Traditions, Food and music

One of the most original and awesome tradition in Portugal is the gastronomy that I discovered by tasting different variety of food in many beautiful and great restaurants in Lisbon, Porto and Braga.

1- Cod fish

The first plate that stood out in front of me and that existed in almost all the restaurants is the cod fish that Portuguese poeple used to preserve mainly  in salt in that way it gets conserved for much time and they can use it in a variety of plates with potatoes, salade and a lot of fresh vegetables that I had amazing time to taste all over my journey in the different cities of the country. The cod fish can be cooked in different ways boiled cod, with cream, with cornbread and roast.

The Portuguese name of such plate is bacalau and it's preparation is very simple it is soaked in fresh water for a minimum of 24 hours to reduce the level of salt then cooked in different variety of dishes.

2- Pasteis de Belem

I discovered very tasty dessert called pasteis de Belem or pasteis de nata that is actually an egg tart pastery dusted with cinnamon. It can be served as well in the morning with breakfast. I enjoyed very much tasting this dessert as you can really not find any other one ressemling it while having a magnificent view on the beautiful ribeira in Porto that can be seen either by the funicular or the teleferico de Gaia for only 6 euros for one trip, it was an unforgettable experience to be just held by the cabine of a teleferic in the air and feeling like a bird flying in the sky.

I could also discover during my stay in Porto beautiful restaurants with a large view on the emblematic pont of Dom-Louis I, beautiful boats crossing the Douro river making poeple discover all the four other bridges and the colourful homes and castles of the city.

3- Music

The music of Portugal is also one of the best music I ever heard as it combines pop,  k-zomba, rap, and electro music so I could really enjoy many great hits that I still hear always making me remember amazing souvenirs with Portuguese friends.

But the traditional music of the country is called fado, amazing rythm and very emotional words combine together in this style of music that I had the experience to hear in many of typical cafes around the city.

4- Mosaic of porcelain

A characteristic also in Portuguese architecture is the use of mosaic that I could mainly see in the most  wonderful and marvelous landscapes in the station São Bento in Porto.

The landscapes illustrate the historical period of wars, coronations, epic battles, women working, and kings crossing their kingdoms in horses, all the landscape contrains more than 20 000 titles of painted mosaic with so many different beautiful colours in the top part and especially in blue colour in the bottom.

Music could also be heard alongside the Dourou river especially at night, in fact, I discovered the cais de ribeira where I could walk with my friend seeing the amazing and diversified Street shows of break dance, piano and many other skills.

The funny story is that I was walking with my friend and suddenly a group of male singers appreaded in front of us, the man went straight towards my friend to propose her a dance in the middle of the street with a romantic song on so I had great fun of teasing her while making a video as she was single so she found the guy very attractive and danced with him in a very funny way full of shyness and loughs. This demonstrates how much Portuguese poeple are friendly, with their bright smile, beautiful eyes, cuteness and kind heart.

On the other side of the bridge, some young people were also having fun and jumping from the bridge to the fresh water, it was a way for them also to show their amazing skills and make a more festive atmosphere in the city.

5 - Festival of São João 

Known as Festa de São João do Porto, this event was really one of the unique events i ever seen in my life. In the night of 23 june all the habitants of Porto went out making all the city streets very crowded with music on and singing. Concerts were also held from midnight until the first lights of the morning.

The tradition consisted in the fact that poeple used a hammer in plastics of course like a toy to hit each other 's head while not knowling each other ! Yes the whole street was full of hammers and balloons and poeple teasing each other in a very funny way, only after receiving like five hits in my head would i understood that it was a traditonnal play. At exactly midnight, all poeple gathered near the pont Dom Louis to see a magical masterpiece of fireworks with much colourful landscape and melody brighting that amazing night with many cheering from the public. Then near Aliados was held a concert with the most famous singers of the country that came especially for that event and poeple could enjoy all the shows freely just to be relaxed and have fun with each other, i must confess that it was an amazing night full of delight in this amazing atmosphere.

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