Quintas Park in Guimaraes, Portugal

Guimaraes locates at the north of Portugal and also the birthplace of Portugal – Aqui Nasceu de Portugal. It is one of the greenest city with many public park, green grasses, the trees along the street, and pedestrian way. Along the apartment where I stay to university of minho, there is a small park with well organized. During the weekend, parents take their kids to play and people do picnic in summer. People walk their dog even at nighttime. Sometime, there are students doing exercise with their uniform.

the park

The park, kids can enjoyable playful together there with colorful equipment.

impressive bench

Portugal Bench

There are five impressive benches. The bench in round shape puts around the tree. But, is it lack of people interact? Because when they sit they look away from each other from aside to another side!

Small Canal

Small Canal with Water Flow

Another side, there is a canal with a very clean water flow like above. When I sit on the bench I hear the sound of water flows and the sound of the birds sing. It makes me refresh and relax a lot from working long day.

Mural Artwork Inside Porto Sao Bento Railway Station in Portugal

The entrance hall with magnificent blue and white tiles panels (azulejos) on the wall is makes the station so beautiful and unique. Inside the building with notable landmark painted of 20.000 azulejos, which was installed by Portuguese artist Jorge Colaço from 1905 to 1916. The building was built on the former of a Benedictine monastery, named Sao Bento de Ave Maria, dating back to the 16^th century, though the original building burnt down in 1783 and its replacement was poorly cared.

The most remarkable panels are those showing King João I and Queen Philippa of Lancaster by the city´s cathedral in 1387, Prince Henry the Navigator conquering Ceuta in Morocco, and a representation of the Battle of Arcos de Valdevez.

This is the city´s most central station, standing downtown just around the corner from the monumental Avenida dos Aliados in Porto. Enter to the station, it is like a big hall and they painted 3 murals. On the left there are information center and ticket office and the wall painting represented the battle. On the right there are souvenir shop and public telephone and the wall painting represent the battle. The wall in front shows train timetable and some painting of some Portuguese daily life activities history. It is totally free entrant!

Porto Sao Bento Train Station

The most remarkable panels are those showing King João I and Queen Philippa of Lancaster by the city´s cathedral in 1387, Prince Henry the Navigator conquering Ceuta in Morocco, and a representation of the Battle of Arcos de Valdevez. Below there are two painting on the right wall and two painting on the right wall.

 

Paintings on the front wall represent their daily life activities such as playing music, harvesting, etc

Feira Afonsina in Guimaraes, Portugal

“Feira Afonsina” is an annual fair that show the history of the birth of Portugal. Guimaraes is the location in the north of Portugal and the place where Portugal was born.

Between September and October, 1127 Alfonso VII toured Northern Portugal ahead of his troops, to demand recognition by the force of his authority decides to make a siege to Guimaraes. Afonso Henriques took responsibility for the Castle and their people, has towards him the powerful army against his cousin Afonso VII.

Here some brief of the history:

After Afonso Henriques having been knighted, in Portucalense lands are felt the first signs of discomfort due to Leon’s and his king Afonso VII vassalage. In 1127, between September and October, Afonso VII toured the north of Portugal to require the recognition of his authority by the Galician and Portuguese Lords including his aunt, D. Teresa. King of Leon and Castle punitively against his stubborn aunt to accept his authority, decides to make a siege to Guimarães, but by these days of autumn 1127 Teresa is out from Guimarães in order to avoid confrontation with Afonso VII. The young Afonso, forced to take responsibility for the Castle and their people, has towards him the powerful army of his cousin Afonso VII.

Normally, it held in third weekend of September every year. But this year it is postpone to another weekend at the end of the month from 26^th to 28th because of raining in the third week. I went there at the afternoon on Saturday 27^th 2014. First, I went to Guimaraes Castle then following the instruction by poster they gave me the place where they had activities, workshop, etc. I ended at Largo Oliveira. And, I came back again for the performance at 10pm for “Guimaraes under siege”.

GUIMARAES CASTLE

In front of Guimaraes Castle, they prepared stuffs for the performance of “Guimaraes under siege” at 22h. Behind the castle, there were Afonso Henrique´s troops trained to protect the city and prepared for the battle, pitch camps, show their daily routine they make weapon, clothes, foods, etc.

Troops Pitch Camp around Guimaraes Castle/Guimaraes/Portugal

Troop make weapon/Guimaraes/Portugal

 

O JARDIM DOS INFANTES/Kid Garden

It was a place for kids to have fun. There were many parents took their kids to play in this square and the instructors wore the ancient custom like history period.

Kids Play at Kids Garden

Kids Play at Kids Garden

 

LARGO DO OCULTO/Occult Square

Overshadowed by flowers and leaves of orange trees, stay those who in society seek retreat. Their products and beliefs belong to the occult. In addition to the advice and consultations there are rocks with special powers, medicinal herbs, amulets, potions and other products with strange powers, etc.

 

QUELHO DAS DESGRAÇAS/The Misfortune Alley

 This is the habitat of thieves, beggars, the prostitutes, the insane, and plague victims. Living in community, are forced to interact because this is where everyone can survive. The dunghill, the objects of torture, the small altar of the renegades, the stretchers, the car of corpses, the buckets of washing wounds, among others, are strong elements in this living picture.

LARGO DE OLIVEIR/Oliveira Square

The products’ sale from different strains, shapes and colours will be a constant, turning this space into a proclamations environment, uproar and lots of bustling. There are also classical music performance.

O CERCO A GUIMARÃES/Guimaraes Under Siege Performance

Between September and October, 1127 Alfonso VII toured Northern Portugal ahead of his troops, to demand recognition by the force of his authority by the Galician and Portuguese Lords who had not yet submitted formally. Life goes on with the usual serenity outside the walls of Guimarães Castle. Through the sound of the iron being shaped, it can be heard the laughter of children in their dances and plays. But the alert is launched! The troops of Alfonso VII are sighted, and do not come with good intentions, comes looking for vassalage. D. Teresa and Fernão Peres de Trava are missing, the army of Alfonso VII is numerous, and Afonso Henriques has to decide whether he accepts or not the commitment of allegiance required by his cousin Alfonso VII. He decided to fight.

Guimaraes Under Siege Performance/Guimaraes/Portugal

Hiking and Rowboat at Portugal National Park Peneda-Geres With Erasmus student UMinho #Post2

Around one hour later, we arrived at the foot of the mountain and we had to claim the mountain in a difficult way. Claudio had told the way and asked if all of us will go this way. This mountain likes separately in two parts by around one to two meters and drop many stones like staircase from lower level to higher level that allowed us to step on then go up to the top of the mountain; maybe it was caused of earthquake millions year ago. Then we decided to go by that way;

At The Mountain

 

Claudio had set a team to help us on some point that we could not step up because the stone separated and height and to help the girls. I really appreciate of their help each other; otherwise we would never reach our goal of hiking to the top the mountain.

We help each other to claim the mountain

I have chatted to a guy, who helps us by lift us up or even put his leg for us to step on. I asked his name; he did not answer but Vicky said Dany (because they are friends on facebook) from Cape Verde. I said it sound like Cambodian name; you know Dany is a popular name. Then he said yes; in fact his name is Daniel he put on facebook as Dany so you could call me Dany, he smiled. Then I wanted to say Oh, Daniel is for tan-skin man but I did not say it anyway. We reached the top of the mountain.

Me and Dany

We took a rest and looked the view around it was just so wonderful from one mountain to another, valley, small village and the lake. We went back but it was differently direction; there were so many kinds of beautiful floras. Vicky seems enjoyed it and she asked me to take many her photos with its and some selfie for sure. There were also cows and horses that they ran freely on the field but they had string on their neck to show that they had owners. We did not see any wolf as a guide tour at Geira Museum told us.

A long the way back From The Mountain

Some cow a long the way

Then we continued our trip to the Lake for lunch. Most of us brought our own food as the organizer told us for lunch around 2 pm. I brought with me of fry beef with vegetable, fry two egg and rice. I asked Vicky to join me that we could share food but she said no so her and some guys who did not bring food; they went to restaurant nearby the lake. I sit alone on a bench near the lake then a group of Asian guys (4 guys) came to me and asked if they could join with me. I said of course you could, why not! I opened the cape of my box; a girl revealed Yeh Asian food! Then I asked her, “You want to taste it”; a second later she tasted it by using my spoon. “It is delicious,” she said. Really! Thank you; maybe we could cook together some day in Braga or Guimaraes by cooking our Asian. They agreed with it. “What food you all bring today? Asian food?” I asked. They opened their bag, its were sandwich. They talked with each other; it sounded like Indonesian. They said yes and asked me do you know Indonesian. I said no but I had Indonesian friends who came to UMinho for exchange students last year. They came from East Timor but I did not remember their names.

Rowboat in the lake

After we finished our lunch, we went to lake and Claudio if somebody wanted to rowboat. Dany and his friend first did it. Actually, I wanted to do it too but I did not prepare clothes for it and it would get wet if I rowed the boat so I hesitated. I stand near the desk of the boats renter said there were two options a small boat for two people and it was possible to get wet and another one is two boat connection to each other for six people and it did not make you wet. I heard it so I decided to join them. Claudio and a Brazilian guy Pedro and his family (Pedro is a PhD student at UMinho and his family came with him in Portugal; his wife and two daughters), were 5 people so they needed one more person. Then I said let counted me in. So we had enough people. “Let go.” Claudio said. The kids were so happy so they ran to the boat first. There was a guy who helped to take kids on the boat and kept balance boat that allow getting on easily. We sit on two boats connecting with each other. Me in the front, Pedro in the back and his elder daughter in the middle; three of us were in one boat. And, another boat has Claudio in the back, Pedro´s daughter in the middle and Pedro´s wife in the front. Despite of the kids were so exciting but Pedro´s wife was scary because there was a little wave and we just stepped on so the boat was not stable. She shouted “Haaa!” then we started our riding to the middle of the lake and passed two bridges. Following us there were two more group riding it two so there are 5 boats totally with 2 small boats with two people and 3 big boats with 6 people. We did a short racing and scattering water from one to another boat. We had a lot of fun there. So, we got wet anyway. We ended our trip by go to a village to buy some souvenir but it was kind of late evening so most of the shop closed. We headed back to Braga around 8pm and arrived Guimaraes at 8:40 pm.

at the lake

 

 

A Trip To Portugal National Park Peneda-Geres With Erasmus student UMinho #Post1

Geres National Park

The lush vegetation in all shapes of green includes a forest of holly and endemic species such as the Gerês lily, which brightens up the fields with it shapes of violet blue. Rivers and streams flow through the mountain ranges, which comprise the park, rushing down in waterfalls and then spreading out into reservoirs. The landscapes are breathtaking.

 Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês locates in the far northwest of Portugal; extent with large area 700 kilometer-squares. It is the only protected area classified as Portugal national park. I have visited Gerês in autumn last year but it made me want to go there again and again. I would never tired of stunning view of local flora and fauna diversities, waterfall and the rugged mountainous terrain; it makes me to escape from crowd of people in the city to enjoy exciting view of the nature. I decided to join again with them; as the park was so big so the next trip was totally different from the previous one I have been. In the middle of the spring so there were many floras blossom; it was one of the best time to visit Geres.

The bus picked up students from Guimaraes campus then 35 minutes later, we arrived Braga campus; together 40 students and two lovely kids started a journey to Geres. In the bus I had a good chat with Mohamed from Syria; Christina and Andrey from Ukraine; we had shared about what we studied, beautiful places at middle east like UEA, Masdar city or Qatar and Andrey told us about the amazing landscape in Scotland and Wales where he has visited. I told them about Angkor Wat and Christina reveal she had searched and know about it and it is so wonderful and she will visit for sure in the future. Yes, we also talked about politic on Crimea (it is Ukrainian word it means Crime) and about millions people force to flee from Syria to Turkey and Jordan. The first stop is at Geira Museum, it had galleries flora and fauna diversities, how Iberians used the stone to build bridge, road, house and the daily life of them. Then we continued to hiking with Claudio from Cape Verde who was an organiser and guide us along the way to top of a small mountain. As he has told us in the invitation facebook page that every must wear confortable shoes and long jean to protect ourselves. He is funny guy. Along the way, people seemed like chat to each other and took many photos of amazing landscape view. Suddenly, a Chinese girl smiled to me that I could see her dimple and asked me to take photo for her by her Iphone5. She wore two shirts (black shirt with white dot and another white shirt outside), brown jean, Adidas shoes and glass. It was just cute as her style. We talked and took photos of each other. Her name is BingBing as Chinese name and Vicky as English name. BingBing! I were bold, a famous Chinese actress as I remembered; she said yes Ly BingBing, Chinese actress. I said I liked to call her Vicky anyway and she said okay. She is the single daughter from Tianjin and she came to UMinho for 6 months as an exchange student of bachelor degree. Then she told me she had planned to pursue study in United State for her master degree. She had to get up early morning at 6 am every day to review for TOEFL test, she continued. I told her, “you are smart, you can do it, and you will go there” she smiled back to me with her twisted tooth and again with her right dimple and said softly to me “thank you so much”. About European trip we had shared interesting places in Portugal like Porto and Lisbon; about arts like Mona Lisa painting, sculpture over Italy, especially the works of Michaelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci, which are my favorite artists and in Paris too.

 

Eramus Mudus Student UMinho

Guide Tour in Geira Museum

Guide in Geira Museum

 

Along the Way to hiking

 

Along the way to hiking

To be Continued…

Travel with architecture: some works of Sir Norman Foster

Sir Norman Foster, born and grew up at Manchester, United Kingdom. After finished high school and followed his father, he took a job as an officer junior in the treasure department. Bored with office work, he ventured into the city to observe buildings during his lunch break and sketched designs while at his desk. He figured out what he really want do for his future, as an architect. Then he got admission to study architecture at University of Manchester. But he did not get the grant to help fund for his studies, so he took varies part-time jobs to finish with his study with honor. To complete his ambition, he needs to pursue a next level of education on architecture. He looked for scholarship to the best university in the world; finally, he won full scholarship to Yale school of architecture by Henry fellowship (his wife and he donated around £3 millions for Yale school of management building project) for his master degree under supervise by Yale-SOA luminaries such as Paul Rudolh and Louis Kahn. After graduated, he returned to UK to make his own firm with Richard Rogers which was called Team Four. They always keen to design incredible building rather than the limit of technologies or local materials. He has revealed, “I am not creature of habit, I like to find things from unexpected source”. The team won his first big international competition to design skyscraper Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Corporation – HSBC. It cost US$668 million (nowadays it would cost more than US$1 billion due to inflation); it was the most expensive building in the world. Hong Kong in that time had no manufacturing complex building components or fabricating structural steel that Foster needed so he searched for companies across the world that they could supply the materials. All components came from UK, Japan, USA; Netherlands, Germany and Italy. For example, the elegant aluminum skin that wraps the structural steel to hide the fire protection equipped with robot welders and computer controlled cutting jigs. The service mains, air conditioning, electrics and lavatories, right down to the mirrors and soap dishes screwed to their walls, and door handles fixed in position, were all packed into prefabricated modules, that were stacked up on freighters and shipped complete from Japan to Hong Kong harbor and jacked in place by crane. There are many wonderful building designed by Sir Norman Foster in the world such as Swiss Re (London), Hearst Tower (New York), HSBC (Hong Kong), City Hall (London), Wembley Stadium (London), Torre Bankia (Madrid), Terminal Stansted Airport (London), etc. I have opportunity to see some of his buildings, which is located in London, are The Swiss Re, City Hall and Wembley Stadium.

The Swiss Re/London/United Kindom

The Swiss Re tower is much more than the one-liner you might initially expect. It is another progression in Foster´s application of a green agenda to the building of high-rise towers. The structure is a muscular steel basket, sheathed in a smooth glass skin. At the pavement, it emerges from the diamond-pattern glass to create an arcade of shops at street level. As important as the layered exterior, with its dual skins of glass and opening windows designed to minimise the energy load, is the fact that the tower is conceived not as a single monolith but has been designed to function as a stack of grounded floors. Each group of six floors in linked by a spiralling open atrium that twists around the building, opening up the structure and offering a sense of belonging to a wider entity than merely the floor on which you happen to be sitting.

City Hall/London/United Kingdom

Completed in 2002 and situated on the south bank of the Thames River between the Tower Bridge and The Shard. The building shapes like a misshapen egg, a motorcycle helmet or an onion. Designers chose this particular shape for the glass and steel structure because it reduces surface area and makes the building more energy efficient. The 45 meter-tall building is part of a complex know as More London, which includes shops, offices, and a sunken amphi-theatre that is the site of many summer open-air concerts and other arts performances.

First thing to notice of inside the building is the long helical walkway about 500 meters and ascends from the bottom all the way to the top of the building (10 stories). It provides excellent views of the interior, the river and the Tower Bridge. Window can be opened for natural ventilation and the building leans back towards the south to avoid the most intense direct daytime sunlight. Cold ground water air-conditions the building and there are no chillers inside. In addition, solar panels were installed on the roof to reduce electrical consumption.

Wembley Stadium/London/United Kingdom

One of the things that make the stadium special is the retractable roof, which ensures that the spectator experience is comfortable in all weathers. When the roof is open it ensures that the turf receives sufficient sunlight and air to keep it in perfect condition, while in poor weather it can be closed to cover the entire seating bowl. A 133-metre-high arch that soars above the stadium supports the roof structurally. An iconic replacement for the old building’s twin towers, floodlit at night it is a strong symbol for Wembley and an instantly recognisable London landmark.

Its geometry and steeply raked seating tiers ensure that everyone has an unobstructed view of the game. To recreate the intimate atmosphere and the distinctive ‘Wembley roar’ for which the old stadium was famous, the seats are located as close to the pitch as possible. Yet the building has also been consciously future proofed, with the ability to be adapted to host a variety of events, including international track and field events up to Olympic standard if required.

The stadium has won RIBA national citation in 2008. “The Wembley is approached along an axial approach which showcases the arched structure supporting the roof. The arch works immensely well both in terms of its immediate and long distance scale as an icon; it is an enormously successful London landmark. At a functional level the building appears to work with exemplary efficiency. It is an outstanding, practical achievement.”

Travel with architecture: some works of pritzker winner Renzo Piano

A tension runs through the work of acclaimed Italian architect Renzo Piano. Born in 1937 to a Genoese family of prominent builders and graduated from the Polytechnic University of Milan. He began working with experimental lightweight structures and basic shelters. He has long stressed his commitment to craft – to the particularities of material and making and though his firm has multiple offices with international projects.

In 1971 a competition for the cultural center “Centre Pompidou” attracted 650 entry companies. The project summited by two young British and Italian architect Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, along with Italian architect Gianfranco Franchini won the project. It turned car parking to aesthetic building. They use just haft of all space so another haft is the terrace leisure place. During I visited there last summer, there were many people relaxed over there. Despite all most the buildings in Paris were the same style except at “La defence”, Centre Pompidou was completely different from other building around. Other building, architect and engineer tried to design to hide evacuation pipe and electricity line. I could say it turned architecture upside down or it broke architectural conventions by moving functional elements such as escalators, water pipes and air conditioning to the outside of the building freeing interior space for the display of the art works and reducing load on building. They turned all pipes and ducts to beautiful looking colors: blue for air, red for elevators, yellow for electricities, gray for corridors and white for building itself. By helping from Irish structural engineer Peter Rice to design truss and steel supporting structure, the building could make big space. It made building to perfection of colorful, space and light modernity.

Centre Pompidou/Paris/France

 

The crystal skyscraper “The Shard” is the highest building in Europe designed by Renzo Piano for architecture and Arup + Partners for structural. Last New Year Eve, I went to London and I visited around this place. I took metro stop at “London Bridge” then I walked from London Bridge to Tower Bridge. At underground of metro station, it was old but it was very clean (even electricity lines, they put out side parallel on the wall of metro line). But when I got out the metro, it liked another city; everything was very modern. At the evening, I was across London Bridge and walked another side along the River Thames. The high-rise building of The Shard with glass and light of all floors, it made building of beautiful aesthetic. Piano´s building has become beacon for designers bereft of inspiration; it has spawned a host of other mirrored glass building across the capital. This makes result all the more impressive; it made city to have more vivid and shine all day long and by night.

The Shard/London/England

 

The city of Amsterdam is surrounding by canal in shape of concentric half circle; people and tourists use boat and small ship for transportation and going around the city. The traffic by boat seems so busy all day long. The Science Center NEMO designed looks like a part of front or in the back of the ship´s shape. It just perfect fit to the city. They used green wall to fit to the water. The rooftop has cafeteria and the green terrace for kid´s playing area and I also saw the great view of the city: Amsterdam central train station on the north, ARCAM on the west and other beautiful houses.

The Science Centre NEMO/Amsterdam/Netherlands

7 notes about Champion Leagues Final between Real Madrid FC vs Atletico Madrid FC

On the champion leagues final football match between Real Madrid FC and Atletico Madrid FC, I went to Lisbon to watch the match. The city covered by fans with white shirt for RM fans and white + red shirt for ATM fan. It just likes that.

1-    They are proud because there are two teams from same country of Spain and same city of Madrid played in the final. Instead of chant for their team “Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid” they chanted “Viva! Viva ESPANA and Hala MADRID!”

When I arrived Orient Train Station, a group of Real Madrid fans chanted “Viva! Viva ESPANA!” Then I went to underground to catch metro; there were many football fans and the fans of both teams chanted “Hala! Hala MADRID!” They supported different team however they seemed can go along together. They talked to each other and took picture together.

2-    Major sponsors are Heineken, Ford, EASport and MasterCard.

There were many banners for advertisement; especially, it was from Heineken. It had not only in Lisbon but it had also in other district along the street at bus stop and train station. The main point was at big square of Praça Comercio, I saw some Heineken´s sellers wear Heineken tank on their back of 5 liters and sold for €2 per 250 ml. Likewise, Ford designed special champion leagues cub which everyone could take picture the it. Only kids could lift the cup but the man could not lift in spite of their strong force! At EASport show room allowed you to play game for free and with new CD game if you want to buy its.

3-    They separate fans of each team to cheer.

There were two metro stop to reach “Estadio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica”. They put on the metro map Alto dos Moinhos metro stop was for Real Madrid FC fans and Colegio Militar/Luz for Atletico Madrid fans. Or, maybe they did like this because of too crowd of people. Outside the stadium, there were public views to live the match on the big screen TV too. At Praça Rossio and Praça Figueira were for Real Madrid fans and Praça Eduardo VII was for Atletico Madrid fans.

4-    European football fans, they seem support only with their team.

I have talked to my friends in Guimaraes they said they support only their team Victoria Guimaraes (even the team is not so big team) and some other supported for SL Benfica. They said they do not care about any other team. However, I think the champion league final is one of the biggest tournaments in football so people in Lisbon would come out and cheer them too. But actually they did not, they stayed calm. I could not even buy a scarf of this both teams.

5-    There still have few other teams which are not in the final in Lisbon.

I saw few groups of fans that wear other European teams of Barcelona FC, Bayern Munich FC and Borussia Dortmund FC at Orient train station and at Praça Comercio. I think they bought ticket for the final game because they expected their team could go to the final in Lisbon. And, maybe the ticket would be cheaper than they bought after they knew the result of semi final.

6-    The most popular shirt they wear is Cristiano Ronaldo shirt – Ronaldo 7.

Because CR7 is one of greatest footballer for his strength with intelligent and always strikes the ball spectacularly on the pitch so most of fans like him so they buy shirt and wear follow by Bale 11 and Sergio Ramos 4. They also wear ex-RM footballer shirt too like Zidane 5, Raul 7, etc. For Atletico Madrid fans they wear Costa 19, Forlan, Falcao, Torres, etc. Especially, I have never seen the fans wear the shirt of coach but ATM fans did it by wearing it with the name Diego Simeone!

7-    RM win the game and fans cheer while ATM lose.

An amazing goal by Ramos in 90+3 min was one of the most exciting goals in CL final for the team and for the fans as well. The fans and me cheer for it, I could not describe the feeling that time; just so so happy and amazing! After the game, one the streets, metro and square RM fans cheered up by chant name Real MADRID! and some other word in Spanish; I did not know it. RM fans were proud, happy and show out their shirts of RM while ATM fans stayed calm and hide their shirt with jacket.

Champions Leagues Final RM vs ATM- welcome to lisbon

Champions Festival/Final Lisbon 2014/Lisbon/Portugal

Special cup designed by Ford

Real Madrid fans @Estadio de sport lisboa e benfica

Atletico Madrid Fans @Estadio de sport lisboa e benfica

 

Believe Me Football Is Big!

Impressive tile art gallery at underground metro station in Lisbon

Bus stop at Oriente station, The modern sight with a roof of glass and steel made with slender columns fanning out into a concertina roof to create a kind of geometric look like a row of crystalline forest and the opposite with two high buildings look like the sailboat. I think it would dedicate to a great Portuguese ocean explorer Vasco Da Gama who discovered India during 15^th century. The architecture of the whole station is really beautiful. I went to underground in Oriente metro station to catch metro to go to Baixa-Chiado station. I could see the interesting of symbol of each metro line which are red line (“linha vermelha” with compass symbol), green line (“linha verde” with sailboat symbol), blue line (“linha azul” with bird fly over sea symbol) and yellow line (“linha amerela” with flower symbol); even in handrail they designed like wave shape. By waiting in several minutes in the station, I could see the impressive of murals with linking maritime themes which were painted by many artists from over the world.

The Sinking of atlantis by Friedensreich Hunderwasser – Austrian

 

The stylistic traditional roots of sea by Abdoulaye konaté – malian

 

by Yayoi Kusama – japanese

 

The Sea elements by Antonio Segui – Argentine

 

I bought a one-day pass ticket. I did not need to pay more when I took another metro and bus so I spent part of my time to enjoy going other stations for taking look art gallery styles of underground Lisbon metro system. I put my eye staring when the metro reach each stop but I did not have good pictures because on that day they were full of tourists, mostly were footballer fans. At Parque station (nearest metro station which lived CL final at Parque Eduardo VII for Atletico Madrid CF fans) and Restauradores station (nearest metro station which lived CL final at Praça Rossio for Real Madrid CF fans) are covered in geometric-patterned tile. At Alameda Station, Costa Pinheiro added images of navigators and ships to reflect Portugal’s seafaring history. At Olivais, Nuno Siqueira and Cecília de Sousa painted olive trees on the tiles, representing the grove that once stood in the location. Since then, tile art has been installed in numerous other metro stations. At Cais Do Sodre, giant Alice In Wonderland-esque rabbits cover the train tunnel. At Alto do Moinhos, goats’ butt heads, writers brandish quills and a donkey bucks.

The most mural works were from Portuguese artist Maria Keil. She began decorating artistic wall covering for the Lisbon metro over period of 25 years from her first commission in 1957 for a total of a 19 stations. Her work for the Lisbon metro is particular importance in that it marked a turning point in the revival of the Portuguese art of the glazed painted tile (azulejo), which had gone through a long period since 19^th century.

Lisbon metro mural gallery is one of the most beautiful art gallery in station.

Vatican City And I Am Here On Valentine´s Day

Despite being so busy with study but never forget to spend some time for searching place for traveling during some day-off on the yearly schedule. Searching nice place which has special occasion/festival then to visit there, it is kind of good decision for voyage to learn more about their culture. I visit Vatican City in Rome of Italy to get blessing from god and to see what it looks like on Valentine´s Day. Turn back to know the brief history of that day, during Roman emperor, king Claudius II had prohibited marriage for young men, claiming that bachelors made better soldiers. Soldier name Valentine continued to secretly perform marriage ceremonies but was eventually apprehended by the Romans and put to death. Another legend has it that Valentine; imprisoned by Claudius, fell in love with the daughter of his jailer, Asterius. Before he was executed, he allegedly sent her a letter signed “from your valentine.” To be honor for him, people started to celebrate as Valentine´s Day on February 14^th to show their love.

Let takes a look for what I see at Vatican City,

 

Vatican Obelisk

In the center of the Saint Peter´s Square, I see a 41-meter-tall and weighting 326 tones of Egyptian obelisk, brought to Rome in 38 AD. How could they take this so heavy obelisk to Rome and to stand it on the ground during that period of time? It is the only ancient Egyptian obelisk in Rome to have remained standing since Roman times.

Refurbishment building

As this place for tourists so they are sure that the tourist does not want to see the refurbishment or any dust from the building during they walk around. They have a creative idea to hide and solve it. They print out the picture as the new building after refurbishment.

Tourists in queue waiting to visit Vatican Museum

It is not different from top attractive tourism museums in Paris, there are crowd of people in long queue and you have to wait under hot sun between 1:30 to 2 hours before you can enter the Vatican museum. There is another way to enter there; it calls fastpass ticket but you have to pay more than normal price (50€ and normal price is only 16€).

 

Group of Japanese and Korean Students on the left side at Saint Peter Square

There are many others Asian tourists over there from us to other. I want to talk about is I see two group of undergraduate students from Japan and Korean. I think it is one of really great method that the developed country from Asian and Europe they do exchange and take time to learn from each other. Especially in Italy where some great people born and did great works over there such as Michelangalo, Bernini, Leonardo Da Vinci and Galileo Galilei.

Swiss Guard at entrance of Basilica

Near the entrance of the Basilica, I encounter some of the handsome Swiss Guards with their traditional uniform. To know more we must go back to the period of the renaissance and discover the motives that in 1506 caused pope Julius II to invite Helvetian soldiers to join the small Vatican army, they have been the guards of the Vatican and the pope in particular. All entrants to the army must be Swiss, Catholic and they must take the oath of loyalty to the pope.

 

A Flag along main street

Here is a flag I see. It is not flag represent neither Vatican City nor flag of Italy. Is it flag of a country? Is this small country need or be allowed to host embassy? I am not sure about it.

Super Car on the street

Playboy dares to show their super-car along the main street of Vatican City. I have seen the same at some place around La Tour Eiffel and Champse-Elysée in Paris and near the beach at Barcelona where it is possible to take you around if they are interesting in you (maybe only for hot/sexy girl :=D).

It is not like in other country such as small country and far away like Cambodia seems influence too much on this culture. Vatican City is like normal day, I think they share their love each other every day, not only one day on Valentine´s Day. Last year, at place where I stayed at Guimaraes in Portugal, I went to my to my university, It is like normal day nobody celebrate it. I went also to a high school and around the city centre, there were only few couple did it with bought flower for each other.

God Bless Me, My Family and My Friends,