3 days in Tenerife by public transport / hitchhiking
When I decided to go see the volcano Cumbre Vieja in eruption, in La Palma, the cheapest way to get there was through Tenerife. When I visited my friend Jose between Zaragoza and Cuenca, we were talking about the highest places in the world where we had already been...
Cumbre Vieja volcano erupting, La Palma
I don't usually watch the news, so the first time I heard about the volcano at La Palma was two or three weeks after the eruption started, due to the news referring to "volcano negacionists". At the beginning of October I went to visit my friend José in Zaragoza and...
A walk around Metz, France
If you've read my two last posts, you'll know that I booked a flight to Luxembourg in part because I have two friends living in Metz, a pretty French city an hour south by train. I waited for the weekend so that my hostess and friend Sofia could show me around, but...
What to see in Nancy
As I explained in the last post, I booked a flight to Luxembourg because I have two friends who work there. But the two live in Metz, about an hour by train south of this small country, and they studied and lived in Nancy, another hour by train south of the city where...
Luxembourg – does everyone skeaks Portuguese here?!
I have this stupid goal of visiting 50 countries before I turn 30. At the beginning of 2020 I was at 46 and I thought I would achieve that goal in that same year, but then you know what happened... the pandemic came, borders were closing and I ended the year with the...
Cuenca, UNESCO World Heritage Site
Last stop of my week in Spain, Cuenca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city José calls home. When José first told me about Cuenca, six years ago, still in Mexico, I imagined a small village, on top of a hill, and that was how it was, many many years ago. Today it is...
Teruel, the capital of mudéjar
José lives in Zaragoza but says he is from Cuenca, where he lived from the age of 15 to 18 and where his mother lives. So, when I decided that I was going to visit him in the capital of Aragon, we decided that we would finish this tour in Cuenca. But between Zaragoza...
Tarazona and its mudejar cathedral
Usually I'm the person who, when traveling, organizes and plans everything. So, from time to time, it feels really good to let be guided! After three days in Zaragoza, always very well accompanied by my friend José, he took me on a day trip to see Tarazona and its...
What to see in Zaragoza
For the past six years that I was to visit Zaragoza, as my great friend and travel companion in southern Mexico and Guatemala, José, lives there. Finally, our calendars lined up and I was able to spend three days exploring Zaragoza and the rest of the week in other...
What to see in Malta, Comino and Gozo – 8 day travel itinerary
In a year with Covid-19, the answer to where to go on vacation is not easy, as I wanted the destination to be a country where I had never been, which in Europe are already few. Thus came Malta! A cheap flight from Oporto, Jorge didn't have the time off, my mother did,...
Weekend in Gerês – two days plan
The Peneda - Gerês National Park is one of the most beautiful places in Portugal and therefore the first place I thought of for a weekend getaway. Two days of trekking through the mountains visiting waterfalls, viewpoints and lagoons, finished with delicious dinners!...
Natural pools of Porto Moniz (Madeira)
After a fabulous and windy sunrise at the highest point in Madeira, Pico Ruivo, we continued on to Porto Moniz, in the northwest of the island, to spend the day in its famous natural pools. There are two areas of pools: the old ones, with free access, with a more...
Sunrise at Pico Ruivo (Madeira)
I was absent here for two months and one of the reasons is obviously the lack of travels! With all this coronavirus situation, my situation at TAP is suspended and the usual weekly trips have stopped happening. In the last few days I was urging to start creating...
Exploring the Ways to Santiago
Three years ago my mother walked the Portuguese Way of Santiago, from Porto, and since then she has wanted to do one Jacob's Way again. There are many Ways, the most famous being the French one, partly because almost all the Ways coming from the south of Spain finish...
Islas Cíes, an unknown paradise in Galicia
I have been "missing" ... In the last month I have not posted anything because I finally managed to return from Mexico, after more than three months closed at home without Iberia offering me a solution to return to Portugal. After a long flight to Madrid and a bus to...
Golden Circle, Iceland
In the first week of October 2016, I went to Iceland for a week, as part of an AFS event, the Chapter Exchange, which brought together ten volunteers from each country – Germany, Slovakia, Iceland and Portugal – to discuss Europe’s multiculturalism, namely the...
7 days in Sicily
When I was in Florence in Erasmus most of my friends were actually from Sicily. So Maria, my flatmate, and I, decided we should fly there during our Easter Holidays and visit the island. We stayed two days in Palermo, took a bus to Taormina where we stayed one and a...
Florence – what you should absolutely visit
As you may know, I did Erasmus in Florence, having spent ten months between 2013 and 2014 in the Tuscan capital. At the time, the blog was another, where I documented my day to day, my visits today to this Palazzo, tomorrow to another. Today I decided to compile here...
Weekend in Alentejo – Monsaraz, Mourão and Estremoz
I had two vouchers at home, one from Odisseias for one night at a hotel, another one from Lifecooler for a meal for two, and a good reason to celebrate away from home: Jorge and I five years anniversary! For some time I had the idea of spending a weekend near...
Barcelona – from Gaudi to Mies van der Rohe
The first time I went to Barcelona was in 2011, in my first year of architecture. At the time, I visited Gaudí's best-known works: The Sagrada Familia, in eternal construction, the wonderful Park Güell (which meanwhile has an entrance fee if you go there between 8:30...
Birthday at Disneyland Paris
For Jorge’s 30th birthday we wanted to do something special! He had already told me that he wanted to go to Disney so we thought it would be the perfect plan! I did an extensive research both to spend one or several days in the parks, including or not a Disney hotel,...
Izmailovo Market, Moscow Metro and Red Square
Finally, after a year and seven months of TAP, I had a layover in Moscow - and what a layover, two and a half days in the Russian capital! The first afternoon I decided to go to Izmailovo Market, a place on the outskirts of the city where many colleagues often go, a...
Fanal, Madeira – from foggy to golden hour
I have been to Madeira many times, but the three great trips I made and that I love the most are March 2017, when I was going to take Jorge for the first time to visit this wonderful island but then he could not come for work reasons. last February that resulted in...
Milan – on top of the Duomo
After six years I returned to the city of Milan. I would rather have visited the lakes of Lombardia but the logistics of transportation were almost impossible so I returned to the city with a colleague who had never visited Italy. One of the things I wanted to do...
Tallinn, a medieval city
This month was the month of flying to one country and then visiting another. First I flew to Copenhagen and went to Sweden to visit Lund and Malmö, now I flew to Helsinki for a two day layover to catch a ferry to Estonia and visit its beautiful capital Tallinn. I...
Lund and Malmö – Sweden two steps away from Copenhagen
Have you ever crossed the sea by train? Between Denmark and Sweden it is possible and the cities of Lund and Malmö are both about an hour away from Copenhagen, so I decided to cross the sea and change countries for a day. I have a friend living in Malmö, but she was...
Warsaw, the colorful capital of Poland
The layover in Warsaw returned! When I started working for TAP there was only a turn around flight to the Polish capital, it is said that the beauty of the Polish women was so big that caused many divorces among TAP men so the layover was cancelled. But as soon as it...
Festa dos Tabuleiros, Tomar
This year there was the Festa dos Tabuleiros, in Tomar, celebrated every four years and one of the most typical and oldest festivals in Portugal, which dates back historically to the reign of D. Dínis in the framework of the cult of Espirito Santo, but is believed to...
BMW Museum (Munich) vs. Porsche Museum (Stuttgart)
Layover in Munich, an opportunity to take my man, who was off duty and so go visit another museum of one of the German car brands. The first one we visited was the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart in January 2016; and now that of BMW. Not being very knowledgeable about the...
A Hot Air Ballon in Ribatejo
My friend Mariana challenged me to a balloon ride in Ribatejo, an experience that had been offered to her but because of less happy circumstances (for her, not for me :P) she asked me to accompany her! I said yes immediately, imagining dozens of balloons, as...
I took my aunt to Stockholm on a special day
My aunt's birthday is on March 5th and from March 1st I could start taking people with me to my layovers with special prices. I thought there would be no better gift than to offer her a trip of her choice! When my planning for April came out, she chose to come to...
Two layovers in Geneva in the space of two weeks
As you may recall, my first visit to Geneva in June last year was a pleasant surprise! When you know little of a destination and there are no great expectations, it is easier to be surprised. This second time I went with a forecast of rain and knowing that two weeks...
Is it possible to visit whole London in a day?
It seems so! Or at least almost! The day began in Kensington where the hotel shuttle leaves us and the plan was to wander the streets of this neighborhood and Notting Hill in search of blooming magnolias. The day was gray, the number of magnolias was small, and the...
Bruges
One of the passions Jorge and I have in common is a Belgian beer called Delirium. So in February, I asked for a layover in Brussels on his days off so we could go together. We then decided to visit the city of Bruges, a romantic city known for its canals. We caught...
Madeira – 5 days, 5 hikes
I had three weeks of holidays (all from last year, since I started working for TAP) and little money in my pocket. So I decided to go to Madeira for five days – TAP offers us domestic flights, so everyone can go home, and I stayed with my great friend Soraia. I have...
Caldeira Velha, São Miguel
Azores in January. In the Azores it does not really matter the air temperature, because the natural volcanic pools are all warm. In fact, you it’s even better when it’s cold outside, like taking a bath where the water never cools down. We thought going to Furnas, to...
Gaia and its Port wine cellars
When I visit Porto it is rare to cross to Gaia, although it is from this bank of the river that we have the most impressive view of the city. With the visit of my husband’s family to Portugal we had to visit this incredible city and while looking for an Airbnb, Gaia...
Bjarke Ingels Group – architecture outside the box
As you may know, I studied architecture and although I did not work as an architect, nor have I ever felt like doing it, it is a great passion of mine, visiting interesting buildings, to see how Man occupies them, how we live in them, how we see them. During the...
Prague – the biggest Christmas Tree ever!
Prague is probably one of my favorite European cities and as soon as I knew I was going to have a layover in the Czech capital just before Christmas I got pretty excited! For one of our crewmates it was her first time in Prague so we had to go through Prague’s major...
Madrid Rio and Matadero
Since my friend Adriana told me about el Matadero cultural center, in an old slaughterhouse at one end of Madrid Rio Park, that I wanted to go there. It was also on this day that I learned that I should not cross the city for a walk shorter than the time spent in...
Baden, Switzerland
Many of the hotels we stay at are not in the center of the cities and a layover in Zurich does not exactly mean going to Zurich. So I decided to take the train in the opposite direction to Baden, a rather picturesque little town I found on Nomad Mania‘s to-do lists....
Vieux Lyon – middle ages passages (traboules)
The challenge of going to Lyon came from my mother because in that week was the launch of the Beaujolais Nouveau (new wine from the Beaujolais region, a demarcated region that managed to make famous its new wine, wine usually less appreciated for not being that good)....
A whole day in Paris, not that usual with TAP
A whole day in Paris, not that usual with TAP. Every day, seven planes land from Lisbon and three from Porto, so it’s not that usual to get a full day layover in Paris, being more common to stay only half a day (and as the hotel is out of Paris it is not that easy to...
Finally Finland – Helsinki
If you liked this post and want to read more about my trips to Finland or the neighboring Estonia, you can visit the following posts:Night flight from Lisbon to Helsinki. We arrived at the hotel at 7am local time and since it was my first time in Finland there was no...
Gardens of Funchal
Last year I went to Madeira to visit my friend Soraia and, not knowing that I was going to enter TAP this year, I did almost everything there is to do on the island. Little did I know that this would be the layover that I have the most, regretting to have seen so much...
End of September in Munich = Oktoberfest
Many of you probably already know it, but the Oktoberfest is actually celebrated more in September than in October. It starts on the penultimate weekend of September and ends on the first of October – this year, therefore, from 22 September to 7 October. This layover...
Terceira, Azores
When you are Portuguese you should visit Azores at least once in your life – when you are not Portuguese you should either. The problem is that then you fall in love with this wonderful archipelago and have to return! The advantage is that we have 9 islands to explore...
Eléctrico Parade – European Mobility Week
Between 16 and 22 September the European Mobility Week was celebrated and to remember it Carris Museum did an initiative called “Tram Parade – Ride with History”, where we could go aboard one of the old trams that they keep in the museum like the 444, king D. Carlos’...
Prague: the most photogenic city of Europe?
According to Google Maps, Charles bridge was half an hour way from my hotel by foot… I took two hours to get there! Let me explain: the time available to visit the city was not much. I left the hotel around 10 a.m., after having arrived the night before well past...
Amsterdam – cruise boat through the canals
As promised, another post about our short visit to the city of Amsterdam, this one focused on the cruise boat through the canals we decided to take! We paid €16 per person, directly at Damrak pier, but later we saw the same tour for €13 per person, in agencies. The...
Amsterdam: 18km on foot
The Netherlands was considered by me a country visited in my “countings”, but what I considered to have already visited was, when in 2007 with the Comenius project I made a stopover in the capital on the way to Hamburg, taking the train from the airport to the center,...
Hamburg – Speicherstadt and the Elbphilarmonie
TAP layovers are divided into nightstop – half a day – or a stay – a full day or more. On a nightstop, as we don’t have much time, we have to choose carefully what we want to do, which also helps me here in the blog to present you the cities by themes or...
Ursa beach, Portugal
Lisbon, 40 degrees. After months of a supposedly summer without actual summer temperatures, St. Peter decided to overcompensate … several days where the only possible way to survive would be either in front of a fan or inside water. The weekend came and this meant...
Alternative London – Camden Town
This short visit to London began in a rush! We landed at Heathrow airport at 12:45 p.m. and between the disembarkation of passengers and crew, taking the transport to the hotel, which is not too far, we were checking-in at the Holiday Inn at 1:25 p.m. The hotel has...
One day in Copenhagen
The colorful Copenhagen was my request for July! I had already visited the Danish capital on a day of November in 2012 but Scandinavia is quite different in winter and if I had already liked it, I knew that this time, with sun and blue skies, I would like it even...
Louvre, Paris – free museums until 26
Almost every museum in Paris is free for citizens of the European Union until the age of 26 and in the month I’m turning 26 – this July – I had a nightstop in Paris. The time wasn’t much so I decided to go to the Louvre, the museum in Paris where I passed the least...
Geneva, a pleasant surprise
Geneva, Switzerland. A place that does not pop in our heads as a priority to visit. One of the advantages of being at TAP is precisely visiting some places where you never thought about visiting and Geneva was a very pleasant surprise! It is true that in Portugal this...
24 hours in Stockholm
Arlanda Airport is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever landed. The Stockholm archipelago against light with the already high sun of 5am Scandinavian summer make a wonderful landscape! After an overnight flight there was the dilemma of how much time to rest...
Monserrate Palace
Sintra is one of the places where I go when I have visitors, since it is easy to get to Lisbon from my house, but not as simple to go to Sintra, and if I only have one day or two to be with them, that’s where I usually drive them. We usually take the traditional walk...
Frankfurt – a city of contrasts
It took a little over a month to get a flight to Germany! As you may know, it is my second country, my second home, and I was very happy to go to Frankfurt, not only because I did not know the city, but also because one of my best friends is living there! Before...
Arona, Italy – My first layover with TAP
It all started with a spontaneous e-mail with my resume to TAP Air Portugal in November 2016 and a year and a half later here I am, on my first layover with the company. After going to Geneva and returning to Lisbon, we landed at Milan Malpensa airport, the first time...
Madrid by Adriana Ravara – Stories from out there #13
Adriana is 23 years old and has been studying in Madrid for 10 months. She didn't go to Madrid to study because she had a special appeal to the city, since she didn't even know it well, but because she found a master's program that she found interesting and with...
2 days in Lisbon – where to go and what to avoid
I have a tendency here in the blog, to speak mostly of my trips abroad, when Lisbon is the city I know best, not only because whenever I have foreign friends visiting I take them for a walk, just as I have gone for a walk countless times to find the most interesting...
Iceland – northern lights in Thorlakshofn
I was on the bus between Keflavik airport and the school where we were staying for the next four days, near Thorlakshofn, and I took the opportunity to inquire Úlfur, icelandic, sitting next to me, how the aurora borealis begin, something all Portuguese on the trip...
Ghent by Catarina Brito – Stories from out there #11
Catarina is an architect, and we were classmates for only two years out of the five our course has. This is because I went to Italy in our third year and she went to Ghent, Belgium in the 4th, where she then decided to end the course, living there, therefore, during 2...
Aalborg by Mafalda Braga – Stories from out there #10
Mafalda is 23 years old and loves our country more than anything. But she soon realized that the world and the life she wanted included much more than what she had in Lisbon. She always had a dream to travel, to learn different things and, especially, to live abroad...
Rotterdam by Isadora Davide – Stories from out there #9
Isadora is 24 years old and finished this year a master's degree in Interior Architecture at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, Netherlands. She has been living in the Netherlands for almost 3 years, and the reason she decided to go abroad was because she wanted...
Cambridge by Inês Nunes – Stories from out there #5
Inês is 24 years old and was in Cambridge a little over a year, between 2015 and 2016, to continue her studies in the field of Arts and to develop her artistic practice in a different, challenging and valuing environment. Meanwhile, she returned to Portugal where, in...
Reykjavik by Cátia Santos – Stories from out there #1
Cátia is 26 years old and has lived in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, for six months. She went to this country as a volunteer in the EVS program (European Voluntary Service within the ERASMUS+ Program) as an assistant in the area of volunteering development for...
How much does it cost to live in Florence
I lived in Florence for 10 months in Erasmus. The scholarships that EU gives do help, but usually they aren't even enough to pay the rent so unfortunately to go in Erasmus isn't still reachable for everyone. I was getting 306€ per month. The scholarship value is based...
Passadiços do Paiva
Last weekend I went with some friends to Arouca to spend the weekend. A friend of my mother has a house there and from there we could drive to Passadiços do Paiva, the World Travel Award winner of 2016 of Best Touristic Development Project. Unfortunately dued to the...
Córdoba mosque closed
Last summer I went on a one-month trip with Mexican, French and German friends through Spain, Portugal and France. Jorge and I arrived in Cordoba the day before the others, since we wanted to see the city with time. We drove from Lisbon, with a brief stop in Mérida to...
Chelsea, London
I went to London for the first time when I was 10, again when I was 12, but it took me other twelve years to go there for the third time. The reason for the visit was a job interview, which didn’t go so well, probably because as I got off the plane and saw that gray...
3 and a half days in London with your boyfriend
Anytime I travel somewhere with Jorge, my boyfriend, and as we have very different tastes – I go more for museums and architecture and he likes more football and to enjoy things slowly – we usually split the time, so both can see things we like. The last time I went...
Paris – 5 days with architects (and some other people)
When I was five, my parents took me to Paris, to Disneyland. I have few memories of this visit and when I was 22, when I was doing Erasmus in Florence and because I had a friend in Paris, also in Erasmus, I decided it was time to go back and spend 7 days in the French...
Dresden
In my 2017 Germany trip our last stop was in Dresden, one city next to the border with Czech Republic where "they are not used to heavy snow" so the streets were all white and not cleaned. Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence for...
Reasons to go to Florence in Erasmus
I studied architecture in ISCTE-IUL. ISCTE is known as a business and management university and a lot of people are still surprise to find out that you can study architecture in there. You have some advantages, as to work with people from very different fields, but...
Ver Sacrum, Vienna
My way back from my Erasmus in Italy to Portugal was long! First I took a ferryboat to Split, Croatia,then I went to Sarajevo, Bosnia, where that year’s EFIL Volunteer Summer Summit took place, and then I visited Montenegro before coming back to Sarajevo and entering...
5 days around Montenegro
In 2014 after leaving Italy where I was in Erasmus, I went to Bosnia and Herzegovina for EFIL's Volunteer Summer Summit, passing by Split on the way. Prior my departure I had talk with some friends to do a road trip in the Balkans afterwards and Niklas, André and...
Sarajevo – the “city-village”
As you may recall I went to Bosnia for the European Federation for Intercultural Learning Volunteer Summer Summit in 2014. I was living in Florence that year so I took a ferry boat from Ancona to Split, where I spent some days and then I took an 8hour bus to Sarajevo....
Roman Forums – a journey into history (and the reason why the metro in Rome doesn’t make sense)
I have a love hate relationship with the city of Rome! If on one hand is “the city of Rome”, with all its history, the Tiber river (Tevere in Italian) and its opposite bank, Trastevere – my favorite part of the city -, all the churches, that surprise even the most...
Rome – 6 day itinerary
Directly after my week in Paris I flew to Rome for almost a week of <<between semesters'>> holidays before returning to classes in Florence. I also had some Erasmus friends here, with whom I stayed. Actually this script has only five days because I count...
7 days in and around Paris
Day 1 - arrival and Centre Georges Pompidou I came to Paris to visit a great friend who is here in Erasmus. I stayed in the Cité Internationale, where she lives, and where the university residences of each country can be found. I landed at Orly airport and took the...
3-day-weekend in Belgium
I went to Belgium in November of 2013, when I was in Erasmus in Italy, with my flatmate at the time, Maria João. We decided to go there because we had a friend doing Erasmus in Brussels, because we found a great flight and just because I really wanted to visit...
2 days in Milano
Our Erasmus adventure started! Maria and I arrived to Milan, where we are spending two days before going to Florence. Milano is beautiful, but not amazing, you have to know Italians to show you the beautiful places, hidden from the tourists. On our first day we...
7 days in São Miguel, Azores
São Miguel is the biggest island of the Azorean archipelago, out of nine. It is also the most visited one, not just because it is so beautiful and has many things to see, but mostly because there are no direct flights to the other islands, except to Terceira. The...
Oslo Opera House
Now that I have written about the countries I have visited, unlike in my last blog, in which I hardly commented anything and only put many photographs, I realize that my trips, especially the short ones, were generally very superficial and touristy, always very...
Vigeland Park, Oslo
Vigeland Park is located within Frogner Park in Oslo, approximately 3 km away from the city center. It consists of 212 sculptures in bronze and granite by the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland, which materialize the inherences of human existence, such as work, anger,...
3 days in Moscow with Viagens Abreu
When my sister and I were younger my father used to take us each year to a summer trip. In 2011 we went to Russia, visiting Moscow and Saint Petersburg. A lot of people say that Saint Petersburg is more beautiful than Moscow but I preferred the capital city, maybe...
Reasons to go to Germany in exchange
I went to Germany when I was just 17. I applied to AFS Intercultural Programs, an organization which offers the opportunity to young people from 15 to 18 years old of studying abroad for three, six or ten months. It is all based on volunteering work, as it is a...
Andorra
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Latvia
Slovakia
