Feria de Sevilla

When?

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

Where?

I went to Seville.

Why?

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

How?

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

Who?

Me and Jarek, the tourists:



Kasia and Alberto the host couple:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was like this:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

Strawberries are Trendy!

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion:

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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...

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: