This time of the year:

The beautiful Christmas lights on the streets,

The music on the streets,

The smell of chestnuts on the streets,

The view of the river or the sea.

I know those things exist in England as well, but not in Milton Keynes… (and Lisboa, the river Tejo and Baixa can’t be replaced)

Right, now that I finally have some pictures of our holiday in Portugal, I can write about it.

We went in August for a special reason: a good friend of mine was getting married. It was a very special day and Russ had the opportunity to notice the difference in traditions between the countries which are quite a few. I’m not going to say what they are because I’ve never been to an English wedding and I want to speak with personal knowledge.

Other than the usual visiting family and friends (I had the chance of finally visiting my stepmother at the hospital where she was recuperating quite well) we had a chance of travelling a bit outside Lisbon

First we went to the beach with some friends very close to where I live. Then we went to see some of the protected area close to the beach a bit further South with my dad.

Then we turned North. A friends of my mother’s was kind enough to give us a lift to the region where I was brought up by my grand parents (Ribatejo) We went to a little town called Almeirim to have the traditional Sopa da Pedra (Stone soup). Legend says that one day a beggar went to a rich men’s house to beg for food. Knowing they wouldn’t give any to them he asked to just some water to make a soup with a stone. Then he asked for a little bit of potato just to make it look better, then for a little seasoning to taste better, then a bit of meat just to add some more flavour, and a lot more stuff so that at the end of it he had the most nutritious and filling soup ever made with all kinds of stuff. In that town the soup is cooked with the stone inside

We then went to visit the city where I actually grew up. It’s called Santarém and it’s a very old city with a big history. It’s one of the great conquests of our first King to the Moors. From the castle you have one of the most fantastic views over the biggest river that crosses Portugal from Spain to Lisbon, the Tejo (Tagus). We also visited what was once my grandparents house (it was sold a few years ago) .Good memories I have from that house. One of a row of little houses around a chapel that is one of the oldest in Portugal which the King himself ordered the construction and was the first to pray at.

It was only painful to see that the house doesn’t belong to our family any more and that not even the fig trees are there

Later that week we went to visit my uncle, aunt and cousin who live in Coimbra. Also a city full of History. It is called the students city and it’s dominated by the University where many traditions are still kept including the costumes. Unfortunately we didn’t have the chance to see the city so the only pictures we have are from a sight seeing place which doesn’t show the best of the city. Russ had a chance to eat and love another of our gastronomical wonders: Leitao a Bairrada. It’s basically a roasted piglet cooked in a particular way. Delicious! He also had a Morcela Assada which is basically a kind of chourico made with blood a bit like the English Black Pudding. He loved both

On our way back to Lisbon we still had time to stop at Praia da Nazaré where we had the fantastic view from the Sitio

Finally we stopped at one of the most beautiful and well preserved medieval villages: Óbidos.

It is absolutely gorgeous! You have to be there.

You can see more pictures here. But really you have to be there.

So this was our holiday. A lot done in just a week. It was lovely to show a bit more of Portugal to Russ. A bit more tradition and show that Portugal is not just Lisbon. There is so much more to see

I Portugal

I didn’t mention it on the day but here it is now. This is another very important holiday in Portugal. It’s the anniversary of the Restauracao da Independencia (Restoration of the Independence translated literally).

It so happens that due to some succession problems we were under the rule of Spanish kings for 60 years! This is the day we kicked them out for the last time! Again we accomplished that with the help of our old allies the English.

It seems like the English played such an important role in our past like the Portuguese do in English football today

Here is the monument to that fantastic day.

Stolen from here but word is Mark Twain wrote it

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.
In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troub lesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”. During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou”
and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru. Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

All this because Portugal is about to sign an agreement that will change our spelling completely and we will all spell like the Brazilians rather than like the Portuguese! This is ridiculous!

Friday was the 5th of October. Doesn’t say much to the English but it’s an important day for the Portuguese. 5th of October 1910 was the day we ended the Monarchy in Portugal and we became a Republic.

But England had it’s influence on it. The British Ultimatum was one of the events that were the last drop against the Monarchy and after most of the royal family was killed, the remaining prince (which was only king for a very short period) ran away to England.

So on the 5th of October we also got a new flag and a new National Anthem. It’s lyrics reflect the revolutionary atmosphere of the time against the English and the Monarchy. But we are all friends now

If you want to know more the is something on wikipedia about it. It is in Portuguese though. You can ask google to translate it but I can tell you it does a very poor job.

STILL wondering which one is worst

And there’s no ‘Heat’ magazine

I’m going to Portugal, and there’s no ‘Heat’ magazine

Insanity/stupidity approach!

Yesterday, 10th June, was Portugal day! It also mark the death of Luis de Camoes, the poet who wrote an epic celebrating the Portuguese discoveries in the 16th century, and it’s the day of the Portuguese comunities around the world! Special day! You can see more here

I’ve been meaning to write this post for some time now…

I was very surprised to know that there are so few holidays in England. I soon found out that besides Easter, Good Friday and Christmas, there are no religious holidays in England. Well in Portugal they make the majority of them. Most people in Portugal don’t even know why there’s a holiday. All that matters is that you don’t have to work that day

After reading this, you may think that Portuguese people are lazy. Well it’s not exactly like that. Working conditions are very different, pay cheques as well, and there are many differences in the number of hours people work in a week.

Basically, if you are a civil worker in Portugal not only you do nothing during your hours of work, you also have a lot more days off. I must say that although in England civil workers have as many days off as everyone else, opinions about them are exactly the same (it must be a global problem )…

The major differences are: In England there are no religious holidays (besides the above) and if Christmas and New Year are on a weekend, an alternative day is given.

In Portugal you have loads of religious holidays, no alternative days are given if they are on a weekend and if you are a civil servant and the holiday is on a Tuesday or a Thursday, chances are you’ll get the Monday or the Friday too.

Total number of bank holidays in Portugal: 14 (8 religious) + one regional holiday=15 Although more for civil servents (this year around 5 more days) and some may be at a weekend.

01st Jan: New Year

Tuesday 47 days before Easter (mobile): Carnival

Friday before Easter (mobile): Good Friday

Sunday (mobile): Easter

25th April: Liberty day

1st May: May day

Thursday (mobile): Body of Christ (or some other translation)

10th June: Portugal day

15th August: Don’t know the translation but it’s to celebrate the rising of Mary’s soul (death of Mary)

5th October: Republic day (when we ended monarchy in 1910)

1st November: All Saints

1st December: Restoration of Independence (We had 3 Spanish kings ruling Portugal because of a succession crisis. This is when we ended that!!)

8th December: Don’t know the translation but it’s the patron of Portugal Imaculada Conceicao.

25th December: Christmas

Plus one day that is the patron saint of a region ( in Lisbon it’s Saint Anthony on the 13th June)

Total number of bank holidays in England: 8 (3 religious)

01 Jan: New Year

Friday before Easter (mobile): Good Friday

Monday after Easter: Easter Monday (don’t know the reason but maybe because Easter is on a Sunday)

First Monday in May: Early May bank holiday (May Day)

Last Monday in May: Spring Bank holiday ( Reason? Maybe just because they felt like it? No idea)

Last Monday in August: Summer bank holiday (what about Autumn and Winter?? Again no idea about the reason. Do you need a reason?)

25th December: Christmas (can be a different day if the 25th is on a weekend)

26th December: Boxing day (day after Christmas on the next Monday if 25th is on a weekend) This one I know the reason! Comes from the day when the boxes of donations on the churches were opened to give money to the poor

There you go! Another big difference between these countries.

Although it saddens me that I can’t have the Portuguese holidays off (not the religious because I’m not religious), I still remember them and celebrate them!

And I can’t complaint because being a student I have a lot more holidays than the common worker in both countries

P. S.- Christmas and Good Friday are called public holidays and the others are called bank holidays. The reason? Google it is you are interested (which I doubt ). This post is too long already

And the second reason to celebrate liberty day:

25th April 2007, Russ and I signed the tenancy agreement to a house and began living together!

A very important day and a very important (and a bit scary) step.

So the reason I haven’t updated this weblog yet is because we have been carrying stuff around, buying furniture, building it, packing, unpacking, cleaning, messing, cleaning again, etc… 3 weeks waking up at 6 and going to bed late, weekends included…

Ah! and also because we just got the internet at home

It has all been very exausting but very excitting! Never a boring day! Although we just now started having time to relax, we’ve been having a lot of fun. It also makes things easy that Russ and I like the same things, so no fighting over which sofa or which bed. So far no near murders

The flat is great. Small enough to keep clean easily but not too small. Just what we wanted.

I have my own space like I wanted and a house all to myself, not just a room. And it’s walking distance to work so I can exercise a bit. And I need it!

As for Russ, I think he is happy too. I hope he can adapt to living in this town (I haven’t!) and dealing with my bad temper every day!

It was a nice coincidence and a very special one to me that we ended up signing the contract on such a special day. To me and to my country.

Let hope it all goes well!