Putting the Port in Portugal

Portugal shares the Iberian Peninsula with Spain, so the two countries must have a lot in common, right? WRONG! The two major cities in Portugal, Porto and Lisbon, are understated, aging beauties who don't brag or show off, are a little rough around the edges, but become more alluring the more you get to know them. I came to find out that overall, they have a similar, but much different tradition, culinary and otherwise, from Spain.

(From Left to right: Exterior of Santo Ildefonso Church, Porto; Doorway near Bolhão Station, Porto, Exterior of Capela de las Almas taken from the hotel window, Porto; Terrace tile detail, Lisbon)

Throughout Porto and Lisbon, there were beautiful run-down buildings and churches with stunning tiled exteriors. We wandered into an aging food market and found ridiculously fresh fish and baked goods like I've never seen; balão do miel, pastéis de nata...the list goes on. Port was plentiful and offered at every turn. Most everything was surprisingly inexpensive. I'd love to return. I hear the beaches in the south are untamed and gorgeous.



(From Left to Right all in Lisbon: View of a triumphal arch looking down the Rua De Augusta; Exterior of the Se, or Lisbon Cathedral; Interior of the Se)

(Views of the Douro River and riverbank in Porto)

Both cities are built on riverbanks and there are steep hills that rise as you move away from the river. Climbing up those hills is hard, so that accounts for the number of funiculars, elevators and trolleys in these cities. It's not only fun to look at these retro modes of transport, but they are also part of the city metro systems, so you can take a ride for the rest and the views.

(Above from left to right: Santa Justa Elevator in Lisbon; Funicular in Lisbon; Trolley in Porto)

We visited the Castle of São Jorge in Lisbon. This place was pretty remarkable and there's evidence that people have inhabited that spot since the Iron Age! It's no wonder that this was one of the first places to be settled; you can see for miles from the top of the castle. While we were in the neighborhood, we stumbled onto a house restaurant near the castle. There was a menu and what we ordered they were out of, but we were pleasantly surprised with what they brought to the table; a carafe of house red wine, a super fresh salad with citrus dressing, cilantro and pineapple, rice and black beans, a tostada of sorts, with ham, some delicious spiced pepper jelly and melted cheese on some fresh bread, sliced fruit and cake with a chocolate dipping sauce and, of course, port. We were treated like personal guests rather than paying customers. Everything was very cheap, very delicious and very memorable.

(Above Left and Center: Views of Lisbon from the Castle of São Jorge; Above Right: street at the top of Alfama near the castle and sign advertising our house restaurant)

We traveled a bit further away by trolley to a suburb of Lisbon called Belém, home of the Mosterio dos Jeronimos and the Torre de Belem. Both of these sites are great examples of the Manueline style of architecture, which is best described as the Portuguese version of Late High Gothic. You'll never guess who's buried in the Mosterio dos Jeronimos -- VASCO DE GAMA, the famous explorer! Next to Prince Henry the Navigator, a major source of funds for explorers, and Christiano Ronaldo, a current top footballer/soccer player, these guys probably constitute some of the most famous Portuguese people in the world!

(Left to Right, all in Lisbon: Torre de Belem, Courtyard at the Mosterio dos Jeronimos, wrought iron window at the Largo das Portas do Sol in the Alfama neighborhood, Monument to Henry the Navigator)

(Above: A male and female Fado singer and the back of Mario Pacheco's head at Clube de Fado in Lisbon)

During this trip, we also discovered fado. Fado is to Portugal what Flamenco is to Spain. Essentially, it is a very emotional musical and singing tradition. We went to the Clube de Fado in the Alfama neighborhood in Lisbon. It is owned by a famous fado guitarist, Mario Pacheco (whom you can see a bit of in the picture), who performs almost every night at his club. Shows at fado clubs are an all-night event. When you make a reservation, you reserve a table for the night for the whole performance. These performances are interspersed through the night; sometimes with as many as eight and lasting until 2 a.m.! We didn't last quite that long but, still, we were entranced the whole time with the musicians and the singers. The fado show was as amazing as the tropical storm Megan and I walked into after our four dinner/show experience, but worth every moment.

(Above: The beautiful, graphically tiled streets of Lisbon and Oporto)

And some more fun retro storefronts:

(Above Left and center: Beautiful storefronts in Porto; Above Right: storefront in Lisbon)

We ate at some great places like the house restaurant mentioned above in Lisbon and drank some great wine. Here's the funny thing about wine in Portugal and beyond, at least in Europe. You can feel totally comfortable ordering a vaso de tinto (glass of red wine), without getting more specific as we've become accustomed to in the U.S. What you get will be relatively local, cheap and pretty good; I haven't been disappointed yet. But that also means that I can't really report more about the wines I drank in Portugal. Sorry!

Nevertheless, here are some food and wine highlights:

Cafe Majestic, Porto -- Cheese plate (mostly goat and sheep) and tawny port

Barão de Fladgate, Porto -- amazing location overlooking the city and river, classic tenderloin with port sauce, Tinto, Cabriz, Dao (2005), Taylor Port

Clube de Fado, Lisbon -- bacalao with oil, garlic and red peppers, Poças tawny port

O Muro, Lisbon -- caldo verde, grilled octopus, sheep's milk cheese, olives and pickled lima beans. Hospitable owner and staff. Great location overlooking the Douro

Ca'lem Port Cellars -- tour and tasting

(From Left to Right: White and tawny port tasting at the Ca'lem Port Cellars, Porto; A typical bakery window with Pastéis de nata, almond tart and donuts!, Porto; Workers at the famous Pastéis de Belém bakery packaging up warm pasteis de nata for hungry tourists like me, Lisbon)

Pastries from both cities:

Balão do Miel (which we lovingly nicknamed 'brown round')

Torta almendros (almond tart)

Tarta do Nata (tart with cream filling)

Pastéis de Belém (flaky pastry with baked cream pie-like filling)

I >:-o Telefonica a.k.a. I hate Telefonica

In addition to being two cities behind on my blog posts, I now have an additional impediment (and excuse, ha ha!) to more frequent blogging. My roommate who looks after the bills in the apartment decided to change internet service providers. We paid about 60 euros for both phone and internet per month. He found a new company where we would pay 30 euros instead. Reducing bills by half is a no brainer, right? Right.

So my roommate went ahead and cancelled our service with Telefonica, the biggest name in town when it comes to phones and internet, effective at the end of this month. The new company is supposed to show up and install our service before the end of this month. Now, I have had no complaints about the service with Telefonica. I´ve always been able to get online and the price was okay. But wouldn´t you know that a week ago, just after we cancelled the service with Telefonica, our internet mysteriously stopped working! My roommate called them and reported back that they would not service us and fix our internet because we cancelled our service. OUTRAGEOUS!

I´m looking into getting a copy of Spain´s national buisness complaint form called a "hoja de reclamacion", but really, I´m just in a holding pattern until the new internet service company installs the new equipment. There are places where I can bring my laptop and work, but they are not all that convenient. So here I am writing this at the locutorio near my building.

So that´s my excuse and I´m sticking to it. Here´s to hoping this does not last too much longer! I have some great photos of and info from my Lisbon and Porto Portugal trip and I´m going to San Sebastian, Spain this weekend, so there will be lots to show and tell!

Barcelona: Great in Winter, and Probably Amazing in Summer

(Above: Placa Reial)

It appears that Barcelona had its winter coat on during my visit. The company was amazing (thanks to Karey, Ally and Marta), as were the sights and eats, but I was expecting the city to be more, for lack of a more refined word, "sparkly". Nevertheless, there were many architectural and gastronomic highlights. I just think I'll need to go back when its warmer to see Barcelona reveal it's true sparkle!



(L: Gaudi's La Pedrera, R: Casa Batllo)



(Left and Right: Gaudi's Sagrada Familia)

There is no doubt that Gaudi's architecture is unique and breathtaking, but I just didn't have it in me to pay 9 Euros and up for the priviledge of seeing his buildings up close. Maybe next trip. Now this disappointed me at first and temporarily soured me on Gaudi, until we went to his Park Guell, which is, quite possibly, another of my favorite places on earth. It also happens to be quite free of charge.


(L & R: Park Guell)


(L: View of the Mediterranean Sea, Sagrada Familia and Torre Agbar from atop Park Guell, C: my dream house on top of Park Guell, R: a football/soccer game overlooking the Mediterranean on top of Park Guell)


We spent the whole afternoon in awe of the park and its surprises and treasures that awaitied us as we climbed higher and turned ever corner. There are musicians all over the park, too, which gave us some nice background music to follow us through our explorations. I really loved this place, as did my traveling companions. See? Here we are looking very happy, indeed:


(From L to R: Karey, Me, Ally and Marta)


Barcelona at night is also captivating:

(L: Placa Catalunya, C: Placa Reial, R: Church of Santa Maria del Mar on Passeig del Born)

I loved the unique design of some of the storefronts:

(R: A magic store in the Born neighborhood, C: a bakery just off of Las Ramblas, R: an Irish pub on Carrer Ferran)

Surprisingly, both these buildings below were built at around the turn of the 20th Century. They seem much older:

(L & C: Palau de Musica Catalana, R: Barcelona's Bullring)

Here is a bit of the older style architecture from around the Barcelona Cathedral and the Placa de Colon:

(L: Barcelona Cathedral, C: Barcleona Cathedral, R: Monument to Christopher Columbus at the end of Las Ramblas)

Enough architecture. Let's talk art. We enjoyed the modern variety of art at The Picasso Museum. There was one room filled with Picasso's different versions of Velazques' "Las Meninas". Here is one:

(Image Source: http://www.grafiksaati.com/Ressamlar/Pablo-Picasso/picasso_resimleri_web_sayfalari/1-41/237.jpg)

And another painting I really liked from Picasso's earlier days, is "La Salchichona":

(Image Source: http://www.oogers.com/Adventures/2005/Barcelona%20March-April%202005/La%20Salchichona.htm)

Later in his life, Picasso started making ceramic vases, plates, sculptures. I didn't know he made ceramics, so was pleasantly surprised.

There also an abundance of art in surprising places all around Barcelona:

(Clockwise from top left: Sculpture/buoy on Barcelona's waterfront, a waterfront sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein, creative walkway along the waterfront, modern metal gate near Barcelona Cathedral)

So, now, onto food and wine! We ate at some great places, most of them of the tapas variety, and there were some definite jems:

Taller de Tapas -- Great selection and ambiance

Cal Pep -- Gourmet tapas / diner, expect a wait, but also amazing food

Origens -- Has A visual menu magazine, small plates and good wine selection

Va de Vi -- Has atmosphere in spades (if you like hanging out in ancient wine cellar), features small cheese, bread and cured meat plates only plus a binderful of wine choices. Great before or after dinner spot

(L: Pan con Tomate or, in Catalan, pa amb tomàquet at Va di Vi; R: Monkfish with garlic chile oil and roasted potatoes at Cal Pep)

Some foods eaten: chipirones (fried baby squid), pimientos del padron (small roasted green peppers, pa amb tomàquet/pan con tomate, Moroccan spiced chicken skewers, roasted asparagus, fried artichokes, pineapple carpaccio with catalan cream, crema catalana, chistorra (Basque-style breakfast sausage), boutifarra amb mongetes (a lightly seasoned and grilled Catalan sausage with white beans) and Calçots (fried spring onion shoots).

Some wine drunk: Tinto de Tarragona (2007), Gine Gine Priorat (2005), Nita Priorat (2007), Onix Priorat (2005), Can Feixes Penedes (2005 ), Luis Alegre Rioja Crianza (2005) -- all except the last are from wine regions in Cataluña, where Barcelona is located. The region is also home to Cava, the sparkling Spanish wine similar to France's Champagne. Most sparkling wines tend to make me ill, so I abstained on this trip :-) All the wines we tried were either dirt-cheap and quaffable, or just slightly more expensive (10-20 Euros/bottle) and divine. My favorites were the Gine Gine Priorat and the Can Feixes Penedes.

(Above: Entrance of La Boqueria)

And now it's time for one of my other favorite places in the world, Mercat La Boqueria, where there are feet upon feet of produce, seafood, meats and prepared foods to be had. We went twice just to make sure we didn't miss any of the good, the interesting and the grotesque (blood cake, anyone?)

(Clockwise from top left: the pork purveyor's case, a cured meats counter, seafood seller's spread, Calcots/spring oniongs, the wild game vendor's display)

Here is the Barcelona crew again:

And a few parting shots of an impressive balcony garden that was a bright spot on an overcast day.

And a candle display displaying the Catalan word for peace during a anti-Israel demonstration we happened upon. Okay, fine, it was also an anti-American protest, too. I chose not to focus on that, though. Let's just all focus on peace, people!