Friday, August 28, 2009

What People AREN'T Talking About. (Portugal: Part I)

Ever been to Europe?
Probably.

Ever considered?
Most definitely.

Thought about Portugal?

The least touristed Western European country, is also the most inexpensive. No really, people AREN'T talking about it, although I had not actually tested this prior to titling my post... just search Twitter for "Portugal" 95% of the posts are in Portuguese. Search Twitter for France or Spain... and everything you see is written in English.

So other than the fact that Portugal is a fairly undiscovered destination (ironic, seeing as how the Portuguese were the first great pioneers of navigation) , why go?

In winter, the weather in Lisbon (the Portuguese capital) is more than pleasant. Which in all honesty, is the main reason my family thought about visiting in the first place. What a lucky mishap that turned out to be...

Walking around Lisbon has a special charm. The lack of tourists allows one to truly feel like they are experiencing something completely new and different. No matter how far away a place is, or how exotic the fauna may be, load an area up with 3000 kiosks selling touristy chatzky's and it suddenly becomes just like... well... any other foreign exotic place with 3000 kiosks selling tourists chatzky's. Lisbon has a very authentic feel, staying in an apartment rather than a hotel can help with this too, that I must save for another post however.

Sounds, Tastes and Miradouros!

So what exactly does Portugal have to offer. Skinny, winding medieval streets can be found in the Alfama district. My favorite part of traveling is walking around in new places and the Alfama is perfect for taking some great Flickr shots! Pastelerias serve "bicas" which is a very strong Portuguese espresso shot, available in decaf usually. "Pasteis" are custard like pastries, I'm not the biggest fan of these types of pastries but the rest of the fam LOVED them. The pasteis are actually really good with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top!

Stop to look over the Meditterranean -esque buildings at one of the Miradouro's or lookouts.


 If you don't like to eat fish, you should probably stop reading this article now... or atleast read it knowing that you should never actually go to Portugal. The good news: most restaurants have many options... The bad news: all of these options involve a big filet of fish as the main course, with an accompaniement of potatos and maybe a salad. I personally find it delicious! Specialties like octopus and barnacles are available too. The most popular of the fish specialities is the bacalhau, dried salt cod. It is said that this can be prepared some 300 ways.

In various dinner restaurants, you can sit in on a Fado performance, fado is a very melancholy almost opera like genre, very specific to Portuguese culture.

Alright, this was enough Portugal for one evening... but I will be bringing you further detail in later articles :)

<3 AzureChina

my Portugal pictures are all taken by me! Some can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/11693731@N07/

5 comments:

  1. Portugal does sound enticing! I started following you on an etsy thread. Stop by my blog sometime at http://diyaddicted.blogspot.com

    Can't wait to read more!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yea any where but idaho sounds neat at this point,great blog!!
    http://boutiquestitches.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  3. we were there last summer. now i want to go back... great shots! besos-jane

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a charming post, really enjoyed it and want to know more about Portugal (never been). Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. okay, you have me hooked... lovely pictures!

    www.winsomehollow.com

    ReplyDelete