Bem-vindo!

Hi there!

How are you doing?

In this blog-post I would like to share with you guys some tips about Vila Real de Santo António, what I love to do here, where I am going to eat, to relax and why I start my blog with this city. Let's discover Vila Real de Santo Antonio through my eyes!

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First of all, I did not know anything about this city 2 months ago when I decided to take a new challenge for me and go somewhere to do an EVS (European Voluntary Service). I choosed, I don't know if by mistake or not, to do an EVS during 7 months in Portugal, to be more exactly with you I choosed to move in a very small city from Portugal called Vila Real de Santo António.

And second, I don not regret that I choosed, by mistake lets say, this small city for my new challenge.

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Look how beautiful is this city! Very simple organized and an interesting fact about this city is that the architects used fibonacci numbers rule to make the sketch of the city and after to build it in 2 years. The Marquis of Pombal was responsible for its planning, designing the town in a Pombaline orthogonal grid, which he also used during the reconstruction of Lisbon.

I and another two EVS volunteers were so lucky because we had a city tour with a really nice guy who knows a lot of interesting things about Vila Real de Santo António and, in general, about Portugal and Spain. I really recommend you, if you are interested about history about Portugal and Spain, take a very cheap city tour from muncipality of VRSA (Vila Real de Santo António) and discover Portugal through the eyes of a guide.

Of course, alone you can enjoy the city and go around to get lost in a orthogonal city and don't make any excuses - find all the ways to go!

However, I would like to share with you where I go to eat and why I like to eat in restaurants from VRSA, why I think this city is very well located and why you should come here for your vacation to pay less and to enjoy more!

I was really surprised when I tried traditional food from Portugal in many restaurant from VRSA of very good quality and at an acceptable price compared to other cities in Algarve. You need to know that almost every restaurant are very good! So try all of them. I kindly recommend you to try:

• Lulinhas ao alho
• Lulinhas fritas
• Lulas com ferrado à Algarvia
• Bacalhau à brás (my favourite)
• minty portuguese style octopus salad
• salad with raw cod fish
• portuguese tapas with home made beer
• and, if you like snails, you can try them

And of course you should try pastel de nata with cinnamon, with a lot of cinnamon, of course if you like! You will pay a really good price for a good meal, believe me!

I said before that this city is very well located because the city is situated next to Guadiana river that in one point meet the Atlantic Ocean (and you can see that, I was surprised, really). So, you have near to you the river and a really beautiful park from where you can enjoy a beautiful sunset, you have the beach just 10 or 15 minutes by walk and I recommend to go to the beach through the park, you will feel there like you are walking to the sky! Very beautiful! And it used to be the easiest access to Portugal from Andalusia (via ferry from the Spanish city of Ayamonte across the river).

And of course you can go in Spain with ferryboat to visit Ayamonte or go to nearest beaches and you will pay just 4 euro round trip! I will write my experience from Ayamonte in one of my next articles. Stay tuned!

One of my portuguese friend said that he doesn't understand those people who pay 1000 euros for one week in Praia Verde or Cacela Velha while they could pay less in Vila Real de Santo António and enjoy more! They will have here beach, river, national park where they can ride a bike, they have around a lot of very beautiful spots and if they have a car is much easier to go there. For exemple:

• they could go in Ayamonte to try spanish food for an acceptable price
• they could go in Alcoutim to cross over the River Guadiana from Spain to Portugal on the first cross-border zip line in the world
• they could go to explore beautiful city Tavira and to stay or to camp on Tavira Island (Ilha de Tavira) where you can find a really beautiful beach with very transparent water!
• they can go anywhere! And it is cheap!

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I hope you enjoyed reading my first blog article and let me know if you are coming here (I can share with you a lot of interesting things, I can go with you around even I can host you because we have a nice EVS apartment with a cool, very cool rooftop! ).

See you and keep in touch!

Have a nice day!

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