Great journeys always have magic, either because of the ritual of packing your bags or because we always end up having many hours ahead of us until the destination, which we take advantage of to fine-tune our expectations.
But sometimes expectations don't match where we are at distance and it's in our magical little corner that we discover true treasures. Some of them are not very well-known and only with help and time is possible to find them. That's why I leave here my acknowledgment to all those who helped me and contributed to discovering these "hidden paradises".
In the year 2022, I had the opportunity to visit 16 countries spread across 3 different continents, Europe, Africa, and America. As I have to juggle editing photos and writing texts for each location with studying for the upcoming college exams, I decided to make a compilation with a photo of each place visited that I leave here.
"Here the sea ends and the land begins"
On a hot summer night in Aldeia de Santa Margarida, I decided to go out with a group of friends to photograph the stars. As it was almost a new moon and there was no light pollution around here, the perfect conditions were in place for a fantastic astrophotography session!
Yes, there are still places like this, where the beauty of the day or night almost deserves to be kept a secret!
This time I went to visit the Convent of Christ in Tomar, which is actually a set of monuments spread over forty-five hectares, encompassing different buildings built over seven (!) centuries of history and where the medieval castle and the Templar Charola, the 15th-century cloisters, the Manueline church, the Renaissance convent, and Pegões...
Somewhere between Palvarinho and Salgueiro do Campo (two small villages in the Castelo Branco district), on one of my late afternoon bike rides, I discovered this fantastic landscape. The already low sun, behind the pine tree, created a very interesting game of colors with the various mountain ranges behind. Definitely a magical place!