Welcome to a walk through Portugal: land of tasty pastries, gorgeous mountains, Porto wine, and fairytale castles! We adventured to Portugal for two main reasons. #1) We (as temporary Spaniards) share our lovely little Iberian Peninsula with Portugal, so we are literally next door neighbors, and it would be impolite not to meet your closest neighbor. #2) a darling Portuguese native found her way to Pamplona to study nursing for three months. It was in these three months that we encountered a friendship tied together with the struggles of adapting to another culture and language, several long talks, and a lot nights filled with dancing. Mafalda, our Portuguese cutie, invited us to visit her and adventure through her country (naturally something we couldn’t possibly turn down). The later of the two reasons single-handedly created the most amazing trip we could have had in Portugal. Mafalda, along with her posse of bubbly Portuguese friends and sweet family, showed us a Portugal that few tourists are privileged enough to see. She went out of her way to take care of us, find interesting foods for us to try, cook for us, search out great photo opportunities, and see as much as we could in the short week we had. The truth of travel is that it is ALWAYS better to visit someone who lives in the country because they can show you things you would never find on your own. For example, Belem pastries or Ovos Moles or Fado…but I get ahead of myself…
We start this story at the beginning…our first steps on Portuguese soil! We arrived in Porto, Portugal early in the morning after a night of train travel to find that our accommodations had fallen through…Mafalda, always coming to our rescue, offered for the four of us to stay with her family for the next several days. And so, after a whirlwind walk through Porto, we headed off to a small mountain pueblito named Sever. This tiny town wound up, down, around, and through a series of valleys and tree-studded mountains resulting in a picturesque view from every window of each brightly colored house (ours was pink!). Here is where we started our parade of yummy Portuguese pastries…we were quite pleased to find out that almost every city in Portugal boasted it’s own unique pastry and we were bound and determined to try them in every city we visited!
Dessert #1) Tripa –Picture a thick gooey crepe filled with cheese or jam or chocolate. They are served piping hot with cinnamon liberally sprinkled over the top! (Made only in Sever)
Dessert #2) Bolachas – A crunchy version of tripa. When we went to visit the Bolacha-man’s stand, he greeted us (as almost all Portuguese did) with a warm smile, a hearty welcome, and free food! The Bolacha-man was so pleased that we were visiting Sever all the way from America that he gave us each a free Bolacha just to try, assuring us that they were the best ones in all of Portugal. Inside of our Bolachas was another specialty to that region: Ovos Moles. We tried and tried to figure out exactly what Ovos Moles was to no avail…it is some kind of an egg-yolk, super sugary mixture that can be cooked into pastry or used as a jam.
After our taste of pastries, we went hiking through the forest down to a cool waterfall near the house. We sat munching freshly picked cherries and catching up on life near the rush of the cool water…a perfect place to reconnect with a good friend. This little town actually remained my a favorite of mine for the whole trip because I felt like we got a taste of true Portugal, not the Portugal thousands of tourists venture to see, but the Portugal the natives call home! Indeed, we certainly TASTED Portugal with Mafalda’s family…they cooked for us every night and made delicious Portuguese dishes with pork and potatoes, cabbage and chicken, fish and onions. Each one was better than the last and it was so wonderful to be cooked for by parents and surrounded by a family. On our last day with her family, we went to her aunt’s restaurant and ate some amazing dishes: Bacalao (cod-like fish) with potatoes and onions, several different appetizers including Portuguese olives and Rissol (empanada-like battered cheese and meat), a second full-course of pork roast, potatoes and rice, bread, pate, and of course dessert. We also got to try Vinho Verde (wine made from green grapes that retains a greenish tinge and a light sweet flavor). It was amazing and we felt so blessed that they went out of their way to share it with us…we tried to express our thanks as best as we could, but we had to struggle through with only a few Portuguese words (Obrigada, which means thank-you, we used over a hundred times) and a lot of hand signals and smiles!
While we stayed with the family, we took two day trips: one to Aveiro and one to Porto. Our trip to Aveiro proved to be my favorite part of Portugal for a few important reasons. #1) it was a beach-town where we got a chance to dance in the Atlantic Ocean, dig our toes in the sand, and try to look across to see America. #2) this particular beach town boasted an amazing set of brightly painted striped-houses! #3) Aveiro is famous for Ovos Moles! #4) we had time to wander around and just enjoy walking and exploring and BEING in a new place. And #5) we had our first encounter with THE ROOSTER! It was in Aveiro that we first discovered the “Galo de Barcelos” or “rooster from Barcelos,” a famous symbol throughout Portugal. The story goes that a Pilgrim was passing through Barcelos on his way to Santiago de Compostela when he was wrongly accused of stealing some food. Knowing he was innocent and not wanting to die, the pilgrim made a bargain with the judge, stating that if he were indeed innocent then a cooked rooster would rise up from his plate and crow! Because of his strong faith, the miracle happened and the pilgrim was freed. This story is remembered throughout Portugal through the emblem of a brightly colored wooden rooster that takes the form of pendants, key chains, charms, posters, oven mitts, and card decks. For some reason, we all fell in love with our “Galo de Barcelos” and were delighted to find him everywhere we went!
Dessert #3) Ovos Moles – That same egg-yolk sugar mixture used in the bolachas was now used to make a series of unusual, eggy baked pastries. The flavor was so distinct and very good, but super sweet so I could only eat a few.
Dessert #4) Pâo de Ló – a fluffy angel-food-cake-like pastry made (count ‘em) with 24 egg-yolks!
We also visited Porto and tried the famous Porto wine, a strong wine with 20% alcohol due to the fact that Brandy is added to stop the fermentation process and fortify the wine. The tawny wine has a deep flavor, whereas the white Porto is a bit sweeter, and it was fun to see the winery and learn about the making of Porto. While in Porto, we took a leisurely boat ride up the river to see the city, spotted with wineries, and the mouth of the river as it opens into the Atlantic Ocean. We also visited the Palacio de Bolso, an ornate old stock exchange building and business center, with intricately pieced together wood floors and Alhambra-style Arabic designs. (Here we got the chance to practice our middling Portuguese, as the tour was in Portuguese! I was surprised to find that if I listened very closely and turned my brain to 100% active, I could piece together quite a bit of what our guide was saying by utilizing all the similarities to Spanish).
Dessert #5) Doçe de Céu – a creamy pudding with a graham cracker base and burnt sugar glaze. Yum!
We hopped on a train and in less than an hour we arrived in Coimbra, home to the oldest University in Europe and one of the largest academic festivals in the world. We planned to be there right in time for the big kick-off of the festival: the parade! All of the individual colleges created huge floats on the back of trucks complete with chicken wire, tissue paper, and streamers. The kicker is that this parade trumped any parade I have ever seen because instead of tossing a few pieces of candy to eager bystanders, these college students doled out sandwiches, beer, water, juice, candy, chips, chocolate, cake, and whatever else they had to anyone and everyone! All you had to do was squirm your way through the crowd and put your hand in the air and someone would place something to eat or drink into your waiting hand, for absolutely free! The months previous, the students ask local businesses to sponsor their floats so they have enough food and drinks to last all day! It was an amazing festival to be a part of!
All the student of Portugal are required to buy a very formal three-piece suit when they enter the university that they will use for all four years: they wear it for graduations, formal events, initiation of the students, concerts, and, just to get enough use out of it, every Thursday. J All the student were wearing their formal attire for the parade and party, and because a long black cape is part of the ensemble, we felt a bit like we had discovered J.K. Rowling’s inspiration for Harry Potter! I kept expecting Hermione to jump out at me from around a corner or run into Snape pushing through the crowd for a free beer. The seniors were set apart by a special addition to the suit: top hats, canes, and bow ties to match their respective school colors (education was orange). We also found out that the best way to wish a Portuguese graduate good luck after school is to grab his or her cane, and whap them three times over the head with it – afterwards, I suppose to soften the blows (so to speak) you give them three kisses! It was so great to see the whole town turned out for the festival: grandparents in lawn chairs, mothers crying as the graduates strolled around in their regal top hats, envious younger siblings craning to see inside the floats, and of course the students, eager to blow off a semester worth of pent-up stress and anxiety. Definitely one of the best festivals I have ever seen…it even rivaled St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, and that says a lot!
Dessert #6) Aletria – A cinnamon-lemon sweet pudding made with very fine noodles, milk, sugar, and of course egg yolks. (noticing a trend?) Mafalda and her friends tried to make it for us, and although we loved it, they assured us that it didn’t turn out right and that their moms were the real ones that could make it to die for…I guess some things are the same in every country!
Next we headed to Lisboa. The train only took a few hours and we utilized every minute of it to hone our horrible Portuguese! We were desperately picking up bits and pieces of Portuguese, but our vocab was still very limited and our pronunciation terribly foreign. Among the words we learned, some of the most important are:
Tudo Bem? – How are you?
Es Giru (Esh Giroo) – It’s so cute!
Fixe (Fish) – super cool
Fallas Ingles? (Fallas Ingleysh) – Do you speak English?
Casas Conmigo? (Cashas Conmigoo) – Will you marry me?
Estou Perdido (Eshtou Perdidoo) – I am lost
I am sure we looked and sounded completely ridiculous trying to find the correct pronunciation of each word. Just picture 4 foreign girls sitting in a train repeating over and over again “Theenk you, thank eww, tank ooo, thanke ooo, thunk you, thank you….yes that’s it, thank you” and then moving on to the next word to butcher! J
First stop: Belem, a small suburb of Portugal home to the Torre de Belem, Monasterio de Jeronimo, and the Belem pastry. If you ask anyone in Portugal, you will find out that the latter is the most important, so I will address that one first!
Dessert #7) Pasteis de Belem – a warm tart filled with a special, secret crème filling that has been carefully guarded throughout the almost 200 years these pastries have been manufactured. I honestly can’t tell you what made them so delicious, but I can tell you that I understand why everyone we talked with (and some people who just randomly pulled us aside on the street) forcefully demanded that we stop in to try them!
We actually didn’t get a chance to see that much in Belem because everything was closed…but we got a surprise bonus! On accident we stumbled across a huge ceremony in front of the Monastery and saw the King of Sweden greeted by the President of Portugal! We later found out that they were meeting for renewable energy talks and that the president’s house is in Belem, but that was a neat surprise!
After Belem, we headed to Sintra – a fairy tale city with castles around every corner, hidden in the middle of a huge forest and home to its own microclimate. My favorite palace in Sintra was the National palace, which featured the most beautiful ceilings I have ever seen: each room decorated with a different style and often a different type of bird. The chapel walls were covered with cooing doves, the ladies-in-waiting room decorated with fitting magpies, the regal bedroom adorned with graceful swans. The Palace itself used to be a harem for the sultan before the Portuguese recaptured Sintra, drove out the sultan, and turned the harem into a national palace. Wow – who wouldn’t love a history like that?
We really didn’t have very much time in Lisboa because we had to head back to school, but before we took off, thanks to Mafalda and her gracious friends, we got a chance to see a Fado show. Now, Fado is a musical style from and only used in Portugal. It has been called a melancholic Flamenco…but I wouldn’t say that at all. What Fado lacks in stomps, claps, and twirls, it makes up for in resonating notes, deep pauses, and meaningful lyrics…what ties Fado and Flamenco together is passion. Both music types are imbued with the kind of passion you feel in every timber of your body, from your eyebrows to your toenails. Fado is the kind of music that can soothe a broken heart or bring peace to a restless spirit, but it can also inspire a revolution or turn friends into lovers. Listening to Fado, surrounded by new and old friends in a dingy bar packed with locals was one of my favorite experiences in Portugal; Mafalda and her friends did their best to whisper rough translations to us…but as music lovers know – music doesn’t ever have to have a translation. Passion translates to everyone.
