Books: Viagens na Minha Terra, Almeida Garrett

Post no. 2 in my series on Portuguese-language literature.

Unlike the first book I wrote about, which was right up to date, this work by Almeida Garrett, dating from 1846, is a Portuguese classic.

I'm not going to pretend this is a rigorous, academic exercise... this post is just a little taster for anyone who's interesting in finding out a bit more about the book. Oxford-standard literary essay it is not.

So, why did I read this? Well, partly because at one stage it was on the list for the book club I went to a couple of times (although it was later taken off). And partly because I read it in English before I went to be interviewed at Oxford (way back in 2011, unbelievable though that seems!) and wanted to see what the real thing is like.

Funnily enough, I didn't really remember much of the plotline, or anything, before starting to read, and it only came back to me very gradually. I wouldn't like to say it's not memorable - it really should be, because the structure of the book and many other aspects are deliberately odd. Maybe I just read it too quickly the first time...

One example of oddness - Viagens doesn't fit neatly into a particular genre. It's not a 'proper novel', but it's not non-fiction either. And the curious reader might well wonder whether the first-person narrator is a portrayal of Garrett himself, or a loose projection of Garrett, or someone completely different. We know Garrett did make the journey described, from Lisbon to Santarém, but at least some of the narrator's experience in Viagens is definitely fiction.

The narrator, whoever he really is, is apparently unable to concentrate on anything for very long, until he gets involved in the very long story of Joaninha. This sub-plot is the only coherent narrative in the whole work - the rest is the narrator's reflections on the state of the world, loosely tied to what he sees and experiences in his journey. It's quite intriguing, in its own way - mainly relating to the Portuguese Liberal Wars (civil war), full of personal (melo-)drama and romance. Garrett was surely contrasting the romanticism of this part with the realism of the rest of Viagens, although, of course, this division is a simplification. Good 19th century stuff.

As another example of the unexpectedness of Viagens, the Joaninha story-within-a-story isn't told simply from beginning to end. Although much of the middle of the novel is given over to the subplot, the narrator interrupts it more and more frequently nearer the end, until the two separate threads are completely interwoven. I could try and explain, but it might ruin things for you, if you ever read it...

At its time, Viagens was ground-breaking for its use of the Portuguese language - rather than sticking to the literary, 'high' style, Garrett mixes in plenty of vernacular speech, which reflects how people actually spoke, rather than how it was considered Portuguese 'should' be written. It's a bit of a strange connection to make, but you could compare it to William Wordsworth writing in the 'real language of men'.

So, it had quite a lot of influence in its day, and still retains a lot of interest for the modern reader, giving you a great insight into 19th century Portugal. What's not to like?

É uma maravilha

Or, it's a wonder

Another week and a bit since I last posted - how did that happen? As always when I begin writing, I don't feel like I have a lot to tell you about, apart from last weekend. It's been the standard combination of work, sport (lots of rowing) and food (a couple of restaurant meals with Carly and others).

So, I might as well skip to the weekend.

Can you guess where I went?

On Saturday I went to the normal rowing session, which was fun - the sun was shining (more or less) and it was good to be out on the water. Afterwards I had a coffee with one of the rowers, and got engaged in an interesting conversation about European politics (as you do) which meant I didn't hear my phone ring when Carly tried to contact me. Fortunately it wasn't a serious problem, as she and Kieran (one of her colleagues, who we were going to spend the afternoon with) got off the train and waited for me at the next station. Yes, an adventure was beginning!

We finished the train journey to Cascais and, leaving the station, were met with just what we needed - someone advertising bike hire. We found our way to their shop and decided to get lunch in a nearby café before picking up some bikes and helmets. At €5 each, the bike hire seemed like a bargain! There are some free bikes sometimes available, provided by the town, but getting there later in the day meant it made more sense to just pay a bit, and enjoy the superior bikes (with gears! and locks! and other special features).

Safety first (Carly and Keiran)

The people in the shop were lovely, giving us directions and all kinds of promises of help if we ran into difficulties. They didn't even ask us to pay until we got back, and we didn't put down a deposit or anything... top marks for trusting your customers. Sadly I can't find the name of the shop anywhere, but if I manage to, I'll update it here, because they deserve a serious recommendation!

Definitely not a staged photo

We found our way to the cycle path leading up the coast, and set off - beautiful views, a good route, and altogether a lovely way to spend the afternoon. Many photographs were taken...

Uninventive people would caption this 'dramatic scenery'

We stopped at a small beach (near Praia do Guincho), mainly because at that point the cycle path ended abruptly in a pile of rubble. Sadly I didn't manage to take a picture - it would have been a great demonstration of something profound about Portuguese infrastructure projects (just kidding). Anyway, after a brief paddle in the Very Cold water, we set off back towards Cascais and got there in record time, with time to wander around the marina before giving our bikes back.

More dramatic views

That's a good cycle path right there

Since we'd enjoyed the café we went to earlier, we decided to return for an extra snack before getting the train back to Lisbon, and a quiet evening for me. All in all it was a very enjoyable day.

Sunday brought more exercise for me - I set off early to get to the rowing club for 9, where I met up with the fellow rowers for another excursion. We rowed across the Tejo to a small beach near Trafaria (indicated below) - very exciting. There were only a few fishermen there to see us having fun landing the boats (two 4+ yoles) through the waves... We all enjoyed a good 'bracing' swim (some intentionally, others less so) before tucking into the picnic we'd brought with us. I have no photos (fortunately decided against taking my camera into the boat) so the map will have to do.

Click to enlarge. We rowed from the red circle to the red arrow, and back.

By the time I got back home it was mid-afternoon. I had time to do lots of laundry before going to read (and nap) in the park, then met Carly for postcard-shopping and a quick snack. Eventually I went home and had a relaxing rest-of-evening, involving a very early night! Also - look who I spotted near Marquês de Pombal...

Yep, some students from the university of Coimbra... and their coach, and their guitars. My educated guess is that they'd been performing their special Coimbra fado somewhere, but this is based mainly on the guitars and my knowledge of Coimbra.

So, that's a summary of pretty much all the most exciting things I've been up to. Otherwise, life has gone on - including lots of translations at work, an Indonesian lesson, finishing off some bureaucracy ready for the next stage in the year, Portuguese food... all sorts, really.

Tomorrow is bringing an extremely exciting rowing adventure, which I will update you all on later, assuming I survive... let's just say it may involve rowing up to 60km...

One final picture - looking up to Sintra

The blog will return soon - as ever, thank you for reading.

Uma alma portuguesa

Or, a Portuguese soul

I've been back in Lisbon for more than a week now, after a wonderful few days in Oxford. It was lovely to catch up with my family and friends while I was there. Still, since this is strictly for Portuguese-related things, I won't bore you with the details of that trip, but will instead tell you about everything that's been going on since I got back.

I flew in to Lisbon on Monday evening and arrived after 11 - my flight had been a bit delayed - so got home very late. But I was back in the office bright and early on Tuesday for a normal day's work, which was fun. During my very short commute I noticed how warm and sunny it was. It seems that summer arrived here while I was in England! By the weekend it was well over 20 degrees, and felt positively hot in the sunshine.

Blossom near the rowing club

Thing back here have been going well. As ever, I'll let you know about the evenings and the weekend, rather than the details of my days at work. Both Tuesday evenings brought 2-hour Indonesian classes, which are great, but very fast-moving. More practice required between classes, I think! Then both Wednesdays I have made the most of the warm evening by going down to the river for a good row. I spent last Thursday early evening doing a bit of admin, before going out for dinner with Carly at our favoured restaurant, which didn't disappoint. 

A beautiful view from the Miradouro de Alcântara

The weekend was full of entertainment, as ever. On Saturday morning I went rowing - a good session in a slightly narrower kind of boat, a 'yolete', which was rigged as a coxed quad rather than the normal four. Later I met up with Tom, another Oxford Portuguese student who will be in Lisbon for the next few months. We had a bite to eat near Rato then went on a walk round the city - down through Principe Real, past the Miradouro de Alcântara, to Bairro Alto, through Chiado, and the Baixa to Praça do Comércio, then up through Rossio, Restauradores and Avenida de Liberdade, past Marquês de Pombal and to the top of the Parque Eduardo VII. Quite a long route in the end, which I hadn't planned, but we both enjoyed it! 

A caracol - definitely tastes better than actual snails

I went home to cool down for a minute (it was very warm by mid-afternoon) before meeting Carly for a chat, a coffee and a snack, which was great - we both had a pastry called a caracol (literally, 'snail'), similar to a Danish pastry but with different fruit. I feel it's my duty to make the most of the pastries while I can! Later we went to Carly's flat to continue chatting for an extra couple of hours... we never seem to run out of things to talk about.

A street in Campo de Ourique, deserted at around 9.30 on Sunday morning

On Sunday morning I got up quite a lot earlier than my normal Sunday routine, so I could go swimming. It was really nice to be back in the pool - a good way to start the day, and there were lots of lanes open, meaning I could swim at my own pace with no problems. Maybe I'll go back on another Sunday sometime; starting early has its advantages.

Breakfast!

I followed up the exercise with breakfast with Carly at Tentadora (my favourite pastelaria, mentioned frequently in these pages). A ham and cheese croissant and freshly squeezed orange juice really filled the gap. I was so enthusiastic about it, in fact, that Carly decided to supplement her cup of coffee and apple pastry with exactly what I was having. It's nice to have found someone who shares my enthusiasm for food...

At Tentadora you can watch the trams go by and feel like a true lisboeta

We managed to get to church on time - the service had the added excitement of a choir from Tennessee (the Variations Ensemble) singing. They were great and it was fun to chat to them after the service - they were even giving out free CDs. I'm listening to mine as I write this and enjoying it very much.

After leaving church, Carly, Kinsey and I bought a bit of food and headed to the Jardim de Estrela for a picnic in the beautiful sunshine. We stayed there for hours - with Janice replacing Kinsey halfway through the afternoon - just relaxing and enjoying the fresh air. Once it got a bit cooler we had a look round the monthly craft market, which was taking place in the garden, and had a drink in the café, followed by wandering over to Avenida de Liberdade and sitting around there for a while too. I eventually decided to go home and had a quiet evening doing not very much.

Drinks in the cafe at the Jardim de Estrela with Janice

My chocolate milk came in a plastic cup branded as Sagres (one of the local beers)

This week has been going well too - probably the most exciting thing to tell you is that on Monday I was given a flower at work to celebrate International Women's Day, which seems to be a much more important thing here than it is in England. Very nice it is too. 

It certainly brightens up the room

And there you have it - you're all up to date with my life. Thanks for reading!

Books: O Meu Irmão, Afonso Reis Cabral

This is the first in a new species of posts, about books (in case you hadn't guessed from the title). The idea is that I'll write a little bit about Portuguese-language literature I've been reading, or re-reading. To begin with, it'll be about 'leisure' reading - maybe later I'll write about literature I've read for university work. Or maybe not...

Anyway, this post is about O Meu Irmão, by Afonso Reis Cabral. As you might know, I was lucky enough to meet Afonso at the book club in the Livraria Ler. I hadn't actually finished reading the book then, but I did finish it not long afterwards, and have been meaning to write a small post on it here.

I really enjoyed this novel. Set partly in a tiny Portuguese village, partly in Porto and partly in Lisbon, it follows the story of two brothers, one of whom has Down's syndrome. The other brother narrates the story of their lives, from childhood to the present day. The narrative is split between the past and the present in alternating chapters, so matters that are mentioned in the 'present' story are gradually explained in the 'past' chapters. This structure makes the book really gripping, because the explanation of a key plot point is left right until the end.

What makes the book so interesting? Well, one of the aspects I most enjoyed is the sense of place. The author manages to completely immerse the reader in the environment the characters are experiencing, whether the middle-of-nowhere village, or the backstreets of Porto at night. The narrator's confidential tone means the reader can feel like they're present at every moment.

The variety of characters is also impressive. Although some of them, particularly the female ones, seem a bit 2D (Portuguese stereotypes), I think this is more down to the narrator's outlook than the author's. There is a real sense of insight into the narrator's slightly twisted mind, helped by frequent 'asides' within the text, which mark out darker thoughts.

Would I recommend the book? Definitely! If you read Portuguese, that is. Otherwise, you're going to have a hard time.

Vou matar as saudades, até já

Or, I'm going to visit what I've been missing, see you soon

It's not very long since I last wrote here, but now feels like a good time to post. Why, you may ask? Well, there is a simple answer - I'm leaving Lisbon for a few days. I'll be back soon, after 'killing my "saudades"'. I can see I'm going to have to explain better...

Winter in Lisbon isn't that bad

'Saudade' is an excellent Portuguese word for the feeling of missing something/someone. So, you can 'ter saudades de X' (miss X) and then 'matar as saudades' (take away that feeling by seeing the person/thing). And that's exactly what my trip back to England is for!

Rowing in front of the Torre de Belém (picture by Filipe)

So, to bring you up to date... Since my last post, I had a lovely weekend, and three good weekdays. On Saturday I went rowing, which was fun, then went on a sightseeing expedition with some of the rowers. We'd been planning something similar for a while because the rowers were convinced I hadn't seen much of Lisbon (regular readers might disagree...). Anyway, originally the rowers were all going to bring people with them (husbands, wives, friends etc.), but in the end they didn't - although I'd already invited Carly to come with me, so the two of us had a good chance to practise our Portuguese together with three rowers. 

We started off with an excellent lunch in the food court of the Mercado da Ribeira near Cais do Sodré. Carly and I had food from a Madeiran stall, which included 'bolo de caco' - a special type of bread, baked with chouriço and cheese inside, then reheated and spread with garlic butter inside. It was absolutely delicious. 

Enjoying our food! (Filipe's picture)

The Elevador - essentially, a funicular pretending to be a tram

The main sightseeing part of things took us through quite a lot of central Lisbon - we took the Elevador da Bica (upwards, of course), went into a few churches (most of whose names I can't now remember), climbed up to the castle (but didn't go in), and saw a few historic shops in Chiado, including the oldest bookshop in Europe. Oh, and of course there was a pastel da nata stop on the way, at the Manteigaria, which is renowned for its version of the speciality, and justifiably - they were very good.

Our day out - Filipe, Carly, Ana, Cristina

The famous pasteis de nata (photo by Filipe)

For the first time in ages, I began Sunday not by going to church. Instead I met Carly for breakfast at the Quiosque (yes, that says kiosk in Portuguese) in the Jardim das Amoreiras. It was a lovely way to start the day. We carried on to church, and stayed well into the afternoon, because there had been a baptism, so some of the Nigerian families had brought lots of food for everyone - great party atmosphere!

Breakfast! Oh, and Carly.

At the post-baptism party with Carly and Feyikemi (Feyikemi's photo)

Carly and I had a bit of a walk around the Rato/Estrela zone, then I met Janice and Sarah for a drink/snack at Tentadora, my favourite café - introducing the two Australians I know to each other, which seemed to go well! We all had a lot of fun. I wandered round Lisbon some more, partly with Janice, then met up with Carly and Jesse, who had been watching a football game. We went to another kiosk, this time on Avenida de Liberdade, for a quick drink. Jesse has gone back to his home university in Geneva, but will be back in Lisbon next month, so it was nice to say goodbye to him. Back at the flat, I had another quiet-ish evening, including a bit of Oxford-related work (or bureaucracy, depending on how you look at it). 

This week of work - hardly a week, as it has only been three days - has been fun. Sarah and I have had a few projects to work on together, and I've had some translation to do as well. We had another office birthday today as well, which livened things up. You can't complain about copious cake...

Another exciting development was that yesterday after work Sarah and I went to an Indonesian language class at the Indonesian embassy. Sarah had found out about it from a contact and asked me if I wanted to come along - obviously it was hard to say no! It's been a while since I began a new language (unless you count my online German learning, which is fun, but doesn't feel very academic), but it felt really good to be back in a classroom writing down vocabulary! I finished off the evening with a meal out with Carly, Kinsey and Janice at our usual restaurant - excellent food and company. What could be better?

Dinner with the girls (Carly's photo)

So, that's about it for now. I hope you enjoyed reading! Until next time.

A view down to Rossio

Velhos são os trapos

Or, "rags are old" - age is just a number

I seem to have broken the run of weekly diary updates, so here's nearly two weeks of news from life in and around Lisbon. I hope you find it interesting.

Not in Lisbon - read on to find out more

There's not much to report from the office about last week (9th to 13th). On Monday I went out for dinner with Carly and Lauren to celebrate Carly's 25th birthday - she says she feels old so this blog's title is dedicated to her. It's a great idiom that I learned at work. There were three birthdays in the office during the week (and therefore three birthday cakes too :-D ), which led a lot of colleagues to pronounce on how I make them feel old, even though they're only a few years older than me. Maybe living abroad has made me grow up fast, so people forget I'm still the "office baby" until they ask my age.

At the weekend I didn't do very much worth telling you about in great detail. A rowing session on Saturday morning, a bit of wandering around Lisbon with Carly on Saturday afternoon, and a quiet evening at home talking to people on Skype (not least Stephen, as it was Valentine's day). On Sunday I went to church, then had an excellent 'English breakfast' at a nearby café with some of the growing church gang - Carly, Janice, Kinsey (a new joiner from the USA - the first person I've met living alone out here who's younger than me!) and Jesse. Also pictured below at coffee in the church hall are Feyikemi and Chris.

The 'church gang' - my friends!

Side note - Jesse speaks very Brazilian Portuguese, and Janice and Kinsey speak not much Portuguese. Carly and I speak Lisbon Portuguese and found it hilarious when Jesse asked the waiter for 'LAY-chee' rather than 'layt' ('leite', milk). That took some explaining...

Carly and I spent the afternoon preparing for her proper birthday party, mainly by making fruit kebabs and chocolate crispy cakes. Lots of people came round to her flat in the evening, bringing good food and excellent company. That party is also the reason why I didn't update the blog in my normal Sunday evening slot - and a very good reason indeed. It was a lovely occasion.

This working week has been more interesting - first because Tuesday was a holiday (it's not an official 'feriado' or public holiday, but many companies give their employees a day off), and second because a new colleague, who's working in my room in the office, arrived on Wednesday. She seems nice, and I'm sure I'll get to know her really well. (Who knows, she might end up featuring in the blog properly? That would be a high privilege for a work colleague...)

Torres Vedras - more information below

So, on to the major excitement since I last wrote - Shrove Tuesday, aka Carnaval here in Portugal. I spent most of the day in Torres Vedras, a small town about 45 minutes' bus journey away, which is renowned, at this time of the year at least, for its Carnaval celebrations. Carly and I went with Tosin, who had been at her party at the weekend - we decided to make an expedition of it because we'd both heard it would be good. We got the Rede Expressos coach from Lisbon at 12.30 in brilliant sunshine, and were pleased to see it was just as bright when we arrived. We immediately saw the castle, sitting at the top of a hill, and decided to go and have a look. It happened to be closed (because of Carnaval, of course) so we couldn't go in, but just wandered round the area and headed slowly down towards the main event - once we'd worked out where we were meant to be going...

Carly at the castle

After finding the right place, and purchasing our tickets, we went in to the area where the parade would be taking place, a small part of the centre of town that was closed to anyone ticket-less. Since there wasn't much going on when we arrived, we walked all round the zone, having a sneak preview of some of the floats, and found some lunch from one of the stalls on the streets.

Gradually the parade got going - and it was extraordinary! Carnaval in Torres Vedras is said to be based on "social and political satire" - as well as huge 3D caricatures of politicians and other public figures, there were marching bands and hundreds of people in a variety of costumes, some more shocking than others... it's very hard to describe the whole range in words, so you'll have to believe the pictures.

Cristiano Ronaldo and assorted sportspeople

The Carnaval organising committee

Papa Francisco 

Umm... a walking romantic restaruant?

The Banco Espirito Santo group

And trust me when I say that this wasn't even the half of it! We stayed for a good few hours, until it was more or less over, then had a warming drink and headed back to the bus station ready to go home to Lisbon. Since we are both still very English, Carly and I decided the day couldn't be complete without making some pancakes, which we duly did at her flat. (I hope her flatmates aren't worried that I'm going to move in - it does seem like I've spent a lot of time there recently!)

Then it was back to work on Wednesday for the rest of the week - it's gone in a flash. I rowed on Monday and Wednesday, and went to the office gym class yesterday (Thursday), and went out for dinner with Carly yesterday as well. We were both going to have pork as our main course (as well as our soup, pudding, drink, and coffee... did I mention this restaurant charges €7.50 per person for all of that?), but there was only one left, so Carly ended up eating chicken gizzards, which in fact were delicious (I tried some too). When in Rome...

Lemons, just for fun.

Language progress

I am here to learn to speak Portuguese better, after all - here's a little update. I'm definitely becoming more fluent and confident in Portuguese (yay). However, in the last couple of weeks I've become much more aware of Portuguese people laughing at me when I pronounce things badly (e.g. 'trinta', thirty, or 'tão', so).

I can think of a few reasons this might be the case:
1. I've unconsciously stopped avoiding saying words that I know I pronounce badly (like anything with a difficult 'r' in it). Possible, but seems unlikely.
2. I didn't previously realise when people were laughing at me. Possible, also seems unlikely.
3. I now speak well enough that Portuguese people think it's sufficiently unusual to be funny when I say things badly. Much as I'd like this to be true, I don't think it is.
4. I'm suddenly spending more time with people with a cruel sense of humour. I don't think this is the case.
5. My Portuguese has got noticeably worse. I hope this isn't the case.
6. It was just a few coincidences, with a bit of confirmation bias. Probably the most logical conclusion.

No relevance, I just like the photo.

A brush with celebrity

You might remember I met with a Brazilian journalist, Luciana Reis, a few weeks ago. It turns out she was writing a feature for this week's edition of Visão, which is quite a mainstream Portuguese current affairs-type magazine. And I'm mentioned in her article, which is about book clubs in Lisbon. Not only that, part of me also appears in a photograph. I'm practically famous!

Can you spot me?

The article says "Among the participants, Amanda Thomas, 21, stands out because of her accent. The English girl, who studies Linguistics at Oxford University, has lived in Lisbon for about four months. The penultimate year of the course includes an internship linked to the language being studied (and Amanda chose Portuguese, partly influenced by her parents, who lived in Lisbon for two years). Participating in the book club helps her practise her Portuguese, and experience sharing information about a different world and striking characters. Amanda brought her friend Nicki Biggs, also English, to take part in the group. The students remark on the importance of book clubs in England, which are widespread and traditional, where small groups meet to discuss a book."

As always, thank you for reading!

Read my article for new online magazine All Abroad

Hello everyone!

If you can't get enough of my blog, head over to All Abroad magazine, where you can read an article I wrote about Lisbon.

"Sebastianismo, waiting for a mythical king to return and restore Portugal’s greatness, was a national pastime for many centuries, and maybe some of that attitude hangs on today, even after the great changes brought by the 1974 revolution."

It's a bit rambly, but you might find parts of it interesting. And be sure to have a look at the other articles too. They have all been written by Oxford languages students spending the year all around the world, meaning that the magazine has a unique and international perspective.

About All Abroad 

"This site is ‘yet another year-abroad-blog’ with a difference. Here we provide a platform for language students on their year abroad around the world to share a bit about their experiences through a personal perspective of their choosing."