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Eurotrip
  • Vera and Tom

Eurotrip

Jumping around Europe for 4 months leading up to our wedding and honeymoon. Read more
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  • Trip start
    April 2, 2019
  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Alfama, Lisbon

    April 3, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Today we woke up full of energy to go out and start exploring on our first full day of this trip. We found a funny little local cafe and had a coffee and a chicken toastie for breakfast and then headed towards Alfama, a famous old district in Lisbon.
    Alfama is beautiful and we happily spent hours just wandering around the winding cobbled streets and up and down all of the many many hills. We found some lookout view points, a convent, a castle, lots of cool murals and hundreds of little bars and cafes to go back to if we can remember where any of them are, the whole area is like a maze.    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom
    1

    Sintra

    April 4, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    Another big walking day. We cannot feel our feet but it was so worth it. Sintra is 40 minutes train ride from Lisbon. It is a "longtime royal sanctuary, its forested terrain is studded with pastel-colored villas and palaces" - quick wikipedia info. We had a quick wander around in this historic centre/main square area before we headed off to one of the palaces called Quinta da Regaleira. A gothic mansion from the 19th century and a big well which was drained and possibly used for cult ceremonies! The surrounding park is full of towers, lakes, waterfalls, palm trees and other weird features.
    The second palace, Monserrate, and massive parque around was further away therefore less busy. Beautiful place with special rare species of plants and trees. The palace was designed with Indian and Islamic styles with many details and was funded by Sir Francis Cook, England richest man.
    We ended the day in Sintra with a 1 pound soup which seems to be a common choice of the locals and can be found everywhere, good news for our budget :)    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Belem, Lisbon

    April 5, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    Bought a 24 hour public transport ticket to discover a further part of the city (but also we just cannot walk anymore). Belem tower, Jerónimos Monastery, and great view to the Ponte 25 de Abril bridge with small showers all day. We have tried the 'best pastel de nata in the world' (the queue was long but it was worth it) and later in the evening we had the best sandwich in our lives, bifana (warm pork meat in soak bread, yumi). Bairro Alto is the party district on the top of a hill (of course) with many great cheap pubs. We drunk, danced and made friends with some Bangladeshian guys who told us that we are made for each other, great last night in Lisbon!Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Downtown Porto

    April 7, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

    Super rainy day so we decided to try a hop on hop off bus for the first time ever. Well the idea is great but in pratice it means a full bus with people standing so you can't see anything, condensation on the windows so again you can't see anything. We had a good laugh and made the decision not to do this ever again. Then we tried to find inside places such as train station (with blue and white tiles) and the Portugese Photographic Center (set in an old prison). For lunch we had a traditional Porto dish called Francesinha made with bread, cured ham, fresh sausage, steak or roast meat, and covered with lots of melted cheese and a hot thick tomato and beer sauce, served with chips (weird and filling!) Portugal seems to be the land of awesome sandwiches.Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Porto: River Duoro and beach

    April 8, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Our second day in Porto and the weather was much more friendly for exploring. We wandered along the river, looking down on the little houses below and across at the huge bridges, some of them two tiered because of the really steep banks.
    We enjoyed a nice al fresco lunch to soak up some more sunshine and then had a look at the cathedral, called Sé.
    Our hop-on hop-off tickets were still good from yesterday so we hopped on and rode up to the north of the city to see the castles on the coastline and walk back along the beach. Finished off the day with a bottle of port and a chocolate salami, fancy pantses that we are.    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Geres

    April 9, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    A travel day today. First up a train from Porto to Braga which turned out to be really good. We usually prefer trains to buses when we can because they are more comfortable and this one was brilliant. It was a kind of high speed intercity service with very posh carriages and a mini cafe on board. It was almost a shame to get off after the quick 50 minute journey.
    We saw only a tiny bit of Braga between the train station and the bus station, firstly because it was raining again but also because we'll be back in a couple of days for a proper look around.
    At the bus station we managed to find a bus company with services to Geres quite easily, with a little help from a friendly lady to translate. After a short wait with a coffee and custard tart we were on our way to Geres.
    More April showers in the evening but we got lucky with our hostel and were happy to find a nice warm bedroom and an open fire in the common room. We briefly ventured out into town for dinner but will save the real exploring for tomorrow.    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Geres Nacional Park

    April 10, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    The rain has finally stopped and we were so ready for a big hike in the Geres National Park. The tourist office lady pointed us in the right direction for a 5 hours hike clearly marked by signs (well we still managed to get lost once). The first part up the hill was tough but up on the top we saw beautiful views to a lake, interesting rock formations and snow capped mountains. Sometimes it was pine forestish, other times it reminded us of a desert or the wild west, always different and fantastic. Well deserved drinks at the end.Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Braga

    April 11, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Today was a big travelling day, crossing from Portugal to Spain but let's start at the beginning.
    After a lovely breakfast at our hostel in Geres we got on a bus to head back to Braga. The journey through the national park was very different to a couple of days ago when we arrived in the rain. This time we had beautiful sunshine and a chance to see all the spectacular scenery.
    We then had a few hours to look around Braga, a very nice little city with flowers everywhere and some very grand architecture. We've started noticing lots of holy week related 'semana santa' decorations around so we'll expect even more when we get to Spain and closer to Easter.
    Our bus from Braga to Santiago de Compostela was very quick and breezed across the border at about 100km/h. We passed Vigo along the way and some other coastal cities which looked cool but no time to stop on this trip.
    Finally in the evening we arrived in Santiago, our first destination in Spain, the second country on the trip. Managed to get a few drinks and some tapas before heading back to the hostel for an early night, ready to go and meet Julie and Jess tomorrow.    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Santiago de Compostela

    April 11, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    We arrived in Spain in Santiago de Compostela. We spent a very laid back day exploring and enjoying our first proper tapas of the trip, there is something very satisfying about free food, it seems to taste better.
    Santiago is a really interesting city, every corner has beautiful old buildings and the cathedral square is amazing. We felt a bit like fake pilgrims but didn't bother letting anyone know that we hadn't actually walked there.    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Arca

    April 13, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Arca is on the route of El Camino around 20 kms to Santiago and the village where we managed to catch our Pilgrimers Jess and Julie. Their hotel garden gave us a great opportunity to have some drinks in the sun and get a little tipsy before our birthday dinner for Tom. The next morning we had breakfast together before we waved them off for their last day of walking adventures.Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Madrid

    April 14, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    We arrived late in the evening on the bullet train from Santiago, 250km/h! We met Mark, an old friend from Budapest days, who is now a local of Madrid and used to live right near where we will be staying. He took us out for a quick beer which then became quite a lot of beer, vino and tapas.
    As a result, our first full day in Madrid started a little slowly (and still drunkenly) but we managed to get up and go to meet Mark again for breakfast and meet his wife Teresa and baby Sean for the first time.
    Then it was off to the airport to meet birthday boy Laci, arriving from Budapest. We made our way back to our flat, dumped the bags and headed out for more beer and a little exploring. Got home not too late to wait for Flóra's middle of the night arrival.    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom
    1

    Madrid Centro

    April 15, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Beautiful sunny day to discover Central Madrid; Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol, small streets and mercado before we arrived to the Thyssen-Bornemisza exhibition to check out some avantgarde paintings from Dali, Miro, Picasso, Braque and others. The main exhibitions inlcuding this one can be visited free on certain days/times.
    Closed the day with some drinks and more tapas at our local called La Esquina de Eusabio. Well recommended, unlimited tapas is available to grab from the bar any time, fantastic!    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Cuenca Alta Manzanares Regional Park

    April 16, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Only 45 minutes from Madrid you can find this absolutely beautiful national park; lake, river, forests, rocks, snowcapped mountaines everything you need for a big hike with fantastic sceneries. The walk started from the middle of the park from a small village called Manzanares El Real. Unsure how much we walked but it seemed a lot by the time we sat down for our celebration beers and tapas. We had just about enough energy to check out the castle before we headed back to Madrid with sore feet and burned shoulders.Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Segovia

    April 18, 2019 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    We took a bus out of Madrid to the nearby city of Segovia. The most famous and most impressive landmark is the huge aqueduct, which seems impossibly tall and thin to stand on it's own. Seeing as the Romans built it and it still hasn't fallen over, it must be pretty safe.
    There is also beautiful big cathedral, an amazing castle on a hill, said to be the inspiration for Disney castle, and lots of other medieval buildings dotted around the old streets. It was well worth the day trip, and we were still back in Madrid in time for cervezas.    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Madrid Parques

    April 20, 2019 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 14 °C

    Final days of Madrid were a little rainy but relaxing so we are ready to arrive to Hungary to arrange some wedding things.
    We walked in some parks, saw a temple moved brick by brick from Egypt, visited the Reina Sophia exhibition, expereinced La Santa Semana processions (Catholic Easter tradition when scarily dressed people walk on the streets), had some more drinks and tapas.
    We had a great time for the first part of our holidays in the Iberian penensula.    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Budapest

    April 22, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    We arrived in Hungary for a busy couple of weeks, meeting lots of friends and family and appointments with caterers, hairdressers, DJ, photographer, minibus driver and wedding venue.
    First up Budapest, we stayed with Ági and István so we could spent lots of time with them, also met some friends and a few of the wedding people.
    We also had a great darkroom workshop for Tom's birthday and had a first look at and print of some photos from Portugal.    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom
    11

    Balaton

    April 26, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Down to the lake to spend a few days in Balatonakali with the Muhi clan. We had a great time just chilling out at the house and also met with lots more wedding people and went to the venue to finalise some plans.Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom
    1

    Arrival in Marrakech

    May 3, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We arrived in a very hot and humid Marrakech in the evening and got a taxi from the airport to our hostel in the Medina.
    As it turned out, that heat and humidity quickly turned into a full on biblical storm, complete with hail stones and floods. Lucky for us, we'd just checked in and were able to watch it from the relative safety of our room. Relative because the 2nd floor landing outside our room is open to the sky and it completely flooded and started to leak under the door into the room. Fortunately our friendly host Said was on hand to sweep the water down the stairs and save the day. We asked him if the storms happen often, "with ice rain? never". Just our good luck then :)
    After all that excitement we ventured out as soon as the storm passed to find some dinner. Ended up in a really cool restaurant with live music where we had our first tagines, delicious.    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom
    1

    Marrakech Medina

    May 4, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    An enforced early start today with the 5am call to prayer blaring out of the mosques, it was a lot louder and longer than we expected, and really unlike anything we've heard before. We did manage a couple of hours more sleep once it was over.
    Our second start to the day was breakfast in the hostel, fresh bread, pancake things, jam and honey, really nice.
    We headed out to Bahia Palace, not far from where we're staying. It was built to represent the best of Morrocan design and it is brilliant, funnily enough it's name means brilliant too. It has beautiful courtyards and gardens and loads of Vera's favourite tiles.
    Next we had a look around Place des Ferblantiers and then stopped for some lunch, babaganoush, freash orange juice and mint tea.
    After a bit of a siesta we went to the national carpet museum Dar Si Said, much more interesting than expected and the building was maybe even more brilliant than the brilliant Palace itself, with the added bonus of being pretty much empty.
    Finally we went to the main market square, Djemaa el-Fna and Koutoubia mosque. Non Muslims can't go in the mosque but the snake charmers, monkeys and millions of people all rushing around and making a lot of noise were entertainment enough.    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom
    11

    Jardin Majorelle

    May 5, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    An other day in crazy hectic Marrakech. We are slowly getting used to the rhythm of the city, still we got really tired by the afternoon after a big walk in and outside of the Medina. By getting lost we have discovered some new areas of the North part of the Medina and checked out the Photography museum which had some fantastic pictures mostly of Marrakesh and Tangier (definitely planning to go there), from late 19th and early 20th century. Then we headed out of the old Medina to see the more modern side of Marrakesh. We visited the Jardin Majorelle, an oasis in the middle of the hot and busy streets, which has amazing cactus and palm trees and a memorial to Yves Saint Laurent for some reason.
    Right now we are having dinner on a top of a roof terrace. These restaurants are all over the Medina helping tourists to escape the noisy streets and allow them to people watch from a distance.    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom
    111

    Essaouira

    May 6, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    A 3 and a half hour bus ride from Marrakech brought us to Essaouira on the Atlantic coast. We knew we were going to like it as soon as we stepped off the bus, the air is much cleaner and cooler with the sea breeze, the white painted town is beautiful and the atmosphere is much more relaxed and easy-going. Essaouira, which used to be called Mogador, has a reputation as a hippy town, popular for water sports and once home to Jimi Hendrix.
    We did some exploring of the old Medina, where there are still hundreds of little shops on tiny streets but without the motorbikes which were always racing around Marrakesh which makes it much quieter and more chilled out. We had a falafel wrap from a little street food place and walked down to the fishing port to see the old city walls and all the little blue boats. Vera had an encounter with a live Lobster which was a little closer than she would have liked.
    In the evening we sat outside a restaurant for some dinner and mint tea and did some people watching. Ramadan is more noticeable here, most of the little shops close up just before sunset so that the people can break their fast as soon as the mosques start the call.    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Essaouira Beach

    May 7, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Spent most of the morning and early afternoon walking on the beach of the Atlantic Ocean. The breakfeast at the riad was plenty and varied which gave us energy. It was sunny but really windy. The beach was beautiful and mostly sandy with some people walking, many kitesurfing, a few more driving quads. Hourse and camel rides are also available, those who are selling them really are persistant. A guy even had passports for all his camels (Tarzan, Jimi Hendrix Cappucino and the rest). After the walk we found a beach bar which was obviously for tourists only, at the really far end of the beach where they sell alcohol so we had our first Moroccon beer and wine.
    Later we had our best dinner so far. A set menu with Moroccon soup, tajin (with sardin or a vegetables) and chococlate cake or homemade yoghurt, all amazing!    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom

    Essaouira - Khadija's home

    May 8, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    We decided to do a special activity which we haven't done before on our travels; a cooking class. We used airbnb, where you can book experiences with local people as well as accomodation, and arranged to go to Khadija's house for a tagine lesson. It was a surreal experence to be in someone's home who doesn't really speak English but extremily nice and enthusiastic. She talked us through how to make a chicken tagine and while it was cooking we were watching her husband's sister wedding video (non edited version) in their traditionally decorated living room/dining room. Her husband came home a bit later who spoke better English, he is a primary school teacher in a Berber village closeby. Some days he teaches in the morning other days in the afternoon as these children also need to have time to help around the house. He also told us that he studied sociology and did his thesis on the main square in Marrakesh and interviewed people there every day for 3 months.
    After a couple of hours cooking it was finally time to try the tagine, it was amazing and we can't wait to see if we can repeat it at home.
    On the way home we bought our bus tickets for the next day to Tagazout and walked home by the beach.    Read more

  • Vera and TomEurotripVera and Tom
    11

    Essaouira - Port and City wall

    May 9, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    In our last morning in Essaouira we spent some time at the Port, checking out the local fish market where (for a change) no one tried to sell anything to us. Extremely strong fish smell and lots and lots of seagulls. Then we headed up to the city wall built by the Portugese for some great views before going back to the riad to pick up our bags.
    Our bus was to Agadir but we were told to ask the driver whether he can drop us of at Tagazhout to save some time. (It is around 40 minutes north of Agadir.) He agreed to it so 2,5hrs later we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere by the main road to walk the last bit off to Taghazout. We had a couple of hours before sunset to go to the beach so Tom could dip in for the first time.    Read more

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