Jose Saramago is a Portuguese author. I picked up his book "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" in Lagos after walking into the bookstore and asking for a Portuguese author. In Italy I hadn't had time to read, but in Ireland I read James Joyce's the Dubliners, in England I read Sherlock Holmes so I thought that reading from a Portuguese author in Portugal would be a great idea. I wanted a Portuguese author to write about his travels or experiences in Portugal but I am enjoying this book. It won the Nobel Prize of Literature a few years ago so I had always known about it. It's difficult to read because the author does not break down the conversations and keeps them in very long paragraphs but it's still interesting. That is where the quote comes from for my blog post.
Lisbon. Lisboa. I loved it. So in Faro and Lagos I mentioned that the streets weren't regular cement but were smaller smooth stones that created a pattern around the streets. Lisbon is much the same. They are super slippery so if you go, get shoes that have good traction. Anyway, much of the streets are lined with white stones and the black stones create the pattern. White and black are also the colors for Lisbon so it all fit.
Coming into Lisbon from Lagos I kept thinking "this totally reminds me of San Francisco. Oh this looks like the Golden Gate Bridge". I later found out that the designer of the bridge in Portugal also designed the Golden Gate Bridge. Hmm no wonder it looked familiar. Anyway, Lisbon apparently is one of the oldest cities in Europe if not the oldest because of its location on the Atlantic. It was used as an advantage point and many a ships sailed from the Belem Tower for their Portuguese expeditions. I went by the Belem Tower and it was kind of cool and not what I would have imagined had someone told me "that's where they sailed all their expeditions from." I can't describe it but I liked visiting that area and realizing, they made history here. They literally made history by looking for something new.
Lisbon's graffiti was pretty cool too. For those of you that don't know, I really like taking pictures of graffiti from the different places I have visited. Either it is significant of the city, beautiful and someone should notice it or completely random. Well in Lisbon it wasn't full on graffiti but they had paintings that covered the whole side of a building that were just beautiful and made the city feel beautiful. Also, I did not know this but Lisbon is known for their tiled buildings and tile as art. I have pictures as samples and brought a couple of pieces home.
For those of you that don't know, I went to Portugal to try and discover my roots. My last name is Americanized Portuguese. Hundreds of immigrants that came through Ellis Island had their surnames changed or "Americanized" so that Americans had an easier time to pronounce and spell them. Many Americans assimilated and embraced this new identity. My family was amongst those hundreds of thousands that did. We believe that my great, great grandfather was illiterate and didn't know how to spell his last name of Amaral and it was Americanized to Emerald. I did some research in Italy to try and find out where my Italian family was from only to discover my Portuguese side was from Azores, the islands off the coast of Portugal. It was then decided I was going to Portugal. To travel to the islands was EXPENSIVE. No thank you madam, I do not have 700 euros (which would be about 1200 dollars) to travel for 4 days to the islands. Off season for me please. Either way, I would still travel to Lisbon to experience Portugal.
In Lisbon, at my hostel, I told two guys of my quest to get my family coat of arms or a family crest. One guy who's name I never learned was really interested and wanted me to succeed because he wanted to do the same. He told me that John Emerald was probably João Amaral. But because Amaral was so common I should see if there is a second name like De Amaral or D'Amaral, etc. So with this new information I went back to looking and found that there was a Joao Amaral who sponsored a man and woman to come over from the islands and was born in the same year as my great great grandfather so it could be him. I tried to go to the registrars office in Lisbon to see if I could get a birth certificate but alas because I did not speak the language no one was able or wanted to help me. So I will soon put my sister's Portuguese to use and have her inquire further once I return to California. Although I did not succeed in my quest for my family crest, my search is not over.
One of the owners of the hostel kept trying to get me to talk to the other people at the hostel and kept introducing me to everyone. The group that she made me sit with were talking about smoking, tobacco and other drugs. Uh....I have nothing to contribute to that conversation. Anyway, at the hostel I did make a friend, Pedro. His second name is Tiago and I was like "Oh can I call you PT?" And he said "yes....but don't you think it sounds like pity?" "Oh....yeah Pedro it is then." Anyway, he was very cute and very nice and I enjoyed talking to him and getting to know him. He was asking me about things he had seen on TV and if it was true or not. Don't worry, we exchanged information and plan to be Facebook and emailing friends. And I have a friend to visit next time I'm in Portugal. He also made a special Portuguese meal for the people at the hostel if they wanted to contribute. It was really good with bread, clams, prawns, olive oil, salt, cilantro and I think that's it. We made a deal that when I returned to Portugal, he would then cook a special Portuguese dish with crab. He loves cooking so I was ok with that deal. Especially since I have already tried his cooking. And seafood is involved. I wish I could have taken a picture of him smelling the cilantro. I have never seen anyone so in love with the smell of fresh herbs in my life. After the owner saw that when Pedro wasn't working he would come and talk to me, she was like, ok I get it. So the moral of the story was you don't need to have a lot of friends, just one is enough if its the right person. I appreciated the time he took out to talk to me and keep me company and am glad to call him my friend.
Anyway, he also was telling me that he came from Coimbra which is where there are 3 universities. I did not get to go, but as I was driving through at 2 in the morning, I wished I had. It looked so beautiful and just so like the college town that I would want to work and live in. I wish I can go back when they are in session and experience the Coimbra culture.
Anyway, my trip to Portugal ended with me traveling up north to Porto and flying out of Porto to Paris. Oh Portugal you have a special place in my heart!
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