Portugal

Starting out in Porto, Portugal, a beautiful city. The best thing to do in Porto, Portugal is wine tasting, that's how I spent most of my time. Port wine is not my favorite wine, it's much too sweet, but how amazing is it to say that my first experience in wine tasting was in Porto, Portugal! The wineries are beautiful. They are all up on the hills of Porto, over looking the port, which is breath-taking. I learned a lot about port wine in it's home city! My favorite winery is Taylor's, its the oldest port winery. It had a beautiful view of the port, a garden complete with peacocks and a great tour of the cellar with a chocolate and port wine pairing. It was a wonderful experience. Also did a tour at Croft Port winery which was very nice. So since traveling is all about trying new things, I ate sardines, a popular traditional dish in Porto. It was still on the bone, freshly caught and cooked, and it was delicious! I thought they were little fish but they were quite big. OUr hostel was incredible in Porto. It was a cinema based one. Our room was the Pedro Aldomovar room. The hostel hosted a dinner and wine for us of Quiche, which was delicious, all homemade. A bus took us to the coast to see the beach and some of the landmarks. Some of the houses were so beautiful, it was actually a lot like beverly hills. The central city had some damaged buildings, a lot of the windows were shattered, but it was beautiful. The cathedrals in Porto are gorgeous, most of them were decorated with blue and white tile with great design, reminded me of the tile in Holland and the porcelain windmill and wooden shoe I have. It was beautiful.

Our next stop was Lisboa. Even more beautiful. It was a lot like San Francisco. Al the trolley cars on cables, the hills and alleys. We were able to get some incredible views of the hills and the houses on them. Every single building and house was unique with intricate designs and beautiful window shapes. The people are so humble and nice in Portugal. Everyone speaks beautiful english, they are so proper with their english and they have a delicate accent. The river is beautiful, Lisboa even has it's own version of the Golden Gate bridge, the St Thomas bridge. and oh, the pastries, amazing. I ate way too many pastries. Portugal is well known for their pastries, many having custards, almonds, and marzipan. Also known for cod fish, or Bacalhau, which is delicious. and of course, my favorite part of Lisboa, the fado. Fado is a beautiful, mournful style of music that is often just a singer accompanied by a portuguese guitar. The fado I saw was a woman and a man guitarist. This woman had the voice of an angel. It was so beautiful. Fado houses are seen all over Lisboa and they have the Fado Mueseum which was great, I learned everything about fado. not many people know about fado, its really only specific to Portugal and I'm happy and lucky to have experienced this type of music.

Oh the night live in Barrio Alto was intense! haha. A full on party in the streets! There are three streets in the Barrio Alto neighborhood that are lined with bars and clubs and people. You simply walk into a bar, get your sangria, beer, wine, or mojito in a plastic cup and walk the streets. I found that the party wasn't in the bar, it was outside of the bar! and everything was so cheap, usually a euro for sangria and beer.

I took a day trip to Sintra, an enchanted, fairy tale city. All throughout the green hills there were castles and palaces. I went up to the Pena National Palace and the Moorish Castle, they were magnificent. My favorite place in Sintra is the Regaleria Palace and Gardens, this was a true fairy tale garden complete with a labyrinth, grotto, waterfalls, wells, lakes, ponds, lots of greenery, towers , and of couse, the palace. Much to beautiful for words.

I simply just fell in love with Portugal. It was a humble, picturesque city, so many spectacular views. You can go up on any rooftop and see the city, all the houses stacked on each other, al in various colors, pinks, blues, corrals, yellows, it was too beautiful. And a popular symbol in Portugal is the rooster! It symbolizes the winning of justice when you fight for it. The legend is that a man kept insisting he didn't commit a crime and there was no evidence that he did or didn't commit it so he swore to the Virgin Mary and the Holy John that he was innocent. He said that if he was lying, the roasted rooster on the tray that was served to him would stay where it was and if he was telling the truth, the rooster would rise and crow. In that same instant, the rooster got up in it's earlier feathers and began crowing so all of the city could hear it and the man was immediately released! The rooster became a sign of good luck.