Lisbon

My last European city. How did 4 months go by already?  The last couple days were spent in Lisbon and I quite enjoyed them....

Praça do Comercio and Rua Augusta

Arco da Victoria, the biggest crowd-puller on Praça do Comercio

Praça do Comercio with statue of Dom José I. He was largely responsible for rebuilding Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake. He survived the destruction of his palace because he was strolling in a nearby area. He subsequently developed a fear of enclosed spaces and spent the rest of his life living in spacious, pimped-out tents. 

Having supper at Home Hostel, with Mamma sitting at the head of the table. This lady is fantastic and so warm!  She prepared home-cooked meals for her guests every night, with unlimited sangria. It was an amazing way to bookend my trip, and it was one of my favorite hostels ever. Also enjoying the company of new friends, mainly Lindsay (next to me in red), Bria (in white at left) and Steph (second left). 

Lindsay actually bought me some pastéis de nada, knowing I couldn't make it to the specialty pasteleria in neighboring town Belém.... Isn't she beautiful? What a sweetheart! 

  Oh boy!  It's gonna be awesome...

Lisbon's Sé (Cathedral), built in 1150 on the site of a mosque.

Panteao Nacional, originally meant to be a church, but now a mausoleum, where many prominent Portuguese personalities are buried.

In 1755, while most citizens were attending Mass on All Saint's Day, Lisbon suffered three massive earthquakes, followed by a tsunami and devastating fires. One-third of its population was killed and three-fourths of the city was ruined, never to regain its former glory. It did, however, become the world's first-ever city built on a grid, which was considered to be cheap and earthquake-proof. 

The Catholic Church, rather than believe that they were being punished for their bloody Inquisition, chose to think they hadn't done enough to punish the heretics: 
<<After the earthquake, the University of Coimbra declared that burning a few more people alive by a slow fire, and with great ceremony, was an infallible secret for preventing earthquakes.>> Voltaire, 1759 

Wow, so ends my European portion of my round-the-world trip!  Thank you so much for following my stories through thick and thin, but forgive me if I'm excited to return to friends, family and reality for the next bit.... 

A long 11-hour flight brings me from Lisbon to Toronto. And what do I see while coming down the escalator at Pearson?  Tim's!!!  Yeah, you know I went straight for the sweet stuff.... My love affair with cheap, sub-par coffee picks up right where it left off...

It seems I've arrived just in the nick of time. The biggest snow and ice storm in 15 years shuts down Pearson and Eastern Canada just a few hours after I arrive... My heart goes out to the HALF-MILLION people without electricity, Internet or water in this cold weather.... I sincerely hope the weather will recover in time for everyone to be with their loved ones by Xmas time.

I will spend the next few weeks in Sudbury with family and friends.... Will be here until Jan 8th, when all 5 of us leave for a belated Xmas vacation together.... Until then, I can be reached at (705) 897.6054... Love you guys, your support means so much to me!  xxx 

Guimaraes

Guimaraes holds a special place in Portugal's heart, I've been told. It was the birthplace of Afonso Henriques, the first independent King of Portugal and its founding hero. When the Christian Reconquista heated up in the late 1100s, he used the city of Guimaraes as a launching pad against the Moors.  

It was also chosen as the European Capital of Culture in 2012. 

Built over 1,000 years ago, this castle was the birthplace of the great man himself.

A charming little town... I spent a few hours walking around on my last day in the Porto area....

Paço dos Duques de Bragança (Palace of the Dukes of Bragança), built in 1401. The Braganças were the most noble and powerful family in Portugal at the time. Their eventual ascension to the throne in 1640 ended Spain's 60-year domination of Portuguese, and their descendants ruled until the dissolution of the monarchy in 1910. 

 The Paço was restored in 1937 by Portugal's dictator Salazar. He apparently ruled the country in true dictator form. He brought prosperity to the country's failed economy, but at enormous human cost: censorship, brute force of secret police, imprisonment, torture and death to silence all opponents. A deeply pious man, he had the backing of the Catholic Church and so, ruled until 1974.

Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Oliviera

That's about it!  Heading to Lisbon now... Only 3 more sleeps and I'll be back on Canadian soil...  Thanks for reading!  xx

Porto Part 2

Today's a beautiful sunny day, so I set out to explore Porto further with GoLocal, a tour company run by two best friends who've been hanging out at the hostel and whom I have grown to like. The video they produced of our day is on my Facebook page, but here are some photos of the highlights.

As the region's former capital, Porto's original Roman name was Portus Cale (the country was eventually Portugal after its beautiful capital).  In the 1400s, British wine merchants were forbidden to trade with the French, so they set up camp along the river Douro. Their presence continues to this day, evidenced by celebrated port labels such as Taylor's and Graham's. 


Before setting off, Marcos gets hit by friendly fire from the sea gulls.

Fabulous view of Porto, taken from Gaia across the river. We walked along the top deck of the blue bridge below; I was very brave!

Looking a little wooden here; I remember trying to smile and not to think about how high up I was...

Jaana and I met in the hostel this morning; she was born and raised in Canmore!  Not kidding. What are the odds of that ?!?!

                                 

One segment of the tour included hunting down pastries. Is it wrong that I signed up partly for this ?!?!

But I end up controlling my sweet tooth....  Café con leche and meat pie for lunch.... 

For all you Harry Potter fans out there.... You might already know that J.K. Rowling was married to a Portuguese man and taught at an elementary school in Porto... While going through a nasty divorce, she spent a lot of time writing her first Harry Potter novels in this beautiful bookstore. 

Her inspiration for the moving staircases at Hogwarts?  Check out the interior of the bookstore (not my photo... they didn't allow photography.)

Also, students at the University of Porto traditionally wear long black cloaks; we saw many of them walking around the streets of the city. Remind you of anyone?

The English left a few traces behind... Red phone booths... Also, the train rail lines run on the 'wrong' side of the tracks...  Kinda cool, actually.

Tour is done! Spent the evening drinking port with Jaana and focused on going to bed before 2am this time... 

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This is pastéis de bacalhao. It's a cod cake. Mashed potatoes and cod blended together, with a bit of green onion, then deep-fried. It was delicious!  Bacalhao (salted cod) is the country's go-to dish; they proudly claim to have 1,001 cod recipes. There's even a cooking magazine titled Bacalhau.

This disgusting contraption is called a Francesinha, a local specialty. A sandwich stuffed with beef, pork and chicken, then covered over with melted cheese and a fried egg, then smothered with a spicy, beer-flavored sauce. Fries on the side. Jaana and I each got flack for ordering this half-portion, but I was already shaving a few years off my life with this half-sandwich...

More pastries! These treats were shared between 3 of us : a Napolitana (square pastry), a pasteis de nata (burned like crème brulée at right) and a lemon custard tart. The pasteis de nata was the best by far; understandably, as it is Portugal's most coveted dessert.

Tomorrow, I'm visiting the town of Guimaraes, about an hour from Porto.... Thanks for reading! xxx

Porto Part 1

I traveled from Évora to Porto by bus today, a good 8-hour journey. Caught up on my personal reading (Fall of Giants by Ken Follett -- so gripping!) and listened to tunes while admiring the landscape. I was looking forward to seeing Porto again after 7 years and to being in a bustling city.

Unfortunately, my minor travel woes did not limit themselves to Tavira and Évora...  The bus had a near-accident which sent all the passengers sprawling and a few phones rattling down the aisle. I banged my kneecap quite hard on the plastic seat in front of mine. By the time I got off the bus, my knee had swollen up considerably and I was having a hard time bending it, but I was still able to walk on it thankfully.... It was drizzling when I arrived in Porto and the bus driver refused to let me off at the designated stop, which meant I had no idea where I'd been dropped off or how to get to my hostel... No one at the bus station could tell me where the hostel was, so I wandered in the rain looking for tourist information or a landmark I could recognize, to no avail. My knee was really starting to scream at me and rain was soaking through my jacket. Now, this is the kind of situation that can really send me in a bad mood; it was so frustrating! Some poor soul in a coffee shop finally figured out where I was in relation to my hostel and sent me off in the right direction. I found a new spring in my step knowing I was only 15-20 minutes away from a dry hostel and a hot shower. As I'm walking, some intoxicated man on the street whips his stuff out and starts peeing a few feet away from me. Unfortunately, I'm moving too carefully because of my knee (and I've got a heavy backpack on), so what happens?  I can't get out of the way fast enough and his pee splashes all over my boots!!!!!!!  Passersby were yelling at him, but he just laughed us off. (It could have been worse --I could have been wearing my flip-flops). Still, by the time I checked into the hostel, I was ready for a good shower (I took my boots in there with me) and a good, pissed-off cry before getting a good night's sleep. It's not always rainbows and sunshine, folks! 

Here's an overview of what the next day was like in Porto:

Walking tour organized by the hostel and led by Anna, a former teacher whose job was cut in the economic crisis. I was happy to support her new career!  It was a rainy day again and we were soaked to the bone by the time the tour was over, but what a great way to get a first glimpse of the city. Notice I'm wearing my flip-flops and not my pee boots, eeewwww...

Sao Bento train station, which used to be a convent. These blue and white painted tiles are called azulejos.  This art form was introduced by the Moors, but the Portuguese loved it and went to town with it; azulejos can be found everywhere in Portugal.

Igreja de Santa Clara, with gold plastered all over its insides. Many Portuguese churches were decorated in this manner, after the conquest of Brazil brought enormous wealth to the country.

My awesome hostel is located at the foot of the tallest tower in the city, Torre dos Clérigos.

The Douro River

Across from Porto, on the opposite banks of the Douro River, is Gaia, where all the port cellars are located. Despite my best intentions, I didn't take a cellar tour-- but I did enjoy my fair share of port while I was at the hostel!

The streets of the Moorish quarter are very narrow, in typical Moroccan style. This keeps the sunshine out of the alleyways in the summer and consequently, keeps the houses cool.

                   

That's all for today!  Met some fun people at the hostel and rounded out the day with a bottle of port in the living room, chatting away with other backpackers. A good day, in the end...