Evora - Roman ruins and a chapel made of bones

Evora was a short stop for us, just a couple of days before starting our workaway experience in Aljezur. We stayed at a campsite just outside of the old walled centre of Evora, which we were pleased to discover also had a swimming pool. This actually came in very useful as the temperatures reached over 40 degrees!

Setting up our tent was a real challenge as the ground was incredibly hard and we did not have a hammer or mallet. We managed to eventually after a very long time get two pegs into the ground using big rocks to bang them in, whilst bending every other peg we had. To keep the tent standing up we had to improvise by tying it with bungee cords to a tree and putting tent ropes under big rocks, but it eventually stayed up. After this taxing work we were ready for a relax by the pool!

Evora is actually quite a small city with a population of only 56,600 and does not really require more than one day to explore it. The old centre is where all the sites are (being an UNESCO world heritage site) and is almost totally enclosed by medieval walls. The social centre of Evora is Praca do Giraldo and this is where all the locals hang out and sip a coffee. This is the place that all roads lead to in Evora.

Praca do Giraldo

Just around the corner from Praca do Giraldo is the famous bone chapel (Capela dos Ossos) which is actually part of the Church of Sao Francisco. It is as the name implies a chapel made out of bones. The walls and pillars are totally covered in skulls and other bones from 5000 dead monks and cemented into place. There are also two dissecated corpses hanging from ropes on the walls, one of them being a childs corpse.

Inside the Chapel of Bones

The chapel was built by a Franciscan monk who wanted his fellow monks to contemplate life and remember the fact that it is transitory. This is clearly shown in the famous warning at the entrance: Nós ossos que aqui estamos pelos vossos esperamos (“We bones that here are, for yours await").

Chapel of Bones with inscription above entrance

There are a couple of other quotes like this around the chapel: "Melior est die mortis die nativitatis (Better is the day of death than the day of birth)" and the poem: -

Where are you going in such a hurry traveler?

Stop … do not proceed;

You have no greater concern,

Than this one: that on which you focus your sight.

Recall how many have passed from this world,

Reflect on your similar end,

There is good reason to reflect

If only all did the same.

Ponder, you so influenced by fate,

Among the many concerns of the world,

So little do you reflect on death;

If by chance you glance at this place,

Stop … for the sake of your journey,

The more you pause, the further on your journey you will be.

All in all it made for quite a spooky experience. It would probably be even better if you could go in there at night.

Some of the other sites we saw included Evora Cathedral, Evora University, the cities aqueduct and a park that housed the Palace of Dom Manuel. Last but not least we also visited the Roman Temple (Templo de Diana) that was originally constructed around the 1st century AD but later destroyed during the 5th century by germanic invaders. However some of the base and pillars still survived to this day and were used for various buildings over the years until it was classified as an archaeological site in 1869 including a butchers and a castle stronghouse. It is still impressive to marvel at.

Evora University courtyard

Temple of Diana

After a long day in the old city centre we had another dip in the swimming pool before heading for an early bed, as the next day we had an early bus to catch to the south of Portugal to start our workaway experience.

A week in Lisbon

Lisbon is an interesting city with plenty to offer for almost every kind of tourist or traveller. It has beaches, nightlife, historical sights, good food, culture and friendly people.We had a very varied visit to Lisbon, staying there for just over a week, it allowed us to see the city at a leisurely pace and enjoy it more. Whilst there we stayed in a room in a flat belonging to a Portuguese girl. It was nice because we had access to a kitchen, meaning we could cook our own food (something we had been looking forward to).

We were lucky enough to be in Lisbon at the time that an airshow was going on in the nearby town of Cascais (a popular beach destination for tourists). Due to this we also benefited from cheap train tickets. There were hundreds of people lined up on the beach and next to it to see the airshow and we sat with them and were not disappointed. It was a lovely day and we were treated to some stunt helicopter flying and then some planes doing formations and trailing smoke behind them. After the show we were even lucky enough to get to sit inside one of the helicopters! 

The beach at Cascais

Us in the helicopter

Before we headed back to Lisbon though we also had a stroll along the seafront all the way up to a place called Boca do Inferno (Mouth of Hell). It is named this because of the way the water violently crashes and sprays up against the cliff rock walls. On the way back to Lisbon we also went past the town of Estoril and saw the famous casino there, which is a popular landmark.

Boca do Inferno

We did one other day trip whilst we were in Lisbon as well; this time to the very popular place called Sintra, known as the City of Palaces. One of the hardest decisions about visiting Sintra is choosing what palaces you want to see, as there are 8 palaces, and a castle. We tried to see as many as we possibly could, and we managed to see 4 palaces (Pena Palace, National Palace, Seteais Palace and Quinta da Regaleira) and the Moorish castle, but we had to choose only one to actually go inside to explore. We decided to visit Quinta da Regaleira for a couple of reasons, one that it was less popular than the famous Pena Palace and two because from what we had read about Quinta da Regaleira offered something a bit different and a bit more interesting than Pena.

Carmen with the National Palace

Seteais Palace

Pena Palace

The Moorish Castle

We really enjoyed looking around Quinta da Regaleira, it has a lot to offer. The palace building itself is not as big as many of the other palaces in Sintra, but what it lacks in terms of size it makes up for in design, and beauty. The main residence is over 4 floors with an alchemist lab in a tower on top. This is where the owner used to practise alchemy. The best part about visiting this palace though is the grounds, they are vast and are a lot of fun. The grounds include lots of underground tunnels and hidden passages, towers and wells, it was like being part of an Indiana Jones adventure.

The highlight though and most popular and most photographed place in the whole grounds was the Poço Iniciático (Initiation Well), which looks like an inverted tower, where at every 15 steps there is a plateau, in total there are nine plateau's leading down into the ground. The nine plateaus are supposed to signify the circles of Hell, the nine sections of Purgatory and the nine heavens of Paradise, as told by Dante. It was a really fun visit and would highly recommend it to anyone else visiting Sintra.

Quinta da Regaleira Palace

Tower in the grounds

The Initiation Well

There are many things to visit in the city of Lisbon and we tried to squeeze in as many as we possibly could. Belem is one of the most popular areas of Lisbon owing to the iconic Belem Tower along the waterfront, which can make for a very nice picture. The tower looks very nice from the outside and when you climb to the top you get a nice view up and down the waterfront, however inside the tower is nothing special, so I would say at 5 Euros the ticket price is probably a bit expensive. Luckily for us, however, we got it for free as they allow one day a month free admission to both Belem Tower and Jerónimos Monastery.

Belem Tower

Jerónimos Monastery was the other main attraction we visited in Belem and it is a very impressive building, late gothic apparently and took 100 years to build between 1501 and 1601. It is seperated into two parts, the church and the monastery. Within the monastery is a huge cloister with beautifully carved pillars, arches and windows; it felt very tranquil and peaceful. Contained in one of the rooms off of the cloister was a very interesting exhibition of the history of the monastery compared to the what happened in Portugal and what happened in the world at the same time.

Jerónimos Monastery exterior

Jerónimos Monastery cloister

Our last stop in Belem was to the famous Pasteis de Belem, this is where they make the equally famous Pasteis de nata. Pateis de Belem was first opened in 1837 specifically to sell Pasteis de nata, which had become a very popular snack sold by the monks at Jerónimos Monastery since 1820 to try and gain extra revenue. However, when the monastery was shut down Pasteis de Belem bought the recipe and still make them exactly the same way now. Pasteis de nata are basically an egg custard tart sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar; they are delicious. Unfortunately we only bought one each, and could have had a few more of them, but the queues to get them were huge, trailing out the door and along the street!

Carmen showing off the delicious pasteis de nata

Just walking on the streets of Lisbon is a nice thing to do in itself, you don't even have to visit particular sites, just take in the small windy streets of areas like Alfama, the oldest neighbourhood in Lisbon, which reminded us of Moroccan cities. A particular favourite place for people to visit here is the Castelo de São Jorge, which overlookes the neighbourhood and makes for some nice photos. Another area that is really nice to just walk around is Bairro Alto, probably the most touristy part of the city where you will see people taking pictures of streets and buildings on nearly every corner. This section of the city includes the most photographed street in Portugal and the oldest book store in the world (Bertrand Bookstore). It has lots of shopping areas and restaurants, as well as little eateries and praça's (squares) where locals congregate. It is an area full of life and is just nice to sit and people watch.

Archway in downtown Baixa

The most photographed street in Portugal

Although this was the longest we had stayed in a place (apart from Madrid and whilst doing the workaway in Spain) we were still a bit sad to leave Lisbon as we had become quite settled, but it was on to our next destination, Evora and experience the summer like heat in Portugal!

Aveiro, Coimbra and Peniche - Couchsurfing, oldest university in Portugal and jacuzzi

After our short visit to witness Sao Joao we were off to see the coastal city of Aveiro and enjoy our first couchsurfing experience in Portugal. On arriving in Aveiro we were met at the station by our host Mario, who was kind enough to take our bags with him to work and leave us to explore the city in the meantime, after giving us some rough directions about where to go.

We explored much of central Aveiro, strolling through the old centre, seeing the fish market and the traditional Moliceiros boats, which are colourful fishing boats that are now a popular tourist attraction, where people go on cruises around the numerous canals. The key feature of these boats being the funny images and captions painted on the boats, which are often a bit rude in their humour. The canals are a beautiful setting and have been said to have similarities to those in Venice.

 

Moliceiros canal boat

With the caption reading: Much bigger and thicker than mine at home

After we finished exploring most of the centre of Aveiro, we were then later picked up by Mario after he had finished work and went back to his place via the supermarket where he picked up a few things to make a meal for us that evening. 

When we arrived back we were shown around his house (formerly his grandparents) and it is filled with lots of cool pieces of artwork. We were shown up to our room where we had a comfy mattress on the floor. We were then introduced to a lovely snack food of fresh cheese and pumpkin jam on bread, which is something I would never have thought of combining, but it worked extremely well together. We then had a shower while he started to cook us all a meal. 

After the shower we saw Mario put the last finishing touches to his meal, adding a bottle of beer to the mix and his own homemade sauce/spice mixture to the pot (an interesting combination). After letting it simmer for a short while it was ready. 

We sat down to the most delicious meal we had eaten in Portugal so far; feijoada (beans and meat), served with boiled cabbage and rice. Neither of us could get enough of it, having seconds and mopping up the sauce and juices with bread. The way we ate is like we haven't eaten in a week!

After the meal we sat talking late into the night, partaking of some wine and local spirit, it was a fun night and we learned much about each other. Mario’s work involves 3D printing, which was really interesting, he showed us some of the things he was making from, printers that he himself had built; we even tried them on! 

Trying on Mario's 3D printed glasses

Mario is in charge of his own company and works ridiculous hours, seeming to go home only to eat and sleep. But he really seems to love his job, he just needs to remember to occasionally take it easy every once in a while!

Our next day in Aveiro he dropped us off at the beach and we strolled along the beach front, walking out to the lighthouse and back along the beach front stopping for ice cream and some creamy Portuguese sweets. In the evening this time we went around to one of Mario's friends house where we met a whole group of his friends and had another nice meal before heading out to Praça do Peixe (fish plaza) in the city centre to go to the many bars. It was a fun night with much drinking and dancing, culminating in Carmen driving Mario's car back to his house as Mario was too drunk to drive.

The following morning we got up late and were very sad to be saying goodbye to Mario as we had had such a great time. He asked if we wanted to stay another night, which we gladly would have if we hadn't already had accommodation booked at our next destination. We will try and keep in touch and hope to see him one day come visit us in England or Romania!

Posing for a picture with Mario just before we left

Our next stop was Coimbra, a city famous for its university (University of Coimbra), the oldest in Portugal. The university is situated on top of a hill and is an impressive site with nice views from the top over the town. Coimbra is a small city with lots of tiny cobbled streets and buildings with traditional architecture. We stayed in the heart of the city and were lucky enough to witness a live dancing and music performance from the courtyard right outside the guesthouse we were staying in. 

Traditional Portuguese dancing

A contender for the highlight of our stay in Coimbra was when we went to a little restaurant just outside the old centre of town, away from all the hustle and bustle of tourists, which we had found out about from the internet. Here they served the popular Leitao (Roasted suckling pig), a gorgeous dish of pig roasted in a pit whole and then cut up into pieces, served with crisps. The tender, juicy, flavour intense meat will just melt in your mouth. The owner of the restaurant was kind enough to give us a sampling of her homemade garnish as well, which worked really well with it too.

The delicious Leitao

The city of Peniche was our last stopping point through central Portugal before heading to Lisbon. We took the opportunity for a bit of rest and relaxation here, settling in at a nice campsite, with some great facilities (jacuzzi, swimming pool and gym), all for a ridiculously cheap price. 

Carmen relaxing in the jacuzzi

 Peniche is only a small place, without much to see or do unless you like water sports, in which case you are in heaven as there is a lot of surfing and other water based sports available due to the high winds that are around the peninsula. However, it is a very beautiful place to relax and enjoy the scenery and sunsets, and to just watch slow pace of life of the locals, many of which fish out on the cliff tops. It was a nice break and set us up well for our next stop in the capital of Portugal, Lisbon.

Sunset from Peniche peninsula

Looking out over the Atlantic Ocean

La Festa de Sao Joao

After being chased by bulls in Ponte de Lima as we described in the previous post, we have decided to head back to the lovely Porto for a bit of normality - or so we thought! Little did we know...

The reason for our return to Porto was the fact that La Festa de Sao Joao was going on and we wanted to join in the festivities. The festival, the most important one in the city's agenda, is extremely popular in Portugal, but little known outside of the country, which we found surprising given that it is probably one of the biggest street festivals in Europe. Plus, it has been celebrated for over six hundred years.

La Festa takes place for several weeks in May-June, in honour of Sao Joao (Saint John), who is said to be the patron saint of lovers. During these weeks churches proudly display to visitors altars and artwork celebrating the saint. There are boat races down the Douro river, as well as other competitive events. The streets of Porto are also becoming more festive, as houses and neighbourhoods are being decorated in preparation for the big night, the night of 23rd June, the Night of Sao Joao (Saint John).

This is when the streets of Porto are filling with seemingly crazy people, armed with plastic hammers, garlic flowers and leeks, which are used to give passers by friendly smacks on the head! We must have got literally hundreds of smacks on the head, some more friendly than others, based on the sobriety of the giver! Although the festival has been going on for centuries, no one really knows when the custom of hitting people on the head originated and why, although it is somehow related with a plastic manufacturer, go figure.

He means business!

Anyway, there is more to the festival than head-smacking and, as previously mentioned, it is one of Europe's biggest street festival. Throughout the night, the streets of Porto are full of people of all ages, which makes it a family festival, and for that so much better. There are street concerts, lots of places to grab a bite (grilled sardines is a - very yummy - tradition), music blasts out of every corner and there are thousands of Chinese lanterns lit and sent off into the sky.

Concert stage, dancing on the street

Lighting a lantern

Street barbeque

One of the highlights of the festival is the fireworks display that lights up the Douro river. At midnight a massive fireworks show is prepared, a show which attracts a big crowd. Although the fireworks could be considered the main feature of the festa, the party is not even nearly over. Once the display is over, people of all ages resume their party-ing until 3-4 in the morning, with the youngsters taking it even further by waiting for the sunrise over the river.

Large crowd of people

Fireworks!

Unfortunately we were way too tired after a long day of travels so after the fireworks we went back to the concert stage but as the music was not to our liking we went back to our hotel room, which looked like this:

Nice hotel room

PS. We didn't pay for that room, we paid for a cheap room, however, due to a mix up in the booking process that was the only room they had. If only all mess-ups were like this!

Further North, running with a bull and the National Park

To get to Viana do Castelo we traveled by train. Whilst on the train we met a friendly Spanish girl  who had just visited a friend in Porto and was making her way to the Portugal-Spain border to start the El Camino. We were rather jealous as this was something we really wanted to do, but unfortunately we didn't have the time to do it. We promised ourselves however that we would come back to do it at some point in the future.

We said goodbye to her as we got off the train and made our way down the small high street to our accommodation to drop off our bags. We then went for a wander up the high street and made the 700 step climb all the way up the hill to the church atop the hill (Monte de Santa Luzia) that overlooks the bay of Viana do Castelo, said to be one of the best views in the world!

Monte de Santa Luzia from the Pousada, on a nice day (not our picture)

Unluckily for us, it was a cloudy day and there was a little bit of fog so the view was not as good as it could have been. But was still lovely to see, looking out over the bay and the city below with hills in the background and some beaches just below! The building itself was beautifully designed and inside was just as nice, it even included a crypt as well. We went down into the crypt and were surprised to find a huge very modern looking room below, although it did have some very nicely decorated blue walls.

The following day we looked around the town centre, saw the Placa de Republica and the Town Hall and other old buildings in the square, the fountain included. We also visited the new section of the town, which is right on the waterfront overlooking the delta. It has lots of restaurants in very modern looking buildings. We went over to the docks and saw the famous boat, Gil Eannes (we did not realise it was famous at the time) and saw the fort in the distance. We then headed down some side streets to get to the old centre and Carmen got her photo taken in historically traditional Portuguese dress, which looked quite cool. We then had to make our way to the bus station to get to Ponte de Lima in time to see the festival, Vaca das Cordas.

View from the Marina

The old centre of Viana do Castelo

Carmencita from Portugal!

When we arrived in Ponte de Lima the whole town was packed due to the festival and we could not find a place to sleep as everything was taken. So we headed to the tourist information and they were really helpful and were able to find us a place to stay after making a few phone calls to some nearby places. The owner of the hotel was even nice enough to come and pick us up from the tourist information centre!

After settling in we went into town to find the bull. Luckily we had done our research beforehand so we knew where to go, although on arriving there we found that we probably need not have worried as there was the beginnings of a crowd gathered around the building where the bull was tied up in his pen. The bull looked so calm, not a care in the world, little did he know what was to come. 

The bull with horn covers for safety reasons

 After waiting outside for an hour (we were told start time was 6, but ended up being 7 - typical in Iberia) there was a huge commotion and people started running from his pen outside to where we were waiting about 20metres away. There followed a line of guys holding tightly to a thick rope and at the end of the rope was a not so calm, big raging bull, who came storming down trying to hit whoever was close by. We were very close to him when this happened, not more than 5 metres away, so we got a very good view of this! Luckily he is quite well handled so he roughly goes where they want him to go.

The tradition is to lead the bull through the streets of the town with people running in front of the bull and taunting it and then running for their lives when it runs towards them. This continues until the church where they go three times around it (traditional) then they head to the main square where he goes around the fountain while people try and get as close to the bull the bull as possible. One guy even got hit by the bull, which we caught on film, others jumped into the fountain to get out of the way. People were getting knocked over by other people as they run away, we saw several incidences of this. The bull even slipped over whilst running around the fountain because of the water on the floor. 

After that he is led onto a cleared area in front of the river where again people try and taunt him and touch him while he chases them, he even managed to chase one guy into the river. We felt very sorry for the bull by the end of it, as he must have been exhausted and very frustrated by all the many annoying people, but it was definitely very interesting to see. It is extremely similar to the event held in Pamplona, in Spain, with the running of the bulls, except that they have several bulls there and the bulls are not on a rope there either.(very crazy I might add!)

After the bull is led back to his pen and that is when tables are put up in the main square and the BBQ's begin! Cow steaks with bread is the main thing on the menu as this is again traditional, with of course the Portuguese Super Bock beer! There is music and some dancing, but mostly lots of eating and drinking. We explored the part roman, part medieval bridge after we had some food and looked over the nice gardens. We eventually left after a while and headed back for the night. 

Everyone enjoying some food and a beer

A spit roast!

The following day we went into town after breakfast all packed to go, and saw some sights. We saw some really nice looking buildings including the church and some old manor houses as well as a tower, before then catching the bus out of town to a place called Ponte da Barca, where we would make our way to Peneda-Geres National Park.

On arriving in Ponte de Barca we waited for the rain to stop before heading off to the campsite we intended to stay in within the National Park. A nice 11km walk away. We tried to hitchhike along the way. Eventually a nice Portuguese older couple picked us up and gave us a lift the last 6-7km right to the front doorstep of the campsite. They were lovely people, especially considering we could not communicate very well as they only spoke Portuguese or French. We were really grateful though. 

Unfortunately for us, whilst in Peneda-Geres it rained whilst we were setting up the tent, which set the mood for most of our stay in the National Park. We managed to do one very short walk when it wasn't raining, and it allowed us to see just how beautiful the surrounding area was. The highlight for us though was when we were sitting at the park bench table in the BBQ area and a nice Portuguese guy who was making a BBQ next to us gave us a rib each from his cooking. Presumably as we must have looked like starving puppies eating our bread and canned fish.

The beautiful landscape in Peneda-Geres National Park