So, I am married man. That thought still has to sink to me fully, but I am perfectly happy with that. The marriage commenced at 29th of May in the circle of family and friends in Kaunas, my hometown. Everything was perfect, including the fakir show in middle of the night, which was our surprise to the guests. We would like to thank “Ugnies ratas” for spectacular performance.

2 days after ceremony we left for the portugal with a pair of our friends. That was a honeymoon trip for us all, although they have waited for 9 months for us!. The trip was great, we made around 2700 km with a car there.

We flew to Porto, a bigger city in the Portugal north. The narrow cobblestone streets, lots of churches, great meals and very nice, helpful people: that was our first impression of the country. We started by visiting Porto itself and some neighborhood cities like Lamegos and Amarante.

Here is a photo of us in unknown restaurant in Sao Nicolaus, Porto.

After Porto we went to Praia de Mira – a nice resort close at the coast of ocean. Due to weather we could not enjoy the beaches, but the food there was great. We still remember the largest plate of seafood we ate at “Polar” and perfectly made Grilled Sea Bass for two at another place which name I can not recall. During that stay we visited Coimbra first time, a student town and a former capital of Portugal. That was a place we liked most in the whole Portugal and it is perfect city for buying gifts for family and friends. I can recommend restaurant Restaurante Praca Velha there, for perfect service and very tasty steak.

The next hotel was in Peniche – a nice resort for surfing and resting. The weather was much better than in Mira, and we had a very nice company there. Although we had not seen much of Peniche itself, we visited Obidos, old Roman road (twice!) and some other points from it.

Lisabon. There we had an apartment in the center of the city. The parking was terrible, but the place was in one of the main pedestrian streets. Everything was close by: the Cathedral, other historical churches. We visited sea park with aquarium there, which is one of the biggest in Europe. Sadly, the food in Lisabon is terrible, but I can recommend driving to Cascais and eating at Apeadeiro ( Avenida Vasco de Gama 252) – one of the most pleasant places during whole trip.

The last stop was Portimao – a town in the very south of Portugal. It was one of the longest trips as we have visited Evora on the same day. We were promised a bath there by my wife, however we found out that this particular bath was not used since roman times.

The south of portugal is quite different from the rest of it: cleaner, spacer and less more modern. The last apartment was located 100 meters from the ocean so we spend a lot of time enjoying sunshine and beach. It was perfect place to rest and enjoy the weather of Algarve. We had a mad ride on the boat in ocean from Lagos – the watter caves are great, and the boat captains are fearless.

I am really happy with everything concerning my marriage and trip, although it is kind of good to be back and start implementing new ideas again.

I was in Hurghada (Egypt) for a week and i have to tell that it was fabulous. Both the resort and country have surpased my expectations and washed out all the thoughts about the work. 

I have stayed in Sunrise Royal Markadi hotel, 30 kilometres from Hurghada. Hurghada itself was a small fishing village 30 years ago, but now it is one of the most popular holiday locations in Egypt. The Markadi bay is famous for its diving location and I have an impression that the hotels there are bigger, calmer and, perhaps, even better than in Hurghada itself. The downside – you will need to fetch a transportation till Hurghada itself if you want go shoping. That is not very costly – around 7 Eur both ways using hotels bus. 

Sunrise Royal Markadi Hotel is part of bigger Egyptian chain, and is a quite big one. It is located directly near the ocean and the beach is fantastic and clean. It is not steep and even small children can swim without big problems or risks. There are couple of pools as well, all supervised by staff. There is a horse and camel riding facilities, diving center, masage, gym, couple of shops and restorans (free for us) as well. 

The hotel and the whole Markadi is guarded, both by official Egyptian army and the hotel staff. There are no incidents in the middle of Egypt though – no Egyptian would cut the income, as majority is one way or another connected to the tourism. For aditional security, all the time went out of secured tourist zones to the tours (e.g to Caire or Luxor) , we got a convoy of soldiers.  

Overall, staff in this hotel is very helpful and much nicer than in hotel in Turkey I was last year. Lots of things were inclusive in the package, so we did not needed to pay for drinks or food. The food is quite ok too. As they have to feed a crowd of turists that stay there, it is better than expected and almost perfect. There is no limits of food amount you can take during any of the meal. I can recomend this hotel to any person that needs to relax with or without their family or kids. Probably this is not the last time I stay there. 

However, I am not so sure I will go through Tez Tour next time. They provided quite good transportation service from and to airport, however they got a problems due to companies size. Tez tour is quite big company and targets Russia mostly, so all excess Lithuanian people will be shuffled to Russian language tours with guides that lack experience. The biggest disappointment was the travel to Caire, as we got to travel with Russian group. The guides were Egyptian and we were always late. We returned to Hurghada an hour later than expected and without any convoy which is unacceptable and unprofessional. The Lithuanian-led tour to Luxor was much much nicer. 

Also I would not recommend going from Hurghada to Caire at all. You spend the majority of the time in bus, as you need to drive for 8 hours to get there. An alternative would be taking plane to Caire instead traveling by bus, but is Pyramids, Sphinx and short visit to museum and couple shops worth it ? I am not so sure.  We were much more happy with the shorter, but much more interesting visit to Luxor (former Thebes, capital of New Egyptian Kingdom). 

Overall, I liked the visit to Hurghada very much and I would like to come there again. My plans are to take a cruise in Nile and try out diving there.