Portugal - my life in traineeship

My second blog

2008-06-12T20:13:00.002+01:00

http://dianasimf.blogspot.com - after the traineeship in Portugal - now experiencing England.

Obrigada! E até breve, Portugal!

2008-05-22T03:24:00.000+01:00

Great Portuguese singers

2008-04-26T12:54:00.007+01:00

From the Portuguese singers I've listened to, my favourites (and for sure not only mine :-) ) are Carlos Paião, António Variações and José Afonso. The first two of them lived unfortunately such a short time - 31, respectively 39 years, but they managed to express their genius and to delight with so many songs, loved also today.

Carlos Paião proved his talent very early, being a very prolific songwriter. In 1978, at only 21 years old, he had composed more than 200 songs. It's hard to say, which of his songs I like the most...they are many...Here are 3 of them:

In 1983 he had sung with Cândida Branca Flor, interpretating a very patriotic duet, called "Vinho do Porto, Vinho do Portugal".

Vinho do Porto, Vinho do Portugal - Carlos Paião and Cândida Branca Flor

Cinderela - Carlos Paião

Among many love songs, Paião has also songs with amusing tones in which he satirizes most of the times the minuses of the habbits or way of being of the Portuguese. A satire on mother-in-laws is "Prás sogras que encontrei na vida" ("For the mother-in-laws that I've met in life"), song interpretated together with Herman José, a very known Portuguese comedian.

Prás sogras que encontrei na vida - Carlos Paião and Herman José

António Joaquim Rodrigues Ribeiro, despite his short career as a singer and songwriter, due to his premature death at the age of 39, under the stage name of António Variações, become one of the most culturally significant performing artists of recent Portuguese history. His songs blended contemporary music genres (pop, rock, jazz, blues, new wave) with traditional Portuguese rhythms and melodies, creating music which for many is symbolic of the liberalization that occurred in Portuguese society after the Carnation Revolution of 1974. The original and provocative nature of his recorded works has led to him being widely recognized as one of the most innovative artists in the recent history of Portuguese popular music.

Canção do Engate - António Variações

Even if he didn't have a formal musical training, Variações had a deep sense of rhythm and a keen mastery of the written word. His lyrics are often a mix of proverbs, popular wisdom and personal experiences. The popular character of his words made it easy for most of his listeners to identify with the themes of the songs, which often speak about restlessness, feelings of escapism or the deceitful nature of love affairs.

Erva Daninha Alastrar - António Variações

A few of his songs have an autobiographical resonance (such as "Olhei P'ra Trás", where he describes the sorrowful but hopeful departure from his small village or "Deolinda de Jesus", dedicated to his mother).

Olhei Pra Trás - António Variações

António Variações was a fervent admirer of the great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, and some of his lyrics share similarities with the feelings expressed on some of Pessoa's poems. Another of the artist's major influences was Amália Rodrigues, the Fado singer of international renown, a national symbol of Portugal, to which he dedicated an ode, "Voz-Amália-de-Nós", in which Variações sings "All of us have Amália in our voice and we have in her voice the voice of all of us".

José Manuel Cerqueira Afonso dos Santos, known as José Afonso or Zeca Afonso (1929-1987), is among the most influential folk and political musicians in Portuguese history. He became an icon among Portuguese left-wing activists due to the role of his music in the resistance against the dictatorial regime of António Salazar, that triumphed with the democratic Carnation Revolution in 1974. After the revolution, Zeca was a very active musician and continued composing political and folk songs, often criticizing the post-revolutionary changes. Years after his death, José Afonso is still widely listened to, not only in Portugal, but also abroad.

Traz Outro Amigo Também - José Afonso

Natal dos Simples - José Afonso

A Morte Saiu à Rua - José Afonso

Why I love Lisbon and Portugal

2008-04-21T16:49:00.004+01:00

It´s been already some time since I feel at home in Lisbon, I simply love this city!! :-) It´s a known fact that every place has its advantages and disadvatages, everywhere you go, but not anywhere you can feel at home, in time, it´s true, not immediately.

Why Lisbon?

because of the relaxed atmosphere, full of latinity
for the friends I made and the great people I´ve met
even if it´s a capital, it´s pretty small comparing to others and not depersonalised as a city
because the ocean is near
because it has the delicious "pasteis de nata" and "pasteis de Belém"
because it´s a warm and sunny weather almost all the time
the Portuguese are calm, relaxed, kind and nice people
because almost everybody speaks English
for the cultural diversity - you can find here people from all over Europe and also from other continents
because the notion of rushing doesn´t exist, and you can be late even 1 hour, without being something out of the common (that´s an advantage when you´re not the one who´s waiting obviously :P )
because the city has many things to see: the traditional quarters, squares, a lot of monuments with impressive architectures, monasteries, museums, palaces, castles, bridges, in Lisbon and also near by (Sintra, Belém)...anyway it´s impossible to get bored :-)

And Portugal in general for its touristic richness and the calm and relaxed way of its people.

Amo-te, Portugal! :-)

Beautiful Lisboa

2008-04-12T19:52:00.091+01:00

As so far I didn´t describe exclusively this beautiful city in which I´ve stayed more than one year, this post is dedicated to the capital on the shore of the Atlantic, the beautiful Lisboa.

What do you say about a walk, now at least virtual, around Lisbon? :-)..starting from the center of the city, from "Arco Triunfal" in Praça do Comércio:

"Arco Triunfal" - linking Praça do Comércio with Rua Augusta

...continuing with Rua Augusta, the main street of Baixa Chaido, Lisbon´s downtown:

Rua Augusta in Christmas time

To have a wide view over the city and river Tejo, we go up in Elevador de Santa Justa, in Baixa Chiado, which has up stairs also a small terrace, from where you can admire the panorama:

in Elevador de Santa Justa

view over river Tejo

view over Rossio Square, from the "Elevador"

the ruins of Carmo convent, affected by the big Lisbon´s earthquake from 1755

From Baixa Chiado we get to Praça Camões..

street in Baixa Chiado

near Praça Camões, in Largo do Chiado

Praça Camões, usual meeting place for a lot of people, being next to Bairro Alto, the picturesque quarter with narrow streets, full of bars and caffes, where Lisbon´s nightlife is concentrated

the statue of the poet Luiz de Camões

in a Fado house in Bairro Alto

From here, we take the tram and we go up to the traditional quarter Alfama:

going up to Alfama

in the tram

walls with "azulejos"

Santa Maria Maior de Lisboa - Lisbon´s cathedral and the oldest church in the city

in Alfama

the terrace from Miradouro da Graça

the panorama over the city from Miradouro da Graça

view over São Jorge castle, still from Miradouro

in Alfama

We go up a little more and we get to São Jorge castle:

the entrance in the castle

the statue of Afonso Henriques, Portugal´s first king

view over river Tejo, from the castle

in São Jorge

view over Lisbon, also the bridge 25 Abril can be seen

old Portuguese lady singing Fado in the castle

We go down from São Jorge and we get to Praça Rossio, and very near is Praça dos Restauradores:

Praça Rossio

Praça dos Restauradores

the newest railway station of Lisbon

something funny - advertisment for learning the language of "bifes" ("steaks"),the nickname given by the Portuguese to English people :P

From Restauradores, we´re heading to Marquês Pombal, passing on Avenida da Liberdade, an important boulevard of Lisbon.

Avenida da Liberdade

Marquês Pombal

Praça Marquês do Pombal

Every year, in 13th of June, the holiday of Santos Populares is celebrated, being one day before St. Anthony (the patron of Lisbon) and parades are organised in Marquês Pombal and Avenida da Liberdade , celebration that is continued in the traditional quarters where people eat grilled sardines and sing on the streets.

the celebration of Santos Populares - Marquês Pombal, 2007

Santos Populares - the parade in Avenida da Liberdade

Close to Marquês, we go up a bit and we get to Amoreiras, where is also the commercial center with the same name, the oldest in Lisbon:

Amoreiras

Near Amoreiras is Campolide, our neighbourhood.

in Campolide, near to our place

our street, rua Marquês de Fronteira :D

jail in Campolide (looks like a castle, isn´t it? :P)

park Eduardo VII

the huge flag in the park Eduardo VII

statue in the park

lake with ducks and swans in the park

in the same park

view from park Eduardo VII, towards Marquês Pombal

view from Marquês towards park Eduardo VII :-)

Now, without following any specific route, some other places:

Docas at night

the port

inside the Romanian Orthodox church in Lisbon

the Portuguese Parliament

in Alameda

the arena in Campo Pequeno

inside the arena

New Year´s party in Paço de Arcos, midnight 2007/2008

Estádio da Luz, Benifica´s stadium

at Estádio da Luz

Estádio da Luz

in front of Colombo, the biggest commercial center of Lisbon, near the stadium

Estrela

in Estrela, in winter time (Portuguese winter :P)

Estrela

crossing Tejo by boat to Almada, the "other side"

Tejo

Almada, the other side of the river

bridge "25 Abril", so similar to the one in San Francisco

Cristo Rei

Cristo Rei, the statue of Christ similar, but smaller than the one in Rio de Janeiro

Parque das Nações, you can see also the bridge Vasco da Gamma

the place of Expo ´98, in Parque das Nações

in Parque das Nações

the railway station Oriente

at Oceanário de Lisboa, in Parque das Nações

Oceanário de Lisboa

Oceanário

bridge Vasco da Gamma, seen from up

Tejo and Vasco da Gamma

This is the city I fell in love in all this time, it has a lot of things to see and a relaxed atmosphere, full of latinity, that I like very much. See you soon, Lisboa!

More pictures from Lisbon

Good bye dinner with the AIESEC-ers

2008-04-11T16:42:00.014+01:00

On Sunday evening it was the good bye dinner, this time with the ones from AIESEC, and not only. I didn´t see many of them from some time, it was nice to meet and chat for a bit.

with José and Gonçalo, from @ ISEG

Gonçalo is one of the most active AIESEC members, even if he´s only 20 years old, organizing very often meetings with the trainees, different activities..the one with which I associate him the most (at least me personally) are the Portuguese lessons that he organized for the trainees, but there were many other things..

José is the guy present at all the activities, conferences, dinners or parties organized..he´s everywhere :-).

Inês and Sérgio

André, Marta and Sumeet

my Romanian friends, Mara and Roxana

with Ana Paula, Saumya, Simon, Mo and Jeroen

the Romanian flag with my message for the ones in AIESEC Católica
-with Inês and Tiago, 2 of the LCPs of @Católica-

I prepaired for the ones of Católica also a DVD with photos from my traineeship, and some things about Romania: presentations, short films, Romanian music, an album with Cluj-Napoca, my hometown, Romanian souvenirs, some things to remember them of me, of my experience in Portugal, and also of Romania.

with Nélio and Marcos

with Pedro, Roxana and Mara

Tiago, Gonçalo, José, me, Sérgio, Saumya and André

After the dinner, around midnight, we went with Gonçalo and José (a working day was following, so the majority went at home) to Bairro Alto to have a drink, we didn´t stay long, as we were a bit tired.

in Bairro, with Gonçalo si José

Apassionata - at Campo Pequeno

2008-04-10T13:45:00.021+01:00

On Saturday evening, 29th of March, we went with Hugo and his girlfriend, Marisa, to see a show of music and horses taming, "Apassionata", at Campo Pequeno. That was nice, with this ocasion I could see also the arena from Campo Pequeno, which I didn´t have the chance to visit until then. There were many people coming in that evening.

The arena from Campo Pequeno

The interior of the arena

me, Hugo and Marisa

The show was called "Apassionata - four seasons", being 4 parts dedicated to the 4 seasons, suggested by the sets, costumes and music, specific for each season. In the end was also a fifth part, dedicated to the Venice carnival. It was a nice show, we liked the taming and the acrobatics.

Such a nice good bye dinner :-)

2008-04-05T17:46:00.020+01:00

On Friday evening, 28th of March, we went out for dinner with the colleagues...let´s say a "temporary good bye" dinner :D...because we´ll see seach other again.

Some of us got there at the wright time, and the others a bit later :D...we are in Portugal :-)

It´s a restaurant where they have also karaoke...some of the colleagues started to sing, we could remark also some talents among us :-)

Júlio

The colleagues made me a wonderful surprise...I got a huge card (A3 format :D) on which they each wrote something, and a beautiful album with Portugal...it was so nice of them :-). Thank you for your warm messages! It´s a pleasure to re-read them :-)

Opening the card

The album :-)

With some days before I got it somehow from Hugo that the colleagues would prepare some surprise...but as the dinner was after some days in which we didn´t meet...I had completely forgotten about that...but it was another one, apart from the card and the album :-).

As I was saying, it was karaoke, the people were singing...At a certain moment, they are telling me that the next one is for me..I was hoping that I won´t have to sing, cause I don´t know to sing many songs in Portuguese. But no, I didn´t have to sing :-)...it was a movie made by Rita, with pictures from the time when I was still in Romania and until the present...a lot of pictures of mine :D, but also photos in which Ovidiu and people that I met here appeared; and on the background with songs that I like very much, some of them having also some meaning :-).

Watching the film 8->

It was so much emotion in watching this movie, it is the most beautiful surprise that friends ever made me :-). Thank you Rita and everyone...I love the film !!

with André, Carlos and Diogo

also Alberto came, my favourite Spanish :-)

with Maria Silva, Nélida, Maria Cruz and Elsa

menino :-)

with the guys :-) - Alberto, Pedronio and Filipe

Miguelito

I liked very much the surprise of my colleagues. I also prepared something, I wanted them to have something from me :-)...There were photos of us on which I wrote a message to each of them, in Portuguese or English :-).

These are the pictures with my dear colleagues

I was glad to see that they like them :-).

Bossini, bossini, you didn´t expect it? is it? :-)

After the dinner, we went to Bairro Alto, of course...there were a lot of people, as on every Friday night..

in Bairro

Bossini :-)

I stayed until 5 and something...Some of them went also to the disco after...but I was pretty tired, I couldn´t hang on also to this at 6 in the morning :P

I really enjoyed this evening and night...my colleagues are the people that I got most attached to here, and with whom I´ve created the stronggest connections...I feel this :-). Thank you, my dears!

My last day at the company

2008-04-01T02:25:00.052+01:00

25th of March - the last day at the company...

My company for the last one year and 4 months - 3S Solvay

In the yard

...the last day when I see a part of my colleagues...I wouldn´t of believed that it will be so hard to tell good bye to the ones that I won´t see on Friday evening, at the dinner. There are so many people that I knew in this time and to whom I had to say good bye...It was hard for me because I don´t like the moments of good bye. This is how I am, more sentimental and nostalgic...

The more beautiful part of the day was the lunch together with the colleagues :-), in a nice restaurant near to the company.

Ritini and Pedro

with Ruben, Filipe and André

André, Júlio, Diogo and Xiquini lol..

You´re so serious bossini :P

:-)

Did anyone say that I have too serious colleagues? :P

meninos :-)

bad boys :D

with Maria and Diogo

Altough the time spent there has been enough (I´m reffering strictly to the work) and I needed a change, when it comes to the people there, it´s something totally different...It would be never enough time to have them near..The most important thing in this company are the people; they are the ones that make the atmosphere there beautiful, pleasant, otherwise the time would be passing much harder..

In the office, almost all have a nickname :-), written on the back of their chairs.

mine :-)

a Roména

Hugo / Bossini

Financera

Pedro / Mr. Martins

Nenuco

Diogo / o menino

D Diogo / o monarca

Rita

Ritini

Maria João Silva

Mary Jane

Francisco / Chico

Xiquini

Túlio / Júlio

more Júlio lately :-)

Saumya

o Indiano

It may seem strange, but when I left at the end of the day from there, I was nostalgic again...only thinking that it´s for the last time that I make the steps towards the bus stop...Yeah, I said that I don´t like good byes, neither the ends, but sometimes you can´t avoid them...

Carnaxide, the little town near Lisbon, where the company is

on the way to the bus stop, in Carnaxide

the bridge "25 Abril" seen from the bus on the way home

Anyway it was the last time when I made those steps as an employee, because for sure I´ll go there again to visit when I´ll come back to Lisbon ;).

My great colleagues!

2008-03-31T19:05:00.065+01:00

In the time spent in Portugal, I met a lot of great people. Some of them are my colleagues from Solvay, with whom, un-like the others, I´ve spent most time together. And this matters a lot and creates strong connections :-). Everyday we shared beautiful moments or sometimes less beautiful, we joked, laughed together, went down in the cigarette break (or air break :P). We went together to dinners or Bairro..

Em baixo :-) (downstears)

They are beautiful persons, with interesting personalities, friendly, funny, that I had the pleasure to know and to whom I got used to have near everyday. All the more so I will miss them...

My dear "neighbour", I miss our T1 from work :D

Ritini, I miss your jokes :-)

And also the fun made and singing in the office of D Diogo :D

with Maria Silva, a sweety

with the calm and wise Mr. Martins :-)

with André

having lots of work ..lol - Diogo, Saumya and André

crazy and funny Xiquini

Nélinha - a direct girl :D...go on ;)

Crazy Brunio :-), I will miss your jokes!

how nice :-)

with Catarina, sweety :-)

Catarina and Artur :-)

Terminator :D

with Xiquini and André

with Carmenzita :-)

with Pintinho

Júlio and Maria Cruz

Sarita

with Haneet, a master of clubs and restaurants :D

The Romanians :-) - Gabriela and me

Diogo and Arturini

with Carlitos :-)

at lunch

with Elsa

with the calm Pedronio :-)

at karaoke, with the colleagues

Bossini :-)

I am glad that I had the chance to meet them, they are wonderful people, that I will miss, but which I will also see again for sure :-).

The trainees

2008-03-17T13:25:00.006Z

Trainees in Lisbon - which are or had been here, interesting people that I had the pleasure to meet and some of them also to get to know well:

Alberto García (Spain, Asturias)

My favourite Spanish, a funny and open guy always helping you if he can. One of the few real friends that I made here; also flat mate and colleague at work. He finished his traineeship at 4 months after I got in Lisbon; I was sorry that he was leaving, because he was the greatest trainee here..."c´est la vie" :-I. After a half a year he came back, working now at the Spanish embassy :-) .."Alegría!!"

Marcos Margulies (Brazil, Rio de Janeiro)

The "eternal" trainee, the "oldest" trainee from here (I don´t mean the age ;)), that after the traineeship remained in Lisbon. When I met him the first time, he knew 3 expressions in Romanian: first a bad word (that I won´t write here :D), "asa si asa" (so so) and "papuci" (which means something like "just leave", translated word by word "shoes") :))..but he learned also others later :-). A funny guy, popular, with very many friends and loving parties big time :P.

Renata Olesinska (Poland)
My first flat mate. She got here one month before me, working in the same company. After the traineeship she remained in Lisbon, in the same company, having also a Portuguese boyfriend, another reason for staying.

Elena Tomiet (Italy)
I didn´t get to know her too well, being very individualistic - I would say - for an AIESEC trainee.

Elsi Rivera (Mexic)
A real party girl...

Mihajlo Mihajlovic (Serbia)
Organizer of many going outs with the trainees, a nice guy, that you can count on. Unfortunately, he left last summer, after one year of traineeship...that´s it with these internships...sometimes they come to an end..

Marcos Hartman (Brazil, São Paulo)

Marcos got here in the same time I did, more or less. It´s a nice guy, sometimes funny, in a special way (friends know why :P). He finished his traineeship some months ago and he remained afterwards in the same company...hm...it seems that this happens to more trainees in Lisbon :-)

Luciana Faria (Brazil, Vitória)

A period of time - flat mate, a nice girl that you can get along with and that tries to help as much as she can.

Luis Adrianza (Venezuela, Maracaibo)

The youngest trainee here - 21 years old. He works in the same company with me (yeah, we are many in Solvay :P). He seems more mature, although sometimes his behavior bitrates his 21 years. He started in parallel also a master, the job in his department not being to demanding :D.

Vladimir Makevic (Serbia)

Vlad...our Eastern European :-). Very firm in his believes, sometimes talking to much :D, but amusing and with a good spirit :-). He finished his traineeship some months ago and got back to Serbia.

Ruta Salvyte (Lithuania)

A girl injected with AIESEC in her vanes :D - one of the few trainees with a wide previous experience in AIESEC. And it was visible :-)...you could feel the AIESEC spirit in everything she was doing and organizing :P. She ended her traineeship in January 2008.

Saumya Vyas (India)

For the first time outside India :D...hm must of been a small shock at the beginning ;) What can I say...I think that the experience here changed him a lot, helping him to adapt to the European culture, very very different of the Indian one.

Mo Chi (China)

Mo studied for 3 years in Malta before coming here, that makes him almost European; very polite and mannered, he integrated very well here; he´s a nice and funny guy (maybe with a bit different sense of humor). He doesn´t smile very much (in the Asian culture is not quite usual to smile), here is one of the few occasions when we caught him smiling :D.

Jeroen Linnemann (Netherlands)

One of the newest trainees in Lisbon; I didn´t have the chance to get to know him well, but he seems to be a nice guy, that tries to take advantage at maximum of the time spent here.

Here they are - great people, different also, that for a shorter or longer time are or had been together in the same city, living a beautiful life experience.

Ovidiu´s new challenge

2008-03-13T21:17:00.033Z

Ovidiu´s traineeship in England is near. He didn´t want to leave without letting something here and so he left, as he was saying, some information about Romania - a presentation at which he invited some AIESEC-ers and trainees/ex-trainees. This presentation was very welcomed, because there are many that don´t know almost nothing about Romania, and my presentation was done a long time ago, many new people entering AIESEC since then.

After the presentation

He also talked about the gipsies, subject again unknown here (I mean the reality, not the myths about gipsies ;) )

It has been interesting, although a lot of information :D - for the ones that didn´t know nothing before.

After a few days, it came the last day here; in the evening we met a few friends at our place, majority flat mates or ex flat mates, to drink a coup of champagne to the challenge that will follow in UK, but also as a good bye.

The next morning he took the plane to London, to pick his working accession card, and the next day he was heading to Coventry, the town when we´ll stay a period of time.

Although I know that after 3 weeks I´ll also go there, I still don´t like good byes...I will try not to become nostalgic when my turn will come to say good bye...

Near to the last 100 metres

2008-03-09T21:18:00.005Z

There are 3 more weeks until the end of my traineeship. So, I´m near to the last 100 metres. And it´s ok. I know that it couldn´t last forever, and it wouldn´t be nice like that either :-), because at a certain moment it would become something to common...Anyway, I think that a duration of 1 year/ 1 year and some months is very good for a traineeship. You get to know very well the country, the people, the places, you get to really feel the life there, you´re not an outsider anymore.

I´ll be here until the begining of April...Now I got used to the idea, but I must say that the first reaction when I realised that I will actually leave, was one of dezorientation..Because it´s different when you know that you´ll leave in a moment in the future, more or less defined, and to know exactly whe you´re leaving. I realise that I will miss the life here, after so much time (I´m here since Nov 2006)..I will miss the colleagues from work, and the meetings with the AIESEC-ers, with the trainees, the relaxed way of Portuguese people, the ocean, the pasteis...and many other things...But in the same time I´m glad to know that I´ll still have some good friends - not many but real friends - that I will keep in touch, even if I won´t be in Lisbon.

And for sure we´ll get back here - most probable in the summer :-).

In the same time I´m excited that we´ll discover a new country, another culture, different of the one of Romania and Portugal.

Ovidiu got the work permit for the AIESEC traineeship in England. The company is in Coventry, a city near Birmingham. In 12th of March he has the interview in London for the worker accession card, the second "paper" necessary to work in England. In 11th of March he´s leaving Lisbon. Me, in 2nd of April. It will be a new challenge, new things to discover, this time, having the experience of Portugal.

But, until then, there is some more time ;).

Our picture on BBC

2008-03-04T20:14:00.008Z

Kris, the English guy that I was telling about in some recents posts, is supported by the BBC, in his travel.

This is the link with last article of BBC, which contains the last interview with Kris and an interesting picture (at least for us :P)

The best seller of Cartarescu - also in Portuguese

2008-02-29T17:58:00.010Z

The best seller in Romania, „De ce iubim femeile” (EN "Why do we love the women") of Mircea Cartarescu, Romanian writer, who will probably be the first Romanian winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, is translated also in Portuguese, with the title: “Porque Gostamos das Mulheres”.

Declared the book of the year in 2005 in Romania, it was well received in Spain and France, being translated also in other languages; remaining to see also the reaction of the Portuguese public.

The next days in Lisbon

2008-02-13T12:41:00.023Z

As a friend of his told that he will donate a sum for the cancer research if Kris will swim naked, only with a handkerchief on his head, and as he´s a crazy Brit :D, they went at the ocean, in Cascais, him and Ovidiu - he didn´t find a handkerchief, but Ovidiu gave him my hat from Maramures, brought as a souvenir from Romania.

In the train to Cascais, with the Romanian hat :))

He´s starting...

He won the sponsorship :D

In the evening Kris moved to Alberto, our favourite Spanish, cause he had a free room in his apartment, and he´s very kind, as always. In our apartment he couldn´t stay anymore, because of the landlord that doesn´t accept someone staying for free...(btw, a skinflint). Some luck with Alberto :-)..I was so glad that he´ll host Kris!

We´ll go to Bairro Alto, but before we stopped at Alberto´s to have some drinks and to chat a bit. His Polish girlfriend, Margarita, is here since a few days. I didn´t see her since a year ago, from the company´s Christmas dinner, but we didn´t get to talk then. It was a chance to get to know her too better. Also Saumya joined us.

Kris told more little stories from his travel around Europe...they were interesting and some of them also funny, probably more like that now when he told them, than when they happened. Indeed he likes to make people feel good, to laugh...

Theoretically, we were supposed to meet in Praça Camões to go to Bairro Alto, at 9, but we stayed a couple of hours before thinking that the delay - even for Portugal :D - starts to be significant. So we left to Bairro, just the 3 of us, Ovidiu, Kris and me, Saumya was too tired..We said that we´ll surely meet some people that we know in Bairro...it´s a small place.

Exiting the metro station we meet Mara and Roxana, 2 Romanians that we met here in Lisbon. We are heading to a jazz bar, when our favourite AIESEC-er, Gonçalo calls, telling that he´ll also join us. In 2 minutes he shows up...the world is small, what about Bairro :D.

We found that jazz bar that the girls knew and we entered.

We stayed until around 2, it was funny, but the next day will be a working day, and we were also a bit tired..

In the next day was a challenge to hang up until the afternoon, having accumulated some tiredness not only from the previous day.. I took off the rest of the week, as I had enough extra hours..That´s nice, finally time to relax!

We talked to Alberto to meet in the evening, around 7-7.30, to have a quick drink, each of us having somewhere to go after, them - to a dinner, us - to the Portuguese classes, organized by AIESEC ISEG for the trainees. We got to Alberto´s around 7.40; Kris wasn´t there, probably he went out in the city..We had a nice chat, but we had to leave, it was 8.30, we were already late for the course.

Waiting for the bus in Marquês Pombal

Anyway, this time were just us and Gonçalo, but it was a funny course...

After the course, we went to the bus stop to catch the bus. We waited a bit too long...after a half an hour we decided to walk until the point where we had to take the second bus. It was a cold wind...We passed next to the Portuguese Parliament, and I took a picture of it, as I didn´t have any with this builidng..

The parliament of Portugal

Ovidiu got a message from Kris to call us in Irish Pub, but I was too tired, and we went home, remaining to meet the next day.

In the next day, in the evening, we had dinner at our place with Alberto, Margarita, Kris and us, also Saumya joined us. We stayed until 1-2...

Kris in Lisbon

2008-02-10T01:52:00.011Z

He arrived in Lisbon on Saturday night around 4, in the bus station Oriente. He was supposed to arrive around 4.30, but he gave me a message earlier that he´s already there. Ovidiu got there around 5 (the buses´ night schedule is more rigid, but it´ sgood that there are some :-)). Kris was waiting outside, reading a book. They realised that until the first metro from 6.30 there is pretty much time, so they entered a fast-food/restaurant nearby until then.

It was good that Luciana, our flatmate, wasn´t at home on Saturday night, so Kris slept in her room.

He woke up late on Sunday, I guess he was very tired..We ate something - a late breakfast, then we stayed chating until the afternoon..He´s a very relaxed, funny guy. We found out that he speaks Slovene, he´d been to Slovenia for 3 years, so he knew very well the realities from center-eastern Europe.

It was a nice day, so we said to go out also...we went to Belém, to the tower, to the monastery, also to the famous "pasteis do Belém".

It was already evening and we were also a bit tired, so we went home.

Kris found someone that said could host him on couchsurfing.com, the free accomodation site, a Portuguese girl. So he will suppose to meet her at 11 PM in Praça Camões. We also went there, we all waited about 45 min, but nothing. In the end she didn´t show up, sending a message that something came up and that she can´t host him anymore. So we returned home..This time Luciana not just that she wasn´t home, but she has moved to another apartment in that day, so Kris could stay there :-).

Home

Kris & Ovidiu

He met our flatmates also: Anthony (French) and Saumya (Indian)...and how it´s known that French and Indians "love" the English and viceversa, it followed a funny conversation :))

A French, an English and an Indian :-)

Amazing! Travelling in Europe with no money in his pocket

2008-02-09T15:38:00.001Z

I was reading few days ago on Florin D.´s blog a post about a 24 years old English guy - Kris Mole - literature teacher, that decided to do an unusual thing...to travel around Europe, in all EU capitals, withount any money in his pocket, relying only on the people´s goodwill. And this with the purpose of charity: to raise money for cancer research, as his aunty died of cancer short time ago.

It was very interesting, so I read also a part of his blog http://euro-challenge.blogspot.com/ and some articles (of Cotidianul, Romanian newspaper, of BBC) about what he decided to do and his travel until that moment. It seemed simply amazing!! Read you too!! It´s fully worth it!

He has been also in Bucharest and he apreciated the hospitality of the Romanians. Was so nice to hear that :-).

When I read his last post of his blog (on Thursday), he was in Madrid, and it was logical that after that, at short time, Lisbon willl follow :-). I wrote a comment on his blog, to give a sign when he comes to Lisbon. He answered me in the next day that he was glad to see the comment and that he´ll arrive to Lisbon in few days.

So, we´ll meet in a short time a very interesting guy :-).

New Year´s party 2008 in Paço de Arcos - unforgettable time

2008-01-22T01:08:00.032Z

With a week before, we had no idea where we´re going to have the New Year´s party. But in a short time we found out that Ovidiu´s boss, that wasn´t in Lisbon at the year end, lets us in his apartment from Paço de Arcos (resort at the ocean) to have the New Year´s party. It´s a apartment with a big living, it´s near the ocean...great :-)

Finally we were 12 people, pretty diverse, even if the majority were Romanians: 2 Lithuanian girls, 2 Portuguese guys, 1 Brazilian guy and 7 Romanians.

We had a great time, had different traditional dishes from each "participating" country, the usual Romanian "sarmale" (we found out that also the Lithuanians have the same thing, but with another name)...it took me a long time to make them...but they were a success :D, plus other specialties : Portuguese, Lithuanian. And of course, not to forget the traditional Romanian strong drink: "tuica".

We also danced - I liked that, because at least for me, any new year´s party or party in general must be with dancing, thing that it isn´t true for everyone (not quite for the Portuguese :P...anyway I was used to that since the time I was obsessed with sport dances and any going out, party or barbecue couldn´t be without dancing :-) ). We danced latino and also on pimba, traditional Portuguese low class music, but with a great rhythm and funny lyrics.

We celebrated "the midnight" 3 times :-), for 3 different hours: the first of Romania and Lithuania (GMT+2), then of Portugal (GMT) and last of Brazil (GMT-3).

Champagne at the midnight for Romania and Lithuania

At the local midnight, we went on the beach to see the fireworks...

On the way to the beach

On the beach at the local midnight :-)

Inspired picture! Walking forward in the new year :))

Us and Marcos

It was so funny...especially with that competition at the end :)) - I managed not to get on the sand ;), not the same thing for Ruta though :D.

Me and Ovidiu

Ruta and Marco

The time passed fast..the majority of the people left around 5 AM to Lisbon, just us and the Lithuanian sisters we stayed until the next day, which was also funny...we chatted with Ruta and Giedre, we amused ourselves of the pictures of the night before..

In the next day

It was great this New Year´s party!! I´ll gladly remember the fun that we had :-)

Christmas in Lisbon

2008-01-20T14:22:00.021Z

For this Christmas we decided to stay in Lisbon, as it is the last with the people here. This year we went to the Romanian church (a Catholic chapel transformed in an Orthodox church). There are many Romanians established in Lisbon, their kids are already at school here; I heard about an impressive number of 70 Romanian children that are at school in the capital of Portugal.

At the Romanian church in Lisbon

I was glad that we went to the religious mess; I felt more the Christmas atmosphere. For the Romanians it's an important celebration, with a strong religious connotation, but for the Portuguese - at least here in the capital - it´s more focused on receiving presents, and that´s it. Everything is commercial, not quite the same with what happens in the villages, where I´ve heard that the Christmas tradition is better preserved.

We sang carols...it was so nice to sing carols (last year I din´t quite feel the Christmas), and to hear the people around me singing. There was also Santa Claus coming there, cause there were a lot of children, but a Portuguese Santa; the children gathered around him to receive their presents, thanking and wishing Merry Christmas to Santa Claus, in Portuguese.

As we didn´t quite have contact with the Romanian community in Lisbon (strangely, just now, around the end of my traineeship I started to search for "Romanian" events here), we didn´t know people. We just met Gina (Erasmus student that we previously met at the Romanian embassy at the vote) and her boyfriend, Bogdan, that came to visit her for the holidays.

After the mess, we walked a bit in the downtown - Baixa Chiado, which during the holidays is full of decorations and lights (in my opinion exagerately many in this central area, and in others - not at all), but without the gigantic Christmas tree, that is in Porto this year.

Arco Triunfal da Rua Augusta in Praça do Comércio

In Praça do Comércio

Rua Augusta, the main street of the city center

At home we ate the traditional "sarmale" :-) - it couldn´t be another way...

At home

At home, at the Christmas tree

The next day we went to Ruta´s place, also her sister, Giedre, was there, visiting her for the holidays, and a Portuguese friend of Ruta. It was a funny evening :D we played cards, among other things.

At Ruta´s

The less good part was that it was very cold in the apartment or iglu :D (the Portuguese don´t have central heating, but also she didn´t quite use the electric heater in the apartment - rarely I´ve seen people that are hot on a cold like that :P) and in the next day I was sick...me, that didn´t catch a cold since 2-3 years...and it´s a thing that I hate.

Vacation travels - Madrid, Morocco, Algarve

2008-01-19T23:25:00.109Z

As anyway we wanted to go somewhere in vacation also outside Portugal, and as we were as near as ever from Africa, we thought that Morocco would be a good start. We found some really cheap airplane tickets to Marrakesh (with Easy Jet), from Madrid, so we also visited the capital of

Spain

The plan would be like this: Lisbon-Madrid-Marrakesh-Casablanca-Rabat-Fés-Tanger-crossing the Gibraltar strait by ferry-Algarve (Portugal) via Spain.

Madrid

We left from Lisbon airport at the same time with David, a friend of Ovidiu from Romania that came here at a conference for a few days.

In Lisbon airport, us and David

We stayed 2 days in Madrid, in which we tried to visit as much as possible. Our favourite Spanish guy, Alberto, helped us with the accomodation, we stayed one night at his ex flatmates - great people...one of them was Brazilian and had a grandfather from Tighina, he showed us his birth certificate written in Romanian :-).

At our "hosts" in Madrid :-)...here, us and the Greek girl

I liked Madrid...a city which is alive, with many things to see! Places where we´ve been:

O quiet square

At the statue of Don Quijote de la Mancha (under the donkey: 2 crazy Americans)

In the back - Sabatini Gardens

In the Sabatini Gardens - in the back, Palacio Real (the Royal Palace)

IIn the evening, you can feel even more the great atmosphere. Madrid is a city that doesn´t sleep, being much more animated than Lisbon until late night - here a pair dancing tango

A nice church - nearby someone was singing at the guitar so beautyfully, that he was creating an incredible atmosphere

The church, seen from the back

We got on Calle Mayor, an important avenue of Madrid

Calle Mayor is leading to Plaza Mayor - the most known and full of tourists square of Madrid

Full of terraces

Even with some of our guys that were singing in front of the terraces - cause we´re in Spain (you can hear Romanian from 5 in 5 minutes) - and btw, they were singing well ;)

At a terrace in Plaza Mayor

Puerta del Sol, the zero kilometre of Spain

In the next morning, in front of Santiago Bernabeu, the stadium of Real Madrid

Las Ventas arena - the most famous of Spain

The statue of a bull-fighter

The wall that is surrounding a part of the arena

Las Ventas

The place of women

With the tourists group that we entered

:D

Puerta de Alcalá

Palacio de Cristal, in "Parque de Buen Retiro"

In "Parque de Buen Retiro"

In the same park

At the right, The Palace of Communications

Metrópolis building

Finally in airport again, but this time with the destination Marrakesh :-)

More pictures from Madrid

Marrakesh

In 3 hours we got to Marrakesh, the passports check followed, thing of which we got unused to lately, but ok..We bought a few thousands of Dirhams (1 euro~11DHM) from the exchange from the airport, and we went out to catch a cab..

Then the fun began...there were plenty of cabs waiting for the tourists, but none with reasonable prices. They could afford to take advantage, as Marrakesh is a bit far from the airport, and even if it was just 8 PM, there weren´t any buses to the city. Of course that we tried to negociate, and we found another 2 girls - an Irish and a Spanish - with whom to share the cab. But none of the taxi drivers would of lower the price. They were asking 150 dirhams~15 euros for the 3 km to the city...what we could get was 140 dirhams for 4 persons..it was the most expensive service we paid in all the travel in

Morocco

:D.

At least the taxi driver "helped" us (always for money) to find a reasonable hotel, as we didn´t reserve nothing in advance (afterwards we were confirmed that you can find a better accomodation on spot, than reserving on internet). From the first evening we realised that we were in another world, without rules, very agitated, with cars, a lot of motorcycles and people that want to "help" you at each step..

After we had a bit of rest, we headed towards the main square Djemaa el Fna, to see what is around and also to have something for dinner..The impression that I had was that of a "jungle", of a place with no rules, when everyone is doing what they want. It was almost an adventure to cross the street, being a lot of motorcycles moving around chaotically, there weren´t many zebras, and even if there were, noone was respecting them..The Moroccans, as they see that you´re a foreigner, call you to buy from them, more or less insistent, in other words, everything they do is for money, and this we´ll feel all around Morocco.

When we were there it was the Ramadan, the big Muslim holiday, and as it´s forbidden to eat during the day, in the night there was so much animation, everybody was on the streets, the square was full, actually it was like in a normal day outside Ramadan. We got to Djemaa el Fna, and we sat at one of the many places where you could eat something traditional. You could find meet, but more because of the tourists. We ate some little sausages with Moroccan bread, with a mixed salad and with the habitual tomato sauce. Many Moroccans were eating only the bread with the sauce.

The first evening - at dinner in Djemaa el Fna

Koutoubia mosque

The next day we came again in the square, to see also the atmosphere during the day..

Djemaa el Fna

In the back, Koutoubia mosque

We found a reasonable restaurant where we ate several times (they also had a great shaorma)

At lunch

A very crowded street near the square

We started to visit some of the most important atractions of Marrakesh: El Badi Palace, Bahia Palace, the Saadian tombs, the Souks (traditional market), Marrakesh museum, Almoravid Koubba.

In El Badi Palace

The minbar of Koutoubia mosque, now on exhibition at El Badi Palace

View over Marrakesh from the top of the palace

El Badi

Everything for sale on the streets of Marrakesh; from here I bought a natural parfume (solid)

The entrance in Bahia palace

In the palace

A very interesting architecture

Moroccan sculptor

The Saadian tombs

At the Saadian tombs

A gate in Marrakesh

STOP

This is just one, but we saw a lot of Romanian traditional cars Dacia

In Marrakesh museum

Moroccan saddle

Traditional Moroccan coat

Almoravid Koubba - the only remaining example of Almoravid architecture in Marrakesh

The cupola

In the Souks, a traditional market - the one in Marrakech is the largest of Morocco

On the "labyrintic" streets of the Souks

On the bus, leaving behind Marrakesh, chating with Jamal, a young Moroccan teacher

On the way to Casablanca

More pictures from Marrakesh

Urika Valley, the Atlas mountains

In one of the days that we were in Marrakesh, we thought to go also to Urika Valley, in the Atlas mountains - it was just at 60 km from the city.

We took the bus, it was very cheap, 5 dirhams~50 cents :-). It was a bit crowded, we had to stand half of the way...but it didn´t matter anyway..

In the bus, with the Moroccans

continuing the way by taxi ("grand taxi" how they use to say)

Carpets for sale on the road

On the way to Urika

We arrived, took a guide and started to climb to the Atlas mountains

A natural refridgerator in the mountains

There were a lot of cascades

In the Atlas mountains

Atlas mountains

Our guide, Mohamed

Getting down

In the back a small village from the valley

More pictures from Urika and Atlas

Casablanca

From Marrakesh we headed to Casablanca by bus (means of transportation that for sure we won´t use in Morocco for long distances :D), to see the biggest mosque of Africa. We got there in the evening, around 7.

Hassan II mosque - the biggest in Africa, second in the world after the mosque from Mecca

Sunset in Casablanca

Apart from the mosque, in Casablanca there isn´t almost nothing else to see. It´s not a beautiful city, just that it´s at the Atlantic.

More pictures from Casablanca

Rabat

In the same evening, after we stayed a little at the mosque in Casablanca, we went further to the capital Rabat. This time by train, a more inspired choice. The train was looking quite good, even better that the second class trains from

Romania

:P, but it doesn´t mean that they are all like that :D.

Finally in the capital we met more civilized people.. surprisingly they were not picking up on you, to sell I don´t know what or to recommend you I don´t know what hotel, and they wouldn´t ask for money for any information they give. Finally, because we were already sick of that style..we just wanted to walk on the street without being asked nothing, not having to keep on saying as convincing as possible "non merçi, non merçi".

In the modern part of Rabat

Public garden

Near the medina

The capital is also at the ocean

Hassan Tower, one of the capital´s attractions

The entrance in the Mausoleum of Mohammed V

As we got in we were forcedly "received" by a "guide touristique", which took us a bit unprepared to say that "non merçi"...the technique that they use is: first to talk to you; the main question is "where are you from?", if you answer this, they almost caught you. Then they ask what language do you speak, and they start to tell you what they know about your country, so that it would be more probable that you´ll start to talk to them. Obviously afterwards is the negociation..This guy from the mausoleum wanted at the beginning 10 euros /person, we said that we give him 1 euro each. Even that was too much, but it was a bit difficult and late to get rid of him...so we began "the tour". He told us nothing new, we informed ourselves before coming...He was starting to piss me off with his cheap explanations (actually not even cheap :)) ), and we thought that before getting rid of him, at least use him at something useful, to take us some pictures :D. In the meantime he told us of course what he knew about Romania - usual stuff: Hagi, Nadia Comaneci...and another one that I really didn´t know :)).. "Romania-Morocco friends"..at least we laught a little after this..

In the interior - there is permanently a Coran reader

The guards in front of the mausoleum

The mausoleum of Mohammed V - another attraction of Rabat

One of the pictures taken by the "touristic guide" :))

More pictures from Rabat

Tanger and Gibraltar

The next was Tanger, the last Moroccan city that we visit...then, back to the civilization :D...I was already missing Europe :-).

When we finally got there it was already evening. We quickly found a hotel, and then we went out in the medina. I could feel a difference from the other cities that we´ve been to in Morocco...there was a more western atmosphere, being so close to Europe, and them being used to have many Spanish tourists, and not only. So many Moroccans could speak a little Spanish, or even Italian...eh, anything, only to make more money out of it.

In the center of Tanger there is a pretty nice square, with a fountain, with people walking around...a Plaza Mayor of Tanger :-). We stopped to eat something at a terrace with the view at the square; we had a nice time there.

Plaza Mayor of Tanger

In the port

In the next morning we hanged a bit more around the city, we also went to the port to buy tickets - we´ll cross Gibraltar to

Spain

by ferry; it was a really reasonable price..

In the ferry

Like it´s written on the ferry, in 35 min we were in Tarifa, Spain. Finally EUROPE!! :D

More pictures from Tanger and Gibraltar

We took the bus to Algeciras. There we couldn´t find any train or bus to move on, so we had to look for a hostel. We found a nice and cheap one. The next day we took the bus to Sevilla, via Cádiz.

In Sevilla we just saw from the bus Giralda church (the former mosque), the sister of the unfinished mosque from Rabat. We didn´t have either tim eor mood to visit Sevilla, so we went further. There we found a direct bus to Lagos, Portugal and we didn´t even have to wait much until we left.

Lagos

We arrived in Lagos in the evening and started to look for accommodation...it lasted a bit more than usual, but finally we found something ok.

The next day, it was a great weather, hot, sunny, so we went to the beach. I think that Algarve is the only place in Portugal where they might speak to you from the beginning in English. There are so many English tourists, that - honestly - the the few days that we stayed there, I had got sick of so much British accent around :D

Another "cheese castle" :D

Lagos in the night

We had a great time in Lagos...

More pictures from Lagos

Once we got to Portugal, after a week of speaking French in

Morocco

, I realized that I started to forget Portuguese...simple expressions, that I frequently used before, and heard even more often, now they were more difficult to find and match :D. Not a problem, in some days I´ll get use to it again...even I was surprised of myself when instead of saying "obrigada", I wanted to say "merçi"...and there where only 5 days that we stayed in Morocco :D.

Sagres and Cape of St. Vicent

In the next day we went to Sagres, the origin place of the Portuguese beer Sagres, where there is a lot of wind and many dragon flies - at least when we were there there were to many ..

Sagres

A former boat :-)

It´s a very nice resort, quiet, with less tourists than Lagos. Because of the wind the temperature was lower than in the other resort, I was a bit cold, cause I was in some very short pants :D.

Strong and a bit cold wind :D

We went also to the cape of St. Vincent, the last piece of land of South-western Europe. Here - a strong wind, more than in Sagres, that was alsmost taking you off of the ground :D. Just stayed there a little, unfortunately the lighthouse couldn´t be visited inside, it was closed from some time for the public.

The lighthouse from Cabo de São Vicente

It´s the wind :D..

Like that it was with the wind..

More pictures from Sagres and São Vicente

After all these...final destination - Lisbon :-). It was great this vacation, with some adventures in certain places, much more amuzing now when I remember :D.

Berlenga - a magnificent island of Portugal

2008-01-19T22:51:00.001Z

We were lucky that my friend and colleague, Hugo, told me about an island of Portugal that is very close to the continent...10 km, just 40 min by boat. We couldn´t miss this chance!

Berlenga island is near Peniche; in the port there are several tourism agencies that organize transport or trips to Berlenga. So we chose one with resonable leaving and returning time (to have time to explore :D).

In Peniche

So, we go...in the boat there are more foreign tourists, the majority French. Slowly, slowly...we leave the port behind.

From time to time a small rock-island appears, resting place for seagulls.

After 40 min we get close to the island...it´s exciting to see how it gets closer and closer...

It´s gorgeous!! a wild island, with a colour of a vivid green that I saw only on TV, with a limpid green-blue water, with rocks and seagulls that are everywhere. The image of wild island is a bit attenuated by the numerous tourists, but almost imperceptibly...

There are a lot of seagulls, and they are not afraid of getting closer to people...we gave them some chips :D...it was so funny to see how they come close to you to peck :-)

So we went on exploring...

On the hills of the island, there were very many seagulls, a lot also with chicks. We didn´t climb until the top of the hill, not to disturb them in their habitat

What a green!!

View over the island from the top of the hill

São João Batista fort

At a metre from us...

On the way to the fort

My favourite picture taken in Berlenga

The bridge on which you get to the fort

At the entrance; there is also the posibility of staying over night in the fort, having all the facilities (it´s really cheap, just 11€ per person per night)

On the top of the fort

The lighthouse, named Duque de Bragança

View from up over the most populated area (small fishermen´s houses and 2-3 terraces-restaurants)

It was very hot, so we stopped a little at one of the terraces

In the afternoon we left back to Peniche, very delighted with what I´ve seen, Berlenga being the most impressive place that I visited in Portugal and that had remained very clear in my mind, even after more time

Berlenga...more far from us. Sometime we´ll come back here...

More pictures from Berlenga

Vacation travels - northern and center Portugal

2008-01-18T14:15:00.000Z

July...the first real vacation since I´m here. I´ve been thinking since some time that in the summer we´ll visit all Portugal, and not only. We started with the north: Porto-Braga-Guimarães-Gerês.

Porto

Porto is the second most important and second biggest city in Portugal. The country and the Porto wine took their name from the city of Porto. It´s crossed by Douro river, and it´s also a port at the Atlantic. It´s 2 bridges have been built by Gustave Eiffel, and it´s said that the train station of Porto is one of the most beautiful of Europe

Carlos Paião, Vinho do Porto (Vinho do Portugal)

On Ribeira; in the back - Dom Luís bridge

On Dom Luís bridge

The other bridge

A lovely place is Ribeira, an area next to the river, near to Dom Luís bridge.

Ribeira

On the other side of the river is the city of Gaia (some people might think that it´s still Porto there, but no ;) )

Porto and...

Gaia

The atmosphere is great. It was really a pleasure to be in Porto again (first time I´ve been some months ago, but I´ve seen it a bit in a hurry). We stayed 2 days, time in which we chose to see the most important touristic points, with a sightseeing tour bus; it´s easier this way when it´s a big city, and when you don´t have a lot of time to hang around...and it is good because you can get down where and when you want, the ticket being valid all day.

In a public garden in Porto

In the same garden

At the Cheese Castle (Castelo do Queijo)

I´ve seen this kind of "cheese" castles in several cities, near the beach

:D

A lighthouse of Porto

The impression about Porto is the one of a city in stairs, there´s a rocky ground in the area, it´s a very picturesque image.

Porto, seen from the other side of the river, from Gaia

A pretty steep street

I´ve seen a lot of churches, most of them decorated with blue "azulejos", some also in the exterior.

Church with "azulejos" in the exterior

It would be interesting a comparison with Lisbon. Porto is a more traditional, more closed city than the capital, but in the same time with some very kind and friendly people. It´s been said about the people from the north in general - there are jokes about this, of course :-) - that they swear pretty much :D.

More pictures from Porto

Braga

In our trip followed Braga, one of the oldest Portuguese city, with a history of 2000 years, founded in the time of the Romans. It´s a town full of history and traditions, and it´s considered the main centre of religious studies, having the biggest number of churches on square metre.

The most well known place in the surroundings of Braga is the sanctuary Bom Jesus do Monte, with the beautiful church and the impressive stairs. We went up with an elevator (good choice :-), because it´s a lot to climb). Up there it´s a church sourrounded by gardens, also a terrace, with a nice panorama.

The church from Bom Jesus

Gardens sourrounding the church

View over Braga from the terrace

Many stairs, but it was worth it...

The stairs seen from up

Getting down...

From down it´s visible the famous image of the stairs of Bom Jesus do Monte:

At dinner with the Brazilians (friends of our flatmate, Luciana) - at which we stayed in Braga - Sergio & Rafael

More pictures from Braga

Guimarães

"Aqui nasceu Portugal" ("Here was born Portugal") - that´s what it says about Guimarães. It´s one of the most important historical Portuguse cities, it´s old historical center being world heritage.

My first impression when I got to Guimarães was that it didn´t have the image that I had in mind...it didn´t seem an old town, historical or traditional...but just a town like all the others, with banks, stores, supermarkets...we were still in the new, modern part of the town. I discovered the image that I had about Guimarães - old picturesque streets, very well preserved, churches, monuments, squares, the Guimarães castle, with a fairytale atmosphere...

Near the historical center

Praça da Oliveira, in the old center of Guimarães

Little street in the old center

At the statue of Afonso Henriques, the founder and the first king of Portugal

Guimarães castle

In the interior

The panorama from one of the towers

Climbing in the highest tower of the castle

It was worth to get until the top :-)

More pictures from Guimarães

Peneda-Gerês National Park

Also in the north, is Peneda-Gerês, the only national park (72.000 hectares) of Portugal, which is stretching until the border with Spain (Galicia).

Some consider that between Portugal and Galicia shouldn´t be a border, in other words that Galicia would belong to Portugal...

Galicia, seen from the border

We liked it very much, as it was something different from what we saw until then in Portugal. We were in the middle of nature and honestly, the mountains and the landscapes reminded me of the ones from Romania. The highest peak has 1.545 m (Nevosa), it is at the border, the mountains stretching in Spain.

Specific to the landscape is the constant presence of water; there are a lot of cascades, and the park is crossed by many rivers.

A lake with boats

It´s been some time since we went with the boat :-)...

A natural pool

There are also several villages in the national park, with traditional houses.

More pictures from Gerês

This was the vacation of July, one full week, with many interesting places being vizited.

In August we were in some cities of center / center-west of the country: Óbidos-Peniche-Évora-Alcobaça-Nazaré. We visited also an island that not many Portuguese know about (and even less have been there) - Berlenga - bt I´ll describe this in the next post.

Óbidos

Before entering the castle

The name comes from the Latin oppidum meaning fortress. Indeed, Óbidos is a small town-fortress, very cozy, with a fairytale atmosphere. In July 2007 there were nominated the 7 wonders of Portugal, among them also Óbidos Castle (Seven Wonders of Portugal).

Óbidos este unul din locurile care m-a impresionat cel mai mult...prin atmosfera; simti ca e un oras viu, cu un farmec aparte: castelul medieval, casutele albe pictate la baza cu albastru, galben sau rosu, turistii care se plimba pe stradutele inguste cu casute cu flori la geam. Oraselul fortareata nu e numai vizitat, ci si locuit...cum ar fi sa traiesti intr-un loc de basm ca asta? De asemenea e considerat cel mai romantic orasel, multe cupluri venind sa se casatoreasca aici .

Óbidos is one of that places that impressed me the most...because of it´s atmosphere; you feel that it´s so alive, with a special charm: the medieval castle, the white houses painted at the base with blue, yellow or red, the tourists that walk around on the narrow little streets with houses with flowers at the windows. The town-fortress is not only visited, but it´s also inhabited...how would it be to live in a fairytale place like this? Also Óbidos is considered the most romantic town, a lot of couples are coming here to get married.

The interior of the church, painted with "azulejos"

From the castle you can have a very large view, being a plain region.

What we also saw interesting in the gardens at the base of the castle´s walls, were some deer:

We walked on the fortress´ walls, we admired the panorama, also the interior...

An old Portuguese lady selling and sewing embroideries

More pictures from Óbidos

Peniche

Along its coast there can be found a big variety of beaches. Near the port Peniche it´s the archipelago of Berlenga, today a nature rezervation.

In the past (Middle Eve) Peniche was an island, near to the continent - aproximately 400-500 m, and it´s believed that its name comes from Phenix, the name of an antique fortress on Crete island, beacuse of the geografical resemblance.

In a small park

A typical castle (similar with the Cheese Castle from Porto) on the beach

The entrance in the fort of Peniche

In the fort

More pictures from Peniche

Évora

The city exists from the time of the Roman empire and preserves mostly in its historical center, traces of different civilisationes and cultures: Celtic, Roman, Arabic, Judaic and Christian, that had influenced the culture of Évora. It reached its apogee in XV century, when it became the residence of the kings of Portugal. The architectural and artistic quality of the white houses or decorated with azulejos and of the verandas of forged iron is unique. The city´s monuments had also a big influence on the Portuguese architecture in Brazil.

The historical center is delimited by the medieval walls of the city. From Giraldo square start all the main streets, in radial structure.

Praça do Giraldo

S. Antão church, in Giraldo square

The most important monuments are: the Roman Temple (also known as Diana´s Temple), Sé Cathedral, the university, São Francisco church, the Chapel of Bones (this seemed the strangest and most lugubrious thing that I saw in Évora).

The Roman Temple (or "mine" :P)

Sé Catherdral

In the interior

The university of Évora

The yard

The Chapel of Bones from São Francisco church

The Chapel of Bones was something lugubrious, even thought the reason of its construction, by 3 Franciscan monks in XVI-XVII centuries, was the reflection of the idea that the man´s life is short, transitory, like the inscription at the entrance is suggesting.

"Nós ossos que aqui estamos pelos vossos esperamos" - "We bones here, for yours await"

The walls and pillars of the chapel are "decotared" with bones and skulls, coming from approximately 5000 human skeletons, from several cemeteries of the city.

More pictures from Évora

Alcobaça

The 2 rivers that cross the town are Alcoa and Baça, from which the name of the town is coming. Alcobaça is mainly well known for the Alcobaça monastery, built in a different style of the one of the majority of the Portuguese monasteries - in Cistercian style; name that comes from the Order of Cistercians (Catholic order of monks). Initially the order was set up by the monks of the benedictine monastery of Cîteaux (in Latin Cistercium).

The monastery

A part of the square in front of the monastery

What is specific to the style of construction of the monastery: high pillars of white stone, without to many decorations.

The cloister

The hall of the kings of Portugal, and with scenes painted with azulejos

In the interior there is the monastery´s kitchen, of huge dimensions:

Hornul

The dining room - up there was staying the one that was telling stories while the people were eating

In the monastery are burried Pedro and Inês. The story of the 2 lovers is known in all Portugal, at Alcobaça being also a celebration festival in their memory. Dom Pedro I, king of Portugal, gets married with the Castilian princess Constança Manuel, but he falls in love with one of her companions, Inês de Castro. When his wife dies, Pedro doesn´t keep secret anymore his relation with Inês. Pedro´s father, Afonso IV, being afraid of the influence that the family de Castro could of have over the Portuguese throne, he organizes the murder of Inês.

Then Pedro orders the construction of a majestuous grave for his beloved Inês, in Alcobaça monastery, place where he asked to be burried also, to be closer to her. Thus, in the monastery there can be seen the graves of the two, placed one in front of the other.

The grave of Inês de Castro

The grave of Pedro

Other graves, of different kings of Portugal and their children

More pictures from Alcobaça

Nazaré

According to the legend, the name of the town comes from a staue of the Virgin Mary, brought by a monk in IV century from Nazareth, Palestine.

It became a touristic attraction point, being known as a picturesque fishermen´ village. Being at the ocean, it has many long beaches, full of tourists in the summer.

The old center of the town is on a hill near to the beach, where you can get with an elevator or on foot, and from where there is a great view over Nazaré, the beach and the ocean.

Up in the old center

View from the hill

Nossa Senhora da Nazaré church - from the old center, on the hill

Up there

We went down on foot - it was faster, as at the elevator there was a really long cue

More pictures from Nazaré

We were very satisfied that we managed to see pretty much in the vacations of July and August, planning for September one outside Portugal.

Santos Populares

2007-06-14T13:29:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday, 12th of June – Santos Populares – it´s pre-celebrated St. Anthony, the patron of Lisbon, which is on the next day, 13.

Parade on Avenida da Liberdade, an important boulevard of Lisbon, big crowd of people, you can feel the festive athmosphere, the joy of people. The parades are also competitions between different residential districts of Lisbon - traditional dances, costumes, fanfares - it was interesting to watch.

I was there with Luciana, my Brazilian flat mate, and with a friend of hers, then, after the parade, we went to meet the rest of the group, which went directly to one of the traditional meeting places (in Largo da Graça, near to St. Jorge castle and Alfama, which is one of the traditional residential districts, together with Mouraria, Bica - places where the people use to go to party in this day) where people get out in the street, eat grilled sardines (traditional for this feast). People drink beer, sangria, they sing, some of them also dance traditional Portuguese dances, they are feeling good. I think that this atmosphere characterizes the best the style of the Portuguese - people that enjoy life, and yu can see, feel this not only during the feasts, which are btw numerous, but also in the rest of the time :-).

Second time in Germany

2007-06-14T13:26:00.000+01:00

Second delegation in Hannover...this time just 5 days (of work). Half of Sunday by plane, and starting with Monday we began..

This time, the hotel was close to the company, so every morning we were taking a walk in the parc that was between the hotel and Solvay. Full with flowers and something interesting: a chess board in natural size.

In the evenings, usually we were dinning and then we were going directly to the hotel, it was tiring - we were staying at the company until 8-9 in the evening (it happens in delegations, unfortunately) - and I needed to get rest.

What I liked in this visit was to meet again the people there, mainly 2 of them, to which we were more in contact, Thomas and Rolf, very nice people, open, comunicative, often amuzing. We went out to dinner one evening at a rustic terrace, near to the Zoo.

And because it had a rustic style, nearby there was - as a décor, but in the same time like a real one - a farm, with chickens, goats, stables, a small lake with ducks, cows (just these ones weren´t real), a tractor. I was with 2 colleagues to see and to make some pictures, we were amuzing ourselves very good: I "drove" the tractor, I carried the wheelbarrow with hay, I took a picture with the cows :D. Nice, I would like to stay in a vacation in some countryside traditional German little houses like these ones - it would be very relaxing.

We had a very good time with our German colleagues; we stayed from 19.00, until around 23.00, we didn´t even realize the time passing..

We left after 2 days, the good byes followed, with Thomas we´ll meet again in July in Lisbon, and with Rolf, who knows...

At Solvay, before returning to Lisbon

As the Germans say, “Tschüss”!

A first contact with the Portuguese antique art

2007-06-14T13:24:00.002+01:00

On Sunday I was at the National Museum of Antique Art, maybe the most important in the country...from a long time I wanted to visit museums, but apparently so far I visited other things in the weekends.

The location is very good, it´s on a high point, near to river Tejo. From up there at the museum there is a very beautiful panorama over the port and over Lisbon.

Inside, a lot of pieces of art, begining with the XIV-XV centuries and ending with XX century; in majority from Portugal, but also many from China, less from Japan and India.

It´s a very big museum, with many things to see and also very interesting...after 2-3 hours I started to be tired; I entered in the interior yard of the museum, charming, like a terrace, with tables under trees with violet flowers (they were in flower then), with statues, fountains and a great panorama over the city. It´s a place that inspires quiteness, calm, almost absence of time.

It was a beautiful day. I´ll come back to this museum.

May...violet flowers...

2007-06-14T13:24:00.001+01:00

Since a few days, some high trees blossomed, with violet flowers with a very nice parfume...but nobody new their name...

They are everywhere...I like them very much, at a certain time, at work, I had on the desktop the picture of a tree like that, it´s a relaxing image...Some of the trees started to lose their flowers, but in few days they blossomed again :-)

Papai, little people from Macau!

2007-06-14T13:20:00.004+01:00

Finally, the "papai" party of Chinese from Macau...it was useful this experience, of living 4 months with some people so different from you...but I don´t think I would repeat it.."Papai" (how you read it, because for sure you don´t write it like that) means the English "bye bye".

They invited more friends than at the usual dinners of almost every evening, I think there were more than 20 people in the small living room...

When I got home, in the evening, they were all there and singing something :-)...they invited me to taste some of the dishes, and to drink sangria they prepared; they were nice. They are disorganised and noisy, but never bad intentioned, just very, very different. I stayed a little with them, even if I didn´t understand what they were singing and talking, it was no need...

There was one of the Chinese girls that I won´t forget (the nice one, as me and Ovidiu used to call her), even if she wasn´t older than 21-22 years, she was so mature, empathic, and she was trying to comunicate with us, even if it was more difficult, because of the cultural differences. A different person, but which knew how to show that she cares :-). Sweety...before leaving, we gave each other some simbolic presents and she told me she´ll miss me...I´ll miss her too, in a way...

What makes them strong, the Chinese, but probably the Asian people in general, is also the fact that they are very united between them, not like some of us, Europeans, which we´re more individualistic...

Papai, little people from Macau!

The other Romanian from Solvay

2007-06-14T13:20:00.001+01:00

Since a month ago, there is another Romanian in Solvay, Gabriela Tanase ( Ferreira, after the husband), very nice. She´s in Lisbon from 5 years, married to a Portuguese, which she met where?.. :-) in Romania.

I´m glad she came...we laugh so good together. I´ve been confirmed one more time, that a person of the same language with you, understands you differently than a foreigner...

First time at the beach - Carcavelos

2007-06-03T00:23:00.001+01:00

Although it´s just May, it´s already beach time..I can´t wait to get to the beach! I went at Carcavelos, at half an hour of Lisbon - by train.

What is caracteristic, unfortunately, for the beaches at the ocean, is the strong wind and cold water. Only after an hour, it started such a strong wind, that you could almost be covered by sand :D...it´s a bit exagerated, but hardly you can stay at the beach like that..

So I left, but still I was glad that finally, after 4-5 months in Portugal, I got to stay also in the sun, at the beach :-)

Fátima - the Virgin´s celebration, 13 May 2007

2007-06-03T00:19:00.001+01:00

On the 13th of May, the Virgin Mary´s celebration from Fátima, I didn´t miss the chance to see for the first time live this important holiday, where people from all over the world gather, as I´ve seen until then only on TV.

I was there with Luciana, from Brazil, trainee in Lisbon, also.

We left in the morning, went by bus..in one hour we got there. There were already a lot of people there, but we managed to filter in through the crowd, as far as the square where the religious mees was supposed to take place.

The crowd of people in the square in front of the church of Fátima, where the religious mess took place

It was impressive to see so many people coming also from other continents here to Fátima, to celebrate the apparition miracle from 1917.

Waiting for the statue of the Virgin

The statue of the Virgin, starting the tour of the square

The people salute the Virgin´s statue

After the religious mess, people that surround the statue, on their knees

The white church of Fátima

In the interior

The Virgin´s statue inside the church

In the square there are also the statues of the 2 shepard children, to whom the Virgin appeared

Also here there is a piece of the Berlin Wall

First delegation in Germany - May 2007

2007-06-03T00:18:00.001+01:00

What is great in this traineeship, among other things, is that I have the opportunity to see also other countries - in delegations. At the beginning of May I´ve been for 10 days in delegation in Germany, Hannover, more precisely.

Our hotel

I could observe the German style: more reserved people, but still also amuzing, a perfect order, cleaness - things known by everyone. What I didn´t expect was to be so impressed by the 2 towns we visited - hannover and Bremen.

Hannover

At dinner with the delegation colleagues - first evening in Hannover

What I first noticed in Hannover, in the first morning, in the way to the company, were the numerous green spaces, muc more than in Portugal or Romania, and the big number of people riding bikes. The difference from Portugal and Romania is that they have bike tracks and thus it´s not dangerous like pedaling among cars. I liked that, but on the other hand I missed in those 10 days the latin, relaxed athmosphere of Lisbon (because this one is the most familiar to me now) and the relaxed style of the latin origin peoples. And not to forget about the ocean...I missed a lot also the ocean, or at least the fact that I know that I can get to it anytime, in half an hour...

In Hannover it´s very easy to make a tour of the city and to see everything that it´s worth it, without anyone guiding you, because there is something very interesting here - a red line which, if you follow, you can reach all the touristic points of the city, numbered and briefly described in a little red book, that you can buy with 2 euors from the turist office. So, I followed this red line, and on Saturday I saw all Hannover.

The red line

Many green spaces

The first city hall of the town

The current city hall of the city

The city hall

The opera house

I liked the German architecture.

The oldest house of Hannover

An interesting little tower

River Leine

At lunch - near the river bank

In the past the most powerful tower of the city´s fortifications - Béguine Tower

Kropcke clock - the preferred meeting point for the people of the city

However, we were in a delegation...some pictures from the time that we weren´t visiting :P. During the week it wasn´t so nice, we stayed until late evening at the company and we had time just for dinning and going back to the hotel. Even so, it was an interesting experience. After all, it was a delegation :-)

Solvay Pharmaceuticals DE

In the morning, at the company

Sometimes it was even funny - late evening, still working

The interior garden

Dinner in a very interesting decorated restaurant - with Sasha, our favourite waiter :-)

Bremen

Bremen is a very arch and nice little town, with more tourists than Hannover, as I´ve noticed. I saw of course the statue of the famous musicians of Bremen, an interesting wind mill transformed in terrace, and again a lot of green spaces.

The wind mill - terrace

Near to the old downtown

In the downtown

The musicians of Bremen

Picturesque terraces in Bremen´s downtown - full of turists

Narrow streets, with high red brick buildings

Calm atmosphere

A picturesque toy store - the toys were made manually

Which is the significance of the statue...I don´t know, but it was amuzing to ride the little pigs :D

More or less this happened in those 10 days... I got back to Lisbon very impressed of the arch German towns and of the pleasant atmosphere, but in the same time also glad to be again in the city that now represents "home".

Guincho beach

2007-06-03T00:16:00.001+01:00

Guincho - a beach at an hour by bike from Cascais (a well known resort near to Lisbon) is loved by surfers...there are big waves, wind; it´s a very big beach, very broad. We got there wth the bikes that we rented for free from Cascais, in the early morning, pretty early for a Sunday, having in mind that from home to Cascais we take around one hour and a half. But it´s worth waking up so early if you want to catch a free bike, isn´t it ? :-)

So, we left Cascais...the thing that we were not expecting was that Guincho to be so far, having in mind that someone told us that it´s at 15-20 min by bike...(maybe they were reffering to the Portuguese time, that takes 2-3 times more than the normal one :))...just kidding...). In the way, we stopped also at Boca do Inferno (Mouth of Hell), a huge rock, sculpted by the waves.

Boca do Inferno

Boca do Inferno

After pedaling a lot, we arrived...the beach is superb...Unfortunately in the afternoon a very strong wind started, so we were heading to Cascais; but Guincho was worth it.

Sintra - Palácio da Regaleira

2007-04-09T22:13:00.001+01:00

Second visit to Sintra - this time us and Luis, the trainee from Venezuela. There we decided to visit the Regaleira Palace, also called "Quinta da Regaleira". The palace is near to the historic downtown of Sintra, being considered by UNESCO world heritage.

It´s first owner, Carvalho Monteiro, assisted by the Italian architect, Luigi Manini, builds on the estate ("quinta") the palace, luxuriant gardens, lakes, caves and enigmatic constructions. The architecture is a mix of styles: roman, gothic, of Renaissance and manueline.

Quinta da Regaleira

Almost labyrintic gardens

In Regaleira tower

In the tower

From the tower it´s visible also the Mourish Castle

We entered an undergound galery, with stairs in spiral, sustained by sculpted columns, stairs that lead to the bottom of the well.