What happens in Braga...stays in Braga!!!

Well, hello people....

It took us some time but eventually we managed to post something... Few days ago we went to a beautiful city called Braga, and by saying beautiful I mean fantastic! There we met some people from all over the world doing their EVS here in this beautiful country. We met people that shares the same passion, same ideas, same point of view of the world with us. Heck, we made some friends. And as all fairy tales begin; Once upon a time, three people from different countries, with different cultures, different dreams, came together here in this beautiful country called Portugal and settled in small city in the southern part of the country, at the region of Algarve, called Olhão. And then one day their coordinator said: "OK people, you are going to Braga for your "On arrival" training course." No one knew how amazing was going to be. No one expected to be that good. No one had dreamed of that it was going to be among the best experience they would had! So on the 7th of October, early in the morning those three people began a long journey from the city of Olhão towards an unknown, until then, city. The only thing they knew was the name, Braga. The journey took around 8 hours with the first stop at Faro train station after just 10 minutes. It was just a mid-stop to switch trains in order to get to the first major stop of their journey, Lisboa Oriente!

Évora is calling

And here we are. Autumn seems very summery in Olhao.

Didn't post a long time because of... you know...adaptation, getting to know each other and the people here, feeling the MOJU Power.

What is it?

This is the thing that you can feel only if you meet some people from MOJU or even better if you know people working there.

Cortiça

This time MOJU gave us the opportunity to go with them to a very big conference: 13º Encontro Nacional de Associações Juvenis (ENAJ´13) in translation it is 13th National Meeting of Youth Associations, on 4 and 5 October in Évora. The meeting was organised by the FNAJ - National Federation of Youth Associations in Portugal. It was not the first time that FNAJ organise the ENAJ and its have been consolidated as a reference point for the sector of youth (over 1000 participants).

In a few words: It was a conference with lots of active leaders, volunteers from all over Portugal, and yes it was all on Portuguese :D A challenge, isn´t it? But we survived and had a lot of interesting moments in Évora.

I think it will be more interesting if we tell you about ENAJ time that we have in the city.

And the first thing that comes to the mind- IT WAS AMAZING.

Évora is the capital of the Alentejo region, and it is a "UNESCO World Heritage Site" as well as a member of the "Most Ancient European Towns Network". May be now you think, "What the hell do you have to do to be a member of this networks". Let me tell you.

Firstly is the "Capela dos Ossos", which seems very nice church in the beginning and very scary in the end. Afterward, when you go out of the Chapel, you can walk to the street where people sell typical Portuguese things made from cortiça (cork). At the end of this small street you will see "Sé de Évora" (Cathedral of Évora). The main façade of Évora Cathedral, built with rose granite, and the lantern-tower over the crossing is very picturesque. It has a row of windows that bathe the transept area with light, and the ogival main portal is a masterpiece of Portuguese Gothic sculpture. The marble columns are filled with huge statues of the Apostles executed in the 1330s. Besides that, all tourists have possibility to go to the top of the church and see a breathtaking panoramic view of  Évora.

Sé de Évora

And at the end, the place which we fall in love is "Templo romano de Évora" (Roman temple of Évora) also referred to as the Templo de Diana. Locals say that it represents one of the most significant landmarks relating to the Roman and Lusitania civilizations of Évora, in Portuguese territory.

Templo romano de Évora