Give round the World realize a dream that we shared a since we met. Our first idea was to change to a European country to study and get to know their neighbors.
The planning began when we started our relationship with the decision to create a financial reserve for this purpose. The initial plan was to leave Brazil in the second half of 2010.
However we decided to anticipate our trip and during the review of our plans, we question our real desire to study there and then decided to change the time of study on a journey of cultural immersion in several places.
As a good project managers we started our planning for this adventure. Day 16/05 is the START DATE.
The estimated journey time is 6 months. We are making a spending plan of up to 200 euros per day for the couple. The style will be the famous backpacking and we will get accommodation in hostels and cheap hotel too.
Check now our itinerary, remember that there is not a default order.
Meet our itinerary of the trip.One thing is very important to be highlighted. This itinerary is always open because we do not have the pretense of visiting all these cities at a frenetic pace. We will calmly and knowing each one of your best way with the intent to look through the eyes of residents.
The estimated journey time is 6 months. Lines that are in the map below represent only a logical sequence of visitation of the cities.Due to internal promotions on flights in Europe and also trains tickets this "order" can be changed. We may also delete or include new cities in the itinerary.
Look the cities that we plan to visit. The order is not completely defined and can be changed at any time.
We are already in countdown to departure. Is less than a month and we are racing against time with the final details. For this is nothing like putting on a "Project Plan" the activities pending.
We began our adventure in Lisbon on may,17 and we are faced with small problems that we did not expect , including to the internet access.
The city is quite nice, with great infrastructure and can be easily visited by anyone. We had no problems in crossing the city from end to end by subway, bus and train.
Lisbon has around 600,000 inhabitants (roughly equal to Uberlandia) and is divided into two very distinct areas: the old that was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1755 and the new part of town that hosted the event Expo 1998 .
On the second day in Portugal we decided to explore the surrounding of Lisbon. The first stop was Cascais, which took the opportunity to purchase the required items to the rest of the trip in Decatlhon (prices are much better than in Brazil).
Cascais is a seaside village located 38 km from Lisbon where it has beautiful beaches as you can see in the pictures.
We left Cascais walking along the seaboard and stopped at Estoril for a little rest.
We took the train and went to Bethlehem where we went through the monuments: Monument of the Discoveries, Belem Tower and Jeronimos Monastery. Here of course we ate the so famous "Pastel de Belém" and liked so much. It really is very tasty.
In the next morning we followed the Sintra. In this city we took a bus carrying the major sights. We visited Pena Palace and Moorish Castle.
We can certainly say that the weather is fantastic in Fatima and we're not talking about if it is hot or cold. We are talking about the enormous energy of this place. We feel really welcomed here.
The village of Fatima belongs to the municipality of Ourém and is about 1hr and 30min by bus from Lisbon. The sanctuary annually receives nearly 4 million pilgrims. Even a week before our arrival, Pope Benedict XVI visited the sanctuary and prayed Mass for thousands of faithful.
We reached the city late in may, 19 and chose a hotel right near the bus station and just 300 meters from the church. We were very well received and we had a great treatment.
After a shower we walked to the church and we feel that this is truly a blessed place. We participate of the Rosary and candlelight procession. It is beautiful to observe, when men gather to pray the differences in languages disappear, each mystery was recited in a language (English, Portuguese, French, Spanish and Italian) and followed for all without any problems.
We talked bye to Portugal in a big style. Just left Porto after delighting us with the tasting of exceptional wines. We know the cellars where the wines are stored in barrels for several years. We found that the sweet taste of port wine is due to the process of stopping the fermentation of grapes to the 3rd day with the addition of brandy, this process causes the grapes sugar remains in the wine.
When we got to town we went straight to the hotel which was only 1 block from the road. We took a shower and went to walk the neighborhood. At first we found the city dirty and very old. We can say that Porto is prettier at night than during the day, the buildings are quite old but the night lights make them charming.
We were at a restaurant very simple .. near the hotel and ask for a codfish. This is a wonderful dish and serves as two people (the only two pieces of fish occupied a dish of our traditional dishes). It was served with very crispy skin fried and accompanied vegetables, onion and plenty of olive oil. A delight! That was one of the things that charmed us in Portugal.We ate very well.We also had our experiences with the "canned" McDonald's and Subway, but the typical Portuguese food is very close to ours and had no eating disorder.
Not so nice moments also occurred in Porto.Starting from our hotel to the second site booking.com had reported that the Internet are available in rooms.When we try to connect .. Guess what .. only available in the hotel lobby and it was too bad. To update the site had to stay in the hallway near the lobby for "we take" sign on the Internet. After the morning we decided to get pass that sightseeing bus which we always see in movies. Good. this was a terrible experience. We will speak more of it in our podcast.