7th week - retrospective of travelling

Ola,

This week was full of travelling - either virtual one in presentations of people who were/going abroad or real one when I used the chance to visit the South of Portugal.

The DISCOVERIES of this week:
15. Soviet Union. A lot of people here are very interested in how was the life there in S.Union times, how the empire crashed, etc. This inspired me to get to know about this a bit more and remember some history lessons:)
16. Bureaucracy - 2,5 hours to open a bank account, filling 3 A4 size pages with the most interesting questions - at the end I really missed the question about my hobbies and either I have a pet here or no:)
17. LT presentation in AIESEC, Macy bye bye, tasting codfish for the first time.
18. Ice cream in cafe on the bank of Tejo
19. Zodiac signs - once I had an interesting conversation about this and realized that I have never really tried to find out more about. Well, why not now?:)
20. Albufeira
21. Faro, Tavira

This week I decided to write less and to let photos speak for themselves. So, the retrospective of the week in pictures:)

The retrospective starts here...

And finishes here...

If life was a destination, the story would finish here. However, life is all about the journey full of nice moments...

... getting to know other cultures, as Marco was in CEED in Tajikistan this summer and presented his experience; as Teresa (a.k.a. Macy) is leaving for her internship to India and presented the country she is going to.

... presenting Lithuania once again, this time to AIESEC people.












... leaving a piece of Lithuania to the Local Committee - they are going to have a collection of flags to cover all the walls in the office. During this evening they received 3 flags: Tajik, Cape Verdian, and Lithuanian.

... tasting Tajik vodka. It was really tasty even drinking a pure shot.

... saying ´bye bye´ to Macy who is leaving to India, Jaipur.

... tasting codfish or ´Bacalhau´ for the first time. Portuguese people are the ones who eat the most of this fish in the world even though they import it from Northern countries. They say that there are 1001 recipes to prepare it. This is something you should not miss if you come to Portugal - it is really delicious:)

... finding beautiful beaches and really developed tourism industry in Albufeira - one of the cities in Algarve region in the South of Portugal. The majority of the tourists there are British, so services are really adapted - bars where they could see football games, menus in English, etc.

... finding narrow white streets which look even whiter because of sunny sky there. South of Portugal has a really warm climate, so you can go there and enjoy the beach even in the end of October.

... finding green spots with unusual trees.

... finding rocks in the middle of the ocean and having a swim next to them.

... lieing on the beach and enjoying interesting conversations with interesting people.

... not stopping smiling:)

... trying to find the way out of the beach and finding some dangerous wholes in the rocks.

... realizing that it is not so dangerous, though:)












,,, once more finding the passion for mountains, rocks, and climbing.

... catching some nice views (am I the only one seeing the heart there?:)).

... having Turkish kebabs in Indian cafe with guys from Mozambique, Brasil, and girl from Costa Rica. Could this be called `living diversity´?

... tasting Portuguese Muscatel (a kind of wine) from under the table not to get frozen as the night was quite windy and cold even in the South of Portugal.

... having fun with friends in a disco. Do you know that British girls in the South of Portugal are called ´beefas´as they are white and get a red sun-tan after sunbathing on the beech. And Portuguese guys like eating ´beefas´as they come here to really have `fun´.

... finishing the night really tired but really happy.

... finding the capital of Algarve region - Faro - with some exotic elements for my eyes there.

... visiting the bridge from Middle ages - one the biggest tourist attractions in Tavira city.

... tasting sardines - typical food in the South.

... finding a relaxing athmosphere with the nice environment.

Life is a journey not a destination - this is the quote I once heard and really liked. Life is a journey with the destination - the updated phraze that I like more.

Kisses and a piece of sun from still warm and sunny Lisbon:*

Ruti

6th week - one step aside

Oi,

The week that I call - one step aside. One day I was deeply thinking - I have a credo for my internship which is ´at least one discovery every day´, however, it is quite hard to achieve. Not everyday I go to unknown places, taste new food, participate in events.

And that day I decided to go on foot to a place which is half an hour from my home. I really did not expect that I would find my neighbourhood in a different way - really realizing what the area I am living in looks like.

So, it really depends on myself. Even living your everyday life in a home country it is easy just to make one step aside from a usual route or routine and experience small new things or see the world around through different glasses.

Discoveries of the week:

8. new office + typical Portuguese food

9. presentation for @ interns in ISCTE

10.discovering the day with no discoveries

11. discovering neighbourhood

12. sleeping for 3 weeks

13. Mouth of Hell and picnic

14. Carcavelos beach - 7 different nationalities in one place

New office. Remember when I was writing about THE TOPIC in our company? So, finally the topic is over as we have moved to a new place. In the same building, with the same railway above, however, it is much more modern and light.

Naturally, the new office had to be baptized. Portuguese wine, olives, typical bread, meat, cheese... We could move more often:)

Mouth of Hell and Cascais. Next to Lisbon there is a small city (or better to say - district of Lisbon) called Cascais. It is a quite expensive area with a lot of hotels, beautiful beaches, rocky cost and a place called Mouth of hell as one of the main attractions of the tourists.

This was one of the destinations for the weekend. And I enjoyed the time a lot. Having a long walk with a friend along the beach, seeing mouth of hell (which to my mind is just one of the beautiful rocky places in that area - see a short film from that place), having a picnic, tasting cooked chestnuts (kastonus) for the first time, finding some intrigueing views (see the photo with 4 legs behind the rocks:)).

Carcavelos beach - 7 different nationalities in one place. Another day of the weekend was not less interesting - with Indian, French, Italian, German, Portuguese and Ukrainian playing volleyball in the beach. Diving into big waves of the Atlantic Ocean afterwards. Seeing beautiful evening sky and coming back home feeling rested and ready for the next week of discoveries:)

And for the end of this message a simple but interesting idea about sleeping. Sometimes we say that we like sleeping or need to sleep a lot; but actually we like not to sleep but to feel rested:)

Beijinhos or kisses:*

Ruti

5th week - dancing like there is no tomorrow

Ola,

The fifth week here in Portugal was shorter in terms of work because on Friday (5th October) Portuguese people celebrated Republic Day. However, the pace of life was extremely fast, and the phraze ´living or dancing´like there is no tomorrow could be the slogan of this week.

About everything from the very beginning.

DISCOVERIES:

1. Life music in an Irish pub with a glass of Guiness:)

2. Secret cafe with a special spirit inside

3. Discovering the day with no discoveries

4. Finding Portuguese music - The Gift concert

5. Finding North of Portugal, camping

6. First time in Portugal dancing like there is no tomorrow:)

7. 100 km traffic jam

Camping in the north of Portugal. One of my friends invited me for camping and international cinema festival in the North of Portugal, so it was a good opportunity to find Portugal in a different way.

5 people, 2 cars, ~250 km to the place where according to some people it is already too cold to camp - near the place where during the winter they have SNOW:) But who can stop 5 discoverers?

So, on Friday afternoon we were already there, building camps, and heading for the place where the cinema festival was supposed to be. Campings in Portugal are more or less the same as in Lithuania - in the middle between jungle and intelectual tourism:) We were quite civilized ones, as we had a gas oven to cook our meals.

Weird art. The festival was supposed to be a modern cinema festival but we watched different kinds of alternative art - exhibitions, concerts, short movies. It was different and nice, especially when the athmosphere was really international - there were bands from UK, USA, people from other countries.

Dancing like there is no tomorrow. The main part of the festival was for sure at night and we enjoyed this part a lot - first of all going to a concert to some alternative band and afterwards to a disco with DJs. It was weird because most of people there really had to warm up to start dancing, so half of the night everyone was just drinking, chating (remember the culture of communication?:)), and dances started just at ~3 a.m.

One of nights was a recovery for me as I really missed dancing here. I danced a lot and with passion for dance, quoting one of the people who were together: ´dancing like there is no tomorrow´:)

Local cafe. As our weekend was taking place in the North of Portugal, the athmosphere and typical reality there was much more different then in Lisbon. We spent quite much time drinking coffee, beer, eating termoços (next paragraph about his:)) in a local cafe or better saying kiosk with tables around:) At the end of our stay we new the names of some constant local visitors, the saleswoman, and really warmly said bye bye to them.

Termoços. A lot of Portuguese people have tried to explain me what termoços are and the explanation was something like this: yellow things that are very good with beer and typical to Portugal. And actually noone knew where they come from, is it a vegetable, ceed or something else:) I do not know as well but for me it is very similar to boiled yellow beans with salt.

Rice with pasta. But we ate not only termoços. Most of dishes were typical for camping and students: pasta, tuna, rice, canned food, and even rice with pasta. Interesting - I do not say it was not good:)

Traffic jam 100 km. After a nice weekend it was time to go home. Another 250 km on the highway. Usually, when you say highway, one can expect going 110km per hour or more. However, when it was left around 100 km till Lisbon we were stuck in a traffic jam. That´s an experience... Actually, some Portuguese people told that they have less traffic on the highway even during Christmas. 3 days weekend made it´s job:)

Portuguese music. During one week I had a chance to find two most popular Portuguese bands. One evening a band called The Gift made a free concert for students, so it was a good chance to hear them live. They play a kind of pop rock, have a very exceptional vocalist (you can see in the picture). I really loved it as my last years are full of rock concerts:)

Another one - Xutos e Pontopés - is a band already playing for more than 15 years, and they played for us personally in the camp from the laptop.

What is the colour of love? This was one of the discussions we had in the camp in Fundao. Usually, when you tell the word, you can match it with some colour. And it is very strange that love most of the time is associated with red, which to my mind is the colour of passion. Love for me is blue (try to avoid extra thoughts about ´blue´ relationships:P). Because it is connected with harmony and has a lot of small feelings and experiences inside.

Greetings from still warm and sunny Lisbon;)

Ruti