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Portugal

Listen to Fado

[January, 2012] We listened to Fado for the first time. It was in a restaurant called Clube de Fado in Alfama area in Lisbon. I had thought that Fado was always heavy and sad, but…

Portugal

Bullfighting in Portugal

[January, 2012] On the last day, we took a hop-on-hop-off sight seeing bus in Lisbon. And I learned that the bull fighting in Portugal do not kill the bulls. Also, I leaned that in Portugal…

Lisbon

Castella

Years ago, when I visited Portugal for the first time, I looked around for Castella, the cake which is popular in Japan and believed to be Portuguese. But the castella look-a-like cakes were lemon cakes….

Portugal

A room with the view

[January, 2012] Then, we came back to Lisbon where we had started our journey. This time we stayed in a hotel on the hill called Olissippo. The classically decorated room was nice and spacious, but…

Portugal

The local restaurant with good atmosphere

[January, 2012] This is a picture of the restaurant I went in Mertola in Portugal.I had been eating a lot of chunks of meat in this holiday, but here there was a soup with beans…

Portugal

A lonely village

[January, 2012] We spent the New Year’s day in a small village recommended in my guidebook. It is called Mertola in Alentejo, Portugal, and located close to Spain. There is a castle on top of…

Portugal

Party at Beja

[December, 2011] In a small ordinary town called Beja in Portugal, the year end party started. All of the people, young and old have gathered in the main square. The local band played their favourite…

Portugal

A town called Beja

[December, 2011] After spending a few days in Evora in Portugal, we came to a town called Beja, about 50km south of Evora. This is an ordinary small town where ordinary people live, in contrast…

Portugal

Bright coloured pottery

[December, 2011] Portugal is famous for its bright coloured potteries. In the tour in Alentejo, we were taken to one of those craft workshops. I love this sort of places. After looking at how they…