Travel Journal
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Lisbon (Portugal) #4: Oceanario de Lisboa – the Aquarium that everyone will love
Today I bring you to L’Oceanário, the 2nd largest aquarium in Europe. Part 1: Travel Diary Part2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Diary How to get there? This aquarium is located right next to a subway/train station called Oriente. In fact, people may not know it (especially since Google Maps does not highlight this route), but you can go from Lisbon airport to Santa Apolonia station in 20 minutes, taking a subway (red line) to Oriente, then a suburban train to Santa Apolonia => so this trip (subway + train) will only take 20 minutes, instead of 45 minutes by subway (red line + blue line). If you aren’t too…
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Lisbon (Portugal) #3: visit to Sintra, Azenhas do Mar, Cabo da Roca and Boca do Inferno
Today we rent a car to explore the surroundings of Lisbon. We are accompanied by my sister and her boyfriend, who have come to visit us and Lisbon for the first time. Part 1: Travel Diary Car rental at Europcar Just next to our house (we are next to a TER train station: Santa Apolonia), there is a Europcaroffice ( official website) so we decide to rent a car from them. The fiat 500 costs 17€/24h and the Citroen C4 25€/24h. As we are 4, we opt for the Citroen C4, before discovering that they “upgraded” us and gave us a huge Jeep not super handy 🙁 Tour of Bélem…
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Lisbon (Portugal) #2: Attend a Benfica game at the Stadium of Luz
When I arrive in Lisbon, I have the firm intention to continue my soccer world tour. Lisbon is indeed a stronghold of Portuguese soccer with two mythical clubs: Benfica and Sporting. I confess that I don’t know much about Portuguese soccer, but these two names breathe soccer. Benfica is the club of the mythical Eusebio (473 goals in 440 games!). Benfica evokes, for the supporter of Marseilles that I am, the semi-final of the league of champions 1990 with the goal of the hand of Vata which will eliminate OM. As for Sporting, it’s Cristiano Ronaldo ‘s training club (which I was lucky enough to see playing in Turin) On…
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Lisbon (Portugal) #1: Our Airbnb in the Alfama district
This is the first time we have visited Lisbon and we have heard a lot of good things about this city. It is with great excitement that we are looking for an apartment to rent for a month, allowing us to work from home and enjoy this city to the fullest. Unfortunately, from the first research, we immediately realize that this city has become very expensive because of the influx of tourists (like us…). Even the Portuguese can no longer afford to live near the city center. We inquired and tried to negotiate the rates on Airbnb, but all the owners answer us firmly, saying that electricity in Portugal is…
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My first session with a Chiropractor: Tamalou in Essaouira (Morocco)
This article isn’t NOT sponsored I have told you here and here that I had pain in my shoulders and neck because of the bedding not adapted to Morocco and my habit of blogging from my couch. It became so unpleasant that I couldn’t lower my neck completely. That’s when I wanted to look for an osteopath (one and not one) – because male osteopaths tend to crack a bit more than female osteopaths (in my experience). I couldn’t find one in Essaouira, there were some in Casablanca (7 hours drive) and in Marrakech (I don’t like this city). I gave myself a few days to think about it, to…
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Marrakech (Morocco): Majorelle’s Garden, El Badii Palace
After 2.5 months in Morocco, it is time to leave for another country. We have to return to Marrakech before taking the plane to Lisbon. This suits us because we still have a few places to visit in Marrakech. Part 1: Travel Diary Day 1 : Return to Marrakech There are only two CTM buses leaving Essaouira for Marrakech during the day. The first one leaves only at 12:45 pm. We still have time to make a call with a client, have lunch (our owner cooked us a chicken tagine) and pack our bags. It’s going to be weird to leave Essaouira, after 2 months in this apartment (it’s huge…
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Road trip: from Essaouira to Agadir: Paradise Valley, Surfing Beaches, the Honey Road & mountains
Since Meknes and Fez are too far from Essaouira, we decide to do a 3 days mini roadtrip near us, to Agadir. As usual, we call the car rental company recommended by our landlord. I will leave you his contact information at the bottom of the article. Part 1: Travel Diary Day 1: Imouzzer Waterfall Let’s go for an extended weekend between Essaouira and Agadir. Today, our car rental company is dropping off a Dacia Duster in front of our house at “9am inch’alla” (i.e. it only arrives at 10am in reality…). We have the same model of car that we will be in Iceland. It is super handy, comfortable,…
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Quad ride in Essaouira (Morocco) with Palma Quad
This post is NOT sponsored While walking to the medina of Essaouira, we passed by chance in front of Palma Quad which offers quad biking trips We made a first one-hour walk on January 1st with Aurélien. We liked it so much that we decided, two weeks later, to go out again. And this time, we took a 3 hours outing 🙂 What are Palma Quad’s rates? The rates are as follows. They include all the equipment, water, chocolate bars and the (beautiful) pictures that the instructor will take during the outing. For our first outing of one hour, we chose to take a 125cc quad, that seems to me…
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Road trip in Morocco: 3 days in Essaouira (part 3/3)
If you have not yet read the first parts of our roatrip in Morocco, read part 1 here, and part 2 here. In the previous episode, we spent the whole day in transport to get to Marrakech. Part 1: Travel Diary Today, we allow ourselves to sleep in. Who says oversleeping in the morning says… 9h lol. We are so used these last days to get up early that we can’t sleep until 10am either. Aurélien admits to us that after 2 nights in bivouac in the desert, a good hot shower seems so luxurious to him. I think that this is what many travelers find – especially after a…
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Road trip in Morocco: from M’hamid to Erg Chigaga, 2 Nights in Bivouac in the Sahara Desert (part 2/3)
Here we are in M’hamid, at the gates of the Sahara desert. If you hadn’t read the first part of our roadtrip in Morocco, I invite you to read it first Part 1: Travel Diary Background Well, let me explain the why and how of this trip in the desert. When I learned that Aurélien was going to join us in Morocco for the end of the year celebrations, I had to do the program in express mode (for him to buy his plane tickets) from my couch in Marrakech. JB and I wanted to go to the desert at the base, and with Aurélien’s arrival, we thought it was…
