A primeval forest. Shafts of sunlight breaking through the trees. The cool, damp earth beneath your feet. Shuffling through leaves that have drifted gently down around you. Moss-covered boulders protruding from the infinitely green mountain. Birds flitting above your head. Ancient, crumbling stone walls. Trees stripped of their bark by forest animals, towering nearly one hundred feet above you. Reaching the summit, basking in the late afternoon sunlight. An incredible vista. On one side, the Atlantic, shimmering serenely beyond the hills. On the other, an expanse of white houses with burnt orange tile roofs, stretching across the valley into the distance among gently-rolling lush green hills. A light breeze. Utterly calm. Utterly breathtaking.
Despite my attempts, I don't think these words even come close to capturing the sheer spectacular-ness and amazing-ness of my weekend. In true Portuguese fashion, we went into this weekend having no plans. We had talked briefly to our Brazilian friends about going to the beach on Friday, but other than that my 3-day weekend was a blank slate. Thursday afternoon on my way back from class I stopped in the pastelaria to pick up pastries for our girls' night later that evening. After five full minutes of Portuguese conversation with Senhor Patient (!) I walked out with a variety of different pastries that we hadn't tried and practically skipped home because I was so excited about speaking Portuguese in public. We eventually made our way over to Elsbeth's house, where her house mom came into her room saying, "Girls party! Girls party!" And it was. We salivated for a little while over the pastries before finally digging in, taking mental notes for comparison of the use of chocolate, cinnamon, cream, custard, filo dough and all-around deliciousness in the different pastries. A cultural study, one might say.
After movie night we headed to our first Erasmus party. Erasmus, European foreign exchange, throws parties three nights a week to encourage students to socialize and meet people from across the continent. Even though Erasmus is technically a european thing, we were able to get erasmus cards which gives us free access to their parties and discounts on cultural events throughout the city. Score! We had decided to leave early (11:30) to beat the rush and attempt to get our cards before it got too crowded. Well, as you might have guessed, we were horribly unfashionably early. 11:30 is dinnertime! So we wandered around Bairro Alto, grabbed a pastry, and headed back at a more appropriate hour (12:30) We met up with our Brazilian friends and danced the night away. Surprisingly, even through all of the loud music, we still met a lot of people. I met a guy who grew up in Austin so we talked a lot about Texas and the upcoming election. But let's be honest--my true love is dancing. Standing around talking wasn't going to cut it, so I excused myself from the nice Austinite and got back to the music.
Friday we slept in and headed to Cascais for a beautiful day at the beach. Sadly, the weather has changed. Cascais was no longe the blissfully calm and beautiful beach where I could lie around all day until the sun set. Nope, we had wind. Lots of it. We had met some Americans at the train station who were in Lisbon for the weekend from Madrid and they asked us, "Is the beach usually like this?"
I know. I can sense the disappointment, too. Sarah, Annia and I still decided to run screaming into the ocean and ironically, the water was not as cold as it's been the past few times. The one windy, not-so-beachy day turns out to be the one day where I don't get frostbite in the water. I'm tempted to say it was "unfair" but let's be honest. I was at the beach in Portugal on a Friday. I have no room to complain. After returning to Santini for muito delicious gelato (and introducing everybody to the so-good-I-could-die cinnamon gelato) we decided to wander westward towards Boca do Inferno. Literally, "Mouth of Hell." Boca do Inferno is a series of cliffs along the coast where erosion has created some pretty powerful gorges where the water crashes and roars. It is stunning. It took forever to get out there because we stopped every five minutes to take in the view. We climbed down the rocks to the lowest point where we could safely sit without falling into the water. We sat. No need to do anything else. I hadn't brought my camera, so I wasn't distracted by anything digital or artificial. A fisherman sitting near us had his pole in the water and eventually pulled out a live squid. *shudder* It was one of those "I have to look" moments. It was pretty cool but I didn't want to watch it die and become his dinner so I returned to my observation post (the rock) and curled up to shield from the ever-increasing wind. The water was a perfect dark turquoise, the rocks turning yellow-orange in the light of the setting sun.
I have taken to not wearing my watch on the weekends, so I have no idea how long we sat there. Eventually we got too cold to sit still so we started to wander back. An utterly exhausting and perfect day.
Saturday the girls came over for brunch. No exploding kitchens or anything. We are really getting good at this cooking business. After brunch we headed to the train station to catch a train to Sintra, a royal retreat town a short distance outside Lisbon. Sintra's main attractions are multiple castles and palaces from all different eras of Portuguese history. It's really a 2-day trip, if not more, but time is not really a factor here that we ever consider. We don't hesitate. We don't plan. We go. And so we went. Again, an experience that words cannot accurately capture. We had no idea where we were going and yet I felt completely at peace. "It's an adventure," we told ourselves. Sintra's local pastry is called "queijada." Think cream cheese icing and cinnamon and that's pretty much what it tasted like. A little bite of heaven. We lanched at a cafe at the foot of the mountain looking up to the Moorish castle on top, Portuguese flag flying proud in the wind. We wandered into the main historic part of town, wandered through Parque de Liberdade, a rich park with paper mache statues of animals that of course begged us to play. When we finally got into town we made our way to this church that had a patio out back with a spectacular view of the valley and the ocean. Lo and behold, we stumbled onto another wedding! I promise we are not wedding crashers. This wedding was a much more joyous occasion than the one we witnessed in Porto. The bride was actually smiling (ohmygosh!) and everybody was kissing and throwing rice and shouting. It was very exciting, especially for us tourists who had come underdressed for such a special occasion. I really should start traveling with a dress and heels in case we stumble upon anymore formal occasions...
All the palaces and castles are built on the hill/mountain so there is a bus you can take to get up there. We did not take the bus. What was the point of coming all the way out there if we were just going to sit on a bus for half of our visit? No point, we told ourselves. So we walked. For the most part, the climb was manageable. We passed beautiful quaint houses and eventually came across a park. A man looked over the hedge and spoke to us in Portuguese. He told us we could cut through the park if we were going up the mountain. It would be prettier, there would be bathrooms, and we'd get back to the road eventually. We were hesitant, because the man just stood there watching us and waiting for us to come through. He told us he would waive the entrance fee to the park. We slowly turned back towards the entrance of the park and a young woman was coming out by herself so we stopped and asked her if it was safe to wander through etc., and she looked at us like we were crazy for being scared of a park during the day. But the man was still standing at the entrance waiting for us when we got there. Elsbeth picked up a spiky plant off the ground to use for defense and we braced ourselves for what was sure to be a really awkward encounter. The man continued to accompany us into the park but we eventually figured out that he worked there because another woman started asking us for directions.
Close call.
Sort of.
The real hiking began in the park and we climbed and sang "Proud to be an American." Why that song of all possible songs came up, I'm not sure. But we were completely alone and it felt so great to sing at the top of my lungs, even if we were singing a song that was sure to draw some nasty looks from some Europeans. After the park we entered the forest. Here's the great thing about Sintra. It's a tourist hub because of all the castles and culture, but it doesn't overcater to tourists in a way that destroys the authenticity of the place. Take for instance our hike up the mountain. Most tourists take the bus since it's a 2 km hike and very steep in some places. But if you choose to walk, you spend most of the walk just walking on the side of the road or even in the forest itself. There's not a separate pedestrian path with drink stands every 10 minutes or vending machines or anything. This probably sounds incredibly dangerous, especially since the road winds and cars tend to speed around the curves, but it was really cool to just walk through the forest. We had lots of opportunities to climb on boulders and stop along the side of the road and explore beyond it. We came upon the Moorish castle first but decided to keep climbing to see the fairy tale castle that is the Palacio Nacional da Pena. In a cruel twist of fate, the only vending machine selling agua was out of order. Alas, we keep climbing. The cobblestone road was slippery with hundreds of years of foot and horse traffic but we pushed on. Upon finally reaching the gates we were THRILLED! We'd climbed for about an hour and the steep incline was starting to take a toll on morale. (except for Annia, who triumphantly ran up the hill and took pictures of us groaning at her) Through the gates, we still had more climbing to do up through the gardens and the grounds but it was worth it because the castle was amazing.
Each turret and tower is decorated in a different style. The exterior is brightly painted in some places and covered with beautiful azulejos in others. The view was spectacular. We walked the castle walls for a 360 degree experience and leaned out over the balcony to feel the wind in our hair and the warmth of the fading afternoon sun on our faces. The inside of the castle was not nearly as impressive but still worth mentioning. The royal families that inhabited this palace were pack rats. One sign even mentioned the "fear of empty spaces." I think this captures it nicely. Every corner of every room was either painted or decorated or covered in objects of varying grandeur. The queen's dressing room, for instance, had 6 chairs, 1 bathtub, 2 vanities, a fireplace, French silk-covered walls and copious amounts of paintings and frames and trinkets and crystal. And this room isn't much bigger than your average bedroom. There was an "Arab room" full of exotic furniture and art from around the world, although none of it particularly "Arab" in fashion but much more Far Eastern. The history-lover in me had a great appreciation for the artifacts and the ability to glimpse into the past and reconstruct the physical surroundings. Even cooler is that the palace is built on the foundations of an old monastery and they maintained some of the original monastery, like the azulejos-covered cloister and fountain. I felt like I was walking through a fairy tale.
We lanched on the terrace overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. There's nothing like a delicious Magnum bar after a 2km uphill hike. After wandering back down we stopped in the Village Cafe for a cheap meal. Being 6:30, we were the only dinner customers. Our waiter really liked us and was impressed that we even spoke a little Portuguese. (Thanks Elsbeth for helping translate!) He brought us taste testing samples of Eristoff Black, a raspberry-flavored dark blue liquor and we sang along to VH1 's "Top 10 Music Videos of All Time" that was playing on the TV. When our waiter heard us singing, he came over and told us that we should come back Monday night for karaoke. We explained that we did not live in Sintra but he did not seem to think this was a problem and continued to encourage us to sing for the next hour.
A brilliant beyond brilliant day. The entire thing proceeded without any advanced planning. It was so relaxing not trying to rush around and see everything in one day. In my opinion, Sintra is not a 2-day trip but a 3- or 4- or 5-day vacation. We saw one palace of Sintra's many, many palaces and castles. And we sampled queijadas. And we played in the park. And we climbed the mountain. The Pena palace has a giant clock tower that has no hands. I pointed this out and Elsbeth responded, "It's because the Portuguese don't believe in time."
So true. This is a philosophy I am totally on board with and I hope to eventually bring back to my life in the states. After a short nap we met up with friends and headed down to Docas, a trendy nightlife area of the city. Docas = docks, so guess where we were? Right on the river! Surprise. We went to this cool club called "W" and proceeded to dance the night away again. After we got back we sat around in the kitchen eating an early breakfast (Yikes!) and collapsed into bed around dawn. It is a schedule I do not usually follow, but it is the Portuguese way so close those shocked mouths mom and dad and enjoy the fact that your daughter is embracing her new culture. :)
I have written previously about how Lisbon completely shuts down on Sundays and I can finally understand why. Everybody is so busy on the weekends enjoying themselves that they forget to sleep. Sunday is a good time for this. Everyone at the dorm wears pajamas all day and it is very quiet, minus the African guys downstairs who somehow got ahold of drums and were drumming all afternoon. If there was ever a good time for homework in this city, Sunday afternoons would be it. Any other time feels like a waste of life-changing experiences I could be having in this beautiful country.
Three honorable mentions:
- Last Sunday we went to a free jazz festival in the Jardim da Estrela. Pleno, a juice company, sponsored the event and brought out these giant white bean bag chairs for people to sit in. The lawns were covered in clumps of people sitting and relaxing and enjoying the music and atmosphere. Handicraft vendors lined the walkways selling their products. It felt a little bit like Austin except that everybody was fully clothed and the multitudes of dogs running around didn't belong to drag rats that tried to mess with me by telling me I'd dropped my wallet and then laughing when I turned around to look for it. The dogs here are really well-behaved and most weren't even on leashes. Annia and I thorougly enjoyed playing with all the pooches.
- There is a lot of graffiti here. Last weekend we saw graffiti in live action. We were walking behind two guys and they suddenly ducked into a doorway and started spraying. It was kind of cool. Not the defacement part, but just seeing it in action. They were extremely nonchalant about it, as you might expect in such a chilled out city. It wasn't even dark out.
- Identification cards. Everything you do here provides you with identification. For example, our monthly metro passes have our pictures on them and ID information embedded in the security chip. We will be getting our university ID cards soon, but we also have university student association cards with our picture. Some of our friends got gym memberships at the City University, and those have photo identification, too. We got Erasmus cards to go to Erasmus parties and those count as a method of identification. Excluding my passport, I currently have 7 different forms of identification. When we get our university IDs I will have 8. It's a little ridiculous.
Living here is like living in poetry.
1 comment:
Oh, the wonders of Lisboa and the Texas Traveler.
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