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Published: October 4th 2007
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Mertola
In lovely Mertola, looking up the hill at the castle and church (church that used to be a mosque). Hello friends,
It’s been a few months now since our last post, and we hope you’re well. For us the summer has been wild - trips around Europe, visitors from home, and various work related shenanigans. This is the first attempt to fill in the busy summer and give you a peek at what we’ve been up to. Thanks for your patience, and we hope you enjoy the pictures!
With that preface, back in June (I think) we packed up our bags and traveled with Zsolt and Ildiko, our 2nd gazdas (host family) to Portugal. Why Portugal? It is where Chris’s brother Scott is doing research to finish his PhD in archeology. Scott’s been going there for several years now, speaks a good amount of Portuguese and has been tempting us with stories and delicious culinary items some time now. So, we figure it was time to go - and better yet, to take a little bit of Udvarhely with us.
The town Scott is based in is a called Mertola, a small-ish town in the southern part of Portugal with Islamic roots. As you can see, it’s gorgeous! Shining white walls, with splashes of mustard and bright blue,
Castle and Grave Yard
Looking up at the castle and gate to the graveyard. swallows filled the air from dawn to dark and there’s a castle to boot!
We spent most of our time in Mertola exploring the winding cobbled streets, and dipping into the many fascinating museums. Per capita, this town has to have more museums than most European cities - and they are all great. We also spent a day in kayaks on the river, which was lovely, and allowed us some small thrills shooting over the old mill damn above town.
Portugal may not be world renown for its food, but even in a small town we were well fed and content. There was a great assortment of fruits and veggies (I managed to get a few fresh figs), things we don’t usually see in Romania. We were also fortunate enough to have a yummy little bakery one door down from where we stayed. Everyday we had warm fresh bread, and a range or almond pastries. Almonds seemed to be the big thing in pastries there, and that was just fine - they were great.
Going out at night we enjoyed a lot of fresh seafood and the usual land mammals, generally in a hearty sauce. The wine
Mertola and River
A view over Mertola and the river where we went boating. was dark, and dry and cheap - and super good. Which brings me to the cheese; in Romania they don’t make aged cheese - they don’t really do hard cheeses in general. So I was in heaven in Portugal, all the tiny little groceries had an assortment of little round cheeses all at different phases in their long life. Some were a bit younger, softer and milder, almost spreadable. Others were aged to the point of being a bit crumbly, with a stronger flavor. And yes, they were amazing!
We also went on excursions to neighboring towns - most notably Evora. A larger city with breathtaking old architecture, a ruined temple for Dianna and a chapel made of human bones. I never knew hanging out with Archeologists could be so fun - they definitely know where to find the best bones.
In spite of the chilly grey weather we had this day, we had a great time. On the way home, we stopped to have a gander at some big rocks - looks a bit like Stone Henge… Apparently it’s almost as big, just not as well known. Amazing things humans.
Being on the southern coast of
Bird Motif
This beautiful motif was all over the city. We saw it on ceramics, t-shirts and as seen here, in a tiled courtyard. Portugal, we also spent the obligatory day at the beach. As a red-head, these days usually rate low for me, but the beaches of Portugal even gave me a trill. We visited 3 I think in one day and they were all stunning. Clean crystalline water, beautiful views, very few people and one of the three had great surf for bogie boarding. We gave the locals a lot to laugh at, but we all got a few good runs in.
We took the long way back to the Madrid airport, stopping for a couple days in Lisbon. I hope we can get back to this city, because it was fabulous. Like everything else I’ve described so far, beautiful. We hiked up to the castle over the city and listened to a bit of the fado festival that was going on. Ate some delicious food, drank some great wine, shopped a bit and enjoyed the views. The other major highlight of Lisbon was the Gulbenkian museum.
We did not visit one disappointing museum in Portugal - but this one takes the cake. It was by far the most wonderful museum I’ve ever seem. We all agreed on this. It
Dig
We spent one afternoon walking around Scott's work site - not a bad office. ranked among everyone’s favorites when we compared notes on the flight home. I am not sure how to describe it to you, except imagine a museum where they took out all the boring old stuff and all the broken stuff. I don’t mean to be cheeky here, I’m serious. Imagine the 5 coolest things from every museum you’ve ever been too, plus some stuff you can’t even imagine, and that’s the Gulbenkian. If Chris were writing, you’d get the full scoop on Mr. G. but since it’s me, you get the short version. Basically he was a really rich Armenian guy who owned most of the oil in the world and was one of the richest guys of his time. With his fantastic wealth he “acquired” most of the world’s cool stuff and luckily for us, it is now on display. Seriously, it’s worth going to Portugal just to see this museum. Check out the website for a glimpse of what’s there: http://www.museu.gulbenkian.pt
There wasn’t much that could top our time in Lisbon, but we did our best to keep up the pace, and during our 6 hour layover in Rome we took the train into the city for
Bones
This was one of our more "artistic" photos inside the bone church... the other were a bit more grotesque. To give you an idea, other than the ceiling and bits like this, EVERYTHING was made of bones. a few short hours. What can I say other than great coffee, great gelato and great ruins. In our few short hours (the few that we didn’t spend scarfing tasty treats and drinking coffees) we stumbled upon what is probably the centerpiece of Rome’s tourist attractions. We saw the coliseum, the tower, a really charming Pilipino church off on a side street, the Vatican in the distance and a whole bunch of other old stuff that I am not sure about because we were basically running to catch our train. I wouldn’t recommend seeing Rome at a run, but in a sort of irreverent way, it was quite cool!
Ok, only what, 4 months left to update you on?!!?
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