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Showing posts with label Portugal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Portugal. Show all posts

Saturday, 21 October 2023

Charlotte's Travel Adventures is 5 Years Old!

This blog, Charlotte's Travel Adventures, is turning 5 years old, so I felt it was only right to write a post to celebrate this special anniversary!

I published my first post on the 25th October 2018, which doesn't really feel that long ago, even though a lot has happened since then. At the time, I was back at university in Nottingham, having just completed a life-changing Year Abroad, and I wanted to try to keep this whole spirit of travel and adventures going, even though my everyday life had gone back to being something more mundane, which is why I decided to start this blog.

I didn't post again until January 2019, when I wrote about my trip to Chile to visit my boyfriend Claudio, who I'd been with for about half a year at that point. And after that, I didn't write much else until I finished final exams at university in June 2019. But since then, with the exception of the first couple of months of Covid lockdowns, I've written here pretty regularly, no matter what my situation is, or whether or not I've had many opportunities to travel.

The last five years have not always been easy for me. When you leave university, it's quite a weird time, where you don't have the structure of school and university anymore, and you're thrown out into the world to figure out for yourself what you're going to do next; it's hard to know if you're making the right decisions until you can look back with the gift of hindsight. Not long after graduation, I decided that being a teacher of English as a foreign language out in Chile was what I wanted to do for the next year or two, if not longer. So I got myself TEFL qualified, started teaching online, and eventually managed to find a job at a language school in Santiago, which I planned to start at some point in 2020.

Then, of course, the pandemic happened, and life was pretty much put on hold for two years. With the exception of the last few months of 2020, when Claudio came to visit me and my family, the pandemic was a time of just having to be patient and get through each day and week at a time, while waiting to be able to get my life started again.

And then in February 2022, I was able to finally move to Chile, and since then I've been making up for lost time! I had some fantastic experiences during my 15 months in South America, and then moved to Malta for a few months to complete an internship in digital marketing, and now I've got a permanent role in the marketing sector and am currently based in the city of Bristol.

Even more excitingly, Claudio and I had a civil union in May and plan to have a proper engagement and wedding in the near future! He'll be coming to join me here in the UK later this year, and I can't wait! 

So although there were a lot of of challenges over the last five years and there will surely be more to come, I'm really happy and grateful for how things have turned out.

And there has been a lot to document on this blog! I've spent 18 months of the last two years living abroad and have been on various exciting travels over the last five years. Since starting this blog, I've travelled in 12 different countries (13 if you count England and Wales as separate countries!), 6 of which I'd never visited before.

Here are a selection of highlights...

Visiting the Atacama Desert in January 2019












































Visiting Madrid in November 2019



















Visiting Lisbon in November 2019



















Visiting Buenos Aires in February 2020



















Visiting Uruguay in February 2020



















Exploring London with Claudio in October 2020



















Visiting Stockholm in October 2020



















Exploring Cardiff with Claudio in December 2020

























Moving to Chile in February 2022



















Visiting Machu Picchu in October 2022

























Visiting Rio de Janeiro in December 2022

























Visiting the Chilean Lake District and Chiloé in April 2023



















Our civil union in May 2023

























Living in Malta between May and August 2023



















Visiting Sicily in June 2023




















I hope that in another 5 years' time, I'll still be writing on this blog and will have plenty more exciting travel adventures between now and then!

Wednesday, 8 December 2021

Country Guide: Portugal

Name: Portugal

Continent: Europe

Capital (and Largest) City: Lisbon (in Portuguese: Lisboa)

Language: Portuguese

Currency: Euro

Drives on the: Right

Time Zone: Western European Standard Time

Adaptor Types: Type C and Type F

Description: Portugal is located on the Iberian peninsula in the southwest of Europe, bordering Spain and the Atlantic Ocean. It's a popular tourist destination amongst Brits and other Europeans, thanks to its warm weather and many sandy beaches. And it's also famous for port wine, Fado music, and for being successful in football.

Why You Should Visit: In addition to Portugal's beaches, there are various interesting cities to visit, most famously Lisbon and Porto. I have only visited Lisbon so far, but my trip there really stayed in my mind, because of its beautiful architecture and cultural attractions. I would definitely go back there and to other Portuguese destinations in the future.

Fun Fact: Portugal is the oldest country in Europe, having existed since 1139!


My Blogposts About Portugal

Charlotte's Travel Adventures

- The Night Train From Madrid to Lisbon

- Lisbon

- The Belém and Ajuda Neighbourhoods (Lisbon)

- Castelo de São Jorge (Lisbon)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Cities (Lisbon)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Castles and Palaces (Castelo de São Jorge, Lisbon)

- UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of Belém in Lisbon)

- Travel Tips: My Top Five Colourful Cities (Lisbon)

Charlotte's Travel Adventures is 5 Years Old! (Lisbon)





















Clockwise starting from top left: Belém Tower, Sala Thai Pagoda, panoramic view from Castelo de São Jorge, Igreja de São Domingos, Tram 28 (all located in Lisbon)

Check out the rest of my Country Guides here!

Saturday, 23 October 2021

Travel Tips: My Top Five Colourful Cities

It's been a couple of months since my last Travel Tips article, so I decided it would be a good idea to write one this weekend, especially as I don't have any recent trips to write about (though that will change soon!)

This week's article is about my favourite colourful cities. I think every traveller enjoys visiting colourful cities, as they're very photogenic and they put you in a cheerful mood! So here are my five favourites, plus some honourable mentions!


Valparaíso, Chile



















Valparaíso is one of my favourite cities in the world, and it's definitely extremely colourful. Not only are its buildings painted in many different colours, but its streets and staircases are filled with vibrant street art. For this reason, the Bohemian city is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Chile.

Read more here!


Coquimbo, Chile



















Another colourful city in Chile is Coquimbo, which is located on the coast in the north of the country. It's quite similar to Valparaíso in some ways, as it is built on a series of hills next to the sea, and it has houses of many different colours. But one thing it has that Valpo doesn't is a beautiful sandy beach!

Read more here!


Buenos Aires, Argentina



















Moving over to the other side of South America, you can find the amazing city of Buenos Aires in Argentina. The entire city is full of interesting sights to see, but one of the best parts is La Boca neighbourhood. This is where you can see buildings of all different colours (often with sculptures of famous Argentinians on the balconies!), as well as many pairs of tango dancers dancing in the streets.

Read more here!


Lisbon, Portugal



















The capital of Portugal is one of Europe's most colourful cities, and I really enjoyed my short trip there in 2019. It reminded me quite a lot of Valpo actually, as it's also built on steep hills, and its public transport system includes tramways and funicular railways. And of course, it has many panoramic views of buildings of different hues.

Read more here!


Bristol, England, UK



















The last city on my list is a lot closer to home than the others - in fact it's less than an hour from my house! Bristol is one of the most unique and artistic cities in the UK, and it's also very colourful. The harbourside area in particular is a really photogenic place, with its rows of houses in all the colours of the rainbow.

Read more here!


Honourable Mentions





































































































Florence, Italy




































I've really enjoyed visiting all of these colourful towns and cities, and I hope I'll have the opportunity to visit many more in the future. My list includes Menton in France, Copenhagen in Denmark, Genoa in Italy, San Cristóbal de La Laguna in Spain, Cape Town in South Africa, Havana in Cuba, Old San Juan in Puerto Rico, and Cartagena in Colombia

Next week I'm actually going to be going on a trip for the first time in nearly two months, as I'll finally be going to London to sign my work contract for my job in Chile! I plan to do a little bit of sightseeing while I'm there, and then at the weekend I'll be going on another trip that I'd planned earlier. So I'll have some exciting things to blog about very soon!


Check out the rest of my Travel Tips here!

Monday, 19 April 2021

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

One of my favourite websites for finding travel advice and inspiration is Lonely Planet. Recently, they posted an article on their Facebook page, written by a photographer who has visited over 70 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It got me wondering how many I'd been to, and so I spent an interesting evening on the UNESCO website working it out. According to my calculations, I've visited 31, which isn't too shabby! And in fact, the vast majority are places I've visited since I first started travel blogging in 2017, many of them for the first time. It gave me the idea to write a post reflecting on the World Heritage Sites I've written about on both my Year Abroad Blog and this blog. So here it is!


My Year Abroad Blog 2017-2018

















The canal, which was built in the 17th century, stretches 240 kilometres across the south of France. I visited it near Béziers, and you can see the town's cathedral on the hill in the background.

















The entire city centre of Avignon in Provence has been designated a World Heritage Site thanks to attractions such as Palais des Papes (pictured above) and Pont Saint-Bénézet, the famous bridge from the song Sur le pont d'Avignon.




Across France, there are many important sites along the ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. One of them is Gellone Abbey in Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert (pictured above).






Salzburg is well-known for being the birthplace of Mozart, and is also famous for its beautiful architecture, including Mirabell Palace and Hohensalzburg Fortress, both of which can be seen in my picture.

















Austria's capital is also recognised by UNESCO, thanks to its range of grand and beautiful buildings, including the Hofburg Palace (pictured above).

















Another of Vienna's palaces, Schloss Schönbrunn, has a special recognition of its own, as it was the residence of the Habsburg emperors. Both its interior and exterior are incredibly grand and ornate.

















The capital city of Tuscany has a strong artistic heritage as well as many beautiful historical buildings.





















Another of Italy's famous cities, Venice, is also recognised by UNESCO. It's famous for its canals, gondolas and stunning architecture.





















The colourful, Bohemian city of Valparaíso on the Chilean coast is famous for its street art and its interesting architecture, including Palacio Baburizza (pictured above).





















You can find many of the capital of France's iconic landmarks along the banks of the River Seine, including the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame cathedral and the art galleries Musée du Louvre and Musée d'Orsay.





















Versailles was the residence of the French monarchs, and is famous worldwide for its formal, manicured gardens.





















Le Havre in Normandy was bombed heavily during the Second World War and rebuilt in the years that followed by an architectural team headed by Auguste Perret.


Charlotte's Travel Adventures



























This ancient road system was built by the Incas and spans six South American countries. I visited a marker of the route with my boyfriend Claudio, when we were in the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile.





















The city of Kraków in the south of Poland is filled with amazing architecture at every turn, featuring buildings such as Wawel Castle, St. Mary's Basilica and the Cloth Hall (pictured above).



























In the Belém neighbourhood of Portugal's capital, you can find two famous attractions that make up a joint world heritage site: the huge Jerónimos Monastery and the beautiful Torre de Belém on the banks of the River Tagus.



























Parliament square is one of the touristic centres of London, thanks to its impressive architecture and its historical importance.





















This pretty town on Río de la Plata is known for its mix of Spanish, Portuguese and post-colonial architectural styles.




The beauty of the Lake District's natural landscapes have inspired many famous writers over the centuries.


Tower of London, England, UK


In the past, this spectacular castle was used as a prison, but now it's one of London's most famous landmarks.


City of Bath, England, UK



The entire city of Bath has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its Roman and Georgian heritage.





These two famous neolithic stone circles in my home county of Wiltshire, make up a joint World Heritage Site.


Other sites I'd visited prior to starting blogging are the Dorset and East Devon Coast, and Blenheim Palace in the UK; the Historic Centre of Prague in Czechia; Budapest in Hungary; the Old City of Dubrovnik in Croatia; the Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina; the Flemish Béguinage, the Belfry, and the Historic Centre in Bruges, Belgium; and Museumsinsel in Berlin, Germany.

It's really interesting to reflect on these places that are of such cultural and natural significance to our planet, and I hope they'll still be here for many centuries to come. I also hope to have the chance to visit many more during my lifetime. There's at least a few I'm looking forward to checking out once I'm living in South America again!


28/07/2021 Update

I'd always planned to keep updating this post once I'd visited more World Heritage Sites, and I'm updating it now, because as of today I've visited 35 sites, which is 4 more than I'd visited as of this time last week. However, I haven't actually been anywhere over the last seven days! 

In fact, the reason why the number has increased is because UNESCO have just added 28 more sites to their list, and I've been to 4 of them! One of them is Nice, capital of Riviera tourism, in France, one of them is the works of Jože Plečnik in Ljubljana, in Slovenia, and the other two are ones I've been to since starting this blog. Here they are!




Two parts of Spain's capital have now been given UNESCO status: Paseo del Prado (one of the city's main boulevards) and the beautiful Retiro Park (pictured above).


The Great Spa Towns of Europe; Austria, Belgium, Czechia, France, Germany, Italy and the UK



Bath is now a double World Heritage Site, as it is recognised both on its own for its Roman history, and as part of a group of towns across Europe, for its heritage as a spa town.


I hope to update this post again in the near future with some more sites that I've visited!


25/11/2023 Update

It's been over two years since I last updated this post, and it's definitely long overdue! Since my last update, I've actually visited 10 more UNESCO World Heritage sites and another one that I visited in the past has been added to the list, which I believe brings my total up to 46 sites visited. Still not quite as many as the photographer who wrote the Lonely Planet article that inspired me to write this post, but I'm catching up!

Having spent close to 15 months in South America between 2022 and 2023, and then 3 months in the Mediterranean, I've had the opportunity to explore lots of interesting new places, including several UNESCO sites, and I also found time to visit a new one for me in England when I was back home for a few weeks last year.

Here are the new additions to my list...





These "ghost towns" in the Atacama Desert are preserved exactly as they were at the height of saltpeter mining in the late 18th century and early 19th century.




The Chinchorro people lived in and around the city of Arica in the far north of Chile between 7000 and 1500 BC. They are best known for their mummies, which are even older than the Egyptian mummies and which can still be seen in museums today!


Maritime Greenwich, England, UK



This is quite an unusual World Heritage Site in that it's located in two hemispheres! Greenwich Park is beautiful and full of wildlife, and the views across London are stunning.





Cusco was once the capital of the vast Inca Empire, and still retains much of the amazing architecture and culture from that period. Although at first I found it rather crowded and touristy, I came to really love this beautiful city by the end of my stay there.




A UNESCO World Heritage Site which is also one of the 7 Wonders of the World, Machu Picchu is an indescribable place. Making it up there last October was a real dream come true!




Two months after my Machu Picchu trip came another World Heritage Site (the city of Rio de Janeiro) and another Wonder of the World (Cristo Redentor). There is so much to discover in this incredible city, and I really hope I'll get to go back there at some point.





The Chiloé archipelago in the south of Chile is almost like a different country to the rest of Chile - it has its own unique culture and folklore, landscapes and architecture. 16 of its colourful wooden churches make up a UNESCO World Heritage Site, including the one pictured above, which is located in Castro, Chiloe's capital city.




Moving back over to Europe, Malta's capital city Valletta is designated as a World Heritage Site thanks to its beautiful 16th-century architecture.





Six prehistoric temples across Malta and Gozo make up this UNESCO site. I visited two of them during my time living in Malta - Tarxien Temples (pictured above) and Ġgantija Temples.




The city of Syracuse in Sicily is famous for its extensive range of Ancient Greek and Roman archaeological sites.





When I visited Nîmes in 2017, I was surprised it wasn't a UNESCO site, because the Roman archaeological sites there are so impressive. So I was glad to find out that one of its most amazing Roman buildings, the Maison Carrée, has now become a UNESCO site!


In my opinion, these 11 recent additions to my list are among some of the best out of the 46 UNESCO sites I've visited so far. I hope it won't be too long before I'll have more sites to add to this post!