Chinese Phone, Part I

Recently I decided to order a new phone. My old one, that was not so old and for that I was not sure of my decision, is dying , slowly. This old Samsung Galaxy Gti kills itself randomly from time to time, specially when it needs to receive SMS or other important things that phones are supposed to do well, and in this case it doesn't.

Searching for a phone is not an easy task. The good phones are extraordinarily expensive, up to 300 € or more , and that is too much for a phone. I wanted a smartphone that was better than my old one, as better as it could be for the lowest price possible. Didn't want an apple, I wanted android 4.1 running on this new machine , but that proved hard.

Amazon had several options, but those options seemed a little bit too much, 200 € was still high, specially if you are talking about a no brand phone. And the Samsungs available everywhere were not as cool as they should be , for the price I would pay.

I went deep into the web, till I found the perfect website. It ships internationally, which is an important option if you live in Portugal, and it ships for free ( although it might take up to 20 working days). And it had amazing things for incredible low prices, possible only if it comes directly from China. Exactly what I was looking for.

The experience is only giving its first baby steps, but clearly I look forward to see what comes out of it.

5.3" Screen Android 4.1 MTK6577 3G Smart Phone + GPS - 512MB RAM (P05-H7100) , that's the name of the guy.

Below after the photos I will post the specs, I will keep you posted about this experiment. 

• 5.3 inch screen Android 4.1 MTK6577 Dual-core 3G smart phone
• GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHZ globally compatible + WCDMA (UMTS) 2100MHz available
• Built-in GPS module and supports A-GPS for navigation
• 5-points capacitive touch screen for convenient operation
• --OS: Android 4.1.1
• --CPU: MTK6577 dual-core ARMv7 processor
• --CPU Frequency: 1GHz
• --GPU Renderer: PowerVR SGX 531
• --RAM: 512MB
• --ROM: 4GB
• --Screen Resolution: 540 x 960 pixels
• High definition display screen and supports playing 720P & 1080P HD video
• Dual camera, 0.3MP front camera and 8MP back camera
• WiFi + GPRS + WAP + USB for speedy data transferring and application downloading
• Bluetooth for hands-free calling and data transferring
• Powered by rechargeable 3100mAh Lithium battery
• Entertainments: FM Radio + Camera/Camcorder + Music/Movie Player +Image Viewer+ eBook + Video Recorder
• Handy Tools: Calendar + Alarm + Desk Clock + Calculator + World Clock
• This Cell Phone works with 3G & 2G networks:
• (1)Compatible 3G network: WCDMA(UMTS) 2100MHz
• The name UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) is usually used in Europe. The UMTS Forum has confirmed that WCDMA is the world's most popular 3G technology.
• Outside of Europe, the system is also known by other names such as FOMA or W-CDMA. In marketing, it is often referred to as 3G or 3G+. (http://www.gsmarena.com/network-bands.php3?sCountry=UNITED+STATES)
• (2)Compatible 1G & 2G Networks: GSM850/GSM900/DCS1800/PCS1900MHZ
• ----France: Bouygues, Orange, SFR GSM, Virgin
• ----UK: MCom, T-Moblie, TeleWare
• ----Ireland: Vodafone, O2, Meteor, Tesco
• ----Spain: Orange, Movistar, Vodafone, Simyo, Yoigo
• ----Portugal: Vodafone, TMN, Optimus
• ----USA: AT&T, T-Moblie, Fido, Suncom, Airvoice, CTC, Edge, Indigo, Tuyo, 7-Eleven, Callplus, O2, Lucas, Suncom
• ----Canada: Rogers, Fido
• ----Italy: TIM, Vodafone, Wind

Povoa do Varzim in places to go

Povoa do Varzim. That name is quite known here in the region but for tourists and even to many residents it is a small town up north with not many things to see in general opinion.

I must say, they are quite wrong. For a first introduction , I will not talk about the city itself, but the beaches. Its winter, yes, but soon it will be summer again, and even in the spring and winter it is quite nice to walk down the shoreline near "Praia do Salgueiro" e "Praia do redondo" down till the seaport near the Casino.

Praia do Salgueiro

Twins Praia, a famous club near the beach

The Seaport

Many coffees and bars serve the area, you can stop at any time, drink a black coffee and keep going, or just go back to the large beach , enjoy the sun and the sea.

The Casino is also quite near the beach, it is advisable to check the website for more info (http://www.casino-povoa.com/MainTemplate.aspx?lang=pt).

Casino da Póvoa do Varzim

Quiosque, near the beach

Porto to Povoa do Varzim by Car

To access the city, you can go by car or by metro. By car , you take about 30 minutes ( 37 km), but beware , the highway has fares.

Metro serves the city that connects it directly to Porto's city center through B line and B expresso. Take the last one but check the schedule first.

Porto to Povoa do Varzim by metro

So if you are going to Porto and have time, visit Povoa and Vila do Conde, you won't regret it. I also advise you to visit Guimarães, Braga, Régua (and Douro River) and Aveiro.

Praça de Touros

The Casino

Vila Nova de Gaia coastline in Places to Go

Well many of you don't know Porto, and well you don't really know much about what there is to visit. While many seek Porto for its famous wine and old history, and also to travel up the river Douro, others seek the city for the entertainment.

For those of you that don't know, Porto is in Portugal's coastline, and it has many beautiful beaches, that are filled with tourists during the summer. Here, despite being in northern Portugal , Porto is quite good in the summer. Dry and a mild to hot weather gift Porto's beaches with sun from June to September.

One of the best places with the best beaches , besides the city itself that has its own share of blue flag beaches at foz, is Gaia. The sister sister has over 10 km of all blue flag beaches, and I decided to share some pictures of "Praia de Valadares", one of the first beaches near Douro to have blue flag. You can go easily by car, or you can take the bus, the train is far from this beach but the other ones are quite near the train, a quick 10 minute trip from the city center.

Here you are, makes you miss summer!

Ryanair in Persona Grata

A long time ago, millions of years before... well not that long...in 2003 , Porto had a small airport. It would soon grow bigger into it's current shape, a modern marvel of medium sized airports, but still it only transported per year less than 2 million people.

Porto Airport

I know it may sound awkward if you don't know where Porto is, or even if you imagine Porto as being a coastal city lost in Italy, but that is not the case. Porto is a pearl of history lost in Portugal, probably because the outside image of our country was, for many ages, Lisbon Lisbon and Lisbon x2.
As a consequence of that image, Porto was only known to a certain group of people who enjoyed wine, or to a few british who liked to travel north. A sad end to a beautiful city I know, but who cared if you couldn't reach Porto? Now they can, 6 million people do it every year.

That all changed when low cost companies arrived into the new airport. Many disregard the fact that before low cost, a trip to Madrid could cost around 200 euros. That's insane. You currently pay around 60 euros with return trip if you book with some fair distance, and if you get lucky you can get a 10 euro trip. 10 euro sirs ! That's 1/9th of the price you pay to go to Lisbon by train! Surely the target of the low cost companies was to get people from Europe to Porto, and thank you Ryanair, Easyjet , Transavia and so on, but as they opened the gates to Europe, people like me, who had absolutely no chance of traveling at high prices, saw an instant opportunity.

Ryanair Plane in Porto Airport

Rome, for example, was a destiny I thought impossible to reach until I was a grown man. Like really grown. 80 year old grown. Then in February Ryanair opens a direct route to Rome. Ok , it wasn't to the main airport but who cares? The other airport was also far and the only advantage was that one has train and the other doesn't. Meh, tomato tomato! I must say it really amazed be that for less than a 100 euros I could be in Rome, 4 days. Tell that to the older me, he would certainly say "Yeah right , stop using google earh". He wouldn't even say that since there was no google earth at the time (I gues...).

To conclude , I just want to say thank you low costs, but specially thank you Ryanair since you opened the most routes till now. I sure hope you can get a little bit more competition , which would help me go to other cities rather than every town in France.... but I get that , lots of Portuguese wanting to come home for the weekend.

See you soon , in Europe, somewhere.

Rome , with the Vatican in the background

The Return of the blog in "Post Please"

After a long time without putting anything on the internet, I decided to go back, but this time on English version.

I will continue with many of the rubrics I started in another blog in Portuguese, and I will use the same blog for more daring posts ... daring I say.

To announce the return to English, and to train the same, nothing better than to announce what I discovered in this new year. I discovered .... Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic.

Quite amazing game I must say. It wasn't free the first time I saw it, a long time ago, when I still bought game magazines ( in my mind IGN wasn't a thing yet ). And at the time I wasn't fascinated by the extreme lack of realistic graphics. For me, looking at a tree and see a tree was far more important than the actual game. Oh dumb younger me, you sure liked Crysis...

I will probably talk about it in the future, I must say that in just three days I went from level 0 to 19. That's just mad. The story of the game really grabs you, but what's interesting is that when played with friends ( since it's an online game , you are always online therefore you are always with people), it motivates you to actually do something with the game. In my case I send my personal robots to steal and do missions to grab some metal and compounds , which I send to my friend "Bromir",who synthesizes  mods and other stuff , that he sells to make money. I actually feel like a gangster without doing a s*it.

Games aside, since gaming won't return to its former glory, I actually think that blogging in english can help me improve in the way I communicate. We often tend to ignore communication, but when you are lost in some airport , in some country , english is quite useful. Saying bonjour doesn't mean you know the language, trying to ask somebody directions in french without knowing french that well can be quite awkward , and often non profitable. In order to avoid total oblivion of what's left of my english language, to improve what can be improved and hopping for a better future ( who knows) , I'll start publishing in english. Exceptions are made for those daring posts, in portuguese, that mostly will be about travel, since I quite enjoy traveling ( more than McChiken and believe me that's quite a lot).

See you soon, blog.

To end here is a picture of Porto.