Austria, Europe Trip: Day 4, Ambras Castle ("Schloss Ambras")

The Ambras Castle is comprised of a set of buildings. Each building hosts a different set of artifacts, so it's like entering different museums. You can easily spend the whole here; grab a snack from the cafe and eat while watching peacocks roam around their beautiful garden.

Austria, Europe Trip: Day 3, Medieval Dinner!

I was brought to enjoy a five-course medieval dinner. Each table/group had representatives dressed as a knight, a queen, a jester, and a slave. It was so much fun! Too bad the whole thing was in German.

Austria, Europe Trip: Day 3, Tirolese Museum of Folk Art

Beautiful, huge place. I could have spent a whole day in the Tirolese Museum of Folk Art if I had one to spare. You could rent a palm guide for good price, you use it by scanning a piece's serial number and it tells you its history. I only had a couple of hours to walk through so I skipped that. Took pictures instead!

There are some areas that are super medieval and religious (in the medieval sense) that I kept on following some other tourists in and out because I was too scared to look around by myself. Some I had to go through really fast.

Austria, Europe Trip: Day 3, Tirolese Provincial Museum

A lot of good paintings in the Tirolese Provincial Museum  and a lot of uninteresting paintings... I guess I'm really not the artsy type nor the poetic type who finds staring at a painting for hours a time-worthy task.

Austria, Europe Trip: Day 3, Court Church ("Hofkirche")

Hofkirche was constructed for Emperor Maximilian I's tomb. However, he's not actually buried there. Beautiful place with larger than life iron men and women guarding the tomb.

There was a "pay phone" for information where I dropped EUR1 and had a recording played about the history of the place.

Austria, Europe Trip: Day 3, Jesuit Church for mass

First question: why the hell don't we have coffee and chocolate flavored yogurts in the Philippines??

Going back: Houses and buildings in Innsbruck have more character compared to Munich.

Austria, Europe Trip: Day 2, arrival

If you ever go to Europe and plan to move around, I do not recommend you bring a 20kg luggage. I did that and it was hell. I had to bring it to work because I checked out from my hotel for a weekend trip to Austria. The worst part is carrying it up and down staircases to get on and off trains, to cross main streets, etc.

Anyway, I had vegetarian burger for lunch which was interesting but not so good... I partly blame the tasteless bread. Asians add a lot of flavors into our cuisine, but for some reason, Europeans don't mind eating bland bread/pasta, etc. Nothing can compare to pandesal.

Apparently, there is a growing number of vegetarians in Europe because of their concern for animal feelings and all that stuff. I couldn't relate much because I grew up with more pressing concerns like:

Munich, Europe Trip: Day 1, Hofbräuhaus in Marienplantz

I stayed in a single room in Ibis Hotel -- forgot which one, but it was a fart away from a train stop so it was a pretty convenient place. I don't recommend their continental breakfast buffet unless you enjoy it... I don't. I'd prefer buying EUR2 sandwiches from the gas station nearby, or the Turkish shawarma place across the street that I only noticed on my last, last last day...

First day in Munich, lots of "first time's":
1. European Subway
2. Client's office (but we'll skip that)
3. Marienplantz sneak peek on my way to:
4. Hofbräuhaus

Munich, Europe Trip: Day 0, flight on KLM

It was my first time to go to Europe - a wonderful opportunity offered by my company. I went to assist my boss transfer some knowledge as a kick-off on transferring a certain project to our client's in-house team. You wouldn't understand much of the work involved and it would be too boring to read about it. So let's pretend I was actually on a vacation trip -- I tried to squeeze in as much site seeing as I could. It was a pretty lonely trip for me but I made the most out of it... I hope to come back for vacation some day :)

I've been on planes a good number of times. Anyway, what I just want to say is that KLM's "airplane food" was awesome. Sure sometimes there's a generic "tastes like vomit" initial reaction (why is that??), but their vomit flavor was better :)

Starbucks Sandwich: Chicken, Ham and Gruyere

Chicken, Ham and Gruyere on Sesame Turkish Bread for Php 145.

 

Daddy's Famous Steak for lunch!

From our Las Vegas Trip, we took home Angus Steak. Yes, we took the steak with us on our plane ride back home.

These were grilled perfectly: medium rare, seasoned with salt and pepper. Nothing more, nothing less.

How'd we bring these home?? We had a small styro cooler in the middle of our balikbayan-box-filled-with-towels-and-clothes. The steaks were frozen overnight, wrapped in news paper then stashed carefully in the cooler. We also brought home some I can't believe it's not butter! for my mom.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Trip

It was a long ride from Gentin Highlands, so getting a comfy (but affordable), convenient hotel is a must. First thing in the morning, we went to see the Aquaria then the famous Petronas Towers. When we've taken in the sites, we were ready to go shopping!

The Aquaria was the most interesting place we visited in this trip (2007).

Genting Highlands, Malaysia Trip

First, best experience you'll ever get in your trip to Genting Highlands is the cable ride going up the mountain. It lasts for 10 minutes. And although it's hot wherever you're coming from (sea level), it will get colder when you reach the top.

Then you'll find your hotel-slash-amusement park.

Las Vegas, Nevada Trip : Day 15, Costco (departure)

Our final meal at Las Vegas before departure was from Costco: hotdog, pizza and chocolate yogurt ice cream!
If you're in the Philippines looking for the same food, I suggest you go to SnR in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

We spent our last hours preparing our balikbayan boxes. Philippine Airlines is strict when it comes to check-in luggage so we had to make sure that we're following the rules to avoid any penalty.

Las Vegas, Nevada Trip : Day 14, Michael Jackson's Home

Breakfast at Ihop. They offer Green Eggs and Ham (...I do not like them, Sam I am) but I didn't have them because I wanted to compare their shredded hash browns against Denny's.

Denny's won by the way. But Ihop's steak omelet with caramelized onions... I'd give up hash browns for them.

Skinny Fat - Easy Low Calorie Muesli-Yogurt Recipes

I am always on the look-out for "dorm foods". Since I live away from home, I have to figure out how to eat healthy (and keep it cheap!) when my primary source of nutrition is the grocery.

My ingredients of the month are Muesli and Yogurt.
1/3 cup of muesli is around 95 calories (depending on the brand and the flavor).

1/5 cup of flavored yogurt is around 45 calories
1/4 cup of plain yogurt is around 40 calories

Plain Yogurt vs Flavored Yogurt

Las Vegas, Nevada Trip : Day 13, XXL Burger

Where are my Days 11 and 12??

Anyway. Another food day:

1. FAT BURGER XXL

Las Vegas, Nevada Trip : Day 10, Zion National Park

Right before we entered Zion National Park, we had our lunch in a nearby Thai restaurant. It was also a good thing we did, because there was no food in sight when we went in. I've been to Thailand a couple of times, and although the food they served wasn't very Thai, it was still good. Thai food is generally spicy (like "I can't take this shit" kind of spicy) and... just different. I guess it's a western-Thai fusion thing.

I didn't know "parks" could be that huge. You couldn't even walk to anywhere, you had to drive around the park and our 3 hours wasn't even enough!!!

It was a long drive going back and forth but we still made it back to Las Vegas Strip for dinner :)

Las Vegas, Nevada Trip : Day 10, Apple Orchard

On our way to Zion National Park, Utah (yes, long drive), we passed by an Apple Orchard. It was the first time I had freshly picked, organic apples. It was the first time I actually picked ripe apples!

Las Vegas, Nevada Trip : Day 9, Aliante Casino

Getting tired/hungry of seeing too much food? Well, here's more! Lunch was baked salmon topped with awesome sauce and almond slices. Then on the right side is kaldereta.

First highlight of the day was the arrival of the delos Santos family. Second highlight of the day was Mama U winning $200 from a slot machine in Aliante Casino. See the paid amount on the image?

Las Vegas, Nevada Trip : Day 8 (side trip to Los Angeles)

On our way to breakfast at Denny's, we drove by the hospital used for Grey's Anatomy. I'm not a fan so I was more excited for breakfast. And I was right to be. Their runny sunny sideup's with shredded hash browns were to die for. I'm not sure why it looks terrible on my picture but it tasted heavenly.

After breakfast, we went down to Venice Beach. Dude, it smelled like pot.

Hollywood Boulevard was our final stop and we were leaving for Las Vegas in the morning.

Las Vegas, Nevada Trip : Day 7 (side trip to Los Angeles)

An hour and a half plane ride from Las Vegas, we went to visit more friends and relatives in Los Angeles. Guess what we did when we landed? We went to Zen Buffet -- another buffet! This time everything was Asian. That doesn't sound like a place we'd go to since we're... well... Asians! But it was a good experience - guess westerners have a different set of Asian foods served.

I had the pleasure of having some lychee-orange for the first time.

Skinny Fat - 1200 to 1500 calorie meal plan

I'm currently recalibrating everything: workout, schedule, and meal.
This is my current meal plan. If you know anything about proper nutrition and you have any comment, please feel free to share it with me.

Goal
My goal is aesthetics: I want a flat tummy. I'm aiming for 17% Body Fat because I think that's what will get me that flat tummy.

Stats
Current stats: 101lbs, 4'11''
Workout sched: lift 2-3 times a week; and I do cardio whenever (pretty often)

Meal Plan
6:30am 160 cals

• 100 cals carb: oats/mornflake/kashi crunch
• 60 cals protein: 1/2 serving protein shake

Yes. I use chocolate protein shake instead of milk.

Las Vegas, Nevada Trip : Day 6, Shawarma

We ran errands today: visited several stores to get the best laptop deal. We still ended up at Best Buy. They were fully re-stocked, and were releasing laptops with Windows 7 for the first time.

Back home we had homemade shawarma ohohoho

Las Vegas, Nevada Trip : Day 5, CSI and M&M's and Coca Cola World

On our fifth day in Las Vegas, the newly wed Sanchez's took us to:
1. Rio's lunch buffet
2. Caesar's Palace
3. MGM
4. CSI Experience exhibit
5. M&M's World
6. Coca Cola World

Rio's lunch buffet (am I saying "buffet" every day??) was, of course, amazing. My people loooooves food and we go gaga when there's a lot of its good kind. My diabetic dad had to really control himself when he faced the dessert shelf.

Right after the lunch buffet, we caught the puppet play in Caesar's Palace.

Las Vegas, Nevada Trip : Day 4, Casino and KFC

Spent the morning at Costco shopping. I have no idea why I don't have pictures of the huge place. I have pictures of my relatives while shopping and although I love those, I know you'd find them uninteresting. So never mind.

I do have these pictures of what we had in KFC after. You might be thinking, "you went to the states and ate at KFC??" Well, yes we did and it was gooooood! Dinner was near so I only had a salad, which was a good serving. When you order fast food salad in the Philippines, you'd get a few lettuce leaves and a tablespoon of dressing... that wouldn't even reach the bottom of my stomach before it dissolves to nothing.

I'd have to say that their potato wedges are completely different from our KFC fries.

Las Vegas, Nevada Trip : Day 3, In 'n Out Burger

Rest day = more food.

I finally got a taste of In n' Out Burger. It was heavenly!!! I found it satisfying and at the same time funny that their foods look exactly like how they picture them in their ads.

Las Vegas, Nevada Trip : Day 2, Red Rock and Strip

Itinerary:
1. Red Rock
2. lunch at Sam Woo
3. Las Vegas Strip

Beautiful day to go hiking!
Red Rock is the mini-mini-me of Grand Canyon (its mini-me is Zion National Park, which we also visited). It's quite a ride from everywhere else but worth it. It's very very pretty and the hike was not so strenuous. We saw a few rock climbers who looked like they were performing death defying stunts.