A Travel Blog
When we decided to stay in the Russafa neighbourhood of Valencia, we knew that it was home to many restaurants, cafes, and bars. But we didn’t realize the extent of the choices until we were there. During our three week visit we ate most of our meals in this compact area within walking distance of our apartment, yet we barely scratched the surface of potential places to eat.
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During our first week in Valencia, we had lunch inside the Mercado de Colón, a former traditional market that’s been renovated to house two floors of upscale restaurants, shops and cafés.
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Unfortunately we’ve both been quite sick since before we arrived in Valencia, and our lingering colds and flus are not letting go easily. That means that during our first week here we’ve been mostly sticking to our local neighborhood for lunches or dinners, and stocking up at the local Consum supermarket to cook at the apartment. Luckily none of this is a hardship as the neighbourhood is filled with nice places to eat, and the produce is great.
Read the full post »Our Airbnb was on the Leith Walk, just a little bit outside the core of Edinburgh. This proved a good choice, far enough outside the Royal Mile area to avoid tourist traps, but gentrified enough to provide good options for visitors.
Edinburgh is home to a seemingly endless number of pubs. Most of them are nondescript neighbourhood corner spots serving mainly locals. Others are more touristy and claim long, elaborate histories. In every one we visited we found a warm welcome and unexpectedly good food.
This week we discovered a couple more good places to eat and drink near our place in Seville.
Bar Ajoblanco is a quirky little place that sells vinyl records, VHS tapes and Tex-Mexish food. We tried some tacos and enchiladas along with an order of nachos and guac.
Our Airbnb apartment is in an area of Seville known as La Macarena.
The neighbourhood is most famed for its Basílica de la Macarena and a long stretch of the original murallas, or protective city walls that date to Roman times.
On Sunday we had lunch at Bar Alfalfa, a tiny nook of a tapas bar near Seville’s Plaza de la Alfalfa.
This neighbourhood is only 10 minutes by foot from our apartment, but it was the first time we’d wandered through.
It is true that the black stuff does taste better in Ireland, if only because frequent and rapid consumption by so many citizens ensures that every pint is fresh.
My search for a respectable pint of Guinness outside the Temple Bar district raised a few intriguing candidates, but The Confession Box was a five-minute walk from our hotel so it jumped to the top of the list.
Before our Lisbon memories fade, we wanted to document some of the best restaurants, cafés and bars we visited. Over our three weeks we had great luck finding tasty food, with only one or two of the “meh” experiences that can happen anywhere. In no particular order, these are some places we’d recommend to others.
Throughout our visit to Lisbon we’ve enjoyed many panoramic views of the Rio Tejo, which inevitably include the Ponte 25 de Abril bridge that connects Lisbon to the opposite shore of the river and its towering statue of Christ, the Cristo Rei.
This opposite shore is in fact another city: Almada. And the closest part of Alamada to Lisbon is Cacilhas, a former fishing and shipbuilding district.
Last weekend we had dinner at The Food Temple, a vegan restaurant just around the corner from our rented house in Mouraria. Reservations were a must!
It turns out that Alice, the founder of The Food Temple, was born in Vancouver.
