Little Look at… Lisbon!!

That’s right- I took my first holiday in YEARS! After finally, finally having a break from all the covid restrictions, I was able to go away at the end of June/beginning of July (hence why I’ve been even more inactive than my usual inactivity on the blog 😉). And you can bet that I was the most touristy of tourists while I was away and took way too many photos… so I’m gonna share some of them with you now!

I did a ridiculous amount of sightseeing in Alfama and Belem in the first couple of days, checking out churches, monasteries, towers… and more churches! 😉

Seriously though, the Jerónimos Monastery was to *die for* (and worth baking in the boiling heat standing in a massive queue to see it! 😉).

Naturally, I also introduced myself to the famous pasteis de nata, sampling the original in Pastel de Belem and discovering the very best in Lisbon at a place called Manteigaria (in the Time Out Market). I could not get enough of those bad boys!

One of my favourite parts of the city was definitely Bairro Alto. Partly because it had such a cool vibe, but maybe mostly because I had the best. sandwich. ever in a place called O Trevo (really, this was an unassuming café with THE BEST FOOD!!)

And of course, I also did a day trip to Sintra… because how could I not?! I swear Sintra was like stepping into another world- the Pena Palace and Quinta da Regaleira were like something out of a fairy tale. Even the Rossio station set the scene for a *magical*day! I cannot describe how beautiful it was- but hopefully I’ve given you a little sneak peak 😉 

Clearly, I had a lovely time 😉 Portugal was a delight and I’d happily go back! (right now, if I could 😉) Before I go, if you are looking to travel there, I highly recommend checking out Mary Drover’s posts on Lisbon and Portugal– which are far more descriptive than mine and do a great job of getting you in the mood and (perhaps more importantly) finding out what you *need* to visit!! I can also suggest checking out this blog if you are hoping to plan a day trip to Sintra- it really helped me!

And that’s a wrap! Hope I’ve inspired some of you to check out Lisbon for yourselves!

Having a Grand Old Time in Ireland!

Not to be confused with my trip to Northern Ireland 😉 That’s right, I took another trip to across the sea, this time to Dublin’s fair city! (it’s actually a long story how I came to make two trips, but we’re gonna skip right over that 😉) I went with my sister, the Monkey Baby, and as you might have gathered from the title, we had a lot of fun. Not least cos there’s great sights, food, music (and Guinness is amazing!) We definitely didn’t run out of things to do. 

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I absolutely loved the Irish patter too and the streets were so steeped in stories. I learnt a lot in the short time I had to spend there. One of the absolute highlights was the Long Room (the library) at Trinity College 😀

Plus we stumbled across a couple of famous people…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Beyond the literary heroes and history, I also got to go to the Wicklow mountains and saw some scenes that looked like they were out of a fairy tale!

And that’s all for my touristy-brochure style post! 😉 If you actually want a great list of things to do/itinerary for a day trip to Dublin I really recommend Nyx’s post from Hurricane and Drizzle books– cos I drew a lot of inspiration from that when planning this trip!