Another look at the Serra da Estrela "secret" tunnel

A Hélder Afonso video, from Portugal Seen from the Sky project, shows a new perspective from the already famous"stuck" lagoon,

Covão dos Conchos is no longer a secret - ceased to be so when this video was viewed more than 450,000 times in the P3, a public website of the portuguese newspaper, Público.

A regular traveler in Serra da Estrela, this 49 year-old nurse and photographer took advantaged from his last break on Tuesday, took his adapted drone and made a "beautiful walk about five kilometers" to shoot the location that was presented to him about three years ago. "They first filmed without snow, but I filmed with it", said Hélder referring to the ProBilder video that became viral in early February.

"I went there altough the weather was cloudy and windy, as is normal in Serra da Estrela, and this can be seen in the film", says Hélder who began the air footages with a GoPro and has already won a first prize in an international aerial photography competition in 2014. This time he tried to put his drone in the mouth of the tunnel, built in 1955, creating the illusion that the dam is broken.

Hélder's drone, author of the project Portugal Seen from the Sky, flew over the place and got close to the mouth of tunnel, moving away from there up to 150 meters high. "Inside the hole" is no longer a secret. But still looks like something that got out of a X-Files episode.

Source: Fugas

Lisbon Bookstore in the world top 10 "industrial-chic"

The Guardian newspaper chose the "ten spaces more industrial and chic" in the world. The Ler Devagar ("Read Slowly in english) is one of them. The "flying bicycle" definitely helps.

They were warehouses, underground car parks, garages, factories and even a swimming pool. Now they are "cool conceptual spaces" where "the design is as attractive as what they have to offer as shops, showrooms, restaurants, bars". Or bookstores. 

Among the 10 selected around the world - from France, to United States, Japan, Serbia - there are two book houses: the Librairie Avant-Garde, installed in a former underground car park in Nanjing, Chine, and the Lisbon Ler Devagar, an independent bookstore that opened in 1999 in Bairro Alto, and that after successive house moves, seems to have finally settled their endless bookshelves in Lx Factory (since 2009).

It was this huge high standing old printing house room, with its literature and colorful book spines, that filled the eye of the british newspaper. "If you've always wanted to see a huge wall of books, the Ler Devagar is a good place to go", the paper's authors ensure.

Here "the books are stacked almost to the top of the high ceiling (the equivalent of three floors), while the metal stairs and industrial air balconies lead you to the first floor and around the store". The space doens't has the "moldy" and "dark" enviornment of the typical old bookstores that "fill most of literary fantasies" but "in many ways, the salvaged interior teases the imagination just as a bookstore should do" says the Guardian.  

In addition to the exhibited books, highlight for the sculptures, "being the most prominent a flying byclicle hanging from the cieling", which has become the store brand image, and two bars, that give a "pretty social and creative enviornment".

Source: Fugas

Rocha Vieira is the first Portuguese chef to gather three Michelin stars

Masterchef on a national television channel, the Cascais chef has seen another one of his restaurants distinguished with a Michelin star, after Fortaleza do Guincho and Costes de Budapeste achieved the same award.

"The Costes team has won again! During the night, two Michelin stars fell on Budapeste: the seventh consecutive for the Costes Restaurant and the first (of many, I hope) to the Costes Downtown, that open just ten months ago." It's the Chef itself who sums up the great news on his Facebook page, adding "I'm speechless".

The awards that "rained down" on Costes brought it international fame, after becaming the first Michelin star restaurant in Hungary. In the last year, Rocha Vieira exchanged Budapest for his hometown Cascais but continued to lead the destinations and the kitchen concepts of "his" hungarian restaurant - where, in loco, the space is controlled by his former sous chef, Palágyi Esther. In 2015, another Costes was born in the city, the Downtown, in the Prestige Hotel.

Rocha Vieira arrived in August at Fortaleza do Guincho, and replaced the veteran Vincent Farges, the man who, for a decade, led that kitchen. Despite Farges' exit, the restaurant held the Michelin star, that was previously conquered and mantained in 2016.

The chef´'s exchange to Cascais was truly a homecoming return. The 36 year-old chef, was born and lived in Cascais up to his 19s. After that, he went to London to study gastronomy at the renowed cooking school Le Cordon Bleu. In the meantime, he would work in several top restaurants in England, France or even Spain. In 2008, he arrived in Budapest and opened the Costes restaurant. He won the first Michelin star in Hungary, just after two years of the Costes opening.

Shortly after the Michelin stars have been confirmed, Rocha Vieira wrote on his page: "Once again the dedication and teamwork proved that the effort of a lifetime always pays off, Far from what it was my home for the past seven years. I proudly celebrate in Portugal, but I want to send a hug to my comrades in Budapest".

In Portugal, José Avillez became the first portuguese chef winning two Michelin stars (thanks to his Belcanto restaurant). In the country, there are also two more Michelin stars: Hans Neuner with Ocean (in Armação de Pêra, Algarve) and Dieter Koshina with Vila Joya (in Albufeira, Algarve).

Source: Fugas