The tram cables create a crisscrossing web over the city. Looking up to the sky, you see their haphazard pattern and it appears you are stuck here. Having heard of Lisbon’s devastation earthquake in 1755, I can see why the city needs all the protection it can get. Apart from being a protective web, those cables serve a purpose: to effortlessly glide yellow trams up and down Lisbon’s seven hills. I hop on Tram 28, the historic route packed with tourists and pickpockets. The driver of my cutesy tram is not the cutest of drivers. He steers the tram through Lisbon as though he is out for Continue Reading
The Churches in Europe Wish You Were Here
With Easter Sunday just days away, I am reminded of all of the houses of worship I have seen. In Europe, one church after another starts to blend together, especially if you are on some whirlwind tour. Regardless, these spaces evoke a silence and calm away from the rest of the world. Even if you aren’t a religious person, you can appreciate the architecture, history and peace that comes while sitting in a pew. St. Kevin’s Church, Glendalough, Ireland St. Kevin’s Church in Glendalough Ireland has that rugged appeal. The saint set up a monastic site here around 570 A.D. In the Continue Reading
Exploring Travel and Home in Sagres, Portugal
The Romans referred to Sagres, Portugal as the Promontorium Sacrum, the end of the world. Sagres upholds that world’s end attitude as you stand on the cliffs of Cabo de Sao Vicente in Portugal’s Algarve region, the most southwesterly point in Europe. With connections to Portugal’s rich nautical past, this section of Portugal lends the closest form to understanding travel and home in one for me. Prince Henry the Navigator supposedly built a fortified town here along with a school of navigation. He was also thought to have a home here and to have died in Sagres in 1460. Whether it is fact Continue Reading
Porto’s Leaps and Bounds
The table across from me holds three characters. A woman clad in an off the shoulder turquoise top fans herself as her face seems to glisten. The woman seated next to her reads a magazine with black-rimmed glasses on the very tip of her nose. The man at the table appears relaxed, transfixed on the woman in turquoise. Then, another colorful character enters the picture, a woman dressed in gathered leather pants. Probably well into her sixties, she dances to the “cha cha” truly as if no one is watching her. This group sits and dances to my diagonal right in a loud bar in Porto. Potentially the Continue Reading
Medieval Soiree In Silves, Portugal
Prickly straw pokes my bare skin as I taste God only knows what while sipping Sangria out of a handmade ceramic mug. Little did I know, today was not the day for shorts or a weak stomach. Pushy Portuguese crowd my dinner table. Communal, crowded yet colorful, Portugal still manages to muster up medieval times in a modern world. While in the Algarve region of Portugal, with high-rise hotels, resorts and drones of beach bums crowding every inch of sand, for me, it wasn’t time to park my pasty self on a towel and bake in the sun, but rather find the only patch of shade no one seemed to want. Continue Reading
Porto, Portugal Wishes You Were Here
Clark and Kim from To Uncertainty and Beyond capture Porto, Portugal. I was also in Porto this summer so expect a post soon on this enchanting, can't quite put your finger on it, city. In the mean time, enjoy Clark and Kim's moments with Porto. As our train pulled into Porto, we found ourselves crossing a bridge and beholding the city from the best view imaginable. The colorful buildings piled high on the banks and the beautiful, high bridges spilling across the river make Porto truly breathtaking. Porto is the second largest city in Portugal and is alive with activity. Boats hurry up Continue Reading
Évora in the Evening
In the Alto Alentejo region of Portugal, Évora is not an undiscovered place of beauty. The preserved medieval town has its fair share of tourists passing through daily, but in the evening, the city oddly brightens, revealing its protective, historical, gruesome, spooky and friendly side all wrapped up into the confines of its Roman walls. Évora’s Sé looks more like it is ready for battle than attune to prayers of sinners and saints. Massive, monstrous and topped with varying domes in size, shape and color, the Cathedral holds much of the city’s richest history. Construction began on the Sé Continue Reading