If you want to discover the most unusual places I would propose a walk in the center, one of the most amazing scenery of Portugal.

Located in the municipality of Figueira da Foz, in Coimbra District you can visit the north side, the Serra da Boa Viagem, about 7 km in length and 253 meters high.
The most fascinating is that this complex mountainous it is a living natural museum, where abundant fossils along the walking trails and lush vegetation. But more than an adventure destination not what I propose is a journey through the "feet" of worn soles. Nuno Santos is the conductor that runs the length and breadth of country on foot. By its own words "... there are places waiting to be discovered and immortalized that for one reason or another, are still unknown to most of us. Often, they are even on our side and only when someone awakens to its beauty and uniqueness is that we give due weight. " The Serra da Boa Viagem trip is one such example. This route with a duration of about four hours, beginning in Santo Amaro, one can find a wealth of geological along the rail, for lovers of geology. It's so much abundance of specimens of other eras preterit scattered thorny lanes, disused quarries and cliffs, which you can fill the pockets with specimens of other times as a souvenir.
The fauna is another of the attractions of these trails, the route dass ponds allows seeing a significant number of birds that nest in these areas and walk the three lakes that surround the natural park. The salt flats are other tourist attractions in this area of ​​forest. In the past the country's economy depended on the extraction of sea salt for canning company. Currently, some are still in operation allowing the hiker to see not only the effect of man on nature, but also learn a bit about the history of our country. Worth seeing. So, walk and have a good trip!

www.figueiradigital.com

www.solagasta.com

It is the result of an investigation of journalist Susana Andre.

Let's start by the beginning, what is after all a myth? It is a narrative that explains certain phenomena of nature, the origins of the world that were not understood by humans through reason. They are also acts or personalities in a particular cultural context that stood out over the centuries, creating narratives, covered up by actual facts that have created a story laden with symbols that are transmitted to new generations as absolute knowledge. All these ingredients associated with urban space, generate endless stories that pass from generation to generation through oral tradition. How many of us read the book of Susan André and mentally relive those moments that begin with someone saying: You know, they told me a few days ago ... And from that moment on is created a credible scenario, because it was told by a friend, which in turn heard it from another friend who swears by this mother soul that is true and although we have some reservations about the contents of these reports, we ended up repeating this same story because is a perfect topic of conversation at the dinner table. Many of the myths reported here, I heard and replied them eagerly in a very colorful way over time, just as an example, I recall in my high school years when I visited the convent of Mafra for the first time to asked one of the employees if I could see from a safe distance the giant rats that flooded the lower floors of these national monuments and I might add that I was not the only one curious! The answer? Obvious! Just read the book!
As for rumors is another completely different story! It arises spontaneously without a known source, without any shred of truth, it is born thru the people's mouth as we say and has in most cases the clear aim is denigrating or defaming a person or a particular group of persons. It is the wickedness of man at his worst. Some of the cases that are reported in the book were of public knowledge and hurt many of those targeted in professional and personal terms. What's wrong with the rumor? It appears to be credible, there is no absolute certainty of the "facts" and as such is difficult to prove what never happened and the more the "victims" fight for they good name, plus the rumor gains strength and size. It is a contradiction in terms, but it is the case, the public understands this gesture as confirmation of the alleged facts that did not occur. Can you believe it? Well! And don't tell me this is the country we live in, because unfortunately rumors are cross-boundaries, cross-cultural and timeless, to prove my point all I have to remind you is one of the most famous of plays of English literature, William Shakespeare's Othello. Interestingly, reading "urban myths and rumors" eventually extrapolate in me a reflection on the more human aspects of the life. Our ying and yang. Our best and our worst through time. Makes you think! Good reading.

It is the first book of a trilogy from the imagination of Ines Botelho.

I read that the writer likes to imagine parallel realities; this publication is a good example. The daughter of the two worlds is a book populated by fairies, spirits, goblins and very vile creatures, called Magduls. This is a youthful adventure very well written that I enjoyed reading, I think it's my first suggestion for this kind of fantastic literature, although it's not my alley, so to speak, I prefer much more bloody confrontations and more complex plots. However, I like how the author creates a world filled with creatures perfectly credible, a very interesting plot that resembles the "Lord of the Rings" by Tolkien, except that our hero is ultimately a heroine who is unaware of her royal nature, the princess Ailura. It is an excellent reading for children right before bed, with adequate suspense, action and the persecutions are scary enough, no violent scenes, there is not even bloodshed and of course, the icing on the cake, a beautiful love story for this kind of adventure. Ailura lives between two worlds, though until recently she was not aware of this parallel universe of dreams, a dark event will determine the fate of this accidentally heroine. Ajahh, this phrase is gorgeous, right? It was just to add even more suspense! What matters, ultimately, it is thought that the story is well told and deserves a careful reading. It is an excellent gift for teens, I would say that the target audience is definitely girls more than boys, although the other books of this trilogy in the land of Aquilad will also draw the attention of the rest of the restless youth. Good reading.

It is close to the Ribeira do Porto and a place where you learn alternative ways to improve the life of our planet and eat an excellent vegetarian menu.

Casa da Horta is a cultural association which aims to contribute to "critical thinking while putting into practice alternative behaviors to the consumer society unethical and degrading the point of socially and ecologically." A definition that encompasses all the work they do for the community and the planet.
Rooted in the heart of historical Porto, a building next door to the church of S. Francisco, it offers courses and events in which anyone can participate, and is not a sine qua non condition that you’re vegetarian.
One of the courses I want to talk about and I speak as a personal experience, was the cosmetics and facial beauty. For a almost symbolic cost of twenty euros, which includes the course, usually in the week ends, and a vegetarian lunch, you can learn to do your on cleaning products with natural ingredients. The advantages? Drastically cut the grocery bill, since the ingredients can be found in your own kitchen. Yes, it is possible.
They also allow to reduce considerably any allergies due to the over-harsh chemicals we use in our homes. How many Portuguese housewives, in their day-to-day bases use bleach in the bathrooms and kitchens, as a disinfectant? Yeah many, but did you know that this chemical is so corrosive that even diluted in water can still causes damage? It is essential to remember that this gesture of our everyday life is sucked into the ocean through the sewers!
As for beauty products, will highlight the toothpaste, it is simply wonderful and it leaves us with the feeling of cleanliness and freshness in the mouth. I'm not exaggerating!
Casa da Horta is proposing alternative ways to "create" your products at home without any chemicals and no preservatives, using only natural products and at the end of the day will only benefit your health, your wallet and last but not the least the environment. But this is just one of many courses that are at your disposal there is a course on how to cook vegetarian food, how to create gardens, films, lectures, etc.. Just choose when and what.
As for lunch I would advise you strongly to give it a try, I'm not vegetarian, but the association has a menu that is simply delicious. And we don’t live with hunger! So, why not take a course, relax and contribute to your physical well-being and a better world. The planet says thanks you!

www.casadahorta.net

It is a delicious result of a news story by journalist Vanessa Fidalgo

I always thought that ghosts, haunting and curses were paranormal events places confined to old England described by William Shakespeare, helpful tips to attract tourists. Sadly I was wrong. Portugal like any other worthy country is also full of these mysterious entities from another world who insist on staying ethereal in our reality rather than leave, as is reported in this book of Vanessa Fidalgo. The journalist's investigation arose from a story about haunted houses and the result was a very interesting compilation that brings together a series of myths and stories with paranormal contours swarming from north and south of Portugal. I liked this "stories of a haunted Portugal" because it spoke of the Portuguese, a people who officially are not superstitious and firmly do not believe in the existence of entities from the other world, but unofficially there is nothing they won't do to shake off the evil eye , the pests and the ghosts that darken their existence. This typical behavior reminds me of the famous Spanish proverb: "yo no creo en brujas, pero que las hay, la hay," which translated means something like "I do not believe in witches, but they exist, they do exist". My favorite story, unlike most of the haunting due to sickness of love, is of the Baron of the Glory that cannot separate from his books, his library and his palace, with the suitably named "Beau Sejour" which in Portuguese means literally "looking pretty". You want something more beautiful than this? A dandy who spent a fortune at parties and gatherings that loved words above all carnal temptation and whose eternal purpose today is to drive the scholars of the "olisiponenses" studies to madness? Well, you have to read and delight with this and other haunted stories that have been collected by Vanessa Fidalgo all over the country, others were sent to her and later confirmed and others are described on the Internet. Whether they are true or not is not important, they are fantastic accounts, essential to liven up the fires in camps, the cold nights by the fireplace, wasting night's of sleep to the most fertile imaginations and helping to create insomnia. I close with a personal experience, real one, in the palace of Dona Xica. A Brazilian woman, very beautiful, the rich heiress lived in a palatial house near Braga and people believe to be haunted by her voluptuous presence, the reasons for this unhappiness? The usual suspects, unrequited love and do not intend to waste time telling details of these versions. Well, what matters is that I was thrilled with the idea of ​​seeing a ghost, or hearing the unexplained noises. The fact is that the first night I was so excited that I decided I was not going to wink and I really tried, I swear, only that it was deceived by Morpheus which I preached and feels slept soundly. In conclusion, I saw and heard nothing of unusual in the whole blessed week-end that I was there staying. She would not present me with her presence, while others have sworn to hear her footsteps on the staircase of stone. It is a sad story, I know. But, the myth continues. HAHHHH! HOOOOHHH!

It is a publication that covers the history of this heritage and also provides several songs that run through two centuries.

Informally discusses the route of fado over its two hundred years of existence, a tour that includes a music book and two CD with 50 themes and the most iconic singers of our country. It is like telling of a story in multiple voices, which also includes a guide to some of the best fado houses in Portugal and abroad, sightseeing, and some recommended sites on the Internet and also suggested 10 albums, books and important films. This work is still divided into two different times, on one hand the traditional fado which includes one of the most remarkable singers of this musical expression, the eternal, Amália Rodrigues, Alfredo Marceneiro, Herminia Silva and more contemporary fado, which includes voices as Mysia, Ana Moura and other renowned artists of the national scene. I found it strange was the absence of some great references of the fado, given that there was a voting pole in the social networks and included names still little known to the general public. I also emphasize that many of the fados contained in this luxurious collection, bilingual, integrate some of the most beautiful poems of the Portuguese language.

Note for an Absent Friend

Remember your affection induces
to have been an orchard
intangible orange light
oranges that feel like stealing.

Your moon yesterday at the waist
is still the dress that I bring
immaterial silk pure silk
Of a child drowned in the lake.

The engines accelerate among us
the empty trains dreaming
Of women who are expecting
are the only lute I have on.

Natalia Correia had a personality so striking as her literary work. She was bigger than her own life. In fact, it's always stroke me her face with black eyes, pointy hair and her inseparable cigarette mouthpiece and always come to mind when one mentions her name. She had a prodigious figure, cinematic, that left no one indifferent, and she even considered one of the most beautiful women of Lisbon, this Azorean, exposed herself only in poetry. In this writing of verses and breaks, we find her slowly. Where she trips. We are packed with words about her weaknesses, her feelings; at the time we feel this force that pushes us into a reading frenzy, an attentive one. She is the mother. She loves us. She is the confidante of desire. She is the embodiment of passion. In the "wine and lira", of 1969, there is a bit of everything, poems of friendship, love, citizenship and there is also a will. This book is not one of her masterpieces, but is worth reading because it shows the inner Azorean, without being. Good reading.

They are patches of a reality that mark our sensitivity, written by Antonio Loja.

This is a book that is divided in two, literally. On one hand, we have a love story between two people who have in common only the fact of being in a foreign country, Brazil. It is a romance of generations. Age is a factor that weighs in this unusual relationship, is always present. It is a romance that blossoms on the pretext of a painting, which leads us to an uncharted island somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. The second patch is much more striking, in my view, relates the camaraderie of a squad in the colonial war. Life is balanced between the visible and invisible. The nightmares are real, made of flesh, blood and bone. The only way to survive is to be awake at all times. The fatigue and carelessness win over many. Both die Portuguese and Africans. They are the spoils of war. This story follows the work of a particular group of soldiers, a team of mines and booby traps. Nobody wants to be one of them. They risk more than others. Everyone wants to come home alive and whole. And they come back, but fate is cruel to one of these men in particular, in a way so unexpected that shocks us to the core. In "as an invisible river 'stories are like the banks of a stream of water, different and equal at the same time. Basically these stories have one thing in common, love. It is love that makes Francisco surpasses his own prejudices. It is for love that a father builds a well for this son and all these affections are the prelude of these very moving stories. Good reading

It's a story from the depths of the human soul described by Clara Pinto Correia.

The secrets consume us. Even when we pretend they do not exist. They are like wounds that never truly heal. They are painful. Don't leave visible marks on the skin, but surface in the form of nightmares that frighten us. They change us. We are forced to flee from mirrors, others and ourselves. We cannot see the wind, tells this story, or rather the stories that transvestite a new reality, just on the surface. Nothing is as it seems however plausible it may sound. The main character obsessively pretends to hear what she wants, but that's not enough to mask her standardized existence, devoid of affection, which led her to seek that emotional security she craves for what does not exist and never existed. Pretends to be blind when confronted by the facts, deaf when the voices of reason arise and dumb so that she won't verbalize the fears that consume her. The lies piled up until one day ... she has to wake up. More than a story about the colonial war, this book by Clara Pinto Correia speaks of loneliness that lead the characters to mask the banality of their unbearable daily life without major surprises. It is futile to run from the true. It chases them even when desperately run in the opposite direction, as is the case of Mariana. Until one day, she also realizes that we cannot see the wind. Good reading.

It is the ghost of a love lost in the mists of time. It's a story recalled with some bitterness, fruit of a maturity and a certain detachment that is told by the writer, Grace Alves.

In his first novel I was amused by the fact that the main character goes reviewing the ghost of a past love, the one he felt by Ines and what he did not do for her.
Grace Alves: This book has two parts, first is an old love for this Ines, and at the same time, is a more or less failed love, let's call it that. That person turns out to be a character in itself and that voice, that consciousness, the voice of whatever we want, is an ancient voice that he carries within.

In the great novels there are always two characters who meet, fall in love and then there are a series of adventures around that love. Why you did not chose this scenario?
GA: The love here is a pretext; I wanted to defend a thesis for this novel, to know where these stories come from? Where are they born? Where the stories begin that the authors describe in the books? It has always been a question that fascinated me. What is this of inspiration? What is a narrator? Is there a moment when the narrator, the author, everything is mixed? That's what I tried to defend here and therefore the love of Simon, the poet for Ines, the woman is a teenage love, frozen in time, or not solved, or solved the wrong way, as desired. What was intended was to work the author, writer, narrative, character, the people who inspire him and the life stories that inspire the novels.

You chose an unresolved love, a teen, why? They are always stories we bring with us?
GA: We always bring us stories badly finished. Of love, of loneliness and other feelings. This is a teen love story because I think, is and I'm from another time, a more pure love, a love with illusions and dreams. I like to think in this teenage love resolved or not. Love is love, it's an angel love, who believes in the future.

The writing has a confessional tone that passes through a diary, it is a way of expression of more intimacy?
GA: I needed a concrete support for the story of the author, of that Simon was feeling and he is also the narrator, the story of man, the person and the diary was the ideal vehicle.

But a diary is normally written by women, yet is a man who writes.
GA: This is also an exercise I did in this book. The almost all the characters of my stories are women, it is easier for me. This novel turns out to be almost an exercise in this direction, trying to put myself in the skin, head and feeling of a man who is a poet, who has a different sensibility. This was also an exercise on my part and why men cannot write every day? And suffer love alone? I made me this question too.