The East Pilgrim

Cyber Challenge

2008-02-14T01:09:00.001Z

Until end of March i'm making the final test to this blog.

How many of you readers think i should continue the effort to update this english version of peregrino do leste?

Leave a comment with your feedback...

Philosophical post in a moment of change

2007-08-22T12:42:00.001+01:00

Happiness

...that great word that nobody knows quite well what it is... Love? Career? A balance between several factors...

For those several philosophical moments, or those long nights at work, here is a reading material that i recommend:

...But are we too busy chasing money to give our relationships the attention their importance to our happiness merits? Unfortunately yes – and we are working longer hours than ever before to earn enough to pay for the stuff that we think we need.

Striving after bigger, newer and better while going deeper and longer in debt keeps us fearful and awake nights.

It doesn't do much for relationships either when jobs and careers come before love and family.

I see this every day in marriages and families torn asunder by up-side-down values. ...Even psychiatry knows that the best buffers against stress are caring human (and animal) attachments.

As a friend of mine told me: "sometimes i just feel like leaving everybody and go to some Carabbean Island to teach tourists to sail".

Do we need so much material things?

Couldn't we make a simpler life? Living much more with much less...

Maybe i will not buy that new camera that i've been dreaming of for such a long time... Or maybe not...

Is incredible how often we forget what is really important in this life...

Here is the link to the website:

Sustainable living

Croatian beaches

2007-08-16T11:00:00.000+01:00

Texts, photos and movies created and shared by Pedro Costa:

The fun of traveling to destinations of sun and beach is to compare the details between them: the sand, the water, the vegetation, the bars and of course the people and how they behave.

In Corfu one of the reasons of being always on the move it was due to the fact that we didn’t found any beach, good enough, that met our expectations. Beaches of sand but with doubts about quality of water, or others where one have to walk 300 meters until having water to waist level, or with too much garbage, or without infrastructures, or just too busy.

So when going to Croatia, we expect it to be the perfect escape to an higher level of beach quality!

Due to the group experience, we knew that the beaches in Croatia are very beautiful and makes us think about our Arrábida. Mountains near the sea, clear and clean water and a lot of vegetation.

Getting to Hvar Island with blasting heat, after 2 days of traveling in ferry boats with a train trip in the middle, only a nice bath in the beach would make us forget the tiring trip.

Water

The water is simply perfect, warm at 26º, not very salty, with an amazing transparency, the real aquarium full of fishes, perfect for those who like to spend some time inside water swimming, but a disaster for those who prefer waves. People used to open ocean, Adriatic Sea is like a big clean lake.

As the real aquariums, you don’t want to step on everything that lives there. The main danger in Croatia waters are the black thorn and spiking sea hedgehogs therefore is important to be careful and see where you step. The solution are to buy rubber sandals that are sold quite well everywhere.

Sand

Well… the “sand” is something that our adaptation skills were put up to test. The first reaction is to criticize and miss out white sand beaches in Portugal, but after some days in Corfu the adaptation was much easier.

Forget your concept of sandy beach cause it doesn’t exist there. Irregular calcareous rock platforms or round shaped pebbles are the available places to lay your beach towel. As you can easily imagine is hard to find a piece of rock with the size, shape, and orthopedic standards to lay down our bodies, so the best option it to pay for a plastic bed or bring your own air filled mattress. The parasol also can be rented and are set on cement base, although the pine trees shadow are never too far.

Another solution is to find a place with access to the water like in swimming pools, with the typical ladder or a direct dive to deeper waters.

People

Beaches are full of tourists, being the majority from Scandinavia, then Eastern Europeans and Americans and of course Croatians. Hvar’ atmosphere is sophisticated, flashy and fashion, with young, beautiful bodies and a lot of topless. Several bars with lounge music help the environment to be more fun and sexy all the way until the sunset.

As additional sport activities, volleyball games, football and others are technically impossible to practice as one can imagine. The fun has to pass to the water: para-sailing, jet skis, diving, wind-surf, floating donuts or bananas pulled b motor boats, canoeing or tours on boats to surrounding islands.

Below there is a movie of the first beach that we tried in Dubrovnik. Look how every little space of rock is used and the aquatic polo game that is going on at sunset:

Look at the pictures from the famous "sandy"beach. See how the postcards always look better than the real thing.

In case somebody wants to convince you to visit the beautiful beach of Bol, Zlatni rat, do not believe in the “the sand beach of Croatia” bullshit, is another small pebbles beach in a fantastic location and with a peculiar shape.

To see more photos click in:

http://islandbrac.blogspot.com/

The important is always to look for the positive side of things. The warmer water, the beautiful girls and nobody needs to get rid of the irritating feeling of sand in the body. Special in windy days with sand on the eyes and on parts of the body where the sun doesn’t shine. Eheheeh!

Wild Arrábida sunday

2007-08-10T11:55:00.000+01:00

It was last Sunday!

It was an huge group!

Almost 20 canoes!

A lot of energy! Amazing good mood!

The started cloudy and finished sunny and warm!

It was the Wild Arrábida!

Back to kayakes and paddles, the Barreiro city gang and a some outside guests rowed till Portinho, passing between rocks, inside caves and doing risky maneuvers, almost reaching Espichel Cape, visited Anicha rock and finished in the rabbits beach!

5 Hours of rowing leaded to a relaxed afternoon back to snacks, ice creams, snails and beers and included some siesta in the sand in the late afternoon.

Far from the adrenaline of going down tumultuous rivers and rapids, it was rewarding for the friendly atmosphere and for the group dynamic in such a big group of boats. And of course… the natural beauty of Arrábida national park… simply fantastic!

Here are some photos of the event:

Exploring Corfu - heading south

2007-08-07T20:26:00.000+01:00

After another night on Corfu, where the barmen always give priority to beautiful girls, we stayed awake till 7 a.m. to take the breakfast in the hotel, where we weren’t so well received… mainly after a forbidden bath in the swimming pool out of schedule.

A few hours of sleep and another exploring day was starting. We picked our friend Jimmy and we went pointing south. We had been heard that Cavos was the city with the best night on the island and we wanted to investigate.

As we arrived to the city in middle of afternoon we were surprised by a small ghost town with long streets filled with bars and discos totally empty, giving a old west style to the place.

We managed to get a room for 8€, comparing to the 25€ in Corfu city, we understood that the market there was much more competitive.

After seeing that the nearby beaches were too dirty after previous night parties, we decided to go to a distant one making a nice rally on the bumpy road to get there.

During our short stay, André tried to make a small siesta which was interrupted by the local colony of bees. Compared to other islands in Greece, due to the massive amount of tourists and the totally lack of construction planning, the beaches are dirty and nothing special. Therefore and once again the experienced team of the East Pilgrim brought light to the less informed tourists. So here is our recommendation – Corfu – as a beach destination – doesn’t worth the visit.

Talking about the nightlife… in a sarcastic tone we all say it loud: “The night of Kavos it’s something precious!”. If the Greeks are similar to us in how they have fun and enjoy themselves, English are another story, another world.

98% Of English from 12 to 18 years old that take control over town, scream, jump, break, drink, fuck, throw up and drink more until they fall. The Greek alphabet disappeared in Kavos, McDonalds is back, stores renting everything, satellite transmitions of football matches… you know… Go to Greece and have everything you have back in England.

The health centers are totally full and with waiting lines: Several injuries from street fights, motorbike and car accidents, and alcoholic comas. Even couples with a scared face asking for the next day saving pill!

We really tried to adapt! We really tried to make an alcoholic “warm up” in the flat before going out, but is just too much for us! The drinking until drop, that energy, isn’t for us. And I can tell you, English that go to Greece to see football matches, for sure they are eager to meet other English and we felt interested to meet really few of them.

Me – “Where are you from?”
Lady – “Southampton. And you?”
Me – “Lisboa.”
Lady – “I went to Algarve some years ago! Albufeira”
Me – “Do you know something in Portuguese”
Lady – “Vamos bailar” (in Portuguese would be “vamos dançar”)

One night was enough! Back to capital of Corfu on the next day, this time to catch a boat to Italy. The photos of Kavos are gone… but here I leave some taken in the last day in Greece, in a beach full of Bulgarians and Ukrainians, Benitses.

Note: This text was written together, with close colaboration of André Coelho.

Exploring Corfu - 1st days

2007-08-07T20:19:00.000+01:00

Corfu – Island on the Ionian Sea in the top northwest Greece. From the east shore of the island is possible to see the dry mountains of Albania and several boats leave daily to Italy.

The city of Corfu, or Kerkyra as the locals call it, and some interior villages, are the only real Greek stuff. All the other locations in the island are tourism resorts like in Ibiza, Lagos or any other part of the world where the Anglo-Saxon tourist already domains!

Just after landing on the island we felt 2 shocks:

1st – Temperature shock, from 20 degrees in London to 40 degrees in Corfu.

2nd – The massive amount of English and Danish tourists that were in the airport with all the suitcases arriving at one unique place for all flights.

Nevertheless the good mood was automatically restores after being well received by André with his XL smile, our new rented jeep and some beer crane. Cheers for the hosting skills of my host friend that even prepared some snacks when we got to the hotel room.

Previously planned made it happen! Hotel near the discos and far from the beaches. Therefore we explored the island during the day and at night we could walk to the nightlife.

The nights in the city of Corfu were really nice. Greeks are really a beautiful people that take a lot of care of their looks. Girls and boys, very “produced”, flashy and trendy clothes, tanned skins, a great atmosphere. Au bar and Prestige were the names of the places we hanged out. Pretty faces, mainly techno music scene with the occasional local top of the charts.

Generally speaking, Greeks are very similar to Portuguese. The meals schedule, the rhythm of life, the way of being and the nice way they receive and treat tourists.

2nd Day – Exploring the north and centre of the island

We left Corfu in a rush pointing north and there we started our first day on the beach.

Dassia, Barbati (famous English resort with a long rocky beach extension), Nissaki and we start to climb the northern mountains.

Impossible not to make comparisons between Corfu landscape and Arrábida Mountains in Portugal and Portinho beach. The narrow roads on the green mountains, finding down there small white pebbles beaches with amazing blue water. Olive trees and ciprests dominate the flora, as the fig trees and Mediterranean bushes.

And it was finally in Kalami that we made our baptism on the Ionian Sea. Water? It’s more like a warm chicken soup at 26 degrees. But how nicely those rocks and pebbles massage our feet while getting in and out the water…

Arriving to the north coast, we stopped in a sand beach near the port city of Kassiopi. Dark sand and big distance to reach water to waist level.

Going along the north coast we went to check a place recommended by all guides. Sidari! With a peculiar sandy rock formation, there is a legend of the channel of love! A tunnel between the rocks that people say that have the power to make 2 lovers keep together forever if they pass under it.

Once again, what is recommended in postcards and guides, just disappointed us. The channel is so much “touristilized” that there isn’t a piece of rock which doesn’t have someone laying down catching sun.

The day advances really fast and we advance our adventure more to the interior of the island. We arrived at Paleokastritsa and we stop to by fruit. In the photo below the sign informs of 4 minutes to wait for the green light sign that lets us climb to a mountain top in a road with only one way. It worth to wait! On the top, a panoramic restaurant, a church and a cemetery. All with a incredible view at 500 meters high.

Curious and funny the column of bells shape that all the orthodox churches have. And if inside the churches are humble and simple in decorations and gold, the surrounding gardens are extremely beautiful and full of good taste.

And it was in the beach just below the mountain that we had our last swim and we watched the sunset before returning home, where a nap would follow to regain energies for another going out on Corfu Town.

Holidays!

Luton - "The Town"

2007-08-03T17:42:00.000+01:00

To fly from Lisbon is always more expensive than departing from London or any other central European city. Portuguese peripheral location destroys my compulsive tourist pockets.

The first seen from sea but also the last ones seen from land. At least he have the best weather of all Europe!

Of course that buying the plane ticket to Greece so close to the date, it got cheaper to go for a indirect flight trough Luton, London.

For those who travel a lot, Luton’ airport is already a common transfer place as well to sleep over night before catching next flight.

But how many of you already spent the first day of holidays in the town of Luton? Very few…

We check in the Red Lion Lodge, pub, restaurant and inn. Problems with the reservation made on the web sent me and Pedro to share a small bad in the first day of holidays. Real together like a couple! Haha

The funny, small cozy rooms all in wood with a old wood noisy floor. And of course, we had black tea waiting for us on the room.

After a lot of discussion we were “compensated” with a free English breakfast. Wow! What a breakfast! I really recommend the fried bread slices! So healthy food!

Waiting till the flight of 16h we went for a walk in town. There was several small street concerts trough town centre. Hundreds of people walking around, all under a weak wet drizzle.

I get far from Pedro to take some photos and when I come back searching him in the crowd; he is chatting with a tall man with Indian roots, strong voice.

This dialog took place:

Stranger – “Do you believe in God?”
Pedro – “yes!”
Stranger – “Do you believe in Jesus then?”
Pedro – “yes also!”
Stranger – “Does He help you?”
Stranger – “Do you feel like born again?”

I don’t remember much more from the bizarre conversation, but we were explained that local Catholic Church organized musical and cultural events to call people into prayer. Concerts, some people chatting and spreading the Word and even … A MEGA BARBACUE! FREE! And blessed!

When we said goodbye to the “stranger” we got a paper coupon to get a free burger, being fried in that moment in a gas grill under rain.

The XL size of the waiting line made us quit, but it worth for the atmosphere and for the songs being played, a mix of POP and church songs all over centre.

No doubts that, nowadays, a city from London’ suburbs must have a big polish emigrants community, due the big number of last years emigration.

One can hear polish language everywhere on airport and in Luton town. But still I was surprised by the stores with polish delicatessen! Incredible how emigrant communities move so quickly. From the bread, passing trough the sausages and vodka and finishing in Jogobela yogurts, everything is there.

And so it finished our first and last rainy day of vacations and with below 30 degrees temperatures. And we went to Greece.

Holidays - Objects

2007-08-02T11:50:00.000+01:00

Survived the holidays

2007-08-02T01:12:00.000+01:00

Two weeks away it feels like the world should've changed

But I'm home now

And things still look the same

I think I'll leave it to tomorrow till unpack

Try to forget for one more night

That I'm back in my flat on the road

Where the cars never stop going through the night

To real life where I can't watch sunset

I don't have time

I've still got sand in my shoes

And I can't shake the thought of you

I shake it all, forget youWhy, why would I want to

I know we said goodbye

Anything else would've been confused but I wanna see you again

A Dido’s sorrow song is just perfect to start writing about my past holidays that finished this week. Like Dido, I still have sand in my shoes, in the case of Greece and Croatia; I still have pebble stones in my shoes. Even harder…

Holidays were just great!

As all the plans were made to suffer changes, this holidays plan wasn’t an exception. The map from last post suffered some changes as you can see in the red line:

Due to some logistics problems that I will write about soon we had to go up part of south Italy by train to catch the ideal ferry boat to take us to Split in Croatia.

A good title to this year holiday would be: “The 3 island hoppers of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas!”

Me, André and Pedro, formed an demolishing team where fun was the main goal! The fresh new acquisition of this season brought a new breath of energy on the long summer nights.

Everything as a price… and that energy was payed by a dislocated shoulder after an acrobatic wrestling flying scissor made at a party in south Corfu already with high levels of Ethanol!

Instead of the usual chronological description of what happened, in the next days it will be told the most hot episodes of these adventures in a randomly way in this blog.

To tease my readers here are some shocking sentences said by people with whom we interacted in some way during this holidays:

“See you in another life when I’ll be a man” – said by a Scottish woman, owner of a beach bar, after a chat about woman discrimination in a macho country as Greece still is.

“This bed is good sex! I tried this bed!” – Amazing expression told by our landlord in Dubrovnik, Croatia, to “sell” us her flat and its qualities.

“4 minutes by bus, 10 minutes walking” – The biggest myth of all! When arriving to a city, locals try to rent private rooms in their houses to tourists, but they lye a lot about the good location of their houses to the city centre… After checking in our own was: 15 by bus and 25 by foot..

“Come back tomorrow for coins” – The typical trick in discos or bar in tourist resorts. After buying a water for 12 kunas (1,5€) I pay with 20 and the waitress tell me that they don’t have coins. They only work with bills… That’s what happens in markets already beaten by the American and English tourist.

“Portugal?!? Fado! Azulejos! Fernando Pessoa! Luís de Camões!” – When we say people that we are Portuguese, 95% of the cases they say something about football. Example: Are you Portuguese? Figo! Figo! Well… was with surprise that a Croatian girl, now our friend, Dina, made us smile with this sentence.

Καλὸ ταξείδι! - Bon voyage!

2007-07-11T11:40:00.000+01:00

Holidays are going to be holidays! Last year they also were, just this year will be more beach, party and make little, very little.

Even with the spirit of visiting less places, travelling “low cost” and finish the trip in an Erasmus gathering of ex-students in Kraków, it didn’t avoid to make a trip that covers a wide range of Europe map. Really drawing a X on the it:

Lisboa – Corfu in Greece – via London. Some days of beach with real summer temperatures.

Corfu – Dubrovnik in Croatia – via Bari in Italy. In our last trip 3 years ago to Croatia there was a strong will to return. So it will be. This time to visit the city in the south of Dalmatia that we didn’t have time to see.

Dubrovnik – Krakow – this time for the definitive Erasmus gathering with my ex colleagues at Akademia Ekonomiczna. Even more at the city we all met each other. From México to Canada, the group promises to put the house down and the roof on fire like the old times!

Return to Lisboa – via Warsaw to visit old friends.

Bye bye routine, schedules and responsibilities! I’m going to rest my spirit, but not my body!

Or maybe not!...

New posts on this blog only in August.

Here are some photos of what is going to be visited…

From up to down and left to right:

Agios Gordis beach, City of Corfu, paleokastritsa beach and pelekas resort.

For those who want to know more about Greece and Corfu click in:

http://www.greeka.com/ionian/corfu/corfu-pictures.htm

For the languages freaks here is a link to learn some usefull greek sentences:

http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/greek.php

Richard Muller - Nahy II.

2007-07-11T01:40:00.001+01:00

Amazing voice...

I like alot the sound of eslovac language. Those strong "L"...

Nahy = Naked.

EIN, a tribute

2007-07-07T22:08:00.000+01:00

It seems like yesterday…

What started as something small, few email with information about Lisboa, ended up to become a project that changed my life, my way of being and the way I see the world.

Last weekend I was on the typical up and down in Bairro Alto when a German guy calls me. He had study in Lisboa a year ago and participated in the activities.

He remembered the tours and parties we had organizes. We talked about them. The details. Recent memories! Talked about the present and future.

It was worth the time invested… and I miss the international contact in a daily base.

Short term friendships? Some might say that they are here for a short period and then never see them again.

The 5% with whom I still keep contact today are just priceless!

As someone wise wrote:

"The road to meet a friend is never too far"

Excursões e festas era o principal, mas desde ir buscar ao aeroporto a ajudar a fazer o cartão lisboa viva, os estudantes entrangeiros recebiam todo o tipo de apoio. Por exemplo uma lista actualizada dos dias de ladies night nas discotecas.

The website still works, but the spirit of EIN, although alive in several countries and associations, didn’t found an up to level successor in my university:

Promotional Video

The team

How it all started

A big cheer for my hommies Zaki, Kroliku and Ricardo!

Photos of tours:

That's what they want! Photos of parties:

The most schocking ones i keep them to myself...

New digital Passport

2007-07-06T23:40:00.000+01:00

After a glorious saturday morning in the citizen shop in Lisboa, and later a stress run at lunch time in a week day to pick it up, i already have my new digital passport.

Alright! It's all so digital! The photo taken in the place, the signature, all done in a machine reminding the so popular crime investigation tv show CSI. Last one had a boat pulled by mermaids, but the new back cover has our 2 bigger poets, Luis de Camões and Fernando Pessoa. It gives a stylish look to the document.

Noticing that with my last passport i had several problems on far borders such as Turkey, Bulgary and Romania, let's hope that with this new one is better. At least doesn't seem a fake digital coloured copy like last one.

Above all, that i have at least the same amount of stamps has i did in my old one. And that it helps me to pass faster on the 4 check in's i'm making in my next summer trip.

A sentence to remember,listened several times in the citizen shop loud speakers:

“Ladies and gentlemens! Please keep your voices low! Wait in silence! Help us to improve the quality of our services!"

It didn't work...

Comercial Monster

2007-06-28T09:45:00.000+01:00

Dragons! Creatures from human imagination that is responsible for so many legends, fairytales, books and movies.

In Krakow there is a scary statue of the dragon that lived inside the cave under the Wawel Castle. Almost 3 meters tall and with a huge mouth open towards the sky, it’s an obligatory visit. No only the big burned mouth from the fire, he has several arms with smaller heads on the top, reminding some monsters from the Hollywood saga: Alien.

The legend says that the beast only got out of his lair to chase, rape and eat young and beautiful virgins. And it was a brave prince, which gave the name to the city, Craco, that with a tricky plan set a trap to the monster.

A lamb with the belly full of explosives was left in the entrance of the cave, place where the dragon died and where it was built the statue.

Now the funny part!

For a few grozys and with a simple SMS, it’s possible to make the dragon spit a burst of fire. That’s right! One sends a SMS for a short number and the statue expels a fire flame for the happiness of the children and adults.

I now can imagine the lion on Marquês de Pombal spiting fire with a SMS or Adamastor statue blowing smoky clouds after introducing some coins. Here is as a suggestion to the candidates to Lisbon city hall.

Traveling "indoors"

2007-06-26T11:20:00.000+01:00

In a long weekend of June together with some days of holidays I returned to a piece of land that I adore! Some may call it blue coast (costa azul), alentejo coast, or vicentine coast.

I love the entire south coast from Lisboa till cape of Sagres, the most southwest point of continental Europe. Still far from the mass English tourism of Algarve, but already with similar high prices, it still amazes me, like an enchantment, which makes me return there almost each year.

Since young age that Milfontes, Porto Covo and Zambujeira do Mar are family summer vacations destinations.

My first holidays without parents and the first teenager “forever” love, was in Vila Nova de Milfontes (New town of thousand fountains).

Everyone has a unforgettable summer! Some vacations that due to some special motive or not special at all, we remember as something magic. I remember that summer when with my fresh driver’s license, and a borrowed Seat Marbella from mother, I departure to adventure with 2 friends to go south along the coast camping and staying few days in each place.

A short stay in Santo André Lagoon, Melides and finally Milfontes, that was so full of summer parties that we ended up to stop our south tour and camp there the rest of holidays.

3 Friends perfect matching 3 summer loves in a small town near beautiful beaches and with a lot of action going on. These were the ingredients to success! But Milfontes is much more than that… is the ice creams tasted slowly in a night walk near the city fort with an amazing view of the river.

It’s waking up sweating like hell inside the tents with the sound of birds. The lazy beach days, the Quebramar bar, the sunsets over the lighthouse, the walks on the dunes and the long party nights.

It’s the first cuisine experiences with canned tuna, it’s the strange alcohol mixtures, and it’s the first independence steps.

Is Piano Bar, Blue Bar, Manjedoura, Southwest disco and the late night croissants in Mabi.

It’s the souvenirs shops, the sympathy of the locals and the fish and fruit market.

Milfontes was and still is this and a lot more…

Here are some photos of my last visit and warm hugh to all of those that shared that summer with me: Marco, João, Mikó, Alexandra, Milena e Ana.

Now that I’m preparing my next trip to Greece and Croatia, I ask myself again why am I going out of Portugal, with such a beautiful beaches.

Easy to reply: The pilgrim in me pushes me out to know and discover more and more beaches, so I can return and give more value to the wonderful natural beauty of my country.

I risk writing here that places like Portinho da Arrábida, praia do Malhão and Burgau make Portugal the country with the most beautiful coast in all Europe.

Thanks Zsuzsa for the amazing pics you made! See you again soon, this time where we met for first time.

The most repeated trip last years

2007-06-08T15:05:00.001+01:00

All of us have moments of reflection. Times of the day when we make decisions, that we think what we are going to say, or we decide what’s the next step on the crossroad of life.

For example, is common, those moments to come just before we fall asleep. In the darkness of the bedroom, lying down, is when the biggest decisions are made, the time to reflect about what happened and what might.

Some have those moments on the morning shower, and also common, while shaving the beard. Like the British Pop band Oasis wrote on their song “What’s the Story Morning Glory”:

“All your dreams are made
When you change in mirror
Or face the razorblade.
Today is the day…”

Whenever one does it, the daily repetition of a task, during years, makes it happen automatically, in those decisive moments.

All this, to write about the daily trip we all make everyday to our workplace. Yes! All of us travel everyday, just no one sees it as a trip, because we only associate travel with holidays.

Some take minutes, others take hours, anyway in the total useful time of our life, it has a big importance all spent on the daily locomotion to work.

Of course, if tomorrow I catch the bus that someone takes everyday to work, and that person make the 98km that I do for the last 3 years from Barreiro to Almeirim, both of us will “break the routine” and feel like traveling.

If I choose to go trough the highway, it’s faster, but more expensive and boring. The company of the radio and music becomes important in such minutes.

Nevertheless the national road 118 is full of small details and interesting places that in a sunny free day I decided to explore better. Hundreds of times I made that path, but always in a hurry to get on time to work. I recommend for those who “travel” to work, in a sunny day, explore the nature and the cities of those daily routes.

Based on questions made by close friends, I erase here some doubts:

I don’t work in Sumol.

I don’t work in Santarém. No, it isn’t closer to go trough Lisbon and to A1, because the highway exit is in Santarém and Almeirim is on the south margin of the river, so I would have to cross it twice.

No, it doesn’t take 30 minutes, and it isn’t quick. Even on the opposite way to traffic, it takes at least one hour respecting the speed limits, of course.

My daily trip is pointed in purple on the following map:

I get out of Almeirim, the row of stone soup restaurants, far away the plane, on the other side of Tagus, Santarém, imponent on the top of the only hill, and I get on the national road 118. I say “hi” to the familiar faces, I fix my belt, I tune the radio and there I go.

After passing several wine cellars and farms and some signs announcing: “wine routes of Ribatejo district”, I reach Benfica do Ribatejo. A shop of wine at the entrance, the houses aligned along the road, a branch from the agriculture bank and upps, already passed.

The first big pit stop on the map after Almeirim is Muge. Following is a photo of the church just entering the village and a saint that is full with flowers all the year around and that protects the travelers that passes by.

Everything is straight, even the road. Both sides with cultivated fields mixing tones of green and yellow. In the endless straight road to Salvaterra de Magos, one still passes trough Marinhais. In the gas station there is always party on the weekend nights. Funny to see so many drivers, local natives, homies, “loading” themselves with beer and follow their trips already in wonderful moods.

Makes you think… with so many campaigns against driving under the effects of alcohol, how is it possible to buy beer and wine in gas stations?
All to notice the decorated house, in a “old west” style, with a big sign saying “DANCETERIA O ASSADOR”
After a local research, danceteria are places for old people to go to eat and step a bit into the dance floor with their partners or a new lover. Social environment with live music. A kind of restaurant / disco for the “matures”.

Now arriving to Salvaterra de Magos! Great town, yes indeed! And as all the population centre of Ribatejo region, there is a bull fighting arena and a roundabout with a statue of a bullfighting scene.
Notice the poster on the bullfighting arena announcing the big artist Mickael Carrera, son of the already legendary Tony Carrera… very good… a kind of Enrique and Julio Iglesias Portuguese version.

Just before arriving to Benavente I had already noticed a small coffee place just by a small river and I decided to make a stop. Crossing under the national road, a peaceful place of tranquility perfect for those lazy afternoons of summer.
At this point of the trip the landscape starts to have more water. Some rice fields, the view keeps plain, but the traffic rises when reaching Porto Alto, an important crossing with the road N10 where you can cross the old bridge to Vila Franca de Xira. Bridge that was, during a lot of years, the nearest of Lisbon and only way to cross the river Tagus.

The next road sign is in the crossing in Porto Alto and caught my imagination!

The road signs are to inform drivers, but this one just informs that about hunger no one has to worry in Portugal.

If it had the names of the restaurants I could understand, but this way no…

Typical conversation between couple:

“Where are we going for lunch, darling? In the left one or the one on the right? Oh.. Just forget it and let’s go to McDonald’s."

Another 2 long straight roads and I arrive to Alcochete, already with Lisbon on the horizon on the other side of the river that at this point is already an estuary. In the plain green and yellow landscape, the artillery cannon and the jet plane of the army shooting range are an important and shocking view. Even more now with the possibility of being the place for the future Lisbon airport.

And there is little to tell. When reaching Montijo there is the huge shopping center called Fórum, and there are still another 20km to make in a boring highway to reach home. Without counting with the pleasant smells from the cows and pigs farms around the road.

How is your way to work? How would you describe it?

Long days - Short nights

2007-06-08T15:00:00.000+01:00

Question:

What happens when you go to a disco on a birthday of a friend, just after a wedding?

Answer:

Someone takes our photo geting out of the club already with the morning sun pretty high, dressing a suit, without tie and with a car keys on the hand.

I look like the private driver of a group of rich kids after their parents sent me to pick them after disco.

The long nights of LUX...

Being like a bird for 20 seconds

2007-05-23T09:32:00.000+01:00

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

2007-05-18T16:44:00.000+01:00

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

2007-05-14T18:35:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-05-06T22:59:00.001+01:00

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.

2007-04-25T21:34:00.000+01:00

Advice for today… and for everyday.

Behave like children!

Make clowny stuff from time to time, do things that might seem “immature”, loose a bit the control and be like a kid once in a while!

As my friend Frank Sinatra says in his song Young at Heart:

Fairy tails can come true
They can happen to you
If you’re young at heart

You can go to extremes
And impossible skims
You can laugh when your dreams
Fall apart in the scene

And life gets more exciting in each passing day
And love is in your heart or on its way

Don’t you know?
That it worth’s every treasure on earth
To be young at heart

…

I quote someone from Portuguese TV: “In the moment that the little kid inside of you disappears completely, you stop to dream and you become so boring!”

The next play was filmed by some friends during some vacations to Barcelona in a summer not so far away. Enjoy…

A special house

2007-04-20T10:14:00.000+01:00

As my own option, I moved from parent’s home since I was 19 years old. Since then, I already lived in almost a dozen of different houses, alone or sharing, with friends or strangers and in different countries. Nevertheless, none of them was so remarking as the house during my studies in Kraków, Poland.

It was in Ulica Lubicz nº34. 5 Minutes to university and 10 to city centre, it was an easy choice. I shared it with The Team:

Nicolas! The youngest, but the tallest of the house. Young French man, studying to be a Manager, but with bigger motivations for poet or writer. Shy and quite, with a special character and “odd” tastes for his age. Is like this that I remember him, in his room seated near the heating reading French literature. He was the leader of the house when it comes to cleaning and to distribute shores. A real Napoleo in the raising

Andreas! Andreas! What a cartoon! Here is an example of how a first bad impression can be forgotten and become a great friendship. Really far from the Italian stereotypes, Andreas was a queer! Coming from Venice, he caught the polish “virus” really fast and, today, he works and lives in Poland. A great cooker! The real party animal! A pure heart! A wonderful person!

António! António! Calm and down to earth, this Italian from the south is a strong values person. Is not the kind easy to get a friendship, so we never had a close relation.

I! Being the oldest and the most polish speaker, I auto elected me to be the direct contact with our landlord. A polish doctor that changed is office and transformed the old one in a house to rent it to students.

Our home was spectacular! A long, narrow corridor, occupying a big part of the house and several small divisions serving as bedrooms, WC, kitchen, living room, etc.

Few have the honor to say that they lived in a museum. Inside the house there was a door which leads to a museum that we never had access.
The experience to live with people from different origins is tumultuous, funny, confuse, just fantastic!

A photo taken in August and another taken in December from my bedroom window. I never met the owner of the Vespa and never saw anybody climbing those metal stairs...

Unforgettable moments we have a lot, ups and downs, let me tell some of them.

Although the “warm” winter (temperatures didn’t go below - 12ºC), 48 hours passed until someone came to fix the warm water, heating and light of the house. That long corridor with candle lights… the huge discussion with Doctor Marek, the complains to the real state agency…

In Poland the water in pipes is not advised to drink. As we didn’t drink tea at every hour like polish do, we had empty 5 liters water bottles at a regular basis. As Christmas time arrived, Andreas, the artist, decided to make a Christmas tree with the plastic bottles. Below a photo taken during the “making of” and another with the finished piece of art. Original! Take a look at the small tie bags decorating! Priceless!

It was a different Christmas far from family, but at least included codfish that my parents sent me by mail. Also included a home made Lasagna, 100% Italian. Yes, forget the frozen ones that you buy, no comparison possible! It was delicious Andreas! And there was also a Tart Flambé, made by Nicolas com some telephone help from grandma. Well, wasn’t so special, but the cooking was a lot of fun! Everybody made bad faces when smelled the cod fish but, when done, everybody liked it.

There was still an unexpected visit of a group of kids knocking on or door, singing Christmas songs for some candies. And it finished with a night walk to the cathedral in Wawel castle. With snow the season has a different “taste”…

There was a dinner that I remember more because it was the last one before the goodbye party. As we rented our washing machine to Zsuzsa, we had a free Hungarian Gulash, the kind that we lick the fingers in the end. The photo that recorded the moment:

A festa de despedida foi algo “Bombástico”! Cada quarto foi decorado de forma diferente. Um todo azul, outro vermelho e outro amarelo. Música diferente em cada um deles. Cerca de 100 pessoas, convidados ou não, muita votka, muita cerveja, foi assim:

Este foi o folheto/convite da festa enviado aos convidados...

It was like this...

Road signs, outdoor posters

2007-04-13T15:29:00.000+01:00

Like alot of people, also I, after read the book “The perfume”, started to give more attention to the smells. The same after reading “Da Vinci Code”, I started to look more carefully to the signs around me and their meaning.

While “surfing” trough my photo albums, I found some pics of signs, posters, warnings, that for being curious, enigmatic, different or funny, it worth’s to share them.

Of course! I start with my beloved river Tagus, that so many times was referenced here. The photo above was taken entering the city of Toledo in Spain.

In the right side Amsterdam photo, with a funny sign showing that bycicles should go one way and peons should go on the other side. Is visible that the use of signs is one thing, and another thing is if the sign is followed or respected.

"Oficina de motorizadas"??? (motobykes workshop) I don't remember this sign in my theorical driving classes!

On the right, a normal trafficjam in west south portuguese coast summer time... Not for the signs but for the big mess of cars...

The coastal zones near the beaches are alot of times neglected and needing infrastrutures like public showers or acess walking paths. Alot of them are in pretty bad shape.

On the left a wood sign indicating where is the "bathing zone", usefull, very usefull indeed. On the right a rusted metal sign in Lagos, anoucing a tour to the caves in several languages(are caves in english called gruttus?).

2 years ago when Benfica was national champion, a few games to the end of season i took this photo from a poster hanging on a private house: "With prostitution Benfica can be the Champion" (a critic to the polemic referee performances) Ilarious!

On the right, something commun in UK, but that for me was funny and useful. Geting used to look to right side before crossing is something hard when you've been all life looking to left first. Very useful for tourists!

This was taken in Prague.

It's a small alley to acess a small square of restaurants, and being so narrow, someone decided to put a pedestrian light sign to avoid "frontal clashs" between people crossing in diferent directions.

It works! I only went forward when was green and didn't face anyone until reaching the other side.

Would it work in my country?? Would people respect it? I have my doubts...

River Alva / Côja - Between water, rocks and canoes

2007-04-09T13:15:00.000+01:00

Some might say that after learn how to ride a bike, one never forgets it. Truth? Myth? Can we say the same about canoeing?

In the weekend before Easter, suggested by a friend, I had the opportunity to check it out if I still have what it takes! After almost 10 years without touching a row and a canoe, I took the challenge of David and we went for a ride on river Alva, on centre north of Portugal, near Coimbra.

Although the dawn was at 6a.m. in the morning, the will and enthusiasm was big, to repeat one of my favorite water sports from the old times of Adventure Club at high school. Equipment dressed and some explanations about safety, the adrenaline raises, we enter the water and… SPLASH! On the first dam, the first dive in the cold water!

The noise of the revolting transparent water, the high elevated margins of an exuberant and humid green, make rive Alva the perfect weekend escape break.

There are calm parts for a simple rowing, to interact with the group or just absorb the beauty and silence of nature around us. Other parts of the 9km race are completely crazy, wild, with branches of trees on our face or with forced dives, fighting with the water to maintain the head out.

In the dams and small waterfalls the technique to pass them and maintain the canoe balanced and escape from the trouble waters. On the rapids the dexterity, the ability and fast reflexes to skip and avoid obstacles and hard turns, reacting without thinking, finally something out of control in life! I become part of the river, I’m water, sand, rock and foam…

I LOVED IT! I’m going to repeat!

Living in Amsterdam - How can it be?

2007-04-05T15:44:00.000+01:00

As a last post about that wonderful country, i leave a challenge here for my friends that life in Holland.

How is it, to live in Amsterdam? As any other country there are advantages and desadvantages. Some seem obvious to me, others maybe not. I wait for your comments and leave here my portuguese tourist point of view.

Although i do what the majority of the tourists do in Amsterdam and go to the typical places and the recomended museums, i don't belong to the big group that goes to Holland, stays in the centre of Amsterdam and keep stoned and high during all stay. There are closer places in Portugal for do so, like Ibiza and it's cheaper.

But yes, Amsterdam is a city in permanent party!

My first trip further than Iberic Peninsule was many years ago to Amsterdam. It was a "eyes opener"! Now continuing to visit and having several friends living in Holland my opinion changed.

At first impact it's all shocking! The drugs, sex, alcool, all so easy to obtain and all so permited, makes it easy to think: "Wonderfull! Incredible! Amazing! How it would be to live in such a tolerant country where everything is possible and each person are free to choose!"

Nevertheless, due to the education i had and the society i live, i can't imagine create a family in the red light district, go for a sunday family walk with a little son and see prostitutes in the windows 24h per day.

Not better, not worse, just diferent! Really diferent...

Bicycles everywhere, the chanels of water all around centre town and the straight, narrow houses, give a unique caracter to the city. With or without sun it's a beautiful town and there is always something to visit or to do. On byke to work, to the coffee, to the park catching sun, as a sport, bycicles domain the streets and they have priority over everything except over trams.

The food. This subject is fast and easy to comment. There isn't typical food. Dutch don't have or don't want to cook, so the mayority of restaurants are from foreign food. It's incredible to see the amount and variety of pre-cooked food seeling in the supermarkets. Anyway there are crazy for healthy food, fruits, vegetables, iogurts, cereals, natural juices, etc.

For not sunk myself in stereotypes and excluding the racial mixes that are so many, the typical dutch (whatever that is) has 1,90m is white, blond, bright eyes and thin. Pratical and direct to action, big self esteem and a bit "show off". Typical cold behavior from north countries, but acecible, funny and of open mind!

The variety of nacionalities living together in the same town is incredible and quite visible in Amsterdam. The tolerance exists! Races, religions, sexual orientation, everybody sharing a commun place, toleranting. But that nobody is silly enought to think that is the paradise like "Imagine" song of John Lennon!

One of the most tolerant countries in the world, Holland isn't what it was before. Like all around Europe, there are big problems with emigration. The ghost of the dutch writer assasinated by a muslim, that didn't like the publishing of a book about how the turkish women are treated in the society, still hangs around the country of tulips and the windmills.

To add some colours to all here are a list of curious photos:

Bycicles – is hard to take a photo that doesn't includes photos. It worths to transport everything! The gorcery bags, the kids, tie the dog and go pedaling to the Vondelpark. In the photo above dozens of bikes were blown by the wind that greated a great confusion.

Chanels – Although to diferent to compare, i prefer the smal chanels of water in Amsterdam centre rather than the full of traffic channels of Venice. With a smal boat, you can reach almost everywhere in Amsterdam and suburbs. Must be funny to see the chanels maze map...

Redlight district – Worldwide famous, this neibourhood has a suitable name. A couple of long streets and smalls narrow corners form the barrio where the prostitution is present and no hiding 24h a day. Behind each window, professionals of the business of all races, shapes and colours, provoque and tease who's passing. Always with a neon red lamp over it.

The client gets closer to the window, the price is discussed, "suck and fuck" is called to the standard service, all extras are paid over that. Costumer gets in, the curtains close and it happens right there.

Curiosity: The monthly rent of a windowon a main busy street can go till 5000€, which includes protection and insurance. Nobody is "forced" to turn on the redlight, like Roxanne in Police song.

Coffee shops - there are of all kinds and for every taste. The concept of the consumption of hashish and marijuana is equal in all, only the decoration and the type of music that passes are diferent. From rock to hip hop, chill out and lounge. There is a proper zone to smoke and in the majority of them it isn't allowed to drink alcool. Only teas and energetic drinks. All comes in a separated menu with prices in 2 categories. Grass or Hashish, already rolled up or in bags with grams. Diferent flavors, mixtures and origins. Prices can vary between 8 and 12 euros one gram.

Also famous are the spacecakes (muffins with a quarter of gram mixed) and the magical mushrooms for all kind of effects and trips.

The photo below was taken in the Heineken beer museum and the other one with players of chess on street board taken near VondelPark. All the photos can be seen in more detail clicking on them.

"Hoorn" the long bareer...

2007-04-02T00:18:00.000+01:00

Holand. Some call it Netherlands...

Although i already visited Holand several times, only in the last visit i managed to see that the country is really under sea level.

In Portugal, zone in Ribatejo region also are bellow sea level, but there isn't, or i still don't know, any place where you can visualize it.

Well, in Holland i was in the small city of Hoorn where it's possible to visualize this fact. Nearby, there is a long dam that protects the ascent of the water level in Amsterdam. It isn't high and imponent as an eletric water dam, and is exactly that that is incredible, it's low and the wind that we felt there, made the waves to exceed the barrier wetting the cars that passed. It is a small rise of land some kilometers lenght with a road in the top and some control towers for the water level control. In the following photo is possible to see on one side the water in a very superior level and in the other side of the "road/dam" the houses that are in much lower level.

I, André, Gary and Heini altogether in a sunday morning straight to north and just after half hour first stop.

We were "unlucky" with the weather, so there was little will to discover and explore the city and the water control buildings. (In Holland, is rainy and windy 9 months per year average). The wind was STRONG...

We made a breakfast stop in a local old style cooffe place, cozy and warm. The regular costumers were there, playing card games totally focused on it, zipping once in a while their teas and coffees. A light meal, a challenging conversation and we continue our trip. Here are some fotos of Hoorn that i took from Google Hearth.

No surprises that portuguese asked help from dutch engineers in the construction of the so late metro station in Terreiro do Paço in Lisbon. Dutch rule the waters! With a great part of the country literally built above water, the constant movements of muds make the houses to shift and inclinate. There is also the boat houses option that can be found all over Holand. Next photo worths for a thousand words:

"Almost" Spring

2007-03-21T10:41:00.000Z

Complain! Complain is part of the human condition, part of our permanent lack of satisfaction, no matter how positive our life may be.

The easy way is to think that there is someone that is worse than us…

So… for those of you that have a good life, but insist in complaining about the fantastic Portuguese weather, I advice to see this movie. While spring doesn’t arrive, see how it could be so much worse…

Filmed in Amsterdam, Monday, 19th March 2007.

Back from holidays

2007-03-21T10:37:00.000Z

In a vacation of 3 days, or a month, is inevitable to feel a shock on the return to work. Is hard to concentrate, the body complains when returning to the daily routine.

Short ones, but was enough to rest; mentally at least. Putting the routine machine back on, one comes back with more clarity, one makes introspection to life, one focus on what is essential and eliminating what was superfluous.

It was great to gather with old friends! Yes! Yes, it worth’s to invest in friendships with people from different countries! Although is impossible to maintain contact with all, due to the long distance, that small percentage which I keep contact worth’s for all others!

I returned with my heart and mind full of wishful thinking! I quote sentences said or written by the ones I love and that love me:

“It was great seeing you! We both send you hugs! Keep in touch…”

“Acredita em ti! Tu consegues! Tu tens o que eles querem!”

“Tenho pensado muito em ti!... Quando voltas?!”

“…é bom ver-te animado! Vá lá, uma sms! Jocas”

And finally a sentence considered the most shocking / funny of all Amsterdam visit:

“Since I don’t want to jump from the window, i don’t have too many options, I’ll be here!”

When a trip goes "wrong" - Part II

2007-03-14T23:43:00.000Z

Polska – 2004

During my Erasmus semester in Krakow, Polska, I wanted to take advantage of a long weekend in November for a trip to the northwest of the country.

Historical note ___________________________________

Between 1918, end of World War I, and 1939, beginning of second, was the short period when Poland was independent as country, after centuries of occupation and invasion of their neighbors (German, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, and the list doesn’t finish).

11th November of 1918, the day when Poles commemorate the return to the map of Europe after centuries of fight and resistance for their lost territory.
_____________________________________

I made myself responsible for organizing the excursion, mobilizing people, to see schedules, to arrange accommodation. With my early experience in organizing tours for the Erasmus in Lisbon, EIN , I learned that in the beginning nobody enrolls to the trips and wait to see who is going. When the deadline arrives, everybody shows interest, when it’s already late to reserve anything.

And it happened like that; I ended up going only with 2 Italian friends who were living with me. Andreas and António:

The bigger group appeared one day later, but with no accommodation reserved, they all had to return home sooner.

The initial plan was Wroclaw and Poznan. For those who are interestes in geography of the trip where goes, click on the map for bigger view:

For more tourist information and more visit the follow site:

http://poland.gov.pl/

There were innumerable small details, that made the visit to 2 interesting cities out of "the typical" tourist destinations went real bad. Adding to the fact that tourism in November it’s out of time, the constant fog and the difficulty in arranging accommodation and transport, due to the holidays, had lain down to earth the flexibility of the trip. Is necessary to have adventurer spirit to travel in Poland anywhere different to the already tourist oriented Krakow.

It seemed that we met only the disagreeable people of the country, when asking information, buying tickets, very hard communication. By the way tourism to a large extent of Poland is something still very recent and is frequent to find intolerant or impatient people with the tourist’s questions and doubts, that insist on talking English.

Well… it isn’t so different for tourists coming to Portugal on a trip to Castelo Branco or Bragança during November.

Although all this, the spirit of the group was high and, as it is verified in the photo, we had a lot of fun. The military parade related to the Independence Day that we attended just after our arrival to Wroclaw was incredible!

Not only troops on the parade, also schools with children carrying masks of known figures of Polish history were on the picture.

Funny that the children when noticing the presence of the 3 tourists started to shout: "Wlochski! Wlochski " that means "Little italians".

Almost all cities of Eastern Europe are proud of their central square (rynek glowny), therefore is common that the city hall buildings are always interest points and to have the most varied forms and colors.

Rynek Glowny in Wroclaw:

The negative degrees temperatures and the intense fog turned the visit to "really fast".

Although, the magical athmosphere of the foggy buildings, Os graus negativos e o nevoeiro marcaram a rapidez, mas no entanto, a atmosfera mágica da visita à cidade, tornando incríveis as fotos à fachada do antigo edifício universitário:

Then we had saturday night fever in the great student's nightlife of Wroclaw, that made my health situation worse. But only in Poznan the fever got higher.

After our arrival to Poznan we only managed accommodation for one night, so trip became shorter one day.

Almost all day i was visiting friends that i knew in town and because it wasn't my first visit to town, i only joined the other travellers in the next morning for a tour on downtown.

In my opinion, excluding Kraków, central square in Poznan is the most beautifull of all polish cities. The narrow, straight houses are fresh painted and give a pitoresc look to it all. The main building (Ratusz) in the centre looks more like a cathedral then anything else. Looking to the next photo it seems that hundreds of peple are looking amazed to a public WC.

No! Nothing weird... The most touristic moment in the Poznan square, is the 12pm ring clock of Ratusz, where 2 goats come out and clash their horns 12 times. That's for what all tourists were waiting for...

UUUAAAUUUU… Impressive… Fantasticzny!

For the tourists without a guide book or without previous planning, the tourism information points are like oasis in a desert of uncertainly, doubts and anxiety. So our last drop of patience on a dificult trip, was in closed information office in Poznan during the weekends. Anyway who's gonna need tourism informations on a weekend?

The roll of paper that is hanging on the door locker is a reclamation in "strong english slang" that some revolted tourist left to the authorities.

And i think again to myself: "Don't complain! The Ask me about Lisboa information point in Rua Augusta is closed 2, sometimes 3, hours for lunch and is closed on sundays..."

No more options we had to return to Kraków in a trip of 4 hours in a full train, with the central heating broken and with 38º of fever. Thinking: "Next weekend i stay home and study for the exams". It's easier...

I reinforce again that although there are good and "less good" moments in all trip, the last ones are the ones that stick harder to our memories. The problems and dificulties give great funny stories to tell later.

When a trip goes "wrong"

2007-03-09T09:24:00.000Z

Fact:

The memories we keep from our trips are, most of times, associated to something that went wrong!

Why?

To have a trip plan is normal, but it exists to be changed and adjusted. Well… those changes, those errors or detours from the initial plan are the ones that make a trip unforgettable. For example, the small village that was an amazing good surprise, while the city that all the guides were recommending were nothing special. To travel is really that! A jump to the unknown, with a mindset to adventures and experiences!

A sentence from the book “The beach” that lead to the movie with the same name, click it:

"search for experience, the quest for something different"

All my “peregrinations” have stories with examples of good and bad surprises and I will describe one of them to reinforce the initial catching phrase.

Italy, Summer 2001.

Oh oh, what a trip full of surprises! Although we planned the accommodation and tickets in advance, there were the amazing and unexpected episodes. Together with Tiago and David, we visited Rome, Florence, Naples with a short visit to the island of Capri, all in 15 days.

While we were programming our trip, a stranger hearing that we were going to Rome in August, was shocked with the heat that she knew that we would feel. The next dialogue occurred somewhere in central Lisbon:

Stranger – Are you going to Rome?!?! (Eyes wide open, voice a bit too loud)
David – Yes, we are! 4 days!
Stranger – Are you really going to Rome in August?!?!
David, Tiago and I – YES! (Looking to each other with suspicious faces)
Stranger – You GONNA BURN in ROME!!!! UUAAHHAHHAHAHH… (Eyes drained with red, hands in the air, changed voice and with those typical horror movies laughter)

Said and done!

Or she was a witch, or a sociopath or simply an experienced traveler, it happened what she said. We caught a heat wave on that trip, if we didn’t burn, at least we melted trough those kilometers we walked. We remembered that lady all the trip…

From all those Italian tourist clichés, I was only impressed and still keep memory of the Roman Coliseum and the cupula of the chapel Du Duomo in Florence, that has impressive roof paintings with images of Hell.

But going back to the unforgettable moments, the salt and pepper episodes of the trips:

Without expecting, we passed a terrific day at a huge lake surrounded by mountains, 40km north of Rome. It wasn’t planned, but an invitation of 2 new friends from Holland came in handy, to escape to the routine: roman ruins, pizzas, wine and art galleries with kilometers of paintings with “Madonna con Bambino” or Crucified Jesus.

Tiago and David together they are authentic musical stars of the improvising and of the stand up comedy. I recall that end of afternoon in the lake with a session of Fados (typical Portuguese folk song) improvised by David and followed by Tiago’s guitar. See yourself this mute VIDEOCLIP… real soon on the TOP chart of Youtube.

In the night in the way back to the youth hostel in Rome, we had to make a quick run to catch the last night bus. And why run around Saint’s Peter circular square, when was enough to jump over a small wooden fence and cross the square in straight line? While crossing that sacred place we notice the agnostic look of the people that were passing on the other side of the fence. We were just too in a hurry to stop and go back.

Bright lights turned on! They were from a police car on our left side! Those lights came closer till the car stopped in front of us, blocking our run. The window comes slowly down. After talking something in Italian, the officer decided to change to English:

Carabinieri – Where are you going? You jump the fence?
We – We have hurry to catch bus. We didn’t jump, it was open!
Carabinieri – Do you know is against the law crossing Saint’s Peter Square?
We – No!... Long silence… (Few seconds that seems hours)
Carabinieri – Ah! Follow the car!

Curious people were gathering on the limits of the square, to see who were the “wise guys” that challenged authorities and violated Vatican soil. Some shaked their heads, other made commentaries that we didn’t understand. We didn’t want to. And there we went, followed close behind by the police car with their lights “guiding” our way and to open the fences…

Humiliating? Hilarious? Ridiculous?

Doesn’t matter… we caught the bus!

The best story to finish. Train arriving to Florence. We saw a sign saying “Firenze” and: “Go out! Go out! It’s here! It’s here!

3 of us out of the train and we noticed we were wrong. It was train yard to fix carriages. The train restarts his run on the way to the right main station and all other travelers looking to us trough the windows with surprise expressions on their faces.

Now try to imagine what might felt or thought a worker from that yard when he saw the image of 3 lost souls, with their backpacks coming from nowhere in his direction in middle of the train tracks under a suffocating heat… One decided to come to us and tell us the way out of the train tracks to the streets. But not before we was “showing” us around to his colleagues to have a serious laughing.

Before finally we arrived to our accommodation, we still had to cross a highway running, walk some more kilometers, go out on the wrong bus stop and walk more.

Personal message to my fellows of that trip: A lot can be done with bed sheets taken from a youth hostel…

“Look out with the mosquitoes Tiago!” – “Nah…I will leave the window open, it’s too hot…”

Some years already pass, but these stories, I will never forget. And these are the moments and give us funny coffee conversations full of laughs.

Carnival in Lisboa

2007-03-07T10:16:00.000Z

Although the Carnival celebrates the “Entrudo” (ancient tradition to disguise of monster and scare the winter bad spirits away), with the weather that we been having i still sigh for warmer and dryer days. And about the current month here goes the Old Portuguese proverb:

Março Marçagão, manhã de Inverno tarde de verão. (March Big March, in the morning is winter in the afternoon is summer)

Perfect weather to take a lighter new, just bought, coat and return home at night with a cold, or take warm clothes and sweat all day at work. HEI! Too much writing about weather…

…back to Carnival…

When I was a child I loved this celebration, after i was some years disliking it, but in the last ones, amazingly, i recovered the taste again for the fun of that special Tuesday.

This year was in Bairro Alto, Lisbon. There weren’t train dances with popular music, and there were no watching samba parades on the streets, but the environment in Velvet Bar was fantastic! Some lost frames from the Carnival of this year:

I introduce you to Filipe Sinatra, private detective and amateur singer:

The women were wild with the caracter and the Old Spice smell:

Now a photo that nobody ever tried before, what an inovate new way of photoshoot:

Velvet Bar in Bairro Alto:

Stastny novy rok! 2007

2007-02-05T12:47:00.000Z

The next text was writen by André Coelho about our latest metting in the New Year's Eve:

Maybe all of you already know that Filipe the pilgrim, have been again on Eastern Europe (almost his home land after Portugal), to recover forces and get inspiration for the New Year and to kill all the ‘homesick’ feeling after his Erasmus.

The destination was chosen out of the blue, completely randomly and we end up in Bratislava. Bratislava is a very beautiful city that everybody tends to say …it’s ugly; it’s small, nothing to see.

Maybe there is a point on all that, is definitely small, there is not much to see if you compare with Rome or Paris, but it is a great place to be, all the charming cafés, the nice typical basement restaurants, the wonderful night life and the surrounding mountains around.

People are usually nice, although you still can find some remaining from the former communist times, the service is improving, not as bad as Prague (the worst customer service in the world, for sure by far).

The event it self, was great, we spent the New Year’s Eve with same friends of friends, enjoying the peaceful life of foggy and not yet snowy Bratislava.

Great party at home with a lot of drinking, chating and dancing, followed by an amazing run to city centre for the midnight.

Drinking remarks and recommendations:

"Demanovka" – sweet vodka menthol that warms you up all inside.

Czech Libre – Czech rum with Czech branded Cola.

"Slivovica" – Most famous type of vodka from Slovakia.

Kelt beer – One of the best beers I have ever tasted.

Great concert with local band Polemik, ska and reggae rhythms under low winter temperatures. Great part of responsibilities to the crazy jumping crowd.

Love all around us, calm late afternoon walks trough centre and the castle. Tasting local cuisine and wonderful, tasty and cheap beer, enjoying short holidays.

After Bratislava the 2 pilgrims went straight with Iveta to her home town, Bardejov, hermitage town from Unesco. In Bardejov we felt the christmas spirit in the beautiful central square and relaxing day on a SPA, where massage and Jacuzzi were the main activities of the day.

Unforgettable the home made beans soap we ate at Iveta’s. Thanks to Mlynarova family hospitality!

After this short visit, the 2 pilgrims were again back on track at the old style from older times…by Night train….to the ‘mainland’ the city of Krakow. Krakow is just a great place to visit, to live and to be. All 3 in one! :)

The days they were just great as usually, many nice cafés, restaurants, nice walks, nice places to go out, nice memories. Meeting old friends, seeing favourite places, time passes quickly.

Curiosity about Krakow: The main square of Krakow – Rynek Gwony, was considered the most beautiful square in the world by the artist society, competing with famous square like, Tim square in New York and Picadily in London. (www.pps.org).

Positivity wave

2007-02-05T10:54:00.000Z

The followed text was written last Saturday, 3rd of February:

There are days which are hard to believe in a solution to one’s problems, a pessimism that block our will from doing what is essential and to move forward.

Today without a special reason, I feel in an extreme positive drunkenness state. Everything seems possible; everything around me seems right and happy!

Lately I’ve read about the power of optimism and how that can make the difference in this life. How optimism can move mountains and make miracles, almost touching the concept of “faith”. I have a lot of doubts that is like that, but today it seems that someone wants to make me believe in that power, on those theories.

Typical situation:

Colombo shopping centre! Restaurants floor, weekend, 13:30. Full, full…

Hardly, I managed to find a free table and it takes me 2 goods runs around until I find a place to lay my meal tray and enjoy my meal. Visible the deception in the people’s faces when they can’t find a free place. And still without food, others reserve a table and look around with anxiety, searching for their friends to come fast with their meals.

By luck, because of the strength of optimism, or just being in the right place at the right time, I manage to seat.

Short after an empty table and a lonely middle age man, that

Short time after comes a lonely middle age man that sees an empty table. But he doesn’t take it; he gives priority to a mother that comes with 3 kids and shopping bags. Automatically I invite him to sit on my table.

His sincere smile and “thank you”, raises even more my drunkness of optimism. As if it was magic, a wave of good will spread all around and I see multiple gestures of goodness:

A man cleans the food trays from a table, so an unknown woman can lay hers. Without knowing her… Other searches for a free chair and someone screams: “there is one free here”, “take this one”, etc, etc, etc…

COOL!

Today and while it all last, i will take advantage of this optimism wave, believe that it’s worth to practice the good and that although so many defects, so many dark sides, the goodness exists in the nature of each human being.

So I leave a question to answer in each day of the year:

“Have you already made a good deed today?”

Adiós Madrid

2007-01-19T12:50:00.000Z

Inicially it was suppose to be 3 months. In the end it were 7 almost 8. In the beginning of a new year, a make here a little balance:

The lost of a friendship was compensated with alot of new potencial ones;

Professionally was a wealth experience. Not at obtaining new technical skills related to my field of work, but at the human level, how to deal with people and emotions at very bad atmosphere office;

Madrid changed my definition of Capital city. For it’s dimension, for the rhythm at work, on the streets, on driving and on having fun. Madrid nightlife… I could be here few years and still wouldn’t be possible to know all bars and discos…

But above all, I made “peace” with the Spanish. Finally i can say i know Spain, the Spanish, their cultural differences and the language. And one thing I’m sure now, I can win at work outside Portugal.

It’s not like the passion for Kraków, isn’t like the amazement for Amsterdam, but Madrid will always stay in my heart, for the fantastic and turbulent period I lived there.

A week "traveling" trough work

2007-01-09T13:02:00.000Z

Is good to have a work which permits you to travel. Is much better than stay in the office, no doubt about it… Escape from the routine and all. Although all that is tiring, is frustrating to be in such an interesting places and not having the time to “taste” them.. As the hours pass by the hope grows, always the hope of finishing work a bit earlier, a bit before gets dawn, then look outside the warehouse and see the palm trees and the winter sun of Canary Islands and not be able of getting out.

And it was like this in one week of November. Trough work I had to travel to Barcelona and then to Tenerife one week with 2 other colleagues from Compal Portugal.

Barcelona is another Spain… Madrid is an incredible city with an astonishing rhythm, 24h per day! The tapas snacks, the music, the positive way of seeing life, summing, the Spanish Essence. Nevertheless is not beautiful. It’s a city to work and to have a blast 7 days a week until breakdown, but there are a lot of other cities much prettier and with much more things to see and visit.

A good example of this is Barcelona. Beautiful city… Art and monuments can be found in every corner, in every house, in each wall… the city surprises you! It has mountains, it has water, it has a lot of colours. Madrid may have a lot of emigrants and a lot nations living together, but in Madrid you have to speak Spanish and like what Spanish like. Barcelona is another story. Multicultural yes, but much more open to other cultures, much more tolerant to emigrants and to speak other languages, English for sure. A fact that can be felt on the streets, on the cinema theatres with subtitling in Spanish or Catalan and not dobbing.

The hot topic of Cataluña independence, the fact that the youth is learning only Catalan, that on classes on universities Catalan is the only language spoken and the barriers to other Spanish workers to work in Barcelona if not speaking Catalan, I will avoid to discuss here in this blog. Too polemic for this space, better return to travelling topic…

My first time in Barcelona was on my first year of university and was a unforgettable trip just for the fact that I met 2 crazy guys that are today on the selected group of best friends. The weather wasn’t the best for Easter time and we had few time to visit and walk around town.

This time wasn’t different. After work there was only time for a walk on the Ramblas and in the Gothic barrio and one of those famous Paellas.

Another day, another trip! And how boring it is nowadays to get trough all the ceremony of catching a plane? Terrible…We left Barcelona where the airport signs are in: Catalan, Spanish and English. We arrive to Tenerife and we have: Spanish, German and English.

Germans everywhere and long avenues of hotels, beaches, souvenir shops and blackboards outside announcing football matches of Budesliga or Premiership and I caught myself thinking:

“I arrived to south of Portugal, Algarve!”

The differences are in the palm trees and in the fact that was November and were 26ºC and an humidity that gets your sweat stuck to ones clothes. Yeah! Canárias!

On the second day of work we managed to finish earlier and go discover the north of the island. “El Teide” mountains pick seen from everywhere and being the highest point of Spain catches our respect. As the majority of the winds are blowing from north the clouds get “stuck” in the mountain, which makes the north of the island of an exuberant green, while the south is dry and arid like a desert.

This time was only possible to see the north. The “Porto de Santa Cruz” is a German town with black sand beaches and warm water, but i liked more the capital city of the island. “Santa Cruz de Tenerife”. Without beach becomes less touristy, therefore with more monuments, less hotels, more old buildings, much more of local culture. The locals are really friendly and the accent much more melodic and easy to understand when compared with Madrid.

I keep the will to come back, but next time with more time to the vibrating night life and see the south with his white sand beaches and full dance floors.

I finish with a delicious detail… in Madrid and Tenerife people speak Spanish, but ask a Catalan which language is spoken in Spain and he will answer, Castellan. It’s a interesting country…

Traveling Solo - Córdoba and Sevilla

2006-12-26T11:27:00.000Z

Dear readers, permit me to start with a strong comparison:

Traveling is like sex!

We can make sex by ourselves, it’s a necessity, gives us pleasure, releases the tension and we can focus in our own pleasure. But there are no doubts that sharing it with someone is much better, much more intense and interesting. To travel is the same! Traveling alone one can go at his own rhythm where and whenever one wants, but is sad not to be able to share the views, the landscapes the feelings.

It was with that though in my mind that i left in one more adventure in Spain, like a lonesome cowboy of the 21th century.

The latest music Cds, car straight to highway and there he goes on his way to the unknown horizon, that in this case was Córdoba. What the old west cowboys didn’t have while crossing the plans was traffic jams! Yes… 2 hours of traffic jam only to leave Madrid and make the first 70km!

With 6th and 8th of December national holiday everybody was going out of town… and that’s the end of the romantic lonesome traveler story. The time passes watching and studying the roads map try to find alternative ways.

Arriving at Córdoba it was hell to find accommodation, cause of the waves of tourists. I had high expectations about the city and they were fulfilled. All I had heard about wasn’t exaggerated.

It’s the city with the biggest Arabic influence in Europe, so is easy to feel that a person Is somewhere else in an Morocco city with a Spanish “sense”.

In my life I already visited near thousand churches, but Córdoba Cathedral managed to impress me! And also impressed the Spanish king, that after conquering the city to Muslims was enchanted with the splendor of the place and didn’t order to put it down. Rather than that he ordered to build a catholic cathedral, inside the Muslim one. Entering the trough the main door and you are easily impressed by its dimension and the full mixing of architected styles. A gothic portal, followed by another one in Arabic shape, a cross follow by a moon. Spectacular!!

The gardens of the cathedral lightened by the morning sun, with his light touching the orange trees, the palm trees and the portals creating mysterious shadows. Making the Arabic inscriptions shine in a golden color and giving a magic touch to the place, and we are already somewhere else rather than Spain. Speaking about orange trees, is hard to take a photo in a city of Andalusia and don’t get one on it. I liked the Christmas decorations, on the fruit trees, better than on pine trees.

To all this you have to add what Andalusia has in its best, the tapas, the small terrazas, the melodic accent of the locals, their warmth and friendly behavior, all that positive energy passes trough you, or maybe its just my “holidays eyes” that see everything pink??

Traveling alone one can sightseeing much faster and in 24hours the city was visited. I wanna mention the breathtaking scene on the other side of the river Guadalquivir with his famous Roman bridge and also the tasty and cheap food. I recommend “Salmorejo” (cold tomato soup, strong stuff for the cold nights of winter).

The decision of visiting Sevilla was taken on the moment and the fact of having a contact there helped me in that decision. Rather than returning to the boring highway I took the national road the goes always near the river, visiting the Arabian ruins of “Medina Azahara” and the castle of “Almodôvar del Rio”.

Is good to change a bit from the urban tourism and see something more typical.

After installed in Sevilla, already late, I made a walk trough the centre and had the luck to watch a students’ serenade. Compared to Portuguese ones, those guys look a bit flashy with all those orange strip and panty legs, robin hood style, at least they play and sing nicely.

If there is a city that sums the most icons of Spanish culture, that must be Sevilla. The clothes, the bull fighting, the word “Olé”, start to sing a “boleria” with a stranger, the energy and mood for party, the statues of saints a bit everywhere, the “cañas” e “tapas” and the list doesn’t end. Yes, Sevilla is Spain!!

After a full breakfast on the sun, the visit to the interesting places this time with company, and thanks to local knowledge, see details and places impossible only with a guide book. Thanks Rosana for showing me “the other Sevilla”… Glorious the rally “Tapas” we made!

8th December national holiday and the typical family lunches on restaurants, the run to Christmas gifts, but what really impresses is the huge warm gathering in a lot of squares. People drink on beer in front a church, smoky bares and discos full of people in their best clothes. Everything at 5 p.m.! Olé!!!

As in every little village in deep Portugal there is a “café central”, also in Spain every town has a “plaza de España” (even Lisbon has one). The thing is “Plaza de España” in Sevilla brings justice to the name, a huge circular square, with decorative panels for every Spanish city. If you want to feel the behavior and physical differences, even accents, of Spanish from all regions of Spain, you have to visit this square.

Little groups of tourists gather in front of their city panel to take the typical photo. Showing that we all are the same! We all like to find a bit of our home when we are far.

Sevilla trough the centuries always fought to be one of the biggest cities of Spain. So this square was originally built to have rowing competitions, a sport with long tradition in town. A lot still to see, but the proximity with Portugal, let the promise of repeating the visit.

I finish with a curiosity. Sevilla in 1992 attended the World Exposition of culture. Rather what happen in Lisbon Expo 1998, the area of the exposition is still empty with the pavilions of the exhibition. Of course there are projects to build luxurious buildings and shoping malls promising a “New Sevilla”. There are such projects has Lisbon had, but the locals reject them cause they don’t want big social differences between neiberhoods.

Additional note to Spanish national holidays:

Strange that the 1st of December isn’t holiday in Spain. Aren’t Spanish people commemorating the Portuguese Independence Day??

6th December is the day when Spain returned to Monarchy after several years of Franco dictatorship.

8th December… well… there is an advantage of living in a catholic country.

The most wanted english version

2006-12-20T11:08:00.000Z

After piles and piles of letters asking for an English version, after so many complains from my best friends all around this Europe, here it is.

“The big official opening post of the east pilgrim in English”

Is just not the same to write in English… Somehow the English versions will be always smaller than the Portuguese ones. Less vocabulary, means less adjectives, less imagination, with your mother tongue is always another story. I will give my best!

Just following all the thousands of readers’ wishes, I will try to keep it update and all the new posts in Portuguese translated to English as soon as possible…

Of course that, in return, I want to receive all your feedback. Whatever they are silly or deep, is in your comments that I earn the motivation to keep writing it in English.

Christmas wishes to all of you…