Honeymoon dispatches
We kept a journal; highly recommend
The server took our orders and headed back to the bar to make our drinks. As soon as he was gone, my husband – I’m still getting used to that word, husband – whipped out the little notebook we’d been scribbling on for the past ten days. Gotta catch up the journal, he said.
It was our last night in Lisbon, and we’d parked ourselves in a small but very hip cocktail bar a few minutes’ walk from our hotel. The seats were white bouclé, the lights were a dim red, and the speakers blared 2000s rap.
We flipped through what we were calling the honeymoon journal to the latest entry, and he handed me a pen. I thought back to what we’d done earlier that day.
Miradouro Santa Catarina – lovely view but rain kinda killed the vibe. Took an Instax anyway
Hiked (literally! hills!) back to hotel to freshen up and pack
Catfish cocktail bar
I paused, then showed him the notebook. “Think we’re all caught up,” I said. He read what I wrote, then put the journal away, smiling.
Our drinks arrived. They were phenomenal – I got some kind of bourbon sponge cake cocktail that gave elevated old fashioned, and he got something almost savory, with a slice of pickle as garnish. We sat back, sipping away, content in the knowledge that we wouldn’t soon forget the experience.
*
The honeymoon journal had originally been meant to document the months leading up to our wedding. The friends who’d given it to us had kept their own journal while planning their wedding, and they told us how nice it was to be able to look back on the events and emotions that made up that blur of a year. We agreed that it was a great idea, had every intention of filling it up. . . and then promptly forgot about it. Only as we finalized plans for our honeymoon did we remember the little notebook and thought, Why not use it there?
I’m so glad we did. Mostly we listed places we went and things we ate and drank, with commentary sprinkled in whenever something noteworthy happened. But it’s kept the events of the trip fresh in my mind, and browsing through the pages always makes me smile.
Plus, coming back from a big trip usually means having to answer that understandable but often impossible question: How was it? Having the honeymoon journal means that instead of just giving y’all the generic, if true, It was great!, I can share some distinct moments from the trip. (Note: If it’s in a block quote, then it’s typed out basically as written in our notebook.)
HONEYMOON DAY 2 - 4/3/25
Woke up to church bells tolling
Went to Mercato Central de Valencia
got kinda dizzy w/ array of food!
got cafe con leche
got a cone of meat
bought cheese (stinky blue!), bread, octopus, had our first taste of agua de valencia
A cone of meat is pretty much what it sounds like: Meat, in this case thin slices of jamon, rolled up and stuffed into a paper cone. It cost something like three euro and came with a couple of toothpicks so we could share. So good.
The central market in Valencia is housed in a beautiful old building that was a five-minute walk from our hotel. There were so many stalls that the aisles had “street names.” We wandered aimlessly around, taking in the displays of pastries, meats, tinned fish, fresh fish, coffee, wine, liquor, produce. . . it seemed endless. We could have spent all afternoon there – and in fact we went back the next day to pick up souvenirs – but that first day we left after an hour or so.
Because I promised my husband we would go on a bike ride.
Valencia is incredibly bike friendly. There’s a park with a bike path that runs through the city, and his plan was to rent a couple bicycles and just mosey up the park. He did let me practice first, and I wobbled around for a while along an empty stretch of boardwalk out by the beach, which was still too cold and windy for most tourists.
I was still terrified.
Eventually I worked up the courage to make our slow way back up to the historic district, where we were staying. After about forty minutes we’d maybe covered a mile or two. I was exhausted, flushed with pride, and terribly relieved that it was over. I’d made good on my promise.
In our journal I summed up the experience:
I biked, i crashed into a post, i conquered (and then we stopped)
*
HONEYMOON DAY 4 - 4/5/25
Slow start, opened up the doors so the courtyard music could pour in.
Brunch @ Floresta Cafe by Hungry Biker.
Coffee
Pastrami past1 w/ capers, cabbage, caramelized onions, dill
By Day 4, we were in Porto. We’d rented an Airbnb on the top floor of an apartment building that overlooked a small but busy square along the Rua das Flores. From about ten in the morning to ten in the evening, buskers played to passersby and the folks sitting at tables that spilled out of the many cafés lining the square. Most of the songs were old American pop hits (along the lines of “I’m On Fire” by Bruce Springsteen but, like, acoustic).
The Airbnb had a balcony that came with some cushioned benches made for lounging and a wooden hot tub that made me think of how people used to bathe in medieval times. It took a bit of finagling to get the tub going, but once it was up and running we definitely made use of it. This bit is from our Day 5 entry:
back to airbnb for TöbTime™️ – while listening to sweet, hilarious, drunk voicemail messages from friends and fam from wedding2
*
HONEYMOON DAY 8 - 4/9
Went to Tasca Baldracca – superb steak tartare and lamb kofta (w/ black hummus?) + orange wine
Castelo de São Jorge for some **culture**
checked out the circa 1147 castle, had aperol spritz’s w/ a view.
Day 8 was our first full day in Lisbon, and we managed to pack in a lot even though we let ourselves sleep in. After walking the ancient castelo’s ramparts – kind of a dream for a fantasy-loving girlie like me – and ogling the many peacocks that were wandering around, we had delicious roasted sausage at a little restaurant that specialized in home cooking, caught the historic Lisbon trolley, which took us to the gorgeous Praca do Comercio, and did some shopping.
And there’s truly nothing like vacation motivation, because after all that we still somehow found the energy for the following:
Red Frog speakeasy
D: sakura negroni (bianco bitters)
J: broken bone (pig fat?)
Round 2
J: American Gangster. Drink in a medicine bottle
D: Umami Sazerac
Fantastic drinks. Great flavors
Russo’s for grilled doctor octopus (heh) + roasted prawns
Damn good
Drinks @ Clandestino. Amazing drinks
Dirty oyster
Fado’ birro
Celebrated by shots w/ bartenders – Selma & ?
*
I could keep going. There was the evening in Porto when – on the urging of some friends – we crossed the Dom Luís I Bridge and made our way up to the Jardim do Morro, which offered a spectacular view of the city and the Douro River. People sold beers out of coolers for two or three euro a bottle and a Red Hot Chili Peppers cover band rocked out like they were in Madison Square Garden.
There was the day we spent touring wineries in the Douro Valley; the leisurely lunch we had at a historic paella restaurant in Valencia that had once hosted Ernest Hemingway; and Dylan’s never-ending quest for fresh oysters. (We ate so many oysters.) There was the night we went to see a fado performance, fado being a traditional Portuguese genre of music, and the singing was so poignant and beautiful.
But the trip had to end, and so does this Messay. So I leave you with our final entry, and the warning of the woman who drove us to the Lisbon airport to catch our TAP Air Portugal flight: T-A-P stands for Take Another Plane. (Thankfully, we didn’t have to.)
HONEYMOON DAY 10 - 4/11
Woke up, finished packing
One last pastel de nata before our Uber to the airport
Chaotic TAP bag check and boarding
D watched: Horrible Bosses 2, We’re the Millers, The Departed
J watched: Ocean’s 13, read a lot, Interstellar
We both stayed up to stay on schedule for DC
Came home to rain.
Small victories 🏅
This is sort of a big one – I got promoted! I’m now officially a co-host of The Journal podcast, a pretty major step up from audio reporter (and fill-in host). It came in part out of one of the founding hosts leaving the pod for a heavy-hitter job up the Wall Street Journal editing ladder, but I’m feeling very honored that they’re trusting me as a voice for the show.
Hot mess recs 🔥
One thing we had handy at our wedding and throughout our honeymoon was an Instax camera. Like the Polaroid before it, it prints out photos as soon as you take them, but Instax film is considerably cheaper. We loved being able to snap pics on our trip and immediately have a tangible souvenir, and we enjoyed the challenge of knowing that we could only take so many. (Smartphones really have ruined us.) Our plan is to include photos in our journal next to each day’s entry. Very much recommend if you’re going on a trip – or just doing something fun.
We imbibed quite a bit on our trip (could ya tell?). In particular, we did a lot of day drinking. My husband was all about the Aperol spritz for those afternoons sitting at a quiosque, people watching, but I developed a soft spot for the porto tonico. It’s basically white port – the fortified wine made in Porto – and a splash of tonic water, plus some kind of garnish. I liked it best with a lemon slice and some mint. Pretty sure I’ll be scouring our local liquor stores for white port this summer!
Send us a note 💌
If you made it all the way down here, thank you! We appreciate your support – and would love to hear what you think about The Mess. Send us a note at goshdarnmess@gmail.com.
‘Til next time,
Jess
I have no idea what this word actually is. (Dylan wrote it.) But the meal was essentially a very loaded open-faced pastrami sandwich that we shared.
Along with a standard guest book, we’d rented an audio guestbook for our wedding from a company that takes old-school rotary phones and repurposes them into answering machines. People left messages on the phone and the company collected them and sent them over to us in a digital file after the event. Ours arrived while we were on our trip!