Postcard from the End of the World



I have limited time on computer, as usual on trips like this, but I wanted to just drop a note on the blog while I´m still in the enchanted phase and before the filter of time kicks in on my trip to Portugal. I have been here almost a week, and it has been so very enchanting. Completely surreal at points, very beautiful, amazing views, perfect meals, and good people.

My first surprise on this trip is that Portugal is not Spain. Not even close. I mean, the phrase seems so obvious. NO, it's not Spain, but I thought that there would be many similarities. I, like many people with whom I´ve spoken, tend to group them together, since they share space on the Iberian Peninsula. I was surprised to find huge differences in the culture, the language, and the people. I spoke with a Portugese woman who was showing around friends from Slovakia, and she asked me what I thought of Portugal in comparison to France. I told her that I loved it but that the Portugese are about as similar to the Spanish as the Spanish are similar to the French. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but they are definitely very distinct.

I had heard before my visit that Portugal is one of Europe´s undiscovered treasures, and I would agree that this is true in a sense. It still has that authentic feel of a country a bit forgotten by time, not completely renovated and upgraded for the 21st century, but it´s already on its way. European tourists have definitely (DEFINITELY) already discovered the magic of Portugal, and can be seen en masse in Lisbon and the Algarve. People from the U.S. are much more sparse, but I´m sure it´s only a matter of time.

I spent a couple of days at a beach resort on the Algarve in the south called Lagos. The landscape there is rugged and intensely beautiful. I took a day trip to Sagres and Sao Vicente the day before I returned to Lisbon where I´ll spend the final days of my trip. The cape at Sao Vicente was for centuries considered to be the end of the world from the European perspective. They believed that the sun sunk into the ocean off the coast here every evening.

When I was there, it really, really seemed like it could be true. There´s a light house perched atop these rugged cliffs hundreds of feet above the water. There were waves crashing down below and fierce winds that felt like they could toss you into the ocean at any moment.



At one point, I was literally standing on the edge of the cliffs, and it felt like any misstep could have sent me tumbling.

With the Wind at my Side

The entire experience really enchanted me and felt like something out of a fairy tale. I remember reading a novel when I was a youth that talked about the end of the world, and it had an artist´s rendition of the edge of the earth. This place looked much like what I remember of the picture in the book. And now, there I have gone.

Fort of Beliche near Sao Vicente

Much more to come in photos and impressions on this trip. This month has been heavy on experience and not much time for reflection. I still have several blog entries on my experiences in the Basque Country and Madrid that await completion, but soon, you will have much more to read of my summer adventures.


UPDATE August 23, 2006

I have just added photos and a video to the post, so now you can really see what I was talking about in the original text :) Please note the humans on the cliffs in the first picture and at the end of the video to give you an idea of scale...