Weekend with my favourite Portuguese and her family

This weekend, my flatmate invited me to spend the weekend with her and her family in her city. They had always asked for some time, but we never managed to find a date. Finally, we had set this weekend.

Friday after work I took the train to meet her. She had already left a day before, because she had things to do, but I had to stay until Friday because of work. I left earlier and bought a ticket at the train station. Then, I waited for the train and somehow was afraid that I would take the wrong one. I don’t go often by train here, only to work and back, which is the final station to final station. But everything went well and I had about one and a half hours’ train ride. I watched the passing landscapes and enjoyed the sun on the fields and trees. When I heard the name of my arrival station, I got up and let the train. My flatmate was already waiting for me at the platform and we went directly to the supermarket to get cereals. There, she showed me the most important things of the small city: the castle on the hilltop, the small river, a park and a café.

As it was already late, we went home for dinner. She drove the car and already had warned me before about her driving skills. All the way, she was excusing herself for bumps on the road or other stuff. I didn’t think she drove bad, actually pretty well. But, I have to admit that the roads are not the best don’t make it easy. When we arrived at her home, her small dog and the dog of her aunt welcomed us barking at the fence. We then entered the house and were immediately welcomed by her parents, happily talking very fast in Portuguese. I really had to concentrate, but also felt very welcome from the first moment. My friend showed me my room, which they had prepared, of course with enough blankets for not freezing. I really liked the house. It is big, beautifully decorated and has a fire pit. Everyone loved that part, especially the cats. I was asked if I liked fish as they had made the typical bacalhau à brás. And it was very delicious. The family seems always to be in a good mood, they were making jokes and laughing and I got only half of the jokes. It was a very nice evening.

The parents then left with the sun for his ceremony at school and we stayed home alone. I got to know one of their eight cats. A very lovely black and white, who always holds her head to one side and doesn’t stop meowing. When the parents returned, we drank some liquor. I don’t know, how it came to that, but I think it started with a typical liquor from Portugal, which they wanted to show me. So we drank ginjinha from chocolate cups, but another one than the normal one. It was a chocolate ginjinha. We then went to chestnut and another nut liquor. They were all delicious and made us really warm. When I went to bed, I didn’t feel cold and not even needed any of my other blankets. And, you cannot imagine how good I slept. I don’t know, if it was the liquor, the big, comfortable bed or the calmness of the country. I guess pretty much the last: there were no planes, no cars, no ambulance, nothing that made any noise. Just perfect.

The next day after breakfast, we all left together and her family showed me around. We drove to Figueira da Foz, first into the mountains to have a good view over the long beach, and then down to the beach, where we went for a short walk. The sun was shining, but with the continuously blowing wind, it was still cold. The beach was also still empty, no swimmers, no surfers, no cafés, only a few people going for a walk as we did. For lunch, we went to the Manjar do Marquês, which is pretty well known in Portugal. It is called after the marques de Pombal, who was the Mayor of Lisbon after the big earthquake and who let rebuilt the whole Baixa area of Lisbon. In the restaurant we had fish and meat with the restaurant typical tomato rice. It was very delicious.

Afterwards, we drove to Tomar, a nice city in the centre of Portugal. There, we went to visit the castle of Tomar, which is very beautiful. Sitting on a hilltop and at this time of the year surrounded by colourful trees. We went for some crepes to the city centre, where we also visited a church. We already wanted to leave them a note about all there terribly wrong translations in many languages, but then didn’t do it. In front of the church, was very adequately a kind of holi festival. The few people of the city were running around in white shirts, completely coloured and dancing to some music. The role models seemed only to be little motivated and soon we decided that we all could have done that better. But we had fun.

Before the sun went down, we drove to Nazaré to see the beach and the place where someone, whos name I forgot surfed the big wave. That time of the year, the waves are not especially high, so it just a nice beach with a nice city. In the evening, we went together to eat pizza, after we already wanted one the whole day. At home, we started another liquor tasting. This time it was fig liquor and two kinds of almond liquors. I also got to know some more of the many cats. I already forgot most of the names, they are just too many. All of them very beautiful and most of them also kind and immensely loved by their family. They also get along very well with the dog. A nice little group.

The next morning, I got to know even more cats and then went for a drive with my friend. She showed me around her village and we went for a walk with the dog. We even met some little baby goats on our walk. Then, her father went on tour with us and showed us an old and neglected monastery, which had already started to decay. The government didn’t have any money and also less interest in maintaining it. Even like that it looked good, somehow mystic with no roof and all the plants growing on the building. Close by is a church, which was built as a remembrance for a battle and a legend that is told about the place. I don’t remember it completely, but someone fought against someone and they were afraid that they are not going to win, they were completely outnumbered. Out of fear what their enemies might do to their children and wives, they killed them. Miraculously, they won the battle and returned safe to their homes. In the monastery, they found their wives and children alive and completely unharmed! What a miracle! And the church is exactly the remembrance of this event. We then went to the rice fields, but they were not yet cultivated.

Our next stop was the Praia do Osso da Baleia, which means beach of the whale’s bone. Apparently, they had found the bone of a whale at this beach and therefore named it like that. We arrived at a big parking lot, where only one other car was parked in front of the big dunes. We got out of the car and immediately a dog joined us. He looked sad on the ground and then lay down next to our car. We went to the beach. Almost no one was there and a wind was blowing. Even with the sun, it felt really cold. When we came back to the car, the dog was still lying there and no one seemed to be the owner. As the other two, are as me, we all wondered, if the dog belonged to someone or was left behind. We already thought about taking him with us, when we saw some people far away. My friend ran to them to ask if it was there dog. And it was. They had lost him and were already looking for him. As their car, the only other one on the parking lot, was the only thing he knew, he had come back there. Already from far, she called him and suddenly he was completely happy and ran to his owner. She was thankful that we had found him. We were also happy that the dog had not been abandoned.

When we arrived back home, the mother of my friend said, she had already expected that we would bring the dog home. I think that is one of the reasons, why I get so good along with all of them: they also love animals as much as do I and my family. When they talk to their animals, or any animal, they do it in the same way as me and my family. But me and my friend have a lot more in common and that is why we get along so well: we are always tired and always cold. We love chocolate and tea. We are honest and say what we think. At this point, I have to mention that she is my best friend here. The one I am always happy to see and talk to. The one that is always there, when I need help. The one that I talk about with other persons as “my favourite Portuguese”. I am really happy to having gotten to know her!

For lunch, her mom had cooked grilled carapau, extra for me as I never had tried it. It is small fish, where you have to tip of the tail and then take out the spine. You then eat it with rice and salad. It was really good and I liked it a lot. I liked everything that they served and showed me. But, they were always afraid that I didn’t get enough to eat or didn’t like it. Always they asked: “ Don’t you like it? ”, “Do you want more? ”, “Do you want me to cook something else? ” and said “eat more, Nadine, you didn’t eat enough” and when I left back to Lisbon, she packed us enough food for a week. Ok, maybe that’s exaggerated, but it felt like it. We had to carry the bag the two together. After lunch, we went for a drive with her parent in her father’s cool, old car with super comfortable seats but without seatbelts. It was a fun drive and we went to the pine forests and they showed me some more things in the neighbourhood. The rest of the day, we enjoyed the sun in the garden with the two dogs and many cats. Before leaving, we still picked some oranges from their orange tree to take with us. It is so cool, they have a big garden, with lots of fruits trees as oranges, mandarins, cherries and kiwis, many berries and also all kind of vegetables and potatoes! Everything was beautifully flowering and made the garden even lovelier.

The only thing that was negative about the weekend was the journey back to Lisbon. We went to the train station to get tickets and until the train comes wanted to go and see the castle of Pombal. But, as the day before there was an accident with a train that damaged the rails, they couldn’t secure us a train, nor seats, nor the time when the train was coming. So, we had to wait the whole time at the station, because our ticket was only valid for the first to come. Luckily, it was less than an hour and then the train was even not really full and we got seats.

For me it was an amazing weekend with lots of sunshine, interesting visited places, delicious food, very nice people and a lot of fun. I liked it so much and am happy to have such a good friend here. She truly is my favourite Portuguese. As I know that she is reading this: Thank you for everything! Also to your parents and tell them again how much I loved the weekend and the food, even if they doubted it sometimes. I am already looking forward to welcome you in Germany and show you around there.

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