Being like a bird for 20 seconds

How long Man admires the birds and dreams to fly with them? Long, long time ago! It’s already done in many ways, but for me the sport that is more similar to the birds fly is sky diving.

Changing subject… bachelor’s parties! There is an interesting topic! Men going out with their women (boring…), talking about football and cars (not for me), go to suspicious fame places with nude girls that don’t speak our language, and are impossible to touch. Seeing the event in such a pessimistic point of view, it’s something one can pass.

Now… how many of us have the idea of joining the experience of flying with a bachelor’s party?

A friend of mine that married short time ago, decided to commemorate the big “Jump” of life, the Wedding, jumping from a plane, and took some friends crazy enough to share the experience.

And it happened! In a clear sky and no wind day, in a small hangar in Ferreira do Alentejo, I jumped with parachute.

Is called Tandem. The photo explains better:

Photo taken from the organizating company website – Emoções Azuis

Without any experience or training in parachuting, one can live the incredible feeling of free falling taking a professional, literally in your back.

From 3.000 meters the jump passes to fast!

Unforgettable!

20 seconds do reach 1.500 meters in free fall at around 250Km/h.

10 minutes with the parachute open to go down the other 1.500 meters till the ground.

The first jump of the day, of course it was the fiancé. It had to be him to give the example, because he was the one having the initiative of a radical bachelor’s party. It was the only jump to be totally recorded by the organization.

All the doubts disappear with a hour of explanations given by the instructor about the jump, materials, safety procedures, what we should do and not to do, how to collaborate to make it easier to fall and to land.

As an example of a safety measure: in the case the professional loose his conscience, the safety parachute has an altimeter incorporated that opens automatically when reaching the 1.000 meters of high.

Vertigo?

At 3.000 meters there aren’t vertigo feelings, because the soil is so far, one doesn’t have the notion of height. And the final “push” to jump out of the plane is made by the professional. Easy…

It takes 30 minutes for the airplane to reach the jumping height and it’s a pleasant ride. The confort is not quite the one given by a commercial Boeing and it shakes a “little bit”, but is a walk in the park.

Fear?

Only in the moment when the door opened and the cold air entered violently inside the cockpit.

Though: “It’s now!”

Check the helmet, glasses on the face, foot out of the airplane…

He asks me, screaming: “Are you ready?”

I nod affirmatively with my head…

“Enjoy yourself! Have fun!”

And we both fall…

Two spins in the air and I do what I was told to do, knees folded back with my foot to his back. Stabilized and with belly down.

I scream some back words, but nobody ears them… they are some meters above some seconds ago. The speed is such that makes it hard to breath, simple too much to describe.

The instructor make me a sign in the shoulder, warning me that he’s going to open the parachute. ZÁS! Hard brake and all the blood runs to my feet. (it was 20 seconds).

The parachute opened! We descend describing spirals on the blue sky! I can already recognize the hangar and the landing field. The parachute commands are handed to me and I try to turn left and right, the feeling of freedom turns each minute in few seconds.

The instructor thinks of making some funny tricks! Hard turns, raising the speed of falling, then slowing it really fast again. The blood goes up and down, and the stomach seems wanting to expel the breakfast.

I warn him that I’m feeling bad and he calms down.

I raise the legs to help in the landing! Contact! Back to the ground! I’m pure white from head to toes. The lips the same color as the face. I needed around 3 minutes to get recover myself and remember my name.

The breakfast managed to stay in the stomach…

There is the will to repeat everything! Is not the roller coaster, is even better! I recommend it to any person in good physical condition.

My respect goes to the crazy ones that make parachuting as a sport in a daily base and that jump from airplanes, high towers, hotels, bridges and all the rest that might be illegal… Everybody was amazing and nice to me and the group, very professional and trustful, but very funny!

What a characters…

Photos:

The exciting entrance in the hangar

The safety explanations

The hardware

The men of the group

Is important to be nice to this guy cause he's the one folding the parachutes

Geting ready and last advices

I want that really tight

Explaining how to proceed before the jump

This is how it looks before the jump

Ready to fly

Legs straight forward to land safely

Touch down moment

Hard moments after the jump

Already "smells" like summer

We are entering my favorite season of the year. The summer is near!

Suddenly, it seems that all Portugal is in party. There isn’t a weekend which doesn’t have activities and things to do.

It’s official opened the weddings season and the bachelor’s party.

Each little town has it’s commemorations, festa of the horse, festa of the wine, feira of the handcraft, all does perfect as excuse.

The music bands hit the roads on their pre summer festivals tours. It’s the queima das fitas in Coimbra, the academic weeks in the other universities. There are races and marathons, treasure hunts, the radical sports companies are full of demand, for cannoning, all terrain bicycle and others.

It’s the end of the football season!

Above all, here they are the long days… light until 9 p.m. I can’t wait for the warm nights of June with sun light until 10 p.m. and with my Lisbon on popular parties.

I’ve been to some concerts and for some long walks on the sun having my ZEN V PLUS for company, just enjoying the free time and the long hours of light.

So far I loved the concert of the Portuguese band, Blasted Mechanism, in the academic week of Santarém. The new album is really good, their suits and masks are excellent and this year they are better than ever! Visit their website.

In the parties of Ascensão in Chamusca I had a long night of “boogie” with my local friends.

Dinner with a lot of drinking, smalls stalls to sell local specialities, 3 concerts of cover’s bands. The real Portuguese thing!

Feria de Sevilla

When?

In the long weekend of the 1st of May, having no plans, but with one day of holiday planned.

Where?

I went to Seville.

Why?

Irresistible invitation from my friend, Jarel! Free accommodation in a friend’s house. The date coinciding with Feria (big market) de Seville.

How?

A new personal car record from Almeirim to Lisboa to catch the bus. A stressful purchase of the ticket and a calm trip of 5 hours during the night.

Who?

Me and Jarek, the tourists:



Kasia and Alberto the host couple:

Some months ago I wrote a post about Seville (click here to read), so in this post I won’t write much about the city and the tourist hotspots. Only to describe the environment of this party so popular in Spain.

So what’s Feria en Sevilla? (Portuguese tourist point of view)

In the past was mainly an agricultural exposition, to promote, sale and trade agriculture goods and services. Horses or pigs, tractors or pesticides, and much more.

Nowadays, as the majority of the European cities, Seville saw his farmers leaving the fields and to work in services and in tourism. There is still some business going on, but it’s mainly horses.

Feria today is hundreds of tends (casetas) in a outdoor market with free entrance, where people drink, dance and live the Spanish optimistic style of life. Of course, it’s open 24 hours per day non stop, but only at night the rhythm becomes stronger! The tends can change from a small one selling beer and snacks, to an huge caseta with doormens at door selecting people and where is possible to eat really good food and expensive wines for free.

Companies, OMG’s or private persons, pay an annual quota for having the right to explore one caseta, depending on the location of the space and the size of it.

Gorgeous women, with the latest fashion, and the typical Sevilhana suit. Men with hair pulled back full of gel, dark suit and colorful tie.

And here they go! Dancing, singing, and clapping! Castanholas clapping and someone say: “Óole!! A lot of eating. Even more drinking! Outside young kids with their bottles with home made mixed drinks, inside the casetas the popular Manzanilla (white wine weak with soda). As locals explained to me, the wine is weak so that people manage to dance and drink so many hours without falling in coma.

Thanks to the local contact, we entered several casetas and between laughter and a lot of new friendships, we felt all the energy of this people, so similar and so different from the Portuguese.

It was like this:

What is concerned to music, only Spanish is passing and if foreigners don’t know someone and no Spanish speaking, it becomes very hard to have access to the party.

The Portuguese always try to speak the language of the tourist, the Spanish only speaks español. “In Rome, be Roman”!

Is it right? Fair? Who is correct? Maybe something in between Portugal and Spain would be the ideal… (but i would never get use to see a Simpsons episode translated to Spanish)…

As the nights were long, the mornings were to sleep and there was few time to walk the town. Anyway, that wasn’t the objective; cause wasn’t the first visit to anybody. In spite that we still visited Alcazar de los Reyes, the old palace that was and still is the official royal family house when visiting the city. Similar, but in smaller dimensions, I liked more the Alcazar of Córdoba.

The dimension of Seville’s alcazar is impressive, not for the salons, but for the gardens, fountains, patios, green labyrinths. With the high temperatures that go all year around in Seville is hard to imagine the labor force and the tons of water to maintain such an exuberant green! Was hard to choose only 2 photos:

Of course i had to write about bullfighting. One afternoon, me and Jarek in the company of my regular Seville guide, Rosana, we went for a happy “Rally Tapas”. Mixing with beers and tapas, she took us to the bullfighting arena when it was about to start the main event.

UAU! Amazing atmosphere! Thousands of people at the entrance. Some waiting for friends before getting in, others to interview or to see the VIP’s and others, like us, were only to take a look around.

The best suit, the new dress, the strong makeup, the VIPS arrive in wagons pulled by horses. The gentleman help madams on getting out, and at the same time a camera man records the moment in a camera for a direct show on TV. Young ladies distribute pamphlets with the show program, the brave men that will face the beasts, the purity and power of the bulls. The cheapest tickets cost 100€, the most expensive I don’t know…

Don’t feel like investing in a ticket for the bullfighting? No problem! All over town a lot of restaurants and bars have live transmission of what’s going on the arena!



No Jarek… you don’t have what it takes! He hehe!

What a couple of short days i passed there! Great long nights of partying! VIVA Sevilla!

But it was the fact that we stayed in a house just around the corner of the cathedral and the fantastic hospitality of Alberto and Kasia that made this visit unique!

Let me tell you about the view from the terrace! Superb! It was a privilege to watch the fireworks from the city roofs, just behind the cathedral… Priceless!

For all this, I have no doubts that Seville is the Spanish city that gathers the most international Latin icons: sun, bulls and toreros, siesta, saints, sevillanas and castanolas, tango, tapas and cañas… a few more photos of the beauty of this city:

Strawberries are Trendy!

To write about food is always fun. To describe flavors and smells is always a challenge! André sent me some photos from his lunch break and I didn’t resist to upload them here.

As mentioned before Dutch people care a lot about eating healthy, putting salads, fruits and natural juices on top of preferences for their short lunch break.

With no further due the next photos earned their space in this blog:

Yes! It’s truth! Is typical to have a small meal for lunch in Holland, but why not put together the versatility of a sandwich with the vitamins of the fruits?

Strawberries sandwich?? With or without sugar?? Nice, very nice… why i never thought about that?? Can you imagine after the first byte, the juice of the strawberries slipping out? Delicious!

Conclusion:

To me Portuguese, eating a sandwich of fruits it’s really odd, strange! Nevertheless I can imagine how bizarre can it be for a Dutch, to see me eating snails with oregano taste or a boiled octopus salad.

Thanks André for showing me the light! I will change the stone soup from Almeirim and the mixed toasts, for a sweat, juicy and nutritious sandwich of fruit.