Aldeia das Amoreiras

I visited the Social Center, helped with some cleaning and meet some of the volunteers who worked there.

Still found time to visit the village and get a shower in the public shower, as lots of houses in these small villages don't have shower at home :)... A nice day to discover a bit of the known village people's hospitality, it's a village with less than 150 inhabitants :)

Fresco paiting as a popular cartoon

I tried to understand the roll of this project in this community. They maintain an open space with library and free internet, give lessons of portuguese to foreigners (children and adults), some exhibitions and work in the village, they made a really nice mural in Fresco as a big cartoon in the public water tanks, they also give environmental education to the people in the neighborhood and organize events as movies, concerts, debates... I found it a very organized and strongly local volunteer project.

Think globally, Act locally!

At night, I made the dinner for Ricardo and Fred, a volunteer from France.

Setubal -> Aldeia das Amoreiras (Odemira)

I wake up early and catch the ferryboat to cross to Troia, then i cycled a lot, too much, to meet Ricardo, a friend who used to live in Porto and now works in a GAIA project in Aldeia das Amoreiras, called Centro de Convergência.

The way was really long and I arrive already night (luckily i have a great dynamo light in my new bike :D), after more than 140km cycling.

During the way, as I entered Alentejo, i could catch one of my favourite and strangest fruit, the Indian Fig, a fruit that grow in a cactus, you need to be really careful to peel the fruit without touching the spines.

Setubal

I hitchhiked back to Setubal, packed everything to start going south tomorrow and spend the day with my hosts and all their dogs :) at COSA.

Setubal

Stayed at the house or around it and got out to get water (as there is no company water in the house, just a d.i.y. piped-water project with a electric pump that work in a great way as a water saving exercise) during the day.

After I went with Saci and Noora to Kyläkancra, a squatted Villa in the suburbs of Setubal where a community of punks live and build an alternative project, organizing some debates, concerts, a small garden and recovering the small buildings. Really nice people with a much more political and practical ideas about a squat than i imagined before visiting. An amazing dynamic of most of the group ;).

Lisboa -> Setubal

After lunch, I still went to say goodbye to Mara at the Social Centre, where they were arranging the last things for a big party on Saturday, and then I went to Cais do Sodré, to catch the boat to the other side of Tejo river, where I meet Joana, a friend form Porto who is studding in Lisbon now.

When got in the boat I meet another cyclist, who told me also participated sometimes at Lisbon Critical Mass, and we cycled together for some kilometres, talking and showing me the way to Setubal...

During the way i discovered my camera is not working properly :(.

At noon I arrived at COSA, Casa Okupada de Setubal Autogestionada, an old portuguese squat in the center of Setubal, meet really nice people there. It's a great autonomous project.

At night we went out to stick some autonomous, anti-capitalist posters and visit Setubal by night.

Lisboa

I went with Dexter to the popular market near Cais do Sodré to recycle some food the sellers usually give when asked (old vegetables and fruits, most of them perfectly good for cooking, but that would go to the garbage otherwise). There is a great french movie about this social problem (food being wasted only because people prefer plastic products that look perfect even knowing food is being over produced with huge social and environmental problems attached to this) called Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (The Gleaners and I).

At afternoon, Marie cut my hair and then we went to help in the Popular Dinner at the Centro Social da Mouraria, a vegan dinner organized every thrusday by G.A.I.A. (Grupo de Acção e Intervenção Ambiental), an social and environmental activist group I worked with in Porto.

The night was really nice, with great food and where I meet lots of friends i didn't see for a while.

Sintra -> Lisboa

Lisbon, from Marie's house

I catch the train, with Marie, to Lisbon, she still went to classes and I meet Dexter again, a nice brasilian guy who live with Marie, at night we went to a Fado music spectacle in Bacalhoeiro, an association i knew only by name. I got pissed off with one of the musicians who sing about bullfighting and the proud bullfighter...

Bullfight is Bullshit... I' believe in a world without animal (human and non-human) cruelty.

"The most terrible crimes are committed in the name of traditions"
(George Bernard Shaw)

Sintra

I wake up a bit ill, probably for the, not well cooked, beans I had for dinner last night, I stayed almost all day around fire, drinking tea and trying to eat.

At noon some italians, who stayed at my house last year by HospitalityClub, appeared, surprisingly, in the squat and we had a crazy night, with italian pasta, french beautiful music, portuguese, german and dutch company and israelite shaman smoke... A really nice multicultural night with great vibrations that cured me completely, a beautiful way to finish these days in Sintra. It's bad i didn't take any pictures of this...

Sintra

We went to visit the town for a while and visited the public library for free internet.

At night we had dinner really early, it's funny, and a bit strange, to live without electricity for some days, your body get used to live during day time, while there is sun light, at 18:30 you are already having dinner, at candle light, around the fire, and at 21:00 you fell tired and go to sleep, thinking it's really late in the morning ;)

some tomatoes in the backyard

nice fruit trees

Sintra

I went early to the popular market in Sintra. Then I cycle a bit in the town, a very beautiful town, with lots of big farms and beautiful green spaces :)

At noon Marie, a german friend I meet by HospitalityClub sometime ago, who is now in Lisbon for Erasmus, came to pass some days together in the squat.

Gruta Nova -> Sintra

I wake up early to see the sunrise, and continue, along the coast, till Sintra.

In Sintra, I stayed in a kind of squatted villa (an old rich farm), Quinta do Castanheiro, people are trying to build an alternative community there and reorganize and recover the big, beautiful garden. There are a lot of fruit trees, a small backyard with some vegetables planted, a water canal (not sure with potable water) and 4 nice houses (3 of them habitable). I found some people living there for some time, it's more a temporary project where different people join for a while.

Getting there I meet some nice people and stayed in the smallest house with a french family of musicians (Jack, Jonathan, Dorothee and Didier), I meet also Gaby there, a friend I meet sometime ago at CasaViva.

Caldas da Rainha -> Gruta Nova (Roliça, Bombarral)

Got out of Joana's house still early morning ;) didn't give a properly "goodbye" as she went early to classes...

popular market in Caldas da Rainha

i cycled to Óbidos and stop to have lunch and use the public internet... as i as really tired, from the 130km i cycled yesterday, i found a paleolithic cave after Roliça, called Gruta Nova, and stop to get some sun, read a bit and get rest, the night arrive early and, as the cave was really clean and warm, i decided to pass the night there... a really nice experience, to sleep where people used to live millions of years ago ;)

Óbidos castle

i had the company of a small, and nice, bat and decided to sleep inside a big bag Vera made for me.. a really nice night with a beautiful moon and the start of an amazing book, The One-Straw Revolution, an introduction to natural farming (wild agriculture).

Coimbra -> Caldas da Rainha

As crazy as it can appear, I found an host by HospitalityClub in Caldas da Rainha and decided to try to go there directly from Coimbra as i just had a place to stay there if i arrive on this day...

The trip was about 130 km and i got pretty exhausted from it... I found Joana, the girl who host me, near the train station and then we saw a movie together because she already had planed to do it with a friend ;)...a really nice time to relax after so many cycling kilometer (and one flat tire, again!!!) seeing a strange movie (Joana, you have to remember me the name of it)

taste diversity ;)

At Joana's room i found a piece of an action I participated in Porto on the World Food Day, a vegetarian free picnic where we hang some paper fruits with sentences about the food we eat... really nice to go so further and see a piece of an action you were part of :D

Coimbra

an hanged praxista

One day visiting Coimbra , some republicas and meeting some friends, had a great lasagna in Tota's republica at night ;). Great day to know a bit more about Coimbra, the history of it and some traditions and fights ;)electric mini-bus

Zeca Afonso's house

Aveiro -> Coimbra

I got up not very early, for a person who was planning to cycle 90 km that day, I'm not a very sleepy guy (as a friend once said to me: i have all my death to be sleeping :p) then I cycle till Coimbra, this way is not so beautiful as the last day and i got some minutes of rain...

kaki persimmon tree

During the way i could catch some season fruits as pomegranate and kaki persimmon a really bless for a tired cyclist :)

When arrived in Coimbra i found that the old city blocks are a really nasty place for cyclists... the old part of the city, where most of the old university building and old student houses (called repúblicas) are, is a real pain to climb with a bicycle full of stuff...

i stayed on Bolywood, a students house, with Sandro Gringo ;) and his friends. Still went out for a beer at night, but was too tired to join them partying all night :p