Sam James Coffee Bar (Toronto St.)

Yay, a new SJCB location!
This location is literally a hole in the wall.
The signage outside is very minimalistic, as is everything inside.

It matches the theme of all the other stores (black and white) but this location's interior is pure white.
I visited in the afternoon, and there was no one there. (So awesome! No need to wait 10 minutes in line, like at the SJCB near First Canadian Place.)

I ordered an iced americano, and it was okay.  Not too strong, which I liked, but I would have liked it more if it was less watery and more espresso-tasting. I also asked for vanilla syrup but couldn't really taste the vanilla.

I haven't tried their lattes yet, so I am looking forward to trying that the next time I visit!

Day 4/5: The Last of Lisbon, Portugal

After a hectic couple days, we headed back to Lisbon for the remaining 24 hours.

We started off the day with an awesome shower and breakfast at the hostel. I found my favorite cereal from Greece when I was in Europe 3 years ago :) best.

After breakfast and hanging out for a bit, we headed out towards Belém.

45 minutes of a crammed tram later, we made it to our first stop - obviously food.

We had a great little lunch at Pastéis de Belém, where we got to try some Portuguese delicacies, including some of these tarts. Yum!!

After filling our bellies, we started walking around the area and visited Jerónimos Monastery.

What a gorgeous building.. Can't get over these beautiful and intricate arches and details of this place.

We spent a solid hour just taking photos - typical us :)

After this, we also went to the Torre de Belém. It was not anything spectacular. 

But we did realize that Lisbon has a bridge that looks exactly like the Golden Gate Bridge in SF!

After our little day in Belém, we headed back to the city core in hopes of making it for sunset at a really nice viewpoint. We took the famous Tram 28 through the windy and steep roads to get to Castelo de São Jorge.

...in order to get this amazing view.

Just beautiful!!! 

The orange rooftops + sun setting + view of the ocean and the bridge was perfect.

After the sun set, we started to get hungry and stopped by a random restaurant that we passed by to eat. Rio Coura was our choice of poison, and it left me happy and content.

We rushed back to the hostel to make it in time for our pubcrawl *insert dancing red dress emoji girl*

It was an awesome night to say the least (from what I remember anyway...). I recommend doing this for sure! You get to explore the Bairro Alto area with people who know where they're going plus getting to meet other people who are also travelling, while getting wasted... So worth it.

We got back to the hostel super late but we had no where to go in the morning, so it was perfect.

We rolled out of bed, packed our things, and headed out one last time. 

After walking around Praça do Comércio to find last minute souvenirs, we headed back to Mercado da Ribeira for some lunch before heading to the airport.

As we took our lunches to go, we rushed to the airport to leave for Toronto only to find out that our flight would be delayed 5 hours. FUN.

That just made us that much happier when we got home :)

I had the best time these past couple days, and am happy I got to share my experiences.

Toodaloo! Until my next adventure - (California posts are coming up! Hehe)

xo

Rio Coura

I came across Rio Coura by chance, when walking back to my hostel from Castelo de São Jorge, and was quite pleased that we did. It is a quaint little restaurant with approximately 10 or so tables. 

It was quite busy for a Thursday night, but we managed to snag a table in the midst of all the locals. I am pretty sure we were the only ones in there that did not know Portuguese. But hey, do as the locals do right? I always find that going into restaurants that don't know English will mean either 1 of the two: they won't know what you want or they'll serve you the most delicious authentic food in the city.

For us, we were hoping for some amazing seafood and I wasn't disappointed. Everything on the menu was so cheap for the quality of the fish that was given to us. Gotta love the local pricing! 

S ordered the cod, while I ordered some other white fish that was the fish of the day (sorry, I forgot the name!). 

The plating/presentation is not stellar... But our dishes were cooked perfectly! S is not a huge fan of 'fishy' seafood and thought hers was a little too fishy. However, I am a lover of all seafood and I thought it was cooked perfectly. The side vegetables and potatoes were also just as good. I was thoroughly pleased with this meal, especially for the price.

We also tried the "green wine", as I heard it was a 'thing' to try. However, we thought it just tasted like super light champagne - not that special.

I would definitely recommend stopping by Rio Coura if you are in the area. I don't think I would be back (just because I am a tourist, and would always like to try new places) but you really do get the bang for your buck here for absolutely delicious seafood dishes!

Day 3: Soaking in Seville's Beauty for the day

If I was to sum up Seville in one word, it would be stunning.

The day we spent in Seville was the sunniest, hottest day and we were super thankful. We were finally able to just walk around without a sweater!

After dropping our stuff off at our Airbnb, we started off the day just hitting the tourist attractions we had looked up online.

Torre Del Oro

Seville Cathedral

Random building - I love the big doors and intricate details.

S' favorite pose for this trip - "the casual look away" :)

After walking around for a while, we decided to stop outside the honeycomb for lunch.

Seafood paella!!! This was only 8 euros :) such a deal!

After a good break (and also where I got sunburned for being in the sun for so long), we went up the Metropol Parasol (we called it the honeycomb because that's what it looked like!).

And then we went up the honeycomb to get a view of the city!

We got decent views of the city from here - not that high up but it was still nice.

After walking around for a while again, it was time for another break! (Lol I am all about the food breaks, if you haven't noticed.)

Amorino!!

The last time I had Amorino was when I was in Paris :)

I love their gelato and the way my ice cream becomes a flower. Although I love fresh flowers, a gelato flower is pretty high up on my list of favorite flowers. I got mango, raspberry, tiramisu and stracciatella - it was a great combo of fruit flavours and creamy ones :)

After walking around a bit more, we headed to visit the Alcázar of Seville.

And then we decided it was time to take another break. We headed back to our Airbnb to charge our phones and have some snacks. 

And then what we were waiting for all day.. To visit Plaza de España.

After spending two hours taking photos and admiring the beauty of this plaza, we realized that it was almost 9 and it was time to have dinner!

We stumbled across a tapas joint with a busy patio and again, ordered a bit too much haha. Oops!

And that was our day in Seville!

Where to next?

- - -

For the rest of my Iberian Peninsula posts, click here.