Travelling to South America

Hey guys! How are you all doing? This is the first post of my first time to South America, more precisely about Puno in Peru. Travelling to South America from Europe can be really exhausting. Well, if you are already bored with your 30 minute train trip to your job, imagine travelling for 9 to 12h inside an airplane. It’s pretty exhausting just sitting there browsing the in- flight electronic entertainment, just to avoid the awkward next door neighbor looking intently to your every move.

But after a 3 to 4 hour sleep before you arrive to your final destination, you can finally enjoy the beauty of Peru when you gaze upon the Andes. There is something really unusual and special when seeing the Andes from above the clouds and also looking at it up close in land. Puno is unique, actually Peru is unique. The streets are filled with people doing their thing, during the day and during the night too. The markets are packed with colors from fruits, vegetables and all kinds of goodies. 

One thing you must visit in Puno is Lake Titicaca. It is damn big with its 165 km and with Bolivia on the other side. I visited the floating islands of Uros and found some pleasant and friendly locals living there with their families. Everything they had was very un-technological, not at all fitting for the 21^st century modern man, with no mobiles and no tv but they did have some solar panels, so they could use its energy for electricity, pretty awesome! Water was stored in a tank and for food they hunt birds and catch fish from the lake. The island is hand- made from reed and they also eat it. After visiting and chatting with the people at the floating islands I visited the island of Taquile and got to know more about their culture and lifestyle. Men and women know how to cook and to sew, they do hats that have different meanings for single men and married men and clothing items too, there is nothing to be ashamed of because it’s part of who they are and they do it very well.

Other things you must be prepared for when visiting South America and the Andes region is the altitude. Yes. It is pretty damn “uncomfortable” :P. That is something you don’t want to feel when you are visiting a new place. Staying in your bedroom hotel is not something you are paying for when you go travelling, so my advice is to have some ibuprofene or paracetamol, and take lots of “mate de coca”. That tea helps to relieve the discomfort. Other stuff you should pack is a universal adaptor specially if you are taking electronic devices that will need to be recharged. Research before you travel, depending from where you are you might not need it. A mosquito repellent will also be very useful such as a sun lotion. And don’t forget to pack your Spanish dictionary, because it might be useful too. 

Thank you! 

The true colors of Murano and Burano

Hey guys! How are you all doing? So today I decided to talk a bit about Murano and Burano islands, close to Venice. Yeah… I know I should have started talking about Venice. But I think these beautiful islands are as awesome as Venice and needed a post of itself.

I was lucky with the weather and got the opportunity to enjoy the islands and what it had to offer. The boat ride from one island to the other island was quite nice, a bit chilly and windy, but that is how boat rides work out! LOL 

Murano is well known by its glass and in fact it is very unique. You can actually visit the factory where they manufacture the glass and have a sneak peak of how they produce it and how they make the different colours you see in the glass. The shops are filled up with items made of that traditional handmade glass. Each shop bears different and unique items, no shop will have the same item as the previous shop, with the same coloured glass. All of the items different and unique. Quite amazing!

Burano is an island filled with colours and water. Is just the perfect island to make your spirit lighten up, with so much life and so many different colours. The streets fill up with people and there is a lot of shops selling all sort of touristic items and typical Italian stuff. There are a lot of restaurants where you can pick and choose where to have a meal and if the weather allows you can sit outside and enjoy the movement and the surroundings.

When visiting Burano and Murano you must take a full day off to enjoy it and with all those boat rides it will take some time to go around from one island to another island. These two islands are quite small so you can visit them during one day and then go back to Venice. 

When and if you go there I hope you enjoy it as much as I have and let me know of your adventures out there.

Take care and Thank you :)

P.S.- I forgot to mention that the last 4 pictures are from Burano and the rest is from Murano! :S

The Lapland Experience

Hey guys! Hope you’re doing well in the New Year! Today’s post is about Lapland in Sweden. Lapland is such a beautiful place to visit. Starting your journey with the train heading to Kiruna, the land of the mining industry, as I like to say! During this journey you will find yourself crossing the Arctic Circle! Exciting experience, knowing that you will be at the northernmost part of the planet!

The air is pure and the sights are covered by mountains that resemble something taken from a movie. The trees and wildlife are kept untouched by men (as much as possible) and I hope it will remain for years to come. The waters from the lakes and rivers make you powerless by their strength and peacefulness.

I stayed in for the night in the Nikkaluokta Lodge, well... the accommodations were awesome, but the night never arrived. I was experiencing the summer solstice and by midnight the sun was still above the horizon. At around 3o’clock in the morning the sun was still shinning and it went a little bit down and up again, it was almost unnoticeable but stunning.

During the day, I went around to check up the surroundings and meet some locals, the Sami people. The only thing that really bothered me during my visit was the mosquitos, I really hate them and it was so annoying when I was trying to take pictures and these “tiny blood sucking vampires” were ruining everything!! So be prepared for that, when you visit the mountains in Lapland. Anyway, Lapland is definitely a place to visit and admire and if you really want to enjoy it, you definitely have to go across the borders to Norway and experience it in a completely different way. 

Thank you! :)

Seasons Delights

Hi guys! Here are some of the deliciousness I’ve been having this Season. It has a bit of Danish dishes/sweets, Portuguese and Indian too! Hope you enjoy! Have a Great New Year! J

1^st Picture: Risalamande med kirsebærsauce (Danish Rice Pudding with cherry sauce)

2^nd Picture: Klejner (Danish sweet small cake)

3^rd Picture: Brun Kartofler (Danish sweet potatoes)

4^th Picture: Bolo Rei (Portuguese Christmas cake)

5^th Picture: Broas Castelar (Portuguese Christmas sweet)

6^th Picture: Black Cake (South Indian cake)

Christmas Lights

Hi guys! Christmas is at our door step and what better way to enjoy the season and get the mood going than checking out the Christmas lights! It might be cold outside and you probably have to gear up with 3 or 4 jackets before leaving the house J, but it’s quite nice to see your city all lightened up for Christmas. Just enjoy the scenery and if it is too cold you can always have a hot chocolate or a cup of tea in a nearby coffee shop!

Enjoy the season! Thanks! 

Folketinget in Københaven

For this post, I will keep it short because I am not a big fan of visiting museums and stuff like that and probably when you visit Copenhagen The Parliament is not quite the thing you go to see, but for someone like me, that doesn't quite see what is the point of visiting museums, I have to say that sometimes it is a good idea to make a change in your travelling habits, take off a day of sightseeing, visiting parks and check out some of those museums around town and you might get surprised with what you learn. Folketinget is the Danish word for “The Parliament” situated in Københaven (Copenhagen). Well I know… pronunciation is quite tricky! 

While visiting The Parliament I was impressed by how organized people have to be when you are inside, because obviously people are always running around for their meetings! And the rooms are amazing! In one of the pictures above you can even check out the big painting, with men sitting and talking to each other. It is a representation of the meeting held in the early 1900s to decide the right of women to vote. I also got a great opportunity to take a picture of the Grundloven, “The Constitutional Act of Denmark”. These are only few of the stuff I got to see during my visit to Folketinget, there was a lot more to see, that I am not mentioning, but it definitely changed my views about visiting these kind of attractions. 

Thank You and Happy Travels! :)

Travelling solo? ‘No problemo’… here’s some ideas

Travelling by yourself shouldn’t be intimidating or a hassle. In my opinion everyone should do it at least once in a lifetime. Why? Because it’s a great challenge and a great way to embrace your individuality and independence. But there are a few things you got to do before you go out and about alone. Probably the most important step is to GET ORGANIZED! 

Yes, it might be boring to do it, but organization is key when you go travelling, it makes life easier. So get your note pad and start making notes and lists. I always start by making a list of things to do, a list of things to take and pack and a list of things I cannot forget the day I am travelling.

Now, the next step would be research. When you start making the list of things to do, you definitely need to research a lot. Yes, probably another boring thing to do, but really important. The internet is filled with information about things you can see during your visit, pictures about what you can see during your visit, blogs, comments of restaurants, food, hotels and all kinds of stuff. You can even check maps and routes, see the overview of the streets and all that jazz. So start researching and take lots of notes and don’t forget to save those web pages, because it might get handy when you are by yourself and you need to check stuff.

When you go travelling by yourself or even with family or friends you probably don’t worry too much, but travelling with cash is definitely a must for me, just because sometimes credit cards don’t work in some places and having some of that local currency, might even be cheaper than getting cash from a machine.

So, now you are daydreaming about your vacations in South America where you are enjoying that lovely sunny beach for a week… but hold on! You need to pack your luggage! One of the things that really come in handy for me, is the size of the luggage I take, because I don’t want to be carrying 2 or 3 suitcases by myself, when I am travelling, so my advice is that less baggage gives you less trouble! So make those difficult choices and take only the essentials!

Although English is a common international language, that almost everyone knows or learns, sometimes you might get in trouble, when you go to some place where no one understands what you want or where you want to go, maybe it can be because your pronunciation is bad, even if the place you want to get to is a 4 letter word, people will just make an effort for you to stand there making a fool of yourself for 20 minutes, before they even say they don’t understand what you want. Yes, that has happen to me…unfortunately! :(

Anyway, a simple solution I found to be less embarrassing is to write down the places you want to go, in the local language. Point it out when you feel a bit lost or even show a map that you have picked out from the local tourist center and point it out.

The day has come and now you are ready to go to the airport! Yupi!!! Hurraaa! So just check your list of things you cannot forget to do before you go. I always add in that list things like: “calling taxi” , “passport”, “check-in online”, “phone charger” and “camera”. And that is it guys. So relax, enjoy and don’t be too worried because travelling alone is a must in life!

Thank You and Safe Travelling!