kungshamra71

Besides the incredible sport result by finishing 4th at the World Championship, national team managed to do the unthinkable: to gather portuguese people's attention to a sport other than football, so much that the semi final against Denmark was the most viewed tv show of the day in Portugal. In fact, to be able to make the Prime Minister and the President of the country to go to the bronze medal match of a sport that is not football truly reveals how this guys made this event popular in our country. Yesterday they landed back in and this was the reception: Yes of course this looks like a joke next to Croatia celebrations, but you need to understand this is a 100% football-only country so having someone besides the players families waiting for them in the airport is already big enough for , so this one was really nice

Really proud of this guys, gave a big fight this afternoon against the mighty France. Top 4 in a World Cup, who would imagine! Amazing this Portugal

No newspaper main page for handball today of course, but still what this guys did was incredible, to end up at the top 4 at the World Cup! And another good thing is the visibility for handball in Portugal: besides the headlines in newspaper and tv news, the interest has been so big that the prime minister will be there Sunday in Oslo for the bronze medal match.

well, here you have it. this time is extra especial because this happened at the same night as champion league matches of two main Portuguese football clubs, so was not expecting this cover at all. and they even made it to the national general newspapers:

What a match! Didn’t expect the win after the superb performance from the German gk, but they actually did it!!

finally some proper media attention to what’s happening in this World Cup! (From just one of the three big sports newspaper, but heh, it’s something )

Incredible match today, for the first time ever Portugal is qualified for a world cup quarterfinals, with group opponents such as Norway, Sweden and Spain (did we ever won Spain before? Don’t think so) and still undefeated! whatever happens this has been the most incredible tournament ever for Portugal. And they still are not headlines in the sporting news at home!!! Let’s hope for tomorrow’s newspapers because today’s win was historical! Im also double happy for the jointed qualification of the Portuguese speaking nations: vamos Brazil! has small hope for Cape Verde against Argentina but I knew it would be super difficult

The evolution of Portuguese handball in the past 10 years of so has been really incredible. being able to win to Norway, at a world championship, in their own venue, and finishing the first round in first place… incredible… I feel only sad for the lack of headline news those guys deserve in Portuguese media…

yeah in the meantime i also got my answer viaplay in NL shows all the matches so i'm happy with it

Does anyone here knows where will the World Cup be transmitted as a whole? Or is it just gonna be “Dutch tv will show the Dutch games, Portuguese tv will show the Portuguese games, etc”?

This is incredible. Amazing San Marino! 🇸🇲

That mf’er, I want him to retire and he just keeps scoring goals after goals just to prove what I already know anyway 🐐 Oh well, what can I do but just say

Yes yes, a lasting impact indeed haha I still got a 12 and exported good Portuguese music to New Zealand (I think?) so my job here is done 😁 Btw fun fact, all first three in this year TISC were at the very bottom of my classification (either because I didn’t like it, or because they were too famous and I usually do not pick them :-) )

Sad to see that my top 3 didn’t win, but at least know that they have a fix place in my Spotify playlist now hehe (Hungary, France and Greece. The Dutch one I hear it every now and then in the radio and at new years anyway) nice contest with some good music, and congrats for all the huge effort from the organiser in making this happen, it really is a fun tradition even if we’re not that many anymore

BUT those are the most appreciated 12 points in the whole contest! And if you follow TISC for the last 10 years you should know already that i aim for sharing portuguese culture no matter how appealing (or not :D) it might be. So if one liked it, i'm quite happy! I suggest you to explore more of his songs if you liked it

Totally forgot about this! But glad some of you like the song. also I really liked my top three! Although for danny vera I’m a bit biased since I live in NL and always vote for this song to be in the Dutch Top 2000 , so that one had to go high of course haha

My favorite tennis tournaments of the year (wta/atp finals)

it's not difficult when you have such a strict policy to enter or leave the country. Or when you have a dictator that can mask number as he wish, if he can convince their people that a highly censored and restrictive land can host a competition like the Olympic Games, i'm sure he can convince no covid case was detected. One fun fact is that their guards and border control officers were very serious and strict with people from other nationalities when entering the country, but with us it was very different, they would look at our passport with serious face, look at the country, look at us, start smiling and say "Portugal?? Cristiano Ronaldo!!!!" This behaviour happened in every single checkpoint in every single Central Asia land. It's like a vip pass in this area of the world

I’ve only seen things related to the father of this current president. And not even much of that, everything had the face of the new one now. but of course, I saw only what I was allowed to see , that is how things work if you want to visit it :-)

now the leader is not that one, but his son (you’ll see him in one of the photos I shared, in the tv. His face is everywhere as it happens in any country with cult of the leader). and yes the story is true, in Ashgabat only white, golden and some other colour (grey?) cars are allowed in the city. Just like every building is white. And it’s funny you mention the talibans, because Turkmenistan has an Afghanistan representation/consulate in their country, and one of the days when we were eating lunch in a mall at Mary city, the Turkmen guide was called by the restaurant waiter and then came to us and said “ok so don’t worry, but a taliban delegation is coming here to eat lunch so don’t take pictures and behave discreetly when they enter”. One of those wtf moments of our trip haha

There might be modern tracks for lots of sports in Ashgabat actually. They organised some Asian martial arts competition some time ago and for that they built all sort of megalomaniac infrastructures (you see the picture of the gigantic horse head? That’s part of the main stadium), all in white (there’s some rule from the president that everything needs to be white in that city), and all pretty much abandoned since that time. According to the delusional/brainwashed local people we met, “all those investments are understandable because Ashgabat will organize the Olympic very soon”. That’s because the dictator is obsessed with huge buildings, if you see my third last photo, that is actually an indoor ferry wheel (yes, it’s a thing apparently), the largest one in the world (Guiness world record), and it looked really abandoned. Me and my wife were the only ones going on it. Everything in that country (but especially in Ashgabat) is bizarre.

There are some government allowed routes that go to the West, but the usual one is just around the two main cities (Ashgabat and Mary) and then crossing the desert to that gas fire crater. thats what I did, entered from the east from Bukhara (Uzbekistan) and left again to Uzbekistan but in the Khiva border. Not sure how’s the caspian sea there, but the only time I saw it , in Azerbaijan, didn’t look very clean to swim.

Last stop on this TISC Central Asia tour: Turkmenistan One of the most closed and censored lands in the world, Turkmenistan is a place with incredible things to visit, with a beautiful desert landscape, historical ruins from ancient civilisations, and the unique "Door to Hell". But it is also a country where everything is controlled and restricted (we had no access to social networks and tons of blocked websites, can only enter with invitation letter, with a predefined tour and accompanied by a guide at all times), with giant megalomaniac buildings created in order to maintain a cult of the leader and its regime. It basically felt like what i imagine is North Korea (but without the hate for americans). It is eccentric, it is impressive, but above all, it is bizarre. Here is a patriotic catchy song i heard when was traveling there. . Mähri Pirgulyýewa – Halkyň arkadagly zamanasy

Next stop on this Central Asia tour is Tajikistan , another one of those "why would you want to go there" countries It's the smallest land of the 5 central asia countries but it might be the most complete of them all, and also a good one for those who like mountains, about 92% of the territory is covered with it, some going up to 7000 meters high. Not sure if this is a famous singer but i heard this song all the time in the radio so, i guess this might be a popular one Shabnam Surayo – Nesti

I guess i'll keep going on this solo "visit central asia" show for the Festival of Music This time with Kyrgyzstan . Did you know 94% of their country is covered with (really high) mountains? This place is a paradise for hikers and mountain lovers. Basically, picture Switzerland, but with affordable prices and really good food Мирбек Атабеков – Mypac