CAMMINO DE SANTIAGO - PORTUGAL - SEPTEMBER 2014

After the Edinburgh Fringe 11th Aug we took off to Poland. A couple of weeks traveling around: Krakow, Warsaw, sea side (Sopot, Gdansk), Auschwitz, Beskid's mountains. Eventually ended up in Barcelona for 18 hours, tour the port which I loved by the sunrise, breakfast (cafe con leche y cornetto, fresco jugo de naranja (coffe milk with croissant and fresh orange juice), then resting a bit on the beach. Las Ramblas - Main Street with cafés, restaurants and shops, outdoor markets with fantastic food. We had got some tapas: prawns, calamaries, sardines, polpettes... After running like crazy to collect our rock-sacks at the airport of Barcelona finally we took off to Lisbon. We spent first night in the hostel located in the main square of the city, it was the first and the last night we shared the room with another person as we were too tired to look for another accommodation with a double room. We took the city tour tram which allowed us to explore the old town of Lisbon. We didn't find it particularly engaging so we decided to make our way directly to the sea side - Cascais. This is the main tourists destination for locals. The beaches are very nice and big as most of the Portuguese Coast. The Atlantic Ocean at this particular location was impressively cold. It was such a termical shock after sunbathing, to take a swim in this iceberg. Eventually I've got used to the water's temperature and swam. The state of mind afterwards was calm and clear as after the yogic practice. It's refreshing and energising. We started exploration of Portuguese tapas food and had some mariscos sopa (seafood soup), bacala baked with potatoes and cheese, claims cocked with tomatoes and onion. Also octopus salad was delicious as well as fried calamari and grilled shrimps. We spent that night sleeping under the stars. The humidity was huge up to 85%. We woke up before the sunrise by noise of the tractor which was tiding up the sand. It was quite scary as the driver wouldn't slow down while passing half meter away from us. Luckily we survived. We were supposed to start our Cammino de Compostella from Cascais. So we did, we went on the highway and walked for a couple of miles. Being sweaty and hot we decided to hitchhike. In this way we've managed to reach the Sintra after 40 miles of traveling with locals. Sintra appeared as a beautiful national park with a castle on top of the mountain. We took a bus and reached the destination. The park was wonderful so was a town surrounded by a different historical palaces and sites. Our pilgrimage continued by the local transport. Since then we decided to travel along the Portuguese coast and stay by the most beautiful and hidden beaches. We would arrive to the town and then take a bus or walk away as far as possible from the chaos. Before that we reached Ericeira - the surfers paradise and we stayed at the Erichea's hostel located just in the pick point of the town with a wonderful ocean's view. It was a nice hostel, thought in the morning we hardly could see anything. The fog became our friend since then, it was like being in the big industrial city in a winter surrounded by the smog. Luckily the smog wouldn't last so long. In the morning around 9/10am it would clear up and the sun would come out. For the following night we found a place to camp free by the further beach located in the bay. The wind and waves were much slower and it was cosy and quite. At least we hoped it would be. On the highest heal around 1 km above the sea level there was a discotheque going on for the whole night until the midday of the following day. The humidity level was too hight to be able to sleep under the sky. Eventually we've managed pretty well by hiding under the umbrella. The next destination was Peniche - the peninsula for surfers, famous because of the surf championship. The beaches were long for kilometres, with a wonderful dunes, the wind was so strong. We needed to evacuate from one of the beaches to a quite bay for consecutive 3 nights. The first night we spent at the Peniche hostel with the ocean's view. The hostel was nice 40€ per room, however it was just for a night. We craved for a shower and the comfort of sleeping in a bed again. The best location we found in the little bay of ... Can not remember the name...it was a little beach with the rocks cliff under which we settled in our tend and the sea food restaurant near by where we were pretty often the guests. Getting up early in the morning and jumping in the water was a nice treat. However the water was freezing cold because of the Atlantic Ocean current, the access to the water in our private bay was limited by the alghies. Although it wouldn't stop us from jumping in. The landscape was pretty and the village was very nice, authentic and local. We were having the donuts with Catalan cream every morning. Portugal was a paradise of the sweet pastry. The diversity of pastiseries they've got it's mind blowing. We had got a pleasure of meeting a couple of the middle age Italians who were so nice to us. He - Augusto was a lawyer like my partner. He was so funy to talk to, as he would be very direct and speak up his mind in a fraction of second. He fell in live with his wife when he was defending her in the court. She was involved in some mafia's issues and he saved her from both mafia and the prison. He said that I must have fell in love with A because of his Mediterranean look contrasted with the blue eyes, similar to his wife who fell in love with his Mediterranean look contrasted by green eyes. The next morning while I was practising yoga, A went out to pick up some delicious Portuguese pastry. He's got lost and found the Roman couple who were just about to take the pastry for us and deliver it to our tend in our private bay. They've mentioned that the night before they passed by with cervezas (beers) and called my name 'Asia Asia Asia ...' but nobody came out of the tend. In fact we were already sleeping by 10pm. Our free camping life style was very basic and healthy, therefore we were waking up by sunrise and going to sleep by sunset...They were about to leave that morning so they passed by to say goodbye. They were heading north towards Spain as we were, but taking the other roots. They traveled by a rented car and stayed in the hostels. They were envious of our free camp adventure. In fact we had time of our lives;) They were the ones who have mentioned about going to Cuba before the end of Castrol's regime. So we did 2 months later;) They've been there already a couple of times and still with intention of coming back. Peniche was nice as it was a peninsular surfers paradise surrounded by Atlantic Ocean with huge waves and powerful wind. Because of that the energy along the Portuguese Coast was so amazing and special. The village of Peniche was very authentic and characteristic, the sea food - king prawns (camerones), calamari (calamares) and muscles (mejiones) were cheap (10€) and very common. Mostly we ate tapas, a few bites of delicious, basic and tasty Portuguese food. Portugal is the cheapest EU destination. With 30€ per day one can survive including accommodation and meals. We were lucky to spend our money in traveling and food considering our free accommodation - free camping. After 3 days of sightseeing and swimming we took a local transport and went to Nazare. It was such a touristic and crowded town and the beach. The beach was large and long with huge waves. We put the tend in the prohibited area because of the danger of falling rocks and stones. The beach after being cleared out of the crowd was impressive, we had got an exclusivity for all sunsets and sunrises. The food in local tapas bars was great, always some grilled seafood, calamaris, shrimps or muscles. The attention must be brought to the soup of 2€ value which was the main dish of our daily diet. Because of the storm and the red flag there was an emergency call for all the safe guards forces along the coast. There was even the national TV service with direct news from the coast, the helicopters all over the place and of course me in the water swimming far away from the shore. I've been caught a couple of times by safeguards and worn that I shouldn't be in the water, by the third reminder they called the police and I've been worn even by them. However the police was much more polite than those safeguards with a huge ego. The next destination we visited was Figuera de Foz. Then we went to few more destinations on the Atlantic coast such as Aveiro (Spanish Venice), Porto (the most beautiful European city-harbour in Europe) and Viana Do Castelo. Eventually we crossed the border and ended up in northern Spain. For a few nights we stayed in Baiona with a spectacular castle by the ocean. The view was stunning. There was not allowed a free camping however we found a gorgeous peninsula where we put on our tend. The water was all over and very calm as we were in the bay of Baiona. Every day tapas and nice breakfasts as the Portuguese delicious pastery was followed by the Spanish one. Unfortunately there were no donuts with a catalan cream - our favourite ones from Portugal. Finally we reached our destination - Santiago De Cuba from where we took the plain and came back home to Italy. My parents came to visit us. It was such a nice extension of our holiday;) Then in November after another month I came back to London to get ready for the next trip to Cuba Dec'14-Feb'15. A followed me.