In July of 2011 I confidently said that I loved Turkey. In July of 2012 I professed my love for Italy. Well, both of these confessions of adoration are insignificant compared to the way that I feel about Portugal! Where do I even begin?
I got off the ship and saw beautiful calasada (black and white stone) sidewalks. Most of the walkways in Portugal have different stone designs creating works of art. Each pattern is unique and every stone is hand cut to make the specific design. The buildings were either covered in tiles or pastel paint. The pastel paint looked like a sunset on some of the buildings as the paint peeled, exposing the colorful layers of old paint. Very few buildings were older than 250 years due the terrible earthquake in 1755 (that caused a tsunami and fire from all of the candles.) As we left Lisbon I felt like I was back in Oregon when we drove through lush valleys that looked like the hills of Portland. My class got off the bus and went to explore an abandoned fortress we gulped breaths of fresh air. It was the purest air we had inhaled in two months! (In Morocco there was so much smog that you could stare directly at the sun for minutes at a time. Compared that to the fact that Lisbon has planted a tree for every citizen- over 600,000 trees!) My class walked around the tourist-free city and went to some churches that we've been reading about. We visited the tiny churches, heard about the miracles that the church believed happened and say the religious relics related to the miracles. At the Church of St. Stephen we saw a communion wafer (more like a pile of dust) in a gold case. The wafer supposedly gushed blood as a Catholic women took the communion wafer to a Jewish witch (they weren't too politically correct back in 1600…) to get a spell to stop her husband's infidelity. She hid the bloody wafer and in the middle of the night it started glowing and the priest deemed the wafer to have been visited by the Holy Spirit. In order to see the wafer an old little man, who did not speak any English, wound a heavy crank to open a gold case that was two stories above us. He motioned for us to walk up the rickety back staircase and we entered an attic-like room that was decorated with statues of saints. One by one we climbed a ladder up to the open gold case. There was sign warning us to watch our heads and not kiss the relic. I quietly chuckled at the sign and soon regretted my silent laughter. I crouched down as I climbed the wobbling ladder and when I reached the case I slightly lifted my head because "watch your head" signs normally do not apply to people that are 5'5''. Clunk… as stars sparkled in my eyes and my balance lessened I dizzily thought of the sign- if only I hadn't laughed!
Another church that stuck with me was the San Domingo Church. This massive church was partially destroyed by the earthquake and fire in 1755. The marble columns and statues had large chunks missing and the walls were stained with the soot of the fire. The church had been left as-is and was a beautiful and eerie site. It was magnificent seeing the destruction and imagining what the church used to look like. It served as a visual reminder of God's great power and His will to get you through the tough times. The church was one of my favorites due to its broken beauty.
Another reason (my last for this post) that I fell in love with Portugal was the Portuguese people. SAS students have been ripped off, pick pocketed or discriminated against in some of the countries we've recently been in. This behavior exists all around the world, I just wasn't used to experiencing it first hand. In Portugal I had the exact opposite experience. Locals took time out of their busy days to help us with directions, tell us about a special deal to cut prices or ask about our lives. The locals genuinely cared about us and I felt incredibly safe and welcomed. It reminded me of the hospitality that I take for granite in Oregon. Kindness isn't a right, it is a gift and I was so grateful for the meeting the wonderful Portuguese people.
I'll post more on Portugal later, but it is a beautiful country. It historically and recently has had struggles, yet the people shine through and reach out to the travelers.
~Tori
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