. With some mathematical talk about how if it is leaning in one way, to have it straight, we should be on the other side of the tower.
I swear i'm not a nerd!
But I was very impressed with myself for finding the spot where the tower appeared straight. The things I do when traveling...
Since we went to Pisa in the afternoon, we stayed till the sun started to set, and saw how the pink streaks in the sky were reflected on the tower itself. Sadly, it was a pretty cloudy day, and so the tower wasn't as vibrantly lit up with the colours of the sunset.
After spending half a day there, we went to roam around the streets of Pisa and had dinner before heading back to Florence.
It was a fun short day trip out looking for our Straight Tower of Pisa. Going to Pisa solely for that tourist shot, is not going to be worth it, if you are ever in the area, definitely go into the cemetery and baptistry, admire their architecture and interiors, perhaps watch the sunset too? That will definitely make your trip more worthwhile!
More than just the Tower of Pisa
12 March 2015 Leaning Tower of Pisa, 56126 Pisa Pisa, Italy
Instead of cooking/learning how to cook from my dad every night, we decided to head out and eat one of the weeknights. Found out about Ti Jos online at Timeout Paris, and we gave it a try.
It was hard to navigate to Ti Jos, but thankfully for google map, we succeeded. Ti Jos is located in some small lane in Montparnase.
At Ti Jos we had (Clockwise direction): Ti Jo Salade - Really awesome potatoes with ham and mustard sauce (and i don't even like mustard, but i liked the salad!), Galette with Ham, Eggs and Mushroom, Salted Caramel Apple Crêpe - This crêpe was divine. Zara and I both LOVED the apples. They has this light sweetness, and the caramel was not too sweet and didn't overpower, another Galette with cheese, ham, eggs and mushroom! 3.50Euro for a glass of really fragrant red wine and COMPLIMENTARY Baugettes which were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
It was a good meal :)
Here's a box of pretty Pierre Hermé macarons that zara brought back, which I heard had a really awesome texture. Gonna get some for myself soon!
Met Nic and her friend on her last evening in Paris for a little catch up session :) Went to SoonSoon for dinner and had Korean food. Despite my ugly picture of it, the food was pretty awesome! And it was a great catching up session nice to finally meet nic after so long <3
p.s: Nic, i noticed kenny talking to zara to make her feel less awkward while the both of us were reminiscing about the past and gushing about random RJ people haha! Thank him for me!
The Grand Palais, as we were heading for dinner down Champs-Élysées
After the dinner, while walking along the Champs-Élysée, kenny got approached by some petition people. They really pick their targets. He happened to be carrying a lot of things, but thankfully we all walked away fast enough.
Apparently my dad entertained one of the small kids who asked him to sign for some stuff. He wanted to donate money but only said he had a couple of coins, the little girl even offered to change his notes to coins for him, but thankfully nothing serious happened and I guess they "lost" only several coins in his pocket or something.
The last night for them in Paris, we went to the Eiffel Tower. After cooking dinner, we waited until about 9pm and headed out then. It was pretty easy to get to the Eiffel tower, since my dad went there a couple of times during his stay.
Edited version of the sun set while I was playing with the photo editing app.
After it got Dark the Eiffel Tower looked really pretty :) Not too many pretty shots cause Zara was wearing a dress and she didn't dare jump and it was damn hard to please me when it comes to jump shots. So heres a picture of us against the Tour Eiffel.
After the sun completely went down, the flickering lights of the Eiffel Tower came on :) It was a really pretty after the lights turned on!
Honestly, I was pretty disappointed with the Eiffel Tower.
1. There were just too many tourist. TOO MANY.
2. I was in a really crappy mood that day.
3. It didn't evoke any feeling/emotion in me. I have no idea why, but I did not find it majestic/grand etc. it felt as though I was looking at a postcard more than something live. IT REALLY JUST LOOKS LIKE WHAT YOU SEE IN A POST CARD. Feels... "dead" if anybody got what I meant.
Nevertheless, its like something on a TO-DO List. You can't go to Paris and not see the Eiffel Tower, Its like just for the sake of it. Everyone should go at least once. :)
I guess when you just walk around with your significant other, without the stress of settling in/having to wake up early to work tmr, its nice to admire the lights or even climb up the tower to get a birds eye view of Paris.
On the way back we saw a couple just standing against one of the lamp pole waiting for the photographer to take their picture. It didn't look the least bit romantic. They just looked uncomfortable, awkward and annoying. Which I found really amusing and I had to contain my laughter.
I have a whole theory about Paris and Romance. Which will be elaborated when pictures of Pont des Arts go up :)
Tour Eiffel + Food Adventures
28 June 2014 Eiffel Tower, Champ de Mars, 5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007 Paris, France
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