I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for Christmas before. I can’t believe I haven’t been back for two years. It’s gonna be amazing. Great food, family times and cold weather. And finally tickets booked! Yay yay yay! Was planning to maybe go to Spain again, but not anything certain yet. And finally my mom will come back to Thailand again for a month- we’ll all fly back together. Also Tom is trying to get tickets to see Chelsea so if we get them, there might be New Years in London. My gosh, and Wonderfruit and Maya Festival before. 2017 will end in a great way! <3
Anita Bye
We only stayed in Lisbon for 3 days, and this might be too short and unfair of a statement for me to make. But Lisbon is now my favorite city in Europe. It’s trendy, artsy and full of culture. For any food lover out there, Lisbon has some amazing restaurant and dining concepts.
Time out market was one of them. A hip food court with international dishes and stalls serving wines and beers from Portugal. I always get so surprised at how affordable it is to dine out in southern Europe. I wish I had some photos from the Time Out Market, you’ll have to click here for pictures. They’re building one in Miami now, so please Bangkok. Let’s get one here too! Unfortunately AND of course fortunately ,we got a new camera in Portugal but the RAW format is not compatible with our Lightroom so I’m missing so many photos.
Portugal is famous for their delicious sea food, so of course we had to try out one of the best seafood restaurants (called Sea Me) in town. Make sure you make a reservation beforehand, we learned the hard way… let’s just say it was the longest we’ve ever queued up for a restaurant. But it was so worth it. And do pair it with Portugal’s famous green wine “Vinho Verde” It’s light, sweet and bubbly and so easy to drink. That’s the only wine I drank during my stay there. I also don’t have any photos from this place… the food and drinks were just too good to waste any time.
The city seems flat when driving in to Lisbon, but you’ll be surprised at how steep the streets of Lisbon really are. It’s so beautiful to walk around and get lost there, and just a small tram journey away lies the stunning district of Belém. This is where Jeronimos Monastery and the famous Belém tower is located.
We stayed at a loft apartment in the middle of Lisbon that we rented from The Blue House Lisboa. Perfect location and great value for money. They have loads of apartments that could fit your needs, travelling solo or as a family.
I’m already looking forward to my next trip to Portugal, where Lisbon is one of the cities I definitely want to revisit!
Have you ever been to Lisbon or Portugal?
Caught up in the hustle of travelling around Europe and getting back home I totally forgot about the posts that were promised, but hey, let’s start with Norway!
It doesn’t matter how long or short my stays in Norway are… it’s always going feel like home, and leaving is always just as hard. It never feels like I’ve had enough time here.
I think the hardest part is missing my family, but also my childhood home, all the memories I was brought up with, the familiar sights, smells and flavors. My friends. The feeling of a system that truly works. Strict rules and stiff prices set a side, I consider myself quite lucky to come from and having been born and raised in this beautiful country. I always find it more exciting coming here on holiday, especially when bringing Tom along, as he’s a tourist, meaning I have to think of amazing places to show him. My dad was the best when it came to taking us around all of Norway as kids, so I’m pretty much reliving and showing off my childhood memories to Tom. But I also get the opportunity to explore the unseen, which is awesome. Also, experiencing things as an adult gives you a totally different perspective than when you were young.
So far I’ve taken Tom north to Tromsø for dog sledding and searching for the northern lights, we’ve also walked the streets of little Bodø before travelling on Hurtigruta to beautiful Lofoten. Lofoten during winter time is amazing, but you have to rent a car to drive around the island to get the most of it. And make sure to figure out when the sun rises and sets, because you’ll only have around 4 hours with a clear view. Last year we did the most beautiful road trip I can think of, driving up to Åndalsnes past the famous “Trollstigen” and “Troll wall” before setting up tent in the stunning Geiranger Fjords, we also witnessed the gorgeous Seven Sisters Waterfall while exploring the fjords by boat. We continued by chilling out by the beautiful lakes of Stryn and made a little detour to camp out around Jostedalsbreen to go kayaking and glacier walking in “Styggevatnet”. You need to save up a bit if you want to do several planned activities in Norway, but trust me, it’s all worth it! We also made a trip to Bergen, Voss and the famous Borgund Stave Church. You can see more photos and how to do the same roadtrip here. I love travelling around Norway.
This year around we decided to try spending more time with friends and family as last year, we managed to book our trip while nobody was home. We started off in Oslo visiting my aunt and catching up with friends and family there. We normally only go for a couple of days, but since we planned a 1 month trip this year we managed to squeeze in almost a full week in Oslo. Oslo is a fantastic city during the summer months, and there’s so many nice places to eat and drink.
I also love how the weather and distance makes it perfect to walk everywhere. This time we visited Taco Republica for Oslo’s best tacos and they were extremely tasty, we were also introduced to amazing burgers at Kverneriet (Burgers) in Majorstuen, both of them must-visits if you’re a food lover like myself! The list of great bars and places with craft and draft beers are endless. Oslo makes beer drinking fun! I think our favourite place must have been Kulturhuset, I can’t remember how many beers they had on draft, but I can promise you they have something for your taste and something you’ve never tasted. The upstairs is lined up with games like shuffle board, table tennis and foosball tables- in other words PLAYTIME. Just how I like it!
We found a great deal for tickets to Stavanger as well, and were so lucky to crash with our lovely Norwegian friend Sandra (which we actually first met back home in Bangkok). We rented a car from the app “Nabobil”, highly recommended if you want to rent a car at a good price and drove up to hike the Pulpit Rock. The ferry leaves every 30 minutes, not far from city center and is a 45 minute ride followed by another 30 minute drive before you reach the starting point and parking. The hike up and down will take you a total of 2 hours if you add some speed to it, but the average time is 4 hours so keep that in mind if you are travelling as a family or haven’t been trekking much before. Stavanger is such a pretty city so make sure you have some time to walk around the old town, enjoy a nice meal at the water front or just walking around the streets for shopping and photos. It’s very picturesque!
I’ve already started planning for our trip home for Christmas and New Years. Can’t I haven’t been home for two Christmases already. Insane! Crossing my fingers for a white Christmas. <3
Hello from Norway you all! We’ve been home for almost 10 days and I’m loving it. So great to be back home during the summer. We’ve had some rain, but the moments of sun has made me forget all about it. We started off in Oslo to visit friends and family there, followed by a flight to Stavanger to hike up to Pulpit rock. We were so lucky with the weather. Now we’re in my hometown Levanger, in lovely Trønderlag. I leave you all with this photo for now and promise to make a small “how to travel Norway” post for you guys before we leave to London on Wednesday! See yas! <3
Just received my new business cards from Gogo print and I love them! The material is great compared to the normal ones you buy from your neighbourhood shop and you can design them with one of the agents on the site comfortably from home. The price isn’t much different either. I went for the thicker style with rounded corner and glossy matt surface. They also have loads of other products on their site like invitations, postcards, leaflets, stickers and more, perfect for entrepreneurs who wants to save some time. Easy, fast, convenient. They can make you whatever you can think of, or even help you find out what you need along the way. Check out Gogo print here, they deliver all over Thailand!
This weekend was all about chilling, after being sick the whole week I finally felt better and had my voice back on Friday. Luckily I don’t work on Fridays so we went to the Wow market at K-Village to get some good stuff to eat. I think food markets are my favourite type of market ever.
I’ve never been an açaí bowl fanatic, but knowing about the health benefits of the super berry itself, there is no reason not to jump on the “mainstream” wagon. Also it tastes great, and sometimes making a smoothie bowl at home- and especially being able to get your hands on some acai pulp here in Bangkok is hard. I would say this is my new favourite breakfast/lunch item. You can find them at Vita Cafe in Sukhumvit soi 23.
Best burger in Bangkok if you take value for money into consideration. 150 baht for a beef burger filled with their signature sauce, bacon, crispy onion ring and homemade bread. Find out where they are heading next.
On Saturday we went to The Movement Playground for some Spartan training. If you are looking to brush up on strength and technical skills this is THE place to go. I think we all agreed that this was one of our most favourite workouts for the Spartan so far. If it wasn’t so far away from where I live I would definitely sign up. So.. if you are living in Bangna area, check it out! We also went to check out the Neon Market in the evening and it’s quite nice and not too crowded. I had expected a little bit more due to the hype earlier this year, but the food and drink selection are good. Today was all about reading and I also went to the dentist again… agh, I really want this root canal to be over. Just one more visit!