14th week - have you ever heard about the Great Wall of Portugal?

Olá,

One more week, one more experience. Portugal keeps surprising me:) Have you ever heard about the big wall of Portugal? About Manueline style in architecture? About big monasteries in small villages? No?! Even if you did hear, this message is for YOU.

International Reception Weekend in Alcobaça. One nice and freezing night after the official dinner, opening of the national conference, and celebration of the 49th anniversary of AIESEC in Portugal a bunch of AIESECers, including interns from all over the Portugal, gathered in Alcobaça for AIESEC National Conference and parallelly - International Reception Weekend.

Alcobaça monastery is one of the main attractions in that small and cute city with narrow streets and very cozy atmosphere. The monastery was founded in 1153 by the first king of Portugal (in 100 year – 1253 the first king of Lithuania was crowned). What is more, it was the first Gothic building in Portugal. The monastery was built for the monks of Cistercian order (lietuviskai ´bernardinu ordinas´- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cistercians). In the monastery monks were forbidden to speak except one special room. At first it was a quite strict order with strict rules, however with the increase of power all monks got separate cells, the kitchen increased to an amazing size and some unrevealed sources tell that they had a secret tunnel connecting them with the monastery of nuns in a nearby village…

And some inspiring whispers about love story behind these walls:) One of the kings of Portugal Pedro I was in love with Spanish noblewoman Ines. However, she was not accepted by Pedro’s father and was killed. After Pedro I became a king of Portugal, he exhumed Ines’s body and forced the court to swear to it as a queen. Now they are both buried in the monastery in marble coffins and will stay together till the end of the world…

More about the monastery:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastery_of_Alcoba%C3%A7a

In the photos below:
- the bad monk who now suffers a trampling down;

- beautiful gardens - the inside yard;

- a small pool where monks could catch fresh fish.

Ruins of Alcobaça castle. Besides the monastery, Alcobaça once had a castle from which only ruins are left. However, the ruins are high on the hill and the view from there is worth seeing. Some photos from above following.

Aljuborrota. One of the main battles in Portugal happened near this village. Not so many people actually would remember it if not one legend about the woman from the bakery who killed almost the whole army of Spanish (or 8 Castilians soldiers according to other stories:)) with baker's peel (lize):)

The idyll of the village in the photo on the right... right? no, other right:))

Obidos. The Great Wall of Portugal is exactly in this place. The whole village – white fairy-tale houses, narrow winding streets, orange trees with hanging fruits and Christmas fair - surrounded by the wall. The only thing you have to do is to climb up on the wall and start going around the city observing the smallest details in the middle. We were lucky because when we came there, the village was full of people who came to the ´Village of Christmas´.

Other interns. As I always say - it is usually not about the places you visit but about people with whom you visit or you meet there. And the crew for this Reception Weekend was amazing. Check the photos below:

...Venesuela, Brazil, India, Peru, China, Brazil, Australia, Slovakia, Brazil, and Lithuania on the stage...

... on the bridge...

...in the ruins of the castle... who are those monkeys in the shadow?..

...in the tour around bars in Alcobaça...

...hard process preparing caipirinha...

...a tough competition - boat race for THE INTERNS´ team...

...aren´t we nice?..

Offtopic – Manueline architecture style:::
- just in Portugal,
- absolutely typical,
- crawling out in almost all old buildings and monuments.

So, what is it all about?
About incorporating maritime elements and elements from discoveries brought by famous discoverers. The main examples of this style are St. Jeronimos monastery and Tower of Belem in Lisbon. But I found elements of it almost in every church, monastery I have visited all around the Portugal. What I like the most is actually the ceiling:) Check this out…

For more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manueline

And a final message of this post is - I found two ways to rediscover and fell in love once again with your country:
1. to go abroad and start discovering another country. By discovering Portugal, I started thinking what I would like to see, find out back in Lithuania. I talked about this with other interns and they feel exactly the same:)
2. to talk or read blogs of people staying in your country. A message from one Portuguese friend ´Sometimes we need a person from outside to show us how beautiful our country is.´

Feeling a bit like Vasco da Gama:)
Ruti