Where Fairytales Really Might Be Possible

Lisbon and Sintra

My excursion to Portugal came at the end of my week of midterms so I definitely felt like I needed a break. I hadn't gotten more than 4 or 5 hours of sleep each night the past two weeks so when I got to Portugal I was a little exhausted, but, since everything was so amazing, I didn't really care. After a 5 hour bus ride, we arrived at Hotel Vila Gale Opere and unloaded the lugged. The hotel was pretty cool because every floor was named after a different musical genre, and every room was named after a band. I was on the "Pop" floor, and I was in the Queen room. As soon as we unloaded our luggage, we headed out to walk around the city and see the sites around town. Lisbon is really interesting, and they say it's a mix between San Fransisco and Rome... I thought this was a really strange analogy at first, but it makes sense. They have a gigantic bridge that resembles the Golden Gate Bridge, the city frequently has problems with earthquakes, and there are trollies all over the place. However, the architecture resembles the Italian Renaissance and a conglomeration of other European influences.

The first monument we saw were the ruins of the Castillo de San Jorge, and they were pretty interesting, but I really appreciated the guitarrist sitting in the courtyard playing traditional portuguese music. It was a beautiful day, and we stayed until the sun was about to set. Since the castle was built as a fortress on a hill, you could see out over the whole city, and the view coupled with the music made the whole experience really charming.

After the castle, my friend Tori and I decided that we needed some coffee to keep us going the rest of the night; so, we wandered around the center of the city in search for some caffeine. Afer we found a cafe and ordered our drinks, we saw that they sold cream tarts--the traditional portuguese dessert. So, of course, we had to try one. It was delicious, and I must have eaten at least 6 more before the trip was over. Now that our appetites were wetted, we decided it would be a good idea to start looking for a place to have dinner. One really nice thing about Portugal is how cheap the food is, and one really nice thing about Tori is that she likes to share. So, we were eventually lured in by a matre 'd because he had the amazing talent of being able to spin a menu on his finger like it was a basket ball. Needless to say, I was incredibly impressed by this. We eventually ordered a Bacaloa stew and Prawn/Calamari skewers... everything was delicious. The best food I've had so far has been in Portugual. Anyway, since we were so tired, we decided to go back for an early night.

The next day we got to see the "barrio de Belem" which included the Monastery of Los Jeronimos and the Tower of Belem, and despite learning much about the history and culture of Portugal, neither of those are very important because afterwards, Tori, Courtney and I spent the remainder of the day and night in Sintra... my favorite place on earth.

Sintra is a little town a train ride away from Lisbon, and there really are no words to describe the mixture of quaint little houses and beautiful landscapes that make this place perfect. On top of that, there are three castles up in the mountains surrounding the town... the old moorish castle, the park and palace of Monserrate, and the park and palace of Pena. My favorite was the Palace of Pena because it was built by the Artist King Don Fernando II for his wife the princess of Portugal, Dona Maria II. It basically consists of three huge fairytale like, multi-colored castles, 5 lakes, and a throne carved into the side of the mountain. The three of us hiked around, and were in complete awe of the beauty that surrounded us.

Sadly, my pictures do not do it justice...

When it started to get dark, we decided to hike back down the mountain and take in as much of the scenery as we could possibly manage all the while letting out little gasps of disbelief of the magnificence of what surrounded us. When we arrived back in town, we meandered down the little streets, ducking into antique shops and books stores where we found old little relics and small examples of what life is like in Portugal. My favorite culture experience from the town was finding a bookstore that was playing "Fado" music out into the street. It's traditional folk music from Portugal, and it's very emotive. I wrote down the names of several artists so I could look them up when I get home... if anybody's interested ;) Anyway, we eventually got hungry, and decided to stop for dinner. Goodness, I can't even describe it... in simple gastronomic terms, we had braised pork rib with garlic cilantro casserole, creamed bacalao stew, and port to drink. Haha, it was really good. After dinner, we were so elated with our day that we basically had to wander around for another hour and let our enthusiasm wear off before we headed back to the hotel to pack for the trip home. It was an amazing day.

The Real Spain

So, I've had two recent adventures in Sevilla that have helped me to feel like I'm really and truly in Spain: Hiking and Flamenco.

1. Hiking (pronounced hee-keeng) through the sierras was really amazing because I got to see a totally different aspect of Spanish life. It was a strange experience because I had been in the center of the city for about two months, and I had almost forgotten what it was like to be out in the tranquility and solitude of nature. It was a morning hike so it was rather chilly, but the air was so fresh that it didn't matter. Tiny little farms spotted the hillsides, and every type of farm animal grazed freely on the pasture. All in all, it was a beautiful morning.

2. Flamenco is currently one of my favorite things, and it's suprising because I had a bad experience with flamenco classes when I was 15. Thank goodness the flamenco in Spain is nothing like the flamenco they try to teach in America--we're to rigid and uptight to really appreciate flamenco the way this older coulple is appreciating it...

Anyway, the night after the hike, a couple of my friends and I went to Triana (which is actually the city where flamenco originated), and found this little whole-in-the-wall kind of bar with people lined up around the block to get in. We figured we had better check it out if it was that popular, and it turns out that it was so much more than worth it. There were about 200 people crammed into the bar, and, out of all of them, only 4 of us were American. This place was owned by a woman who reminded me of the Spanish version of Paula Dean... so obviously much better. She was short and chubby and loud and boisterous, and she didn't charged an entrance fee, but she made sure that everyone in that whole place had something to drink. Then the music started. I used to stereotype flamenco music as being harsh and dissonant, but the songs I heard were beautiful even though they spoke mostly of the pain of lost love. Oddly, most of them were upbeat, and the whole crowd almost always sang and clapped along. The best part was the dancing--of course. But the reason it was so great was because the people from the audience were the one's to get up and dance. It didn't even feel like a performance; it felt like a big family get-together where your quirky Aunt Mildred and your crazy Uncle Fred dance togther and the rest of the family joins along in the merry-making. For the first time, I genuinely felt like I was experiencing another culture, and it was beautiful.