Lisbon for the Win!

October 29, 2015

I'm in Lisbon now, and the place I am staying is wooooonderful! It's on the top of all of the hills in life, but, you know, taxis.

I will end this post with pictures of what I are for dinner here, my first Portuguese meal!

It was sooooooo good!

The chicken though... oh my word!

That was last night, and it was delicious! So, Lisbon is technically the last new city on this trip, and I have to say, it's my favourite of them all!

I know, it's been one day, but this day has been the most calm, the most surrounded by kind people, and the most peaceful of the whole trip. I think it's a mix of the people, the mood, the environment, the weather, the food and my mindset. 

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, and clearly I'll pop in and explain, exclaim and chat about a few things.

This is the view from the apartment window. Are you kidding me with this?

Stunning.

I decided to go and see the Lisbon Cathedral (I just typed that wrong six times), and this is what I saw.

I love how the organ was designed with horns coming off of it. In all of the churches, basilicas and cathedrals that I've been into on this and the last trip, this is the first I've seen that has that.

You could pay 4€ to go and see the ancient ruins in the back, so I did, and it was very, very cool. You walk over it all on scaffolding that seemed stable... enough. 

This is one of the information panels that explained what some of the ruins used to be back, back, back in the day.

From there I decided that the three crackers with jam I shoved in my face before I left weren't enough, so it was foooooood time! 

I saw this little place with a patio right outside of the cathedral, and boy did I make the right choice.

Ummmmmmm, charcuterie anyone? YES PLEASE!

Tram, love it, haven't been on it yet, but love it!

Then I started walking along the water, which lasted until sunset, as you will see.

These are very fun little tree pods that double as places to sit.

This is a wonderful monument that you'll see closer up later on.

Side note: Do you remember being in school and whenever a teacher or student was giving a presentation (usually on one of those projectors where you had to write stuff in red, blue or black in on the acetate) would say, "We'll cover that later in the presentation...", you'd just be like. "This presentation is long enough for there to be a later? Noooooo!"

That's what it felt like saying "... you'll see closer up later on." Hahaha.

I saw this from pretty far away and loved it! It was soooo tiny, and I love the design!

"Later" has arrived.

The sky changed a LOT today!

In the very distant distance I saw this gradient factory (I don't think that make gradients there... but if they did, I'd be living there forever and always!), and as then very thankful for my zoooooom!

I bought a Portuguese custard tart at the charcuterie restaurant, and vowed not to eat it until I found the right moment. This gorgeous castle looking thing was the right moment. It was four hours from purchase to ingestion. I would like another tart as a reward!

This is why the castle thingy was the right moment. So gorgeous. The sun setting didn't hurt either.

Right?

These next few are of an absolutely stunning monument. It was really quite breathtaking.

This is the beginning of about 100 sunset shots I took. It just keeps changing and I was sitting on the end of this pier, and just took it all in. 

BUT FIRST I SAW A JELLYFISH!

I thought it might just be a plastic bag, but then it wasn't! Look!

Poor guy wasn't alive anymore, and I have no clue how it got there, because it was about five feet from the water, and up a six food embankment... aliens? lol

Okay, back to the sunset.

As I was walking home after taking the train back from outside of downtown, I saw this store. It looked very cool from the outside and was object-laden inside. It seemed like a design shop from afar, so I went in.

They sell canned fish! Only canned fish!

It is suuuuuch a beautifully-designed operation, and I ended up buying some cans, because I wanted the packaging! I will very likely never eat any of it.

And then it was time for dinner! As I walked up all of the hills ever, I saw a quaint little place with a man singing and playing the guitar in front of the door. 

Sign me the hell up!

I order the caprese salad, and man alive, finally someone else who understand the need for a pretty-close-to-equal bocconcini to tomato ratio! Plus the pesto was a brilliant touch.

I ordered the duck for dinner, and it was exceptional.

These are things I bought today that I'm excited about.

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm, they have Cookie Crisp in Lisbon! As if the rest of the amazing wasn't enough, Lisbon, you've made my midnight snack ability that much more tasty and bitchin'!

I found this delicious (referring to the design, not the taste... that would be weird!) type book, which is actually comprised of gold stickers of different fonts.

Now, while I do actually still have my original grey and pink flip-top Polaroid camera, I clearly just bought this only for the packaging!

Also, if you do choose to use it, each full frame is a different colour, instead of the usual white frame. 

Come on!

And now I relax and find something even more fun to do tomorrow. I have a feeling it'll have a castle involved in some way, and likely some more delicious food!

Have a great night!

..................

For Real Though, This Place is Amazing!

October 30, 2015

I love it here. I just love it!

I'm going to be honest, I'm tired right now, so this is going to be a shortly-written post. I just took 20 minutes to upload the abundance of photos you're going to see, so I'll let them do most of the talking tonight. 

There's very little chance that I can top them anyway.

This is the view from a place just up the street from where I'm staying.

Then I headed to the Castle!

The view is unbelievable. You'll see far too many of them here.

Look far in the back, right in the middle, and then the next three pictures.

They may not be crisp, but this camera's got ZOOM!

A little opening, and the following is the full view.

 Another little opening, followed by the full shot.

And then I saw a peacock, and took these three shots that I am obsessed with!

It's blinking in this one, you can see its eyelid closed!

Then I took the tram to the post office to figure out how to use it come Monday when I want to send some stuff back home. The trams are adorable from the outside, and crammed from the inside. 

It's a must-do though, because it's just so... authentic.

I got the boxes and information I needed from the post office, and then took the tram half way back to where I was staying. I decided I wanted to see the Lisbon pantheon, but came across this cool market that had this in the entryway.

So simple, so beautiful.

And then the pantheon. It's massive. I have no idea, as I didn't in every other country, how the hell these things are constructed!

You can walk all the way to the top, so of course I did!

And look! Wowzers, you guys! You could walk around the whole thing, and get a 360° view of the whole city.

This afternoon, I became obsessed with the sky. It was brilliant today.

I didn't go in here, but I just really liked the look of the outside in general.

Then as I walked to find some dinner, I saw this store, which was a shared art store, where they had a collection of work from different Portuguese artists. I bought two necklaces, one for me, and one for a friend back home.

They left the floor exactly like the outside. Like, no floors were put in the store, it's just the street. It's very cool.

I finally went and had a "sausage on fire" at a restaurant near by, and it's exactly what it sounds like. There's a place in Toronto that I'd tried the same thing (there is likely more than one!), and I plan on going back very soon after my return.

Alright folks, I'm toast, so off to sleep I go!

Nighty night!

..................

I Dressed Up As Lisbon's Wife for Halloween!

October 31, 2015

Because I love it so damn much, we're married now! Deal with it, laws that don't allow that!

I started the day with some music, pumped up the jams as I got ready for the day. It's pretty much the only way to get my brain working if I get up before 10am in life, so that's pretty much most of the time, sadly.

A friend of mine is in town from London, and we spent today in cabs, castles and on buses that I'm still worried we're not going to make it safely off of, and I've been back at the apartment for some time now!

Allow me to explain, via the wonderful world of photography.

We decided to go to Sintra today, as it was recommended to myself and my friend by over seven people. It's a small, quaint and overall lovely down north of Lisbon. We cabbed it there, because if we're honest... we didn't want to care about the train or buses. It's just faster, and better, and we got to see more of the cities than we would have on the train, what with their tracks and all.

We ended up at a palace, and a castle, the names of which I don't have in front of me, but here are some pictures.

Disney called, they want their semi-medieval villains castle back!

From there, we took a bus that I was very, very nervous about, because it was up a huuuuuuge, steep mountain. Now, I don't necessarily have a phobia of heights, per say, but I do necessarily have a phobia of scaling a mountain in a huge bus that feels like it's tipping over on curves that shouldn't have roads on them, and a driver who looks like he's had better days. That I'll admit to, sure!

Then we walked what seemed like a bajillion miles to the top, which in actuality was a ten minute walk up a hill. So many hills here in Lisbon. That's okay dear, I still love you.

Once we got to the top, LOOK AT THIS PLACE!

Love this shot!

I'd seen a tile (ceramic tiles are what's uuuuuup here in Lisbon) with a face very similar to the dude in the next picture yesterday, and I was going to buy it but wanted to do some research on what it was, and why it was so beautifully angry. 

As we got to this point at the palace, we maaaaay have listened in on a tour guide that we were not a part of the tour with, and as I suspected, the people who built the palace added this angry guy to ward off bad things, and warn people to only being happiness and positivity into the home. 

I now own the, hand-sculpted, 3D, 7" x 7" tile that represents this guy, and I will post it proudly upon a future door of my choosing.

Could this be more like the exact colour scheme that my brain uses every day in my head, regardless of the thoughts I'm having? 

Nope.

A wonderful set of tiles.

Dreams!

As we got higher up, I got less confident in the existence of safety and my own personal choices.

We were HIGH up, you guys!

And see that castle looking thing on the right, I've zoomed in on the next two photos. I couldn't handle another set of heights, so this is the closest we got. 

Well done, Nikon S9900!

The kitchen in the palace, of course!

More Nikon zoom experiments. Look in the back centre of this picture, at a little statue.

A bit closer.

What up, it's a statue on a rock!

B - e - a - u - t - i - f - u - l - !

(that was painful to type)

And then we cabbed back, walked about for a bit, did some groceries (ie. went to the store to pick up some stuff), grabbed some dinner (same place I had that delicious duck the other day... was just as delicious today), and then walked home. 

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, and I'm excited to sleep in a bit. Who knows but the day will bring, but it's sure to be a fun adventure!

Until then, folks, have a great night!

..................

Rainy Day in Dreamsville, Portugal

November 1, 2015

Today it rained, and then it stopped, and then it started again, and then it stopped. Even though Mother Nature was clearly having a bit of a day, I had a great one.

It was the most relaxed one in Lisbon so far, and was full of far too many Portuguese custard tarts. Here, they are called Pastel de Nata (please correct me if I'm wrong!), and they are what dreams are made of. 

This will be a short one. Just a few pictures for today, and then a very fun couple of things that I bought.

A US navy ship sidled up to the shore, and it was massive. The grey is beautiful to me, and while I know that's not its purpose, I love it. 

This is a very cool looking wall tiling. I tried to translate it, and this is what Google Translate says...

Headline: To be born, Portugal; To die, the world.

Copy: Born small and large die is to become man. So God gave so little land for the birth and so pair the grave. To be born. Little land. To die all the earth. To be born. Portugal, to die, the world.

I feel like that doesn't make sense! I'm going to look at it because is very cool, and once I understand what it means, I will choose whether I still like it or not. I welcome anyone who has a clue, because it clearly isn't me!

Tuk-Tuks's are everywhere here, due to all of the hills and the fact that they're amazing. 

I've yet to take one, and I'll be honest, it's likely not going to happen. The tipping possibility is just a wee bit too possible.

These wonderful fabric bags made me smile, so I bought them.

As the night went on and I contemplated doing laundry in this machine here at the apartment, I decided that before I did that, I should go and get dinner. I went to a place up the street and bought some little meat pies, and a delicious tart! 

As I walked out of the apartment, I saw a tiny antiques shop and went in. 

Look what I found! This is a beautiful, 1930's, Portugal-made carafe and four-glass set. It's stunning, and come tomorrow, it'll hopefully be making its way home in five proper pieces tomorrow.

I had a wonderful conversation with the man in his seventies who owns the shop, and as he shook my hand to say thank you, he told me that he'd had his shop open for over 30 years, that he only specialized in antiques because they had a story, and everyone should have a story. He held my hand in a non-creepy way and said, "I don't care when it is, dear, but you come back to my shop. Next week, a year, five years from now, you come back and say hi."

You guys, this is the point of this whole trip. Not only him, but the people that I will remember, that make me think, and that I would have otherwise never, ever met had I not ventured out across the world.

We meet people who change us and teach us and inspire us, and whether those people are the ones that we surround ourselves with every day, or people across the world who you'll likely never see again, take that shit in, because there are so, so many people in this world that are not lucky enough to have those experiences, near or far.

On that note, I'm off to sleep so that I can get out there all fresh-eyed tomorrow and make the best of my last full day in Lisbon.

Night everyone, have lovely nights, and enjoy your one extra hour of sleep!

..................

Lisbon Double Rainbow!

November 2, 2015

Apologies for the tardy post.

I'd tried six things to get around this error issue, and it seems like it's back up and running. I don't think it has a single thing to do with anything that I did, however. 

Anyhoo, I'm currently in the airport, waiting to fly to Paris, so figured I would type up the post from yesterday, and do another tonight should anything eventful happen in Paris this afternoon.

I woke up at 5:55am yesterday, I'd set my alarm so I could check in to the flight I'm currently waiting for, to try and get an emergency exit seat. It's been rough the past two flights, knee bruises and all.

I got one! Woohoooo!

From there I took the three packages I wanted to mail to the post office across town. That was a painfully expensive experience, which I'm going to try my best to block out forever.

Yesterday was a rainy yet beautiful day in Lisbon, as evidenced by these amazing pictures of my visit to Cascais (pronounced cash-k-eye-sh) yesterday. It's a city quite west of Lisbon, and while it was a bit stormy, it was still a great afternoon.

This was a store that I didn't go in, but thought was beautiful. You know, fully judging a store by its cover.

While their odour left something to be desired, the fish nets were lined up a block-long, and are somehow very eye-pleasing to me.

The light was coming through very crisply onto the boats, but wasn't touching much else. It was like a spotlight!

I found this fun, especially because I could understand what it said!

The beautiful clouds in Lisbon / Portugal overall are like none I've seen before. Bermuda is a close second.

I'd seen the same thing in a London, England last year, some great sand artists on the beach, and you throw change down from the walkway. It feel better taking pictures after I've contributed, plus I could never pull this off!

Right, so the rainbow situation was legit!

First I saw this one, over by the boats/ marina. It was one rainbow, and it made my day.

This is right before it disappeared, you can see just a little rectangle of it left in the middle.

And then the second one started on the other side of the pier. The sky changed, as you can see, and it started raining a bit.

I love rainbows more than I can even explain!

Looks like it's shining right on that boat!

DOUBLE RAINBOW! The one on the inside is clearly stronger, but the one on the outside still counts!

The sunset was beautiful! And those birds were slightly terrifying, simply because there were so many (a bunch you can't see).

Even the reflection in the pavement!

Then I found this gorgeous wall. It turns out it's from a house that was torn down, as you can see from the inside shot.

I then caught the 55 minute train ride back, and had some delicious duck and potatoes for my last dinner in Lisbon.

Alright, the flight is boarding, so I have to scoot! I'll be back tonight with whatever I get up to in Paris this evening.

Have a fun Tuesday, everyone!

..................

Bye Bye Lisbon, Hello Wowzers I'm Lazy

November 3, 2015

I'll be honest, not a lot went on today. I didn't even take one picture. I know, crazy! Here's one from early October just as a reminder...

It's not that I lazed around, but it's just that it was such a travel day, everything surrounded travel from 7:30am to around 6pm.

• 7:31am (Lisbon time)- Woke up to get ready to leave, and clean the apartment a bit
• 8:30am - The lovely AirBNB woman came to check the place and return my deposit
• 8:45am - Taxi picked me up at the apartment to go to the airport
• 9:30am - Already through security, no gate released until 10:40am, bought a tiny quiche and ate it
• 10:00am - Tried everything I could think of to fix the blog issues, using airport wifi
• 10:45am - Blogger fixed itself... my brain was happy but annoyed, decided to go with happy
• 10:50am - Gate 22 released, walked over there, realized I had to pee, did that, then back to the gate
• 11:15am - "We will now begin boarding flight AF1025.", we all got up and stood in line
• 11:35am - No movement whatsoever
• 11:45am - I repeat, no movement
• 11:50am - We begin to board, as I finished my make-up post for yesterday, *upload that jazz*
• 12:10pm - The metal bird begins its adventure!
• 2:15pm - Funny conversation with a woman who could have been more from NYC
• 3:30pm (Paris time) - File out of the plane, at the pace of a malnourished snail with a broken "toe"
• 4:00pm - Finally make it across the massive airport to the metro ticket place
• 4:10pm - I buy the wrong ticket because they have this new thing that I still don't understand
• 4:15pm - I realize that and get annoyed but stand in line, turns out I need my photo taken
• 4:25pm - The little photo booth that was set for short people took a picture of my neck... yeah
• 4:30pm - Procured my unlimited week-long pass that I only need for 3 days but was half the price
• 4:35pm - Get a seat on the RER, and head downtown Paris, listening to some kick-ass music
• 5:25pm - Get off of the train, walk a bit, and get to the front doors of the place I'm staying
• 5:40pm - Get the keys, wifi and other stuff, say goodbye to the man who let me in, and relax
• 6:30pm - Decide that groceries rather than public is the way to go tonight, do some groceries
• 7:30pm - Eat like a damn champion, in bed, watching YouTube
• 8:00pm - Lazy
• 8:30pm - Smiles
• 9:00pm - Lazy
• 9:30pm - Wooooooot!
• 10:00pm - Lazy shower
• 10:30pm - Lazy snack
• 10:45pm - Oh hell yes, this is the life, *eats a grapefruit and pistachios, because that's what's up*
• 11:05pm - Start writing this post

And here we are, 11:39pm, likely a bit later by the time I post this. I have to stay up until 1:20am in order to check in to my next flight for Thursday, and ensure that I get the seat I want. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow I'll make a full day in Paris. Visiting my lovely husband the Eiffel Tower, wondering with no plan, dinner on Île Saint-Louis, and Notre Dame at night. That could all change, but at least one of those things will definitely be happening!

Alright, back to relaxy-time, then check-in, then sleeeeeeep!

Have a great night, everyone!