Casa de Santa Ana da Beira Seia

... to drop out to those cool cats we meet on our travels. The flyer has an image gallery and news of eleven Aussie parties on the psytrance trail and also speaks of the important gathering planned for Cairns in 2012. We cruised past the downtown BOOM shop where our passports and ipod had been kept in a safe for the week. We hadn´t really felt the thieving vibe happening at the festival but we like to have peace of mind and still used the padlock system on our tent. At the ...

My uncle and my aunt came to pick us up, at the arrival of the train (before 6am). As we wanted to have a coffee with a delicious Portuguese pastry, but as the coffee shops were not yet opened, we went to see the sunrise from the front of the cathedral.

... O bilhete de interrail ganhei-o num concurso da CP. São 10 dias de comboio em 22. Bilhete de InterRail B.I. Passaporte Cartão de Saúde Europeu Cartão-jovem e Cartão de Estudante Cartão de Alberguista da Hosteling International Autorização dos pais Dinheiro para hostels Dinheiro para alimentação Dinheiro para extras comboios ...

... freshers around doing stupid things all over the place which was a little bit entertaining. The morning found us treking around town looking for the bus station with our packs on which sort of sucked. It looked similar to Salamanca, if not a little older and a little more run down, but most of Portugal has been like that so far ...

amazingly beautiful area with a river running thru green hills, dotted with small portugese white washed villages and vineyards which are dug into the siderd of teh hills. the rain didn't stop us from doing a couple of winery tours and climbing up 600 odd steps to see a beautiful church.... although we did find ourselves inside bars and bakeries samling portugals finest ports and pastries .... and the chinese restaurant of course (habits die hard).

... my other experience had been a fluke, I happily fell into bed for an afternoon nap. Only to be awakened an hour later by this horrible rumbling noise and loud voices. Was a herd of talking cows running past my room? Groggily I got out of bed and took a peek out my window. Not cows. Boys. Thirteen-year-old boys. Lots of them. Bouncing basketballs, kicking soccer balls against the wall, yelling, running, and pushing. This was the catch. I was staying in a some sort of summer ...

... Shops selling traditional ceramics, lace and the Portuguese lucky chicken** display their wares in latticed windows under carved stone eaves. Coming as we do out of the "ivory towers" of Brutalist Auckland and aircraft hanger Cranfield, Coimbra's Universidade is like a fairy tale - copper coloured stone, sweeping staircases, function secondary to aesthetics, turrets, frescoes and chandeliers, incorporating a royal palace. Being total bibliophiles we ...

... we stayed in a cozy Quinta named Levada. We had a lot of wines in this period, two were special, Vertentes 2001 and Tres Bagos Sauv. Blanc 2005. Also good food there, as the other places that we have been in Portugal. I had a very good octopus in restaurant named Barriguinha Cheia, translated to English as Fully Small Belly!!! Another interesting thing was visiting the wine makers. The last ...

... and soccer in the park. Wandered on from here as it got dark and into a very lively joint for dinner..specialty BBQ portuguese chicken (andy was in heaven)...everybody just crams in at whatever space is available and we ended up sitting at a table with some young Lisbon coolcats! After dinner sat at the bar awhile for coffee and port...and the young friendly barman kept giving us free tastes of all the portuguese liquors. Out of there and up another ...

Clem is a German pig-farmer from Saxony. But, he has alternative views. He doesn't fit in with the other conservative, narrow-minded pig-farmers and other small-town folk in his small town. He's traveled a lot. He likes the Green Party. He used to be a long-haired hippy, and he and his father once went ten years without speaking to each other because of a disagreement. He and I were together for a night out in Portugal. Now, tall Clem is thirty-five ...