One of my favorites places to be, are museums. Well, I love art so its kind of natural that I love museums. Really love it and I have a couple of favorite museums, funny that they all are in London.
I love National Gallery, British Museum and V&A.

Every-time I'm in London, I have to visit at least one of these museums. And of course I follow them on facebook.
I always fell amazed by painting and National Portrait Gallery has an annual BP Portrait Award and the following video is part of that award/competition.
Look at that talent!!

Everyone looks gorgeous under that light and mastery.
I wished I could paint/draw like that. Really, really wish that.

The artist is Joshua LaRock and this video shows Joshua painting Laura, his wife.
The video is mesmerizing...


And enjoy the rest of your day!

I don't know if you all know that National Antique Art Museum (MNAA) was taken into the streets several paintings?
Well, it did and they were not actually the real paintings however were high quality copies.
Some of these paintings were stolen and displayed in a different place than the original. Act not preformed by any MNAA member... The unknown person who did this, as called Robin of Arts.

Pictures taken from MNAA facebook page.

Now these paintings are going to be auction!
I find this idea fantastic, plus the starting price is only 100 euros! I bet this number will go up and up quickly, but a girl can dream a bit and I would not mind to have one or two in my house.
Se quiserem participar no leilão, sigam este link:
https://www.pcv.pt/auction.php?n=1063&view-mode=list&ref=auctions.title

I would like to take these two into my house.



By the way, the museum is have a campaign to collect money to buy Sequeira paintings.You can read more here!

And enjoy the rest of your day!

... day to walk around, drink some tea and eat Pastéis de Belém with Heidiland and visit museums.

This one was the last trip I will have for the next year... I decided to have a break and not travel so much. This year I already went to London twice, Holland twice, Milan, Athens, Copenhagen and now Brussels. I'm tired!
I'm tired of leaving my comfort zone, spending money, not resting properly... Seriously need some rest and routine. Need to take care of my dog and cats, also. Need to slow down for a while.

On every trip I know I will get out of my comfort zone, although is good to push your limits, that can be also scary. Remember I travel all alone, so if something happens I only have myself to count with. And sometimes that's scary... New places you never been and sometimes places with bad reputation... new people, well you get the idea.

Moving on... I had this trip arranged a few months ago and I had the needed time to prepare however without my guide-map from Editora Estampa I don't know how to organize my trip. Feel so lost...
I'm trying to find a good substitute, so far didn't succeeded.
This time I had lonely planet book and it was very disappointing. The map was incorrect, the review of sightseeing places were not very well organized in my opinion, of course. And I didn't know where all the museums where because I didn't had a map with all of them marked. didn't like it.

Brussels is a city that starts running a bit late. Normally museums only open at 10 in the morning, even coffee shops open late. For me, who like to start the day soon, around 8 in the mourning (!!), this reduced the museums I went, due the little time I was there.

Saw all the main attractions of the city, grand place, atomium, the cathedral, the parliament, manneken pis and the museum of fine arts, among others places.
By the way, the museum of fine arts has combined tickets at very low prices and there is a City Card with option of Hop on Hop off bus, which you can used to enter in all main museums for free. More info here: http://visitbrussels.be/bitc/BE_en/minisite_brusselscard.do

I have a few friends in Belgium so I meet up with one of those friends, Lise. She even took half day off work to go with me around the city. We had lunch at this amazing typical Belgian pub and I ate stew which I cannot remember the strange name. But it was so good! Lise, thank you so much!! Kisses.
I also discovered Belgium beers. I like strong beers and they have very much strong ones, some with 13% of alcohol. But good, like for example, Hopus or Orvel. Those two are not available in every bar, apparently... Because they are Trappists, you can read more about it, below.

The first day, the weather was a bit cloudy but with sun and it was great for sightseeing. The other 2 days the weather was better, sun and a bit warm, except on saturday... too cold in the morning.



The food
Belgium like to eat as they like to drink. They are a passionate by mussels and almost all touristic restaurants have mussels. But, myself as portuguese and living near the beach, I eat mussels and seafood all the time, so I didn't tried it. But I tried other specialties, like the stew, Belgian fried, waffles and the chocolate.
I also took a small video of our landing, specially when the aircraft was crossing the clouds. Its always fun to watch.

Beside Athens I visit one island, Aegina.
The boat trip was very cheap and totally worst it! I choose the slowest boat ride so I had the chance to enjoy the trip and myself.

Aegina is called the Pistachio island, so you will see plenty of little shops with pistachio bags for sale.
The island is very small, with lots of pubs and restaurants around the main harbour.
Those restaurants reminded the old restaurants in Sesimbra... So I had to lunch in one of those places. I choose the one that was nearest to the beach/sea. And of course I order one of the main attractions, grilled octopus and I can tell you it was amazing!! Fresh octopus, super crispy! Amazing!

Lunch in Aegina

In the end of Aegina harbor there is a small museum with very antique ruins, with over 6000 years. Walking around that place with so little civilization surrounding you its amazing. That island worth a visit for sure and it was a shame that I couldn't go to other islands, but actually I spent a ll day at Aegina and I had planned to go to several more museums in the center of Athens so I didn't take any risk of skipping my agenda.

Meanwhile, I want to go to other Greek island, go to the beach, take a very good swim on that amazing water!