The Road to Portugal

My trip to Portugal was rather eventful. I decided to go by car, eventhough by plane it would be ten times cheaper. I am going to spend year and a half in the western Europe and wanted to have the car by my side. You are curious about the prices? 60 € for a trip with Ryanair, 600 € for the gas and highway tolls. Especially French highways will pull the last penny of your pocket.

The journey started in Slovakia. I crossed Austria, Germany and got to the Switzerland relatively according to my timeplan. I wanted to avoid driving by night. Because of my recent laser operation I still have problems seeing well at dark. In Germany, I took a hitchhiker. He had Polish ancestry, lived in Germany, studying in Switzerland. In the beginning I let him speak Polish and try to pick up words, but then we just switched to German. He was fun, not unpleasant, but one thing that I don't like about hitchhikers is that they take it for granted that they go like this for free, not even buying you something symbolic, like a chocolate at the gas station.

My hitchhiking colleague in front of one of the Swiss lakes

And then I came to Zug, Switzerland where my friend Gabi with her husband Andrei are now living. I got to exercise Romanian, eventhough it was weird for her, since we always spoke in English before. But she kept to Romanian. They took me around the city and after a good sleep I continued my way. Thanks for the breakfast Gabi! :)

Gabi and Andrei in Zug

France has a system of highways that is well taken care of and... empty. The prices of the tolls combined with good quality of the parallel roads gave me the opportunity to have a three-lane highway just for myself. I would have been successful with my plan to come to Bordeaux before dark, had it not been for the failiure of my alternator. I stopped at a rest stop and with the help of the big portion of gesticulation, the crew of the bar there understood what my problem was and called a car mechanic. Luckily, the supervisor at the bar spoke a bit English.

So the car mechanic grabbed my car, loaded it on a truck and took me to their garage. Hannes, a friend from Austria that I met in Hamburg and who spoke French, helped me with the translation over the phone (Thank you!), when dealing with the guys from the garage. I did not feel like going in a hotel there, so I asked if I can sleep in the car and he did not have a problem with that. That probably made impression on them, making them think I am rather poor, because later I discovered that they found some older, still functional alternator and gave me a discount. I was happy that I could continue and that it was not as expensive. In the end I payed some 370 € for the towing and for the alternator replacement.

The beauties of la France

Clio cut open. On the rigt side the old alternator

And then, off I went. Bordeaux. I am going to skip this part and write about it in the next post, so that this one is not eternally long. I spent one whole wonderful day there.

Passing through the Basque ragion was magical. The humid forests of the Pyrenees. Beautiful stuff. I was turning my head around like kid in a candyshop. Then came Castile and León and the road became drier, flatter and monotonous. One could see only hills with dry grass on them. The Sun was setting when I came to Galicia and the nature was getting greener again. I crossed the borders to Portugal and had some one and half an hour to Porto.

Pyrenees

Passing through the Basque region

Dry Spain

I was tired, but the road got then so beautiful that I forgot all my tiredness. I caught a Portuguese radio station. I asked at the gas station about the tolls and I understood! Such a refreshing feeling of being able to communicate, after the France and the Spain. There was a dark blue sky with first stars above me and an orange strip on the west towards which I was driving. There were thousand lights on the hills around me, from the lanterns of the mountain villages. The air smelled beautifuly. I had kind of a feeling of coming home. And it was even reinforced by the warm welcome from my flatmates.

Already chillin' in Porto

3 000 kilometres. But worth it :)

My home for the autumn 2013 - O Porto

Porto, sweet Porto. I expected it to be pretty, but one has no other option, just to stare with an open mouth, when the sun sets over the river Douro. Damn, they could just make car commercials with this in the background. But I am sure they have.

Ponte Luís I

After four days of travelling and one day spent in Bordeaux, I finally came here. And it just all seems perfect. There is bamboo growing behind the house. Palm trees all around the city and peacocks strolling in the parks. I got cool flatmates—Anna from Germany, Dessislava from Bulgaria and my landlords—Patrícia and Rui—are from Porto. Anna cooks and I had to vehemently insist when I wanted to do it once too and Dessi speaks nice Portuguese, so I can always ask her what some word means. So I just feel like a sucker that is just enjoying life.

My place

Bamboo!

Oh, I did not tell you: My parking place is just next to the appartment. And I already managed to swim in the Atlantic, see the centre with the famous iron bridge and drink three bottles of Portugal wine (those of you who know my relationship to wine know it's a big thing).

Oceano Atlântico

But hey, the language mission. I am going to live here until Christmas and in November/December I will go for the C1 language exam. I can already speak, because I had one semester of Portuguese back in Brno and the whole summer I was studying at home. People have to slow down considerably when speaking and I don't know all the words. But I am already able to enjoy a movie dubbed in portuguese or read a magazine. From now, it can get only better.

And I am going to definitely enjoy this autumn. I already am :)

River Douro with me as a foreground

Promenada close the mouth of Douro

Sunset over the Ponte da Arrábida

Portuguese Mission: Tomorrow We Ride, Till the Planets Colide!

Hi guys. I know, it took a bit longer, but here it is: My next mission. It will take place in Portugal and the target language will be European Portuguese. Wait for details, for now, just enjoy the music and the flow. Now I am going to bed, 4 hours of sleep is better than none and a long journey awaits me. See you soon!

P.S.: I fell in love with this song at the age of 14, when I fell in love with one blond, two-year older girl on a school skitrip. It is from the Armaggedon OST.