Lisbon: the capital city of Portugal (3 Aug 2015)

Lisbon is the capital and the largest city of Portugal, with a population of 552,700 (about 2.8 million people in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area). It is continental Europe's westernmost capital city and its only one along the Atlantic coast. Lisbon lies in the western Iberian Peninsula on the Atlantic Ocean and the River Tagus. 

Lisbon is one of the global cities because of its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, education and tourism and is also one of the major economic centers on the continent, with a growing financial sector and one of the largest container ports on Europe's Atlantic coast.

Lisbon is the paradise of tourists and also the paradise of pickpockets. Be careful in crowded places!!!

Source: Lisbon 

Rua Augusta Arch, Downtown Lisbon 

Tricycle is one of the vehicles used for serving tourists in Lisbon 

Meet a Portuguese friend, who studied master degree in Lund. For the time being, she is doing PhD in Reykjavík, Iceland 

Porto: a coastal city of port wine production in Portugal (22-25 July 2015)

Porto, aka Oporto, is the second-largest city in Portugal (after Lisbon) by population number (ca. 1.8 million) and one of the oldest European centers. The city is located along the Douro River, which runs through it from its source in Soria Province of Spain. Its historical center had been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1996. The settlement of population in the area dates back to the Roman Empire many centuries ago, along with the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean.

Apart from several dishes of traditional Portuguese cuisine e.g. Tripas à Moda do Porto, Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá, the city is internationally famous for port wine, which is the name for Porto (Porto in Portuguese means port in English). Port wine is a fortified wine, to which distilled liquor (normally brandy) is added. Adding spirit to port wine makes it stronger (14-24 % alcohol by volume) than table wine, e.g. red wine or white wine (7-14 % alcohol by volume).

Source: Porto 

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