2nd time in Portugal, four years after the first visit, this time with the intention to visit the part of the country I could not see the previous time. I started where I ended last: Lisbon. The official reason was to attend a music festival (Nos Alive), the real reason was to see the most of the country in the least amount of time as usual because sadly having a full time job requires travellers to be concise with the time they have at disposal.

A little football break here: by the time I was in Lisbon, Portugal had the chance to play the final of the Euro Cup and to be european Champion for the first time in its history. The game went very well, since Portugal managed to win the game for 1-0 despite its best player being injured, and the area around Marquês de Pombal went obviously mad and that evening walking around the center between people celebrating was simply amazing.

After Lisbon I went up on the country travelling by bus to Berlengas Islands, Leiria, Coimbra and Oporto. Berlengas Islands are reachable through a short ferry ride from Peniche. The Berlengas are a small archipelago of islands, mostly inhabited except for some brave people who are willing to camp there on a casual base and the silence that surrounds those islands mixed with the scream of seagulls and the noise of the ocean, makes an incredible soundscape for those who are willing to visit one of the most western point of Europe. Luckily I am not particularly concerned about waves in general because the short searide to get there was definitely the roughest I have ever had. The boat was literally shaking its journey across the ocean and I could see people falling off from their seats.

Oporto is so far my favourite city in the country. The city lies on the mouth of the Douro river. The whole Douro valley is mostly famous for the production of a sweet fortified red wine called Porto that of course must be tried once in the region atleast. Being in Portugal in general, at the very end of the continent looking at the ocean, made me sense the Americas somehow, a chapter of my life that was still unknown back those days.

A special mention for the one I consider my favourite portuguese band, the Dead Combo. The guitar duo plays mostly instrumental songs, creating an incredible cinematographic and underground mood to match with the backstreet of Lisbon by night while there wandering around and looking for the best place to find Porto wine and Fado. Hoping-off between one bus and the next I also listened to the classic "Are you experienced" by her majesty Jimmy Hendrix. If there is one movie that makes you dream about the city of Lisbon, that's surely Lisbon Stories, the colorful and dreamful adventures of his characters are as usual described in a majestic way by Wim Wenders, a film-maker that does not even need an introduction anymore (is it only me, or whenever I watch some Wes Anderson I can see the parallelism with Wenders?)