Chapter 7 - Sevilla

Chapter - 7 - Sevilla

We left our heroic car few steps away from our nice airbnb apartment and we immediately lost ourselves in the city! Two days are enough to fall in love with Sevilla; with its literally fabulous and narrow "calles" and shining colours it looks like a fairytale! A lot of little lovely squares and huge amazing parks make you want to lie down on the grass to have a 360° view, warmed by the hot sun, enjoying the songs of the birds and the cicadas chirping. You could spend hours under a baobab's shadow looking at tourists that visit the city with a cart pulled by beautiful but tired horses. Flowers and characteristic orange trees are all around making the ancient city really romantic, especially when the sunlight goes down to make place to the city lights that illuminate towers, bridges and medieval walls.
We couldn't say if it is more magical during the day or during the night.

Try to ride a small boat along the river that flows under the Plaza de España's bridges, one of the most beautiful and famous places in Sevilla, built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929: it's a nice experience you should have once in your life. With a fountain (of course) in the middle, its half moon shape covers exactly a corner of the huge Maria Luisa park (there is also a museum inside) where every street you take brings you to a pond, or to a gazebo, or to a tropical area; what is sure is that you will always see ducks and swans! The same is for the Real Alcázares gardens where peacocks, our best friends by now, will guide you instead! This is another big park that surrounds the royal palace and its countless rooms adorned with thousands of azulejos. You need more or less one hour to visit both, one more if you lose Richie. Yes. It happened again.

As usual the Cathedral is beautiful and the whole area outside of it is really characteristic. But most of all we're big fans of sunsets as you might have had understood, and in Sevilla you'll be able to see an amazing sunset. Climb the Metropol Parasol, best known as "Setas" and the view of the city will strike you! Wait for the sun to go down, all the colours spreading all around you and the main buildings of the city illuminated. You'll immediately fall in love with this amazing city!

Another thing we really suggest is a walk along the Guadalquivir river at night, with all the bridges illuminated and the many bars where you can stop and have a relaxing evening.
We also prepared a little surprise for Manu as Monday was his birthday and after many ordeals this was the final result! (yes we made him believe he was turning 15!!)

Sevilla is really charming, even though the parking is a bit expensive: yes, the parking place by the house costs us a 100€ fine. Oopsie!

We're in Madrid again and we're leaving for Bologna in a few hours, Maria is going to Bilbao instead. Yes, the trip is over but not the Trip Five.

Love

The Trip Five

Chapter 6 - Lagos & Albufeira

 Chapter 6 - Lagos & Albufeira

Wow!! After two very intense days we can say that everything went well during our stay in the portoguese Algarve.

We left Lisbon headed to Praia da Aberta Nova, half way between Setubal and Sines, where we spent a fantastic day in an enormous beach with very few people, so it seemed that we were alone in that natural paradise. Cool water, biiiiig waves very clear sand and a small bar where you can relax looking at the sea, listening to the violent and, at the same time, extremely relaxing sound of the waves.






Due to the fact that we didn't have any place to stay that night, we headed to Lagos a town by the coast with a very nice historical centre and with extremely chilling summer vibes and this is what happens when you're not sure you'll be able to take a shower in the evening!!


We went through a quite odd situation where we found ourselves at 10pm in Lagos with nowhere to stay and all the city fully booked. But again, we had a stroke of luck and our "dad" Manu managed to find a very nice room 5km away from the centre but very big, at a very reasonable price and with a swimming pool just a few steps from our room. 

Next day, we decided to explore the area and tried to go to a small beach called Praia do Pinhão next to Lagos's main beach, but it was crowded and access was quite difficult, so we decided to follow other recommendations and go to Praia do Vau, between Lagos and Albufeira. We absolutely loved it! We found fantastic landscapes with natural caves and randomly shaped stones in the sea due to the strength of the Atlantic waves. But there are also a couple of bars where you can go for a coffe or even order a proper meal if you decide to spend the whole day there and you happen not to have anything for lunch. 

 

After relaxing a bit, exploring the caves and swimming among the marine rock structures (and losing Rico again, see picture), we started our accommodation haunt for that night, and we found out that everything was fully booked both in Albufeira and Faro, but we weren't as lucky as before and the only place we found was a portable and quite precarious housing solution in the house of a rich man in the middle of nowhere. So, if we had to give you one single tip should you want to go to Algarve, it would be: MAKE SURE YOU BOOK YOUR ACCOMMODATION WELL AHEAD YOUR ARRIVAL. 

Hey, do you want to know something? Plums work!! It's become Maria's favourite food during this trip and it finally gave some results! We'll let you figure out what happened yesterday, as Maria was forced to stay home all night, in one particular room...
The others went to Albufeira, we found a lot of bars and small clubs where it's possible to dance commercial music, drink cheap drinks and get immersed in the international Algarve atmosphere.




We arrived in Sevilla this afternoon. It is almost 40 degrees, but we are well equipped with cold water and ready to explore. We'll tell you about it in a couple of days. 
Btw, did you know that we are celebrating one of our member's birthday soon? Yes, Manu is turning 30 on August 2nd. That means that we will be in two cities during his birthday. Are you curious about what will happen?? Stay tuned to find out!!

Kisses to you all.

The Trip Five.

Chapter 5 - Lisbon

Chapter 5 - Lisbon

Every trip must have its difficulties...we left Cascais on Thursday headed to our new Airbnb apartment in Lisbon. We step in the car, we start the music, it's not a long trip, just around 30 minutes, we check our phones and...apparently we don't have an apartment anymore...

Right, what do we do now? It seems like we're pretty lucky because, also with the help of Airbnb, we find another host for our two nights in Lisbon and actually we're pretty lucky because we end up in an apartment in Alfama. the most beautiful and characteristic "bairro" in the big city.What strikes you when you arrive, especially by car, are the narrow streets, the traffic, the famous yellow tram 28, the cobblestone streets, up and down, up and down again...
Joanna welcomes us very warmly in her small but cozy apartment and tells us what to visit and what to do.

Now put on some sneakers and get ready to walk with us!

Day one is all uphill. We saw the city from all angles from the top. From miradouro Santa Luzia. and Santa Catarina, from the top of the Panteão and from the top of the turrets of the Castelo de Sao Jorge. Just walk around Alfama, see all its colours and all its bars and restaurants, all the tourists struggling up the steep streets, cameras in hand. It's fascinating how the small old tuk tuks take tourists everywhere unabated.

Almost everything is cheaper here. We went to Churrasqueira o Cofre for dinner and we had fish and wine for 10€ each. Not bad at all!!

The evening goes on in Bairro Alto, the most lively neighbourhood where bars proliferate like mushrooms and drinks are really cheap!!

Day two, on the other hand, we spend it down by the river.

The Tower of Belem is really beautiful from outside. A really nice 16 century tower on the river Tagus built to protect the city. Ok, we want to be honest, the long queue and the inside of the tower make it not really worth it going in. Take a nice picture from outside and enjoy the breeze sitting under the trees of the nearby park, it'll be more than fine!

Next comes the Monasteiro de los Jeronimos, an impressive piece of architecture maybe better from the outside than from the inside, but the church which is really worth visiting, and by the way it's for free. An archeological museum with a permanent exhibition of pieces of art from the XIV century completes the big picture of the Jeronimos. The 10 Euro ticket is a good deal for visiting the three attractions. If you are a student like us, take your ID they are going to give you a discount.

After that, guided by the amazing smell coming from some place nearby, we arrived to the ancient and famous pastry shop Pasteis de Belem, home of the delicious pastry from which it takes it name, baked using the same recipe of the Jeronimos priests. It is pretty easy to recognise it as there is always a very long queue of hungry tourist, but don't panic, you just have to wait 10 minutes to fill your mouth with the sweet taste of their specialty.

We decided to eat them in a nearby park, the Jardim Botanico Tropical, where we enjoyed our sweet meal in the company of ducks, geese and peacocks.

Long day almost over we went first to take a look at the stunning 25 April bridge from under it, where Rico took some beautiful pictures and then off too look for a supermarket and buy some dinner.

So here we are, after our last night in Lisbon, all packed up again and ready to leave for Algarve...nice beaches are waiting for us, the most relaxing part of our trip...

We can't wait to chill in the sun and enjoy the summer for a couple of days.

More post will come before the end of the trip in the 2 of August, we have a couple more cities to visit.

We'll write again soon, hopefully with a picture of a beautiful Portuguese sunset!

Ciao people, love and pasteis to you all!!

Chapter 4 - Cascais & Sintra

Chapter 4 - Cascais & Sintra

Boa noite povos! Here we are again!! 

We are writing this post from Cascais where we arrived yesterday and where, straight after parking the car, we went to the beautiful Praia de Conceição. We actually struggled a bit to find a free spot for our towels, but when we finally managed to find one, we found ourselves basically in the water, as the tide was rising and we had to move our towels somewhere else. What is nice about this beach, apart from the ice cold water, is that there is a surfhouse where you can rent boards, a very nice bar by the beach where you'll drink a super well prepared mojito and also a natural platform from which you can jump into the sea. Actually Manu and Rico climbed up to it and jumped into the water and you're going to see a video of them soon!!

We were lucky to find a last minute deal otherwise we would have had to sleep in our car.
Paco, a nice guy from Sevilla, who moved to Cascais only 5 days ago to learn Portuguese,  welcomed us very warmly to the Ljmonade Hostel and also came out with us for a drink and to show us the most lively area of the centre.
Cascais is pretty full of young people, especially in the summer when tourist pour in to crowd its beaches. We also met some very nice young people from the town and if you think that the Portuguese are reserved and pretty shy, well, they're gonna make you change your mind.
After another long day we decided to go back to our hostel and get ready for a whole day in Sintra.

Beep beep. Beep beep. The following day starts with Vi getting angry at Rico's alarm clock that starts ringing at 7.45 instead of 9. Oops...
A long and hard day is awaiting us, even though we don't know it yet.
Sintra turns out to be beautiful. Crowded by tourists who maybe don't know how much they'll have to walk to see all its marvellous attractions.
We start by taking a path up the mountain that leads us after about an hour, Maria always in the back asking "Are we there yet??", to the Castelo dos Mouros, a castle built by the Moors in the 8th and 9th centuries and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The views from the top of the hill are stunning and if you're afraid of heights think twice before going to the highest point of the castle.

We then moved back down to the city centre where thousands of hungry tourists like us crowded the many small restaurants.

Full belly and refreshed by a watery coffee (sorry, we're used to the Italian one :)) we went to look for the many secrets of the Quinta da Regaleira, a huge estate with a beautiful park, palace, chapel, lakes, grottoes, wells and fountains that hides secret dark passages under the ground where we lost Rico. You feel like you're Indiana Jones, looking for hidden secrets. It's a beautiful experience that we suggest to everyone...just do yourself a favour, don't wear flip flops like we did......




We wanted to finish our day with a beautiful sunset from the end of Europe, Cabo de Roca, one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world!!

Oops, no wait, this is what we found......

Cloudy and very windy. A good excuse to come back!!

Lisbon awaits us tomorrow, big city, many things to do...let's see what happens to our five, no wait, four heroes tomorrow!

Good night to you all and write to you soon!!

Adeus

Chapter 3 - Coimbra

Chapter 3 - Coimbra

Hello Guys,

If only you could see what we are watching right now, drinking a beer and looking at the pictures we took today...

We have in front of us an amazing sunset where all the colours hug each other. We are so lucky to stay in the Dream On Hostel where the view of the city from the hill is a priceless treasure.

It's not only the view, but the way you feel in this hostel, it is the way Rita welcomed us, always kind and happy to help with everything we needed. Here is a picture with her in the very nice livingroom, as the rest of the house.

Coimbra is a small city and can be seen in a short time. We started from the University, the oldest in Portugal, one of the oldest in the Europe, as our own Alma Mater...we kept walking on to the "Sé Velha", old church and one of the most important romantic style building in Portugal, then down Largo Sé Velha, towards Torre da Almedina, and then to Praca 8 de maio, centre of the life of the city, in the middle of many streets that go up and down, main feature of Portugal up to now.

It's Sunday and there's almost no one around...90% of the shops are closed...fortunately we find an open supermarket where we buy dinner and dried plums for Maria, her favourite meal of the trip...

As opposed to Porto, the temperature reaches almost 40 degrees but there is always a light breeze that helps you cool away the hot sun.

Walk on the coloured Pedro E Ines bridge, watch the Mondego river flowing below, the people sunbathing, the kids playing in the water...take some pictures but not too many, keep all these images inside yourselves and enjoy Portugal as it is.

Sintra comes next, we don't know where we'll be sleeping yet...do you have any suggestions? Because otherwise we might be enjoying the comfortable seats of our beautiful 500L or the sand of a nice beach next night!!

Let's see what happens, we'll keep you updated in our next post!!
Keep following us peeps!!

Good night and adeus!

Chapter - 2 - Porto

Chapter - 2 - Salamanca-Porto

Boas noites!! 

Hello from the Amazing Oporto!! We are so happy to be here and to be living the adventure we are living. 

The road-trip actually started yesterday, when Manu and Maria went to rent our car while Rico and Vi prepared some sandwiches for the day.

First stop, Salamanca. Beautiful medieval-style city where we hardly spent 5 hours, but was long enough in order to fall in love with the city. All its architecture including the cathedral, university and main square follow the same oriental looking style. Here are some pictures of the city. 

Few hours later we were entering Portugal. Impatient to get to know the city, we left the lugagge and inmediately left to see how the city and to know its nightlife.

We headed to the Galerias neighborhood, where we found a street full of bars with tables outside, perfect combination to enjoy a drink listening to good music and enjoying the cool temperature. 

The following day, like good tourists, as we are, we visited the main attractions, of Porto: Catedral de la Sè do Porto, located in the top of the hill where you can take your time to explore the magnificent Romantic architecture built during the XII century or you can enjoy one of the most beautiful landscapes of Porto.

The Libreria Lello e Irmao where they filmed one of the scenes of Harry Potter. One of the most famous attractions of Porto is the view from the Dom Luis bridge. The incredible bridge has one of the most amazing sunsets we ever saw. The massiveness of the structure proves the power of the engineering. It was the longest bridge in 1886, the year they finished it. But if adventure is what you are looking for, you can attempt to jump from the lowest level as the bravest locals do from just over 12 meters. As soon as our more adventurous member Rico saw it he said that he madly wanted to jump and battle his biggest fear, height. But the truth is that 12 meters are actually a lot for the first time, so he will try in another place.

One typical thing from Porto is that its narrow and full of beauty and tradition streets go up and down like a roller coaster, and you know what? We actually went to a roller coaster!!! It was a lot of fun!! Check out the video. 

After visiting the city, and with harmful feet, we managed to reach one of the best terraces in town where to have a beer and relax while listening to live music watching the sea. 

Now, we are about to go out on a Saturday-night-party haunt and we hope you do the same.

You'll get news from us tomorrow on our facebook page when we leave to our next stop, Coimbra!! 

Good night, and enjoy your Saturday. 

The Trip Five.

Chapter 1 - Madrid

CHAPTER 1- MADRID

Hola chicos, que tal estais???

The adventure has started, we have been in Madrid for a little more than two days now and we're ready to leave for Portugal tomorrow morning, with a short stop in Salamanca! From Porto to Albufeira we'll let you see basically all of it!!

But let's start from the beginning!
It's hot in Madrid, very hot! Thermometers on the streets were saying 40 degrees but an unexpected wind allowed us to walk for two days without melting.

First things first...we said we're The Trip Five right?? Then we told you we're actually six and only five of us were going to Portugal...ehmmm ok, only four of us actually left from Bologna on Tuesday because Fil couldn't come for personal reasons... anyway the hashtag #TF doesn't change right??? Let's see how many of us will make it to the end of the trip J

Ok, now let's see what happened in Madrid!!

We arrived at around 8 in the evening at the Barajas airport and we were so hungry that right after dropping our bags at Maria’s place we went for a restaurant...and where better to go than Yakitoro by Chicote owned by the famous cook Alberto Chicote?? Small dishes so you can try a bit of every creation from the great Chef and the bill is not that heavy. We highly recommend you go there if you want to have a fancy and modern dinner.

Let’s keep talking about food...this is a city with many food markets. Just visit Mercado de San Miguel or Mercado de San Anton to find an huge assortment of small shops where you can choose among endless types of dishes and local food products to eat in that specific moment. La Platea, still the same concept but with live music.

Just a few steps away from Mercado de San Miguel, there is the famous Puerta del Sol, where we bought a lottery ticket in the most famous lottery seller in Spain. Who knows, maybe in a couple of weeks we’ll be rich and you’ll be seeing many more trips like this!!

We discovered that Madrid is a great city for shopping! Calle Serrano and Passeo de la Castellana, Manu can draw you a map of all the nice shops of the city center that Maria and Vi wanted to go to in a very long afternoon, Versace, Gucci, Cartier, Suarez...yes, you guessed right, only window shopping for the girls this time!!

Beside the “tourist” visit to the Palacio Real, the Almudena Cathedral and Plaza Mayor what we liked best in these hot summer days was Parque del Retiro, a huge park in the middle of the city where you can relax, walk in the nature and even see peacocks!!

Madrid is reeeaaallyy biiiiggg! If you get lost, don’t trust on the many “peluquerias” and “clinicas dentales” boards to try to find your way around...don’t ask why, but this is probably the city where everyone has perfect teeth and freshly cut hair!!

Hey, what about Rico?? Rico spent two days working on a project, looking for a wifi connection between bars and restaurants...that’s why we decided to take him to a special place for the last evening...

Watching the sunset from the top of Templo de Debod is something you absolutely need to do if you go to Madrid. Remember to bring some beers, a blanket and good music!

Good night for now, the alarm-clock will ring in too few hours, our car awaits for us and we have two new cities awaiting for us!

Hasta la proxima chicos!