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