Lo centro storico

To be honest, when I first chose Bari as the flight destination for this getaway, I mostly considered two things, how much the flight would cost and the connections (to countries on the other side of the Adriatic) that the city would offer. However, the more I explored about this area the more excited I got about Puglia alone. It is off the beaten track, especially at this time of the year, but that only adds to its charm! I started to plan where to go and quickly the idea of getting a ferry was dropped. Both the prices and duration of the trip made the decision quite easy. But at this time, it was actually good, because I was already excited about Bari and a few other places in the same region.

But starting with Bari. Apparently it was a no go kind of place until a few years ago because it was not very safe. Now it is much better and the historic centre can be visited even at night. Which is great, because it is beautiful when lit by the street lights alone.

Bari old town streets at night

On the other side of the old town, the sea front :)

Maybe this is the reason this is now a safer area, but it is still scary to find this in the centre of the old town

So Bari it was! After a tricky trip to the airport we (me and Andre) got the flight and arrived to Bari. I already knew there was a bus to the city and after asking around we got two tickets to centre Bari for 1€ each! When the bus came we understood why it was so cheap! The bus seemed about the same age as me and I would not be surprised if it was even older! We felt every bump on the street, the door wouldn't close completely and there were parts that looked like they wanted to get off the bus! Of course we laughed abut it more than we complained! This was already part of the experience! :)

Our bus. I have to say that it is very photogenic!! You can't even notice the dirty windows that well! :p

Not our bus but is good enough to illustrate how the buses are

But so, we had arrived! On the first night (when we arrived it was already night), we walked a bit around the city and had our first taste on great and non-expensive food! So much good food!!

One of the highlights of the city is the historical centre, lo centro storico which gives the name to this post. It is so because it has so much character and charm that it deserved its own post. The streets are narrow (like in most old cities) and create a maze that we didn't bother to study. We just walked around choosing the next street because of its colours, its smells and the music! Yes, music!! There was music everywhere in this part of the city! The doors to almost every house were open and quite often there was loud music coming from inside. A place so lively as... well, Italian!

The typical Italian street corner

There were things that marked this Italian stamp that I tried to portrait here:

- The religious elements. Portugal is quite a religious country, especially in the north, but you can find the catholic symbols mostly inside people's homes. In Italy this happens everywhere. So here are some photos showing the religious symbols that we could find just walking around:

Religion is everywhere - pic 1

Religion is everywhere - pic 2

Religion is everywhere - pic 3

Religion is everywhere - "Peace out, man"

- The washing lines. Even when it rains:

Washing lines - pic. 1

Washing lines - pic 2

Washing lines - pic 3

- The scooters that were parked everywhere. Even inside the shops:

- And me doing stupid faces:

,

In t minus three days

After many months of silence I'm restoring the life to this blog.

Things have been quite busy with the move to a new country and the search and start of new jobs. So a few dream trips had to be postponed, but now that things are more settled, there will be new posts on this page!

We now have two trips booked and one will be this week already! Using some days off the A&A team will go to Puglia, the heel on Italy's boot, to explore the off the beaten track part of Italy! I am so looking forward!! I am realy excited for it especially because I've been craving for new adventures like this for a while.

The second trip... Well that will be kept a secret for a little while longer; but not that much...

The day we almost "punted"

If the question "What the hell is punted?" populates your mind right now, you are just like me a week ago. Actually, that might be kind of a trick question because punted does not exist. But punting does! And I had no idea of what that was until I started making questions about Cambridge.
Punting is basically the art of moving your canoe down a (shallow) river with a long stick. Something that Cambridge inhabitants have been doing for some time. It's a bit like what they do in Venice but without the gondolas and the funny hats.
For me, one of the most curious aspects of punting is the platform where the punter is. As you can see in the picture below, it is a flat piece of wood almost always completely wet. The interesting aspect of it, for me, is how slippery it must get on those really damp days and how I didn't see anyone fall into the river!!

Punting! You can almost see from this who are the pros and who are the newbies

!

Oh Sole Mio... oh no, wrong boats, wrong city!

Ready to go...

So, we went to Cambridge and one of the things we really wanted to do was try (highlighting the try) some punting ourselves. On our first (of two days) the weather was good and we even got to witness and mock (just a bit) the amateur punters that would not leave the same place imagining ourselves doing exactly the same thing. But then we decided to do it next morning. We would have more time and maybe it would be less busy!
Next morning... it was, indeed, less busy!... But it was also raining non stop! Looking at the weather forecasts, things didn't look promising. So, a bit sad but not defeated we decided to walk our way through Grantchester, a village nearby. That same walk had been advised by a couple of people so we thought it would be a great alternative to punt our way down the river. Under a small umbrella (the two of us) and with a non water proof clothing (me) we launched ourselves to the path that proved to be really worth it. Even with the rain that allowed us to have the path only for ourselves, an occasional runner, an occasional biker, an occasional dog walker and a lot of cows!

Us trying to fit under the umbrella AND take a picture AND do funny faces! Ufff...

The path

The cows...

The river!

But Cambridge is something more than punting and walks by the river. So here are some photos of the rest.

Enjoying a free coffee while the life goes on on the other side

Cambridge and books! This is what came to mind when I heard of Cambridge. Well, this and rowing, of course! 

Bikes bikes bikes... they're everywhere in London and they're definitely everywhere in Cambridge

A (n old) sweet shop that even has candies for the diabetics!

Me and Cambridge

Andre and Cambridge's animals  (of course!)

Part of the Cambridge University  - Kings College entrance

"These lines on the grass were hard work. Please don't destroy our hard work"

Ice cream in London

If you told me three weeks ago that I would write a post with these 2 words on the title I would think they would be there with an ironic tone. But actually, something strange has happened (maybe it's global warming!) and the summer has been great in the city!

First of all, some news... London is not just a city that fills my traveller's dreams, is the city that fills my days! We (the A&As) moved to the UK's capital at the beginning of this month. This means that now I'm a true foreigner, not just a tourist any more.

But this post is about the ice cream's experiences in London!

Last week we heard about this "event", a place where we could go to do our own personalized Magnum! Of course my reaction was something like "I want to go, I want to go, I want to go! :D". And this Tuesday, after work, there we were, at Oxford St. (right in the centre of the city), in line to do our own Magnum.
With some time to feel the Magnum vibe (30 minutes of waiting!!) we got immersed in the Magnum lush all around.

Our imagination had to follow certain steps to reach its whole glory.

The available toppings were this incredible mix of edible rose petals, silver pearls, mint flavoured crunchy stuff and a lot of other ones that I can't remember right now!

Inspired as we were, these were the works of art that came out of our instructions

Mine is the one on the left and Andre's is the one on the right

They were... interesting :P! We both agreed that the best choice would be a vanilla filling with dark chocolate on the outside that would let the toppings do their magic! The truth is that it felt like this crazy mix of flavours in our mouth! My even had a mouth popping topping and sea salt! But it was a great experience, one we'd recommend vividly :)!

And later these week, strolling around the shelves of the supermarket, the gluttony in me was craving for something sweet and it got fixated on this box of Oreo Ice cream cones! And they had a great price... The hedonist in me own and the box came home with us! And after the first bite, I was a fan!! It's this really creamy thing with bits of Oreo chocolate cookie here and there! It's DELICIOUS!
I'll just show you a picture of it, but with the wrapping still on so you won't drool on your keyboards (or so I won't drool on mine :P)

I'm sure there will be many other experiences, even ice cream experiences, in London worthy of being told in this blog. And I'll be here to tell them to you. Especially now, that I became a true Foreign! :)