Portugal: Friendship and Discovery

Christen, why is this blog so late? A: right as I was finished making it, my computer shut down and I just got it functioning again yesterday.... sorry for the delay

Well I will start this blog off as I usually do, with a quick personal anecdote. Rewind to August 2011, Christen before Bonn, and I was looking up places I may want to visit in Europe. Most of them had "countdown" lists of the top 10 places in Europe. Without fail, almost every list placed Lisbon at number 3, 2, and even made #1 a couple of times. I had hoped that I would maybe get a chance to go there. Little did I know that my roommate would have invited me to travel throughout the whole country for 9 days. Bruna really planned a great trip and I think it is safe to say that I will definitely remember this trip for the rest of my life. BTW, the title may not ring a bell for most people, except maybe if my fellow JGLC'ers, but it is the two spacecrafts that John Glenn himself went into space with. The Friendship and the Discovery. Happy 50th Anniversary of orbit JG! And the title seemed fitting for this trip because Portugal was the hub of the discoveries and a place where I could find friends in almost anyone.

 We landed on Thursday in Porto in the evening. Bruna's parents picked us up from the airport and we drove straight to the ocean. I think that it was about a 40 degree weather difference from Bonn to Porto, and it was great to have the beach be the very first experience of Portugal. I automatically felt like I was on vacation. Then we went to eat and I had some meat on a kebab. The food in Portugal overall was really excellent, and the Portuguese really love to eat a full three meals a day. I could feel my stomach expanding over the course of the 9 days I spent there, I am not exactly used to eating that much in Bonn. After dinner, we went to downtown Porto and Gaia and to see the view at night.

This is the view from of Porto from Gaia, it was getting a bit nippy out. The temperature gets incredibly colder  at night. 

Here we are in front of some of the warehouses where they store the Port wine, which is made in this region

After that we went home and went right to sleep. The next day we stayed in Bruna's home town of Vila Real. Here I am that morning in front of her house

From her house, we went into town with Bruna's father who is a lawyer. We went to his office and here is the view from his office... kind of makes you want to be a lawyer in Portugal ne?

This is from his office as well.

I took a picture in front of this statue because it represents the German's failure to conquer Portugal.

There is a great valley in the city with a river at the bottom, the views from above are really impressive.

me climbing up a mountain

Here is the view on me and Bruna in Vila Real. The houses are all seemingly stacked on each other through the mountains. I found this a feature of Portuguese architecture almost everywhere I went.

One thing that me and Bruna both pointed out was that it was really interesting to see a country that is so old but was not really touched by the bombing in WWII. It really makes it more interesting to see all of the cities because everything is so old. Even some of the newer looking places we went by was a hundred years old. Bruna didnt want me to add the picture above to the blog, but I think it is cool to remind everyone how old these cities are.

I loved the way the streets were set up because even the small alleyways were seemingly busy. Everyone air-dries their clothes out of the window so it is this seemingly old-world charm to every side street we went on

Even though the town Bruna is from only has about 30,000 residents, the town is influenced by the rest of the world, a characteristic that I feel like is a lot different than a "Small town USA"

Here is where Bruna went to school

me lying on a fountain catching some rays, however I did get heavily sunburnt from this day.

For lunch this day I had a Francesinha, which means french woman. This is literally a heart attack and a half. I will post a link to its wikipedia website here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesinha

It was recommended to me by everyone, and it was delicious! but I did only eat one during my visit and was working off the calories the rest of my time there.

Here we are in a small park by the shopping mall in Vila Real. I thought it was rather clever that whenever college students or groups of friends eat out for dinner on a budget they go to the malls in Portugal. I thought this was clever because although it was a food court, the quality of food was definitely elevated to ours and everyone could pick what they wanted. Also Portugal, or maybe just me and Bruna, love ice cream. I did my best to try as much different flavors as possible.

Here are Bruna, Bruna's sister Barbara, and I

me being fun

That night Bruna's mom made some really good pork for dinner. She also made us a lot of soup during our duration in Portugal. I will say it once and I will say it again, the soup in Europe is delicious and I havent come across one that I have not enjoyed. After dinner we had dessert, Bruna's mom had made a cake that was so good and then Bruna's dad had me try some of the Port wine. Actually that is a lie. SOME is the wrong word. I felt like I had the Botelho's whole stock of Port wine. Bruna's dad had me try some and then let me have some and say 'Oh do you taste the difference, this is from 20 years earlier" and I noticed that most of the bottles had hand-written labels, so I am assuming that they are truly authentic and from some of the local farms. He showed me his oldest bottle from 1880, and he thought it would maybe be worth well over 500 euro.

The next day we drove to Guimaraes, which is not only the first ever capital of Portugal, but also is the 2012 European capital of culture. In the above picture you can see billows of smoke coming up, this is from a fire from the unseasonably dry winter. Kind of apocalyptic.  

Here I am in front of the first king of Portugal who conquered the Moor (or was it Moops? Seinfeld reference for anyone taking that seriously)

A very castle-y looking castle

Me as the first king of portugal

Some of the school groups here that day were dressed up as Knights and were running around playing fake war. It was really adorable, but idk if mom would have liked the lack-of-railing that was in this castle.

Im falling! I need some chicken chunks! (anyone not in my immediate family can completely ignore that comment and pretend we are normal)

Here is Bruna, me, Barbara, and Solon (who is Barbara's Boyfriends from this city).

American in Portugal

The logo for the city 

"here was founded Portugal"

Some Portuguese language for thought

Bruna and Barbara imitating a fountain 

We seemed to do a lot of lounging, but something about perfect weather makes laying around the perfect thing to do.

Here was a ceramic fountain room in the garden.

We had an afternoon tea time with Solon's parents. They had orange trees in their yard and made freshly squeezed orange juice and his mom made all of these delicious cakes and sweets to eat. I find that they really push you to eat as much food as humanly possible. Everytime you think you are too full to eat, someone is shoveling more food onto your plate.

Here we all are at sunset from the top of the mountain.

We went back into the city at night, and all of the windows are lit up. It feels like "Disney's Portugal" as mom would say.

The next day we went to Porto, but since there was a strike on the railway we had to take the bus. Here I am in Vila Real waiting for the bus.

 As soon as we got to Porto, we headed straight for the water

The water was FREEZING!! but there were groups of brave people battling the cold. Mostly surfers. Apparently this is an area for extreme surfers to practice.

behind me in the picture above is a castle that translates to the cheese castle. I thought it was humorous to call it the cheese castle all the time.

A wedding on the beach

We always do a jumping picture or two ;)

me getting frustrated at the waves

This is my "My spring break was better than yours" pose

Yes, we took a million pictures on the beech, but it was too nice out not to.

me by the water at sunset

This, I believe, is one of the most calming places in the world.

**ahhemm may or may not have dyed the underside of my hair red before this trip**

Bruna looking very relaxed by the water

I think that this is one of my favorites of the day.

So after this we went to the main part of the city to catch another bus to Coimbra, which is the University town where Bruna, Barbara, Solon, and Miguel go to college.

The next day we walked to the river in Coimbra

The whole town in on this hill, and it was really impressive to see a million white houses with red roofs. After having lunch and walking around for a bit, we decided to go to a different river where you could swim. Although I did not have a swim suit, I got to walk in up to my shorts. This little swimming hole just felt like the middle of nowhere. The whole time I could hear a rooster crowing.

I felt like Indiana Jones crossing this bridge

Here is Miguel in the water

Me getting sunburnt with the biggest grin on my face

Couldnt pass up a Magnum bar

:)

Here are some Orange trees.... I considered stealing a sneaky orange... but then thought against it.

Later that night we explored the University. This is the Law department, and where Barbara goes to school.

Me wishing that this was my law school

Miguel looking out over his city

Really cool ceramic in the building. This university is one of the oldest in Europe.

A typical law classroom

Us in front of the University

We found some German in Portugal! Miguel actually pointed out to me that I accidently said something in German to a waiter one time.

Here is their dining halls for their University. The food there was really good for university dining. I thought mom would like to see the picture from the inside

So Bruna Barbara and Miguel were explaining to me a tradition of hazing the freshman. If the upperclassman wear the school uniform, they are allowed to make the first years do things. Here were the law freshman having to do something or another, while the ones in black were telling them what to do.

Later we went to a sort of mythical place for Coimbranese history. Apparently there was a peasant girl names Ines. A king fell in love with her, but since she was a peasant, it was doomed from the start. So people close to the king stabbed her. From this spot, a fountain formed and it was supposed to be from the heart of Ines. This was the forest that it supposedly happened in. 

We went exploring a little bit through this forest.

I took a picture of this movie theater so that everyone can see the titles of the movies in Portuguese. 

The next day we took, once again, a bus to Lisbon!

When we got out, we were at the site of the World's Fair from a couple of years back. I took a picture here because in the background you may be able to see a bridge which is one of the longest in Europe at 17 km.

Once again, I love the way the streets looked in Portugal.

a potuguese poet

We somehow always make it back to water. I think we were both pulled in because it is the opposite of Bonn

This was a pretty famous pastry shop. The pastries were creamy in the middle, but had a crispy pie crust. It was really delicious.

Here is the tower that is a monument to the discoveries that was built during the dictatorship

Here we are on top of the tower to the discoveries

This was really the threshold to the rest of the world at one point, and it kind of felt like that. It felt like we were on the corner of the world ready to set out and discover it all

pineapple soda?

This was the old fort that ships would have to pass before getting to Lisbon

Portuguese and EU flag

That night we went back to Coimbra to sleep. The next day we met up with Miguel, Barbara, and Solon in a park, which luckily for us had a ropes course in it.

Miguel and I decided to do it while the others did errands. We did a total of 4 separate courses and then a couple of long zip lines and then a "free fall" from the top of one of the trees. It was really surreal to be there, not only because we were doing a ropes course in the middle of Portugal, but also because the owner was German, so when she was giving her directions (in English) and forgot a word she would ask us.... small world. 

After this we went into Bruna's old university house so that she could practice the piano for a bit. I took this picture below from her balcony.

Bruna on her piano

That night we went out for dinner with Bruna's uncle, whose house we had been staying at, and who is also a professor at Bruna's university. We had a local delicacy which was translated to me as "Little pig." Basically it came out on a big platter with the meat of the piglet. It stood up to the hype because I forced myself to eat about twice as much as I probably should have 

The next morning we returned back to Vila Real via the bus. Once we were there, Bruna wanted to get her hair cut before returning to Deutschland, so Bruna's father and Barbara took me on a road trip through some of the surrounding towns, including where they make Port wine.

I dont know why, but I felt like this was the perfect was to spend my last evening in Portugal. It was so relaxing and we were winding through roads up and down the mountains watching the sunset. 

Here I am with the vineyards in the background.

Later that evening, after dinner, the family asked if I could try to get my family on skype.... little did I know that after calling mom and dad, they proceeded to serenade my dad with "Happy Birthday" in Portuguese. I think that dad was more thrilled than anyone would have ever predicted. But I really felt very very welcomed into the Botelho family. The next morning we all hoped into the car at 6:45am to get to the airport, and when I say the whole family, I mean the WHOLE family came along to wish us well. Somehow the one cloudy day in Portugal was the day we left. It was mother nature telling us our vacations is over.

When people ask me now about my trip to Portugal what I usually say is that it is the only trip where I havent felt like a tourist visiting, I really felt like I was on vacation. I think after visiting Portugal, a part of me wonders why I had to chose German and not be able to lay on a beach all day in Portugal or something..... but that was just a small part

(for dad ^)