First summer holiday :)

He he :D holidays! holydays!

Oh yeah baby!

Well, what to say, holidays like this I want to have all the time! :) I just came back to Portugal and Diana's free days and holiday just started to come. My boss also had to travel in South America, so I could have free days in the same time! Perfect!

We decided that we should visit the north of Portugal. The plan was simple: Oporto-Braga-Guimaraes-Geres and something else if we will have time and mood for that.

We started at Oporto, staying more than two days, visiting the most important parts of the city, without rush, in a very relaxing mood.



From a long time I wanted to visit Oporto, especially that lots of people says that is the best Portuguese city. Having only 2 days available for this city, we decided to use a sightseeing bus which was taking us in the most important zones in the city. The great advantage is that you go up and down when and wherever you want, the ticket was for 1 day, the buses leaving every hour. From the pictures that I saw before I was expecting a city with lots of old buildings, on both of Douro river sides. We found out that Oporto is only on the right side, on the other side is Gaia, another city.

Porto... and Gaia

Coming back to Oporto, the city is a little bit different that Lisbon, the buildings seemed to me more crowdy, like some big ants family living there. Because they didn't had plain relief, they built wherever they could, on the rocks, the buildings looking because of that like being on stairs. It's interesting to see the small houses with low ceiling where these people are living, you might wonder if is not dangerous for their heads. The answer is simple: They don't, because the Portuguese has a small average size, like some hobbits. Small people, small buildings... usually they have just 3 or 4 floors.


What is also impressing is the high amount of churches on square kilometer. The churches are majestic, some of them are decorated outside with "azulejos" ( a kind of ceramics that is used for decorations, usually blue). The majority are also inside very beautiful. We saw some that are very old, from the Roman Empire times, when here was Lusitania Provence. I was wondering what kind of technology they had in that period, that they made them so resistant than they resist until nowadays.


If the people from Lisbon are hospitable and kind, those in Oporto are very hospitable and kind. If you ask someone for help, you can't get rid of him, you will have an encyclopedia gladly speaking in front of you for minutes. Pretty similar with the people in Transylvania. One example of Portuguese kindness we founded in an evening when we wanted to buy something from a supermarket , but it was closed. We asked some locals about another supermarket and they offered to give us a lift there, something like hitchhiking inside the city. We were wondering if something like this could happen in Lisbon, but is pretty hard to imagine it.

A park with a nice garden...

...where we found a small shovel :)

looking to see if a "mourinho" (small moor) will attack...

At the Cheese Castle, at the ocean. It's called like that because in a period inside there was lot of cheese...

We left for Braga, where we stayed at some Brazilian friends. Are pretty OK these Brazilians in general, they cooked for us "Muqueca Capixaba" a Brazilian local dish, fish boiled with onions, tomatoes, parsley and some condiments. We also cooked my personal specialty, having a good feedback from our hosts. They leaned a new word also, "Tuica".

Diana, Rafael and Sergio

We walked in the city, also visited the most well known church in the area, Bom Jesus de Monte. We got on the top using an "ascensor". Only when we returned using the stairs we realized that the "ascensor" was a very good decision. There are hundreds and hundreds of stairs... is like they are never ending...

Bom Jesus do Monte

We visited also Guimaraes, the place considered the heart of Portugal, because from this small city the construction of Portugal begun. The extinction of the small kingdom in Guimaraes was only to the south, never to the east across the mountains, as agreed with their Castilians neighbors. "Aqui nasceu Portugal" is a kind of motto for this small city. Starting the 20s here were restored the old castle, the palace, the old streets and houses.

Santa Maria Street, the most beautiful street from Guimaraes

Me, the small warrior

Guimaraes Castle

For the end we visited Geres natural park, being told that this one is the most beautiful natural park in this country. We explored it, getting until Spain... about 50 meters :P
It's so good to stay in a calm, chill out atmosphere, far away from the loud and dusty city! The view looks like our Romanian mountains, without to many exotic plants.

the lake

a small natural swimming pool...

Portuguese-Spanish border, to Galitia Province. It looks like some locals in North of Spain want independence.

up in the mountains

my heart will go on :)

there are lots of Portuguese who likes sport cars

Diana, the photographer... also a "victim" :)