Newlybroad in London: Markets 101

With so many markets in London, it can be hard to know which ones to visit or see in a short trip. We are just beginning our stretch of visitors for the summer, and they all have been asking, "what should we do today?" I am starting the Newlybroad post series as a way to inspire those visiting and inform the curious about the many things that London has to offer!

First up, Markets 101. One thing I tell visitors that is a must do is to visit one of the city's many markets. It's a great way to spend an afternoon and a perfect way to see a unique London neighborhood (plus, a visit to the market makes for a great lunch!).

Borough Market - nearest tube: London Bridge
The best, most expansive food markets of them all - this one takes the cake (and serves it up too!) Fresh produce, juices, cheeses, wraps, sandwiches, handmade goodies and sweets... the list goes on. Just don't expect to be exploring this one alone; the markets draws hoards of hungry people particularly around lunchtime so expect to be a true British and wait in the queue. Definitely one of our favorite markets.
Open Mon/Tue 10am-5pm for lunch; full market Wed/Thurs/Fri 10am-5pm and Sat 8am-5pm

Columbia Road Flower Market - nearest tube: Old St/Bethnal Green
This market is an Instagramer's dream: gorgeous, vibrant, unusual flowers and plants lining Columbia Road. The smells are heavenly, but be careful of... achoo!... allergies.
Open Sun 8am-3pm

Portobello Road Market - nearest tube: Nottinghill Gate
Nottinghill is a neat neighborhood in itself, but on the weekends it transforms into an antique treasure ground. It is the world's largest antique market with over 1,000 vendors. Stretching for quite a few blocks, the road is lined with shops and booths are set up on either side with knick-knack's and old, hidden gems. This is also where Aaron got our famed Seahawks leather ball so there really is something for everyone!
Open Sat 8:30am-6pm

Camden Market - nearest tube: Camden Town
This is actually about five markets composed into one, but it is really hard to describe. Hippie, alternative, character and eclectic are a few words that come to mind but none seem to encompass all that you will find or perfectly describe it: you just have to go and find out for yourself! The markets have food, jewelry, clothes, a little bit of everything, and as Aaron put it, "there's a lot going on".
Open everyday

Greenwich Market - nearest tube: Greenwich 
The best way to travel to this market is by the river boat! But I'll save that for another Newlybroad post. Arts and crafts, grab and go food, and vintage items, this is a neat little Maritime part of London. You go more for the setting than the actual items in the market, but it's worth it!
Open Tues-Sun 10am-5:30pm

World Cup Fever

London has come down with something and the prognosis isn't good: there's no cure for the disease. Do you have it too? Here are some symptoms to watch for and their likely cause:

• Sweating and shivering (Cause: nerves on end)
• Muscle aches (Cause: sitting too long in one position)
• Unusual sensitivity to bright light (Cause: staring at a bright light)
• Stiff neck (Cause: keeping your head in an awkward position)
• Irritability (Cause: being provoked by an unwanted result)

The medical name is World Cup Fever and it's taken London by storm.

Saturday we headed to our local pub, The Durell Arms to watch the England/Italy game and it was everything you expected it to be: pints overflowing, every inch of floor packed, loud chants and cheers, and English pride. Aaron took a quick video of the atmosphere.

Funny enough, while we were watching the game, my sister texted me from Seattle saying, "I think the pub that you're at is the same one that they just showed on ESPN." Turns out BBC and ESPN had chosen our local pub as the place to broadcast from to get a "live look into English fans' reactions" so that was pretty exciting.  We didn't get on TV but it's still pretty neat to say we were there!

At the end of the night, the fans finished their last drop of luke warm ale and took their feverish minds home after a heartbreaking defeat. I can't say the same of fans in the states after the US win last night. But here's to better luck for the England team on Thursday and continued momentum for the US on Sunday!

Portugal Part II - Cascais and Sintra (One Big Adventure)

Many times the best memories and moments in life are born out of spontaneity. Our weekend in Cascais and Sintra seemed to be all about this and adventure.

We took the train from Lisbon to Cascais, a small beach town on the Portugese coast. Before the trip, we'd decided to have a relaxing, beach vacation but after half a day of laying out on the beach we both decided we needed to do something (just laying around is not the Wham's style!) We went into town, had amazing sushi and then watched a free evening concert that was on the boardwalk.

The next day, I was looking at our map at breakfast. Aaron saw an ad for a scooter rental and said "we should rent scooters today" and laughed. I did as well, but then we thought: we should rent scooters today!

So we rented this bad boy that we called the death-mobile: a Vespa-looking scooter for two. We decided Aaron would be the driver (I'm a bit more aggressive of a driver and we figured that would be bad for, you know, our lives and all). The scooter was hard to drive- it was actually turning that was the worst. But being the passenger was even harder!

We rode the death-mobile up the coast and then cut inland. We had planned to visit a winery on the way to Sintra but it was closed on Sundays, so we ducked into a tiny restaurant in the middle of a small village and had amazing tapas in the sun. After, we continued back to the road and into the rolling hills of Sintra (yes, huge hills on the death-mobile... Yikes!)

Our first stop was at Quinta da Regaleira, a beautiful house and grounds that was once a summer residence for the family that lived there. In the 1840s the family started work to have parts of it transformed by a famous Portuguese architect. The house itself features gorgeous carvings and beautifully detailed features throughout. At the very top is a terrace that has panoramic views of the hills and ocean. If you thought the house was impressive, the grounds were even more spectacular.

There are underground caves, lookout towers, an aquarium, a huge well that goes 27 meters down with a spiral staircase, a greenhouse, small chapel with crypt and a waterfall. Basically, anywhere you wanted to go on this property, you could, so we just explored.

We took the spiral staircase down the well and into the dark, wet caves. We followed the cave until we reached an opening under the waterfall. At the waterfall, there were these small stones that you could walk across to get to the other side. If you fell, you were only knee deep in green-looking water and there was nothing to hang onto (see bottom left photo above). This was actually really scary- it's all about balance, but we both made it out without falling in! 

After touring the property, we climbed back on the death-mobile and tried to turn out of the parking area in a ton of traffic... and we almost fell over in front of everyone. It was probably the most awkward moment we could've chosen to  have a mishap and I'm sure it was hilarious for everyone else: these awkward tourists almost tipped over in their scooter that has "rental" written all over it! We climbed further up the largest hill in Sintra and took a winding, cobblestone path up. Again, not the best choice for the death-mobile, but at the top was a castle and a palace. 

As we were about to buy tickets for the palace, Aaron spotted a flier for zip lining. It was 4:55 and the next zip line tour left at 5. We ran up part of the hill (because trying to get back on the scooter was going to take way too long) and made it just in time!

Up we went into the trees, strapped in high above taking in the amazing views... and then stepping off the platform to zoom from tree top to tree top. In all we zip lined for 1 km / .6 miles and were 30 meters / roughly 100 ft above the ground. The best line was one where you zip lined over the castle wall. It was amazing.

Once we were back on solid ground, we explored the Moorish castle and hiked up to the top. The sun was setting so we had to rush back to the death-mobile because there was no way we were riding that thing in the dark!

What happened next was an accident: we decided to take the short cut so that it would take less time to get back. Down the cobblestone path we went and out onto the pavement road. We started going up a small hill and as we came down the crest, we discovered we were entering the freeway on our death-mobile.

There was no way to correct what we had done: here we were on a 100 km per hour freeway on our scooter. Cars were whizzing past as the wind was whipping into our helmets. Aaron was hugging the right lane as I was clutching with all my strength to him. The fastest we went was 80 km per hour and we were only on the freeway for 5-10 minutes, but it felt like 20. When we got back to our hotel, both of us were in complete shock.

We headed straight to the hotel bar and wow a beer has never tasted so good : ) We sat there recalling our disbelief and reveling in the crazy experience. While there, we found a picture on the internet and both started laughing so hard that I actually started crying. It was the "my abs are hurting to the point where this physically hurts and I should stop but I can't" laughing.  We just thought the picture was hilarious.

That night we had an amazing dinner by the ocean, and we both agreed that this has been our favorite day of this amazing adventure we are on.

Would I recommend Portugal? Absolutely. The country was beautiful, people were very nice, everything was incredibly cheap, weather was amazing and there is so much to see. Just maybe not by scooter : )

Portugal Part I - Lisbon (Europe's Golden Gate City)

A trolley, a red bridge and rolling hills leading to the water - what city does this remind you of? Probably San Francisco, but there's another city it could be.

Lisbon is an uncanny lookalike to the beauty of the Golden Gate city. One thing I didn't know was that Lisbon is also the oldest city in Western Europe. We had two days of exploring Portugal's capital and the top sites to see.

Before Aaron arrived, I did a sightseeing tour bus where I visited the Belém Tower and the Docks area just below the 25 de Abril Bridge (25th of April Bridge), which was named after the date of Portugal's revolution to overthrow a dictatorship.

I rode the yellow trolley up one of the hills to the Castle of São Jorge, a Moorish castle likely dating back to 48 BC. Here I climbed the castle paths and stumbled upon a peacock spreading it's feathers and "shaking it's tail feather" to try and attract the females (yes, that's a scientific term). If you're curious, see the video below!

Afterwards, I wandered around the tiny, winding streets that surround the castle. I stopped in to have lunch at a wine bar and ended up listening to traditional Fado music described as mournful, traditional urban folk music.

Finally, my husband arrived! Aaron got in late Friday night and we had a Portuguese meal. The traditional food there is grilled fish and shrimp, but they also have a lot of Pork too. We tasted Ginja, a liqueur made from sour cherries, which was very delicious!

Saturday morning we wandered around by the river and then found the Santa Justa Lift, an odd-shaped, lookout in the middle of the city. It really does stick out because it is sandwiched between buildings so you don't see it until you look down the one street that it's on! Originally it was built to connect the top of a hill to the lower street, but has become a tourist attraction for it's Neo-Gothic style and panoramic views of the city.

We rode the elevator up and took in the views on the platform while enjoying a cold beer in the warm sunshine : ) Pretty perfect Saturday morning. Afterwards, we headed to catch a train to the coast...

...our adventure in Portugal was only just beginning.

Words from Lisbon

Those that know me best know that I love quotes. I've always been much better with words than anything else. So I've decided to start posting some of my favorite quotes or funny travel finds on Newlyweds Abroad. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do : )

Table for One

Solo traveling: it's not something that Aaron and I have really done since we've been in London. And yet here I find myself in Lisbon, completely alone, not knowing another soul in the city and not speaking the local language.

Traveling on your own is scary and intimidating at times but also exciting and empowering. You gain confidence by navigating through situations and experiences on your own (yes, I can figure out the metro!) and you get to be selfish with all of your actions since there are no other opinions you have to think about (what do I want to do today?!)

But it can also be very lonely (does my voice still work, cus I haven't spoken to anyone in a while?) and exhausting (can someone else please figure out what this word means for me?)

It is refreshing to be completely independent; it's good for the soul to go solo every once in a while : ) But I'm already sick of taking "selfies" (and I've only taken one terrible one, see below) and I don't want to have another quiet meal (eating is only for social reasons, right?)

I'm ready for my favorite travel partner to arrive! And lucky for me, Aaron meets me in Portugal tomorrow night. I had an event here this past week that went well but now my coworkers have all come and gone. 

Everyone should experience traveling on their own but my best advice is to ask someone else to take your pictures for you. #soloyolo

Colorful Sunday

This Sunday, we geared up for a colorful 5k run in Wembley Park. The color run started in the US but has since spread internationally. Aaron, a few friends and I signed up for the London run a few months ago. Yesterday, the "coloring" finally came to fruition.

Basically, it is a 5k run benefitting "Save the Children" but at different areas along the course, you run through a color point where spectators throw blue/yellow/pink/etc powder on you. All the runners wears white so that the color is very visible and sunglasses are recommended so you can still see where you are running : ) 

At the end there is a huge color festival where everyone gets a packet of colored powder and you toss it in the air at the same time creating a dreamy rainbow dust storm.

It was really fun, and at the end we looked like adults who had rolled around in chalk. But getting the color off was not so easy; Aaron had stood in the middle of a circle of people while they threw purple on him (very Husky!) which was fun at the time but not after 30 minutes of scrubbing!

One of the best things about it though was the strange looks we got from people who had no idea what the color run was. Other tube and bus riders stared and gave us perplexed faces as we rode public transportation - yes, to the park and back. You might even say we were one of those "crazy people you don't want to stand next to".

But sometimes life needs a little color : )