Mary Lou's Portugal Journal #12

Greetings,

I hope this finds you all in good health and ready to enjoy the summer.

We enjoyed having my sister and brother in law here for two weeks. After visiting Guimarães (see my last write-up) Bonnie and Randy spent 5 days seeing a bit of Lisbon, Cascais and Sintra before returning to Porto. Anxious to see the Douro Valley we booked a tour and spent the day visiting a couple of wineries, learning a lot about the stomping of the grapes (body heat and sweat are an important part of it) and why the soil in the Douro Valley is so perfect for growing wine (it's the shale). On the way there, our tour made a coffee/pastry stop in the very charming town Amarante. As we were walking around I was rather surprised to see an unusual pastry in a shop window, see photo attached. My sister ran in and purchased one for Nick, and yes, it has a creamy filling and it's the official pastry of the town. Wanting to know more about this unusual pastry I googled it and learned the following: Amarante is sedate and conservative town obsessed with cakes shaped to look like the male member. São Gonçalo the 13th-Century saint, is said to have settled in the town after making pilgrimages to Italy and Jerusalem as a Benedictine monk, and while no claims are being made about his physical attributes, legend holds that he was possessed of Cupid-like gifts. The cakes, known locally as doces fálicos (literally, “phallic sweets”) are handed out together with locally-harvested dried figs at ceremonies held each January (on the anniversary of São Gonçalo’s death) to usher in a “fertile and favorable” year. It’s a tribute to the cakes’ popularity and, ahem, staying power, that they are available at all today—banned as “obscene” by the right-wing dictatorship that took control of Portugal in the 1920s, the cakes were baked and exchanged in secret until the Carnation Revolution of 1974—the peaceful uprising that returned Portugal to Democracy.

May is college graduation time here in Portugal and there were huge celebrations for a week. Called the Queima das Fitas (Burning of the ribbons), graduating students enjoyed a wide range of activities from parading around town in their uniforms with colorful top hats and canes, attending nightly concerts by well known national bands, drinking, attending teas and a gala ball, drinking, and burning the ribbons which signify which academic studies they pursued (Law - red; Medicine - yellow; Humanities - dark blue; Science and Technology - light blue; Pharmacy - purple; Economics - red and white; Psychology and Education Sciences - orange; and Sports Sciences - brown). While we didn't attend any of these events, many of which are open to the public, we heard them every night because the large city park nearby was the main location for all the concerts. Lots of drums!

May was also the time for the huge Eurovision event. While I have heard the term before I never really paid attention to it until now. This event is bigger than the Super Bowl, even bigger than Beyonce and this year 162 million people turned in to watch. All European countries have their own competition to select the best song/performer to represent their country. I love Portugal's entry this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NmF5otCtqU. Unfortunately, this year's winner was Sweden. Notable winners in the past include Celine Dion (Switzerland) and Abba (Sweden), while others who participated in the past and didn't win include Lulu (UK), Olivia Newton-John (UK), Englebert Humperdinck (UK), and Julio Iglesias (Spain).

Property taxes here are due in May and though we applied for the 3-year exemption we're allowed, we received a notice telling us we were approved for two years instead so we headed to the local finance office to get clarification (and we were able to get the three-year exemption). While waiting in line the gentleman in front of us heard us speaking English and started chatting with us. Jamie is from Southern CA and his wife is originally from Sacramento. They moved here 1.5 years ago and they too purchased an apartment and were trying to verify their exemption. As it turns out, Jamie is also the volunteer head of the Porto chapter of Afpop, which is an organization that helps expats from all over the globe here in Portugal. He invited us to attend a tour of the Super Bock facility in Matosinhos the following day with his group. Super Bock is the #1 selling beer in Portugal and while I don't drink beer, the tour was great. The brand was founded in 1927 and has won 39 gold medals. In 1927 the CEO realized that most of their workers had to walk great distances to get to work and were exhausted when they arrived. This was during the Salazar regime when most people were too poor to own a car, so the CEO decided that they would serve breakfast to all employees when they arrived at work ... a practice that is still in force today. Then he decided to invest in some buses to pick up the employees and bring them to work and take them home at the end of the day. Salazar wouldn't allow the Portuguese to drink anything other than beverages made in Portugal so Super Bock also started producing a coca cola type beverage (Snappy Cola) as well. Today they have a number of lines of sodas, bottled waters, ciders and even wines. At the end of the tour there was a tasting with pairings of cheeses and nuts.

Last weekend was Navy weekend ... similar to Fleet Week in San Francisco. We headed down to the Ribeira to see, as did everyone else in town. There were three large ships on display on the river but only one that was open for touring, a large sailboat that is used for the initial training of all sailors. When we arrived on Saturday afternoon we discovered a mile-long line of people waiting to go onboard, so we decided to come back on Sunday morning when they opened. Unfortunately we encountered another mile-long line of people who had the same idea. There's always next year.

We were delighted to see some old friends from Brentwood when they were visiting Porto this past week and enjoyed a great meal and conversation. I was bummed that the weather turned cloudy that evening, preventing them from viewing the awesome sunset over Porto but they didn't seem to mind. It was wonderful to see them all again and catch up.

Last night (actually Sunday morning) we were treated to a half hour long fireworks display from our balcony, taking place in the neighboring city of Matosinhos. Every May Matosinhos holds a festival, considered to be one of the high points of religious pilgrimages of not only the district but also the whole country. Called the Festival of our Lord of Matosinhos, it is three weeks of recreational, cultural and sports events culminating with a huge fireworks display that starts at midnight. We figured it was better to stay up to see it than go to bed and be awakened by all the explosions.

Tomorrow, May 29 we'll be heading to Sitges, Spain, a beach town about 30 minutes south of Barcelona. Our friend Linda is house-sitting for a friend and has invited us to come stay with her. We're looking forward to seeing Linda again and checking out Sitges. We'll return a few days before my daughter Erinn and my grandchildren Zoe and Owen arrive for their first visit. June and July are packed full of visitors and trips.

And finally, here are a few more things I 've learned: Portugal consumes more wine per capita than any other country in the world. While Americans aren't the largest group of expats in Portugal, 40% of American expats in Portugal are from CA. And finally, romaine lettuce doesn't seem to exist here.

Adeus, abraços e beijos,

MaryLou

Mary Lou's Portugal Journal #11

Greetings everyone.

April has been interesting mainly because we got to learn a lot about the Portuguese revolution of 1974 and because my sister Bonnie and BIL (brother-in-law) Randy are here for their first visit to Portugal. It was a month featuring a number of holidays, when most things were closed ... Good Friday, Easter of course, and Dia da Liberdade (April 25th) - more about that in a moment.

Remember my story about our lost luggage back in December and my suggestion to buy Apple Trackers? On her trip over here, my sister had one checked bag and a couple of carry ons. She did have a tracker in her bag that remained in the Dallas airport for the first two days of her arrival here. She was four days without most of her things so the first day with us was a shopping day to acquire some basic clothing items: toiletries, undies, girl stuff, etc. Fortunately pharmacies here are very accommodating, so Nick took her to one nearby, and Bonnie was able to obtain a couple of weeks' worth of her prescription medicine just by showing them a photo of what she was taking. Summer travel time is coming ... please do yourselves a favor and put Apple trackers in all checked bags. And good news for us, United Airlines finally reimbursed us for the full amount of our claim which was over $600 for clothing and toiletry items we had to purchase while waiting for our luggage to finally arrive back in December.

We attended another InterNations event a few weeks ago at a local bar downtown. These events are typically attended by a wide range of folks from all over the world but that night we encountered a number of Americans. We were surprised at how many Americans we met that evening who live up here in the north because it's more common for Americans to choose Lisbon or the Algarve region. While Brits, Germans, Brazilians, and Dutch have been the largest source of immigrants in Portugal, Americans seem to be on the rise.

Easter is a time that the Portuguese actually eat lamb, so we were finally able to find some nice lamb chops for our dinner. It's not that you can't find lamb here but it's just not as readily available. Portuguese love beef, chicken and pork, and of course, fish is king here, in particular salted cod (bacalhau). Once soaked to remove the salt, it is used in many delicious dishes here in Portugal.

Ed and Rhonda (mentioned many times in previous write-ups) were back in Portugal with some friends of theirs from Canada. We had a great dinner with them down on the riverfront and the following day they all came over to see our new place. We also got to show it off to our friends from Little Rock, Andrew and Nicole. It's nice to finally feel settled enough to have friends over. Our new dining room table finally arrived, the replacement for the one that burned up in the warehouse fire back in February. We're quite pleased with it. We're waiting on our final two pieces of furniture, a bookcase and a shoe cabinet, that will be delivered sometime in late June or July.

I've been trying to finally get some pictures hung on the walls and it's tricky because we have concrete walls. Some smaller pieces I was able to hang using some clever hangers that don't require a drill. I hung a large piece using Velcro hangers with adhesive on the back ... think of those Commando stick-ons only these are the super weight ones. My biggest issue has been one piece that I wanted to hang in our hallway. The first time I hung it we were abruptly awakened in the middle of the night by a loud crash. I went running into the hallway in the dark and stepped right on the frame which had broken apart. After returning to Ikea to buy another frame and try it again, it once again crashed and broke. This isn't even a heavy piece...it's a drawing of the bridges in Porto. I think the paint on that wall must be averse to anything hanging on it, and now there is a chunk of paint missing as well. Maybe I just need to paint a picture on that wall.

The biggest event in April in Portugal is Dia da Liberdade which falls on the 25th. This is a national holiday celebrating the 1974 revolution that ended fifty long years of the fascist government and re-established democracy in the country. It also commemorates the first free elections which took place exactly one year later on April 25, 1975. Known as the Carnation Revolution, it was a bloodless, leftist, military led coup. Four people were killed when PIDE (government thugs) opened fire on a group of protestors. The revolutionaries didn't resort to violence; instead, they persuaded the Army to join them. At a square in Lisbon, a waitress and a flower vendor handed out red carnations among the crowd who in turn placed them into the rifle muzzles of the now cooperative soldiers. This ended the longest running authoritarian regime in Western Europe. It's been fascinating for us to learn about the history of our new country. Under the Salazar regime which started in 1933, there was no freedom to speak in opposition to the government, no freedom of association or thought. Women were not allowed to vote and couldn't travel without permission of their husbands. In fact, they were under the thumb of a husband, a father or a brother depending on their situation. Journalists who wrote in opposition to the government were often jailed, beaten or murdered. If any of this sounds somewhat familiar just remember that history often repeats itself.

The evening before, there was a huge celebration in downtown Porto that began at 10 p.m. A huge stage was set up in the square and a great band performed for the first 1.5 hrs. We loved the music although we had no idea what they were singing/saying. There were lots of red carnations in the crowd. At 11:30 a choral group from Universidade do Porto performed. Just before midnight they started singing a beautiful song and suddenly the whole crowd began singing along (I posted a video on Instagram). At midnight fireworks erupted. We later learned that the song everyone was singing is considered one of the national anthems of Portugal called Grandola Vila Morena, written by a Portuguese folk musician who was banned from Portuguese radio at the time. The leaders of the military coup used two different songs as signals leading up to the overthrow. First, they took over a radio station (which were all controlled by the government) and played one song that signaled the military troops to begin their advance. The second song, played 1.5 hours later was Grandola Vila Morena, which signaled the military coup to begin taking over strategic points of power in the country. Residents were encouraged to stay indoors however they fled to the streets instead and suddenly Lisbon was filled with residents cheering for the change. We watched the movie about this called "April Captains" on YouTube (also on IMBd tv). While most of you probably don't have any interest, two of my friends on this distribution list are childhood friends who are Portuguese so, Barbara and Judy, if you haven't seen this movie, I hope you will.

Yesterday we took a bus to Guimaraes with my sister and BIL, which is a town less than an hour away. Guimaraes is considered the birthplace of Portugal (in 1128) and is a well-preserved medieval town definitely worth a visit. It's easy to walk around the historic center and see all the historic sites. We toured the Palace of the Dukes of Brangaca and the castle next to it where a major battle was fought. Later we happened upon a large crowd dancing to accordion music in one downtown square, much like what we saw in Braga last year. It appeared to be a rather spontaneous event and went on for a few hours. Before leaving Guimaraes last night we encountered a darling young woman named Joy, originally from Kentucky, who married a Portuguese guy she met in college. They chose to move back to his hometown of Guimaraes thirteen years ago where she now has a pottery studio and conducts classes. Hearing her switch from her Kentucky accent to speaking Portuguese beautifully was a treat.

It's been fun having Bonnie and Randy here to show them the sights in Porto. Tomorrow they will travel down to Lisbon and spend time checking out the sights there and in Cascais and Sintra before returning to Porto at the end of the week when we will then take a tour of the Douro Valley.

Finally, here are a few more things I've learned since living here: stick deodorant is almost non-existent here. I just recently found two but they were men's...nothing for women. And steel cut oats...no one has ever heard of them. And google translate often throws out some strange translations ... I was trying to read the quarterly statement from the condo association and one sentence translated to ... "Vido eats robo after good kick."

I've attached some recent photos. In the one with Nick, Bonnie and Randy at an outdoor cafe, we were enjoying our second round of a drink called Porto Tonico. This is a relatively new drink that's only been around for the last two years and has become wildly popular. Bonnie is definitely hooked on it. They are very refreshing, however two of that size are potent! Unfortunately my videos of the crowd singing and the dancing on the square yesterday are too large to attach here but if you're on Instagram you can see it there.

Adeus, abraços e beijos,

MaryLou