An Hour off in Portugal

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1. Did you know that Portugal is one hour behind the rest of continental Western Europe? Neither did we! In fact, we were in Portugal for 3 days, but it wasnt until we were leaving Portugal, about to cross the Spanish border, that we realized it. I guess it is a sign of a good trip when you can be an hour off and not even notice.

2. WWPD - what would pedro do?

For those not in the know, my freshman roommate was/is Brazilian; so of course he would have been very handy in helping us scale the language barrier and on many occassions we wished we had packed him in our suitcase.

3. The Portugese take their recycling a little TOO seriously. I mean bones for building materials is probably not what Al Gore had in mind. (more down below)

4. Ever see that scene in The Thomas Crowne Affair where everybody is dressed the same and people had to figure out who the real one is? That was our experience with the pension owner we were trying to find in Salema so we could pay him.

5. A British guy told us that in Portugal if you feed a dog for four days it is technically yours. I told him that we have the same law in America and that is how I got stuck with Christina. I thought this was hilarious? but unfortunately, I have been sleeping outside ever since.

We left our parents in the South of Spain and decided to head to Portugal. We had read about a sleepy little fishing village on the far western and southern coast of Portugal called Salema, so we headed there. We arrived and started looking for pensions. We found one and it was too expensive for us, and the lady said we should go "ask the old men down at the port about rooms." We were wondering which old men, and how do we find them at the port, but she said just to walk on down there and see. So we did. And there they were...a couple of old men, all dressed the same in trousers, v-necked sweaters or sweater vests, and french caps that resemble berets. It was quite the sight. So there they were in a little group and we were contemplating walking up to them when this little old man started walking toward us from the group and gestered something or other then put his hands to his head like he was sleeping. "Si" we said. He didnt speak French, Spanish, or English, so it was back to miming. Even our little german was no help. We figured it out though, or at least we kind of did, and got to our room which was right on the ocean with a beautiful view of the sunset. This town had so much character. Dogs running around everywhere, these old men all dressed the same, old women in their European dresses staring at us when we walked by, and then random English people who had decided to move down there for retirement. It was quite the experience.

The next day we woke up and headed for Evora, a tiny walled medieval town that is on the UNESCO world heritage list. We spent the night in a 16th century mansion that had been turned into a pension...pretty cool. Their biggest attraction is this weird chapel where the walls are completely made of human bones. It was really creepy. They had a reason for doing this...reminding the priests that death is a part of life...but we are convinced there is a less creepy way of doing this. We will post the picture we got of this chapel so you can see what we are talking about.

Anyway, Portugal was fun and everyone was really friendly, but since neither of us spoke the language, and neither of us likes seafood that much, we decided it was time to return to Spain and headed for the border, making a quick stop to check out the ridiculously cool Roman acqueduct in a little town near the border called Elvas. No really, that is its name.

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Comments

[Jon Lim]

I was wondering when you'd get snippy w/ each other
"That is how I got stuck with Christina!" Haha! You are incorrigible. If you didn't receive an elbow to the face, that means Christina has good discipline.