Sara Jump - Ostrava

A giant in the miniature world!

Ostrava - Czech Republic

Masaryk square

Ostrava is a Czech town and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian region, in the northeast of the country. We didn't spend much time in Ostrava but we walked around in the center for a while and we visited an exhibition with miniatures of famous monuments. It's a nice small town, worth to stop for a walk and a Czech beer, if it's on your way.

Ostrava fica na República Checa e é a capital da região da Morávia-Silésia, no nordeste do país. Não passámos muito tempo em Ostrava, mas deu para passear no centro e para visitar uma exposição com miniaturas de monumentos famosos. É uma pequena cidade simpática, onde vale a pena parar para um passeio e uma cerveja checa, se estiver no nosso caminho.

The residential area spreads all over Ostrava and seven other towns, which makes it the second biggest in the country, just after Prague.

A área residencial espalha-se por Ostrava e por outras sete cidades, o que faz com que seja a segunda maior do país, logo a seguir a Praga.

Katedrála Božského Spasitele

Left: Town Hall - Right: St. Vaclav Church

 Exhibition the World of Miniatures

Exposição o Mundo das Miniaturas

 Royal Castle - Warsaw, Poland

Fisherman's Bastion - Budapest, Hungary

 Town Hall (location of the Nobel Prize dinner) - Stockholm, Sweden

Acropolis - Athens, Greece

 Brandenburg Gate - Berlin, Germany

 Big Ben (the tower is known as Elizabeth Tower) - London, United Kingdom

The Leaning Tower - Pisa, Italy

Eiffel Tower - Paris, France

Sukiennice - Krakow, Poland

 One of the Pyramides - Egypt

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

That was a great way to tour and learn about a lot of countries in 1h!

Esta foi a melhor maneira de visitar e aprender sobre muitos países numa só hora!

Iceland and the Euro 2016

Iceland is a country in which football only exists as an amateur sport. 

One of their coaches is a dentist. 

They qualified for the Euro 2016, their first ever. It was a dream! They celebrated the qualification like champions, probably because they didn't expect much from the competition itself. But then they played... they scored... they didn't get beaten by supposedly stronger teams, like Portugal. They went through the group stage. The dream would probably end there. No, they beat England out of the competition! Then I understood... their dream will never end! They lost today, against France, but their dream will always be alive from now on. They showed a fire that very few teams seem to have nowadays. They were loosing 4-1 and their players were crawling in front of the goal to defend it! They made the French players run to the very last minute of the match. They never never gave up!

For all that, Iceland deserved to win this competition more than any other team, including Portugal. And yes, I'm still Portuguese...

They showed to Europe, maybe even to the whole world, that football can be about motivation, determination and passion. It doesn't have to be about money, brands and star players.

Iceland went from having about a third of a million inhabitants to have millions and millions of supporters, from all over Europe, and that's beautiful! 

They might have left the Euro 2016, but it's ok.

Now they are legends!

Photo from the internet

Toughest - Malmö

When we were in Malmö we had the chance to watch a competition called Toughest. It's basically a race on an obstacle course. A tough obstacle course. Looking at them I didn't feel fit at all. The only thing I would do well in this race would be to run in between obstacles... It looked fun though!

Quando estivemos em Malmö tivemos a oportunidade de ver uma competição chamada de Toughest ("a mais dura"). É basicamente uma corrida de obstáculos, mas com um percurso muito desafiante. Ao olhar para os participantes não me senti nada em forma. A única coisa que eu conseguiria fazer bem ali seria correr entre os obstáculos... Ainda assim pareceu-me bastante divertido!

Ok, slide down and splash, maybe this one I could do. 

Ok, escorregar e cair na água deveria dar para fazer.

This obstacle was one of the toughest, because of the angle and the distance between the boards.

Este obstáculo pareceu-me ser um dos mais difíceis, por causa do ângulo e da distância entre as placas.

Crawling seems easy, but is it after almost 10 Km and a tough arm-obstacle?

Gatinhar parece fácil, mas será que é depois de quase 10 Km e um obstáculo de braços?

Team spirit and fair play were just beautiful to watch!

Espírito de equipa e fair play foram o melhor de se ver!

This was my favourite! Who wouldn't like to go and get dirty in the mud???

Este foi o meu preferido! Não apetece mesmo ir para ali sujarmo-nos na lama???

I know, one does get tired just from looking at the pictures... and there were many many more obstacles.

Eu sei, quase que ficamos cansados só de olhar para as fotos... e havia muitos muitos mais obstáculos.

Martina Trchová Trio - Balkónové blues

Just in case my last post left you curious about Martina and her band, here is their latest single. There's more on youtube and on spotify.

Prague bucket list #13 - Martina Trchová a Trio

In my bucket list of things to do before I left Prague was to go to one last concerto of Martina Trchová & Trio, with Patrik Henel, Radek Polívka and Petr Chlouba. Martina herself was my Czech teacher and she became a close friend. She was one of the people I met in Prague that made my stay there worth it. As soon as we learned we were moving to Sweden we said we would go to all of her concerts in Prague. The one I showed below was the Christmas concert, the last we saw. It was freezing but we enjoyed it anyway.

Recently, Martina and her band released a new album, Holobyt, which she already sent to me. I still miss her voice singing live but I'm glad to have met such beautiful and inspiring person. 

Na minha lista de coisas a fazer antes de deixar Praga estava ir a um último concerto da Martina Trchová & Trio, com Patrik Henel, Radek Polívka e Petr Chlouba. A Martina foi minha professora de checo e acabamos por ficar grandes amigas. Ela foi uma das pessoas que conheci em Praga e que fizeram com que a minha estadia lá valesse a pena. Assim que soubemos que nos iamos mudar para a Suécia dissemos que iamos a todos os concertos da banda em Praga. O que mostro em baixo foi o concerto de Natal, o último que vimos. Estava um frio de rachar mas valeu a pena.

Recentemente a Martina e a sua banda lançaram um novo album que ela já me mandou. Ainda assim tenho saudades de ouvir a voz dela ao vivo, mas fico feliz por ter tido a oportunidade de ter conhecido uma pessoa linda e inspiradora como ela. 

 Martina

 Patrick and the heater

 Petr

 Radek

You got to love Sweden #9

There's cafeteria not too far from here where you can eat lunch and afterwards, if it's Friday, you can help yourself to some ice cream. 3 flavours and 3 toppings to choose from. For free. Every Friday.

Who cares about the weather when there's good and free ice cream?!

Image from here

Há uma cafeteria aqui perto onde se pode almoçar e onde no fim, à Sexta-feira, nos podemos servir de gelado. Há 3 sabores e 3 toppings diferentes à escolha. Grátis. Todas as Sextas. 

Que importa se está mau tempo lá fora, quando podemos comer gelado bom e de borla?!

Learning Swedish #5

Practising Swedish at home with Johan.

I say:
Charader är en lek - Charades are a game

He understands:
Skärade en lök, similar enough to Skar en lök - Cut an onion

Almost the same.



Ao praticar sueco em casa com o Johan.

Eu digo:
Charader är en lek - Charadas são um jogo

Ele entende:
Skärade en lök, parecido com Skar en lök - Cortar uma cebola

Quase o mesmo.

Art here and there #3

Bronze Shoes, sculptures by Bengtsson found along David Hall bridge, in Malmö. 

Sapatos de Bronze, esculturas de Bengtsson ao longo da ponte David Hall, em Malmö.

The 19 pairs of shoes pay tribute to Malmö's famous artists and performers. The shoes statues are inspired by pairs of shoes actually worn by these artists. For instance, the pair of clogs belongs to Edvard Persson, a movie actor, and a high-laced pair of shoes represent Naima Wifstrand, a Swedish opera singer in the first half of the 20th century.

Os 19 pares de sapatos pagam tributo a artistas e performers famosos de Malmö. As estatuas de sapatos são inspiradas por pares usados por cada artista. Por exemplo, os tamancos pertencem a Edvard Persson, um actor de cinema, e um par de cano alto e rendado representa Naima Wifstrand, uma cantora de ópera sueca na primeira metade do século 20. 

Sara Jump - Malmö

Me and our host with the Turning Torso in the background.
Eu e o nosso anfitrião com o Turning Torso ao fundo.

Malmö, May 2016