MAGICAL CHRISTMAS LIGHTS IN LISBON

Christmas is not a big deal for me but I'm still fascinated by the smell, lights, smiles and joy. I don't really care for gift swapping because I don't like the feeling of obligation, I dislike spend a whole afternoon looking por possible gifts for my friends and family. It's too much pressure! When I'm inspired I make some gifts but I need time and motivation. I still give my beloved ones presents but I do it during the year, when I come back from a trip or simply when I'm walking and I find something I know that person will love and need. I probably should buy the gift and wait for Christmas but I can't wait to see the person reaction :D Maybe next year I'll do it differently and just give my gifts away in Christmas time. 

EIGHT THINGS I STILL WANT TO DO THIS SUMMER

It's true that Fall is around the corner (10 days left already?), my favorite season. But there are still few things I wanna do Summer 2015. 

Here goes a list:

(Could also be a list of things to do in South Portugal) 

1. Explore an island 

We have paradise islands in South of Portugal that I never been before. It's incredible I have been in Highway 1 in USA but some incredible spots closed to my hometown never been seen by me. I have been in Armona (in this picture) with ocean in one part of the island and river water in the other. Now I want to spend all day in Ilha Deserta (Desert Island) walking around and relaxing. Look at this crystal water wow!

THINGS TO DO IN FARO [PORTUGAL]

Low Cost flights with Ryanair brought even more tourism to the South of Portugal, where I grew up. The airport is situated in Faro, capital of Algarve (province of the very South of Portugal), so many people stay for one or two days to visit, before heading to the touristic towns: Albufeira and Portimão.

I studied 4 years in Faro University so I know well the streets and lifestyle of this city. I’m going to be honest here: I don’t like Faro. Everytime someone ask me what to do 4 or 5 days in Faro I have no clue, since I think one entire day is more then enough. Thru my eyes the city is not pretty but there’s always some spots you gotta visit and experiences you gotta take everywhere you go.

FLEA MARKET IN AMSTERDAM

Everytime I'm travelling I always search for nearby Flea Markets to take a look what looks like antiques in the country I'm visiting. I also search for vintage shops, they usually have such a beautiful and inspiring decoration and I admit, I love to meet the shop owners or staff hah! I usually spend one hour or so exchanging information about vintage and I always bring something with me.

CURIOSITIES ABOUT LUXEMBURG

I told you guys before that we decided to make a quick visit of four days in Luxemburg because we had no idea what was this country about. Besides these sisters I used to play in the street during Summer time when I was 8 years old, I never ever met someone from this country.

I could read a book about Luxemburg or search for facts using our dear friend google but noooo this is not how I work right? If I want to know more about a country, I'm simply going there. Certainly locals have interesting stories you cannot find out on books or internet.

CANALS BOAT TRIP IN AMSTERDAM

What comes to your mind when the word Amsterdam comes out? Very good guys!!! Bikes. Coffeeshops (attention not Coffee Shops). Canals.

My lovely Ana is living there for one year now and I was mega curious to know how she was living, meeting her friends, her house, her work place, her boyfriend feel how is to live in such beautiful touristic spot. Oh well, honestly? Anywhere in the world I could be with Ana again would be awesome, we have a strong connection, cannot live without eachother basically ;D

CORNERS OF ANTWERP

Greetings from Amsterdam, the land of bikes and channels :)

Our arrival in Antwerp was tough, from sunny Portugal we moved to a big storm, including rain, cold and windy Antwerp! We were not motivated at all but as soon as locals said this is normal we had no choice but being happy with what we got and just hoping the rain wouldn't show up for the next days.

Antwerp is pretty nice, the second most international city in the world (total of 174 nationalities, Amsterdam is the first with 177 and New York has 150 nationalities.) Imagine the different cultural quarters in the city, you can travel the world inside the city! And the best way exploring is definitely with the bike. You can go anywhere and the city is well prepared with bike lanes, great to waste less time in traffic jams, less pollution, it's free (no gas or paying for parking) and you live like a real local. If they live 30 minutes away from work they will cycle instead of using the car.

NEXT STOP: NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM AND LUXEMBURG

You might be wondering Marta doesn't travel out of Portugal for 2 months, what's going on? Don't worry next week I will be in Europe for a short trip of 20 days in Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg. Because is such a quick trip we planned days to be in the places so we don't waste one minute. 

PRETTY PLEASE: If you are living or traveling in the same place and same time as me I'd love to meet up with you! Haven't meet any foreign Shanti Free Bird reader yet and I'm excited to do so. I love to meet people!! Save the date, for July. 

HELLO BEACH SEASON

When you born and grow up in a 5 minutes distance walking to the beach it's pretty hard to be far away from the ocean. After 2 weeks without ocean I have the need of breathing the breeze, feel the salty water on my feet, walk in the sand. Can be Winter, doesn't matter. Not to mention the stunning sunrises and sunsets!

In my area we live a quiet and stress free life during Winter time but when it's Summer all beaches are packed, traffic jams happen and all you want to do is to yell "Get out of my land!" But that's not cool. Everybody is welcome. South Portugal's main economy source is tourism, we usually work hard on Summer to make sure we have enough money to live during Winter. Doesn't it sound like ant's life?

If you are wondering where this wonderful beach is in ... Portimão. It's called Praia do Alemão (literally German Beach). Look at this paradise! 

PHOTO AN HOUR [MAY 18TH]

On the third day of Road Trip in Portugal I decided it was about time to make another Photo an Hour Post. It was a long day, full of nature landscape, hiking two different trails and sharing "hellos" with locals. Let's take a peak on my day.

8am | Woke up, meditate and finished coloring the mandala I started last night. If I don't do it right the way I will never finish because I lose inspiration.

ROAD TRIP IN PORTUGAL

 One of my Goals for 2014 was to go on a Road Trip in Portugal, here we are! When you have empty family houses you gotta take advantage of the situation right? Bruno's relatives have houses all over Beira Interior area and we have 2 empty house keys, yuppie!

Feels good to travel differently for a change. This time we have our own car and our own houses to sleep, cook, relax, make friends with neighbours.

LISBOA OR LISBON OR LISBONA OR LISBONNE

::Source::

I don't get the point why they translate city names? Isn't it the identity of a place? Same thing when people call me Martha when I'm Marta. I understand is all to make it easier for people who can't pronunce well because of the language, but common let's make an effort. At least I smile when a foreigner says Lisboa instead of Lisbon or Porto instead of Oporto, doesn't it sound much better Milano instead of Milan?

VINTAGE TILES IN QUARTEIRA (ALGARVE, PORTUGAL)

Today I felt like a tourist in my own hometown: it was a sunny day, took my camera, Ricky and here we go!

I love traditional things and tiles are magical. Quarteira is filled with tile houses, mostly are hand painted. Some looked mandala inspired. And together with the tiles, the doors, the door number, a window.

TRANSYLVANIA CALLING FESTIVAL 2013 (ROMANIA)

It took me a while to post these pictures but I was waiting for Viktor to send them to me. I know, shame on me, I haven't take any pic, not even one, but my brazilian friends had profissional cameras and were very happy taking pictures of everyone so I left this "job" for them (good excuse for my lazyness)

It was a pleasure to be part of the tribe of Transylvania Calling Festival 2013, August 19th - 26th, I've made such strong connections with such beautiful beings. It's the difference between twenty thousand people and two thousand in a festival, you get to see your friends more often and share more moments together. It was also great that I met up old friends from Portugal, these seconds you freeze and then make a huge smile and hug them. The Festival was free for portuguese so can you imagine how many portuguese in one spot?? I totally forgot we were in Romania, I could listen portuguese everywhere.

Our shanti shanti camping site covered with smiley and happy portugueses, brazilians and one german :D It was lots of fun!  

TRAVELING ON A LOW BUDGET - 3 MONTHS IN EUROPE RECAP

The cool part about traveling is the diversity, try to travel in different ways, using different transports with different people. I enjoy to travel in different ways: I traveled 21 days with 2 friends on a InterRail (by train), I backpacked alone 7 months in Asia and Australia (bus, train, planes), I traveled 3 weeks in North Portugal with my partner (by car) and I traveled in Europe almost 3 months with my partner (hitch hiking).

This last trip in Europe we spent around 900€ BOTH OF US. Something like 150€ per month each. With this budget of course you cannot do everything you feel like but the challenge starts here. You start living with few money and the less money you have, the more you reconize you don't need it. I'm not saying that you can live without money, I'm saying you don't need to spend so much money.

EURO TRIP IS OVER... FOR NOW!

I can't believe this is actually our last day in the european continent. Almost 3 months flied away and if I look back I can say I had the time of my life. In this 3 months, 1 month was spent literally on the road with my thumb up, asking for a ride. Sometimes we were lucky enough to wait 10 minutes or we also spent 7 hours in Belgrad waiting for someone who could stop the car. I learned many things along the way, learned about myself and about others. I learned how to be patient and to be positive even many times I was down in the sun at 1pm or standing while it was raining. I meet up many many people from different countries with different ways of thinking, different costumes, different life style. The differences make us learn.

Bruno feeding the reindeer in Slovenia

CALANQUE DE SUGITON (MARSEILLE, FRANCE)

Going to Marseille wasn't planned at all. We looked at the Europe Map and agreed we would stop between Slovenia and Spain for a good break and Marseille sounded... good!! 

All  I knew about this city is that a bunch of portuguese people come here for vacation and that probably had a beach. To be honest I'm very impressed by the beauty of South of France, the only part that sucks is that hitch hiking is not so easy... where you find fancy cars and rich people is always harder but not impossible :) We just caught the train without paying, prayed for Ganesh and no troubles! 

SKOFJA LOKA (SLOVENIA) IN BLACK AND WHITE

On January 2011 I met 3 adorable slovenian girls named Polonca, Nina and Irene in Vietnam but I couldn't guess 2 years later I'd see all of them again in Slovenia :) This considences in our life we are so grateful.

In our way hitch hiking France to Greece almost straight we passed thru Slovenia and promised ourselves in the way back to Portugal we would stop in Slovenia for few days and it's been one of the highlights of this trip. Slovenia is this magical country sourrounded by shining green montains, wild cows, sheeps, horses everywhere, lakes, rivers. Everytime we are driving somewhere I cannot close my mouth, it's incredible everywhere you look at.

A PHOTO AN HOUR: GOLDEN BEACH *THASSOS ISLAND*

New feature in the blog!! I hope I can do this every week. Photo an Hour means I will take a photo every hour in one day. I found it fun and awesome to look back to my day with photos. And oh well I guess this is a great start with a day in the Island Thassos, actually my last day out of 4 days in paradise. Check it out!!

10am || Breakfast time! We were camping in Golden's Beach. The camping site was right in front of the beach, such a hard life :) Of course the breakfast includes cheese: feta and danish blue.

HITCH HIKING FROM PORTUGAL TO GREECE

So far this was one of my Life important missions and when I look at this map a bunch of memories pop up, all the people we met up in the way, all the frustration moments, the feel of adrenaline kicking in, the CHALLENGE.

As you may know I'm always up for a new challenging, especially challenging myself to the limit and the idea of going to Greece hitch hiking was just perfect for the Summer. But you need to be physically and mentally prepared. We were 4 days straight in the high way, eating bread with tuna, sleeping outside in the gas stations. This are not really good conditions of living you may asking yourself why I do this to myself and I answer: for the experience.

As a matter of fact I will hitch hike this Summer and then I don't know when I will do it again, if I will one day...