Trekking to the "Top of the world"

Here are some photos of my one day trip to the "Top of the World" ;)

This was held near Pescanseco Fundeiro, which is a very small portuguese village up North.
I stayed there for about a week and one day a group of about 25 people (cousins and friends) decided to go trekking to the nearest dam - Barragem de Santa Luzia - which you can see in the background.

We left Pescanseco round 6 o'clock in the morning and got to the dam about 12 o'clock, where we had our well-earned swim ;)

This was a very nice day!

OWF: ONE WORLD - Summer Festival 2006

The English Event - Kent, Sevenoaks - 7th to 13th August 2006

Holistic health - Macrobiotics - Arts & Crafts - Music - Cookery - Sport - Dance - Natural Movement

As I said before, I attended this Wonderful Festival!

I was an amazing experience with lots of amazing and unbelievable life experiences... I really mean "unbelievable", because some of the things I did, you have to do it yourself to believe in it... ;)

I had one of the most wonderful weeks of my life. I had lots of fun and spent an entire week laughing and smiling! I learned a lot about lots of things and I experimented lots of things too...

I met lots of interesting people, from different parts of the world (but mainly Europe, of course), with different knowledge, interests, points of view, etc., but (most of them) with a feature that I really like: open minded! - you don't have to agree, just let it BE!

Of course there were some other kind of "dishwashing people", who would want you to do or not to do somethings, but the best way out of that was very simple: just laught and have fun with it!!! And we did! ;-))

I would like to emphasize that I met 4 "lovely people" - from Italy, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia - with whom I spent a lot of my time with and had a "reeeealy" :) good time! And I learned a lot of "interesting" words in too :-))) - Thanks guys! I am very glad to have met you!

About the Festival itself:
"Set in beautiful Kent countryside, the One World Festival is a truly magical mid-summer event. Individuals and families come together from all over the world to share a week in a unique atmosphere of rest and activity, fun and freedom, challenge and adventure.

The One World Summer Festival presents over 200 workshops and lectures throughout the week, with separate activity programmes for teens and children of all age groups."

And it was just like that!
There were about 800 people attending the Festival, from which I would say more than 100 were children and teenagers.

It worked like this: I would wake up early in the morning (~6h30) to prepare myself for the first activity of the day, that would start at 7h00. At 8h00, I would take a shower, get dressed and eat breakfast, while looking at the programme (where is my F***-** booklet?), trying to decide, among 13 activities, what would I like to do next...
After that workshop/lecture/seminar/activity (whatever I had chosen), I had a 30m break to decide what to attend next... and so on...

I could (and I did) attend 1 activity early in the morning, 2 events in the morning and 2 more in the afternoon, after my macrobiotic (blargh!) lunch... In the evening and at night, there were 3 more events possible to attend to, from 20h until 24h.

Yes, I chose the green wrist band... it wasn't such a good idea. I like healthy food and occasionally I eat vegetarian food, but this was very hard to handle. Not even fruit (?!?!)...

After the third day of having miso soap at breakfast and eating unidentified food (?) elements, seeds and strange flavoured "things", I was really looking forward to eat regular food - we went to town to buy simple things as ham, bread, cookies and fruit... and we made a "food party" in the - warmest :) - tent we could find ;)

Anyway, coming back to the activities, I think the best way is to tell you what I have done during these days, so lets begin:

Monday, 7th August 2006

13h30: Arrival to the Gatwick Airport
14h05: Gatwick Airport train station
15h30: Arrival to Sevenoaks train station (after two changes)
16h00: Arrival to the Campsite (after walking 20m with my backpack in the wrong direction, and returning to the train station to get a cab. 5m to campsite, no worries...)
16h05: Assembling my tent
16h30: Information Office (registration(?) and GREEN wrist band)
18h00: Welcome Circle (Oficial OWF opening)
18h30: Macrobiotic Dinner
20h00: Hang around...

Tuesday, 8th August 2006

07h00-08h00: Tai-Chi
08h00-09h00: Shower and Breakfast
09h00-10h30: Emotional Kinesiology
11h00-12h30: Nuad Thai Massage
13h00-14h30: Lunch
14h30-16h00: Japanese Sword Play
16h30-18h00: Didgeridoo
18h30-20h00: Shower and Dinner
20h00-21h00: Tango
21h00-22h30: Walkabout...
22h30-24h00: Ecstatic Dance

Wednesday, 9th August 2006

07h00-08h00: Qi Gong
08h00-09h00: Breakfast
09h00-10h30: Life Coaching
11h00-12h30: Nuad Thai Massage
13h00-14h30: Lunch
14h30-16h00: Djembe Percussion
16h30-18h00: Overtoning
18h30-20h00: Shower and Dinner
20h00-21h00: Walkabout...
21h00-22h30: Live Music (various) and Drum Circle
22h30-24h00: Five Rhythms Dance

Thursday, 10th August 2006

07h00-08h00: Mobilise Mind and Body
08h00-09h00: Breakfast
09h00-10h30: Dancing Chi / Orgomovement
11h00-12h30: Nuad Thai Massage
13h00-14h30: Lunch
14h30-16h00: Facial and Body Diagnosis
16h30-18h00: Cosmic Energy Alignment
18h30-20h00: Shower and Dinner
20h00-21h00: Story Telling
21h00-22h30: Belly Dance
22h30-24h00: Live Music

Friday, 11th August 2006

07h00-08h00: Vibrant Morning Meditation
08h00-09h00: Breakfast
09h00-10h30: Dancing Chi
11h00-12h30: Nuah Thai Massage
13h00-14h30: Lunch
14h30-16h00: Improvisional Comedy
16h30-18h00: Inner Way to Reawakening
18h30-21h30: Moving Tent, Shower and Dinner
22h00-24h00: Search for "Sacred Sex Room" and Private Workshop
24h00-.......: Tent party

Saturday, 12th August 2006

10h00-10h30: Shower
11h00-12h30: Nuad Thai Massage
13h00-14h30: Lunch
14h30-16h00: Introduction to Lo-Pan Feng-Shui
16h30-18h00: Capture the Chi
18h30-20h00: Shower
20h00-22h00: Indian restaurant dinner in Town
22h00-.......: Party @ the café

Sunday, 13th August 2006

12h00-12h30: Shower
12h30-14h30: Italian breakfast in Town
15h00-18h00: Walkabout...
18h30-20h00: Shower
20h00-23h00: Italian restaurant dinner in Town
23h00-.......: Walkabout...

Monday, 14th August 2006

08h00-09h00: Breakfast
09h00-10h30: Disassembling Tent and preparing backpacks
10h30-13h00: Train station - Sevenoaks-Tonbridge-Gatwick
13h10-13h40: Waiting for plane, estimated departure at 13h50
14h50-17h00: Arrival at Lisboa Airport, coming to an end of a perfect, perfect, perfect week!!!

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So, this is what I have done during this OWF event... and as I told before, there are lots of things I want to share with you about some of these workshops and activities, but I will do it slowly, one by one... I hope you will like it ;)