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Pink London

10:14 AM

South Kensington blossoms
These are the first full blooms and Instagram-ers from around London flocked to South Kensington station to photograph it.

I was looking through my recent travel photos on the long flight back to London from America when I realised there really is more pink in London than anywhere we've been.

February is the month of love and Valentine's Day so #monthofpink seemed fitting as an Instagram challenge for me.

Pink house in Notting Hill has the most amazing Japanese maple in the yard that is the most gorgeous red in autumn.

This entrance is just a fraction of a full corner of PINK!


This didn't make it to Instagram

I finally found the most perfect street in Chelsea!

Portobello Road pink

If you get out of the tube at Notting Hill Gate and follow the tourist crowd across the road toward Portobello Road Market, you'll miss the gems that sit on the south side of the road.

Jameson Street's newest pink facade.

Covent Garden awash in love day flowers



Conduit Mews

Hillgate Place is the BEST

I don't even remember where exactly this one it. Somewhere on my randomly selected walk to Notting Hill/Bayswater

Portobello Road perfection

The Bankrobber House :) Someday I'll figure out why it has that plaque...

A darling pink door that will be wreathed, no, flooded by wisteria any day now. It is spectacular.

I hoped I could find this door for months and when I finally did, there was a happy dance! It's too good.

husband

Porto

11:20 PM


We went into this part of our trip with zero recommendations from friends so I was pretty worried it would just wander aimlessly and be a mistake to add to our itinerary since there was still so much to see in Lisbon...happy to say I was wrong! It ended up being our favourite city.

We fell in love the city immediately. It was all dressed up for Christmas and even though it was the coldest part of Portugal (which was still 30F degrees warmer than London so no love lost) 

If you follow my personal account on Instagram, you might remember THIS from when we tried to get a random person to take our picture in front of the Roman Colosseum.
Short story: FAIL. And guess what? Same thing happened when we tried to get a specific picture on this cute bench swing.
I know BENCH SWING! It could have been great...but I love this guy.
Cute French couple for this win! I have zero confidence in the random people but I won't give up because I never get to be in our travel pictures.

Christmas selfie!

Cais da Ribeira

A UNESCO World Heritage Site from the coolest/scariest bridge

Across the top of Ponte Dom Luis I, there is little to zero barrier between the pedestrian path and the train. On the lower level, a narrow pedestrian path means two people can't comfortably pass in opposing directions. So you're always just THIS close to being hit by a car or train haha



Roberta Square :)

Palacio da Bolsa



TILES!

Doors!









They are all just so charming and photographable.





I seriously love all the tile facades

Inside the Porto Cathedral

We love to find a building or place to get up high and see the city we are visiting from above. The Clergios Tower was a pretty good view!

It's pink on the inside!

View from the Tower

Sao Bento, one of the prettiest train stations I've ever seen

The blue tile work is gorgeous

See??

We tracked down a recommendation along the Cais da Riberia for one of the many, many recipes for the dried cod that the Portuguese love so much.

One of the weirdest things I can't get over about the traditional Portuguese food is this: while there are over 350 dishes in which they prepare cod, they never have FRESH cod! Probably have never tried fresh cod ever. It's always salt dried cod. WHAAA? (Refer to my Lisbon post to see the photo of the dried cod)

This is the cod post-multiple water soaks to remove the majority of the salt, roasted with potatoes and crumbled cornbread with a generous amount of olive oil.
Very tasty but a different texture to the fish which needs no additional salt or flavouring.

We were in London for such a short time in December that Taylor had to get a little groomed in order to go back to work.

My favourite guy all cleaned up and handsome. Gosh, I love him.

#100happydays

#100happydays

3:45 PM

I've seen this hashtag here and there lately. Lovely Instagram posts about gratitude and happiness in little things. And then this morning on Facebook a friend shared the link to the challenge. I understood the general idea before I stumbled across the website. But check it out. 


http://100happydays.com

It encourages you to register. Makes sense. We all know when we're accountable to someone (or something) things actually happen. So I'm going to give it a try. I'll incorporate Taylor into it not just as something in my life I'm grateful for every day, but as a co-participant. :)


How awesome is this challenge? I'm excited!




This claim hurts my heart a lottle. That's a little but a lot. We're too busy for happy?? 71% won't complete the challenge once they start? There are so many more implications than lack of time that make me sad about where we have designated value in the world. Maybe it does take a little while to post a picture or write down what made us happy but why not do it?

I'm going to take the time to share what has made me happy every day for 100 days. Maybe it'll spread the happy. Maybe it'll annoy you. But while I would love for it to be a great experience for all, this is for me. 

I believe in happiness and hope. I believe optimism is healing. I could use a little of that. Can't we all?




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