Lisboa
It's been a busy few days and I've got so much to catch you up on. I got to Lisbon 2 days ago and settled in after a quick walk through Praca do Comercio. I got to check out the Rua Augusta arch against a moody sky too.
And then there was yesterday. I did that thing again where I tried to fit in too much into a day, but boy, was it good.
I started off with a walking tour through the Alfama area. It was quite interesting - not the best tour I've done, but still informative. Here are some history snippets and pics from the tour:
Here is a picture of the graffiti describing Maria Siveira and a traffic situation. Someone decided to stop their van in the middle of a tiny road and blocked an overflowing tram and car traffic.
And that was only half my day. I rushed back to the hostel so I could join a Sintra tour. The driver who took us was pretty awesome. He had a lot of tidbits to share and also introduced us to a variety of Portuguese music. In Sintra we visited the Quinta de Regaleira which was the summer residence of an affluent family. The grounds were pretty amazing. My favorite was the Initiatic well which is a subterranean tower. With the clouds around us, climbing down the well was mystical. There was also this weird "all roads lead to Rome" thing where we kept looking for different things but ending up in the same place!
And then on the way back, I got to try Ginja (a sweet cherry liquor) in a dark chocolate cup, a local amaretto type liquor and the most amazing pastry ever. The Pastel de belem is like a custard tart in puff pastry. It was so heavenly that I went and got another one today.
Ended my day with some peri peri chicken at the hostel and a game of fish bowl with some of the other people here.
Early this morning, I made my way to the Belem area and found my local residence in Lisbon. I'm not sure what Madonna is talking about when she says it's hard to find a place to stay here. I found one in 2 days. It's a little rundown but definitely has potential 😉.
On reaching Belem, I visited the Jerónimo monastery and it's cloister. It had long lines but it was worth the wait. The cloister itself was beautiful. They also have this awesome spread where they show major events from all over the world and how they coincided with each other. It was very educational. Check out the genealogy chart below. I've always been curious to learn more about my heritage and past and wanted to build something similar. I will be spending some time when I am back looking through old records and tapping into grand-aunties and uncle's for more information. How exactly did my name come along? What did history actually look like for my family?
Before heading back and writing this post I also stopped by the monument of discovery, the pink street (prior red light district) and finished off with lunch at Time out. Near the monument of discovery, I got a great view of the 25 De Abril bridge (previously called the Salazar bridge) and the replica statue of Christ the King. Apparently they ran out of money which is why the statue is so small compared to the rest of the monument 😂.
What now? I'm going to take it easy for the rest of the day - enjoy my second pastel de belem and prep for my last day of sightseeing in Lisbon tomorrow. It's almost time to go back home!
Fun konkani portuguése word similarity: ingreja in Portuguése and igerji in konkani both mean church. I'll have to look for more 😊
And then there was yesterday. I did that thing again where I tried to fit in too much into a day, but boy, was it good.
I started off with a walking tour through the Alfama area. It was quite interesting - not the best tour I've done, but still informative. Here are some history snippets and pics from the tour:
- Lisbon has its own version of Jon Snow - a bastard prince who was gorgeous and destined to became king 😊. They have a statue dedicated to him in a square called the Fig tree square.
- The Fig tree square has no Fig trees. It had a bunch before the earthquake of 1754 that destroyed a lot of Lisbon (led to a fire and tsunami) and kept it's name.
- We then walked past a doll hospital - now a doll museum (creepy or cute?).
- Heard about Martim Moniz, a cool warrior guy who has a Plaza dedicated to him. He was a knight who helped the Christians defeat the Moors by holding open the gate with his body (the gates closed on him so he acted as a door stopper).
- Continuing the walk, we got to Alfama which is the neighborhood where the Moors were driven to after their defeat. It's super artsy and has a bunch of cool photos on the streets and graffiti along the way.
- Learned about the origins of Fado - a prostitute Maria Siveira snubbed by the nobleman she loved began singing sad heartfelt songs in the streets. It became a tradition after she died at the age of 26 for prostitutes to continue singing Fado with the Portuguese guitar (it has 12 strings).
- Saw a picture of St. Anthony, the matchmaking Saint. On June 12th, there is a festival here where single people get mad at him and couples celebrate him 🙄.
- Tile art of Amalia Rodriguez who was the first Fado singer to turn the music professional. She brought Fado music worldwide fame. This kind of tile work is all over the Lisbon area and is fitted together like a jigsaw. There are people hired (apparently big bellied guys with their beer mugs) to fix a single piece as soon as it comes out so the surrounding pieces do not get dislodged.
Here is a picture of the graffiti describing Maria Siveira and a traffic situation. Someone decided to stop their van in the middle of a tiny road and blocked an overflowing tram and car traffic.
And that was only half my day. I rushed back to the hostel so I could join a Sintra tour. The driver who took us was pretty awesome. He had a lot of tidbits to share and also introduced us to a variety of Portuguese music. In Sintra we visited the Quinta de Regaleira which was the summer residence of an affluent family. The grounds were pretty amazing. My favorite was the Initiatic well which is a subterranean tower. With the clouds around us, climbing down the well was mystical. There was also this weird "all roads lead to Rome" thing where we kept looking for different things but ending up in the same place!
And then on the way back, I got to try Ginja (a sweet cherry liquor) in a dark chocolate cup, a local amaretto type liquor and the most amazing pastry ever. The Pastel de belem is like a custard tart in puff pastry. It was so heavenly that I went and got another one today.
Ended my day with some peri peri chicken at the hostel and a game of fish bowl with some of the other people here.
Early this morning, I made my way to the Belem area and found my local residence in Lisbon. I'm not sure what Madonna is talking about when she says it's hard to find a place to stay here. I found one in 2 days. It's a little rundown but definitely has potential 😉.
On reaching Belem, I visited the Jerónimo monastery and it's cloister. It had long lines but it was worth the wait. The cloister itself was beautiful. They also have this awesome spread where they show major events from all over the world and how they coincided with each other. It was very educational. Check out the genealogy chart below. I've always been curious to learn more about my heritage and past and wanted to build something similar. I will be spending some time when I am back looking through old records and tapping into grand-aunties and uncle's for more information. How exactly did my name come along? What did history actually look like for my family?
Before heading back and writing this post I also stopped by the monument of discovery, the pink street (prior red light district) and finished off with lunch at Time out. Near the monument of discovery, I got a great view of the 25 De Abril bridge (previously called the Salazar bridge) and the replica statue of Christ the King. Apparently they ran out of money which is why the statue is so small compared to the rest of the monument 😂.
What now? I'm going to take it easy for the rest of the day - enjoy my second pastel de belem and prep for my last day of sightseeing in Lisbon tomorrow. It's almost time to go back home!
Fun konkani portuguése word similarity: ingreja in Portuguése and igerji in konkani both mean church. I'll have to look for more 😊
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