Friends in the distance.

The concept "circle of friends" nowadays can't be just a physical circle of people who live in our town, who study in the same university as we do, or our neighbors, with the help of technologies, the estado de bienestar in the 20th Century and the adventurous feeling some of us have, we need to explore the world and its people and we can live wonderful experiences with new people, even in the previous day we were thousands of kilometers from each other.

I have met a lot of wonderful people during my vacations, trips, job contracts and more several events that I've done in the last years.

In this article, I would like to dedicate some lines to some of my friends who live abroad, the ones who wanted something nice via Facebook and clicked like to this, let's start with some of them.

The following ones were volunteers as they clicked like bravely in a Facebook link about a future surprise:

Merve Gonce, Turkey.

I met Merve last year in winter 2013, she is from Izmir (Turkey) and she was studying an erasmus scholarship of Engineering for four or five months near my town. One day we met for a coffee, drink, tapas and a walk... But this was not a coincidence as I am not a student any more, I knew about Merve because we have a mutual friend in Turkey, she informed me that her roommate was going to live in Spain for some months, and here she was. We met just a few times, for walking or shopping but we had really good time and shared some photographs.

I remember our visits and the tapas in the typical tapas bar around the town. Not less important the shopping day.

Lindsey Jackson, Florida .USA.

Three years ago  I met Lindsey, it was on a cruise ship around the Caribbean. Lindsey and her family were our table-mates during the whole week, I love when people try to socialize and that is exactly what Lindsey did. Hello I am Lindsey from Florida she said, and that was the beginning of a nice friendship. We spent an unforgettable week on board the biggest cruise in the world, surfing in flowrider, swimming, eating pizza and climbing the rockwall everyday in a new and different country and making new memories.

We have been in touch these years via internet and it seems that we will meet soon personally and live new adventures. I hope it comes true :)

Vitor Mendonça. Madeira. Portugal.

My touristic guide online via couchsurfing and my waiter in a delicious Italian restaurant in Funchal, all those things together. I met Vitor in a tourism website about Madeira Islands when I was planning my holiday, that island is where he lives, he is a proud Madeirense and he never hesitated to help me with a lot of information. One day I had the pleasure to have a dinner in the restaurant where he works near the Ocean, a very good choice for a dinner and awesome rices were served there.

I hope some day soon you come to visit around!

Mafalda Mascarenhas.Lisbon. Portugal

It was my first project of volunteering abroad when I met Mafalda in August 2012, next to Lisbon, this program was called the art at school and consisted in remodelating a school for little children and preparing activities for them. The very first day, I remember her a happy and talkative girl always giving new ideas to have fun and to help others in the area, and she was very committed with her work, we spend three weeks together in the Lisbon coast, working together in a school for children, surfing in Guincho beach and enjoying summer life without forgetting our purpose, that purpose was living an unforgettable experience with 20 more people.

Lyndi Burns, Utah. USA

I met Lyndi through instagram app, I usually filter pics by #hashtags and it is not very usual that someone who is from another continent is interested in my town, so I asked her about this interest and she told me that she was going to be au pair in my area. That was awesome, we had some chats and conversation before meeting, but the first time we saw each other was really funny: we came across each other in the mall. Although we couldn't spend more time together that morning was very nice, shopping for new clothes. She is friendly and her smile never disappears. I hope we can meet again in a future!!