Toulouse, part I - Evangelina and Huguette

Capitole, Toulouse's main square

I've been here before, and written about Toulouse extensively in these entries. My style of writing was very different back then, as was my layout. I think I was a better writer in those days; I noticed things more and saw the details, and found the right words to express the emotions they evoked in me. Now I'm sort of going through the motions, as it were.

In Dublin airport, waiting for my aer lingus flight. Thank you for cancelling my flight and letting me know less than 30 hours before, Ryanair

A plane from America, land of the free

Last time I was here, I did all the touristy stuff and all the sightseeing; and this time, now that I'm a bit older and slightly more well off than I was as an impoverished student back in 2014, I decided (unconsciously) to do lots of fine dining. Well, and walking around the city, as always, but I spent most of my time eating at nice restaurants this time round.

Now, I am not a food blogger by any means or stretch of the imagination, but here's the food that I had. The first restaurant I went to was Evangelina, located about 10 minutes' walk from Compans Caffarelli metro station. After sampling Toulouse's finest, I have to conclude that this is probably the best restaurant in the city - it's not too expensive, the food comes in nice large portions, and most of all the quality of the food itself is unparallelled.

This was my favourite dish by far - red tuna

Shots

After that excellent meal, I went back to the hotel and had a nice refreshing sleep, and the next day woke up feeling pleased with myself. The first call of duty in the morning, as always, is coffee. I should probably start a separate coffee fund because I'm sure I've spent a mini fortune on coffee at this point.

It was Sunday afternoon, and for some reason most restaurants, including my favourite Evangelina, were closed. I ended up having to make do with Huguette, which was quite well located right off the Capitole square, but was hilariously expensive, and atop of that the food was not very good. All in all, a bit of a ripoff. 10/10 do not recommend.

It looks a lot better than it tasted, unfortunately

Baked egg and foie gras, which cost 8.50 and amounted to about a mouthful

Bratislava, part VI - Old Town and the Hrad (iv) and wrapup of continental #7

I feel like I was writing the wrapup for continental #6 not so long ago, which actually is true. It's one of those odd periods in your life when you feel that time goes by both fast and slow, which I do not think is a wholly bad thing.

After walking up and down the Hrad, I got some more coffee, then went back to the hostel to collect my stuff. The hot guy was back on duty, and I chatted with him for a bit before going. He laughed a little at my insistence on going so quickly ("Your flight's at 3.30pm and it's only 10am, you can stay for another hour yet") but once bitten twice shy; I'd had enough of cutting it too fine and missing flights, and was determined to leave as much time as I could.

The walk to the AS was straightforward and pleasant, and I was able to stop at SPAR to get some water and stroll my way there leisurely. I was a little disappointed that this trip was coming to an end; but only a bit. Too many things had gone wrong this time for me to be very sorry about finishing it. Continental #6, on the other hand, was absolutely heavenly, and I still regard it as one of my favourite trips.

The brand new, shiny Bratislava AS

So soon? Vienna Flughafen

I'd booked my bus ticket to Vienna Flughafen with Slovak Express for 1 euro (they had an online special), but it wasn't due to leave till 1, and considering my absolutely dreadful luck with delayed buses this time round, I decided not to risk it, and bought a new ticket for an earlier regiojet bus. Again, as luck would have it, all the buses that morning were delayed, including my new bus, and it ended up leaving 15 minutes late, but still earlier than the Slovak Express I had booked.

Other things beckon to me now, but I'm glad I finally visited Istanbul, and Bulgaria, and Greece, places which have been on my bucket list for simply ages now. Clear conscienced and pretty pleased with myself, but for goodness sake, I hope continental #8 will be less troublesome.