Author: magrilless

Today is St. John’s Day here in Portugal. But the celebration started last night, in fact peaked last night, and also lasted all night.

In early Christian tradition, the Church took over a pagan solstice celebration wherein the sun and the harvest were honored, deciding to keep the party but name it after one of their own. So it still has a definite … organic … aura about it.

About 4:00, grills started to be lit, speakers were turned outside of windows, and folks started to chat and dance and sing and walk. And hit each other over the head with plastic squeaky hammers.

(Originally, people used wilted leeks for the greeting, but rumor has it a plastic factory owner decided in the 60s that his product was better. You know, reusable, cheap … made by him. There are still some folks who carry long stalks of big garlic flowers and will hit you on the head with those instead.)

It was quite the party! Definitely the biggest celebration we have participated in! Like, BIG!

On our way to the river front, where the biggest crowds and street food and fireworks are, we got pulled into a dance party in the middle of a 3-lane street, the focus of which was a middle-aged, beer-bellied, t-shirted and bare-footed man, on his balcony up 3 stories, dancing alone facing all of us, disco fingers alive. When cars came to pass, people momentarily danced to the side, hit the driver on the head through the open window, then oozed back onto the pavement.

We squeezed our way through the throngs, beating and being beaten in equal measure. We waited in line in front of huge wood-fired ovens for the most delicious salami and cheese filled bread rolls, the time going quickly by hitting people’s heads as they passed.

Gelato and beer and dancing. Hammering strangers (grandmas with canes as well as stroller-bound toddlers). Lanterns soaring up to the top of the Eiffel-designed bridge. Boats and singing and Portuguese words shouting all around. The. Biggest. Party.

At 10:15, we asked the French girls sitting next to us, with all our legs dangling over the sea wall, when the fireworks would begin. “Midnight.” Were they sure? Yes, they showed us the sentence on the website. “That word means ‘midnight’.”

So we danced home, you guessed it, hitting people on the heads on our way, to our street’s party. Our little alleyway was full of our neighbors, fanning their coals, grilling their sardines and peppers, singing every word to Portuguese songs we’ve never heard, dancing with passing strangers. One enthusiastic man took me in his arms and mambaed me up the cobbles, another held out his cutting board of grilled chorizo for us to try, a stout lady with hair matching Tessa’s enclosed her in several tight hugs in between do-si-doing her around by the elbow.

It was still early, 11:30, when we called it quits and went up to shut all our windows and shutters to hopefully get some sleep. The party raged till sun-up; we could hear the frivolity even through our well-insulated apartment and noise machine turned up unusually high. Really. Really. Big. Party.

We had no idea, when we arranged all our travel plans, that we would be staying in Porto for this most spectacular of Portuguese holidays. But as Tessa put it, “Well, this is definitely one to put in our memory books!” Yes it is, kiddo. Yes it is!

Remember when we went to Oxford and thought,”Okay, cool. It’s pretty. We can probably make this work for a few days.”? That was last week in Coimbra.

There’s an old old university, remnants of the medieval city it used to be, and a pretty river. Our mission was to turn that into 8 interesting days.

The university is interesting. We took a walking tour from a former student and learned about how similar it is to Hogwarts (complete with pointy hats and cloaks as part of the school uniform). And it oversees the botanical garden, which is spectacular (and free).

The old town was good for a few wanders. Narrow twisty streets you can barely walk up and then you watch someone try to parallel park. Vestiges of walls and arches and aqueducts made for interesting sketching and a lovely backdrop for street musicians. And we found the perfect little restaurant to celebrate Bill’s birthday!

The river has a few public beaches, which were just the thing on the days it was over 90 degrees. (And the movie theater down the street from our apartment where we saw Mundo Jurassico in English with Portuguese subtitles.)

Otherwise, it’s a city of young people who aren’t terribly invested in keeping their properties immaculate or their nights restful. (It probably didn’t help that we arrived close to finals and there were a few national holidays sprinkled throughout our stay, too. Party!)

Now we’re heading up to Porto, our last stop in Portugal for the time-being. New adventures await!

We made it! As we sat in Dulles waiting for our plane, I do admit to also waiting for the next thing to go wrong. And less than an hour into our flight, when “a doctor or medical professional” was paged by the flight attendants, we had visions of turning right around and heading back. But apparently we were fated to get to Europe after all. We made it!

Our goal for our stay in Lisbon was to seat ourselves firmly in the correct time zone. With that in mind, we took it super easy, tourism-wise. We got up late, but didn’t stress about what we were missing; came home before we crashed, even though lots of folks were still out and about, in time to take cold showers and go to bed. And with only one fairly sleepless night (the second night is the worst!), we have (mostly painlessly) made it!

Not to say we were lazy all the days long. We did a lot of wandering aimlessly. We came across lots of purple trees (jacarandas, we think), lots of winding streets and stairs, squares festooned for St Anthony’s Day soon, and a cloister in the midst of excavation.

We made a special trip to the modern art museum on the water front, which left us so tired we had to rent electric scooters to get home (more COVID-friendly than the metro, true, but honestly just more fun).

And we will come back at the very end of our trip to do things again. It feels like a very safe and accessible city. And still interesting and exciting, with lots to look forward to in two months. Off to Coimbra on the train now — see you soon, Lisbon!

You may be wondering what sort of shenanigans we’re getting up to in Portugal. How’s the surfing? How’s the port wine? How’s the ham?

We’ll let you know!

When we get there. Soon.

As we were leaving for the Columbus airport on Thursday evening, I picked up my bag and phone and saw the message you never want to see: “We’re sorry; your flight has been cancelled.”

Uncle Pat and Aunt Sarah and Scotty and Delores flew into overdrive, ordering dinner and corralling kids while Bill and I dialed the airline right away. 37 minutes later, I was attempting to problem-solve with a lady who kept undermining my confidence by saying things like “Houston” and giving me 11-digit phone numbers to call. So when she told me the next available flight was 3 days away, I didn’t believe her for a second.

We stole a set of keys, abandoned the kids, and drove the 25 minutes to the airport to talk to someone in person. Amazing Selma stayed an hour after her shift ended to think creatively with us when it became apparent the next available flight was indeed 3 days away. 34 minutes later we drove home with plane tickets for Cleveland to DC the next afternoon, and on to Lisbon on the 5th.

Aunt Sarah and Uncle Pat graciously and cheerfully put up with us for one more night, then Scotty drove us the 2 hours up to Cleveland in the morning.

As we were finishing lunch in the Cleveland airport on Friday afternoon, I picked up my bag and phone and saw the message you never want to see: “We’re sorry; your flight has been cancelled.”

At which point we didn’t even bother trying for another flight. We hightailed it to the rental car agency and got ourselves a vehicle.

6.5 hours later, we checked into a hotel in Arlington, VA, just on the other side of the Potomac from the Mall, ready to spend our waiting time at various Smithsonians and national landmarks.

We picked and choosed some things in the Castle and Natural History and African American and National Art Museums. And we gazed at Lincoln and the White House and the Washington Monument and Arlington Cemetery.

And now we’re on our way to Lisbon. A few days late, true. But 3 days out of 60-something ain’t a bad ratio.

Now let’s do Portugal!

We’ve started our summer adventure in exotic Columbus, Ohio. But really, it’s amazing because …

Our cousins live there!

We have done the zoo, parks, and a birthday party. Had dinosaurs sneeze on us, played games, gone swimming, and mined for gemstones. We’ve snuggled, watched movies, and eaten donuts and cookies.

We’re leaving tonight for Lisbon, which is exciting of course. But we’re sad to leave our new friends and sleepovers and silly dance parties behind. We are so grateful for all the cousin love!