sexta-feira, 30 de setembro de 2016

LELLO Bookshop: booklovers unite!

Lonely Planet and The Guardian considered Lello bookshop the third most beautiful bookshop in the world and it sure deserves to be on that list!

I don't mind visiting bookshops when I am out, not only traveling but in my own city too. There's something magical when you enter a bookshop or a library. I guess it's a feeling that all the wisdom in the world is on the pages of those books right in front of you.


Lello & Irmão (Lello&Brother) has been open since 1906 and much thought was put into it, from books to architeture. The fact that it has been an inspiration for acclaimed authors like J.K.Rowling is no secret and I would dare to say that many travelers put this bookshop on their travel bucket list because of that.

There is a € 3 entrance fee that is fully discounted if you purchase a book, plus you get a map of the bookshop with some curiosities. It gets around 4,000 visitors a day from around the world, and lines can be long at any time of year, though  inside Lello it is never crowded.


It sells around 5,000 books per week! 

On the top shelves behind closed glass doors there are rare books and first editions. You feel you are being transported to another era just by looking at them and imagining all the acclaimed authors who have their first editions in there! A feeling that maybe only booklovers will understand and share. By the way, every single person who enters Lello smiles! It's amazing to see. Of course I know this because this happened to me, so I started looking at people as they entered to see if I was the only one.


If architecture is also your thing, the red stairs are a big deal, and again an inspiration for the Harry Potter stories. If you are able to get a picture of you at the stairs without no one else photobombing it, consider yourself a lucky booklover.


In July of this year, 2016, the bookshop was under restoration for 4 months to receive its original façade color and clean stained glass ceiling to celebrate its 110 years. It was and still is stunning!


With its anniversary, Lello Bookshop was chosen to be the host for the worldwide book release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I took this picture about one hour before the release, and all the fans, visitors and travelers were there in front of the small two-story bookshop just waiting for Lello to open its doors again, after the 4 month period. The excitement was so strong that it felt like it was opening for the very first time.


Lello bookshop definitely deserves a visit. From booklovers to tourists I guarantee everybody will have fun browsing (and maybe buying) books, having a cup of coffee, buying a souvenir or just feeling closer to Harry Potter.





sexta-feira, 23 de setembro de 2016

Weird things I learnt backpacking

They may be funny or gross, but 100% true!


1. Pee standing: ok, I'm a girl, I sit! But the restrooms are most of the times dirty, or smelly or simply without a toilet seat. So, I saw myself obliged to learn how to pee standing, or better yet, half way up. Not very worthy of a lady, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

2. Can't watch a movie outdoors because it's freaking cold even in the summer: summer events are great in Europe, but one needs to understand what summer feels like in Europe. I'm still adapting to the hot months (bear in mind that my benchmark for summer is Brazil) and learning to enjoy myself outside when it is 25 degrees (not my idea of "oh, so hot"), but when the temperature drops to 16 at night and there is an outdoor-movie event... I'm sorry, maybe I'll enjoy it next time...

3. You find new uses for things: this is the best one. How creative can one get when one doesn't have that many options. Here's an example: I turned a coffee filter into a napkin and a snack wraper. I recommend it!

4. You'll be hungry more times than you can possibly imagine: boy, this one is hard! You're backpacking, eager to learn, visit and taste new things. But in my case, learning and visiting are on top of my list, and I end up neglecting the eating part. In all my trips I remember starving at some point. That's why now I know, I always have to carry some type of snack with me.

5. Rain water is drinkable...I think: you're thirsty, it's raining, you're wearing one of those disposable rain ponchos, nowhere to buy water at the moment. Well, just put your hands together under the poncho forming a bowl and there you go: a few sips of relief.

6. You'll miss wearing flip flops: you must wear comfortable shoes when backpacking, in fact, you must wear comfortable shoes all the time. But it comes a time that you are a little fed up of wearing socks and shoes, socks and shoes, socks and shoes. You'll definitely miss the flip flop toe-freedom.

7. You'll wear sneakers to the limit: a link to the one above. You WILL wear your sneakers to the limit. True story: after backpacking a little the latch from one of my sneakers got loose. I just kept wearing them and walking always making sure that it was still there. One day, as I was leaving the supermarket, I looked down and that was when I saw my bright yellow sock, no latch! I started laughing because it was so ridiculous! But ok, never mind, let's move on. Then, what do I see ahead, about 600 meters away from the market? My sneaker latch trying to cross the street! Just, pretended nothing was happening, I picked it up, and later at night my husband sewed it up for me. 

8. If you don't wash your undies everyday, you may one day end up not wearing any at all: I guess this topic doesn't need much development, but backpackers, bear in mind that: if you carry one piece of underwear to each day, that means 7, don't panic on Sunday evening saying that you don't have clean underwear to wear on Monday. To paraphrase Dory: just keep washing, just keep washing...

9. You'll say that things that cost more than 1 euro are expensive: backpackers are in their essence low budget travelers, that means every saving counts. Our eyes sparkle when we see things at the supermarket that cost cents!

10. You'll discover body odors you've never smelled before: backpackers walk a lot, repeat clothes a lot, wear the same jacket, buy cheap deodorants (please, don't do this), take public transportation... I'm sorry to tell you this but one day you'll discover body odors you've never smelled before.

Disgusting, right? I know...I told you things would be funny or gross, boys and girls. So, I'll give you a nice bonus one:

11. You'll learn to trust complete strangers: this is one of the nicest things that happen in the life of a backpacker, meeting new people and simply trusting them. They may want to get to know your story as much as you want to know theirs. They'll feed you, offer you rides, help you take the bus, and sometimes only smile acknowleding your presence. You'll learn to trust complete strangers and this will definitely change the way you look at people and the way you see the world.



quarta-feira, 21 de setembro de 2016

BERLIN: the tour for nerds

I am a huge fan of free walking tours! I started taking them more than six years ago and now when I am planning a trip one of the first things I research is: are there free walking tours?

They are usually in English, but some also offer it in Spanish, French or German upon group request. Many of them don't request reservation, just your punctuality at the meeting point. They guide you and your group, around 15 people, through the city's most important sights, and some hidden gems too, always full of information and curiosities. It usually takes 2 hours or more, with a short stop for coffee, and at the end of it you give them a tip if you think their tour was worth it. A little secret: it always is!


When my husband and I planned our trip to Berlin, we could only think about the history immersion we would have in such an important scenery of  World History, and a free walking tour, would be the best way to go.

It really is a tour for nerds, and if you are really into history, the free walking tour may even include a space for Q&A.

We decided to take Sandeman's New Berlin Free Tour. Our meeting point was in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Just by being there your mind starts to flash you images of how that space was during the Third Reich. Countless pictures and plenty of history from our guide Sam, who, by the way, has a PhD in History. How awesome is that?! We could listen to him for hours because he guided us in Berlin with a strong passion for what he was talking about.



Free Walking Tour in front of the Berlin Wall

In a little more than 3 hours we visited the Brandenburg Gate, Hitler's bunker, the Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, SS Headquarters, The Berlin Wall, the TV tower, Pariser Platz, Lufwaffle Headquarters and Humboldt University.

The experience of being at a place that staged so much history and tragedy is something that touches you. To see the Berlin Wall right there in front of you and to imagine how life was at that time is just impossible. Without a doubt being close to the Berlin Wall is an unforgettable experience. All the region of the Berlin Wall carries a sad, silent and respectful air. The Museum of Terror was built behind it, and when you're there you see many students of all ages, many tourists, and utter silence. Pictures, videos, texts, miniature models, newspaper clips and Hitler's voice giving speeches. To listen to that man's voice while you are in front of the Berlin Wall, brings you an indescribable feeling. You feel like you are mourning the people who had to live through that time while it's so hard to believe that that unfortunately happened.

Needless to say that that was the part of the tour that left a mark in me. Our guide said that Germans know what happenned and everything is still there to remind people that it is extremely important that we learn from the past. They built an underground memorial with a glass roof in front of the Humboldt University. The memorial is bookshelves with no books, because of the book burn that occured in 1933 when they burned 20 thousand books following Hitler's orders just because they weren't in the nazi's terms.

It really is a tour for nerds and I recommend you get to do as many tours as possible - there are others, but they're all paid; all on my list when I go back to Berlin. Then, on the next day I suggest that you pick your favorite stops and go again with free time to really dive in to history. 

So, that's it my fellow travelers, I hope I've inspired you to hop on a plane and go take a walking tour in Berlin!



terça-feira, 6 de setembro de 2016

Why should I visit the supermarket when I am traveling?

Have you ever considered adding going to the supermarket in your travel list? 
If not, you should! 




Usually when we travel we take notes of all the sightseeing places not to be missed, foods to try, souvenirs to bring, price of admittance, just to name a few, so going to the local supermarket is totally left aside. In case you're a low bugdet traveler I'm sure that buying groceries is in your priority list, but even if you're not, there's so much to learn and know at the supermarket, and why not, snap a few pictures?!

Let me give you one example. Argentina, Buenos Aires. Hotel breakfast. Sweets. Dolce de leche! They served dolce de leche at the hotel in one of those little plastic containers and it was incredibly delicious! Everybody who goes to Argentina buys that one of that famous brand, which is, by the way, sweet as heaven, but me, on that day, went to the supermarket looking for the brand I had at the hotel. There it was! A big jar of dolce de leche that tourists didn't seem to care. I grabbed three and happily paid for them (yes, it is much cheaper than that famous brand and equally mouth watering). I came back home, told my family and friends, they told their family and friends, and I'm sure by now the dolce de leche company should have hired me as their spokesperson.

At the supermarket you are also able to see what people have at their disposal to buy, what they like the most, check people's cart to have an idea if they are healthier or whether they prefer to shop for the week or month, well, be curious about their eating habits!

In Portugal, I noticed that all supermarkets have their house brands and people prefer to buy them since they're cheaper and many of them of good quality.

In the USA, you can find many things in XXL size: large butters, sodas, cereals, cheese, bread, food that would feed many people at once, I think it's great, because it can make you feel like you're a tiny person!

In France, you already feel more romantic and delicate just by reading the products' labels, And many times, I was like, "oh, look what they have here!". 

I told you in another post that I know zero German, right? So, my visit to the supermarket in Hamburg took quite sometime for me to understand what each product was for. Equally fun, since now I know how to read the label to know if it's sparkled water or not. But, yeah, I found out the hard way.

Comparing prices to your home country can be fun too, or sometimes very sad, though I thought it was very interesting when I saw bananas for sale, and the price was for each banana, or per kilo and it wasn't cheap at all, while in Brazil we have a saying that when something is very cheap, we say "it costs the price of a banana!".

We all know that if we buy sodas or chocolate at the supermarket they will be much cheaper than at a restaurant or store, but I also want you to focus on the variety you have, not to mention what people who live there actually buy!

Definitely when my husband and I travel we always make sure to pay a visit to the local supermarket, and we have never ever regreted it! Of course, it's almost impossible to leave it without buying anything, and since we never know the country's policy regarding plastic bags, I always carry my tote bag with me! Better safe than hungry, ops, sorry!

There are only advantages when you visit the supermarket when you're traveling: you buy cheaper, you get to know new products,  you get an idea of what locals prefer to buy, you may discover something a regular tourist would never know of, you can compare to what you have in your home country, and plus, you get a glimpse of what it feels like to shop at that town!

So add to your sightseeing list: visit a supermarket, then come tell me about it, I'm sure you'll have something to tell!






domingo, 4 de setembro de 2016

Best sunset of Porto!

Every sunset is one of the best shows Nature allows us to admire. 

My initial idea was to describe one of the best sunsets I have ever witnessed, and in my opinion, the sunset seen from Vila Nova de Gaia, in the north of Portugal, is one of the most beautiful and romantic sunsets for you to watch. But what better way for me to tell you about the sunset other than showing you pictures? So, here are some pictures I took of the mesmerizing sunset from Vila Nova de Gaia, across from Porto, both cities sharing the Douro river. Make sure you add this to your bucket list!

Porto on your left, Vila Nova de Gaia on your right


View from the bridge
View from the water promenade

Sunset!


Admirers


The Douro River

Gaia, Porto and the enchanting Douro