15-16th weeks - CHRISTMAS and NY in Portuguese way

Ola,

Believe me or not, everywhere Christmas is the same - Santa Clauses in the shopping centers at the end of October, discounts and comercial spirit around, streets decorated and Jingle Bells sounds touching ears dozen times per day.

Though there are some slight differences when celebrating Christmas Eve (CE) and Christmas in Lithuania and Portugal. First, noone understood when I had asked if they had 12 dishes for CE dinner and I did not understand what's so strange in this question. The thing is that the traditional dish for CE in Portugal is.. guess.. bacalhau:) and for dessert - king's or queen's cake. No herrings, no French salad (this is the name for 'lietuviska misraine' in Portugal), no kuciukai in poppy milk.

Second difference - Christmas trees, in Portugal they almost do not have natural Christmas trees or branches, they use plastic ones. In general, I am against natural Christmas trees as well, but to have a fresh branch gives a totally different smell at home.

Here in Portugal I had 6 chances to celebrate Christmas or Christmas Eve. Let's start from the beginning - you will find some really unusual moments:

1. 6 December - Christmas dinner with AIESEC ISCTE. Nice place, dinner with AIESEC alumni, members, exchanging gifts, playing ping pong, singing caraoke. Rather unusual, isn't it?;)
2. 9 December - Christmas dinner with flatmates. Christmas spirit with 'fire place', Christmas tree, Maroccan food, Portuguese wine, Portuguese TV show that was 'veeery funny' and secret Santa Clauses. Pretty unusual as well..:)

3. 14th December - Christmas lunch with colleagues at work. Going to the north from Lisbon to a very nice place near Tagus river, meating lots of colleagues from all over the country, enjoying sun and mandarines hanging on the trees, eating bacalhau or codfish, some typical Portuguese desserts, drinking really delicious wine, enjoying performance of some toy football coaches from Portugal (Portuguese are really crazy about football), and coming back with a Santa Clause bag of presents.

4. 21st December - Christmas bowling and clubbing with the colleagues of Rosane (intern in Braga). Something strange:)

5. 24th December - Christmas Eve with the family of Portuguese friend and my sister. A very nice evening preparing bacalhau with vegetables, mushrooms' soup, bringing some Lithuanian spirit with 'sakotis' and 'kuciukai', making sangria from champagne, exchanging small, cute gifts, watching Eurotrip till 4 a.m. This is what I really wanted - to experience Christmas Eve in Portuguese way, in a Portuguese family. Many many thanks for Goncalo for giving this chance;)

6. 25th December - Christmas UNO cards evening with friends in my appartment.

And New Year? Well, except spending it with 4 different nationalities (7 Romanians, 2Portuguese, 2 Lithuanians, 1 Brazilian), near the ocean, with the flowers' pot of sangria, eating typical dishes from different countries, dancing pimba, eveything else was pretty much the same as in Lithuania:))

A few learning points:
1. Pimba is a kind of Rytis Cicinas just in Portuguese and more dirty. This was the music that really made us dance during NY Eve:) More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimba

2. if you expect that cabbage rolls (balandelius) or potatoe salad (lietuviska misraine) you can find only in Lithuania or Romania or some other country and these are typical dishes of your country, you might be surprised...:) Cabbage rolls are the same both in Romania and Lithuania and very common potatoe salad is called both Lithuanian and French salad in different parts of the world.

3. If your do not have a pot to make 10 liters of sangria, the easiest solution is to go to the chinese shop and to buy a plastic pot for planting flowers:)

Warmest greetings with a piece of Portuguese sun and Lithuanian spirit for YOU – Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish you:

THE ray of light that wakes you up every morning even when there is no sun outside,
THE snow flake in the air that makes you smile,
THE cup of coffee with an interesting person in a secret cafe,
THE present that you cannot hold but that brings warmest feelings,
THE song that fills up the mind an makes you dance like there is no tomorrow,
THE dream that you can share with your friends,
THE feeling of fulfilment and maturity inside.

I wish you to LIVE every moment of your life!

Buckiai, beijinhos, kisses:*
Ruti

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