Eurotrip part 2: Lisboa @ Lisbon, Portugal

been postponing to write this for months.. never thought having an infant would suck all the free time out of me.. ini belum start classes lagi ni... sadisss~

first part of eurotrip was from london - paris, here's the second part:

After paris, we flew to Lisbon, Portugal..just me and dosh.. alvi dgn adam nak tgk football match kat liverpool so from Paris, we split. Oya of course la ikot husband... there's no picture of us in Portugal, sbb camera buat hal masa kitorang dah sampai Madrid, which is after lisbon. hilang SEMUAAAA gambaq kat portugal and half of the places we visited in Madrid. huuuuu sedihhh... lisbon dah la tepi laut... terpaksa la guna khidmat google utk cerita sikit apa best kat lisbon ni.

i dont really like lisbon... although its much cheaper to get around here tapi dia cam ammmm ammm ammmm.... mcm dodgy sikit.. banyak alley and narrow roads, dan staircase!!! penat sgt naik turun tangga.. ada skali tu silap jalan, dah naik tangga mcm batu caves skali nak kena turun balik.. kalau tak pregnant sanggup je gulingkan diri sampai bawah..and the streets are filled with beggars.. i dont mean it in a bad way, tapi beggars kat lisbon ni bkn mcm beggars kat jalan masjid india, yg duduk bersila dan mintak ihsan. beggars kat sini will follow u and pester sampai la kita bagi dia duit. scary laaaa! dia tak bagi can kita lari punya.. me and dosh had to lari masuk kedai sbb duk kena kejaq.. masuk kedai pun ada stgh yg brani masuk jugak kedai nak mintak sedekah...kena halau dgn toke kedai pun depa gagah jugak tunggu kitorg klua kedai.... mana tak takut!

Masa sampai Portugal, edros dah rancak gila bersembang dgn taxi driver.. sembang pasai bola.. tapi tak pasti la apa depa dua duk sembang.. satu; sebab depa sembang bola, dua; sebab tak pasti depa dua tu paham ka tak apa yg depa duk sembang hahaha. We booked our place thru airbnb, so we ask the taxi driver to find our place.. nama tempat tu rua da madalena. Nama cam classy, skali sampai, ya rabbiiii… sunggoh ghetto sekali.. dah la sampai time maghrib..

the dreadful staircase. lebih kurang mcm ni la lorong2 blkg kat rua da madalena.. ni baru siang.. kalau malam? haaa~

it was dark and along the corners of the street there were groups of men, mcm gangters2 gitu.. on second thought, even barney can look like a thug in dark streets with graffiti sprayed all over the wall. it took us quite a while to find our apartment. We were greeted by Paulo, the house owner’s friend. The owner pegi mana ntah so it was his friend who waited for us to pass the keys. Paulo works for the army. Tak payah tanya, dia pakai baju askar full siap dgn boots lagi. He seems friendly tapi dgn baju askar lagu tu, kami ketaq jugak la nak sembang dgn dia. It was freezing that night and he didn’t even bothered to switch on the heater. Semangat kental sungguh dia ni.. before he left he told us to watch out cause the streets aren’t safe. Bayangkan la seorang askar yg jiwa kental tu warning kami macamni, lepas tu masa kami nak kunci pintu, there were 5 locks on the door!! Macam lock pintu besi.. sungguh la kami ketaq lutut, maka dinner kami malam tu ialah maggi cup perisa kari saja. Takut nak keluaq.

hai Paulo~ (bkn nama sebenar)

there’s one thing i really fall in love with here; their pastry shop.. pegi portugal kalau tak makan portuguese egg tart dia mmg rugiiiii!! sedap gilaaaaa~~!! menyesal beli sikit haritu... sampai airport rasa mcm nak nanges sbb duk teringat egg tarts. tak sama mcm melesia punya.. the burnt sugar on top of the egg tart although hitam rentung, its nowhere near hangit. the balance of the custardy taste, sweetness and the bitter burnt sugar is amazingly perfect.. sama la benda2 lain dlm pastry shop depa, mmg semua pun sedap2.. yg kenal cuma the egg tarts, yg lain main amik je mana yang nampak best...

egg tarts yang sedap gilaaaa

rasa mcm nak pi lisbon lagi semata2 nak makan egg tarts.. boleh?

And another thing i like abt lisbon is the castle. st george castle in lisbon overlooks the sea, and its huge and very tersergam indah in its own way... takdak la balairong seri apa semua tu.. nak masuk bayar, dlm 15euro kot.. tak ingat sangat.. it’s a beautiful old castle, made from huge slabs of stone. Feeling feeling Cinderella sat.. we don’t have castle here in Malaysia.. yg mcm istana seri menanti tu category lain ye kawan2 sekalian.. itu istana kayu tak pakai paku, tiang seribu..

By night time we dare not walk around the street anymore..berpegang teguh kepada warning Paulo si askar tu.. we tapau dinner and makan depan tv sambil tgk news dalam bahasa Portugal.. nasib lah kan.. and I took shoe scrubbing as entertainment.. did i mention that the streets in Lisbon are all from cobblestone? So kasut senang berdebu.. mesti budak2 sekolah kat sana kena kapoq kasut sekolah depa hari hari.. siannn..

St george castle

sini pun ada tram. this place is very the steep. nak jalan kaki memerlukan kekuatan kaki watson nyambek

aerial view of lisbon and st george castle.

st george castle interior. penoh pokok je dlm ni

inilah dia cobbled street. kalau hujan mmg slippery. 

hard rock cafe lisbon. kitorang pegi siang je. malam tak brani nak kluaq rumah. maka terlepas la live band portugal. sedihh..

After 2 nights, we were relieved to be taking off to Madrid… so long lisboa and its cobbled street. its not really a bad place i would say.. now that ive googled the images, i realize that its actually a beautiful place.. maybe paulo scared the hell out of us too much.. hahaha

ni baru part 2, will story more on Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Venice, Rome in the coming posts. kat sini ja yang gambaq hilang, lepas2 ni semua ada gambaq yang authentic, bukan google images J

26.11.2012

this date marks my first year of marriage. life has never felt this complete, to have a very loving and supportive husband and blessed with a fluffy little girl.

sometime ago, i never thought i'd be here, being what i am now. most of what i am now, i owe it to my very best friend cum husband.

i had known him all the way back from high school. he's from pfs and im from st.george's. sounds typical kan? hahaha. well, i only know of his existence je pun. zaman tu budak senjojes yang tak kenai edros pfs cuma budak2 resos, itupun sbb depa tak pi gig. kalau pi gig, mesti kenai sgtttttttt! beliau adalah seorang hiphoppers yang tegar. masa tu la.. la ni dia hafal lagu2 barney sahaja...

after high school, we both went to the same matriculation college, kmpp. setahun kat kmpp, i still know him from far cause he was too busy dating my friendS. please notice that the noun is in plural form. hahaha. oh edros, please dont kill me *lariiiiii*

7 years after we left kmpp, we met again. but in that 7 years, we were barely even friends. mungkin jugak la kawan, tapi segan kot nak mengaku 'kawan edros', dia kan hiphopp.. hahahaha ****lari lagi lajuuu***

i met him again when i moved back to penang. dulu cita2 tinggi nak keja kl konon. too bad i was bonded with a company in penang, naktaknak kena balik jugak. i hated the whole idea of having to live in penang and work in a freaking japanese factory. because i have to live with my dad, and that means kena balik rumah by maghrib. undang2 yang digunapakai semenjak dari darjah empat.

malas nak cerita in detail. sebenarnya boleh ja cerita, tapi takut edros naik angin hahaha. ada la mcm2 hal jadi, standard cerita2 orang2 muda baru nak start relationship. so cut the story short, we met again somewhere in november 2009, got engaged in 2010, and got married on 26.11.2011..senang cerita..

like others, of course we had our share of ups and downs. but what matters most to me, is that he has made me stronger by the day. he stood by me all along, never once losing faith in what i choose to do. it wasnt easy to quit a stable job and pursue full time masters and halfway thru got myself into a difficult pregnancy. there are times when i just feel like calling it quits. but he was there and he made me feel grand. yeah, thats the word, Grand... like doing what im doing is the most amazing thing anyone can do. he picked me up all the way and gave me support and happily refuel my blown-up self esteem. he believes in me, and thats all it takes to get me going.

so tanpa melengahkan masa lagi, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY EDROS~!

untuk tatapan edros dgn ucapan, anniversary takde cincin ke?

pose klasik lepas akad nikah 

"hai~ sorang je ke?" kata edros hiphop kepada pasu bunga.

after a year of marriage, all i can say now is just Alhamdullillah. looking forward to be in love with this awesome man till jannah :)

Officially a Mom

The wait has finally come to an end. Alhamdullilah, I have safely delivered a healthy baby girl on the 10^th of October at 5.30pm.

Im now on my day 26th of pantang (pantang ke? Hahaha)… took me a while to write this as it took me some time to recover from the delivery.. and having a baby really changes everything.. no time is a free time (nanges sekuat hati)… even as im typing this, my baby is fast asleep swaddled next to me.. my one hand has to get ready to tepuk2 her back to sleep every time she’s about to wake up.

i cud not express in exact words how it feels like to finally hold her.. its really like what others use to say, ‘indescribable feeling’.. happy/joyful/excited seem too small of a word to describe.. it’s just, amazingly beautiful.. albeit the agony of childbirth J

I bet every women has different encounter and different stories to tell on their childbirth experience.. here’s mine to share J :

Before the big day:

A week before my EDD, I already have irregular contractions or what I’d prefer to call ‘false labor’.. mati2 ingat dh nak bersalin, but before anything it just sort of hilang tiba2.. so I went for check up with Dr.Tan (my ob/gyn) and he said my cervix hasn’t dilated yet and gave me a week to wait before I can opt to induce labor.. at that point, waiting for 1 week feels sooooooo long. I cant sleep as it gets difficult, I pee every minute and my back was killing me.  Tungguuu punya tungguuuu.. so 1 week has passed, and on the 9^th of October, I went to see Dr.Tan again and this time, my cervix has dilated to 2cm. At that time, I was already 1 day overdue… sehari je pun but I decided to induce jugak.. because Edros will be leaving to Johor end of that week and I don’t want to risk giving birth when he’s not around.. so induce it is.. and it’s scheduled for the next day.  Terus call asmaa’ suruh balik and she took the first flight back to penang.. baik kan adik saye? 

On the evening, I had dinner with Edros, Asmaa’ and Jumie at Seoul Garden.. dah lamaaaaaa teringin nak makan situ but edros taknak.. alasan dia ‘bayar mahal2 pastu kena masak sendiri.. buang duit je’… hahaha.. finally a day before labor baru la dpt merasa.. tapi takdak la buang duit pun, jumi and asmaa’ yang sibuk duk grill2 semua.. yang lain sua pinggan dan makan sajaaa.. yeeeeehaaa~~!!

Malam tu dh sampai rumah, I started packing.. solat hajat, baca doa.. cant remember what time I slept.. dh baring atas katil pun I couldn’t sleep a wink.. the whole time I was anxious and I kept telling myself that tomorrow, I’ll meet my little kickboxer for the first time.. and with that thought in mind, I drifted away.

The big day:

Woke up at 5.30am. mandi, pack2 lagi, pusing2 kelam kabut and straight to pantai hospital. I have to be at the labor room by 6.45am. Awaiiii gila. Hari sukan sekolah pun tak payah awai2 mcmni.. masuk2 labor room terus kena salin baju hospital yg ikat2 tu.. nurse bagi enema pastu ada la ulang alik pegi toilet 2-3 kali.. once dah pasang drip nanti, I’ll no longer be allowed to go to the toilet. About 7.30 ke 8 am macamtu, baru pasang drip.. I was given pitocin to induce the labor. It wasn’t painful in the beginning though I can feel the contraction slowly becoming more and more intense and closer from one to another.

At 9am, Dr Tan came. He broke my water using a long rod with a small hook at the end.. an amnihook it was called (obviously I googled it). It wasn’t painful at all when the water broke.. only I felt like a fountain down there.. I don’t know how many liters of water was there but the water kept on flowing with every contraction, up till my final push. Rasa mcm satu kolah of water.. asmaa’ and edros took turns accompanying me in the labor room.. and I had to ask for tissue papers from them non stop as it gets very uncomfortably wet.

After the waters broke, the pain became stronger.. by 10am I was 4cm dilated and the contractions was 7 minutes apart.. By the time I was 5cm dilated, the pain had become very very very strong.. and what made it worse, from 1cm to another cm, it took me hours.

The nurses kept increasing the dose of the iv drip, I guess my progress was a bit too slow.. by 6cm, I decided to take the painkiller shot.. I have no idea why it’s called a painkiller when it doesn’t ‘kill’ the pain.. instead it only took off the edge of the contractions.. but it made me very sleepy.. by noon i was on and off between sleep.. waking up to excruciating contractions.. I couldn’t talk to asmaa’ and edros anymore..i couldn’t check twitter or facebook, I cant even look at the tv screen. All I did was pray.. I recited over and over, ‘hasbunallahu wa ni’mal wakil’ (Allah (Alone) is Sufficient for us, and He is the Best Disposer of affairs (for us).) That’s what my dad told me to read from surah al-imran. It didn’t take the pain off me, but at least it felt justified. I told myself, there’s more pain in this world to compare with this pain of labor.. besides, it’s not considered syaheed for nothing.

By 4pm, asmaa’ wasn’t allowed in the labor room anymore.. thanks to this one very garang head nurse.. but I was glad edros was there.. because I was lying on my side, he was the one who spoon fed me water, rub my back (for hours!) and he was very encouraging.. I thought he’d chickened out to watch the baby emerging, but it didn’t seem to bother him at all with all the blood and everything. he didn’t peep or anything, he just stood by me and from time to time he goes to my front and checked out the progress. He even came up to me, made a ‘0’ shape with his fingers and explained that I just need to hold on a bit cause it wasn’t time to push.. dah mcm dr la pulak..

by 9cm I felt the urge to push so baddddd.. I can feel the baby’s head and it felt as if someone was drilling my back.. but I was told not to push yet.. afraid that I might injure the baby’s head.. Dr.Tan came and told me that he’ll be back in half an hour’s time. I don’t know what got into me, I grab hold of his hand and said out loud “no way half an hour, I can only hold 15 minutes!!!”.  Hahaha.

Actually, even 1 minute felt like beyond what I could hold.. I wanted to push so bad.. everything was very fast after that, I remember the dr bringing in the vacuum.. and when everything was set up, my legs all up, I was given the cue to push whenever I feel the contraction coming.. i pushed to the point that my head feels like exploding.. eyes closed, chin touching chest, lips sealed, breathing held and I pushhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheddddddddddd!!!!!! Everyone was like ‘lagiiii, lagiiii, sikit lagiii’.. edros gave me the most encouragement, he was like ‘sayang, I can see the head. Sikit lagiii!! U can do it!! Come onn!!”

There was a stinging sensation down there, but it wasn’t any where as painful as the contractions before.. by the third push, my longest and strongest push, I heard the doctor screamed ‘stop pushing! Stop pushing!”… and within a few seconds I heard a loud cry.. I turned to look at edros, he was holding my hands.. I didn’t know exactly what was happening, caught in exhaustion and confusion.. but he kissed my forehead and said ‘u did great sayang’… I felt like I’ve fought a battle victoriously.

I was really tired by then, it was just a relief that the worst of the pain was gone.. pushing wasn’t painful.. in fact pushing felt like a huge huge huge relief.. my baby was then handed to me and for the first time, i met my little girl who for 9 long months I have longed to see.. all of a sudden, I didn’t remember the pain, I cant recall what difficult pregnancy I went thru, all I had in mind at that time was ‘for this little girl, I’d do it all over again’..

So long 9 months of pregnancy, i use to whine so much about it.. now there’s only one way to describe the journey, it’s beautiful J

fresh

My little Imaan 

the love of my life

Imaan's akikah, 28.10.2012

this is taken after delivery. 27 years ago we shared the same womb, even the same placenta.  and she's the best thing my mom left me. i could never thank her enough. thank u for always being there for me. this is asmaa', my twin. but in reality, she's everything i could ever ask for.

 and to my big sis, khairiyyah, thank you for sacrificing so much for me and asmaa'. we might have lost our mom, but your presence has always made us feel like we still have a mom to turn to.

Melakarism

helllo~~~

well apparently, i still havent delivered.. and jiwa kacau? ada la kot sikit2..  to take off my jiwa kacau mode, i am now on holidayyy!!!

takdak la holiday mana sgt pun.. edros has a meeting in Melaka today.. on sunday as he was getting ready to drive down to melaka, ada la seeekor makhluk gemok nak jugak2 follow... harus lah! i'd rather terberanak tgh2 jalan with my husband next to me than being husband-less in the labor room.

and with so long of waiting, i dont think theres a chance she's coming out anytime soon... sempat punya lah balik penang with the womb intact, not deflated.

the drive to melaka from penang took us about 6 hours. speeding out of the question with a whale on board.. lagipun theres no rush.. cukup2 la sedekah kat polis trafik. we arrived at around 7, check in and makan and tgk tv in the room and sleeeeeep. we're staying in Hatten Hotel.. last time we came here we pass by this hotel and i remember its location - right at the centre of the town. walking distance to mahkota parade and all the places surrounding. so i asked edros to book us a room here. mula2 dia taknak, bising2 hotel tak penah dengaq nama la.. assuming its a cikai/bodo2 hotel.. tapi last2 dia book jugak.. cause i dont want to stay jauh2 from town since he'll be attending his meeting. sampai2 je hotel, HAH! AMIK KAUUU~~

hotel die cantek ok. bkn cap ayam. sat nak gugel gambaq...

ni bukan cap ayam ni... ni cap dragonn~~

we got the room with king size bed *guling*guling*guling*guling*

tv ada dua!  BAHAGIANYA TAK PAYAH TGK BOLA!!!! *guling lagi*guling lagi*

i sent a picture of me in bed to 'anak and menantu babah' whatsapp group (bapak yg skema punya whatsapp group) just to let my family know that i have safely arrived dgn cara yg segedik mungkin. my sister replied with 'nampak bantai 3, tiba2 ada kaki dgn kepala'. my twin replied 'wau, kushen berkepala'.

mentang2 la prot aku sama besaq dgn bantai. adik bradik yg TAHI.

apa yg best kat melaka:

cendol jonker 88!!!

wahai kaum penang, if u think the penang road teochew cendol is the bomb, u seriously havent tried this cendol yet. malas nak cerita panjang sbb nak eksplen bukan susah pun, SEDAP! tu je.

personally, i found umbai very biasa2 je.. so this time around dtg melaka, skip je... sedap lagi ikan bakaq pak din kepala batas...

portuguese settlement pun pegi jugak... konon nak try makan situ.. sampai2 je kena serbu sampai pening kepala.. they are very polite, tapii sebagai wanita yg berhati lembut rasa mcm berat sgt nak reject one offer and take another offer.. there was like 6 people persuading us to head to their stalls. last2, dh pening kepala sangat, chow terusss~~

melaka not so bad.. tak hectic mcm kl.. food pun not bad.. this is my second time here, ikut edros cause he has a project here... ok la... di masa hadapan boleh dtg lagi...huhuhuhu

after 2 nights, masa utk balik... kan dh cakap tak terberanak pon! kecoh ja la semua kaum kerabat duk bising2 tlepon, whatsapp marah2 semua...