Convento dos Capuchos, Sintra

One of these days, we went to visit this historical place, a convent in Sintra, where Franciscan monk’s had the worse vote of poverty they could have chosen. The monks used cork to cover the walls, which eliminated the humidity characteristic of the mountain.
We were impressed with the austerity of the convent. I've never seen any other franciscan convent, but I suppose there shouldn't be anything much worse then this.
Here's a picture of the kitchen (unfortunately we don't have any pictures of the cells):

On the other hand, we found this incredible view from one of the highest points of the convent garden (the ocean still visible in the back):














I guess the unique beauty of the garden and of Sintra was some kind of compensation for lack of comfort of the convent.
This place is certainly worth a visit.

Super Bock Super Rock in Rio

No, it is not in Rio. It is in Lisbon. And it is not really Rock... I would call it "Pop in Lisbon" instead of "Rock in Rio".
Although I have nothing against the event (except for the fact that it is stupidly expensive), I'm especially irritated about having spent two hours in my car, trying to get to airport to pick someone up, because everyone around me was going to the opening of Rock in Rio, which was taking place very close by. When I'm on holidays I HATE driving, especially in traffic jams.
Anyway, after spending two stressing irritating hours in my car and almost going mad, I found out that the two biggest annual rock festivals in Lisbon (Super Bock Super Rock and Rock in Rio) are both taking place today, which again might explain the two hours in the car and the caotic traffic jams everywhere in Lisbon...
I wish I would understand the reasoning for the overlapping of the events....

Let the sunshine in!

The place to party this summer!

If...

Saturday....I would have had lunch with my mother, brother, sister in law and my two nephews. The oldest (32 months old) would run around the house, asking me to kick the soccer ball to him and screaming "Golo!!" everytime the ball would cross a room door. and would ask me to show him the motorcycles in the internet and would try to imitate the motorcycle drivers, falling from his own small tricycle. The youngest (10 months) still doesn't walk, but when he does the Saturdays will be much more tiring (or shall I say fulfilling?) for sure. :)

Probably I would spend the rest of the afternoon walking around the coast (Carcavelos or Cascais) or in Sintra with my boyfriend and end up having dinner and seeing a movie with him... or having dinner with some friends and partying somewhere else afterwards....

If I was in Portugal today.....

The Gift

Five Minutes of everything

Give me please five minutes of everything
Those days when you wake up
And there's no one by your side
My arm slides slowly to my left side
And to my right side, there's no one there
To kiss you or to hear you
And you go out of bed
Thinking in those days that you need
You used to talk and talk about
And everything that stops your attention
You used to talk, talk about
Everything
Those days when you walk at the bar
And try to keep a conversation with somebody else
And no one out there you could sit down or walk
There's no one there.
Five minutes of love
Five minutes of hate
Five minutes I try to call your name
Five minutes of passion
And no one knows the right place to go
No meaning or just self-control maybe
And you walk out of there
You need to talk with somebody else
And to know the problems are waiting for
Outside the door
Are waiting for
The clock won't stop
And even if it stops
Five minutes of love
Five minutes of hate
Five minutes I try to call your name
Of passion
Five minutes of everything
Of everything
Maybe you want to talk about old questions
Right next to my ear
But I don't care about those silly things
Cause all I need is five minutes of everything

Estoril Open

Estoril Open is the most important tennis tournament in Portugal. It has been held since 1990 in Oeiras, my hometown (very close to Lisbon) and it has currently a prize money of 531,250 euros. It started by being only a men tournament, until 1998 when a women tournament started to take place also. Past winners include players like Emilio Sanchez, Thomas Muster, Carlos Moya, Juan Carlos Ferrero, David Nalbandian, Nikolay Davydenko or Gaston Gaudio.

David Nalbandian

This year the portuguese people had a little joy, after more than 10 years without seeing any portuguese player passing the first round: Frederico Gil, 253 ATP ranked, 21 years old, surprisingly beated Dmitry Tursunov (ranked ATP 33) in the second round, being the third portuguese player in history to reach the quarter-finals of Estoril Open (last was Nuno Marques in 1995).

Frederico Gil

For me, Estoril Open is important also. In one of the first years of the event, one of my first years doing tennis competition, I was lucky enough to follow a tennis course inside the grounds of the event, during the same days of the event. Was it by then that my passion for tennis was born? I can not remember, but it was certainly afterwards that I started to dream about one day making tennis my job. Destiny had something else prepared for me. However, whenever I go to Estoril Open these days, I dream again...