- Tuesday, April 22, 2014
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Just after my trip to Germany, we went to Lisbon to celebrate my birthday and New Year.
We stayed at 4 star hotel,it was rather nice, our room was impeccable. Well, one thing I could complaint about is lighting, it was rather dark despite a number of different lights in the room, it creates a nice atmosphere but sometimes you just want to have some proper light. I'm sure it was the man who designed the lighting, none of the 3 mirrors had a decent lighting to do/check make up.
There were some rather nice buildings but most of them desperately need restoration.
It's rather hilly in Lisbon, my legs were in pain by the end of the day.
I think I liked Alfama best.It's a neighborhood full of narrow streets going up and down and at the top of the hill sits São Jorge castle.
I quite like my hair in this picture, good hair day is rare for me.
We mostly walked and only once we went by tram to get to Belem, but it was one of the new trams and not the old charming ones. In the picture above it's actually a funicular.
Overall the trip was good but the rubbish collectors strike ruined it a bit (rubbish was everywhere). I haven't booked any further holidays yet but I'd love to go to Italy, we'll see.
- Sunday, January 05, 2014
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More on my holiday in Mallorca.
We stayed at this 3 star hotel which can't be compared to also 3 star hotel that we stayed at in Barcelona (it was very good), we had half board meal plan, breakfast was good but I'm not a breakfast person, so for me it was not that important. Dinner was a different thing. Me and my SO are both vegetarians, so we knew it will be tricky but reviews on trip advisor said that the choice of veggie food was good. I beg to differ. Most days we ate salad with chips (French fries). We got bored of this very soon. They had a great selection of deserts. Most of them there with jelly, so again we weren't spoiled for choice.
We found a nice restaurant on the beach called Playero where we had lunch several times.Pizza was very nice and they had wonderful milkshakes. It was a very relaxing atmosphere, I wish we had restaurant like that on our beach!
We had a few evening walks by the seafront, enjoying cooler temperature yet it was warm enough to wear a summer dress which never happens in UK.
I took my 20mm F/1.7 lens out, I didn't have a tripod, but the pictures are quite decent considering it was night time! That's one of the reasons I bought this lens.
What I loved how safe I felt there, al streets were lit and there are so many people around too.
On our last day we went to Alcudia itself. At first we thought to take a bus, however, it was full and only took one person on board, there were around 10 people left disappointed who stayed to wait for the next bus which was probably pretty full too. Instead of waiting for the bus, we decided to walk, I had downloaded map of Ballearic Islands on my phone in advance just in case thought not that we needed much, it was pretty straightforward, it took us under half an hour to get there, if it wasn't hot, maybe it would have taken even less time.
First thing we did, went to ruins of Pollentia, Roman city. Archaeologists are still working on the site, don't know how can they possibly work midday in Summer, it was incredibly hot. We paid 2 euros to enter, it was quite interesting to see the ruins, especially the amphitheater but if you are pressed for time ,I'd skip it, its not that impressive.
Afterwards, we went to the old town which is just across the street, it has a medieval town wall, you can step up on the wall and follow it almost all around the old town.
We wandered around the town, in the maze of medieval streets.
There were plenty of shops and restaurants.
Sunset in the Palma airport just before take off
Summary: I loved the beach, sun and the tan (I've never been this brown in my life!!), bit disappointed with the hotel, overall worth the trouble.
- Monday, July 01, 2013
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I'm back from my sun, sand & sea holiday in Mallorca!! I'm happy to be back but I'll miss that beach. I've tanned. A lot. A local shopkeeper thought I was Italian, can't blame him. But let me start at the beginning.
We took a very early flight to get there, I've booked a transfer bus to get us to the hotel, it was good value for money I think.
To be continued...
We took a very early flight to get there, I've booked a transfer bus to get us to the hotel, it was good value for money I think.
We left our things in the hotel, changed and went straight to the beach which was only a short walk away. The water was lovely and the sand was hot, what else do you want? sun I guess, but
it disappeared behind clouds so we left the beach and had a nap which was quite needed,we got up at 4am that day. Our hotel was quite...something. It is very much British orientated (well, most of Puerto de Alcudia is).You can buy British newspapers, radio station played during the day was also British, entertainment was for British taste too,even some staff were British. You wouldn't know you weren't in UK if not the nice weather! Not surprisingly, most of the guests were British, we spotted people of other nationalities too, but only during meal times, only the British seem never leave hotel and just sunbathe by the pool even though the beach was 5 min walk away.
I could only squeeze in the picture half of the hotel, it's rather big. Most guests come with their families, including grandparents. There were so many children. The annoying, noisy, little buggers. It seems there is always at least one child crying, screaming or generally being a nuisance. It was quite tiresome, now I get why some of the hotels are adults only- to escape all the bloody noise.
We didn't stay much in the hotel though, except the day it was really bad weather- 20c and cloudy!! :) We had sangria, mojitos, it was quite lovely but boring, not much to do. Hotel did provide evening entertainment, so we went to see The Beatles tribute, it was very enjoyable, although sometimes the singers missed a note but it still was rather good. I was surprised how similar their voices were to the actual Beatles, especially Ringo's. That was the only evening entertainment that we went to see, others were not something we would enjoy.
My camera's screen is a bit darker than the actual picture, so it leads to overexposed pictures like this one, I swear it looked perfectly fine on the screen.
The view from our balcony.
To be continued...
- Saturday, June 29, 2013
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- Saturday, June 22, 2013
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Hello my peeps
I'm back, I haven't totally abandoned this blog. I've spent just over week in Germany. It was lovely, I saw my family, some cousins I haven't seen for years and did some more touristy things. I generally liked the trip but I couldn't imagine myself living here (despite the fact the rent is so much cheaper and they sell my favourite chocolate).
The flight was short, it wasn't too tiring but getting from the airport to where my parents live by public transport took longer when I expected. The weather was...interesting. One day it's called, the next it's hot and back to cold again! But when it was hot, it was summer hot, I even got a bit of tan!
At least this ride was incredibly slow and was a nice change from all others that we went to.
We went to Hilden where a lot of my relatives live, did some shopping (I only got a pair of shoes) and visited my aunt and cousin. I have been here many times, I lived in Düsseldorf
for two summers when I was a teenager, just 15 min ride by a car from where we lived (not the best part of city...)
To be continued....
I'm back, I haven't totally abandoned this blog. I've spent just over week in Germany. It was lovely, I saw my family, some cousins I haven't seen for years and did some more touristy things. I generally liked the trip but I couldn't imagine myself living here (despite the fact the rent is so much cheaper and they sell my favourite chocolate).
The flight was short, it wasn't too tiring but getting from the airport to where my parents live by public transport took longer when I expected. The weather was...interesting. One day it's called, the next it's hot and back to cold again! But when it was hot, it was summer hot, I even got a bit of tan!
When I got to my mom's new flat, my cousin was eagerly waiting for my arrival. She's a cutie, she just turned 7, speaks mainly in German but understands Lithuanian a bit and even talks in Lithuanian, especially when she tries to make me go to play area with her.
She stayed overnight with us the next day we went to Phantasialand near Köln (Cologne) with aunties, uncles and other cousins
I've been here before when I was 8 during my first visit to Germany. It was mostly terrifying experience, I'm not fond of heights and speeds, so it was a bit out of my comfort zone. To be honest, I wouldn't go to a theme park any time soon. I was on the ride pictured above with my cousin also pictured above, she was so terrified, she cried during the ride, I tried to comfort her but it's hard when we don't speak one language and I was terrified myself. To be honest it goes a bit too long and believe, it's a lot scarier than it looks. For me it;s the speed and feeling that you will fall out of it.
At least this ride was incredibly slow and was a nice change from all others that we went to.
I didn't take any pictures of my mom's flat or garden which is rather nice and big. Location is quite good, Lidl and Aldi is nearby, it;s quiet and there is a park 1 minute away and another next to it pictured below.
We went to Hilden where a lot of my relatives live, did some shopping (I only got a pair of shoes) and visited my aunt and cousin. I have been here many times, I lived in Düsseldorf
for two summers when I was a teenager, just 15 min ride by a car from where we lived (not the best part of city...)
To be continued....
- Wednesday, May 01, 2013
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I loved Barcelona, not sure if it was the sunshine, the heat or the relaxed atmosphere, but I loved it.
It was very warmth, around 27c and one day it got pretty hot reaching 34, so we spent that day mostly on the beach. The water was ever so clear
It was still early, there were hardly any people on the beach..not for long though
Went to La Rambla, which I was impressed by at all, but I loved the "labyrinth" of streets next to it, which we explored a few times during our stay in Barcelona.
It was quite easy to get lost and we couldn't find the vegan place that we saw during our first wandering around these narrow streets
We found this burger place near Placa del Mar (I think it was called Hot & Crusty or something like that) which we ate watching the sea and the tourists. The server had very good English which was quite a relief.
With my hair curled by the Meditereanian sea (ever so salty)
We stayed at a very nice hotel at Eixample (Hotel Europark- highly recommend!) so certain sights were just a few minutes walk away..
went to Montjuic.. didn't go on the cable car as I have fear of heights so we took the funicular and walked up on foot to the top which actually didn't take long and was very enjoyable.
Went to Park Guell ( if you go, just take metro not the bus, it's not that far from the station and there escalators to get you up the hill!)
and when it started raining, quite badly, but it still was warmth. We were soaked through so we had to come back to the hotel to change, when we left the metro, we found ourselves in the middle of demonstrations!
On our last day we encountered the celebrations of DÃa de la Hispanidad
and a bit more of the rain...
I would love to go back...and live there! Even though there were things that annoyed me a bit ( red/green traffic light?who cares! and all the mopeds...), I could easily live here... but not work as there none hah...
I stumbled upon Sherlock while watching TV in the hotel after a very long day, it was in Catalan. Sherlock's voice was too slow and monotonic, probably voiced by an older man but it was low so not a complete miss but it still sounded weird and the slowness took away a bit of Sherlock's magic. Sherlock should be soon shown in my home country or maybe have already been shown as I saw adverts on TV while I was at my parents', would love to see how it's in Lithuanian, but to be honest it can only work if they put subtitles as Benedict's voice is not something you want to miss...
Anyway, now I'm back I'll start learning Spanish, my dear M. will help as she's Spanish and I will help to help her with her English, great!
- Monday, October 15, 2012
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