Portugal: Nata, Roosters, y Vino Verde

Two weekends ago I was able to add another country to my list: Portugal! The only regret I have is that they didn't stamp our passports when we crossed the border. We visited two cities- the capital city of Lisbon (Lisboa in Spanish/Portuguese) and Évora, which is a World Heritage Site and still contains many medieval ruins. Overall, the weekend can be broken up into the three themes that title this blog post: Nata, Roosters, and Vino Verde.

Nata

Nata is the pastry that Portugal is famous for, and after tasting one it was easy to understand why. The rich, creamy, sweet custard is contained in a thin flaky pastry shell and topped with a thin baked sugar-crust. I had my first taste of nata during our first meal in Lisbon during Friday afternoon. This meal was a fiasco for everyone except for me, to say the least. A misleading carefree-looking outdoor cafe, the restaurant served me a delicious sandwich which was just like the phenomenally overly-buttery grilled cheese sandwiches that Pitt serves at Market Central, except with the added benefit of ham too. It was arguably the best sandwich I've ever had, with the exception of course of Panera, the number one sandwich place in my heart. They also brought me a pastry that was alternating layers of flaky pastry and a glaze with a slight orange flavor and tint. It was delicious! And the entire meal was more than filling, both for my taste buds and my stomach, and cost just five Euro! However while I was enjoying my meal, everyone else was near tears over theirs. One girl in our program decided to order just a "slice" of pizza. She was brought a slice of keish. The others at our table tried to explain to me what exactly keish is, and what I got from them is that it is made from eggs and some frightening added ingredients that do not sound at all like they would taste good as a breakfast food. The keish served at the restaurant in Lisbon was stone cold, and contained tuna. Our friend couldn't even swallow it. When she pointed out to our waiter that this was not what she ordered, he explained that she simply ordered a "slice", and "slices" of keish happened to be what they had at the time... Yeah, this didn't make much sense to me either. This was the main meal fiasco, however everyone else had something small wrong, whether their food just didn't taste good, had mysterious sauces, or wasn't heated properly. Also, in Europe there is no such thing as separate checks, so trying to pay for our meal (there were nine of us) was another story in itself! Thankfully this really was the only bad meal experience that we had.

After lunch, we proceeded to climb a hill to the Castle of Saõ Jorge. The castle was more of a fortress, yet still majestic and wonderful! There were so many passages and turrets to climb and discover. It was easy to see the enticement that castles held for royalty, and eventually for Disney movies! In addition to the castle itself being regal, there were wild peacocks roaming the castle grounds with feathers of the most vibrant and glowing blues and greens I have ever seen in my life.

In Lisbon we were treated to two nights in a five star hotel. I was still full from lunch when it came time for dinner on the first night, and while Emily went out to dinner with some other friends I took the first bath I've taken in probably ten years. It was sooo relaxing, and definitely worth using all the hot water in the hotel, which is what my friends blamed their cold showers later that night on (not at all sorry- the bath was definitely worth it). Naturally, the breakfasts in the mornings were the best part of the hotel. We took an hour at least every morning to stuff our stomachs as full as possible with the freshest fruit, most delicious breakfast pastries, and homemade jam with toast. It was so so delicious and definitely worth getting up early for. If I had to rank the meals that I had in Portugal, the breakfasts would win just slightly over the meal that we had on Saturday night while trying to navigate our way home from a gypsy camp (more on that later). The guys we were with wanted to stop for something called "kebabs," which definitely was out of my scope of foods that I was willing to try. However I am so glad that I finally caved to my stomach's callings and got one- a sliced roll filled with lettuce, cheese, spicy chicken, and hot sauce, the kebab was scrumptious! This is one time I am glad I was adventurous with my food tasting. Also probably the only time.

Roosters

Roosters are a cultural symbol in Portugal- we had seen them everywhere in Lisbon but didn't learn why until our visit to Évora. The legend behind them is that a king in Portugal relied on a rooster to prove the innocence of a supposedly guilty man, which is in reference to a Biblical story. Évora, as well as having roosters everywhere (as did Lisbon), also had everything you could ever want made out of cork. Cork trees covered the land outside the city walls (yes, there are still the actual original walls surrounding the city boundaries) and in almost every shop you could find goods of every kind made out of cork! Purses, luggages sets, wallets, neckties, shot glasses (which I caved and bought- how could you not?! A shot glass made out of cork? Come on), postcards, the list could go on and on! The cork was so fine and so soft it looked and felt like leather. Our tour guide even informed us that the purses made from cork could be washed! Everything that you see in the photo below is made from 100% cork! It was so incredible to see what the artists and craftsmen could do!

We received a full tour of the city of Évora, including the cathedral, the Roman ruins, and the most important place in Évora, the chapel of bones. 

The Chapel of Bones is built with 5,000 human skeletons, and bears the phrase "Nós ossos que aqui estamos pelos vossos esperamos," which translates to "We, the bones that are here, await yours." While definitely creepy, the message of the chapel was loud and clear, even without the inscription. It was enough to make anyone realize how definitely mortal we are, and that really we all are reduced to just bones and flesh. Or in the case of those unlucky 5,000 people who became the chapel, just bones. 

Vino Verde

Literally translated to "green wine", vino verde is a type of wine that is only found in Portugal, and is a sweet, bubbly white wine which appeals to all of my favorites when it comes to wine. I even bought a bottle to bring back with me! Our guides from ISA recommended that we try the vino verde, and after this suggestion proved to be worthwhile, we also took into consideration their other recommendations, including where to go at night and what to do during our free time on Saturday. Friday night we ventured into Barrio Alto, which is a neighborhood in Lisbon consisting of winding streets of bars upon bars. We met up with some of the guys from our trip, and walked around with them through streets crowded with early twenty-somethings carrying their drinks from bar to bar and singing and chanting in the streets. It was so easy to get separated from the group in the masses of people who were pressed together almost literally without room to breathe. We rounded a corner down one of these streets, and immediately found ourselves surrounded by men selling questionable substances. The drug laws in Portugal have been decriminalized, which was undoubtedly the reason for almost every man who came up to us on the street asking "you want marijuana?" in a muttered undertone at some point during the conversation. However the Portuguese police were out in full force, and dispersed any situation that seemed to be brewing.

I wish the Portuguese police had been present on Saturday, when we wandered into a gypsy flea market at sundown. However before I get ahead of myself to that story, I can't forget about the beautiful morning we had visiting several monuments near the beach of Lisbon. First, we went to a gigantic monestary.

Our second and final visit of the morning was to the Belém Tower, which is a tower located in the actual river that runs by Lisbon, right where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean. When originally constructed, the tower had been built almost exactly in the middle of the river for the protection of Lisbon. However after an earthquake a few hundred years after the building of the tower displaced much of the water of the Tagus River, the tower no longer stood in the middle, but at the shoreline. Today it only stands in a few meters of water. 

We had been intending to visit the market (fería in Portuguese) during the afternoon, however some members of our group wanted to take pictures from the top of the arch in the main square by the beach in Lisbon and we ended up getting separated while trying to wait for them. Not having cell phone service was definitely a struggle. But anyway, Emily and I conveniently met up with some other boys from our program and they accompanied us to the fería, which ended up being nearly triple the distance we originally thought it was from the arch. We reached it with the help of many many locals, who thankfully spoke English, right around dusk, when most of the stand owners were closing up shop. The boys we were with went crazy over the selection of scarves that were for sale! I think they each bought at least one. That's one European fashion trend that I hope boys bring back to the United States- scarves look good on guys too! The fería definitely would have been awesome and entrancing to visit had we been there maybe two hours earlier, however by this time it was getting a little sketchy. Now that most of the customers had disappeared, the stand owners were socializing amongst themselves and beginning to get a little rowdy. One obviously drunk man still holding a small box of wine in his hand stumbled over to us and began shouting things in Portuguese at Emily and I. I've never been so thankful to be traveling with five guys! We hurried away from the fería and began the long walk back home, however of course we didn't know quite how to get back without retracing our steps. After walking for a few minutes, we stopped at a deli to ask directions, and met the sweetest young German man who spoke perfect English and was willing to help us! I am so glad that most places in the world, niceness will always be met with niceness in return.

Overall I loved Portugal as a country- everyone I met was nice and polite and energetic and passionate about their country. I have to admit that I expected it to be pretty similar to Spain because of its proximity, but it was a completely different experience. I'm so glad that I chose a program that offered this excursion to us.