Easter holidays at Porto

With a chance to mingle with equally nomadic-minded people, promise of activities and sightseeing tours guided by local people, in one of the current best valued destination in europe, i did not hesitate to sign up for the CS Porto Galicia event on Easter.

I decided not to bring a camera.  Photos here are from the organizers and from some couchsurfers i met and a couple from the ever trusted camera of my iphone.

listening to fado after the first dinner

the enthralled audience

i did not understand any word but i was told that it was a sad song

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pastel and zumo naranja for breakfast

at Porto's oldest coffee shop

the student's cafe

parang class pic lang

with sumeet, a catalan with indian lineage, we can be siblings

my only solo pic on my four days in porto

with a porto guy who had been to phil, a joy to hear him say a lot of good things about phil

a smaller group at this point, we kind of separated with the rest

this is the first night/dinner

carol, sumeet and moi

ready for the city walk

one of the main organizer of the CS porto event

the spanish or mostly basque table

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the two kids, i meant guys in the middle are long-time friends who somewhat adopted me during the event

does wine truly gets better when aged?
tasting porto wine..

Las Fallas

A five day celebration and dub as most important festival in Valencia, Las Fallas begins on a friday night and culminates on a big fire on wednesday night.

Fallas, mascletas are two important factors of the celebration. I only had a chance to stay for the weekend but it's one of the most significant festivals in spain that i had experienced so far (not that i could claim i'd seen much).

Fallas - it normally takes a year to prepare the fallas. Only in the end have them burned! 

Mascleta - loosely translated to fireworks.

Every 2 oclock in the afternoon, before the final night of burning, mascletas are held in several spots in the city.  Some fallas are burnt down through use of fireworks. 

On my first day of the festival, i decided to join a group of couchsurfers and locals for the mascleta. Eventhough there's a discussion that there'd be loads of people we did not anticipate that even arriving an hour early would mean getting stuck up still several blocks from the mascleta at plaza ayuntamiento. I did not even see even one firework on that broad daylight! But they say its all about noise anyway!  I was lucky i was beside a local explaining a bit on what to expect, and a guy from barcelona who did not mind translating them for me. 

Lights of ruzafa!

In the evening I was able to catch up with the CS group at Lights of Ruzafa.  It was a stunning display of lights with music.

Fireworks at 1 am!

Valencia's really on fire during Las Fallas, and the whole city waited for the fireworks at 1 am Sunday.  

--- On the following day though before i head back to Madrid i went to the mascleta spot near ayuntamiento much earlier, i was still not in the prime location (hundreds of people were there ahead of me already) but i got a better viewing spot! 

20 hour layover in Incheon

Voted number 1 airport 8 years in a row, maybe a 20-hr layover in Incheon wouldn't be much of a bad idea.

I arrived at the airport about 5:00 am, and there's not much activity, shops were still closed and while there were few plane arrivals, the first departures for the day were still few hours away.
I sought out the rest area, and found a long bench to lie down. After an hour, i browsed the internet (the airport provides fast and free wifi) for airport hotel options and decided that the best thing to do, was to book in a transit hotel.  For 78 USD, and from 7:30 am, i had a room for six hours.

inside the transit hotel room

I managed to get some needed zzzzs, and by 1pm was able to check out.  I looked out for the desk of the free korean transit tour desk and passed the immigration.  I was told before that South Korea do not issue transit visa for Filipinos (unless final destination is US). I made sure I'd be able to go out so I applied visa during my vacation in the Philippines.  I was informed by the immigration officer though that a visa was not required for the transit tours BUT, since i already had one, it had to be used.

Anyway, i was able to avail two Korea Free Transit tours. The first one with an hour duration, which turned out to be more like a drive around the reclaimed (is)land where the airport was located.  Inspite of the bad weather, it was still interesting especially our tourguide was quite enthusiastic.  The story of how Incheon airport came to be mirrored the success of South Korea.

Incheon International Airport Sky Deck

the mini tour bus

With Mr. Lee, the tour-guide

The second was supposed to be highlight of Seoul tour, with a visit to at least one of Seoul's palaces but again due to the weather we did not arrive in the city in time to enter one, the other palace was closed as well as it was Monday.  

the Tour Bus.  This was taken from the middle row where I was seated.
Like the first tour, there'd only be two tourists on this trip.

A much appreciated freebie.

With Hila, the other tourist with Seoul's South Gate as backdrop

one of many seoul shops we'd pass by

This was not my first time in Seoul, I spent few summer days years ago in the city but it's a different Seoul, when its blanketed with snow.  

the canal that recycle the waters of Han river

We had a filling dinner and after quick shopping stops, headed back to the airport.

enjoying korean beef stew with Hila

I still had some time to kill before my flight, so i had a snack and looked around a bit more.  I passed the immigration and did some shopping inside the airport's numerous shops.

Big sale at the airport, no wonder it felt more like entering a shopping mall than an airport

Huge screen showing Korea's best in different seasons

Almost midnight, and shops were starting to close.  And time for me to board.