Highlights of the Douro Valley trip

okok, after sleeping for the last 11 hours, i am finally healthy enough (only just...) to carry on blogging.... =)

the trip "the route of the Douro valley" should be, for the foreseeable future, be my very last trip within portugal.... that’s why it was such a fitting finale, that this trip was probably the best i ever had so far...

highlights of this trip...
[1] Joao!!! the guide for all our trips... and he is like always so funnie and interesting... and he knows me by my name, after our first outing... maybe its becos i am a chinese and its usually for him to recognize me as compared to the rest of the people... and here he is... wearing the traditional costume of the people working in the Douro valley... [2] the medieval castle of Santa Maria da Feira
not that majestic, but it was nice nevertheless... the group pics... chami chami, me,ashar and katerina... and the 3rd one features all the brazilians...fabio, macros, julio and 2 other gals... ignore the guy to the extreme left... thats alexis...[3] city of Amarante
whoa... this is one really pretty city... its just like a little fairytale town... i will rank this town as one of the top 4 prettiest cities in portugal (then again, i have not visited the whole of portugal) alongside with sintra, peniche, and of course my favorite city, porto... ahh... one of the weekend markets...
birdeye's view of the entire city along with the many views of this beautiful city... and thats me sitting on the side of the bridge... hahahaha... kinda scary.... [4] city of vila real
the most-inner city that i visited... i mean, most of the major commercial cities in portugal are located along the coastline, but its a pretty good idea to explore the inner cities of portugal... and my, the landscape is totally different... mountains mountains and more mountains... and the journey to vila real was totally breath-taking!! the bus was like winding in and out, through all the mountainous area... so we are going uphill, downhill and along the narrow roads in the mountains... then at vila real, we had to take this little train through the douro valley... hmmmm... in case you wonder what this "douro valley" is all about, this is where all the vineyards are, and production of the world-famous port wine take place here... of course, this is the wrong season to come since there are no grapes yet, but nevertheless the scenery is fabulous.... [5] port wine tasting at the farm...
hahahaha... yummy!!! but by then my stomach was starting the on-off-it's-hurting-me cycles, so i didn’t dare to drink too much... and we were eating and stealing oranges... err.. to take without permission is considered as stealing right??? hahahaha... there are orange trees all over the place, and we could not help but to pluck some oranges... oh man, the oranges are sooooo sweet and juicy.... hahaha...

[6] i saw a shooting star!!!
was sleeping on the way to home... but was awoken by the laughter of katerina... but man, that’s a blessing... cos i saw the most beautiful scene... the whole sky was filled with stars!!! hahahaha... its was dark and the stars really looked like diamonds in the sky... and i saw a shooting star too!!! what a way to end my day... so the next 90min was spent looking at the stars while most people were sleeping...