Category Archives: travelling adventures

broadway market / london

10 October 2012

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i just came back from a short weekend in london. i always love going back, catching up with a few friends and live like a londoner for a couple of days.

one of my favourite plans is going to the broadway market, it’s a ritual i have with my friends – a healthy brunch at home and a morning spent in the market, buying fresh fruits and vegetables, cheese, bread and pastries.

there is something special about this market that makes it different from other more popular ones in london – there is a neighborhood feeling to it.

i like starting with a capuccino from climpson and sons (always packed, but worth the wait) and then head to my favourite stalls in the market – the pesto from borough olives (i have never tasted one like this), and catherine tough’s lavender hearts are staple stops.

by the time we leave it’s lunch time, so we get to share a few snacks – a smoked salmon bruschetta, a mushroom risotto, and a garlicky courgette and artichoke pizza!

click HERE for broadway market’s website

abc kitchen / new york

28 August 2012

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the same way i have a shopping list for whenever i go to new york, i also keep a list places to eat. i try to go to the spots i haven’t been to. abc kitchen was on the list.

it is conveniently located, close to our favourite shops on fifth avenue, near union square,  at the back of abc carpet.

we went for a quick lunch, and the menu, by jean georges, includes organic and the freshest local ingredients. the atmosphere is casual and happy.

we shared a few starters, our favorites were the crab toast with lemon aioli and the tuna sashimi marinated with ginger and mint.

i had a big kale craving so i had the kale salad with lemon, serranos and mint, for entree. it was delicious, but my mouth waters just as i think of the veggie burger i also tried. with minted yogurt and whole wheat pita, it was to die for.

lately, i’ve been trying to cut on sweets and desserts, but we couldn’t resist on sharing the salted caramel ice cream with candied peanuts and popcorn – a huge sin but so worth it!

next time, i will sure try their dinner menu.

abc kitchen contacts.

the nolitan / new york

23 August 2012

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during my long weekend in new york, a couple of weeks ago, i stayed at the nolitan. when visiting the city, i usually stay with family and friends, but this time my mum and sister were also meeting me for a few days.

i had spent endless nights looking for an affordable, well located hotel…until i realized there are no bargains in new york!

i found out about the hotel through b for bonnie, and read about it here. plus, the location is perfect – so we went for it, and i tell you, it was perfect for us!

we were meeting up in new york to buy my wedding dress (thanks for the lovely comments to my post, by the way :), and the hotel staff were extremely helpful dealing with pre ordered dresses, deliveries and returns!

the lobby is small but with so much personality, and so much going on. we had breakfast here every morning and loved seeing so much action going on – couples checking in, guests arriving from a bicycle ride, others taking their breakfast to the rooftop. oh, and i loved the installation by jennifer steinkamp, see the picture i posted on instagram – i coulnd’t stop staring!

exhausted after spending the days walking the city, it was great to come back to the hotel, fresh-up and go for dinner to one of the nearby restaurants – we went to pulqueria (delicious tacos in the middle of chinatown), ruby’s (best burguer and pumpkin salad), mottsu (perfect neighborhood sushi) and epistrophy (so many italian goodies).

see their website – the nolitan

i’m outta here

7 August 2012

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hello friends! i’m bugged for not having posted lately, but it’s been busy busy here preparing for my summer vacation…plus some news coming out soon! i will be headed to new york for a long weekend with my mum and sis – when you live on an island going to a busy city with lot’s of traffic and pollution is a vacation!  we’ll spend a few days shopping, people watching, eating out in nice restaurants and catching up!

after new york i’ll be leaving to portugal for a looong vacation, so you won’t see so much of turks and caicos around here, but a bit more on portugal. since james will still be on island for a few more weeks, he’ll still share a some posts on his diving outings.

images by branco prata

mexico | tulum

20 July 2012

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this is the third part of our trip to mexico – hope you enjoy, read the first and second parts too!

we arrived to tulum at dinner time, after driving from merida for almost 4 hours, and making a stop in izamal. i was specially looking forward to this part of the trip, it meant we were sleeping in the same place for three nights in a row and we were finally back by the sea.

tulum beach is a stretch of beach filled with eco and rustic little hotels, cabanas and restaurants. the beach is long, you can walk forever and the fact that there are no multinational or 5 star properties it makes it have more character.

once again we stayed at coqui aoqui (more about this property here). we took our first day off from any cultural trips and did some rest and relax. we spent all morning between a breakfast of huevos ranchers and mango juice, and reading by the beach. as i’ve mentioned before this is not the best time of the year if you want to do beach, the weather was irregular, but it was quiet and it didn’t stop us from enjoying our stay.

in the afternoon james went cave diving, it was his first time diving in a cave and he was so excited about it. when i saw his videos i am sure i would completely freak out if i had to do that – my claustrophobia is definitely getting worse with age! and whilst he was out i went for a massage at the hotel’s spa.

on our second day we had to go back to our culture fix, so after stopping at el tabano for delicious huevos mexicanos for breakfast, we went to visit the tulum ruins.

these were a bit more busy and with rain coming on and off we had to exercise our patience. tulum ruins are definitely the ones with the most gorgeous setting, it is nothing like we had seen before – the ancient ruins on a cliff by a beach with turquoise water – unimaginable! so not only you get to see the ruins but you can access the beach and bath whilst looking at them.

we stopped by tulum pueblo for quick lunch. since there are no good pizzas in our lovely island, i had been craving one for a while…we got our fix at la nave, an italian recommended by bea,  from coqui coqui – and the pizzas were pretty amazing.

in the afternoon we drove to coba, another mayan site, just over 30min from tulum. after visiting chichen itza, uxmal and tulum, i had little energy for more ruins – but i was glad we came.

this site was not big and it was divided in two parts. to get to the second part we had to rent a bicycle to get there and i found it really fun to cycle under the trees, kind of relaxing.  when we got there, james went up the pyramid. me? with my fear of heights, i kept my feet on earth and took pictures.

on our last night in mexico and went to tulum pueblo for dinner, rather than the restaurants in tulum beach. we walked through the main street, stopped by the little souvenir shops – i fell in love with this and so many other mexican goodies from mixik – and we ate our last tacos and empanadas.

see more picture on facebook here

to read more on our travels, go right here :)