Weeeeeeeeeeee The annual mediavel fair at Óbidos, a tiny village that archeology dates back to 208BC, has arrived! In my opinion it is one the best medieval recriations that you can find in the country! And one of the biggest! I go there every year and it wasn’t an expection this year. Good as always, entertaining as always but above everything else, very very fun! After all, we all had to eat with wooden spoons (you know, knifes and forks wasn’t something that everybody had that time) or even with our own hands, like proper pigs! It’s a medieval fair, meaning: no napkins, no cokes, no pepsi, nothing! None of those fancy things we are used to nowadays.
Just a quick post about the so beautiful and interesting Irish culture. As you know, I’ve been in Ireland once and unfortunately I didn’t have the chance to see some tapdancing or anything typically Irish. Truth is, I’ve seen and experienced more Irish culture in Portugal than in Ireland, as weird as it might seem
I’ve watched Lord of the Dance some years ago in Pavilhão Atlântico and I’ve listened to some guys that usually play in an Irish bar near Cais do Sodré now and then, and yes, I really love it.
This month we had Celtic Legends stopping by Lisbon’s Casino to please the Portuguese folks one more time with the always mega entertaining Irish tapdance I’ve watched the show in the front row (which was awesome) and god, it was worth it! Honestly I prefer LOTD a thousand times but this amazing group of artists was also very good and always very communicative with the audience. Had a great time
Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures this time ’cause the bad guys didn’t let me But you can still watch some clips I found in youtube Enjoy!
P.S - I really hope I can see some kind of Irish music next time I stop in Ireland!
This was not the point of today’s trip. We drove around Portugal for 4 hours trying to find Serra d’aire but that turned out to be an impossible mission. You can imagine that 4 hours later we were (me and H.) very very fed up of all this driving and all we wanted was to go back.
However, we found this (Moeda Caves) and we could not not visit it They’re pretty cool (it’s just rocks but who cares?) and they date back to, well, god knows when. Yes, yes it’s worth it and inside the caves you can listen to chill out music which turned out to be a very very good combination
Stay tuned for the next trip, if we find the spot, of course.
…and another place to visit if you’re into visiting special places, e.g., the place where Shakespeare wrote his books. Or maybe not… Historians don’t know anything about this gentleman but his date of birth and death. All the rest is pure speculation and theories came from an alien planet. Meaning: no history lessons this time
Speculate!
Either way, let’s just pretend that the pictures below are in fact the place where he was born and where he lived… To tell the truth, I’m neither a Shakespeare nor a Camões fan. But as I usually say, still interesting though!
Stratford-upon-Avon is my ultimate favourite city in England The river makes it beautiful and besides that the old buildings makes it magical. Oh, and the ice cream and hand made chocolate shops look reallyyyy great
Me, G. and H. had a great time there (although i got a horrifying cold) eating chocolates Not very good for your belly…
Enjoy!
P.S - Oh, and inside Holy Trinity Church you can find Shakespeare grave…although I’m not sure if its just the grave of someone called Shakespeare or if it is the grave of the poet who wrote Romeo and Juliet. Whatever… lol
Pictures (from top to bottom): Shakespeare birthplace (you have to pay £9 to get in…what a nonsense); Shakespeare grave (£3, another nonsense); the river Avon and G. and H. See more
So, who doesn’t like J.R.R.Tolkien and C.S.Lewis? Everybody does! or almost… (sorry V., I know you hate it!). I’m a huge fan (and so is G.) and we’ve decided to go there long time ago but for some reason we never had the chance to visit Oxford, the city where magnificent books were written.
Until this week.
We were very excited to see the pub, The Eagle and Child, where the two authors discussed their works. Gosh…How I wish to have been there to see them talking about hobbits and Aslan and, eventually, ending up in a huge fight. (Yes, geek stuff - there was some rivalry between the two). The pub looks great and you can almost imagine the inklings there by the fire
Tolkien’s grave is also a cool place to visit although it is just a grave lol
Unfortunately we didn’t had the chance to visit neither Tolkien’s house nor Lewis’. Another time, who knows?
As to the city itself…well, it’s just beautiful and you know…you never quite get fed up of it ’cause it’s filled with geek memorabilia, including the Christ Church, which is lovely, where Harry Potter and The Golden Compass were shot.
Pictures (from top to bottom): 1) The Eagle and Child, inside the rabbit room (where the inklings met), 2) Tolkien’s grave (can you see there written Luthien and Béren? So romantic…, 3) the Hall of Christ Church 4) the garden still inside Christ Church and 5) the first round library in the world. See more.
So G. arrived yesterday and we (G., the other G., H. and I) decided to go to Warwick Castle (built in 1068), you know, another castle in England Always fun for the castle lovers like me.
We had a splendid day (it was sunny regardless the forecast) there. Loads of gardens with the always colorful and vain peacocks, eagles, owls, catapults (we saw the biggest catapult in the whole word - the trebuchet - firing a 15kg stone into the air. And what a hole it left on the ground!), greenhouses and lakes.
I’ve seen lots of castles in England but none like this. Ghost towers, state rooms, dungeons and the list keeps on going on and on. I would definitely encourage everyone to see this one first! ;)
As usual, loads of pictures to see… enjoy
Pictures (from top to bottom): castle and surrounding area, me and G., the guys, G. b&w and the trebuchet.
Why do I keep on traveling when I’m short on money? I want a restaurant, not MacDonalds. I want cabs, souvenirs and nightclubs. Oh well, you can’t have it all. Either way, it’s still worth it even if you have to sleep on the street or don’t sleep at all (my case).
We left Coventry on Friday at 1am and we got to Zurich at 8am (yes, we spent what felt like an eternity in London airport). We had 2 hours in Switzerland before the flight to Budapest so I and H. decided to take a look at Zurich. A very short one :P
I’m going to be honest here. Zurich has top notch cafes and restaurants! God, everything looked so delicious. And so expensive! (Why don’t they have Euro anyway?) Oh, and ate some sandwich with swiss cheese… Apart from that, from what I’ve seen in 2 hours, everything looked sooo clean. C’mon, a city has to have rubbish on the floor!! It looks unnatural! (2 points for the people of Switzerland!) Oh well…yes, it is great when you live in a clean city. As to the rest of the city it looked…weird. There were portuguese flags all over the place Although I didn’t like Zurich I believe there’s lots of beautiful things to see there…not particularly in Zurich but in other places, near the mountains perhaps. I’m definitely making a come back.
At 2pm we arrived at Budapest (the airplane looked like my grandma’s car). My greatest fears started to come true. The language, the language, the language. ‘Do you speak English?’ - ‘No.’ - ‘French?’ - ‘No.’ - ‘Spanish?’ - ‘No. German’. German??? I have no clue! lol Yes, it was very difficult to find someone who speaks english but what the heck! There’s nothing better than gestures! And from that moment on ‘ok’ became a thumbs up :)
As to Budapest it looked beautiful. The old monuments, building and bridges is what makes it a gorgeous city. A little bit too old and degraded perhaps. I still have mixed feelings about Budapest. When you’re walking down a beautiful street you can immediately realize there’s a horrible one next to it. The truth is that sometimes I felt like I was in those markets that you see in the Travel Channel. Warning! Do not enter metro3! Scary place! Budapest has beautiful places to see but it also has the most horrible ones! Buses from the year 2000 and buses from the year 1000 lol The parliament was my favorite! It’s astonishing!
We then went to Miskolc for the Epica classical concert. A 3 hours concert is more than you usually expect so yes, it was great Just a quick note for Simone Simons, the vocalist: ‘Jesus Mary and Joseph! 1st you’re fat; 2nd you don’t give a shit about the audience! Great music and voice though!
Enjoy the pics
P.S - I had (still have) some horrible back pain during the whole trip
Pictures (from top to bottom): the parliament; Széchenyi chain bridge; dinner before the concert (it was heaven!); Simone Simons in concert. See more
This is not exactly a post about a trip; well, it is if you think this is a trip down the rabbit hole
I had post today and I thought it would be another letter offering some stupid services like the one I received yesterday: someone offering me a free kitchen ‘- - But it was not! It was a copy of The Cannon’s Mouth, a poetry magazine publishing since 1983. No big deal about this. The thing is, there were three poems of mine there! (you can see them in my other blog winterpages.wordpress.com) Yes, I’m extremely happy! I know I’m no Shakespeare but it’s still a milestone in my pseudo career as a poet lol
Oh well…it was the first time I was published and I have to celebrate
Many thanks to my friend V. who keep saying ‘Send those fucking poems to a magazine you idiot!’. Thank you dear.
P.S - the poems are: ‘white mask and a red rose’, ‘what if’ and ‘Little lamb had a dream’.
‘A day on the beach in England???’. That was my reaction when someone told me we were going to the beach with the uni. I mean, England is famous for many many things but not for its beaches, for sure! Even so, I had to give the benefit of the doubt. Who knows? Perhaps there’s a missing paradise nearer than I thought
Well, it’s not Algarve, that’s for sure, but it’s still great. The weather was really good (I’m a bit tanned actually) and there’s beautiful landscapes to be seen. As to the sea water…well, it’s not blue. For some reason (which I haven’t quite understood yet) it is brown. Details…
There’s plenty of coffee shops, restaurants (yes, including the so famous fish and chips which I hate), stalls with all kinds of nonsense (lol), ice cream stalls, donnuts stalls, all kinds of good things stalls The great pier is definitely worth of visiting; you can see by the pictures that there’s a lot of couples around Weston-super-Mare especially in the pier. But there’s a bonus! Along the pier there’s speakers with music and guess what it was playing…Frank Sinatra classics! This is the part where you’ll get depressed if you don’t have a bf/gf
I spent most of the day photgraphing people I dont know but it was fun anyway! I didn’t visit any churches or anything else ’cause I’m a bit tired of doing that so I decided to stick with the landscapes Enjoy!
Pictures (from top to bottom): doesn’t really matter! P.S - that pointy thing is a monument to symbolize man’s harmony with the sea See more
The annual mediavel fair at Óbidos, a tiny village that archeology dates back to 208BC, has arrived! In my opinion it is one the best medieval recriations that you can find in the country! And one of the biggest! 
But you can still watch some clips I found in youtube 
They’re pretty cool (it’s just rocks but who cares?) and they date back to, well, god knows when. Yes, yes it’s worth it and inside the caves you can listen to chill out music which turned out to be a very very good combination 
