S. Gonçalinho’s Festival is already an economic motor and fills hotels and restaurants

Aveiro lives the one that is the biggest popular festival and continues to be, increasing, motive to attract tourists.

By Aveiro's lands it’s often said that the Christmas festivities only end after the finishing of the festival in honor to São Gonçalinho – event which “brand image” is the throwing cavacas  (a portuguese pastry covered in sugar)from the top of the chapel consecrated to this saint. There are various days of “strong” party, centered in the Beira Mar historical neighborhood and which attract more and more people from other points of the country and, also, beyond borders. That was confirmed to PÚBLICO for various by several hotel and restaurants managers of the city. The majority of them talks about a rise in the reservations and make vows that this is a trend to keep. 

Carla Santos, Hotel das Salinas owner, assures that her hotel is, this São Gonçalinho weekend, “almost full”. “In the last years, we verified that are the national tourists, specially from Lisbon, and the international tourists, from France and Belgium, the ones who value the most this tradition”, testify. Carla Santos refers that have “some clients” who already ask “to buy cavacas to make sure they can participate in the festivities”.

Also in the Hotel Moliceiro this festivities are synonymous of an increase of reservations. “We’re talking about a rise of 10% and are, mostly, people that have relatives or friends in Aveiro and want to participate in the festivities”, notice Cristina Durães, director of this four stars hotel.

For the hotel Meliã Ria, for now, the popular aveirense festival didn’t produce effects in the reservations number yet. “The only thing we have is an event, in the restaurant, of a family that always take opportunity in this date to get together”, declares Ana Gouveia,  without making vows that, in the future, São Gonçalinho festivities will bring more profits to the hotel she runs.  

In the restoration, the rise in clients and service seems to be even more significant. Maria Soares has three restaurants, all of them situated in the Beira Mar neighborhood, in the heart of the festivities, and assures that that all the three are already full, with reservations, in the nights of this weekend and “with good perspectives for Monday and Thursday”. “In one of the cases, for example, the person who is organizing the dinner is from Aveiro, but the guests are from outside, from other cities”, testifies the owner of Porta 35, Porta 36 and À Portuguesa, evidencing that “this is also a festival that attracts a lot of people from Aveiro that are out of town, making them return to their city”.  

The festivities, organized by São Gonçalinho Stewardarship – in partnership with Aveiro Town Hall – started this Friday, with the promise of having S. Peter’s help until the end (the weather previsions are good). Until Tuesday, it will be throwing cavacas from the top of the church, a ritual that serves to the devotees pay the promises did to the saint that, in Aveiro, is treated like “little saint” or “little boy”. And while ones throw cavacas, others, almost always in hundreds, get together in the church wide to catch some cavacas, achieving a tradition that has crossed generations.

And, even if it’s the most popular side of the festivities, the program goes behind the cavacas tradition. As the tradition dictates, the Monday programs dedicate the morning to the youngest, with the habitual São Gonçalinho from the schools.

Also included in the festivities of the patron saint of the Beira Mar neighborhood, is going on “Aveiro Flavors with tradition”, a gastronomy festival that mobilizes more than 30 local restaurants – the participating establishments are indicated with a little flag identifying the event at the door. 

Source: Fugas 

São João da Madeira’s Industrial tourism celebrates the 5th anniversary with free tours

The touristic tour through the São João da Madeira’s factories and museums was born five years go. To celebrate, there are five days of free guided tours.

In 2012, the smallest county in Portugal launched an innovative project: take tourists to the city’s industrial patrimony, opening historic factories to the visitors in office hours, letting them circulate between noisy machines to see pencils, hats or shoes born in the worker’s hands. Two months ago, the Footwear’s Museum inauguration completed the touristic offer. Now, to celebrate the five years of the touristic circuits through factories and museological spaces in São João da Madeira, the industrial tourism project launches five days of free guided tours. There are two routes per day, from January 23 to 27, from 9h30 until 12h45 and from 14h until 17h30. They all start and finish in Oliva Tower, the iconic building of the old metallurgic factory transformed in the project’s reception. The circuits are all different between them and include the entrance in two spaces of the touristic network.

Since the Viarco, the only working pencils factory in the country, to the footwear companies Helsar and Evereste, passing by the Cortadoria Nacional de Pêlo and Fepsa, connected to the headgear industry, or the Heliotêxtil, manufacturer of labels and trimmings. Besides the factories, the routes pass by the footwear museums, the Portugal’s Footwear Technologic Center or the Training Center of the Footwear Industry.

The visits are free but the previous inscription is required. On the 26^th, the circuits include a novelty: they will be adapted to people with hearing loss, with simultaneous tradition into sign language.

The commemorations of the 5^th anniversary integrate the inauguration of an exhibition of cheetah dresses in Oliva Tower, in an “invocation of the popular contestants which were organized by the historic company”, refers the organization of the event, in a statement. It occurs in January 23, at 18h. The clowns show Lullaby closes de festivities on the day 27, at 21h30.

Source : Fugas-Público

16 Portuguese sayings that don’t make any sense

Every language has common sayings that everyone knows and uses that don’t necessarily make sense, especially when translated into another language.

1. Ir com os porcos
“Go with the pigs” meaning: DIE

2. Pulga atrás da orelha
“Flea behind the ear” meaning: BEING SUSPICIOUS

3. Barata tonta
“Dizzy Cockroach” meaning: BEING UNFOCUSED/CLUMSY

4. Acordar com os pés de fora
“Wake up with the feet outside” meaning: WOKE UP IN A BAD MOOD

5. Estar com os azeites
“Being with the olive oils” meaning: IN A BAD MOOD.

6. Muitos anos a virar frangos
“Many years turning chickens” meaning: A LOT OF EXPERIENCE/KNOWLEDGE

7. Macaquinhos na cabeça
“Little monkeys in the head” meaning: HAVING STRANGE/SUSPICIOUS THOUGHTS

8. Pentear macacos
“Comb monkeys” meaning: GO F%CK YOURSELF (in a polite way…)

9. Engolir Sapos
“Swallow frogs” meaning: SHUT UP AND ACCEPT UNPLEASANT THINGS

10.  Tirar o cavalinho da chuva
“Take the little horse from the rain” meaning: DON’T COUNT ON THAT!

11.  Partir a loiça toda
“Breaking all the dishes” meaning: ROCKIN’!!

12. Chatear Camões
“Go bother Camões” meaning: GO BOTHER SOMEONE ELSE

13.  Água pela Barba
“Water up his beard” meaning: A LOT OF WORK

14. Ter muita lata
 “A lot of cans” meaning: 100% SHAMELESS

15.  Pão Pão, Queijo Queijo
“Bread bread, cheese cheese” meaning: IT IS THIS SIMPLE!

16.  À sombra da Bananeira
“Under the Banana Tree shade” meaning: NO WORRIES

Source: Twisted Sifter.

Linha do Tua is going to have a train inspired by the cowboys movies

Machine and carriages are being made in England, but businessman promises to recover old locomotives from CP. There are already criticisms: "They are in our collective memory for the films of Indians and cowboys, but in America. Not in Trás-os-Montes. "

The tourist train that the group Douro Azul intends to circulate in the Linha do Tua raised a wave of indignation in the social networks because the locomotive, typically American, seems brought out of Disneyland. The comments refer to the "tackiness" of the machine, in the absence of a more "historical and cultural" view of this tourist project and the blog Aventar even states that "there is in Europe a single railway tourism project pulled by an amusement park train".

Despite some compliments for the entrepreneurship of Mário Ferreira (owner of the Douro Azul), his detractors accuse him of ignoring that there are several locomotives of the CP that circulated in the rails of the line of the Tua and that now lie abandoned, to rot. 

Contacted by the Portuguese newspaper Público, Douro Azul explained that the locomotive bought in England is "green" because it will have gas oil and not coal as fuel. The result is the same: the water in the boiler is heated and the resulting steam will move the wheels of the locomotive. A solution that, moreover, is also used by the CP in the historic train of Douro.

Official source of the Douro Azul said that "the circulation of the coal-fueled historic train would be limited due to the safety conditions in times of high temperatures, a situation that was sought to avoid" and explains the option for this locomotive.

However, the company says it has already planned the recovery and reactivation of an old steam locomotive in partnership with the National Railway Museum to operate "in some activities that reinforce the identity of that line." 

But at this stage, the Tua Express inspired by the trains of Uncle Sam will circulate from the next spring between Mirandela and Brunheda, in the 33 kilometers of the narrow road of the Tua that survived the dam. The remaining 20 are submerged. 

The four carriages that will be part of the composition of this train are made of wood and also come from England.

The tourist project costs 15 million euros, divided between 10 million paid by EDP (as the counterparts for the construction of the dam) and 5 million by Mystic Invest, the holding company that owns Douro Azul.

The Tua train will run throughout the year, with an offer adapted to the seasonal peaks, and will be open regular passenger service to respond to local mobility. This was one of EDP's counterparts for the destruction of the Tua line connecting the Foz Tua station to Mirandela. Now a boat will be needed to be part of the course, which is already ordered. Público has learned that it will be a replica of a rabelo boat.

António Brancanes, president of APAC (Portuguese Association of Friends of the Railways) told Público that "it is praiseworthy for a private initiative to take advantage of a railway section that was out of service because it is a way to value the region's railway memory and of potentiating more tourist visits ". The leader waits until initiatives of this nature make school in other areas of the country, especially in the Alentejo, where there are many rail lines closed and where tourism has been increasing. But as for the locomotive, António Brancanes says that the design chosen has nothing to do with Portugal, not even with Europe. "It is a typical American machine and it would have been good if an option were made for a material that had a greater approximation to the identity of what the Portuguese locomotives were," he says.

We understand that the existing CP locomotives that could be used in the Tua are ancient and maintenance costs are very high for a regular tourist operation, but this proposal of the Douro Azul is not the best," he added.

The controversy has overtaken the circles of railroad enthusiasts who, of course, speak out against what they call the Disneyland convoy and social networks insist that an American locomotive has nothing to do with the European and Portuguese railroad culture.

Even the non-experts distinguish the old American steam engines from the European ones. The Americans have an unusually tall and wide chimney, a fairly large pavilion (booth) and boast the typical cows away. "They are part of our collective memory for Indian and cowboy movies. But in America. Not in Trás-os-Montes, "says the APAC president.

Source: Fugas

Are Azores the new Iceland?

News agency Bloomberg considers that Portuguese islands are the “hot new adventure destination”. This is at least the opinion of the America news agency Bloomberg in an article called "Move over, Iceland: the Azores are the hot new adventure destination.”

Compared with the neighbor to the north, journalist Brandon Presser refers to “gorgeous no-filter landscapes, a palpable not-in-America vibe and an ultra-convenient stopover locale on your way to Europe”. However, he says the Azores remain off the tourist radar, instead of Iceland where, he says, it is predicted that in 2017 there will be more tourists than residents.

For Bloomberg, Azores are “a quiet realm of quaint Iberian charm and dazzling vine-draped greens carved out by a dramatic history of volcanic events.”

São Miguel is noted for being the largest island, the most populous and accessible, but the advice is for the traveler to not stop there and to take at least a week to "jump" to some of the other nine islands of the archipelago. In São Miguel island, he highlights the lagoons of the Sete Cidades, the village of Furnas, "a spa for 300 years", with the fumaroles, Terra Nostra garden and the stew as a business card, and the capital, Ponta Delgada, with its narrow streets, religious architecture made of porous volcanic stone and street art. In Pico he focus the "soaring volcanic peak whose shadow moves across the landscape like a sundial", the cultivation of the vineyard and the observation of whales. He also mentioned São Jorge for its cheese and Faial for its prepared fish in a restaurant in Horta.

If they are the new Iceland, we do not know, but the Azores are increasingly in the mouth of the world.

Source: Fugas

Lisbon is the third funniest city in the world

Dynamism, inspiration, food and drink, community, sociability and accessibility (in monetary terms) are the six parameters analyzed to reach the list of the most fun cities in the world. Lisbon appears in third place.

The index is prepared by Time Out, which asks its readers to evaluate each one of the mentioned aspects regarding the cities in which they live. The Portuguese capital achieved 55.6 points, becoming the city with the best score at European level. "They did not evaluate the city with high scores solely for the ability to make friends and find love, they are the inhabitants most likely to meet neighbors and meet friends by coincidence, turning them into those less likely to describe the city as 'solitary' or 'overwhelming', "reports Time Out London on its website.

The first place is occupied by Chicago, followed by Melbourne. After Lisbon, there are New York, Madrid, Mexico City, São Paulo, Los Angeles, Barcelona and London.

Source: Marketeer