Today, unexpectedly got a half day, making way for a long weekend and birthday celebration? Appeared for ward rounds in the morning, only to learn that the only case in OT today got cancelled at the last minute.. My team has no other cases in OT or other clinics.. So the resident chased all of us off.. =P nothing much interesting happening in the other OTs also, but still, without knowing the attending in-charge of the operation, its hard to crash the op.. and not very nice (to the attending and to the medical students in the team.. eeps. O_O)

So went exploring town on my own while Sirui was still in hospital..

Managed to go down to Lexington market for lunch!


Lexington Market!

It mainly opens on weekdays and Saturdays to cater to the working crowd in Downtown. The first time we went on a Sunday, boy was it deserted - the whole place was locked down, shutters and all, and the area was akin to a ghost town.. scary!

Anyway, since it was a Friday close to noon, the place was bustling with activity! The area seems to have a predominant racial distribution..


The place was so happening! They were having lunch time performances there by this jazz band which was quite fantastic.. the pple were grooving to the music as they ate, standing ard at the tables dotting the area.. This is a view from the 2nd floor sitting area! (I like the giant crab suspended in midair.. Hehe)

Yep, so Lexington Market is a market, and more! It boasts a combination of wet market + dry market + food centre + pasar malam!

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Check out the Sushi bar! They really have lots of food - Western fried food in the form of fish and chips, chicken, meat; Chinese takeaway in the form of economy rice (sorry, no bak chor mee); Jap sushi.. there were even stalls selling yummy-looking whole cakes and sweets and chocolates! =)


And check out the wet market stalls intermingled amongst the foodstalls (yeah, hygiene.. but the cooked food was covered and heated under heating lights.. and some stalls were away from the raw food) So yeah, they sold everything that you can find in a normal market - fish, meat, seafood, veg, fruits! - you name it, they have it!

Yeah, then there were the pasar-malam stalls selling trinklets, to the real stores which sell like souvenirs, handphone accessories, tobacco, wines,... really everything! Lol.. =p

So I stopped by this seafood restaurant / stall selling crab cakes.. Now, Baltimore is quite well-known for its seafood and crab cakes apparently, and since i had absolutely no idea what is a crab cake, i decided to give it a try.. =p

Well, I took a photo of the crabcake, but unfortunately (or fortunately) the picture was not able to load on the comp after transfer from my handphone.. But suffice to say, it did not look pretty on the outside, but it was actually quite delicious! =P Haha, i'll post another photo of crabcakes if i get a chance to eat a nicer-looking crab cake.. =p

So after lunch, i had actually wanted to do a bit of sight-seeing, but the weather wasn't helping! Goodness.. it was pouring on and on since yesterday.. It seems that the rain doesn't clear up in half-an-hour unlike back home.. So it was rather gloomy-looking, as I wandered about in my jacket and umbrella (yes, i'm thankful i actually brought it to USA with me!) to the convenience store to stock up on food =P before wandering back to my favourite haunt..


Explored a different part of the outskirts of the Inner Harbour today! Wow.. the rain certainly caused temperatures to plunge to the 10s.. let's see, its was 57 degrees farenheit.. what's that in celsius? *muses*


This beautiful clocktower is the Baltimore Arts Tower. It used to be known as the Bromo-Seltzer tower, after someone who invented headache medicine.. it even used to have a replica of the bottle of the headache medicine at the top which served as a lighthouse of sorts =P, but was removed after it was damaged.. (although now Panadol seems to have overtaken it as the leading "headache" medicine... =P)


More scenes from around Inner Harbour area..


Oh yes... i love this shot and the next! Girls, try hard to look at the words on the poster on the glass facade of the shop!


Managed to see it? Here's a bigger one! Haha! I'm sure many of the girls I know reading this would be experiencing palpitations now.. Lol.. Shoe sale! =P Yes? Claris?


St Vincent de Paul church! Wanted to go in actually to have a look inside, but there were some rather, erm, unsavoury characters outside.. so didn't go near there to even take a better photo.. =P


Pheonix Shot Tower! According to history, this place was used to make the shots for rifles! What they do is that they drop molten lead from the top of the tower into a vat of water at the bottom.. These lead droplets would then form into spheres, cool and solidify as they fall into the cooling water vat below! Cool rite.. haha.. but now its closed and declared a monument! =P

Oh yes, the low brown building behind that is the post office! =P

anyway, since it was raining, didn't walk too far! (partially cos it didn't look v safe the further i walked away from the touristy inner harbour area.. =P) wandered around the shops, looking for souvenirs and postcards, and so, finally settled for Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake as I overlooked the Inner Harbour and watched the rain pitter patter onto the calm waters of the Inner Harbour.. =)