HAPPY 40TH ANNIVERSARY MOM & DAD !!

 

As a matter of fact is not everyday that you hear someone is married for 40 years. Today my dear parents can say they are together for fourty glourious years! But it wasn't always easy... There was some though times that my dad was serious ill and couldn't work for 2 years. Mom worked day and night to make sure me and my brother had all the basics (and extras too) to live an happy life. 

I remember dad being a fishman and bringing fresh fish every morning for lunch. Or the boat rides or the day trips every weekend. Watch sunset every Sunday in the beach with them. It's been a simple but joyful life. Aren't the smallest things the best? I will keep all these memories in my heart.

This is also a good moment to say how much I love my parents and how grateful Iam for the education and values they transmitted to me. I wasn't a easy teenager, I wanted to change the World and was ready for a revolution. Thanks for being so patient! And then I grew up and became a traveler full time, not the regular daughter but still, you are always there to support me, even if you don't understand my lifestyle. 

Antonio and Elisabete I really hope you will celebrate more years of learning, understanding, love, trust, compassion together! 

Much love from your Martita who are far away phisically but always close in the heart :)

EIGHT THINGS TO DO IN BOGOTA

Bogota is not that type of city and you will fall in love the first second there: is not beautiful at all, super pollutted, that much busy that you take almost 2 hours in the bus for a ride that shouldn't take more then half an hour. Besides these points, Bogota has beautiful areas and places to visit, not to mention that is sorrounded by high mountains.

Overall I suggest you to spend a week there, I'm pretty sure you won't get bored. There is always a party outdoors going on, electronical music in the park, live concerts and many other events, you just have to get out of your hostel and walk to find them out.

PUSHKAR FAIR IN INDIA

Today I bring you a bit more of Indian Culture but this time thru the eyes of Sashin Kaushik. This amateur photographer from Jaipur (India) quit his engineering course to follow his dream of being a photographer. 

I support arts and talented beings who had the guts to fight against what society wants you to be, to live an happy life being yourself and doing what you really want.   

Sashin is the author of all photography and text that is coming. I was present in Pushkar Fair 2011 and I highly recommend this event! This is also a glimpse into indian lifestyle, rituals and culture. Enjoy :)

LIFE IN SOUTH AMERICA (AND CULTURAL SHOCK)

Hello dear pals and traveler fellows!

You have no idea how much I missed this place, my virtual home. These 2 weeks were completly insane, really! I left Portugal in the end of September and seems I'll come back in the end of April, wow!! Remember when I talked about settling down? Hahaha it's not going to happen... for right now. But I have some plans for 2015 including leaving my life of nomad and living out of a backpack and live one year somewhere, which is still a secret. First I gotta be sure that is going to happen, then I can spread the word. If all goes as planned, I finally can host people in my house :) It's about time to pay back all these years staying with adorable and helpful friends, family and couchsurfers.

WHY I DISLIKE TOURISTIC BUSES

Touristic Buses can be very easy to use and usually affordable but when I look at people riding one, they look so sad and bored... Never noticed? Do it the next time you see one.

I understand that most tourists that use it only have 2 or 3 days to see as much as possible the city, this way is quick and you don't get tired, just sit your butt, look around, take pictures and listen the guide person (if there's one or if it's not a tape). But do you actually feel the vibe of the city?

I only used one touristic bus in Toronto and I think it was the first and last time. Even if I only have 6 hours in a city! I rather use my feet and explore as much as I can. In the way I'll go to a local restaurant and order traditional food with a refreshing local drink.

The good thing about it? You can get a free map and follow the route walking or cycling ;)

GUIDE: TWO DAYS IN SAN DIEGO

What do you think when you hear about San Diego? Sun, beach, surf, palm trees? I can tell you are 100% right, plus, San Diego is a really relaxed and chilled city, far away from the terrible traffic jams of Los Angeles or San Francisco.

I only been two full days in San Diego so I had to make the most of it! Grateful I'm in Couch Surfing and was able to find a great local host who drove us everywhere and told us about this nice city and the sorroundings. He also brought us to the best brownie and pizza in the World (Andy if you are reading this, thanks a lot dude!)

If you don't have much time in San Diego here is my suggestion for an itinerary:

SHANTI FAVORITES #9

 Arya Clothing became one of my favorite shops in Etsy, look at this bohemian gipsy hippie skirt! There are also other handmade goodies like hip lether bags, unique design tank tops, hoodie scarves and other ethnical beauties.

OH SO AMERICAN: HALLOWEEN

If in Europe we consider Halloween the creepy night where we get out with scary costumes like zombies, witches or skeletons, in USA you will find cute rabbits, fairies or mermaids. Their costumes look more the ones we wear for Carnival and it's so fun to play around our characters, being someone we aren't in a daily basis.

Halloween is not only partying with costumes, there are other fun activities like carving pumpkins and knock neighbour's doors playing trick or treat. It's a great economic time of the year for the stores that sell candy and chocolates, the consumism is full on in the end of October. Other fun activities include telling scary stories and watching horror movies.

ALAMANY FLEA MARKET IN SAN FRANCISCO

First thing I search online when arrive a place? Local Flea Markets! Last year when I was visiting San Francisco I attended Berkley Flea Market and this time I was lucky enough for being in SF for the weekend so I got a chance to visit Alamany Flea Market. It's every single Sunday from 8am until 3pm but at 1pm many vendors start packing up so don't arrive too late. It's situated in 100 Alemany Blvd and you can get bus number 9 to get there. If you are driving there's plenty of space to park your car. We walked almost one hour and in the way we found Bernal Peak, a great hill to have a great view to the city and to the bay.

TEN CITIES I'D LIVE FOR 1 YEAR

If you are around this blog for a while you know that I'm not really a city person. I will visit cities of the World that apply to me or are famous but I don't think I'd live forever in a city (never say never). But in a certain way there are cities out there that are beautiful or I felt a really good vibe as soon as I got there. Do you know this feeling? You smile just walking in the streets and feel you kinda belong there. 

I enjoy to make lists just for the fun and few days ago I wrote a list of ten cities in the World I've been before and wouldn't mind to live for a year... or two. 

VICTORIAN + ALTERNATIVE NEIGHBORHOOD OF SAN FRANCISCO: HAIGHT ASHBURY

Guys, I owe you ten thousand posts about San Francisco! I've been trying my best to write down all the interesting things you should visit in this awesome city I love more and more. But the truth is that I go with the flow and totally forget about internet and my blog stays a bit behind... here Iam! 

After spending more then a month working and visiting my friends/american heart family, we finally decided to rent a car and explore South of California. Guess what? We couldn't rent a car because we do not have a Visa, Martercard or American Express Card... What a BIG bummer. USA without a car sucks big time, if only transportation was good and organized... not happening. 

OH SO AMERICAN: "HELLO, HOW ARE YOU?"

There are all kinds of stereotypes about americans: they are very patriots or they think their country is the best, they only eat fast food and are over weighted. Obviously this is not true, only a small percentage of americans might be like this, but also in every single country you will find people with these characteristics. This is something humans have to change, we have to stop making absurd generalizations and start thinking a person as unique personality and not an entire nation as a whole. 

SHANTI FAVORITES #8

 How come I haven't tell you about Her Library Adventures Blog yet? It's my favorite blog, my number one! Mostly of bloggers cannot choose only one blogger but I can because I love the way Sophie writes and also what she writes about. (Eg: Living with Less) You also will see a bunch of inspiring pictures, I love her taste! What I really appreciate about Sophie is that even though she has an one year old princess daughter, she doesn't talk about her all the time. Some bloggers I was following in the past became mothers and nearly all the posts were baby related which is a boring subject for me.

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT ME? - 50 TMI TAG

TMI stands for Too Much Information, a great way to SFB readers know more about the explorer Marta, her hidden secrets and loves. I stole this Tag from Monika and had a great time reading about her so I thought this would be fun to share with you.

If you ever answer to this questions please leave a comment below. If you don't know bloggers to tag the next Tag you answer think about me, I looooove to answer this kind of things, they make me think about me and my life. It's kinda terapeutic!

So, here we go! Have fun :)

LANGUAGE BARRIERS - FUNNY STORIES

During my travels I had really embarassing moments of using body language (aka looking like a monkey) to show people what I needed. Many times looks like they understand me but in the end I noticed that they were only saying yes with their heads and not understanding a word.

Today I'll share three funny stories that happened to me. Hope you enjoy! Happy laughs :D

Story 1. I was traveling in a InterRail across Europe with my cousin and best friend and we arrived in Prague late. We were bored at the house we rent, it was raining outside but we were curious about the nightlife of the city so we decided to explore. As we were running from the rain, we would look at the pubs names but we couldn't understand a thing in check so we just entered a random pub. We ordered some drinks and when we looked around we only could see men. A minute later we figured out we were in a female strip tease club. We ended up staying there until we finished our drinks and actually had a great time! 

NAME 3 IN INDIA... ADVICE FROM LOCALS

Since a bunch of my friends are going to travel to India soon, I thought would be helpful to ask indians about their own country in a easy way: answering all questions with 3 words. Just small tips, an idea of what to do, eat or see... The explore part, the experience and the memories are with you!

Dhanyavaad (thank you in hindi) to all indians who sent me their answers, this information is very useful! Can't wait to go back to India and follow your tips :)

If you enjoyed this "Name 3..." post and you're traveling to any country you'd like to know more local tips, please let me know which country in the comments, maybe I can make another "Name 3 in (insert country) for you and whoever is interested.

MEALS IN MINUTES VINTAGE BOOK

You know, I'm a book lover, if I go deep in the story you can pay me a trip to Bali and I won't go just to read the whole book (hmmm Bali? Wait a minute! I might go!). Then I can't resist to vintage items, a vintage book? That's way tooo much to handle.

FORT BRAGG AND THE OCEAN

Hello! Hola! Olá! I've been a month in California and no photos of my travels for you yet. I've been mostly in the country side working as housekeeping and gardening so I don't have excellent pictures that deserve a blog post.

Since we don't have any more work and about 3 more weeks until our flight we decided to explore the area we are right now. We started with the weekend in Fort Bragg, a pretty colorful little town in the coast of North California.

It's windy out there but just the feeling of smelling and watching the ocean, I didn't care for being cold or not. If you are around for a while you know I born and grew up in the ocean so I miss it a lot when I don't get to see it for few days. I definitly need to buy a house in front of the beach! :)

LEAVING FOR TOMORROW WHEN YOU ARE LIVING TODAY?

In Vietnam with my traveler buddies Karen from Holland and Gabriela from Mexico

“Risks aren’t scary anymore when we face them. The perfect time to do what we want doesn’t exist. There are people who spend their whole life saying ‘One day I will…’ and that’s a virus that destroy them until they die. Why people work hard in the best years of their lives, hoping for an utopic happiness in the last years?” (In Estou nua, e agora?)

[CLOSED] SORTEIO DO LIVRO DAQUI ALI DO PEDRO ON THE ROAD

This is a giveway of a book written in portuguese so this time I'm posting in portuguese, I guess you guys don't want to participate in a giveaway you won't understand a word? ;)

Já algum tempo que queria vos oferecer este livro mas como o blog é em inglês fiquei na dúvida se o faria. Como este espaço é meu (e vosso claro), é a minha casa virtual e faço dela o que bem quiser, decidi vos oferecer este livro na mesma porque considero que seja uma obra fenomenal escrita por um Viajante com letra maiúscula, o Pedro on the Road.

OH SO AMERICAN: THRIFT STORES

I thought that would be fun to share with you guys american lifestyle thru my eyes. In these series I’ll post about what I've seen only in USA that I’ve never seen in other countries in the World.

I decided to start with Thrift Stores because they are one of my favorite things about USA and you can find these kind of stores in every state you go.

Thrift Stores are places where you can score great clothing, kitchen ware, books, decoration items and mostly everything you can think of for a very cheap price. You get to buy a book for 0.50 cents or 1 dolar, a jacket for 3 bucks, an amazing painting for 5 bucks. How does it work? People clean their closets and find things they don’t want anymore so they donate to thrift stores. Mostly of the thrift stores I’ve been are non-profit, all the profit goes to community projects and to help people in need and all the staff is volunteering, usually retired people. (this is a great way to spend your time doing something useful for the community!)

CHEERS TO MY BLOG READERS

You see the biiiiig smile in the photo above? It's for you my dear readers, the ones who keep me carry on with this blog. It's not easy at all for me to keep up with any project. This blog is one year and an half old and I keep update it 2-4 times a week, wow! I'm impressed with myself but I gotta thank you because your emails, comments and messages motivate me to write more. I wouldn't be honest if I'd say that this blog is for me or for you, is for US.

HITCH HIKING STORIES: FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO WILLITS

“The bus is only at 3pm? No way, I’m not gonna wait, let’s hitch hike!” This kind of idea we have, you think it’s brilliant but then you go back and you go like “Sh*t!! Why this stupid thought ever came across my mind? WHY?” I’m gonna tell you guys all the details.

PURPLE/PINK HAIR

 Hello there my dear readers!! I'm sorry if I took a while answering all your emails but I arrived California 2 weeks ago and went directly to my friend's ranch with no internet connection, it's not that they cannot afford or nothing, they prefer this way so it's our little retreat, for a while we are disconnected with the world. Oh yes, there's few phone network as well over there.

So I couldn't wait to show you my newest hair, which means another 2014 goal crossed. Go Marta! I wanted to dye it pale pink but I need to bleach all hair again and damage a little bit more so I decided to just bleach the roots that were giant and dye it purple. I didn't go to any hairdresser, I just ordered purple dye from Amazon (I used Punky Colors brand) and asked my friend Carla (who wasn't that experienced at all) to help out. I watched near 10 videos on youtube before doing anything, collected all the tips and let's go for it!

NAIL POLISH SHELF DIY

Few weeks ago I decided to wake up a bit earlier to see what was going on in the Flea Market. Although there was a bunch of empty spots without stalls due to the new rules of one year subscription, I found some good stuff.

Usually I buy everything I like and end up not using an half so this time I was pretty stricted to myself and bought stuff I really needed like a dress you can use in Summer or with leggings in the Fall, a pair of almost new brown boots, a super cute frame with pictures of cupcakes and macarons to my friend Su who's a baker, a crochet hat to Bruno who didn't have any, brown vintage inspired sandals and, when I was about to leave I found this wooden container for spoons, knives and forks in a kitchen drawer... I immediatly had an idea how to use it in a different way: a nail polish shelf!

TODAY IS SUPER JOURNAL BY SARAH NEUBURGER

This is another book I found in Stedelijk Museum when visiting Amsterdam this Summer. I love this kind of motivation books where you write your lists, your thoughts, where you spend your money, etc. When it's fully filled you read and look back what you've done, bringing beautiful memories. I have one from 1994, I was ten years old can you imagine how many laughs everytime I read this journal?

This journal kept my attention for being in a right size with such awesome illustrations and enthusiastic sentences to make you productive. Sarah is pretty talented and when I found her website I felt like buying everthing! So much inspiration and beauty, I don't know if I can handle :)

INDIA STOLE MY HEART

Invite me to go to India and I will go with you! I could go to India twice a year, no problem :) When I was a kid, me and mom used to spend Saturday noon and evening watching Bollywood movies, sometimes 3 in a raw. Once a lady told me I was indian in another life, I had a suffering and tough life with an arragement wedding. I don't really know from where came this passion for India but it's something surreal, magic and cosmic.

Today I decided to show you five places in India I heart and hopefully will come back soon.

 Goa :: This picture represents pretty well what is Goa: Green everywhere. Also beaches with cows :) Some people don't know but Goa is not a city but a state. And no, you won't listen portuguese in the streets but you'll find churches and coffee shops with portuguese names.

THREE REASONS WHY I DON'T LIKE TO BE BLOND

One ♥ First time my friends see me blond they simply don't reconize me! I mean childhood friends, tweenty years old we know eachother. Something like: I see a friend, I wave all excited and they make this face: "Who the hell is this person I never met before?" and I go like "It's meeee Marta!" when I smile, they finally reconize me.

Two ♥ Since we are mostly latinos in Portugal with dark brown eyes and hair, when men see a blond they can go really crazy. Even if I dress like a freak they will say something like "Uhhh blondie you look so hot!"  There was this guy who pulled over his car just to send me a kiss with his lips. Geeez!

BOOM FESTIVAL 2014 [DANCE TEMPLE]

 

This is the last post on Boom Festival Series, you can find the other related posts here: Boom Festival 2014 by day and Boom Festival 2014 by night.

Today I'll tell you all about the main floor of this festival, known as Dance Temple or by my crew Dance Flower :)

The organization is so amazing that when you think it's impossible to come out with a better idea for decoration, bang! they bring something even more amazing. This year they got inspired by Sagrada Familia, the huge cathedral that is situated in Barcelona, built in 1882 by the talented Antoni Gaudí. This artist gave expression to his deep admiration for the organic forms and designed a monumental metaphor of the perfection and complexity of nature.

MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN

Took this sunset picture few days ago in Armação de Pera, Algarve (Portugal)

"Hey Marta we are going on a road trip for 3 days, wild camping, relax on the beach, are you in?" - invited Ana. "Hmmm actually I don't feel like traveling again..." I answered.

After years of traveling almost non stop, making the world my routine, the people I met my teachers and students I got in a point that I got tired of traveling. I knew this moment would come one day, I love to experiment different things and after while I'm simply done.

Being with a heavy backpack on me all the time, moving places to sleep every 4 days or every week is killing me now. I don't have the energy anymore, I feel the need of settling down. But again, I know myself. I'll probably live in a place for 8 -12 months and then I'm done and need to travel again. And this is my life. I just follow my heart, my intuition, my soul to achieve happiness, you know happiness is not the goal but the process.

SHANTI FAVORITES #7

Who said men haven't good taste for house decoration? Danny Brito opened up his home front door and we could see magic happening. I adore his vintage-modern-handmade style home and I admit I kinda envy his pyrex collection. Such a dreamy kitchen! And who wouldn't like to have such beautiful workplace or cozy living room. Hey Danny can I be your roomate? ^_^

SMALL BUSINESS LOVE :: MADAM MIM (BRUGGE, BELGIUM)

When walking in the beautiful streets of Brugge in Belgium, I found this incredible Vintage Store. I had to go in! I said many times how much I'm passionate about vintage in other countries. When I entered this store I felt like visiting a museum, quickly fell in love with all the unique pieces, especially for the furniture, clothing and the famous laces (traditional in Brugge). I had no choice but ask the owner Mim if I could take some pictures. This time I thought I could use the Retro Feature of my camera but it turned out much darker that I wanted to. 

I was back in Portugal already, looking for my awesome pictures when I had the brilliant idea to send a message via facebook asking for a blog interview. I want to thank Jared, Mim's son, who sent all the answers in english, grateful for your translation so this post was possible.

INTERVIEW: LIVE THE DREAM AND TRAVEL THE WORLD ON A MICRO - OR NO BUDGET

Hello friends!

To start the week full on you can read the interview by Van from Thrift Core to me! Did I tell you before how much I looooove to be asked about my trips? :D

You can see the full interview with cool travel pictures here. 

I leave you with two questions about my weirdest travel story and my best travel story! Oh boy so many stories to tell my grandsons, I don't need any kids books to help out, my own life stories are enough.

CORK UP YOUR LIFE

Cork products became a trend around the World. They come in all forms you can think of: handbags, shoes, belts, hats, aprons, wallets, jewelry, souvenirs...Cork is not only the wine bottle stopper anymore.

"A symbol of renewal and longevity, the cork oak has a lifetime of 250-350 years and is the only tree whose bark regenerates itself after each harvest. It takes 20 to 25 years before the first cork can be removed from a cork oak. After the first extraction, cork can be harvested every nine years. An adult cork oak produces several hundred pounds at each harvesting and will live for many generations. It survives and prospers as part of a unique worldwide ecosystem: the cork oak meadow." (Source)

BOOM FESTIVAL 2014 [BY NIGHT]

This is the second part of Boom Festival series, you can check the first part "Boom Festival by day" here.

Even though I prefer to sleep at night when "living" in Boom Land, there's a beautiful magic going on during night time. I prefer to sleep at night because usually the music in the dance floor is too agressive or too hard for me, they call it the dark psy trance. (why different kinds of trance? trance is one!) The other reason is that when I sleep at night 5 hours I rest better then sleeping 8 hours during the day, no time wasting at Boom! :)

WHAT I HAVE BEEN UP TO

Ready to see a bunch of beach and pool pictures? Wanna meet my close friends? This is what I've been up the last days, since I came back from Boom Festival.

Before heading to Portimão for João's Birthday Party, we (me, Ana - best friend - and Anth - her boyfriend - ) decided to make a quick stop in Praia da Marinha, one of our favourite beaches in South of Portugal. Seems that this beach is famous now, it was packed... Years ago looked like a desert beach. The water was super cold, what's wrong with the ocean these days? Climate is changing and it's our fault.

UNDER WATER PHOTOGRAPHY

Who said you need a Go Pro to take good pictures under water? To be honest, I never gave to much importance to the Lumix Panasonic DMC-FT25 my dear Bruno gave me on Christmas but the more I know about this camera the more I'm grateful I have it. 

THREE MOST BEAUTIFUL ROADS I EVER BEEN

Mostly of the times we are driving or catching the bus/train roads are boring, you feel like falling asleep, read a book, or drink 2 litres of coffee to keep you awake. Especially if you are traveling in highways, you don't get to see the landscape properly or you don't pass thru any villages. But there are roads out there in our World that make a big difference, they were special and can't take them out of my memory:

Great Ocean Road @ Melbourne, Australia - I almost missed this amazing "place you have to go when visiting Melbourne" because me and other couchsurfers organized 4 days camping but the first hour we got a flat tire! My dear ozzie cousins asked me if I wanted to go on Sunday all day long explore this place and yep! Better a day then nothing ;) It was a pretty trip with many stops, I took million pictures! (Post here)

BOOM FESTIVAL 2014 [DAY TIME]

I'm back with a Festival post! If you are around for a while you discovered my passion for festivals right? But Boom Festival is special, is more then a festival, it's a festival that turned into a village, where we live in harmony and sustainable for a week.

I had an hard time chosing the pictures for this post, I took around 200 and I wanted to post 50 haha don't worry I decided to divide one post in three, so you will read today Boom Festival (by day), Boom Festival (by night) and a special attention to the main dance floor, Boom Festival (Dance Temple). Besides showing my pictures I'll talk about this festival and you will understand why I set going to Boom Festival as a priority in 2014, including it on my Goals List 2014.

GREAT OCEAN ROAD IN MELBOURNE

 When writting this post about the most beautiful roads I ever been I noticed that I didn't post about the wonderful Great Ocean Road in Australia... and also, I didn't post any pictures of Melbourne!! What? Melbourne is on my list of "Cities I'd live for a year", that would be possible if portuguese could get the Working Holiday Visa for one year but sadly there's no agreement between Australia and Portugal. Bummer!

[CLOSED] MACRAME BRACELET GIVEAWAY

Hello pals!

Today I'm teaming up with Sherri from Knot Just Macrame to giveaway this beautiful bracelet using the technique of knots called Macrame. Sherri is super talented, she mix beads with micro macrame using different desings, I especially fell in love with these colors because they are Nature colors, so me! Such a pity I can't submit this form to get a chance to win :)

SHANTI FAVORITES #6

Tippi lived her first ten years in African Jungle. You can see emotional and pretty pictures of Tippi and her jungle friends here.

ECO FRIENDLY MENSTRUAL CUP

I heard about Menstrual cups (also known as Moon cups or Lunette) for a while, I'm always in the hunt for environment friendly products and if I can save money even better :) But what really made me go for it was the fact that I don't need to worry anymore in packing my favorite tampons when traveling, some places in Asia you cannot even find tampons and using pads is the same as wearing diapers.

I purchased mine from Ebay  (only 10€ and free shipping) one month ago. Brought it with me for this mini Euro trip and finally used it. I won't lie that I was in panic first time I tried it, it felt wrong but after 3 times using it I felt in love with this new friend. 

BACK TO THE MADNESS [AND A SMALL UPDATE OF MY LIFE]

 

Is it already middle of August? Common! Really? Do you have this same feeling that time flies during Summer time? So much to do, so many outdoor activities, parties, bbqs, picnics, beach, lake, hiking and the list goes on and on. 

I just came back to my hometown and I completly forgot how packed it can get with tourists during this season. It's a mess but I'm happy that income is coming to my neighbours, friends and family. I'm happy I came from a place where many people consider a paradise. I don't really need to go too far to enjoy a good beach or a enjoyable walk. Weather here is perfect!

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.

BASKET MADE OUT OF NEWSPAPER DIY

The other day I was bored at home and felt like create something with my hands. I didn't want to spend any money, just use what I have and recycle. I looked around and remembered to see this stall in a crafts fair that was selling necklaces made out of newspapers.

Immediatly checked pinterest for inspiration and then search for a video on how to make a neat basket of newspaper :)

MINIMALISM PACKING

Is it an headache everytime you pack? And when you are done with your travel do you figure out you didn't wear mostly of the clothes or use few stuff you brought?

Today I will show you how I travelled 20 days in Europe with a three kilos backpack. Sounds impossible right? But actually I survived and didn't need to buy anything extra!

My first advice is to use a small packback so you have small space, you cannot overload it because there's no space :) I found this militar inspired packpack in C&A store, I couldn't find the real militar backpack or something I liked second hand. This packpack came pretty useful since has four pockets outside and one inside to keep my important stuff like coin purse and personal documents: this is perfect for organization, each pocket has a zipper and they are separated by kind. Example: One has underwear, the other only chargers, other with notepad, pen, map and sunglasses.

Also what is really cool is that during the day I could bring the backpack with me with essentials: leggins, jacket, snacks, cameras...

Want to take a peek inside my backpack?

BEAUTIFUL SOULS WHO INSPIRE ME :: VIKTOR WAEWELL

One day I was in Romania, doing groceries in the local supermarket for Transylvania Calling Festival, we were about to arrive to Wonderland, a Festival is the high green mountains of Transylvania, wwooooww!

I was passing thru the wine section in the supermarket when I heard something like "This wine looks good" in portuguese language with a brazilian accent. This is how I met Fabi and Viktor from Brazil. The guys who love festivals as much as I do!

We shared a taxi and went to the festival. Needless to say they join our camping and we spent great and fun moments with this lovely couple who were doing a Round the World trip for a year. Can't wait to see them again, I guess is gonna be sooner than we all thought :)

Thanks a lot Viktor to spend some of your time writting for Shanti Free Bird blog. Obrigada irmão, até jah! 

MADE BY YOURSELF BOOK

While in my trip in Amsterdam I found this Stedelijk Museum but actually didn't go to the museum... I just saw this huge place full of books and had some time to kill until Ana was off from work. The truth is that I got too excited and spent way more time looking at books that I should :D I mean, I was in book heaven: arts, design, do it yourself, travels, cultures, tribes, hippie times, pretty agendas, oh dear!

This book "Made by Yourself" by the stylist, designer and photographer Peter Fehrentz caught my eye in two seconds... I'm really into anything that teaches you to create with your own hands. And come on, you cannot go wrong with such pretty book cover! The sad new is that I didn't buy the book because I was backpacking and it's extra weight for more ten days... and it was hardcover. I will buy it in the future though!

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.

EIGHT REASONS WHY I ADOPTED TRAVELING AS MY LIFESTYLE

There are many people out there who think I'm crazy just because I don't have a routine, a 8 hours job, own a house and car. I completly understand that traveling is an alternative lifestyle and it's weird just because not a lot of people do that. This is the way I choose to live my life! This is the way I feel happy!

:: The feeling of real freedom :: I wake up whenever I feel like and I go wherever I want at the time I want. There is no boss telling me what I have to do and how I have to do. Also I don't have to worry about paying bills or car insurance, I have total freedom to decide where I'm going to sleep the next nights: renting a house, camping, hostel or CouchSurfing.

:: No routine :: I'm not a routine person, I get bored easily when I follow a routine with timings or when doing every single day the same thing over and over again.