Prague, Vienna and Budapest for less than 1000€!

I realise I've been away for (waaay) too long, but I'm back with a great deal for you guys: the european capitals for less than 1000€. Also, I'll be giving you some useful tips for this trip.

For us it all started back in Lisbon (I'm writing on my notebook on London Heathrow where we're waiting patiently for our flight which has been delayed for more than an hour...). We booked our flights and acommodation through the internet. The flights were bought on edreams, the hotels on booking.com and yeego. The total for these was 525€ (including 3 nights in Prague, 4 nights in Vienna and 4 nights in Budapest). Actually, you could save some money here, since I believe one night less on each of the cities would be just fine (for our purpose, which was to get to know the key spots of each city).

Still concerning these first expenses, we did have a problem with the charging of the first hotel - they charged us 3 times the total amount of our stay. The booking.com guys were impeccable and contacted the hotel immediately and told us that if we weren't able to work it out with the hotel when we got there, to just contact them (for free from the hotel). In the end, the hotel did realise they had maken a mistake and reimbursed us (or so I hope, I'm only checking my balance when i finally get to Lisbon tonight - update: I did check it and it was all okay).

Now, on to the cities.

Santorini

Santorini is a small group of beautiful volcanic islands situated on the southern east tip of the Cyclades. At first it's a bit strange to see all the small white houses on top of those scary cliffs and also the lack of green due to its volcanic nature. But it's a beautiful place, full of amazing landscape views. Before the enormous volcanic explosion which ocurred somewhere between 1650 and 1500 BC, this was a single circular island.

I visited two of the major settlements: Fira and Oia.

It was in Oia where I finally tried the Greek food, which perhaps wasn't the wisest thing to do, but I only figured that out later when I got sick.

My tourist look:

Santorini donkeys - you could climb up on a donkey or by cable car:

Rhodes

This is the largest of the Dodecanese islands, in terms of both land area and population. It is the greenest island I 've visited for it seems it has much water under the soil. We first visited the old city, we saw the archaelogical museum but couldn't enter the palace, because it was temporarily closed for who knows how long and what reason. We saw some mosques and a sinagogue, which we tried to visit and with that purpose asked a jewish man if we could visit the sinagogue to which he replied in hebrew, so I don't really know the answer.

After that, we took a cab and went for a 1-hour-journey with a nice motorist who told us some facts about the island, (why is the deer a symbol of Rhodes for example) and showed us some nice places (like the old Stadium).

The old city:

The Archaeological Museum:

The ancient Stadium:

Ancient guardian on the top of a church:

Windy top, from where you could see Turkey (it's true!) and also the part where The Aegean and Mediterranean seas come together:

Mykonos

Mykonos is a cute little place with small white houses which the natives paint twice a year. It's basically a fishing village, it reminded me somewhat of the villages in Algarve. The narrow streets are really nice, if you remember to get out of the way of the cars! Besides the cube-like whitewashed houses, Mykonos is also known for it's well preserved windmills and I think for the pelicans that seem to wander through the streets amongst the people, although I haven't seen any.

Zenith April 2008

I know this blog has been inactive for several months, but since I've just been on a cruise to the Greek Islands (and more) I thought I'd revive it.

The places I visited:

Mykonos
Rhodes
Santorini
Dubrovnik
Venice (an encore)

Gouveia

The festival villa: Gouveia

Arriving there seemed easier than it turned out to be but, after a few drifts, we made it. A big thank you to the BT (traffic police) officer for not fining us while we were stopped on the side of the motorway (cursing the gentlemen from viamichelin.com), but instead helping us to get back on the right course to Gouveia.

The lodging: Quinta das Cegonhas

We chose Quinta das Cegonhas as our refuge and what a nice choice it was. Quinta das Cegonhas is ran by a technology-friendly woman called Rieke. Rieke’s lodge is located in Nabainhos, between the villages of Nabais and Melo. It is a very nice “clean air” place and ideal for anyone who likes a calm village atmosphere and landscapes sites. For the ones who like sleeping on the ground, they also have a camping site.

The food

Well, we have only eaten three meals in Gouveia, two at the restaurant “O Jardim”, a local restaurant which an old woman from the town told us about; we liked that place a lot, and the reason we didn’t eat there for a third time was due to the fact that it was closed on Sunday evening. That incident takes us to the last place where we ate, the restaurant “O Italiano” (The Italian). But, do not let the name fool you, the food was nothing to crave for, and there’s not a single Italian dish on the menu.

by Pedro and Catarina

GAR 2007

So we didn't visit Gouveia for the sake of visiting Gouveia, that's a fact.

That being said, Gouveia does have some places which are nice to the eye.

text removed due to its shallowness