Discovering Alfama

May is a month of sunshine, full of colour, amazing temperatures and overall awful.

Why?

Well, it is the month of handing in pretty much all the work you should have been doing throughout the semester

Even if you, unlike me, are organized, you would still have a lot of work to do. And because I am not, organized, well, things just add up.

Thankfully I have an expat friend who gave me the perfect excuse to have a great, guilt free(ish) day of enjoying some of the best things Lisbon has to offer.

Alfama is probably my favourite neighbourhood of Lisbon, it is one of the oldest and is full of charm.

And the best part – they have already started setting everything up for the Lisbon festivities – Santos Populares.

In June, the whole city is filled with colour, sardines, wine, fado and all things portuguese.

It is one of my favourite celebrations, not only it tell us school is almost over, but it is one fun party.

But anyway, I will tell you more about it when the time comes. For now, a few pictures – feel free to click on them to see them in full size.

 

 

 

Ljubljana II

When I first arrived in Ljubljana I did not know what to expect. I seriously I had no idea. But as soon as I arrived I had a good feeling and a lot of luck.

My hostel was a previous prison converted into a hostel. It was very different and had an easy-going vibe. And the city center was incredibly beautiful.

But what I loved about the city was the fact that I could feel its life.

My free-tour guide told us there were over ten thousand events every year in the tiny Slovenian capital. Considering it has all major universities in the country it is a very young city. Fully alive. And everyone was so nice.

I truly thought it would be a nice place to live in.

And then, just behind my hostel I found this block completely transformed.

apparently, in the seventies, just when they were about to demolish the old prison, a group of artists decided they would rehabilitate the building and decided to build the hostel.

They were left with an entire block of houses to work on.

They created a bar and studio area that is decorated throughout.

Every building is different. Some have mosaic. Others were just painted, and all had some type of sculpture.

The end result is very cool and underground.

I took a couple of pictures but have to admit they don’t look very good.

But, well it gives you an idea of the place.

Budapest – Bars and coffee shops

One of the things I loved most about Budapest was its coffee culture.

Here in Portugal we have a huge coffee culture, but widely different from the one in Budapest.

We, in Portugal, drink an espresso two or three times a day – and usually go to the same place everyday.

There are, of course, exceptions to the rule. But the first Starbucks only opened a couple of years ago.

The way we drink beer, is also a little bit different.

Here beer is associated with warm sunny days. Freshly served in a 20 cl glass. Snacks joining it are welcome.

We also drink beer when we go out. Or with a meal. We enjoy beer – but we tend to drink it, like our coffee, at the usual place.

The Hungarians, or at least the one living in Budapest have a different approach to their coffee and beer drinking.

All the coffee shops and bars I went to, were so cool. And cool is in fact the only word that beings to describe them. They were all a little bit underground and very hip. Of course I had a couple of great guides to show me around. And was fortunate enough to have them discover all this amazing spots I would otherwise miss.

I honestly think this was my favourite part of the city.

I obviously took a lot of pictures.

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

Thank you so much to Loves Leftovers for nominating me for this award!

So here are the rules, for this award:

1. Display the award logo on your blog (above).

2. Link back to the person who nominated you – in this case Loves Leftovers 

3. State 7 things about yourself below.

4. Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them.

5. Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award’s requirements by leaving them a comment on one of their posts or About pages (which I promise to do this within the next couple of days).

So here it goes:

1. I am terrible at this sort of things
2. I am going to Istanbul on Erasmus next fall
3. I love chocolate
4. My computer’s memory is almost full – just with pictures
5. I really like maps
6. And guidebooks for that matter
7. I am currently addicted to tea

 

And now the Blogs:

(In no particular order )

Indonesia 1962

Rachel on the run 

Amore, Bici e Cappuccino

Katerina’s Gift 

If hips could lie

Africa far and wide

Emily 

BMG Photo

Steve McCurry

L’Avventura

Emilia Lives Life

Books & Bruschetta

Arjun Bagga

What’s your art?

Glamorous in retrospect

 

 

Beautiful Blogger Award

Back in February, the very nice Jeanine from Wester Avenue in rural northern Wisconsin, nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger Award.

But, because I was travelling I wasn’t able to get back to it, and well, I kind of forgot.

A couple of days ago I got another nomination, and I remembered this one, and figured I should start here!

So thank you so much Jeanine for thinking of me for this award!

Here are the rules, if nominated and choosing to participate then:

– Write a post about the Award and include the Award Picture.

- Thank the person who nominated you ( ie.Wester Avenue in rural northern Wisconsin) and link back to their blog.

- Nominate seven other blogs and include links as well as a quick statement about the blog.

- Write a comment to each of the blogs to tell them you nominated them.

And now for the Blogs I am choosing to nominate, in no particular order:

In search of perfect - It is a blog about the travels of a curious young women

Love. Life. Eat - Is a blog about a woman’s travels and her love of food

Food Photography - The name says it all – a blog with amazing pictures of amazing looking food

Gesundheit, Suze! - Is the blog of a German traveler – with photography and stories from the places she has been to

Eat, Travel, Photograph – This blog is about the Life of a girl who loves to travel by truly experiencing a place

Andrew Brown – Andrew brown is a blog where the author shows us his amazing drawings of different cities.

Love. Life. Istanbul - This is a place where an expat tells us a little bit of life in Istanbul

And here it is! Thank you again Jeanine for nominating me – and I hope all of you can enjoy these blogs as much as me

Photoessay – Rome III

And because one more post did not feel quite enough – here are a few more of my favourite shots of Rome.

Feel free to click on the images to see them full size

Florence by night – Photoessay

When I visited florence, earlier this year, I was very lucky to catch some amazing sunny days.

And well, was lucky enough to catch one beautiful sunset over the city.

I took the chance to shoot during the night and am very happy with the results.

Budapest Synagogue

Budapest is home to the biggest synagogue in Europe.

And it is, indeed, beautiful. The one problem is the price – even though it is not a lot of money, it is extremely expensive for the city.

Despite being on tight budget, I thought it was worth it.

Photoessay – Rome II

So far I have made a couple of posts on Rome. Yet I feel I can show a lot more pictures.

I decided I would make a couple more photoessays  on the eternal city.

I am trying out the galleries where you can click on each picture to make them bigger. What to you think?

Partner Blogs

Last week I came across a wonderful blog, with a great idea.

Evez, from Gesundheit, Suze! had the amazing idea of starting a partnership with other blogs.

You can have a partner blog from each country, and so it not only allows you to have your reader find out about other amazing blogs, it also gives you the chance to connect with bloggers from around the world.

As soon as I read it I wanted to be part of this.

Here are the rules:

-  1 partner blog in each country!

- find other blogs that would like to be in a partnership with you. It might be useful to be in a partnership with a blogger who blogs on the same things then you do!

-Find out which country they come from. (they might even tell you the name of their city!)

- write a brief post on your city (which can be the place you currently live at, a city you are from or a city that you have lived in) and name your partner blogs- link back to your partner blogs. That’s common courtesy!

- finally proudly present your partner blogs on your own blog! (badge is in process!)

 

If you want to check out my partner blogs visit my Partner Blog page on the tab on top of this page 

So is anyone interested in joining this project?

please feel free to e-mail me at preconceptblog@gmail.com