▶ ▷ Eurotrip: GREECE! - Part 2 (picture-heavy)

Part 2 of our Greece vacation will be on Ioannina :D

What's Ioannina and where is that?

Ioannina is a city in  the northern part of Greece. It is not a common tourist place compared to Athens, but many tourists also visit the place and its surrounding cities like Preveza and Parga, which you will see if you continue reading :)

We rode a plane to Ioannina, which took two hours. Greece's coastline is so beautiful.

A week-long adventure in Ioannina will be difficult to sum up in one post, but I'll try. We did sooo much! So, I'm going to start on the place we stayed at.

My mom's friend was so kind to invite us to her condo (TOP FLOOR!) and we had such a good time. Cafes were everywhere by the way! And in Greece, life starts at night. They have siesta in the afternoon wherein stores, banks etc etc are all closed. Not many people are in the cafes until dark. Yes, pretty interesting!

Cafes across the street and beside the building.

The reason behind it is it gets really hot in the afternoon that there is nothing to do but to sleep. Greeks are pretty relaxed and laid back unlike the workaholic nature of the Americans. It was a very interesting contrast.

/sigh I wish I took a picture of the view during the day but this is basically the view up close. Mountains and lake *-* It's so dreamy!

Oops I actually did take a picture.. What a nice vacation house *.*

Of course, we ate at one of the restaurants lined up at the lake.

Their water comes in nice bottles!

I guess I'll just spam with more pictures in Ioannina.

Wax Museum

Look at the background. That's Ali Pasha, the ruler of the Ottoman empire, beheaded. 

Perama Cave is 1.5 MILLION years old. It was beautiful and my first time entering a cave, lol. Sadly, pictures were not allowed because the flash and lights from the camera can hinder the formation of the stalagmites and stalactites. So, here's a picture of us out of the cave haha.

Riding a boat to another island!

This is the actual place where Ali Pasha was beheaded (on those steps).

A little about history.. The Turks conquered the Greeks for more than 300 years! So for a long time, Greece was a part of the Ottoman Empire (Turkish Empire) until the Greeks triumphed and the ruler, Ali Pasha, was killed . Up to this day, the Greeks are still proud that they retained their own culture. Heh, I would! It is really amazing how their culture was not completely taken over and influenced by the Turks for all those years!

Turkish mosque 

A cafe near the mosque. Students mostly hung out in this place. By the way, Greeks love talking about politics... just something I noticed.

Sorry! A really picture-heavy post.. and there's more.. ahh! Pictures from the beach, Preveza and Parga!

View from the backyard of a house. Can I live here?!?

YAY BEACH! I could not wait to dip in that clear, blue water and it is right in front of our hotel!!

Hands down.. best Greek restaurant I have been!! The resto is only  managed by a small family, but the foods were so awesome!

Moussaka (I call it Greek lasagna). It is soooo goooood!!!

PREVEZA!

Boardwalk. There were a lot of yacht parked from different countries especially from Italy. 

Haha, we were the ONLY Asians in town. I felt like a celeb because everyone literally stared at us, lol.

Awesome service and the crew were all nice. This hotel is right at the beach too!!

PARGA!!

I say more than half of the people here were tourists. So yeah, they didn't stare at us much. We were still the oddballs because all of them were Europeans, lol.

Ending it with a gyro... NOT. Save the best for last so here we were having lunch on top of a mountain. Seriously, it was just amazing.

Considering the location, ambiance and service, the prices were really not bad. I thought it would be more expensive than this!!

I think this was the "Stuffed Pork Tenderloin"

"Trilogy"

OMSGDHJAHDYGU THE VIEW!

Haha, I am gonna end  with some famous Greek sweets. Delicious!!

Yay! This ends everything about Greece. Definitely coming back to this awesome country.

I think I will also blog on our vacation in Paris and London. I have videos of the Eiffel Tower at night, which I haven't edited yet! Hope I don't get lazy in the next days, haha.

Thank you for reading!

▶ ▷ BB cream - an upcoming trend!

Recently, I have been quite interested with BB creams and I finally bought some this week! But before I show pictures of what I bought, I should enlighten you guys first about BB cream, its meaning, history and use.

HISTORY

BB cream is short for Blemish Balm cream. It is not very popular here in the western countries, but it has been famous in many East Asian and Southeast Asian countries for some time.

Ironically, BB cream's formula originated in Germany. It was invented as a medical skin care regimen post-laser surgery. From its medical use, BB cream became popularized in South Korea and is now widely used for daily facial care.

BENEFITS

BB cream serves as a foundation, make-up base, and concealer without damaging your skin. It has moisturizing effects and contains SPF. Some products also contain "extra" healing properties such as anti-aging, anti-wrinkle, skin regeneration, skin tightening, and whitening. Basically, BB cream is an all-in one product that have long term benefits on the skin!

 So, enough of selling this product, lol. I will now show the BB creams I bought from Missha. So if you are interested, go to http://www.misshaus.com/. I highly suggest to follow them on twitter to get updates on their sales.

From L to R: 1. The Style Under Eye Brightener #2 (Natural Beige); 2. M Perfect Cover BB Cream #23 (Natural Beige) 50ml; 3. MISA Cho Bo Yang BB Cream #2 (Calm Beige) 50ml ; 4. M Perfect Cover BB Cream #27 (Honey Beige) 50ml; 5. Free Samples

The eye concealer was just an extra to reach the $40 mark for free shipping. Yes, Missha products are pricey especially the BB creams. The MISA Cho Bo Yang BB Cream 50ml (below) normally costs $45.99. However, it was on sale and I only got it for $9.99! (What did I say about following them on twitter?) ;)

MISA Cho Bo Yang has SPF 30/PA++ and contains three natural ingredients such as Korean Wild Ginseng, Cordyceps Sinensis, Velvet and Pure Gold. (Ok, "pure gold." That explains the price!) It comes in 2 shades - #1 light beige and #2 calm beige.

I could not pass up that sale. I decided to buy the BB cream I have been eye-ing on for a month, the M Perfect BB Cream #27 (Honey Beige) 50ml, to acquire the free shipping. I bought it in its full price ($29.99) though. Luckily, because it was my first registered customer purchase, I got the M Perfect BB Cream #23 (Natural Beige) 50ml for FREE! 

M Perfect BB cream contains whitening, anti-wrinkle, and UV Protection (SPF 42 PA+++)! It also comes in five shades - numbers 13, 21, 23, 27 and 31. (What does SPF and PA+++ mean? Go HERE.)

In summation, I got 3 BB creams for $39.98. I thought that was  HUGE AWESOME DEAL. I also received a free sample of some kind of toner and emulsion. :)

Here are the Missha BB creams swatches I did. Left picture is with flash while the right is with natural lighting.

(OMG, I just realized how hard it is to do these swatches and take pictures of them -____- It literally took me an hour! lol!)

Anyway, as you can see..

• Missha M Perfect #27 (honey beige) blended well on my skin. The perfect shade for tan-skinned people!
• Both Missha M Perfect #23 (natural beige) and MISA Cho Bo Yang #2 (calm beige) have the same shade and the grayish tint.
• However, when I tried #23 on my face, I thought it looked alright and not gray. It probably will show differently if you take pictures with flash. 

I did not magically know #27 will be perfect for my skin so a big thanks to samsilang @ youtube for reviewing the shades #23, #27, and #31. It helped me decide which shade to buy.

On a side note, the BB cream feels really smooth and smells so good!

SO... WHY MISSHA?

Although many brands sell BB cream, I chose Missha because it is the only brand which offered a variety of shades (5 shades). Because BB creams are mainly popular in Asian countries, most of the available shades from the other brands are targeted toward the fair, Asian skin. 

My tan self was glad after finding out that Missha released two NEW shades, #27 (honey beige) and #31 (golden beige) for the darker skin types. Smart move as BB creams are starting to enter the international market! Last month, Garnier has launched its own BB cream, the Miracle Skin Perfector Daily All-In-One B.B. Cream. I have yet to check if it is available in Walgreens, lol.

PERSONAL NOTE

This is probably my first and last post about a cosmetic product, lol. I do not own any make-up. My skin care routine consists of a face wash and a skin cleanser everyday. If I go out, I only use face powder. (Yes, I'm a  noob.)

 I got interested in BB creams after watching Korean dramas where it was referred as the "secret of Korean actresses." It was intriguing because Korean actors/actresses really do have blemish-free skin.

And that's it! I think BB cream is a great choice if you prefer the natural look (like me) and still want a little bit of coverage. It is definitely worth buying!

▶ ▷ Got a job!

..and it's not just a job, it's the job I want. I am officially an ICU nurse! Yay! I feel so proud because ICU’s do not usually hire new grads and the hospital that offered me the job has not hired a new grad in the ICU for the last 5 years. When I get old, I can tell the young ones that I was once a 19-year-old, RN BSN, working in the ICU <3

I will be starting next month. More studying and learning while working and getting paid. Not baaad.

I can't wait to be in the ICU and continue to grad school! Actually, I don't have any talents or something that I really am good at, but I can say that learning is my passion. Similar to what Einstein said, "I have no special talents. I am just passionately curious" except I think he is a natural genius.

And so I digress, lol. I hope I will love it because honestly, not being a pessimist but a realist, I am already wondering how long it will take to hate nursing, haha. That becomes the mentality when you have friends and family who are nurses.

I am just happy. That's all :) 

▶ ▷ Eurotrip: GREECE! - Part 1

I'm finally blogging about our Eurotrip! At first, I did not want to share anything about our vacation because it's gonna be long, haha. BUT Maaaannyyy interesting things happened so might as well! I also want to share the places, food, common habits and just the different culture in every country we visited. Very very different! So, first stop - GREECE!

My family stayed the longest in Greece. First thing we did was tour Athens!

Athens was not what I expected. Maybe I was expecting something like the cities in the USA because Greece is also a first world country. I just thought every capital city in the world has high-rise buildings, skyscrapers, and a hint of modernity. However, Athens was different as you can see...

(Pictures taken from Acropolis)

You understand what I mean? They sure love white buildings though, which I will explain later. While walking around the area, I find the place very congested. Honestly, I did not like how crowded it was, but someone told me that if you know where to go in Athens, the city is actually pretty nice. 

 Evil eye, a very common common charm in Greece, is said to ward off evil spirits

 A lot of people used motorcycles and I rarely saw big cars. No SUVs, only small cars.

 SHAWARMA = heaven!

 Protests in front of the parliament.

 Changing of the guard at the "Tomb of the Unkown Soldier." They guard the tomb 24/7 and change shifts every hour (no blinking/moving). Cool tradition.

 The shopping district in the city.

OK, it doesn't look as crowded in the pictures because I was afraid my camera would get stolen if I brought it out the busy places, lol. Also, the taxis were on strike! At least there wasn't much traffic, but no taxis = hard time for the tourists. Luckily, our hotel was in the center of the city so everything was walking distance.


Moving on.. although the city was not modern, it was definitely full of history. I love how there were random temples, monastery atop a mountain, and not to mention Acropolis within the city. You don't see those anywhere.

Panthernon

Despite the scorching sun (believe me, it was like 100 degrees up there) and the uber crowded place (as seen above), it was fun! A few triviaaaas:

•  During ancient Greek times, they built the temples on a mountain so that the temples were close to the sky, which they believe would be closer to the gods and goddesses. 
• Additionally, Greeks built white houses because white reflects more sunlight making the temperature cooler. Wow, these people were really smart even during the pre-aircondition era.

We didn't stay long in Athens because we spent more days in Ioaninna (next blog post!). So although I was so excited to visit the islands, we didn't get to visit Mykonos or Santorini :( Maybe next time. On the third day, we went to the ancient city, Delphi instead.

A picture is worth a thousand words so this is how I describe Delphi.

If I could replace the word "beautiful," it would be Delphi. Really, this place is so *no words* but AMAZING. I felt like I was warped to another planet. More pictures..

 Temple of Apollo - another temple on top of a mountain dedicated to a God.

Treasury (in modern times, the bank)

 Theater

View of the Temple of Apollo and the Theater

Stadium. A little about history.. Delphi was where the Pythian Games were held wherein Olympic games were held in Olympia. This is the stadium they played their sports back then. Just an interesting trivia.. During the ancient times, women were not allowed to watch these games and were killed if caught. 

A model of the ancient Delphi. See where the treasury, temple and theater are? (I took this picture in the museum.)

This is one place you can't miss in Greece. You get to see the ruins, enjoy the mountainous view and learn a little bit about ancient Greece. You leave this place smarter, haha.

So.. that's it for Athens and Delphi. Look forward for Part 2 in Ioannina!

▶ ▷ YAMAPI♥

I should be blogging more since I already have a lot of free time, but certain events have been keeping me occupied. After arriving from our (my mom, sis and I) vacation last week, which I still need to blog, I have been busy catching up with my friends, uploading/organizing a lot of pictures (with a video I still need to edit), dealing with interviews, and internet stuff while neglecting my blog T_T

Anyway, I just finished watching Buzzer Beat, a Japanese drama about basketball, which starred Yamapi ♥ so I thought to dedicate a blog post about him. By the way, Buzzer Beat was a good drama!

Yamshita Tomohisa (山下 智久), aka Yamapi for short, is a talented, versatile and good-looking Japanese actor, hehe.

Yamapi - "Buzzer Beat"

Yamapi - "Code Blue"

Yamapi - "Ashita no Joe"

Yamapi simply pointing.

I have been a fan of this guy for a verryy long time to the point that I will watch a drama as long as he is in it without minding the plot. It is not just an act of fangirlism (maybe a lil bit) because base on experience, every drama he did were always good.

I have seen Nobuta wo Produce, Proposal Daisakusen and the latest, Buzzer Beat. I loved all of them. I haven't gotten around watching Kurosagi, Byakottai and Code Blue, which is long. I will definitely watch his movie Ashita no Joe which will be released on DVD on 08/19!! It is about BOXING - all the more reasons to watch it!!

Yeah.. basically, this is a whole blog post about an actor. I will be forever his fan. I am just in the mood to do lots of kdrama and jdrama marathon (I already have a list!) on top of the animes and mangas on queue. Just my hobby/addiction I feel like sharing as these probably consume  half of the time I spend on the internet :)

[EDIT] I finally watched Ashita no Joe. It was nice, but a little boring at some parts. The slow-mo during the boxing scenes were funny. Nonetheless, watch it if you are an avid fan of Yamapi, haha.

I downloaded the movie + sub here.