Fado, football and Fatima

Photo essay: My Portuguese adventure

by Fariba Amini
01-Nov-2008
 
I recently visited Lisbon and several other cities of Portugal. The trip was not only fun but an adventure since Portugal is like no other country in Europe. There is a lot of history to be observed. Portugal has been a seafaring nation since the fourteenth century. Its very poverty drove many of its people out of the country in search of a better life, and thus turned the Portuguese into discoverers. They sailed everywhere, from Brazil to China and East Timor via Angola and Mozambique, from Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to Goa in India, in a quest for riches and intent on spreading the catholic faith. Portugal is the land of Henry the Navigator and Vasco de Gama, the first to sail to India via the Cape. Fado, the country’s traditional music reflects the melancholy of the many who left their country never to return, their homesickness and the longing of those they left behind. Is this also why the Portuguese, though friendly and helpful, are not exuberant like the Italians, why they rarely smile?>>> Full text
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Nasrin Sasanpour

A Hint of Mysterious Beauty & Longing . . . .

by Nasrin Sasanpour on Sun Nov 02, 2008 10:31 AM PST

Always wanted to visit the Portugese domain, and now . . . .

These pictures reveal a certain mysterious beauty & longing; the trip is in the works.

Thanks for sharing Fariba jaan.


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reply

by ferdos (not verified) on Fri Oct 31, 2008 05:35 PM PDT

Thanks for your complimentary remarks. Actually, on the first night we asked a young man for directions and he spoke fluent English. He said he lived in NY, he was a lawyer and that he was Brazilian. He said at the beginning he hated to live in Portugal because the Portuguese dislike Brazilians! But after 3 months he got used it and now he likes it. I guess there is still this love/hate relationship between the two people.

As for the monks, I had a lot of photos of the museum or the monestary. These are skeletons of monks who lived there. it is an amazing place. It is in the town of Evora. So you look it up you can find more information. In every city in Portugal where I visited there were so many historical places that you cannot see them all or write about it.

I hope this explanation will suffice.


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behrang barzin

nice job

by behrang barzin on Fri Oct 31, 2008 03:20 PM PDT

Great photos. what was the deal with the wall made of human skeletons? can
you give a little info...

naetrom: thank you for your insight, i always wondered how Brazilians
feel about Portuguese. It must be a hate/ love relationship. Thank you for sharing
that with us


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naetrom

Hate and Love

by naetrom on Fri Oct 31, 2008 06:53 AM PDT

Congrats Fariba, enchantted pictures!!

Well, Portugal... what a hate-and-love relationship we have with Lisbon! This country has colonized my country for four centuries and left us totally broken. On the other hand, they have contributed a lot with our culture: they brought the language and we reformed it, they brought the food and we improved it, they brought the sadness and we have changed it to happiness through the challenges created by themselves. That's what we call now the "Jeitinho Brasileiro" (The Brazilian Way), that's why Portugal became so jealous of us (we have become more famous than them!).

My grandpa was Portuguese who has emigrated when he was 2 years-old, fleeing from the European starving. And he was an ever-regretting person since he never could go back. He was a strange in a land that he insisted to never belong to. Last year I went to Portugal and visited the relatives. There, I really undestood what he used to mean to me. Like my grandpa, Portugal cries its losses, though never loosing its sweety and pure stoneheart. There, I was a foreigner too, even feeling myself at home as I've never felt before in any other place. I was looking for him and I found myself.

 With love,

Jorge Mortean - The most Iranian of the Brazilians!


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Wow! Spectacular.

by Iranian Reader (not verified) on Thu Oct 30, 2008 11:48 AM PDT

I love these picture travelogues. It's really fun being transported for a few minutes to somewhere you were not thinking about at all!

Thanks to all of you who do this.


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