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Getting Lost in Charming Portugal

 

What is it about Portugal that has everyone - American and European alike - flocking to Portugal? Seems like everyone you speak to either has just visited or is planning to visit within the next few months. 

I didn’t know much about this charming country, and I certainly didn’t know why all of a sudden it was the hotspot on everyone’s list. How could a place that wasn’t even on anyone’s radar 5 years ago grow in popularity so fast? 

Determine to find out, I pitched visiting the country to two of my childhood best friends,

Rachel and Gillian, a few months ago as they were planning to come visit Amsterdam as part of a summer tour de Europe. They were more than down, and boy am I glad they were. We settled on Porto and Lisbon and I anxiously awaited for the calendar to turn to July so we could set off on our next adventure.

Unfortunately, I missed R & G’s visit to AMS as the passing of my beloved nana sent me back to the US, but thanks to a little family insistence, I made it back in time to meet the twins in Porto - our first stop.

Before arriving in Portugal I had heard three things: it’s beautiful, it’s cheap and the food is amazing. Well, now knowing a little more, I can confidently say all three are true, but there’s so much more to this (not-so-hidden-anymore) gem. 

We arrived just in time for a late dinner our first night and took my friend’s recommendation to try Ostras & Coisas. After a little Google maps snafu that took us 20 minutes out of our way up the steepest hill imaginable, we found this modern seafood restaurant nestled in the calm yet bustling (for a Tuesday night) authentic neighborhood of Porto...about 300 feet from our AirBnB.  

We dined on things like seafood soup, oysters and seafood rice, accompanied by the crispest glass of refreshing white wine. Absolutely delicious! And highly, highly recommended. 

Wednesday was our Porto day. We started the day with an awesome brunch at Zenith (think avocado toast, açaí bowls, inventive pancakes type of a place) followed by a walking tour. Our guide was incredibly informative. In addition to hitting the hotspots and learned a lot more about the county’s history, the city, the people and the food and wine. 

For example, Portugal used to be one of the wealthiest countries in Europe up until the 18th century. Like many other Western European nations, they were explorers and seafarers, except they successfully conquered land first on four continents - Europe (obviously), Americas (Brazil), Asia (Macau in China) and Africa (Mozambique and 4 other countries). Portugal became the first country to host a global marketplace where you could get goods from all four continents. They even introduced tea to the English from India! 

Evidence of their wealth from the time is still depicted in the cobblestone streets and titled walls on buildings. Two unique styles the Portuguese are famous for. 

The great earthquake in the 1700s sent the country into a downward spiral that they would never really recover from (until now!). When the cities were rebuilt, they were rebuilt for the same trading economy and not for the industrial revolution, which the World was on the brink of. 

And then, Portugal fell victim to Europe’s longest fascist regime from the 1930s - 1974 with a dictator who closed Portugal off from developed and progress. This is why so much of the main cities are still frozen in time and just starting to blossom and boom. 

Who knew?! 

On our tour we hit hotspots like:

Clérigos Church 

Lello Bookstore: Fun fact! JK Rowling was married to a Portuguese guy and lived in Portugal for many years. This library was a source of inspiration for Harry Potter including the moving staircases from Hogwarts. We also learned that the university students who are part of certain societies don these uniforms that inspired the cloaks of the students from Harry Potter. And the name of the dictator who ruled from the 1930s-1970? António de Oliveira Salazar. For those Harry Potter fanatics, you may have connected the name Salazar to the founder of Slytherin. 

São Bento Station and its incredible tiling display

Dom Luís I bridge (by Eiffel’s protégé Seyrig)

River Douro, the lifeblood of the wine industry

Porto Cathedral

Fabulous panoramic views and many other beautiful sites 

Our walking tour gave us quite the workout as the city of Porto is extremely hilly (as is Lisbon!). Think San Francisco. Literally. With street cars left to do the work of towing people up and down the steep hills. 

We took a break in one of the main squares to catch the England v Croatia semi-final game. Even though Portugal was no longer in the mix, the football-crazy country still has massive TVs set up around the city for the public come together and watch the matches. We watched (the underdog?) Croatia take the V and advance to the finals surrounded by a few hundred other fans from all around the world. It was a truly special moment. 

 

After the game we went for dinner at another fantastic Jenna recommendation: 

Cervejaria Brasão Aliados. This restaurant’s specialty is meat. Gillian tried the famous Franchesina - a Portuguese national dish that is actually my worst nightmare on a plate: white bread, 4 types of meat (sausage, ham, steak, and chicken) smothered in melted cheese and then covered in a spicy tomato-based sauce.

Thursday was our beach day. It was supposed to rain and be cloudy all day, but there must be a guardian angel up there who wanted us to have a beach day because it was the most picture perfect day. We went to Matosinhos beach, a beautiful white sand beach with miles of coastline and delicious seafood restaurants lining the beach. There was an also an old forte. 

We laid out for a bit before relocating to an amazing seafood restaurant called Dom Zererino. It’s off a Main Street where they grill fresh fish right on the street. We tried fresh cod, grilled king prawns and octopus and another national dish, grilled sardines. Yum! 

 

After the beach we hoped across the Douro river to the port wine houses. 

 

We took a tour and did a tasting at Taylor’s. It was interesting to learn that the English brought port to Portugal, and that a lot of the wineries rely on very traditional techniques still to make the wine, like having people step on the grapes to break them down pre-fermentation. I thought that was a wine-making pastime from Italy, but it’s still alive and well in Portugal! 

We ended the tour with our tasting in beautiful garden with the sun still shining. Just perfect! 

 

We left for Lisbon early Friday morning, making it into town by midday. We checked in to our Airbnb, grabbed a quick bite and were off to make the most of our afternoon. 

We opted for another walking tour with the same company (Sandeman). I’m really loving these city walking tours. Most are free, last between 2-3 hours and give you all you need to know about the city. Plus, it’s a great way to get oriented with a city when you first arrive and identify what sounds interesting enough to go back and checkout on your own.

Anyway, the Lisbon tour was great. There are 4 main areas of Lisbon and we hit two of them: downtown and uptown, which left Belém (the monument district) and Old Town (Alfama) to do on our own. 

We hit the following: 

Largo do Carmo - one of the center squares of the city surrounded by historical buildings and church ruins from the earthquake

Rua Augusta - one of the main pedestrian streets in the city that has shopping and goes straight down to the water.

Castello de Sai Jorge - 4th-5th century castle. 

We also learned more about the fascist government and the revolution in 1974. I won’t bore you with all the details, but it was fascinating to learn. Ok, I lied. One more fact: Many parts of the country were still without electricity until the 80s!!! 

And did you know Portuguese is the 5th most commonly spoken language in the world? That’s mostly due to the large Brazilian population, but still! 

On our own, we headed to Belém after the tour to check out the monuments and try the  Pastel de Nata at the famed Pasteis de Belém. It’s an interesting flaky pastry with an egg custard inside. Not my thing, but glad I tried it. 

After braving the line we toured Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, an ancient monk monestary/cathedral and walked along the beautiful river Tagus where we saw the Padrão dos Descobrimentos and Torre Belem. When our feet couldn’t take anymore, we ubered back to our Airbnb to get ready for dinner.

 

I luckily had a TON of restaurant recommendations and narrowed the list down to 5, two of which we were excited to try. However, on two separate occasions locals recommended a Japanese/Portuguese fushion restaurant  called Sea Me, which happened to be just up the street from us. We were reservation-less on a Friday night, but decided to take a chance. 

We walked in just as three seats opened up at the bar, so we decided try our luck there. And wow, and I glad we did. The entertaining bartenders helped us order what may have been one of the best sushi meals of my life - better than japan! This place blends Japanese styles (aka sashimi and sushi and flavorings) with the amazing local fish of Portugal. And, another fun fact! Portugal introduces tempura to Japan! So, you get things like codfish black tempura, sardine sushi, etc. 

I’ve never had cod just melt in my mouth like that before. Or the combination of salmon, scallop, tempura octopus with a dollop is Japanese mayo. I am no chef, but I sure do appreciate those who are. Wow, was this place delicious! 

After dinner we went to find a bar that had Fado music, the local Portuguese style that someone described to us as ‘Adele on crack.’ A strange, but not completely inaccurate description of the style. It’s almost an operatic, melancholy style that dates back centuries to when the explorers would set off on their voyages and the wives and girlfriends left behind would often display their grief via song. And so, Fado was born. 

We chose a little restaurant/ bar called A Tosca do Chico in the Bairro Alto neighborhood, which was recommended to me by a friend. We shared a table with three ladies from Montreal. A mom/daughter and mom’s friend. The women were from Portugal originally and left over 40 years ago for Canada. We became fast friends as they were hysterical in their translations of what the singers were saying, and in their stories about what to do/see in the city. 

On Saturday we took a day trip to Sintra, the area west of Lisbon that contains many castles and palaces dating back centuries. Sintra is a must-do for anyone visiting the Lisbon area. We chose to do a small group tour to maximize time and to get a little bit of the history along the way, but you can easily go on your own or take a tuk tuk tour of the area upon arrival in Sintra. 

Our tour guide was great and we learned some interesting facts about how to despised a Moorish castle (tiles and rounded alcoves) from Portuguese (symbols of the ocean, of the Christian cross, of artichokes  and of the Portuguese monarchy). We visited the Quinta da Regaleira, which is stunning. I highly recommend it.

After touring Sintra, we decided to head back to Lisbon and go to the old town in the late afternoon to check off the fourth and final area of the city. The old town, or Alfama, is easily reached by the famous #28 street car OR by climbing uphill about a million steep steps. We chose the latter. 

By the time we got up there, we had time to hit one site, main one: Sao Jorge Castelo, or St. George’s castle. This millennium-old walled castle is a masterpiece that shouldn’t be missed. Besides from just the ‘cool’ factor, it provides breathtakingly stunning views of the city and the river below. We were glad we made the climb. 

And then it was dinner time. We originally had a reservation at Pharmacia, a shared plates concept restaurant that is meant to be delicious, but we changed that to Sea Me, just because it was THAT good and there were plenty of dishes left on the menu to try. At the risk of sounding too crazy, the plan was to try to get into a restaurant called 

A Cevicheria which looks unreal, but doesn’t take reservations, so the reserved restaurant - no matter what it was - was really a backup. Long story short, the wait for A Cevicheria at 9pm on a Saturday night would’ve been 3 hours...so back to Sea Me we went. No regrets there.

On the menu for night #2: black rice with mussels and squid, seared scallops with mango, tuna ceviche. This was accompanied by some familiar friends like the cod roll, sardine roll, and salmon/scallop roll. Yummmmm! 

It was a bittersweet dinner, and not only because there would be no more nights of Sea Me in our near future, but because it was the last night of the trip and the girls were leaving to head to Italy very early the next morning. And me? After one last brunch at a highly recommended place called Nicolau and soaking up a little Portuguese Sunday sun, it’s back to reality. 

Portugal’s charm and the company of dear friends provided much needed distraction at a time when I needed it the most. I’m grateful to have had these few days and I can’t wait for my next adventure with Rachel and Gillian! 

In Loving Memory of Dorothy Groopman aka Our Nana
Love, Melissa and Dayna 

From Dayna: 

I consider myself to be blessed. I didn’t always think that. Our lives weren’t always easy, but we had the mighty power of 5, and that always helped us get by. You and papa always helped us to get by. 

I consider myself to be blessed because I had the pleasure of your love, your encouragement, your support for 30 years. So few people get 3 full decades of a grandmother’s love. This is why I’m blessed. 

You were my giggle partner, as you would call it. We’d look at each other and just laugh. Sometimes for hours on end. Sometimes for a reason. Sometimes for no reason at all. You loved to laugh. You taught me how to love to laugh, even when I didn’t want to. And I loved to laugh with you. 

You were a latch-key kid. Growing up in Brooklyn, and then Queens, and then Brooklyn again. Your life wasn’t always easy. But you were always happy. Always smiling. Always a beacon of light. 

You were little Dotty. Most obviously because of your petite stature, but also because of your age - the youngest of 3 siblings, the baby of the family. 

We share that. Being the youngest. The shortest. I may have papa’s quiet, yet witty personality, and a fraction of his off-the-chart intelligence, but I always loved when people told me they saw me in you. 

When I was little I couldn’t wait for our trips to Florida. I’d leap off the plane - barf bag usually in tow - and I’d give the full report on how many times I got sick. We’d get back to your place and you’d always have the perfect cure for air sickness: dessert! Chocolate ice cream, apple pie, fresh baked cakes from your cleaning ladies (who adored you), Hershey kisses or Sees candy from Howard that you waited to share. And Melissa got her reward for dealing with that annoying little sister who ALWAYS got sick that:  Honeybell oranges you’d specially order just for her. Go figure. 

Your trips to NY were always the highlight of the summer. We’d go 
to the beach. We’d go to the pool. To Montauk. Broadway shows. Forest Hills. We’d walk to Carvel when you were babysitting. 

One summer I didn’t want you to go so much so that I enlisted the help of my bet pal next door, Steph, to help hide your plane tickets. Or so the story goes. I can’t say I actually remember this, nor would I admit I was/am a cleverly conniving human being, but who am I to poke holes in what has become an epic family story. 

Over the years you and papa came to forgive me (and Steph), and your love for us grew. In fact, you loved all my friends and genuinely cared about them. Our deep bond with the Mann’s is something that is so incredibly special. I still picture you and papa sitting with Nonna and papa on the softball field. Nonna singing at your 60th wedding anniversary party. Lobster’s at the Levine’s. BBQ’s at the Mann’s. Recorded videos to Rachel in china just to say hello, and FaceTimes with Gillian to check in and see how NY was treating her. 

 How’s Casey, you would ask about my best friend in colleague. Jaime! The one who has red hair like you. You even made happy birthday videos for my work colleagues, just because they thought you were the cutest thing. Everyone knew you. Even in Amsterdam, you’re famous. You were nana to everyone. This is another reason I am so blessed. Because you’re my nana. 

You were always so proud of me. Even the most minor accomplishment had you beaming with pride. In the last 8 years you watched my career blossom with pure amazement. In the first years of working I tried to explain what I do. You’d call me up all excited: 

“I saw an ad in the Sun Sentinel. A new Celebrity cruise ship is coming!!!!”

 “Yes nana, I know. I’ve been working on the launch 18 hours a day for the last 6 months. Nana, was it an ad or was it a story about the ship written by a reporter?” 

“It was a story”. I’d smile. “Yes, that was my work. I got the reporter to write the story.” 

“But it doesn’t have your name on the article?” 

This conversation happened about 100 times over the last few years. 

But eventually you go it, and then I moved on to a new job with a lot more responsibility and new tasks that never really sunk it. But that’s ok. I have no problem with half of Century Village thinking I’m the CEO of HEINEKEN, first in the US and now of the full global operation at our HQ in Amsterdam. 

Speaking of work, I got my office sense of style from you. I always loved to hear the stories of how you would get dressed up every day. Beautiful dresses, matching skirts and blouses. The newest pumps that were en Vogue. Even in today’s biz causal office environment, I very often dress up, just to be like you. 

But nana, there’s so much more that we share. We’re fighters. Hard works. We’re persistent. We worry about everything (can’t really 
say thanks for that one). Yet, we’re so filled with love. We’re people magnets. We’ve never had an issue making friends. 

While living in Amsterdam has come with many perks, watching your decline from afar was not one of them. There was never a doubt in my mind I wouldn’t find a way to come home when this eventually happened. No amount of money, work assignment, or travel adventure could stand in the way. 

The strangest thing happened when I booked my flight. It was last minute, but I had a confirmed seat, only to arrive at the airport to see I was moved to standby. I immediately adopted nana trait #1: worry. 

 I have to make it home. I can’t get bumped. This is not happening. To my surprise, I then come to find out I’ve been awarded an upgrade to first class. Unheard of on international flights. I immediately knew right then and there, you were already watching over me. 

I take solace in knowing you are now at peace, that you’re long, hard battle has come to an end, that I’m the one here left on earth to do the worrying, and another guardian angel is looking over me. 

I hear your voice in my head, I carry your wisdom in my heart, I wear your jewelry with pride. 

Every time I put on a pair of pumps and go to work, I’ll think of you. Every time I giggle, I’ll think of you. Every time I touch down in the state of Florida, I see a Broadway show, I go to the lemon ice king, I’ll think of you. 

Your mannerisms will live on, your spirit will continue to guide our way. And I’ll continue to make you and papa proud. Perhaps I’ll even become a CEO one day. 

Because my dear, sweet little nana, you are forever etched in my heart and engrained in my soul. I love you. 

From Melissa:

Thank you for being here to celebrate the life of my Nana. She lived until 93, which is such a blessing. We are all so lucky that we had as much time as we did with her, and don’t take it for granted. Alani is now 2 and a half, and she loved her Gigi so much. She called her Gigi for great grandmother. When we were in NY, she always asked when we’d go back to Gigi’s house. Even in DC, sometimes when we were getting in the car, she’d ask if we could go to Gigi’s house.  We FaceTimed whenever we could, and Nana got such a kick out of Alani’s busy toddler energy.  I’m so lucky to have so many special memories of my daughter and grandmother together.

But truthfully, the last 3 years were a trying time for my family. Just before Nana’s 90th Birthday, she fell and broke her hip the night before she was supposed to fly to NY for a party my mom had planned to celebrate the occasion.  And it’s been a slow decline since then unfortunately. She was such a fighter, and it’s amazing that she lasted as long as she did. She learned that kind of grit from a young age. The youngest of 3, her father died when she was only 5 years old. People even suggested that her mother give her up for adoption, because her family was considered to be in such dire straights for that time. Instead Nana’s Mom Beatrice, (who I’m partially named for), and Nana, survived and endured. She walked home from school in Brooklyn with a key around her neck. And her brother Myron, (who Alani is partially named for), only 15 at the time, took on a father role for the family.

I recently learned that Nana’s wedding was on a cold February night, with no flowers and a dress her mom got wholesale from the garment district. Someone came into the Temple and said, “Where are all the flowers?” And then they saw Nana, and she was absolutely stunning. And he said, “Oh, THERE’S the flower!” And we have photos to prove it- she was the most stunning bride. She would’ve been a model if she had been tall enough- that’s what the agencies said when she tried. Ironic how her offspring and theirs are so tall!

But really, I tell you all of this because she made an amazing life for herself from absolutely nothing, and just truly had the most amazing character. She and Papa were the model of a happy and successful marriage. They loved their lives in NYC, and I think they loved retirement in Florida even more. Some of my best and most vivid childhood memories include our visits to Florida every winter, where we had the time of our lives together. Just doing simple things like shopping and going to the pool. It didn’t really matter, as long as we were together. And in the summers, they would come to NY and spend the whole month of July with us. I­t­ was the best part of the summer. We would just hang out, laugh, BBQ, and stand in line at TKTS to see the Broadway show du jour.

Even in college, I kept up my tradition of visiting Nana and Papa in Florida on school breaks, even on my own sometimes. I remember studying for a finance exam in Florida and Nana telling me that I’m all business and should enjoy life a little more. I took her advice to heart when I had Alani. I really didn’t want to miss a moment of bonding with her because Nana taught me the importance of being there for family. We had a small family, but we could not have been more tight-knit. And I was always grateful for that.

Nana, I always appreciated your enthusiasm for life, and that you were always my biggest cheerleader. I­t­ meant the world to me. Always a smile and a giggle, and a topical joke, yet the world’s biggest worrier. Such a precious and adorable person. I can’t begin to describe how much you’ll be missed.