Lisbon #2

Wow, it’s been a while since I last posted here, I need to take the time to write more regularly again, promised, I won’t pause for another 6 months after this article (I hope I won’t 😉 )

It’s Sunday morning, we’re ready for another day exploring Lisbon ! We began to visit a bit longer in the city centre, as we didn’t do it on the Saturday. We headed to the Praça do Comércio where I almost lost my newly bought hat at least a million times (hat + wind + a distracted me is not a good equation haha). We walked through the place a little and then went to the Arco da Rua Augusta. It’s mainly an arch overhanging the place, you have to pay a 3€ entry ticket and you can take the elevator which leads you to the top. The view from up there is very nice and -that was a good surprise- it wasn’t crowded, I think there were the three of us and a couple more people, we really appreciate this ! Apparently, everyone is going to the Elevador de Santa Justa and they don’t know about this one !

We wandered in the city, stopping for a coffee, visited some shops like the proper tourists we are and finally thought we wanted to eat some pasteis de bacalhau for lunch ! As  we spotted the Time Out Market in our guide, we decided to go there and ate at the Croqueteria where we tried different kinds of croquetas included the bacalhau’s ones. It was quite good and you can take the “meal deal” option that gives you the opportunity to choose different croquetas with a side and a drink. We also visited the market and of course bought some pasteis de nata to bring home and some tourists souvenirs. We (ok, I) then wanted to take a coffee and looked for one I had spotted on Instagram but went in the wrong direction… We eventually found it and didn’t even regret to have been a little lost as the streets were beautiful 🙂 

We enjoyed our drinks and got back on the road, towards Alfama. We walked a lot to find a house I had spotted on internet that I find quite photogenic (can we say photogenic for something else that a person ? I’m not even sure). I think my sisters first hated me because we didn’t find the street, like in a nightmare, we were looking for it everywhere and were totally unable to locate it. But despite the fact that we were “lost”, we came across some really nice places so we didn’t lose our time so I think they forgave me 😉 Mostly, the best unplanned discovery was the Elevador de Santa Luzia, a stunning floral place which we litterally fell in love with !

 

It was quite busy though but it’s definitely worth it ! And you know what ? We finally made it  to the famous street ! I really like it as you can spot an entire house cover in azulejos and it’s just beautiful !

We wandered a bit more in the streets and finally got back to our airbnb as our flights were early in the next morning ! We wouldn’t have say no to stay a little longer in this sunny city though ! I absolutely love the colourful streets and the atmosphere, it’s definitely a destination I highly recommend and would go again if I have the occasion !

Lisbon #1

When my sister asked me if I wanted to go on holidays with her in June, I said yes straightaway ! We actually went for a weekend as I did not have holidays at this time. And we also decided to buy tickets for our youger sister for her 18th birthday ! It was definitely a sisters’ weekend !

We didn’t take so much time to decide where we were going to go : we chose Lisbon !

They arrived on the Thursday (lucky them !) and I arrived after my workday and some flight delays on the Friday night. After a quick breakfast in our airbnb (reminder to myself : never trust them to find coffee in a supermarket !) we started our day in this pretty city. We walked to the Miradouro da Senora da Monte, which wasn’t far from our flat and admired a nice view all around the city and even on the bridge “Ponte 25 de Abril”. That was a very good first impression 😀

We then walked around the Alfama streets until we reached the Cathedral Se de Lisboa. We were a little tired (short sleep and a very sunny day can explain haha) and our stomachs were already asking for food, we jumped on the tram and went to the other side of the city where my sisters wanted to make me try some pasteis de bacalhau where they ate the day before. Unfortunately, the food market wasn’t open but we ended up in a nice restaurant with an amazing view !

 

 

 

We decided to go to the Belem Tower in the afternoon so we walked to the Praça da Figueira to catch the tram. The tram never came. We’ve eventually taken an Uber. Still didn’t know why the tram never arrived. We were at least 30 people waiting there in the sun, not knowing if a tram was coming.

We stayed a bit to admire the tower ! We didn’t visit it as we didn’t have the time to visit everything and we prefered to visit the Mosteiro dos Jéronimos ! I absolutely don’t regret it !

We obviously stopped for a picture of the Ponte 25 de Abril, almost with the feeling to be in San Francisco… Except for the Christ statue on the other side of the river !

We finally headed to the monastery, took our tickets (6€ per adult) and enjoyed our visit. This monument is absolutely stunning ! The walls and columns look like they are embroidery ! We absolutely loved it ! I mean, look at that :

 

We came back home and finished our day with an amazing sunset from our window !

The Irish Road Trip #2

After our visit to the Kerry Cliffs, we drove a little bit til our destination for the night : Caherciveen (yes, I had to check the name again, Irish towns names are difficult :p ). We met there two people who are living and travelling in their van with their lovely dog all year long (they’ve got my respect, I like my comfort too much to live in a van). We stayed talking with them during quite a long time on the marina while the sun went down. It was, I reckon, the nicest encounter of the trip !

On the next morning, we had planned to go to Dingle and actually even a little bit further : Dunquin (or Dun Chaoin in Irish as hardly nothing was translated in English there)(we tried to deduce some meanings of the road signs, I think we did pretty well).

I really wanted to go to Dunquin as I saw on my Ireland guide that there is a very beautiful harbour in this town. And it is worth it ! If you’re lucky enough, you can see sheeps on this little way, at least it is what the postcards try to make us believe 😉

The Dunquin Harbour and a lock of my hair to show you that it was quite windy

We then headed back to Dingle for a pub lunch before a long journey to the Cliffs of Moher ! We nicely followed Waze’s instruction and had the surprise to board on a ferry at Tarbert ! It made us win some kilometers and it was a welcomed break.

Not the Titanic though

We arrived at the Cliffs of Moher for the sunset ! They look very majestic but the visitor centre kills a bit the wildness of the cliffs. All the way to reach the cliffs is covered with concrete, a few binoculars are there and remind you that you’re just a tourist among thousands of others (no one likes that). Nevertheless, if you go the other way, you can exit the visitor centre part of Moher and find a wildest path (it’s obviously also more dangerous). As the sun was going down, we didn’t go very far on this part but I would have loved to !

We then went a little further in a town called Ballyvaughan to stay for the night and where we saw the end of the sunset !

The Irish Road Trip #1

I went to Ireland during the Easter Holidays with Inès. I had planned to visit the Wild Atlantic Way as well as the Northern Ireland. But I eventually had to accept that it will be impossible to do both in just one week time. Well, Wild Atlantic Way it is !

So, we had planned to stay in a hostel in Dublin for the first night and to pick up our van on the next morning. On Saturday night, we just took the time to visit Temple bar and had a dinner in a burger restaurant of the area. We went back to the hostel to enjoy a full night of sleep (if only) before our next nights in the van. It wasn’t really the case as we were in a dorm and snorings were also presents (I think I’m getting too old for hostels, I just want a total peace to be able to sleep now :p ).

On Sunday morning, we took the bus to the little town were our car rental was located. As always with Spaceships rentals, it was kinda in the middle of nowhere, just surrounded by fields and cows… This time, we had chosen a bigger van than the one we had in Scotland. The difference is not that huge but the confort was significant ! So it was more spacious, with a real tiny fridge, plugs, a light but the van was still not too big to be easy to drive on the narrow Irish roads.

I don’t have a lot to say neither I’ve got pictures to show about our first step as it was mainly a long drive from Dublin to Cork. We stopped a little bit before Cork for the night. Again, it wasn’t a quiet night as it was stormy (I didn’t feel very confident to be in a car with trees nearby while it’s windy haha). We woke up under a terrible weather : heavy rain. Great. No, not really. We drove to Cork anyway, thinking we could at least visit a little bit, hoping the rain will stop. But we were wrong. The time to walk from the car park to the English Market, we were totally soaked. It was like we jumped in a swimming pool with our clothes on. Not a nice feeling. We ended up in the local Starbucks, ate something, had a hot drink (totally needed haha) and decided to carry on the road as it was ridiculous to stay in a city we couldn’t even visit properly.

We headed toward Killarney, we thought it will be a little town with approximately nothing but it was actually quite big (for a town) and pretty touristic ! We were looking for a pub screening Game of Thrones (essential !) and had been lucky to find a place thanks to the very nice ladies of The Shire !

On the Tuesday morning, we were relieved : the sun was finally out ! We started our way on the Ring of Kerry, with a few stops to admire the views !

The Ladies View on the Ring of Kerry

We then stopped at Caherdaniel on a beautiful beach next to the Darrynane House. It was so great to feel the salty air and to walk on the sandy beach, too bad it wasn’t hot enough for a sunbath and a swim (although I wasn’t crazy enough to think that will be possible in April in Ireland :p ) !

 

 

We carried on the Ring of Kerry until Portmagee where we stopped in a little cafe in front of the harbour and from where we could see Venetia Island. We discovered we could visit some cliffs (the Kerry Cliffs) just five minutes away ! Obviously, we headed toward the cliffs. It was windy but it’s totally worth it !

 

 

Seriously, look at these colours !

Castle Combe, in the Cotswolds

Yesterday, I went to Castle Combe with my flatmate ! It was a kind of last minute planned day trip as it was so sunny this week and that it was as well our last day of holiday !

We booked our tickets to Chippenham with National Express on Friday night and we decided to take the public buses to reach Castle Combe (which is a very small village in the middle of the countryside). So, departure from Victoria Coach station at 8.30am and here we go !

We arrived at Chippenham and looked for the local buses, went to the train station to get some informations and discovered that there were no buses running on Sundays to Castle Combe… As two Londoners, we didn’t even think that was even possible (and now it will be something I will always check 😀 ), but luckily we found a taxi driver who brought us to the village (not the same price as the bus though haha). He was very nice and told us a little bit more about the history of the Cotswolds and especially why so many tourists were attracted by the area (the filmings of the first Doctor Dolittle movie back to the 60s and War Horse) !

When we finally arrived in Castle Combe, we took a stroll aroud the village, took a million pictures as it was so lovely and finally had a lunch at the White Hart pub, in the beer garden, enjoying the sun !

 

We eventually went back to Chippenham and as we still had some time, we headed to Bath, which was only 15 minutes by train !

Sun on the Crescent in Bath