Max and Paul's Excellent Adventure

 We woke in the morning and I went for a walk to check the area out while Max was planning her escape.  To my unexpected delight, 50 metres away were local stalls selling produce along a cobblestoned alleyway. One hundred metres further down was a wider street with large retail shops housed in beautiful old buildings. There were branded department stores and food stores a plenty.  Even though Türkiye is over 90% Islamic, the people we saw on the street were more 'western' in their appearance rather than having the traditional Muslim look. We found the locals to be friendly, especially if a little effort is made to speak Turkish, albeit badly. 'Hello' and 'thank you' in Turkish helps break the ice when haggling. I must say, even though I'm not a fan of 'Google' per se, the Translator app is a lifesaver. You can type or speak into it in English and it translates it and displays and speaks it out in the chosen language. You can even take photos of text ...

 We landed in Istanbul on a cold night. Luckily we'd had our initiation in London! Our hotel booking was made on booking.com and honestly, it's a bit of a lottery. Even though there are reviews and ratings it makes you wonder who writes them.  We got out of the taxi from the airport and wandered down the road looking for our accommodation. Walking past dilapidated buildings on a cold, wet night in an unknown country on broken pavements and walking past loud local lads was slightly intimidating.  We found the hotel and even though the and mentioned a lift, we faced a spiral staircase leading up to the check-in counter on the first floor. There is a lift, but it starts on the first floor! The lift was needed as Max's leg is still healing. Thank God we'd left those big suitcases behind.  The young fella at the check-in counter was very pleasant and showed us up to the room. It was spacious and very warm. The smell of cigarette smoke goes throughout the building as most ...

We were going to travel further south in Portugal to Lagos but changed our plans after looking at our options. From Lagos, we wanted to fly to Spain, Sicily and Malta. The flights were going to be quite cheap if we didn't have checked-in luggage. In most cases (pardon the pun) the luggage can be more expensive to transport than the person!  So, after realising that we could ditch half our luggage, we decided to fly back to London to offload our suitcases and crammed necessary clothing in 'cabin cases' (56cm x 40cm x 20cm) and one backpack each, therefore enabling us to take our cases on the plane and check-in online. This saves us an hour checking in luggage and another hour standing by the carousel. This also made Uber easier and cheaper with smaller cars. It all adds up! So we are flying out to Istanbul on the 24th of January. Here is the breakup of flying costs without checked luggage: Cost of flight for 2 people      AUD   60.00 Taxes    ...

Apart from being a bit chilly, the view from the south side of the Douro river was worth coming to see. We were to take a cable car ride but it was too windy on that day. The north side of the river has cafes, restaurants and buskers. It was sunny on this day and we wanted to make the most of it! Someone's gotta do it! One of the buskers in the square. Well actually, two. This guy stayed so still!                                                   Grounds of the Porto University One of the many cafes tucked away. Every second shop sells wine and it's cheap.  Portugal is the home of port and it's plentiful!

We arrived on the 9th of January in Porto and planned to stay for about 11 days.  Porto is in the northern part of the country that's known for its wine growing and production. Every second store sells wine and its main export is Port Wine. The river Douro runs through the middle with the city split in two. The old city and the main business centre are on the northern side. Max and I both feel safe and comfortable here. The locals are friendly, the streets are not busy and the food and accommodation are probably the cheapest in Europe.  They certainly love their pastries here and the favourite seems to be their 'Pastel de Nata' - We know them as Portuguese custard tarts.  We first discovered these in Brisbane at Indooropilly shopping centre. They are ridiculously addictive.  Google translate has helped us a lot with communications as there are not so many  English-speaking locals even though it's a fairly major tourist town.  It is a bit of fun, though, hav...

The four of us went out for breakfast at a local cafe and then went out to London to a place called Sticks and Sushi. A beautiful night was had by all.  The cocktails were delicious. The food was delicious. What's not to love?  Perhaps the bill... Tiramisu instead of birthday cake. Cold prosecco.