Tourist Sites

As a mini-break during the holidays, we jumped at a lastminute.com offer and went to Lisbon, Portugal for a few days. This was one of the first trips we took where we had no guidebook (actually we had one I bought at Heathrow and accidentally left in Heathrow...) and no real sense of what to expect..

• Stayed at the Lisboa Plaza, part of Heritage Hotels Lisbon, right off the Champs-Elysee-looking strip called the Avenue de Liberdade. Very nice, quaint hotel, easy to get to and free wifi throughout!

• The first day we got there was on a Sunday, and Lisboa seemed to shut down this day as it was very quiet on the streets. We ended up doing one line of the hop-on-hop-off bus tour and managed to see some important monuments/sites...but i dont remember their names lol.

• Found this really popular pastel (egg-tart) place in Belem and decided to join the queue and see what the fuss was about. Had a couple of pastels and coffee and soon realized these were probably the best egg tarts we've ever had and even better when sprinkled with a bit of icing sugar and cinnamon...mmmmm. We did try them again throughout the weekend at other places but not as good as the first place..

• Next day we completed the second half of the bus tour and this time it was windy and rainy..but it was 13 degrees Celsius! At one of the stops, we noticed this new mall, Vasco de Gama, and it being Boxing Week we went to check it out. I was only looking for a belt but i ended up getting a belt, shirt and sweater...in a matter of 10 minutes lol! Afterwards, we had no idea where to catch the bus again so we had some churassco chicken at the bus station and it was way better than Nando's..way better.

• At night we went for more Churassco chicken, this time at a Churassco restaurant we passed by earlier. Luckily, there were no line-ups and we managed to get in right away. This time, a bottle of white was 9 euro which was ok but the chicken was soooooo good. There was also this spicy olive oil on the table that was there to spice up the chicken even more. There were these 2 old Portugese men beside us so naturally, i kept my eye on them to see what they were getting, and they got this cherry liquer called Ginja...so i HAD to get one too lol! Sweet and smooth, i ended up buying a bottle at duty-free on the way home haha!

• We found a Christ the King-copy on the other side of the river, called Christo Rei. Apparently, the previous Lisbon bishop visited Brazil,saw the real one there in Sao Paolo and liked it so much he had one built just like it in Lisbon! We tried to go there on the last day but because of lunch difficulties and the transportation to get there, we only made it to the train station before turning back..

• All in all, Lisboa definitely exceeded any presumptions we had before arriving and it's a great place to go that's not so overrun by tourists..yet. The food here was amazing, the people were great, the weather was amazing (16 C on the last day!) and the location by the sea was beautiful! Come here if you can!
  

Spent the past weekend in good ol' romantic Paris with a few friends and one word to describe it this time: COLD. Yep,
Paris is a very beautiful city and all but the first time we visited we were in light-weight sweater, no jackets, etc. This time around, my parka and sweater were not enough to battle the cold, wind and rain..lol..oh well, were in Paris know what i mean?

• Friday night we stayed at our hotel (Le Meridien Etoille) after arriving in the evening, and chilled in the hotel jazz bar. I guess because it was a hotel and there was a jazz band from the US there, the prices were crazy. ANY first drink was 26 euro and the next were 11-15 euro..and these were the regulr house drinks..ouch. No, big ouch.

• Spent Saturday in Versailles, home of Louis XIV. The chateau de Versailles is absolutely gigantic! We wandered from elaborate room to the next fancy room and didn't even make it out to the garden, which is decorated with shapely hedges and stretches out as far as the eye can see! It is difficult to fathom how someone could actually live in a place this big and posh..wow, to be an aristocrat back in the day eh?

• There was an art exhibition on display within some of the rooms to give a contrast between old and new art. The artist was Jeff Koons from the US. His works of art with bubbly figures like balloon dogs, Michael Jackson and Bubbles, Pink panther, hoovers...so weird and out of place.

• Had dinner in the Latin Quarter, around Notre Dame cathedral, mmm fondue and more Bordeaux wine lol!

• Sunday morning we went to this trendy, quirky brunch place recommended to us by one of Michelle's co-workers who lives near Paris, called Curieux spaghetti Bar . Very cool place with japanese anime as wall-paintings, orange lighting, waiters dressed in tight, short pajamas and very good french buffet breakfast. This really got me thinking of the possibilities of this kind of place in t.O. hmm..?

• Before catching our plane we took a walk to the Pont Des Arts, aka the 'kissing bridge'! Yep, we found it! It's a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Seine River and is just outside the Musee du Louvre. Had to take the obligatory kissing photo op there.

• Walked around outside the Musee de Louvre, down the Champs D'Elysees and checked out a few stores (we missed Chanel! darn :P) before realizing that things are much too expensive in Paris. Sacre Bleu!!

• Had another great but COLD, WET and RAINY time in Paris this Winter, vive la France!
  

I'm soo tired right now, after flying in from Dublin this morning (flight left Dublin at 6:50 so you can guess how early we had to wake up to get there.) but again, I must say that i've been nicely surprised at the variety of things to do and seein Dublin. Honestly, i thought after the Guinness storehouse tour, it would be just another city..but nope..im wrong again.

• We stayed at the Shelbourne Hotel by Shepherd's Green, about a 2 minute walk to Grafton Street and this hotel was definitely one of the best we've stayed at. Has a rich history (JFK stayed here) and very nice bar (No. 27) but we paid way too much for drinks there (£18 for Jameson's and a mojito..wtf?).

• Lots of shopping to do in Dublin, stores everywhere but prices were actually a bit more than in London..seriously, makes London look like somewhat of a bargain!

• Did the Guiness tour (of course) and didn't join the tour group but did our own tour and stuff. Nothing too extremely fascinating; one thing i learned was that the top-selling brew is Guiness Foreign Extra Stout (not sold in NA)...but I like Guiness Draught better actually. The Gravity Bar at the top of the storehouse was the liveliest..and you can guess why!

• Temple bar was a cool area of bars, restaurants and such, hung out there for a bit and also at our hotel bar.

• Did a tour of Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced 'jail') which was not too bad. Infamous jail for holding thousands of convicts in a place buitl for only a couple hundred (irish Potato Famine was the time with the most 'visitors' because they would actually be fed in prison!).

• Sunday was very cold and rainy..good thing we experienced real irish weather! But it was also the official Christmas Tree lighting ceremony that day so we went afterwards to go take a picture like tourists.
  

This weekend, well Friday, we got a group together to watch the ghost story play, The Woman in Black, at the Fortune Theatre in London. We were already having a drink in the bar and ready to go into the theatre, when someone came out and said 'Due to technical difficulties, we regret we have to cancel tonight's performance'.

What the heck?! Cancelling a London show? Unheard of. And i asked if it's ever happened before and to our luck, nope. So yea, we ended up going for drinks around the corner in Covent Garden and managed to salvage our night with good times around a couple bottles of wine..lol.

Then, on Saturday after our jaunt to Windsor Castle (well St Georges Chapel only - site of Henry VIII burial), I decided to check what was playing at our local theatre, Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. And guess what I saw:

"The Woman in Black", last show October 4!!!!! Hahahha! What a coincidence! So yeah, i bought us last minute tickets and we went to watch the show..and then..

The show is based on the original novel by Susan Hill and it is played by only 2 actors. Very minimalistic performance but scary and suspenseful with amazing use of lighting and sound. I must admit I jumped once (only)...seriously. The basic premise of the story is that a young solicitor is sent to the house of a recently deceased strange woman to gather her finances. Upon reaching the desolate, 'haunted' house, he has several paranormal encounters and begins to unravel the mystery of the Woman in Black...and that's all I'll say.

Trust me and see it, theatre like I've never seen..perfect date night

On our first Bank Holiday in the UK, Cigdem, Michelle and I decided to spend the long weekend Monday in Bath.

This historic city has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and presents some of the finest architectural sights in Europe, most notably the famous Roman Baths.

• Bath is about 2 hrs west of where we were and I must say, it was a pretty surprisingly interesting town. It has a very strong Roman influence and it's biggest attraction are the Roman Baths which were situated on top of a natural hot spring, thought to bring healing/magical powers. Natural hot water still flows through here but the baths themselves are no longer used and the water is sort of greenish in colour but yes, hot.

• At the end of the Roman baths, we were able to sample some of the actual water, which is thought to be good for your digestive/overall health. YUCK! Tasted like hot water that had a million pennies in it..

• We also took a sightseeing open-top bus tour that took about 45 minutes and wandered throughout the city. We also passed by the place where Jane Austen lived (woohoo! :P) and got a quick glimpse of the famous Royal Crescent, a crescent shaped street, with 30 houses, and amazing architecture. Drove through the University of Bath (they also have a separate university in town, Bath University!) which is known for medical engineering and sports/athletics. A lot of Olympians have schooled/trained here and also the English Rugby club prepares here for international matches.

• "Pulteney Bridge, together with the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, is one of the world's most beautiful bridges. Like the Ponte Vecchio it is one of a handful of historic bridges in the world with shops built into it."

• Ate at Sally Lunn's restaurant, which is in the oldest building in Bath. It's famous for Sally Lunn's buns (originally Soleil and Lune for the dark top and light bottom colour of the bun itself).

• The city of Bath has all these different pig sculptures all over the city - just like Toronto has it's mooses! They're all commissioned by various artists/businesses and there's a pig-hunting treasure hunt involved with them, if you have the time.