6. Casas do Xisto
This is what I like about travelling. Sometimes you know what a place looks like beforehand, so when you see Santorini in its postcard blue-and-whiteness, the tourist in you is satisfied that you’ve come to the right place. Portugal is a bit more obscure for simple visual snapshots, but the tourist might cling to the same blue-and-white image that is typical for the Alentejo region, just as it is for Greek Islands, the Spanish coastline, villages in Tunis and innumerable other places in the Mediterranean.
But what the traveller is looking for is authenticity, something surprising or “undiscovered”. What is the “authentic” Portugal? Of course it’s a lot of things, and it can’t be reduced to a mere one-shot postcard. The Casas (and Aldeias) do Xisto are a humble and traditional housing style that I’ve never seen anywhere else in the world. I find them curious and charming: often hidden in forest or off the beaten track, they are like little hideouts of a closed community. So simple, and essential, like little caves. I like them so much I bought one.
7. Espigueiros do Minho
They are a bit of a grand statement just for storing corn, hey? Imaging having so much granite lying around that you can use it to build a mini-barn. Cool. The crosses are there to ward off evil locusts. The Minho (far north) landscape is wonderful in itself – a bit other-worldly, windblown and spooky. And then clusters of these funereal sarcophagi appear straight out of the middle ages, or outer space…
8. Elevador de Santa Justa (Lisbon)
It’s just a fancy ironwork folly really, but isn’t she sweet? Who better to inspire a landmark-just-for-the-sake-of-it than Monsieur Gustave Eiffel, of Tower fame. Although this lift was designed by a student of his, Gustave was responsible for three bridges in Portugal, in Porto, Viana and Caminho, and very nice they are too.
Technically speaking it’s not a folly, as the Santa Justa has a practical use: it saves you from the stairs between the Baixa and Chiado districts, and there’s also a café at the top.
9. Palácio Nacional de Pena (Sintra)
The National Palace of Pena is so Disneyland it’s hard to believe it’s a UNESCO world heritage site, and a national monument. It was built in the 19th Century as a summer house for the royal family, and they were personally involved in the design, so I figure they must have been a crazy and creative bunch. The style is called European Romanticism (this castle is considered the finest example of the Romantic Style in the world, in fact) and it certainly has a Bavarian Fairytale Castle feel. Romanticism is a mixture of styles: Manueline, Renaissance, Gothic, but what stands out to me is the Islamic influence. It’s so much fun, so camp, so extraordinary.
10. Azulejos
Probably Portugal’s greatest single contribution to world architecture are Azulejos, traditional Portuguese tiles. At one time Portuguese hand-painted tiles were exported to every corner of the globe and were considered the finest in the world. Certainly the Arabs are pretty keen on tiling too, but the Portuguese design and style is unique. Tiling is prominent all over the country, from delicately painted biblical or historical scenes to graphically coloured glazed and embossed, tiling is used on exteriors and interiors, on floors, walls and ceilings. The varieties are infinite.
OH NO! Already 10?!? But what about the Bolso do Porto, Alvaro Siza’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the Prague-like grand cafés of Lisbon and Porto, the restaurant Galeto, the Palácio do Buçaco…. can we make it a Top 100?
To conclude: Of course, I understand that Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder. Sure. Except the Beholder might need glasses.
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It’s not hard, it just takes time.
I had to have private lessons as I was living in Berlin and of course, group classes would be taught in German, and I didn’t really want to learn two languages at once.
And what a blessing that was. I could learn how it suited me, at my own pace. I could shape the lessons to my needs; learning building vocabulary for example, or if I needed to write an email to someone in Portugal, that could become the lesson. One-on-one, it was difficult to lie about why I hadn’t done my homework. It was personal.
With five lessons a week, two hours each, I learnt the entire school curriculum of grammar in six months. I’m not a genius, but I am a committed student. I did at least one hour of homework every day.
I was lucky with the teacher I found: a 25 year old Brazilian with some teaching experience but no formal training. She’s smart, beautiful, funny and has HUGE amounts of patience. Sometimes I would get really shitty and have a tantrum and tell her SHE WAS GOING TOO FAST and HOW THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO UNDERSTAND THAT and WHAT SORT OF STUPID LANGUAGE IS THIS?!? All she would say is ‘Calma, Emma, Calma’. We had school excursions – trips to bars to meet her Brazilian friends, or I’d take her to fight with the Vaca da Embaixada (see visas). We became friends, and she was my rock during a pretty stressful time. Obrigadissima minha professora brasileira!
Here are the tips:
1. You have to figure out how YOU learn a language. Maybe you’re an aural person and you can copy speech after hearing it. Maybe you’re a visual learner; you need to see it on the page. Do you need to know the structure of the language; the grammar and the way it works? Maybe you respond to learning from the vocabulary, starting with picture cards of cat and dog and chair? If you find the method that you like and it helps you to remember what you’re being taught, it will be so much easier.
2. Learn what is relevant to you. Learn words you need to know, learn stuff you want to know. Try to link learning the language with your other interests. If you read the sport section, find it in Portuguese instead. Catarina gave me Brazilian news magazines to take home for homework, not some boring textbook. (I remember in my final year of school learning French, the dick teacher had us read Kafka’s Le Mur, a completely grim existentialist rave about a guy waiting to be executed. Such fun! It took us weeks and weeks and weeks so that we were all suffering the character’s agonising psychological torture. I failed French. And it’s also the only thing I learnt at school that was of any use later on. Ironique, n’est-ce pas?)
3. Go Full Immersion. It’s a bit of a brain spin, but you have to stuff as much in there as you can. And then you have to get it out and use it, and use it again and again before you forget it. The more exposure you can get to the language the more you’ll absorb passively. Watch movies, listen to the radio, read newspapers and books and magazines. Surf the net. Even you if understand nothing at all at first, at least you’ll be getting familiar with the sound and the pace of the language.
4. Keep at it. You might feel like you’re learning nothing for a long time, but then you will have a breakthrough and realise you’ve learnt a lot. It happens gradually and it happens in waves. It takes time…be patient!
5. Watch TV. The pictures really help! I learnt so much from watching the game show Millionaire in Portuguese. Also cartoons are good – they tend to speak clearly using fairly basic language with lots of inflexion. News is also good. You might find subtitled shows useful too, if only to see how sloppy the translations are…
6. (i) Love your teacher. If you don’t like them you won’t like learning. They say the best way to learn a language is to get a lover. I thought it just meant that the first words you learned were dirty. The truth is, it does help if you enjoy spending time with them, and you don’t mind them talking a lot, you think it’s cute when they correct you constantly, and you spend all your free time with them.
6 (ii). Get a Brazilian. They are so funny and cute! No really, some people find spoken Brazilian Portuguese easier to understand than “European” Portuguese. It’s prettier, more melodic and they don’t leave off half the syllables! Have a listen and see if you like it. Beware that at some stage you’re going to have to make the switch.
