Revelation of the Revolution: Portugal 2018

This past week, I have been vacationing in Lisbon, Portugal. It is the first time I’ve been to Europe, and it was an excellent way to start my exploration of the continent. We spent one week in Lisbon, residing in the historical district and exploring other neighborhoods around the capital. It would be very difficult to restate my entire journey (we visited many places!). However, there were a couple key places that we visited which I will share.

Portugal has lots of palaces and historical buildings. Having a long and powerful history, it seems almost natural that Portugal would have many palaces built for the royal family. My family was able to visit four palaces during our stay. The first two palaces we visited are called Pena Palace and the National Palace. All the palaces are located in Sintra, which is about 40 minutes from Lisbon by train. The National Palace was the first palace my family and I visited. The National Palace has two very large chimneys that lead down to the kitchen. From the outside, these two chimneys give the palace an unique appearance. The biggest of the four palaces with perhaps the most brilliant colored exterior was the Pena Palace. Pena is characterized by the yellow walls on the exterior. When I was walking on the Moorish Castle, from a distance, Pena Palace looked like it was covered in gold. The National Palace was all white except for red roofing (typical Portuguese style!). The Monserrate Palace was very intricately designed. Its colors were very different from the colors of the other three palaces. It was orangey and pinkish. The shape of the main dome also reminded me of the Taj Mahal. We were able to enter all the palaces as well, and the walls of Monserrate was lavishly decorated with granite. The Quinta da Regaleira was by far my favorite palace. Not only was the summer palace itself beautifully and grandly constructed, but it was embedded beneath a garden that’s big enough to be considered a park on a mountain. My family and I explored the park and there overall it gave off a very mystical and fairytale like vibe. It was essentially one big mountain with many grottos, castles, walls, and underground tunnels. What was neat about the garden was that there were many paths. These paths wove through the mountains and somehow, they were all interconnected. It was enjoyable to walk up and down through the paths and somehow end up in the same place.

Pena Palace

When we weren’t walking through historical buildings or castles, my family spent time in the historical district of Lisbon. From movies and from books, I knew that European streets and architecture was different from the US. I knew that Europe had narrow streets and crowded ancient buildings. While this is true, Lisbon itself is very unique as well. Portugal uses a lot of tile in the construction of their buildings and roads. Thus, the roads are colorful, and the color of houses range from yellows to reds to blues to light purples, depending on the color of the tile used. The sidewalks are also tile. There are two colored tiles, and they are often arranged into particular patterns. However, Lisbon also uses red tiles for their roofs. From a high viewpoint, the city looks terracotta red.

The food in Portugal was also delicious. Lisbon is packed with bakeries. Having never seen so many pastery shops in my life, I was eager to try as many different cafes and bakery shops as I could. And yes, I’m not exaggerating when I say there are patisserie shops on every street in Lisbon. The main streets, or large streets often had a patisserie shop every five to seven stores. The most popular, must-try food in portugal is called a Pastel de Nata. In plain English, a Pastel de Nata is a flaky, crispy, crust filled with the perfect ratio of custard filling. Adding sugar and cinnamon is common. Pastel de Nata are sold at every bakery. I’m not kidding. At all. On the day I arrived in Lisbon and was walking through the streets, I was looking through the windows of the patisserie shops and was confused when I saw burnt looking little tarts that somewhat resembled fruit tarts. However, the second day, when I went on a walking tour with the hotel, our tour guide told us the prominence of the Pastel de Nata in a typical Portuguese diet. In fact, he took us to the cafe that supposedly has Lisbon’s best Nata’s. This is also the cafe where a famous author (whose name I’m blanking on), sat for hours every day but ordered the same thing every day: a cup of coffee and one Nata. Local people sit in cafes and enjoy a similar combination in the afternoons.

Europe in general is more environmentally conscious than the US on average. I was able to experience this hands-on during my trip. It was astounding to me how obvious the effort to preserve the planet was. Perhaps it was not as obvious to another person who was from another European country, but to me, from the US, it was quite clear beginning with the size of cars. Every Ubur my family took was not only small in comparison to cars in the US, but the cars are also narrower! In addition, station wagons and hatchbacks were typical…SUVs were a rarity. Food portions in Portugal are also much smaller. My family rarely wasted food, since we were able to finish the portions given. I believe I used one paper cup my entire stay. Cafes serve coffee in porcelain cups and I rarely saw a paper cup in the trash barrels.

It rained 5 out of 7 days. Luckily the last two days of our trip were sunny. The rain was only periodic, so I was still able to enjoy the city with my family. This trip was quite insightful on the environmental side. I became more aware of the various ways another country helps preserve the Earth. I was also forced to communicate with people who didn’t speak English perfectly, or even at all, while also picking up a little bit of Portuguese through menus and store names. It was a wonderful trip.

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