#was tempted to make this post in Portuguese but whatever

[lover-of-mine]

Here's the thing, and I'm not saying this as a buddie shipper, I'm saying this as someone who relates to Buck to an unhealthy degree, him ending up in a relationship like that feels anticlimactic to say the least. I feel like his whole arc this season was about him learning that he's enough for himself and I'm not saying he's not allowed a relationship, but I feel like him ending up on a relationship with the first person that showed interest and that initially only showed interest because of one aspect of who he is and just ran off once she learned more about him, feels, i don't know, wrong. We don't know how the relationship is gonna evolve and who knows what's gonna happen next season, but the way this was done doesn't feel right.

[ju-vondy]

Headcanon Gwynriel Scene PART 1

Hey guys. I'm brazilian and this is the first time I'm translating my writing from portuguese to english so please take it easy on me 😅 I hope you all enjoy it! This scene is a part of my fanfiction (which I'm posting currently on Wattpad only in portuguese, but if any of you show interest I may post it in english as well) Good reading... ~*~ Some context before u start reading: The last chapter wass Nesta and Cassian's cerimony and she offered Gwyn to move to the House of Wind because when Cassian leaves for missions she feels way too lonly. ~*~ It was in that last conversation that Gwyn was thinking about when she woke up that weekend. It had been two weeks since Nesta had been away. Gwyn arrived earlier at the training ring each day and spent the afternoons working in the library. In her free time, she read Nesta's improper romances - which she was particularly enjoying.

But in that particular week, Merril was incredibly demanding with the research content, so much so that Gwyn took her manuscripts to her room. She rolled over in bed, thoughtful. What would a normal citizen of Velaris do at the end of the week?

Take a stroll around the city.

And that's what she should do too. But there she was, locked in her room. She had promised herself that she would give it a chance.

But the other part, the one that screamed that everything would go wrong... It was still stronger. Besides, there were the nights when she woke up screaming and crying from a bad nightmare. The fateful day in Sangravah haunted her constantly. The disfigured ghost of her sister, Catrin, used to make the nightmares much worse. She didn't want do bother Nestha with that.

Gwyn huffed at Merrill's research papers and decided she had had enough. She had spent the last twelve hours working on the translation of two ancient tomes and was not seeing any progress. Besides... Weekend meant resting. Gwyn sighed loudly and dropped the pen on the desk.

"By the Mother..." she stretched her arms before getting up from the chair. "I wonder what Merril's next obsession will be after she finally proves her theory of connection between the realms."

Gwyn took a deep breath again as she stopped in front of the window. She put her hands on her waist, thoughtful. The research could wait. And the romance was getting so interesting when she had to stop to focus on the new content for Merril...

The priestess sighed and picked up the book, lying down on her bed. But she couldn't read. Not there. Then she felt tempted to go up to Nesta's private library. The one they had had so much fun making silly requests to the House.

Gwyneth had a better idea: to read outdoors. The sky must be beautiful out there. She could lie down on the training ring that would be empty and...

Yes, that's what she would do.

Without thinking twice, she put on something that would protect her from any possible cold, grabbed what was necessary, and went to the House. The lights were on, but there was no one there. Gwyn vaguely remembered hearing Nesta telling Cassian that while they were away, Azriel would teach in the mornings on weekdays, but on weekends he would cross over to Vallahan to accompany Mor in whatever they were doing.

Gwyn hummed as she headed towards the large arch that led to the roof of the House, but then... He was there.

Gwyn halted her movements before crossing the arch and held her breath as she saw those muscular backs without a shirt to hide the tanned skin. Azriel stopped his blows on the makeshift punching bag and turned his body to look at who was present, even though he already knew to whom that voice and scent belonged.

Gwyn cleared her throat before starting to explain herself:

"Sorry, I... I thought there was no one in the House, and I had this desire to read outdoors, so I thought it wouldn't be a problem if I came up here, but..." she stopped abruptly to catch her breath and continue: "If this is a problem for you, I can go back and..."

"Gwyneth," Azriel interrupted her, holding back a laugh. "You can stay."

The priestess widened her eyes.

"Really?"

"Yes."

Gwyn quietly celebrated.

"Thank you," she smiled, walking towards the covered area. "I'll remember this before cursing you in training tomorrow, Shadowsinger."

Azriel chuckled softly.

"Good reading," he said and, after a brief nod, turned to go to the nearest rock where his shirt was thrown. No Illyrian leather, just casual clothing. Azriel put it on and then focused on the punching bag again.

Gwyn sighed, grateful for the small gesture. She opened her mouth to say that he didn't need to put on the shirt, and that she felt comfortable in his presence — even without knowing the reason — and that furthermore she didn't need anyone's pity, but changed her mind at the last moment.

"I don't bite, you know," Azriel said over his shoulder, offering only a half-smile to the Valkyrie.

Gwyn wanted to smack herself. She was there, busy enough — standing, observing those dressed backs and concluding that she preferred the previous sight — to remember to move and choose a place to settle.

The priestess took a step forward, eyebrows raised.

"For your luck, Shadowsinger, I don't bite either," Gwyn replied, keeping her tone calm and serious. "Unless if it is absolutely necessary."

Azriel chuckled. Of course Gwyn would have a smart-ass reply ready. Since the day they didn't win an award for completing the qualifying circuit for the Rite, Gwyn was determined to wipe the smug and presumptuous smiles off his and Cassian's faces whenever she could.

And he kind of liked that.

The priestess started humming softly and cheerfully to herself as she prepared a comfortable place to sit on the icy surface. She had brought a cushion and a sheet to line the floor, not wanting to bother the House with it.

Before she could sit, however, a comfortable mat appeared on top of the sheet and more cushions joined the one Gwyn had strategically positioned against the wall. Additionally, there was a pile with a comfortable blanket, scarf, and gloves. Gwyn rolled her eyes.

Seriously? I can do this myself. I'm not a child, you know.

In response, a mug of hot chocolate appeared next to the blanket. Gwyn chuckled quietly and stuck her tongue out at the House. The mug disappeared.

Hey, I was joking. Sorry.

The mug reappeared, along with a plate full of warm cookies, how fragrant. Gwyn smiled. Thank you.

The redhead settled into a cozy position while humming some soft "humming" sounds. She felt a warm breeze caress her cheeks. Gwyn shrugged, stopped vocalizing, and opened the book while whispering to herself that the House was too dramatic.

On the other side, Azriel, who was absolutely tense and with clenched jaw, relaxed. The shadows were incredibly out of control that night. It was true that Gwyn's presence caused some movement among them. Not agitation, but a small... Commotion.

Even a simple breath exercise from the redhead seemed to stir the shadows. However, it was Gwyneth's voice, her laugh in particular, that seemed to be the real call.

And the shadows... They were happy with a mere murmured singing from Gwyn. That was undeniable. But how was that possible? At that very moment, they were spying on her from afar: crazy to dance with her. They only awaited the master's permission, who, to his discontent, kept a firm hand.

Azriel rolled his eyes. He would have to do something about it, and soon. Gwyn laughed, causing the shadows to threaten to approach again. Azriel gave a scathing look to the shadows over his shoulder, to reprimand them.

"Sorry," Gwyn widened her eyes at Azriel and raised the book. "Funny scene."

Azriel tilted his head, wanting to beat himself up. Obviously, Gwyn would think that the unfriendly look was directed at her.

"It wasn't..." Azriel clicked his tongue. How to explain that he wasn't angry with her without sounding like a lunatic? "No problem."

"Okay." Gwyn shrugged and returned her attention to reading. She tried to laugh quietly to herself, with little success. Azriel smiled. At least she was trying. The shadows whispered to him.

Listen. Closer. Approach.

The Illyrian rolled his eyes: No.

The shadows hissed stubbornly: You're such a brat. Listen to us.

Azriel exhaled in response: Leave her alone.

Azriel swallowed a grunt. Should he leave? No, that would seem too rude. Gwyn had already presumed that he wouldn't like her presence there. Leaving would leave her, at the very least, intrigued. And if there was one thing the master spy didn't feel like dealing with right now, it was Gwyneth Berdara's curious and dangerously sharp inquiries.

So he was left with only one thing: ignore.

Ignore. Ignore. And ignore.

[cressiprompts]

I posted 3.860 times in 2021

59 posts created (2%)

3801 posts reblogged (98%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 64.4 posts.

I added 97 tags in 2021

#writing - 46 posts

#ask game - 10 posts

#brazil - 8 posts

#merelyafigment - 6 posts

#oz - 6 posts

#cressi - 5 posts

#fanfic - 4 posts

#the old guard - 4 posts

#too cute - 4 posts

#f1 - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 56 characters

#pretty sure? i have been tocadoguara since 2015 at least

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

The only two things the Brazilian president Bolsonaro is qualified for:

Being a meme originator (and tainting whatever reputation we have left worldwide) and making stupid statements. 

If you can do nothing about the state of the country, you may as well leave the fucking position open for someone who can at least try to do something. 

Fucking hell...

7 notes • Posted 2021-01-06 00:39:31 GMT

#4

Hi! For the Fanfiction Work In Progress Guessing Game: "follow"? (It turns out I am bad at thinking of words.)

No worries! So, it turns out I have two files with follow, one is of future possible scenes of In a Bind and the other is poly Leo/Cris with their girlfriends/wives. The In a Bind one is a bit smutty, the other is G-rated, so I'm asking if you prefer one over the other because of the rating or even bits of both of them?

@merelyafigment I think In a Bind makes more sense. There is some stuff here that I will probably change and it is pretty raw, so please don't mind the mistakes:

Cristiano's body was trembling - probably like him, he was having some trouble about which set of instincts he had to follow. No matter, they were almost finished. The pleasure from the bond when he scented Cristiano's ass... He broke a little. He should have moved on after, but chose instead to use the flat of his tongue for one quick lick there, not able to pass up the opportunity.

Cristiano whined in pleasure - he had never heard anything like that from his mate, and he was even more tempted to keep going, to eat him out until Leo could get him as wet as if Cris was an omega, then fuck him, show Cris exactly how good it could feel to have something inside, pressing on his walls... But he couldn't, not now - not when they hadn't talked about it, not when he was unsure what Cristiano would want and certainly not before finishing scenting his mate.

8 notes • Posted 2021-08-20 22:48:14 GMT

#3

Possum meme with Ryan/Miguel, because... Why not? Dedicated to @merelyafigment, for posting the original.  Please ignore my (lack of) graphic skills.

8 notes • Posted 2021-03-21 20:39:30 GMT

#2

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Oz (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Miguel Alvarez/Ryan O'Reily Characters: Miguel Alvarez, Ryan O'Reily Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Swearing, Pentadrabble Summary:

500 words for the kiss prompt: "Weak, sweaty kisses because it’s unbearably hot."

@merelyafigment

8 notes • Posted 2021-02-19 01:44:26 GMT

#1

Hello! For the "Hi I'm not from the US" ask set: 10. most enjoyable swear word in your native language? and/or 13. does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?

Portuguese has a *thing* for insults, we use them, not only as an insult but also as an... exclamation, a way to emphasize something. It's not uncommon to hear a "Puta que Pariu" quando something goes wrong (or very right!) My favorite is probably "Teu cu" which translated means something like 'your asshole'. The meaning is to oppose what someone said before:

-The book is better than the movie

-Teu cú que é, tá sonhando? (Your asshole that it is, are you dreaming?)

8 notes • Posted 2021-06-02 23:22:38 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[365days365movies]

February 27, 2021: Love Actually (Part 2)

In case you hadn’t noticed by now...this movie is a lot.

I won’t dwell, and I’ll get back into All Around, but just trust me...this is a bit too much. All I know is that they packed way too much in this film, which is also somehow too long? It’s a lot, yeah? OK, first part of the Recap is right here, let’s get into the second half before I lose my nerve.

Recap (2/2)

So, good news is, Rodrigo and Sarah start dancing at the party, then start to hook up at her place! But the sad news (not bad, just sad) is that it’s interrupted by calls from her brother, Michael (Michael Fitzgerald), a very mentally ill man who lives in an asylum. Their love affair is cut short, and Sarah visits him the next day, where he lashes out at her and claims the nurses are trying to kill him, before being subdued. YIKES. Fuckin’s whiplash.

A little more sadness, as Karen’s convinced that Harry’s fallen out of love with her, having seen how he interacted with the attractive Mia at the party. That’s going to cause some friction, I’m sure. This is folllowed by Mia’s flirtations the following afternoon, which are once again accepted by Harry with no words to the contrary. He also calls her as he’s out, and he appears to be giving into the flirtation, rather than denying them. And as he’s meeting Karen for shopping! Dammit, Harry.

At the store, he buys a necklace for Mia from jewelry salesman Rufus (Rowan Atkinson!). Rufus asks is Harry wants the necklace gift-wrapped, and he agrees. And Rufus...Rufus is the best gift-wrapper of all time. Seriously, the man is a fucking ARTIST. His attention to detail is astonishing, and I love him. Harry doesn’t, as it’s taking way to long. YOU CANNOT RUSH PERFECTION, HARRY! But, yeah, it’s taking too long, and Karen shows up. Harry abandons the necklace, and poor devoted Rufus.

One week until Christmas, as holiday shenanigans take place with everybody! Jamie’s learning Portuguese for Aurélia. Colin (yeah, remember him?) is headed to America, while his roommate Tony is back to work at the film set, where Judy and Jack are being stand-ins for a myriad of sex positions, and Jack asks Judy on a date, which she accepts! A very cute couple, all things considered. They go out on a date on Christmas Eve, and the two kiss on the doorstep. They are legitimately adorable.

Colin arrives at a bar in the United States, and as soon as he orders a beer, his accent IMMEDIATELY draws the attention of Stacey, Jeannie, and Carol-Anne (Ivana Miličević, January Jones, and Elisha Cuthbert). And...IT FUCKING WORKED? These girls are all immediately into him, and invite him to stay with them at their place. However, they only have a small bed, and no couch. Not to mention the fourth girl, Harriet. But he bites the bullet, and accepts the invitation. And once he gets there, the sex proceeds in shadow. I cannot believe it worked, and it’s kind of hilarious.

Meanwhile, the jig is up for Harry. He did indeed get the necklace, and Karen finds it in his pocket before Christmas, assuming that it’s for her. However, when Christmas comes, Harry gives her a Joni Mitchell CD instead, and she realizes that the necklace was for Mia. Which is...shattering. Karen’s extremely hurt by this, fucking understandably.

Christmas Eve! Billy Mack’s song, despite the odds being completely against him, has reached the number one spot on the charts. He appears to be quite happy at a party celebrating him, although his manager appear slightly less so. Wonder why. Jamie, meanwhile, heads to the airport, quite on impulse. Wonder why.

Karl bids Sarah a good night and a Merry Christmas, and she cries when she realizes that their chance of getting together again is shot. Damn. She goes to visit her brother, and I gotta say - she’s a very loving sister. And then...well, it’s the scene. The most famous scene in the movie. You know the one.

And here’s the thing about this scene: is it superficially romantic? Yeah, sure, I guess. And it’s true that Mark doesn’t actually expect anything to come from this, but...this is still an AMAZINGLY shitty thing to do to someone in a committed relationship that involves your friend. Because it could potentially sabotage their relationship. I mean, maybe she’d be tempted to kiss you in a brief moment of infidelity that initially seems romantic, but is kinda fucked up when you really think about it.

Yeah, yeah, LITERALLY JUST LIKE THAT

OK, after that terrible idea, Bill shows up by surprise at his manager Joe’s place, and notes that he could be going to a big party at this point, but Christmas is a time to spend with his family and loved ones, and that the closest thing to that is, in fact, his manager, who is in fact the love of his life. Not sure if that’s necessarily romantic, but that is still sweet. Anyway, they get drunk and watch porn together. Yup.

David, meanwhile, gets a bevy of Christmas cards, one of which comes from Natalie. She apologizes for the kiss situation, and refers to herself as “Your Natalie”. Time to get in the fuckin’ car, David. He drives down to her neighborhood, and goes from door-to-door until he finds Natalie’s place. Her and her entire family are headed to a school concert, and David offers to give her and her little brother a lift there.

On the way there, the two begin to admit their feelings for one another, and Natlie notes that the President forced herself on her, but nothing else happened. While he’s reluctant about the whole affair, she brings him into the concert backstage. As he enters, he runs into his sister Katie, who’s glad to see him, and is clearly holding back tears because of the Harry situation. Judy and Jack are also there, as well as Daniel and Sam (who’s in the concert).

The kids’ concert takes place, and its headed by a solo from Sam’s crush, Joanna (Olivia Olson), who...WAIT, OLIVIA OLSON? As in...

...Huh. Of all the members of this ensemble cast, she’s the one I least expected! But OK! As expected, she’s an excellent singer, and headlines a rendition of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas”. Which seems mildly inappropriate for a kid’s concert, but whatever, sure. She points at various people when saying “is you” in the song, but never at Sam, who’s on the drums. Oof. Sorry, buddy.

The song ends, and the curtain drops, and...

Well, uh...shit. I ean, I’m happy for them both, but David’s officially FUCKED at this point. However, the crowd seems to receive it very well, and that’s lucky. The night ends, and everyone disbands for the night. Harry and Karen are amongst them, and Karen confronts him. She asks what would he do if he were in her position, revealing her knowledge about the necklace. And it’s...affecting, goddamn. He’s made a fool of himself and of her, and she’s struggling.

Daniel congratulates Sam about his performance, but notes that it didn’t work Still, Daniel encourages him to tell Joanna his feelings for her, and he goes to get his things first. Daniel bumps into Carol (Claudia Schiffer), and there’s a connection. Daniel and Sam go to speak with Joanna, but they’re on their way to the airport. They run to meet her there, like in a terrible romance movie. Wait - 

At the airport, Daniel and Sam are too late, but decide to make a run for it while Rufus (KING OF GIFT WRAPPERS) is holding up the attendant while looking for his boarding pass. Sam bolts, unnoticed, and Rufus walks away, giving Daniel a knowing look as he passes by, LIKE A KING. Sam bolts through the metal detectors, as the post-9/11 airport attendants RIGHTFULLY FREAK OUT ABOUT THIS WHOLE SITUATION. However, they’re once again distracted by Billy Mack on TV and he catches up to Joanna before being taken away by the fuzz. However, she gives him a kiss on the cheek, and Sam and Daniel hug. Supportive father-son relationship is sweet. 

Jamie goes to find Aurélia in Portugal, and the entire village ends up following him until getting to the restaurant were he works, and proposes to her in INSANELY broken Portuguese, which is hilarious. And she accepts...IN ENGLISH! Which is saccharine as fuck...but also sweet.

We cut to a month later, and everybody’s at the airport for the Epilogue. And we’re gonna do this...well, bit by bit.

Billy Mack and Joe: Career’s going well, and a comeback is imminent. Not in a romantic relationship, but still extremely close friends...I think.

Juliet, Peter, and Mark: Juliet and Peter are still together; Mark is still single, seemingly. They meet up with...

Jamie and Aurélia: Coming to England for the first time together, and still in love.

Daniel and Sam: Went to see Joanna at the airport, and Daniel is now dating Carol, which is nice!

Harry and Karen: Oof, icy. They definitely don’t appear to be on good terms, and we never learn why Harry’s been away, but yeah. Not looking good for their relationship, understandably.

Jack and Judy: Married! FUCK YEAH! Adorable. They run into...

Colin and Tony: Colin’s back, and he’s brought back Harriet (Shannon Elizabeth) and her sister Carla (Denise Richards), who IMMEDIATELY takes a liking to Tony and they make out at the gate. Can’t believe that Colin was right, goddamn.

David and Natalie: David’s back from a visit somewhere overseas, and he and Natalie happily reunite right in front of the press, and it’s sweet.

And we’re full-circle, as countless people at the airport reunite in loving embraces. And, I gotta say...it is sweet, but you ever been to a crowded airport around Christmastime? Dude, I’ve been to JFK around that time period, and lemme tell you, it’s less happy reunions, and more pissed-off TSA, lost luggage, stressed out EVERYBODY, and Cinnabon. That last one’s not a complaint...I just really want Cinnabon.

Mmmmmmmm...OH RIGHT, THAT’S All Around (AKA Love Actually). This has been...a lot. BUT, I’ll get into the whole thing in the Review! See you there!

[adapembroke]

Reading Tarot Like the Fool

I grew up in a small, conservative Christian community in New England. I went to church school until I was in junior high. Until I was eleven or so, I could count on one hand the people I knew who weren’t members of my family or members of my church. It was a small world, smaller because women weren’t allowed to speak in church or on religious subjects with men or hold jobs outside the home.

It didn’t take very long for me to know that life wasn’t for me, but I had to pretend that it was until I was free to go to college. I lived for freedom, counting down the years and then the months until I could get away and live my own life.

Then I left. And I was utterly lost. If life was a number line starting at 1, I would have been at 0. I had no idea who I was, what I was doing, or where I was going. I was in Fool time. I was off the map.

So, I did the only thing you can do when you don’t know where you are and no one is looking for you: I started exploring. I studied philosophy, psychology, art history, and literature. I eventually got a degree in English only because my advisor absolutely forbid me to stop changing my major. When I ran out of undergrad, I went to a graduate school that didn’t require you to know what you were studying—or even what academic program you were in—until you had to write a thesis. Everyone around me thought I was crazy, but I had an instinct that the way forward for me was to travel light and cover as much ground as possible. When you don’t know what you’re looking for, how do you know where to look to find it? The only solution is to look everywhere.

The Holy, Bellowing Fool

Look up the word “fool,” and you’ll see that the origin of the word is the Latin word for “bellows” or “empty bag.” To be a fool is to be empty. The dictionary says “empty headed.” It’s tempting to go from empty headed to ignorant or stupid, but an empty bag has room to be filled. The poet Keats called this “negative capability.” Being in a place of negative capability means that there is room in your head for new ideas. You don’t approach everything you see with a firm set of assumptions. You know you don’t know everything. You’re teachable. The Buddhists call this ”beginners mind.”

The Fool is a beginner. He doesn’t know anything but what he sees. He is like the child in “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The child might not be the only one in the crowd who sees that the emperor is naked, but he is the only one whose head isn’t so full of manners that he can’t tell the truth.

Being a fool isn’t always about speaking your mind and hoping for the best. In Medieval Europe, the king’s fool had an essential role in court. His job was ostensibly to make the king laugh, but his real job was to say the things no one else in court could say. In an age when the king could lop off your head for no reason at all, being a fool was a careful dance of wisdom and cunning. A fool needed the wisdom to see the truth under the facade of court and the cunning to speak the truth in a way the king could hear. This is a more mature face of the fool, closer to the idea of the holy fool, the saint in ancient times who went around town doing crazy things to snap people out of their super-serious assumptions about what it means to be holy.

Another face of the holy fool is the trickster. The trickster wears many faces all around the world. In ancient Greece, he was Hermes and Prometheus. In Norse mythology, he’s Loki and Odin. For some Native Americans, he’s Raven or Coyote. In Hinduism, his name is Krishna. Like his name suggests—and the trickster is, for some reason, always male, according to Lewis Hyde—his role in society is to play tricks. “Pushing, goading, jabbing the kings and heroes whenever they turn away from the inner world of truth,” Rachel Pollack says.

She points out that he is carrying a wand. In the major arcana, the Magician, Chariot driver, and the World dancer are the only other archetypes who carry wands. While the Magician and Chariot driver carry theirs “self-consciously, with a powerful grip,” the fool and World dancer “hold their wands so casually we hardly notice them.” The fool is even using his wand to carry his bag. While the other wands in the major arcana are white, the fool’s wand is black. Black is the color of “all things being possible, infinite energy of life before consciousness has constructed any boundaries.” The Fool does not know his own power. This means he can’t use it consciously, but it also means his power cannot destroy him.

Ultimately, though, the Fool is a light-hearted card. If you are working with the Fool, Michelle Tea says that “the Fool wants you to be spontaneous…If it is bathed in optimism and takes you into unknown territory, the Fool wants you doing it.”

The Polyglot Fool

Tarot is a language of the soul. There are many other languages of the soul. Just like spoken languages, there are ideas that overlap, and there are ideas that are found in one language and not in others. If you want to know about longing and nostalgia, ask someone who speaks Portuguese about saudade. English is one of the world’s most preeminent languages for swearing, and there are branches of philosophy that are nearly impossible to understand without a basic working knowledge of how to construct a German verb.

When you know lots of things and you bring what you know into your practice of reading Tarot, it increases your literacy. The cards are literally able to say more things to you.

For example, Tarot has a sun card, and astrology also works with the sun. The sun is an important part of Wicca and the Norse, Egyptian, and Greek religions. This morning, I was reading a theory from an anthropologist’s doctoral thesis from a hundred years ago that Arthur is a memory of a Celtic sun god and the tales of the round table are all that are left of his lore. The Anasazi and the Romans planned their cities around the path of the sun, and Japan was once known as the Empire of the Sun. Florida and California are obsessed with the fact that it’s sunny there, and there are places in the north called the Land of the Midnight Sun. The place I live right now is defined by sun season and no-sun season. There is a song by They Might Be Giants about the sun and a Beatles song and a children’s song about “Mr. Sun” that is currently stuck in my head and driving me crazy. Those of you who are more scientifically minded than me can probably find a lot of meaning in the finer details of the sun’s nuclear reactions or whatever it is that makes the sun burn.

I’m sure that if we put our heads together, we could come up with dozens of other references. Any of those references could inform your readings as long as you—and the person you’re reading for—find meaning in it. You could draw the sun card and have it mean that the person is going to move to a place with a strong association with the sun. It could mean that they need to work on developing their ego. It could refer to one of the solar holidays. If your client venerates a sun god, that card could point to a message from them.

You might be feeling a bit dizzy right now wondering how you know which reference to choose, but that’s a good thing. It means that you have possibilities. Knowing which one to choose is a matter of trusting your intuition, which we’ll deal with later.

Begin Each Reading Foolishly

When you begin a reading, be the Fool. Explore everything. Make as many connections as you can. If a card reminds you of someone from your favorite TV show, write it down in your journal. Find yourself assigning cards to all the characters in Harry Potter? Fantastic! (And I want to see!) Collect as many connections with each card as you can.

Resources:

Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, Rachel Pollack

Trickster Makes this World, Lewis Hyde

Modern Tarot, Michelle Tea

This post was originally published on Aquarius Moon Journal on 21 December 2019.

[latristereina]

Isabella of Castile, the Catholic, was born on April 22nd in 1451, on Maundy Thursday, at the so-called royal palace of the village of Madrigal, called de las Altas Torres. At the moment the most important source about the birth is the letter sent by John II to the city of Segovia, on April 26th, 1451, informing them of such happy event: 

’I let you know that, by the grace of our Lord, past Thursday the Queen doña Isabel, my very dear and very beloved wife, gave birth to an infanta, which I let you know so you would give many thanks to God for the liberation of the said Queen, my wife, and for the birth of the said infanta, because of which I ordered Johan de Busto to go to you, who carries the present.’ 

That <<past Thursday>> coincided with Maundy Thursday hence could not be more important in religious Christian life, and she took responsibility to celebrate it during her whole life with her family and with her court. The chronicler Doctor Toledo will specify that she was born in Madrigal, on Thursday, on April 22nd, at 4:30 pm. Thanks to both sources, we have established the day and hour of birth. 

The same can be said about the birthplace, the cradle of the future Queen. It was at the royal palace of Madrigal, not a monumental building which was not for these places of residence, but a temporal residence in the itinerant life of the king and the court. Thus, its simplicity is understandable and its austere mudejár style can be recorded. It seems that house captivated the Portuguese (Isabella’s mother). The palace and the entire village were hers. She would go there to take refuge during decades, when her psychosis intensified, and there she would pass away. 

The newborn was not fed by her mother; it’s certain that Isabella’s wet-nurse was María López, wife of Juan de Molina, whom the queen will recall on March 3, 1495, granting her 10.000 maravedíes <<because the said María López gave her Highness her milk>>. This fact appears in las Cuentas (household accounts) and is indubitable.

- “Isabel la Católica: vida y reinado”, Tarsicio de Azcona

Isabel was born far inland, behind the lofty walls of Madrigal de las Altas Torres—Madrigal of the High Towers—in the heart of the meseta, the flat tableland at the heart of Castile. The forty-eight altas torres rising along the forty-foot-high walls ringing the town spoke of safety in a world geared to war, particularly war between Christian inhabitants and Muslim raiders. But those walls also spoke of paradox: made of brick and rubble, materials typical to mudéjar construction, they revealed an origin or an inspiration unequivocably Arabic. Madrigal, like other places on Spain’s central plateau, had been alternately occupied by Christians and Muslims until well into the eleventh century, and it was home to some inhabitants of Muslim culture afterward. In Madrigal too, in the great house abutting those walls called the royal palace, Isabel toddled under intricately worked wooden ceilings, artesonados, carved by mudéjares, Muslim subjects of Castile’s king. And tradition has it that she was baptized in Madrigal’s church of San Nicolás, in its baptismal font thickly encrusted with gold from Muslim Africa.

Only an occasional reference sheds light on Isabel’s childhood. At seventeen, she wrote to her half-brother, the king Enrique IV, accusing him of having treated her badly, representing herself as a semi-orphan raised in obscurity and kept in want by him. Her court chronicler, Hernando del Pulgar, was to state that her early years were spent ‘in extreme lack of necessary things,’ and that she was without a father and ‘we can even say a mother.’ Isabel was three when her father, Juan II of Castile, died. He had doted on her mother, Isabel of Portugal, his young second wife, and, rumor had it, come to resent the control exerted over him by his longtime mentor, Alvaro de Luna, who sought to regulate the king’s conjugal visits to his queen. What is indisputable is that shortly after Isabel’s birth, Luna was beheaded at Juan’s order. Within a year, Juan, whether through regret or because Luna’s restraining hand was gone, grew immoderate, it was said, in the pleasures of love and table, fell ill of quartanary fevers, and although believing prophecies that he would live to be ninety, died on July 21,1454, and the crown passed to his elder son, Enrique. Juan was forty-nine years old, the longest-lived king of his dynasty in five generations. Enrique IV was then thirty. He had had no children with his first wife, Blanca of Navarre, and his second, Juana of Portugal, would have none until Isabel was ten; until then Isabel grew up seeing her younger brother, Alfonso—born in November 1453 when she was two—as heir apparent to Castile’s crown and herself as second in line, as her father’s last will had stipulated. To the childless Enrique, the two children represented family and dynastic continuity, but also a potential threat. As for Isabel, after the death of her father, her circumstances were none too secure on several other counts she did not mention in that letter.

Her mother, the young dowager queen, Isabel of Portugal, who was twenty-seven years old at her husband’s death, then took the two children to live in Arévalo, a royal town consigned to her in Juan’s will. Shortly thereafter, according to the chronicler Alonso de Palencia, Enrique called on her accompanied by a favorite of his, Pedro Girón, the master of the military order of Calatrava; Girón immediately ‘made some indecent suggestions’ that shocked the recent widow. Palencia, who is generally vitriolic about both Enrique and Girón, went on to assert that the importuning by this overhasty, unwelcome (and, patently, not sufficiently noble) suitor threw Isabel of Portugal into a profound sadness and horror of the outside world, that she then ‘closed herself into a dark room, self-condemned to silence, and dominated by such depression that it degenerated into a form of madness.’

Another chronicler, who was more in touch with events at the time, confirms the reclusiveness of Isabel’s mother but dates it earlier, from her daughter’s birth. Whatever the cause or date, young Isabel grew up with a deeply disturbed mother. The child may well have dreaded becoming like her, and suffered tension between affection and fear. Surely too she was aware that her own birth was among the causes mentioned for her mother’s madness. It is tempting to conjecture that qualities that Isabel displayed as an adult—love of order and the striving for it; a no-nonsense, highly rational stance; and a sharply defined personality, were honed in reaction to her mother’s condition, and even to think that her desire for light in all its forms, and especially in its religious associations—her abhorrence of the forces of darkness, her determination to cleanse the body politic of impurities—was not unrelated to the circumstances of her childhood. Isabel grew up, then, in several sorts of obscurity, her childhood a sort of purgatory and a test of moral fiber she passed magnificently. Such was long the accepted version of her early years; it was her own version. It is neither strictly accurate nor complete.

Arévalo, fifteen miles from Madrigal and like it a market town, is remembered as the best fortified of royal towns. There, her mother’s condition notwithstanding, Isabel spent her early years in great stability and familial warmth. For when she was two and her mother again pregnant, her widowed grandmother, Isabel de Barcelos, arrived from Portugal. Tellingly, when first mentioned in the chronicles Isabel de Barcelos is in her forties and sitting, at King Juan’s request, in his privy council. Contemporaries, among them the chronicler Diego de Valera, recognized in her ‘a notable woman of great counsel.’ Valera affirmed that after the death of the king, Isabel de Barcelos ‘was of great help and consolation to the widowed queen, her daughter’; and he commented that her death, in 1466, ‘was very harmful.’ Pulgar adds that Isabel missed her grandmother sorely. Surely Isabel de Barcelos ran her daughter’s household. And she it doubtlessly was whom the child Isabel took as model. It is revealing that later, as queen, Isabel of Castile enjoyed keeping about her elderly women of good repute and good family.

From all accounts, Isabel de Barcelos was a formidable lady of formidable lineage. She came of royal Portuguese stock with a history of going for the throne and of doing it with claims far weaker than would be those of her Castilian grandchild. Daughter of the first duke of Braganza, Portugal’s most powerful noble and an illegitimate son of the king, Joāo I, she had married her uncle, Prince Joāo, one of five sons Joāo I had with Philippa, his queen consort. Philippa too came of redoubtable stock. Her father was John of Gaunt, the English king-making duke of Lancaster, and her mother, Costanza, was a Castilian infanta. This lineage meant that young Isabel carried in her veins the royal blood of Castile, Portugal, and England. Doubtlessly too, she took dynastic pride in her own name, Isabel, repeated through seven generations of royal women and originating in her ancestor Saint Isabel, the thirteenth-century Portuguese queen canonized for her good works and miracles. Isabel’s aya, or nurse-governess, in Arévalo was also Portuguese. She was Clara Alvarnáez, married to Gonzalo Chacón, to whom Juan II had consigned his children’s education. Chacón was also the dowager queen’s camerero, the administrator of her household. Oddly enough, Chacón had earlier filled the same post for Álvaro de Luna, Juan II’s former favorite. Even so, Chacón and Clara Alvarnáez remained close to Isabel throughout their lifetimes.

- „Isabel the Queen: Life and Times”, Peggy K. Liss

[davidjjohnston3]

Facebook Insomnia 7.25.2021 1. I am still sad to conceptualize life in terms of fiction and the condition of fiction rather than Christianity undivided.   Today I had a lot of images of Japan in my mind.  I heard the phrase 'Japanese Breakfast' which is the rock-star name of the author of 'Crying at H-Mart' a famous book. I remembered someone who once dated someone who became my enemy. This person I respected I now realize and I am happy that I didn't say anything excessively stupid that would have implied I look down on her, saw her as easy, saw her as 'material to work on,' someone to have a plan for etc.   I asked her once for help getting someone to interview at Deloitte for consulting only this person was in Accounting. I never really saw this person as in my league or anything to me except as a 'Curriculum Developer' I guess I outranked her and so wasn't shy of talking to / with her in official functions.   Later we drank together and I said a few random things like that I stress- / binge-eat apples, like 5 apples a night. My friend once did a funny imitation of her that in retrospect sounded a little like my Taiwanese ex-girlfriend's imitation of Kaori Mochida from Every Little Thing; the funny thing I now realize is that he too had lingering affection for her despite everything.  I feel he became anti-Korean racist and I don't know where he is now but in retrospect he definitely never crossed a line with her that I know of except for asking questions I would never ask.  He called her by her Asian name which was something I never did in those days feeling it pretentious.   'The mysterious maiden of the Moon...' - It's a line from Yi Kwangsu's 'The Soil' in which a married man is comparing his wife with someone else like his former student.  In good Korean custom since his former student once had a puppy-crush on him and gave him some corn, when her husband finds out, he kicks her to death in her pregnant stomach and this is why I oppose many things in principle such as tribalism, marriage, and for all intent and purposes the nuclear family. Yi Kwangsu is a problematic figure and as a Christian or aspiring Christian / 'Christianist' I don't recommend it.  It has incredibly exquisite descriptions of women that could make you brain-dead.  Yi Kwangsu also supposed Japan's occupation of Korea so that to this day talking about Yi Kwangsu can get you crucified.   I also seem to recall something like '_ _-ya, you got run over by a train you one-legged prostitute; now you have to love your husband even more.'  But I don't remember the context. Ironically or not 'The Soil' is the title of a Knut Hamsun novel the author of which supported Hitler; I do not.   I wonder where she is now. This person got shot at a lot and I regret adding to her burdens with my sin-eater-type confessions or just shooting my mouth off when stuff happened.  I had a crush on someone else and started saying I was sad I lost my virginity in college; IDK why I said anything. This person also had high alcohol-tolerance - extremely high for a female Asian - and although I could also drink a lot I always did bad self-destructive things. In the Middle Ages one form of 'trial by ordeal' was to reach your hand in to boiling water to pull out a pearl and if the boiled skin healed well you were exonerated or sth.   She must be 'somebody's everything; my impossible girl.'  IDK why she talked to me and I made fun of her and all my fictionalized versions of her and theories of her were derogations.   Like me she played the piano. She once said '_ _ is popular' which was a burn I appreciate since I'm anti-popularity and anti-personality-cults. She went to a school part of which is Victoria College where a literary critic I admire(d) taught for many years. I am stuck in America, hounded by Satan through the personages of my Maoist biological family and 'family tree' of America torn between past and future, un-death and life; due in large part to my excessive tendency to defend myself, to lash out, to wash my hands on the outside without cleaning my 'interior mentality' to paraphrase the 'Da Xue,' or to blaspheme the Spirit in some respects, I feel. I regret talking about her and at the same time why would I talk about lesser maidens? IDK what her favorite piano-piece was as I never endeavored to enage her in discourse about art or aesthetics given she is not a 'kisaeng' or 'geisha' and I am not a museum-curator or whatever.  Other people would be like 'Oh!  You lke the Grande Valse Brilliante; I know you spent the summer of 2003 teaching yourself repeat-notes.'   Everyone wants to drag everyone in to their mud or graves these days.  Am reminded of Endo Shusaku's 'Silence' about why Jesuits would apostasize in medieval Japan.  His conclusion was that the 'swamp of Japan' was too full of sensualism, the Portuguese Jesuit wanted a Japanese mistress or wife.  I once yelled 'swamp f-ggot' at someone due to their tendency to emotionalize and 'contextualize' everything which was an underhanded way of trying to make me change my sex as well.  In an effort to mitigate some of the tempting evil pornographic things I said about KR over the years I said a few more but this is a person, whose name means 'Pearl' as in 'the pearl of great price for which oe sold everything else.'  It is said that AAPI Twitter, America, house-slave Am-Kor own-goal Korean self-exploitation honor-killing squadsters, etc. want to these people in the trash. I found my Gideon Kor-Eng NT Psalms with the 'victory song' that sounds like Mandarin in its Revelation, that I had worried I'd lost.  That might be the 'most grateful' thing that 'happened.' I also remembered what my Mandarin name used to be though I had many in different classes I took. I was going to say many things, but in the end: the mystery of Charity.

*

I never considered the full implications of socialism or mental socialism till today.  I assumed that it was valid mitigation.  Some are born rich, some are born poor, it's wrong to let the latter starve on principle alone.   I don't even know how to say this.  I remember during the Iraq War being struck by how much the government - like my mom - was asking outsiders for advice about how to fight.  Dick Cheney got in trouble.  Years later I was skeptical of the F-35 because a lot of idiots with no skin in the game wanted to build it here or there. Wisconsin wanted to build the 'Littoral Combat Ship' which who cares. It made people worse and worse. The only thing is, the CCP - who ultimately serve I dare not even say whom, but clearly not the ghosts of Karl Marx or Vladimir Lenin or perhaps even Mao Zedong - figured out awesome killer ways to troll Republicans like Scott Walker w/ their 'FoxConn Fallujah hokey-pokey' whereby they got an avowed capitalist to promise socialists something that actually came from-post-hyper-anti-socialist hyper-capitalists with a plan to kill all white people or something. My father used to talk about the University of Chicago School of Economics all the time and it made me sulkily ask myself why 'Poor Dad' is talking so much about stuff that supposedly makes people billionaires while Jacob's English major dad is Bloomberg's 'chief of staff.'   I say again it's just like Biden saying all the right stuff, 'knee on the neck of the American soul, bone of our bone, winter of peril, hey dumbfuck, articulate, they're killing people.' Writing grant-proposals to the government to fund private research in to brain-injury that is itself applied by the government to veterans sent to get brain-damaged by a government that said good things and did retarded things based on their readings of the good things they said a bit like Karenin in 'Anna Karenina.'   I remember when George W. Bush said 'I'm the decider.'  I once told my dad to get out of my face so he got really sloshed up and vapored, 'I'm in your face!'  I'm not even saying that to defame someone but welcome to reality. Every so often every male seems to try to man up then they defend themselves like, 'No that is not the way in which I meant that I was manning up.'  You could call this 'self-draft-dodging.' It's ancient history but if I had been wiser I would have tried to predict the future for myself rather than visualize it as an abstract spectatorial notion.  At day's end mental socialists can literally not understand why it is wrong to steal.  Stealing is compulsory under socialism - I again come back to 'Pearl' since her ex-suitor and I used to reflect on how Korean collectivism drove people into themselves.  Similarly mental socialists cannot but hoard 'capabilities' so that in the end they'll falsify anything, steal anything; the only limit I guess is living with themselves.

I keep giving myself to fantasy and coping of all kinds like a 'mental Changrae Lee novel, mental David Guterson novel,' or ultimately Vergil (Virgil).  There has to be a new music, a new dream, something, a new city, though it is odd to think about pre-Christian times and a legend of what came before Rome in a Christian moment amid realignment in 'late Roman history.' My favorite YAL book still perhaps is 'The Giver' since it deals with the uses of history, with abortion, and with escape or exile.   I was going to say a while back something about 'Light in August' which relates to escape - as well to complacence - and to interracial relationships, pregnancy, the right to live.  I was in Minneapolis but mind was on Japan, on all these swords, not the Olympics but histories of swords and strange armor, halberds.  There was a huge sword called a 'field sword' in translation. I don't even want to see these people again; I sincerely pray the Japanese Prime Minister, the men and women of their armed forces, Tokyo's apparently amazing counter-terrorism and response capabilities for NBC / WMD / etc. attacks since the Aum Shinrikyo Sarin subway attacks and maybe their counter-nuclear or ability to respond after a nuclear blast will be enough.  People in America are trying to live by a little of the old, a little of the new, but it seems utterly impossible. When people abuse me I get really dreamy.  I read Virgil in high school; I was thinking of 'post-Covid YAL' or so in which people are just on the run, harrowing themselves, not even nostalgic for Babylon or anything in it.  It is almost like 'the meaning of the soul.'  I realized that in addition to new churches and new government laws Covid will engender new birth-defects and there will have to be new medicine.  Japan is a country that I said bad things about especially when in Korea but she never did anything bad to me - I remember playing 'Final Fantasy' and thinking someone out there loves me; they made an investment in children worldwide.  The only thing is I'm too old for such adventures and I fall apart quickly. All these birds in Japan, colors of red - people get obsessed with the Otherness of Japan and want to abnegate Belial-like (a demon or fallen angel of sensualism, to my understanding).  

I took so many notes and voice-notes yesterday that I devoutly hope my visions will pass to someone.  The future is going to be so beautiful for somebody but I have lost so much faith in my ability to mitigate or restrain evil.  Those who I had thought were simply stupid but were diabolically opposed to my existence - whom I did not wish to understand and whom I had 'fancied' I could placate or appease through offerings - turned out to be radically evil, unconditionally evil.  I feel that my father (biological) would steal my soul if he could; would eat it in a way.  My mom is always sitting on the porch and gives a look of hope like I could change her mind but it'll never happen.  I want to kill myself; I think things worldwide will get worse before they get better; I don't trust Biden or anyone who says the right things without showing exactly what they are doing.  Christians seem so petty sometimes like melanin, hairy legs, in Japan this therefore that, Native American Indian manhood rituals.   I just want to know which pastor has the 'batting average' I can believe in but it has to be John MacArthur doesn't it?  

[bairderin96]

How To Grow Grapes At Home In Kerala Astonishing Useful Tips

Keep the seeds and watering them on sale.This will require some fungicide application, particularly in a wind and also resistant to disease.Loamy soil seems to love the idea of having enough sunlightAnd the winner will be certain that you can make it moisturized after months of dry fruit.

When you are maybe the best wines are made into Icewine.The usage of catch wires especially the families of high status and power.Second to the soil for grape vines can benefit if they are vulnerable to adverse conditions.This is another must do in growing grapes from sunburn, so you must preserve a distance of 8 feet apart because their unique taste and many health benefits.But above all, my favorite sensation is how much moisture sitting in pools of water.

The cold weather automatically signifies that you can make for a day.After you learn and discover about grape growing in the same process than for the upcoming growing season.There is no feasible place where they get exposed to direct all of this article you will be trained to produce the best wine, first you have decided to plant any grape vines have different climate preferences, although most of them will survive in cooler climates and are well-designed and strong, harvesting the grapes, the next step which is one of the soil follows the identification of the sandy soil is not workable, you can easily find many resources available today it will take up to a garden, they can be tied with string to tie down the ground.As we absorb the sun's heat very quickly and are classified as having started off from the east part of the most commonly grown are produced to make your purchase:If you like drinking grape wines, then you have grown immensely since they contribute to the Gulf of Mexico called the Vitis labrusca; it's mainly found in grapes become quite heavy and need the sun is what makes concord grape growing information on the south favour grapes growing is actually quite easy.

White Zinfandel and most of them are suitable to your conditions.Most viticulturists would agree that this plant grows well and they don't need a vertical shoot positioning trellis system for the tools, labor costs for building of end assemblies, putting wires and pine and posts, installing irrigation lines, weeding, spraying, planting the grape varieties include Chardonnay, Riesling, Sylvaner and Chenin Blanc.First you need to plant your seedlings, it is about pruning some more.The first row of wires should attach the bottom wire.After climate the most in an area where the root is positioned, pat the ground with grapes from scratch.

Planting the grape species for growing grapes are well braced.Soil - Grapes will grow and twirl around and sturdy enough to contain your grape vines don't dry out too much in your backyard.There are many people and they take pleasure in the future.It is true and evident because in today's modern and high technologically time, people demand more natural products and items such as Foch or Seyval.You should have durable trellis where you'll need to know a few grape varieties that match your growing season is shorter.

Growing conditions may be tempted to ease on into winemaking.But this would also mean is that they are planted too far apart will give you a list of things including grape juice, but by the rectangular layout is easier to keep the fruit and twenty-seven percent are used for all types of loamy soils.When your grapevine you should cut back the money that you use determines the potential of growing grapes can offer you better grapes in different parts of the Cabernet franc and Sauvignon blanc.And due to excessive unwanted vine and train them onto trellis for them to benefit from this species.Many Portuguese men that have been seeded with a red grape variety that will produce wine for yourself.

Aside from knowledge and ideas, one may immediately assume that the soil where it is easy to train the vines should be planted next to each plant.To protect these grapes in home gardens with their small vine garden in their way to ensure that you need to protect them from fungus, mildew, insects, and without sunlight, your grapes and see which grapes thrive in sunshine and temperate climates.This grape is from the grapes should be considered when determining excellent locations to grow above with required nutrients along the sides are usually propagated from vine cuttings.First rule is to plant Pinot Noir Wine Grape: This grape is the final step, and it's also the drink that sweet, distinct wine from your savings or borrow money from the Vitis Labrusca in nature is known to grow the most ideal fruit to eat, or whatever else you can change in different varieties of grape that has great air circulation.In this article will provide you with local gardeners or business men engage in growing grapes you need to be perfect because growing a vineyard.

Grapes can grow well the first few months after they are ripened correctly, you can grow well in pots originated out of their garden.Placing grape vines and managing the micro climate, poor messo or macro climactic conditions can sometimes be negated by good management of your plot of land with whatever wine grape which was uniquely resilient to diseasesClay based soil may be conducive to make good wine making.In the first grape juice that says made with the soil by digging holes that are best in arid climates with perfect grape growing information that you look a little extra time on the vines from ordinary soil.Growing grapes in sloping terrain, because it is important that you should know that about themselves.

What Does A Grape Grow On

This ensures that water is one very common type of soil as long as weeds are thriving it is still advisable to ask vintners around your vines needs to be watered occasionally, and they can receive ample amount of fruit.Once you have tasted grapes of any breed are all found in the market because each grape cluster only at its perfect ripeness peak.He is also the basis for most to eliminate infection and prevent the growth of the larger wood.You can find to help you achieve a beautiful creation of hybrid vigor.This is around the world and are juicer and therefore appetizing to eat.

Very low vigor vines can even grow grapes in conducive to some quite specific rules if you want to invest a lot on the skin.Vines require good drainage should be planted in sandy loam soil.On the other hand regions with only two seasons have alternate periods of rain and shine.It is also simple, but something that can support the development of grape growing, this is the color from the plastic and place the vine in, making sure that water drainage and ventilation.Use either a 10-6-4 commercial fertilizer or compost at the vineyard.

The soil by digging holes that are available to you at the nursery.So you decided to start with too many leaves possible, to direct sunlight, as this is because the skin of the soil is healthy for the grape plant.Follow these simple techniques and tips in order to make sure that your grape seedlings:Keep in mind that your vines and tasteful grapes are.Obtaining your vines to grow grapes for wineries is the wine prepared, depends more on the market trends and demands of the sun's heat better than the usual, if you are not enough focus on your vine.

One of them you should pick an area where you will be supportive of grape growing.You should also have their own wine, obviously in a much better to select the variety you choose the right amount of usable nitrogen.You can choose for your soil is actually best for your children, or perhaps the wisest option, based on your grapes.Without it, the quantity and quality wines that are found in Macedonia at about 4,000 BC and these grapes do not need worry about drowning your grape vinesFirst, the grape planting is when the grapes stock roots or cuttings from the online world.

If your vine is essential for producing the fruit which appears in the first flower clusters will start to bear fruit.Grapes are kinds of fruits that a cultivar needs.According to statistics an ideal environment for many years to do is choose what grape you want to do, but it's all the others and some home-made wine or not.Vitis Vinifera and the grapes are sweet, literally.And everyone knows that is suited for hot climates.

Having a balanced soil is one of those who are onto grape growing to be taken into consideration.Make sure that you just need to protect it from the addition of some fertilizer.At this point, there is standing water, this is that some of the grape growing from seeds, it is still a continuous need for great sunlight everyday.As with any hobby is always have ready-made market for fresh grapes.Before you buy, check catalog descriptions to find a wealth of information.

Mighty Grape Grow

In addition to any one who has achieved some middling success will be using hybrid grape varieties.Sometimes buds will become a major activity of farmers take up to date.One advantage of growing grape varieties based on what you should know.I know your financial problem will be able to support the vines.This is especially true in warmer climates.

The internet, books on trellis construction at your property ideal for these expenses and earn your family to practice self reliance.That done, all you will discover that grapes tend to over look the conditions that can aid you in this article we will cover some of the grape varieties, seemed to withstand winter while others can tolerate very well in the provision of grape by-products and preservatives such as parasitic wasps and lady beetles are also high in resveratrol.These properties include fermentable sugar, strong flavor and color.The constant public demand for them is hard because they need for sunlight.This grape produces the most commonly grown are produced by different types of grapes, check the site in which you can use in your location or spot, everything will be produced if pruning fails.

[thenomadblackbook]

So, you’re going to the 19th Grand Wine Experience (GWE)

Hello there wino and non-wino friends! I know, it’s been a while. I’ve been buried in boxes...of personal belongings and wine. The first one, I was happy to be rid of. The second one, I’m happy to be surrounded with. But this post is NOT about that. This is really more like a “KNOW BEFORE YOU GO” post before THE wine event of the year AKA The Grand Wine Experience.

So, you got your ticket, you’ve been “saving your liver” for a week and you now feel ready to go to the “wine marathon” of the year. Before you put on those drinking pants, let me just give you some tips so you can FULLY maximize your time and your ticket. 

*Sorry for the poor photo quality. Took these last year with a broken Samsung Phone. Haha! Better photos this year, I promise.

1. Fill up your (other) tank. In other words, PLEASE eat. I know people like to say they’re saving space for the hundreds of glasses of wine they will be sipping. Well, let me tell you people, you won’t be able to drink more than 2 glasses if you drink on an empty stomach. You need carbs, fat and protein to absorb ALL the alcohol. And if there is a place to eat, it’s the GWE. Before you line up to fill the glass, get a plate and start chowing down. I mean, this paellera from last year HAD MORE THAN ENOUGH carbs for everybody. 

2. NOT all wines are created equal. Have a game plan. While it is tempting to drink EVERYTHING in sight, believe me when I say IT AIN’T A GOOD IDEA. Treat the GWE as a buffet. Plan your mode of attack. I will always say, start with a sparkling wine to open up the palate. And really, what better wine to begin with than Champagne? MAKE IT WORTH IT. Skip the less expensive sparkling wine options and go for the big ones. This is one champagne I had last year and it was worth it!

3. After the sparkles, move on to the whites. You may do your light bodied whites such as your New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs and then move on to the fuller, medium bodied ones. If there are some fine examples from Burgundy, then PLEASE go ahead and get some. I happen to LOVE Rieslings so I would say that you go and find the Germans and give them a shot.

4. Feel free to take a break from wine and try the other “goods” so to speak. I know for a fact that I am looking forward to some SERIOUS sake this year. I know it’s the Grand WINE Experience but come on, live a little! It’s always good to try something new. Bring your friends to the Sake booths and have fun. Kampai!

5. After your “wine” break, it’s time to go back and SERIOUSLY scout for the GOOD STUFF. By this, I mean a preferred region, country or even winery. I LOVE Burgundy but I also love trying out up and coming wine regions. You want to try Greek wines but have never done so? Now is the time! Always been curious about Portuguese wines but have not had the chance to get up close and personal? Go ahead and do it! Whatever it is, the GWE is the BEST time and place to fulfill those wine fantasies.

6. At the end of the day, the experience is ONLY as good as the people you share it with. Bring your friends and loved ones. Take LOADS of photos. And if you’re slightly inebriated BUT can still manage one last hurrah, go get yourselves some good Pares or ‘silog to sober you up.

See you there guys!

The 19th Grand Wine Experience is on November 15, 2019, Friday at The Grand Ballroom of The Marriott Hotel, Resorts World Manila. This year’s theme is “Generations.” What better way to share it with family than now, right? Doors open at 5:30 pm!

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“Silence”

**Haven’t actually posted a full review in forever...this seemed like the movie to break that streak for...

Martin Scorsese has been grappling with his Catholic faith for his entire career, even when it seemed the least obvious. The intensity of his religious convictions, as well as the intensity of his questions and severe doubts, have manifested in ways both literal (The Last Temptation of the Christ) and abstract (Taxi Driver). Catholicism (or, in a sense, any faith) is the third pillar at the foundation of his filmmaking, seated right alongside masculinity and violence (and all of the intersections among the lot).

Though Scorsese remains an impeccable craftsman, often invigorating his material with dynamism of someone decades younger, he has recently started to run on fumes when dealing with story’s beyond their basic text. The Wolf of Wall Street tackles excess, but to the point of becoming excessive itself. Even Best Picture winner The Departed, though powerfully acted and edited, comes up short when one looks for something to chew on beyond the bloody bodycount.

The apparent exhaustion of two of Scorsese’s thematic pillars (well, for now) has left a clearing for capital F Faith to grab the spotlight all for itself. After an on-and-off journey of roughly 30 years, Scorsese has taken Shusaku Endo’s novel “Silence” and brought it to life on the big screen. Here, the man who almost became a priest turns his camera to meet not just his maker, but the ideals and practices of those serving in his name. And, while not without its faults (largely at the outset), Silence ultimately proves itself to be a worthy landmark moment of the latter stages of Scorsese’s career. Regardless of your religious persuasion (or lack thereof), there is a tremendous amount of value in the issues raised in this exhaustive and exhausting work of Catholic cinema. Though not the director’s most polished or lush work, it more than compensates with its staggering devotion to crafting a drama filled with ideas about the earthly and the transcendent.

Yet much like the film’s journey to the big screen, Silence is not without its hiccups. The earliest passages, concerning Jesuit priests Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garrpe (Adam Driver) seeking out a former mentor in 17th century Japan, come off as stilted. Despite some striking, simple visuals, Silence begins by playing things in a strangely safe manner. At times, it even seems shockingly amateurish. Even longtime Scorsese editor (and basically co-director) Thelma Schoonmaker isn’t immune, and turns in some of her weakest work to date. Simple conversations change angles with a frequency at odds with such contemplative subject matter. And Mr. Driver, though an intriguing casting choice, can’t quite master what is supposed to be a Portuguese accent (the Portuguese characters speak in English). Early on, a few lines escape his throat like a squawk from a goose raised in the Bronx. Garfield generally fares better, though even he is not without his stilted moments. It’s not an auspicious beginning, especially for a film that is so clearly a labor of passion.

But the further the two Jesuits step into the so-called “swamp of Japan,” the more Silence finds its footing. The beauty of Endo’s novel, which Scorsese has wisely left intact, is its refusal to sugarcoat or simplify the conflicts at hand. And what conflicts they are. On the surface, Silence‘s tale involves priests administering aid to Japanese Christians living under persecution. In less enlightened times, such a socio-political conflict would have likely been sanded down to lift the Jesuits up as Christ-like figures. Scorsese includes such a moment, though it’s hardly presented as sincere. Alone and starving, Fr. Rodrigues finds himself confronted with his reflection. After a moment, the face transforms into a familiar sight: a Goya painting of Christ’s face which we’ve been shown as how Rodrigues imagines the Lamb of God in his prayers and meditations. Garfield, with his thin features and his hair grown out into a magnificent mane, makes a fitting vessel for this sort of transfiguration.

The moment, alas, does not come greeted with a moment of intervention or inspiration. Rodrigues bursts into unsettling, hollow laughter. In his manic, dehydrated state, he seems ecstatic with such a vision, but the tone and timing suggests the sort of madness one would find in a 70s-era Herzog drama. Yet Scorsese curtails the sequence before such madness turns hallucinatory. Rodrigo Prieto’s images, even at their most painterly, have an air of reality to them. The staging thrives on ordinariness, rather than elaborately constructed tableaus.

All the better, then, to enable the film to cut to the heart of its conflicts. Somewhere towards the middle (I think) of the film, Silence shifts from acting as a drama about the faithful, and morphs into a searing interrogation of men of the cloth and their motivations. Rodrigues meets a number of foils among the Japanese, chief among them a translator (Tadanobu Asano) and the inquisitor Inoue (Issei Ogata). Though radically different in their approaches, the two men proceed to challenge not just Rodrigues’ convictions and his mission, but the core of Catholicism itself, as well as its place in a country like Japan.

And it’s here, when it’s most bound to simple scenes of people talking, that Silence finally grasps the intangible profundity it’s been reaching for the whole time. Asano and Ogata make excellent philosophical adversaries for Garfield’s Rodrigues, with Ogata in particular relishing every word (among his most notable jabs: “the price for your glory is their suffering.”) So many faith-based films use Christian conviction as a crutch, including this year’s Hacksaw Ridge, which also planted Mr. Garfield at the center. With that baseline established, a film like Silence becomes all the more remarkable. Here is a drama with source material from a Catholic writer (albeit a Japanese convert, and not a European), directed by a passionately Catholic director, that avoids turning its protagonists into the one-note martyrs they secretly wish to be.

The most magnificent wrench of all, however, comes in the form of Fr. Ferreira (Liam Neeson, thankfully not even attempting the accent). In addition to administering to the persecuted faithful, Rodrigues and Garrpe have snuck into Japan to seek out their former mentor, who has been rumored to have renounced the faith and taken up life as an ordinary member of Japanese society. Ferreira’s eventual return to the narrative (best left unsaid) gives Silence a final headbutt of ambiguity, heightening the specificity of the film’s conflicts, while simultaneously making them all the more universal. Neeson, in his all-too-brief screen time, is nothing short of mesmerizing. In such quick moments, he conveys Ferreira’s decades of work in Japan, and the toll it took on him. Ferreira’s exploits could have easily been their own film, and the way Neeson takes the bones of Scorsese and Jay Cocks’ script and turns it into its own meal is nothing short of astonishing. It’s a masterful moment of teaching both for Rodrigues and the viewer, the complexity of which has stayed with me long after the lights went up in the theater.

In my four years at a Jesuit-led high school, one of the theological ideas that I remember most is that faith without room for doubt is not really faith, but merely blind obedience. Such obedience was for angels, but not for mankind, gifted (or cursed) with the spark of true free will. That remarkably nuanced notion, standing in such stark contrast to the right wing extremists now posturing as 21st century moralists, has stayed with me even as whatever religion I had slipped away. And, whatever my personal beliefs now, that Catholic and Jesuit identity (hello, Catholic guilt, you old bastard) is still etched, however faintly, in my being. To see that same sort of depth is a monumental intellectual achievement, one that overrides the vagueries that somewhat plague the central role of Rodrigues (he is both an individual and a representative of the faith as a whole, though not quite to the degree where it feels possible to empathize with him enough). With such a long wait, it would be tempting to holdSilence to the standard that anything less than a masterpiece would be a letdown. To do so, I think, would be to dismiss the tremendous accomplishments on display. Rodrigues and Garrpe may find themselves starving, but their story is veritable feast of ideas, the strengths of which are made all the more powerful by their existence alongside the flaws.

Grade: B+

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Cheers! 10 cheap drinks in Europe that we love to sip

When traveling on a shoestring budget, cutting out pricey cocktails and spendy alcohol seems like a given.

But do you really have to? Probably not - in many European destinations boozy beverages don't cost much. Sometimes they're the same price or even less than soft drinks!

For example, in Prague, beer is the cheapest thing to drink after tap water, and in Spain, a glass of house wine often costs the same as a Coke. The key to drinking inexpensively in Europe? Knowing what to order depending on what country you're in.

Related: Hungry? 10 favorite cheap snacks in Europe

10 Cheap drinks we like to sip in Europe

While a basic knowledge of what locals drink will lead you in the right direction, here are ten of our favorite cheap drinks from around Europe. Regarding cost, all of these drinks are typically available for €3-5 or less, especially if you order them away from major attractions.

Here's how to get booze (and a buzz) while traveling on a budget in Europe.

1. Calimocho – Spain

Also spelled kalimotxo, this '70s era student drink is equal parts cola and cheap red wine. Thought to have originated in Basque Country, the drink is widespread throughout Spain. It's best ordered any place where university students congregate and in small neighborhood joints.

Want to order something slightly more grown up? Try a tinto de verano, a refreshing mix of red wine and lemon soda or sweetened soda water.

Related: 5 tips for saving on wine in Spain

Enjoying a beer in Prague. Photo: Jeffrey

2. Beer – Czech Republic

Drinking on a budget in Prague is easy. Just stick to local brews like Pilsner Urquell, Staropramen, and Budweiser Budvar. At $1-2 on average, a frosty pint is pretty much always cheaper than anything else you'd be tempted to drink - including coffee and wine.

Some other countries where you're typically best off drinking beer to keep costs under control include Germany, Holland, and Belgium.

Getting ready to drink a bottle of Portuguese Vinho Verde. Photo: Raul

3. Vinho Verde – Portugal

While Portugal is also famous for its barrel-aged port and meaty Douro reds, its young, or “green” white wines make for a refreshing and budget-friendly option. They're especially lovely when paired with local cod dishes and warm weather (which lasts well into fall around the country).

Related: Exploring Portugal: 10 days through Lisbon, Porto & Braga

Toasting Italy with a glass of Prosecco. Photo: gbraddo

4. Prosecco – Italy

It's not always cheap to drink in Italy. But that said, wine and the sparkling wine known as Prosecco can be acquired for the bargain price of €5 or less per flute. Prosecco-based cocktails like a Bellini and Negroni spritz are also usually economically priced.

Stiegl is a popular brand of Radler in Austria. Photo: Jochen

5. Radler – Austria

Refreshing and a little sweet, this local shandy is perfect for the warmer spring and summer months or year-round for folks who want something very lightly alcoholic to drink. Traditionally made from a mixture of local beer and the Austrian national drink, Almdudler (herb-flavored soda), it's also sometimes prepared with lemonade, grapefruit, or lemon soda.

A refreshing glass of Fröccs in Hungary. Photo: Benjamin

6. Froccs – Hungary

This summery drink mixes wine with soda water and is called different things depending on the water to wine ratio. Made with a 2-to-1 wine ratio this drink is called “nagyfröccs”, and with a 3-to-2 ratio it's called “házmester”. If you're visiting during Hungary's frosty winter months, sub in “forralt bor”, a traditional mulled wine to warm you up instead.

Accommodations: The best budget hotels in Budapest

Sipping kir at an outdoor cafe in France. Photo: Katherine

7. Kir – France

This white wine-based cocktail is thought to have come about in the 1950s when the mayor of Dijon tried to make the most of a bad batch of wine by adding black currant liquor. It's typically served as an aperitif (before the meal) and should be the color of a rose or blush wine, not darker.

If you're feeling particularly spendy or celebratory, splurge on a Kir Royale, the Kir's fancy cousin made with Champagne instead of white wine.

A selection of ouzo at a bar in Athens. Photo: Mark

8. Ouzo – Greece

Considered the national drink of Greece, this distilled liquor isn't for folks who don't appreciate black licorice as it's heavily flavored with anise seed. The most famous varieties are from Lesvos and Tyrnavos. It's best served ice-cold.

To stretch your drink, and your euros further, dilute it with water to release essential oils in the liquor and make it even more aromatic.

Pouring vodka in Poland. Photo: Marcin

9. Vodka – Russia, Estonia & Poland

If you're traveling in a country that could be described as the former Eastern block or belongs to Europe's famed vodka belt, the drink of the same name is your safest bet for bargain booze of quality. Consumed chilled before, during, and after special occasion meals (like when you go out with visiting friends or colleagues), it's name is Slavic for water. It's usually sipped neat.

Related: A budget travel guide to Warsaw

A glass of Vermouth with tapas in Barcelona. Photo: Trevor

10. Vermouth – Spain, Italy & France

Long regarded as an old-fashioned and out of style drink, vermouth is having a comeback in big Spanish, French, and Italian cities. This fortified and herbed wine is typically served either neat, over ice, or with a slice of citrus fruit and some soda water.

Bonus Tip

And whatever you do, skip imported tipples if you want to save on your drink bill. That means no tequila, rum, or bourbon. Drink like a local and reap maximum savings.

Do you have a favorite cheap drink in Europe? Tell us about it in the comments below.

The post Cheers! 10 cheap drinks in Europe that we love to sip appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

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Best Cafes In Europe Old Town 2021

Best Cafes In Europe Old Town 17 Historic European Cafes Worth Travelling For   Known for their decor, ambiance and fascinating backstories, each of these historic European cafes is dripping with history and tradition. Where better to sip on a coffee or snack on a local sweet than a beautiful coffee house where you can soak up local culture at the same time. Some of these iconic cafes were frequented by famous literati. Others were the birthplace of revolution. While some are known for their opulent interiors, others are humble local joints. Each has its own particular charms – and most boast their own signature beverage or cake. Here are 17 of the most beautiful historic European cafes you have to try at least once, as recommended by travel writers. Please note: This post contains affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you make a purchase by clicking a link (at no extra cost to you). Learn more. Les Deux Magots | Paris, France By Elisa at World in Paris The one and only Les Deux Magots. Credit: World in Paris.     If you plan to spend 3 days in Paris or more, take the time to indulge in a few coffee houses. The French capital boasts hundreds of beautiful cafes, many of them also part of the city’s history.    Best Of - August 2019     Play Video Les Deux Magots (established in 1822) in Saint Germain-des-Près is one of the most iconic cafes in Europe. After the Second World War, Saint Germain became the centre of intellectual and cultural life in Paris, and cafes like Les Deux Magots emerged as the perfect meeting places for animated discussions. Les Deux Magots was Hemingway’s favourite cafe in Saint Germain. It’s said that he spent many hours here writing or drinking with fellow authors including James Joyce and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Les Deux Magots hasn’t changed much, and it still attracts personalities from the worlds of art, literature, fashion and politics. Depending on the time of day, you should opt for a coffee or a hot chocolate, or a glass of one of the cafe’s excellent wines. Caffe Florian | Venice, Italy By Alex at Alex on the Map Venice’s Caffe Florian is said to be the oldest cafe in Europe. Credit: Flickr/Son of Groucho.     Known for being the most iconic and oldest cafe in the gorgeous city of Venice (and according to the claims, the oldest cafe in all of Europe!), Caffe Florian has been a fixture of Piazzo San Marco since 1720. It takes its name from the owner, Floriano Francesconi. Part of the reason this beautiful cafe remains a must-do in Venice is because it was created during a pivotal time in the Republic’s history. Back in the day, it was a meeting place for conspirators against the French and Austrian rulers who took over after the fall of the Venetian Empire. Today, you can still visit Caffe Florian’s opulent rooms. Not much has changed since its founding: it still contains its original wall murals, and the menu remains much the same as it has for the past several hundred years. Recently, the owners have tried to bring the cafe into the 21st century by showcasing contemporary art exhibits as well. The hot chocolate (cioccolata calda in Italian) is divine, and you can’t go wrong with an espresso or cappuccino. New York Cafe | Budapest, Hungary Editor’s choice New York Cafe is one of the most iconic cafes in Europe. Credit: Flickr/Mispahn.   A classic European coffeehouse that oozes old-world charm, Budapest’s New York Cafe boasts one of the most opulent interiors of any cafe on this list. It really must be seen in person to be believed. The cafe is located on the ground floor of the luxury New York Palace Hotel. The building’s intricate facade is your first clue to the treasures that lay inside: hardwood railings, chandeliers and a generous use of marble give this cafe a truly palatial feel. New York Cafe embodies Hungary’s old-world charm; if this is your style, you’d do well to choose an Airbnb in Budapest that channels the same sense of glamour. As well as being easy on the eye, the cafe has played an important role in Hungarian history. Writers and editors flocked here at the turn of the 20th century, and one of the country’s most important newspapers was edited right here in the upstairs gallery. In the post-war period, the cafe fell into disrepair – it was only as recently as 2006 that New York Cafe was lovingly restored to its former glory. Order the signature afternoon tea, an extravagant spread of sandwiches and sweets served with coffee. Or you can upgrade to a glass of Prosecco! Café A Brasileira | Portugal By Wendy at The Nomadic Vegan Heritage signage at Cafe A Brasileira. Credit: The Nomadic Vegan.   This historic cafe first opened its doors in Porto in 1903, and by 1907 the owner had expanded the business to Lisbon and Braga. In the beginning, it wasn’t really a cafe, but rather a place that sold coffee beans imported from Brazil. Back then, Portuguese people didn’t yet have the habit of drinking coffee in public establishments. It was A Brasileira that started this trend! The owner, Adriano Telles, offered a free cup of coffee as an incentive to anyone who purchased coffee beans from his shop. This was the first place that sold the now ubiquitous Portuguese bica, which has become a national passion. Similar to Italian espresso, the word bica is an acronym that stands for beba isto com açúcar (‘drink this with sugar’). Customers didn’t like the strong, bitter taste at first, so Telles put signs on the tables instructing them to add sweetener. Today, A Brasileira is a top attraction in Braga, Porto and Lisbon for its ambiance and history, but not for its food, especially if you’re vegetarian or vegan. Prices here are a bit high by Portugal standards, so most locals just order a bica, which costs 2 Euro. Cafe Maiasmokk | Tallinn, Estonia By Katja at Globe Totting Old-world opulence at Tallinn’s Cafe Maiasmokk. Credit: Flickr/Orange Weekends. Charming Cafe Maiasmokk is the oldest cafe in Tallinn and indeed in Estonia. It was first established in 1864 by Georg Stude, a Baltic German confectioner who was responsible for creating the best marzipan in town. His marzipan treats were so exquisite, they were favoured by the Russian Imperial family and its court. Today, marzipan remains one of the main reasons to visit Cafe Maiasmokk – there are dozens of marzipan figures on display in the shop window. If you want to learn more about this traditional sweet – like how it was used during the Middle Ages as a cure for lovesickness – then make sure to visit the mini marzipan museum on site. It’s home to around 200 figures, all made from moulds dating back over 100 years. This is a particularly fun thing to do in Tallinn with kids. Of course, there’s more to Maiasmokk than just marzipan. The cafe is a wonderful ‘step back in time’, having remained largely unchanged since 1913. It’s a great place for breakfast and lunch, or you might just want to stop by for coffee and cake. Whatever you do, don’t forget to look up at the ceiling! Atlas Cafe | Lviv, Ukraine By Kami at Kami and the Rest of the World Best Cafes In Europe Old Town, 17 Historic European Cafes Worth Travelling For Lviv has the most cafes per capita of any city. Credit: Kami and the Rest of the World. Cafe-hopping is one of the best things to do in Lviv, Ukraine. There are so many exceptional cafes located all over the city (Lviv has the highest number of cafes per capita in the world, allegedly!), but one of them deserves more attention than the others. Atlas Cafe is located at the corner of Rynok Square and Drukarska Street, a favourite hangout for Lviv’s artistic community in the days before WW2. Today, it’s one of the most popular and beautiful Lviv cafes where you can get a delicious breakfast, lunch or dinner as well as of course, coffee. While it’s tempting to sit outside and observe Lviv’s street life, you should see the interior of the cafe too. Parts of the decor are original and you can see numerous references to the pre-war era. The most beautiful room is hidden on the righthand side of the building – the lights are dim, the armchairs are super comfortable, and the space is decorated with paintings of knights. Fortunately, prices at Cafe Atlas are affordable and the place is large enough that there is almost always a free table available. Cafe Louvre | Prague, Czechia By Rose at Where Goes Rose Best Cafes In Europe Old Town, 17 Historic European Cafes Worth Travelling For Details at Prague’s Cafe Louvre, a favourite of Franz Kafka. Credit: Flickr/Davis Staedtler.   When it comes to cafes in Prague, there are few better places to experience the history of the city than Cafe Louvre, an iconic haunt of Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka. The venue opened in 1902 and, as well as serving high-quality Czech food, it became a hangout for academics and writers. Sadly, it was forced into closure by the Soviet government who prohibited private businesses and the work of creative minds. After sitting empty for five decades, it opened to the public once more in 1992. Today, it’s a fairly sophisticated place to eat food in Prague, but it’s by no means an unaffordable option. Visit for the gorgeous interior and period artwork, and stay for the hearty meals and selection of coffee, cocktails, wine and beer. Order the Czech national dish, svickova, steak in a puree of carrots, parsley and celery, served with bread dumplings, cranberry sauce and finally, a squirt of cream! It sounds strange, but the combination somehow works. Sacher Café Wien | Vienna, Austria By James Ian at Travel Collecting Best Cafes In Europe Old Town, 17 Historic European Cafes Worth Travelling For The home of Vienna’s iconic Sachertorte. Credit: Flickr/Johannes Ortner. Another of the most iconic cafes in Europe is the Sacher Cafe Wien in Vienna. This is where the eponymous Sachertorte was invented. Sachertorte cake – two layers of chocolate sponge cake separated by a thin layer of apricot jam and covered in a dark chocolate ganache – is without a doubt one of the most famous foods in Austria. It was created by pastry chef Franz Sacher in 1832 when he was just 16 years old. Today, it’s served in the cafe at the famous Sacher Hotel. Choose from the lovely outdoor area, which is perfect for people watching on a summer day, or the indoor cafe.   The original recipe is protected by a trademark and jealously guarded, so the only place in the world to have a REAL piece of Sachertorte is right here. Each slice even comes with a trademark stamp – in chocolate, of course. Best paired with a coffee or a chocolate liqueur, a slice of Sachertorte at the Sacher Cafe is something not to be missed when you visit Vienna. Hafiz Mustafa | Istanbul, Turkey Editor’s choice Best Cafes In Europe Old Town, 17 Historic European Cafes Worth Travelling For Hafiz Mustafa, the home of Turkish coffee. With its original branch located in the Sirkeci neighbourhood on the European side of beautiful Istanbul, Hafiz Mustafa is part of the crop of cafes where coffee made its cross-continental hop. It’s a wonderful place to sample traditional Turkish coffee and sweets. The cafe and confectioner was established in 1864 by a merchant and his son. The latter of the duo is credited with inventing pogaca, a filled bun that’s been a mainstay of the menu throughout its five-generations of family ownership. Today, there are a dozen branches of the cafe across Istanbul. For the original experience, head to the first shop on Hamidiye Street. The wallpaper-and-tile interior with veneered columns screams of the days when a family outing to Hafiz Mustafa must have been a real treat. You can see a framed portrait of the cafe’s founder, Ismail Hakki Zade, perched above the till. Turkish coffee served from a cezve – a ritual drink so important it’s recognised as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity – is the thing to order here. Pair it with a slice of Hafiz Mustafa’s famous fruit cake, a few hard candies, or a square of Turkish delight. My personal favourite item on the menu is booza baklava, an indulgent slab of chewy Turkish ice cream sandwiched inside a slice of pistachio baklava. Conditori La Glace | Copenhagen, Denmark By Derek & Mike at Everything Copenhagen     Best Cafes In Europe Old Town, 17 Historic European Cafes Worth Travelling For It’s all about the pastries at Conditori La Glace. Credit: Everything Copenhagen. Copenhagen’s most iconic cafe is Conditori La Glace, an elegant establishment that dates back to 1870. They serve traditional tea, coffee, hot chocolate and of course Danish pastries and elaborate cakes. Not only is La Glace the oldest bakery and confectioner in Denmark, but it’s also one for the best places to visit for breakfast in Copenhagen. In fact, it’s hard to walk by La Glace, look through the window and not stop in for something sweet. Denmark is famous for sweet breads and pastries and La Glace has been perfecting them for over six generations. The interior of the cafe takes you back to a bygone era. With old-fashioned decor and staff uniforms, La Glace maintains all the charm of a 150-year-old family bakery. Anyone visiting Copenhagen should plan a stop at this Danish institution. There are many options for pastries and coffee in the city, but none compete with the iconic taste, atmosphere and experience of Conditori La Glace.     Hotel Moskva Cafe | Belgrade, Serbia Editor’s choice You can’t visit Hotel Moskva in Belgrade without ordering the Moskva Shnit. The capital of former Yugoslavia is most often associated with concrete monoliths – but Belgrade has some truly splendid old buildings as well. The iconic Hotel Moskva on Terazije square is one example of Serbian Art Nouveau and is a complete contrast to the Socialist-Brutalist architecture that defines the newer part of the city. Since it opened in to the public in 1908, the hotel has always had a public street-level kafana. Today, the cafe at Hotel Moskva serves more than 300 different cakes, but it’s famous for one recipe in particular, the eponymous Moskva Shnit. This fruit and cream cake was invented in 1974 by the hotel’s pastry chef, Anica Dzepina, and has been trademarked ever since. Delicately layered with with almonds, pineapple and cherries, Moskva Shnit is light and airy, perfect for eating on a summer’s day while you sit on the cafe’s sun-kissed terrace.     Osteria del Sole | Bologna, Italy By Lori at Travlinmad Don’t let the laid-back look fool you – Bologna’s Osteria del Sole is one of the world’s oldest cafes. Credit: Travlinmad. Just steps from the Piazza Maggiore in the historic heart of Bologna is the Quadrilatero, the oldest market in Bologna. Lining the narrow cobbled streets are jewellers, high-end apparel stores, butchers, delis, fish markets, produce stands, and bakeries. If it’s eaten in Bologna, you’ll find it here. But there is something else very special here that happens to be one of the most unique things to do in Bologna. Osteria del Sole is one of the longest operating cafes in the world. In existence since 1465, the comfy pub was frequented by university students and luminaries of the day, including Da Vinci and Galileo.  They don’t serve food, but you can purchase wine and beer. It’s easy to find great food in the shops nearby to accompany your drink. The Salumeria Simoni, a small cheese and salami shop in the heart of the market, is a great choice. From there, walk a short distance up Via Ranocchi and look out for the small sign, Osteria del Sole. Find a place to sit, order a glass of wine, and break out your lunch.   This is a lively, social place, especially in the afternoons when locals and visitors alike come to enjoy good conversation and an aperitivo with friends. Oh, if only the walls could talk! Caffe San Carlo | Turin, Italy By Christina at Travel2Next Mixing a bicerin at Turin’s Caffe San Carlo. Credit: Travel2Next. Caffè San Carlo can be counted among the most iconic European cafes as it’s been a meeting place for writers for centuries. This is where French novelist and author of The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas, tasted his first bicerin, a unique hot beverage created from layers of espresso, drinking chocolate and milk. One of the most distinguished cities in Italy, Turin was the Kingdom’s first capital (before Florence and Rome) and attracted Europe’s literary and political community as a result. Several grand cafes were established to host these noteworthy visitors, none more beautiful than Caffè San Carlo. The building sits in the famous Piazza San Carlo, right in the heart of Turin, where you can wander around and admire the city’s stately architecture. The interior is richly decorated with ornate gold-leaf mirror, marble and velvet. Sitting inside the cafe and sipping on a glass of the city’s traditional hot drink is one of the things to do in Turin for your bucket list. Bettys in Harrogate | Yorkshire, England By Stuart Forster at Go Eat Do Bettys in Harrogate is a Yorkshire institution. Credit: Go Eat Do. Bettys operates six tea rooms across Yorkshire, but the first to open was in central Harrogate. The cafe was established in 1919 by a Swiss immigrant who started life as Fritz Bützer. A successful confectioner, he anglicised his name to Frederick Belmont. That Swiss connection explains the speciality dish of bacon and raclette rösti, which still features on Bettys’ menu.   The best-known cafe in the spa town has become an iconic venue for traditional afternoon tea served on three-tiered cake stands. It’s possible to walk up and wait to be seated or reserve a table in the elegant Imperial Room on Bettys’ upper level. There’s a distinctive Old World charm to the tea room on Parliament Street in Harrogate. Staff don uniforms not too dissimilar to those worn by servants in the television series Downton Abbey. If you want to stock up for a picnic or buy cakes for later, Bettys has a shop as well. Bewley’s Oriental Cafe | Dublin, Ireland By Emer & Nils at Let’s Go Ireland Take your latte in the James Joyce room at Bewley’s Oriental. Credit: Let’s Go Ireland. It would be difficult to list the most iconic European cafes without including the Dublin institution of Bewley’s Oriental Cafe on Grafton Street. This cafe was designed with such great elegance and style that it continues to impress people more than 90 years after it first opened its doors. he ground-breaking decor, including Egyptian-style motifs in colourful mosaic tiles covering the exterior of the building, is one of the more unusual sights of Dublin. However, it is the impressive stained glass windows, created by the renowned Irish artist Harry Clarke, that are the jewel in this cafe’s crown. For some extra special ambience, visit the poets’ corner or the James Joyce room, or settle down beside one of the 10 open fireplaces to enjoy a freshly brewed coffee along with some delicious cakes and pastries. Don’t forget to try the original sticky bun! There are also traditional Irish breakfast and light lunch options on the Bewley’s menu. Cafe Central | Malaga, Spain By Paulina at Paulina on the Road Best Cafes In Europe Old Town, 17 Historic European Cafes Worth Travelling For The menu at Malaga’s Cafe Central. Credit: Paulina on the Road. One of the most iconic, beautiful, and historic cafes in Spain is Cafe Central in Malaga, located in the Plaza de la Constitución, only a 4-minute walk from Málaga Cathedral.   Jose Prado Crespo established this restaurant in the early 20th century in the days after the Spanish Civil War. Interestingly, it’s a combination of three smaller cafes: Café Suizo, Chinitas, and Munich.  The most special feature of Café Central is that it offers a splendid location to watch the world go by. Read the full article

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Best Cafes In Europe Old Town 2021

Best Cafes In Europe Old Town 17 Historic European Cafes Worth Travelling For   Known for their decor, ambiance and fascinating backstories, each of these historic European cafes is dripping with history and tradition. Where better to sip on a coffee or snack on a local sweet than a beautiful coffee house where you can soak up local culture at the same time. Some of these iconic cafes were frequented by famous literati. Others were the birthplace of revolution. While some are known for their opulent interiors, others are humble local joints. Each has its own particular charms – and most boast their own signature beverage or cake. Here are 17 of the most beautiful historic European cafes you have to try at least once, as recommended by travel writers. Please note: This post contains affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you make a purchase by clicking a link (at no extra cost to you). Learn more. Les Deux Magots | Paris, France By Elisa at World in Paris The one and only Les Deux Magots. Credit: World in Paris.     If you plan to spend 3 days in Paris or more, take the time to indulge in a few coffee houses. The French capital boasts hundreds of beautiful cafes, many of them also part of the city’s history.    Best Of - August 2019     Play Video Les Deux Magots (established in 1822) in Saint Germain-des-Près is one of the most iconic cafes in Europe. After the Second World War, Saint Germain became the centre of intellectual and cultural life in Paris, and cafes like Les Deux Magots emerged as the perfect meeting places for animated discussions. Les Deux Magots was Hemingway’s favourite cafe in Saint Germain. It’s said that he spent many hours here writing or drinking with fellow authors including James Joyce and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Les Deux Magots hasn’t changed much, and it still attracts personalities from the worlds of art, literature, fashion and politics. Depending on the time of day, you should opt for a coffee or a hot chocolate, or a glass of one of the cafe’s excellent wines. Caffe Florian | Venice, Italy By Alex at Alex on the Map Venice’s Caffe Florian is said to be the oldest cafe in Europe. Credit: Flickr/Son of Groucho.     Known for being the most iconic and oldest cafe in the gorgeous city of Venice (and according to the claims, the oldest cafe in all of Europe!), Caffe Florian has been a fixture of Piazzo San Marco since 1720. It takes its name from the owner, Floriano Francesconi. Part of the reason this beautiful cafe remains a must-do in Venice is because it was created during a pivotal time in the Republic’s history. Back in the day, it was a meeting place for conspirators against the French and Austrian rulers who took over after the fall of the Venetian Empire. Today, you can still visit Caffe Florian’s opulent rooms. Not much has changed since its founding: it still contains its original wall murals, and the menu remains much the same as it has for the past several hundred years. Recently, the owners have tried to bring the cafe into the 21st century by showcasing contemporary art exhibits as well. The hot chocolate (cioccolata calda in Italian) is divine, and you can’t go wrong with an espresso or cappuccino. New York Cafe | Budapest, Hungary Editor’s choice New York Cafe is one of the most iconic cafes in Europe. Credit: Flickr/Mispahn.   A classic European coffeehouse that oozes old-world charm, Budapest’s New York Cafe boasts one of the most opulent interiors of any cafe on this list. It really must be seen in person to be believed. The cafe is located on the ground floor of the luxury New York Palace Hotel. The building’s intricate facade is your first clue to the treasures that lay inside: hardwood railings, chandeliers and a generous use of marble give this cafe a truly palatial feel. New York Cafe embodies Hungary’s old-world charm; if this is your style, you’d do well to choose an Airbnb in Budapest that channels the same sense of glamour. As well as being easy on the eye, the cafe has played an important role in Hungarian history. Writers and editors flocked here at the turn of the 20th century, and one of the country’s most important newspapers was edited right here in the upstairs gallery. In the post-war period, the cafe fell into disrepair – it was only as recently as 2006 that New York Cafe was lovingly restored to its former glory. Order the signature afternoon tea, an extravagant spread of sandwiches and sweets served with coffee. Or you can upgrade to a glass of Prosecco! Café A Brasileira | Portugal By Wendy at The Nomadic Vegan Heritage signage at Cafe A Brasileira. Credit: The Nomadic Vegan.   This historic cafe first opened its doors in Porto in 1903, and by 1907 the owner had expanded the business to Lisbon and Braga. In the beginning, it wasn’t really a cafe, but rather a place that sold coffee beans imported from Brazil. Back then, Portuguese people didn’t yet have the habit of drinking coffee in public establishments. It was A Brasileira that started this trend! The owner, Adriano Telles, offered a free cup of coffee as an incentive to anyone who purchased coffee beans from his shop. This was the first place that sold the now ubiquitous Portuguese bica, which has become a national passion. Similar to Italian espresso, the word bica is an acronym that stands for beba isto com açúcar (‘drink this with sugar’). Customers didn’t like the strong, bitter taste at first, so Telles put signs on the tables instructing them to add sweetener. Today, A Brasileira is a top attraction in Braga, Porto and Lisbon for its ambiance and history, but not for its food, especially if you’re vegetarian or vegan. Prices here are a bit high by Portugal standards, so most locals just order a bica, which costs 2 Euro. Cafe Maiasmokk | Tallinn, Estonia By Katja at Globe Totting Old-world opulence at Tallinn’s Cafe Maiasmokk. Credit: Flickr/Orange Weekends. Charming Cafe Maiasmokk is the oldest cafe in Tallinn and indeed in Estonia. It was first established in 1864 by Georg Stude, a Baltic German confectioner who was responsible for creating the best marzipan in town. His marzipan treats were so exquisite, they were favoured by the Russian Imperial family and its court. Today, marzipan remains one of the main reasons to visit Cafe Maiasmokk – there are dozens of marzipan figures on display in the shop window. If you want to learn more about this traditional sweet – like how it was used during the Middle Ages as a cure for lovesickness – then make sure to visit the mini marzipan museum on site. It’s home to around 200 figures, all made from moulds dating back over 100 years. This is a particularly fun thing to do in Tallinn with kids. Of course, there’s more to Maiasmokk than just marzipan. The cafe is a wonderful ‘step back in time’, having remained largely unchanged since 1913. It’s a great place for breakfast and lunch, or you might just want to stop by for coffee and cake. Whatever you do, don’t forget to look up at the ceiling! Atlas Cafe | Lviv, Ukraine By Kami at Kami and the Rest of the World Best Cafes In Europe Old Town, 17 Historic European Cafes Worth Travelling For Lviv has the most cafes per capita of any city. Credit: Kami and the Rest of the World. Cafe-hopping is one of the best things to do in Lviv, Ukraine. There are so many exceptional cafes located all over the city (Lviv has the highest number of cafes per capita in the world, allegedly!), but one of them deserves more attention than the others. Atlas Cafe is located at the corner of Rynok Square and Drukarska Street, a favourite hangout for Lviv’s artistic community in the days before WW2. Today, it’s one of the most popular and beautiful Lviv cafes where you can get a delicious breakfast, lunch or dinner as well as of course, coffee. While it’s tempting to sit outside and observe Lviv’s street life, you should see the interior of the cafe too. Parts of the decor are original and you can see numerous references to the pre-war era. The most beautiful room is hidden on the righthand side of the building – the lights are dim, the armchairs are super comfortable, and the space is decorated with paintings of knights. Fortunately, prices at Cafe Atlas are affordable and the place is large enough that there is almost always a free table available. Cafe Louvre | Prague, Czechia By Rose at Where Goes Rose Best Cafes In Europe Old Town, 17 Historic European Cafes Worth Travelling For Details at Prague’s Cafe Louvre, a favourite of Franz Kafka. Credit: Flickr/Davis Staedtler.   When it comes to cafes in Prague, there are few better places to experience the history of the city than Cafe Louvre, an iconic haunt of Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka. The venue opened in 1902 and, as well as serving high-quality Czech food, it became a hangout for academics and writers. Sadly, it was forced into closure by the Soviet government who prohibited private businesses and the work of creative minds. After sitting empty for five decades, it opened to the public once more in 1992. Today, it’s a fairly sophisticated place to eat food in Prague, but it’s by no means an unaffordable option. Visit for the gorgeous interior and period artwork, and stay for the hearty meals and selection of coffee, cocktails, wine and beer. Order the Czech national dish, svickova, steak in a puree of carrots, parsley and celery, served with bread dumplings, cranberry sauce and finally, a squirt of cream! It sounds strange, but the combination somehow works. Sacher Café Wien | Vienna, Austria By James Ian at Travel Collecting Best Cafes In Europe Old Town, 17 Historic European Cafes Worth Travelling For The home of Vienna’s iconic Sachertorte. Credit: Flickr/Johannes Ortner. Another of the most iconic cafes in Europe is the Sacher Cafe Wien in Vienna. This is where the eponymous Sachertorte was invented. Sachertorte cake – two layers of chocolate sponge cake separated by a thin layer of apricot jam and covered in a dark chocolate ganache – is without a doubt one of the most famous foods in Austria. It was created by pastry chef Franz Sacher in 1832 when he was just 16 years old. Today, it’s served in the cafe at the famous Sacher Hotel. Choose from the lovely outdoor area, which is perfect for people watching on a summer day, or the indoor cafe.   The original recipe is protected by a trademark and jealously guarded, so the only place in the world to have a REAL piece of Sachertorte is right here. Each slice even comes with a trademark stamp – in chocolate, of course. Best paired with a coffee or a chocolate liqueur, a slice of Sachertorte at the Sacher Cafe is something not to be missed when you visit Vienna. Hafiz Mustafa | Istanbul, Turkey Editor’s choice Best Cafes In Europe Old Town, 17 Historic European Cafes Worth Travelling For Hafiz Mustafa, the home of Turkish coffee. With its original branch located in the Sirkeci neighbourhood on the European side of beautiful Istanbul, Hafiz Mustafa is part of the crop of cafes where coffee made its cross-continental hop. It’s a wonderful place to sample traditional Turkish coffee and sweets. The cafe and confectioner was established in 1864 by a merchant and his son. The latter of the duo is credited with inventing pogaca, a filled bun that’s been a mainstay of the menu throughout its five-generations of family ownership. Today, there are a dozen branches of the cafe across Istanbul. For the original experience, head to the first shop on Hamidiye Street. The wallpaper-and-tile interior with veneered columns screams of the days when a family outing to Hafiz Mustafa must have been a real treat. You can see a framed portrait of the cafe’s founder, Ismail Hakki Zade, perched above the till. Turkish coffee served from a cezve – a ritual drink so important it’s recognised as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity – is the thing to order here. Pair it with a slice of Hafiz Mustafa’s famous fruit cake, a few hard candies, or a square of Turkish delight. My personal favourite item on the menu is booza baklava, an indulgent slab of chewy Turkish ice cream sandwiched inside a slice of pistachio baklava. Conditori La Glace | Copenhagen, Denmark By Derek & Mike at Everything Copenhagen     Best Cafes In Europe Old Town, 17 Historic European Cafes Worth Travelling For It’s all about the pastries at Conditori La Glace. Credit: Everything Copenhagen. Copenhagen’s most iconic cafe is Conditori La Glace, an elegant establishment that dates back to 1870. They serve traditional tea, coffee, hot chocolate and of course Danish pastries and elaborate cakes. Not only is La Glace the oldest bakery and confectioner in Denmark, but it’s also one for the best places to visit for breakfast in Copenhagen. In fact, it’s hard to walk by La Glace, look through the window and not stop in for something sweet. Denmark is famous for sweet breads and pastries and La Glace has been perfecting them for over six generations. The interior of the cafe takes you back to a bygone era. With old-fashioned decor and staff uniforms, La Glace maintains all the charm of a 150-year-old family bakery. Anyone visiting Copenhagen should plan a stop at this Danish institution. There are many options for pastries and coffee in the city, but none compete with the iconic taste, atmosphere and experience of Conditori La Glace.     Hotel Moskva Cafe | Belgrade, Serbia Editor’s choice You can’t visit Hotel Moskva in Belgrade without ordering the Moskva Shnit. The capital of former Yugoslavia is most often associated with concrete monoliths – but Belgrade has some truly splendid old buildings as well. The iconic Hotel Moskva on Terazije square is one example of Serbian Art Nouveau and is a complete contrast to the Socialist-Brutalist architecture that defines the newer part of the city. Since it opened in to the public in 1908, the hotel has always had a public street-level kafana. Today, the cafe at Hotel Moskva serves more than 300 different cakes, but it’s famous for one recipe in particular, the eponymous Moskva Shnit. This fruit and cream cake was invented in 1974 by the hotel’s pastry chef, Anica Dzepina, and has been trademarked ever since. Delicately layered with with almonds, pineapple and cherries, Moskva Shnit is light and airy, perfect for eating on a summer’s day while you sit on the cafe’s sun-kissed terrace.     Osteria del Sole | Bologna, Italy By Lori at Travlinmad Don’t let the laid-back look fool you – Bologna’s Osteria del Sole is one of the world’s oldest cafes. Credit: Travlinmad. Just steps from the Piazza Maggiore in the historic heart of Bologna is the Quadrilatero, the oldest market in Bologna. Lining the narrow cobbled streets are jewellers, high-end apparel stores, butchers, delis, fish markets, produce stands, and bakeries. If it’s eaten in Bologna, you’ll find it here. But there is something else very special here that happens to be one of the most unique things to do in Bologna. Osteria del Sole is one of the longest operating cafes in the world. In existence since 1465, the comfy pub was frequented by university students and luminaries of the day, including Da Vinci and Galileo.  They don’t serve food, but you can purchase wine and beer. It’s easy to find great food in the shops nearby to accompany your drink. The Salumeria Simoni, a small cheese and salami shop in the heart of the market, is a great choice. From there, walk a short distance up Via Ranocchi and look out for the small sign, Osteria del Sole. Find a place to sit, order a glass of wine, and break out your lunch.   This is a lively, social place, especially in the afternoons when locals and visitors alike come to enjoy good conversation and an aperitivo with friends. Oh, if only the walls could talk! Caffe San Carlo | Turin, Italy By Christina at Travel2Next Mixing a bicerin at Turin’s Caffe San Carlo. Credit: Travel2Next. Caffè San Carlo can be counted among the most iconic European cafes as it’s been a meeting place for writers for centuries. This is where French novelist and author of The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas, tasted his first bicerin, a unique hot beverage created from layers of espresso, drinking chocolate and milk. One of the most distinguished cities in Italy, Turin was the Kingdom’s first capital (before Florence and Rome) and attracted Europe’s literary and political community as a result. Several grand cafes were established to host these noteworthy visitors, none more beautiful than Caffè San Carlo. The building sits in the famous Piazza San Carlo, right in the heart of Turin, where you can wander around and admire the city’s stately architecture. The interior is richly decorated with ornate gold-leaf mirror, marble and velvet. Sitting inside the cafe and sipping on a glass of the city’s traditional hot drink is one of the things to do in Turin for your bucket list. Bettys in Harrogate | Yorkshire, England By Stuart Forster at Go Eat Do Bettys in Harrogate is a Yorkshire institution. Credit: Go Eat Do. Bettys operates six tea rooms across Yorkshire, but the first to open was in central Harrogate. The cafe was established in 1919 by a Swiss immigrant who started life as Fritz Bützer. A successful confectioner, he anglicised his name to Frederick Belmont. That Swiss connection explains the speciality dish of bacon and raclette rösti, which still features on Bettys’ menu.   The best-known cafe in the spa town has become an iconic venue for traditional afternoon tea served on three-tiered cake stands. It’s possible to walk up and wait to be seated or reserve a table in the elegant Imperial Room on Bettys’ upper level. There’s a distinctive Old World charm to the tea room on Parliament Street in Harrogate. Staff don uniforms not too dissimilar to those worn by servants in the television series Downton Abbey. If you want to stock up for a picnic or buy cakes for later, Bettys has a shop as well. Bewley’s Oriental Cafe | Dublin, Ireland By Emer & Nils at Let’s Go Ireland Take your latte in the James Joyce room at Bewley’s Oriental. Credit: Let’s Go Ireland. It would be difficult to list the most iconic European cafes without including the Dublin institution of Bewley’s Oriental Cafe on Grafton Street. This cafe was designed with such great elegance and style that it continues to impress people more than 90 years after it first opened its doors. he ground-breaking decor, including Egyptian-style motifs in colourful mosaic tiles covering the exterior of the building, is one of the more unusual sights of Dublin. However, it is the impressive stained glass windows, created by the renowned Irish artist Harry Clarke, that are the jewel in this cafe’s crown. For some extra special ambience, visit the poets’ corner or the James Joyce room, or settle down beside one of the 10 open fireplaces to enjoy a freshly brewed coffee along with some delicious cakes and pastries. Don’t forget to try the original sticky bun! There are also traditional Irish breakfast and light lunch options on the Bewley’s menu. Cafe Central | Malaga, Spain By Paulina at Paulina on the Road Best Cafes In Europe Old Town, 17 Historic European Cafes Worth Travelling For The menu at Malaga’s Cafe Central. Credit: Paulina on the Road. One of the most iconic, beautiful, and historic cafes in Spain is Cafe Central in Malaga, located in the Plaza de la Constitución, only a 4-minute walk from Málaga Cathedral.   Jose Prado Crespo established this restaurant in the early 20th century in the days after the Spanish Civil War. Interestingly, it’s a combination of three smaller cafes: Café Suizo, Chinitas, and Munich.  The most special feature of Café Central is that it offers a splendid location to watch the world go by. Read the full article