Alarm went off at 8:45 like every day. Managed to finally get out of bed at 9, like every morning :) This is tough, like a training camp :) But we have things to do and we did not come to Italy to sleep, right? Breakfast and off to the train station we went. The plan was to either go to Bologna or to Verona for a day - today is the day for Bologna as decided. Got the tickets for a regional train leaving in 1.5 hours.
To pass the time our search for internet started - it has to be hiding somewhere :) From information desk they gladly guided us to McDonalds as internet is supposedly there. Well, for McDonalds internet one needs to have Italian SIM card - we don't have it. Luckily the guy behind the counter could direct us to the internet cafe down the road. It was this awful dark little room with about 20 computers all locked and boxed off. Seemed like going back in time. Oh well, there was internet connection at least. 30 minutes went by in a flash - just few updates to the blog and paying a bill. Off to the train we went.
So Bologna. Town of the oldest university in Europe. First impression of the town was not very good - the area by train station has very busy traffic and no trees and lots of lots of people running around, there was no information desk to see which direction the town is at and so on. Bought a map from a coffee shop and started to make our way towards the sights.
So the oldest university in Europe was built on the 12th century already. Buildings in this city are all huge, huge and old. Buildings are nicely labeled with information, but all the text is in Italian of course :) Basically the only thing we can make out are the dates. And the dates go anywhere from 12th century. The arches we saw in Padova are double as high here.
Bologna is also the town of towers. There are 2 very tall stone towers (kinda like very tall pillars) still standing close to the center square. At some point there was about 200 of them but today only about 20 of them are still standing. Read a bit about the history of those towers as well - something to do with defending the city.
Criss-crossed our way through town and found all sorts of neat buildings and places on our way. Stepped into Dominic Basilica - yet another huge and magnificent holy building. This one was not as colorful inside as the others, had mostly white walls and white statues. And yet again many outside courts and little hallways here and there.
As we walked through the city my impression of the town got better and better. It is hard to grasp all the history and how old all the buildings and the whole city really is. Can't even imagine that their university was already up and running on the 13th century (founded supposedly 1088) and quite a bit of the city was already built by that time.
Took a train back to Padova at 8, quick stop at the hotel and search for a place to have dinner started. Found this peaceful restaurant by the river. Seemed to be a family restaurant where the owner would run around and talk with customers. Later came out that the lady of the house was from Bulgaria so she was more than happy to speak Russian for us. It was wonderful 3 course dinner and a long walk was needed before getting back to the hotel as it is not possible to sleep with full stomach.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Day in Padova - 1.sep
We were instructed to take a train to Padova - 40 minutes and voila. Buying the ticket was a bit of a hassle as one machine did not like cash and the other could not print the ticket. Eventually got a ticket bought to a train leaving in 20 minutes - 5.80 EUR for 2 people :) Unbelievably cheap. Yesterday when trying the machine out the cost for 2 would have been 28 EUR, must have been some direct fancy train I guess. Anyways, got to Padova quite quick despite the cheap train. 20 minute walk across the town and 30 minutes later we were already checked in at our hotel nicely.
Rehearsal dinner is at 8pm, we need to be ready in the lobby at 7:45 - this leaves us the whole day to look around town. Started off at the nearby Basilica del Santo which was built on the 13th century to safeguard the mortal remains of St.Anthony. Guide book also knows that the basilica blends Romanesque, Gothic, Islamic and Byzantine elements with elegant arched loggias, minarets and domes, and is a treasure trove of art works by Sansovino, Tiepolo and Titian (this Titian made it everywhere huh?). Again the interior was magnificent, lots of colors, lots of details, lots of materials mixed together and lots of little boxed areas for all sorts of important people. Too bad I don't know a whole lot about Catholic religion to dig deeper into the meaning of all the little rooms and seats in the holy house, but oh well, it was just pretty and fancy all over. People have done strangest things in the name of religion and built strangest buildings to represent all that they meant - history is beautiful I'd say.
The rest of the day we just wondered around aimlessly and kept our eyes open for anything we might want to have a closer look at. Padova is so much different than what we saw in Venice. Buildings here have roofed areas over sidewalks which form those cute arches you can walk through underneath (don't know how to explain those, just look from the photos what I mean). Stopped here and there to read small information sheets by buildings, had a sandwich somewhere, chilled at a Prato della Valle and stopped to have freshly squeezed orange juice at an open air cafe place. It is so nice not to know and not to have to care what day or time it is - life is beautiful.
In the evening met Ryan, Elena and rest of the crowd by the hotel and walked over to the restaurant all together. Haven't seen Ryan for ages and Elena ever :) Ryan is fluent in Italian by now and speaks also German as he has lived in Germany for years by now. Ryan's family is all here, grandparents, aunt and uncle, childhood friend. Elena's parents, brother with his family and aunt with her family joined us at the dinner as well. Dinner was nice, getting to know each other, speaking with their parents and enjoying the evening.
The plan was to go out after dinner :) Walked to the center of the town and what do you know, bells square was packed with people, just packed. Whole square was full of tables and seemed like a whole town was at this one square :) Strangest thing, apparently this is quite normal in Italy. But on a random Wednesday night at 11pm? Odd :) Tried out northern Italian common drink Spritz, took whole lot of pictures and heard many stories of Ryan and Elena. It was a wonderful evening. Walking home around 1am it was still quite warm outside, just like at home this summer.
Rehearsal dinner is at 8pm, we need to be ready in the lobby at 7:45 - this leaves us the whole day to look around town. Started off at the nearby Basilica del Santo which was built on the 13th century to safeguard the mortal remains of St.Anthony. Guide book also knows that the basilica blends Romanesque, Gothic, Islamic and Byzantine elements with elegant arched loggias, minarets and domes, and is a treasure trove of art works by Sansovino, Tiepolo and Titian (this Titian made it everywhere huh?). Again the interior was magnificent, lots of colors, lots of details, lots of materials mixed together and lots of little boxed areas for all sorts of important people. Too bad I don't know a whole lot about Catholic religion to dig deeper into the meaning of all the little rooms and seats in the holy house, but oh well, it was just pretty and fancy all over. People have done strangest things in the name of religion and built strangest buildings to represent all that they meant - history is beautiful I'd say.
The rest of the day we just wondered around aimlessly and kept our eyes open for anything we might want to have a closer look at. Padova is so much different than what we saw in Venice. Buildings here have roofed areas over sidewalks which form those cute arches you can walk through underneath (don't know how to explain those, just look from the photos what I mean). Stopped here and there to read small information sheets by buildings, had a sandwich somewhere, chilled at a Prato della Valle and stopped to have freshly squeezed orange juice at an open air cafe place. It is so nice not to know and not to have to care what day or time it is - life is beautiful.
In the evening met Ryan, Elena and rest of the crowd by the hotel and walked over to the restaurant all together. Haven't seen Ryan for ages and Elena ever :) Ryan is fluent in Italian by now and speaks also German as he has lived in Germany for years by now. Ryan's family is all here, grandparents, aunt and uncle, childhood friend. Elena's parents, brother with his family and aunt with her family joined us at the dinner as well. Dinner was nice, getting to know each other, speaking with their parents and enjoying the evening.
The plan was to go out after dinner :) Walked to the center of the town and what do you know, bells square was packed with people, just packed. Whole square was full of tables and seemed like a whole town was at this one square :) Strangest thing, apparently this is quite normal in Italy. But on a random Wednesday night at 11pm? Odd :) Tried out northern Italian common drink Spritz, took whole lot of pictures and heard many stories of Ryan and Elena. It was a wonderful evening. Walking home around 1am it was still quite warm outside, just like at home this summer.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Day in Venice - 31.aug
Alarm went off 8:45, bright and early. I was able to roll myself out of the bed a bit after 9 - shower and quick breakfast downstairs and off to explore Venice we went! There are 177 canals in this city, 8 different types of boats navigate on those waters. Bikes are not allowed in Venice so the choices are limited to walking or to taking a gondola/some other boat to get around. AND there are no stop lights to be seen at all :)
First stop was the train station to find out how we get to Padova tomorrow - seems super easy, there are many machines around to buy the tickets electronically, won't be a problem at all.
Now about the city. We started out from Ferrovia by crossing a new canal every 5 minutes, staring at the passing gondolas and admiring the tiny windows of the buildings. All there is is water, sidewalks and buildings and yet it all seems green thanks to the multiple plants on the windows and on the balconies. Water is cleaner than I thought and it does not even smell too bad around here - I expected the smell to be a whole lot worse but in reality it is not bad at all. Couple of times got stuck at dead end streets where the street simply ends with water and no sidewalk anywhere, still gotta walk to the end to see on which side the closest bridge is :)
Visited Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari on our way. As our guidebook says it is a masterpiece of Venetian Gothic ecclesiastical architecture, it took more than 100 years to build this 15th century church. Inside there are works by Titian and Bellini, many tombs, monuments and statues. Was quite magnificent. All the different monuments must have been built throughout hundreds of years as you could see overlapping of the materials and various different styles of statues. Whole church was a bit eclectic, but definitely worthwhile to check out.
Next strolled south through Dorsoduro district to Punta della Dogana and then back towards Ponte dell'Accademia. One can find many small bridges across the tiny canals, but when wanting to get across the Canal Grande there are only few big bridges (although there are boat services across every now and then). Canal Grande is called Venice's "highway", it is 4km in length, 30 to 70m in width and about 4.5m in depth. Traffic on this canal is something one has to see by him/herself - it is fun to see the boats rush by. At one point I kept looking at the boats and didn't notice the waves rolling in - got my feet all wet as there was no place to hide from the water :) Oh well, gotta expect of getting your feet wet when there is all this water around.
San Marco district with many sights got our attention next: La Fenice, Piazza & Basilica San Marco, Palazzo Ducale, Riva Degli Schiavoni which is a nice waterside promenade, lots of tiny streets and canals, Ponte di Rialto, San Giacomo di Rialto, Rialto market and finally a stop at Chiesa di San Giacomo dell'Orio. That was quite a walk :) Legs were aching already at 1pm and we reached our final stop around 7pm.
Stopped at a hostel to rest our legs for a bit and then on to find a nice restaurant for dinner. This time went towards Piazzale Roma and found a cosy restaurant by Rio Nuovo. It was strange to see the buses and cars when all you have seen all day is boats and people walking. Found ourselves in civilization again :) Although it was nice to not have cars all over the place, the sound of waves hitting the edges of canals is much nicer than the sound of car engines roaring.
Ice cream - gelato! It is everywhere here :) Had it twice today, yum. I'm not a huge fan of ice cream usually, would go for chocolate instead at any moment, but just had to try the famous ice cream here in Italy. And yes, it was delicious. Lemon one was awesome and then hazelnut one too. Yum-yum.
A bit of a history lesson from our guide book as well:
Famous artists in Venice - Giovanni Bellini 1430-1516 and Titian 1488-1576
Outstanding Venetians - Marco Polo 1254-1324, explorer who is responsible of introducing pasta to the western world. Antonio Vivaldi 1678-1741, an accomplished musician and influential composer, his famous work The Four Seasons was only one of his 500 concertos. Vivaldi spent extended periods teaching music at Pieta home for girls here in Venice. Giovanni Casanova 1725-98, romantic figure who was also a diplomat, scholar, trainee priest, adventurer, gambler, notary's clerk, violinist, womanizer, exile, millionaire, writer and a spy - whatta character :)
Venice is full of all sorts of masks - handmade in papier-mache and glittery plaster. Those masks are now strictly tourist fare, but they were once essential attire during Carnival, allowing aristocrats to enjoy themselves in anonymity. Carnival is held in February-March as a count down to Lent, it lasts for 10 days and the grand finale is the explosive Mardi Gras.
Just a note for all of you waiting next looong posts, there is no Internet here anywhere (as I should have known). And I'm in Italy, can't be much better in Africa ;)
First stop was the train station to find out how we get to Padova tomorrow - seems super easy, there are many machines around to buy the tickets electronically, won't be a problem at all.
Now about the city. We started out from Ferrovia by crossing a new canal every 5 minutes, staring at the passing gondolas and admiring the tiny windows of the buildings. All there is is water, sidewalks and buildings and yet it all seems green thanks to the multiple plants on the windows and on the balconies. Water is cleaner than I thought and it does not even smell too bad around here - I expected the smell to be a whole lot worse but in reality it is not bad at all. Couple of times got stuck at dead end streets where the street simply ends with water and no sidewalk anywhere, still gotta walk to the end to see on which side the closest bridge is :)
Visited Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari on our way. As our guidebook says it is a masterpiece of Venetian Gothic ecclesiastical architecture, it took more than 100 years to build this 15th century church. Inside there are works by Titian and Bellini, many tombs, monuments and statues. Was quite magnificent. All the different monuments must have been built throughout hundreds of years as you could see overlapping of the materials and various different styles of statues. Whole church was a bit eclectic, but definitely worthwhile to check out.
Next strolled south through Dorsoduro district to Punta della Dogana and then back towards Ponte dell'Accademia. One can find many small bridges across the tiny canals, but when wanting to get across the Canal Grande there are only few big bridges (although there are boat services across every now and then). Canal Grande is called Venice's "highway", it is 4km in length, 30 to 70m in width and about 4.5m in depth. Traffic on this canal is something one has to see by him/herself - it is fun to see the boats rush by. At one point I kept looking at the boats and didn't notice the waves rolling in - got my feet all wet as there was no place to hide from the water :) Oh well, gotta expect of getting your feet wet when there is all this water around.
San Marco district with many sights got our attention next: La Fenice, Piazza & Basilica San Marco, Palazzo Ducale, Riva Degli Schiavoni which is a nice waterside promenade, lots of tiny streets and canals, Ponte di Rialto, San Giacomo di Rialto, Rialto market and finally a stop at Chiesa di San Giacomo dell'Orio. That was quite a walk :) Legs were aching already at 1pm and we reached our final stop around 7pm.
Stopped at a hostel to rest our legs for a bit and then on to find a nice restaurant for dinner. This time went towards Piazzale Roma and found a cosy restaurant by Rio Nuovo. It was strange to see the buses and cars when all you have seen all day is boats and people walking. Found ourselves in civilization again :) Although it was nice to not have cars all over the place, the sound of waves hitting the edges of canals is much nicer than the sound of car engines roaring.
Ice cream - gelato! It is everywhere here :) Had it twice today, yum. I'm not a huge fan of ice cream usually, would go for chocolate instead at any moment, but just had to try the famous ice cream here in Italy. And yes, it was delicious. Lemon one was awesome and then hazelnut one too. Yum-yum.
A bit of a history lesson from our guide book as well:
Famous artists in Venice - Giovanni Bellini 1430-1516 and Titian 1488-1576
Outstanding Venetians - Marco Polo 1254-1324, explorer who is responsible of introducing pasta to the western world. Antonio Vivaldi 1678-1741, an accomplished musician and influential composer, his famous work The Four Seasons was only one of his 500 concertos. Vivaldi spent extended periods teaching music at Pieta home for girls here in Venice. Giovanni Casanova 1725-98, romantic figure who was also a diplomat, scholar, trainee priest, adventurer, gambler, notary's clerk, violinist, womanizer, exile, millionaire, writer and a spy - whatta character :)
Venice is full of all sorts of masks - handmade in papier-mache and glittery plaster. Those masks are now strictly tourist fare, but they were once essential attire during Carnival, allowing aristocrats to enjoy themselves in anonymity. Carnival is held in February-March as a count down to Lent, it lasts for 10 days and the grand finale is the explosive Mardi Gras.
Just a note for all of you waiting next looong posts, there is no Internet here anywhere (as I should have known). And I'm in Italy, can't be much better in Africa ;)
Arriaval to Venice - 30.aug
Whole day went by in the name of sleep :) Was so tired in the morning that I could barely drag my feet around. Flight from Tallinn to Berlin I slept, in Berlin I had 5 hours to spend half of this time I slept and on the flight from Berlin to Venice I slept again :) Good start for my vacation - getting fully rested! Bad thing is that I missed the beautiful entrance to the city, supposedly this was a wonderful sight. Oh well, next time then.
Meeting my friend at the airport was easy - our baggage claim belts were right next to each other. To get from airport to the city we were instructed to take the water bus. There were also water taxi's available, but bus version is much more affordable. Four different water bus lines, 50 minutes of waiting and looking at the sunset and there we were - packed like sardines in this stuffy yellow boat with the rest of 15 tourists. It was already dark outside when we headed out. Lots of rocking back and fourth, splashes on the window and couple of stops, people getting off with their huge bags. Just to be on the safe side I turned on my map service to track our progress, worked out quite nice, little red cross moved alongside of the coast just as it should. Guglie - our stop arrived. Strolled off with some other people and started to navigate our way towards the train station.
As hunger was eliminating our vision we stopped at a roadside restaurant to fill our stomachs. One linguine, lasagna, bread and wine later we headed on towards our hostel. Finding the accommodation was quite easy - navigating here is quite easy in general, before you get lost you are stopped by water :) Was so tired that I basically fell on the bed and off to sleep I went as soon as my head hit the pillow, time was a bit past midnight. There was just one little problem - we had no blankets. They forgot them or something, luckily I had my sleeping bag with so no major hassle with that either.
Meeting my friend at the airport was easy - our baggage claim belts were right next to each other. To get from airport to the city we were instructed to take the water bus. There were also water taxi's available, but bus version is much more affordable. Four different water bus lines, 50 minutes of waiting and looking at the sunset and there we were - packed like sardines in this stuffy yellow boat with the rest of 15 tourists. It was already dark outside when we headed out. Lots of rocking back and fourth, splashes on the window and couple of stops, people getting off with their huge bags. Just to be on the safe side I turned on my map service to track our progress, worked out quite nice, little red cross moved alongside of the coast just as it should. Guglie - our stop arrived. Strolled off with some other people and started to navigate our way towards the train station.
As hunger was eliminating our vision we stopped at a roadside restaurant to fill our stomachs. One linguine, lasagna, bread and wine later we headed on towards our hostel. Finding the accommodation was quite easy - navigating here is quite easy in general, before you get lost you are stopped by water :) Was so tired that I basically fell on the bed and off to sleep I went as soon as my head hit the pillow, time was a bit past midnight. There was just one little problem - we had no blankets. They forgot them or something, luckily I had my sleeping bag with so no major hassle with that either.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Vacation 2010 - Italy & Africa
Countdown for the trip has started :) I have less than a month and so much is still open, mostly worried about visas and plane tickets, not so much about other arrangement (like housing or tours).
Overview of the initial plans go as follows:
30.08-5.09 ITALY ... few days in Venice, on to Padova, Bologna/Verona visits, wedding in Arqua' Petrarca, more of Venice
6.09-14.09 ZIMBABWE ... Bulawayo, Matopos, Hvange, Victoria Falls, Harare
15.09-24.09 TANZANIA ... Dar Es Salaam, Zanzibar, Arusha, Ngorongoro crater, Serengeti, Lake Manyara National Park ... and who knows what else :)
25.09-1.10 MOZAMBIQUE ... lots of beaches and islands, some national parks perhaps. this is still a bit open :)
Arriving to Tallinn on the 2nd of October!
As my vaccination passport is basically full of all sorts of shots and vaccines I only need one to be renewed + malaria pills (I'm a bit afraid of those, but gotta deal with it I guess).
Zimbabwe visa is being processed, Tanzania and Mozambique one will get from the border hopefully :) All the plane tickets between different countries have been purchased, local ones have been booked but not purchased yet. Zimbabwe plans are quite clear and confirmed. Zimbabwe is ongoing and Mozambique is quite open still.
Going to Italy with my friend Kelli, Africa trip will be together with Tiina. Tiina is doing a wonderful job contacting all the needed people and getting itineraries arranged - thank you :)
Overview of the initial plans go as follows:
30.08-5.09 ITALY ... few days in Venice, on to Padova, Bologna/Verona visits, wedding in Arqua' Petrarca, more of Venice
6.09-14.09 ZIMBABWE ... Bulawayo, Matopos, Hvange, Victoria Falls, Harare
15.09-24.09 TANZANIA ... Dar Es Salaam, Zanzibar, Arusha, Ngorongoro crater, Serengeti, Lake Manyara National Park ... and who knows what else :)
25.09-1.10 MOZAMBIQUE ... lots of beaches and islands, some national parks perhaps. this is still a bit open :)
Arriving to Tallinn on the 2nd of October!
As my vaccination passport is basically full of all sorts of shots and vaccines I only need one to be renewed + malaria pills (I'm a bit afraid of those, but gotta deal with it I guess).
Zimbabwe visa is being processed, Tanzania and Mozambique one will get from the border hopefully :) All the plane tickets between different countries have been purchased, local ones have been booked but not purchased yet. Zimbabwe plans are quite clear and confirmed. Zimbabwe is ongoing and Mozambique is quite open still.
Going to Italy with my friend Kelli, Africa trip will be together with Tiina. Tiina is doing a wonderful job contacting all the needed people and getting itineraries arranged - thank you :)
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Long weekend in Portugal - late update
Wanted to post news about my upcoming trip and noticed that I still have not written anything about my wonderful Portugal trip! So here it goes:
First of all I want to thank Liisi's friend Helen and her partner Duarte - they were the most wonderful hosts. Taking their time over the weekend to take us all over the place and to show us all sorts of things - to introduce us Portuguese culture. Big-huge-enourmous thank you for that!
On the first day we headed to town with Liisi. Tried to see as much as possible - the castle, the shops, the main square and squares surrounding the main square, the train station and all sorts of streets between there. Lisbon is a beautiful town. All the up-and-downs on the streets were a bit tough on our feet, but all of it was secondary :) They got cute trams here! During the day we found was lots of wine and ice cream and scones and salads and snacks and chilling and fountains and many-many beautiful sights. It was a good day. In the evening Helen and Duarte took us to a big shopping mall a bit out of town, across the river, late night shopping + dinner. Arrived home half dead :)
On the second day we headed to Belem with Liisi - took one of the fancy new trams there, found our way to the monastery and then to Centro Cultural de Belém, there was a very nice exhibition with all sorts of practical materials/things turned into art. Since Belem is all about Vasco da Gama (famous Portuguese explorer) our next stop was at Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries). It is this huuuge tower built by the river, tourists can climb to the top and there is a museum with cinema down-stairs. I highly suggest the cinema actually - I quite enjoyed it, although I was fighting sleep the whole time :D Oh and the sardines! I had the best sardines ever! On our first visit we missed Pasteis de Belem :( but we fixed it few days later with the help of Helen and Duarte.
Then came the weekend :) Close to Helen and Duarte's apartment there is a flee market couple of times a week in the mornings so we stopped by to check out Feira de Ladra. Amazing what they sell there - everything from spoons to candles to books to jewelry to clothes. It was a fun place. As Saturday was quite rainy our next stop was even closer to water - we visited the Oceanarium. That was a wonderful place - we must have been there for hours :D Again, highly suggested! Also stopped by the cakes place in Belem - Pasteis de Belem's were wonderful! Aaaah almost forgot, in Belem, at the electricity museum we also managed to visit the World Press Photo exhibition. Quick tour through Lisbon - few viewing platforms, few parks and drinks, few bars and a nice restaurant. What a perfect day!
Sunday, Duarte took us all around to Cascais, Cabo da Roca and Sintra. Now one at a time. Cascais is this wonderful seaside town about 45 minutes out of Lisbon. What a beautiful perfect little Portuguese town. It was simply too perfect :) Had the best ice cream there, walked around and headed on following the ocean side to Cabo da Roca - westernmost location in whole Europe. Location is breath taking - high cliff above dark blue-green ocean. Just gorgeous. Took quite many photos there :D On to Sintra we headed. Duarte took us around the town, showed us beautiful mansions and houses and introduced us to yet another type of delicious cakes. Visited his parent's house and a very large garden, met his brother with his wife and little cute daughter :) Evening was topped off with home delivery sushi and off to bed we went.
I returned home on Monday, Liisi stayed one more day in Lisbon. Don't even wanna write too much about my trip back. Yes, my flight was delayed because of the ash :( I missed my connecting flight and ended up spending an extra night at Stockholm :( Oh that was a tough one. Was dead tired once I got back. BUT!! The trip was awesome and not even this little delay with my return could change that.
Again - thank you Helen and Duarte. Hope to see you soon!
First of all I want to thank Liisi's friend Helen and her partner Duarte - they were the most wonderful hosts. Taking their time over the weekend to take us all over the place and to show us all sorts of things - to introduce us Portuguese culture. Big-huge-enourmous thank you for that!
On the first day we headed to town with Liisi. Tried to see as much as possible - the castle, the shops, the main square and squares surrounding the main square, the train station and all sorts of streets between there. Lisbon is a beautiful town. All the up-and-downs on the streets were a bit tough on our feet, but all of it was secondary :) They got cute trams here! During the day we found was lots of wine and ice cream and scones and salads and snacks and chilling and fountains and many-many beautiful sights. It was a good day. In the evening Helen and Duarte took us to a big shopping mall a bit out of town, across the river, late night shopping + dinner. Arrived home half dead :)
On the second day we headed to Belem with Liisi - took one of the fancy new trams there, found our way to the monastery and then to Centro Cultural de Belém, there was a very nice exhibition with all sorts of practical materials/things turned into art. Since Belem is all about Vasco da Gama (famous Portuguese explorer) our next stop was at Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries). It is this huuuge tower built by the river, tourists can climb to the top and there is a museum with cinema down-stairs. I highly suggest the cinema actually - I quite enjoyed it, although I was fighting sleep the whole time :D Oh and the sardines! I had the best sardines ever! On our first visit we missed Pasteis de Belem :( but we fixed it few days later with the help of Helen and Duarte.
Then came the weekend :) Close to Helen and Duarte's apartment there is a flee market couple of times a week in the mornings so we stopped by to check out Feira de Ladra. Amazing what they sell there - everything from spoons to candles to books to jewelry to clothes. It was a fun place. As Saturday was quite rainy our next stop was even closer to water - we visited the Oceanarium. That was a wonderful place - we must have been there for hours :D Again, highly suggested! Also stopped by the cakes place in Belem - Pasteis de Belem's were wonderful! Aaaah almost forgot, in Belem, at the electricity museum we also managed to visit the World Press Photo exhibition. Quick tour through Lisbon - few viewing platforms, few parks and drinks, few bars and a nice restaurant. What a perfect day!
Sunday, Duarte took us all around to Cascais, Cabo da Roca and Sintra. Now one at a time. Cascais is this wonderful seaside town about 45 minutes out of Lisbon. What a beautiful perfect little Portuguese town. It was simply too perfect :) Had the best ice cream there, walked around and headed on following the ocean side to Cabo da Roca - westernmost location in whole Europe. Location is breath taking - high cliff above dark blue-green ocean. Just gorgeous. Took quite many photos there :D On to Sintra we headed. Duarte took us around the town, showed us beautiful mansions and houses and introduced us to yet another type of delicious cakes. Visited his parent's house and a very large garden, met his brother with his wife and little cute daughter :) Evening was topped off with home delivery sushi and off to bed we went.
I returned home on Monday, Liisi stayed one more day in Lisbon. Don't even wanna write too much about my trip back. Yes, my flight was delayed because of the ash :( I missed my connecting flight and ended up spending an extra night at Stockholm :( Oh that was a tough one. Was dead tired once I got back. BUT!! The trip was awesome and not even this little delay with my return could change that.
Again - thank you Helen and Duarte. Hope to see you soon!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
In Portugal for few days
Forgot to update you all here :) Arrived in Lissabon last night, got through few obstacles with flights and all was good in the end :) Liisi, Helen and Duarte came to get me from the airport - was dead tired so straight to bed I went.
I don't know the plans, but all seems exciting and fancy over here. I also know for sure that I won't be sitting in the web a whole lot, so don't expect too many stories here this time - I'm on vacation you know ;)
Toodles!
I don't know the plans, but all seems exciting and fancy over here. I also know for sure that I won't be sitting in the web a whole lot, so don't expect too many stories here this time - I'm on vacation you know ;)
Toodles!
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