All posts filed under: Travel

Hotel Pulitzer, Barcelona

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Anyone knows that when travelling with a low budget airline, transfers to the city from the airport are seldom easy and certainly not fun. So it was a surprise to say the least when we bought a £50 return ticket from London to Barcelona and it didn’t just fly us to Barcelona El Prat within two hours but it only took us 30 minutes to get to the centre. When we arrived at Plaza Cataluña, rucksack on back and wheelie case in hand, it took us a few minutes to navigate before setting off in search of Hotel Pulitzer, our hotel for the first night of our four night stay. Despite not having a map, we found the hotel very easily and were relieved that we had done so with little stress. We checked in and headed to our room, past the lobby and up the lift to the fourth floor in a glass lift that looked down onto the glamorous cocktail bar and lounge below. Hotel Pulitzer Barcelona stands out for its distinctive personality, …

D.O.M. – Sao Paulo

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Three months have passed since I dined at Alex Atala’s restaurants. Three months. And I still get that fuzzy feeling when I think about my experience that day. I was in Sao Paulo for five days to discover the best cuisine that the city has to offer and for such a short space of time, I took away memories that will last a lifetime. The hosts certainly knew what they were doing – leaving the best experiences until last so that we left the city itching to go back. Our second to last day was what has gone down in (my) history as Alex Atala day. We rocked up at Dalva e Dito at lunchtime to be greeted by a fresh-faced Alex Atala who welcomed us to his neighbourhood restaurant. I stepped inside and my eyes were drawn to a number of design features. The brightly coloured rustic Portuguese tiles that covered the floor looked almost too pretty to stand on and the blue and white tiles that adorned the back wall of the restaurant …

Mani, Sao Paulo

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Two months ago I bought my first flat with my boyfriend. As one might expect, we are both incredibly excited and Jack has spent hours scouring his favourite design blogs for inspiration. We are almost on the same page. I say almost because, although I have salivated over the pictures, he has disagreed with me on a couple of my finds. Brazil was a haven for inspiration. Beautiful Mediterranean style tiles adorned the walls and floors of bars, cafes and restaurants and bright and pastel eye catching colours were dotted all around the city. The destination of our final lunch in the sprawling city was no exception. Mani is housed in what seemed to be an old barn, although the old oak beams were most probably there for the effect. The long walkway was covered with intertwined bamboo and a beautiful terrace sat at the back of the restaurant. We were the first to arrive dead on midday and took the opportunity to snap the surroundings before fellow diners arrived to fill the whole restaurant. …

The irony of Sao Paulo

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‘Do you like soccer?’ asked the tanned bald headed Brazilian man sat beside me. I had been in my seat on the plane for fifteen minutes listening to a group of fourty Brazilians raucous laughter and jolly conversation, quietly worrying to myself that this was a taster of what was to come on my eleven hour flight from Paris to Sao Paulo, when Marcelo introduced himself. I could feel the tension in my shoulders ease as we launched into a pleasant but disjointed conversation. But this smiley chap’s broken English did not stop him – his enthusiasm was contagious and I found myself flicking through photos of his trip to Israel shortly after we had taken off. As I scrolled through, I admired the beauty of Jerusalem and began to feel a fondness for Marcelo who had taken me under his wing and distracted me from the leg crunching economy class seats. My time on the flight flew by and as I pulled my suitcase off the carrousel, I looked back to wave goodbye to …