OLÁ FROM OPORTO, PORTUGAL.

Oporto is truly one of the few destinations I have been to that has not been ruined by tourism. The streets are clean and the locals are friendly and the spirit is light, everyone is up for a chat and willing to help where help is needed, to me this felt foreign. I think I have been ruined by my upbringing in a society where price could be put on the air you breath and the carbon you exhale, where a helping hand is no longer a favour but a service that is paid for and driven by an ulterior motive.

On our first night in Porto I was a little frightened, only because I wasn't use to having people wondering and lounging on path ways of the ambient lit streets. In the shadows of the dimly lit church silently stood students from an all girls college dressed up in what appears to be Quidditch uniform from Harry Potter’s Hogwarts School of Magic and holding paddles… unusual and frightening to the foreigner... I was quite intrigued but I thought I would be best to not ask and move along.

Porto’s city centre is filled with grand architecture stemming from the medieval ages, Roman and Renaissance era and so forth… It is breathtakingly beautiful especially when you are standing atop the Dom Luís Bridge at sunset and seeing the cascade of rays over the terracotta roofs of the town – Also a great place to make friends, who ever said the French were an angry bunch didn’t meet the same people I did. The city is tiled with murals and decorative porcelain tiles ranging from cobalt blue ink paintings on tiles that decorate the churches and monasteries of the town to Goyard like prints that cover the residential buildings

If the key to your heart is food and wine then be prepared to surrender your heart. There are two things Oporto is famous for and that is port wine and the francesinha!

Francesinha, otherwise interpreted as little Frenchie or Frenchie. She is meaty (steak, ham, sausage similiar to chipolata, chorizo, eggs), saucy (tomato, beer, port, bacon and peri-peri) and will make you melt like cheese under the grill (loads of cheese). Served with a side of fries, for those who have had or will have the pleasure of meeting her you would either love her or hate her. Personally for me I couldn’t get enough of her, over my 2 nights stay in Oporto we were to meet again 4 times!

I will try not let my obsession with Francesinha overshadow the amazing port wine that comes from this region! I am no wine connoisseur but the subtle, sweet, fruity and full bodied taste of the local port could be enjoyed at room temperature, chilled or my favorite over a fresh slice of pineapple!

All in all there isn’t enough that I can say about Porto that will do it justice, if you don’t believe me you will just have to go see it yourself.

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RYANAIR TO PORTUGAL!

For those of you who are familiar with RYANAIR here's something for you to laugh at... Ryanair so far is leading the score board my worst flight experience.... EVER. 
Not because the staff was rude or abrupt, they were pleasant to say the least. I understand Ryanair is a budget airline and probably has a minimalist approach but seriously... the lack of communication and punctuality by the airline and let's face it their clientele (You don't see the Queen flying Ryanair now do you?) and we have a disaster just waiting to happen.

My journey began on Thursday evening after a stressful day sleeping on the couch I made my way out to Liverpool street station, where I had agreed earlier to meet up with my friends to head to Stansted airport.
Upon arrival to the airport we scurried along to check in as we were flying with Ryanair (reliable for making a buck from anything as my friend Dave found out the hard way on an earlier trip) we had arrived 40minutes earlier than the required check-in time, only to find out our flight was conveniently delayed. 

Fast forward 1.5 hours and we are now finally lined up like a heard of cattle to board our flight it took us 30minutes before we actually started moving to get on the aircraft, at this stage you could hear the annoyance of our fellow passengers, not verbally but from the heaving, panting and sighs coming from along the line.

Once we were all on board and our luggage was all stowed away safely above our head, nothing happened... For 35minutes we were expected to sit in a cabin with no air-conditioning, no water and severely humidity and the worst part was not one word was said from the captain.... It was only after a very fiery passenger started hollering abuse at the flight attendants and then turning on fellow passengers - probably from delirium triggered by the lack of oxygen on board the aircraft - that the captain finally made an announcement to inform us that aircraft was struck by lightning on an earlier fight and assured us the flight will commence shortly. The flight did not commence shortly even after several other promises.  But lets just say we arrived safely in Porto ( or Oporto to the locals) at 12.40 am when we were suppose to have been there at 8.20pm!

Overall Ryanair from my experience is very consistent, consistently late and our flight home from Lisboa to Stansted was so late that we ended up walking home from Liverpool station at 3.30am... for an airline that is meant to be saving us money it is not doing a very good job because our time wasted wast worth more than the actual flight itself.

First photo

Second Photo - 20mins later

Third Photo - 40mins later 
Just Kidding, but it was a very long wait...

ELLO FROM LONDON

It has been exactly one week since I landed on this God loving, beer drinking, mind blowing creative hub and I think I love it!

London has been very kind and welcoming of me with generous sunshine and warm weather, but no matter where I go I am reminded by the local Londoners that the weather is not usually this magnificent and not to expect it to stay... Misleading? I don't mind.
From first impressions London seems to be ever so similar to Sydney, but on a massive scale! This may be due to the large population of expats now calling Australia home (God love you Stephen) or vice versa.

London is extremely busy and there is always something going on, let it be food stalls that fills the cobble stoned streets with wild aromas of cuisines from all over the world, to fashion music video shoots on the streets of Brick Lane or masses of trash and treasure antiques that is to be rummaged through at the markets! 

There is so much happening here and there is still loads more to take in... The city is beautiful and charming and no matter where you look there is a reminder of the history that lays within this city, the architecture is grand and I could not help my self but to think that at some point of it's existence these buildings could have very well hosted a momentous point in the history of this nation or even the world, so it feels to me anyway.

So far the few places I have managed to check out is Oxford Street, Brick lane Market, London's Gherkin and Covent Garden... and don't let the name fool you, there is no garden there as I found out (awkward!).

Well I'm off to Portugal tomorrow for 4 days, I better sign off and start packing!

All images are subject to copyright. Images may not be used in any way shape or form with out written permission from Vincent Phan. Images are NOT permitted to be saved, printed or uploaded. Violation of copyright laws are punishable by law.

THE GUY DOWN UNDER for THE BLACK AND WHITE BOARD & FLIGHT FROM VENUS

What a fun and exciting day it has been and not forgetting to mention productive! Today was the photo shoot with an amazing up and coming style and beauty blogger that has come from a land far far away of Éire or Ireland for you non Gaelic speak folks. Jennifer is beautiful, fun and ambitious and professional in every aspect of the business and she is also a very dear friend of mine.
We have been talking about doing a photo shoot for many moons now but the planets have never allowed us time to make it happen, well today it happened and the results speak for it self.

You can follow Jennifer's blog for all things fashion and beauty @ http://theblackandwhiteboard.com/

On today's shoot I was fortunate enough to get my hand on 11 pieces of beautifully hand crafted natural crystal jewellery by Flight From Venus. When I saw these I knew I had to have these for the photo shoot as there is nothing else on the market that looks quite like them... These hand crafted pieces has a real high street appeal definitely for the fashion conscious modern woman or man... that doesn't want to conform to commercialisation. These are all standout statement pieces that can be worn alone or layered and Jen sure knows how to work them into her style!

You can find Jewellery featured in today's photo shoot @ http://www.flightfromvenus.com/

All images are subject to copyright. Images may not be used in any way shape or form with out written permission from Vincent Phan. Images are NOT permitted to be saved, printed or uploaded. Violation of copyright laws are punishable by law.