Porto, Portugal

So this is the reason why I came to Portugal. The story began when I had my trip to Thailand, then I shared a room in Phuket with a girl from Berlin, her name is Kath. She's been to half or the world (or many places that I've never been) so I asked here, if I wanna go to Europe, which place that she thinks as most beautiful place to visit. And her answer is Porto, in Portugal. And how she was crying when she had to leave this town.
[ I didn't cry when I left Porto, but I made up my mind next time if I had a chance to visit Portugal, I will spend at least a month to discover this beautiful country ]

I'm captivated.

Youth hostel - Pousadas de Juventude
Porto Rua Paulo da Gama, 551
Tel. 226 177 257
e-mail : porto@movijovem.pt

Youth hostel @ Porto : 15 € / person
Day ticket : 5 €
Dinner + Lunch : 8 €

PS. And here also we had a most luxurious dinner ever (during our trip) in a fancy Italian restaurant, with a seaview, dish out 22 € for 2 person. That was also as a reward after a night before we didn't have any cash, didn't succeeded to withdraw a cash, so when we finally made it to get a cash, it was already late at night, both of us terribly starving and tired of walking in a cold and windy weather. Nevertheless, we have survived the worst part of our journey and got things to celebrate. [smirk]



keywords : Porto, Portugal, Youth hostel, Pousadas de Juventude, Europe, Eurotrip, backpacker, backpacking

Lagos, Portugal

It's more a part of England or Germany territory than Portugal itself.
Even though (in some part) Lagos is a nice place, but it soooo touristic as well.
Heard people talking in English and Deutsch than in Portuguese here, ironically when we got lost, we could just ask people around. No communication barrier here !

de Juventude, Youth hostel, Europe, Eurotrip, backpacker, backpacking
Youth hostel - Pousadas de Juventude Lagos
Rua Lançarote de Freitas, 50
Tel. 282 761 970
e-mail : lagos@movijovem.pt

Train Tavira-Faro- Lagos (per person) : 8.45 €
Youth hostel @ Lagos : 12 €
Dinner : 5।81 €

Lagos pastinya bukan salahsatu tempat favorit gue di Portugal, terlalu banyak turis dan sebagian besar turis dari UK/ Jerman. Bisa dibilang ini Kuta versi Portugal.
Tapi justru disini kita ampir-ampir gak nemu kesulitan bahasa, karena pas nyasar tinggal nanya orang dan orang itu bakal ngejelasin pake bahasa Inggris ala UK.
Youth hostel disini juga bukan termasuk favorit gue (rangking terakhir), resepsionis-nya sih lumayan membantu dan informatif, tapi tamu-tamunya agak nyebelin... dan disini juga gue merasa, bener-bener sebel kalo denger orang ngobrol pake logat Inggris UK. Pokonya serasa gak liburan di Portugal deh.

Sevilla - Tavira

This small but beautiful town was actually out of our plan. But our host in Granada, Juanito, recomend us to visit this town instead of our first plan to visit Lagos. I like it a lot. One of the best places I visited in my trip. Good advice. And there's a concert in the city centre at the night, amazingly delightful।



Our hostel in Tavira was just recently built (3 months ago) so it's quite new and definitely a cozy place to stay। Comes in one package with a nice and well-informed receptionist name Cedric, we like him (thou' he's been very helpful, we just knew his name on when we're about to check out. what a shame).


Youth hostel - Pousadas de Juventude Tavira
Rua Miguel Bombarda, 36-38
Tel. 217 232 100
e-mail: resrvas@movijovem.pt

Youth hostel @ Tavira : 13 € / person
Dinner : 7 €
Boat to island : 1.9 €

Tavira sebetulnya termasuk kota kecil yang bisa ditelusuri bagian-bagian pentingnya dalam 1 hari, tapi kita putuskan untuk nginep 2 malem disana dengan alasan, kita gak jadi pergi ke Sevilla (karena disana juga gak punya host) dan juga karena Tavira punya pulau kecil yang bisa ditempuh pake kapal dari dermaganya.
Pulau kecilnya ada pantai yang mayan bagus, dan pas cuaca hari itu lagi bagus jadi orang pada berjemur. Tapi untuk berenang di lautnya ternyata masih mayan dingin ! (untuk ukuran orang Indonesia kali ya?) soalnya bulan September memang itungannya mau masuk musim gugur (autumn).
Jauh masih lebih nyaman kalau berenang di pantai Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa. . . pantes aja orang eropa banyak yang betah kalo liburan ke Bali.

Di hostel kita kenalan sama pasangan dari UK, Paul dan Anna, pas kita lagi sama-sama pake dapur trus akhirnya makan malem bareng sambil ngobrol.
Kita ngomongin betapa pentingnya menguasai bahasa asing (Spanyol / Portugis) kalau kita mau traveling ke tempat tersebut, soalnya kebanyakan orang Spanyol atau Portugis gak bisa bahasa Inggris. Lucu sih jadinya, kadang untuk pesen makanan aja gak selalu dapet yang kita mau, walaupun kita udah berusaha pake bahasa setempat.
Tapi buat mereka, kita masih lebih mending, mau usaha ngomong pake bahasa Spanyol/ Portugis yang ngaco, daripada orang UK sendiri kalau traveling selalu nyosor langsung pake bahasa Inggris, seakan-akan orang di seluruh dunia ngerti bahasa mereka. :-D

keywords : Tavira, Portugal, Pousadas de Juventude, Youth hostel, Europe, Eurotrip, backpacker, backpacking