Back to the roots

---

We landed in Lisbon, it is funny to see another country speaking the same language(it was our first time). The English speakers probably never have this feeling since they are so used to seeing everything in their own language all over, but for us it was pretty funny!
We took a bus to the city center to see more similarities with Brazil. Not only the language, but the architecture is the same! The houses, buildings, churches, streets, all reminds us of Brazil. It's impossible to deny that they are our patriarchs. It's like being in a traditional quarter of São Paulo.
Having only few days to stay here, we visited mainly museums. They are all about the navigations, the discovery and conquering of new lands and of course, the great explorers of the 15th and 16th century.
Portugal was really big (not in size but in influence) at that time. We wonder why isn't Portuguese the universal language since at that time, when the European countries started to spread their domination, Portugal had so many more colonies than any other country. Even Australia was discovered by the Portuguese (but they arrived in the west coast and didn't want that desert).
From the traditional Portuguese food we have in Brazil we ate Bacalhoada (cod served with potatoes) and the famous Pasteizinhos de Santa Clara.
Not only did Portugal export traditional food to Brazil but we exported some too. In every supermarket it's possible to find Guaraná, a Brazilian soft drink made out of fruits from the Amazon.
After Lisbon we headed to our favorite area of the country, the wine producing region of Porto
This wine is made in this one and only region in the world, because of its very particular climate and soil. This conditions make the juice of the grapes rich in sugar. The process of the wine making starts normally, but after only three days of fermenting the process is stopped by adding grape spirit. This makes the wine sweet and high in alcohol.
It's so cool to learn so many new things, we were exultant with the new discoveries and about the freedom of being a backpacker. All the experiences we were having and all the people we were meeting. We listened to so many stories from locals and other travelers. One traveler we met in Porto caught our attention, he was traveling for more than 4 months. How could someone travel for so long? To boost our happiness we bought a few bottles of beer and commemorated the whole night.
In the city we visited many wineries and tasted dozens of wines in the many free tours offered along the river.

---

Photos

Drinking Porto in Porto
Rio D'ouro on the background

Porto
Something between wine and liquor.