Travel Bucket List: done it!

I took this picture of the airplane wing when I was flying somewhere. A classic! And when is the best time to think about your next trip if not when you are coming back home? Exactly, we, born travelers, just never stop thinking where we're going next. We must have a list! A travel bucket list! And we must stick to it, because this list will probably never end, the more we travel the more places we want to go!

That's why I decided to share with you 3 things on my travel bucket list that I have already done! Hard to choose only 3, but these 3 took me a lot of planning and daydreaming to achieve, which makes them even more special. Someday I'll share my entire bucket list with you, then you can also tell me yours!

Guimarães Castle

Starting with the most recent one: entering a castle. I'm from Brazil, no castles there. And when I say castle, I mean a medieval castle with those square spaces; which, by the way, now I learned its proper name 'battlement' (an indented parapet at the top of a wall with alternating merlons and crenels for decoration or defense). So, that's it. Bucket list: castle battlements! 

When I knew I was going to Portugal, I saw a big opportunity to see these types of castles. I saw two in the Lisbon area before visiting the Castle of Guimarães, in the north of Portugal. But this one, I entered! The admittance fee was €2, though it's only the walls and towers, I was extatic. I was there for the battlements! I was inside a real castle! Full of history! Medieval! Bucket list: check!  

In 2015, after much planning and daydreaming like I told you the beginning, the trip to Ushuaia, in Argentina, finally got off the paper into reality. It would become an unforgettable family vacation to the end of the world. Plus, I would celebrate my birthday there!

Ushuaia, The end of the World!

This quaint little town had been on my bucket list for quite some time, and it did not let me down. We went during spring, and the weather was perfect. It even snowed! It is a very windy city, so my purple jacket wasn't enough. 

We took walks in the city, went on a boat tour where we saw sea lions at their natural habitat, we also went all the way to the Beagle Channel and got the chance to get off on an isolated little island in the middle of nowhere. To be this connected to nature brings you an enormous sense of joy! Plus, we rented a car and went all the way to the end of Route 3, which starts in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a little more than 3,000 km later ends in Bahia Lapataia in Ushuaia. Oh, I almost forgot to mention about my birthday there. We simply celebrated it on the Martial Mountain, having a fantastic overview of the city and a snow cake!

Curação, Kenepa Grande Beach

Number 3 on my bucket list is the Dutch Caribbean! In 2014 I crossed off my travel bucket list the island of Curação, in South America. My husband and I spent our honeymoon there, and I must say we made an excellent choice. I remember when I arrived at the hotel, I told the receptionist that I would like to see everything I saw on Google images and she smiled at me. And it was even better!

The surprise of seeing the color of the water from up close, the touch of sand in your feet, the hot pleasant weather, the fish not being scared of you at all, the warm evenings, the colorful houses in the city, one beach trying to be even more beautiful than the other... I would definitely go back again!

So here I shared with you 3 things on my travel bucket list I have done: the castle, the end of the world, the crystalline waters. What did you write on your travel bucket list the past 3 years? 

How to contribute to the traveler's community

I used to use all tools at my disposal to do my travel research: books, internet, apps, social media and also simply asking people. However, I never gave them anything in return! So, I started to share my feedback with other travelers. Here is how I did it and how you can do it, too!

One of the best tools for travelers, in my opinion, to search for hotels, flights, tours and sightseeing, is definitely TripAdvisor. Be it the desktop version or the mobile one, it has never let me down. One of the reasons that make it an excellent resource for travelers is that it is full of updated feedback!

I used to read all the other travelers' opinions and that was it, thanks. Nowadays, I am also a contributor, I have a badge and everything! I share my feedback, pictures and also click on the like button if another traveler's feedback has helped me. I try to share what would be nice for the other visitor to know. "Beautiful", is not the feedback I need, "Beautiful place to relax and low budget cafeteria nearby but don't forget to bring a jacket because it can be a little chilly up there", this is helpful feedback! So, please, do share your feedback, I need to know if it's chilly so I can bring my purple jacket. :) 

What about Youtube videos, huh? I'm sure you have already checked on "how to" something. Taking the subway in NYC, packing for Ryanair, ferry to Ireland, the list is huge!

Maybe now you're thinking: no, no, no, I'm too shy, I'm not going to do videos! But, here's the thing, if you simply click on the like button, you're already helping other travelers, because then we'll all know that it's a helpful video with good content just by the number of likes. And if you keep watching the videos from the same channel, what about subscribing to it? You'll be sending positive feedback to the vlogger and to her/his subscribers. That way everybody will try to keep doing a good job, it's a win-win situation. Maybe later, you'll decide to have your own travel channel on Youtube, sharing your own experieces, you never know...

In the world of selfies, sometimes there's just too much ego for such a breathtaking scenery. Try taking pictures from different angles. All kinds of pictures: landscapes, what's in front of you, behind you, between trees, the reflection on a pond, the possibilities are infinite. Even selfies nowadays, travelwise, are broadening the angles: eyes, arms and feet are just some of the selfies we've been seeing around. 

Wanna help the traveler's community? Go after the secret spots! Find the photographer in you! Maybe it's Mickey's reflection on your sunglasses, the Statue of Liberty seen by a tourist cell phone, not to mention those beautiful sunrays going through a famous monument. All I am saying is: explore!

Ultimately, your traveling experience can lead you to what I am doing right now: blogging! If you are anything like me, before traveling you make a ton of research, which is also exciting, you check tripadvisor, you watch youtube videos, check some online pictures, read articles and posts. So, why not also write your own post afterwards? Well, this is what I'm doing, giving back to the community all the free and wonderful advice other travelers have shared and which have helped me prepare a more informative travel project.

Once I saw a phrase on the internet, sorry I don't know the author, which described the whole traveling feeling in one single short sentence, and this is the one I chose to end this post with: "Traveling makes you speechless, then turns you into a story teller". Do tell! 

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.

Hi! I'm the girl in the purple jacket

This isn’t your usual travel blog. It will be more of a travel journal rather than a travel blog.

Although I will share some tips with you, you won’t see here any top 10’s or do’s and don’t’s, at least it’s not my intention. Let's see how it goes... What you will see here is my views of the world when I am traveling. The expectations and realities, private opinions about something somewhere. Besides, traveling is somehow sharing the good, the bad and the ugly and many times inviting others to virtually travel with us. 

What you also need to know is that I am currently living in Portugal, finally realizing the dream of living abroad. You will find many posts here about this experience, too.

That being said, I am Lívia, a Brazilian Portuguese who loves to speak English, hopes she speaks a good level of Spanish, thinks Italian sounds sexy, is always trying to come back to the French classes, and doesn’t know what to know when doesn’t recognize a language.

I know I will need more than this life to travel the world and know its every corner, and I am truly not in a hurry because I want to fully live all these moments that I spend not only traveling but also planning it.

I now respectfully invite you to travel with me. Let’s read the pages of this book together and expand our horizons, truths and beliefs. Welcome!