Flying

I have seen Portugal from many point of views. On Sunday, I saw the country and my life from a new perspective.

Watch the slideshow below for a short story of my afternoon at the Évora Aerodome.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

My Dad use to ask me, "Why do you want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane?"

Rain or Shine

After 4 days in Lisbon we will head south today with a goal to reach Algeciras, Spain by Thursday to catch the 11am ferry ride to Morocco. The beautiful weather has changed for the worse and heavy rain is in the forecast. But no worries, for this leg of the journey, we have traded the 7- cylinder Honda and will travel by this motorbike instead.

Sintra

Sintra is a noble district just about 1 hour west of Lisbon. It´s a picturesque area, with many historical buildings and monuments at the top of the hills like this.

But they were all closed by the time we arrived. So instead, during our quiet walk around the village, this is where we went for our view.

But as usual, I sometimes just like to look straight up

Lisbon by night

Porto and Coimbra are cities built on steep slopes. Lisbon is no different and by using this outdoor elevator, you can get to the top.

Bairro Alto is a working class quarter from the 16th century that has traditionally been the city's bohemian haunt of artists and writers. At night, the streets of this neighbourhood transform into Lisbon´s nightlife quarter, drawing all types into a vibrant, lively and crowded atmosphere for bar hopping...did I say crowded?

Gulbenkian Museum

The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum is located just north of the Lisbon city centre, just walking distance from where we are staying. The 60s style museum is run by the Gulbenkian foundation, founded by Calouste Sarkis. More about the history of this son of a weathy fanily of Armenian merchants can be read here.

At the museum, we saw an exhibition of Islamic Art. Not bad, but more interesting for me was the specially guided tour of the museum´s theatrical, administrative and operational space, including the archival photography studios. This tour was given by Carlos Azevedo, the museum´s archival photographer, but, also a Nomad member.

Reaching to the sky

Dinner with the Nomads

During the last days in Lisbon, I have spent much of my time in the company of the Nomads, a Portuguese motorcyclist group. The members of this group (Carlos and Carlos, André, Gonçalo, only to name a few) are some of the most sincere, warm, kind and generous people I have met in a long time and I was so fortunate to have experienced their friendly nature as my first impression of Portuguese people.

Once everyone arrived by motorcycle, the reunion of Enrique with the group involved a special dinner of snails.

One of these is my helmet. Can you guess which one?

Seaside Retail

Sales in Nazaré

View

Look up for bright sunny skies

or look down too! It´s sometimes as interesting

Stacked II

Nazaré, enroute to Lisbon

University of Coimbra

We were hosted just by Daniel who is currently finishing his Masters in Computer Science at the University of Coimbra and thus were lucky to get a personalized guided tour of the campus. This is the oldest university in Portugal.

Architecture students taking a break

Open access computer lab

It was interesting to notice that even in the beautiful universities of Portugal, the aesthetics of old tiles walls are randomly plastered with notices. So, this is not just a North American faux-pas.

Waiting

Shopping streets

One of the differences between Europe and North America are the shopping streets that are closed off to cars and dedicated for pedestrians. Imagine if this were to be implemented for Yonge St. in Toronto? I have my doubts. Off course, the best time to visit these places is at night when they are deserted and the beauty of Portuguese tilework can be admired.

Stacked

Coimbra, Portugal

Facades of Porto

People of Porto

Porto by night

Porto- upon our arrival in the night, I did not expect such beauty, romance and warmth from this Portuguese city. Words will not do enough justice in describing what I saw and felt.

First Ride to Porto

It was 1pm and we were all set, helmets on, baggage loaded, ready to embark on day one of our journey to Portugal. But at the click of the red button, the silence of a quiet motor that would not start was deafening. It was obvious, our next stop was to be the local garage.

Three hours later, after a nice lunch with friends (Dani and Tis) by the waterfront,and a wave of electrical, engine and battery testing that proved nothing wrong, we finally set off from Vigo.

"Warmth, sun, speed, beautiful coastlines, old villages, salty smells, sea spray, ferry ride, cold, wind, dark, pressure, headlights, speeding trucks, fumes" - The ride was more than I ever imagined and I wouldn´t have wanted to be anywhere else but behind Enrique as he expertly worked the motorcycle. By 9pm, we were in Porto.