Ireland, Spain & Portugal on a Big(ger) Budget

I thought I would do a little picture summary of the six weeks I spent with my mum in Ireland, Spain and Portugal before my solo voyage comes into the picture.

So basically I came to Europe in the first place because I had half a year before university started, I had three jobs putting money into my v poor bank account, and a wedding in Ireland came up. So Mum & I went over to Ireland for this wedding, spent three weeks, one of them tripping around the countryside, before heading to mainland Europe for some post-family fun. The following three weeks were spent variously in Lisbon, Coimbra, Porto in Portugal & Salamanca, Granada, Madrid in Spain. And a lovely six weeks all this was, plus we could afford the odd drink and we take photos of each other as opposed to the awkward self-takes my camera will have to endure for the next three months. These are some photographic tidbits from those six weeks with my Mum.


Where would one be without guinness in snugs?


Pub mid-afternoon in Ballybeg, the Gaeltacht (Irish speaking part of Ireland)


Grumpy horse that doesn't like english speaking foreigners in the Gaeltacht


Staying at a relative's house in County Galway


Annual Maam Cross Connemarra Pony Fair,for lovers of toothless farmers and horse shit


Tractor jam


Nannageddon


Contemplating tea, County Kerry


Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (UNESCO world heritage listed monastery), Lisboa, Portugal


Student resistance, Coimbra, Portugal


Fine Dining in Porto, Portugal


Chilling in church, Salamanca, Spain


The magnificent Palacio Nazaries in the Alhambra, Granada, Spain


The Albaicín, Granada, Spain


Space age, Madrid, Spain

Lonely Planet

Yo!

I know its been like fifty years since I've updated this, I was travelling through Spain and Portugal with my mum! Sweet family times! Hotels, full meals, a companion, twas great! Anyway I bid goodbye to my mum yesterday morning at the airport...so now its me and my lonely planet(I can't think of a worst companion,it's heavy and gives the worst advice-like advising me to stay at David Beckham's hotel c'mon).

So today I went to a flea market. Now I can't eat for five days. My budget is ten euro a day, it consists mostly of bread, and uh, bread. Seems like a decent amount of money but it doesnt go that far(yet). Yesterday I bought a beer at Imogen Heap, bam, half my budget gone. Anyway market was El Rastro in Madrid, the biggest flea market in Europe, and I don't think I even saw a third of it, but was brilliant, plenty of buskers and old men, both of which can be enjoyable.


Dapper buskers


Slightly less dapper buskers

I spent last night at a Imogen Heap's concert, at a fraction of Perth prices, and she was magnificent. Mostly she played stuff from Ellipse but also a couple of songs I didn't know(which were delicious), Hide & Seek surprise surprise, and also Let Go, by Frou Frou, one of her past musical partnerships. Good times minus expensive beer.


Imogen & her band

My hostel seems pretty grool, which is satisfying seeing as I read reviews of various places saying 'A MOULDY PRISON CRAWLING WITH CUCKEROCHES, DO NOT COME' or 'I SLEEP ONE HOUR HERE, WATER LEAKS FROM TOILET, MANAGER COMES TO ME AT NIGHT ASKING FOR MONEY' etc.

Anyway, just to update that I am actually alive, and not having any travelling companions(I was befriended by an old man who saw me shivering in the street and told me to come back to his house for coffee, he also called me his babe...) I should be updating this more than annually, woop.


Chilling at Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid