The most important fire dancers in Tomar

After our adventurous Thursday evening, our sleep deprived Friday morning left much to be desired. We stumbled to school in a caffeine-less daze to catch the bus to Tomar for a field trip with our Portuguese class. Just for fun, I have decided to do this post in acrostic form. Sorry for making you endure my lameness.

Templar castle
Ohmygosh is it lunchtime yet? Oh. It's cantina food.
Medieval synagogue and museums that nobody understands
As ruas mais importantes em Tomar
Ravage pastry shop, return to Lisbon

There are 4 Portuguese classes between the Americans and the Erasmus students so the field trip comprised a wide variety of students that I've never met before. The trip was optional (thank you CIEE for paying!) so that produced an even wider variety of students, mainly those who are able to wake up at 8 on a Friday morning for a whole day of touring. It was an utterly brilliant day, the sky the deepest shade of blue and the air crisp and cool as any perfect fall morning should be. Our trip on the highway, instead of the train, gave me a cool new perspective on the surroundings of Lisbon and the Portuguese countryside. It's amazing to watch the scenery change from distinctly urban and industrial to more rural, less dense and more natural. I don't think I'll ever get sick of seeing the country fly by through the window.

Our first stop was the Templar castle and the Convento do Cristo. The castle is remarkably well-preserved and even the archer slits are carved in the shape of the Templar cross. The municipal part of the convent is in ruins but everything else, including the aqueduct, is well-preserved. The church itself is sheathed in gold and painting. The exterior of the church has a famous window, carved to represent Portuguese exploration, God's glory and Portugal's relationship to the sea. Our guide spoke Portuguese and only translated when we asked so it was a great opportunity to practice. I was really surprised when I realized I actually understood what she was talking about. My ability to translate faded a bit as the 4 hours of sleep kicked in but it was still nice to feel competent. The grounds bursted with citrus trees, the oranges looking so promising. Daniel informed me that the lemon tree originated in Portugal. I don't know if that's true but once he told me I noticed that there really is an abundance of citrus trees here. Beautiful.

In true Portuguese fashion, we didn't leave for lunch until almost an hour after we were supposed to be there. Whoops. Tomar has a Polytechnic university so we ate cantina food there. It was kind of neat to experience a different university and a different cantina, even just to experience a little slice of regular life outside of Lisbon. Downside: cantina food is the same just about everywhere thanks to government subsidies. This cantina has a pastelaria built in, so we were able to replace our chemical pudding with Magnum bars.

After lunch, as we were nearly 2 hours behind schedule, our professors sat on the patio drinking coffee while we all sat out and enjoyed the beautiful day. We eventually managed to leave and we headed for the Tomar synagogue, a medieval synagogue that had once been one of the most important in the entire country. The original building still exists although the interior, sadly, has been mostly plastered over the preserve it. I'm all for preserving, but it sort of ruined the effect. The stone pillars in the center of the tiny building were the only exposed original stone. Oh well. The man who gave us our "tour" of the synagogue was a Polish Jew and he spoke Portuguese to us. I had a hard time paying attention to his descriptions of the Torah and Shabbat but afterwards I helped explain things to the non-Jewish students. The synagogue is no longer functioning, as there are only 2 Jewish families in Tomar, not even enough for a minyon. (10 men) Yet this man and his wife still continue to keep alive the spirit of a community that the government once tried to destroy. 500 years later, the Tomar synagogue still stands.

We then headed to an art museum of some sort, but the all-Portuguese explanation of the 17 works of art completely lost me--as did the abstract paintings of what I think was supposed to be a tree in different phases of its life. I enjoyed much more playing in the plaza, running at mobs of pigeons and smelling the chrysanthemums that overflowed in vendors' pots. A small tourist tram/bus was idling in the plaza and a (smart!) suggestion by one of the students to our professor landed all of us squeezed into leather seats. I love how utterly Portuguese our Portuguese professors are. One mention of needing coffee, and we stop for pastries and coffee. One mention of riding the tram instead of going to another museum, and we are on the tram. Doesn't take much convincing...

The tram ride took us through "historic" Tomar, which wasn't really a historic tour at all. Our very enthusiastic tram driver pointed out nearly everything, claiming it was "the most important library in Tomar!" or "the best public park in Tomar!" or "The most important gas station in Tomar!" It took us a few minutes to notice it but once we did we couldn't get enough of it. The most important hotel in Tomar, the most important streets in Tomar...as ruas mais importantes em Tomar! In between his enthusiastic tour guide comments, traditional Portuguese and Iberian music played over the intercom and we had a spontaneous dance party in compartment 2. The residents of Tomar seemed amused at the 50 of us squeezed into the train and we waved at everyone, most of them waving back. I would say that's the nice thing about small towns, except that generally people are like that here in Lisbon too.

After our tour, which I think was much more educational than another art museum and the Matchstick Museum (???), which had been on the schedule, we were given a half hour of free time in which we decided to ravage a pastelaria. I know I probably spend too much time raving about pastries but I just have to mention once again how every town seems to have its own signature pastry or pastries that just aren't as common in Lisbon, whereas Lisbon has some that you don't see much outside of the city. Neat. Delicious.

On our way back to the bus we walked past a couple juggling flaming batons. One of them looked utterly bored. I feel so lucky to have stumbled upon what were clearly the most important fire dancers of the town.

Worth the early wake-up. A beautiful day. That night I went to a friend's house party in Santos, a neighborhood along the river. I got really excited because once we finally found the apartment complex, it was a building that I have passed before and taken pictures of because it has beautiful azulejos. The most important coincidence in Lisbon.