Index 🔍

portugal adventures

Portugal is where I live and if you have ever thought about visiting there, just do it!

Good food, good vibe and people know how to have fun...

Take some time to explore all regions of my Portugal page... It will be worth it!

PORTUGAL Porto

(2013 -2018)

I studied Mechanical Engineering in Porto for 5 years. 5 years of studying, partying and exploring this amazing city... probably the best city in Portugal..
Throughout this page I will share some adventures I had in this city.... are you ready? Let's go!

Queima das Fitas

porto | portugal
(2013 - 2018)

Queima das Fitas, also called Academic Week, is nothing more than a series of events that symbolically mark the end of the academic year in Portugal. The celebrations take place, however, about a month before the final exams that officially close the class period. Finalists celebrate a "liberation" phase and freshmen are entitled to wear typical college attire, which includes a coat similar to that of Harry Potter."

Queima usually includes a parade of students through the city in trucks, a serenade and the blessing of the folders. There are also large-scale shows where students often have stalls to sell drinks to raise money for the year's activities.

To be honest, my favorite part of this Academic Week are the parties at night... This is the week just before final exams and everyone is open to having fun... In 5 years studying in college I probably just missed 2 to 3 of the 35 nights... I can't explain much about it but crazy things happen during these weeks...

In the image above you can see the main stage and in the following image you can see some bars where students sell alcohol... there are more than 120 bars!

Alcohol is the main energy source for the students during this week. As you can imagine, students think of every kind of way to get free alcohol... for example, if you drink 3 shots and a beer in less than 6/7 seconds (just an example) you don't need to pay... or if you are a girl and you are willing to leave your bra in the stall, you get a free drink.

Sometimes, things can escalate quickly. I remember in one year that some crazy stuff happened... girls doing bjs on dildos for free drinks or being recorded kissing other girls' lips for free drinks too. In that year, the event organizer had to close some of the stalls and a lot of news showed up on national TV.

Every Tuesday of this week there is a parade of all faculties of Porto University. Each faculty has a different color symbology. My engineering college uses the clay color... check it below.

This is me in my first year in college.

And this guy is my praxis godfather...

The apartment where I was living in college during the Queima week...

As you can see Queima is a completely mad week.

skydive 🪂

maia | portugal
(2020)

As an adrenaline lover, I was dreaming of this day... It's difficult to explain the feeling of skydiving but if you like adrenaline... this is perfect for you.

4000m high and 200km/h.

My cheeks struggling with the G-Force...

Friends gathering

marco de canaveses | portugal
(2020)

Every year, my college friends and I rented a house/farm in a random place in Portugal to spend a few days together.

This is a way for us to be together at least once a year as most of us work in different countries in Europe...

We try to find quirky places to spend a good time together... a swimming pool is a must! At the same time, this is a good way to get to know some less common regions of Portugal.

Friends, sun, pool, alcohol and music... what more do we need?

Friends gathering

marco de canaveses | portugal
(2021)

2021 wasn't different, we rented a house with a pool and private beach

The room's view...

☀️ Sunsets at Passeio das Virtudes

Porto city center | portugal

Passeio das Virtudes in Porto city center is one of my favorite places to spend some time gathering with friends while watching the sunsets.

There you can mainly find local people chilling out.

Indie Concerts at Jardim das Virtudes

Porto city center | portugal

(2015)

Jardim das Virtudes at the city center is another cool place to spend some time during the afternoon. It is right in front of Passeio das Virtudes.

The images below are from an Indie Concert that took place there. The band that played on this day is "Sensible Soccers", a band from Porto well known in this musical style niche.

And it started to rain...

Parties in my college- FEUP

Hospital S.joão | portugal

(2013 - 2018)

He punched her right in front of me...

porto city center| portugal

(2018)

This is probably the most violent story I will share on this website so far... Are you ready?

Me and some friends were celebrating my friend's birthday in a place outside, full of bars where a lot of people hang out at the beginning of the night.

In this place were hundreds of people. Students, local people and tourists... after a while I noticed a gipsy guy trying to cause some trouble with random people but I was already drunk and I didn't care too much.

But then he punched a young guy and the young guy punches him back... The gipsy guy starts running away. A couple of minutes later he comes back to this area, grabs a steel chair and throws it at the head of a guy who was sitting.

The victim's friends started yelling at the guy and the security guards of the bars showed up to calm down the situation...

Then the gipsy guy started to walk around and punched a girl in the face right in front of me My friend and I went up to him and again the security guards intervened.

The guy kept moving around and again he started to punch random people from behind...

Then a group of guys came in the guy's direction kicking him and throwing him rocks and glass bottles at him...

When the guys stopped, the gipsy guy stood up from the floor bleeding and started to kick the bars doors that were closed because of the mess oustside...

Then a random guy passed by me with a base of an umbrella like the one below and threw it at the gipsy guy.

He fell down again and when stood up a random guy came from behind and beat him in the head with a glass bottle of wine.

He screamed and started running away again from the group of the guys that want to beat him up one more time...

While he is crossing the street a Police car shows up and... what do you think that the gipsy guy did?

Yes! He stopped the car, opened the door, pulled out the police man and started beating him

And everyone went up to him one more time... Then a lot of police cars and ambulances showed up and... he got arrested.

Exploring an abandoned Tuberculosis Hospital

valongo | portugal

PORTUGAL algarve

lagos... the party paradise

lagos| portugal

(2021)

Algarve is one of the most famous regions in Portugal for tourism in summer time... there you will find amazing beaches, sunset parties and create crazy memories...

Mike, Anthony and I planned to stay 3 nights in a party hostel in Lagos, one of the cities in Algarve, but the experience was so good that we decided to stay a bonus night...

This was my first time in Algarve and to be honest I'm very surprised with Lagos because when everybody talks about Algarve it is just about fancy parties, beautiful beaches and snob things...

But Lagos is far from that... the beaches are beautiful yes but there you can find such a good vibe around you... Lagos is the kind of place I look for when I travel alone... If you are this kind of adventurer too, I highly recommend visiting Lagos

Rising Cock Hostel 🐓

lagos| portugal

(2021)

This Hostel is considered one of the best party Hostels in Europe... It has a really cool and sexual vibe... perfect for single people and/or party people...

This Hostel is very open minded and it even has condom machines next to the room doors...

One of the best experiences in the Hostel is when you wake up in the morning with a f*ckin hangover and you smell fresh pancakes and lemon tea made by a very cool old woman called "Mama" (big mother)... every single day and for free!

Cave Parties at the beach

lagos| portugal

(2021)

This was in August 2021 and during that time the bars were open only until 10:30pm because of Covid.

Every night we started the Pub Crawl at 8pm and two and a half hours later everything was closed... But the party did not finish then and the best part was just getting started.

Everyday after the bars closed, we came back to the Hostel to get some drinks and go to the beach... on the second night we found some people at this cave just sitting down drinking and talking... we joined them and then a few moments later this cave was full of people partying like the last days of our lives...

I was feeling the vibe... no words can describe the first night in the cave.

Benagil Caves... probably the most instagrammable place in algarve

portimão| portugal

(2021)

Benagil is most famous for the sea cave located just around the corner from the Benagil beach. This cave has been featured in top destination lists and “places you have to see” all across the internet and thanks to visitors sharing their incredible photos of the cave it has become one of the top things to do in the Algarve.

You can get there by boat, stand up paddle board or canoe... I do not recommend swimming around the cave to get there. The currents in this area can be very strong and tides change quickly which means that if you want to enjoy the cave safely then it is best to take one of the options mentioned before.

PORTUGAL viseu

Viseu is the county where my hometown is. Throughout this page I will share some places in and near my home town.

These places are in the interior of Portugal and next to Rio Douro, the most famous river at the north of Portugal.

Ok, let's share some interesting stuff below!

Yacht on Douro River

pinhão | portugal

(2020)

On that day we were celebrating Ricardo's birthday, a great friend of mine!

He took us on a 3-hour trip down the Douro River on a Yacht.

Just watch the short video below!

Ricardo is the second guy on the left!

cliff jumping and Backflips are my favourite hobbies 💦

Chopper Bike 80cc 2-stroke Conversion

Tarouca | portugal

(2021)

In this video I'm going to show you the complete conversion process of my chopper bike into a motorbike!

Some years ago, I brought this chopper bike from France (where my uncle found it in a junkyard) to Portugal to restore it.

At the beginning of 2021 I started thinking about converting it into a motorbike...

So I bought an 80cc 2-stroke motor kit on Amazon for just 100€ and... voilá!

I will never forget the moment when I made the first test drive and the engine started... I smiled so much like a little kid again haha

Hope you enjoy the video.

PORTUGAL Viana do Castelo

Viana de Castelo is an amazing cozy city in Portugal, it's also the capital of the district, well known by the "Romaria em Honra de Nossa Senhora da Agonia" that is a huge parade with a lot of gold and traditional vests. It's also known for the Kitesurf community, NEOPOP Electronic Music Festival and it's hospitable people.

First, I will show you some sights about the "Romaria em Honra de Nossa Senhora da Agonia" that is astonishing and probably one of the most famous religious parades in Portugal where people dress in traditional vests. Some women decorate vests with a lot of gold art pieces as you can see below:

There is so much value in gold (about 30 million euros) in this parade that the help of the police and private security is needed to monitor it...

This parade is also well known for the dozens of tons of salt, of various colors, used to beautify the streets of this fishing area of the city.

In Viana de Castelo district there is also an amazing music festival where I already was very happy 3 years in a row... Vodafone Paredes de Coura. This festival has Rock, Alternative Rock and Pop Rock music genres.

Vodafone Paredes de Coura festival 🎶

paredes de coura | portugal

(2016)

This festival is truly amazing. Besides the good music, the best thing for me is its environment... Everybody loves nature, is in a good mood and you can feel such a good energy around you...

It's very difficult to stay in a good spot for camping because there are a lot of people trying the same thing, so I used to go with some friends to the camping area one week before the festival started just to ensure a good spot with shade... and if you are a camping fan, you know how important it is to have shade in your tent in midsummer.

So I usually camp for 10 to 15 days at this festival...

I had many adventures at this festival but here I only will share some photos and this video below that shows a little bit of what I'm saying about the festival:

Most of the photos of this 2016 section are property of @anamarta.jpg

Vodafone Paredes de Coura festival 🎶

paredes de coura | portugal

(2014)

2014 was my first time at this festival... since then I got hooked on it.

Mac Demarco 👌

My friend Gonçalo was very hyped!

Vodafone Paredes de Coura festival 🎶

paredes de coura | portugal

(2015)

This year, the bands Pond, Tame Impala, Father John Misty, Charles Bradley, Ratatat, Slowdive etc, were my main focus at this festival.

PORTUGAL leiria

Berlengas Island

peniche | portugal

(2017)

Berlengas Island is a paradise island 10km away from the Peniche city coast. I camped there for 2 nights with my friend.

Besides its beauty, this island has some peculiar characteristics such as the following:

1- The boat trip to the island is so fun! On the way, there are a lot of waves so if you are susceptible to seasickness, this trip is surely not for you...
I remember that I was just in the frontline of the boat and a big wave wet us all... I swallwoed a lot of water so, instinctively, I randomly spat and my spit went straight to a girls' head... Thank God she didn't notice.

2- A couple of fishermen's families live on this island... there is no electricity or drinking water at the campsite and at night there are no lights so it's a must to have power banks and flashlights...
They only gave us 5 liters of boiled sea water per person... only 5 liters for drinking, cooking and bathing... and yes, it's possible to take a shower with only 2.5 liters...

3- This island is full of seagulls and they are completely out of their minds... they condition the places you can pass through because they are very protective of their children...
Once, we were walking and we passed by a baby seagull about 5 meters away... and the mama seagull started flying above us.
We started to run and when I looked back mama seagull grabbed my friend's hair with her claws while flying...

And at night seagulls do drugs for sure... they are so f*ckin noisy (watch the videos below) and fly so near the tents all night long...

This was a great adventure for sure

Friends Gathering

bombarral | portugal

(2019)

Every year my college friends and I rent a house/farm in a random place in portugal to spend a few days together.

This is a way for us all to be together at least once a year as most of us work in different countries in Europe...

We try to find quirky houses to have a good time... swimming pool is a must! At the same time this is a good way to get to know some less common regions of portugal.

Friends, sun, pool, alcohol and music... what more do we need?

This is the sunset from the house we rent.

Copyright @wilyaam

And this is the sunrise from the house we rent.

Copyright @wilyaam

PORTUGAL coimbra

Friends Gathering

cantanhede | portugal

(2018)

Every year my college friends and I rent a house/farm in a random place in Portugal to spend a few days together.

This is a way for us all to be together at least once a year as most of us work in different countries in Europe...

We try to find quirky houses to have a good time... swimming pool is a must! At the same time this is a good way to get to know some less common regions of portugal.

Friends, sun, pool, alcohol and music... what more do we need?

chill weekend exploring river beaches

lousã | portugal

(2017)

Being with friends and exploring good spots to do backflips is one of my favorite hobbies...

Hiking...

Morning coffee...