Ljubljana I am back.

good evening Ljubljana. yes, i am escaping Lisbon and the rainy days there and looking for some sunshines i n the center of Europe. It`s been times but now I am again back here for some short time, to enjoy your beauty. Thank you for treating me so well so far, and than you for many sunshine for these last 24 hours of my so far stay here.

Other than that I wanted to share my travel to Ljubljana story as it turned out that direct flights also may bring you many of the adventures.

bunch of positive energies with street arts in Lisbon.

 

while traveling around Europe, i`ve seen very different types of street arts and performances, some of them been indeed full with passions and obsessions with what they are doing and good at it. this last sunday while passing for a walk around Lisboa, i managed to see and feel one of the best performances so far. Unfortunately i do not know the name of the group of the artists, however I can tell that it was not only something new i`ve seen. 

weekend fun @Tapada em Festa

 

this last weekend was fun in another way than usually, as this weekend me and Olja we signed up for our dear Dinamo promotion within the local communities around us. And two days maybe not spent much in favor for both of us, however, great get to know local habits experience and as well get to know the locals better...well the second part partially worked out, as after all, it turns out we missed the last weekends real party, so this was in a way after party of Tapada em Festa, leaving us not that visited as we would liked to see, nevertheless, people who came to visit us, hope they took some piece with Dimano for themselves and we will meet at least couple of them later during our EVS experience year continued. 

I wanted to point out, that I am proud to tell, that finally I know how the pins are created, yes, just before the Festa, and after the friday night celebration, we got to make the Pins Workshop, which at first seemed to be a real nightmare, as none of us were exactly sure of how correctly Pin Making machine works, however later on we got the skills and managed to do the great work.

beauty piece aka Porto

A random street art in Porto, and me taking the photo, i did not
 know the meaning of the quote, just now it makes sense

Porto is the city i was lucky to visit last year, after finishing my semester in Barcelona. And if before i stepped out in the city of Porto, i thought that wooow, Barcelona is amazing city and indeed a great place to be, then with the first steps around Porto, i got the thought, woooow, Porto and Portugal is way different than I was expecting and nothing really similar with so far seen Spanish culture and cities, Porto is indeed a completely amazing place to be. i especially adore those very old, little and all in all cute houses all over the city center. pure beauty,

am I a vegetarian?

before i go any further with other of my stories of the recent adventures and travels, it asks for the conclusion of my very recent post "Vegetarian Challenge part. 1."

It did happen quite time ago, however when i start on counting the days, then its like only six days since we finished the Training Course in Amarante and since I have returned  to the usual life here around Lisboa.

First of all, as told before, then what first seems to be easy, it did not turn out to be easy at all, as this very specific taste is the thing i will not get used to i believe never really.

vegetarin challenge. part 1.

week in Amarante is full with happenings and things around us, and other than everything the biggest challenge for most of participants is the food during the training. Our dear hosts Youth house of Amarante has the "healthy" vision of life, so therefore all they serve is only a vegetarian dishes.

At first i thought that this week long challenge will be all great, as i do eat meat, however not eating meat is completely fine with me.

First Amarante adventures

@Amarante, next to Tâmega river,
with the famous cathedral behind us.

here been already couple of days of my Amarante life, and i finally have some time to share few of the recent adventures.

first of all want to tell that I am super happy of the chance to join the organizing team and be part of the background work for the training. Gives me more and more the feeling and discovery that i really like the logistics sides of the projects.

if looking back to yesterday, then well, it was fun fun day, the first working day for most of participants, the arrival day for couple of participants and challenge plus adventure for me.

up we go, Amarante it is.

who can find me gets a cookie.

greetings from the north of Portugal, the beauty piece of Amarante. i have to tell, its as amazing as the fairy tales tells. after crazy last night, of experiencing the unpleasant crazy neighbors around our Lisboa house and managing the fourth night fight with mosquitoes, all in all not again having much of the sleep after-all all four of us, managed to catch the bus for Amarante this morning. Not mentioning that two of us were super lucky as they got into bus the very last minute.

I very much enjoy travels with bus, as mainly thats the only alternative asides the planes if you want to go abroad from Latvia usually, so i am so used to it. However as its southern countries, then here people like to travel by trains, and as they are way faster mostly and also super cool inside.

september in Portugal just like july in Latvia

I have to admit, no actual pictures from the beach.

and ready or not but the friday have again reached us, ready or not, summer is around Portugal and so much enjoy it. Yes yes, the great fact of southern weather is true, it does exist and surprise all locals too, as usual september is colder than the weather we are having now. Thanks to the nice and lovely outside temperatures, there is no better way how to use time than to go to beach :) yeah and not to catch the heat during the day time, more better is to catch the afternoon / evening sunshines and have the nice swim in the cold cold ocean, just like the baltic sea in the summer times, today the ocean felt just perfect.

Portuguese understanding of Latvia&Latvian

i very much enjoy being form the small and beautiful country Latvia. If you are now wondering where it is, then have a look here. And being from small nation many times is advantage, however there comes times of disadvantages, as well you get yourself into fun situations way more often due to explaining of your nationality and country.

while living in Spain and trying to use the english name "Latvia" it was clear that nobody really knows, as for them Latvia is Letonia and latvian is Letona. And fun, but in Barcelona they produce milk with exact the same name Letona.

When arriving here, i already knew that i should skip the english version and should better adapt the spanish name. However here it comes with different accent so it also sounds a bit differently. nevertheless as I learned during my portuguese classes, then our nationality is called Leta or Letao. So yeah, you get quite lost with all of this.

my childhood memories

even though i`ve been born in Riga and nowadays cannot imagine myself not living in big cities, my childhood routes goes all way to countryside life and its pureness and beauty.

Thank you for the place for me to be during the tough times of Latvia and the barricades, even if i was too small to remember...thank you for all the small pieces of great memories i hold of these short times spent at your home in the middle of forests and pure nature. Thank you for making me learn the touch of snail mail beauty even nowadays and the nice postcards and words for my birthdays. R.I.P. Aunt Daina.

S. and O. hosts the Game Night.

there is watermelon & Rum bottle. What do you do?

there is no better way of celebration than to gather your friends and organize a fun night for all of us. As on my arrival here we had the Lazanja workshop, then to celebrate the first month of our EVS and being here, we thought of playing games.

One, two ideas gathered, games collected, invitations sent and party is there.

as some of you may already know then timings for meetings, parties and everything work way much different than timings in Baltic countries. So yeah, we set one time and were already sure that everyone will come late anyways...but well due to friday night out and the busy saturday morning, we did not though of us being late.

Bairro Alto aka friday night out.

after every hard working week its good to reward yourself. Oh well, yes, right, i am not actual employee, but a volunteer, so I do less and carry less responsibility. Nevertheless this new not employee status makes life sometimes more complicated for me, as i get lost inbetween all the small tasks given from different persons, plus with missing some information with those tasks. what seems easier not always indeed is the easiest. And I did not came to look for easiest, but to gather new experiences, and i am very happy of my EVS experiences here..anyways, about the EVS, ill tell you later more, now wanted to share of the friday happenings.

so yes, as one of my international and always traveling friends came back to Portugal, so nothing else to do than to meet up. And as for the welcome no better place to go than Bairro Alto. I have to admit that this actually been my first night out @Bairro, as till before there were other parts of Lisboa and outskirts for my parties.