Lost passports, credit cards, ID cards, camera... Only my wallet and mobiles!

Its amazing what can happen in the space of 60 seconds. You can enjoy
a coffee, see Nicholas Cage and team steal fast cars, or have your
backpack stolen with almost everything in it!
Both passports, flight details, Judy's purse with credit cards and ID
cards, camera with all our holiday snaps, work blackberry and
guidebook. Just lucky Judy sent afew text messages otherwise even her
mobile would have gone too!
We were waiting for some food and sat out on the terrace to watch some
cute dogs, and put the bag on the chair next to me, seeing as there
was no one around. A elderly woman then starts talking to us in
Spanish laughing as the smaller dog tries to hump the bigger one. Then
after a minute she says goodbye, and when I looked for the guidebook,
my backpack had gone! I tried running up the street to see if anyone
had nabbed my bag so I can repay the kindness with my fists, but alas
no sign at all. Incredible! I was absolutely livid while Judy was more
calmer and pragmatic, calling to cancel her credit cards asap.
Thankfully we still had my wallet with cash, cards, and ID, so we
could still get money to survive.
I went back into to cafe to ask for a directory, so I can reach the
British and Chinese Consulates, and get new passports to leave.
Thankfully not all Catalans are bad, and one girl helped call their
directory services for the UK Consulate number and address, while a
gentleman walked us to the nearest police station, so we could file a
report.
Most annoying was that we were supposed to leave on 27th March, and
the theft took place on 26th evening!
After the initial frustration, and getting copies of the report for
the Consulates, we got more cash out from the ATM and called the
landlord for the apartment to let us in (key was also in the bag). We
then made plans for the next few days and emailed the HK immigration
department for advise.
They called us in the morning with clear instructions and said the
whole team is aware of Judy's situation and is available 24hrs, very
efficient.
Since the Chinese Consulate is only open to the public for 3days a
week, we went to the UK one first. They could get me out very quickly,
but only to UK. From there I would have to reapply for replacement
passport. So, the priority now is to get Judy's temporary pass sorted
so she can fly directly to HK first.
With not much else to do, we checked into another hotel and went to
the supermarket El Corte Ingles for tomorrows breakfast.
So this morning 28th, we arrived 30mins ahead of the Chinese Consulate
opening hours and already saw 20 people queuing. Once in, the typical
lack of queuing etiquette was apparent, with lots of people trying to
jump the queue, thrusting papers into the counter. Really they were
quite inefficent, as Judy also had to bump towards the counter three
times to fill in details that they could have told us in the first
place. However, they did manage to produce a FULL China passport for
Judy within one hour! Amazing!
So now we'll look for flights out then I can get the UK Consulate to
prepare my emrgency pass out, looks like we may be able to leave ok
Monday afternoon. Updates as they come!

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Patron saint of Valencia...

... Or something like that. This huge efigy has her clothes made up of
flowers donated by families all dressed up and televised. Each flower
carefully placed with care, often bringing ladies to tears of joy.

"Parade of Fire"

We weren't sure what this was about but decided to pop out of the
hotel at 6:30pm to check it out. We caught the #19 bus to the centre
where it was just starting, not a minute too soon! Rather cheekily, we
followed some guys who ran in front of everyone who queued afew hours
to get a good spot! Trying to blend into the crowd, we sat down on the
roadside to avoid obstructing views and got front row seats to a
spectacular show! Kids dancing with fireworks spinning and shrieking
on poles, followed by 3-headed hydras and winged dragons. Finally a
huge 10' metallic-shelled turtle moved by a team who were brace enough
to launch sparklers and fiery flames from small cavities in the
shell... They must have choked on the smoke! But it was a great show
and lucky we didn't miss it!

Packed like sardines for fireworks

We noticed loads of people corralling into the city centre and decided
to follow along. Seems that they were going to observe the 2pm
fireworks display. It was a long wait for us, about an hour, but we
managed to get a good spot to stand. There was a live band from the
beer company Amstel drumming up beats and giving people something to
dance to. They also blew up massive inflatible beach balls about 5'
wide for the crowds to punch around! The fireworks were hardly visible
as they basically flew towards the sun, but after afew minutes there
was enough smoke to blot out the sun! And they were LOUD! We've never
been so close to massive fireworks like this before, a truely awesome
experience.

Young Prince picks up his Princess

Often you hear marching bands around town with a parade of guys and
girls dressed in beautiful traditional outfits. And we wondered what
that's about... Then we wet fortunate enough to see what happened: the
band stopped outside an apartment and the boy rang the bell. He enters
and afew minutes later he emerges with a gorgeous girl to the sound of
a triumphant beat, and they continue parading!

Another funny Fallas

There are loads of funny ones but this is quite good!

Valencia Fallas Festival

Dotted around the city centre were various Fallas creations made of
paper-mâché, often a satirical look on life today. There were
childrens ones and massive ones too, like this huge Genie. The winner
voted Best Fallas survives: the rest get burned to the ground!

Madness in Valencia!

We arrived in Valencia at 9:20pm, with the Fallas festival in full
swing. Everywhere, people were launching their own fireworks and
smashing bangers against the floor, making one feel just like being in
wartime Iraq!
There were hardly any taxis running, and we waited 1.5hrs for one. We
would have taken a bus to our hotel, had there not been a bus strike
rendering the service virtually useless! We were starving so we got
some food from a nearby stall, assorted cuts (for €20!) and ate while
waiting. Finally, when there was one, Judy was away queuing at the
ladies room! One poor girl in front of us waited for so long, but for
some reason didn't accept her and she stood aside to make a phonecall.
Anyway, we arrived at Hotel Opera Valencia, and its literally next to
a "El Corte Ingles" shopping mall and the Aqua Mall that me bad my KHS
mates all went to during our previous trip to Valencia.
After showering, went to bed immediately and only woke up at 9am to
the sounds of early morning bomb raids, err I mean Fallas Festival
rejoiceful sounds! The breakfast was great: at last had decent coffee
and meat with scrambled eggs. The fruit deserves a mention for being
outstandingly fresh and juicy!
We're now going to take another nap before venturing outside to stock
up on stuff at the mall and touristy stuff.
Bye!

Yoga in Madrid

We arrived in Madrid via overnight train from Lisbon, the ride being
quite nice actually. The trains to Valencia were fully booked till 6pm
so we got some spare time to kill in Madrid. Some museums were closed
on Mondays, so Judy is practicing some yoga while I type out another
entry.
Ps. Edge roaming is actually quite expensive. Peoples telecom saw by
data roaming bill as being excessive, and cut me off in case it was
stolen! I had to pay up the outstanding amount before they
reactivated, but its best to remove data roaming until absolutely
necessary (like blogging, haha!)
Laters!

Lisbon and Sintra

Wow, this kind of roadtrip is alot now tiring than I thought! Maybe
its the bad jetlag, but we've both been so tires that we sleep as
early as 9pm and sleep through to 5am. In fact yesterday we when
skipped dinner as we our afternoon nap from 5pm went straight through
to 11pm!
So, i wont be saying much except to summarize events so far:

- Lisbon isn't that big really. Main parts can be covered in afew days.
- Champions League games were on during our first day, and I didn't
realize Bolton lost against Sporting Lisbon!
- Alfama really is the Old Town, with thin steep steps and narrow
paths. Has its own charm, especially with the soulful Fado singers.
- Portuguese food is quite nice, especially at this place in Alfama,
but they sure like their salt. And the grilled fish are full of tiny
deadly bones.
- The Zenit Hotel we stayed at was a little disappointing: curtains
had holes, walls paper-thin, no kettle, and dodgy electricity lighting.
- Rented the Smart car for afew days. Nippy little fella, parking was
a cinch, can fit two smart card in one space! Love the tiptronic shift
and convertible hood, which you can operate remotely!
- Sintra is a really nice place. The Pena Palace is highly
recommended- Lawrence's Hotel is very charming and historic, nice
setting, but not upto what we expect of a 5star hotel. (No bellman to
assist with luggage, etc)
- Went to the furthest West point of Europe facing the huge Atlantic
Ocean, arrived just before sunset... Only there were too many clouds
to see it! D'oh!

More as it happens!
Michael and Judy :)

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Blogging from 24000ft in the air

Hello and greetings from 24000ft up in the sky. Of course, its not
real-time blogging but at least I have some time to say a little about
how we got here.
Judy and I are on our honeymoon to Portugal and Spain, spanning over
16 days. A quick transit at London Heathrow to get to Lisbon. We'll
then be spending some time there, and then take a roadtrip to a whole
town declared a national heritage site called Sintra. Returning to
Lisbon for another night, we'll then be jumping onto an overnight
train to Madrid, then head over to Valencia for their annual festival,
the "Burning of the Fallas". After that, we'll head over to Barcelona
to chill out at a beachside hotel, then swapping for an inner city
local apartment to really get a feel for Catalonia life. If we're
lucky, maybe even watch the Barcelona football team at the Camp Nou!
Finally, heading back to HK via London again.

Since Judy works at Northwest Airlines she was able to get us staff
discount on flights with partner airlines, BA being one of them. So
when we got the the check-in desk at the appointed time, we saw a
large group of about 16 others already there also waiting to get
onboard. There was even a Filipino lady who had been waiting for a
flight to London for over 8hrs. The longest she had to wait to get her
family on a plane during July was a whole week! I don't know how she
handled the wait. Even though the BA counter put our names on the
waiting list, the kind lady also put our names on for the earlier
flight, only afew mins difference. When they called out names, it felt
like we were trying to win the lottery. (Speaking of which, I failed
to buy a ticket for the HK lottery of HK$33mil!) Well, I imagine I
would imagine so, if we weren't dropped out of the running for the
earlier flight. It got rather anxious for the roll call on staff
allowed onboard for the BA032 flight we wanted. The remaining staff
all got on, except for this older couple who worked at Quantas. The
counter asked the gent, halfway through the list: "Are you a retired
captain?" to which he said honestly "no." Everyone else slapped their
heads, all thinking the same thing! "D'oh!" and indeed it cost them
their seats as everyone else got called. Rather stunning, side Judy
told me while dashing through customs that traditionally BA and
Quantas are close partners, so its surprising that the couple would be
left out.
Anyhow, we got seperate seats, but it turns out that the seat next to
me was the Fillipino lady. So she offered to swap seats with Judy so
that we could sit together! She also benefitted too by getting Judy's
seat 28D, a front row seat.
We were so rushed in fact, that we thrust out hand luggage into the
cabins and forgot to take out our magazines, toothbrush and neck pillow!
Anyway, enough for now. 2hrs into the flight and my eyes are
absolutely dead bow, a mere 1mm slit to see what I'm rapidly typing
away. (2am HKT).
G'nite!

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